TODAY IN HISTORY
we live in a slightly mad world

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Dec 6 1793

Guillotining of Mme. du Barry, mistress of Louis XV. “She screamed, she begged mercy of the horrible crowd that stood around the scaffold, she aroused them to such a point that the executioner grew anxious and hastened to complete his task.”

Dec 6 1917

At 9:05 AM, the munitions ship Mont Blanc explodes in Halifax harbor after being struck by another ship. It is the largest explosion before the atomic age. The ship was carrying 200 tons of TNT, 61 tons of gun cotton, 35 tons of Benzyl, and 2,300 tons of picric acid; the explosion destroys 325 acres of the city, leaving 1,900 people dead and injuring over 9,000.

Dec 6 1969

A concert by the Rolling Stones at Altamont ends in the death of a fan at the hands of the Hells Angels, who were hired for security.

Dec 6 1980

Televangelist Jim Bakker of the PTL ministry has a 15 minute quickie in a motel room with Jessica Hahn. The minister uses the line “When you help the shepherd, you’re helping the sheep”. Baaaa. PTL later pays Hahn hush money, but seven years later the incident becomes public and Bakker resigns in disgrace.

Dec 6 1987

Three teenagers in Missouri beat a friend to death and blame the incident on heavy metal inspired satanism. The jury didn’t buy their story, instead finding a pattern of drug use among the youths and evidence of animal torture during childhood by their ringleader.

Dec 6 1989

Marc Lepine kills 14 women at Ecole Polytechnic, University of Montreal, and injures 15 others. It is the worst mass murder in Canadian history. On him is a suicide letter explaining his actions as being specific revenge against 19 “feminists who have ruined my life… I have decided to put an end to those viragos.”