by .
Considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby is a devastating critique of the American Dream and materialism at the height of the Roaring Twenties. It is the story of a bootlegger, Jay Gatsby, whose obsessive dream of wealth and lost love is destroyed by a corrupt reality. Today used as required reading in many high schools, the book has been cited as the paragon of the Great American Novel. Why did Fitzgerald dislike the title, and what did he want to call his novel? More...
2010 - The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, dies in a plane crash
Several high-ranking officials, senior members of the Polish clergy, as well as relatives of the Katyn massacre victims were killed. The accident was blamed on pilot error and bad weather.
2001 - Mercy killings become legal in the Netherlands
In a controversial decision the Dutch senate approved a bill legalizing euthanasia for patients with unbearable, terminal illness.
1998 - Negotiators in Northern Ireland reach an historic peace deal
The Good Friday Agreement ended 30 years of violent conflict about Northern Ireland's constitutional status (“The Troubles”).
1970 - The Beatles break up as Paul McCartney leaves the band
In their ten years of existence, the British rock group became one of the most successful bands of all time, selling over a billion albums, according to EMI. McCartney's announcement came a week before the release of his debut solo album, the starting point of a successful solo career.
1815 - Mount Tambora explodes in one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history
At least 71,000 people were killed by the eruption. The explosion was heard up to 2000 km (1200 mi) away.
Historic Trivia pick - Cadaver Synod: The Trial Of Pope Formosus’s Corpse
A deacon was appointed to speak for the corpse
Believe It or Not!, the Catholic Church was once so upset with one of its own Popes that they dug up his corpse and put him on trial. The case against the late Pope Formosus became known as the Cadaver Synod.
Formosus—whose pre-Pope name has been lost to the annals of history—spent his early days in the Priesthood traveling through Bulgaria and France attempting to lead missions, but never found much success. He eventually became so disgraced that the papacy excommunicated him, stripping him of access to its resources and making him promise to remain in exile from Rome.
Undeterred, Formosus returned to Rome and begged for forgiveness. Pope John VIII relented and allowed Formosus back in, needing his influence with the Bulgarian court to stabilize the turgid politics of the Holy Roman Empire at the time.
In the coming decades, Rome cycled through three more popes before Formosus himself was unanimously elected to the office in 891 AD.
Changing Pope’s during this period usually meant a complete redaction of the previous Pope’s edicts and strategies, and the newly-elected Formosus was highly distrustful of the current co-emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Seeking to unseat Guy Spoleto III, Formosus asked Arnulf of Carinthia—who had just taken over Charles the Fat’s throne—to invade Rome and free it from Spoleto control.
A deacon was provided to answer for the lifeless Formosus, but no one really defended him. Formosus was declared unworthy to have ever been Pope, and his reign and decrees were all stricken. Furthermore, they cut off his fingers of consecration and tossed his body into the Tiber River.
His body was retrieved by monks, but it wasn’t until the death of Stephen VI that Formosus’s body would be reinterred at St. Peter’s Basilica. Trials against the dead were banned for a time, but Pope Sergius III reinstated the actions against Formosus, and a back and forth of these actions took place for some time before the body was exhumed again, retried and beheaded.
Today, the Catholic Church supports none of these findings, disregarding them as political.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is published
Considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby is a devastating critique of the American Dream and materialism at the height of the Roaring Twenties. It is the story of a bootlegger, Jay Gatsby, whose obsessive dream of wealth and lost love is destroyed by a corrupt reality. Today used as required reading in many high schools, the book has been cited as the paragon of the Great American Novel. Why did Fitzgerald dislike the title, and what did he want to call his novel? More...
2010 - The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, dies in a plane crash
Several high-ranking officials, senior members of the Polish clergy, as well as relatives of the Katyn massacre victims were killed. The accident was blamed on pilot error and bad weather.
2001 - Mercy killings become legal in the Netherlands
In a controversial decision the Dutch senate approved a bill legalizing euthanasia for patients with unbearable, terminal illness.
1998 - Negotiators in Northern Ireland reach an historic peace deal
The Good Friday Agreement ended 30 years of violent conflict about Northern Ireland's constitutional status (“The Troubles”).
1970 - The Beatles break up as Paul McCartney leaves the band
In their ten years of existence, the British rock group became one of the most successful bands of all time, selling over a billion albums, according to EMI. McCartney's announcement came a week before the release of his debut solo album, the starting point of a successful solo career.
1815 - Mount Tambora explodes in one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history
At least 71,000 people were killed by the eruption. The explosion was heard up to 2000 km (1200 mi) away.
Historic Trivia pick - Cadaver Synod: The Trial Of Pope Formosus’s CorpseA deacon was appointed to speak for the corpse
Believe It or Not!, the Catholic Church was once so upset with one of its own Popes that they dug up his corpse and put him on trial. The case against the late Pope Formosus became known as the Cadaver Synod.
Formosus—whose pre-Pope name has been lost to the annals of history—spent his early days in the Priesthood traveling through Bulgaria and France attempting to lead missions, but never found much success. He eventually became so disgraced that the papacy excommunicated him, stripping him of access to its resources and making him promise to remain in exile from Rome.
Undeterred, Formosus returned to Rome and begged for forgiveness. Pope John VIII relented and allowed Formosus back in, needing his influence with the Bulgarian court to stabilize the turgid politics of the Holy Roman Empire at the time.
In the coming decades, Rome cycled through three more popes before Formosus himself was unanimously elected to the office in 891 AD.
Changing Pope’s during this period usually meant a complete redaction of the previous Pope’s edicts and strategies, and the newly-elected Formosus was highly distrustful of the current co-emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Seeking to unseat Guy Spoleto III, Formosus asked Arnulf of Carinthia—who had just taken over Charles the Fat’s throne—to invade Rome and free it from Spoleto control.
The Trial Of A Dead Pope
Unfortunately, the plan failed, and Formosus died some years later. Despite his death, the many enemies he had made in life sought retribution. A year after his death in 896, Pope Stephen VI had Formosus’s body pulled out of the ground, dressed in papal vestments and placed on the throne to stand trial.A deacon was provided to answer for the lifeless Formosus, but no one really defended him. Formosus was declared unworthy to have ever been Pope, and his reign and decrees were all stricken. Furthermore, they cut off his fingers of consecration and tossed his body into the Tiber River.
His body was retrieved by monks, but it wasn’t until the death of Stephen VI that Formosus’s body would be reinterred at St. Peter’s Basilica. Trials against the dead were banned for a time, but Pope Sergius III reinstated the actions against Formosus, and a back and forth of these actions took place for some time before the body was exhumed again, retried and beheaded.
Today, the Catholic Church supports none of these findings, disregarding them as political.
Barbaric! The trial of the dead pope. 
by 
61-BLUES
