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#GamingHistory #ThisDayInHistory #Nintendo #VideoGames #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (3/3)
This Day in History — Nintendo Is Founded
On September 23, 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai in Kyoto — a handmade playing card business whose name roughly means "leave luck to heaven." He had no idea.
theoffkeybard.com
September 23, 2026 at 1:24 PM
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☀️ Fooled by Light: He was right, sunlight reflecting off high-altitude cloud tops had triggered false satellite alerts.
👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:

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#ColdWarHistory #ThisDayInHistory #NuclearHistory #StanislavPetrov #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (2/2)
This Day in History — The Man Who Didn't Start World War III
On September 26, 1983, Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov chose not to report five incoming American missiles — and may have prevented nuclear war.
theoffkeybard.com
September 26, 2026 at 4:45 PM
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☀️ Beyond Weapons: It explains why stars shine, how particle accelerators generate matter, and why tiny mass changes yield massive energy.
👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:
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#Physics #ScienceHistory #ThisDayInHistory #Einstein #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (2/2)
This Day in History — Einstein Connects Mass and Energy
On September 27, 1905, Albert Einstein submitted a short paper introducing mass-energy equivalence — the idea behind E = mc², born in a patent office in Bern.
theoffkeybard.com
September 27, 2026 at 2:51 PM
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👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:

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#AmericanHistory #ThisDayInHistory #CivilWarHistory #EmancipationProclamation #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (4/4)
This Day in History — Lincoln Issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
On September 22, 1862 — five days after Antietam — Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, giving Confederate states 100 days to return to the Union. None did.
theoffkeybard.com
September 22, 2026 at 3:20 PM
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👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:

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#AmericanHistory #ThisDayInHistory #BillOfRights #USConstitution #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (3/3)
This Day in History — Congress Passes the Bill of Rights
On September 25, 1789, Congress sent twelve proposed amendments to the states — not ten. One of the two that failed at the time became the 27th Amendment in 1992, 203 years later.
theoffkeybard.com
September 25, 2026 at 1:55 PM
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👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:

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#InternetHistory #ThisDayInHistory #ComputerHistory #CompuServe #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (3/3)
This Day in History — CompuServe Brings Online Services Into the Home
On September 24, 1979, CompuServe launched MicroNET — dismissed internally as "schlock timesharing" — and discovered that what people wanted most online was to talk to each other.
theoffkeybard.com
September 24, 2026 at 4:04 PM
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#PresidentsSeries #AmericanHistory #WilliamHowardTaft #USPresidents #History #BardsDesk (4/4)
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft: the 27th President who split the GOP, lost to Woodrow Wilson, and went on to become the 10th Chief Justice — the job he actually wanted.
theoffkeybard.com
September 15, 2026 at 5:41 PM
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👇 Read the full story:

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#ThisDayInHistory #History #WorldHistory #Maritime #Exploration #BardsDesk

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This Day in History — The First Circumnavigation of Earth Is Completed
On September 6, 1522, one ship returned from the first circumnavigation of Earth — 18 survivors, 26 tons of cloves, and a calendar one day behind everyone else's.
theoffkeybard.com
September 6, 2026 at 3:02 PM
theoff-keybard.bsky.social
My latest Bard's Musing explores a question we don't ask often enough: not whether healthcare has gatekeepers, but who those gatekeepers are accountable to.

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#Healthcare #PublicPolicy #Economics #BardsDesk
July 31, 2026 at 3:58 PM
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designed so future generations could continue the argument and amend the law.

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#ConstitutionDay #ThisDayInHistory #AmericanHistory #USConstitution #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (3/3)
This Day in History — The U.S. Constitution Is Signed
On September 17, 1787, 39 delegates signed the Constitution — three refused, one was too frail to speak, and the closing line was written to make a divided vote look unanimous.
theoffkeybard.com
September 17, 2026 at 11:40 AM
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Oh, and General Mills helped build it. Plus, the horn antenna built to hear its signals was later used to discover the Big Bang's afterglow. Read the full entry: 👇

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#ThisDayInHistory #Space #Astronomy #NASA #Echo1A #TechHistory #BardsDesk

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The Off-Key Bard
Stories, technology, and practical wisdom for a complicated world.
theoffkeybard.com
August 12, 2026 at 2:10 PM
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49 years later, it's more than 24 billion km away.
And it's still going.

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#ThisDayInHistory #Space #Astronomy #NASA #Voyager #BardsDesk
This Day in History — Voyager 1 Launches
On September 5, 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 on a faster path than its twin — found volcanoes on Io, crossed into interstellar space in 2012, and is still going today.
theoffkeybard.com
September 5, 2026 at 4:03 PM
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👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:

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#ComputerHistory #ThisDayInHistory #WindowsNT #Microsoft #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (4/4)
This Day in History — Microsoft Releases Windows NT 3.5 "Daytona"
On September 21, 1994, Microsoft shipped Windows NT 3.5 — Dave Cutler raced at Daytona, hence the name — and its new TCP/IP stack quietly became the backbone Windows 95 used too.
theoffkeybard.com
September 21, 2026 at 2:12 PM
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49 years later, it's more than 24 billion km away.
And it's still going.

👇 Read the full story:

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#ThisDayInHistory #Space #Astronomy #NASA #Voyager #BardsDesk

(2/2)
This Day in History — Voyager 1 Launches
On September 5, 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 on a faster path than its twin — found volcanoes on Io, crossed into interstellar space in 2012, and is still going today.
theoffkeybard.com
September 5, 2026 at 4:04 PM
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Nagasaki remains the last city in human history to suffer a nuclear attack. May it always remain the last.

Read the full story: 👇

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#ThisDayInHistory #Nagasaki #WWII #History #BardsDesk

(2/2)
August 9, 2026 at 1:00 PM
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But maybe we should stop asking only, “What did this cost?” and start asking, “What did this build?” 👇 My latest Bard's Musing: The Wealth of a Nation

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#Economics #PublicPolicy #Philosophy #BardsMusings #BardsDesk (2/2)
August 17, 2026 at 4:42 PM
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vast lava plains, and strange tectonic structures beneath the haze. We'd watched Venus for thousands of years. Magellan finally let us see it. Read the full entry: 👇

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#ThisDayInHistory #Space #Astronomy #NASA #Magellan #Venus #BardsDesk

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August 10, 2026 at 12:39 PM
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as the first recognized quasar; one of the brightest and most energetic objects in the universe. Sometimes the Moon doesn't hide the answers.
It reveals them. Read the full story: 👇

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#ThisDayInHistory #Astronomy #Quasars #Space #Astrophysics #BardsDesk

(2/2)
August 5, 2026 at 4:36 PM
theoff-keybard.bsky.social
👇 Read the full story on The Bard's Desk:

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#ComputerHistory #ThisDayInHistory #Programming #FORTRAN #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (4/4)
This Day in History — The First FORTRAN Program Successfully Runs
On September 20, 1954, the first FORTRAN program ran at IBM — a language John Backus invented because he was, in his own words, too lazy to keep writing programs the hard way.
theoffkeybard.com
September 20, 2026 at 1:33 PM
theoff-keybard.bsky.social
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#ComputerHistory #ThisDayInHistory #InternetHistory #Emoticon #TheOffKeyBard #BardsDesk (4/4)
This Day in History — The Digital Smiley Is Born :-)
On September 19, 1982, at 11:44 AM, Scott Fahlman posted :-) and :-( to a CMU bulletin board. Guinness calls it the birth of the digital emoticon. He never made a dime from it.
theoffkeybard.com
September 19, 2026 at 2:17 PM
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decades later, the former U.S. president sided with the Confederacy.

President #10: John Tyler

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#PresidentsSeries #AmericanHistory #ConstitutionalLaw #History #USHistory #BardsDesk

(3/3)
John Tyler
The 10th President of the United States — 'His Accidency' who boldly established the constitutional precedent for presidential succession, broke permanently with his own party, and set the nation on a...
theoffkeybard.com
August 24, 2026 at 4:33 PM
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Both proved steam navigation worked years before Robert Fulton. Both died broke.

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#ThisDayInHistory #History #Innovation #TechHistory #Steamboat #BardsDesk

(2/2)
This Day in History — America's First Steamboat Patents Are Granted
On August 26, 1791, a deadlocked Patent Board gave both Fitch and Rumsey steamboat patents. Both died broke. Fulton got the credit sixteen years later.
theoffkeybard.com
August 26, 2026 at 3:15 PM
theoff-keybard.bsky.social
Here's what cache actually is; and why clearing it can seemingly fix things like magic: 👇

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#TechTips #ExplainLikeImFive #WebDevelopment #Computing #BardsDesk

(2/2)
What Is Cache, and Why Does Clearing It Sometimes Fix Problems?
Or: why your computer likes to remember things. Cache makes browsing faster — until it remembers something wrong, and clearing it sets things straight.
theoffkeybard.com
August 17, 2026 at 4:58 PM
theoff-keybard.bsky.social
So Cleveland left the White House.
End of story?
Not quite.
We'll be seeing #22 again when we reach #24.

👇 Read Part 22:

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#PresidentsSeries #AmericanHistory #History #USHistory #GroverCleveland #BardsDesk

(2/2)
Grover Cleveland
The 22nd President of the United States — the first Democrat elected after the Civil War, known for his unyielding fiscal conservatism, historic executive vetoes, and fiercely independent leadership.
theoffkeybard.com
September 6, 2026 at 10:26 PM
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The technology changed, but the basic model still powers our world.

👇 Read the full story:

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#ThisDayInHistory #Technology #History #Electricity #Engineering #BardsDesk

(2/2)
This Day in History — Pearl Street Station Switches On the Electric Age
On September 4, 1882, a switch closed at Pearl Street Station and 400 lamps came on — the first time electricity had been sold as a metered utility, like gas or water.
theoffkeybard.com
September 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM