This is April 20

Yesterday I decided that I would in fact talk a bit about April 20, even though it's already quite well known for a few particular events. I was going to just link you to the Wikipedia page of events occuring on April 20*, but on my initial perusal several little tidbits of information caught my eye. So, here's the link; follow along if you want. :) At the very least you'll learn some amusing history by reading this; dates are all A.D. though some of the facts could be open to interpretation...


570 - In Mecca, the prophet Muhammad was maybe born, but he also could have been born another day. Pretty sure he did that other stuff though.

1653 - The Rump Parliament is dissolved by Oliver Cromwell, probably because he too thought it was stupid to use a synonym for "animal butt" as a name for a second-hand political group.

1765 - Salem Witch Trial-accuser Abigail Williams ends a long and mostly unproductive life of bewitchment and transference and maybe even became a whore. (See Abigail? Lying gets you nowhere in life—though it might get you five bucks.)

1836 - The U.S. Congress puts us one step closer to creating a state that will both celebrate the wonder of old bacteria-filled milk and shun the lactose intolerant from the state's society (a.k.a. the Wisconsin Territory)

1884 - Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical (or, letter that went to a lot of people) on freemasonry, entitled Humanum Genus. This confirmed that he probably enjoyed being spanked by grown men.

1893 - the birth of crazy-shape (a.k.a. surrealist) painter Joan Miró, who died in 1983 in an amusing "rearrangement" if you will of his birth year. (Also the Google commemorative logo of the day!)

1953 - Project BLUEBIRD was changed to Project MKULTRA, in which the CIA's use of LSD and amazingly sadistic drug and electrical torture to research mind control makes as much sense as its new codename. OMGEES I LUV OUR GOVERNMENT!!!

1937 - George Takei is born and begins what he called "a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen" (you know, cuz he's gay), a corridor that took him through being Star Trek's Sulu.

1964 - Everyone's favourite Gollum, Andy Serkis, was born, and would later be denied Academy Award nominations simply because we never really see him, even though he was much more entertaining than visible and whiney Sean Astin.

1979 - Jimmy Carter was nearly decapitated by the ferocious Georgian Swamp Rabbit! The photographic evidence cannot be disproved! RARR! *nibble*nibble*

1992 - Sometime around this date, the British commedian known as Benny Hill finally stopped running around (but unfortunately, other people continued to do so).

2000 - the American racehorse Funny Cide is born and begins a life of being laughed at, an unfortunate side-effect of the name his parents, Distorted Humor and Belle's Good Cide, gave him. (I'd blame the dad, personally.)


April 20 is also National Love-A-Teen day, National High-Five Day, and the first day of the astrological sign of Taurus. So if you run into any teenage Tauren, make sure to show your love via the awesome power of the high five!

Rant: Wikipedia, why is it that when I search for "20 April", the first page of results I get is every day in April up to the 18th, and not even in chronological order? How does that make sense? I don't care if you made it that way because you wanted to make a statement about the history of April 20; I shouldn't have to go to the second page of search results for an exact match in article titles. :P