On this day in 1734, the first Jockey Club formed in South Carolina. It was easy to join. You just showed up in a pair of Jockeys, gave the secret between-the-legs handshake and you were in. The Jockey Club was started in response to the Boxer Rebellion.
On this day in 1830, the first railroad timetable was published in a American newspaper, the Baltimore American. A good idea, you say? I don’t think so because, suddenly, everybody in Baltimore knew exactly how late every train was.
On this day in 1845, explorer John Franklin’s ships with 134 men onboard sailed from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. It says here that all hands were lost. Yeah, I’ll bet there were a lot of lost feet and a bunch of heads, too.
On this day in 1926, inventor Thomas Edison said that Americans preferred silent movies to talkies. Riiight! So, Thomas, how did that work out for you?
On this day in 1930, the first airplane was catapulted from a dirigible. Funny how nobody goes in for that anymore; “Welcome aboard Air Canada. In just a few moments our aircraft will be catapulted from the dirigible, following that, we’ll be coming through the cabin to collect all the airsickness bags. Meanwhile, sit back and pray you’ve all gone to the bathroom before we left.”
On this day in 1956, the United States dropped a thermonuclear bomb on the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. It is now an annual holiday on the Bikini Atoll known as WTF Day.
On this day in 1993, a 30-foot meteor came within 150,000 km of Earth. Whew! That was a close one! If it had hit the earth, it could have killed dinosaurs and where would we be today without Republicans and Conservatives?
If your birthday is May 20th, you share it with singer and actress Cher who was born on this day in 1946. Cher has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award, among others, for her work in film, music and television. She is the only person in history to have received all of these awards. And yet…she married Sonny Bono, whose body is artificially preserved at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California. Cher’s body is also artificially preserved.
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