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In April 1990, Belgian Parliament passed a controversial law liberalizing abortion. Prior to that, abortions still happened, they were just registered as "curretage". However, technically abortion was still illegal, and this law legalized it. Thing is, Belgium is a constitutional monarchy, and just Parliament passing a law is not enough - the king has to put his signature under the document as well. This Royal Assent was and is basically ceremonial: the king generally doesn't meddle with governmental affairs unless it involves forming a new government. However, the king at the time, Baudouin I, was a devout Catholic, and he informed the Prime Minister that he could not sign this document without violating his Catholic conscience. This kinda sparked a possible constitutional crisis: what if the king refused to sign other documents? Didn't this mean Parliament was basically useless if the king could just veto anything they put forth? The law had to be passed, even if it was just to prove a point, but the king still refused to sign. People found a loophole, of course. In 1940, the previous king, Leopold III, had surrendered to the Germans. He did this without consulting any of his ministers, and the Prime Minister decided that his decicion was therefore unconstitutional. The king was declared unable to reign and his brother became regent until Leopold's abdication in 1951. So, what if they could declare Baudouin unfit to rule? The king actually agreed and asked the Prime Minister to do this so he could avoid signing the document - the constitution decrees that if the king is unfit to rule, the Government as a whole carries out the role of Head of State. So on April 4th of 1990, Belgium deposed King Baudouin I, turned from a constitutional monarchy to a representative democracy (I think?) and passed the abortion law. 44 hours later, they reinstated the king.
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Feb 20, 2017 14:56
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cgfreak posted:So on April 4th of 1990, Belgium deposed King Baudouin I, turned from a constitutional monarchy to a representative democracy (I think?) and passed the abortion law. 44 hours later, they reinstated the king. Nothing as drastic as that, they just became a kingdom with a king who wasn't allowed to reign. This has a long tradition in monarchies, actually, e.g. the heirs ascending to the throne at a very young age with the actual rule being put in the hands of a regent until they come of age (like Christina of Sweden who became queen at six years old, or Spain's Alfonso XIII whose father died before his birth, legally making him king at the second he was born) or when the ruler was declared to be "unfit to rule", mostly because of him being mentally unwell (like Bavaria's Louis II and his brother Otto after him). Fun fact: according to legend, Shapur II the Great of the Sasanian Empire (309-379) was crowned king before he was even born. Shapur's father Hormizd II died shortly after he was conceived and was succeeded by his older son, who after a few months was murdered during a noble uprising, with two other potential heirs being either blinded or fleeing to Constantinople. If the legend is believed, the nobles then put the crown on Shapur's mother pregnant belly, making him king in utero. Sadly there's no proof that this ever really happened.
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Feb 20, 2017 16:12
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The uranium used in the Manhattan Project (and some sources even say Little Boy) came from the Shinkolobwe mine in Congo, which was a Belgian colony at the time.
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Feb 20, 2017 18:58
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vainman posted:This is slightly off topic but can anyone recommend a good book on the 1960-1990 period of Italy? I've been reading Midnight in Sicily and it's great and I'm looking for more This is a few pages old, but you should check out States of Emergency, I had to read it for a class in my degree when we were covering terrorism and it's a good run down of the whole years of lead thing.
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Feb 21, 2017 00:16
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Not old-old history, but interesting. Several film proposals are considered cursed because John Belushi, John Candy, and Chris Farley had been proposed as leads.quote:Candy was in talks to portray Ignatius J. Reilly in a now-shelved film adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces.[10][11][12] He even expressed interest in portraying Atuk in a film adaptation of Mordecai Richler's The Incomparable Atuk and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in a biopic based on the silent film comedian's life.[13][14] These three shelved projects have been referred to as "cursed" because Candy, John Belushi, and Chris Farley were each attached to all three roles, and they all died at early ages before they could make any of these films.[15][16]
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Feb 21, 2017 06:46
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Not old-old history, but interesting. Several film proposals are considered cursed because John Belushi, John Candy, and Chris Farley had been proposed as leads. It feels like the project is "cursed" because they kept hiring unhealthily obese actors who may or may not have had severe drug problems.
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Feb 21, 2017 14:33
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chitoryu12 posted:It feels like the project is "cursed" because they kept hiring unhealthily obese actors who may or may not have had severe drug problems. 3/3 and 2/3, respectively.
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Feb 21, 2017 18:58
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Thankfully Belushi turned things around after meeting Prez Rickard.
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Feb 21, 2017 19:14
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Thankfully Belushi turned things around after meeting Prez Rickard. Nice
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Feb 22, 2017 10:06
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Parts of the Great Wall of China was paid for by state lottery.
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Feb 22, 2017 19:23
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Alhazred posted:Parts of the Great Wall of China was paid for by state lottery. I didn't know that, but state lotteries were big time fundraisers in the 18th/19th centuries in Britain/US. They provided about a third of the funding for the British Empire's foreign wars. 
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Feb 22, 2017 19:36
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theroachman posted:The uranium used in the Manhattan Project (and some sources even say Little Boy) came from the Shinkolobwe mine in Congo, which was a Belgian colony at the time. I wonder how many hands were lost in mining accidents?
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Feb 23, 2017 07:38
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wallaka posted:I wonder how many hands were lost in mining accidents? So many that they started a terrorist group that kicked off the Great War.
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Feb 23, 2017 07:41
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I had to read a lot of Republican speeches about how Iran hates the US because of religious fundamentalism last week for an essay I was writing. So I'm not sure how widely known it is, but a large chunk of Iranian enmity toward the US is because the US and the UK instigated a coup in Iran in the 1950s because the democratically elected government there wanted to nationalise the oil industry, which was controlled by a UK company. In retaliation the two western countries had the president of Iran replaced with a monarch, who was then himself over throne in the 1970s for being a lovely dictator.
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Feb 23, 2017 08:42
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Red Bones posted:I had to read a lot of Republican speeches about how Iran hates the US because of religious fundamentalism last week for an essay I was writing. So I'm not sure how widely known it is, but a large chunk of Iranian enmity toward the US is because the US and the UK instigated a coup in Iran in the 1950s because the democratically elected government there wanted to nationalise the oil industry, which was controlled by a UK company. In retaliation the two western countries had the president of Iran replaced with a monarch, who was then himself over throne in the 1970s for being a lovely dictator. That’s pretty well known. As well known as any foreign history is.
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Feb 23, 2017 08:47
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Isn't it a bit hypocritical of Iran to hate the US for religious fundamentalism? Absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever
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Feb 23, 2017 09:03
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theroachman posted:The uranium used in the Manhattan Project (and some sources even say Little Boy) came from the Shinkolobwe mine in Congo, which was a Belgian colony at the time. The initial steps of uranium enrichment, ie separation of elemental uranium from ore, were initially conducted as chemical ore processing such as that done on site at mines. As a result uranium ore tailings were famously hosed up and living near an american uranium mine meant you were probably going to get super cancer.
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Feb 23, 2017 09:08
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Red Bones posted:I had to read a lot of Republican speeches about how Iran hates the US because of religious fundamentalism last week for an essay I was writing. So I'm not sure how widely known it is, but a large chunk of Iranian enmity toward the US is because the US and the UK instigated a coup in Iran in the 1950s because the democratically elected government there wanted to nationalise the oil industry, which was controlled by a UK company. In retaliation the two western countries had the president of Iran replaced with a monarch, who was then himself over throne in the 1970s for being a lovely dictator. They don't teach this in American history classes? Because stuff like this is pretty important to know in order to understand the current problems in the middle east. Also it's "overthrown"
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Feb 23, 2017 09:25
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Freudian slippers posted:They don't teach this in American history classes? Because stuff like this is pretty important to know in order to understand the current problems in the middle east. can only speak for new jersey here, but i don't think i ever had a history class get as far as the first world war, and only one year in high school was spent on world history
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Feb 23, 2017 09:31
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Isn't it a bit hypocritical of Iran to hate the US for religious fundamentalism? Absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever I think you parsed that wrong. Iran doesn't hate the US because of Alamaba or whatever, but because the US a) overthrew their elected leader and b) supported a rather lovely king for decades.
