QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

ON THIS DAY

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March 12, 1930:

Gandhi begins the Salt March.

The Salt March was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India, led by Mahatma Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. The march was the first act in an even-larger campaign of civil disobedience (satyagraha) that Gandhi waged against British rule in India that extended into early 1931 and garnered Gandhi widespread support among the Indian populace and considerable worldwide attention.

Salt production and distribution in India had long been a lucrative monopoly of the British. Through a series of laws, the Indian populace was prohibited from producing or selling salt independently, and instead Indians were required to buy expensive, heavily taxed salt that often was imported. This affected the great majority of Indians, who could not afford to buy it. Indian protests against the salt tax began in the 19th century and remained a major contentious issue throughout the period of British rule of the subcontinent.

In early 1930 Gandhi decided to mount a highly visible demonstration against the increasingly repressive salt tax by marching from his religious retreat to the Arabian Sea coast. He set out on foot on March 12, 1930, accompanied by several dozen followers. Hundreds more joined the core group of followers as they made their way to the sea, and on April 5 the entourage reached Dandi after a journey of some 240 miles (385 km). On the morning of April 6, Gandhi and his followers picked up handfuls of salt along the shore, thus technically “producing” salt and breaking the law.

No arrests were made that day, and Gandhi continued his satyagraha against the salt tax for the next two months, exhorting other Indians to break the salt laws by committing acts of civil disobedience. Thousands were arrested and imprisoned, including Jawaharlal Nehru in April and Gandhi himself in early May after he informed Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, of his intention to march on the nearby Dharasana saltworks. News of Gandhi’s detention spurred tens of thousands more to join the satyagraha. The march on the saltworks went ahead as planned on May 21, 1930 and many of the some 2,500 peaceful marchers were attacked and beaten by police. By the end of the year, some 60,000 people were in jail.

Gandhi was released from custody in January 1931 and began negotiations with Lord Irwin aimed at ending the satyagraha campaign. A truce subsequently was declared, which was formalised in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact that was signed on March 5.

Sculpture in New Delhi, India, depicting Mahatma Gandhi leading the 1930 Salt March.

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By the way, from the vault:

Pamela Hicks, daughter of Lord Mountbatten (the last Governor General of India), writing in The Telegraph about the impending marriage of Elizabeth and Phillip:

Princess Elizabeth had written me a sweet letter asking me to be one of her bridesmaids and I, of course, was honoured to accept.

Before we left, my parents saw Mahatma Gandhi and he told my father: ‘I so want to give Princess Elizabeth a present, but I have given all my possessions away.’

My father, however, knew he still had his spinning wheel and he told Gandhi: ‘If a cloth could be made from yarn you have spun, that would be like receiving the Crown Jewels’

And so this was done and we took his present to Britain for the wedding, but Queen Mary wrongly thought it was a loincloth and thought it was the most ‘indelicate’ gift.

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

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March 11, 2011:

Tsunami, Fukushima nuclear plant accident, Japan.

On 11 March 2011 the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan happened off the country's eastern coast. The 9.0-magnitude quake was so forceful it shifted the Earth off its axis. It triggered a tsunami which swept over Japan's main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.

A boat sits atop a building in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami which devastated a vast area of northeastern Pacific coast of Japan

At the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the gigantic wave surged over coastal defences and flooded the reactors, sparking a major disaster. Authorities set up an exclusion zone which grew larger and larger as radiation leaked from the plant, forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate from the area.

More than a decade later, that zone remains in place and many residents have not returned. Authorities believe it will take up to 40 years to finish the work of decontamination, which has already cost Japan trillions of yen.

The accident was rated seven (the maximum severity) on the International Nuclear Event Scale by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. It is regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which was also rated a seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Despite this, there were no deaths caused by acute radiation syndrome. Given the uncertain health effects of low-dose radiation, cancer deaths cannot be ruled out.  However, studies by the World Health Organisation and Tokyo University have shown that no discernible increase in the rate of cancer deaths is expected. Predicted future cancer deaths due to accumulated radiation exposures in the population living near Fukushima have ranged in the academic literature from none to hundreds.

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

'ON THIS DAY' WEEK

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March 10, 1945:

WW2 - US aircraft begin firebombing Tokyo.

