On This Day...

[DrWho42 13]

I think these bits of information concerning daily odd occurrences are quite interesting, and so much so that I would like to share it with those here at this site.

 

I'll be posting it here for the time being, unless others feel that this thread should be transferred elsewhere.

8 August. In 1977 there was a shower of rain at Poole in Dorset, England, which turned into a fall of hay, grass and grass clumps with roots and soil. According to witness John Kay, holidaying at a local caravan site, the hay was coming from a large rain-cloud about 1,000 feet up. The London Weather Centre, asked for a quote said: 'We don't understand'. Meanwhile, a strange high-pitched whirring sound filled the air over Bath, not many miles away, where it was heard again the next day, followed by flocks of frenzied birds wheeling over the city.

[DrWho42 13]

9 August. At 1:30 in the morning of 9 August 1977, police constable David Swift saw a peculiar bank of fog on playing fields near Stonebridge Avenue, East Hull. He thought it might be smoke, and went to investigate. As he walked across the field towards it, he made out three dancing figures, each with an arm raised as though around an invisible Maypole. There was a man in a sleeveless jerkin and tight-fitting trousers and two women with bonnets, shawls and white dresses. 'When I got about 50 feet away from them, everything went, no-one was there,' he said.

[DrWho42 13]

10 August. In 1976 a woman in Glenfarg, Perthshire, Scotland, saw a huge cat on her garden wall, with eyes glowing orange in the dark. It had long, pointed and tufted ears and stood at least three feet high. It spat and howled at her before leaping into a field and vanishing.

[DrWho42 13]

11 August. In 1982 a uniformed Secret Service officer in Washington DC spotted a strange cat half the size of a lion prowling Massachussetts Avenue. It disappeared behind the Iranian Embassy and was never seen again, despite a search by 50 officers and vets.

[DrWho42 13]

12 August. In 1856 Mr Moulton of Bedford was absent from home. The housemaid burned sulphur to fumigate the house. The fire spread but was put out. An hour later, a mattress was found burning in another room. In the following five days there were about 40 fires, in curtains, closets and bureau drawers. Neighbours and policemen came in, and were soon fearful for their safety. Not only did objects around them burst into flames, but so did their handkerchiefs. Even chairs and furniture carried into the yard burst into flames. An inquest failed to solve the mystery.

[DrWho42 13]

13 August. In 1937 a sea 'serpent' was lashed to the side of a boat off Newfoundland after a 48-hour battle involving guns and harpoons, and offered for sale. It was described as a finless, 34ft long, having 'several' pairs of 4ft-long 'clippers', a tail up to 9ft wide and a mouth 3ft 8in across. It was not a whale and 'did not fit the description of any known fish.' The address to write to was Captain Earl Noble, Motorship Gola, Fortune Harbour, Newfoundland, according to the first issue of the Fortean Society Magazine (September 1937).

[LordOfTheBorg 1]

woah... that stuff is freaky!

[DrWho42 13]

14 August. In 1975, three million tons of water fell on Hampstead, London, roughly four miles by two, in three hours - 6.72 inches - the equivalent of almost four months' summer rain. More than at any time since records began in 1910. Holborn, two miles away, recorded only 0.2 inches of rain. 'There seemed to be no rods of rain as you'd normally see them,' wrote John Hillaby. 'It fell in misty sheets with a noise like boiling fat.' One man drowned in his flat, two people were struck by lightning on Hampstead Heath, and three-quarter-inch hailstones were recorded.

[DrWho42 13]

15 August. In 1911 Miss Edith Oliver, returning from a village choir outing near Salisbury, Wiltshire, saw two curious white birds, flying but not moving their wings. On reaching her home she was told that Bishop Wordsworth had suddenly died. The white birds had often been seen at the death of the incumbent of the see of Salisbury. The first recorded incident was in 1414, Miss Moberley, the bishop's daughter, saw the white birds fly up out of the palace gardens as her father lay dying.

[DrWho42 13]

16 August. In 1990 it was reported that KGB border guards in the Pacific border district of the Soviet Far East were put on high alert after a patrol saw a 6ft creature with glowing eyes, which resembled the Abominable Snowman, according to Tass news agency. The patrol commander sounded an alarm, but the creature disappeared, only to be spotted trying to climb onto a roof. Again it fled, this time into the woods. Later, Tass reported two similar creatures dropping in on a military builders' barracks in the Northern Russian town of Kargupol in late January 1992.

