We won’t be able to play this game much longer, having already reached #1500 — perhaps a few days at most. I also don’t want to fall into UID higher-lower pissing contests, because those are No Fun.
By hovering my cursor over my user name I can see in the browser status bar that my UID# is 1079. (Bah! Missed a three-digit number by that much.) A handy place to start is Wikipedia, which in turn handily has a webpage devoted to the significant happenings for every year. The URL for that is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/[number], where you substitute your UID for the number. So in my case I’m going to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1079….
So, let’s see … a couple interesting things happened in AD1079:
- Omar Khayyam computed the length of the solar year to its most accurate figure in pre-modern times, 365.24219858156 days. (I also recall reading some pretty cool poetry by him, something about a book of verse, a jug of wine, a loaf of broad, and thou….);
- William the Conqueror set aside the New Forest in England for his own hunting pleasures, thereby marrying hunting interests with conservation centuries before Teddy Roosevelt;
- Abbess Hildegarde of St Ruprechtsburg (not to be confused with abbess/mystic/composer Hildegarde von Bingen) “makes the first surviving reference to the use of hops in brewing.” mmmmm…beer….;
- and well-known Scholastic philosopher Peter Abelard was born. A couple decades later he was quite literally emasculated (in RFK Jr’s phrase) for diddling with the daughter of a well-born family. Decades after that he raised some hell with the Church authorities by asking uncomfortable questions about the Meaning of Life and giving away the answers in his magnum opus, Sic et Non.
So … what happened in the year of your UID number? Bonus points for alternate calendar systems, e.g. Arabic or Mayan!
UPDATE: 2005-06-14, 21:08 EDT: Well, my thanks to all who played! It’s a shame a number of comments were lost due to yestereve’s glitch; I enjoyed reading twenty-some comments last night, and the few added this morning. In the future, I may begin a “This Day in History” or (if that becomes too tedious) “This Week in History” series of diaries. Just ‘coz.
Yet another thing to keep me from work. How fun!
What happened in AD167? … Not a lot – at least according to wikipedia. Now I’m going to have to look in other places as well, just for curiosities sake. Thanks for introducing this fun diversion. Really!
* Germanic tribe Marcomanni waged war against the Romans at Aquileia
* Change of era name from Yanxi to Yongkang of the Chinese Han Dynasty
* King Chogo of Baekje waged war against Silla in Korean peninsula.
Knights Templar founded. I registered at the exact time needed to get this UID, because I’m part of a Masonic plot to destroy Booman Tribune. Emperor Hui of China — of the Song dynasty — begins his rule and grants patriarch Lu the title ‘Perfect Man of Sublime Communion.’ Pope Gelasius II, the 161st pontiff, dies exiled from Rome a short time after being freed from prison by Genoese sailors. Sufi saint Baba Adam Shahid arrived in Vikramapura near Dhaka, (in modern Bangledesh). Vallalasena, the king of Vikramapura, ordered his troops to attack the saint. In the ensuing fight Baba… Read more »
Boy am I lucky. You see in 54 AD a 17 year old Boy became the Emperor of Rome. But my UID is 68 not 54, so keep reading. This Emperor is remembered for his perverse mind & his persecution of the Christians. He was also known for reducing taxes. While he was in Charge of this great Empire a fire broke out. The city Burned for 9 days. Word on the street was he planned the fire, 1) to blame it on the Christians..2) So he could rebuild the city as a tribute to himself.… Read more »
my draft number–and this year I’m 54! The draft board wasn’t told immediately that I’d flunked out of college–by which time Nixon had for the first time suspended inductions. So when I opened the letter and read the word “Greetings” — instead of inviting me to an all-expenses paid trip to Viet Nam, it said I’d been put into the passed-over pool. And you think you are lucky! –But wait–there’s more! Nero didn’t play the fiddle, he played bagpipes. The Roman bagpipes or “tibia utricularis” represented a major innovation, the addition of the reservoir. Historians have noted that Roman coins… Read more »
It’s too bad about the lost comments, there were a number of interesting ones. OK there are several ways to go about this: I’m 1380. 1380 A.D. Province of Norwich …. became independant totally from Indian rule in 1380 AD!! The first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts were produced in the 1380’s AD by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. Wycliffe, (also spelled “Wycliff” & “Wyclif”), was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. Sign me up. The Wampanoag Nation once included all… Read more »
OK, I’m trying to reconstruct yesterday’s entry. I hope I catch everyting.
A few things that happened in 1168:
515 BCE (nobody said which 515, did they? 😉 The Roman Republic – “Friends, Romans, Countrymen! Lend me $5 until payday! – was founded. The Second Temple was completed in Jerusalem. 515 AD Percians and Horsoe (whoever they were) looted Rhodes. Arthur “Dux of all the Britons” halted the Anglo-Saxon advances into Briton. There was a Church Council at Tyre. (From one of the strangest websites I’ve found & that is saying a bunch me buckos!) that rejected the Council of Chalcedon. The C of C, as we all know, defined Trinitarianism, homoousian, and ousia in such stark and memorial… Read more »