All hail James Jesse Strang, crowned King of Beaver Island on this day in 1850. How did he get this remarkable honour? By being told he deserved it by an angel, of course! 🧵

So, um... ‘happy’ sixth birthday, Nazi Bar Parable

Pre-Raphaelite girls go around the outside around the outside around the outside

WAIT FOR IT WAIT. FOR. IT! 🪶 🐣

It’s the 112th anniversary today of the first public performance by Douglas Byng, who went on to enjoy great success as a drag act, become the first person to sing Cole Porter’s Miss Otis Regrets, and introduce George, Duke of Kent to a lot of “pretty boys” 🧵

He actually got round to saying something? I got bored and went back to work

PSA: A Mighty Wind is on Netflix and is marvellous. (Also a PSA: don’t let Netflix skip the end credits, or you’ll miss the Good Book song)

Ah, well. Never mind, America. At least your cuisine is still the envy of the world

It’s the 112th anniversary today of the first public performance by Douglas Byng, who went on to enjoy great success as a drag act, become the first person to sing Cole Porter’s Miss Otis Regrets, and introduce George, Duke of Kent to a lot of “pretty boys” 🧵

Sorry, but the Manneken Pis cartoon looks like AI to me. Not a bad idea for a cartoon, but not executed by a human

Loads of people raved about Alexander Baron’s The Lowlife when it was reissued by Faber last year, so I got it for Christmas, and only just got round to reading it. Gloriously dingy backstreet stuff

Delicious

Werner Herzog’s Brigadoon

It’s the 114th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm—the first at which poetry was a category you could win a medal for. The gold was taken by... er, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the International Olympic Committee 🧵

The first and last Summer Olympics to include the genital tug of war.

I have won the gold medal that was for the poets and which you were probably saving for athletes Forgive me it is so shiny and I wanted one

"There once was an IOC leader, Whose poems delighted the reader, The judges were told, 'I'd better win gold', Even if it doesn't rhyme or scan, because I can sack you all!"

It’s the 114th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm—the first at which poetry was a category you could win a medal for. The gold was taken by... er, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the International Olympic Committee 🧵

Well, obviously A Mind of My Own is fucking wonderful. Hilarious, of course, but all the blurb is true: it’s about class and gender, too - a brilliant picture of a whole chunk of society. But this recommendation is surely unnecessary - if you haven’t bought it yet, what the hell are you thinking?

Absolutely not. Get fucked

Today is the 167th anniversary of the first sign that bankrupted businessman Joshua Norton had gone a bit funny – because he published in a San Francisco newspaper a 58-word manifesto for the United States, and then declared himself US Emperor two months later 🧵

Got a genuine ‘you get arrested if you say you’re English these days’ reply to this on Threads #thesedays

STRAYA!!! 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

Well, ‘happy’ anniversary to this headline, I guess

The roses are red The garden is quiet But no one expects

Morning

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

🎶 I get up when I want Except on Wednesdays When I produce a hygroscopic mucus coating my entire body to protect me from predators through what is known as

Well, as it’s 4 July, let’s celebrate the noble history of a great nation and mark the time 199 years ago when in “a spirit of zeal and ardor”, the people of Boonsboro, Maryland, built most of the Washington Monument in a day. Not *the* Washington monument, you understand – the one pictured

My god, the way that last word lands

Can't BELIEVE it's 171 years since the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, was published in Brooklyn. Still freaks my nut in to this day.

Leonardo da Vinci enters the chat: “A WEEK?”

Amazing

Well, as it’s 4 July, let’s celebrate the noble history of a great nation and mark the time 199 years ago when in “a spirit of zeal and ardor”, the people of Boonsboro, Maryland, built most of the Washington Monument in a day. Not *the* Washington monument, you understand – the one pictured

Happy 4th of July

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

It’s the 27th anniversary today of “world’s first male supermodel” Hoyt Richards escaping a cult called Eternal Values set up by a man who said his body had been taken over by an alien from Arcturus, and that he needed extremely good-looking people to help him save mankind from impending doom 🧵

It’s true, you know. There are people so appalling on here, so ideologically driven and given to dishonest argument that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, they too could have written something as shit as that Telegraph piece

It’s the 28th anniversary tonight of the first ever episode of So Graham Norton, which featured @kathyburke.bsky.social talking about how she and her best mate scammed Now magazine out of £20 (Remarkably, that episode also featured Ivana Trump. And Sooty)

It’s the 27th anniversary today of “world’s first male supermodel” Hoyt Richards escaping a cult called Eternal Values set up by a man who said his body had been taken over by an alien from Arcturus, and that he needed extremely good-looking people to help him save mankind from impending doom 🧵

It’s the 28th anniversary tonight of the first ever episode of So Graham Norton, which featured @kathyburke.bsky.social talking about how she and her best mate scammed Now magazine out of £20 (Remarkably, that episode also featured Ivana Trump. And Sooty)

Hydration break.

It’s the 75th anniversary of the day Mary Reeser’s landlady went to deliver a telegram and found her door handle too hot to touch. She called the police, and the photo of what they found launched a million childhood nightmares 🧵

Roses are red Apples go in strudel

It’s the 75th anniversary of the day Mary Reeser’s landlady went to deliver a telegram and found her door handle too hot to touch. She called the police, and the photo of what they found launched a million childhood nightmares 🧵

Still seems high to me

Happy Timmy The Naughty Penguin Day to all who celebrate www.facebook.com/NationalAqua...

Just got round to reading this. It’s very good

As it’s 1 July, it’s the 86th anniversary of the opening of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which famously only stayed open for four months, becoming not terribly easy to cross on 7 November the same year 🧵

Unless he’s in an ape suit and carrying a Barbie dressed as Fay Wray, this is a missed opportunity