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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
@uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
1+ week into 2026 & in #USA:

-16 civilians killed by Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), 75.4% pace drop from 2025

-2 LEOs died in line of duty, both accidentally struck by vehicles; 17.8% pace drop from 2025

-10 Mass Shootings; matches 2025's pace

-Gestapo-Lite; Murder, Cheer, & then Lie

Carry on
*Happy Earth's Rotation Day* At the 1851 World’s Fair in Paris, France, physicist Léon Foucault first demonstrated his proof of the planet's rotation. From the top of the Panthéon he suspended his Foucault Penduluma, a lead-filled brass ball, and swung it. After a few hours, the direction of the pendulum's swing changed, illustrating how the swing plane of the pendulum would match the relative rotation of Earth. Although the ground floor was perceived as the "stable" variable of the exercise, it was actually the only object that changed states. The pendulum remained unchanged while the planet beneath the fair-goer's feet slowly rotated and produced the astonishing results that we now yearly celebrate on this day.
January 8, 2026 at 7:21 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1703: Edo, (Tokyo), Japan; Up to 200k killed by Genroku Earthquake & subsequent tsunami

1999: Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin resigned & Vladimir Putin appointed in his stead

2019: China’s Wuhan Municipal Health Organisation reported 1st cluster of an unknown disease; COVID-19
Final Day to cram in those Bonus #OTD in 1600: English Queen Elizabeth I granted charter to East India Company 1744: James Bradley announced discovery of Earth’s nutation motion or "wobble" 1857: Ottawa selected as Canada’s capital by UK Queen Victoria 1897: Last day Brooklyn, NY, USA was an independent city 1901: Estrada Palma elected 1st President of Cuba 1930: Pope Pius XI's "Casti Connubii" encyclical against mixed marriages asserted institution of marriage as divine, not secular 1994: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; 3.5M attended world's largest free concert; Rod Stewart on Copacabana Beach 1999: US transferred control of Panama Canal to Panama 2007: Boston, MA, USA "Big Dig" completed; $2.6B (£1.9B) infrastructure update took 16 yrs w/ final bill of $14.8B (£11B), or $19.6B (£14.6B) in 2025 2014: Tunisia 1st Arab country to convert to democracy in wake of "Arab Spring Uprising"; Free election won by President Beji Caid Essebsi 2017: China's ban on ivory trade ban came into effect -------------------- Pictured is the final Sunday edition, and last ever published, of Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip. In it, the titular stuffed tiger and boy see an open, unblemished world of possibilities before declaring, "Let's go exploring!" On December 31st, 1995, Sunday newspapers across the Earth published the final "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, ending a decade-long run for the Bill Wasterson-penned strip that was first published on November 18th, 1985. Having accomplished everything he'd set out to do within the medium, Bill Watterson's final entry into the Calvin and Hobbes universe provided hope and a fresh perspective for his readers going forward. Intellectually and philosophically stirring, while just silly enough to be hilarious, the comic still holds a place in popular culture, as "the last great newspaper comic" had reruns of past work published in 50 countries as recently as 2010. **Happy New Year everyone...let's go exploring! -UW**
December 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1609: Čachtice Castle, Slovakia; history's most prolific woman serial killer, Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, & servants arrested by György Thurzó after allegedly walking in on a torture session

3 servants were executed & Báthory never tried, as such an act would "damage the nobility"
Neverending Bonus #OTD in 1861: US forced off gold standard; Associated Banks of NYC suspended redemption of paper notes for gold/silver 1896: Rizal Day; Philippine Revolution began w/ Malayan hero Dr José Rizal falsely executed for sedition, rebellion, & conspiracy 1903: Chicago, IL Iroquois Theatre Fire killed 602, injured 250 1906: Dacca, E Bengal, British India; creation of All-India Muslim League laid foundations for Muslim State (Pakistan) 1922: Birth of USSR; Declaration & Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics & Declaration of the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics effective 1924: Edwin Hubble revealed the existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way 1943: Subhash Chandra Bose (Netaji) 1st hoisted national flag on Indian soil at Port Blair; renamed Shaheed (Andaman) & Swaraj (Nicobar) Islands 1944: Ravensbruck Concentration Camp; Nazi "clerical error" granted Cornelia Ten Boom her freedom 1947: Romania King Michael I forced to abdicate the throne by the Soviet-backed Communist government 1952: Tuskegee Institute reported 1st yr w/out US lynching in 70 yrs 1997: Algerian Civil War Wilaya of Relizane Massacres; gov't killed ~412 in 4 villages 2012: 442 km (274.6 mi) Beijing Subway, world's longest metro network, completed 2020: Congress made Argentina 1st Latin American country to legalise abortion -------------------- Pictured is a colour photograph of a flyover tour of Boulder County neighbourhoods destroyed by wildfires in December and January of 2021-2022. On December 30th, 2021, the Marshall Fire started in two locations, eventually merging into a conflagration that evacuated 37,500, killed two, and caused £1.5B (>$2B) in damage to over 1,000 structures in the US state of Colorado. Although forced to pay $640M to avoid a jury trial, the “agreements in principle” allowed Xcel Energy to avoid admitting to any wrongdoing while asserting its equipment did not spark the fire.
December 30, 2025 at 11:51 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1911a: Dr Sun Yat Sen elected 1st Provisional President of Republic of China

