Today is, of course, Halloween, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day.n popular culture, Halloween has become a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural. With that in mind, I want to tell you about Peter Stumpp, who was executed on this day in 1589, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft, and cannibalism. He was known as “the Werewolf of Bedburg”.
Stumpp was born near Bedburg, Germany around 1530. Stump, who likely was a Protestant, was a wealthy farmer in his rural community. During the 1580s, he seems to have been a widower with two children: a daughter called Beele (Sybil), who seems to have been older than 15 years, and a son of unknown age.
During 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials in history. He confessed to having practiced black magic since he was 12 years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle, which enabled him to metamorphose into “the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws.” Removing the belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form.
Being threatened with torture, he confessed to killing and eating 14 children and 2 pregnant women, whose fetuses he ripped from their wombs and “ate their hearts panting hot and raw,” which he later described as “dainty morsels.” Not only was Stumpp accused of being a serial murderer and cannibal, but also of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, who was sentenced to die with him, and of having coupled with a distant relative, which was also considered to be incest according to the law. In addition to this, he confessed to having had sexual intercourse with a succubus sent to him by the Devil.
The execution of Stumpp, on 31 October 1589, alongside his daughter Beele (Sybil) and mistress, Katherine, is one of the most brutal on record; I will spare you the details. As a warning against similar behaviour, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top, they placed Peter Stumpp’s severed head.
This woodcut shows the ‘breaking wheel’ as it was used in Germany in the Middle Ages. The exact date is unknown, as is the creator, but it depicts the execution of Peter Stumpp in 1589.
Helena, Montana was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on this day in 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena became a wealthy city, with approximately 50 millionaires inhabiting the area by 1888. The concentration of wealth contributed to the city’s prominent, elaborate Victorian architecture.
Gold strikes in Idaho Territory in the early 1860s attracted many migrants who initiated major gold rushes at Grasshopper Creek (Bannack) and Alder Gulch (Virginia City) in 1862 and 1863 respectively. So many people came that the federal government created a new territory called Montana, carved out of Idaho Territory, in May 1864.
On July 14, 1864, the discovery of gold by a prospecting party known as the “Four Georgians” in a gulch off the Prickly Pear Creek led to the founding of a mining camp along a small creek in the area they called “Last Chance Gulch”. In 1876, Thomas Cruse, a prospector of Irish descent, discovered a massive gold deposit in the mountains, northwest of Helena. He soon filed a mining patent on 20.25 acres and opened the famous Drumlummon Mine which produced a rich bounty of gold and silver.
By fall of 1864, the population had grown to over 200, and some thought the name “Last Chance” was too crass. On October 30, 1864, a group of at least seven self-appointed men met to name the town, authorize the layout of the streets, and elect commissioners. The first suggestion was “Tomah”, a word the committee thought had connections to the local Indian people. Other nominations included Pumpkinville and Squashtown[26] (as the meeting was held the day before Halloween). Finally, a Scotsman, John Summerville, proposed Helena, which he pronounced /həˈliːnə/ hə-LEE-nə, in honor of Helena Township, Scott County, Minnesota. This immediately caused an uproar from the former Confederates in the room, who insisted upon the pronunciation /ˈhɛlɪnə/ HEL-i-nə, after Helena, Arkansas, a town on the Mississippi River.
It is estimated about $3.6 billion in today’s money was extracted from Helena during this period of time. The Last Chance Placer is one of the most famous placer deposits in the western United States. Most of the production occurred before 1868. Much of the placer is now under Helena’s streets and buildings.
Helena has been the capital of Montana Territory since 1875 and the state of Montana since 1889. Referendums were held in 1892 and 1894 to determine the state’s capital; the result was to keep the capitol in Helena. At the 2020 census Helena’s population was 32,091, making it the 5th least populous state capital in the United States and the 6th most populous city in Montana.
Montana’s Original Governor’s Mansion
Uh oh…
Today is the birthday, in 1969, of American singer-songwriter Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, Starship. She was a prominent figure in San Francisco’s psychedelic music scene during the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, with Slick providing vocals on several iconic songs, including ‘Somebody to Love’, ‘White Rabbit’, ‘We Built This City’ and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’. Between 1985 and 1999, Slick was the oldest female vocalist on a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping single. ‘We Built This City’ reached No.1 on November 16, 1985, shortly after her 46th birthday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0
On this day in 1969, the first bits of data flowed between an SDS Sigma 7 computer at UCLA and an SDS 940 computer at the Stanford Research Institute as the initial test of the concept of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a project of the United States Department of Defense. ARPANET was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the current Internet that we all love and hate.
The first computers were connected in 1969 and the Network Control Protocol was implemented in 1970, development of which was led by Steve Crocker at UCLA and other graduate students, including Jon Postel. The network was declared operational in 1971. Further software development enabled remote login and file transfer, which was used to provide an early form of email.
Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Computer Science Network (CSNET). In the early 1980s, the NSF funded the establishment of national supercomputing centers at several universities and provided network access and network interconnectivity with the NSFNET project in 1986. The ARPANET was formally decommissioned in 1990, after partnerships with the telecommunication and computer industry had assured private sector expansion and commercialization of an expanded worldwide network, known as the Internet.
First ARPANET log: the first message ever sent via the ARPANET, 10:30 pm PST on 29 October 1969 (6:30 UTC on 30 October 1969). This IMP Log excerpt, kept at UCLA, describes setting up a message transmission from the UCLA SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to the SRI SDS 940 Host computer
Today is the birthday, in 1946, of Rob Van Leeuwen, from the Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, who formed in The Hague in 1967. They had the 1970 US No.1 & UK No.8 single ‘Venus’ which topped the charts in nine countries and was the first song by a Dutch band to reach No. 1 on the US chart. Worldwide, the single has sold over 5 million copies. Bananarama covered ‘Venus’ in 1986, hitting No.1 in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and reaching No.8 in the UK. American rock band Nirvana recorded a cover version of the Shocking Blue song ‘Love Buzz’ for its 1988 debut single, released on Sub Pop in the USA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPEhQugz-Ew
On this day in 1886, The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) was dedicated. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel.
The statue is a figure of a classically draped woman, likely inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty, Libertas. In a contrapposto pose, she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle, commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War.
The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe’s Island. The statue’s completion was marked by New York’s first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
BADA BING!
At a couples counseling meeting the speaker mentioned that couples are so disconnected that 85% of husbands don’t know their wives favorite flower.
Mick turned to his wife and whispered, “It’s self rising, right?”
Front doormat – WELC… Wait, who did you vote for?
Trump: “I do not think any President has ever ended a war. One war. I did eight of them”. Me: Kinda feels like we’re all living in a giant mental hospital with him.
I’d rather be an American than a Trump supporter.
Shannon Kobylarczyk, the woman who went viral for telling a US citizen and veteran she would call ICE on him for cheering on the LA Dodgers has been FIRED.
What’s Irish and stays out all night? Patty O’Furniture.
A leaked Young Republican group chat included horrific violence, racism, sexism, antisemitism, and homophobia. The thing about it that really surprises me is that anyone else was surprised.
They’re giving all this money to Argentina so they have a safe place to go when the international trials start.
Scientists have discovered the 99.9% of those who are told to “Hold your horses!!” do NOT in fact HAVE horses.
If I understand the MAGAs in my comment section, No Kings was poorly attended and the pictures are fake, but also those in attendance were friendless losers, but also those in attendance were groups of unemployed people, but also those in attendance were paid to be there, but also the attendance doesn’t matter because the protests won’t change anything, but also if things change it’s not because of the protests, but also…
You know that feeling you get after you wake up from what was supposed to be a 20-minute nap and aren’t sure what day it is?
A lady just asked me what “mansplaining” is. I think it’s a trap. We’ve been staring at each other in silence for a half an hour now.
I discovered that answering the door naked helps deter trick or treaters.
Oh, here we go again. Here’s two dressed as policemen.
Filling a whoopee cushion with chocolate pudding adds a whole new dimension to the joke.
tRUMP: Everybody wants to have sex with me. Obama: Donald, that’s not what “fuck tRUMP” means.
Comment: Food stamps should not be used to buy soda.
Reply: Wild how a poor person buying a $1 soda with food stamps sends you into a moral panic. But billionaires writing off private jets and yachts on their taxes? Not a peep. Your outrage is as cheap as that soda.
The best part about No Kings was the comforting proof that millions of us still haven’t lost our goddamn minds.
Could someone explain which crimes get you deported and which ones get you elected president? It’s so confusing.
I knew school was a scam when my business teacher didn’t own a business, and my PE teacher was fat.
A man is driving to an important meeting. He’s running late, completely stressed, and can’t find a parking spot anywhere. In desperation, he looks up to the sky and says, “Lord, please help me find a parking spot. If you do, I swear I’ll quit drinking and go to church every single Sunday!” At that exact moment, a car pulls out of a spot right in front of him. The man looks up to the sky again and says, “Ah, never mind. Found one!”
My daughter was doing history homework and asked me what I knew about Galileo. I said, “He was a poor boy from a poor family.”
Can’t wait to see how MAGA pretends that the Trump-supporting, gun-loving, confederacy-promoting, cis straight white man, who tried to shoot up the Atlanta airport was somehow not one of theirs. (Steve Hofstetter)
Founding fathers: We never wrote a rule against electing felons. We mistakenly assumed America wouldn’t be that stupid.
Calling it “the nuclear option,” House Speaker Mike Johnson opted on Tuesday to enter a medically induced coma to avoid swearing in newly elected congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.
coming up…
creative architecture…
Today is the birthday, in 1940, of British singer Wayne Fontana, who had the 1966 UK No.2 single with Mindbenders, ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’, and the 1965 US No.1 single ‘Game Of Love’. Fontana died from cancer on 6 August 2020 at the age of 74. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kq1IU7Y44
On this day in 1682, the city of Philadelphia was founded by William Penn. Before colonization, the area had been inhabited by the Lenape people.
The first exploration of the area by Europeans was in 1609, when a Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson entered the Delaware River valley in search of the Northwest Passage. The Valley, including the future location of Philadelphia, became part of the New Netherland claim of the Dutch Republic.
A group of Swedish colonists reached Delaware Bay in March 1638, and the settlers began to build a fort at the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. They named it Fort Christina, in honor of the twelve-year-old Queen Christina of Sweden. It was the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley.
The Dutch never recognized the legitimacy of the Swedish claim and, in the late summer of 1655, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam mustered a military expedition to the Delaware Valley to subdue the rogue colony. After the English defeated the Dutch and took over their North American colonies, King Charles II gave Penn a large piece of his newly acquired American land holdings to repay a debt the king owed to Admiral Sir William Penn, Penn’s father. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Penn later journeyed up the river and founded Philadelphia with a core group of accompanying Quakers and others seeking religious freedom on lands he purchased from the local chieftains of the Lenape or Delaware nation. Penn himself designed the layout of the city, based in part on the city design of the Latin tract Utopia by Thomas More. He also planned that the city’s streets would be set up in a grid, with the idea that the city would be more like the rural towns of England than its crowded cities. The homes would be spread far apart and surrounded by gardens and orchards. It didn’t work out that way.
Philadelphia’s skyline at twilight from the southwest on South Street Bridge with the Schuylkill River on the left in July 2016
When the steaks are high…
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
Mom: Do you want to wear a scary costume or a princess costume? Girl: I don’t know! Mom: You can be both! You can be a queen who got her head cut off! Girl: Yeah, let’s do that! Boy: I want to have my head cut off! Mom: How about you be the king that murdered her? Boy: Well, okay. But how will people know I did it? Mom: Let me tell you a scary story, a true story…
Scream’s distant Alabama cousin, ‘Holler’
On this day in 1977, Baccara were at No.1 in the UK singles chart with Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. They were the first Spanish act to score a UK No.1, and the first female duo to do so. ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ is also one of the thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wDFCM7iSI
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