◎ИLƴ on YOUTUBE: World's Fastest Cigarette Roller

Was looking for something on rolling... came across this video:

ⓌⒽⒶⓉ Will ⓉⒽⒺⓎ Think of Ⓝ€✘Ⓣ: Breastfeeding Contest, PERU

Breastfeeding Contest, PERU

The contest where the baby who sucks the longest - nonstop - wins!

Hey! Don't look at me! It wasn't my idea, but what a great way to support the cause of breastfeeding since we all know how important it is to do so!   Good for you Peru! Suck on Peru... suck on!

A baby wearing a crown suckles a breast during a breastfeeding contest organised by Peru's Health Ministry in Lima August 19, 2011. The winning babies were those that managed to suckle their mother's milk for the longest period of time non-stop. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Organized by Peru's Health Ministry in Lima August 19, 2011, about 300 women participated in a "one-minute breast-feeding frenzy" followed by the symbolic crowning of a breast-feeding champion.  Participants were selected from the winners of various smaller competitions that occurred throughout the city the week before. What constitutes a win is another story. No biting? Least chapped nipples?  Health Minister Hernan Garrido Lecca emphasized the physical and emotional benefits of breast-feeding.  Yeah like that counts!

Sheyla Quispe and Maciel Ramirez (right) are sucktastic!

The once King of Breastfeeding, then-4-month-old Raul Montoya

The Lima breast-feeding contest is held every year during national breast-feeding week which runs from August 25-29 in Peru.

What exactly the winning mother gets for uh, winning - besides a healthy baby - I'm still trying to find out...

Resource(s):  guanabee.com, xinhuanet.com

⅏Did You Know: Barbara Graham aka "Bloody Babs"

Did You Know...

Barbara Graham takes what may be
the last look at her son Tommy,
18 months old, in
Los Angeles Jail

On June 3rd, 1955, Barbara Graham was gassed at California’s San Quentin Prison, along with two confederates in the brutal murder of an elderly widow. 

Barbara Graham (June 26, 1923 – June 3, 1955) was an American criminal and convicted murderess. She was executed in the gas chamber on the same day as two convicted accomplices, Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins. Nicknamed "Bloody Babs" by the press, Graham was the third woman in California to die by gas.

Graham was born Barbara Elaine Wood in Oakland, California. When Barbara was two, her mother, who was a teenager, was sent to reform school. Barbara was raised by strangers and extended family, and had a limited education. As a teenager, she was arrested for vagrancy and was sentenced to serve time at Ventura State School for Girls the same reform school where her mother had been.
Released from reform school in 1939, Barbara tried to make a new start for herself. She married and enrolled in a business college and soon had her first child. The marriage was not a success, and by 1941 she was divorced. Over the next several years, she was married twice more and had a second child, but each of these attempts at a normal life failed.

After this string of failures, Barbara is said to have become a prostitute, during World War II, she was a "seagull" working near the Oakland Army Base, Oakland Navy Supply Base and the Alameda Naval Air Station   In 1942, she and some other "seagulls" flew down to Long Beach and San Diego. She was arrested on vice charges in these naval cities and in San Pedro. 

Barbara liked nice things and also, perhaps surprisingly, was said to enjoy classical music but she also liked gambling and drugs.  At 22, with her good looks, red hair and sex appeal she was working for a time in San Francisco for brothel madame Sally Stanford. She was soon involved in drugs and gambling and had a number of friends who were ex-convicts and career criminals. She served five years for perjury as an alibi witness for two petty criminals. She served her sentence at the California Department of Corrections, Womens State Prison at Tehachapi. After her stint in state prison, Barbara moved to Reno, Nevada and then Tonopah.   In another attempt to live a decent life, she worked in a hospital and as a waitress. Barbara became bored and got on a bus for Los Angeles. She got a room on Hollywood Boulevard and returned to prostitution.

The Crime

In 1953, she married a bartender, Henry Graham, with whom she had a third child, named Tommy who was two years old at the time of her execution.  Unfortunately, Graham was a hardened criminal and drug addict with low-life friends, and it was through him Barbara met his criminal friends Emmet Perkins and Jack Santo.   She started an affair with Perkins, who told her about a 64-year-old widow, Mabel Monohan, who was rumored to keep a large amount of cash in her home in Burbank.

