The frailty of man. in 1915, Pluto was photographed for the first time. It took another 15 years before astronomers realised it was a planet. In 1931 Gambling was legalised in Nevada, giving birth to Las Vegas. In 1945, Hitler gave his "Nero Decree" to destroy everything, including "all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities". The reasoning was that the German people had let Adolf down and didn't deserve to exist. It was at this point, and not before, that Albert Speer realised that his boss might be a bit barmy.  Speer was born today in 1905. 
 
More weakness in 1987, when televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell. After Falwell got control of the multi-million dollar empire, he called Bakker a liar, an embezzler, a sexual deviant, and "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history." In 1989 Bakker was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment for fraud and false accounting. In jail, Bakker read the Bible all the way through for the first time and renounced his former message that the more cash you have, the more Jesus loves you. 
 
Something rather wonderful happened today in 2008. Known by the dull name of GRB 080319B, a gamma ray burst that, for a precious few seconds, was the farthest object visible to the naked eye. It was an event that happened halfway through the life of the universe, 7.5 billion years ago. In a moment of synchronicity, it happened hours after the death of science fact and fiction writer, Arthur C Clarke. 
 
Events