Almanac for August 12th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 12th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-12-U7U61126T2

Bummer August 12th

August 12, 1964: Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels and of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, dies of a heart attack.

August 12, 1982: Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into a mountain after the pilots lose the ability to steer the plane. Of the 509 passengers and 15 crew members, only three passengers and one crew member survive. Rescue operations are delayed due to darkness and mountainous terrain, which means many people who may have initially had non-fatal injuries died of exposure, blood loss, and other conditions. 

August 12, 1988: Haitian-American Neo-Expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is pronounced dead at the hospital after being found unresponsive at his home in Manhattan. His cause of death is heroin overdose. Basquiat is 27 years old.

August 12, 2022: Indian-British author Salman Rushdie is stabbed ten times at an event in Chautauqua, New York, allegedly by a 24-year-old man from New Jersey. Rushdie suffers nerve damage to one arm, one eye, and his liver. The attacker was apparently motivated by a late Iranian religious leader’s description of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses as blasphemous since it depicted the prophet Muhammad as a fictional character. 

Rushdie is an atheist. The attacker had not read The Satanic Verses.

Almanac for August 11

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 11th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-11-J3J81125JX

Happy 1-year anniversary to the publication of this audiobook by Aphra Behn. 

Bummer August 11

August 11, 1956: Painter Jackson Pollock dies in a single-car accident while driving drunk. 

GraceBrown2498, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

August 11, 1978: British medical photographer Janet Parker dies of smallpox, which she’s accidentally been exposed to while working in a hospital. She is the last recorded person to die of smallpox before the disease is declared eradicated.

August 11, 2000: Saudi Arabian musician Talal Maddah collapses and dies suddenly in front of his fans near the start of a concert televised on Saudi TV.

August 11, 2022: A 42-year-old man who participated in the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection attempts to break into the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, after posting on social media that he wanted to kill FBI agents. Armed with a nail gun and a rifle, the man tried unsuccessfully to pass the building’s lobby and fled when confronted. After being chased by police in his vehicle, the middle-aged man raised his weapon at police and was shot to death.

Almanac for August 10

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 10th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-10-M4M5112586

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Bummer August 10th

August 10, 1969: Leno LaBianca, who worked for a supermarket chain, and Rosemary LaBianca, who owned a dress shop, are murdered at their home by members of Charles Manson’s cult. The murderers write the words “Helter Skelter” on the LaBianca’s walls in blood. The words, from a Beatles song, refer to Manson’s delusional belief that Beatles lyrics are personal messages to him.

August 10, 1978: Three teenage girls, all members of the Ulrich family, are killed in an automobile accident while riding in a Ford Pinto. The state of Indiana charges the Ford Motor Company with homicide, claiming that the company was aware of manufacturing defects that made the vehicle more likely to cause death in the event of certain types of accidents. Ford is found not guilty.

August 10, 2018: 29-year-old Richard Russell steals a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 aircraft from Seattle-Tacoma airport. Russell has no previous experience as a pilot. In communication with an air traffic controller, Russell states that he had no intention of landing the plane. He is killed when the aircraft crash-lands on Ketron Island. The crash site is near a residential cabin, but no one on the ground is hurt. 

Almanac for August 9th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 9th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-9-X7X61124R7

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Betty Boop

Uncredited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Artist Birthday: Gillian Anderson

Bummer August 9th

August 9, 1945: The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

August 9, 1969: Actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring, aspiring actor Wojciech Frykowski, and Tate’s unborn baby are killed when members of Charles Manson’s cult break into Tate’s home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California.

August 9, 2010: Skeletal human remains are found in Malibu Canyon in California. They are later determined to belong to Mitrice Richardson, a 24-year-old woman whose family reported her missing in September 2009. 

A bright, beautiful young woman who worked as a forensic psychologist’s intern by day and as a dancer by night, Richardson is observed acting out of character before her disappearance. She eats a meal at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu, California, on September 16, 2009. Staff call the police when she refuses to pay and appears to be experiencing some kind of mental health crisis. Richardson is arrested, but released from detention at 12:28 a.m. on the morning of September 17th. No arrangements are made for her to be picked up or otherwise find transportation home from the county sheriff’s office. 

She was next seen wandering through the Monte Nido residential neighborhood about three miles north of Malibu. Asked by residents if she needed help, Richardson is said to have declined any assistance. However, she was wandering alone at night with no transportation or resources of any kind in a mountainous area. By the time her remains are discovered, it’s impossible to determine whether her cause of death was exposure to the elements, accident, homicide, or some other cause.

In 2020, private investigator Catherine Townsend uncovered some, not entirely conclusive but compelling, evidence that Richardson may have fallen prey not only to a mental health crisis but also a local predator with a history of abusing women.

August 9, 2021: Matthew Taylor Coleman, a surfing instructor from California, is staying with his two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-month-old girl, in Rosarito, Mexico. Suffering from delusional thinking encouraged by his consumption of Qanon conspiracy media, Coleman has come to believe his children inherited “serpent blood” from his wife’s side of the family. Tragically, he stabs both children to death with a spear-fishing gun. 

Almanac for August 8

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 8: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-8-The-Edge-K3K61124EQ

Bummer August 8

August 8, 1965: American author Shirley Jackson dies at age 48 of cardiac arrest, possibly brought on by her alcoholism and use of a variety of prescription medicines.

August 8, 2010: More than 1,400 people in the Gansu region of China are killed by mudslides.

Here's a video I uploaded on August 8, 2025:

Almanac for August 7

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 7: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-7-Throwing-Muses-C0C5111SUU

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Four of my audiobooks are having a first anniversary today:

Humpty Dumpty by Lewis Carroll

The Kiss by Kate Chopin

The Mummy's Foot

What Was It?

Bummer August 7

August 7, 1904: A flash flood near Pueblo, Colorado, washes a train off the tracks, killing 96 people.

August 7, 2016: 10-year-old son Caleb Schwab is killed while riding the Verrückt water raft ride at Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, Kansas. The tallest such ride in the world at the time, the ride had a screen over the top, held in place with a series of metal support rings, to keep guests from accidentally flying off the ride in the event that the raft should become airborn. Caleb, who was riding on the front of a raft with two unrelated women riding on the back, struck the metal support ring and was decapitated when his raft became airborne. 

Almanac for August 6th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 6th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-6th-N4N8106YR8

Artist Birthday: Geri Halliwell

Happy book birthday to this audiobook by Jonathan Swift that I published on August 6, 2025:

Bummer August 6

August 6, 1931: 28-year-old jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke dies of pneumonia and edema of the brain, possibly related to chronic alcoholism, in his Queens, New York, apartment. The excessive heat of the summer may have been another contributing factor.

August 6, 1945: The United States military drops the world’s first weaponized nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb immediately killed 80,000 people. Another 60,000 die later from the effects of radiation. 

August 6, 2001: 27 hospital patients being treated for various mental health disorders die when the Moideen Badusha Mental Home in Erwadi, India, catches fire. All of these patients are chained to their beds at night and therefore had no chance to escape from the fire. Many other patients are injured.