November 17th, 1973 was a quiet day if you look from far enough away. Certainly, there were tremendous chapters in smaller stories: victories, defeats, birth, death. Actress Leslie Bibb was born this day, so if you ever meet her, casually mention that she was born in 1979; she will like you after that.

The Dead played at Pauley Pavilion in UCLA that day, too. Some Greek students picked a fight with some Greek soldiers and it went as well as expected. Nixon informed the country that he wasn’t a crook, which was not true. (Although–and the dictionary disagrees with me–I always took the word “crook” to mean someone who stole money, which Nixon wasn’t. RN didn’t seem to care much for money – he liked power: assassinating people and bombing countries secretly and making NFL coaches run his stupid trick plays.

How does 11/17 stack up through the years?

Congress held its first session in DC. Suez Canal opened, and Livingstone became the first white guy to see Victoria Falls. Imagine Livingstone’s surprise when the native folks told him the name of the waterfall. “Victoria Falls? You don’t say, old bean! What a lovely coincidence, by Jove!”

Sweden declared war on England and theĀ  war lasted for two years. This is a thing that actually happened. You haven’t heard of it because it was pretty much just on paper. Neither side, in fact, seems to have noticed while it was happening. Which is a nice way to have a war.

In 794, Emporer Kanmu moved from Nara to Kyoto, which was very difficult because the moving van would not be invented for over a thousand years. On the other hand, there was less stuff to move: you did not have to worry about the fridge. You would, though, surely be attacked by ninjas. This is old-timey Japan, after all.

America recognized the Soviet Union in 1933. Diplomatically, not like “Oh, hey: there you are, Soviet Union.”

When they asked him who was responsible
For the death of Du Koo Kim
He said, “Someone should have stopped the fight,” and told me it was him.