There is a reason and I don’t know what it is

Here is your open thread for April 6, 2020.

Gene Andrusco, better known as Gene Eugene (and, occasionally, as Prickly Disco) would have been 59 years old today.

The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 took place on April 6, 308 years ago today. The population of New York City was only around 5,000 people at the time, but a fifth of them were enslaved. About two dozen of those enslaved people set fire to a building that night, then attacked the enslavers who arrived to put out the fire. Nine human traffickers and six slaves were killed in the violence, after which 21 enslaved persons were executed — 20 were burned to death and one was killed on a torture device called a breaking wheel. (The kind of people who enslave other people tend to be the kind of people who also possess devices that exist solely for the purpose of torturing other people to death.)

Human trafficking and the torture of people regarded as property remained perfectly legal in New York City for another 115 years.

Matthew Henson may have become the first person to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909, followed shortly thereafter by Robert Peary. (The “may have” language is necessary there because it turns out Peary maybe wasn’t as good at navigation as he thought and they may have actually arrived at, well, somewhere else, several miles south of the North Pole.)

On April 6, 1973, at Fenway Park, Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees worked out a walk against Luis Tiant in the first-ever major league at bat by a designated hitter.

Comic-book artist Gil Kane would have been 94 years old today. I’ve still got some of his handiwork, including Daredevil No. 146 (seen to the right).

Merle Haggard would have been 83 today. Here’s “Mama Tried.” And here’s Erik Loomis on all the great and the awful Haggard gave us.

Billy Dee Williams was born the same day as Haggard. Barry Levinson turns 78 today (I’ll go with Diner, The Natural, and Good Morning Vietnam).

Sit-com nobility John Ratzenberger (73) and Marilu Henner (68) share an April 6 birthday.

Hall-of-famer Bert Blyleven turns 69 today. For a long time, he was my standard answer for “Who is the best pitcher not in the Hall of Fame?” Now I guess maybe Kevin Brown?

Charles Thompson, aka Black Francis, aka Frank Black, turns 55 today. Here’s “Here Comes Your Man.”

Paul Rudd turns 51 today. Zach Braff turns 45. They’re both from Jersey too.

Talk amongst yourselves.