November 10th – It Happened on this Day

1619 – René Descartes has the dreams that inspire his ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ or’ In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated’. It was also at that time that Descartes discovered that eating certain foods influence the dreams of an individual and swore off of goose liver pie forever.

1793 – A Goddess of Reason is proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette. Now Chaumette was known to be strongly opposed to women actively participating in politics and yet he insisted that a Goddess of Reason be presented in the guise of an rather erotically dressed actress and the other men at the Convention ‘oooh’d and aaah’d‘, hammered their hands upon their knees and secretly thought of pickup lines to say to the actress and what types of champagne and chocolate they could possibly get their hands on. At the same time, Chaumette, advocated violence on all accounts and constantly called for more blood-letting for the Revolution.

Unfortunately for Chaumette, Maximilien Robespierre was also in attendance became annoyed because Chaumette was blocking the view, announced that the actress was a beaver muncher, called Chaumette a Hébertists (we ain’t talking about the smoking kind), had Chaumette arrested, imprisoned in the Luxembourg Palace and later guillotined. Hence, Chaumette became the unwitting catalyst for the Reign of Terror. That’s right – blame him.

1871 – Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, allegedly greeting him with the words, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” At which time, Livingstone rattled off a string of complaints about the weather, the bugs, the trees, the animals, the lack of good beer, clean shirts and no good bread. Livingstone’s last two traveling companions stepped back from him and disappeared in the forest.

1951 – Direct-Dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the US. The ‘unexplained charges’ on the telephone bill also begins and toll-calling was added, but was never explained.....

1958 – The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. Also faintly heard in the background was Winston muttering “It’s their damn problem now”.