Via our faithful chronicler, we learn that this day in 1958, sharing the anniversary with quite a few other events of pith and circumstance, that our friend Pope Pius XII (see previously) suffered a posthumous 
indignity at the hands the hands of his personal physician Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, a trained optometrist later stripped of his office and medical license and banished from the Vatican for life for leaking photos of the dying pontiff to the magazine Paris Match. Claiming that Pius expressed a wish to be not embalmed and his organs removed in the usual fashion but rather preserved after the model of Christ, Galezzi-Lisi concocted a special treatment of oils and resins (plus wrapping the body in cellophane) claimed would make the papal corpse incorruptible. The unseasonable heat of that early autumn, however, undermined any effectiveness that treatment might have had and the body decomposed rapidly, curtailing the viewing of the faithful and necessitating the regular relief of the Swiss Guard standing watch, overcome by the stench. For the remainder of the procession and funeral service, the casket was closed and sealed and may have exploded from the pressure of gaseous discharge as a result of the accelerated autolysis and putrefaction, thankfully not witnessed by the public.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Barbarella (1968), ancient animation, a Coming Out simulator plus a declassified map of nuclear targets
two years ago: the micronation of Rose Island
three years ago: an appreciation of the Smiley Face, a system for coding emotional facial reactions, St Gummarus plus the debut of Saturday Night Live (1975)
four years ago: more on the moons of Jupiter plus the better letterer’s corner
five years ago: pรคntsdrunk, more on Coming Out Day, the technical mastery of chindลgu, a moon moon plus The Secret Life of Plants