In March 1953, Barbara joined Perkins and Santo, as well as John True and Baxter Shorter (two of their associates), in robbing Monohan's home in Burbank. Barbara reportedly gained entry by asking to use her phone. Once Monohan opened the door for Graham, the three men burst in. The gang demanded money and the jewels from Monohan, but she refused to give them anything. At this point, Barbara reportedly pistol-whipped Monohan, cracking her skull. They then suffocated her with a pillow.

The robbery attempt was a futile effort; the gang found nothing of value in the house and left empty-handed. They later learned that they had missed about $15,000 in jewels and valuables stashed in a purse in the closet near where they had murdered Monohan.


Arrest and Conviction
Eventually, some of the gang members were arrested and John True agreed to become a state witness in exchange for immunity from prosecution. In court, True testified against Graham, who continually protested her innocence. Graham apparently stood a good chance of being acquitted, but erred by offering another inmate $25,000 to hire a "friend" who would provide an alibi. When questioned about her actions at the trial, she said, "Oh, have you ever been desperate? Do you know what it means not to know what to do?" Graham was ultimately convicted.

Execution

Inside the California chamber are two
identical metal chairs with perforated seats,
marked "A" and "B."
 (The twin chairs were last used in a
double execution in 1962).

Graham, Santo, and Perkins were all sentenced to death for the robbery and murder. Graham appealed against her sentence while serving time at the California Institute for Women in the city of Corona. Her appeals failed, and she was transferred to the death row at San Quentin State Prison to await execution. On June 3, 1955, she was scheduled to be executed at 10:00 a.m., but that was stayed by California governor Goodwin J. Knight until 10:45 a.m. At 10:43 a.m., the execution was stayed by Knight again until 11:30 a.m., and a weary Graham protested, "Why do they torture me? I was ready to go at ten o'clock." At 11:28 a.m., Graham was led from her cell to be strapped in the gas chamber. There, she requested a blindfold so she wouldn't have to look at the observers. Her last words were "Good people are always so sure they're right."

After Graham's death her life story was made into a movie called, "I Want to Live!" and starred Susan Hayward, who later won an Academy Award for playing Graham in the film.

Graham was also portrayed by actress Lindsay Wagner (above), in a 1983 TV version of I Want to Live!

The GAS CHAMBER!

While I was doing this story, I was also curious about this gas chamber in California.  How do they actually get them ready for it?  How does the gas affect them?  Does it hurt or is it painless?  The video above gave us great insight as to what really happened before and during execution.  But I still was curious and wanted to know and understand better what it is I was really seeing.

Did you know?...

The Procedure

1. Two guards strap the prisoner into chair A, attaching straps across his upper and lower legs, arms, thighs and chest.
2. They affix a Bowles stethoscope to the person's chest so that a doctor on the outside can monitor the heartbeat and pronounce death.
3. Beneath the chair is a bowl filled with sulphuric acid mixed with distilled water to give a concentration of approximately 37%, with a pound of sodium cyanide pellets suspended in a gauze bag just above.
4. After the door is sealed, and when the warden gives the signal, the executioner in a separate room operates a lever that releases the cyanide into the liquid. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas, which rises through the holes in the chair.
5. When the reaction has finished the gas reaches a concentration of around 7,500 ppm.

Prisoners are advised to take deep breaths after the gas is released as this will considerably shorten their suffering. Easy for the Warden to say, no doubt, but much harder for the prisoner to intentionally inhale the gas designed to kill them even if they accept the logic of the advice they are given.

The Actual Process
A typical witnesses view of gassing is as follows: 

• In medical terms, victims of cyanide gas die from hypoxia, which means the cut off of oxygen to the brain.
• The initial result of this is spasms, as in an epileptic seizure. Because of the straps, however, involuntary body movements are restrained.
• Seconds after the prisoner first inhales, he/she will feel himself unable to breathe, but will not lose consciousness immediately. "The person is unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety," according to Dr. Richard Traystman of Johns Hopkins University.
• The pain begins immediately and is felt in the arms, shoulders, back, and chest.
• The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen." Traystman added: "We would not use asphyxiation, by cyanide gas or by any other substance, in our laboratory to kill animals that have been used in experiments."

Did You Know?...
A study of the execution records of 113 prisoners executed at San Quentin showed that the average time taken to kill them was 9.3 minutes. The prisoner will usually lose consciousness between one and three minutes after the gas hits their face and the doctor will pronounce them dead in around 10 to 12 minutes. An exhaust fan then sucks the gas out of the chamber. Next, the corpse is sprayed with ammonia, which neutralises traces of the cyanide that may remain. After about half an hour, staff enter the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. Their training manual advises them to ruffle the victim's hair to release and trapped cyanide gas before removing him.

also

Did You Know?  For the month of

back in.....

• 1934, Jun 01, Nissan Motor Company Found.  On this day in 1934, the Tokyo-based Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha (Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in English) takes on a new name: Nissan Motor Company.
• 1953, Jun 02, Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.  Queen Elizabeth II is formally crowned monarch of the United Kingdom in a lavish ceremony steeped in traditions that date back a millennium. A thousand dignitaries and guests attended the coronation at London's Westminster Abbey, and hundreds of millions listened on radio and for the first time watched the proceedings on live television. After the ceremony, millions of rain-drenched spectators cheered the 27-year-old queen and her husband, the 30-year-old duke of Edinburgh, as they passed along a five-mile procession route in a gilded horse-drawn carriage.
• 1965, Jun 01, Coal Mine Explosion Killed 236 in Japan.  Coal mine explosion kills 236 workers at the Yamano mine near Fukuoka, Japan, on this day.  The tragic disaster might have been avoided if the operators of the mine had taken even the most basic safety precautions.
The sudden explosion, probably brought about by the ignition of a gas pocket, led to the collapse of many of the mine shafts and caused boulders to block the escape routes.  For the next two days, thousands of relatives and friends waited outside the mine as the rescue effort got underway. But the wait was futile; no survivors were found. Yoshio Sakarauchi, the trade and industries minister of Japan, resigned in the aftermath of the disaster.
• 1968, Jun 01, Helen Keller Died.  Helen Keller dies in Westport, Connecticut, at the age of 87. Blind and deaf from infancy, Keller circumvented her disabilities to become a world-renowned writer and lecturer.
• 1970, Jun 02, Race Car Driver and Designer Bruce McLaren Died in Crash.  The 32-year-old race car driver Bruce McLaren dies in a crash while testing an experimental car of his own design at a track in Goodwood, England on this day in 1970. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, McLaren contracted a childhood hip disease that would keep him in hospitals for several years. By the age of 14, he had recovered fully. His father, a part-time mechanic with an interest in racing, helped young Bruce build his first car, and he entered his first competitive event, a hill climb, when he was 15.
• 1972, Jun 04, Trains Collided in Bangladesh.  The collision of two trains in Jessore, Bangladesh, kills 76 people.  This disaster resulted from one simple error by a train-station operator.  An express train loaded far beyond capacity, as is common in Bangladesh, left the southern port city of Khulna heading north. It was passing through Jessore on June 4 at full speed when the stationmaster threw the wrong switch. With no other safeguards in place to protect it, the train was sent on local tracks straight into a train standing at the station.
• 1977, Jun 01, Soviets Charged Shcharansky with Treason. The Soviet government charged Anatoly Shcharansky - a 29-year-old computer expert and a leader among Jewish dissidents and human rights - with the crime of treason.  After a perfunctory trial, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was finally released in February 1986, when he and four other prisoners were exchanged for four Soviet spies who had been held in the West.  
• 1980, Jun 01, CNN Launched.  CNN (Cable News Network), - the brainchild of Robert "Ted" Turner, aka the "Mouth of the South", made its debut on this day as the world's first 24-hour television news network.  The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN's launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks--ABC, CBS and NBC--and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally. In 1996, CNN merged with Time Warner, which merged with America Online four years later. Today, Ted Turner is an environmentalist and peace activist whose philanthropic efforts include a 1997 gift of $1 billion to the United Nations.
• 1985, Jun 02, Serial Killing Spree was Put to an End.  Leonard Lake is arrested near San Francisco, California, ending one of the rare cases of serial killers working together.  Lake and Charles Ng were responsible for a series of particularly brutal crimes against young women in California during the mid 1980s. Lake, who had been arrested in 1985 for his connection to a burglary committed by Ng, ingested a cyanide capsule while in custody, and killed himself. Ng escaped to Canada, where he successfully avoided extradition for almost six years. When he was finally returned to California for trial, he utilized other delaying tactics. By the time he was finally convicted, he had gone through multiple attorneys and judges. It was one of the longest homicide prosecutions in state history and one of the costliest, at approximately $11 million dollars. After a four-month trial, the jury convicted Ng and he was sentenced to death in 1999.
• 1986, Jun 04, Pollard Admitted to Selling Top-Secret Information to Israel.  Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top-secret U.S. military intelligence information to Israel. The former Navy intelligence analyst sold enough classified documents to fill a medium-sized room.  Israel has stuck by Pollard. During peace negotiations mediated by President Clinton in the late 1990s, the nation made Pollard's release from prison a key point. Though Israel continues to work toward Pollard's release, the United States has declined to work out such a deal.
• 1989, Jun 04, Tiananmen Square Massacre Took Place.  Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States.
• 2010, Jun 03, Van der Sloot Arrested for Murder in South America. On this day in 2010, Joran van der Sloot, (born in the Netherlands and raised in Aruba), a longtime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba, is arrested in Chile in connection with the slaying of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, in Lima, Peru. Flores was murdered on May 30, 2010, exactly five years after Holloway went missing while on a high school graduation trip to the Dutch-speaking Caribbean island. In March 2011, an attorney for Van der Sloot, who remains behind bars in Peru, announced his client intended to plead guilty to murdering Flores but would argue temporary insanity, a defense that could result in a much shorter sentence for the Dutchman if a Peruvian trial judge accepted it.   

Resources:  wikipedia, history.com, daylife.com, various magazines, onthisday.com,  executedtoday.com, skcentral.com, capitalpunishment.uk.org, about.com

⅏Did You Know: Marcel Petiot, The French Doctor Who Was A Serial Killer

Did You Know...

Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot (17 January 1897 – 25 May 1946) was a French doctor and serial killer convicted of multiple murders after the discovery of the remains of 26 people in his home in Paris after World War II?  He is suspected of killing more than 60 victims during his life.

Born at Auxerre, France, later accounts make various claims of his delinquency and criminal acts during childhood and adolescence such as stealing from classmates and looting mailboxes, but it is unclear whether they were invented afterwards for public consumption.

It should be noted, however, that a psychiatrist diagnosed him as mentally ill on 26 March 1914, and he was expelled from school many times. He finished his education in a special academy in Paris in July 1915.

During World War I, Petiot was drafted into the French infantry in January 1916. In Aisne, he was wounded and gassed and exhibited more symptoms of mental breakdown. He was sent to various rest homes, where he was arrested for stealing army blankets and jailed in Orléans.  In a psychiatric hospital at Fleury-les-Aubrais, he was again diagnosed with various mental ailments but was returned to the front in June 1918. He was transferred three weeks later after he shot himself in the foot, but was attached to a new regiment in September.

Discharged with a pension and free treatment for psychoneurosis, Petiot went on to obtain a medical degree, despite spending part of his time as a student in an asylum. In 1928, he was elected mayor of Villanueve-sur-Yonne, while practicing medicine there, but his term was cut short when the local prefect received numerous complaints about Petiot's theft and shady financial deals.  Petiot was eventually suspended as a mayor in 1931 and resigned. 

That same year, one of Petiot's patients - a Madame Debauve - was robbed and murdered in her home. Gossip blamed the doctor, but his chief accuser another patient - was soon silenced by sudden death. A woman who accused Petiot of actively encouraging her daughter's drug addiction disappeared without a trace, but things were getting hot in Villanueve, and the good doctor struck off in search of a friendlier climate.

In Paris, Petiot attracted patients with his imaginary credentials, and built an impressive reputation for his practice at 66 rue de Caumartin.  However, there were rumours of illegal abortions and overt prescriptions of addictive remedies.  In 1936, he was appointed médecin d'état-civil, with authority to write death certificates.  The same year, he was briefly institutionalized for kleptomania, but was released the following year. 

