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The Pagan Book of Days
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What
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Lucifer Ascending: The
Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture
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Cerealia, for
goddess Ceres,
ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19)
Ides of April: This was the second
day of the approximately week-long festival held in honour of Ceres,
culminating in the Cerealia
proper, on the 19th. Ceres,
in Roman Mythology,
is equivalent to the Greek Demeter
and the
daughter of Saturn and
Rhea,
wife-sister of Jupiter,
mother of Proserpina (Persephone),
and patron of Sicily.
Circensian games, ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19; Sep 4 - 19)
Ides of April,
ancient Rome
Libertas, ancient Rome
The springtime festival of
Libertas
was held in honour of the Roman goddess of
Liberty.
National Day,
Chad
Today is a public holiday in the
African nation of Chad. Following an army coup d'état, President
François Tombalbaye was assassinated on this day in 1975.
John Hanson Day,
Maryland, USA
John Hanson Day is observed in Maryland to honour
one of the state's most important leaders of the revolutionary
period.
Huguenot Day
Today is observed by the
Huguenot
Society of America as Huguenot Day, the anniversary of the signing
of the Edict of Nantes on this day in 1598. In the edict, French
King Henry IV promoted peace between
Catholics and
Protestants.
Thomas Jefferson
Day holiday, Alabama, USA
Feast day of St
Caradoc, priest and martyr
Feast day of Ss Carpus and Papylus, martyrs
Carpus was a bishop of Gordus in Asia
Minor; Papylus was a deacon at Thyatira. When ordered by the Roman
governor at Pergamum to sacrifice to the pagan gods, or else face
torture, they refused and were burnt alive.
Feast day of St Edward Catheriek
Feast day of St Guinoc
(Guinoch) of Scotland
Feast day of
St Hermengild,
martyr
(Green narcisse, Narcissus viridiflorus, is
today's plant, dedicated to
this saint.)
Feast day of St Ida of
Boulogne
Feast day of St Ida of
Louvain
Feast day of St James of
Certaldo
Feast day of St John
Lockwood
Feast day of St Margaret of
Castello
Feast day of St Martin I
(St Martin the Confessor) in the
Greek
Orthodox Church
More
Feast day of St Martius
Feast day of St Maximus
Feast day of St Ursus of
Ravenna
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Kamo-Tama-Yori-Hime, Japan
Today, Japanese observe the sacred
fertility marriage of the god O-yama-kui-no-kami and goddess
Kamo-tama-yori-hime, from which issued the offspring Kami. The
goddess has her counterpart in other religions, and may be equated
with Demeter, Aphrodite, Sheela, Mary and so on.
Tsurugaoka Hachiman (Shrine) Spring Festival,
Japan (Apr 7 - 14)
Seven centuries ago,
Kamakura was the first seat of feudal
government. At Hachiman Shrine, Kamakura, today is a cherry blossom
festival. In this festival, which is popular with tourists, there are
parades and all the fun of the fair.
Arashiyama Jusanmairi, or Thirteen Pilgrims Event,
Japan
Thirteen-year-old children make
pilgrimage to Horinji Temple,
Kyoto, to gain some of the attributes
of Kokuzo,
a Buddhist god of Wisdom.
Zōjō-ji (Zojoji)
Matsuri,
Tokyo,
Japan (Apr 13 - 15)
At
Zōjō-ji Temple, Shiba Park,
Tokyo, devotees ceremonially observe the death of Honen, founder of
the Jodo sect of Buddhism. On each of three days there are large
procession of hundreds of priests, laymen and children dressed in
traditional costumes. Processions are led by firefighters, chanting
their vocational song, Kiyari. About thirty men follow,
dressed in blue traditional garb.
Offerings on a red tray are offered to him, and
about sixty priests move about, scattering red, green, white and
gold artificial lotus leaves.
Nagahama
Yamakyogen, Japan (Apr 13 - 16)
Today and for the next three days
there will be silk floats on parade at
Hachiman-gū Shrine, Nagahama,
Japan, with rituals leading up to the lantern-lighting ceremony on
the final day.
The Shinto shrine
is dedicated to
Hachiman, the god of war.
Yayoi Matsuri,
Japan (Apr 13 - 17)
Today a portable shrine is carried
from the Futaarasan Shrine at
Nikko (Tochigi Prefecture) along the
main road.
Nagasaki
Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event,
Nagasaki,
Japan (Apr 3 - 29)
Bpee Mai
(Songkan; New Year),
Laos (c. Apr 13 - c.
16)
The Lao New Year, called 'Bpee Mai' or 'Songkan', is celebrated
every year around this time.
Chaul
Chnam Thmey (New Year),
Cambodia (c.
Apr 13 - c.
15)
Moha Songkran is the name of the first day of the new
year celebration. People dress up and light candles and burn incense
sticks at shrines.
Lao New Year traditions
New Year
Water
Splashing Festival,
China, Thailand,
Burma,
Cambodia,
Laos (Apr 13 -
15)
Like Poland's
Dyngus Day,
people throw water at one another on this day. Traditional dance,
singing and cultural shows are performed together during the
festival. Religious activities in the tradition of
Theravada
Buddhism are also carried out at both
pagoda and
monastery. Young people visit elders to pay respect during this
period.
