GhostDancer

1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. 1767 The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon. 1867 The United States took possession of Alaska from Russia. 1912 The first Balkan War broke out. 1931 Inventor Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, N.J., at age 84. 1968 The U.S. Olympic Committee suspended Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze 200-meter sprint medalists, for giving a "black power" or "human rights" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games. 2011 Gilad Shalit, a 25-year-old Israeli soldier, is released after being held for more than five years by Hamas. He is exchanged for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Shalit had been held in Gaza since Palestinian militants kidnapped him in 2006.

1244 The Sixth Crusade ends when an Egyptian-Khwarezmian force almost annihilates the Frankish army at Gaza. 1529 Henry VIII of England strips Thomas Wolsey of his office for failing to secure an annulment of his marriage. 1346 English forces defeat the Scots under David II during the Battle of Neville’s Cross, Scotland. 1691 Maine and Plymouth are incorporated in Massachusetts. 1777 British Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne surrenders 5,000 men at Saratoga, N.Y. 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte arrives at the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he has been banished by the Allies. 1849 Composer and pianist Frederic Chopin dies in Paris of tuberculosis at the age of 39. 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant is named overall Union Commander of the West. 1877 Brigadier General Alfred Terry meets with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians’ return to the United States. 1913 Zeppelin LII explodes over London, killing 28. 1933 Due to rising anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism in Hitler’s Germany, Albert Einstein immigrates to the United States. He makes his new home in Princeton, N.J. 1941 The U.S. destroyer Kearny is damaged by a German U-boat torpedo off Iceland; 11 Americans are killed. 1956 The nuclear power station Calder Hall is opened in Britain. Calder Hall is the first nuclear station to feed an appreciable amount of power into a civilian network. 1972 Peace talks between Pathet Lao and Royal Lao government begin in Vietnam. 1989 The worst earthquake in 82 years strikes San Francisco bay area minutes before the start of a World Series game there. The earthquake registers 6.9 on the Richter scale–67 are killed and damage is estimated at $10 billion. 1994 Dmitry Kholodov, a Russian journalist, is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces; his murkier began a series of killings of journalists in Russia. 2001 Rehavam Ze’evi, Israeli tourism minister and founder of the right-wing Moledet party, is assassinated by a member of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); he was the first Israeli minister ever assassinated. 2003 Taipei 101 is completed in Taipei, becoming the world’s tallest high-rise. Born on October 17 1821 Alexander Gardner, American photographer who documented the Civil War and the West. 1859 Childe Hassam, American impressionist painter and illustrator. 1895 Doris Humphrey, modern dance choreographer. 1903 Nathanael West, novelist and screenwriter (Miss Lonely Hearts, The Day of the Locust). 1915 Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge). 1918 Rita Hayworth, film actress. 1930 Jimmy Breslin, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author and columnist. 1938 Evel Knievel, U.S. daredevil motorcycle stunt man. 1942 Gary Puckett, singer, songwriter; lead singer of Gary Puckett & The Union Gap (“Woman, Woman”; “Young Girl”). 1946 Michael Hossack, drummer for the Doobie Brothers band 1946 Adam Michnik, Polish historian and editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wybocza, Poland’s largest newspaper; named Europe’s Man of the Year by La Vie magazine (1989). 1948 Margot Kidder, actress; best known for playing Lois Lane in four Superman movies between 1978 and 1987. 1958 Alan Jackson, country singer with over 60 million records sold worldwide; his many awards include 2 Grammys and 16 Country Music Association awards; “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”; “Don’t Rock the Jukebox.” 1960 Rob Marshall, theater and film director, choreographer; awards include 4 Emmys and an Academy Award for Best Picture (Chicago, 2002). 1968 Ziggy Marley, Jamaican musician, leader of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers; oldest son of reggae great Bob Marley.

