Welcome Newcomers to Planet Earth!

WLBOTT welcomes all Newcomers to Planet Earth! November 2^nd, 2023

To help you get started, here are some fun facts from history for November 2^nd.

1755

You share a birthday with Marie-Antoinette, the queen consort of King Louis XVI of France (1774–93).

First of all, what is a “queen consort”?

A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king, and usually shares her spouse’s social rank and status. She holds the feminine equivalent of the king’s monarchical titles and may be crowned and anointed, but historically she does not formally share the king’s political and military powers, unless on occasion acting as regent. – Wikipedia

Did Marie-Antoinette Really Say “Let Them Eat Cake”?

[D]id she ever actually utter those words? Probably not….“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”—doesn’t exactly translate as “Let them eat cake.” It translates as, well, “Let them eat brioche.” – Britannica

Marie-Antoinette, age 7, 13, 16, 20, 28

Brioche, age unknown.

1867

Women’s fashion magazine “Harper’s Bazaar” is 1^st published.

1868

Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally.

1897

1920

In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station.

1924

Sunday Express publishes first British crossword puzzle

1936

The BBC Television Service, the world’s first regular, “high-definition” (then defined as at least 200 lines) service begins. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.

Interesting video on the first BBC broadcast….

1938

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1947

In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the “Spruce Goose”), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built until Scaled Composites rolled out their Stratolaunch in May 2017.

1959

1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway.

1982

Ronald Reagan signs a bill to create Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

1988

A computer science student named Robert Morris released the first computer worm onto the Internet; meant as an experiment, it brought some 6,000 computers (one-tenth of the Internet) to a halt.

2000

Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.