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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 15h

#OTD in

1520: Magellan discovered strait around S America linking Atlantic & Pacific Oceans (now bears his name)

1600: Battle of Sekigahara ended Japan's Sengoku period & marked rise of Tokugawa Shogunate

1959: 1 of world’s top modern art collections, the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, NY, USA, opened

***Bonus OTD***

-Alfred Nobel, the one human in history most closely associated with the word "Peace" even after inventing high explosives such as dynamite, was born in Stockholm, Sweden on this day in 1833-

Pictured is a colour aerial photograph of the aftermath of the 1966 Aberfan Disaster in southern Wales in the UK. The path of the spoil slip's destruction is illustrated via the dark, slate-coloured area emanating from the mounds of coal mining waste (colliery spoil tips) in the background.

On October 21st, 1966, the Aberfan Disaster occurred when spoil tip #7 suffered a catastrophic collapse after weeks of intense rainfall, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it smashed into a row of homes as well as the Pantglas Junior School.

Located in the hills overlooking the Welsh village, the colliery spoil tips were the jurisdiction of the National Coal Board (NCB) to regulate and maintain. The NCB had failed to do so specifically with tip #7, as it had been partially built upon a natural spring.

So, it came to pass that the 34 metre (111 foot) tall tip #7, already built upon unstable ground, became completely saturated when combined with three weeks of heavy rainfall. At which point, it took very little to send the 110,000 cubic metres (~140,000 cubic yards) of spoil slurry that came rushing down the side of the hill and into the Pantglas area of the village that day.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 1d

#OTD in

1728: 3-day Great Copenhagen Fire burned ⅓ of Denmark's capital

1904: Treaty of Peace & Friendship; Chile & Bolivia border agreement

1944: US Gen Douglas MacArthur; "People of the Philippines, I have returned"

2021: Study confirmed Vikings settled L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland in 1021

Pictured is a colour photograph taken during a peaceful "End SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad)" protest at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, Nigeria in October of 2020 in response to a viral video detailing the unit's extrajudicial killing of a young man. With the unit having been officially disbanded on October 11th, the "End SARS" movement extended the protest to include police brutality of all forms and more broad reforms in law enforcement in general.

On the evening of October 20th, 2020, the Nigerian Army opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos. There to defy the 1600 curfew imposed earlier that day, the resulting standoff with the military would end in twelve confirmed deaths and hundreds or even thousands injured. Exact numbers cannot be ascertained, as both CCTV and the area's electrical services were shut off just prior to the now-infamous Lekki Toll Gate Massacre, making mobile phone images and eyewitness accounts the primary source material for the investigation. The official government response the following day downplayed the event, with governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-olu, originally denying reports of any deaths before merely conceding that "only two persons were killed."

Amnesty International rejected the Nigerian government's tepid response, stating “The Nigerian authorities’ must end their attempts to cover up the Lekki Toll Gate massacre." Amnesty International went on to compile a timeline, complete with photographs, to refute the government's official reports and highlight the grotesque atrocities perpetrated by the government upon the Nigerian citizens brave enough to stand for their country.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 2d

#OTD in

1596: San Felipe Incident & crucifixion of 26 Martyrs of Japan

1781: Siege of Yorktown effectively ended US Revolutionary War

1943: Streptomycin, 1st cure for tuberculosis, isolated by Albert Schatz

2015: Study revealed life began 4.1b yrs ago, ~300m yrs earlier than previously estimated

Pictured are colourful images of the immunostaining of an engrafted human intestinal organoid (HIO), or an HIO that has been successfully transplanted and integrated into a living organism. Provided by the University of Cincinnati Children's Hospital's Helmrath Research Laboratory in the US state of Ohio, the human intestinal tissue is stained red by human nuclear antigen with the muscular layer stained green with alpha-SMA.

On October 19th, 2014, researchers at the University of Cincinnati Children's Hospital published the results of the first successfully transplanted "organoids" of pluripotent stem cell-produced human intestinal tissue into mice. Essentially, healthy human intestinal STEM cells grown in a Petri dish were successfully transplanted and integrated within mice with intestinal diseases. This established a new, more relevant model by which to study such maladies.

