Random News and Notes 6 October

On this date:

• 1014 – The Byzantine Emperor Basil earns the title “Slayer of Bulgers” after he orders the blinding of 15,000 Bulgerian troops.
• 1535 – William Tyndale, the English translator of the New Testament, is strangled and burned at the stake for heresy at Vilvorde, France.
• 1801 – Napoleon Bonaparte imposes a new constitution on Holland.
• 1866 – The Reno brothers–Frank, John, Simeon and William–commit the country’s first train robbery near Seymore, Indiana netting $10,000.
• 1908 – The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary announces its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dual provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1926 – Yankee slugger Babe Ruth hits a record three homers against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth game of the World Series. The Yanks won the game 10-5, but despite Ruth’s unprecedented performance, they lost the championship in the seventh game.
• 1927 – The first “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, opens with popular entertainer Al Jolson singing and dancing in black-face. By 1930, silent movies were a thing of the past.

• 1969 – Special Forces Captain John McCarthy is released from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending consideration of his appeal to murder charges. McCarthy had been convicted of killing a Cambodian national who was a communist double agent responsible for American deaths. He was later exonerated.
• 1973 – Israel is taken by surprise when Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
• 1981 – Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated in Cairo by Islamic fundamentalists. He is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak.
• 1987 – Fiji becomes a republic independent of the British Commonwealth.
• 2000 – Yugoslavia’s president Slobodan Milosevic and Argentina’s vice-president Carlos Alvarez both resign from their respective offices.
• 2007 – Explorer and author Jason Lewis becomes the first person to complete a human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.

We start the news with a local-ish to me story. Almost two dozen children and teens were ejected from a hayride wagon after the tractor pulling it overturned in the Chemung county town of Wellsburg. The incident occurred Sunday afternoon during a German Baptist youth group gathering according to the Chemung County Sheriff’s Office.

The 16-year-old driver of the tractor remains in critical condition a day after the accident, authorities said Monday. According to eyewitnesses, the driver seemed to be struggling with some mechanical issues on the tractor.

As an aside, that style of tricycle tractor – sometimes called “widow-makers” – stopped being manufactured in the late 1970s.

A former head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) – Germany’s intelligence agency – has been arrested for treason and espionage. August Hanning, BND president from 1998 to 2005, and another ex-official Manfred D. (Germany typically does not release full names of indictees)face charges of treasonous espionage and mishandling state secrets. Prosecutors say Manfred D. passed Hanning about 2,000 classified documents starting around 2010, including briefings on Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s forces, which Hanning allegedly used for a security analysis shared with a foreign intelligence service.

The case emerged from a 2025 search tied to a child abduction probe, uncovering sensitive material Hanning possessed. Both men appeared in court amid an ongoing investigation into one of Germany’s biggest espionage scandals.

There were Provincial elections in Quebec yesterday. The sovereigntist/separatist Parti Québécois secured 59 seats in Quebec’s 127-seat National Assembly, falling short of a majority and forcing reliance on other parties for legislation. The incumbent Coalition Avenir Québec lost all 79 seats, while Liberals took about 40 as official opposition, Conservatives grabbed 19 for the first time in nearly a century, and Québec Solidaire held nine.

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, PQ leader, is expected to become provincial Premier. The current premier, Christine Fréchette of CAQ, lost her seat along with everyone else in her party.

Religious grifter Jim Bakker has died. Bakker rose to fame in the 1980s drawing millions of viewers and millions of dollars in donations before admitting to a sexual encounter with a church clerk and being indicted on mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, later reduced to eight years.

Jim Bakker was 86.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K err Tallahassee. An underground electrical fire damaged roads east of the Capitol complex near the Leon County Courthouse, forcing street closures and a power outage. The incident happened around 5:30 a.m. A planned power outage to repair the damage affected traffic signals and nearby buildings. The courthouse is closed and jail visitation shut down for the day.

No injuries occurred as fire crews, police, and utility teams extinguished the fire, filled craters and made repairs. Officials are urging drivers to use detours throughout Tuesday.