Petiot's most lucrative activity, however, was his own false escape route. He adopted a "code-name" "Dr. Eugène". He accepted anyone who could afford his price of 25,000 francs per person, regardless of whether they were Jews, resistance fighters, or ordinary criminals. His aides, Raoul Fourrier, Edmond Pintard, and René-Gustave Nézondet, directed victims to him. Petiot claimed that he could arrange a safe passage to Argentina or elsewhere in South America through Portugal. He also claimed that Argentine officials demanded inoculations and injected his victims with cyanide. Then he took all their valuables and disposed of the bodies. People who trusted him to deliver them to safety were never seen alive again.
At first, Petiot dumped the bodies in the Seine, but he later destroyed the bodies by submerging them in quicklime or by incinerating them. In 1941, Petiot bought a house at 21 rue le Sueur.

What Petiot failed to do was to keep a low profile. The Gestapo eventually found out about him and, by April 1943, they had heard all about his "route". Gestapo agent Robert Jodkum forced prisoner Yvan Dreyfus to approach the supposed network, but he simply vanished. A later informer successfully infiltrated the operation and the Gestapo arrested Fourrier, Pintard, and Nézondet. Under torture, they confessed that "Dr Eugène" was Marcel Petiot. Nezondet was later released but three others spent eight months in prison suspected of helping Jews to escape. Even under torture, they did not identify any other members of the resistance – because they actually knew of none. The Gestapo released the three men in January 1944.

During the intervening seven months, Petiot hid with friends, claiming that the Gestapo wanted him because he had killed Germans and informers. He eventually moved in with a patient, Georges Redouté, let his beard grow and adopted various aliases.  Eventuall, on 31 October, Petiot was recognized at a Paris metro station, and arrested. Among his possessions were a pistol, 31,700 francs, and 50 sets of identity documents.

Stacks of suitcases found in
his basement with no traces
of the owners

Petiot was placed on death row at La Santé prison. He continued to claim that he was innocent and that he had only killed enemies of France. He claimed that he had discovered the pile of bodies in 21 Rue le Sueur in February 1944, and assumed that they were collaborators that members of his "network" had killed.

Prosecutors eventually charged him with at least 27 murders for profit. Their estimate of his ill-gotten gains ran to 200 million francs.

Petiot went on trial on 19 March 1946, facing 135 criminal charges. René Floriot acted for the defense, against a team consisting of state prosecutors and twelve civil lawyers hired by relatives of Petiot's victims. Petiot taunted the prosecuting lawyers, and claimed that various victims had been collaborators or double agents, or that vanished people were alive and well in South America under new names. He admitted to killing just nineteen of the twenty-seven victims found in his house, and claimed that they were Germans and collaborators – part of a total of 63 "enemies" killed. Floriot attempted to portray Petiot as a resistance hero, but the judges and jurors were unimpressed. Petiot was convicted of 26 counts of murder, and sentenced to death.

On 25 May, 1946 Petiot was beheaded, after a stay of a few days due to a problem in the release mechanism of the guillotine.

Did you Know....

On Sept. 10, 1977, convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi became the last person executed by guillotine in France.

also

Did You Know?  For the month of

back in.....

• 1543, May 25, Copernicus Died.  Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus died in what is now Frombork, Poland. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.

