Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for October 17th: https://ko-fi.com/post/October-17-Black-Poetry-Day-K3K614SOG5
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| National Library of Wales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Bummer October 17th
October 17, 1586: Sir Philip Sidney dies of an infection from a thigh wound he’d suffered at the Battle of Zutphen that September, when Sidney loaned his armor to a soldier who’d forgotten his own. Sidney is 32 years old.
October 17, 1814: Eight people die as a result of the a 22-foot-tall vat of fermenting porter bursting and causing a chain reaction of bursting beer barrels in London. Victims either drowned in the resulting flood or died of sudden, acute alcohol poisoning from inhaling the vapors.
October 17, 1873: Cornell University student Mortimer N. Leggett dies during a Kappa Alpha Society hazing ritual that involved walking in the woods blindfolded. Leggett and three others fell into a gorge; the others survived.
October 17, 1955: Wealthy race car driver/playboy Joel Thorne is flying a private plane in North Hollywood, California, when he flies into an apartment building, killing himself and three residents of the building. The youngest victim is two months old.
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