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Thursday, July 06, 2017

July 6, 1885

I'm actually flying through this week's Throwback Thursday by the seat of my pants, as I haven't chosen a topic yet and probably won't until I look through the events of July 6.  Apparently July 6 is a day that was filled with a LOT of significant history, and picking one is next to impossible.  Just have a look!

1483 - Richard III is crowned King of England

1777 - The Siege of Fort Ticonderoga takes place during the American Revolutionary War

1779 - The Battle of Grenada takes place

1854 - The first convention of the United States Republican Party is held in Jackson, Michigan

1907 - Artist Frida Kahlo (d. 1954) is born in Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico

1914 - Founder of the WWE Vince McMahon Sr. (d. 1984) is born in Harlem, New York

1919 - British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean via airship

1921 - 42nd First Lady of the United States Nancy Reagan (d. 2016) is born in New York City

1925 - Rock singer Bill Haley (d. 1981) and game show creator Merv Griffin (d. 2007) are both born on this date

1927 - Actress Janet Leigh (d. 2004) is born in Merced, California

1933 - The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Comiskey Park in Chicago

1939 - The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are shut down as a direct result of the Holocaust

1940 - Brisbane, Australia's Story Bridge is opened to the public

1942 - Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse

1944 - Baseball player Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus leading to a court-martial

1957 - Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon Championships - the first black tennis player to do so; on that same day, Paul McCartney and John Lennon meet up for the first time as teenagers

1971 - Singer Louis Armstrong dies at the age of 69

1982 - Actress Misty Upham (d. 2014) is born in Kalispell, Montana

1986 - David Phinney becomes the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France

1989 - An Arab passenger aboard a bus enroute from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem attacks the driver as the bus is traveling along a cliffside; fourteen people are killed in the crash

1998 - Actor/singer Roy Rogers dies at the age of 86

1999 - U.S. Army private Barry Winchell is murdered by Calvin Glover because Winchell was dating a transgender Navy Corpsman

2003 - Actor/singer Buddy Ebsen dies at the age of 95

2013 - A train derails and explodes in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, destroying part of the town's downtown core and killing 47 people

And celebrating a birthday today are the following people; Della Reese, Ned Beatty, Gene Chandler, Jeannie Seely, George W. Bush, Fred Dryer, Sylvester Stallone, James Kiberd, Geoffrey Rush, Nanci Griffith, Allyce Beasley, Willie Randolph, Jennifer Saunders, Robin Antin, Heather Nova, Inspectah Deck, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Adam Busch, Tia and Tamera Mowry, Kevin Hart, Gregory Smith, Diamond Rings, and Sophie Auster.

So, those are all the subjects that I did not choose for today.  So, what date will I be talking about this week?

I'll admit that when I was looking at subjects to choose from, I was completely at a loss as to pick a topic that seemed interesting.  And then it hit me.  I needed to go back in time.  Way back in time.



Like, say...July 6, 1885.  Yeah, we're going back in time one hundred and thirty-two years. 

And the question related to this week's Throwback Thursday post is this.  How many of you have heard of a disease known as rabies?

I know.  Silly question.  Most of us know what it is.  And let's put it this way.  It's a really BAD disease to get.  Rabies is a viral disease that can cause the swelling of the brain and has a ton of symptoms that are not very nice.  Perhaps the most common of these symptoms is the foaming of the mouth, as the disease causes increased saliva production.  And generally speaking, rabies can be considered an instant death sentence, as a person who starts showing symptoms will likely die from the disease within two to ten days afterwards.  So, needless to say, it's not something that you want to contract. 

The most common way to contract rabies is to come in contact with an animal that has the rabies virus in them.  While dog bites are one way to contract them, it's important to know that dog bites only make up 5% of rabies cases.  You're actually more likely to get rabies from a bat than you are a dog. 

Of course, prior to 1885, anybody who contracted rabies was going to die.  And there was no way to prevent people who had gotten bitten by a rabid animal to contract the disease in the first place.



At least that was the case until Louis Pasteur came along.

