Hat-tip to 

catilinarian

: The BBC invites you to re-fight the Battle of Hastings (941 years ago today) and the Battle of Waterloo.

Also

catilinarian

: Slate’s Dear Prudence and Salon’s Carey Tennis both answer the same question: “My evangelical teenage daughter thinks I am going to hell!”

james_nicoll

: Ursula le Guin vs Cory Doctorow.

pgmcc

 reports on me and others.

Those of you who were at dinner last night may not be terribly surprised to learn that Vince Foster’s death was the result of a single gunshot wound from the front, clearly self-inflicted, rather than two shots from behind. (At least that’s what Kenneth Starr, not exactly a stooge of the Clintons, reported.)

Today’s anniversaries are, for once, quite an interesting lot:
1582: Nothing at all happened on this date in 1582 in Catholic countries in Europe, as the day before 15 October was 4 October.
1630: Birth of Sophia of Hanover, who missed becoming Queen of Great Britain and Ireland by dying two months early
1633: Birth of her first cousin James II of England and VII of Scotland, who did become King of England, Scotland and Ireland for a few years.
1882: Birth of Éamon de Valera
1890: Birth of Dwight D. Eisenhower
1912: Assassination attempt on Theodore Roosevelt while campaigning – he still gave his speech despite a bullet in his chest
1926: Publication of Winnie-the-Pooh
1927: Happy birthday Roger Moore! 80 today!
1940: Happy birthday to both Cliff Richard and Christopher Timothy, both 67 today!
1949: Happy birthday Katy Manning! 58 today!
1959: Death of Errol Flynn
1977: Death of Bing Crosby
1969: UK (and, I suppose, Ireland) replaces the ten-shilling note with the 50p coin.