OT - Weird History

[MrNubbz]

THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

Priest Urbain Grandier Burned at the Stake for Witchcraft (1634)
Grandier was a 17th-century French Catholic priest who was accused of bewitching the nuns of the Ursuline convent. Although he was acquitted by an ecclesiastical council, Grandier had published scathing criticisms of Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister and virtual ruler of France, who arranged to have him re-tried. Accused of having entered a pact with the devil, Grandier was tortured, found guilty, and burned at the stake.

Jesus loves me this I know,because the Bible tells me so, Oops. Somebody's not sticking to the script

[Cincydawg]

For some obscure reason, I got fascinated by armor, mostly WW 2 stuff.  I got a kick in Saumur seeing their museum with Panzers 1,2,3,4,5 lined up in a row.

The term "tank" of course has an interesting origin, the French term is char, and the German term is Panzer.  

[MrNubbz]

Birthdays
1774 Meriwether Lewis
1929 Shelley Winters
1933 Roman Polanski 92 yrs old
1936 Robert Redford
1952 Patrick Swayze
1969 Edward Norton



Events
1612 Pendle Witch Trial begins with 10 people accused of witchcraft in Lancaster, England; the key witness is a nine-year-old boy(that's a solid case)

1826 Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing travels across the Sahara and becomes the first European to reach the fabled trading city of Timbuktu; he is murdered near there a few weeks later. That prolly put a wrench in the vacation industry there for just a bit

1868 French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in the solar spectrum during an eclipse

1909 Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, DC, with 2,000 cherry trees, which President William Howard Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River

1926 First televised weather map is broadcast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, DC

1938 Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the US and Canada

1940 Battle of Britain: Air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; the Luftwaffe loses approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF 68 in one of the largest ever air battles

1956 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reach #1 on the charts, staying for 11 weeks (a record for a single release)

1963 James Meredith becomes the first Black graduate from the University of Mississippi with a degree in political science

1980 KC Royals' George Brett's batting average reaches .400

1982 Longest baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL, ends after 22 innings as LA Dodgers beat Cubs 2-1 (game started August 17th)

1983 Survey of recently discovered Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck (ca. 1320 B.C.) off the coast of Turkey finds rich cargo of glass, spices, and enough tin and copper for 5,000 swords

1987 Ohio healthcare worker Donald Harvey is sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients

2017 Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen rediscover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific's surface, 72 years after Japanese torpedoes sunk it

2018 Archaeologists confirm the discovery of 3,200-year-old cheese in the tomb of Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis; first cheese found from Ancient Egypt

2023 English neonatal nurse Lucy Letby is found guilty of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more between June 2015 and June 2016 at a Manchester court

[Cincydawg]

1868 French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in the solar spectrum during an eclipse

This is earlier than I recalled.  It was a major puzzler at the time, and for many years.

[MrNubbz]

For some obscure reason, I got fascinated by armor, mostly WW 2 stuff.  I got a kick in Saumur seeing their museum with Panzers 1,2,3,4,5 lined up in a row.

The term "tank" of course has an interesting origin, the French term is char, and the German term is Panzer. 

I'm not even sure where that is

[Cincydawg]

I'm not even sure where that is

Saumur is a very nice small city on the Loire River maybe 100 miles SW of Paris.  One of my favorite cities in France.

[Cincydawg]

The major variable is that the Tiger II was unreliable and underpowered.

[FearlessF]

On this day in Sioux City history: The newly reopened Sioux City Brewing Co. officially designated August 18, 1934 as “Western Brew Day.” Celebrating the reopening of the brewery after an 18 year closure due to Prohibition, the day was named in honor of one of the company’s flagship beers, Western Brew, “the beer that made Sioux City famous.” In order to reopen, the plant at West First and Isabella Streets had undergone over $250,000 worth of improvements, including the installation state-of-the-art brew kettles and mash tubs. Sioux City Brewing Company was purchased by Kingsbury Brewing Co. in 1959, and the plant closed in 1961.

[MrNubbz]

Saumur is a very nice small city on the Loire River maybe 100 miles SW of Paris.  One of my favorite cities in France.

I'm thinking it was some exotic locale outside of Morocco somewhere

[Wildcat4E]

 Sioux City Brewing Company was purchased by Kingsbury Brewing Co. in 1959, and the plant closed in 1961.

Man, some folks lost their ass on that investment.

Was either bad beer, or big brewing competed them to death.

[medinabuckeye1]

For some obscure reason, I got fascinated by armor, mostly WW 2 stuff.  I got a kick in Saumur seeing their museum with Panzers 1,2,3,4,5 lined up in a row.

There is a tank museum in Kentucky that is pretty darn good.  

The term "tank" of course has an interesting origin, the French term is char, and the German term is Panzer. 

IIRC, the original British codename for the project was "Water Carrier" but some British Politician on the committee didn't want to be on the "WC Committee" (WC being a short form of Water Closet aka restroom).