Today In Fact, 18 December

A curious day for birthdays.

The Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand was born this day in 1863. His assassination in 1914 triggered the First Wold War. A war with over 38 million casualties.

In 1878 on this day, history’s worst mass murder, Ioseb Besarionis dze Jugashvili was born in a small Georgian village to a devout Christian mother and a violent alcoholic father. Joseph Stalin went on to rule the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with a merciless violence that saw some 20 to 30 million victims meet their deaths as a direct consequence of his decrees.

Two Steve’s were born today in 1946, Steven Spielberg, the famous movie director and Steven Biko the Black Consciousness leader.

I think I would prefer to have met the two Steve’s.

– Posted by Douglas Racionzer (serendipiday.blogspot.com)