1911b: Mongolia Independence Day

1998: Cambodia Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan & Nuon Chea apologised for 1.5M killed by Pol Pot; "Please forget the past & please be sorry for me", "we wanted to win the war"
Summ'o Bonus #OTD in 1835: Trail of Tears; US Treaty of New Echota signed, minority Treaty Party ceded Cherokee lands in exchange for $5M (~$185M) & western relocation 1890: Wounded Knee Massacre; US Army's attempt at disarmament ended in 200+ dead Lakota natives 1934: Japan renounced WW1 disarmament treaties as it ramped up its military 1937: New Constitution changed Irish Free State to Ireland 1940; WW2 Nazi Blitz; Luftwaffe dropped 20k+ bombs on London, UK 1970: US Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSH Act) established Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) 1989: Velvet Revolution ended w/ Václav Havel elected President of Czechoslovakia 1996: 36-yr Guatemala Civil War ended 1999: Turkmenistan made Saparmurat Niyazov President for Life 2015: World Health Organization declared end of Guinea Ebola outbreak 2018: Lowest storm-top temperature; NOAA/NASA recorded 161.96 K (-111.19°C, -168.14°F) during W Pacific storm cluster -------------------- Pictured top is a 1930 black and white newspaper clipping from the St Paul Dispatch announcing Fred Newton's Mississippi swim. Below is a black and white photograph of Newton as he poses in front of the swim's promotional vehicle. Pictured bottom is a revised entry for Newton's historic swim in the Guiness Book of World Records. On December 29th, 1930, Fred Newton of Clinton, Oklahoma completed his 2,938 kilometre (1,826 mile) swim down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana. Then the longest-distance ever swam, Newton began on July 6th and spent a total of 742 hours in the river. When the water fell below 8.3° C (47° F), Newton wore wool underwear and slathered axle grease on his body for insulation. Meant to be a 90-day publicity stunt for fame and fortune, the swim earned Newton little more than a hot bath from the New Orleans Athletic Club and his since-broken Guinness World Record.
December 30, 2025 at 12:08 AM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1612: Galileo 1st observed Neptune & mistook it for a "fixed star"

1945: Pledge of Allegiance recognised by US Congress 9 yrs before "under God" added

2015: WW2 "Comfort Women" Issue; Japanese agreed to apologise & pay ¥1B (£6.5M or $8.8M) to sex slavery victims, later rejected by S Korea
Proving humans *can* be productive at the end of the year, Bonus #OTD in 1065: London, England; Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster (Westminster Abbey) consecrated 1537: Ordonnance de Montpellier, oldest normative French text, established Royal Library as 1st legal deposit for every book sold in France 1835: Florida, USA; 2nd Seminole War began when 2 of 110 US Army troops survived Dade Massacre 1860: Harriet Tubman's Final Mission; Unable to free her sister's children, she escorted Ennals family to Auburn, NY, USA 1895; Grand Cafe, Paris, France; Louis & Auguste Lumière hosted world's 1st commercial movie screening using their Cinematographe 1918: Constance Markievicz 1st woman elected to UK House of Commons; refused her seat due to Sinn Féin abstentionist policy 1921: Witwatersrand, S Africa; Rand Rebellion began as a mining strike 1973: US Endangered Species Act (ESA) signed into law 1984: Mojave Desert, USA; King Clone creosote dated at 11.7k yrs old, world's oldest living thing 2007: Monarchy abolished & Nepal made a federal democratic republic by Parliament -------------------- Pictured top is a 1908 stereoscopic photograph, provided by Underwood & Underwood, titled "The once beautiful waterfront after the earthquake. Digging for bodies is underway. Messina, Sicily, Italy." Below is a colourful map illustrating the focal mechanism and damage distribution of that destructive winter earthquake. On December 28th, 1908, a 7.1 Mwg, XI Mercalli intensity earthquake with an epicentre in the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and the Italian Peninsula, killed 120,000+ and almost completely destroyed the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria. It remains the deadliest earthquake in European history. Roughly ten minutes later, the sea on both sides of the Strait withdrew prior to a 12-metre (39-foot) tsunami that destroyed the Reggio Calabria seafront, washed away boats and people on Messina's shore, before claiming an additional 2,000+ lives.
December 28, 2025 at 4:50 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1512: Spain's Laws of Burgos forbade enslavement of & promoted forced conversion of Indigenous Americans to Catholicism

1949: Netherlands formally recognised Indonesia Independence

2007: Suicide bomb killed 24, including 1st woman to lead democratic Muslim-majority country, Benazir Bhutto
Bonuses beget Bonus #OTD in 1845: 1st use of anaesthesia in childbirth; Crawford W Long's wife Mary delivered daughter Mary while on ether 1918: Poznań War; Poland began overthrow of German rule 1934: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi renamed Persia to Iran ("of the Aryans") 1939: Türkiye Erzincan Earthquake; 32,968 dead, ~100k injured 1941: WW2; Japanese bombed ships in Manila Bay & Pasig River a day after Gen MacArthur proclaimed Manila an undefended "open" city 1972: Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ratified 1978: "La Transición"; Spain's Democratic Constitution ratified by King Juan Carlos I 1979: USSR Operation Storm-333 began Soviet–Afghan War when Hafizullah Amin, Khalqist of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), was assassinated 2002a: Kenyan General Election; 1st truly free election held since independence in 1964 2002b: Grozny, Chechnya; Suicide bombers ran vehicles into Chechen pro-Russian headquarters, killing 72 & injuring ~200 -------------------- Pictured top is a colour NASA star map depicting the location in the constellation Sagittarius of ultra-magnetic neutron star SGR-1806-20 located roughly 50,000 light years away from Earth. Below is a colourful artist rendition of the 2004 gamma ray superflare expanding from SGR 1806-20. On December 27th, 2004, an explosion on the surface dead ultra-magnetic neutron star SGR-1806-20 physically compressed Earth's magnetic field and figuratively "rang it like a bell". Over just a tenth of a second, SGR-1806-20's crust slipped, exploded, and blasted the star’s magnetic field. The resulting "starquake" was the equivalent of a magnitude 32 earthquake, roughly 32 sextillion times stronger than the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. It was the brightest extra-solar system burst, producing more energy than 150,000 years of sunlight. As for the planet, the only impacts felt were increased ionisation in the ionosphere and an affected magnetosphere.
December 27, 2025 at 7:31 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1705: Sahibzada Diwas (Martyrdom Day); Sahibzada Zorawar & Sahibzada Fateh Singh bricked alive in Sirhind, Punjab (India)

1825: Russia Decembrist Revolt failed

1862: Mankato, MN; 38 innocent Dakota Sioux hung in largest mass execution in US history

