Days of Yore

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10 Years Ago

J. Michael Straczynski, having been unable to attend the 1998 Worldcon as a special guest, was invited in for another try by Aussiecon Three. Although nearly thwarted by engine troubles on his first flight, the second one got him safely across the Pacific in time for his GoH speech. The media world then suffered another blow when Hideaki Anno (creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion) had an escalator mishap that took him out of action.

But all this was as nothing to the horrifying news late in the con that the facilities had started to run out of some kinds of beer...

100 Years Ago

The world was waking up to the possibilities of this newfangled "airplane" thingy in mid-1909. Orville Wright was testing out the US Army's first aircraft in July, while Louis Blériot was flying one across the English Channel. Around the same time, the first ever air show was being held in Champagne.

1000 Years Ago

Thorfinn Karlsefni set off on the one and only attempt to establish a permanent Viking colony in North America, at what is now L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The effort lasted about three years. The Vikings continued to visit for timber and possibly other supplies for centuries afterward, but had learned their lesson about local attitudes toward illegal immigration.

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