"The
festival was inspired by a legend about seven beautiful Dai
women who destroying [sic] a fire fiend. For three days, girls
sprinkle water on each other and throw scented, decorated,
fringed bags at prospective lovers. Dragon boat racing, young
girls' peacock dance, giant hot air balloons at night. (Jinghong
City, Xishaungbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province)"
Source
"The
beautiful area of Xishuangbanna celebrates this Buddhist
festival in pomp and splendour. The festivities, centred on the
town of Jinghong, begin with a market, but the fun begins in
earnest with swimming and dragon boat-racing on the second day.
"Each night
the parks and streets move to the graceful rhythms of the
peacock dance, said by the Dai people to bring good luck, and
the more driving pace of the Elephant-drum dance. The second day
is reserved for 'splashing'. In reality this is a comprehensive
soaking for which anyone is fair game (no exceptions for
foreigners in other words - protect your camera!).
"On the third day there is a more sedate custom of throwing
miniature beanbags, or Diu Bao."
Source
Baisakhi (or Vaisakhi), Sikh
festival
"This
festival day or the Gurpurb celebrating the birth of the 'Khalsa'
usually falls on the 13th of April. Baisakhi was originally
celebrated to mark the beginning of the New Year (according to the
ancient Indian Lunar Calendar).
"To the Sikhs, the importance of this day
is both historical and religious. It was on this day on 13th April,
1699 when Guru Gobind Singh gave the Sikhs a new name (Singh) and a
new identity of being a nation, by making them distinctively
different in physical appearance and personal behavior. Hence forth,
along with 'inner discipline' the Sikhs were asked to keep an 'out
discipline' too by wearing the 5K's.
"Baisakhi is also an important harvest
festival in the Punjab. All over the Punjab farmers are happy
because they have 'gathered in' the wheat, the most important crop
of the season. Now they can perform Bhangra (folk dance) and sing.
The folk lore goes like this-
"'O,
Jatta aayee visakhi,
Kanka di muk gayee rakhi.'
"Meaning- Hey! Farmer! the Baisakhi has come and you
no longer need to worry about and watch your wheat."
Source
University of Virginia Founders Day (annually on
Jefferson's Birthday)
Varushapirapu, Tamil New Year
(c. Apr 13 - 14)
"It is a time for celebrating new and prosperous beginnings. The 13th or 14th of April is the beginning of the first month Chittirai of the Tamil year, which is celebrated as the New Year and is also known as
'Chittirai Vishu'. Varusham is the Tamil word for 'year' and 'Pirapu' can be translated as the
'birth' or 'beginning' or 'commencement' of an event.
The Legend Behind The Celebrations
"There are many legends behind the celebrations, according to one it is said that the
'Chaitra Vishu Day' or the opening day of the first fortnight of the waxing moon was the occasion chosen by Brahma to create this world. Hence this day is also known as
'Yugadhi' or the beginning of a Yuga.
"This festive day is said to have acquired further importance by the fact that Sri Ramachandra, the hero of the epic Ramayana, had his triumphal entry into Ayodhya after the destruction of the rakshasas, and was crowned there on this day.
"A unique way of welcoming the New Year, the excitement begins about two weeks before the New Year. Families go shopping for new clothes. The house is thoroughly cleaned and even repainted at times. Mothers and grandmothers make loads of sweet and savoury snacks in preparation for the big celebrations when relatives and friends will make their rounds of visits to each home, passing on their wishes for a prosperous and healthy Happy New Year."
Source
1519 Catherine de
Medici, queen of France (d. 1589),
wife of King Henry
II of France.
The corset, which
narrowed an adult women's waist to 17, 15 or even fewer inches, is
attributed to Catherine, as during the 1550s she enforced a ban on
thick waists at court attendance. For nearly 350 years, women's
primary means of support was the corset, with laces and stays made
of whalebone or metal.
1570 Guy
Fawkes (d. 1606), Gunpowder Plot
conspirator1593 Thomas
Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (d. 1641), English statesman 1618 Roger
de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, (d. 1693) French writer 1713 Frederick
(Lord) North (d. 1792), King George III of
England's 6th
prime minister 1729 Thomas
Percy (d. 1811), Bishop of Dromore and magazine editor 1735 Isaac
Low (d. 1791), New York delegate
to the Continental
Congress
1743 Thomas
Jefferson (d. 1826), 3rd
President
of the United States
Accomplished man
The third
president of the US was born in Shadwell, Virginia, the son of a
civil engineer. He not only helped to draft the Declaration of
Independence; he was accomplished in fields as varied as the
humanities, science, architecture and education.
Thomas Jefferson's wine
There's one
waiter who should not have expected a tip. In April 1989 at the Four
Seasons Restaurant, at a gathering of wine buffs, a waiter
accidentally smashed a bottle of Château Margaux wine which was valued at
$US433,000 because it had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.
Was
the USA founded on Christianity?
1747 Louis
Philip II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793)1769 Thomas Lawrence
(d. 1830),
English painter 1771 Richard
Trevithick (d. 1833), mechanical engineer and developer of the first
locomotive 1780 Alexander
Mitchell (d. 1868), Irish engineer 1787 John
Robertson (d. 1873), US congressman 1808 Antonio Meucci
(d. 1896),
Italian inventor 1825 Thomas
D'Arcy McGee (d. April
7, 1868),
Canadian
journalist
and 'Father of Confederation'
who earlier in life was one of the 'Young
Irelanders'. In 1868, D'Arcy McGee was assassinated in Ottawa,
Ontario. 1828 Joseph
Barber Lightfoot (d. 1889), English theologian and Bishop of Durham 1832 Juan Montalvo
(d. 1889),
Ecuadorian author 1850 Arthur
Matthew Weld Downing (d. 1917), British astronomer 1852 FW Woolworth
(d. 1919),
merchant/businessman, founder of Woolworth's stores.