1990: Slovenia Independence & Unity Day
Boxing Day Bonus #OTD in 1862: US Navy commissioned captured Confederate vessel as 1st hospital ship USS Red Rover 1944: WW2 Siege of Bastogne; US Gen George Patton's Third Army broke Nazi encirclement 1966: Kwanzaa (1st Fruits of Harvest) established by Dr Maulana Karenga 1996a: Federation of Korean Trade Unions called upon its members to strike, beginning largest strike in S Korean history 1996b: UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) established to fight land degradation & drought 2003: Bam, Iran Earthquake killed 34k & injured 200k 2006: Taiwan Hengchun Earthquakes disrupted Asian telecommunication services 2012: World's longest high-speed rail (HSR) line opened from Beijing to Guangzhou, China -------------------- Pictured is a colour photograph taken by David Rydevik of the 2004 Asian Tsunami just as it slams into Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand, with unsuspecting people in the foreground. On December 26th, 2004, the Sumatra–Andaman Earthquake struck with an epicenter off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Asia and the most powerful earthquake of the 21st century. It triggered the massive Boxing Day Tsunami, with its waves teaching as high as 30 metres (~100 feet) while killing an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries. It remains the deadliest tsunami ever and worst natural disaster of the 21st century, while also having the ignominious distinction of being the worst natural disaster in the history of Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
December 26, 2025 at 8:06 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

336: Catholic Church reappropriated Winter Solstice as well as birthdays of Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) & Mithra on behalf of Yeshua

1651: Massachusetts Bay Colony; General Court levied 5 shilling fine for “observing any such day as Christmas"

1773: Philadelphia Tea Party served no tea
Holy carp Bonus #OTD in 800: Charlemagne crowned as head of Holy Roman Empire 1013: Sweyn Forkbeard crowned England’s 1st Viking king 1066: England's Norman Era began when William the Conqueror was crowned 1656: Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock 1741: Anders Celsius devised the 100° temperature scale that bears his name 1760: An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries; Jupiter Hammon published 1st work by black US slave 1776: US Revolutionary War Battle of Trenton; Gen George Washington crossed frozen Delaware River w/ 5.4k troops to surprise the Hessians 1809: Danville, KY, USA; "Backwoodsman w/out a diploma to practice", Ephraim McDowell, removed 10.2 kg (22.5 lb) cyst in 1st-ever abdominal surgery 1868: US President Andrew Johnson's final proclamation unconditionally pardoned the Traitors of the Civil War 1899: 2nd Boer War Siege of Ladysmith; shells adorned w/ "Compliments of the Season" or "A Merry Christmas" filled w/ plum pudding & Union Jack flags hit the town 1947: Republic of China (ROC)'s Constitution officially in effect 1950: Westminster Abbey, London, UK; University of Glasgow students removed Stone of Scone & returned it to Scotland 1973: Tommy Chambers finished ~1.3M km (~800k mi) lifetime bicycle tour 1979: Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan; began 10-yr Cold War proxy conflict & eventual rise of Taliban 1989: Târgoviște, Romania; Tyrant Nicolae Ceaușescu & wife Elena tried, convicted, & executed by firing squad 1973: NASA Skylab 4; 1st space pictures of a comet (Kohoutek) taken by Jerry Carr & William Pogue during spacewalk 2021: French Guiana; NASA, Canadian Space Agency, & ESA jointly launched James Webb Space Telescope into space -------------------- Pictured is a Fredrik Meling colour photograph of a polar rain aurora over Longyearbyen, Norway on December 25th, 2022. At 4,000 kilometres (2,485 miles) in length, such a phenomenon had never before been witnessed on earth. Merry Christmas
December 25, 2025 at 9:25 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1814: Treaty of Ghent ended UK - USA War of 1812

1914: WWI Christmas Truce; hostilities ceased & pleasantries began in Dead Man's Land

1951: Libyan Independence Day

2024: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reached 692k kph (430k mph) at 61M km (3.8M mi) above the surface of the Sun, both records
Bonus #OTD in 1851: Washington, DC, USA; Fire at Library of Congress burned ~30k books, including most of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library 1849: San Francisco, CA, USA Great Fire #1 began in a gambling house; subsequent fires were a result of rebuilding w/ additional flammable materials 1865: Pulaski, TN, USA; ex-Confederate soldiers established Ku Klux Klan 1893: Henry Ford tested 1st gasoline engine using scrap metal for parts 1936: Nuclear Medicine born in Berkeley, CA, USA; 1st use of radioactive isotope, phosphorus-32, in treatment of human disease (leukaemia) 1989: 1st Liberian Civil War began w/ invasion by National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor -------------------- Pictured is a colour photograph titled, "Earthrise", taken by NASA astronaut William Anders during Apollo 8's mission, with the pale grey of the moon in the foreground and a partially visible blue and white Earth in the distance. On December 24th, 1968, Apollo 8 was the first human made spacecraft to visit the moon and enter its orbit, doing so ten times. The crew of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders even broadcast the event live on television, all while achieving the first deep space view of Earth with the capture of the "Earthrise" photo. As nature photographer Galen Rowell once stated, it just may be "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken".
December 25, 2025 at 12:42 AM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1954: Boston, MA, USA; Joseph Murray performed 1st human kidney transplant

1972: Argentina/Chile border; remaining 14 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 rescued

2024: Story of Human Migration; Deo Kato completed 518-day, 13,244.9 km (8,230 mi) run from Cape Town, SA to London, UK
Luckily there's only eight more Bonus #OTD in 1690: John Flamsteed observed "Star 34 Tauri"; actually undiscovered planet Uranus 1788: 25.9 km² (10 mi²) set aside for US Capital in Maryland 1888: Vincent van Gogh's left ear went to a brothel w/out him 1913: Federal Reserve Act created US central banking system 1920: UK Government of Ireland Act partitioned Northern & "Southern" Ireland 1947: Murray Hill, NJ, USA; 1st demonstration of a transistor 1975: US Metric Conversion Act; metric system ineffectively declared "preferred system of weights & measures for US trade & commerce" 1986: Edwards AFB, CA, USA; Rutan Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan & Jeana Yeager, finished 1st nonstop & un-refueled flight around the world in 9 days 2012: Halfaya Massacre; Syria bombed civilians waiting for bread, killed ~300 2016: UN Security Council Resolution 2334; Israeli settlements of Palestinian land a "flagrant violation" w/ "no legal validity" -------------------- Pictured are the black and white headshots of the seven "Class-A" war criminals from World War 2 that were executed after the conclusion of the Tokyo Trials, the Pacific Theatre's answer to the Nuremberg Trials, in 1948. On December 23rd 1948, former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, as well as Doihara Kenji, Hyotaro Kimura, Seishiro Itagaki, Hirota Koki, Matsui Ishine, and Akira Muto were executed via hanging at the Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan. During the Tokyo Trials conducted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), 28 guilty verdicts for offenses ranging from war crimes and crimes against humanity to vivisection and cannibalism of both civilians and POWs. Execution was reserved for the most heinous of those crimes. Only two men escaped lifetime incarceration, with one receiving 20 years while the other 7 years. Although no one that was tried was exonerated, one man was deemed mentally incompetent while two others perished before the trial's end, sparing each of their fates.
December 23, 2025 at 9:54 AM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1788: Quang Trung crowned Đại Việt Emperor; Hero of Việt Nam united Nguyễn & Trịnh lords against Qing Dynasty

