Random News and Notes 13 October

On this date:

• 54 AD – Nero succeeds his great uncle Claudius, who was murdered by his wife, as the new emperor of Rome.
• 1307 – Members of the Knights of Templar are arrested throughout France, imprisoned and tortured by the order of King Philip the Fair of France. The mass arrests of the Knights Templar on Friday the 13th and de Molay’s curse are often cited as one of the origins of Friday the 13th as an “unlucky” day.  
• 1399 – Henry IV of England is crowned.
• 1670 – Virginia passes a law that blacks arriving in the colonies as Christians cannot be used as slaves.
• 1775 – The Continental Congress authorizes construction of two warships, thus instituting an American naval force.

• 1792 – The cornerstone is laid for a presidential residence in the newly designated capital city of Washington, D.C. In 1800, President John Adams became the first president to reside in the executive mansion, which soon became known as the “White House” because its white-gray Virginia freestone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings.
• 1812 – At the Battle of Queenston Heights, a Canadian and British army defeats the American who have tried to invade Canada.
• 1849 – The California state constitution, which prohibits slavery, is signed in Monterey.
• 1903 – Boston defeats Pittsburgh in baseball’s first World Series.
• 1942 – In the first of four attacks, two Japanese battleships sail down the slot and shell Henderson field on Guadalcanal, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the American Cactus Air Force.
• 1943 – Italy declares war on Germany.
• 1944 – Troops of the advancing Soviet Army occupy Riga, capital of Latvia.
• 1946 – The Fourth Republic begins in France; will continue to 1958.
• 1976 – Dr. F.A. Murphy at Center for Disease Control obtains the first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle.

• 1977 – Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa airliner and demand the release of 11 imprisoned members of Germany’s Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, also known as the Red Army Faction.
• 1983 – The Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven, the largest crew to date, lands safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
• 1990 – The Lebanese Civil War ends when a Syrian attack removes Gen. Michel Aoun from power.
• 2010 – After being underground for a record 69 days, all 33 miners trapped in a Copiapo, Chile, mine are rescued.

There is breaking news today out of DC. Newly installed Press Secretary Katie Zacharia announced that the White House has asked for the resignation of Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle. Guilfoyle was embroiled in a financial scandal. There are reports that she sought a $100,000 payment from Trump donor Eric Deters to cover her American Express bill shortly before her 2025 Senate confirmation (promising access to administration officials in return), promoted a Greek construction/energy company’s interests while allowing its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings, accepted improper gifts/services, and engaged in other questionable behavior such as luxury travel and demands while in the post.

No word on when the resignation will go into effect.

We know the name of the man who fed himself to a tiger in a Yorkshire zoo. William Chapman, believed to be in his early 20s, climbed over several safety barriers before dropping more than a dozen feet into the enclosure. Footage reportedly uploaded to Instagram shortly before the attack shows Chapman slowly approaching the tiger, Altai, who was resting on a raised wooden platform.

According to witnesses, the man had been behaving unusually before the incident: dancing, bowing, praying, and asking visitors to take pictures of him near the tigers. One woman reportedly tried to stop him, but without success. Some British media outlets have described Chapman as a vulnerable individual. However, there is no confirmed information that he had any mental health conditions. What prompted him to enter the tiger’s enclosure remains unknown.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:33 a.m. this morning, carrying the CRS-35 mission with more than 6,300 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station. Early morning launches occurring shortly before sunrise create a “space jellyfish” effect, as sunlight illuminates the rocket’s exhaust plume against a dark sky, creating a glowing cloud with wispy trails.

About eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster made a recovery landing at Landing Zone 40; this mission marks NASA’s 35th commercial resupply flight, utilizing a Cargo Dragon on its fourth trip to space. The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock autonomously with the International Space Station’s Harmony module around 11 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, following an approximate 52-hour flight. This delivery follows the recent departure of Crew-12, which opened a necessary docking port for the Dragon, while the station’s other port hosts the Crew Dragon Grace carrying Crew-13, which arrived earlier this month.