Crooked in Canada

I entered this world in Toronto, Canada on September 2, 1961, and while I don’t have total recollection of the first 4 or 5 years of my life, I remember a lot of my childhood through to my teenage years and much of my teenage years through to now.

My life hasn’t always been pretty, but I have managed to survive long enough to say today that other than the advent of technology, a few new professional sports leagues, new governments, new laws, new terrorist groups, an increasing population, global warming, my marriage, my emigrating to Australia, my age, f**k all has really changed in the world.

I would like to say the world has changed for the better, but I can’t because I think the world is far worse off today than it was fifteen, twenty and thirty years ago.

Without a doubt in my mind, the world has gone to shit and there is a lot of blame to spread around starting with our leaders, and the people we elect to support our leaders. I guess you could say it’s our own damn fault.

September 2 in history:

• 490 BC-Greeks run 140 miles in 2 days and nights (Marathon-Athens) to announce their victory over invading Persians (Iran)
• 1649-The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro
• 1666-The Great Fire of London begins and burns for three days, destroyiing 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral and killing eight.
• 1732-Pope Clement XII renews anti-Jewish laws of Rome
• 1752-The United Kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar almost two centuries later than the rest of Europe
• 1792-rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Bishops and more than 200 priests and royalist sympathizers in what has become known as the September Massacres
• 1796-Jews of the Netherlands are emancipated
• 1807-British Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorous rockets to prevent Denmark from surrending its fleet to Napoleon
• 1870-Napoleon III surrenders to Prussian armies
• 1885-150 white miners attack their fellow Chinese workers in Rock Springs, Wyoming killing 28 and wound 15 others. Ran several hundred more Chinese miners out of town.
• 1894-Forest fires destroy Hinckley, Minnesota, killing about 600 people
• 1898-Lord Kitchener with the help of Egyptian troops defeats Sudanese tribesmen and retakes Sudan for Britain.
• 1898-Machine gun first use in battle
• 1901-U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt says, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
• 1919-Communist Party of America organizes in Chicago
• 1925-The U.S. Zeppelin (USS Shenandoah) crashes, killing 14
• 1935-A large hurrican hits the Florida Keys, killing 423
• 1936-1st transaltantic round-trip air flight
• 1944-Holocaust diarist Anne Frank sent to Auschwit
• 1944-former U.S. president George Bush Sr. ejects from burning plane during WWII
• 1945-The Japanese officially surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay
• 1945-Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independence from France forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)
• 1954-Hurricane Edna batters U.S. northeast, killing 20
• 1958-Henry Verwoerd appointed PM of South Africa
• 1958-U.S. Air Force C-130-A-ll is shot down over Yerevan, Armenia after straying into Soviet airspace. All crew lost.
• 1964-Norman Manley scores two consecutive holes-in-one at Del Valley, California
• 1969-North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh dies
• 1969-The first ATM is installed in Rockville Center, New York
• 1972-Rod Stewart’s first #1 hit (You Wear it Well)
• 1977-Church of Scientology is denied tax exemptions for their two downtown Toronto properties
• 1977-Scientologists Jacqueline Matz, Paul Charbonneau, Janet Wilkens, Anne Marie Walsh claim they have not stole any documents from the law firm of Fasken and Calvin
• 1982-Rolling Stone Keith Richard’s home burns to the ground
• 1986-Cathy Evelyn Smith sentenced to 3 years for death of John Belushi
• 1987-Donald Trump takes out full page add in New York Times ad tearing a strip out of Japan
• 1998-SwissAir flight 111 crashes of the coast of Nova Scotia, killing 229 onboard, likely cause was electrical fire