On This Day In History

[Thumpalumpacus]

It is rather inspiring…

As I wrote at another forum once, that picture is synecdoche for our entire war effort, encapsulating the teamwork that went from factory workers back home to the guys on the thin red line; our victory required everyone working together, just as you have the planter fixing the base of the flagpole, three or four guys pushing it into the soil, a couple in the back piling in just to make sure.

The above pic is the second flag-raising. The first one was raised a few hours before. Here is that raising:



This first flag was raised just as SecNav James Forrestal stepped ashore. He realized the import of the moment and ordered the flag be brought to him as being historical. The battalion commander basically ignored this order, and sent a runner up Mount Suribachi to replace the flag, and secure it for the battalion's keeping -- to Hell with Secretary Forrestal. So the most famous pic is the second flag being raised to replace the first.

Of the fourteen Marines involved in the two flag raisings, four were killed and several others injured in later fighting on the island, which took one month to secure.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

And one who would die after the war face down in a mud puddle. Highs and lows, so it goes.

[SYZ]

On this day in 1888, Louisville, Kentucky, became the first state government in the
United States to adopt the Australian ballot (i.e. secret ballot on standard voting forms).

[Minimalist]

In 1803 the Supreme Court issued the Marbury v Madison decision.

On February 24, 1803, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, decides the landmark case of William Marbury v. James Madison, Secretary of State of the United States and confirms the legal principle of judicial review—the ability of the Supreme Court to limit Congressional power by declaring legislation unconstitutional—in the new nation.

[pattylt]

In 1803 the Supreme Court issued the Marbury v Madison decision.

On February 24, 1803, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, decides the landmark case of William Marbury v. James Madison, Secretary of State of the United States and confirms the legal principle of judicial review—the ability of the Supreme Court to limit Congressional power by declaring legislation unconstitutional—in the new nation.

And in 2025, all that went out the window. Trump now decides and the SC rubber stamps…

[Minimalist]

Except on tariffs!

Fuck you, Fuckface!

[pattylt]

Let’s see how the SC handles his new tariff proclamations!

[SYZ]

My mother, Elizabeth Mary, was born on this day
in 1917 and died in 2012, of natural causes.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My mother, Elizabeth Mary, was born on this day
in 1917 and died in 2012, of natural causes.

Good run, I hope. I'm aiming for triple digits just so Charon will keep the service running for those that follow.

[Thumpalumpacus]

On this day in 1913, the 16th Amendment, instituting the Federal income tax, was ratified.

This is one part of the Constitution you may be sure Trump will honor.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Radio talk show:

Fran: Tony, who was born today?
Frank: Nobody.
Fran: No, I mean in history, before they changed the water?

Firesign Theater.

[pattylt]

Fire Sign Theater was one of favorite albums stolen years ago…sad face…

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Sam Backoo, this life cycle ain't big enough for the both of us."

Seventh Seal Cavalry is recruiting.

[Dānu]

Science history: Carbon-14 is discovered, opening a window into past civilizations — Feb. 27, 1940

On this day in 1940, two scientists discovered an elusive form of carbon — and inadvertently opened a window into lost civilizations.

Since the mid-1930s, scientists had predicted the existence of a form of carbon with two extra neutrons in its nucleus, but they thought it would be so short-lived that it would be impossible to measure.

But Ernest Lawrence, who founded the Berkeley Laboratory, was determined to find it. In 1939, he tasked chemists Martin Kamen and Samuel Rubin with discovering carbon-14. For a year, they found no hint of the elusive atom.

Then, in January 1940, they launched a "desperation" experiment, in which they placed a piece of graphite (a crystalline form of carbon) inside a cyclotron, one of the first types of particle accelerators. The cyclotron bombarded their sample with deuterons — nuclei of a heavy form of hydrogen with one proton and two neutrons. The hope was that the crystalline form of carbon would absorb the extra neutrons, emit a proton, and become a "heavy" version of carbon.

They ran the experiment for 120 hours straight. On Feb. 15, a sleep-deprived Kamen stopped bombarding the sample with deuterons and headed home. He was so disheveled that police, who were looking for an escaped murderer, briefly questioned him.

When Kamen was released, he returned to the lab, where his colleague Ruben noted faint signs of radioactivity in the sample. For the next two weeks, they purified the carbon, converting it into a CO2 gas that could be pumped at the right angle at the Geiger counter to measure its radioactivity.

Surprisingly, the carbon did not have a short half-life — the time it takes for half the radioactive atoms to decay into a stable atom.

[SYZ]

On this day in 1838, Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes,
proclaimed the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec).

[Thumpalumpacus]

On this day in 1989, I reported for basic training in the USAF.

[Minimalist]

The advances  in C-14 dating have been almost miraculous, Danu.  They can now extract useful amounts of C-14 from cereal grains and pollen.  Such short-lived samples can give far more accurate dates than charcoal or pieces of wood.

C-14 still suffers from the upper limit of 50k years but that is sufficient for most archaeological purposes.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

On this day in 1989, I reported for basic training in the USAF.

NEARLY twenty years after me. May 28, 1969.

[Thumpalumpacus]

On this day in 1943, the last day of the Battle of Bismarck Sea, which saw the Allies sink 12 Japanese ships and kill about 6,800 of their personnel, at a cost of about fifteen Allied airmen.

[Thumpalumpacus]

This day in 1953, Stalin dies.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That's something I couldn't Beria to watch.

[SYZ]

This day in 1953, Stalin dies.

[Thumpalumpacus]

On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, ruled 7-2 that Scott, an enslaved person, was not a U.S. citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in federal court; it also ruled that slavery could not be banned from any federal territory. The decision deepened the national divide over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.

https://apnews.com/today-in-history/march-6

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Can you children please give up on your silly lovers tiff
and get back to the topic at hand?  If you need to have
your little plays for superiority, please do it by PM.

Thank you.

BOHICA

We'll run our posts past you? I seek your approval.

[Thumpalumpacus]