• 1883, May 24, Brooklyn Bridge Opened.  After 14 years and 27 deaths while being constructed, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is opened, connecting the great cities of New York and Brooklyn for the first time in history. Thousands of residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island turned out to witness the dedication ceremony, which was presided over by President Chester A. Arthur and New York Governor Grover Cleveland. Designed by the late John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge ever built to that date.
• 1934, Police Killed Famous Outlawas Bonnie and Clyde.   Wanted outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police officers as they attempt to escape apprehension in a stolen 1934 Ford Deluxe near Bienville Parish, Louisiana on May 25, 1934.
• 1940, May 28, Belgium Surrendered Unconditionally.  18 days of ceaseless German bombardment, the king of Belgium, having asked for an armistice, is given only unconditional surrender as an option. He takes it.
• 1943, May 24, Auschwitz Got a New Doctor.  On this day in 1943, the extermination camp at Auschwitz, Poland, receives a new doctor, 32-year-old Josef Mengele, a man who will earn the nickname "the Angel of Death."  Mengele managed to escape imprisonment after the war, first by working as a farm stableman in Bavaria, then by making his way to South America. He became a citizen of Paraguay in 1959. He later moved to Brazil, where he met up with another former Nazi party member, Wolfgang Gerhard. In 1985, a multinational team of forensic experts traveled to Brazil in search of Mengele. They determined that a man named Gerhard, but believed to be Mengele, had died of a stroke while swimming in 1979. Dental records later confirmed that Mengele had, at some point, assumed Gerhard's identity, and was in fact the stroke victim.
• 1949, May 23, Federal Republic of Germany was established.  The Federal Republic of Germany (popularly known as West Germany) is formally established as a separate and independent nation. This action marked the effective end to any discussion of reuniting East and West Germany.  For the next 41 years, East and West Germany served as symbols of the divided world, and of the Cold War animosities between the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1990, with Soviet strength ebbing and the Communist Party in East Germany steadily losing its grip on power, East and West Germany were finally reunited as one nation.
• 1959, May 24, John Foster Dulles Died.  After battling cancer for nearly three years, former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles died. Dulles served as secretary of state from 1953 until shortly before his death in 1959 and was considered one of the primary architects of America's Cold War foreign policy during that period.
• 1964, May 24, Riot Erupted at Soccer Match. A referee's call in a soccer match between Peru and Argentina sparked a riot on this day in 1964. More than 300 fans were killed and another 500 people were injured in the violent melee that followed at National Stadium in Lima, Peru. 
• 1987, May 28, Matthias Rust Landed His Plane in Red Square.  Matthias Rust, a 19-year-old amateur pilot from West Germany, on this day, takes off from Helsinki, Finland, travels through more than 400 miles of Soviet airspace, and lands his small Cessna aircraft in Red Square by the Kremlin. The event proved to be an immense embarrassment to the Soviet government and military.

1998, May 28, Comic Phil Hartman Killed by Wife. The Canadian-born comedian and actor Phil Hartman, famous for his work on Saturday Night Live and NewsRadio, is shot to death by his troubled wife, Brynn, in a murder-suicide. He was 49.

Resources:  wikipedia, history.com, daylife.com, various magazines, onthisday.com,  executedtoday.com, skcentral.com

⅏Did You Know - The Most Explosive Eruptions of the Last 10,000 Years was Tambora?

Did You Know...

The most explosive eruptions of the last 10,000 years was Tambora, located on an island 300 kilometres east of Bali.



Steam coming out of Tambora Volcano

On April 10, 1815, the Tambora Volcano produced the largest eruption in recorded history. An estimated 150 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of tephra—exploded rock and ash—resulted, with ash from the eruption recognized at least 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) away to the northwest. While the April 10 eruption was catastrophic, historical records and geological analysis of eruption deposits indicate that the volcano had been active between 1812 and 1815. Enough ash was put into the atmosphere from the April 10 eruption to reduce incident sunlight on the Earth’s surface, causing global cooling, which resulted in the 1816 “year without a summer.”

Only 26 of the island's original 12 000 inhabitants survived. In all, the eruption, accompanying earthquakes and subsequent starvation caused the deaths of more than 90 000 people.

Ash fallout from this eruption was widespread with one centimetre recorded as much as 900 kilometres from the vent. The climatic effects from this eruption were dramatic, both in the region and globally. In Europe and parts of the United States, 1815 became known as the year without summer. Overall, the global average temperature is estimated to have fallen by 0.4°C to 0.7°C with the cooler temperatures triggering widespread famine, starvation and disease. 

In 2004, scientists discovered the remains of a village, and two adults buried under approximately 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) of ash in a gully on Tambora’s flank—remnants of the former Kingdom of Tambora preserved by the 1815 eruption that destroyed it. The similarity of the Tambora remains to those associated with the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has led to the Tambora site’s description as “the Pompeii of the East.” 

Did You Know?  For the month of

back in.....

