Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 14, 1912: Former president Theodore Roosevelt was shot while giving a speech at Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet from a .38 caliber Colt revolver still within, Roosevelt delivered his scheduled speech. He survived. His assailant was John Flammang Schrank, a Bavarian-born saloon-keeper from New York City, a wealthy man who claimed that in a dream the assassinated President McKinley asked him to avenge his death.


A judge appointed panel determined Schrank was insane. The following month he was committed to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun, Wisconsin. According to TIME magazine, No one visited him or sent him any mail during his 31 years there where he died on September 15, 1943, of bronchial pneumonia. Today the asylum is known as Dodge Correctional Institution (DCI), an adult male maximum-security correctional facility. A notable psychopath housed here was 1950s murderer, grave robber Ed Gein, aka The Mad Butcher; The Plainfield Ghoul.


October 14, 1926: The children’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published. The author named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear that was owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, on whom the character, Christopher Robin, was based. The book featured this map of locations used within the stories, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. You can't beat a 'nice for piknicks' spot, that's for sure! The book entered the public domain on January 1, 2022.


Winnie the Pooh Map
The UK copyright will expire at the end of 2026, the 70th year since Milne's death. As Shepard lived until 1976, the UK copyright on his illustrations will remain in effect until 2047.



October 14, 1939: On Friday October 13th the German submarine U-47 sank the "Mighty Oak" HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow, Scotland in a daring sneak attack. 834 men died with the ship or died later of their wounds. 134 of the dead were young boys, not yet 18 years old, the largest ever such loss in a single Royal Navy action. Due to the painful loss, Churchill was obliged to respond to questions in the House as to why the Royal Oak had had aboard so many boys, most of whom died. He defended the Royal Navy tradition of sending boys aged 15 to 17 to sea, but the practice was generally discontinued shortly after the disaster, and under 18-year-olds served on active warships in only the most exceptional circumstances.

The sinking of HMS Royal Oak was a notable German propaganda coup. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry was quick to capitalise on the successful raid, and radio broadcasts by the popular journalist Hans Fritzsche displayed the triumph felt throughout Germany. The submarine captain Günther Prien & entire crew received the German Iron Cross.


On Churchill's orders, the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow were sealed with concrete causeways constructed largely by Italian prisoners of war, the Churchill Barriers, as they became known, were essentially complete by September 1944, and were opened officially just after VE Day in May 1945.

Captain Prien did not survive the war: he and U-47 were lost on March 7, 1941, possibly as a result of an attack by the British destroyer HMS Wolverine.

At a service held on October 9, 2019, a memorial stone was unveiled in the church by Anne, Princess Royal, the Commodore-in-Chief of HMNB Portsmouth. Some 150 relatives and descendants of the 1,259 men and boys who were aboard battleship HMS Royal Oak were in attendance.

Kenneth Toop, who survived the sinking while serving as a boy, first class, on Royal Oak, served as the Association's honorary secretary for fifteen years. The last remaining survivor of Royal Oak, Arthur Smith, died on 11 December 2016. Serving as a 17-year-old boy, first class, he had been on watch on the bridge when the ship was struck and jumped from the sinking vessel, swimming in the wrong direction until he was picked up by a boat.


Despite the relatively shallow water in which she sank, the majority of bodies could not be recovered from Royal Oak. Marked by a buoy at 58.9487212,-2.9375864, the wreck has been designated a war grave and all diving or other unauthorised forms of exploration are prohibited under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
Princess Royal unveils WW2 memorial in Portsmouth

New images reveal sunken Royal Oak battleship


The Sinking of HMS Royal Oak by Colin F. Jones

Like a sleeping giant the Royal Oak lay,
When the U-47 Submarine struck,
Three `eels' were fired two lost their way,
But with one there was some luck.

It hit Royal Oaks anchor cable,
Though it hardly left a mark,
Her shaded anchor lights still burned,
Faintly in the dark.

Flood number five from number one,
Open the outer door; she's ready!
'Los'; number five; fired from the stern,
The line of travel steady.

Close outer door! Tube is secured,
The fourth 'eel' is on its way.

But only a spiral of spurting sea,
Was visible through the spray.

"Reload the tubes," Priens order came,
"Prepare another `fan' of three,"
Down came the chain hoist from above,
As the Sub ploughed through the sea.

"Attack" the order turned the bows,
towards the sleeping ship,
Endrass bent over the optic aim,
Felt the Submarine turn and dip.

Doors reopened, the eels jumped out,
Three torpedoes from the bow,
Towards the Royal Oaks starboard side,
That were closing faster now.

The great ship shuddered, lifted up,
Then she gently settled back,
Lights flickered out, fans stopped running,
All power she did lack!

Across the decks the water flowed,
And a sheet of orange flame,
Exploded beneath the starboard deck,
Impossible to restrain.

Thick black smoke rose o'er the port,
Bulkheads shuddered and cracked,
Decks caved in and swirling flames,
Rose from the cruel impact
Through doors and hatches men were blown,
From hot ladders they were flung,
In hammocks brutally devoured by fire
Their flesh from the cabin walls clung.

