July 16

On the 16th in 1931, Ethiopia’s emperor, Haile Selassie[i] I (pictured), signed that country’s first constitution. Selassie, probably called ‘Hi’ by his friends as a kid, was not a slacker by any means; he traced his family line back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, not too shabby at all. However, I can trace mine, back to Rinaldo Rossetti and Alma Hansen, so I’m not that impressed. He must have been an extremely popular monarch though, because some people considered him Jesus Christ returned to earth. Selassie’s followers would become the founders of the Rastifari movement. They grabbed the name from Haile’s name before he became emperor, which was Rasta Fari Makonnen[ii], Rasta meaning prince. Selassie did nothing to call into question the idea being kicked around at the time that he was actually God incarnate. I mean really, who would? Being considered God has lots of perks attached to it. Jim Jones[iii] felt the same way, though he didn’t fare nearly as well as Selassie did.
[i] His name means “Power of the Trinity”.
[ii] As a kid, Selassie probably hung out with Arthur Rimbaud, a rapidly dissipating poet sort of guy, who was a close friend of Selassie’s daddy Ras Makkonnen.
[iii] After graduate school at Indiana University, Jones sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to fund his own church which he planned to name Wings of Deliverance. He ultimately decided on the name Peoples Temple.