Today in History: 18 June
618 – Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty’s rule over China
1682 – English Quaker William Penn founds Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania Colony
1778 – British Redcoats evacuate Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and head for New York
1815 – Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon Bonaparte and France defeated by British forces under Field Marshall von Blucher
1847 – American photographer Thomas Martin Easterly takes the earliest known photograph of lightning using the daguerreotype process in St. Louis, Missouri
1873 – Susan B. Anthony fined $100 ($2,200 in 2020 value) for voting for US President in Rochester, New York; she refused to pay the fine and no further action against her was taken
1898 – Steel Pier, 1st amusement pier opens in Atlantic City, New Jersey
1928 – American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean (as a passenger), landing at Burry Port, Wales
1930 – Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Franklin Institute science museum held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1940 – Winston Churchill gives his “this was their finest hour” speech to the House of Commons urging perseverance in the war after the Dunkirk evacuation and the fall of France
1953 – Red Sox rookie Eugene Stephens is 1st player in AL history to register 3 hits in an inning as Boston scores 17 runs in the 7th during 23-3 rout of visiting Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park, Boston
1980 – Indian “human computer” Shakuntala Devi sets a world record by mentally multiplying two random 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds; she correctly answered that 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 = 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730
1983 – Space shuttle Challenger 2 launches the first American woman into space, astronaut Sally Ride
2023 – Submersible vessel exploring wreck of the RMS Titanic implodes in the North Atlantic Ocean killing 5 occupants
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1886 – George Mallory, English mountain climber
1932 – Dudley Heschbach, American chemist known for molecular dynamics
1942 – Paul McCartney, British rock singer-songwriter
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1673 – Jeanne Mance, French-Canadian settler who founded the first hospital in North America
1928 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer
2002 – Jack Buck, American sports announcer
The Funnies:
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Mouseover: In contrast to Pascal’s Wager Triangle, Pascal’s Triangle Wager argues that maybe God wants you to draw a triangle of numbers where each one is the sum of the two numbers above it, so you probably should, just in case…
Explain XKCD 2947: Pascal's Wager Triangle - explain xkcd
Image Credit: xkcd: Pascal's Wager Triangle
Inspirobot Sometimes Controversial Inspirational Quote of the Day:
In case you missed it, you should go check out yesterday’s cat-egorically out of this world Spark by @Lonny6654 over here….