Her death throes over the Royal Oak,
Plunged beneath the waves,
A tomb for more than eight hundred men,
For few that day were saved.

Silently the Submarine slipped,
Out to the ocean deep,
Leaving Scapa Flow and the Royal Oak,
To the nightmares of their sleep.

HMS Royal Oak Dedication Website

It wasn't until 40 years after the sinking the UK gov't finally released all the names of the HMS Royal Oak crew who perished. The wreck of Royal Oak, a designated war grave, lies almost upside down in 100 feet (30 m) of water with her hull 16 feet beneath the surface. In an annual ceremony marking the loss of the ship, Royal Navy divers place a White Ensign underwater at her stern.

This excellent 50 min documentary produced in the late 1990's and released in 2001 shows underwater footage with the final credits include the names of all those who died. The Roll-call of those lost is also published here.





October 14, 1940: A German Luftwaffe bomb penetrated Balham High Road in London, hitting the underground station, killing at least 66 people. It produced one of the most (in)famous photos of World War II.


15 Powerful Photos Of The Blitz

Just before 8pm on October 14, 1940 the air raid sirens began their awful, mournful wail. Estimates say as many as 600 people packed on to the platforms at Balham, many bringing bedding in case they had to stay the night.

At about 10pm a 1400kg armour piercing bomb smashed through the surface of the High St and exploded, blowing a huge crater in the road and tearing off the fronts of adjacent buildings. A double decker bus crashed into the hole, although no one aboard was killed.

Down below the bomb had collapsed part of a northbound tunnel and ruptured water, sewage and gas mains, causing the station to begin to flood.

None of the 600 people below were killed by the explosion or the collapse. While some accounts say people were drowned, others say all the fatalities were due to the panic among those trying to get out of the station.

Although a memorial plaque at the site once stated that 64 people died, some accounts say 68 and the official Commonwealth War Graves figure is 66. The plaque was later removed and replaced with one that simply states: “In remembrance of the civilians and London Transport staff who were killed at this station during the Blitz on the night of 14 October 1940.”

At the time the incident was not widely publicised for fear of the impact it might have on morale, but it was difficult to keep quiet about so many deaths.

What Was It Really Like To Shelter In The Tube During WWII?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFBElxcuCXc


October 14, 1962: American U-2 surveillance plane takes aerial photos of missile installations in Cuba.


In a televised address on October 22, 1962, President Kennedy informed the American people of the presence of missile sties in Cuba. When the United States put a naval blockade in place around Cuba, tensions mounted, and the world wondered if there could be a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba (1962)


A young Bill Clinton (17) meets President John F. Kennedy (1963)


https://x.com/angelurena/status/1845612909847605626


October 14, 2013: Grace Adelaide Jones, the oldest person in the UK, and then the 6th oldest in the world, died at the age of 113 years, 342 days. She was born in London on 7 December 1899, and she was also the last living British person to be born in the 19th century. She attributed her long life to eating “good English food, never anything frozen”.


As of today, the oldest person living in the United Kingdom is Ethel Caterham, born 21 August 1909, aged 115 years, 54 days. WoW!

Gerontology Wiki and World Supercentenarian Rankings List



A sea story...
In the years preceding the Great Pacific War, the US military seemed to be blindly focused on the boogie man from the Russo-Ukrainian war, cheap drones. As the skies in an arch from Okinawa, to Guam, to Darwin rained conventional land attack and anti-ship ballistic missiles, much of their focused efforts in the years prior to the outbreak of hostilities, to counter drones, remained either on the Powerpoint slide, in warehouses somewhere within the US, or in jumbled masses in smoking ruins of bunkers, hangars, and warehouses comfortably within range of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Forces (PLARF).

Initial reports on the first day seemed to indicate that PLARF’s efforts would be similar to the Iranian attack on Israel in the early fall of 2024; a lot got through, but didn’t do much damage. Close and around, but not on targets.

US Army THAAD batteries and US Navy ships with SM-3 and SM-6 missiles gave a very good show of themselves during the first two waves of attacks, but by the third wave halfway through the 1st day of the war, more and more calls of "Winchester" were coming in. Even though most units remained disciplined with "shoot-look-shoot" instead of "shoot-shoot-look-shoot" approach to incoming tracks...the waves just kept coming. Indications were coming by the time the third wave’s missiles started impacting targets, that this wave was different. By the fourth wave halfway through D+1, it was clear that PLARF sent their older, less accurate missile mods in the first two waves, in an almost comical "First-In-First-Out" magazine management show, but very effective in forcing the Americans to expend their THAAD and SM-3 shooting them down. By that fourth wave, there was almost nothing left to defend bases and ships. By D+2, if aircraft had not already scattered to outlying fields, and ships got underway, it was only a matter of time until they were destroyed. One of the LCS commander's in Guam whose ship had an engineering casualty that prevented them from getting underway, ordered all but a minimum crew onboard to head ashore. She and a half dozen of her crew were killed early in D+3 when what we believe was a lone Dong Feng-26 came in right before dawn. Boom!

The End.


Pentagon Spending Big to Counter Cheap Drones