Bawm that thorn!

7-11 day! Most 7-11s offer free 7.11 oz smoothies today. It’s Bawming the Thorn Day in Appleton, Cheshire, England. It's the Feast of St. Olga in Russia. In 1656, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher became the first Quakers to come to North America, and were promptly arrested, to be deported to Barbados five weeks later. Let freedom ring!

In 1881 George, Prince of Wales (later King George V), as a 16-year-old naval cadet on HMS Bacchante off the Australian coast, wrote in his log book: "At 4 a.m. the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars, and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge clearly saw her, as did the quarterdeck midshipman, who was sent forward at once to the forecastle; but on arriving there was no vestige nor any sign whatever of any material ship was to be seen either near or right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm. Thirteen persons altogether saw her...At 10.45 a.m. the ordinary seaman who had this morning reported the Flying Dutchman fell from the foretopmast crosstrees on to the topgallant forecastle and was smashed to atoms." In 1975, Chinese archaeologists began to excavate a large burial site with 6,000 individualized terra cotta statues of warriors. The site had been discovered by local farmers the previous year. It's now believed that the site is over 3 acres in size, and probably contains more than 8,000 distinctly individual sculptures of warriors, their weapons, horses, chariots, commanders, and associated personnel. In 1995, Srebrenica –a UN-declared safe zone-- fell to the Bosnian Serbs. As many as eight thousand people disappeared; witnesses reported tremendous brutality, including mass executions.