Liam O'Mara IV, PhD
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liamomaraiv.bsky.social
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD
@liamomaraiv.bsky.social
Snarky history professor and political commentator; bibliophile; anti-nationalist libsoc antifa mountain man; geeky cat & bird dad; views are entirely my own, not my employer's.
On #ThisDayInHistory in 2015, #Islamists associated with #Daesh (#ISIS) attacked #Paris, killing 130 people and injuring ~416. The main targets were the #Bataclan theatre and the #StadeDeFrance, though six sites were hit. The attacks were widely condemned in the #Muslim world.
November 13, 2025 at 10:00 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1577, #TychoBrahe first observed the #GreatComet. His very precise measurement of this non-periodic comet's movement helped his student, #JohannesKepler, develop a theory of elliptical orbits. Brahe himself was unable to shake the dogma of geocentrism.
November 13, 2025 at 5:30 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1887, in #TrafalgarSquare, the #BloodySunday protests resulted in 400 arrests and at least 75 serious injuries. #WorkingClass English #socialists and #IrishNationalists were protesting against the Irish Coercion Acts and the high unemployment rate.
November 13, 2025 at 5:00 PM
In 1956 on #ThisDayInHistory, #SCOTUS ruled in #BrowderVGayle that #segregation on buses was illegal. It began with the first four women arrested for refusing to surrender their seat. This did not start with #RosaParks, though the #MontgomeryBusBoycott that followed her helped.
November 13, 2025 at 4:30 PM
In 1895 on #ThisDayInHistory a statue of #SlaveTrader #EdwardColston was unveiled in #Bristol, UK. Despite Colston's ownership of the #RoyalAfricanCompany, which enslaved about 100,000 West Africans, it stayed there until #AntiRacist activists dumped it in the harbour in 2020.
November 13, 2025 at 4:01 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1947, the #AK47 #AssaultRifle was introduced in the #USSR. The most popular firearm in history, this #Kalashnikov makes up about a fifth of guns in the world. Not especially accurate, its rate of fire and plentiful spare parts keep it in use worldwide.
November 13, 2025 at 3:30 PM
The #IrishCitizenArmy was formed on #ThisDayInHistory in 1913 by #union leader #JamesConnolly. Originally led by Jack White and facing off against #police, Connolly later took charge and moved it towards nationalist goals, with #ICA participating in the #EasterRising in 1916.
November 13, 2025 at 3:01 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1922, the #SCOTUS unanimously ruled in #ZuchtVKing that federal #VaccineMandates were legal, and that #unvaccinated students could be excluded from #PublicSchools. Scientifically illiterate and dangerous people still oppose sensible #PublicHealth policy.
November 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1974, #KarenSilkwood was killed in a car crash in OK while on her way to meet a #NYTimes reporter with evidence her employer #KerrMcGee was engaged in health violations. Her car was rammed to push it into a head-on collision and the evidence disappeared.
November 13, 2025 at 2:01 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1966, Israel's #OperationShredder into #Jordan, killing 16 Jordanian military personnel. The excuse was independent #PLO #fedayeen attacks. Israel was censured by #UNSC for this large-scale invasion, and the #BattleOfSamu helped lead to the #1967War.
November 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1002, King #ÆthelredTheUnready ordered a #genocide against #Danes living in #England. #StBricesDayMassacre inspired the invasion of England by #SweinForkbeard, whose son became #CnutTheGreat, founder of a #NorthSeaEmpire linking England, Norway, & Denmark.
November 13, 2025 at 1:00 PM
November 13, 2025 at 2:31 AM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1980, the #NASA probe #Voyager1 made its closest approach to #Saturn and captured stunning images of its ring system. The craft is still functional after 48 years, contining to send data despite having crossed the #heliopause to interstellar space in 2012.
November 12, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Piece of shit #neonazi #CharlesManson was born on #ThisDayInHistory in 1934. He apparently taught his #MansonFamily that their murders were meant to start #HelterSkelter -- a #RaceWar that black people would win, but they would then need his leadership due to low intelligence...
November 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM
One way to see the daylight between #KarlMarx and many so-called #Marxists is to note his preamble to the general rules of the #FirstInternational, published #ThisDayInHistory in 1864: "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves."
November 12, 2025 at 7:00 PM
#EllisIsland closed on #ThisDayInHistory in 1954. The #immigrant-processing facility handled 12 million people between 1892 and 1954. Prior to the #racist immigration laws of the 1920s, the only inspections were medical and financial; the US still had effectively #OpenBorders.
November 12, 2025 at 6:30 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 2013, #PYD (the Syrian branch of #PKK) declared the #Rojava area an autonomous part of #Syria and divided it into three governorates -- Afrin, Kobani, Jazira. Since then it has operated under #socialist, #DemocraticConfederalist administration as #DAANES.
November 12, 2025 at 6:15 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1940, secret negotiations opened in Berlin regarding the #USSR formally joining the #AxisPowers. They hoped to build on the previous year's #MolotovRibbentropPact to divide Eastern Europe. #Hitler never seriously considered the alliance; #Stalin did.
November 12, 2025 at 6:00 PM
In 2015 on #ThisDayInHistory, two "#SuicideBombers" detonated in a #Shia-majority suburb south of #Beirut, killing 43. #ISIL, a #nationalist/#terrorist group aiming for an oppressive #Sunni #caliphate and opposed to religious & ethnic diversity in the Middle East, took credit.
November 12, 2025 at 5:30 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1927, #LeonTrotsky was formally expelled from the #CommunistParty. He had been a towering figure in the #RussianRevolution and early #USSR, and removing him cleared the way for #JosefStalin to consolidate power. Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in 1940.
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1956, during the #SuezCrisis, #IDF troops massacred between 111 and 200 #Palestinians in the city of #Rafah in the #GazaStrip. They were lined up at a UN school, interrogated, then shot and thrown into a mass grave. There remains no justice for this event.
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
On #ThisDayInHistory in 1815, #feminist icon #ElizabethCadyStanton was born in New York. She led the #SenecaFallsConvention for women's rights and was thus instrumental in helping American women catch up with European movements. #Patriarchy is a disease that's killing us all.
November 12, 2025 at 4:00 PM
In 1920, 65 men were held without trial in #CountyCork gaol by the UK and in August began a #HungerStrike. All but 11 were freed or moved. #MichaelFitzgerald died after 68 days, #JoeMurphy after 79. The rest held out for 94 days, ending the #CorkHungerStrike on #ThisDayInHistory.
November 12, 2025 at 3:30 PM