Today in History: 1178 Five monks at Canterbury report something exploding on the moon shortly after sunset (only known observation)
On June 18, 1178, five monks in Canterbury, England, believed they witnessed the formation of a crater on the Moon. The crater, marked by a bright ray system, is today known as the Giordano Bruno crater. The monks reported an impact in which “the upper horn [of the moon] split in two” and a “flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks.” In the near past, some astronomers said the monks’ account might actually be pretty right. A passing comet or asteroid probably collided with the Moon. The collision likely caused impact melts, or rocks melted by the shock of the powerful impact. This molten material could be the “flaming torch” the monks described.
This is disputed, however, as a possible cosmic coincidence. Scientists theorize the impact necessary to have created the large moon crater would have ejected so much debris that meteor storms would have occurred for days on Earth. Yet, the monks’ observations were not documented in other parts of the world.
The English monks likely saw a particularly spectacular meteor falling to Earth that just so happened to align with Giordano Bruno crater and Canterbury from their angle of observation. Seeing the meteor burn in Earth’s atmosphere as they looked up to see the crater, made the monks think they were seeing the crater’s creation. Furthermore, many modern astronomers, however, don’t think the crater is quite so young. Studies estimate the age of Giordano Bruno to be between over a million to 10 million years old—very young by cosmic standards, but nowhere near young enough for the English monks to witness!
Read more here: Monks May Witness the Moon ‘Split in Two’
Also on this day:
618 Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China
860 Rus Vikings attack Constantinople
1264 The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature
1542 Crown of Ireland Act 1542 passed by the Parliament of Ireland, gives English King Henry VIII the title “King of Ireland”
1583 Richard Martin of London takes out first life insurance policy, on William Gibbons; premium was £383 (£138,642/$86,159 today!)
1639 Treaty of Berwick: Ends the First Bishops’ War between England and Scotland
1682 English Quaker William Penn founds Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania Colony
1767 Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti; considered the first European to reach the island
1815 Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon Bonaparte and France defeated by British forces under Duke of Wellington and Prussian troops under Field Marshall von Blücher
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 is fined $100 ($2,200 in 2020 value) for voting for US President in Rochester, New York; she refuses to pay, and no further action against her is taken
1940 General Charles de Gaulle makes his first speech on the BBC to the French people, since arriving in London, an appeal to defy Nazi occupiers - regarded as the beginning of French Resistance during WWII
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
1945 William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw), fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster, charged with treason in England
1953 USAF C-124 Globemaster crashes shortly after takeoff from Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, killing 129 servicemen; at the time, it was the deadliest incident in aviation history
1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital’s director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane
1967 Closing day of the Monterey International Pop Festival, Southern California, featuring first major US appearances of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Otis Redding
1977 Space Shuttle test model “Enterprise” carries a crew aloft for 1st time, it was fixed to a modified Boeing 747
1979 US President Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT II treaty limiting nuclear weapons
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1971 Nigel Owens - Welsh rugby union referee (record holder for most Test matches refereed 100), born in Mynyddcerrig, Wales
1949 William Randolph Hearst III - American publishing heir, editor, and philanthropist, born in the USA
1942 Sir Paul McCartney - British rock singer-songwriter, bassist, piano player (The Beatles, Wings), born in Liverpool, England
1915 Red Adair - American oilman (fought oil fires in Kuwait), born in Houston, Texas (d. 2004)
1799 William Lassell - British astronomer who discovered satellites of Uranus and Neptune, born in Bolton, England (d. 1880)
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2020 Dame Vera Lynn - British popular music singer, known as ‘the Forces’ Sweetheart’ (“We’ll Meet Again”; “The White Cliffs of Dover”), dies at 103
1982 Curd Jürgens [Curt Jurgens] - German-born Austrian actor (The Enemy Below; The Longest Day), dies of a heart attack at 66
1973 Roger Delgado - English actor (Doctor Who, Agent 8 3/4, Hot Enough for June), dies in a road accident at 55
1928 Roald Amundsen - Norwegian polar explorer who led the 1st expedition to the South Pole, dies in a plane crash while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic at 55
1916 Max Immelmann - German pilot (1st flying ace of WWI), shot down over Northern France at 25
Holidays on this day
Autistic Pride Day
Go Fishing Day
International Panic Day
International Picnic Day
International Sushi Day
National Cheesemaker’s Day
National Cherry Tart Day
National Splurge Day
The Funnies:
Interesting (not necessarily extinct) animal of the day:
The Cahow (or Bermuda Petrel) is Bermuda’s national bird and over the years this exquisite grey Pterodroma petrel has acquired almost mythical status, thanks to its remarkable story. Thought to be extinct for over three centuries, it was rediscovered and then brought back from the brink by the efforts of a few dedicated people; its recovery is one of conservation’s most heart-warming success stories.
