Day Tripping: April 10
Ashes, A**holes, and Astronomy
Cataclysmic Climte Change
The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, formerly of the Dutch East Indies, was human histories most powerful record of a volcanic explosion. Having been dormant for centuries before this catastrophic event, the fallout from the climactic eruption of the mountain which is today the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, created a worldwide climate event lasting several years.
Volcanic ash column which reached the stratosphere more than 40 kilometres above Earth’s surface, spread globally and reduced temperatures across the planet. The following year was known as the Year Without A Summer as temperatures in large regions like North America experienced vast harvest failures. Median temperatures fell by a full degree Fahrenheit and frost was reported in northern hemisphere areas like New England in July.
Facebook The Nation
Mark Zuckerberg appears for a marathon of testimony in 2018 to answer more than 600 questions from US Congress regarding Facebook’s data breach to political consulting company, Cambridge Analytica. The firm which had been linked to President Trump’s election campaign in 2016, harvested the personal data of 87 million Facebook users.
Senators also grilled the Facebook CEO with queries about the website’s role in Russian interference, fake news proliferation, and users’ rights to personal privacy. Zuckerberg personally apologized for his company’s mishandling of user information. Cold comfort for those whose personal information was hacked.
Stellar Stills
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration had captured the first-ever photograph of a black hole and is announced in 2019. Located in 2017 in galaxy M87 fifty-five million light years from earth, the massive black hole spans 6.5 Billion times the mass of our sun.
A network of telescopes were used to create a great enough aperture to create the image of the hole’s silhouette, because the interior of a black hole by definition allows no light to emit from it.
Musical Milestones
With the publicity release of his first, self-titled solo album, Paul McCartney signals the official breakup of The Beatles. Though the band hadn’t been in a studio together for months, there was no indication of the final departure until this day in 1970. All four were working on solo albums at the time.
Narratives
Charles Scribner’s Sons publishes the first edition of F. Scott Fizgerald’s The Great Gatsby in 1925. The Jazz era story of the mysterious millionaire has been adapted into film four times, the latest in 2013.
Remembrance
The original bass player for The Beatles, Stuart Sutcliffe die of a brain aneurism in 1962 at the age of 21.
Known for his hard edge comedic style and oft-present beret who loved to screamed at his audience, Sam Kinison was killed by a drunk driving teenager in 1992. He was 38 years old.
Notable Births
1915 — From Joe Firday’s sidekick to Sherman Potter, Harry Morgan played characters in several iconic Westerns as well.
1932 — An Egyptian born actor who broke through Hollywood’s traditional leading man image, Omar Sharif starred in Dr Zhivago and appeared in Lawrence of Arabia.
K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, PhD. Terry Trueman Dr Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich
The Story Of Day Tripping Through History What’s Past Is Often Present
