December 3, historically speaking

Weird day, December 3.  First off, we have the Napoleonic Wars.  In 1799, we have the Austrians beating a French force at Wiesloch.  In 1800, we have the tables getting turned, as the French defeat the Austrians at Hohenlinden.  This time, the Austrians make peace, ending the War of The Second Coalition.  But don't worry- I'm pretty sure that this insane outbreak of peace will be brought to an end soon!


In 1912, it gets kinda weird too.  First, there's a battle fought at sea, at Elli; in what becomes known as The First Balkan War- I assume that name gets into usage after another war, probably called the Second Balkan War.  At any rate, while the ships duke it out at Elli, the Balkan League is signing an armistice with Turkey.  Which ends the war, of course. 

In 1960, a new play shows up on Broadway.  It's called Camelot, and stupid and ignorant people decide to make it the Unofficial Official Broadway Play of The Kennedy Administration.  It's always sounded stupid to me, but then I think anything making the Kennedys sound exciting and brilliant is stupid. 

Here's one that I remember:  On this date in 1979, Riverfront Coliseum is the place to be in Cincinnati, as there's a big concert tonight by The Who.  Alas, somebody came up with the idea of having "festival seating", or "a mad rush to the best seats" as it could more accurately be called.  11 people get crushed to death by the crowd.  Yikes.  They played in Detroit not long after that- at the Silverdome, if I recall correctly.  Lots of concern there, I assure you.  I wasn't there, but I saw the Stones at the Dome in November of 1981.  At one point, I was almost carried along against my will, and felt unable to move freely.  It only lasted a few seconds, but it was still kinda scary, and all we were doing was leaving the stadium after the concert.  I think that was the last concert I went to that didn't have reserved seating, not counting outdoor concerts where you sit on the lawn.  And those tend to be much smaller venues, so all you have to deal with are the rude, inconsiderate ***holes who stroll along when the concert starts and rush the front, stepping on and in front of the people who got there early and got the good spots.  I would also point out in closing that it tends to be hippies who do that sort of thing, as more conventional people aren't rude and self-absorbed enough to do something like that to other people. 

Bhopal India has a really crappy day in 1984.  A leak from a pesticide plant poisons an awful lot of people, probably more than half a million, to be vague about it.  A total of about 10,000 people die, either at the time or afterward as a result of being poisoned.    Yikes.  I seem to recall a Patrick Swayze movie being made about it.  I don't know if he danced the problem away, or if he just warned the people to be nice until the bad guys gave them a reason not to be nice.  It didn't look very good, so either of those option might have made the movie better. 

And once again, that's that.