History Lesson

537 - Goths lay siege to Rome. Quickly gave up, wrote a poem instead:

It is Boredom! — an eye brimming with an involuntary tear,
he dreams of the gallows while smoking his water-pipe.
You know him, reader, this fragile monster,
—hypocrite reader,—my twin,—my brother!

1302 - Romeo and Juliet's wedding day, according to Shakespeare. I can neither confirm nor deny.

1810 - Emperor Napoleon married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise.

1818 – Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is published. It has a creature in it.

1847 – Johnny Appleseed, American pioneer agronomist (b. 1774)

1936 - Antonin Scalia, American Supreme Court Justice. Reagan appointed. I don’t find him particularly funny.

1955 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)

1992– Lawrence Welk (b.1903) American bandleader and show peep.

1997 - Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry are launched into space.

2004 - Ten bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding about 1,800. Muslim militants claim responsibility.

2006 - Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead of a heart attack in his cell during his war crimes trial in The Hague. Ha Ha.