Been there done that too. Water skied all over the bayous from Pierre Part to Henderson. If @shane0911 is willing......
when we were young and stupid, we would wrestle/ride them. biggest i ever did that to was about 4-1/2 maybe 5 foot. but a guy i knew jumped on the back of one that was around 7 foot. crazy bastard survived that encounter, but died in a dirt bike accident a couple years later.
On June 7, 1942, the US Navy aircraft carrier Yorktown sinks around daybreak, hours after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The Yorktown had been damaged in an air attack and was under tow at the time she was torpedoed. Her loss is considered the official end of the Battle of Midway, a decisive American victory. The casualty list of the Yorktown's loss numbers 141 dead; though none were aboard when she actually sank. (Yorktown under attack at Midway) On June 7, 1893, a young Indian contract lawyer practicing in Natal refuses to comply with South African racial segregation laws and give up his first class seat on a train. He is subsequently thrown off the train. It is the first act of peaceful civil disobedience in the career of Mohandas Gandhi, who soon devotes himself to fighting for the rights of the Indian people, first in Africa, later in his native land. On June 7, 1913, Alaskan missionary Hudson Stuck, leads the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley) the highest point on the American continent at 20,320 feet. On June 7, 1976, New York magazine publishes an article titled "The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" by Nik Cohn. The article chronicles the developing industry of "disco" dance clubs in New York City, focused mostly on a charismatic and extremely talented patron of the club Odyssey 2000 named "Vinnie." The article is the blueprint for the 1977 blockbuster film Saturday Night Fever, and John Travolta's portrayal of Tony Morena in the film is a faithful recreation of the article's otherwise anonymous Vinnie. No follow-up story of Vinnie, the real-life Tony Morena, is ever written - for good reason. In a 1994 interview with The Guardian, the English-born Cohn admitted that, while he presented his original New York magazine story as a non-fiction account, it was in fact entirely made up.
On June 8, 1968 ,James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, is arrested in London, England, and charged with the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison, though he recanted days later and spent much of his prison life begging for a new trial. He died in prison in 1998. On June 8, 1949, George Orwell's novel of a dystopian future, 1984, is published. The novel’s all-seeing leader, known as “Big Brother,” becomes a universal symbol for intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy. On June 8, 1948, Frederick Porsche completes the prototype for the 1st production car that will bear his name. Porsche earned his first fame with an electric car model built for the 1900 World's Fair, He then joined Austro-Daimler, where his innovative fingerprints would be found all over several of the top Mercedes models of the pre-Depression era. Porsche started his own company in 1931, and was soon recruited by Hitler to design a so-called "people's car." What we know as the Volkswagen Beetle is the result. After the war, Porsche and his son finally got to work on Prototype 1, which will on its unveiling be named the Porsche 356. On June 8, 1966, the National Football League announces it will merge with its upstart rival, the American Football League. The AFL was formed in 1958 by Lamar Hunt, who recruited 7 wealthy businessmen who - like him - had seen their bids for expansion NFL franchises rejected. They began play in 1960 and were immediately able to outbid the NFL for several impact rookies, including Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon. But when kicker Pete Gogolak (pro football's first soccer-style kicker) was lured away from Buffalo in the AFL by a large contract with the NFL's NY Giants, owners in both leagues saw an expensive bidding war for top players on the horizon, triggering merger talks. It will take 4 years after the merger is announced for the 2 leagues to actually join. On June 8, 1959, the nuclear submarine USS Barbero launches a missile that, after a 22 minute, 600 mph flight, delivers its payload to a target near NAS Mayport, Florida. The payload is 3,000 letters from the US Postmaster General to various government leaders promoting the concept of delivering the mail world-wide via guided missile. Despite this seemingly successful test, so called "Missile Mail" will quickly be deemed too expensive to be feasible.
I had heard that Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948. He came up with the title by reversing the numbers in 1948.
I thought that too, but its apparently false. Wikipedia cites Orwell biographer Dorian Lynskey as saying that story probably came from Orwell's US publisher, and probably because it was 1948 when Orwell started writing the book. But she also says Orwell went through several "date changes" during the writing, including 1980 and 1982 as the start of the book's timeline, and that he probably settled on '84 because there were already a couple of other so-called "prophetic novels" set in the same year.
One more self-indulgent addition for today.... On June 8, 2012, Rush releases its 19th and final studio album, Clockwork Angels. The band had done numerous epic tales with its music in the past, most notably 2112, which features the titular 7-part suite that takes up all of side 1 when published on vinyl. Clockwork Angels is considered a "concept album," where every song tells the story of a young traveler living in a "steampunk" culture in an undefined time. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard album chart and number 1 in Canada, and would win the 2013 Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year. Although it was never stated as such, fans hearing the lyrics of 2 songs in particular, "Headlong Flight" (the album's lead single) and "The Garden" (last cut on the album) suspected the band was hinting at its retirement with this album. (Below: "The Garden" performed during the Clockwork Angels Tour)
