Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

December 25, 1868: Merry Christmas! President Andrew Johnson grants Full Pardons and Amnesty to Confederate veterans.




Dec 25, 1950: the priceless Coronation Relic - British Stone of Scone is stolen from Westminster Abbey! Four Scottish students from the University of Glasgow (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson and Alan Stuart) removed the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey in London and took it back to Scotland. The Stone was returned to Westminster Abbey in February 1952.




Merry Christmas Presents - This lady loved her pearl handled .44 from a certain General.


Dietrich treasured the gift but lost it when US authorities at the port of entry confiscated it after she declared it upon her return to the United States.
Marlene Dietrich’s WWII Guns from Patton and Bradley Highlight Auction


Dec 25, 1951: How are you going to behave the day the world ends?
It ends with a bang AND a whimper, all of which is revealed in WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, the sardonically cheerful Christmas exhibit at the Warner Theater...this is the way Paramount sees the world ending...




Dec 25, 1956: Junior Chemists 'Make' Atomic Bombs and Gold
"About a week ago, I discovered how to make a small atomic bomb by putting certain chemicals together and wrapping them in a paper. Then I took them outside and lit a match to them and ran. There was a bright light which could be seen for blocks..." LMAO! Sounds like my dad when he was a junior chemist.




Dec 25, 1975: The Wizard of Oz (1939) is shown on British telly for the first time as the film is broadcast by BBC1 as part of a block of Christmas programming. The first television broadcast anywhere was in the United States on November 3, 1956 on CBS, but rights & distribution and greed took nearly 20 years to reach UK living rooms.


"The Wizard of Oz and the ‘world television premiere’ of Butch Cassidy, for which Paul Newman’s personal permission had to be sought. According to the BBC’s ratings (but not JICTAR’s) they drew audiences of 20 and 24.7 million viewers, respectively."



Merry Christmas! The "magic show" has arrived.
mentioned by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in this scene from FULL METAL JACKET is Marine slang for a religious service.





Nice Christmas gift...Ticket sold in Arkansas wins $1.817 billion Powerball jackpot, 2nd-biggest in history. The winning numbers were 4, 25, 31, 52, 59, and red Powerball 19 in Wednesday's drawing, ending a three-month streak of 47 drawings without a jackpot winner. The cash option is $834.9 million before taxes, with estimates of $490-500 million after federal and Arkansas state taxes.




JFK Library Archivists put Rod Serling’s letters to JFK online for his 100th birthday on December 25, 2024. In them, he talks about inclusion, nuclear disarmament, and peace - themes found in his show The Twilight Zone.


JFK… in the Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Letters to President John F. Kennedy


Movies that premiered in NYC a half-century ago on Christmas Day. All ignored by that new Netflix documentary, "Breakdown: 1975".





Dec 25, 2000: At Sandringham House, Prince Andrew throws a birthday party for his personal friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of British politician Robert Maxwell.


SKy News


"Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said, tanquam tabula naufragii, when industrious persons, by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story, and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time."
— Sir Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning: Book II (1605)

"Tanquam tabula naufragii": Latin for "like planks from a shipwreck," this metaphor highlights the fragmented, damaged nature of historical evidence.