[DrWho42 13]

17 August. In 1901 storm clouds gathered over Hanston, Kansas, as a horse-drawn hearse* made its way to the cemetery. Inside, in a metallic coffin, lay the body of local farmer Samuel McPreaz's five-year-old daughter. There was a clap of thunder and the hearse was struck by lightning. The bolt knocked down both horses, stunned the driver and burst open the coffin. Mourners found the 'dead' girl sitting up, crying for her mother. Physicians declared that the girl was in a cataleptic condition and the shock had revived her, but many believed she was dead and came back to life.

 

*hearse: a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery; formerly drawn by horses but now usually a motor vehicle.

[DrWho42 13]

18 August. In 1987 an 11-year-old girl from the Sabirabad region of the Caspian Sea Republic of Azerbaijan, identified by her first name as Matanet, fell asleep in a field after picking tomatoes in the sun and woke up choking. She was rushed to a children's clinic in Baku and made to drink 3.5 pints of salt solution. She vomited up a semi-poisonous 25.6in Caucasian rat-snake. An hour later, she left the clinic with her parents and went home feeling fine, according to several sources; one said, however, that she was being treated for a swelling in her stomach caused by the snake's bite.

[DrWho42 13]

19 August. In 1972 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called in to investigate a creature which had appeared on the surface of Thetis Lake, British Columbia, and chased two boys, Gordon Pile and Robin Flewellyn, up the beach. It was about five feet tall, silver-coloured, and shaped like a human being apart from enormous ears, scaly skin and 'a monster face'. Flewellyn was cut on the hand by six razor-sharp points on the creature's head. Two other witnesses saw it four days later. A similar monster had been seen climbing up a riverbank in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1937.

[3 of 7 0]

Isn't this also the day that Gene Roddenberry has his birthday?

:P

[Jack_Bauer 1]

That is correct 3 of 7. Same day as Frakes and Muldaur (sp?) as well.

[DrWho42 13]

20 August. In 1989 Gail Downard was dining in a 31st floor apartment in Philadelphia. 'I heard a crack,' she said. 'I had the fork in my hand, and when I tried to put it back on the plate, I realised my arm wasn't working properly. I looked down and I saw a hole in my forearm adout the size of a dime. There was no blood, just a hole. I felt like I was part of a Salvador Dali painting.' In fact, she had been shot. Police said the bullet was travelling on a level trajectory, although there weren't any buildings nearby where a gunman could have fired a level shot through the window.

Edited August 20, 2005 by DrWho42

[DrWho42 13]

21 August. In 1879 a group of 'shining statues' in the form of an altar - the Blessed Virgin, St Joseph and a bishop - appeared to some witnesses by the church wall in Knock (Cnoc), Co. Mayo, Ireland. The Virgin turned her eyes to heaven in prayer and St Joseph turned to look at her. The figures were 'full round as if they had body and life,' and two feet off the ground. One witness read the print of a book the bishop was holding, while another, prostrating herself at the Virgin's feet, clasped empty space.

[DrWho42 13]

22 August. In 1972 two members of the Burdine family in Rochdale, Indiana, discovered about 60 of their chickens ripped apart but not eaten. After a close encounter with 'a gorilla-like thing', they saw it again in their car headlights, framed in the door of their chicken coop. They shot at it as it lumbered off. Inside the coop, all but 30 of their 200 chickens had been ripped open and drained of blood. About 50 people claimed to have seen the creature in the Rochdale area around that time. This is one of several cases linking animal mutilation and mystery anthropoids.

[DrWho42 13]

23 August. In 1954 a man in Lugrin, near Thonon in France, approached an object which looked like an aluminium trailer, next to which stood two small beings in silvery dress, grunting like pigs. The craft took on a fiery colour and flew away. 1954 saw a massive UFO 'flap' in France, Italy, Spain and North Africa, with thousands of UFO sightings, including hundreds of UFO landing accounts. Jacques Vallee analysed 200 of these 1954 landing reports in The Humanoids (edited by Charles Bowen, Spearman, 1969). The study of the 1954 wave formed the basis of European ufology.

[DrWho42 13]

24 August. St Bartholomew's Day. He was flayed alive and is often shown holding a sickle, which, in addition to its role in the harvesting of grain, was the sacrificial knife of the Middle East. His name comes from Bar-Tholomeus, son of Ptolemy, a regal name. The Bartholomew Fair was held on this day in West Smithfield, London, from 1133 to 1855. In Ireland it was the day to sharpen tools for threshing the harvest, and any high wind which destroyed it was called Beartli na Gaoithe or Bartholomew of the Wind.

[DrWho42 13]

25 August. A press report of 26 August 1986 reported the ordeal of three fishermen from the Pacific Kiribati Islands who had set out for a day's fishing on 4 April that year. Their 16ft open boat broke down, and they drifted for 119 days, reaching Naurui, over 430 miles away. They survived by catching 25 sharks with their bare hands, clubbing them to death, drinking their blood and eating them raw. One day, after praying for a change of diet, a rare blackish fish fell into the boat: it was a fish that is never caught by trawling and lives about 620 feet down.

[DrWho42 13]

26 August. In 1976 Guru Jagat Singh Ji set off for London from the Punjab with a 20-man orchestra to begin rain prayers at the invitation of the Sikh community in Southall. Britain was having the worst drought for 200 years. He promised rain within four days, and the British press scoffed; however the next day a light rain spread acrosse southern England. The ensuing September went on record as the wettest in 50 years. It was a pity that Guru Jagat couldn't *stop* rain: back in the Punjab, great rains earlier that August had caused extensive misery.

[DrWho42 13]

27 August. Pope Sixtus V, the son of a pig-dealer, died in 1590. He was rather an eccentric pope: he made adultery a capital crime for the adulterers and for the wronged husband if he did not complain. He took great pleasure in seeing his death penalties carried out, and often went to see hangings to give him an appetite. He excommunicated various Protestant princes, while converting Henri IV of France to Catholicism and showing great respect for Queen Elizabeth of England. 'She is a big-head, that queen. Could I have espoused her, what a breed of great princes we might have had.'

[APW 0]

My dad told me that when he was 5-years old (that would have been 1932),he and his friends would walk a few miles to watch public hangings in rural Louisiana.He said whole families would show up with picnic baskets and bright blankets,as if they were coming to watch a 4th of July fireworks display instead of a man being put to death. B)

[DrWho42 13]

28 August. The feast day of St Hermes and St Augustine. Hermes is probably a Christian version of the Greek god of magic, medicine and occult wisdom. Augustine of Hippo, 'the greatest of the fathers', a libertine turned philosopher, is revered equally by Catholics and Protestants. In the famous 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, Indonesia, more than 35,000 died, and all over the world multi-coloured sunsets and blue moons were seen for the rest of the year. Some atmospheric effects were seen in Trinidad before the eruption, and in Natal, South Africa, six months before.

[APW 0]

Augustine of Hippo, 'the greatest of the fathers', a libertine turned philosopher, is revered equally by Catholics and Protestants

 

B)

I don't think so.

I'm a protestant and I've heard of Augustine,but revere him?

Not especially.

And I have never ever heard of a St.Hermes..... B)

 

Meh...

I'm messing up your topic.I'd better skeedaddle.

[DrWho42 13]

29 August. In 1871 the astronomer Trouvelot of Meudon Observatory in France saw flying objects high in the atmosphere. One object appeared to descend like a disc falling in water. This was perhaps the first description of the frequent 'falling leaf motion' of modern UFO cases. In 1929, it was reported that a travelling light was seen in the sky about 400 miles off the Virginia coast. There was something that gave the impression of a large passenger craft. It was travelling at about 100mph towards Bermuda and was not a scheduled flight.

[DrWho42 13]

30 August. In 1919 paraffin and petrol were found collecting in patches on the ceiling of Swanton Novers Rectory in Norfolk. In the next few days, these seepings became constant flows and even spurted from the walls. Liquids arrived at the rate of a quart every ten minutes. Of the 13 showers on 1 September, two were of water; others were methylated spirits and sandalwood oil. Walls were torn open and ceilings exposed, but the mystery was never solved. Fifty gallons of liquid had been collected by 2 September.

[DrWho42 13]

31 August. In 1988 there was an AP report of Gul Mohammad, 32, a sweet-seller in Old Dehli, India, who was 25 inches tall, more than 3in shorter than the 'official' shortest adult in the world. He was one of twins born to Noor Muhammad and Fatma Begum. Zahoor, the other twin, died when he was four. Gul also had a brother and a sister of normal size. Gul (meaning flower in Urdu) was lonely and longed for a wife of normal size. He found walking difficult and paid for teenagers to piggy-back ride him around. He was too small to get into a rickshaw or sit back on a bicycle.

[DrWho42 13]

1 September. St Fiacres' Day. Can be looked forward to by all those suffering from haemmorrhoids, for which he intercedes. His emblem is a spade, not a cure for piles but a symbol of his other job, being patron saint of gardeners. It is also the Feast Day of St Giles, the apocryphal patron saint of cripples. His story - he was wounded and lamed by an arrow whilst protecting his pet deer - bears a strong resemblance to that of Oisin, a druidic deity, and various Dianic cults - all the priests of the goddess Diana were lame.