Faithful readers of this little blog often ask how I pick the topics for my historical entries, many of which seem to be obscure or exotic. The process is simple, if haphazard. I consult a number of on-line history calendars, many of them specialized—labor, women, Black, music, baseball, etc. But almost every day I start at Wikipedia’s On This Day feature because it is exhaustive and amazingly diverse. Glancing down today’s entries, a number caught my eye, some of which I have already used. And some ignited my inner smart ass. Take for instance, this one: 1393—King Charles VI of France was nearly killedwhen several dancers’ costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball. Not enough information for a blog post, but I ...