It is a sound salvation

(We're back on the air.)

June 2, 1896 -
The first radio patent was issued to Guglielmo Marconi in England for his wireless telegraphy apparatus, described as “Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus Therefor.” (UK No. 12,039)





I wonder what will become of that new fangled thing?


Today in History:
June 2, 1740 -
The Marquis de Sade was born on this date and his sexual proclivities made his name a noun.

His sexual proclivities themselves have been preserved in a mason jar at the Louvre.


June 2, 1793 -
Jean Paul Marat recites names of 29 people to the French Assembly, virtually all of whom will be guillotined. The Rain of Terror officially began in France.



This was one of the worst meteorological events in French history and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.


June 2, 1886 -
President (Steven) Grover Cleveland, 49 and weighing over 300 lbs. (think Gov. Chris Christie with a walrus mustache) married Frances Folsom (his legal ward) in a White House ceremony on this date. Ms.Folsom, was the 22-year-old daughter of Cleveland's late law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom.



The intimate wedding ceremony took place in the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people present (those who could get over the entire ick factor.) To date, Cleveland is the only president to marry in the Executive Mansion while in office.

Here's a great bar bet: One of Cleveland's first political post was when he was elected Sheriff of Erie County in New York State in 1870.  While in office, he presided over the hanging of two convicted murderers.  So when he was elected President in 1884 (and in 1892), he was the only President to have personally executed anyone.


June 2, 1897  -
Mark Twain, at age 61, was quoted by the New York Journal on this date, as saying "the report of my death was an exaggeration."

He was responding to the rumors that he had died.

That always puts a crimp in your day


June 2, 1910 -
Charles Stewart Rolls, one of the founders of Rolls-Royce, became the first man to fly an airplane nonstop across the English Channel both ways, on this date.

He became Britain's first aircraft fatality the following month when his biplane broke up in midair; he did not immediate return to his seat when the fasten your seat light was illuminated.


June 2, 1941 -
Baseball great, Lou Gehrig, died at 37 at his home in the Bronx on this date.



You would have thought someone might have mentioned to him that he had Lou Gehrig's disease earlier in his career.


June 2, 1953 -
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Mountbatten officially becomes the head of her family's business and had her coronation on this date.



The entire ceremony was, save for the anointing and communion, televised throughout the Commonwealth, and was watched by an estimated 20 million people, with 12 million more listening on the radio.



The Queen's reign is longer than those of her four immediate predecessors combined (Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI). She is the third longest reigning British or English monarch, the second-longest-serving current monarch of a sovereign state (after King Bhumibol of Thailand) and the oldest reigning British monarch.

Here are the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom who served QEII

Sir Winston Churchill *    1952–1955
Sir Anthony Eden            1955–1957
Harold Macmillan            1957–1963
Sir Alec Douglas-Home   1963–1964 
Harold Wilson                 1964–1970
Edward Heath                  1970–1974
Harold Wilson                  1974–1976
James Callaghan               1976–1979
Margaret Thatcher           1979–1990
John Major                      1990–1997
Tony Blair **                   1997–2007
Gordon Brown                 2007–2010
David Cameron  ***       current

*  Incredibly Churchill had the distinction of being the only MP to be elected under both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.
**  Tony Blair was the first Prime Minister to have been born during The Queen's reign. He was born in early May, 1953 - a month before the Coronation.
*** David Cameron was born in 1966; Prince Andrew, the Queen's third child was already 6 years old at the time.

And boy, is Charles pissed.