A day of anniversaries

Bravery in action

There are three, that I know of, things to commemorate today – June 6th. Well, four if you include the fact that 6am on the 6th of the 6th is a good time to draw pentagrams and balance up how much you reckon your soul could be worth on the black (and I mean black) market.

First up, Tetris is 25 years old today. This scares me as I thought it was younger, partly as it means I’m even older than I thought I was. Google are in on the celebrations as they’ve given their title page a little facelift for the occasion.

Secondly, the first YMCA was opened in London this day in 1844. Not only a cheap (well, they were) place to stay and work out with oily young men, if it weren’t for these establishments then we’d be missing out on one of the greatest party dances of all time. Plus one of the funniest segments in Wayne’s World 2.

Finally, it’s the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the D-Day landings, back in 1944. Were it not for this one then you could have waved goodbye to the YMCA. Wayne’s World would never have been filmed. Forget Tetris – the Russians making computer games? As if.

There’s no doubt we could live without them. Who plays Tetris much these days? And when was the last time anyone who reads this stayed in a YMCA? But think how different the world would be had it not been for the successful campaign begun by Operation Overlord on the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most important days in recent human history and it should be remembered as such. More important than Armistice Day – this is the day that most of the men fighting for your freedom and mine laid down their lives. The surrender of Germany would, quite probably, not have occured had it not been for this huge invasion.

Certainly a day to remember. Most certainly not a day to ever forget.

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• Veterans gather for D-Day event (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Happy Birthday Tetris! Love, Google. (mashable.com)
• Google’s Tetris Logo (blogoscoped.com)
• Computer game Tetris celebrates 25 years (telegraph.co.uk)
• D-day anniversary: Britain’s good war (guardian.co.uk)

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