Historical Events That Actually Happened
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)
History is has many ups and downs, celebrations and tragedies, beginnings and ends. There is always a story to hear and learn from. What is your history?
Mark Twain and Halley’s Comet
Mark Twain, real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an extremely well known author and storyteller. He wrote one of America’s most recognizable books and characters, Tom Sawyer. He has a very interesting connection to an astronomical occurrence that happens every 75 years. He was born on November 30th, 1835, the same night Halley’s comet was visible in the sky. He was quoted saying, “I came in with Halley’s Comet. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.” He was right in his prediction and destiny, Mark Twain died April 21st, 1910, the day after the Comet had it’s closest point to the Sun, reaching it’s perihelion.
The Dancing Plague of 1518
Everyone likes to move and groove every so often, some do it for exercise, others do it for recreation, and a few dance about their houses while cleaning up. But there were a few souls in France in 1518 that danced to death. Strasbourg, Alsace, now modern day France, had a curious cause of dance mania from July to September. Fifty to possibly 400 folks, though the number is greatly debated, took themselves to the streets and danced til they couldn’t anymore. The cause of the mass Saturday Night Fever is still unknown but scholars think it may have been due to food poisoning or stress-induced mass hysteria, others speculate that some might have even been demon possessed.
The Great Emu War
Did you know that the Australian Army fought against emus and lost? That’s right! There was a war with these seemingly innocent and flightless birds in 1932. Emus are native to Australia and are the second largest bird after the ostrich. In the later months of 1932, farmers found that the emus had migrated right into their crops and these crops were just about to harvested. These crops were mowed down by the emus and the furious farmers called in the Australian Artillery led by Major Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith. From November to December, those farmers and soldiers took machine guns to the birds with about 986 emus confirmed taken down. This did not work though because about 20,000 birds were estimated to be in the area causing trouble. It was culled for a little bit but unfortunately the feathered pests came back over and over!
