Ties Can Shrink Your Brain, History Has Exploded, and World Leaders Keep Shocking Us

Did you know?

Wearing a tie can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5%. A study in 2018 found that wearing a necktie can reduce the blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5%, which can make you feel dizzy, nauseous and cause headaches. They can also increase the pressure in your eyes if on too tight and are great at carrying germs. And anyway, in this climate....

On this day, January 14

1904 Violence escalates in German South West Africa (Namibia) during Herero Revolt.

1914 The Gandhi-Smuts Agreement is reached between General Jan Smuts and Mahatma Gandhi, regarding voluntary registration, poll tax and the recognition of Indian marriages.

1943 Japan begins Operation Ke to evacuate its forces from the island of Guadalcanal.

1949 During ‘one fierce burst of terror which lasted from Friday afternoon, January 14, to Saturday morning, January 15’, blacks descend on Indian shops and homes in Durban while the forces of law and order look on. The result: 142 people of all races dead, 1 087 injured, and a factory, 58 stores and 247 dwellings destroyed. The outburst, writes RW Nowbath, editor of The Leader newspaper, was the result of the shocking conditions Blacks were forced to endure in and around Durban.

1967 Counterculture of the ‘60s: The Human Be-In takes place in the Golden Gate Park, near San Francisco, launching the ‘Summer of Love’.

1989 Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses is burnt by 1 000 muslims in Bradford, England.

2007 Test pilot Marina Popovich is awarded the title ‘Hero of the Nation’ by Russia for excelling in the field of aviation. ‘Madam Mig’ was the holder of 102 aviation world records and committed to the search for extraterrestrial life, but said that 90% of UFO sightings were hallucinations, space debris, marsh gas, weather balloons and Friday-night vodka parties.

2015 Floods in Mozambique and Malawi leave 63 people dead and 70 000 people homeless.

2021 The US Secret Service takes control of Joe Biden’s inauguration as president with 20 000 troops ordered to guard Washington DC – more than those stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia.

2024 Frederik X becomes King of Denmark at Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen, after the abdication of his mother Margrethe at 83, and the world’s last reigning queen.

2025 The US Justice Department releases special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on former and future President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election; Trump responds on social media calling Smith ‘deranged’ and ‘a lamebrain’.

DAILY NEWS