TODAY IN HISTORY | April 22nd

TODAY’S TOPICS

• 1370 - Construction of Bastille Fortress

• 1876 - First National Baseball Game

  Extras

  Mozart’s Best Song🎶

  Baby Jumping Festival👶🏻

  Ancient Irish Poets☘️

  South Carolina Nuke💣

1370 Construction of The Bastille

In the spring of 1370, King Charles V of France ordered a new fortress to be built on the eastern edge of Paris. The plan was simple: shore up the city’s defenses during the chaos of the Hundred Years' War. The structure that rose was called the Bastille, and at first, it was just a big wall with a couple of towers meant to keep English forces out. No one building it had any idea what it would be come…

Over time, the Bastille grew. More towers were added, and its role shifted. By the 1600s, it was no longer just a military post. It had become a prison — but not for common criminals. It was where the French monarchy tossed anyone they didn’t want to deal with. No trial, no charges — just a signature from the king. Philosophers, political adversaries, unlucky journalists — if you upset the wrong person, you could vanish behind the Bastille’s walls.

By the late 1700s, the fortress had become everything people hated about the monarchy: secret arrests, censorship, and unchecked power. So when tensions in Paris finally snapped in July 1789, the people knew exactly where to go. On July 14, a mob stormed the Bastille. There were barely any prisoners left, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t about breaking people out — it was about tearing a symbol down. Brick by brick, they destroyed it.

The Bastille was never rebuilt. But the story of its rise and fall lives on in France’s national memory. What started as a wall meant to keep enemies out became a rallying cry for the people inside it — and a warning to any government that thinks it can silence the crowd forever.

🤖 Ai Depiction of Event

1876 First National Baseball Game

By 1876, baseball was already a mess — popular, but wild. Players were drunk during games, owners were shady, and entire teams would vanish halfway through a season. The sport needed someone to lay down the law. That someone was William Hulbert, a businessman from Chicago who wanted to turn baseball into something people could actually trust. His plan? A new league. With real rules, real structure, and real consequences.

He formed the National League by grabbing the six best clubs from the failing National Association and adding two more. This wasn’t a casual get-together — it was invitation-only. Teams had to pay big league dues and follow strict discipline. The idea was to bring stability and legitimacy to a sport that had way too much chaos and not nearly enough control.

On April 22, 1876, the league kicked off its first official game: the Boston Red Caps vs. the Philadelphia Athletics. Boston won 6–5 in a tight, two-hour battle played in front of 3,000 fans. The Philadelphia Inquirer said betting on the game was "about even" — but it also blamed the Athletics’ loss on sloppy fielding. The rules back then were wild: pitchers stood 45 feet from the plate and were supposed to throw underhand, though most didn’t. Batters could call their preferred strike zone. And it took nine balls to draw a walk. Still, for all its quirks, it was a turning point.

That day didn’t just mark the start of a new season — it marked the moment baseball became a real institution. The National League didn’t just survive, it evolved. And what started with wool uniforms and dirt fields eventually led to stadiums, World Series, and multimillion-dollar contracts. All because, one afternoon in Philly, the game finally got serious.

🤖 Ai Depiction of Event

Mozart’s Secret Song🎶
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the musical genius behind The Magic Flute and Requiem, also composed a little number called “Leck mich im Arsch” — which translates quite bluntly to “Lick me in the arse.” Written around 1782, the piece was a light, cheeky canon (basically a round) meant more for private entertainment among friends than for any concert hall. And believe it or not, it’s not the only one—Mozart wrote a few other similarly spicy tunes. Turns out, 18th-century humor wasn’t exactly subtle. Mozart was known for his sophisticated music and his very juvenile sense of humor—a combo that, honestly, just makes him even more human. 🎶💩👀

Baby Jumping Festival👶🏻
In the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia, there's a yearly tradition that sounds made up but is very real: El Colacho, also known as the baby-jumping festival. Since the 1600s, during the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi, men dressed as devils (called El Colacho) leap over rows of newborn babies laid on mattresses in the street. The purpose? To ward off evil spirits and cleanse the babies of original sin—kind of like an airborne baptism-meets-obstacle course. The babies are completely unharmed (and their parents are fully on board), and the festival wraps with music, parades, and lots of traditional flair. So if your town’s traditions feel a little dull, just know there’s a place in Spain where demon-costumed guys hop over babies to keep them spiritually safe. 👶💨😈🔥🗞️💣

Ancient Irish Poets☘️
In ancient Ireland, poets—called filí—weren’t just storytellers. They were seen as powerful, almost magical figures, with the ability to bless... or curse. And not just any curse—legend says a skilled poet could literally rhyme a king into illness. Their weapon? Satire. A sharp, cutting poem could damage a ruler’s reputation, honor, and even physical health, according to belief at the time. The idea was that words held real, supernatural force—so if a poet publicly humiliated you in verse, it wasn’t just embarrassing… it could be fatal. Kings actually feared angering poets, often rewarding them generously to stay on their good side. So yeah, in ancient Ireland, upsetting a poet wasn’t just bad PR. It was a health risk. 🪄☘️📖

South Carolina Nuked💣
In 1958, the U.S. Air Force made a nuclear-level whoopsie and accidentally dropped an atomic bomb on South Carolina—specifically, the town of Mars Bluff. A B-47 bomber was flying a routine mission when a crew member accidentally triggered the emergency release mechanism. The bomb fell right into someone’s backyard, and while it didn’t have its nuclear core (thankfully), it still had enough explosives to leave a crater 35 feet wide and destroy a family’s home. Miraculously, no one was killed—just a few injuries and a very shocked family who suddenly had a bomb-shaped lawn ornament. So yes, the U.S. once accidentally nuked itself... but forgot to arm the bomb. Close call doesn’t even begin to cover it. 💣🛩️🤦‍♂️

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