Sunday Open Thread: August 12 is World Elephant Day

and it is also Prickle-Prickle, Bureaucracy 5, 3184 YOLD (for you Discordians out there) It should be prety much the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, and, I shit you not, it is called The Glorious Twelfth in Britain because it is the start of the Grouse Shooting season. I don't know if I can top that, I mean, really ... World History this day 1323 - The Treaty of Noteborg between Sweden and Novgorod Republic was signed. The Novgorod Republic was pretty much a piece of the Kievan Rus, a not-too widely known and studied loose and fluctuating confederation running from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and more or less controlling the best trade route between northeast Europe and Constantinople. In a sense, the History of Russia, Ukraine and Crimea starts here. 1687 - The Second Battle of Mohacs was such a crushing defeat for the Ottomans that the entire Otoman army completely disintegrated shortly thereafter. This allowed the Audtrian Empire to liberate or conquer, as the case may be, a lot of territory previously conquered by the Ottomans during the Ottoman expansion. The territory was previously conquered by and became part of the Roman Empire before being overrun by the Visigoths and such. Some travel to experience different cultures. Some simply stay at home and have it come to them. US History this day 1898 - The Hawaiian flag over Iolani Palace was replaced with that of the US in annexation ceremony marking Hawaii's official loss of sovereignty and incorporation into the US. Science & Technology this day 1851 - Isaac Singer got a patent on his sewing machine. New and improved enough, I guess, it definitely changed a lot of things 1865 - Joseph Lister, performed the first antiseptic surgery, yet every week one reads of this or that hospital, doctor or medical office failing in that regard. C'mon folks, it's been a century and a half. 1883 - The last quagga died in a zoo in Amsterdam. 1960 - NASA launched Echo 1A. Hello, hello, can you hear me now? 1981 - The IBM Personal Computer was released and priced out of range of most persons. Luckily, a lot of people started making "PC Compatible" machines and now look where we are. The Arts this day

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Misc. this day

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Birthdays of Note this day 1626 - Giovanni Legrenzi, composer and orgnist 1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, violinist and composer 1831 - Helena Blavatsky, occultist, theosophist, co-founder of the Theosophical Society 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, poet who wrote the words to America the Beautiful 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, author and playwright 1887 - Erwin Schrodinger, cat fancier 1907 - Gladys Bentley, singer and pianist 1914 - Ruth Lowe, pianist and songwriter 1918 - Sid Bernstein, record producer 1919 - Margaret Burbidge, astrophysicist 1920 - Percy Mayfield, singer and songwriter 1926 - Joe Jones, singer, songwriter and producer who discovered the Dixie Cups 1929 - Buck Owens, singr, songwriter and guitarist, pioneered the Bakersfield Sound. 1931 - William Goldman, author, playwright, and screenwriter 1945 - Dorothy E. Denning, computer scientist 1949 - Mark Knopfler, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1949 - Lou Martin, pianist, songwriter, and producer 1950 - August "Kid Creole" Darnell, musician, bandleader, singer-songwriter, and record producer 1954 - Pat Metheny, jazz guitarist and composer 1961 - Roy Hay, guitarist, keyboard player, and composer Deaths of Note this day 30 BCE- Cleopatra, queen of egypt 1955 - Thomas Mann, author 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, physiologist 1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, singer and songwriter 1989 - William Shockley, physicist 1992 - John Cage, composer 2009 - Les Paul, guitarist and songwriter 2010 - Richie Hayward, drummer and songwriter

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So now some music

Echo 1A

Gladys Bentley

Percy Mayfield

Buck Owens

Mark Knopfler

Kid Creole

Pat Metheny

Kyu Sakamoto

John Cage

Les Paul

Richie Hayward

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Photo: "One Tusk", by the author, 06-10-2008, Kenya It's an open thread, so do your thing Crossposted from http://caucus99percent.com