Today's Alternative Anniversaries for Those Allergic to Boomer Nostalgia

Hate the oh-what-a-night nostalgia of JFK assassination anniversary stories? Then read this acidic Jack Shafer take about the coverage, wash it down with Nick Gillespie's skewering of Boomer narcissism, and browse through the recent JFK musings of our resident conspiracy-historian, Jesse Walker.

Or, if you prefer sidestepping the whole tawdry business altogether and making your own anniversary memories instead, choose among these sadly neglected Nov. 22 events from years gone by. For instance, this 1987 broadcast-hijacking by a Chicago man dressed as Max Headroom:

Terrifying.

Prefer a more momentous conspiracy, at the highest levels, involving murder and the mass confiscation of property? Then strap on your Dan Brown boots and luxuriate in the 1307 Papal Bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae by the Goth French Pope Clement V, ordering Christian monarchs to persecute the Knights Templar. It's more creepy with a soundtrack:

Today is the 9th anniversary of the beginning of Ukraine's Orange Revolution, the 24th anniversary of all kinds of stuff relating to the collapse of communism (such as this massive rally on Prague's Wenceslas Square), the 38th anniversary of Spanish King Juan Carlos's ascension to the throne (Señor Franco, he still dead!), the 70th anniversary of Lebanon's independence from France, the 85th anniversary of the premier of Ravel's Boléro (celebrate with Bo Derek!), and the 155th birthday of Denver, Colorado.

As Professor Barack Obama taught us, we are the anniversary we've been waiting for, so there's no need whatsoever to accept other people's historical priorities. Nominate your favorite Nov. 22 alternatives in the comments, and I'll update the post with good ones.

Comments

[earthandweather]

November 22nd is the date John Galt Gives his speech...It's also my birthday 🙂

[Ken Shultz]

November 22nd is the date John Gault started to give his speech. The speech didn't end until November 26th.

Happy Birthday.

[Ken Shultz]

I give you people gold.

Comedy gold.

[FreeToFear]

I LOLed

[The Other Kevin]

Happy birthday. Mine is tomorrow, so I'll just start celebrating now.

[Medical Physics Guy]

The Koch brothers, of course, are the current head Templars. What doesn't that explain??

[Swiss Servator, kirsch anyone?]

Um....wait, it will come to me....the, no...er....

[Aloysious]

Celebrate with Bo Derek?

Well, if I must...

[sarcasmic]

It's Rodney Dangerfield's birthday! Where's the respect?

[Slammer]

That asshole went and got shot on my birthday? I get no respect!

[earthandweather]

I was my third birthday. I remember my mom was crying in the other room and all I could think was....Is it alright for me to play with my new truck?

[Slammer]

The Humane Society of the United States formed in 1954.

[DJF]

I don't think its boomer nostalgia, its pre-boomers.

Boomers were born after WW2, they were too young to vote for JFK

[Ken Shultz]

That's like saying Millennials are too young to remember Barack Obama.

[RBS]

Yeah, I don't think it has as much to do with voting for the guy as it does growing up hearing about what could have been and all the other Camelot bullshit.

[Ken Shultz]

We generally classify generations in their youth. It's generally accepted that what happened in your formative through college years defines your generation.

How old were the people who became hippies in 1963?

[Caleb Turberville]

between 15-23 years old?

[Caleb Turberville]

So, yeah. A little bit of a mixture of the pre-Boomers (1939-1945) and the early early Boomers (1945-1948).

[Killazontherun]

I tend to classify the generation of an individual on a metric with reeking naivete and cloying sincerity, and wise cynicism and dry sarcasm on the other.

[Ken Shultz]

I vote for Max Headroom.

Dude was like a Guy Fawkes mask some 20 years before Anonymous.

It also gave the wider culture an ideal for what a white hat hacker could be. I guess Cult of the Dead Cow and hactivism were around before Max Headroom, but the internet didn't exist for hardly anyone back then.

So, Max kinda put the idea of a Wikileaks or Snowden into the wider culture's collective memory--before they even knew there was an internet. Max Headroom certainly reached a wider audience than William Gibson.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I remember when President James Garfield was shot. I cried and cried...how is it that he survived the Battle of Chickamauga only to be killed by some deranged office-seeker? And he died on Sept. 19, 1881 - the 18th anniversary of the first day of Chickamauga!

If he had lived, he would probably have seen the folly of the high-tariff policy, and he would probably have prevented the Panic of 1893. I can't wait until this evening, when CBS will do a Special Commemoration!

[Hawk Spitui]

All this, but you leave out the main attraction?

[Loki]

Some of the comments are actually hilarious (the ones that aren't just DERP).

tiberiousss1 week ago
If you look closely enough everyone in the limo had a gun shooting at the president....yes everyone. It's hard to see, but look real hard....still looking? okay keep looking over and over again...you'll see it *cough*

Jimmy Lee7 hours ago
I think I just saw George Zimmerman pointing a pistol at good ole' Jack too!

Justus McNeal1 day ago
The truth is that no bullets actually hit Kennedy. Chuck Norris traveled back in time and blocked all three bullets far faster than the camera can detect. The explosion of JFK's head was out of sheer amazement of what he just saw.

[Caleb Turberville]

With the Beatles was released 50 years ago today.

[Hawk Spitui]

The day wouldn't be complete without?

[Finchster]

C.S. Lewis' death was overshadowed by events.

[Caleb Turberville]

As was Aldous Huxley's. But Jim Morrison saw to it that Huxley received a fitting posthumous tribute.

[Stevie OneLeg]

I'll never forget where I was when I first heard about the JFK assassination anniversary.

[Swiss Servator, kirsch anyone?]

*golf clap*

[Vincent Milburn]

"I shall never forget where I was standing and what I was
doing on the day [Kennedy] nearly killed me." -Christopher Hitchens on the Cuban missile crisis

[JenPAZ]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....ite-a-day/

Margaret Thatcher resigned, I think the others in the Telegraph have already been mentioned in the comments above.

[Killazontherun]

Can't believe H2 replaced Ancient Aliens for this retarded shit. Fuck you boomers.

[Another David]

One year ago, God gave us a single perfect moment.

[Almanian!]

That is....beautiful

*wipes away tears*

[B.P.]

Curious that I must go to Cleveland Jewish News to read about the founding of Denver.

[Citizen Nothing]

There was a nursing home fire in northern Ohio that killed 64 people early in the morning of Nov. 23, 1963. I hadn't even heard of it until I stumbled over the historical marker recently. I wonder why it didn't get much attention.

[Apple]

I don't what today is supposed to be, but last night was the 50th anniversary of Jack Ruby's last trip to Campisi's.

[Cdr Lytton]

JFK is dead? Who knew? Anyways, fiftieth anniversary of the first Doctor Who episode airing tomorrow. Suck it, Kahhnady.

[Loki]

Nominate your favorite Nov. 22 alternatives in the comments, and I'll update the post with good ones.

1497
Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama became the first navigator to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in his search for a sea route to India.

Here's a few more: http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

[Azathoth!!]

On the one thousand, nine hundred and sixty-third anniversary of the Kennedy Assasination, the entire tableau was restaged by the original actors--with the usual foredimensional recreation by several popular extrusions--all highly honored to have been invited.

Afterward, Oswald and Kennedy narfonged the gillame along with their extrusional counterpoints, as hasrad the custom since the regression.

Personnally, I prefer the all nude version done at the 5000th anniversary.