Now, if that name sounds familiar, it's because he's also the man who invented the pasteurization process for milk and dairy products.  But did you know that he also patented a vaccine for rabies along with Emile Roux?  It's quite impressive, given that Pasteur wasn't a medical doctor at the time and could have easily been charged with medical malpractice.  To everybody's surprise, the vaccine ended up being quite effective.



The vaccine was harvested from rabid rabbits already infected with the disease, and the virus was purposely weakened within the nerve tissue by letting it dry between a period of five to ten days.  And it was put to the ultimate test on July 6, 1885 when a nine year old boy named Joseph Meister.  Meister was bitten by a rabid dog, and it was feared that the bite would cause him to die.

But with the rabies vaccination that Pasteur developed, it was decided that it would be used on Meister despite the fact that it was never tested on humans and that the results were more or less unpredictable.  But the treatment was very successful and Meister did not develop the rabies virus.  It also served as the prototype for more effective virus treatments, and these days rabies can be successfully treated and eradicated before symptoms begin to show - though anyone who has ever undergone the rabies shot can probably tell you how painful a procedure it can be.  Although given the alternative, it's a far sight better to undergo a series of shots than die.

As for what happened to Joseph Meister?  Well, after surviving the series of rabies shots, he went on to serve as a caretaker for the Pasteur Institute until his death via suicide in 1940.  In a tragic twist of fate, he had decided to take his own life just ten days after Germany invaded Paris, France because he had thought he had sent his family away to death - only for his family to return the same day he died.

However, despite the bittersweet ending, Meister - as well as Louis Pasteur - managed to help save thousands of lives each year.  That's something to celebrate.

Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Miss Johnson's Lessons In Responsibility

As I explained a few days ago, I have been suffering from an extreme case of stress-related writer's block.  I've been so exhausted to even think of things to write about and I am coming to the conclusion that I may need to shake things up a bit in both my personal and my professional life to get out of it.

How I plan on doing this...I have no idea how.  But at least trying to come up with ways to get the stress out has inspired me to write a blog entry for today.  At the very least, I'll feel a little better anyway.

This is a tale that took place almost...gulp...thirty years ago.  The fact that I can even remember things from thirty years ago makes me realize just how old I am getting.  But it is an important lesson that I needed to learn.

After the proverbial hell that I experienced in first grade, I was more than relieved to have a decent teacher for Grade 2.  Her name was Miss Johnson, and she really was one of my favourite teachers.  Oh, I'm fairly sure I tested her patience on more than one occasion.  I mean, keep in mind that this was the year after my first grade teacher destroyed my faith in authority figures.  Whoever the Grade 2 teacher was that had me - let's say they needed a LOT of patience.  Luckily, she had exactly that.

And, I think what was unique about Grade 2 was the way that she had the classroom set up.  She had given everyone in the class a "bathroom key" and whenever we had to use the bathroom, we'd hang the key up so that the teacher would know where we were.  She assigned chores every week by drawing nine names at random, teaching all of us responsibility.  (My personal preferences were "Classroom Messenger" and "Blackboard Eraser").



And every week, the teacher would choose one student to be the "Student of the Week".  And let me tell you, this was one duty that EVERYONE wanted.  You got to have so many perks associated with being Student of the Week.  We could stand at the front of the line whenever we had school assemblies or just walked from class to class.  We could get extra time on the computer in class (and yes, as dated as they were, computers did exist in the 1988/89 school year).  We could even have one of our classmates pick up our chairs and put them on the desks each day instead of having to do it ourselves.

I'm sure there were more perks that made it worth getting - perhaps it was something as simple as getting some attention in a class of 27 pupils.  My mind is a little fuzzy, but I knew I wanted that honour.

Problem is...I had to wait FOREVER.

I mean, the school year in Ontario typically lasts from September to June.  By the last week of April, I STILL didn't get the honour.  There were six Matthews in my class, and the other five had gotten to be Student of the Week.  But not me.  Not Matthew #5.  Some students were actually picked twice to be Student of the Week, and I'm like thinking...okay, when's my turn coming up?

Finally, as April ended and May began, I was finally "Student of the Week".  And, let me tell you, it was about time.  I was really looking forward to being the best Student of the Week ever, and I was already planning the whole week.  I knew exactly what people I wanted to put my chair up on the desk, I knew exactly what games I wanted to play on the computer...it was going to be the best week ever.

Unfortunately, that's when things started to go pear-shaped.  You see, when I was Student of the Week, I started to slack off a bit in my behaviour.  When I was starting Grade 2, I was a bit of a bad kid in the sense that I was always testing the rules and boundaries to see what I could get away with.  Again, it has to do with my lack of trust in teachers following Grade 1.  I was always getting in trouble talking in class, or I came in from recess too late, or I didn't do my homework.  Things like that.  Sometimes I'd get into trouble on purpose just because I was sort of bored in school.

If we did break any of the classroom rules, our teacher would add our names on the "Broken Rules" list.  Sometimes, we could get our names removed from the list if we were good the rest of the week, or if we went out of our way to help out.  But generally speaking, if our name was still on the Broken Rules list by Friday afternoon, we knew that we would not be picked as Student of the Week.

(Hence the reason why I had to wait eight months into the school year before I was finally chosen.)

Anyway, back to the story.  I admit that I was still trying to push the limits, and despite the fact that I was still talking in class and still not doing my homework, I wouldn't get in trouble for it.  I was Student of the Week!  I was untouchable!  I could get away with bloody murder and nothing would ever happen to me!

At least that is until I must have poked the bear a little too vigorously and Miss Johnson was not impressed at my failure to keep on the straight and narrow.  She yelled at me to put my name on the broken rules list for talking in class for the umpteenth time.  The class was shocked, as was I.  I was Student of the Week, the nearly eight-year-old me thought.  Any student of the week never got punished!

Well, I was wrong.  And because my name ended up on the broken rules list, that negated the Student of the Week duties, and therefore my "title" was revoked and my throne was overthrown.

On a Wednesday morning.



Yep.  To this day, I think I remained the only student in Miss Johnson's Grade 2 classroom whose reign as Student of the Week only lasted two and a half days.  And I was sad and angry.  What Miss Johnson did to me was the worst thing ever.  She purposely made me wait until the end of the year to become Student of the Week and then she takes it away from me before the week ended.  I essentially went from Student of the Week to Student of the WEAK!  I was absolutely upset at her and I didn't want anything to do with her again.

It wasn't until the bell rang for recess that she held me back and explained why she did what she did.  Well, okay, what really happened was that I stayed behind and asked her why she did such a lousy thing.  And I'll never forget what she said.

She told me that she hated to take away my Student of the Week privileges and that she wished there was another way.  But she couldn't very well give me a free pass because then she'd have to give everyone in the class one too - which would make the Student of the Week award less special.  She also told me that just because I was picked for the honour didn't mean that I could get away with doing what I wanted.  She was disappointed that I didn't take it seriously and she wanted me to understand that privileges needed to be earned by being responsible. 

Well, my mind was blown.  And then I felt bad.  Then I apologized for being so upset which I think she accepted.  Then I asked if I could be Student of the Week next week and she threw me out of the classroom for recess.  Hey, I had to try, right?

So, with that, I learned a very valuable lesson.  One that I hold true today.  It's great to work hard and get rewarded, but you also have to remember that getting special privileges doesn't mean that you suddenly believe you are above the rules.  If anything, you have to use the opportunity to prove that you earned it in the first place.  Back then, it was the Student of the Week award.  In the future, it was pay raises, special projects, and being recognized as Employee of the Month (which thankfully lasted the WHOLE month), etc.

I'm really glad I got to learn that lesson at such a young age.  Some people have to wait until they are older before they get it.  And sadly I know a few people who are older than I am and they STILL don't get it.

I guess I can consider myself fortunate that I had a teacher who cared enough to teach me how to be responsible.  And thank you, Miss Johnson for that very valuable lesson.

Saturday, July 01, 2017

A Canadian Sesquicentennial

Sesquicentennial.  That's the word of the day.  At least, it is in Canada today.

The definition of the word sesquicentennial is a celebration of an event that is 150 years old.  Unless medical breakthroughs are made, I don't think any of us will experience a sesquicentennial.  But if you happen to be in Canada, please join me in wishing this great country a very merry sesquicentennial.



Yes, Canada is turning 150 years old today.  And let me tell you, it is shaping up to be one of the biggest parties this nation has ever seen.  The country may be older than the Canadian flag (yet younger than the city of Montreal, Quebec), but on July 1, 1867, the first four provinces joined in unison to declare its independence.

(Those four provinces would be Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and my home province of Ontario.)



The last time I remember a Canadian birthday party being so huge was back in 1992, when Canada turned 125.  We even had a Canada 125 logo on the front door of our house - which stayed until 1997.  True story.  I was only eleven years old back then, but I remember the huge celebration in my town.  It started off with a trip to the downtown core where some businesses opened up to serve customers with ice cream, cool beverages, and souvenirs.  Then we partook in the Riverfest activities which usually involved the cutting of a gigantic cake that was big enough to give everyone in my small town a taste of freedom and independence...or vanilla.  Whatever you like, I suppose.



The day culminated with a gigantic fireworks display - usually gigantic sparklers in various shades of red and white to celebrate the nation's birthday.

It's hard to say what the Canada 150 celebrations are going to bring us - but there are a few things to look out for that are exclusive to the Canada 150 celebrations.



For one, if you're one of the Americans who happen to be at an American Tim Horton's store, you can sample the poutine donut.  Which to me sounds incredibly disgusting, but hey, to each his/her own.  I mean, I absolutely love poutines.  I absolutely love donuts.  But together?  I don't know.  I bought the bacon and hot fudge argument, but cheese curd and a honey glaze?  I'm still undecided.



You can also try to go through your pocket change in hopes of getting some of the special Canada 150 currency that is floating around.  There is a special design for every coin in circulation (well, minus the penny which was banned from Canada in 2013).  So far, I have only managed to find the quarter, but the coin that everyone is looking for is the toonie.  The two dollar coin dated 2017 happens to be the very first glow in the dark coin to be released ever.  And naturally, the Royal Canadian Mint only released a limited supply.

Consider it a sesquicentennial treasure hunt of sorts!



And of course, there's the official Canada 150 logo - a logo which seems to have gotten a lot of reaction, both positive and negative.  I posted it at the beginning of this blog, but have another look.

It seems as though while there are different points of view on the subject, two seem to pop up the most.  There's the camp that state that the design is a lovely testament to what Canada really is and appreciate the artistic look of the logo.  And there's the camp that think it is a horrible design and a slap to the face to Canadian values.

As far as my own take goes...it's just a logo.  And honestly, I think it's quite nice to look at.  I mean, yes, if I was to design a Canadian logo, I may not have used so much colour and just stuck with the red and white...but this works.  I mean, looking at the multicoloured leaf in the middle, it's a perfect representation of the way that Canadian values are.  We're the proverbial melting pot of nations, welcoming people all over the world, and seeing a great blend of their positive traditions with our own positive Canadian values.

(Emphasis on positive, of course.  We won't discuss that incident at the Canadian Tire store some time ago where I completely agree that the perpetrator should be deported.  However, this is an extreme case in Canada and does not reflect the number of wonderful people who have settled in Canada over the last 150 years.)

Yes, there are some that feel that the Canada 150 flag is ugly and that the Canadian flag should be the only flag that needs to be flown.  To that I say, fly the Maple Leaf flag if you want to.  But, keep in mind that we've only had that flag for fifty-two years.  Prior to that, we used the Union Jack or variations of that flag.  And I certainly don't think that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would reject the current design of the flag to make the Canada 150 flag the official country's banner.  For one, it would be irrelevant come next year.



And for those who think the design is ugly...do you remember the Canada 125 logo?  The one where the maple leaf looks like someone cloned the Triaminic cough syrup logo three times?  Seriously, it could be a lot worse.

But I suppose that is the beauty of living in a country that is as beautiful and fantastic as Canada.  We have a nation filled with free thinkers and eloquent citizens who can discuss things like the Canada 150 flag, or glow in the dark toonies, or poutine donuts and still feel obligated to buy each other a double double at Tim Horton's while listening to Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" album.  We're a nation that is filled with some of the greatest people in the whole world, and all of us are coming together to give our nation the best birthday bash she's ever seen.




Happy birthday, Canada!  Here's hoping I'm around for the bicentennial in 2067!

Thursday, June 29, 2017

June 29, 2007

Are you ready for another Throwback Thursday post?  Well, I can tell you that for this week's entry, we are going back to a time that completely changed the way that we communicate with people - whether we liked it or not.

Before we make that connection though, let's see what other events took place on June 29 that were interesting but not enough to devote a blog to.

1534 - Explorer Jacques Cartier becomes the first European to reach Prince Edward Island

1613 - A fire completely destroys London's Globe Theatre

1864 - At least 99 lose their lives near St. Hilaire, Quebec, in what is to be known as Canada's worst railroad disaster - the train, which was carrying several immigrants from Russia and Poland, fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River

1888 - George Edward Gouraud records Handel's "Israel in Egypt" onto a phonograph cylinder

1889 - Several Illinois townships vote to become annexed by the city of Chicago which at the time formed the largest United States city in area

1901 - Singer/actor Nelson Eddy (d. 1967) is born in Providence, Rhode Island

1915 - Edmonton, Alberta is devastated by the North Saskatchewan River flood

1922 - France grants one square kilometer at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".

1927 - "The Bird of Paradise" completes the first transpacific flight from the United States mainland to Hawaii

1943 - Singer Little Eva Boyd (d. 2003) is born in Belhaven, North Carolina

1967 - Actress Jayne Mansfield is killed in a car accident at the age of 34

1974 - Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" tops the Billboard Charts

1975 - Steve Wozniak tests the first prototype for the Apple I computer

1990 - Author/screenwriter Irving Wallace dies at the age of 74

1995 - The Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea collapses, killing over five hundred people and injuring almost a thousand more; on the same day actress Lana Turner dies at the age of 74

2002 - Singer Rosemary Clooney dies at the age of 74

2003 - Actress Katharine Hepburn passes away at the age of 96

2012 - A derecho (a severe line of windstorms capable of producing severe thunderstorms) sweeps through the eastern United States killing twenty-two people and knocking out power to millions

A couple of notes to make:  One, if you're 74, June 29th might be a deadly day for you.  And two, I purposely added some Canadian bits in there in preparation of Canada's 150th birthday on July 1.  And yes, I have a special themed blog for that coming up this Saturday.

June 29 also happens to be the day in which the following famous people were born; Cara Williams, Bobby Morgan, Pat Crawford Brown, Robert Evans, Gary Busey, Richard Lewis, Fred Grandy, Bobby London, Colin Hay, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Forster, Sharon Lawrence, Amanda Donohoe, Jeff Burton, Melora Hardin, Theoren Fleury, Judith Hoag, Emily Skinner, Matthew Good, Daniel Carlsson, Bret McKenzie, Nicole Scherzinger, and Lily Rabe.  Happy birthday to all of you and anyone else celebrating today!

So, where are we throwing this Thursday back to this week?  As it turns out, it's a very special anniversary.



We're going back to June 29, 2007.  Exactly ten years ago today!

Now, remember how I said that today's subject changed the way that we communicated with each other?  I have to say that this is very much true, as it revolutionized the way we speak via phone...in that many people don't even use the phone to communicate, as per this cover gag from a Betty and Veronica Double Digest that was released right around this time.



It sort of makes one wonder how we communicated when we were kids.  I still remember our old family telephone.  This would have been circa 1983, 1984...well, when my earliest memories started to formulate.  It was a simple beige phone with touchtone keys (though the upstairs telephone was a rotary dial).  There was no such thing as call display back in those days either so every telephone call was a mystery.  It could have been Grandma, the Sears catalog people telling us our order was ready for pick-up, or someone trying to call to reserve a squash court and realizing that they had dialed the wrong number.  It was a simpler time.