1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded by guillotine during the French Revolution. 1846 Ether was first administered in public at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston by Dr. William Thomas Green Morton during an operation performed by Dr. John Collins Warren. 1859 Abolitionist John Brown, with 21 men, seizes the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry, Va. U.S. Marines capture the raiders, killing several. John Brown is later hanged in Virginia for treason. 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt incites controversy by inviting black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. 1908 The first airplane flight in England is made at Farnsborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S. citizen. 1934 Mao Tse-tung decides to abandon his base in Kiangsi due to attacks from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists. With his pregnant wife and about 30,000 Red Army troops, he sets out on the "Long March." 1938 Billy the Kid, a ballet by Aaron Copland, opens in Chicago. 1940 Benjamin O. Davis becomes the U.S. Army's first African American Brigadier General. 1946 Ten Nazi war criminals are hanged in Nuremberg, Germany. 1969 The New York Mets win the World Series four games to one over the heavily-favored Baltimore Orioles. 1973 Israeli General Ariel Sharon crosses the Suez Canal and begins to encircle two Egyptian armies. 1978 The college of cardinals elects 58-year-old Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, a Pole, the first non-Italian Pope since 1523. 1984 A baboon heart is transplanted into 15-day-old Baby Fae--the first transplant of the kind--at Loma Linda University Medical Center, California. Baby Fae lives until November 15. 1995 The Million Man March for 'A Day of Atonement' takes place in Washington, D.C. 1995 Skye Bridge opens over Loch Alsh, Scotland 1998 General Augusto Pinochet, former dictator of Chile, arrested in London for extradition on murder charges 2002 Inaugural opening of Bibliotheca Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt., a modern library and cultural center commemorating the famed Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity Born on October 16 1758 Noah Webster, U.S. teacher, lexicographer and publisher who wrote the American Dictionary of the English Language. 1797 Lord Cardigan, leader of the famed Light Brigade. 1849 George Washington Wiliams, historian, clergyman and politician. 1854 Oscar Wilde, dramatist, poet, novelist and critic. 1886 David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman. 1888 Eugene O'Neill, Nobel Prize-winning playwright (A Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh). 1898 William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. 1906 Cleanth Brooks, Kentucky-born writer and educator. 1919 Kathleen Winsor, writer Forever Amber. 1925 Angela Lansbury, stage, screen, and TV actress 1927 Gunther Grass, novelist, playwright, painter and sculptor best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum. 1930 Dan Pagis, Romanian-born Israeli poet. 1931 Charles "Chuck" Colson, special counsel to Pres. Richard Nixon (1969-73); one of the "Watergate Seven," he was sentenced to prison for obstruction of justice. 1949 Suzanne Somers, actress (Three's Company TV series). 1958 Tim Robbins, actor, screenwriter, director, producer; won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Mystic River 2003. 1969 Roy Hargrove, jazz trumpeter; won Grammy Awards for albums in 1998 (Habana) and 2002 (Directions in Music). 1977 John Mayer, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; won Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance ("Your Body is a Wonderland," 2003). 2003 Princess Kritika of Nepal was born.

Happy Sweetest Day. The Cleveland Plain Dealer's October 8, 1922 edition, which chronicles the first Sweetest Day in Cleveland, states that the first Sweetest Day was planned by a committee of 12 confectioners chaired by candymaker C. C. Hartzell. The Sweetest Day in the Year Committee distributed over 20,000 boxes of candy to "newsboys, orphans, old folks, and the poor" in Cleveland, Ohio. In Detroit, Sweetest Day was most heavily promoted by Sanders Candy Company.

On today’s date in 1963, a lovable Liverpool band named The Beatles made their first appearance to screaming fans on “Sunday Night at The London Palladium,” causing the media to coin the term “Beatlemania” and the band to go viral overnight. The hour-long U.K. show was a variety entertainment program that was as popular as “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the U.S. It was known for drawing huge British TV audiences and gave 15 million people (and the media) a chance to see The Beatles in action. Screaming teenagers weren’t new for the band, who had a few hit songs and an album out at the time, but the hysteria had previously been confined to small theaters where they had performed. The Beatles were the headliners here and performed four songs, opening with “From Me to You,” followed by “I’ll Get You,” “She Loves You,” and closing with “Twist and Shout.” The following day, newspaper front pages were filled with stories about the screaming fans. Considering how The Beatles would go on to dominate the world press and airwaves, they stopped performing live in 1966 and broke up in 1970, but their status as a phenomenon would last for many years to come.

He wants us to avert our eyes while he types his password.