Surgical Director for the Intestinal Rehabilitation Program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Dr Michael Helmrath stated of the findings, "These studies support the concept that patient-specific cells can be used to grow intestine." He went on to expound, adding, "This provides a new way to study the many diseases and conditions that can cause intestinal failure, from genetic disorders appearing at birth to conditions that strike later in life, such as cancer and Crohn's disease. These studies also advance the longer-term goal of growing tissues that can replace damaged human intestine."

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 3d

#OTD in

1929: Edwards v Canada, "Person's Case", decided women were people

1967: Soviet Venera 4; 1st to enter a foreign atmosphere (Venus)

1968: Circus Circus, world's largest & longest-running permanent "big top", opened in Las Vegas, NV, USA

1991: Azerbaijan Day of Restoration of Independence

Pictured is a colour photograph of a leaf from the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, an ancient ecumenical palimpsest originally found in Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, Egypt. Taken in 2011 while on display in Oklahoma City, OK, USA, it'd be over a decade before the true value and significance of the Codex would be revealed to the world.

On October 18th, 2022, the Journal for the History of Astronomy published a study titled, "New evidence for Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue revealed by multispectral imaging", which announced the discovery of a portion of the second-century BCE Greek astronomer Hipparchus's original star map hidden beneath the Christian manuscript, Codex Climaci Rescriptus. Developed sometime between 162 and 127 BCE, the long-lost catalogue was the first known attempt to chart the night sky, with the positions of 850 celestial bodies annotated.

Professor Victor Gysembergh at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), leader of the research team that published the findings, stated that “Hipparchus’ Star Catalog is the very first attempt in human history to precisely measure the positions of the fixed stars,” while additionally surmising that their discovery was “a major milestone in the birth of science as a collective endeavor to measure and predict our surroundings.”

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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 4d

#OTD in

1943: WWII; 90k civilians & 12k Allied soldiers died completing Japan's Burma Railway (Death Railway)

1975: UN Third Committee Adopted Draft Resolution Equating Zionism with Racism

2008: Iranian spectators ate 1.5k metre-long ostrich meat sandwich prior to certification as World's Largest

Pictured is a copy of a colourful oil on canvas painting by Grigory Fedorovich Shukaev of the Battle of Malakhov Kurgan during the Siege Sevastopol in 1855. In the painting, a battery of cannons outside the walls of the city are prepped and loaded as countless soldiers scurry about their tasks on the front lines during the fierce battle. An Allied victory over the Russians in this battle turned the tide of the Siege and Crimean War as a whole.

On October 17th, 1854, during the Crimean War, the Siege of the major Black Sea port city and Crimean capital of Sevastopol began with the first of six Allied naval bombardments of the city. The Allies, consisting of French, Sardinian (Italy), Ottoman, and British soldiers, took nearly a year to take the city, with over 100,000 in the city perishing in the process.

Considered one of the last of the "classical" sieges in history, it was instrumental in breaking the organisation of the Crimean tsar's Black Sea Fleet, which was stationed in Sevastopol. The resulting Russian withdrawal prior to full encirclement of the capital marked the final episode of the Crimean War.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 6d

#OTD in

1793: French Revolution; Ex-queen Marie Antoinette guillotined

1846: Ether as a surgical anaesthetic 1st used by William TG Morton in Boston, MA, USA during a tumor removal surgery

1956: Aviation 1st as Pan Am Flight 6 ditched in the Pacific Ocean & all 31 aboard rescued by US Coast Guard

"I came here from Kansas and this is a slave state; I want to free all the negroes in this state; I have possession now of the United States armory, and if the citizens interfere with me, I must only burn the town and have blood." - John Brown

Pictured are two black and white copies of sketches drawn of John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859. The top image featured in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and shows John Brown's raiders attacking the railroad bridge. The image below features a Harper's Weekly Illustration of US Marines as they attack the firehouse that John Brown and his compatriots used as a stronghold during the raid.

On October 16th, 1859, prior to nightfall, abolitionist John Brown and 18 of his "raiders" pre-positioned themselves in Harper's Ferry. By 10:00 PM, both bridges, the US Armory and Arsenal, as well as the US Rifle Works on Hall's Island were all in their possession. Brown's plan to incite a southern uprising against slavery was considered well underway.

However the raid and revolt would fail two days later, but it was not without impact as it is still considered the "dress rehearsal for the Civil War." To that end, some in attendance at Harper's Ferry would play a starring role in the future War as well as its aftermath. These included Colonel Robert E Lee, who commanded the operation to retake the arsenal, Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart, two of John Brown's guards, and John Wilkes Booth, who witnessed Brown's execution. In all, 11 raiders were killed, 7 captured and later executed, and 5 managed to escape while 1 died in jail.

