Monday Open Thread: September 17 is Batman Day

September 17 is the 260th day of the year; as well as Setting Orange, Bureaucracy 41, 3184 YOLD to discordians.

Really, 17, really? This is always an excuse for me to play Edge of 17. Can I resist? OK, Education time, A Batman is an officer's schlepper in the British Military:

A batman or an orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the pack saddle with his officer's kit during a campaign. The U.K. English term is derived from the obsolete bat, meaning "pack saddle" (from French bât, from Old French bast, from Late Latin bastum). -- Wikipedia --

Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift, look out kid, …

On this day in:

1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek penned a letter to the Royal Society describing the "animalcules" he had seen with his instrument. This is the first known description of protozoa.

1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco was founded in Alta California, New Spain. The Russkies meandered down the coast as far as the Russian River by 1803, but the US didn't invade and conquer California until 1846, 70 years later.

1787 – The United States Constitution was signed in Philly.

1849 – Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery.

1859 – Joshua A. Norton declared himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States." Silly, sure, but it got him some mileage in San Francisco.

1925 – Frida Kahlo suffered severe injuries in a bus accident which caused her to abandon her medical studies and take up art.

1948 – The Lehi (Stern gang) assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte.

1954 – Golding's "Lord of the Flies" was published.

1976 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA.

1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) was released, y'all.

2006 – A laked audio tape of a speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány revealed that his Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election which caaused widespread protests across the country. How irredeemably unsophisticated of them. In the US, our political parties lie 24/7 and it just causes some additional partisan badmouthing of each other.

2011 – The Occupy Wall Street movement started in Zuccotti Park.

Born this day in:

1743 – Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician and political scientist.

1883 – William Carlos Williams, poet and author

1923 – Hank Williams, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1926 – Bill Black, bassist and band leader

1926 – Jack McDuff, singer and organist

1929 – Stirling Moss, legend

1938 – Perry Robinson, clarinettist and composer

1939 – Shelby Flint, singer, songwriter and voice actress

1950 – Fee Waybill, singer, songwriter and producer

Died this day in: