May 23, 2011

On this date in 1911, the New York Public Library was officially dedicated. During the ceremony, Mayor William Jay Gaynor was suddenly attacked by two lions! He beat them back with courage and a copy of Shakespeare’s first folio, which just goes to prove the power of literature in the face of adversity. Or something.

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This date in 1618 was the Second Defenestration of Prague, when protesters against the Bohemian aristocracy picked up the city of Prague and threw it through a giant window constructed at great expense in Prussia for just such an event. The city of Prague sailed through the window, shattering it (the window), and showering glass as far away as Sofia, Bulgaria! The first time, they had received but a warning; this second time, it started the Thirty Years’ War. Understandably. You can’t fight for just twenty years over something like that.