Deadly Planets - It Happened ToDay

It Happened ToDay

Deadly Planets

March 20, 1345 - Planetary Convergence "Cause" of Black Plague.

The era of Black Death, the 14th century bubonic plague, is among the darkest of recorded history - the epidemic killed one third of Europe's population by 1352. According to medieval scholars at the University of Paris, the disease originated on this day in 1345 when the three planets Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter (along with Earth and its Moon) aligned on the 40° in the sign of Aquarius.

In 1348 King Philip VI of France asked physicians at the University of Paris to report on the origin of the terrible plague then sweeping across Europe. The plague treatise of the Paris medical masters - Compendium le Epidemia per Collegium Facultatis Medicorum Parisius - explained, "the first cause of this pestilence was the configuration of the heavens which occurred in 1345, at one hour after noon on 20 March, when there was a major conjunction of planets."

The Western world's fear of heavenly alignments, such as the ones in May of 2000 and February 1962, have been ingrained by the coincidence of the 1345 A.D. planetary conjunction and the emergence of the Black Plague. In contrast, the Oriental world has always considered five object alignments as a favorable omen, signaling the dawn of a new age and the world's renewal.

Modern historians and epidemiologists agree that the Black Plague was transmitted between humans through carrier fleas. Though there were intermittent outbreaks of the plague into the eighteenth century, none were as catastrophic as the original epidemic.

Quote for ToDay:
"Ignorance is the night of the mind,
but a night without moon and star."
- Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

~ ToDay is the 80th day of 2008 - 286 days remaining ~

Selected other Odd Notable & Historic events that Happened ToDay:

• 141 - The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet took place.
• 1602 - The Dutch East Indian Company was formed.
• 1616 - Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana.
• 1739 - In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock thrown.
• 1760 - The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
• 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris after his escape from Elba and began his "Hundred Days" rule.
• 1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's book "Uncle Tom's Cabin," subtitled "Life Among the Lowly," was first published.
• 1865 - A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier's Home near Washington, DC.
• 1868 - Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russelville, KY, of $14,000.
• 1886 - The first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation.
• 1890 - The General Federation of Womans' Clubs was founded.
• 1899 - At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death for the murder of her stepdaughter.
• 1914 - The first international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, CT.
• 1932 - The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
• 1963 - The first "Pop Art" exhibit began in New York City.
• 1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
• 1967 - Model Twiggy arrived in the U.S. for a one-week stay.
• 1976 - Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco Bank.
• 1985 - Libby Riddles won the 1,135-mile Anchorage-to-Nome dog race becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod.
• 1987 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT. The drug was proven to slow the progress of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
• 1990 - Imelda Marcos, widow of ex-Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, went on trial for racketeering, embezzlement and bribery.
• 1991 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that employers could not exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage a fetus.
• 1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.
• 1996 - In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.
• 1996 - The U.K. announced that humans could catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease).
• 1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. The non-stop trip began on March 3 and covered 26,500 miles.
• 2002 - Accounting giant Arthur Andersen plead innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.
• 2003 - U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.

The Vernal Equinox began "Spring" for the northern hemisphere at 5:48 GMT this morning. Conversely, it is the Autumnal Equinox and beginning of Autumn for South America and Australia. On the equinoxes, most of the earth experiences equal hours of daylight and darkness. Saturday's Pashal Moon (the full moon following the northern Vernal equinox) signals Ostara, or Easter, the following Sunday.

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