January 7 - Electric Distress Arrow

 Today is January 7, which is the sad day that undercredited inventor Nikola Tesla dies unfortunately destitute in 1943.

Bit of a crazy man, but he had some amazing ideas.

Tesla's passing, but future Hawkeye star, Jeremy Renner is born in 1971.

Did you watch Hawkeye, it was really good, probably my favourite of the MCU shows.

Also, in 1904 - and I didn't know this, there was a standard distress call before SOS.  CQD.

CQ comes from the french 'secu' - as in securite, with D for distress.  (from my Ham radio days, I thought CQ was a 'looking for'... or call)

And in 1906 they adopted the German ...---... signal they used for distress, and then that became the SOS as they were more code letters.  Officially SOS became the phrase used in 1908, but even as you see above, the Titanic used the old CQD code.

November 3rd - HELP Laika get a PB & Jellyfish Sandwich

In 1957 the Soviets had launched their Sputnik 2 with the famous dog Laika aboard.

What a good doggo.. wonder if he knew how to signal for help if he needed it.  I bet you do, it's almost universal that we would 'dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot' for our distress signal "S O S" (save our ship).

It was 'decided' at an International Radiotelegraph Conference in Berlin back in 1906 that we now have this as the standard.

Laika probably also wanted a good meal up there, and who doesn't love a good sammie...

In the US it's National Sandwich Day.

What's your favourite Lord Gerald?

Lastly, while Laika's looking out his window into space - maybe he sees something strange and alien-like.  Not that we don't have enough alien-like items here on Earth.  Like, to me, jellyfish has always seemed something 'other worldly'.  

It's World Jellyfish Day