• 1790, Benjamin Franklin died.  On April 17, 1790, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia at age 84.
• 1812, The first White House wedding took place, when First Lady Dolly Madison's sister married Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd.  All told, there have been 16 White House weddings; the most recent was Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother in 1994!
• 1867, The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (about two cents per acre).  Critics attacked U.S. Secretary of State William Seward for paying so much for what was declared a "polar bear garden"; for years afterward, the land was referred to as "Seward's Folly."
• 1906, The Great San Francisco Earthquake.  At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles.
• 1915, Germans introduced poison gas.  On April 22, 1915, German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium. This was the first major gas attack by the Germans, and it devastated the Allied line.  A second gas attack, against a Canadian division, on April 24, pushed the Allies further back, and by May they had retreated to the town of Ypres. The Second Battle of Ypres ended on May 25, with insignificant gains for the Germans. The introduction of poison gas, however, would have great significance in World War I.
• 1936, A single horsehair uncovered a murder.  After a week of tracking down every conceivable lead, police finally find the evidence they need in order to break the case of Nancy Titterton's rape-murder in New York City. Titterton, a novelist and the wife of NBC executive Lewis Titterton, was raped and strangled in her upscale home on Beekman Place on the morning of April 10, 1936. The only clues left behind were a foot-long piece of cord that had been used to tie Titterton's hands and a single horsehair found on her bedspread. 
• 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered.  During World War II, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions sign an armistice with Nazi Germany at Belgrade, ending 11 days of futile resistance against the invading German Wehrmacht. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner. Only 200 Germans died in the conquest of Yugoslavia.

  

  Eddie Cochran

  
• 1945, Journalist Ernie Pyle killed.  During World War II, journalist Ernie Pyle, America's most popular war correspondent, is killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific. In 1942, after the United States entered World War II, Pyle went overseas as a war correspondent. He covered the North Africa campaign, the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and on June 7, 1944, went ashore at Normandy the day after Allied forces landed.
• 1956, Grace Kelly and Prince Raimer married.  American actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco in a spectacular ceremony on April 18, 1956.
• 1960, Eddie Cochran died, and Gene Vincent is injured in a UK car accident.  Eddie Cochran, the man behind "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody," was killed on this day in 1960 when the taxi carrying him from a show in Bristol, England, crashed en route to the airport in London, where he was to catch a flight back home to the United States. A raw and exciting rocker with a cocky, rebellious image, Eddie Cochran was very different from the polished and packaged idols being heavily marketed to American teenagers in the years between the rise of Elvis Presley and the arrival of the Beatles. And while he may have faded from popular memory in the years since his tragic and early death, his biggest hits have not.
• 1967, Soviet cosmonaut is killed.  Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when his parachute fails to deploy during his spacecraft's landing.  Komarov was testing the spacecraft Soyuz I in the midst of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Earlier in 1967, the U.S. space program had experienced its own tragedy. Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee, NASA astronauts in the Apollo program, were killed in a fire during tests on the ground. There was vast public mourning of Komarov in Moscow and his ashes were buried in the wall of the Kremlin. Sadly, Komarov's wife had not been told of the Soyuz I launch until after Komarov was already in orbit and did not get to say goodbye to her husband.
• 1974, The Red Brigade Terrorized Italy.  On April 18, 1974,  Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades. It was the first time that the left-wing terrorist group had directly struck the Italian government, marking the beginning of tensions that lasted for 10 years.
• 1978, Korean Air Lines jet forced down over Soviet Union.  Soviet aircraft force a Korean Air Lines passenger jet to land in the Soviet Union after the jet veers into Russian airspace. Two people were killed and several others injured when the jet made a rough landing on a frozen lake about 300 miles south of Murmansk.
• 1983, Suicide bomber destroyed U.S. Embassy in Beirut.  The U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is almost completely destroyed by a car-bomb explosion that kills 63 people, including the suicide bomber and 17 Americans. The terrorist attack was carried out in protest of the U.S. military presence in Lebanon.
• 1989, Chinese students protested against government.  Thousands of Chinese students continue to take to the streets in Beijing to protest government policies and issue a call for greater democracy in the communist People's Republic of China (PRC). The protests grew until the Chinese government ruthlessly suppressed them in June during what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
• 1992, Sewers exploded in Guadalajara.  Dozens of sewer explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico, kill more than 200 people and damage 1,000 buildings. The series of explosions was caused by a gas leak, the warning signs of which were ignored by the Mexican government and the national oil company.