Born in New York
State, Woolworth founded the modern 'nickel and dime' stores and
made millions by so doing. He died in 1919. In Australia, the name
and goodwill of Woolworth's were cunningly appropriated by a local
company, and Woolworth's
is still one of the major retail chains (domestic and grocery
lines), despite having no connection with the American firm, nor any
Woolworth person.
1860 James
Ensor (d. 1949), painter1866 Butch Cassidy
(d. 1908),
Wild
West outlaw
1869 Vida Goldstein
(d. August
15, 1949), Australian early feminist reformer and politician.
She was somehat estranged from her family, perhaps because of her
associations with suffragism, the
Fabian
Society, and suffragism. Goldstein was a correspondent of
Australian female novelist,
Miles
Franklin. She urged equal opportunities for women, and stood for
parliament as an independent, unaligned with any party, which
perhaps led to her unsuccess as a politician.
One women's rights procession that she
organized in 1912 and led in the city of Melbourne, Australia, was
attended by 40,000 women. From Wikipedia:
In 1902
she addressed the United
States Congress as a delegate from Australia and New
Zealand to the International
Woman Suffrage Conference. In 1903,
as an Independent with the support of the Women's Federal Political
Association, she became the first woman in the British
Empire to stand for election to a national parliament. Her bid
for a Senate seat failed, but she stood for parliament again in 1910,
1913
and 1914;
her fifth and last bid was in 1917
for a senate seat on the principle of international peace.
Her campaign secretary in 1913 was Doris
Blackburn who was later successfully elected to the Australian
House of Representatives.
Goldstein was a speaker, writer and
campaigner. Throughout the First
World War she was an ardent pacifist,
became chairman of the Peace Alliance and formed the Women's Peace
Army. She recruited Adela
Pankhurst, recently arrived from England as an organiser. Her
continuing political activism included leadership of the Women's
Political Association and editing the Women's Sphere between 1900
and 1908.
She contributed to the foundation of many
women's organisations including the National
Council of Women.
"Worked with the Women's Political Association and also edited
Women's Sphere (1900-1908). Ran for parliament five times between 1903 and 1917, in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Helped found the National Council of Women, and was the Delegate from Australia and New Zealand to the International Woman Suffrage Conference, Washington D. C. in 1902. Throughout her life Goldstein
campaigned on many social issues including women's franchise, the Queen Victoria women's
hospital, peace, birth control and naturalisation laws."
Source
Biography compiled by
Friends of St Kilda cemetery
National
Library of Australia Federation Gateway site
Australian
Women's Biographies published by the National Foundation for
Australian Women
Australian
War Memorial Federation site recognising Goldstein as a peace
activist
A
world chronology of women's suffrage
US
chronology Louisa
Lawson, Australian suffragette
Standing for her Convictions: the campaigns of Vida Goldstein
(audio and transcript) Lawson
& Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson
1872 Alexander
Roda Roda (d. 1945), writer 1873 John W Davis
(d. 1955),
American politician 1875 Ray Lyman
Wilbur (d. 1949), 31st United States Secretary of the
Interior 1880 Charles
Christie (d. 1955), pioneer film studio owner in Hollywood 1881 Ludwig
Binswanger (d. 1966), existential psychiatrist 1885 Georg Lukács
(d. 1971),
philosopher and literary critic 1887 Gordon S
Fahrni (d. 1995), Canadian physician and President of the Canadian Medical
Association 1889 Herbert
Osborne Yardley (d. 1958), cryptographer 1890 Frank Murphy
(d. 1949),
American public servant 1891 Nella Larsen
(d. 1964),
Afro-American novelist
1892 Arthur
Travers 'Bomber' Harris
(d. 1984), commander of RAF's Bomber Command in
World War II.
What price fame and glory?
The English Commander-in-Chief of the RAF Bomber
Command in World War II authorised the 'firestorm' bombing raids
on the citizens of Dresden, Germany, yet disinformation surrounding
the massacre was, and remains, immense, and to some, Bomber
Harris retains some kind of heroic stature.
Tens of
thousands of people were killed (sources vary from between 35,000 to
200,000) in the February 13, 1945, Allied
firebombing of Dresden. It remains a little-known event even
today, as the British, Americans and other Allies downplay this
slaughter of innocents and devote propaganda to the atrocities of
the Germans and Japanese.
In a
three-day period, 3,400 tons of explosives and incendiaries were
dropped, reducing six square miles of the beautiful city of art and
architecture, to rubble. Many Allied officials were outraged –
Germany was clearly on the verge of collapse anyway, the war was
almost over, and Dresden was not a war production city. Dresden had
been famous for its artwork and historic buildings until it became
the victim of the single most destructive air raid of World War II.
"Low-flying
planes machine-gunned the fleeing population along the banks of
the Elbe river. A fourth attack on Dresden concentrated its bomb
load on the roads used by the fleeing population."
Source: The
Truth about the 1945 Bombing of Dresden
More
1892 Sir Robert
Alexander Watson-Watt (d. 1973), inventor of
radar
1892
Gladys
Moncrieff, Australian singer, known as 'Our Glad'.
Born in
Bundaberg,
Queensland, Gladys Moncrieff was a hugely popular opera
singer of her day. In 1952, she gave more than 3,000 performances.