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Feb 23, 2017 09:35
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please dont make everyone start using /s (that was /ns)
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Feb 23, 2017 10:13
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Thankfully Belushi turned things around after meeting Prez Rickard. I don't know what's worse. One, you made that reference, or two, I recognised it. (Trick question both are bad)
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Feb 23, 2017 10:48
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Red Bones posted:I had to read a lot of Republican speeches about how Iran hates the US because of religious fundamentalism last week for an essay I was writing. So I'm not sure how widely known it is, but a large chunk of Iranian enmity toward the US is because the US and the UK instigated a coup in Iran in the 1950s because the democratically elected government there wanted to nationalise the oil industry, which was controlled by a UK company. In retaliation the two western countries had the president of Iran replaced with a monarch, who was then himself over throne in the 1970s for being a lovely dictator. To go a bit further: the Iranian president at first didn't want to nationalize the oil industry, he just wanted to audit the UK company because he suspected (correctly, as it turns out) that they were using fraudulent business practices to basically steal Iran's oil. The UK company refused to submit to the audit, so the president got the parliament to vote to nationalize the oil industry. And the Cold War is full of stories like that. Like the September 11, 1973 Chilean Coup, instigated and organized by the CIA, which replaced democratically-elected Allende with dictator Pinochet because Allende was leaning a bit too far to the left for the US' liking.
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Feb 23, 2017 10:59
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Freudian slippers posted:They don't teach this in American history classes? Because stuff like this is pretty important to know in order to understand the current problems in the middle east. I don't really know anyone who learned any world history in a class before college. I remember having to google the french revolution when i was a kid because i wasnt sure what it was but there were entire class periods spent on Andrew Carnegie.
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Feb 23, 2017 12:18
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Mikl posted:To go a bit further: the Iranian president at first didn't want to nationalize the oil industry, he just wanted to audit the UK company because he suspected (correctly, as it turns out) that they were using fraudulent business practices to basically steal Iran's oil. The UK company refused to submit to the audit, so the president got the parliament to vote to nationalize the oil industry. The original Banana Republic incident in which Edward Bernays painted the moderate left wing Guatemalan president as a dangerous communist so that the CIA would overthrow him and benefit the United Fruit Company was even better. And by better I mean equally horrible.
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Feb 23, 2017 12:42
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Mikl posted:And the Cold War is full of stories like that. Like the September 11, 1973 Chilean Coup, instigated and organized by the CIA, which replaced democratically-elected Allende with dictator Pinochet because Allende was leaning a bit too far to the left for the US' liking. The coup plotters called in jets to bomb the national palace. After the coup they killed thousands of civilians and arrested tens of thousands.
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Feb 23, 2017 13:02
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Jaramin posted:The B29 could fly at 9000 meters, and generally did not do so so that the payload could be accurately delivered. No german or japanese fighter could operate that high, so they'd have to rely on flak guns. For a nuclear warhead, accuracy is less important, so if fighter screen was too heavy the allies would have just dropped the bombs from too high for the Germans to reach. Going through this thread slowly, but lol how loving wrong can you be? B-29 Service Ceiling: 9,710 meters German Fighters: ----------------- Bf-109G-6 Service Ceiling: 12,000 meters Me-262A-1 Service Ceiling: 11,450 meters Fw-190A-8 Service Ceiling: 11,410 meters Fw-190D-9 Service Ceiling: 12,000 meters Me-410A-1 Service Ceiling: 10,000 meters Bf-110G-2 Service Ceiling: 11,000 meters Ta-152H-1 Service Ceiling: 15,100 meters Japanese Fighters: ------------------ A6M8 Service Ceiling: 11,300 meters Ki-84 Service Ceiling: 11,800 meters Ki-87 Service Ceiling: 12,800 meters Ki-100 Service Ceiling: 11,000 meters A7M Service Ceiling: 10,900 meters N1K Service Ceiling: 10,800 meters J2M Service Ceiling: 11,400 meters There are reasons why the nukes were able to deploy where they did, their service ceiling was not one of them.
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Feb 23, 2017 13:08
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Going through this thread slowly, but lol how loving wrong can you be? 
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Feb 23, 2017 14:14
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Physics are a false Jewish science invented by decedent Bolshevik intellectuals to subvert and corrupt völkisch ideals. The Reich does not need any nukes.
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Feb 23, 2017 14:22
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By the time the nukes were ready, Japanese air power was not an issue at all. Virtually all airframes of the Home islands were situated along southern coastlines, and with enough fuel available to fly one mission - and not enough to return. (the reason why they were concentrated was that they didn't have enough fuel to fly any training or interception missions, so it was better to put them all in the range of possible Allied approaches for a land invasion, where they could be at least marginally useful. Allied planners knew that, and they expected to just plaster all the Japanese airfields with thousands of immobile fighters in one mighty swoop, should an invasion occur)
steinrokkan has a new favorite as of 14:47 on Feb 23, 2017 |
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Feb 23, 2017 14:39
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Dutchy posted:I don't really know anyone who learned any world history in a class before college. I remember having to google the french revolution when i was a kid because i wasnt sure what it was but there were entire class periods spent on Andrew Carnegie. To be fair, though, there was any number of "French Revolutions" at the end of the 18th century, along with maybe 30 notable figures, a whole ton of factions, and no shortage of incidents and decrees and affairs and the like. If you're a high school history teacher who has to cover from, say, the Renaissance to the Vietnam war in a semester, saying "and then they overthrew the monarchy" is about all you can hope for before you fall down the bottomless rabbit hole.
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Feb 23, 2017 17:34
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Mikl posted:To go a bit further: the Iranian president at first didn't want to nationalize the oil industry, he just wanted to audit the UK company because he suspected (correctly, as it turns out) that they were using fraudulent business practices to basically steal Iran's oil. The UK company refused to submit to the audit, so the president got the parliament to vote to nationalize the oil industry. Which was a greater shame than anything, mostly due to Allende's plan about a "cybernetic" data system to manage the entire country, would have been interesting to see in action, using 70's era technology.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:03
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Speaking of uranium, does anyone remember that I Love Lucy episode where the gang goes to Vegas for Ricky's show and they see an article about uranium in the Nevada desert? Well, that means big bucks, especially to Fred Murtz, so they all get into the car and hunt. I especially remember that episode because the few times I would catch an episode of I Love Lucy it was always THIS one.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:14
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bean_shadow posted:I especially remember that episode because the few times I would catch an episode of I Love Lucy it was always THIS one. The gently caress is up with that, anyway? It's like, back when I would still watch a rerun of Seinfeld, half the time it was The Marble Rye. Do networks only buy like a quarter of the episodes for syndication?
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Feb 23, 2017 18:53
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That loving Friends episode where Chandler buys a boat at auction, thinking he was guessing the price.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:57
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Freudian slippers posted:They don't teach this in American history classes? Because stuff like this is pretty important to know in order to understand the current problems in the middle east. They don't because it was a real dick move on the part of America. Generally speaking American history in high school is super ultra nationalistic where America is rarely the bad guy. Even Vietnam is pretty heavily sanitized to make it look like an honest mistake made on the name of fighting the Russians rather than the awful horror of a crime that it was. Needless to say the real reason we were there in the first place or the poo poo America got up to in Laos before hand were never mentioned. Like was said America did a lot of horrifying things during the cold war.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:07
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If it didn't happen in Europe or America, then it wasn't taught to me in school. We got a brief outline of the Greeks and Romans, then some of Britain and France, and then it was all America all the time. We didn't hear a single thing about Iran until the Iraq War, and even then it was just the country next to Iraq who is also bad.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:15
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That's horrifying to me. I thought I went to a pretty mediocre school but I had a specific class called "World Civ" and several units in other classes that were about world history. We read a book about the Ti An Men Massacre in English class, for instance.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:21
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Phy posted:The gently caress is up with that, anyway? It's like, back when I would still watch a rerun of Seinfeld, half the time it was The Marble Rye. Do networks only buy like a quarter of the episodes for syndication? It's known as the birthday problem because the example used is how people always end up having the same birthday at small dinner parties.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:36
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RagnarokZ posted:Which was a greater shame than anything, mostly due to Allende's plan about a "cybernetic" data system to manage the entire country, would have been interesting to see in action, using 70's era technology. I dunno, the murder of hundreds of civilians and the overthrow of a democratic leader seems like a pretty great shame to me, but to each his own, I guess.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:47
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