1887 The International Herald Tribune was published for the first time. 1895The first U.S. Open Golf tournament was held in Newport, Rhode Island. 1957The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit around the earth, ushering in the Space Age and Space Race. 1965Pope Paul VI made the first visit to the Western Hemisphere by a reigning pope. He came to New York to address the UN General Assembly. 1970Rock singer Janis Joplin was found dead of a drug overdose at age 27. 1990The German parliament met for the first time since the reunification of Germany. 2001Authorities confirmed a tabloid editor in Florida had contracted anthrax. He died the next day. 2002John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," received a 20-year sentence.

Mr. 13 is an otter and a member of Baroque Works as the enforcers, The Unluckies.

1226 St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, died. 1863 President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. 1922 Rebecca L. Felton became the first woman U.S. Senator when she was appointed to serve out the term of Senator Thomas E. Watson. 1929 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes formally changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. 1955 Captain Kangaroo and The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on television. 1974 Frank Robinson was named the first African-American manager in major league baseball. 1990 East Germany and West Germany united to become Germany, 45 years after being split into two countries at the end of World War II.

On this date in 1908 Henry Ford introduced the Model T, and began his quest to put the world on wheels. The birthplace of the Model T. Designed by Field, Hinchman & Smith. Ford Motor Company Piquette Avenue Plant 411 Piquette Avenue built in 1904 Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Historic District, Detroit, MI. A link to the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant website. http://www.fordpiquetteavenueplant.org/

^Because you are the man, Nolgroth!

