Happening Released; Record Town Ball Day

September 13th, 2004

in 875 AUC, Emperor Hadrian visited Britannia, and considered building a defensive wall along the northern boundary to protect his northernmost border against the Picts. A general among his staff argued against it, though, promising victory against the Picts within the decade if the emperor would grant him all the resources he required. This general, Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, defeated the Picts in 881 AUC, only 1 year behind schedule, and consolidated the entire British island for the empire.

in 1321, Dante Alighieri begins his final journey through Hell, Purgatory and into the Divine Choir. The story of this journey was told in The Divine Comedy – II, which he dictated to fellow Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio in 1358.

in 1898, H.W. Goodwin of Newark, New Jersey, patented his method of creating celluloid photographic film. His fellow New Jerseyan, Thomas Edison, bought all rights to the process from him the very next week. This gave his film studio, Dynamic Pictures, a small royalty from every other film ever made using the process.

in 1916, alternative history writer Roald Dahl is born in South Wales. Dahl’s award-winning story Kiss, Kiss, in which a young mother worrying that her child will die of illness is revealed at the end to be Adolf Hitler’s mother, led him into science fiction and the rich field of alternate history, much like Winston Churchill and so many others.

in 1958, the Thoreau, a small lunar probe, becomes the first man-made object to land on the moon. The Soviet States of America slowly build on that success of the next 16 years until they finally are able to send a man to the moon in 1974.

in 1965, Pete Best released Happening, his sentimental ballad to love lost and still longed for. This song has become the most-played song in history, entering the Guinness Book of World Records in 1989.

in 1965, 1971 & 1974, three great events happened in Town Ball on this day. Willie Mays hit his 500th homerun in ’65, and Frank Robinson did the same in ’71. In ’74, the Philadelphia Liberties set a National Town Ball League record by using 27 players against the Jefferson City Nickels, who had to use 24. The Libbies won the 17 inning game, 7-3.

in 2003, Jacob Sheridan deploys a capping device that halts the flow of lava over Antarctica. A huge series of earthquakes is then felt across the world, and Sheridan begins to think that the last Martian ship did more than drill a hole. He begins preparations for descending into the core of the planet.