'Our Glad', as she was affectionately known, was awarded the
OBE
(Order of the British Empire) for her contribution to the performing
arts.
1894 Arthur Fadden (d. 1973),
13th Prime
Minister of Australia1897 Werner
Voss (d. 1917), WWI German flying ace 1900 Pierre Molinier
(d. 1976),
painter and photographer 1901 Jacques Lacan
(d. 1981),
psychoanalyst and semantician 1902 Philippe
de Rothschild (d. 1988), Grand Prix racing car driver and wine grower 1904 Sir David
Robinson (d. 1987), British philanthropist and entrepreneur 1906 Samuel Beckett
(d. December
22, 1989),
Irish
playwright
(Waiting
for Godot), novelist
and poet,
winner of the 1969 Nobel
Prize in literature. Beckett was
elected Saoi
of Aosdána
in 1984. Samuel
Beckett Resources and Links
1907 Harold E
Stassen (d. 2001), frequent candidate for President
of the United States 1909 Eudora Welty (d. 2001),
writer, winner of the Pulitzer
Prize for Fiction 1973 1909 Stanislaw
Marcin Ulam (d. 1984), Polish-American mathematician 1919 Howard
Keel (d. November
7, 2004),
actor (Annie Get
Your Gun;
Calamity
Jane;
Kiss
Me, Kate;
Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers;
The
Big Fisherman), singer, former president of the Screen
Actors Guild
More
1919 Roland Gaucher,
French journalist1920 Roberto Calvi,
'God's Banker', a central
figure in the Banca Ambrosiano, an Italian bank, who on June 17, 1982 was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
He was found to be carrying approximately $20,000 in various currencies, and
his pockets were weighted with stones.
1920 Liam Cosgrave,
5th Taoiseach of Ireland 1920 John LaPorta,
jazz musician 1920 Claude Cheysson,
French politician 1921
Max Harris (d.
January 13, 1995), Australian writer, editor and bookseller,
dupe of the Ern Malley hoax;
business partner of bookseller
Mary Martin
(1915 - '73)
1922 John
Braine (d. 1986), British novelist1923
Don
Adams (Donald James Yarmy), American comic actor, famous as Max
Smart, Agent 86 (Get
Smart) and
the voice of Inspector Gadget; some sources say he was born
in 1923, 1926, 1927
"Born of
Irish-Hungarian heritage. Sister Gloria, brother
Dick Yarmy. Served
in U.S. Marines in World War II, contracted malaria during
Guadalcanal campaign. Postwar career as standup comedian. Married
singer Adelaide Adams and adopted her stage surname. Children:
Carolyn, Christine, Catherine,
Cecily Adams,
Stacey Adams, Sean, Beige. TV career began with winning 'Ted Mack's
Amateur Hour'. Won fame and three Emmy
Awards as bumbling
secret agent Maxwell Smart on
"Get Smart" (1965).
Dramatic actor on Broadway and in stock."
Source
More
1924 Stanley Donen,
director1924 Jack Chick,
Christian evangelist, producer of religious tracts 1926 John
Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough 1928 Alan
Clark (d. 1999), British politician 1932 Orlando
Letelier (d. 1976), Chilean politician 1933 Ben
Nighthorse Campbell, American senator 1935
Lyle Waggoner,
American actor (Journey
to the Center of Time;
Wonder Woman),
first Playgirl centrefold in June, 1973, elected Mayor of
Encino, California in 1976 1937 Lanford Wilson,
playwright 1937 Edward Fox,
British actor 1939 Seamus Heaney,
poet,
writer and lecturer from Northern
Ireland. His poetry, drawing on Irish history, myth, and rural life, won a Nobel Prize in 1995 for
"works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past". Nobel
acceptance speech More
1939
Col Joye (Colin Frederick Jacobsen), Australian pop singer.
Col Joye was born Colin Jacobsen in Sydney. He formed Col Joye and the Joy Boys, a very popular 1960s pop band. After a fall from a tree in 1990, he was hospitalised in a coma but recovered. His brother, Kevin Jacobsen, is one of Australia's most successful entertainment promoters.
1939 Paul Sorvino,
actor
1943 Bill
Conti, musical director1944 Jack
Casady, musician (Jefferson
Airplane) 1944 Susan Davis,
American politician
1945 Tony
Dow, child actor
1946 Al Green,
soul singer, pastor
1948 Sue
Doughty, British politician 1949 Jean-Jacques
Favier, NASA payload specialist 1949 Frank Doran,
Scottish politician 1950 Ron
Perlman, actor 1950 William Sadler.
actor 1951 Peabo Bryson,
pop singer 1951 Peter Davison,
actor and the fifth
Doctor Who 1951 Max Weinberg, drummer 1952 David
Drew, British politician 1952 Ron Dittemore,
NASA shuttle program manager 1953 Stephen Byers,
British politician 1954 Jimmy Destri,
musician 1955 Ole von Beust,
Mayor of Hamburg 1956 Alison Wheeler,
British political activist 1962 Hillel Slovak (d. 1988),
original guitarist for the Red Hot
Chili Peppers 1963 Garry Kasparov, Russian chess grandmaster
(at 22 years, 210 days in 1985, the youngest ever to win the world championship) 1964 Caroline Rhea,
actress 1970 Rick Schroder,
actor 1972 Aaron
Lewis, singer 1975 Lou
Bega, musician/artist
1976 Jonathan
Brandis, actor (d. 2003)
 1994
Sienna Geyle-Wilson, my eldest grandchild
1997
Sloane Momsen,
actress
Phew!!