HK Martial Arts Cinema by David Bordwell The "wuxia pian," or film of martial chivalry, is rooted in a mythical China, but it has always reinvented itself for each age. Like the American Western, the genre has been reworked to keep in touch with audiences' changing tastes and to take advantage of new filmmaking technology. Yet at the center it retains common themes and visceral appeals. In Japan, only members of the samurai class could carry a sword, but in ancient China both aristocrats and commoners could become professional swordsmen. Since the land was ruled by rival warlords, an unattached fighter could become a killer for hire. This sordid reality became glamorized in the wuxia tales which became popular after the ninth century AD. Like the Arthurian legends of Europe, the wuxia promoted a conception of knightly virtue. The roaming hero was not only strong and skillful; he or she also had an obligation to right wrongs, especially when the situation seemed dire. The hero fought for yi, or righteousness - not for rights in the abstract, or for society as a whole, but for fairness in a particular situation - usually, seeking retribution for a past wrong. Here political history becomes crucial. China has had an unhappy history of corrupt and tyrannical regimes, dislodged only by court intrigue and assassination. Since civil society could not guarantee the rule of law, the wuxia knight-errant became the central hero of popular imagination. He or she was an outlaw who could deliver vengeance in a society where law held no sway. The revenge motive took on moral resonance through the Confucian scale of obligations: the child owes a duty to the father, the pupil to the teacher. The wuxia plot often presents a struggle between social loyalty and personal desires, as when in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" Li Mu-bai's final mission to avenge the death of his teacher prevents him from simply retiring from the Giang Hu world to live with Shu-lien. Wuxia characters and plots entered Peking Opera in the nineteenth century, where dazzling acrobatics added to their impact. Wuxia novels, often serialized in newspapers and running to hundreds of pages, became mass literature in Shanghai shortly thereafter. As Chinese filmmaking emerged in the 1920s, screenwriters drew stories from martial arts plays and novels, building scripts around both male and female adventurers. (Most Westerners are surprised to find how central women warriors are the wuxia tradition.) The epic Shanghai film "Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery" (1928), released in eighteen parts, became a progenitor of the fantasy film. Using flying daggers and wirework, it employed over 300 martial artists. The genre grew during the interwar years, both on the mainland and among the emigré companies of Hong Kong. When Mao's 1949 revolution dictated new cinema policies, Hong Kong and Taiwan held a monopoly on wuxia filmmaking. To serve Hong Kong's large Asian market, films were made in both Cantonese (the local Chinese dialect) and Mandarin (the more widely spoken dialect). Cantonese wuxia pian of the 1950s and early 1960s emphasized magic and fantasy. Warriors soared endlessly, swords and daggers turned to fire, and fighters' hands could emit jagged bolts of lightning to stun their opponents ("palm power"). The plots were sketchy and the special effects were crude (sometimes scratched directly on the film negative), but the supernatural films established some permanent techniques of the genre. Reverse-motion shooting created impossible stunts, like leaping onto a roof. Hidden trampolines launched fighters into the air, and strong wires kept them aloft. On the soundtrack, thunderous whooshes underscored leaps and blows. In reaction to the Cantonese fantasy films there emerged the "new wuxia pian," a school of more realistic swordplay films influenced by Japanese movies and a younger generation of martial arts novelists. Filmed in Mandarin and produced by big studios like Shaw Brothers, these tales didn't shy away from giving their warriors astonishing abilities, but the supernatural aura vanished. Now feats were presented as things which could be executed by a very disciplined fighter. In "The Jade Bow" (1966), the hero and heroine pursue ninja-like assassins over rooftops with a fluidity that seems only a slight exaggeration of natural human grace. Women warriors remained central to the tradition, but now they were given opportunities to contrast their styles with men's. Cheng Pei-pei became famous and known as the "Queen of wuxia pian" for her roles in "Come Drink with Me" (1966) and "Golden Swallow" (1968). In "Fourteen Amazons "(1972), when an army's generals are massacred, their widows take up arms to avenge them in spectacular combat sequences. The Mandarin wuxia pian also intensified realism by focusing not on aristocrats but on commoners, tormented heroes and heroines driven by ambition or revenge or devotion to justice and undergoing extreme physical suffering. Zhang Che quickly built a reputation for his sadomasochistic swordplay dramas, emblematized in his "One-Armed Swordsman" (1967) and "New One-Armed Swordsman" (1971). In contrast were the delicate, lyrical masterworks of King Hu. Hu brought the energy and finesse of classical Chinese theater and painting to the new swordplay movie. His films lingered on breathtaking landscapes, treated swordfights as airborne ballets, and created a gallery of reserved, preternaturally calm warriors who fought not for prestige or vengeance but to preserve humane values. Perhaps the most famous scene in all the new wuxia pian comes midway through Hu's "A Touch of Zen" (1971), where a combat unfolds in a quiet bamboo grove. Although fighters clash in midair, hurling themselves from spindly branches high above the ground or dive-bombing one another in a flurry of fast cuts, the overall impression is of poise - the sheer serenity of perfectly judged physical movement. Swordplay films fell out of favor in the mid-1970s as kung-fu swept the world and gave the Hong Kong film industry a cheaper genre to exploit. Still, there were efforts to revive the wuxia pian. Patrick Tam's brooding "The Sword" (1980) reflected Japanese influence. Action choreographer Ching Siu-tung turned to directing, and created a supple, modern flying swordplay style in "Duel to the Death" (1982). At a less spectacular level, the great Shaws kung-fu director Lau Kar-leung turned to wuxia swordplay in his comedy "Shaolin vs. Ninja" (1978) and especially in "Legendary Weapons of China" (1982), a virtual anthology of wuxia devices, both magical (a magician controls a fighter from a distance by manipulating a doll) and historical (the final fight scene displays over a dozen weapons and fighting techniques). Above all, it was producer-director Tsui Hark who spearheaded the revival of all manner of wuxia. Tsui's first film, "The Butterfly Murders" (1979), enhanced swordplay with futuristic weaponry, and he went on to revive fantasy swordplay in his dazzling, flamboyant "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain" (1983), for which he imported Hollywood special-effects experts. He went on to team with Ching siu-tung for the trailblazing "Chinese Ghost Story" (1987), which melded supernatural swordplay, horror, comedy, and romance. With its bisexual ghost and animated skeletons, "A Chinese Ghost Story" triggered a fashion for flamboyant, almost campy swordplay fantasies. Tsui knew a good thing when he saw it. His productions "The Swordsman I" (1990) and "Swordsman II: The East Is Red" (1992), "Green Snake" (1993), and other hits relied on gender-bending transformations, outrageous aerobatics, thundering music, and stunning set designs. They also showcased Brigitte Lin, Jet Li, Joey Wang, Maggie Cheung, and other popular stars of the period. Like all Hong Kong cycles, the updated fantasy wuxia wound down, and a new trend surfaced. Under Tsui's auspices Yuen Wo-ping, one of the great kung-fu choreographers and directors, made "Iron Monkey" (1993), a mixture of kung-fu and swordplay that was also grounded in the reality of traditional techniques. Daniel Lee's fascinating "What Price Survival?" (1994) featured classic wuxia performers in an enigmatic tale pitting Japanese and Chinese swordsmen against one another. Tsui himself revisited the 1960s grittier wuxia pian tradition in "The Blade" (1995), a savage and tumultuous tale in which a one-armed swordsman avenges his wounding and his father's death. Most important was Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time" (1994), told in laconic dialogues over wine, splintered flashbacks, and strobe-pulsed fight scenes, all awash in a melancholic score. Ashes offers a poetic meditation on the wuxia tradition itself, as old fighters brood over their wasted lives, mourning the youth and loves they have lost. ABOUT WUXIA PIAN A "xia" is a knight-errant, who might come from any class, and wuxia involves knightly chivalry. The Chinese concept of the knight-errant originates the fourth century BC, but chivalric stories as we know them today go back to the T'ang dynasty, around the ninth century AD. Some were literary efforts composed by men of learning, others were oral tales and ballads in colloquial prose or simple verse. By the seventeenth century, these forms had become a flourishing fictional genre concentrating on vagabond warriors who display outstanding courage, honor, and fighting skills. Magical elements had also entered the mix, so knights were often given superhuman powers - flying, hurling balls of fire, becoming invisible. Many stories played on the boundary between pure fantasy and what might be barely possible for a supremely trained and gifted warrior - not really flying but the "weightless leap"; not being invulnerable but being able, through control of breathing, to make one's body as hard as iron. To enjoy the wuxia tale we must grant that supreme skill in martial arts could give a fighter extraordinary powers. ABOUT THE WEAPONRY The Chinese martial tradition, a bit like Chinese cuisine, presents astonishing variety. The country is so vast, and its local fighting traditions so diverse, that a well-stocked armory indicates a frightening range of ways to inflict damage on other humans. Central to the wuxia mythology is the sword. Chinese distinguish between double-bladed ones, calling them swords proper, and single-bladed ones, which regardless of size and design are usually called knives. There are broadswords like the Green Destiny Sword in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and lighter sabre-like swords, as well as heavy cutlass-like blades (often pierced with rings to snag the opponent's weapon and to distract the opponent with their clanging). Shorter swords are often used in pairs, such as the so-called "butterfly swords," and the emei, or blades with arrow-like points at each end. Western fans often assume that the exotic weaponry on display in wuxia films is an invention of moviemakers, but very often it comes from tradition. The simple staff, which may be as long as seven feet, can also have one or two joints (making it useful for delivering a hard, swinging blow or for enclosing an opponent's arm). Bruce Lee popularized the short jointed staff, best known by its Japanese name, nunchaku. Whips may be sectional as well. Spears come in a dazzling variety of shapes, including the jagged-edged "snakehead" spear and the hook-spear. Spears often have colorful tassels or feathers which distract the opponent from the blade's maneuvers. There are hand axes, hammers with heavy spherical heads, and heavy cudgels with bulbous, gourd-shaped heads. For throwing there are darts and arrows, razor-edged stars and boomerang-style blades, and the infamous "flying guillotine," a rattan basket with an opening lined with knives. During the 1960s and 1970s, many wuxia pian built their plots around the sheer variety of Chinese arms. Zhang Che's "New One-Armed Swordsman," for instance, gave the villain a two-jointed staff, the secondary protagonist a pair of heavy butterfly swords, and the main protagonist a single light broadsword, so the combat was not only among fighters but among weapons and techniques. DAVID BORDWELL is a Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his many books include On the History of Film Style and the recently published, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Ang Lee: The Wuxia is a particularly Chinese type of hero (or heroine). Wu means martial, and a rough equivalent for xia in Western culture would be knight-errant. Unlike the knight-errant, however, the Wuxia is a free spirit, not belonging to any class. In the world of the Wuxia, the most important values are honor, loyalty and individual justice. These qualities became ideals, and the Wuxia became a mythical, larger than life hero in the Chinese imagination. By the Ching Dynasty, in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Wuxia fiction was very popular. The story of the Wuxia became a fantasy of power, romance and moral duty ­ embodied by Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien in "Crouching Tiger." As the genre developed, the Wuxia character became a more independent figure, often serving the basic principles of honor and justice themselves, rather than a particular master. In this respect, the Wuxia is not unlike the familiar Western hero ­ the lone cowboy riding into town to exact justice and right wrongs. The world of the Wuxia is different from that of society. The Wuxia operates in a realm under the surface of society and the rule of law, called Giang Hu. A world made up of individuals and their relationships, rather than the collective and the government. These relationships can exist entirely outside of the law. For example, the Wuxia can be a member of an underground, Mafia-type organization, but loyalty and honor are still the main values. In serving a master, the Wuxia keeps his or her word, even to the point of death. (Today, the term Giang Hu has a broader meaning, referring to the entanglements of life and relationships in a society).

Mandarin 武俠 ‎(wǔxiá, “martial hero”). A genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. The world of the wuxia is different from that of society. The wuxia operates in a realm under the surface of society and the rule of law, called jianghu - a world made up of individuals and their relationships, rather than the collective and the government. -Ang Lee, 2001 The jianghu (literal meaning: lakes and rivers) is the milieu, environment, or sub-community, often fictional, in which many Chinese wuxia stories are set. In modern Chinese culture, jianghu is commonly accepted as an alternative universe coexisting with the actual historical one in which the context of the wuxia genre was set. Even during periods of stability, neither the Imperial Court in the capital nor local governments could be relied on to protect the interests of the commoners. Travelling performers, itinerant traders and wandering craftsmen who spend most of their time "on the road" came to see their world as separate from those governed by legal authorities. For those "on the road", the powers that matter most were petty strongmen who controlled local patches of turfs. Some of the strongmen were landed gentries or temples whose powers were derived from legal ownership of farmlands and villages. Others were bandits who claimed control over stretches of wilderness, mountain roads or riverways - any legal authorities present, if any, were too weak to contest the controls. Integral to jianghu is the smaller circle of martial arts practitioners usually including the protagonists called wulin. Wulin Wulin (武林) is a term referring to the smaller microcosm within jianghu. Inhabitants of wulin are clearly differentiated from those within jianghu, in that they all know some form of wushu or martial arts. And the way to differentiate the good from the bad within wulin is the code of xia, those who adhere to it are good, those who do not are bad. The standard of morality within wulin is less vigorous than that in jianghu or in the historical setting. It is common to split wulin into black and white "ways", denoting the criminous and virtuous. Killers, murderers and those less scrupulous belong to the "black way" would live in wulin with a bad reputation, until someone would right their wrongs.

Happy Birthday to 1947 Dave Arneson, game designer; co-created Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game with Gary Gygax, establishing the roleplaying game genre. 331BC Alexander the Great decisively shatters King Darius III's Persian army at Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical masterstroke that leaves him master of the Persian Empire. 1273 Rudolf of Hapsburg is elected emperor in Germany. 1588 The feeble Sultan Mohammed Shah of Persia, hands over power to his 17-year old son Abbas. 1791 In Paris, the National Legislative Assembly holds its first meeting. 1839 The British government decides to send a punitive naval expedition to China. 1847 Maria Mitchell, American astronomer, discovers a comet and is elected the same day to the American Academy of Arts---the first woman to be so honored. The King of Denmark awarded her a gold medal for her discovery. 1856 The first installment of Gustav Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary appears in the Revue de Paris after the publisher refuses to print a passage in which the character Emma has a tryst in the back seat of a carriage. 1864 The Condor, a British blockade-runner, is grounded near Fort Fisher, North Carolina. 1878 General Lew Wallace is sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He went on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and write Ben-Hur. His Civil War heroics earned him the moniker Savior of Cincinnati. 1890 Yosemite National Park is dedicated in California. 1908 The Ford Model T, the first car for millions of Americans, hits the market. Over 15 million Model Ts are eventually sold, all of them black. 1942 The German Army grinds to a complete halt within the city of Stalingrad. 1943 British troops in Italy enter Naples and occupy Foggia airfield. 1944 The U.S. First Army begins the siege Aachen, Germany. 1946 Eleven Nazi war criminals are sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials---Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg. 1947 First flight of F-86 Sabre jet fighter, which would win fame in the Korean War. 1949 Mao Zedong establishes the People's Republic of China. 1957 "In God We Trust" appears on US paper currency as an act to distinguish the US from the officially atheist USSR; the motto had appeared on coins at various times since 1864. 1958 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) replaces the 43-year-old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the US. 1960 Nigeria becomes independent from the UK. 1961 The Federal Republic of Cameroon is formed by the merger of East and West Cameroon. 1962 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson debuts; Carson will remain The Tonight Show host until 1992. 1964 The first Free Speech Movement protest erupts spontaneously on the University of California, Berkeley campus; students demanded an end to the ban of on-campus political activities. 1964 Japanese "bullet trains" (Shinkansen) begin high-speed rail transit between Tokyo and Osaka. 1971 Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, the second of Disney's "Magic Kingdoms." 1971 First CT or CAT brain scan performed, at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London. 1974 Five Nixon aides--Kenneth Parkinson, Robert Mardian, Nixon's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell--go on trial for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. 1975 Legendary boxing match: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in the "Thrilla in Manila." 1979 US returns sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama. 1982 First compact disc player, released by Sony. 1989 Denmark introduces the world's first "civil union" law granting same-sex couples certain legal rights and responsibilities but stopping short of recognizing same-sex marriages. 1991 Siege of Dubrovnik begins in the Croatian War of Independence. 2009 The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over judicial functions of the House of Lords. Born on October 1 1837 Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during America's Civil War. 1904 Vladimir Horowitz, Russian-born American virtuoso pianist. 1924 Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the U.S. (1977-1981) 1932 Albert Collins, guitarist. 1935 Julie Andrews (Julia Elizabeth Wells), actress and singer whose films include Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. 1946 Tim O'Brien, novelist (The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods). 1947 Dave Arneson, game designer; co-created Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game with Gary Gygax, establishing the roleplaying game genre. 1950 Randy Quaid, actor (The Last Detail; won Golden Globe for his portrayal of Pres. Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years). 1955 Jeff Reardon, pro baseball pitcher known as "The Terminator" for his intimidating pitching mound presence and 98 mph fastball. 1963 Mark McGwire, "Big Mac," pro baseball player who broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record; admitted in 2010 to using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career. 1964 Max Matsuura (Masato Matsuura), record producer, president of Avex Group, one of Japan's largest music labels.

Browncoats rejoiced http://m.hitfix.com/news/on-this-day-in-pop-culture-history-serenity-opened-in-theaters

Happy Birthday to Star Trek: The Next Generation which premiered 29 years ago today. "I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again." - Jean-Luc Picard

1542Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo arrived at present-day San Diego. 1781The closing campaign of the American Revolution at Yorktown Heights, Va. began. 1920Eight Chicago White Sox players were indicted for fixing the 1919 World Series in the "Black Sox scandal." 1924Two U.S. Army planes landed in Seattle after completing the first round-the-world-flight in 175 days. 1939A German-Soviet agreement divided Poland between Nazi Germany and the USSR. 1967Walter Washington became the first mayor of the District of Columbia. 1972Japan and Communist China agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations. 1989Former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii. 1991Jazz great Miles Davis died. 2003Althea Gibson, the first African-American tennis player to win at Wimbledon, died.

August 20th is the anniversary of HP Lovecraft's birthday and it's amazing to think it's over a century since he came into this world, inventing Great Cthulhu and the other terrors of the mythos, giving us a treasure trove of such memorable stories, and having such a huge influence on the horror genre.

The Sword of Goujian- The Ancient Chinese double-edged straight sword untarnished after 2700 years https://m.thevintagenews.com/2016/07/26/goujian-ancient-chinese-sword-defied-time-2/

1807Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, began its trip up the Hudson River to Albany. 1863Fort Sumter, S.C. was bombarded by Union ships during the Civil War. 1896Prospectors found gold in Alaska, a discovery that set off the Klondike gold rush. 1945Indonesian nationalists proclaimed independence from the Netherlands. 196218-year-old Peter Fechter was shot and killed by guards at the Berlin Wall, spurring riots. 1969Hurricane Camille devastated the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people. 1978The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight landed outside of Paris. 1987Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's second in command, committed suicide. 2008U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal, breaking the record set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Games. Phelps also set the record for the most golds in a single Olympics.

On this day in history, 1977, Elvis Presley died in his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

1969, over 400,000 young people attend a weekend of rock music at Woodstock, New York.

Kewl. Thanks, Lawnmower Boy.

1457 The first book ever printed is published by a German astrologer named Faust. He is thrown in jail while trying to sell books in Paris. Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust had dealt with the devil.

August 11, 1988: Al Qaeda formed at a meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan.