August 13

Otto Witte, an acrobat by training, was crowned King of Albania on the 13th in 1913. I think political reformers in our country might do well to consider having circus performers, and perhaps magicians, included on the national ballot. I haven’t voted since Mo Udall lost his bid for the presidency, but I would jump at the chance to vote for Penn and Teller.

In what was an unsettling first for me, I allowed this entry to appear in the print edition of the Review as having happened on the 12th and not on the 13th, which is the correct date. At least I got the year right. I would blame the research department but I rather like them and must accept full responsibility. I fully intend to have myself taken out back this evening and shot repeatedly. That is, of course, unless I am able to come up with even a lame excuse for my having allowed what is clearly a typographical error to pass through unnoticed. On the other hand, it could have been the work of al Qaeda, bin Laden, or perhaps Hezbollah or one of those other people whose names I can’t spell. It certainly could not have been sloppiness on my part because if you believe that then the terrorists have won.

August 12

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was born on the 12th in 1887. He was an Austrian physicist who achieved some measure of fame for his contributions to quantum mechanics. I have absolutely no idea was that is but it must be very, very important because in 1933 he was awarded a Nobel prize for his work in that area and the Nobel Committee is not generally known for tossing those things around to simply anyone who has an incredibly long name. It is my guess that after receiving the Nobel Prize Schrödinger took to strong drink because in 1935 he gave to a breathlessly waiting world Schrödinger’s Cat Thought Experiment. Anyone who has had a close association with cats would know that it is best to not open that door.

August 11

It was certainly a long time coming but on the 11th in 1972, the last American combat unit finally left South Vietnam. There is a rather complex story behind this departure. I don’t think it necessary to rehash here that portion of the history of Vietnam because I am reasonably certain that everyone knows, or should know, that particular story. Less is known however about how the State of South Vietnam came to even be.
The State of South Vietnam came into being on June 14th in 1949, during the First Indochina War. On that date, the Emperor Bao Dai was chosen by the French to be Chief of State of South Vietnam, a country that had not existed before. The country’s formation was a cooperative effort by anti-communist Vietnamese forces and the French government. The entire Southeast Asian region has for years, perhaps centuries, been the focus of heated military actions by most governments who have happened upon this choice piece of real estate. The French motive for the formation of this new state was to insure their control over the area and save it from the dreaded communist hordes waiting to pour across the Chinese border into Vietnam. The Chinese view was quite different from that held by the French. They just wanted their colony of Cochin-China back. The American role, minor at first grew to an impressive level. Americans’ opposition to the war grew both in numbers and in the number, and aggressive nature of protests, at a rate that kept pace with the deployment of American forces sent to the killing fields that Vietnam came to be.

August 10

Archie, Missouri is a rather small town. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 890. It’s probably safe to assume that in 1930s it was either the same size or, more likely, smaller than it is today. On the 10th in 1932 a meteorite weighing roughly 11 pounds came rocketing out of the heavens, shattered, broke into at least seven pieces, and rained down on this quaint little backwater town. I don’t know why someone took it upon themselves to find out what kind of meteorite it was, but they did. Why would that be of any importance at all? In any event, it seems to have been a chondrite-type meteorite, whatever the heck that is. Why would someone go out of their way to find that out? If I’m sitting on the porch sipping on a new batch of moonshine I don’t think I’m going to be prompted to investigate too closely if a flaming rock suddenly appears in the sky and appears as if it is heading straight for my house. The only thing that would occur to me at that particular point in time would be to head for the basement. Wait, that’s what you’re supposed to do in a tornado. I think that I would just grab the jug and head for a neighbor’s house.

August 9

The world entered the atomic age when, on the 6th in 1945, the USAF bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed Little Man on Hiroshima, Japan killing 80,000 immediately and an additional 60,000 by the end of the year. Ultimately, well over 200,000 people would die as a result of this bombing. On the 9th the bomber Bockscar dropped Fat Man, another atomic bomb on Nagasaki killing an estimated 90,000 people. It’s safe to say that well over a quarter of a million people were killed by these two bomb runs. Japan brought the war in the Pacific to an end when it surrendered five days after the Nagasaki bombing. It has been argued that the use of these two atomic weapons shortened the war and ended up saving more lives then they took. This argument may have some merit. If I may paraphrase Mick Jagger in the movie Performance, when you use an atomic weapon you open a door and you have to accept what walks through it. Viewed from the perspective of time, I am of the opinion that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused, and continues to cause, more and more deaths because of the widespread acceptance of the idea that the end justifies the means.

August 8

August 8 is an extraordinarily bad day for Republicans It was on the 8th in 1973, that Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon's vice-president, appeared on national television to make the claim that he had not taken kickbacks when he was governor of Maryland. In spite of his vigorous denials and arguments that he was innocent, Spiro ended his career in Public service by resigning in October of that year, a step that had been taken by one previous vice-president, John C. Calhoun.

The story of August 8 does not end there however. In an ironic twist of fate, the 8th also played a rather significant role in the Greek tragedy that Richard Nixon’s life became. On this date in 1972, Nixon accepted the nomination of the Republican Party to be their candidate for the presidency of the United States. After more than a few twists and turns in the road, on the same day in 1974, after having done battle with the entire nation in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon announced his resignation, to be effective on the following day becoming the first President to do so.

August 7

On the 7th in 1947 -Thor Heyerdahl and crew, on board a 40 foot balsa wood raft named Kon Tiki, were roughly tossed on a reef near Raroia one of the Tuamotu Islands. Eventually that day Heyerdahl, his crew and the Kon Tiki made it safely to the beach bringing to a successful close a 101 day, 4375-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean. For this trip Heyerdahl used a raft, which was a faithful copy of an ancient Peruvian boat. The only nod to the 20th century was a radio. I suppose technically speaking this thing was a boat but considering the size of the Pacific Ocean it was a very small boat. It was roughly 45 feet long and maybe 18 feet wide. It had an open cabin on the deck and below decks was an ocean for crying out loud. The darn thing had negligible freeboard. The Kon Tiki’s voyage was sort of like taking a big surfboard from California to Hawaii, something that I am sure someone in Southern California has probably considered doing, but that’s Southern California so it doesn’t really count. As is evident from Heyerdahl’s picture which I have borrowed from The Kon-Tiki Museum (http://www.kon-tiki.no/) he was not only a brilliant anthropologist but was also way ahead of the fashion curve when undertaking this voyage.