Have a rest before the big This
day in history section
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Varies
Full
Moon Day
Varies
Friday
the 13th
Varies Ugadi
Varies Gudi
Padwa
Varies Ram
Navami
Varies Palm
Sunday
Varies
Mawlid
al-Nabi
Varies Passover
Varies
Orthodox
Holy Friday
Varies Good
Friday
Varies
Orthodox
Easter
Varies Easter
Varies Baisakhi
Varies Mahavir
Jayanti
Varies Hanuman
Jayanti
Varies Tamil
New Year
Varies Bengali
New Year
Varies Malayalam
New Year
Varies
Arbor
Day
Varies
Child
Care Professionals Day
![Passover [ Apr 12 (sunset) - 20 (nightfall) ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_passover_1.gif)
![Easter [ Apr 16 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_easter_1.gif) ![Baisakhi [ Apr 13 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_baishakhi_1.gif) ![Tamil New Year [ Apr 14 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_tamil_newyr_1.gif) ![Tamil New Year [ Apr 15 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_bengali_newyr_1.gif) ![Malayalam New Year [ Apr 15 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_mal_newyr_1.gif)
April
11 Civil
Rights Day
12 Look
Up At The Sky Day
12 Big
Wind Day
13 Thomas
Jefferson Day
14 Pecan
Day
15 Tax
Day (USA)
15 Fast
Food Day
16 Rubber
Eraser Day
16 Freak-out
Day
16 Leonardo
da Vinci's Birthday
17 Stress
Awareness Day
17 Eggs
Benedict Day
17 Birthday
Of The Queen (Denmark)
18 Cheeseball
Day
17 Nosy
Neighbour Appreciation Day
18 Time
Out Day
19
Primrose
Day
19 Cow
Chip Day
20 Lima
Bean Respect Day
21 Kindergarten
Day
21 Birthday
Of Charlotte Bronte
22 Earth
Day
22 April
Showers Day
22 Hot
Dog Day
22 Jelly
Bean Day
22 Oklahoma
Day
22 Crawfish
Festival (Florida, USA)
23 Cherry
Cheesecake Day
23 St
George's Day
23 Shakespeare's
Birthday
24 Ambivalence
Day
25 Cuckoo
Day
25 Anzac
Day (Australia)
25 Anzac
Day (New Zealand)
25 Holocaust
Remembrance Day
25 Zucchini
Bread Day
26 Pretzel
Day
26 Bird
Day
26 International
Guide Dog Day
27
Morse
Code Day
28 Kiss
Day
... More
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799 Death of Paul the Deacon
(b. c. 720),
monk and chronicler.
814
Death of Krum, khan
of Bulgaria. 1055 Victor
II was consecrated pope. 1093 Death of Vsevolod I of Kiev
(b. 1093). 1111 Henry V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1180 Frederick Barbarossa issued the Gelnhausen
Charter for the
partition of Saxony. It instituted a new nobility basing its claims on
its services to the crown rather than its hereditary territorial power.
1204 The Fourth
Crusade continued sacking Constantinople, as on
the previous
day.1279 Death of Boleslaus the Pious,
Polish duke.
1360 Black Monday: The army of Edward, King of England, was destroyed by a
hailstorm and freezing rain.
1387 A party of 29 pilgrims assembled at the
Tabard Inn in Southwark, England, preparing to travel to the shrine of Thomas ŕ Becket in Canterbury. After supper, the host proposed that they enliven their
journey by telling stories. The following morning the tellers of Geoffrey Chaucer's immortal
The
Canterbury Tales began their journey.
Shop Chaucer
1598 The
Edict of Nantes was issued by King Henry IV of France, to promote peace
between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots.
The Calvinist Huguenots were granted freedom of religion, rights to assemble
and hold office and publish. Henry was later assassinated by a fanatical
Catholic.
1605
Death of Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia.1638 Death of Henri, duc de Rohan
(b. 1579),
French Huguenot
leader. 1668 The English poet John Dryden was appointed the first Poet
Laureate, a post which he kept till 1689.
1695 Death of Jean
de la Fontaine (b. 1621), French author and folklorist.
Project
Gutenberg e-texts of works
by Jean de La Fontaine
1741 The Royal
Military Academy was established at Woolwich, England; the academy is now at
Sandhurst.
1742 The debut of the Messiah by Georg
Friederich Händel (George Frideric Handel;
1685 -
1759), was performed at the Music Hall,
Fishamble Street, Dublin, Ireland.
1722
Death of Charles Leslie
(b. 1650),
theologian.
1793 Death of Pierre Gaspard
Chaumette (b. 1763),
French revolutionary.
1794 Death of Nicolas
Chamfort (b. 1741),
French writer. 1796 French forces commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the
Austrians at Millesimo in northern Italy.
1813 Construction on the Sydney-Liverpool road began. It was
completed in February the following year.
1826
Death of Franz
Danzi (b. 1763),
German composer.1829 Catholic Emancipation Act:
The British Parliament
granted freedom of religion
to Roman Catholics.
1848 Sicily gained independence from Naples.
1849 Hungary became a
republic.1849 Australia: Melbourne's first mail service began.
1853
Death of James Iredell, Jr (b. 1788),
Governor of North Carolina.1853 Death of Leopold Gmelin (b. 1788),
German chemist. 1853 Australia: Melbourne University was incorporated, with Sir
Redmond Barry the first Chancellor.
