1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia, in his 36+ foot converted oyster sloop, Spray, thereby feeding the dreams of sailors and wanna-be sailors ever after…
1905 – (June 14 according to the Julian calendar): Battleship Potemkin uprising: sailors start a mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war. “an end to war”? You’re serving on a BATTLESHIP. What do you think it’s for? Fishing?
1915 – Temperatures of 100 degrees F (38C) recorded at Fort Yukon Alaska, a state record. Da*n those SUV’s!
1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane.
1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War. Can’t have commies just arbitrarily running the place, that is until they can fool half the country into electing them…
1957 – Hurricane Audrey kills 500 people in Louisiana and Texas. The number of deaths is an arbitrary figure. I was almost seven. Dad worked the night at the refinery, straight through the storm.
1967 – The world’s first ATM is installed in Enfield, London. Second customer waits ten minutes while the first customer, a woman, rifles through her purse looking for her card.
1985 – U.S. Route 66 ceases to be an official U.S. highway, killed by the Interstate. Traveling the old US Highway routes is a trip into Americana that you miss from the interstates.
1986 – The International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in Nicaragua v. United States, mainly because the ICJ is an arm of the UN, composed of a majority of people that only WISH their sh*thole nations amounted to a pimple on America’s a*s.
There’s a new oral history film about Hurricane Audrey–as you’d expect, most of the survivors are getting on in years. The stories are harrowing. Knowing and even being a little like many of these guys, seeing them break down as they tell how they watched one family member after another slip away in the surge is heart rending.
I remember too. It’s one of my earliest memories.
For my 40th birthday my wife bought me a plane ticket to Chicago and told me I could go rent a car and drive the entire Route 66 from Chicago to LA… by myself. It was just under two weeks of heaven. I love that woman.