On this day in 1504, Michelangelo’s statue “David’ was unveiled in Florence. Women were horrified. One woman shouted, “He’s got no pants on! I will not put up with this outrage. I intend to stand here watching him, for days if necessary, to make sure this statue gets some pants!”
On this day in 1713, for you Papal watchers, Pope Clemens the Eleventh published a decree called the “Unigentis”, which is Italian for same-sex washrooms. His decree was against “Jansenism”, which was the continual habit of fat men wearing Speedos to the beach and disgusting all the other swimmers. Unfortunately, Pope Clemens thought Speedos were made by Jantzen. He later apologized to Jantzen in his decree called “Meaculpa”.
On this day in 1858, it was reported that President Abraham Lincoln made the famous speech in which he said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, etc etc. Most experts say this was false, that he never actually uttered those words, but everyone thinks he said it, proving that, thanks to the internet, you can fool pretty well everyone all the time, if you tell them you read it in Wikipedia.
On this day in 1926, the League of Nations voted unanimously to admit Germany. Maybe that’s where that “you can fool some of the people..” speech came from.
On this day in 1930, and this is a big one, Scotch Tape was invented. Some facts; it was not invented in Scotland, nor by a Scotsman, and the mascot, Scotty McTape, was not a real character, despite rumours about the Scottish army at Culloden being led by a cartoon man in a kilt, carrying adhesive tape. Didn’t happen. That’s Billy Connelly you’re thinking of.
On this day in 1966, Star Trek was first broadcast on NBC, starring Canada’s own William Shatner. The three seasons of Star Trek would launch Shatner’s sensational career as the pitchman for Commodore Computers, Priceline, Loblaws, and Kelloggs All-Bran. Who knew that playing Captain Kirk could lead to such greatness?
On this day in 1977, Interpol began issuing their warning about video piracy which viewers saw before their movie began. This is now the second most-ignored warning in the world next to “Do not turn on cell phones until the aircraft has come to a complete stop in front of the terminal”
If your birthday is September 8th, you share it with King Richard the Lion Hearted, who was born on this day in 1157. King Richard was aptly named; he truly did have the heart of a lion. Unfortunately, he also had the butt of a hippo but no one ever mentions that.
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