Sub-fossil records indicate that the Cahow was an abundant breeder on Bermuda prior to human settlement and its demise began with the arrival of Man. From the 1500s onwards, exploitation for food, habitat destruction, and predation by rats, cats and pigs helped extirpate the Cahow from the main islands. There were no records after 1620 and the species was assumed to be extinct. Then came the discovery of a live bird in 1906 (at the time mistakenly identified) and the subsequent discovery of two dead specimens in 1935 and 1945. An expedition in 1951 (in which David Wingate participated) confirmed the species’ survival - on just five tiny, rocky islets in Castle Harbour. The entire world population that year was estimated to be just 17 or 18 pairs, with just eight chicks being produced.
The five breeding islets on which the Cahow survived at that time are precarious to say the least. With the limestone islets themselves vulnerable to rising sea levels and hurricane damage, the birds also had to contend with White-tailed Tropicbirds entering their nest burrows and killing the chicks. David Wingate’s carefully constructed entrance hole ‘baffles’ excluded the tropicbirds and his ecological restoration of nearby Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve (as a potential site for natural recolonisation) underpinned the next chapter in the story of the Cahow’s recovery.
But continued erosion of the islets meant that drastic measures had to be taken. Step forward the Cahow’s current guardian angel, Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer for Bermuda’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In 2001 he began translocating chicks just prior to fledging, from the vulnerable islets to artificial burrows on Nonsuch Island. The chicks were hand-fed in their new homes for a couple of weeks, the idea being that they would imprint on the burrows from which they fledged.
Guess what? The project has been a resounding success and in the 2018 nesting season 125 pairs were identified. In the breeding season proper, Cahows are strictly nocturnal and in daylight seldom venture close enough to land to be observed. However, although eggs are not laid until late January or February, adults return to Bermuda waters for a couple of weeks in early November, to court, mate and stake a claim on a nest burrow. During this time there is a small window of opportunity to see them at sea as they gather inshore, within a few miles of land, in the late afternoon.
The Bermuda Audubon Society is a non-profit charity that brings together people interested in both birding and environmental conservation. It owns 16 nature reserves in Bermuda - approximately 60 acres of open space – and restores wetlands and other wildlife habitats. In addition to being advocates for Bermuda’s natural environment the Bermuda Audubon Society promotes public awareness of environmental issues and supports a range of conservation projects. This includes the Cahow nest-site programme and Bird Photographer of the Year is proud to be working alongside the organisation, to help raise funds for, and awareness of, such a vital project helping this highly endangered species.
Read more: Saving the Cahow, the story of the Bermuda Petrel for 2020 — Bird Photographer of the Year
Quote of the Day:
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
Albert Einstein
Video of the Day:
Happy birthday to Alison Moyet (1961):
And to Sir Paul McCartney (1942):
and for a bonus bit of Macca…
Comic of the Day:
Credit: #735; The Useful Double Positive – Wondermark
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
Read @Vikingmichael’s transplanted Spark! from yesterday here: https://community.spiceworks.com/t/spark-pro-series-17-june-2025
Don’t forget to leave some spice right here ↓
