This Week in Geek History: Oct 29th-Nov 3rd

Not-so-Spooky Spooky Halloween Edition!
[ding dong] Well hello, Happy Halloween! Aw, wouldya look at this, aren't you all just adorable! And what are you supposed to be? Oooh, a batman? And aren't you just the most darling little jedi I've ever seen... here you go kids, have some treats-no not candy, but some delicious history!

And what all happened in this most spooky of spooky weeks? Well, alot in the geek world.

October 29th was a busy day in history. First off, the goth nerd classic Nightmare Before Christmas was released on this day in 1993. Finally, hundreds of young goth girls have a fictional character they can totally crush on.

Also on Oct 29th, in 1969, those nerds at DARPA establish the first computer-to-computer network on ARPANET, a precursor to the internet we all know and love today. If only they knew...

More tasty brain treats after the jump!


One fine October 30th evening, back in 1938, America was sitting back in their comfy speakeasys, feasting on warm oakies while listening to the radio box when suddenly they heard this! Now don't be alarmed, you don't have to memorize the names of our alien overlords in history class, this was just Orson Welles' radioplay of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. But, this being the stupid ages and all, America freaked the fuck out! People genuinely believed we were being conquered... nowadays people are only dumb enough to believe that this guy is their idol.

Magic has always been the hobby of geeks and sleazy guys trying to pick up chicks at bars... here we're focusing on the former of course; so for you magic type geeks (I'm so sorry, illusionists) in 1926, on October 31st, (the 4th scariest day of the year) one Harry Houdini dies from a complications brought about by a ruptured appendix. Or does he.... oooooooEEEEEEEooooooo. Despite popular belief, he did not "die" from a punch to the gut, but the punch may have aggravated his already existing condition. And concerned that fakesters and con-icians might claim to have spoken to him from beyond the grave, he left his wife a 10 word code to expect should he ever actually attempt postmortem contact.

And of course, the most important thing to happen on any October 31st, was the very first halloween. Back in 1678, the earliest settlers of this great land, the slutty pilgrims, joined hands with their neighbors, the slutty indians, and celebrated with a great feast of candy and pumpkins. Also a slutty nurse was there. And all was well between these great peoples for the rest of history.

Finally, at the end of the week, on Nov 3rd in 1954, Godzilla stomped through a tiny Tokyo for the first time... and straight into our hearts.

Other positively horrifying things happened this week... but really, I don't want to give you kids nightmares. Now shoo! And don't egg my house you little brats!