January 16, 1749: If I Could Spend Time in a Bottle

If I were to crawl into a wine bottle (a standard 750 ml) before your very eyes and, while residing in said bottle, entertain you with a few songs (bawdy ones, probably), you’d pay to see that, wouldn’t you? Of course you would. A lot of people in London paid a lot of money to see just that back in 1749 by a performer scheduled to appear on the evening of the 16th at the Haymarket Theater. The performer’s name has been lost to history. Just call him the Bottle Conjurer.

The posters promised this feat and more: in addition to his tenure in the bottle, he would take an ordinary walking cane and play upon it every musical instrument in current use. Well, of course the huge crowd that assembled that evening was anticipatory. After all, this was the Age of Enlightenment.

The audience waited and they waited. It was beginning to look like the Conjurer was a no show. Finally the theater manager appeared before the crowd and promised a refund of all the ticket purchases. The crowd was not pleased. And when an Age of Enlightenment crowd is not pleased, what do they do. They riot of course. They ripped up the benches, tore down the boxes, shredded the scenery. In short, they demolished the theater. As an encored, they started a great bonfire and raised the theater curtain as a defiant flag.

No one knew for sure who perpetrated what was now assumed to be a hoax. The chief suspect was the Second Duke of Montagu, known for his enlightened practical jokes.

Texas Okay, But Not Arizona or New Mexico

In 1917, Arthur Zimmerman, the German foreign secretary, sent a coded telegram to the German minister in Mexico. The telegram proposed a German Mexican alliance if the United States declared was on Germany. As an inducement, Germany would allow Mexico to take Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. When the telegram was revealed, the United States got all hot and bothered and jumped right into the war against Germany.