IT Insights Blog — history

Today is March 29, a date that commemorates one of history's more unusual reigns of terror. New York City's Mad Bomber resurfaced on March 29, 1951, after an almost decade-long hiatus patriotically declared in observance of America's involvement in World War II. It isn't your average sociopath who commences whatever twisted mission he has set out for himself, then decides to recognize the greater societal good, publicly announces a truce, and actually follows through.

Sometimes in life things happen just because. That is to say that not every deed or development has a good and compelling rationale behind it, or can be traced back through a series of logical outcomes to a perfectly understandable inciting incident or event. The phrase "out of a clear blue sky" exists to describe an unexpected occurrence because sometimes this or that monumental (or miniscule) outcome is like lightning on a clear day, like a literal "bolt out of the blue."

There's a marker in Riverside, Iowa, declaring the tiny rural town to be the "future birthplace" of Captain James T. Kirk. Yes, that Captain James T. Kirk. The official town motto is "Where the Trek Begins." There's even a Star Trek Museum, the Voyage Home Riverside History Center. All of this apparently goes back to a book written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, The Making of Star Trek, in which Roddenberry asserts that Kirk was — or, you know, will be — born in Iowa.

For a variety of reasons, human societies have long had an interest in gathering and analyzing data. Ancient Rome, during both its republican and imperial phases, used census data extensively. One of the first things that the United States did after concluding its war of independence from the British crown was to conduct a nationwide census. The parameters of the census were even written into the U.S. Constitution.

The Roman general and statesman Marcus Licinius Crassus is famous for being among the wealthiest humans in the history of counting and large numbers. Crassus is famous for his position within the First Triumvirate, which speeded ancient Rome's transition from republic to empire, and for essentially bankrolling the rise to power of charismatic colleague Julius Caesar. Crassus is even famous for defeating the army of legendary gladiator-turned-rebel Spartacus.