Train of Thought: Part 9 in an Ongoing Series
Today is April 1. No. Seriously.
On April 1, 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a law putting "the Surgeon General" on cigarette packages.
Set in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York, General Hospital debuted on April 1, 1963, the same day that rival network NBC launched its own medical soap, The Doctors.
Originally selling soap and baking powder, the Wrigley Company was founded on April 1, 1891. The next year, William Wrigley, Jr., the company's founder, began offering chewing gum with each can of baking powder to up sales in hard times.
Hard Times, Charles Dickens' shortest novel, began serialization on April 1, 1854, in his magazine, Household Words.
Apple Computer, which made Macintosh and iPod household words --and which was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976-- promoted the 1998 release of its iMac computer with the slogan "iThink, therefore iMac."
...or in Latin, "Cogito ergo sumac."
The US Navel rank of Chief Petty Officer, was created on April 1, 1893. Any naval vessel of sufficient size has a room that is off-limits to anyone not a Chief Petty Officer. In Navy jargon, this room is called the Chief's Mess or the "goat locker."
In an annual event that chiefly creates a mess, the city of Brielle in the Netherlands is defaced with chalk and white paint on March 31 and the day after to celebrate how, on April 1, 1572, during the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen (Sea Beggars) captured Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
The Netherlands legalized euthanasia on April 1, 2002, becoming the only nation in the world to do so.
Disappointing many youth in Asia, Singapore became a British crown colony on April 1, 1867, giving rise to both the phrase "The sun never sets on the British Empire" and Colvin R. de Silva's famous response: "That's because God does not trust the British in the dark."
Daylight saving time, which was introduced in the USSR on April 1, 1981, was repealed by the US Congress in 1919, one year after its American debut; Woodrow Wilson, an avid golfer (sick of having to stop golfing when it got dark so early), vetoed the repeal twice but his second veto was overridden.
Having gotten dark early, Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in jail on April 1, 1924, for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch," having failed to assert his dominance over the larger governmental body. However, he spent only nine months in jail, during which he wrote the book Mein Kampf in which Hitler presented himself as the "Übermensch" and gave birth to the concept of Nazism.
Nine months after his conception, Sam Huntington (who played Jimmy Olsen in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns) was born on April 1, 1982.
I was born in 1982, and today is April 1. Ergo:
Obviously.
.
On April 1, 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a law putting "the Surgeon General" on cigarette packages.
Set in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York, General Hospital debuted on April 1, 1963, the same day that rival network NBC launched its own medical soap, The Doctors.
Originally selling soap and baking powder, the Wrigley Company was founded on April 1, 1891. The next year, William Wrigley, Jr., the company's founder, began offering chewing gum with each can of baking powder to up sales in hard times.
Hard Times, Charles Dickens' shortest novel, began serialization on April 1, 1854, in his magazine, Household Words.
Apple Computer, which made Macintosh and iPod household words --and which was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976-- promoted the 1998 release of its iMac computer with the slogan "iThink, therefore iMac."
...or in Latin, "Cogito ergo sumac."
The US Navel rank of Chief Petty Officer, was created on April 1, 1893. Any naval vessel of sufficient size has a room that is off-limits to anyone not a Chief Petty Officer. In Navy jargon, this room is called the Chief's Mess or the "goat locker."
In an annual event that chiefly creates a mess, the city of Brielle in the Netherlands is defaced with chalk and white paint on March 31 and the day after to celebrate how, on April 1, 1572, during the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen (Sea Beggars) captured Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
The Netherlands legalized euthanasia on April 1, 2002, becoming the only nation in the world to do so.
Disappointing many youth in Asia, Singapore became a British crown colony on April 1, 1867, giving rise to both the phrase "The sun never sets on the British Empire" and Colvin R. de Silva's famous response: "That's because God does not trust the British in the dark."
Daylight saving time, which was introduced in the USSR on April 1, 1981, was repealed by the US Congress in 1919, one year after its American debut; Woodrow Wilson, an avid golfer (sick of having to stop golfing when it got dark so early), vetoed the repeal twice but his second veto was overridden.
Having gotten dark early, Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in jail on April 1, 1924, for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch," having failed to assert his dominance over the larger governmental body. However, he spent only nine months in jail, during which he wrote the book Mein Kampf in which Hitler presented himself as the "Übermensch" and gave birth to the concept of Nazism.
Nine months after his conception, Sam Huntington (who played Jimmy Olsen in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns) was born on April 1, 1982.
I was born in 1982, and today is April 1. Ergo:
Obviously.
.