Small Round Things

Today is the birthday of French Astrologer and publisher of dubious prophecies, Nostradamus, who was born Michel de Nostredame on this date in 1503. Also trained as an apothecary, he became famous for creating a "rose pill" that supposedly protected against the Plague. In other orb news allegedly on this day either in 1925 or 1929 — more ambiguity — the first American miniature golf course opens in Florida. In a parallel hobby and diameter universe today in 1901 the London Royal Aquarium hosts the first table-tennis tournament and, speaking of poisson, on this date in 1656 Parisian rosary-bead maker M. Jacquin first produces artificial pearls — made of gypsum pellets, they are covered with fish scales. From the Cross-Section Department — on this day in 1902 the first telegraph cable is laid across the Pacific Ocean. And, in our last ode to small round things, today in 1968 American singer Marvin Gaye's I Heard it Through the Grapevine reaches number one on the pop-singles charts.

This idiosyncratic comic expression pink pin (one inch Ø) — an object selected in homage to today's topic — is from the small but tidy CafePress.com Ink Blot Comics shop.

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