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timefornow.bsky.social
Politics, languages, art, history, travel, books, movies.
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On April 13, 1955, Sybille Schmitz committed suicide. She is almost unknown now outside of Germany, but in the 30s and '40s under the third Reich she had had a very successful film career, even though she had not been endorsed by the Reich Chamber of Film and despite her youtu.be/6uhV0LeLKJE?...

submitted 4 hours ago • 1 comment

April 12 is the anniversary of two different disasters in Greek history: the sack of Constantinople in 1204 and the massacre on Chios island in 1822. It's ironic that the same city, although in different guises, is of central importance in each. First, as the location of Greeks as victims. Second,

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

On April 11th, 1241, Batu Khan of Ulug Ulus (literally 'Great State', In English generally called the Golden Horde) defeated Béla IV of Hungary. Many people are familiar with pressure placed on the Roman Empire (c. 300 - 600 BCE) by migrations of people from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Goths,

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

On April 10, 1896, Spyridon Louis won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics, which, believe it or not, was held in April. He was a Greek water carrier, a job which scarcely exists anymore, but because of his performance, he became a national hero.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

On April 9, 1948, mass violence and destruction broke out in Bogotá. It is now called the Bogotazo, & it led to the killing of between 600 and 3,000 people. It sparked a larger wave of violence that lasted a decade, involved the entire country, and led to 200,000 killings. youtu.be/hvtJPGSrWfc?...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

On April 8, 1820, the Venus de Milo was discovered on the island of Melos in the Aegean. The name in French for this island is Milo: hence the name. artjourneyparis.com/blog/story-v...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

On April 7, 1884, Bronisław Malinowski was born. "Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and others Show how common culture Shapes the separate lives; Matrilineal races Kill their mothers’ brothers In their dreams and turn their Sisters into wives." -- W. H.Auden, "Heavy Date"

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

On April 6th, 1814, after a quarter century of wild political change during the Revolutionary & Napoleonic eras, the Bourbon dynasty was restored in France. It lasted until August 1830, through two kings, Louis XVIII and Charles X both grandsons (as was Louis XVI) of Louis XV. Well, there was an

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

April 5, 2063 is when, in the Star Trek universe, the first warp-drive flight will take place. Zefram Cochrane will use an old Titan II nuclear missile to build the Phoenix. He'll both take off and land in Bozeman, Montana. A Vulcan ship will detect the warp-drive signal and come there to meet him.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

On April 4, 1958, the international peace symbol was displayed for the first time. This was part of the campaign by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). You might have heard that it is a Satanic symbol using a cross that is broken and upside down. That's a like. It's based on semaphore

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

April 3 has at least two anniversaries connected with communication. In 1860, the first successful run of the pony Express was completed. The pony Express actually lasted a very short time, just 18 months. And in 1973, this is the date of the world's first call made by mobile phone.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

On April 2nd, 1792, the US Mint was founded. I have not touched a US coin or currency for several months, despite being here in the US. This is something I never would have expected just a few decades ago. So, this anniversary seems in many ways very antiquarian. Coins?

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

April 1st is April Fool's Day, and maybe an obvious choice here would be to mention something about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, but I'm going to instead talk about the Forer Effect. Bertram Forer did an experiment in which he gave undergraduates the same horoscope prediction from the newspaper. He

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

On March 31, 1943, "Oklahoma!" opened on Broadway. This was the first musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. At any time, this song, the finale, is almost tear-inducingly beautiful, but just imagine the effect for audiences in the middle of World War II seeing & hearing it. youtu.be/ZbrnXl2gO_k?...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

On March 30, 1432, the future Mehmet II el-Fatih (the Conqueror) was born. He is called el-Fatih (the Conqueror) because his armies conquered Constantinople in 1453.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments