NOT EVERYONE KNOWS THIS

By John Chaput

John Chaput, born and raised in Montreal, eventually morphed into a Westerner. A retired writer and editor. he occupies much of his time as president of the Regina Little Theatre.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATE JOHANSEN

SEPTEMBER 12, 490 BCE

Since the 19th century, this has been accepted as the most probable date of the Battle of Marathon, in which a thoroughly outnumbered force of 10,000 Athenians drove away an invading Persian army. The battle would also bring forth the legend of Pheidippides, the courier who ran 240 kilometres in two days to Sparta to seek military help for the Athenians, then ran back to Marathon, was sent on another 40-kilometre jaunt to deliver news of the victory to Athens, and promptly dropped dead when he announced the result. Not everyone knows this, but the earliest known telling of the story of Pheidippides (by Plutarch) doesn’t appear until fi ve centuries after the battle. And the story is probably hooey. Think about it: If you were desperate for reinforcements or eager to announce a triumph, wouldn’t you send somebody on horseback? Even in 490 BCE, there was such a thing as cavalry. (This segment sponsored by Carbon Dating, the service for couples who want to explore coal mines.)

SEPTEMBER 20, 1519

Portuguese commander Ferdinand Magellan sets out with a fl eet of fi ve ships and 270 men westward across the Atlantic Ocean on a hitherto unexplored route to the Spice Islands (now part of Indonesia). Not everyone knew this at the time, but the problem with the route is this little thing called South America that gets in the way. Well, no matter; they had two years’ worth of provisions. So, reaching Brazil, Magellan spent fi ve months trying to fi nd a way around this mysterious land mass, hunkering down for winter, and quelling a mutiny. Finally the fl eet made its way to the Pacifi c Ocean and the Philippines, where Magellan thought that converting the natives to Christianity would be a good idea. It wasn’t; they killed him. The expedition carried on without Magellan and in September of 1522 made it back to Spain and achieved the fi rst circumnavigation of the globe. Of the original 270 participants, fewer than 20 completed the voyage.

SEPTEMBER 15, 1928

Scottish microbiologist Alexander Fleming returns to his laboratory at London’s St. Mary’s Hospital after a two-week vacation, looks over some Staphylococci cultures he had left sitting around, and says, “That’s funny.” Some mold had grown on one dish, but the peculiarity was that the bacteria immediately surrounding it had died while bacteria further away was unaffected. “That’s how you discovered lysozyme,” remarks a colleague who saw the sample, referring to an enzyme in tears and nasal mucus that Fleming had isolated six years earlier. By chance, Fleming had now discovered the fi rst antibiotic; he eventually names it after the Staph germ in which it grew: Penicillium. Not everyone knows this, but penicillin didn’t become a wonder treatment right away. It took years to refi ne the drug, which achieved widespread acceptance in the Second World War as it minimized infections among wounded Allied soldiers. Fleming and the duo of Ernst Chain and Edward Abraham, who were instrumental in refi ning the drug, were honoured with the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1945.

SEPTEMBER 14, 1956

IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, the fi rst commercial computer to employ magnetic-disk hard drive. It weighs a freakin’ ton – literally. It needs its own room. It can store the volume of information equivalent to 64,000 punch cards on its 50 twofoot-wide disks. (You see, in the early decades of computing, punch cards were ... oh, forget it.) That is equal to about fi ve megabytes of data. Five. (5.) F-i-v-e. Megabytes. Not gigabytes, megabytes. Not everyone knows this, but as I am writing, Best Buy has a sale on 128-gibabyte fl ash drives that can hold about 250,000 times more data than the RAMAC 305, at less than 1/250,000th the weight and maybe 1/25,000,000th the space. $49.99 Cdn, plus tax, on sale from $59.99. Holds the equivalent of more than 16 billion punch cards. Think of the trees you’ll save. (Brought to you by App-ology, the cell phone software that automatically sends an “I’m sorry” text to someone you just butt-dialed.)

SEPTEMBER 27, 1988

It’s a big day for Canada at the Summer Olympics in Seoul. Ben Johnson, who had won the men’s 100 metres three days earlier, is disqualifi ed for using anabolic steroids. Meanwhile, Lawrence Lemieux of Edmonton is competing in the Finn class of the sailing competition. Halfway through the fi fth of the seven-race series, sudden winds cause the Singapore boat carrying two men to capsize. Lemieux veers off course to rescue them, keeps them aboard until a rescue boat arrives, and fi nally returns to the race to fi nish in 22nd place. The governing body elevates him to the second-place position he held at the time of his selfl ess act. Lemieux will fi nish the series in 11th place but is awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship. Although the medal had been instituted in 1964, Lemieux is only the second athlete to spontaneously receive it for actions during competition. Not everyone knows this, but for every Canadian who remembers Lemeiux’s heroism, thousands remember Johnson’s shame. Oh, Canada ...

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Queen Elizabeth II surpasses Queen Victoria’s record for longest reign by a British monarch. Victoria sat on the throne – fi guratively, not literally – for 63 years, seven months and two days. Fast-forwarding to today, Elizabeth has been at it now for 69 years and seven months. Coincidentally, both queens had eldest sons who waited for a personal eternity to get their turn at ruling. The future Edward VII was 59 before Victoria passed on, and the current Prince Charles is 72 and still on hold. Both men who were/ are the Prince of Wales engaged in romantic affairs that generated scandal and caused their mothers no end of embarrassment. Not everyone knows this, but the third-longest reign for a British monarch belongs to George III at 59 years and three months. Victoria and Elizabeth II had sons who drove them crazy; George just went a little cuckoo on his own. (Brought to you by Yukon Have Your Cake, the best dessert bar in Whitehorse.)