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Gnomon Chronicles is a work of fiction and nonfiction by Karl Jones.

On This Day in History: June 17

1714: Astronomer and cartographer César-François Cassini de Thury born. In 1744, he will begin the construction of a great topographical map of France, one of the landmarks in the history of cartography. Completed by his son Jean-Dominique, Cassini IV and published by the Académie des Sciences from 1744 to 1793, its 180 plates will be known as the Cassini map.
1832: Chemist and physicist William Crookes born. Crookes will be a pioneer of vacuum tube technology, developing the partially evacuated Crookes tube circa 1869-1875.
1925: Pharmacologist and chemist Alexander Shulgin born. He will discover, synthesize, and personally bioassay over 230 psychoactive compounds for their psychedelic and entactogenic potential.
1932: Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1972: Watergate scandal (nonfiction): Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
2022: Self portrait.

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