Would black Cthulhu, who slimed out of the dark stars when your most eldritch nightmares were suckling at their mothers’ pseudomammaria, who waits for the time that the stars come right to come forth from his tomb-palace, revive the faithful and resume his rule, who waits to teach anew the high and luscious pleasures of death and revelry, would he lie to you?
1899
John S. Thurman of St. Louis, Missouri patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner as a “pneumatic carpet renovator.” (US No. 634,042) He offers the services of his gasoline-powered vacuum from a horse-drawn wagon at US$4 per visit in St. Louis, but by 1906, Thurman will begin offering built-in central vacuum systems.
1901
Victor Talking Machine Company is founded by Eldridge R Johnson and Emile Berliner.
1906
In Berlin, the second international conference on wireless telegraphy adopts SOS as the international distress signal to replace the previous CQD call sign.
1922
A photo is sent via facsimile over public telephone lines for the first time. Th image is sent between 1519 Connecticut Ave and the US Navy Radio Staion NOF at Anacostia in Washington D.C.
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You don’t throw away your books when you buy a computer. You keep both. The beauty of living in the present day is you don’t abandon the past. The past co-exists.
1608
In the Netherlands, Hans Lippershey successfully complete the construction of the first optical telescope. Though there have been earlier telescopes, Lippershey will be the first to patent the device, though he’ll beat out Jacob Metius by only a matter of weeks. He will ultimately be credited with the invention and popularization of the telescope.
1836
Charles Darwin returns from his historical journey aboard the HMS Beagle to Falmouth, England.
1919
US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke that leaves the left side of his body paralyzed and his left eye blind. He will remain largely disabled through the remainder of his term, leaving his second wife, Edith Wilson nominally in charge of his Presidential duties. Because the full extent of Wilson’s disability and his wife’s role in his presidency won’t be revealed to the public at large until after his death in 1921, Edith Wilson will sometimes be referred to as “the Secret President,” “the first woman to run the government,” and even “the first female president of the United States.”
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Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is a wrong to his family. He cheats them! Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it.
I just discovered a great site, DailyLit.com. It provides an RSS feed of audiobooks in five minute segments, so that you can easily work the sort of lengthy novels you can never find the time to read into your daily schedule. Their selection includes classic public domain texts like Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, but they also have a good number of fantasy, horror, and science fiction titles.
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