Happy Guy Fawkes Day to you too, aileth!!

Alas and alack, it seems, for some reason,
That I'd failed to remember it.
For though it's the season for gunpowder treason,
It isn't that hard to forget!

Thanks for reminding me! *Bustles downstairs to grab some festive explosives and Guy Fawkes effigy*

This weekend marks the dates of several weather-related historical events.

First, "Galloping Gertie," Washington State's original Tacoma Narrows bridge, collapsed on November 7, 1940, just months after opening. Winds blowing through the Narrows set up harmonic resonances as soon as it opened, and the nickname stuck. The video of its collapse (less the music and newsreel-type narration) was something of a standard in science classes when I was in school.

What I learned only recently is that the very same storm moved east across the Rockies and became the Armistice Day Blizzard of November 10-12, which blew across the Midwest, causing 145 deaths from varied causes like a train crash and 3 shipwrecks on Lake Michigan. Many hunters froze, being caught out in shirtsleeves (temperatures ahead of the storm were unseasonably hot, pushing 70F/21C) when freezing rain, snow, and wind struck without warning (forecasting then was not what it is now). Some locations in Minnesota received over 2 feet (600mm) of snow, setting single-storm records that would stand until the Halloween Blizzard of 1991.

Speaking of shipwrecks, one of the most well-known ones in recent years came on November 10, 1975, when the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost on Lake Superior when "the gales of November came early." All 29 hands were lost. This was news in states around the Great Lakes, but it certainly became part of popular lore via Gordon Lightfoot's ballad.

Today in 1963, two very important people died. One was shot in a car in Houston, Texas. The other died in his bed from a serious illness.
The one was John F. Kennedy.
The other was C.S. Lewis.
RIP, Jack. (They were both nicknamed Jack! How 'bout that! )

This week also marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 12, the second manned lunar landing mission. On this flight, the astronauts landed near, and recovered parts of, the unmanned Surveyor 3 probe which had landed about 2 years earlier.

The 23rd was also the 56th anniversary of the first episode of TV programme Doctor Who.
(It has been suggested that C S Lewis regenerated as The Doctor!)

Today is National Cookie Day in the US which is perfect because I was looking for an excuse to eat some cookies.

SnowAngel

Today by our time is the commemoration of the Bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941 on 6th December. The following February, on the 19th, saw the equivalent bombing meted out to Darwin in Australia, causing much loss of life at the time.

6 December is also Saint Nicholas's Day in European countries.
This is the Turkish bishop known as 'Sinterklaas' in the Netherlands. Seeing him represented (as a bishop) in a parade in New York many years ago, a news reporter asked who he was; he misheard the reply and recorded it as 'Santa Klaus'.
Celebrations on this day will involve children being visited by St Nicholas, with gifts if they are good. There may be 'Black Peter' (or the Krampus) with him, threatening to take naughty children to punishment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Ah yes, today is the day that St. Nicholas of Myra passed away in 343 AD. He has an amazing legend, (a major portion of which is made up of later medieval stories with a smack of fanfiction about them) but he is generally remembered as a generous giver who saved many from starvation in the Roman province of Lycia.
Black Peter seems to come from a 6th century man whom St Nicholas is said to have appeared to in spirit form and rescued from prison, whereupon Peter swore to become a monk.
My mother was raised Eastern Orthodox, and remembers celebrating St Nicholas day as a kid!
Happy St. Nicholas day everyone!

Thanks for sharing this, Coracle and Cleander. A while ago I found a lovely website that explains all about the historical St Nicholas, who he was and what he did, and how he was transformed into "Santa Claus" in the popular imagination: St Nicholas Center I've found it very helpful in countering the arguments one occasionally hears that Santa Claus is a "pagan figure" (or simply an anagram of Satan) and shouldn't have anything to do with Christmas.

Of course the figure of Santa Claus / Father Christmas has had various elements from pagan traditions blended into him, but at the core of it is a real person who was a devoted follower of Christ and protector of those in need. I love this Comparison of Santa Claus and St Nicholas on the website! (And it makes me all the happier with C.S. Lewis's inclusion of him in LWW, which of course has been one of the more controversial aspects of the book since even before it was published.)

10th December, i.e. tomorrow, marks another anniversary: the 100th anniversary of the completion of The Greatest Race, held in 1919, a race from London to Australia & a significant milestone in aviation history, when it was won by Ross & Keith Smith. They said on TV that if it wasn't for this success, other further aviation feats would not have been possible, including the eventual space race.

Wow, I hadn't heard about that, Wagga — just found there's a website devoted to it here: The 1919 Great Air Race

I guess we don't often stop to think about what amazing achievements these early long-distance flights were and how much we owe to those brave pioneers who proved it was possible.

Yes those magnificent men (& women) in their flying machines must have been heroic in the extreme. Meanwhile in this thread there are three other dates to remember.

1. Christmas Day, 25th December, 1974. Cyclone Tracey flattens the city of Darwin.

2. The fifteenth anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which created havoc from Indonesia to India, from Sri Lanka to Singapore, & Thailand, Malaysia & even affected tides along the Western Australian coastline. This tsunami was triggered by a 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Aceh in Sumatra, & caused millions of deaths.

3. The thirtieth anniversary of the 1989 Newcastle (NSW) earthquake, on the 28th December.

I posted on what in Australia, & in other countries in the world, is called Boxing Day, 26th December.

A month later, I have avoided the obvious ongoing Australian Save the Dates of January 1st, not only New Year's Day, but also the anniversary of our original Federation Day of 1st January, 1901, plus the normal Australia Day of January 26th.

I hope coracle won't mind if I nominate Waitangi Day, 6th February, a date which not only defined New Zealand's history, and which remains its national day, but also defines in many ways Australian history, from its inception, on the 26th January, 1788, to its Federation of 1st January, 1901, and right up to now.

Well, besides being the day that a certain rodent prophecies the end of winter, , February 2nd marks the anniversary of the decisive battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461, in which the armies of Richard of York defeated the Lancastrian forces during the famous War(s) of the Roses.