1997: Acteal Massacre; Mexican government-backed Máscara Roja executed 45 members of pacifist group Las Abejas (The Bees)

2016: Guinea study revealed 1st-ever viable Ebola vaccine
Gonna need a spillway for the overflowing Bonus #OTD in 968: Total Eclipse over Constantinople; 1st record of solar corona by Leo Diaconus 1666: King's Library, Paris; 1st session of French Academy of Sciences 1790: Russo-Turkish War Siege of Izmail; Alexander Suvorov-led Russians took "impregnable" fortress in just over ½ day 1864: Maj Gen Sherman to US President Lincoln; "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton" 1891: Heidelberg, Germany; Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf discovered 323 Bruciato, 1st asteroid spotted using astrophotography 1956: Columbus, OH, USA; Coco 1st western gorilla born in captivity, died as the oldest in 2017 1964: 1st Lockheed SR-71 flight; retired aircraft still holds Absolute speed & Absolute altitude records 1988: Tripartite Accord granted South West Africa (Namibia) independence 1989a: Germany's 18th-century Brandenburg Gate reopened, pedestrians walked freely between E & W Berlin 1989b: Romania; Communism ended alongside Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship 2001: College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M University & Genetic Savings & Clone 1st cloned a pet; cat named CopyCat or "CC" 2010: US Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" signed into law 2022: CDC reported 76.4 yr US lifespan, near 20-yr low - Pictured are black and white photographs, two being portraits of Kazoku ("prince") Itō Hirobumi as a grizzled elder statesman (left) and as a young samurai (top right). Bottom right is an 1863 image of the "Chōshū Five" (Inoue Kaoru, Endō Kinsuke, Nomura Yakichi, Yamao Yōzō, and Itō). On December 22nd, 1885, Japan welcomed its first Prime Minister, former chūgen (samurai foot soldier) and father of the country's constitution, Itō Hirobumi. A member of the Chōshū Five that studied abroad to help bring western ideas and education to Japan, Itō was instrumental in overthrowing the shogunate and the greater Meiji Restoration.
December 22, 2025 at 8:17 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1864: 480 km (300 mi) US Civil War March to the Sea; Savannah, GA surrendered to Union Maj Gen William T Sherman, crippled Confederacy

1906: UK Trade Disputes Act; Unions not liable for damages incurred during strikes

1921: SCOTUS Truax v Corrigan; Arizona strikers' rights law overturned
Bonus #OTD in 1898: Marie & Pierre Curie discovered radium 1933: 1st dried human blood serum by Stuart Mudd & Earl Flosdorf; vital to WW2 1956: Montgomery Bus Boycott ended; MLK Jr et al rode integrated bus 1991: USSR's Demise; 11/12 former Soviet republics signed Commonwealth of Independent States 1995: Bethlehem transferred to Palestinian Authority control 2017: UN General Assembly rejected US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital 2021: Joint European Torus (JET); 5-second fusion produced 59 MJ of clean energy, bested only by the October 2023 results (69.29 MJ/6 seconds) ----- Pictured top is an 1880 black and white photograph of Red Cloud taken by John K Hillers. Below is an etching published in the March 23rd, 1867 edition of Harper's Weekly, captioned bottom with "THE INDIAN BATTLE AND MASSACRE NEAR FORT PHILIP KEARNEY, DACOTAH TERRITORY, DECEMBER 21, 1866." On December 21st, 1866, Native American warriors defeated US troops in the "Battle of the Hundred in the Hand", about 4 miles from Fort Phil Kearny near the Wyoming-Montana border. Known infamously by US Army troops as the "Fetterman Massacre", it featured the successful entrapment, annihilation, and mutilation of 81 US troops under the command of Captain William J Fetterman, who was also killed. A coalition of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho led by Red Cloud and supported by Crazy Horse perpetrated the attack as a part of Red Cloud's War to reclaim lands stolen by the US and given to the Crow Nation. Ten native warriors led by Crazy Horse lured Captain Fetterman's detachment over the Lodge Trail Ridge; where he had specifically been told, twice, not to go by Colonel Henry B Carrington. The brash and arrogant Captain Fetterman eagerly took the bait, finding an ambush of over a thousand waiting natives. Not a soul survived the rout. It'd be another two days before the naked and mutilated bodies of the fallen could be cleared from the field.
December 21, 2025 at 10:46 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1860: S Carolina 1st to secede, emboldening other traitor states; 1st domino of US Civil War

1987: Tablas Strait, Philippines; Doña Paz struck Vector; 4,385 dead w/ 25 survivors in world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster

1999: Handover of Macau to China; 442-yr Portuguese rule ended
The Bonus #OTD just keep comin' 1920: National Liberation Front of South Việt Nam, pejoratively known as "Việt Cộng", formed 1951: Arco, ID, USA; Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I), 1st atomic fission power plant to achieve net generation per consumption of fissile material 1955: After 4-yr competition, Cardiff declared the capital of Wales 1977: Salyut 6 EO-1; 1st Soviet space walk by Georgy Grechko 1989: US invaded Panama, removing President Manuel Noriega a month later 1990: 1st website published by Tim Berners-Lee on his NeXT server 2017: Article 7 levied against Poland by European Commission on behalf of country's judicial independence -------------------- Pictured left is a colour photograph taken by Great Falls Tribune's Skylar Rispens featuring Clarence Sivertsen to the left and Montana Governor Steve Bullock centered as they watch Don Davis raise the Little Shell tribal flag. To the right is the seal of Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Natives of Montana. On December 20th, 2019, an amendment in the United States National Defense Authorisation Act established official federal recognition of the Montana Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Natives, granting them 200 acres for a reservation. The 574th sovereign tribal nation recognised by the US, it gave the tribe much-needed access to economic development, health care, education assistance, and allowed for self-regulation on tribal lands. Also referred to as the “Metis" (middle people or mixed blood), the Little Shell people had been deprived of a homeland since Chief Little Shell and his followers broke off treaty negotiations with the US government in the late 1800s. Tribal members had since settled in the Northern Plains states of the US and in Canada, with the majority currently residing in Montana.
December 20, 2025 at 11:57 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1783: Britain's William Pitt the Younger, aged 24, youngest PM in history

1922: Sheffield, UK; Theresa Vaughn, aged 24, admitted 62 husbands over 50 cities in 3 countries during her bigamy trial

2016: Irkutsk, Siberia; State of Emergency declared after 74-78 died from drinking bath lotion
Another Yuge Day of Big Beautiful Bonus #OTD 1732: Poor "Richard Saunders" 1st published his annual Almanack; Benjamin Franklin later claimed credit 1776: Thomas Paine published 'The American Crisis', "These are the times that try men’s souls" 1946: Việt Nam Anti-French Resistance War; Ho Chi Minh-led Việt Minh began guerrilla war against France 1970: Coast Massacre in Poland; 44 dead & 1k+ wounded after 6-day worker protest against high costs 1972: Final manned moon mission, NASA's Apollo 17, splashed safely in the Pacific Ocean 1981: Polish Ambassador Romuald Spasowski defected to the US in support of Solidarność 1984: Sino-British Joint Declaration; Hong Kong's return to China outlined 2001: Tosontsengel, Mongolia; World's highest-ever air pressure (1085.6 hPa/32.06 inHg) 2012: Park Geun-hye 1st woman elected Korean President; 1st to ever be impeached 5 yrs later 2020: Faroe Islands; Eysturoyartunnil, world's 1st undersea roundabout, opened 2022: The Hague; Netherlands PM Mark Rutte apologised for Dutch State's role in Slave Trade -------------------- Pictured is a 16th-century colourful Spanish drawing of the dedication of the sixth Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Provided by the Niday Picture Library, the image highlights the dramatic and tragic Mexica ritual practice of human sacrifice in vivid detail. On December 19th, 1487, the sixth Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, or Temple Mayor, was officially dedicated in honour of sun god Huitzilopochtli's rebirth. The Aztec priests marked the event with four days of human sacrifice, the highest form of offering. Beginning the last day of the month Panquetzaliztli, day 7 acatl of the year 8 acatl, over 4,000 prisoners marched past eagle-dressed warriors up the steep steps of the Templo. High priests at two shrines then appeased their brutal gods by slicing open and holding aloft each of the victims' still-beating hearts, their bodies kicked down the stairs as blood flowed and stained the temple's white walls.
December 19, 2025 at 10:23 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1271: Kublai Khan issued Edict Establishing the State Title, changed Mongol Empire into Yuan Dynasty

1878: Qatar National Day; annual unification celebration

1917: US Congress passed 18th Amendment on Prohibition

1997: HTML 4.0 published at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation
Slightly less aggressive Bonus #OTD in 1777: 1st US holiday; National Day of "solemn Thanksgiving and praise" honoured English General John Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga 1916: Battle of Verdun; France victory in longest battle of WWI 1957: Shippingport Atomic Power Station near Pittsburgh, PA, USA, world's 1st atomic power plant, connected to the electrical grid 1958: NASA launched 1st communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) & globally broadcast the 1st message from space the following day -------------------- Pictured is a copy of Isaack Gilsemans's 1642 sketch titled "A View of the Murderers' Bay, as We are Anchored Here at 15 Fathoms", which depicts Abel Tasman's ships meeting, and subsequently surrounded by, an organised and dangerous tribe of Māori. The sketch itself was drawn from the deck of the expedition's flagship, Heemskreck. On December 18th, 1642, the Heemskreck and Zeehaen of Abel Tasman's Dutch expedition to New Zealand set anchor in Mihua (Golden) Bay, at the northern tip of what is now the South Island of New Zealand. There they encountered a local indigenous Māori tribe of Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri, becoming the first Europeans to do so. The welcome wagon was less-than inviting, as wakas (canoes) full of warriors came out and challenged the two ships, blowing trumpet-like horns in warning, and even killing four of the sailors in the process. The Dutch returned fire with their own trumpet blasts, as well as cannons, before deciding to pull up their anchors and leave. Tasman himself labeled the place "Moordenaers’ (Murderers’) Bay" as a result of the ill-fated meeting, with the reputation steering Europeans away for another 127 years before James Cook's arrival.
December 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1398: Sack of Delhi; Timur used straw-laden camels set on fire to defeat Sultan's elephants, killing 100k+

1903: Kitty Hawk, NC, USA; Orville Wright achieved 1st flight of 36.5 m (120 ft)

1986: Cambridge, UK; John Wallwork & Sir Roy Calne performed 1st triple transplant on Davina Thompson
Crammin' in the #OTD in 1845: Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt completed 1st-ever overland trek of Australia's Northern Territory 1912: London Conference of Ambassadors recognised Albanian independence 1931: Indian Statistical Institute founded in Kolkata 1938: Berlin, Germany; Nuclear fission discovered while Otto Hahn & Fritz Strassmann attempted to create transuranium elements 1943: US Magnuson Act (Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act) allowed immigration & naturalisation of Chinese people 1944: US Public Proclamation #21 ended WWII mandate of Japanese internment 1947: British Thomson-Houston (BTH) filed a patent for Dennis Gabor's holography 2003: 1st annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers -------------------- Pictured are two colour photographs of Mohamed Bouazizi's 2010 self-immolation above a Salah Habibi colour photograph taken the following month of Tunisian protesters demonstrating beneath a poster of Bouazizi in Tunis. On December 17th, 2010, Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, had his wares and scales confiscated by corrupt municipal officials in Sidi Bouzid for the last time, setting himself on fire in protest. He did not die immediately, instead struggling to stay alive in hospital before succumbing to his injuries a month later. This final act of defiance by a man who felt he could "no longer breathe" was the spark that lit the fires of rebellion and revolution throughout the Arab World, with both the Arab Spring and Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution beginning as a result. Bouazizi and four others were posthumously awarded for their "historic changes in the Arab world", jointly receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2011, which honours those that defend human rights and free thought. Additionally, The Times of the United Kingdom newspaper heaped even more praise, naming Bouazizi as its "Person of 2011".
December 17, 2025 at 9:15 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1707: Japan Hōei Eruption; last confirmed Mt Fuji eruption