I don't even think I knew what a cellular phone was until I started watching "Saved By The Bell" in 1989 and saw Zack Morris holding that gigantic brick phone that looked like you could murder someone with it if you struck them hard enough.

These days, mobile phones are a lot smaller and sleeker, and they are capable of doing so many things.  You can check the weather, you can see what time it is, you can use it as a calculator, and you can even make phone calls with them!  I know, what a concept!

Of course, the mobile phone industry really took off with the invention of the first "smartphone", a phone that had about the same technology and storage space of a modern day computer (well, provided you paid for the right data plan that is).  And it was ten years ago that the device that sparked the surge in smartphone technology was released.



Yes.  The iPhone has been around for a whole decade now.  Can you believe it?  Of course, the iPhone has evolved over the years to become one of the most successful mobile phones ever made, and these days you'd find hardcore iPhone users who defend the product as vigorously as those who use Android phones.

Believe it or not, the iPhone began development in 2004, and was headed up by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive, the designer of both the iMac personal computer and the iPod.  Reportedly, a team of one thousand employees of Apple got together to work on a project that was coded "Project Purple".  With assistance from Cingular Wireless, the two companies worked together over the course of two and a half years to develop the iPhone, and the reported cost of the project over that time was well over $150,000,000!

That investment paid off in a huge way for Apple.  In January 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention in San Francisco, Steve Jobs debuted the first model of the iPhone - and immediately people were excited over the new creation.  It seems a bit wild to think that this was the case now, but the very first iPhone only had a 4GB model and an 8GB model.  Seems very small, given that some cell phones can go up to 128GB!  The cost also seemed to be a bit high, with the 4GB model starting at $499 and the 8GB at $599 - and that's only if you signed up for a two-year phone contract at that.

But it seemed as though cost was not a factor when the first iPhones went on sale on June 29, 2007.  The lines outside of the stores where the phones were being sold extended down entire city streets and many locations sold out of the phones the day they went on sale.

With the success of the iPhone in North America, other nations quickly started to sell the device as well.  Many European nations started selling the first edition iPhone in November 2007, and by the spring of 2008, the phone became a global hit.

And why wouldn't it have?  The phone was very much like an electronic Swiss Army knife of sorts.  You had a calculator, internet browser, GPS device, calendar, walkman (provided you had an iTunes account), and so many other things.  And, after ten years, it shows no signs of going anywhere soon.

Happy 10th anniversary, iPhone!

Monday, June 26, 2017

A Message From The Pop Culture Addict...

I know it seems like it's been a while since I last wrote in this space.  The truth is that I've felt mentally exhausted for a few days now.  At first I thought it was all of the Jem episodes that I reviewed.  To this day, I can't hear the word Jem without adding in "is truly outrageous, truly truly truly outrageous".  I know.  I'm sick.  Help me.



But it's a lot less complex than that.  I'm just a little burned out on writing, and I feel as though I have a case of writer's block so huge that I don't think the largest chisel in the world could break through it.

I've had quite a lot of things going on in my mind right now...and I want to be able to share that with all of you.  But I don't think today's the right day to do that.  For one, I don't even know what the heck is causing the writer's block.  Maybe it's the fact that I've been writing in this blog for six years and have simply run out of stories to tell.  Maybe I fear that I am repeating myself and unintentionally writing three blogs on the same subject. 

Or maybe the cause is much deeper and psychologically based and I need to stare at seventy-seven different ink blots before I can come up with a subject to talk about.

I definitely don't think it is a lack of interest in writing.  As much as I have struggled to come up with topics, I still have the desire to write every single day.  I just think that like many of us, I need structure in this blog (and life in general).  I seemed to have no problems writing when I was doing the cartoon reviews every Friday, or Throwback Thursday posts, or even the Christmas advent calendar every December. 

