Almanac for June 9th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 9th: https://ko-fi.com/Post/June-9-R5R51GMJ4M

Today's Observance: St. Columba's Day
Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Jurassic Park 
Artist Birthday: Cole Porter

Bummer June 9th

June 9, 1865: Charles Dickens and his friend/perhaps lover Ellen Lawless Ternan are riding in a train on a voyage home from Paris. The train is near the village of Staplehurst, Kent, when it crosses a bridge. The engineer is unaware, until it's too late, that the bridge is closed for repairs and about 42 feet of track have been removed.

Dickens and Ternan, riding in the first-class car near the front of the train, are carried over the gap by the momentum of the engine. Their car lands on its side, but although they're shaken, they don’t have any serious injuries.

The center and rear cars of the train fall into the river below. Ten passengers are killed. Approximately 50 others are injured. Dickens helps render aid to the victims at the scene; some of them die in front of him. For the rest of his life he suffers flashbacks; in modern terms he could probably be said to suffer from PTSD.

June 9, 1930: Jack Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, is shot and killed by Leo Brothers, who worked as a bouncer at a club owned by Al Capone. Initially hailed as a martyr for freedom of the press, Lingle is later discovered to have connections to illegal gambling and liquor bootlegging.

Almanac for February 14th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 14th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-14-Valentine-I2I61AOJG5

The Milwaukee Leader, February 14, 1926

Today's Observance: Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day at Once Upon a Screen blog

This is an affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3ZAIPJG

Bummer February 14th

February 14, 1779: Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief of Hawaii, stabs Captain James Cook to death while Cook attempts to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu and hold him for ransom. In the ensuing struggle, an unrecorded number of Hawaiians and four of Cook’s men are also killed.

February 14, 1929: In what becomes known as the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, Al Capone’s gangsters line up seven members of Bugs Moran’s rival gang and machine gun them to death. Police arrive in time to find one survivor, Frank Gusenberg, suffering from 14 bullet wounds. They ask Gusenberg to name his killer, but Gusenberg refuses before he succumbs to his injuries.

February 14, 1981: A fire at the Stardust Disco in Dublin, Ireland, kills 48 people.

February 14, 1988: A fire that begins in the newspaper room of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad destroys an estimated 300,000 books.

February 14, 1989: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issues a pronouncement urging faithful Muslims to assassinate Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s magical realist novel The Satanic Verses depicts a fictional version of the Prophet Mohammad as a character, which the Ayatollah considers blasphemous.

February 14, 1994: Southeast Missouri State University student Michael Davis dies of bleeding on the brain after a brutal beating that served as an initiation ritual for the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.