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Carolina Naturally
Carolina Naturally
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1553 | The Sadians defeat the last of their enemies and establish themselves as rulers of Morocco. | |
1561 | Philip II of Spain gives orders to halt colonizing efforts in Florida. | |
1577 | William of Orange makes his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium. | |
1667 | Slaves in Virginia are banned from obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity. | |
1739 | The Austrians sign the Treaty of Belgrade after having lost the city to the Turks. | |
1779 | The American navy under John Paul Jones, commanding from Bonhomme Richard, defeats and captures the British man-of-war Serapis. | |
1788 | Louis XVI of France declares the Parliament restored. | |
1795 | A national plebiscite approves the new French constitution, but so many voters abstain that the results are suspect. | |
1803 | British Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats the Marathas at Assaye, India. | |
1805 | Lieutenant Zebulon Pike pays $2,000 to buy from the Sioux a 9-square-mile tract at the mouth of the Minnesota River that will be used to establish a military post, Fort Snelling. | |
1806 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrives back in St. Louis just over three years after its departure. | |
1864 | Confederate and Union forces clash at Mount Jackson, Front Royal and Woodstock in Virginia during the Valley campaign. | |
1911 | The Second International Aviation Meet opens in New York. | |
1912 | Mack Sennett’s first “Keystone Cops” film debuts, Cohen Collects a Debt. | |
1945 | The first American dies in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces. | |
1952 | Nixon responds to charges of a secret slush fund during his ‘Checkers Speech.’ | |
1954 | East German police arrest 400 citizens as U.S. spies. | |
1967 | The Soviets sign a pact to send more aid to Hanoi. | |
1973 | Juan Peron is re-elected president of Argentina after being overthrown in 1955. | |
1983 | Gerrie Coetzee (Gerhardus Coetzee), a boxer from South Africa becomes the first boxer from the African continent to win a world heavyweight tittle (World Boxing Association). | |
1983 | Gulf Air Flight 771 from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, UAE, bombed; all 117 aboard die. | |
1992 | The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates 3,700-lb bomb in Belfast, completely destroying the Northern Ireland forensic laboratory, injuring 20 people and damaging 700 houses. | |
2002 | The first public version of the Mozilla Firefox browser is released; originally called Phoenix 0.1 its name was changed due to trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. | |
2004 | Hurricane Jeanne causes severe flooding in Haiti; over 1,000 are reported dead. |
Yet for two out of the last three years, the world’s largest pumpkins have sprung up in Europe. “They’re doing very well, and I tip my hat to them,” says Ron Wallace, a country club manager in Greene, Rhode Island, who was paraded on the shoulders of jubilant pumpkin growers one glorious day in 2006 after his squash became the world’s first to break 1,500 pounds. Today, pumpkin growers are gaining on 3,000 pounds, but the Belgians, Swiss and British are in the lead.Well, see, there was this American soldier stationed in Germany, and… an article at Smithsonian magazine looks at how the fascination with record-setting pumpkins spread to Europe.
One of the earliest cases of exploding pants, and the one most closely associated with the phenomenon, involved a farmer named Richard Buckley, who made the local news after some of his pants exploded in his house. After wearing them to spray the sodium chlorate, he hung them in front of the fire to dry out. Out of nowhere, his trousers exploded with a bang. According to a news report from the day, he was able to snag his now flaming pants and throw them out onto the grass where small explosions continued to erupt in the garment. Buckley was alarmed, but unharmed.Eventually the phenomena was connected with the herbicide, and steps were taken to prevent it from happening. During Pants Week at Atlas Obscura, we get to read the story of New Zealand's exploding pants.
Around the same time, similar reports of spontaneously combusting pants began to appear, and not all of them were as harmless as Buckley’s. One report claimed that a farmer was riding his horse when the friction caused his pants to begin to smolder right there in the saddle. Another pair of pants were hanging out to dry when they suddenly burst into flames. Then there were the unfortunate souls who happened to be wearing their pants when the chemical reaction got started. Some survived with serious burns, while at least a handful of farmers died from the ignitions. One person, referenced in Watson’s paper, died after lighting a match in his electricity-free home, just trying to check on his baby.