Today in History:
Feb 23 303 -
Roman Emperor Diocletian issues an edict to suppress Christianity, "to tear down the churches to the foundations and to destroy the Sacred Scriptures by fire". Further edicts require that church officials engage in animal sacrifice to appease traditional Roman gods.
I can bet there was some kind of orgy that night.
Feb 23 1885 -
The British hangman at Exeter Gaol tries three times to hang John Lee of Devonshire, for the murder of Emma Keyse. The trap refused to open. His sentence was commuted to life, and he was eventually released.
Feb 23 1915 -
Nevada enacts a law reducing the "quickie divorce" residency requirements down to six months, a figure further reduced in 1931 to six weeks.
On February 23, 1821, English poet John Keats died in Rome. Mr. Keats was Romantic and therefore wrote an Ode to a Nightingale, an Ode to Psyche, and even an Ode to a Grecian Urn.
None of them would have him, so the poor man died alone.
February 23, 1836 -
The siege of the Alamo began. It was quite an adventure. For years afterward people would sigh, "Remember the Alamo?"
And they'd kind of nod and smile, but eventually they forgot.
February 23, 1919 -
Benito Mussolini founded the Fasci del Comattimento ("Evil Fascist Bastards") party in Italy in hopes of improving the nation's irregular train schedules.
The Evil Fascist Bastards did eventually succeed in getting the trains to run on time, but their success was short-lived: allied forces entered the country in the 1940s and threw off their timetables for ever.
February 23, 1940 -
Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" went into general release, on this date.
Have you wished upon a star lately?
February 23, 1945 -
U. S. Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi (Battle of Iwo Jima).
The photograph of the event was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.
February 23, 1996 -
The "Freeway Killer" William G Bonin was executed at San Quentin. He was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the history of California.
For his last meal, Bonin requested two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three pints of coffee ice cream and three six-packs of regular Coca Cola.
That kind of diet will kill you.
And so it goes.
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