What happened today?

sorabji.com: What have you done?: What happened today?
By semillama on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 02:29 pm:

    15 July. St Swithin's Day. According to the weather today, the next 40 days will be fair or foul. Swithin, bishop of Winchester (d.862) was so humble he asked to be buried outside the cathedral where people might walk on his grave. An attempt to rebury him was abandoned when it precipitated 40 days of rain. Robert Pershing Wadlow died aged 22 in 1940. At 8 feet 11.1 inches, he was the tallest authenticated giant in history. July 15 in 1883 saw the death of the world's most famous dwarf, General Tom Thumb, aged 51. He was 40 inches tall.

    (from the Fortean Times website)

    The first I heard of St. Swithins day was on the Simpsons.

By V.v. on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 06:56 pm:

By Dougie on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 07:50 pm:

    It's also the Ides of July.

    That Simpson's episode is priceless -- I think it's the one where they do a spoof on Rear Window. "'Kippers for breakfast, Aunt Helga? Is it St. Swithin's Day already?' 'Tis,' replied Aunt Helga"

By wisper on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 02:27 pm:

    "I'm a murderer! A mur-diddely-urdler!"

By semillama on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 04:14 pm:

    16 July. In 1969 the United States Congress created a whole new category of criminals by passing the so-called ET law, part 1211 of the Aeronautics and Space Federal Guidelines. Anyone who has 'touched directly or been in close proximity to (or been exposed indirectly to) any person, property, animal or other form of life which has been extraterrestrially exposed,' can be fined $5,000 and jailed for a year, even though NASA have been maintaining for years that UFOs and the like do not exist. UFO contactees, beware!

    -Fortean Times