1855
Death of Henry De la Beche (b. 1796),
English geologist.1860 The first mail delivery by Pony Express arrived in Sacramento,
California, USA.
1861 American Civil War: Fort Sumter
surrendered.1861 Australia: Queensland's first telegraph service began,
operating between Brisbane and Ipswich.
1868 The British ambassador to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and other British subjects
being held hostage by Emperor Tewodros II (Theodore II; b.
1818), were rescued by 17,000 British
troops. Theodore committed suicide.
1873 Colfax
Massacre: in Colfax, Louisiana,
USA, the White League massacred 100
black men in a dispute relating to voting rights in a hotly
contested gubernatorial election.1880 Death of Robert
Fortune (b. 1813), Scottish botanist. 1882 Death of Bruno Bauer
(b. 1809),
German theologian.
1883 Alferd Packer (1842 - 1907) was convicted of
murder (not cannibalism as some sources put it; that he had eaten his companions
was not disputed and not a legal issue at his trial).
Alferd Packer article at the
Scriptorium
 1888 Alfred Nobel woke in his Paris home
and opened the morning newspaper. There, to his surprise, he read his own
obituary.
The
inventor of dynamite, blasting caps, smokeless gunpowder and hundreds of other
mean and nasty things, was very much alive, but his brother Ludwig was not. The
newspaper had made a mistake, but it was a mistake that helped Alfred Nobel turn
to a new career.
So appalled and ashamed was
he with the obituary that described him as a "bellicose monster" and which
reported that his discoveries "had boosted the bloody art of war from bullets
and bayonets to long-range explosives" – all of which was true, of course
– that his conscience pricked him and he decided to make amends somehow.
It was due to the shame of
knowing what he had made, and what he had become, that he used some of his great
wealth (derived in part from war) to create the Nobel Peace prizes.
Or, so it is said.
1902
James
C Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming,
USA.1912 The Royal Flying Corps was formed in Britain. Later the service
was renamed the Royal Air Force.
1919 The
Jallianwala
Bagh Massacre (Amritsar
Massacre):
Brigadier-General
Reginald Dyer's British
and Gurkha troops
fired on an unarmed crowd, massacring 380
and wounding at least 1,200, at a peaceful celebration of a
Spring festival in Amritsar,
Punjab, India.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi),
Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience,
addressed a public meeting near
Sabarmati Ashram and declared three days'
penitential fast. Gandhi realised
he had launched his
satyagraha
philosophy
of
nonviolent resistance
too early for the conditions in his
country, and called off the movement temporarily. Amritsar, however, proved to be
the beginning of the end for the British in India.
Gandhi
Institute for Nonviolence
Gandhi
Timeline
'Mahatma': A 5
hours, 10 minutes documentary on Gandhi's life, free online
1919 USA: Eugene Debs was imprisoned for
opposition to WWI.
Socialist, pacifist, and labor leader, while in prison he received more than one
million votes for President in 1920.
While there is a lower class,
I am in it;
While there is a criminal element, I am of it;
While there is a soul in prison, I am not free!
Eugene V Debs and the Idea of Socialism, by Howard Zinn
Source: The Daily Bleed
1929 Aviators Bobby Hitchcock and Keith Anderson died of thirst in the desert near Alice
Springs, Northern Territory, Australia while on a search in their plane Kookaburra for the missing Charles Kingsford-Smith, who later
showed up safe.
Sir Charles
Kingsford-Smith (1897 -
1935), often called by
his nickname, 'Smithy',
was the best-known early Australian aviator, completing the first non-stop crossing of the
Australian mainland, the first flight from Australia to New Zealand,
and the first to complete the more difficult eastward Pacific crossing from
Australia to the United States. Kingsford Smith International
Airport, located in Mascot, Australia, near Sydney, is named
after him.
1935
Qantas and
Britain's Imperial Airways began an air service between London and Australia.
1939 On the order of dictator
Benito Mussolini, Italian troops
invaded Albania.
1941
Pact of neutrality
between the USSR and Japan was signed.1943 World War II: The discovery
of a mass
grave of Polish
prisoners-of-war
executed by Soviet
forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre
was announced in Germany,
driving a wedge between the Western Allies, the Polish
government-in-exile in London, and the Soviet Union. 1943 The Jefferson Memorial was
dedicated in Washington, DC, on the
200th
anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's
birth.
 1951 The Stone of Scone (known in
Gaelic as Lia Fail, 'the speaking stone'; aka the Coronation Stone
and Stone of Destiny) was returned
to Westminster Abbey, London, having been taken from there by Scottish
nationalists on the previous Christmas Day. On this day, the odd-looking block
was placed again amidst Westminster's fine decorations, directly beneath the
English monarch's throne where it had incongruously sat for centuries.
The
Stone
of Destiny, also
known as the Stone of
Scone, and the Coronation
Stone, is a block of sandstone historically kept at the now-ruined abbey in Scone, near Perth, Scotland. It is also known as Jacob's Pillow and
as the
Tanist Stone.
In Celtic mythology, the Lia Fail was a magical
stone brought to Ireland by the Tuatha de Danaan. When the rightful King of Ireland put
his feet on it, the stone was said to roar in joy. This is believed to be the
origin of the Stone of Destiny.
Traditionally,
it is supposed to be the stone which Jacob used as a pillow. It was originally supposed to
have been used as the Coronation Stone of the early Dalriada Scots
when they lived in Ireland. When they invaded Caledonia, it is said to have been taken with them for that
use. Certainly, since the time of
Kenneth
MacAlpin (Kenneth I; d. 858) at around 847, Scottish kings were
seated upon the stone during their coronation ceremony. At this time the stone
was situated at
Scone, a few miles north of Perth.
From 1603, when James VI of Scotland became King of England, until the
present day, the expropriated Scottish symbol has been used in the Westminster
coronation of every single British monarch, and a few married ones. Many
Scottish nationalists traditionally longed for the famous stone to be returned
to its true home.
For all its
emotional significance to so many people, the Stone of Scone, as it is most
popularly called, isn't much to look at. It is a rather plain-looking
block of rough-hewn, reddish sandstone measuring 66 cm (26") long, by 40 cm
(16") wide, by 28 cm (11") high, and weighing 152 kg (336 lb). It has only
one inscription, a Latin cross, which gives no clue as to the Stone's
heritage.
Cambray, in his Monuments
Celtiques, claimed to have seen the stone when it bore the prophetic Latin
inscription:
Ni fallat fatum,
Scoti quocumque locatum
Invenient lapidiem,
regnasse tenetur ibidem – variously translated as
Fate hath designed
That wheresoe'er this Stone
The Scots shall find,
There they shall hold the Throne.
Or,
If the Destiny prove true,
then the Scots are known
to have been Kings
where'er men find this stone.
Also,
Except old
seers do feign
and wizard wits be blind,
the Scots in place must reign
where they this stone shall
find.
According
to one old chronicler, "no king was ever wont to reign in Scotland unless
he had first, on receiving the royal name, sat upon this stone at Scone, which
by the kings of old had been appointed to the capital of Alba".
The ritual of
crowning Scots monarchs while they are seated on the Stone of Scone has been
practised for more than 1,000 years, in fulfilment of the ancient prophecy .
But where did this lump of rock, with all its
significance, come from? One theory has it that the Stone
originates from the Middle East and was subsequently brought to Scotland,
arriving in the British Isles around 850 CE. Another says the sandstone
block was quarried on the West Coast of Scotland near Oban, while yet another
says that it comes from the Irish Kingdom of Dalriada which existed from around
400 CE to about 850 CE.
Legend claims
that it is the very stone that the Biblical Jacob used as a pillow at Bethel and
then anointed and erected as a pillar. Later, it became the pedestal of the Ark
of the Covenant in the Temple at Jerusalem, whence it found its way to Syria.
The remarkable stone was taken from Syria to Egypt by one Gathelus, who, in order to escape the plague, was
then advised by Moses to set sail from the Nile with his wife and the Stone of
Destiny, which he did, the fabulous rock thus arriving in Spain. From there,
Gathelus sent the stone to Ireland after he had invaded that country, and it was
later removed to Scotland where it stayed in Scone Abbey until Edward I of
England carried it off to Westminster Abbey in England in 1296.
Whatever its
true provenance, which we are likely never to know, the fabled Stone of Scone
has had a strange history and continues to exert a powerful influence on the
lives of many.
See December 23 in the Book
of Days
More on the Stone
More
1954 Australian
prime minister Menzies announced that Vladimir Petrov, an admitted Soviet spy,
had been granted political asylum.
See April 4
1962
Rachel Carson's book indicting the pesticide
industry, Silent Spring, was published.
In the impassioned fact-filled attack on DDT and other
chemicals, Carson demonstrated how synthetic insecticides killed tens of
thousands of birds, posing grave dangers to the soil, the food chain, and human
health. The impact of Silent Spring proved so seminal to a new ecological
awareness that, even 30 years on, Carson was still being denounced for
"preservationist hysteria" and "bad science".
Source: The Daily Bleed
1962 The Beatles began their third Hamburg trip.
1964 The Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia was opened
by Rev. Ted Noffs.
1964 Ian Smith became prime minister of Rhodesia on the resignation
of Winston Field.
1964 Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to receive an
Oscar, for his role in The Lilies of the
Field.
1967 Talkback
radio was born in Australia when Federal parliament passed an act allowing phone
calls to be broadcast.
1969 The
last tram ran in Brisbane, Australia.
1970 An
oxygen tank explosion occurred in
Apollo 13's Service Module, crippling the spacecraft
and putting the crew in danger of their lives. The astronauts were obliged to retreat inside their lunar landing
craft. They all made it back to earth safe and well.
1971 The
first European anti-nuclear demonstration was held at Fessenheim, France.
1973
Tidbinbilla tracking station was dedicated by Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam.
1975 The war in Lebanon between Christians and Muslims began.
1975
An attack by Phalangists on a Palestinian
bus in Ain El Remmeneh, Lebanon caused more than 15
years of civil war.
1976 John Stonehouse was thrown out of
British parliament. He had faked his own death in 1974 but in 1976 was found by
police living in Australia.
1983
Harold Washington was
elected as the first African-American mayor in Chicago's history.
1985 Enver Hoxha was succeeded by
Ramiz Alia
as the leader of Albania.
1987 Portugal and China signed
an agreement in which the island of Macao would be returned to China
in 1999.
1990 Katyn Massacre (see 1943 above): The Soviet
Union admitted to the killing of 15,000 Polish army officers in Katyn Forest,
western Russia, an atrocity the Soviet authorities had always blamed on Nazi Germany. The truth was not publicly known until the fall
of USSR Communism in 1989.
From Wikipedia: The Katyn
Forest Massacre occurred in the Soviet
Union, in a forest near Gnezdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk. Many
Poles had become prisoners of war following the invasion and defeat of Poland by the Nazis and the Soviet
Union in September 1939.
The Soviets filtered out army and police officers and gathered them in three
camps, Kozielsk,
Ostaszkowo
and Starobielsk.
In addition, the registration of all army and police officers, including retired
and reserved, were forced on the areas of Eastern Poland. The registered
persons, were subsequently arrested and deported to the same three POW camps. Since the
conscription system in Poland required every university
graduate to become a reserve officer, the Soviets gathered the most important
individuals from the Polish, Jewish and Belorussian intelligentsia.
On Christmas
Eve of 1939,
all priests of
every confession were removed from the camps and probably murdered separately.
These included Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, Protestants and Greek
Catholics.
On
March 5, 1940, members of the Soviet
Politburo
– Stalin,
Molotov, Lazar
Kaganovich,
Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov and
Lavrenty
Beria himself – signed an order of execution prepared by Beria of 25,700
Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish prisoners
of war.
President of the
United States
Franklin Delano Roosevelt assigned Captain
George Earle, his special emissary to the Balkans, to
compile information on Katyn. Earle did so, using contacts in Bulgaria and Romania. Earle
too concluded that the Soviet Union was guilty. FDR rejected that conclusion,
saying that he was convinced of Nazi Germany's responsibility, and ordered
Earle's report suppressed. When Earle formally requested permission to publish
his findings, the President gave him a written order to desist. Earle was
reassigned and spent the rest of the war in American
Samoa.
1990 Soviet
president
Mikhail Gorbachev (b.
1931) gave
Lithuania until April 15 to withdraw its unilateral declaration of independence.
1993 The trial for treason began of twelve men accused of plotting
the overthrow in 1991 of Soviet president
Mikhail Gorbachev.
1996
Associated Press reported the death,
the previous week, of Larry LaPrise, the man who penned
the song 'Hokey Pokey':
"LaPrise,
a Detroit native whose full name was Roland Lawrence LaPrise, concocted the song
along with two fellow musicians in the late 1940s for the apres ski crowd
at a nightclub in Sun Valley, Idaho. The group, the Ram Trio, recorded the song
in 1949.
"In
1953, bandleader Ray Anthony bought the rights and recorded 'The Hokey
Pokey' on the B-side of another novelty record, 'The Bunny Hop.'
"LaPrise died aged 83 in Boise, Idaho, USA, after
a career that brought him no fame, modest fortune, and a job with the Postal
Service. Around the Internet went the joke: 'The most traumatic part for his
family was getting him into the coffin. They
put his left leg in. And then the
trouble started'."
2029 The asteroid 2004 MN4 will pass within
65,000 km of the Earth.
Tomorrow: Lincoln's assassination
Main calendar
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If Thomas Jefferson Had Worked in
the Corporate World
10 October 1776
Mr. Thomas Jefferson
c/o The Continental Congress
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dear Mr. Jefferson:
We have read your "Declaration of Independence" with great interest. Certainly, it represents a considerable undertaking, and many of your statements do merit serious consideration. Unfortunately, the Declaration as a whole fails to meet recently adopted specifications for proposals to the Crown, so we must return the document to you for further refinement. The questions which follow might assist you in your process of revision:
1. In your opening paragraph you use the phrase "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God." What are these laws? In what way are they the criteria on which you base your central arguments? Please document with citations from the recent literature.
2. In the same paragraph you refer to the "opinions of mankind." Whose polling data are you using? Without specific evidence, it seems to us the "opinions of mankind" are a matter of opinion.
3. You hold certain truths to be "self-evident." Could you please elaborate. If they are as evident as you claim then it should not be difficult for you to locate the appropriate supporting statistics.
4. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" seem to be the goals of your proposal. These are not measurable goals. If you were to say that "among these is the ability to sustain an average life expectancy in six of the 13 colonies of at least 55 years, and to enable newspapers in the colonies to print news without outside interference, and to raise the average income of the colonists by 10 percent in the next 10 years," these could be measurable goals. Please clarify.
5. You state that, "Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to institute a new Government ..." Have you weighed this assertion against all the alternatives? What are the trade-off considerations?
6. Your description of the existing situation is quite extensive. Such a long list of grievances should precede the statement of goals, not allow it. Your problem statement needs improvement.
7. Your strategy for achieving your goal is not developed at all. You state that the colonies "ought to be Free and Independent States" and that they are "Absolved from All Allegiance to the British Crown." Who or what must change to achieve this objective? In what way must they change? What specific steps will you take to overcome the resistance? How long will it take? We have found that a little foresight in these areas helps to prevent careless errors later on. How cost-effective are your strategies?
8. Who among the list of signatories will be responsible for implementing your strategy? Who conceived it? Who provided the theoretical research? Who will constitute the advisory committee? Please submit an organization chart and vitas of the principal investigators.
9. You must include an evaluation design. We have been requiring this since Queen Anne's War.
10. What impact will your problem have? Your failure to include any assessment of this inspires little confidence in the long-range prospects of your undertaking.
11. Please submit a PERT diagram, an activity chart, itemized budget and manpower utilization matrix.
We hope that these comments prove useful in revising your "Declaration of Independence." We welcome the submission of your revised proposal. Our due date for unsolicited proposals is November 30, 1776. Ten copies with original signatures will be required.
Sincerely,
Management Analyst to the British Crown
Wikipedia
and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed
are both excellent resources that aid my research.
I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft'
and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude.
© My own copyright
policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.
Read more about today at Wilson's
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