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Eager fen from around the world gathered in Winnipeg to admire its flatness and participate in, as the mayor of the city proudly declared, the biggest international gathering in all of Manitoba that year.
Just as Hugo Gernsback was settling into his new country, New York City opened its first underground rapid transit line on October 27th, exposing unsuspecting crowds to a new and dreadful malady of the technological age: "Subway Eye". Despite a warning from a "noted occulist" printed by the New York Times in its guide for would-be riders, passengers still watched the rows of white columns flashing by, leading to reports of eyestrain and hypnotism. Not that there was much else to look at; an unnamed but astute observer riding on the first day said, "Mark my words, the Subway is going to boom the newspaper business. When you get in, there's nothing to look at except the people, and that's soon a tiresome job."
In September 1004, Henry II, the Holy Roman Emperor (although he would not officially be crowned for another 10 years) ended Boleslav I's brief occupation of Bohemia and restored its previous ruler, Jaromir, as duke.