Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

May 24, 1941: "The Mighty Hood", HMS Hood battlecruiser exploded and sank after being hit by a salvo fired by Bismarck from 9 miles away. Early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded, and sank with the loss of all but 3 of her crew of 1,421. This photo taken from Prinz Eugen shows Hood exploding in the distance with HMS Prince of Wales nearby. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both the aft magazine and the ship's torpedoes had exploded.

As an 18-year-old Flag-Lieutenant's messenger, Briggs was on Hood's compass platform when a shell from Bismarck hit the ship between centre and stern, penetrated the deck, exploded and touched off the ammunition in the four-inch and 15-inch magazines. According to one witness, the column of flame generated was “four times the height of the mainmast".

Ted Briggs himself recalled that he was lifted off his feet and dumped headfirst on the deck: "Then she started listing to starboard. She righted herself, and started going over to port. When she had gone over by about 40 degrees we realised she was not coming back." There was no time, or need, for an order to abandon ship. Hood sank within three minutes.

On his way to the compass platform shortly before the action, Briggs had bumped into a fellow-sailor, Frank Tuxworth, with whom he had earlier been playing cards. Tuxworth joked: "Do you remember, Briggo, that when the Exeter went into action with the Graf Spee, there was only one signalman saved?" Briggs laughed and replied: "If that happens to us, it'll be me who's saved, Tux."

Briggs was sucked down beneath the sea. He later wrote: "I had heard it was nice to drown. I stopped trying to swim upwards. The water was a peaceful cradle - I was ready to meet my God. My blissful acceptance of death ended in a sudden surge beneath me, which shot me to the surface like a decanted cork in a champagne bottle. I turned, and 50 yards away I could see the bows of the Hood vertical in the sea. It was the most frightening aspect of my ordeal, and a vision which was to recur terrifyingly in nightmares for the next 40 years."

Briggs swam clear of the stricken ship and, when he looked back, she had gone.

Only two other men - Midshipman William Dundas and Able-Seaman Bob Tilburn - survived. All three clung to small rafts for nearly four hours, singing Roll Out the Barrel to stay awake; even so, they were close to death from hypothermia when they were picked up by the destroyer Electra. Their rescuers could not believe that there was no sign of anyone else from Hood, alive or dead.

Ted Briggs (5 October 2008)

May 23, 1977: ARMING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY




May 23, 1979: KISS released their seventh studio album ‘Dynasty’




May 23, 1980: Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' premiered in theaters.




May 23, 1983: TIME Magazine Cover: George Lucas & Friends
Reagan's START concessions revive the MX missile
Democrat Congressman Les Aspin: "The president may not be president in 1985, The Air Force goes on forever."




May 23, 1984: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opened in theaters.





May 24, 1985: AOL was founded. A decade later, it was charging $20 a month for dial-up internet access. By 1999, it was worth 10 times more than Apple.




May 23, 1986: Poltergeist II: The Other Side premiered in theaters.




May 24, 1986: Van Halen released the single "Dreams". To promote the song and take advantage of the popularity of TOP GUN, Warner Bros quickly produced a video using stock footage of the Blue Angels. The video became a hit on MTV and a recruiting boon for the Navy.




May 23, 2003: Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey opened in theaters.


As God contacts Bruce using an actual phone number rather than one in the standard fictional 555 telephone exchange, several people and groups sharing this number received hundreds of phone calls from people wanting to talk to God, including a church in North Carolina, (where the minister was named Bruce), a Florida woman who threatened to sue Universal Pictures, a pastor in northern Wisconsin and a man running a sandwich shop in Manchester, England, area was receiving up to 70 calls a day from folks seeking help and forgiveness. Andy Green, of Irlam, Salford, shares the same mobile phone number as the almighty. LOL!

The producers noted that the number (776-2323) was not in use in the area code (716, which was never specified on screen) in the film's story, but did not check anywhere else. For the home video and television versions of the film, the number was changed to the fictional 555–0123.