On this day in the year 1, the beginning of the Christian era was marked. Citizens everywhere lined parade routes waiting to see what was going to happen. As they waited for some sort of parade to begin the Christian era, they chatted. One said, “What’s the big parade all about?” The other said, “Well, I hear it’s the start of the year dot, you know, the official start of things and all that.” “Oh,” said the first one, “Will there be marching bands and baton twirlers?” The other replied, “I’m expecting floats depicting stuff.” And so they waited at the beginning of the Christian era; the only time we’ll see the calendar say, 01/01/01. Quite a day.
On this day in 404, the last gladiator competition in Rome took place. No longer would people sit in an arena and watch men pound away at each other, spilling blood and fighting to the death, although, there’s always Canadian hockey.
On this day in 1801, the dwarf planet Ceres was discovered by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. It’s amazing to me that, in 1801, he had telescopes that could see the planet, never mind confirm that it was populated by dwarfs.
On this day in 1848, Great Britain took the Mosquito Coast from Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans were happy to give it up. “Take it!” they said, “It’s full of mosquitoes!”
On this day in 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in one day. He ended the day feeling another election coming on. He woke up the next morning feeling a major cold coming on.
On this day in 1947, the Canadian Citizenship Act came into effect, officially creating Canadian citizens, and from then on, anybody who wanted to become a Canadian citizen had to answer a quiz before they got their certificate. I’ll give you a little help. This is one of the questions on the citizenship quiz; which Canadian prime minister was the city of Moose Jaw named after? Study hard. Best of luck.
If your birthday is January 1st, you share it with the founding director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover who was born on this day in 1895. Although his claim to fame is being the first director of the FBI, there were whispers for years that he was also a cross-dresser on his nights off. Society divorcee Susan Rosenstiel claimed that on two occasions she witnessed Hoover wearing a fluffy black dress with flounces and lace, stockings, high heels and a black curly wig. Sexy!!!
Tags: Bob Robertson, canadian citizenship act, canadian hockey, cbc radio comedy shows, christian era, comedy blog, Double Exposure Radio, dwarf planet ceres, funny, giuseppi piazzi, gladiator competition, great britain, humour, j edgar hoover, moose jaw, mosquito coast, nicaragua, parody, president theodore roosevelt, satire, today in History, today in hystery