37 AD – Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate. Pelosi and Reid are contemplating this as we speak.
193 AD – Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction. I have a twenty in my back pocket if the opportunity avails itself.
845 AD – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1933 – German Reichstag confers dictatorial powers on Hitler. History. Learn from it.
1979 – In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the crapping of many pairs of pants.
MC:
The Three Mile Island incident was not caused by a pump failure – the main feedwater system tripped to to a system upset (as it was designed to do) and the aux feedwater was out of service for maintenance. When the system overheated, the pressure relief valve on the pressurizer (POV – pilot operated valve) opened, and stuck open providing a “leak” from the reactor coolant system. As the water level inside the reactor dropped and the temperature rose, the safety injection system came on to replace the water (again, as designed) The operators, not having properly diagnosed the fault condition, turned safety injection off, fearing overpressurization of the whole system. Since there was not enough coolant, temps continued to rise, and likewise pressures rose. This lead to rupture of the pressurizer surge tank (where the relief valve was vented) and an uncontainable leak into the containment building. Once this point was reached, the feces had hit the rotary ventilator, and many pairs of pants were soiled.
Also, the citizens of Middletown, PA and adjacent Harrisburg received more radiation dose from watching the news reports on their color TVs than they did from the TMI meltdown. Unlike Chernobyl, the containment system worked, as designed and as intended. Not only was TMI the worst accident in the US commercial nuclear power industry, it was the worst that COULD happen. No one was hurt, no one was killed, and the only loss was money.
Incidently, during the same time that national attention was focused on TMI, there was a coal mine accident in Pa. that resulted in 14 deaths. No big deal, we all know coal mining is dangerous, but them Nukes is really bad news! Yea, right.
845AD. Danegeld before it was called that. In other words, “The French being French.”
Just FYI….I’ve got a couple of “Ben Franklins” in my wallet I’ll add to the ‘twenty’ you mentioned!