1920: Central China's Haiyuan Earthquake killed 273k+

1971: Bangladesh Victory Day & Bahrain Independence Day

1991: Kazakhstan Independence Day

2020: Ella Kissi-Debrah’s 2013 cause of death revealed as air pollution; world's 1st
We has even mores #OTD in 755: China's 12-year An Lushan Rebellion began; Yan dynasty almost overthrew Tang dynasty 1773: Boston Tea Party; Sons of Liberty protested UK's Tea Act by dumping boatloads of it into the Massachusetts harbour 1903: Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, India's 1st with electricity, opened in Mumbai 1907: US "Great White Fleet"; 16 battleships began a year-long global cruise 1921: Dingaan's Day Pass-Burning; Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) protest against white imperialism 1950: US declared state of emergency against "Communist imperialism" 2004: NASA's Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock; 1st spacecraft to reach the edge of the sun's heliosphere -------------------- Pictured left is a colour copy of the cover of the December 28th, 2009/January 4th, 2010 edition of Time Magazine honouring the publication's "Person of the Year", United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. To the left is another colour photograph of Ben Bernanke as he addresses lawmakers in Washington, DC. On December 16th, 2009, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, was chosen as Time Magazine's 2009 "Person of the Year" for his efforts in navigating the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Having learned from past Federal Reserve mistakes, Bernanke loosened the money supply, saving most of the banks, all without forcing too much additional strain on the US public. As Michael Grunwald remarked in the cover story, “He didn’t just reshape US monetary policy; he led an effort to save the world economy”. In response to the crisis, Bernanke surmised that "bankers ought to recognise that the government and the taxpayer saved the financial system from utter collapse last year. And in recognising that, I would think that bankers ought to look in the mirror and decide that perhaps there should be some more restraint in how much they pay themselves, given what the government and the taxpayer did to protect the system.”
December 16, 2025 at 6:58 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1874: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC, later NYSPCC) founded in NYC, NY, USA; world's 1st child abuse agency

1973: American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its DSM, stated it is not a mental illness

1988: State of Palestine acknowledged by the UN
Gimme Some Mo' #OTD in 1612: Simon Marius 1st observed Andromeda Galaxy; "like a candle seen at night through a horn” 1840: 19 yrs after death, Napoleon Bonaparte's French state funeral held in Paris 1859: Foundation of modern astrophysics & spectroscopy; Gustav Kirchhoff divulged a star's spectral lines revealed its chemical composition 1954: General Electric Research Laboratory, Schenectady, NY, USA; accidental creation of 1st artificial diamond realised 1965: NASA's Gemini 6A launched & made 1st space rendezvous w/ Gemini 7 1970: Soviet Venera 7; 1st soft landing on another planet, Venus 1993: Downing Street Declaration; Ireland's self-determination established 2022: 1st NHS Nursing Strike; 100k+ from N Ireland, Wales, & England struck over wage increases 2023: National Alliance to End Homelessness revealed 12% rise to 653k+ US unhoused, both records -------------------- Pictured top is a black and white still image taken from the documentary "Thunder in Guyana" of a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) rally featuring Janet Jagan. A black and white headshot from her youth sits below and left, while a colour photograph prior to her death in 2009 is located bottom right. On December 15th, 1997, Chicago-born Janet Jagan was elected as the first white President of Guyana and first woman president in South American history. Additionally, she was also the first United States-born politician to be elected to another country's presidency. For more than five decades, Cheddi Jagan and Janet Rosenberg Jagan fought for Guyana's independence from the United Kingdom, starting the Marxist-inspired People’s Progressive Party while doing so. Cheddi, himself the first person of Indian descent to head a government outside of India, served as president of an independent Guyana until his death in March of 1997. In the interim, Janet became the country's first woman Prime Minister until elections declared her president later that year.
December 15, 2025 at 10:17 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1793: 1st US state road authorised

1962: NASA's Mariner 2 passed Venus; 1st planetary flyby

2017: US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed net neutrality

2018: Reuters; Johnson & Johnson had decades-long knowledge of & obfuscated information about their carcinogen-laced powder
Super Yuge Bonus #OTD in 835: China Sweet Dew Incident; Emperor Wenzong of Tang's failed attempt to consolidate power by killing all court eunuchs 1864: Paraguay launched Mato Grosso Campaign; 1st offensive of War of the Triple Alliance (Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay) 1900: Birth of Quantum Physics; Max Planck 1st proposed that energy comes in packets called quanta to Berlin Physical Society 1911: Roald Amundsen-led team 1st to reach geographic South Pole 1952: Republic of Korea (ROK) killed 85 & wounded 120 N Korean POWs in Pongam-do Camp 1959: Capt Joe B Jordan piloted a F-104C Starfighter to world-record altitude 31,513 m (103,389 ft), 1st jet to reach 30.5 km (100k ft) 1967: Stanford University's Arthur Kornberg & Mehran Goulian announced 1st successful production of synthetic DNA 1971: Martyred Intellectuals Day honours 1k+ intellectuals executed by Pakistan during Bangladesh Liberation War 2016: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA; 2 billion yr-old Canadian mine water revealed, world's oldest -------------------- Pictured are three colourful woodcut engravings depicting The Loyal League of Forty-Seven Ronin by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Katsukawa Shunsen, and Katsushika Hokusai respectively. The top image illustrates Asano Takuminokami of Ako's Chief Retainer Ōboshi Kuranosuke vowing vengeance for his lord's death. Below depicts the ronin storming Lord Kira Kozukenosuke's mansion, while the bottom image shows the chaotic scene during the ensuing battle. On December 14th, 1702, the Akō Vendetta was carried out by 47 former samurai of Lord Asano in retaliation for his forced seppuku in Edo (Tokyo), Japan. Once Lord Kira was dead, the ronin peacefully turned themselves in. For this small mercy, the Shōgun allowed the ronin the honour of seppuku as their means of execution. Still culturally significant in Japan, Kanadehon Chūshingura, 11-act kabuki play, commemorates the event yearly around the anniversary of the 47 ronin's revenge.
December 14, 2025 at 8:39 PM
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#OTD in

1636: US National Guard founded; 3 Massachusetts regiments created to "defend" against Natives

1974: Malta became a republic

1991: South-North Basic Agreement; N & S Korea agreed to "peaceful coexistence"

2022: New Zealand 1st country to ban smoking (those born after December 31st, 2008)
Bonus #OTD in 1920a: Mount Wilson Observatory, Pasadena, CA, USA; Albert Michelson & Francis Pease's interferometer took 1st diameter measurement of an extrasolar star (Betelgeuse) 1920b: The Hague, Netherlands; Permanent Court of International Justice (World Court), precursor to International Court of Justice, created by League of Nations 1937: Second Sino-Japanese War Battle of Nanjing; Japan's victory led to ~340k deaths during ensuing six-week Nanjing Massacre -------------------- Pictured are two colour photographs of Chinese or Yangtze river dolphins, better known as baiji (Lipotes vexillifer). The top image is of a baiji in the wild while the Agence France-Presse (AFP) image pictured below is of Qi Qi, the last captive baiji, swimming in the Wuhan Baiji aquarium where she lived for 22 years after being rescued in 1980. On December 13th, 2006, the first cetacean (whale, dolphin, porpoise) species driven to global extinction by human activity was declared when an exhaustive six-week survey of China's Yangtze River found no remaining river dolphins, or baiji, in their natural habitat. As a result of the failed expedition financed by economist and CEO of the baiji.org Foundation, August Pfluger, the "Goddess of the Yangtze" was declared functionally extinct, as the last captive baiji had already passed away of old age in 2002. Also known as the Chinese river dolphin, Yangtze river dolphin, Yangtze dolphin, and whitefin dolphin, the baiji lived for 20 million years in the Yangtze River prior to human intervention, and were revered by fishermen and boatmen alike as good omens and goddesses of protection. Sadly and ironically, it was the presence of those aforementioned reverential river interlopers, combined with the usual human pillaging and destruction of the environment that comes with "progress," that would kill off the baiji for good over the course of five decades.
December 14, 2025 at 12:57 AM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1870: Joseph H Rainey (SC), 1st black man seated in US House of Representatives

1963: Kenyan Jamhuri (Independence) Day

1991: Capital of Nigeria relocated to Abuja

2019: UC-Irvine study revealed Earth's lowest land spot; Antarctica's Denman Glacier Canyon at 3.5km (2.2mi) below sea level
Bonus #OTD in 1946: UN accepted a 6-block tract gifted by John D Rockefeller Jr for their future headquarters in Manhattan, NYC, USA 1957: Cleveland, OH, USA; World's 1st artificial heart successfully implanted by Willem Johan Kolff into a dog 2015a: COP21 Summit Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation adopted by UN, effectively replaced Kyoto Protocol 2015b: Saudi Arabia; Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi 1st of 20 women elected in country's 1st municipal council election to allow women to vote for & hold public office -------------------- Pictured top is a colour photograph taken December 12th, 2008 of a protestor reenacting the front-page image of the Daily Worker (Daily Star)'s May 10th, 1952 edition, pictured below and left with the headline "This Horror Must End". The bottom image is another photograph taken that same day by Agence France-Presse's Saeed Khan of lawyer Quek Ngee Meng presenting a condemnation of the 1948 Batang Kali Massacre to Boyd McCleary, Malaysia's British High Commissioner, outside the latter's office building in Kuala Lumpur. Middle right is a colour photograph of the cemetery where the remains of the Massacre victims were laid to rest. On December 12th, 1948, after spending the night interrogating the men of a rubber plantation, 14 members of the British military's Scots Guard executed 24 workers "suspected" of being communist insurgents outside Batang Kali, Malaya. After setting huts on fire, the Scots Guard drove away with the surviving women, children, and one previously "presumed" dead man. Far from an isolated affair during the nation's struggle for independence, the Massacre remains the most infamous event of the Malayan Emergency. The UK's official stance is that Britain was responsible and "There is evidence that supports a deliberate execution of the 24 civilians at Batang Kali," stopping short of actually opening inquiries or performing additional investigations into the cause of the human rights atrocities of that day.
December 12, 2025 at 10:09 PM
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#OTD in

1917: 13 black men unjustly hanged for Camp Logan Mutiny of Houston, TX, USA

1931: Statute of Westminster; Self-governing Dominions of the British Empire granted sovereignty

1958: Burkina Faso Republic Day

2014: Cape Town, S Africa; Andre van der Merwe performed 1st-ever penis transplant
Bonus #OTD in 1905: Rivadavia, Argentina daily temperature reached 48.9°C (120°F); Hottest in South American history 1917: Act of December 11 symbolically proclaimed Lithuania's Independence 1946: United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) founded 1960: 10-day Black Sunday Riot; 114 died in anti-French protests during the Algerian War 1967: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) went public with a failed attack on the Ben Gurion Airport 1981: El Mozote Massacre; 811 executed during Salvadoran Civil War 1997: Kyoto Protocol; 150 industrialised nations agreed to limit/reduce greenhouse gases -------------------- Pictured is a colour photostitched panorama image of the Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 cave site's rock art panel depicting an ancient hunting scene. Below it is a digital tracing of the scene in red, with both images courtesy of researchers Adhi Agus Oktaviana and Ratno Sardi. On December 11th, 2019, a study published in Nature revealed the discovery of the earliest known depictions of mythological beings in the caves of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. In the rock art dated almost 44,000 years ago, animal-headed humanoids (therianthropes) hunt and capture wild pigs and dwarf buffalo. The discovery of this specific work of art represents humanity's earliest annotated belief in the supernatural.
December 11, 2025 at 9:30 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1898: Treaty of Paris ended Spanish–American War

1902: Aswan Low Dam finished, Nile River's 1st dam

1907: Brown Dog Riots, London, UK; students protest right to vivisect dogs

2013: Uruguay 1st country to fully legalise marijuana

2019: 1st-ever test flight of electric commercial aircraft
Notable Nobel Prize Winners #OTD in 1901: Inaugural winners Wilhelm Röntgen (Physics), Jacobus van 't Hoff (Chemistry), Emil von Behring (Medicine), Sully Prudhomme (Literature), and a joint Prize to Jean-Henri Dunant & Frédéric Passy (Peace) 1903: 1st Woman; Marie Curie (Physics) 1913: 1st Person of Colour; Rabindranath Tagore (Literature) 1950: 1st Black Man; Dr Ralph Bunche (Peace) 1993: 1st Black/Woman of Colour; Toni Morrison (Literature) -------------------- Pictured are three black and white Jiji Press photographs covering Japan's largest and most famous bank heist. On the left is the wanted montage photograph released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) on December 21, 1968, citing the man as the primary suspect in the 300 million Yen Robbery. Top right is the stolen and abandoned "police" motorcycle as it is investigated by several police officers while pictured below is a spent combination smoke grenade/flare, both items utilised by the thief during the heist. On December 10th, 1968, a still-unknown perpetrator pulled off the audacious 300 Million Yen Robbery, stealing ¥294 million (¥1.16BN in 2025) worth of bonuses meant for Toshiba's Fuchu factory employees. It remains the most legendary unsolved case in Japan's history. Just as four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Ginko (Nippon Trust Bank) approached their destination with a car loaded with metal boxes of cash, a man dressed as a police officer blocked their path with his motorcycle. He told the bank employees that an explosion had already destroyed the bank branch manager's house and that another possible bomb may be under the transport car they were currently driving. Once the employees exited, the "police officer" crawled under the car, placed/ignited a homemade smoke and flare grenade, then frantically rolled out and warned that the car would explode. In the ensuing cover of smoke and confusion, the "police officer" simply got into the car and drove away with all the cash.
December 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1948: UN Genocide Convention 1st to criminalise genocide

1961: Mt Kilimanjaro Ukuru Torch lit on Tanzania Independence Day

1987: First Intifada began; occupied Palestinians rose against Israeli military

2024: Willow, quantum chip capable of processing 10²⁵ yr equation in 5 mins, unveiled
Big Bonus #OTD in 1868: Houses of Parliament, London, UK; 1st-ever red/green traffic lights installed 1979: Smallpox's Demise; global commission certified 1st-ever disease eradication 1990: Solidarność leader Lech Wałęsa elected president of Poland 1995: UNESCO designated Germany's Messel Pit, richest site for Eocene fossils, a World Heritage Site 2014: CIA Torture Report released; "interrogations" by US intelligence agency determined to be both brutal & ineffective 2019: Afghanistan Papers; Washington Post reported three presidential administrations systematically misled the US public about the Afghanistan War -------------------- Pictured top is a partial black and white poster announcing Dr Douglas Engelbart's computer demonstration, complete with date and headshot. Below are two black and white photographs provided by Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International, the middle being of Dr Engelbart as he speaks during his demonstration while the bottom image shows the original keyboard/mouse setup as lines of script appear on screen. On December 9th, 1968, "The Mother of All Demos" took place during the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, CA, USA. Headlined by Dr Engelbart and performed by SRI International, the computer NLS (oN-Line System) was revealed and put through its paces in front of a live audience. It would be the world's first exposure to the mouse, word processing, windows, video conferencing & real-time collaboration, hypertext links, as well as other concepts in computing. Jointly funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA) and the US Air Force, the presentation involved Dr Engelbart's terminal being linked via telephone lines to a SDS 940 computer in Menlo Park, CA, 48 kilometres (30 miles) away. A nearly 7-metre (22 foot) screen displayed both Engelbart manipulating the mouse and inputs from his terminal while the Menlo Park team joined and assisted in the presentation.
December 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM
uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1863: Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction; US post-Civil War reunification plan

1991: Belovezha Accords; Soviet Union (USSR) disbanded, replaced by Commonwealth of Independent States

2024: Brutal 13-yr rule of Syrian king Bashar al-Assad, marred by civil war & chemical weapons, ended
Bonus #OTD in 1864: James Clerk Maxwell's "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" read to the Royal Society, London, UK; light revealed as an electromagnetic wave, which provided future basis of wireless technology 1990: NASA's Galileo Space probe proved the existence of life on Earth 2020: Ex-Israeli space chief Haim Eshed stated a Galactic Federation of Aliens, complete w/ treaties & joint Mars base, exists -------------------- Pictured are three black and white Associated Press photographs of the 1969 Los Angeles SWAT raid on the LA chapter of the Black Panther Party. Taken by Wally Fong, the top two images show officers taking cover behind vehicles as they fire upon unseen defenders, while the bottom image is of law enforcement arresting Larry Davis after the eventual surrender of the Black Panthers. On December 8th, 1969, the first significant use of Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) occurred in the US state of California, when 350 officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) surrounded and then pumped thousands of munitions rounds into the Black Panther Party headquarters. Located at 41st Street and Central Avenue in southwest LA, the headquarters housed only 13 people at the time, five of them teenagers. Each took up available arms and exchanged gunfire for the next four hours with the cadre of police in the streets below. Miraculously not a single person died, each side sustaining just four injuries. 72 arrest warrants were issued between the defenders, with the vast majority returning a "not guilty" verdict based upon legitimate self-defense. Despite the overwhelming failure of the operation, the media coverage garnered made SWAT appeal to local law enforcement agencies across the country. However, in the 50 years since its inception, less than 5% of SWAT raids have been used in the high-risk, high-tension situations they were designed to address, instead primarily focusing on executing search warrants in minority communities.
December 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM