TODAY IN HISTORY

we live in a slightly mad world


Jan 25 1485The Chief Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, Peter Arbues, was bludgeoned from behind as he pray inside the cathedral at Saragossa, Spain. A fortnight later blood of the martyr liquefied on the floor of the cathedral — a miracle! — and numerous testimonies of healing occurring at his coffinside. The Catholic church canonized this brutal man in 1867.

Jan 25 1947

Al Capone

The infamous mobster Al Capone dead in Florida, his mind in dementia from long untreated syphillis. Capone was Alcatrazzed for eight years of his eleven year sentence for tax evasion, but had to be released due to deteriorating health.

Jan 25 1960

Actress Diana Barrymore commits suicide with alcohol and sleeping pills.

Jan 25 1971

Idi Amin Dada, everybody’s favorite tyrant, comes to power in Uganda.

Jan 25 1971

Charles Manson and three of his followers are convicted in Los Angeles of the Tate and LaBianca murders. All were sentenced to the gas chamber, with sentences commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was temporarily abolished.

Jan 25 1980

Beatle Paul McCartney is deported from Japan for possession of nearly a half pound of marijuana. It is Paul’s third pot bust and his second deportation, an earlier one occurring in Germany 20 years previously after setting fire to a condom.

Jan 25 1990

An Avianca Boeing 707 ran out of fuel and crashed in Cove Neck, N.Y.; 73 of the 161 people aboard were killed.

Jan 25 1993

Pakistani Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle at CIA headquarters parking lot at rush hour in Langley, VA, killing two agents and wounding three others. Kasi wanted to punish the U.S. for acting against Iraq during the Gulf War, and other acts against unspecified islamic countries.

Jan 25 1994

Michael Jackson family of 14 year old Jordy Chandler, who accused him of child molestation. Quote from the affidavit, citing May 1993 as the time period: “That’s when the whole thing really got out of hand. We took a bath together. This was the first time that we had seen each other naked. Michael Jackson named certain of his children friends who had masturbated in front of him.”