  

  Guadalajara

   On April 22, at about 11:30 a.m., a series of powerful explosions began. They took place in an area about one mile long and seemed to come from 35 feet below-ground along the sewer system. Twenty square blocks of Guadalajara were leveled or seriously damaged. In two places, craters nearly 300 feet deep opened up, swallowing the surrounding buildings, roads, cars and buses.
• 1997, Fujimori ordered assault on Japanese ambassador's home.  In Lima, Peru, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori orders a commando assault on the Japanese ambassador's home, hoping to free 72 hostages held for more than four months by armed members of the Tupac Amaru leftist rebel movement. 
• 2004, Pat Tillman killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.  Pat Tillman, who gave up his pro football career to enlist in the U.S. Army after the terrorist attacks of September 11, is killed by friendly fire while serving in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. The news that Tillman, age 27, was mistakenly gunned down by his fellow Rangers, rather than enemy forces, was initially covered up by the U.S. military.   

Resources: history.com, explorevolcanosnow.com, ga.gov.au, various magazines

✈Worldwide Wednesdays: Canyons From Around the World

Where shall we travel to today?....

 Three Gorges, CHINA

Pic by Flickr user stevecadman

The Three Gorges region is a scenic area along the Yangtze River spanning Hubei Province and the Chongqing Municipality in the People's Republic of China with a total length of approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi). The Three Gorges occupy approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) within this region.  Although it is primarily famous for its scenery, the Three Gorges region is historically and culturally an important region in China. A representation of the westernmost gorge appears on the back of the ten yuan note.

The Three Gorges region attracted attention globally due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which is changing the scenery of the region.


Sumidero Canyon, MEXICO

Pic by Flickr user grantsewell


Sumidero Canyon is near San Cristobal in the state of Chiapas.  It is an awe inspiring canyon whose dramatic cliff walls tower 2,500 feet above you.
Before the completion of the dam here, the canyon's walls were even higher than they are now. Before the dam, the waters running through it were not navigable, even for the most skilled boatmen.

Once the river was dammed, the water levels rose dramatically, creating an extremely deep and serene river which tour boats and taxi boats navigate with ease. The Chicoasen hydroelectric dam, opened in 1981, is today one of Mexico's most important sources of electric power.

  

Bicaz Canyon, ROMANIA


Pic by Wiki user Laurap



The Bicaz Canyon (Cheile Bicazului -- literally The Keys of Bicaz in Romanian, Békás-szoros in Hungarian) is one of the most spectacular places in Romania, located in the north-east part of the country, in Neamţ and Harghita counties.

The canyon was dug by the waters of Bicaz River and it serves as a passageway between the Romanian provinces of Moldova and Transylvania. It is a noted location to see the wallcreeper, an uncommon cliff-dwelling bird.

The road along the 8 kilometres of ravines, often in serpentines with rock on one side and a sheer drop on the other, is one of the most spectacular drives in the country. Also within the Chei is Lacul Roşu (the Red Lake), with its traditional cabins, hotels, and its famous lake (situated at 980m altitude) caused by a landslide in the 19th century.

Colca Canyon, PERU

Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru. It is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Arequipa. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States at 4,160 m., and it is promoted as the "world's deepest canyon," although the canyon's walls are not as vertical as those of the Grand Canyon.

The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean valley with towns founded in Spanish Colonial times, and still inhabited by people of the Collaguas and the Cabanas cultures. The local people still maintain ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces.



Grand Canyon, USA

Pic by Wiki user Purple


The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (1.83 km) (6000 feet).

President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

The Grand Canyon is known for its visually overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape and is one of the most popular canyons of the world. Geologically it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are beautifully preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers record much of the early geologic history of the North American continent.

Charyn Canyon, KAZAKHSTAN

Charyn Canyon is an 80 km canyon in Kazakhstan on the Charyn River, 200 km east of Almaty, close to the Chinese border. It is part of the Charyn National Park, which is established 23 February 2004 and located within the territory of the Uyghur and Kegen Districts of the Almaty Province.

It stretches 154 kilometres (96 mi) along the Charyn River in the northern Tien Shan mountain range. In parts, it attains a depth of 150 to 300 metres (490–980 ft).

One part of it is known as Valley of Castles for its unusual rock formations. The width of it ranges from 20 to 80 metres (66–260 ft) and the length is 2 kilometres (1.2 mi).


Sources:    Wikipedia, mexperience.com, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia