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Oct. 27, 2020
October 27th, 2020

Question: Where is the Gobi Desert?

Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Was the goddess Venus ever married?
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HISTORY FOR 10/27/2020
B-Days: Captain James Cook, Theodore Roosevelt, Dylan Thomas, Nicolo Paganinni, Gerhard Von Gneisenau, Sylvia Plath, Roy Lichtenstein, John Cleese is 81, Freddy De Cordova, Ruby Dee, Roberto Benigni, Bernie Wrightson, Dr. Stamen Grigorov 1878, Bulgarian microbiologist who discovered the bacillus that made natural yogurt.

1553- In Geneva, after a trial prosecuted by the great religious reformer John Calvin, the Protestants burned at the stake fellow Protestant theologian Michael Servetus. His doctrines about Christ were too radical even for them. Servetus argued that Christ may have been just a powerful prophet but not God, and the Greek text speaking of Mary could have mistranslated Young Woman to Virgin. Servetus was refused a quick death. With his books chained to his chest he was slow burned, taking a half an hour of agony to die.

1560- Berserk conquistador, and Amazon explorer Aguirre, who called himself the Emperor of El Dorado, and we know from a movie as Aguirre the Wrath of God, was killed in Venezuela by Spanish loyalists.

1788-THE FEDERALIST PAPERS- While the new American republic was still trying to decide what kind of government it wanted, this day the first in a series of editorial letters appeared in American newspapers. The 85 essays argued the case for a strong federal government and judiciary, superceding the authority of individual states. Under the pseudonym "Publius". The essays were written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. Today they are called collectively the Federalist Papers.

1806- After defeating the Prussian Army at Jena, Napoleon’s French army marched into Berlin, all bands blaring Le Marseillaise. Part of his sightseeing Napoleon went to Potsdam and visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, the previous generation’s military genius.

1864-"BLOODY BILL" ANDERSON BUSHWHACKED-Among the Missouri bandits who called themselves Confederate guerillas like Quantrill and Jesse James, Bill Anderson was one of the worst. A complete psychopath, he had union soldier' scalps hanging from his horses bridle, and to avenge his sister’s death he made a knot in a silk cord every time he killed a Yankee. He rode into battle tearfully shouting her name. By the time the Yankees finally killed him and stuck his head on a telegraph pole, the silk cord had 54 knots in it.

1886-THE STATUE OF LIBERTY DEDICATED- Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was originally asked by Ferdinand de Lesseps to create a huge statue of a woman to welcome Europeans sailing into the Suez Canal at Port Said. After that deal didn’t work out Bartholdi revamped the design for the Americas. The face looks like a classic Greek beauty although some insist it’s the artist’s mother. Bartholdi’s masterpiece, held up by Gustav Eiffel's superstructure, was supposed to be unveiled at the American Centennial celebrations in 1876, but was a little over deadline, about ten years. President Cleveland had started giving his opening remarks when the curtain revealing the statue was dropped early and he was drowned out by cheers, boat whistles, cannon salutes and fireworks. Women suffragettes rented a boat and floated alongside the parade bearing a large banner "She's beautiful, but she can not vote!"

1886- Musical fantasy "A Night on Bald Mountain" premiered in Russia. Composer Modest Mussorgsky worked as a florist during the day and wrote music at night. He was convinced he couldn’t make a living otherwise.

1916- The entertainment trade magazine Variety has the blurb: "Chicago has added recently to it’s number of so-called Jazz bands." Now jazz had been around in black neighborhoods for years, but the form was labeled Ragtime or Syncopation. This is the earliest known use in print of the word Jazz.

1919- New Orleans, Louisiana was unique because it governed itself using French law. This day saw the last execution of a criminal by axeman in the Big Easy, twenty years after most of America had gone from hanging to the electric chair.

1941- The Chicago Tribune announced in an editorial that there was no chance that the US would go to war with Japan.

1947- The "You Bet Your Life" quiz show premiered on radio. "Say the Secret Word and Win Fifty Dollars". Comedian Groucho Marx had struggled after his brothers act the Marx Brothers broke up. During a live radio program with Bob Hope at one point Hope dropped his script. Before he could pick it up Groucho stepped on the pages, threw his own away and the two improvised their conversation. The result was much funnier that anything anybody had written. The producer of the show was so impressed he hired Groucho and built a quiz show around him.

1954- Benjamin O. Davis became the first black general in the US Army.

1954- The" Disneyland" television show premieres. Up until then the major Hollywood Studios were all boycotting the new upstart medium of television, then mostly done in New York by blacklisted stage actors and writers. MGM Production head Dori Schary called TV “ the Enemy”. Walt Disney is the first to break ranks with the major film studios and get into television production. He even filmed the show in Technicolor, figuring television will develop color broadcasting eventually.

1962- THE DAY THE WORLD ALMOST ENDED- Black Saturday, the Darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, The US and Russia had enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on Earth 22 times over, and this day they came closest to doing just that.
Soviet and American battle fleets were faced off in the ocean. At the Berlin Wall tanks were muzzle to muzzle, some with nuclear artillery shells. All B-52's were in the air, waiting for the signal to enter Russian air space. Russian subs off the U.S. coast with nuclear missiles trained on American cities. All code Red, DEF CON-2- TOTAL WAR status. At a signal from The White House, the U.S. was poised to drop 7,000 nuclear weapons capable of killing 100 million people in an instant. The Russians had 64 hydrogen bombs operational in Cuba, mounted on missiles that could hit Washington and New York in just five minutes. Also 9 tactical nukes were under the direct control of two Soviet generals in Cuba, the only time that permission has ever been given.
Then suddenly a Cuban anti-aircraft missile shot down an American U-2 spy plane, killing the pilot. Pres. Kennedy complained to his staff:" Khrushchev doesn't think I have the guts to push the button!" Attorney General Robert Kennedy almost in tears from the strain, cried to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin: " Things are moving beyond all human control!"
The Kremlin got a secret telegram from Fidel Castro in his underground bunker begging them to fire the nukes immediately, saying Cuba is proud to sacrifice itself on the ramparts of Socialism (Fidel sent it from an underground bunker). KGB director Yuri Andropov passed Castro's note on to Khrushchev after he penciled red question and exclamation marks all over it.( !!!??!?!? ) Khrushchev also later mentioned that he received an appeal from philosopher Bertrand Russell that he credited with helping him make up his mind to send Kennedy the offer of a compromise.

1964- Sonny & Cher married. I got you babe!

1964- The “You Choose Speech” Actor and TV pitchman Ronald Reagan made his maiden political speech at a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. He had made political speeches in the past, but this one marks his shedding his acting and union careers to become a full time conservative politician.

1966- Bill Melendez's Peanuts TV special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'.

1967- the Worlds Fair in Montreal called Expo 67 closed.

1967- Anti-Vietnam War protestors in Baltimore broke into the Selective Service offices and poured human blood on draft files and records.

1981- Former UN ambassador and presidential aide Andrew Young was elected Mayor of Atlanta Georgia.

1986- The NY Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox to win the baseball World Series.

1989 - World Series play resumes between Oakland and San Francisco after a ten day delay from the 1989- Bay Area Earthquake.

2004- After not winning it for half the history of baseball, since 1918, this day the Boston Red Sox swept the Saint Louis Cardinals to finally win a World Series. They go on to win several more.

2018- The LA Dodgers defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-2 in the longest World Series game in history. 18 innings, 7 ½ hours, ending at 12:30am.
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Yesterday’s Question: Was the goddess Venus ever married?

Answer: Venus’ husband was Vulcan (Greek: Hephaestus), god of the forge. The marriage was more than rocky, with both Venus and Vulcan having numerous affairs and children. Vulcan was well aware that he was a cuckold, actually capturing Venus and Mars (Greek: Ares) in flagrante delicto, using an unbreakable net he forged for that purpose. (Thanks FG)


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