John Brown was charged with murder and conspiring with enslaved people to rebel and treason against the state of Virginia. Beginning October 27th, Brown's trial lasted just five days and took only 45 minutes for jurors to deliver a guilty verdict. On November 2nd, John Brown was sentenced to hang in the gallows and finally executed on December 2nd, 1859.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 6d

#OTD in

1941: Nazi Walter Stahlecker reported killing 118k unarmed Jewish civilians over 115 days

1966: Black Panthers formed in Oakland, CA, USA

1973: Thailand Popular Uprising ended military dictatorship

1991: "Oh-My-God" particle, highest-energy cosmic ray ever observed, detected in Utah, USA

Pictured top is the famous German copper engraving of the Mora Witch Trial of 1670, the first in Sweden and precursor to the Torsåker Witch Trials. A handwritten caption in German reads, "Depiction of the abhorrent, hep-crafting, and unheard-of devilish deception in the Kingdom of Sweden, but allegedly in the Truwoh, which took place at the head of the village of Nohra. In the year 1670."

Pictured below are two colour photographs taken by Niklas Modig of the stone monuments of Bålberget (Bon Fire Mountain), the mountain where the executions took place. Sometimes still referred to as Häxberget (Witch Mountain), the Swedish inscription etched into the stone states, "A witch's bonfire burned here in 1675. Women died, men judged. The beliefs of the time affect people."

On October 15th, 1674, the court in Torsåker, Sweden began the district's witch trials. The ongoing Swedish witch hunt "Det Stora Oväsendet" (Great Noise) would hit a fever pitch in Torsåker, where hundreds were accused. In a bout of fanatical cruelty to root out evil, even the "witnesses," primarily consisting of the children of the accused, were also tortured. Eventually, it led to the largest-ever mass execution of falsely accused "witches" in Sweden. On June 1st of the following year, 65 women, 2 men, and 4 boys were beheaded and then burned at the stake.

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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 7d

#OTD in

680: Visigoth King Wamba poisoned, tricked into abdicating, only to fully recover a days later

1964: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr awarded Nobel Prize

1994: Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, & Shimon Peres awarded joint Nobel Prize

2012: Felix Baumgartner 1st to break sound barrier via freefall

Pictured is a black and white photograph of United States Air Force Captain "Chuck" Yeager as he poses next to "Glamorous Glennis," the Bell X-1 aircraft within which he broke the sound barrier, as two technicians inspect the tail and rudder sections.

On October 14th, 1947, the first manned supersonic flight took place in the Mojave Dessert, USA, when the Bell X-1 aircraft piloted by Captain Charles E “Chuck” Yeager broke the sound barrier, reaching Mach 1.06. Nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife, Captain Yeager took USAF aircraft #46-062 on its fiftieth flight, launching from a B-29's bomb bay doors and reaching an airspeed of 1,100 kilometres per hour (700 miles per hour) before gliding to a soft landing on a dry lake bed in the desert.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 9d

#OTD in

1884: International Meridian Conference; Greenwich Meridian confirmed as international standard 0° longitude

1943: WWII; Italy declared war on the Nazis after deposing own fascist regime

1972: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in Argentina; cannibalism kept 16 of 45 alive for 72 days

Pictured top is a blurry, colour photograph of the first video of the trapped miners in the San Jose Mine near Copiapo, Chile in 2010. Pictured below is the triumphant and now-famous image of the six rescuers, with one holding a green hand-written sign reading "Mision Cumplida CHILE (Mission Accomplished CHILE)." Both images were screen-captured from videos filmed and released worldwide by the Chilean Government.

On October 13th, 2010, the Chilean Mining Accident, better known as the 2010 Copiapó Mining Accident, ended after a record-breaking 69 days when all 33 miners were successfully rescued from the San José copper–gold mine. What began as a cave-in at the mine on August 5th in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, turned into a harrowing saga of survival and grit as the 33 miners were trapped roughly 700 metres (2,300 feet) underground and around 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the entrance for the next 2+ months.

