Roger Moroney: So what happened on this fine day back in '66?

Could Astronaut Buzz Aldrin have taken the first ever "selfie"? He took a photo of himself in space in 1966, three years before the moon landing. Photo / File

It is November 12, 2019.

So far so good.

A fortnight ago it was October 29, and a fortnight is but 14 days in the past.

So what happened on October 29... what did I do that day?

Where exactly was I at 11.45am and who did I speak to that day?

Yep, a mere 14 days ago but I have absolutely no idea of my movements, which is a state of mind which reminds me of those classic scenes and lines in crime shows where the snarling old detective peers closely into someone's bewildered face and demands to know "so where we you at 6.38pm on Monday October 12".

I'm at a memory loss as to where exactly at our property I was at 6.38pm five days ago let alone a month ago.

No wonder so many memory-sapped folks got banged up on telly.

It is November 12, 2019, and in three days time I will have no idea what I did today and who I may have bumped into and where I put the damned car keys.

Which I suspect is why some people keep diaries and jot down brief notes on a daily basis just in case they need to refer to some past occasion or event some time in the future.

Writing things down is very important.

I discovered that at school.

There were some occasions I would write the same thing down 100 times... but only because the teacher told me to after not shutting up despite being told to.

Writing things down preserves history and I'm often fascinated by catching up with past events through the "what happened this day" slices which emerge.

Emerge to either remind us or simply fascinate us.

So then class, it is time to ponder what happened on this day.

On this note I can tell you what I was doing last Friday around 10.45am... I was looking up the history sites to find out what happened on past November 12s.

Why?

Because November 5, a week earlier, gets all the headlines for the month as it is Guy Fawkes... usually headlines for all the wrong reasons but until someone in Government loses a pet in panic or gets woken at midnight by a soundtrack from Syria then nothing will change.

So November 12 huh?

Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist for Hawke's Bay Today and observer of the slightly off-centre.

Back in 1933 it was a fine day up in Scotland and a fine day for a chap by the name of Hugh Gray to stake a place in the history books... sort of.

For he took the very first photo of the so-called Loch Ness monster.

A famous photo... of a creature which appears to have built by a couple of 11-year-olds.

Great day for cricket though, as Richard Hadlee ended the test against Australia back in '85 with a remarkable 15 wickets for 123 runs.

Exactly 10 years later, on November 12, the late great Martin Crowe played his last day of test cricket for New Zealand.

So what happened way up there in space that day?

Well, there was a quite astonishing first, and it revolved around a very popular activity today.

The taking of a selfie.

It was 1966, and Buzz Aldrin stepped outside the orbiting craft being used in the Gemini programme and took a photo of himself, with the beautiful earth behind him, so far away.

Unlike old Hughy's photo, it looked rather genuine.

Forty years earlier, on November 12, 1926, the first recorded aerial bombing on US soil took place.

It was in Williamson County, Illinois, and there was a very explosive feud going on.

A feud between rival liquor-making gangs... the Sheltons and the Birgers.

Oh yeah, and three years earlier on, the 12th day of the 11th month, a chap by the name of Adolf Hitler was arrested for what was called the Beer Hall Putsch.

An attempt to seize power which didn't work... but we kind of know what happened during the following deadly years.

On the health front?

It was November 12, 1847, when Sir James Simpson, a British doctor, became the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic.

Slightly earlier, quite a lot earlier for it was this day in 1439, Plymouth became the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

What happened on November 12, 12,372 years ago?

No idea.

What will happen on November 12 next year?

No idea.

But it'll become a brief page in time and history so let's wait and see.

Maybe the day they finally ban fireworks?

Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist for Hawke's Bay Today and observer of the slightly off-centre.