(I know...December is one of the busiest and most stressful months of the year, and yet it seems to be the only month where I can actually do a blog entry every day!  My brain works in strange ways.)

So, while I continue to try and implement some more structure in this blog, I ask that you please be patient with me.  I know that the Throwback Thursday posts will at least continue on, so you have one day out of the week where I will write at least something down.  But bear with me here.  I'm sure this writer's block will pass at some point. 

In the meantime, if any of you have any ideas for this blog, or suggestions for theme days, send them to me.  Maybe you'll help re-spark my creativity!

Thursday, June 22, 2017

June 22, 1918

Welcome to another edition of the Throwback Thursday post.  And this week's entry might seem a little out of the way considering the range of other topics I could have chosen.  Why I went with the selection I chose for today is because of the story behind this event - as tragic as it may be.

We'll get to that in a moment, but for now, have a look at some of the other things that happened on June 22 throughout history.

1774 - The Quebec Act is passed by the British

1807 - British warship HMS Leonard attacks and boards the American frigate USS Chesapeake

1813 - Laura Secord sets out on a journey spanning thirty kilometers to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon about an upcoming attack by the Americans on Beaver Dams in Ontario

1825 - Feudalism and the seigneurial system system is abolished in British North America by British parliament

1870 - U.S. Congress creates the United States Department of Justice

1906 - The Swedish flag is adopted

1911 - George V and Mary of Teck are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

1922 - Fashion designer Bill Blass (d. 2002) is born in Fort Wayne, Indiana

1928 - Actor Ralph Waite (d. 2014) is born in White Plains, New York

1941 - Journalist Ed Bradley (d. 2006) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1942 - The Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted by U.S. Congress

1944 - The G.I. Bill is signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt

1945 - The Battle of Okinawa concludes

1954 - Actor Freddie Prinze (d. 1977) is born in New York, New York

1969 - Singer/actress Judy Garland dies at the age of 47

1978 - Race car driver Dan Wheldon (d. 2011) is born in Emberton, Buckinghamshire, England

1984 - Virgin Atlantic Airways launches its first flight from Heathrow International Airport

1986 - Diego Maradona scores the controversial "Hand of God" goal during the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA Cup

1987 - Actor/singer/dancer Fred Astaire passes away at the age of 88

1990 - Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin

2004 - Mattie Stepanek, the child author of the Heartsongs poetry books, dies at the age of 13

2008 - Comedian George Carlin dies at the age of 71

2009 - Nine people are killed when a Washington D.C. Metro train collides with another train parked outside of a train station

2012 - President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo is impeached

2015 - The Afghan National Assembly building is attacked by gunmen following a suicide bombing; 18 people are injured and all six gunmen are dispatched

And for celebrity birthdays, I'm not going to lie...we have a ton of them today!  A very happy birthday goes out to George Englund, John Cunningham, Prunella Scales, Kris Kristofferson, Chris Blackwell, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Peter Asher, Howard Kaylan, Todd Rundgren, Larry Junstrom, Alan Osmond, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Wagner, Elizabeth Warren, Christine L. Tudor, Graham Greene, Cyndi Lauper, Green Gartside, Tim Russ, Garry Gary Beers, Bruce Campbell, Erin Brockovich, Tracy Pollan, Jimmy Somerville, Clyde Drexler, Amy Brenneman, Emmanuelle Seigner, Steven Page, Kurt Warner, Carson Daly, Champ Bailey, Stephanie Jacobsen, Dustin Johnson, and Lara Bingle.

Wow...that is a LOT of celebrity birthdays, don't you think?

So, given everything that happened on June 22, I think I had a lot of possible topic choices to pick from.  But when it came to making my decision, I wanted to choose a topic that not a lot of people knew about.



And the date that this event happened was ninety-nine years ago today on June 22, 1918.  And I warn you ahead of time.  This tale doesn't have a very happy ending.  Despite that, it is a story that should be told, and I admit that I came up with the idea to choose this topic based on a recent event.

