History of the Day: 11/20

Catalan author Joanot Martorell published Tirant lo Blanc on this day in 1490. This is important for two reasons, first because it was a major influence on Cervantes' Don Quixote, and second because the title means "The White Knight." Cool! Another book, Moby Dick, was inspired by an 80-ton sperm whale which attacked a whaling ship from Nantucket on this day in 1820.

On this day in 1902, two Frenchmen dreamed up the Tour de France over lunch in Paris. Tomorrow, they independently dreamed up how to beat each other by doping. 21 years later, the Germans replaced the Papiermark with the Retenmark as the official currency of Germany at an exchange rate of One Trillion to One. Or, as the Germans say, fünfhundert fünfundfünfzig. Now, I don't speak German, but I bet that's really fun to say!

In 1983, U.S. viewers were treated to The Day After, a made-for-television movie about nuclear war. Kind of an after-school special for adults. 100 million people watched. Afterward, Carl Sagan and William F. Buckley Jr. debated nuclear proliferation. Buckley argued for deterrence. Sagan characterized it thusly:

two sworn enemies standing waist-deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five

The next year, on the same day, Sagan founded SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). The year after that, Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released. Coincidence? The next year, Denis Kucinich's ship crash-landed on this planet. Not really, but that would have been really funny, wouldn't it? However, Edwin Hubble, who proved there are other galaxies than this and that the universe is expanding, was born on the same day in 1889.

Happy birthday to Maximinus, once emperor of Rome. Funny name. "Great-little". Reminds me of a guy my dad served with in the Air Force, Major Minor. Not kidding.

Alistair Cooke, journalist and onetime host of Masterpiece Theatre, was born on this day in 1908. Alistair Cookie, host of Monsterpiece Theatre, made his debut 70 years later. In the words of the latter:

It a bit esoteric.

Happy birthday to two Joseph's, Biden and Walsh, born in 1942 and 47 respectively. They have a lot in common. Both have tattoos, are funny and are good at what they do. Yet both had less success as solo artists than with the big name acts with which they were attached (Obama and the Eagles respectively) . And both are less well-known than the other Joe, the Plumber. Still, life's been good to them so far.

Leo Tolstoy died on this day in 1910. I've already written about him, but I neglected to say that he wrote a great many short stories (very un-Russian of him), including this one which everyone should read, The Three Questions.

Finally, today is the feastday of King Edmund of East Anglia. His army was defeated by the Great Heathen Army (Danish) and he was martyred, first filled with arrows "as if a hedgehog," then decapitated. His head (according to legend) was taken by a wolf and protected until his remaining soldiers found it (because it was calling out to them, like Horton's invisible world, "I am here, I am here, I am heeeeeeere!"), and then reattached to his body which was entirely healed of all wounds (except, you know, the dead part). Later, when another Danish king was destroying a church dedicated to Edmund, he saw the saint charging at him from the clouds at which point he fell dead. This is known as "Edmund's Revenge." It's like Montezuma's Revenge, except with the latter, you only wish you were dead.