19 January 2013

globophobia

noun

– fear of balloons.

Today’s aphorism

‘Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers’.

– Janis Joplin.

On this day

19 January 1809 – birth of Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and novelist, The Raven. Died 7 October 1849.

19 January 1920 – Night of the Palmer Raids, in which more than 4,000 suspected radical leftists were arrested. Most were members of the Industrial Workers of the World union. Alexander Palmer was the United States Attorney-General. Most of those arrested were either deported or charged under the Espionage Act 1917 and the Sedition Act 1918.

19 January 1935 – birth of Johnny O’Keefe, Australian rock and roll legend. Known as J.O.K. or ‘The Wild One’. Died 6 October 1978.

19 January 1943 – birthday of Janis Joplin. American singer song-writer. She died on 4 October 1970.

19 January 1966 – A UFO saucer nest is discovered near Tully, North Queensland, Australia when a banana farmer, George Pedley, claims that he saw a large, saucer-shaped object fly out of a swamp at Horseshoe Lagoon. He said the saucer was 25 feet wide and 9 feet high. Further investigation of the lagoon revealed that in a particularly reedy part, there was a large circle that was clear of reeds. The circle was 30 feet in diameter and the reeds had been flattened in a clockwise manner. Five other similar, but smaller, circles were discovered. Apart from the UFO claim, no other explanation could account for the circles. These are the first crop-circles discovered in the modern world.