On 10 March 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducted a devastating firebombing raid on Tokyo, the Japanese capital city. This attack was code-named Operation Meetinghouse and is known as the Tokyo Great Air Raid in Japan. Bombs dropped from 279 Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers burned out much of eastern Tokyo. More than 90,000 and possibly over 100,000 Japanese people were killed, mostly civilians, and one million were left homeless, making it the most destructive single air attack in human history. The Japanese air and civil defenses proved largely inadequate; 14 American aircraft and 96 airmen were lost.

The attack on Tokyo was an intensification of the air raids on Japan which had begun in June 1944. Prior to this operation, the USAAF had focused on a precision bombing campaign against Japanese industrial facilities. These attacks were generally unsuccessful, which contributed to the decision to shift to firebombing. The operation during the early hours of 10 March was the first major firebombing raid against a Japanese city. The USAAF units employed significantly different tactics from those used in precision raids, including bombing by night with the aircraft flying at low altitudes. The extensive destruction caused by the raid led to these tactics becoming standard for the USAAF's B-29s until the end of the war.

There has been a long-running debate over the morality of the 10 March firebombing of Tokyo. The raid is often cited as a key example in criticism of the Allies' strategic bombing campaigns. Many historians and commentators argue that it was not acceptable for the USAAF to deliberately target civilians, and other historians believe that the USAAF had no choice but to change to area bombing tactics given that the precision bombing campaign had failed. It is generally acknowledged that the tactics used against Tokyo and in similar subsequent raids were militarily successful. The attack is commemorated in Japan at two official memorials, several neighborhood memorials, and a privately owned museum

A residential section of Tokyo left in utter ruins after Operation Meetinghouse's destructive air raids. March 10, 1945. Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo was a city largely comprised of wooden buildings, the bombing used strategic napalm-filled firebombs to ensure maximum destruction and pain.

A road passing through a part of Tokyo that was destroyed in the 10 March 1945 air raid.

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

'ON THIS DAY' WEEK

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March 9, 1974:

Last Japanese soldier in the Philippines surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended.

Hiroo Onoda c 1944

Hiroo Onoda (1922 – 2014) was a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war's end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974.

Onoda initially held out with three other soldiers: one surrendered in 1950, and two were killed, one in 1954 and one in 1972. The men did not believe flyers and letters from their families stating that the war was over. They survived on wild fruits, game, and stolen rice, and occasionally engaged in shootouts with locals and the police. Onoda was contacted in the jungles of Lubang by a Japanese explorer in 1974, but still refused to surrender until he was formally relieved of duty by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who flew from Japan to the island to issue the order.

The Japanese government offered him a large sum of money in back pay, which he refused. When money was pressed on him by well-wishers, he donated it to Yasukuni Shrine.

Onoda was reportedly unhappy at receiving such attention and at what he saw as the withering of traditional Japanese values. He wrote No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, a best-selling autobiography published in 1974. In April 1975, he followed the example of his elder brother Tadao and left Japan for Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer.

He married in 1976 and assumed a leading role in the Colônia Jamic ("Jamic Colony"), a Japanese Brazilian community in Terenos, Mato Grosso do Sul. After reading about a case in which a Japanese teenager murdered his parents in 1980, Onoda returned to Japan in 1984 and established the Onoda Shizen Juku ("Onoda Nature School"), an educational camp for young people in Fukushima Prefecture.

After the war, Filipino media interviewed villagers who had lived on Lubang during Onoda's time in hiding and alleged that he and his men had killed up to 30 civilians. Onoda did not mention these deaths in his autobiography. In 1996, he visited the town of Looc on Lubang after his wife Machie arranged a US$10,000 scholarship donation on his behalf to the local school. The town council presented Onoda with a resolution asking him to compensate the families of seven people whom he had allegedly killed, and about 50 relatives of the alleged victims staged a protest against his visit.

After 1984, Onoda spent three months of the year in Brazil and the rest in Japan.

On 16 January 2014, Onoda, aged 91, died of heart failure resulting from pneumonia at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo.

Hiroo Onoda only emerged from the jungle in 1974 after being personally ordered by his commanding officer.

Onoda surrendering his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos at a ceremony on 11 March 1974

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

I attended an all day webinar yesterday where one of the early speakers began with a slide similar to this featuring a quote by Mark Twain:

Her comments:

• When she was in practice, she had intentions each day of tackling her ‘too hard’ basket.
• However, she would prioritise by dealing with the quick and short things first, intending to get those out of the way and then getto the 'too hard' basket items.
• By 3.30pm she was looking for biscuits.
• By 4.00pm she had given up on attacking the too hard basket and resolved that she would do it tomorrow.
• Then it would all happen again.
• She finally reversed the order.
• As per Mark Twain’s advice, do the hard things first.
• Once you start, it isn’t as hard as you thought it would be.

ON THIS DAY

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March 8, 2014:

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 lost contact and disappeared.

The missing aircraft pictured in December 2011

Flight 370 MH-370 was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned destination, Beijing Capital International Airport in China. The cause of its disappearance has not been determined. It is widely regarded as the greatest mystery in aviation history, and remains the single deadliest case of aircraft disappearance.

The crew of the Boeing 777 last communicated with air traffic control (ATC) around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea. The aircraft was lost from ATC's secondary surveillance radar screens minutes later but was tracked by the Malaysian military's primary radar system for another hour, deviating westward from its planned flight path, crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea. It left radar range 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.

With all 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard presumed dead, the disappearance of Flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777, the deadliest of 2014, and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines' history until it was surpassed in all three regards by Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down by Russian-backed forces while flying over Ukraine four months later on 17 July 2014.

The search for the missing aircraft became the most expensive search in the history of aviation. It focused initially on the South China Sea and Andaman Sea, before analysis of the aircraft's automated communications with an Inmarsat satellite indicated that the plane had travelled far southward over the southern Indian Ocean. Several pieces of debris washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean during 2015 and 2016; many of these were confirmed to have originated from Flight 370.

After a three-year search across 120,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) of ocean failed to locate the aircraft. A second search launched in January 2018 by private contractor Ocean Infinity also ended without success after six months. It was announced on 26 February 2025 that Ocean Infinity intends to begin searching again.

It has been reported that the plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide.

MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Flight 370's disappearance brought to public attention the limits of aircraft tracking and flight recorders, including the limited battery life of underwater locator beacons (an issue that had been raised about four years earlier following the loss of Air France Flight 447, but had never been resolved). In response to Flight 370's disappearance, the International Civil Aviation Organization adopted new standards for aircraft position reporting over open ocean, extended recording time for cockpit voice recorders, and, starting from 2020, new aircraft designs have been required to have a means of recovering the flight recorders, or the information they contain, before they sink into the water.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 

ON THIS DAY

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I have previously said that when the 'On This Day' is lengthy I will skip the usual Bytes item.

Unfortunately this item is lengthy but I don't want to deprive Byters of Funny Friday so hoefully you will enjoy both.

The day following will be 'On This Day' Week, all lengthier but interesting items from history.

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March 7, 1530:

The Pope refuses Henry VIII's divorce.

When Martin Luther issued grievances about the Catholic Church in 1517, King Henry VIII took it upon himself to personally repudiate the arguments of the Protestant Reformation leader. The pope rewarded Henry with the lofty title of Fidei Defensor, or Defender of the Faith.

Barely a decade later, the same Henry VIII would break decisively with the Catholic Church, accept the role of Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolve the nation’s monasteries, absorbing and redistributing their massive property as he saw fit. The former “Defender of the Faith” ushered in the English Reformation.

His first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, had failed to produce a son and male heir to the throne.

King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

Henry had also become infatuated with one of his wife’s ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn, whose sister Mary had previously been his lover. Anne encouraged the king’s attention, but shrewdly refused to become his mistress, setting her sights on a higher goal, marriage.

Anne Boleyn

Henry asked Pope Clement VII to grant him a divorce from Catherine. He argued that the marriage was against God’s will, due to the fact that Catherine had briefly been married to Henry’s late brother, Arthur.

At the time, the title of Holy Roman Emperor belonged to King Charles V of Spain—Catherine of Aragon’s nephew. Clement VII was not inclined to grant Henry a divorce from the emperor’s aunt. On March 7, 1530 Clement refused Henry’s application for a divorce.

Eager to marry Anne, Henry appointed Thomas Cranmer as the Archbishop of Canterbury, after which Cranmer quickly granted Henry’s divorce from Catherine. In June 1533, the heavily pregnant Anne Boleyn was crowned queen of England in a lavish ceremony.

Parliament’s passage of the Act of Supremacy in 1534 solidified the break from the Catholic Church and made the king the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Anne Boleyn failed to produce a son but she did give birth to a daughter who would become Elizabeth I.

By 1536, Henry had fallen for another lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. That May, after her former ally Thomas Cromwell helped engineer her conviction of adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king, Anne was executed.

Jane Seymour

In October 1537, Jane Seymour gave birth to Henry’s first male heir, the future King Edward VI, before dying of complications from childbirth two weeks later. Henry died in 1547, Edward died young in 1553, and his Catholic half-sister, Queen Mary I, reversed many of the religious changes during her reign. Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of Anne Boleyn and ruler of England for nearly 50 years, completed the Reformation her father had begun.

The 6 wives of King Henry VIII

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FUNNY FRIDAY

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My father in law’s house in Canberra was sold at auction last Saturday so you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work put what today’s theme is: auctions.

Enjoy.

Caution: risqué content ahead.

Speaking of Sherlock Holmes, here are some entree items . . .

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SOME HUMOUR:

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Sherlock Holmes and Watson are strolling through London when, out of nowhere, a cat leaps onto Watson and pees on him.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Watson exclaims. "My coat is ruined!"

"You'll have to take it up with the owner," Sherlock replies calmly.

"But I haven’t the slightest idea who the owner is!"

"Elementary, my dear Watson. You are both pissed on and pissed off at the same time, so it must be Schrödinger's cat."

__________

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are strolling through London when, out of nowhere, a child runs up and kicks Dr. Watson hard in the shin and takes off.

After recoiling in pain, Dr. Watson asks, “Did you see which way he went?”

Sherlock nods. “Toward the school.”

“Which school?”

“Elementary, my dear Watson.”

__________

Sherlock Holmes is inspecting a bed. He says to Watson, "this bed is missing something." Watson replies "No sheet Sherlock."

__________

A man went to an auction and bid on an exotic parrot.

He really wanted this bird, so he got caught up in the bidding. He kept on bidding but kept getting outbid. So he bid higher and higher and higher. Finally, after he bid way more than originally intended, he won the bid. The price was high but the fine bird was finally his.

As he was paying for the parrot, he said to the auctioneer, "I sure hope this parrot can talk. I would hate to have paid this much for it if it can't."

"Don't worry" reassured the auctioneer, "He can talk. Who do you think kept bidding against you?".

__________

This one is quite risqué, proceed only if not likely to be offended.

A wife dreamed of being at an auction of willies.

Wife : "I dreamed they were auctioning off willies. The big ones went for ten dollars and the thick ones went for twenty dollars."

Husband : "How about the ones like mine?"

Wife : "They gave those away."

Husband : "I had a dream too...I dreamed they were auctioning off vag’s. The pretty ones went for a thousand dollars, and the little tight ones went for two thousand."

Wife : "And how much for ones like mine?

Husband : "That's where they were holding the auction."

__________

Little Johnny attends a horse auction with his dad.

He watches as his father moves from horse to horse, running his hands up and down the horse's legs, rump, and chest. After a few minutes Little Johnny asks, "Dad, why are you doing that?"

His father says, "I have to make sure that he's healthy and in good shape before I buy him."

And Little Johnny says, "Dad, I think the mailman wants to buy Mum."

__________

What do you call a collection of auctioners?

A Lot

__________

Last week I attended a silent auction.

I won a dog whistle and two mimes.

__________

A man and his wife went to a livestock auction and looked at a farmer's selection of breeding bulls

The first pen had a sign that read: This bull mated 50 times last year.

The man's wife playfully nudged him and said, "Wow, that's almost once per week!"

They walked to the second pen, which had a sign that read: This bull mated 150 times last year.

The man's wife jabbed him a bit harder and said with a smirk, "Goodness, that's more than twice a week! You could learn a lot from him."

They walked to the third pen, which had a sign that read: This bull mated 365 times last year.

The man's wife aggressively elbowed him in the ribs and exclaimed, "That's once a day! You could really learn something from this one."

Annoyed, the man turned to his wife and said, "Go over and ask the farmer if every time was with the same old cow."

__________

I got addicted to auctions after only going once.

Going twice...

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A teacher is explaining biology to her 4th grade students.

"Human beings are the only animals that stutter,' she says

A little girl raises her hand. 'I had a kitty-cat who stuttered.'

The teacher, knowing how precious some of these stories could become, asked the girl to describe the incident.

"Well," she began, 'I was in the back yard with my kitty and the Rottweiler that lives next door got a running start and before we knew it, he jumped over the fence into our yard!'

'That must've been scary,' said the teacher.

'It sure was,' said the little girl.

'My kitty raised her back, went "Ffffff!, Ffffff!, FfffffF," but before she could say 'FUCK OFF!,' the Rottweiler ate her!

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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:

I have previously posted the next two gherkin limericks but my reason in posting is that the third is my own . . .

A funny young fellow named Perkins

Was terribly fond of small gherkins.

One day after tea

He ate ninety three

And pickled his internal workings.

The next uses gherkins as part of the rhyme scheme which, unlike the traditional A A B B A rhyme pattern of limericks, uses A A A A A, plus has internal rhymes.  That’s some impressive workin’.

There once was a young lad named Perkin

Who was always jerkin his gherkin.

His father said “Perkin,

Stop jerkin your gherkin,

Your gherkin's for ferkin, not jerkin!”

And by moi . . .

A transgender fellow named Perkin

Was upset at having a gherkin.

He saved for his op,

Pending having the chop

He hid it with the aid of a merkin.

BTW:

A merkin is a pubic wig worn by women or men for various reasons, such as hygiene, disease, or filmmaking. The origin of the pubic wig dates back to the 1450s. Women would shave their pubic hair for personal hygiene and to combat pubic lice. They would then put on a merkin. Also, sex workers would wear a merkin to cover up signs of disease, such as syphilis.

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CORN CORNER:

__________

Scientists are carefully studying the effect of cannabis on as many small seabirds as they can.

They're leaving no tern unstoned.

__________

What dinosaur gets things done right away?

The Pronto-saurus.

__________

I took my 8 year-old daughter to the office on 'Take your daughter to work day'

But when we walked in the office she started to cry. As concerned staff gathered round I asked her what was wrong and she said: "Daddy where are all the clowns you said you work with."

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ON THIS DAY

March 6, 1836:

The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas, United States). About one hundred Texians were then garrisoned at the mission, with around a hundred subsequent reinforcements led by eventual Alamo co-commanders James Bowie and William B. Travis. 

On February 23, approximately 1,500 Mexicans marched into San Antonio de Béxar as the first step in a campaign to retake Texas. In the early morning hours of March 6, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. After repelling two attacks, the Texians were unable to fend off a third attack. As Mexican soldiers scaled the walls, most of the Texian fighters withdrew into interior buildings. Those who were unable to reach these points were slain by the Mexican cavalry as they attempted to escape. Between five and seven Texians may have surrendered; if so, they were quickly executed. Subsequently almost all of the Texian inhabitants were killed.

Santa Anna's execution of surrendering soldiers during the battle inspired many Texians and Tejanos to join the Texian Army. Motivated by a desire for revenge, as well as their written desire to preserve a border open to immigration and the importation and practice of slavery, the Texians defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836.

In 19th-century Texas, the Alamo complex gradually became known as a battle site rather than a former mission. The Texas Legislature purchased the land and buildings in the early part of the 20th century and designated the Alamo chapel as an official Texas State Shrine.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 

POETRY SPOT

Pam Ayres MBE (1947 - ) is a British poet, comedian, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes. Her poetry has a simple style and deals with everyday subject matter.

Satnav

by Pam Ayres

I have a little Satnav, it sits there in my car.

A Satnav is a driver's friend it tells you where you are.

I have a little Satnav, i've had it all my life.

It's better than the normal ones, my Satnav is my wife.

It gives me full instructions, especially how to drive,

"It's sixty miles an hour", it says, "You're doing sixty five".

It tells me when to stop and start, and when to use the brake,

And tells me that it's never ever, safe to overtake.

It tells me when a light is red, and when it goes to green,

It seems to know instinctively just when to intervene.

It lists the vehicles just in front, and all those to the rear.

And taking this into account, it specifies my gear.

I'm sure no other driver, has so helpful a device.

For when we leave and lock the car, it still gives its advice.

It fills me up with counselling, each journey's pretty fraught.

So why don't I exchange it, and get a quieter sort?

Ah well, you see, it cleans the house, makes sure I'm properly fed.

It washes all my shirts and things, and keeps me warm in bed!

Despite all these advantages, and my tendency to scoff,

I only wish that now and then, I could turn the bugger off.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

ON THIS DAY

________________

March 4, 1789:

On this day in 1789 the 1st US Congress met and declared the Constitution of the United States in effect (9 senators, 13 reps)

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution's first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, in which the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, the executive and the judicial. The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.

The Confederation Congress, which operated under the Articles of Confederation (the US’s first Constitution) picked March 4, 1789, as the day it handed off power to the new constitutional government. March 4th was the Constitution’s first official day of business but it was about one month before George Washington was elected as the first President under the new Constitution.

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FACTS

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The largest padlock was created by students and teachers of Pavlovo Arts College No. 23, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and measures 144.3 cm tall, 105 cm wide and 26 cm deep (56.8 in × 41.3 in × 10.2 in). The giant security lock weighs 415.5 kg (916 lb) including the key. There was a crest on top of the padlock but was not included in the overall height as it was not an integral part of the padlock.

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McDonald's introduced its drive-thru service due to the military. - the first McDonald's drive-thru was installed in a restaurant based in Sierra Vista, Arizona, located near the Fort Huachuca military installation. Military rules forbade the soldiers from wearing their military uniforms in public, and they weren't about to change into civilian clothes just to grab a burger and run back to base, so restaurant manager David Richcame up with a solution—cut a hole into the wall and allow members of the military to pick up their orders without stepping out of their car. The convenience and simplicity of the idea quickly caught on.

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According to research from security firm Symantec, religious websites carry three times more malware threats than adult sites. Symantec found that the average number of security threats on religious sites was around 115, compared to adult content sites, which carried around 25. In fact, only 2.4 percent of adult sites were infected with malware.

The researchers hypothesized that's because adult sites need to generate a profit, so there's a financial incentive to keeping them virus-free to encourage repeat business.

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In ancient Greece and Rome, doctors used spider webs to make bandages for their patients. Spider webs supposedly have natural antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, which can help keep wounds clean and prevent infection. It's also said that spider webs are rich in vitamin K, which helps promote clotting.

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In 1966, Fredric Baur developed the ingenious idea for Procter & Gamble to uniformly stack chips inside a can instead of tossing them in a bag. Baur was so proud of his invention that he wanted to take it to the grave—literally.

He communicated his burial wishes to his family, and when he died at age 89, his children stopped at Walgreens on the way to the funeral home to buy his burial Pringles can. They did have one decision to make, though::

"My siblings and I briefly debated what flavor to use," Baur's eldest son, Larry, told Time. "But I said, 'Look, we need to use the original.'"

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When William Shakespeare died at 52 years old on Apr. 23, 1616, he was buried in a tomb that featured an epitaph meant to ward off grave robbers:

"GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE

TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE

BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES

AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES."

Or more clearly:

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here

Blessed be the man that spares these stones

And cursed be he that moves my bones."

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Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew faced the real chance that they wouldn't return from the moon safely, leaving their families without financial support. Due to the extreme danger that they were about to face, they couldn't take out life insurance policies. So instead, they signed hundreds of autographs, which their families would have been able to sell if they didn't make it home.

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The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, earned a worldwide total of $78.3 million at the box office in 1984. As it went on, the franchise took in over $1.4 billion.

Before James Cameron became famous for directing blockbusters like Titanic and Avatar, he was an unknown filmmaker with an ambitious idea. In order to get his movie made, he handed over the rights to the script for a token amount, $1, on condition he would be allowed to direct the movie.

Despite the eventual success of the project, Cameron later admitted that he regrets the decision to sell such a valuable story for such a low amount, saying, "I wish I hadn't sold the rights for one dollar. If I had a little time machine and I could only send back something the length of a tweet, it'd be—'Don't sell.'"

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY