center>

and it is also Boomtime, Confusion 71, 3184 YOLD
(for you Discordians out there)

World History this day

0025 - Guangwu claimed the throne as emperor, thereby restoring the Han dynasty after the fall of the interloper Xin dynasty.

0135 - Roman armies entered Betar and slaughtered thousands. This put an end to the the bar Kokhba revolt and presumably validated Ares' credentials as boss war god of the middle-east.

0910 - The combined forces of Mercia and Wessex led by King Edward the Elder and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, whupped the last major Danish army to raid England at Tettenhall.

1874 - Japan launched its postal savings system, modeled after the one in the UK. Don't bother your pretty little head about it, such things are evil, possibly communist, and unnecessary under glorious benevolent bankster free-market capitalism.

1925 - Plaid Cymru was formed, NO, it's not a fabric.

1962 - Nelson Mandela was jailed. He would not be released until 1990. The reluctance of "western governments" to play a role in pressuring South Africa to drop apartheid probably played a significant role in dragging things out for so long.

1963 - The US, the UK, and the USSR signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Presumably, this agreement prohibited Partial Nuclear Tests. No, wait ...

US History this day

1735 - New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York because what he had published was true. Though pre-independence, this established something of a precedent that those committing what would otherwise be seditious libel against government officials weren't prosecuted because it was almost always true. Sadly it also established a pattern of the public ignoring such allegations and charges because they became inured to the fact that assertions of corruption and such were more likely than not true.

1861 - In order to help defray the cost of the US Civil War, the US levied an income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. It was unconstitutional, but the US has never allowed the law to stand in the way of war.

1964 - The US launched Operation Pierce Arrow, bombing North Vietnam in retaliation for attacks on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin that never occurred. On August 2, the USS Maddox, having ventured into North Vietnamese waters* attacked 3 North Vietnamese patrol boats which had started shadowing it. They, of course, returned fire, which, in US parlance, became "the first attack". Then, on August 4, the Maddox and the USS Turner Joy began wildly manouvering and firing great numbers of shells into the empty sea. This was reported as the victorious sinking of 3 North Vietnamese patrol boats and "attack number two". This was when the US took its ongoing covert war public and open. * - We did not recognize these as their waters, though we did recognize them as French when Vietnam was a French colony.

Science & Technology this day

1816 - Sir John Barrow, Secretary at the British Admiralty, dismissed Francis Ronalds' invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary" and chose to instead continue using the semaphore. Fifty four years later, Ronald would be knighted for creating the first working electric telegraph.

1888 - Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in one of her Hubby's products. This is considered to be the first long distance automobile trip. There is no record of how the British Admiralty reacted, if at all.

The Arts this day

1957 - American Bandstand was first shown on the ABC television network. Though it had been broadcast locally in Philly since March of 1950, this is the date when it went national, hosted by some dude named Dick Clark.

Misc. this day

Birthdays of Note this day

1850 - Guy de Maupassant, writer
1926 - Jeri Southern, jazz singer and pianist
1930 - Neil Armstrong, pilot, engineer, and astronaut
1940 - Rick Huxley, bass player
1941 - Airto Moreira, drummer, percussionist, and composer
1943 - Sammi Smith, country singer and songwriter
1946 - Rick van der Linden, Keyboardist and songwriter
1947 - Rick Derringer, singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer
1947 - Greg Leskiw, guitarist and songwriter
1948 - David Hungate, bassist and arranger
1955 - Eddie Ojeda, guitarist and songwriter
1965 - Jeff Coffin, saxophonist and composer
1966 - Jennifer Finch, singer, bassist and photog

Deaths of Note this day

1729 - Thomas Newcomen, engineer, invented the Newcomen atmospheric engine
1895 - Friedrich Engels, philosopher
1955 - Carmen Miranda, actress and singer
1959 - Edgar Guest, poet
1962 - Marilyn Monroe, model, actress, and singer
1968 - Luther Perkins, guitarist (Responsible for the Johnny Cash sound)

Photo: Image from page 851 of "Rod and gun" (1898), Canadian Forestry Association

It's an open thread, so do your thing