today one is hard-pressed to find anyone who truly believes the world ended on the morning of 30 June 1908

I’m finally back online. Long story.
I am increasingly convinced that I didn’t learn nearly enough in my history classes. For example, how come I had never heard of the Tunguska Event. At least one scientist is saying that this massive, unexplained explosion is the cause behind global warming. The Tunguska event occurred on June 30, 1908 over an uninhabited area of Russia and was probably caused by the explosion of a very large meteoroid above the earth’s surface. It created a destructive force equal to that of 10 and 20 megatons of TNT, or one really big atomic bomb. (The largest bomb ever tested by the US was 15 megatons. It pretty much leveled a forest and was blamed for an outbreak of smallpox. Oh, and it was also thought to signal the start of the end of the world.
Pretty cool, huh?