A working dossier of well-known moments that happened to land inside a Mercury-retrograde window — the misfires, reversals and crossed wires Mercury gets blamed for. The orbital dates are real and ephemeris-based; the cosmic verdict is offered, as ever, in good fun.
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, formally asserting the Thirteen Colonies' sovereignty from Great Britain.
On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000 to 246,000 people and marking the first and only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.
Adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty committing state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on the scientific consensus that human-made CO2 emissions were driving global warming.
On 12 January 2010, a magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti near Léogâne, approximately 25 kilometres west of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
international treaties concerning Antarctica
On the morning of 30 June 1908, a massive explosion of between 3–50 megatons of TNT equivalent occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia.
early 20th century alliance between France, Russia and the United Kingdom
On 15 March 2019, Brenton Tarrant carried out two consecutive terrorist mass shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people and injuring 89 others.
On 28 March 2025 a magnitude 7.7–7.9 earthquake struck Myanmar's Sagaing Region near Mandalay, causing extreme shaking and becoming the country's second-deadliest seismic event in modern history.
The 60th Eurovision Song Contest was held at Vienna's Wiener Stadthalle in May 2015, hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler, Arabella Kiesbauer, and Conchita Wurst.
On 24 May 1956 the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest took place at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland, featuring the only solo male presenter in the event's history.
Supreme law of India (1950-present)
On 7 September 1812, Napoleon’s Grande Armée fought the Imperial Russian Army on the outskirts of Moscow near the village of Borodino during the French invasion of Russia.
On 14 July 1789, revolutionary insurgents seized the Bastille in Paris after four hours of fighting that left 94 dead, marking the flashpoint of the French Revolution.
American nuclear bomb
Acts of Parliament creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain
On 8 September 2023 a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco's Al Haouz Province, killing at least 2,960 people and destroying historic landmarks in Marrakesh.
On March 30, 1867, the United States signed a treaty with the Russian Empire to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million, with sovereignty becoming legally effective on October 18.
On 8 January 1918 President Woodrow Wilson outlined a statement of principles for peace to the United States Congress in an effort to end World War I.
multilateral agreement regulating international trade
2017 presidential election in France
collective security agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the United States
On 13 October 1930, Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva of Leiria declared the 1917 Marian apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal, worthy of belief.
Signed on September 5, 1905, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, the Treaty of Portsmouth ended the Russo-Japanese War and recognized Japan's hegemony in Korea.
Coincidence, not causation: every date is real and ephemeris-based, but a retrograde window is observed, never blamed. For entertainment, not navigation.