By now I am sure that you've heard that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has entertained its final audience.  The circus hosted its final performance in May 2017.  I seem to recall that not long after its final performance, a friend of mine posted a photo on their social media page which depicted the remnants of the circus heading towards its final destination by train.  It certainly is a bittersweet moment because I can remember being very entertained by the circus and liking most of the acts performed there.  I wasn't too fond of the acts that featured animals, and truth be told, any of the circuses that featured only human performers were ones I liked better.  But still, it's sad to say farewell to an institution that lasted nearly a hundred and fifty years.

At least in that case, the circus performers put on their final show and presumably went their separate ways.  Unfortunately back in 1918, a train loaded with circus performers didn't end up with such a happy ending.  In fact, for some of the people aboard the train, it would be the last day that they would ever be seen alive.

This is the story of the
Hammond Circus Train Wreck - a train disaster that killed at least eighty-six people and wounded over a hundred more.



At the time of the accident, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was the second largest circus operating within the United States (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was the largest), and in 1918, the circus was well on its way to having another successful year.  On June 22, 1918, the train was on its way to its next performance in the city of Hammond, Indiana.  A total of four hundred circus performers were aboard the twenty-six car train, and it was expected that they would arrive at their destination as scheduled.

Unfortunately, that train would not make it.

In the early morning hours of June 22, 1918 at around four in the morning, a second train being driven by Alonzo Sargent was heading on the same track as the circus train in the same direction by directly behind.  And by all accounts, Sargent was in no condition to be manning the controls.  It was reported that Sargent was extremely sleep deprived prior to boarding the train, and had hardly gotten any rest in the twenty-four hours prior.  Combine the sleep deprivation with the kidney pills that he was taking at the time, and you have a combination for instant sleepiness.  Sargent had fallen asleep in front of the controls, and by the time he woke up and realized what was happening, it was already too late to stop it.

It is believed that when he woke up, he had already missed two automatic signals and warnings posted by the brakeman of the circus train, and the circus train had actually pulled to a stop to check a hot box on one of the flatcars.  So when Sargent's train approached the circus train, there was not nearly enough time for Sargent to release the brake and Sargent's train plowed right into the back of the caboose and four wooden sleeping cars that were right next to it at a speed of 35 miles per hour.



The train impact was so severe that many of the eighty-six people that died aboard the circus train died almost instantly - at least thirty seconds after the crash.  A fire erupted almost immediately after the crash due to the oil lamps that were aboard the train cars, and since many of the cars on the circus train were made of wood, the fire spread very quickly.  Many of the performers that were stuck on the train were burned beyond recognition, and those that survived suffered terrible injuries.  It is estimated that 127 people were injured in the crash as well.



Suffice to say, the incident left a black mark on the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, as they mourned the loss of eighty-six of their own.  Five days after the crash, most of the people who died were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in a section set aside as "Showman's Rest".  Because many of the victims were never formally identified, graves marked "Unknown Male" and "Unknown Female" had to be erected.  Surrounding the graves of the victims are statues of elephants in a mourning position. 

As for the fate of Alonzo Sargent, he and his fireman, Gustave Klauss were facing charges for the accident and the case was brought forth to trial - but the jury of the trial was deadlocked, and the judge was forced to rule a mistrial.  Since the prosecution decided not to re-try the case, the charges were dismissed two years after the accident in June 1920.

Now, you might think that this story has a sad ending...and well, it does.  However, one thing that you might not know was that the residents of Hammond, Illinois really stepped up to help the survivors of the crash, providing them with meals, changes of clothing, and a place to stay while they recuperated from their injuries. 

And in the circus world, the words "The Show Must Go On" are a standard - and in the case of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, competing circuses in the area (including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey) lent the circus some equipment that was lost in the crash so that they could go on and perform the shows as scheduled.  The only shows that the circus tour missed were the ones in Hammond, and one in Monroe, Wisconsin. 

And while some may have the opinion that it may have been poor taste to continue with the circus so soon after a tragedy, I would like to think that it was a form of healing for those left behind...and for those who died, I think they would have wanted the show to go on.