In a multinational effort requiring three separate drilling rig teams, the resources and seamless cooperation of everyone within the Chilean government ministry, numerous international corporations providing technical and logistical support, as well as NASA, on October 13th, a specially built capsule winched the miners individually to safety. With upwards of 5.3 million people watching via livestream video, each of the miners arrived to the surface in good spirits and, minor injuries aside, excellent medical condition.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 9d

#OTD in

1810: 1st Oktoberfest began w/ wedding of Bavarian crown prince Ludwig I & Therese Charlotte Luise Friederike Amalie von Sachsen-Hildburghausen

1915: WWI German firing squad executed nurse Edith Cavell for aiding ~200 Allied soldiers escape Belgium

1968: Equatorial Guinea Independence Day

Pictured top is a colourised photograph of Super Typhoon Tip taken by VISSR (Visible and Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer) onboard the JMA GMS-1 satellite (Japan Meteorological Agency's first Geostationary Meteorological Satellite), also known as "Himawari-1." At image capture time, Tip's maximum 1-minute sustained wind speed was 305 km/h (190 mph) with a minimum central pressure of 870 mb. Pictured below is a colourful map that plots the entirety of Tip's trajectory and Saffir–Simpson intensity.

On October 12th, 1979, Typhoon Tip, known colloquially as Super Typhoon Warling in the Philippines, became the largest and the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded when it reached a windfield diameter of 2,220 kilometres (1,380 miles) and a worldwide record-low sea-level pressure of 870 hPa (25.69 inHg).

Super Typhoon Tip developed October 4th as a result of a disturbance within the monsoon trough near Pohnpei, Micronesia. After passing Guam, Tip rapidly intensified and reached peak sustained winds on October 12th before making landfall in southern Japan on October 19th. Shortly thereafter, it became an extratropical cyclone as it continued moving towards the east-northeast, finally dissipating near the Aleutian Islands on October 24th, 1979.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 10d

#OTD in

1138: Aleppo Earthquake; northern Syria destroyed w/ ~230k dead

1977: Gordon Gould patent for optically pumped laser amplifier, 30 yrs after 1st conceiving of laser

2024: Nihon Hidankyo awarded Nobel Prize; "hibakusha" (survivors) revealed human cost of nuclear attacks in abolition effort

Pictured left is a copy of the Schedule of March Events from October 8th - 13th, 1987, for the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights that took place in Washington, DC, USA. Bottom right is a colour photograph taken by Elvert Barnes of the March itself as participants go past the White House. Pictured top right is proof that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi once *used* to be cool, even if only performatively.

On October 11th, 1987, the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights took place in the United States capital of Washington, DC. Approximately 750,000 people participated in the wildly successful political rally, with its historical significance leading to it being given the moniker, "The Great March." It marked the first national coverage of the prominent ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), which highlighted the rising AIDS Epidemic. As a punctuation to the day's march, the following day saw an organised mass civil disobedience at the United States Supreme Court Building, further underlining the March's goals.

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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 11d

#OTD in

1780: Great Hurricane killed 20k-30k; deadliest recorded Atlantic hurricane

1868: Cuba Independence Day

1911: Taiwan National Day; Wuchang Uprising began Xinhai Revolution

1970: Fiji (Independence) Day

2009: Zurich Protocols; Turkey & Armenia agreed to open shared border, never ratified

Pictured is a recent colour photograph taken by Anatoliy Volkov of the Dnieper Dam in the Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine.

On October 10th, 1932, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station (DniproHES) began operations as a 1,578.6 MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric dam. Built on the Dnieper River at Zaporizhzhia of what was once the Soviet Union, it was the largest power plant in Europe at the time and stood as the central showpiece of pre-WWII Soviet industrialisation. The resulting Dnieper Reservoir created by the construction of the dam flooded the historic Dnieper Rapids, thereby making the entire river navigable and providing a watershed for 80% of Ukraine's water requirements.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 12d

#OTD in

1925: 1st Leif Erikson Day

1936: Hoover Dam 1st produced electricity

1962: Uganda Independence Day

2012: Failed Taliban attempt on future youngest Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai

2023: 1st turbine of Dogger Bank, world's largest offshore wind farm, began to feed UK's electrical grid

Pictured is a colour photograph of the eruption of gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A, or the BOAT (Brightest Of All Time). In the simple, mostly-black, image taken by NASA's Swift telescope and produced with assistance from astronomer Andrew P Beardmore of the University of Leicester in the UK, rings of red light particles radiate outward from a bright yellow center.

On October 9th, 2022, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory X-Ray Telescope captured the afterglow an hour after GRB 221009A, the brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded, erupted in a once-in-10,000 year event. The bright rings formed are as a result of scattered X-rays within galactic dust layers in the direction of the burst.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 13d

#OTD in

1912: 1st Balkan War; Montenegro 1st to declare war on Ottoman Empire

1945: Microwave oven patented

1958: Dr Åke Senning twice implanted world's 1st rechargeable cardiac pacemaker

2018: UN Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15); Dire days by 2040 if Earth warms 1.5° C (2.7° F)

Pictured top is a colour photograph of the granite inscription outside the African Burial Ground on the island of Manhattan in New York City, NY, USA. It reads, "For all those who were lost For all those who were stolen For all those who were left behind For all those who were not forgotten". Below and left is a Maerschalck map of New York from 1754, with the African Burial Ground and its surrounding neighbourhood illustrated and circled in yellow. Pictured to the right is a colour photograph of the entrance to the African Burial Ground National Monument as it stands currently.

On October 8th, 1991, the discovery of the African Burial Ground was announced in New York City after an excavation below the city’s street level on Broadway uncovered intact human skeletal remains, which led to the unveiling of the "Negroes Buriel Ground." All told on the 6-acre burial plot were over 15,000 intact skeletal remains of both free and enslaved black people that lived and worked in Colonial Manhattan until 1795.

The burial ground remains the United States's earliest and largest black burial ground, officially being designated as the African Burial Ground National Monument in 2006.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 14d

#OTD in

1944: Dumbarton Oaks Proposals; precursor to United Nations

1975: Achille Lauro Hijacking; Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) hijacked MS Achille Lauro liner to free 50 Israeli-held Palestinians

1996: 1st broadcast of propaganda channel Fox

2023: Current Israeli genocide of Palestine began

Pictured is a black and white photograph of the far side of the moon, the first-ever image taken of the perennially unseen portion of the moon's surface. Taken by the Soviet Union's Luna 3 spacecraft after crossing behind and directing its camera at the sunlit backside, it marked the first time in history that human beings set eyes upon the "Dark Side of the Moon." Below the image, within the border, reads the simple caption "Photo 1" in Russian.

On October 7th, 1959, the Luna 3 spacecraft took and transmitted 29 noisy, low resolution photographs of approximately 70% of the far side of the moon. The attached image is centered at 20° N, 105° E, with the Mare Smythii located below and left of center with the bright crater above and left of center being the Giordano Bruno.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 15d

#OTD in

1849: Hungarian Revolution; 13 Martyrs of Arad executed

1949: "Tokyo Rose" Iva Toguri D'Aquino sentenced/fined for treason against the USA

1976: China's "Gang of 4" arrested, end of Cultural Revolution

2021: World Health Organization (WHO) announced world's 1st children's malaria vaccine

Pictured is a colourful artistic rendering of the planet Dimidium and its sun-like star, Helvetios, composed by Martin Kornmesser and Nick Risinger for release by the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO).

On October 6th, 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva Observatory (UNIGE) announced the discovery of the first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b, to orbit a star outside our solar system, 51 Pegasi. It is also the first alien world capable of detection via spectroscopy within visible light.

Now officially named Dimidium and its sun rebranded as Helvetios, the first "hot Jupiter" gas giant ever discovered is an extrasolar planet located in the Pegasus constellation, about fifty light-years (15 parsecs) away. A share of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics would be Mayor and Queloz's formal recognition and reward for the feat.

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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 16d

#OTD in

1983: Nobel Prize awarded to future Polish President Lech Wałęsa of Solidarność

2000: Yugoslavian Bulldozer Revolution ended w/ overthrow of Slobodan Milošević

2021: Study revealed nearly 13 children/day sexually abused by French clergy (inc laypeople) since 1950, 80% were boys aged 10-13

*Bonus: #OTD in 1991, Linus Torvalds released the first public version of the Linux kernel, version 0.02.*

Pictured are two colour photographs of emergency personnel and rescue workers as they sift through the rubble in the aftermath of the Hroza Missile Attack of 2023. The top image was taken by Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy and provided by Reuters, while the bottom image was taken by CNN's Vasco Cotovio.

On October 5th, 2023, during a memorial service for a Ukrainian soldier in the village of Hroza, Kupiansk Raion, in the Kharkiv Oblast, the Russian Armed Forces launched an Iskander ballistic missile that killed 59 and injured 7 of the civilian attendees. A six-year-old boy was also counted among the almost 60% of the village's pre-war population that perished that day.

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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 17d

#OTD in

1966: Lesotho Independence Day

1979: Super Typhoon Warling, largest/most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded, formed

1992: Rome General Peace Accords ended Mozambican Civil War

2021: Nobel Prize awarded to David Julius & Ardem Patapoutian for discovery of temperature & touch receptors

Pictured is a black and white photograph procured and provided by NASA of an unnamed Soviet technician working on Sputnik 1 just prior to the satellite's launch in 1957.

On October 4th, 1957, the world's first manmade Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union. Originally, the Russian word "Sputnik" meant "fellow traveler," but has since become generally synonymous with "satellite" in the modern Russian parlance.

Sputnik 1's five primary objectives included testing whether an artificial satellite could be placed into Earth's orbit, providing information on the density of the atmosphere, testing orbital tracking methods, determining radio wave propagation effects throughout the atmosphere, and to check satellite pressurisation principles.

Sputnik 1 sent radio signals back to Earth for three weeks before the onboard silver-zinc batteries depleted themselves. Aerodynamic drag caused it to re-enter the atmosphere on January 4th, 1958, thereby ending its mission.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 18d

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2333 BCE: National Foundation Day "Gaecheonjeol"; Korean race born

1873: "Capt Jack" Kintpuash hanged at Oregon's Fort Klamath for actions in self-defence; only Native American leader tried as a war criminal

1932: Iraq Independence Day

1990: German Unity Day; East & West Germany unified

$Pictured is a colour photograph of Figure 182 of the Chronicon Roffense (Rochester Chronicle), an updated version by monk Edmund of Hadenham of the much-copied chronicle, Flores Historiarum (Flowers of the Histories). In the simple sketch on yellowed parchment below script written in 14th century Latin, a blue-clad rider on horseback drags another bound and tied man, presumably the Welsh Prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd, behind the horse as Gruffydd is "escorted" to his execution. On October 3rd, 1283, after being convicted of high treason against the brutal English king Edward I (the Longshanks), Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd, Wales, was the first-ever nobleman to be executed via being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Dafydd ap Gruffydd earned his execution when, unsatisfied with the amount of inheritance received upon his father's passing, he defected to the English under promises of being made King of Wales. However, after having taken over the mantle of the Crown Prince of Wales after the death of his brother, Llywelyn, Dafydd fought bravely against his once-ally. However, his shortsightedness didn't just apply to matters of state and greed, as he failed spectacularly as a military strategist and leader, losing the already-shaky support of the Welsh nobility. By the summer of 1283, Dafydd and his son were captured, fracturing the Welsh resistance beyond reclamation and further cementing Edward I's rule on the continent.$

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 19d

#OTD in

1835: Texas Revolution Battle of Gonzales over a cannon; "Come & Take It"

1836: Charles Darwin back in England

1904: Namibian Genocide; Germans killed 80% (65k) of Herero & 50% (10k) of Nama

1958: Guinea Independence Day

2018: Journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed by Turkish Saudi consulate

Pictured are two black and white photographs taken during the Mexican Movement of 1968 and Mexican Dirty War. Pictured top is an image taken from a balcony overlooking the Plaza de las Tres Culturas as protestors fill the Plaza on October 2nd. Pictured below is an image from later in the day, when Mexican troops confronted the peaceful protestors just before firing upon them.

On October 2nd, 1968, in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, Mexico, the Mexican Armed Forces shot and killed upwards of 500 protestors, injuring over a thousand others, in what became known as the Tlatelolco Massacre. The state-sanctioned military massacre was committed primarily against university students, including those from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).

The murdered unarmed civilians were in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas protesting the Summer Olympics set to begin in ten days, with the Massacre coming on the heels of several large social and political protests known as the Mexican Movement of 1968. The Massacre is also considered part of the United States-backed Mexican Dirty War, which saw the government of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) utilise violent repression to all opposition.

The 1968 Summer Olympics remained unchanged and went off as scheduled.

In the aftermath, both the news media and the government of Mexico publicly claimed that the protestors provoked the Armed Forces into shooting them. However, recently released public records actually illustrate the opposite, as snipers had been employed by the government to initiate the violence.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 20d

#OTD in

331 BCE: Battle of Gaugamela; Alexander the Great ended Persian Empire & began Hellenistic Age

1996: Australian Permanent National Firearms Amnesty (compensatory buyback); 659,940 prohibited firearms purchased

2017: Las Vegas, NV; 60 dead, 489 injured in worst mass shooting in US history

Pictured is a black and white Bettmann Archive photograph of Dick Cheney, left, as he swears in US Army General Colin Powell, right, as US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while Powell's wife Alma, center, holds the Bible and looks upon her husband. The Bettman Archive watermark sits in the bottom left hand corner of the image.

On October 1st, 1989, General Colin Powell became the first Black, and youngest-ever, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the age of 52, holding the prestigious position under US Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton.

Under his leadership as the country's highest-ranking military officer, General Powell enacted the 'Powell Doctrine," a post-Cold War public relations and troop morale boosting strategy. In it, future US military engagements would be limited to those specific last-resort situations that possessed clear objectives, the overwhelming force needed to accomplish them, as well as widespread public support prior to any action.

Additionally, in 2001, General Powell would become the 1st Black US Secretary of State, serving under US President George W Bush.

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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 21d

#OTD in

1966: Botswana Independence Day

1986: Mossad agents abducted Mordechai Vanunu, whistleblower of Israel's secret nuclear program

2005: "Catalonia is a nation"; disputed by Spain

2024: UK 1st major economy to cease coal generation when Nottinghamshire's Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant went offline

$Pictured is the first-ever image of the Orion Nebula, a fuzzy and overexposed black and white photograph taken by Professor Henry Draper and provided by the Harvard College Observatory Plate Collection. Despite the relative low-quality of the original first photograph, it was still a landmark moment in astrophotography and astronomy as a whole. On September 30th, 1880, medical physician and amateur astronomer Henry Draper, along with his wife Anna, captured the first image of the Orion Nebula using an 11-inch refractor from Alvin Clark & Sons. Fuzzy and low-quality at an exposure of only 50 minutes Anna and Henry refined the photographic/telescopic process and eventually produced an extraordinarily detailed 137-minute exposure of the Nebula in March of 1882. By the time this image had been produced, Henry and Anna Draper were already key contributors to the development of stellar photography and spectroscopy, having previously obtained the first photo of a star’s spectrum via a spectrogram of Vega captured in August of 1872.$

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1916: John D Rockefeller reported as World's 1st billionaire

1923: British Empire's zenith as Palestinian Mandate began

1982: Tylenol laced w/ potassium cyanide, not autism, killed 7 in Chicago, IL area of USA

2021: Najla Bouden Romdhane appointed Tunisian PM, 1st woman PM in Arab world

Pictured is a black and white photograph taken on March 5th, 1912, and provided by the Garyounis University, of two Italian dirigibles as they bomb the village of Janzur during the Libyan War.

On September 29th, 1911, Italy declared war on the flailing Ottoman Empire and began the Italo-Turkish War, the first conflict to feature the use of reconnaissance and bombing aircraft as well as armoured vehicles.

Also known as the Libyan War, the conflict was centered around the Italian annexation of Libya and lasted until October 18th, 1912, with the signing of the Treaty of Ouchy. In the agreement, the Ottoman Empire was forced to cede Libya and the Dodecanese Islands to Italian stewardship.

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1887: China's Huang He Flood killed 900k - 2mil & 2mil homeless

1995: Oslo II Accords signed, handed West Bank to PLO

2000: Al-Aqsa Intifada began w/ Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount

2015: NASA scientists revealed evidence of water flows on Mars

Pictured is a colour photograph of the Dover Bronze Age Boat on display at the Dover Museum in England.

On September 28th, 1992, during the construction of the A20 road link, the world's oldest known seafaring vessel was uncovered between Folkestone and Dover in England. Appropriately known as the Dover Bronze Age Boat, it dates roughly to the Bronze Age somewhere between 1575 and 1520 BCE.

uncaringwaifu.bsky.social @uncaringwaifu.bsky.social · 24d

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1290: China's 6.8 Zhili Earthquake killed 7,270 or 100k, who knows

1601: Fifth Expedition Dutch Moluccan fleet landed on Mauritius & discovered the dodo

1822: Rosetta Stone deciphered by Jean-François Champollion

1905: Einstein's E=mc² 1st introduced

1991: Turkmenistan Independence Day