Browsing: November 27

A Brief History On November 27, 2017, we celebrate Cyber Monday as we have on every Monday after Thanksgiving each year since 2005.  This pseudo-holiday was dreamed up by Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman of the National Retail Federation as a way to encourage Christmas shoppers to make their purchases online instead of fighting the crowds at stores. Digging Deeper In 2005 it was noticed by 77% of online retailers that the Monday following Thanksgiving was a day in which online sales rose considerably.  In order to take advantage of that trend, online retailers came up with Cyber Monday sales…

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A Brief History On November 27, 1835, two Englishmen were hanged for the crime of sodomy (Section 15, Offences Against the Person Act of 1828) and a third man was convicted of being an accessory, receiving a sentence of 14 years “penal transportation.” (Not to be confused with “penile transportation!” Penal transportation means being hauled off to a penal colony.) The law the men were charged under had replaced the Buggery Act of 1533. Digging Deeper James Pratt (age 30) and John Smith (age 40) were allegedly engaged in intimate homosexual acts when the building’s landlord and the landlord’s wife…

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A Brief History On November 27, 1810, a Londoner named Theodore Hooke perpetrated one of the most effective hoaxes in history, throwing a large part of the city into disarray and confusion, all because of a bet and without spending much money at all. Digging Deeper Apparently Hooke made a bet with his friend Sam Beazley that Hooke could transform any old house in London into the most talked about in the city within a week.  Instead of landing a UFO on a house, or detonating a nuclear weapon, either of which surely would have won the bet but would…

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A Brief History On November 27, 1968, the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association, the ABA, a major league basketball rival of the National Basketball Association, the NBA, actually put a woman on the court during a real basketball game.  Letting Penny Ann Early play was just a publicity stunt, but it was valid, making her the first (and so far only) woman to play on a men’s top professional American sports team. Digging Deeper If you are unfamiliar with the ABA, it was an upstart rival to the NBA that operated from 1967 to 1976 before it merged with the NBA.  It used…

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A Brief History On this date, November 27, 1978, Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down by an irate former supervisor. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find mentally distraught Daniel White was a police officer prior to becoming a supervisor, and after quitting that job due to ill will generated by his reporting on another officer for beating a suspect, White became a firefighter for the city. Elected as a supervisor in 1977 (similar to councilman in other cities), White had to give up his firefighter job as holding those two positions was not allowed.  At…

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