During the January solar eclipse, a new element was discovered in the sun by x-ray spectroscopy. According to Prof. Frederick Slocum of the Van Vleck Observatory, who had nothing to do with the discovery, scientists are not prepared to bestow a name on the element at this time. This blog can reveal, exclusively, that that element was ultimately named rhenium (it would have been nipponium if its original Japanese discoverer some years ago hadn’t mistaken it for element 43).
NY Mayor John Hylan gets vaccinated against smallpox to set a good example. There are currently 6 cases of smallpox in the city, but it has a stronger hold in other cities.
The Italian Parliament opens. Mussolini’s priorities: women’s suffrage (which is not popular among Fascists in general), a new constitution, and cracking down on Freemasons and the press.
H. Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines, She, etc., dies at 68.
A mob pulls black man Jack West from a train and lynches him near Longwood, Florida.
Van Vleck Observatory! If you read The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss (as one does), there is this delightful rhyme: "The news just came in from the county of Keck that a very small bug by the name of Van Vleck is yawning so wide you can see down his neck..." Sorry, couldn't resist. Carry on...
ReplyDeleteThis is embarrassing, but I have never even heard of Rider Haggard before this blog post! It turns out my local library has 3 of his books! I reserved them all.
ReplyDelete19th-century rollicking adventure stories, very popular in their day. I'd say his hero Allan Quatermain was the Indiana Jones of his day, but a movie studio bet that if people loved Indy, they'd also love the bland Richard Chamberlain as Quartermain and boy ere they wrong. I haven't actually read any Haggard myself.
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