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Hence without parent by spontaneous birth
Rise the first specks of animated earth;
From Nature's womb the plant or insect swims,
And buds or breathes, with microscopic limbs.

Shout round the globe, how reproduction strives
With vanquished Death – and Happiness survives;
How Life increasing peoples every clime,
And young renascent Nature conquers Time.
Erasmus Darwin

Philosophers have …been called unbelievers; unbelievers of what? of the fictions of fancy, of witchcraft, hobgoblins, apparitions, vampires, fairies; of the influence of the stars on human actions, miracles wrought by the bones of saints, the flight of ominous birds, the predictions from the bones of dying animals, expounders of dreams, fortune-tellers, conjurors, modern prophets, necromancy, cheiromancy, animal magnetism, metallic tractors, with endless variety of folly?
Erasmus Darwin  

No, Sir, because I have time to think before I speak, and don't ask impertinent questions.
Erasmus Darwin, when asked if he found his stammering very inconvenient, in 'Reminiscences of My Father's Everyday Life', an appendix by Francis Darwin to his edition of Charles Darwin's Autobiography ( (1877)

Erasmus Darwin was likely a deist, a fervent believer in democracy, and a practitioner of what some would call "free love." These characteristics were tolerated, if not admired, while England enjoyed social stability. Once the British found themselves at war with Napoleon, however, Erasmus Darwin's ideas looked dangerously subversive, and as England's population became more anti-intellectual, he quickly fell out of favor.
Michon Scott

Cafe Diem!
For all my Yule needs

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

Yule

Decking the Halls
Folklore & traditions of Christmas plants

The Winter Solstice

The Fires of Yule
A Keltelven Guide for Celebrating the Winter Solstice

Sabbat Entertaining

Women's Activism and Globalization

The Lunar Men

William Lloyd Garrison and the Fight...

Stand and Deliver
Hip Hop activism

Peace Under Fire

Peace Signs

Eight Sabbats for Witches

Celebrate the Earth
A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition

Wheel of the Year

Be A Goddess

The Wiggles - Yule Be Wiggling

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Book of Saints

The Encyclopedia of Saints

Daily Everything

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

Lord of the Rings

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Yuletide Lads – Icelandic trolls

December 12 is the first day of arrival of the Jólasveinar trolls, gnome-like beings that come at the rate of one a day right up to Christmas Eve.  It used to be said that they like to eat bad girls and boys.

About 60 different names of Yuletide Lads are known, but the number varied in olden times from one region of Iceland to another. The number 13 is first seen in a poem on Grýla (the Lads' mother, an ogre; their dad is Leppalúði) in the 18^th century, and their names were published by Jón Árnason in his folklore collection in 1862. Some of their names are Sausage Sniffer, Pot Scraper, and Window Peeper. They were once seen as cannibals, but the Yuletide Lads are now gift givers – although still mischievous.

Bellisama Dydd, the Day of Bellisama (neo-pagan sacred day), begins at sundown.   Source

Jamhuri Day (Independence Day), Kenya (1963)

Feast of Masá'il (Questions)
First day of the 15^th month of the Bahá'í Calendar, Bahá'í Faith.

Digital Solidarity Day, United Nations

1731 Erasmus Darwin (d. April 18, 1802), English physician, scientist and poet, polymathic genius; grandfather of Charles Darwin and of Francis Galton, founder of eugenics; great-grandfather of George Darwin, Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge.

Erasmus was also an inventor, coming up with a steam car ("a fiery chariot"); a wire-drawn ferry; a horizontal windmill; and an artificial bird. He invented a speaking machine that could trick some people into thinking they heard a real person saying "mama" or "papa", a copying machine and a carriage steering system later used in motor vehicles.

Darwin was co-founder of The Birmingham Lunar Society, a small group of intellectual friends who met on the full moon. 'The lunar men' included Joseph Priestley (preacher, politician and chemist, the first to discover photosynthesis and isolate the element oxygen); James Watt ('father of the steam engine'); Matthew Boulton (engineer and chemist, business man backer of Watt); Josiah Wedgwood (mineralogist, chemist and potter to the Queen; related to Erasmus by marriage as Charles Darwin and his cousin Emma Wedgwood married).

Erasmus Darwin was the first to explain how clouds form and to describe the full process of photosynthesis in plants. As a young man he expounded the theory of biological evolution (as we have come to know it), later publishing E Conchis Omnia – 'Everything from Shells'. In this work, the grandfather of the world's most famous evolutionist expressed his belief that all life comes from a single microscopic ancestor, a radical idea that brought him condemnation in society and perhaps prevented him from obtaining the position of poet laureate.

Rejection by society did not stop him, and he wrote a long, precognitive poem, 'The Temple of Nature or The Origin of Society', tracing the progress of life from microscopic entities in primordial oceans through fishes and amphibians to humankind, as he calls us.

His ideas sometimes presaged those of his more famous grandson, Charles:

Some birds have acquired harder beaks to crack nuts, as the parrot. Others have acquired beaks adapted to break the harder seeds, as sparrows. Others for the softer seeds of flowers, or the buds of trees as the finches. Other birds have acquired long beaks to penetrate the moister soils in search of roots, as woodcocks; and others broad ones to filtrate the water of lakes, and to retain aquatic insects. All of which seem to have been gradually produced during many generations by the perpetual endeavour of the creatures to supply the want of food.
Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia Book I  

Organic Life beneath the shoreless waves
Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves;
First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,
Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;
These, as successive generations bloom,
New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume;
Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,
And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing.
Erasmus Darwin, 'The Temple of Nature or The Origin of Society'

His great grandson, Sir George Darwin, is credited with the 'fission hypothesis' theory that the moon was originally part of the earth, but Erasmus seems to have had the notion first:

Gnomes! how you shriek'd! when through the troubled air
Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war;
When rose the continents, and sunk the main,
And Earth's huge sphere exploding burst in twain.-
Gnomes! how you gazed! when from her wounded side
Where now the South-Sea heaves its waste of tide,
Rose on swift wheels the Moon's refulgent car,
Circling the solar orb, a sister star,
Dimpled with vales, with shining hills emboss'd,
And roll'd round Earth her airless realms of frost.

He was so corpulent he had to have a half-circle cut out of his dining table so his huge stomach would fit. Incongruously, perhaps, he also became the first Englishman to fly in a large-sized hydrogen balloon.  

From 'The Temple of Nature or The Origin of Society', by Erasmus Darwin

The 'Lunatics'

Around about 1765, Darwin helped to found the Lunar Society, a discussion club of a number of prominent geologists, chemists, engineers, theorists, industrialists and scientists, who met regularly in the latter half of the 18^th Century. The society's name came from their practice of scheduling their meetings at the time of the full moon (the better light ensuring a higher attendance as generally the streets were unpoliced and very dark.).

Meeting in, among other places, a house on a crossroads outside Birmingham, England, between them they managed to launch the Industrial Revolution, discover oxygen, harness the power of steam and pioneer the theory of evolution.

Venues included Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, and Great Barr Hall.

They were a very influential group in British science and industry of the time – amongst those who attended meetings more or less regularly were the following remarkable men:

Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Galton, Jr, James Keir, William Murdoch, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, James Watt and William Withering (discoverer of the drug digitalis in foxglove).

More peripheral characters and correspondents included:

Sir Richard Arkwright, John Baskerville, Thomas Beddoes, Thomas Day, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Thomas Jefferson, Rudolph Erich Raspe (who knew Baron Munchausen and wrote of his adventures), Anna Seward, William Small, John Smeaton, Thomas Wedgwood, John Whitehurst of Derby (maker of clocks and scientific instruments, pioneer of geology), John Wilkinson, Joseph Wright, James Wyatt and Samuel Wyatt.

Antoine Lavoisier frequently corresponded with various members of the group, as did Benjamin Franklin, who also visited them in Birmingham on several occasions.

The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World

Erasmus Darwin chronology    More

The C Warren Irvin, Jr Collection of Charles Darwin and Darwiniana has good Erasmus material

1745 John Jay (d. 1829), United States Supreme Court justice

1805 William Lloyd Garrison (d. May 24, 1879), American slavery abolitionist, journalist. In 1831, he founded an anti-slavery newspaper of his own, The Liberator, which he continued to publish and edit for 35 years. In 1833, Garrison founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the same year, he visited the United Kingdom and assisted in the anti-slavery movement there.

1821 Gustave Flaubert (d. 1880), French novelist (Madame Bovary).

Flaubert was once bluntly asked about the identity of his existential heroine, "the real Emma Bovary." "I," he replied with a wistful smile, "am Madame Bovary".

1855 Ivan Panin, Russian-born American mathematician who believed that he had cracked God's code of the Bible

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1871 Umenosuke Bessho (d. March 1, 1945), Japanese writer

1879 Laura Hope Crews (d. 1942), stage and film actress, 'Aunt Pitty' from Gone With The Wind

1887 Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer

1892 Liesl Karlstadt (d. 1960), actress who collaborated with Karl Valentin

1892 Herman Potočnik Noordung (d. 1929), Slovene pioneer of astronautics and cosmonautics, and rocket engineer

1893 Edward G Robinson (d. 1973), actor

1900 Sammy Davis, Sr, American dancer

1903 Ozu Yasujiro (d. 1963), film director

1905 Mànes Sperber (d. 1984), writer

1914 Patrick O'Brian (d. 2000), British author

1915 Frank Sinatra (d. 1998), American singer and actor

"J. Edgar Hoover … thought Ol' Blue Eyes was a murderer and a Mafioso with a golden voice. Despite Hoover's FBI amassing the largest file on Sinatra of any entertainer in U.S. history, none of the damning information there ever made it to a grand jury. Numerous times the government got close to indicting Sinatra, but it never did. Sinatra had friends in the highest places, first President Kennedy and then President Nixon and finally President Reagan. Each, in different ways and to varying degrees, came to his aid when he most needed them, enabling him to front for the mob with impunity.

"Recently the FBI released on its web site all 1,275 pages of Sinatra's FBI file. His file may be viewed at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/sinatra.htm."   Source

1923 Bob Barker, game show host, television personality

1924 Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City

1927 Honor Blackman, actress

1927 Robert Noyce (d. 1990), American inventor

1929 John Osborne (d. 1994), British dramatist

1934 Miguel de la Madrid, president of Mexico

1938 Connie Francis, American singer

1940 Sharad Pawar, Indian politician

1940 Dionne Warwick, American singer

1943 Dickey Betts, musician (The Allman Brothers)

1943 Grover Washington, Jr (d. 1999), musician

1952 Cathy Rigby, gymnast, actress

1957 Sheila E, musician

1970 Jennifer Connelly, actress

1976 Dan Hawkins, musician

Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section

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December

9 Christmas Card Day
9 Pastry Day
10 Sister-Friend Day
10 Human Rights Day
11 Radio Day
11 Hi, Neighbour Day
12 Poinsettia Day
12 Our Lady Of Guadalupe Day
13 Cocoa Day
13 Take Your Ass For A Walk Day
13 Santa Lucia Day
14 Deck The Halls Day
14 Opposites Attract Day
14 DNA Day
14 Buy A Tree Day
15 Lemon Cupcake Day
15 Firefighters Day
15 Sleep Comfort Day
16 Beethoven's Birthday
16 Underdog Day
17 Cookie Cutter Day
18 Flake Appreciation Day
18 Bake Cookies Day
19 A Christmas Carol Day
19 Build A Snowman Day
19 Chocolate Pizza Day
20 Dot Your I's With Smileys Day
20 Go Caroling Day
21 Winter Solstice
21 Yule
21 World Peace Day
21 Yalda
21 Look At The Bright Side Day
21 Crossword Puzzle Day
22 Christmas Tree Light Day
23 Popcorn Popping Day
23 Two Days To Go
23 Feast Of The Radishes
24 Eggnog Day
25 Christmas
25 Christmas Around The World

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627 The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians at the Battle of Nineveh.

884 Death of Carloman, King of the West Franks.

1098 Early Crusaders captured and plundered Mara, Syria. All for Jesus, of course.

1381 "The Order of Fools was set up in 1381 by Adolphus, Count of Cleves. For centuries the members, mostly from the Flemish upper classes, held a week-long grand court every year and planned acts of charity. They had the figure of a fool or jester embroidered on their mantles. The last reference to the Order is in some verses appended to Sebastian Brand's celebrated Navis Stultifera (Ship of Fools), published in Stasbourg in 1520."   Source

1531 Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City.

1574 Death of Selim II, Ottoman Emperor.

1721 Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish sailor who lived for four years on a deserted island and became the model for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, died at sea, aged 45. British pirate and author William Dampier had been instrumental in his rescue.

1776 The US Second Continental Congress, fearing an imminent British attack on Philadelphia, voted dictatorial powers to George Washington and fled to Baltimore.

1781 The British navy defeated a French fleet in the Second Battle of Ushant during the American Revolutionary War.

1787 Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1815 James Kelly began a 49-day circumnavigation of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia).

1857 Those on board the English ship Castilian, about ten miles from St Helena, saw a sea serpent they estimated to be about twice the length of their ship, ie, about 150m (c. 500 ft) long.

1870 Joseph H Rainey of South Carolina became the first black US congressman.

1891 The golf tee was patented.

1894 Death of Sir John Thompson (b. 1845), 4^th Prime Minister of Canada.

1897 The Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte was founded.

1897 The Katzenjammer Kids, a comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks, debuted in the 'American Humorist', the Sunday supplement of the New York Journal.

1900 US Steel was formed.

1906 The Transvaal, South Africa, was given autonomy with the vote for white males.

1907 Colonel Sir Duncan Mackenzie, commandant of the British Natal forces, accepted the surrender of Dinizulu (pictured), king of the Zulu nation from May 20, 1884 until his death in 1913. 

The military prowess of Dinizulu had been a scourge to both British and Boer forces for many years. In 1888, the warrior king had narrowly escaped capture by Robert Baden-Powell, the British officer who went on to found the worldwide Scouting movement.

In 1890 Dinuzulu was exiled to the island of St Helena for seven years.

More on Dinizulu

1907 A rule was introduced in New York requiring women to sign affidavits attesting to their age and good character before they marry.

1908 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, was released from Volksrust Gaol.

1911 King George V was crowned Emperor of India and founded New Delhi as the capital to replace Calcutta.

1913 The Mona Lisa was recovered in Florence, two years after it was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian housepainter.

1917 In Nebraska, USA, Father Edward J Flanagan founded Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys (in 1979 it was opened to girls as well). In 1938, Spencer Tracy won an Oscar for playing Father Flanagan in Boys Town.

1925 Reza Pahlavi took control of Iran as Shah.

1937 The Panay incident: a Japanese peacetime attack on the USS Panay, a US Navy gunboat.

1939 Finland defeated the Soviet Union in the Battle of Tolvajärvi, their first major victory in the Winter War.

1941 The United States seized the French ship Normandie.

1948 Batang Kali Massacre, Malaysia. British soldiers in the Scots Guard allegedly massacred 24 unarmed civilians.

1954 BBC Television screened Nineteen Eighty-Four, the film of the novel by by George Orwell, starring Peter Cushing, and received numerous complaints from the public for showing a 'horror' show on a Sunday.

1955 British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the hovercraft.

1963 Kenya gained independence from the United Kingdom.

 

1976 Cotter ConFest: An alternative 'Down to Earth' festival (ConFest) commenced, by the Cotter River, ACT, Australia. The Down to Earth Confest organization was run by a collective but largely popularized due to the figurehead status of Dr Jim Cairns, sacked former deputy prime minister of Australia.

Cairns's writings had become increasingly alternative, influenced by such writers as Wilhelm Reich. Dr Cairns is pictured here with his associate and lover, Junie Morosi.

Interested in alternative Australia? Nimbin Web is a good place to start.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    Wilson's Almanac Activism Page    CounterCulture Wiki

 

1979 South Korea: The Coup d'état of December Twelfth.

1979 Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe.

1981 The Chaos Computer Club was founded in Berlin.

1982 Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp: About 30,000 women linked hands around the Greenham Common US air base in a protest against US to plans to install nuclear cruise missiles.

1983 Dallos was the first OVA (Original Video Animation) ever released.

1985 Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashed after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland killing 256, including 248 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division

1987 The bowler hat and cane used by Charlie Chaplin in his silent movies sold at auction in London for AU$195,000.

1988 Rock star Elton John received one million pounds damages against The Sun newspaper in England for its defamatory allegations about his private life.

1989 Leona Helmsley, a billionaire hotelier, was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion, New York.

1990 US president George Bush the Daddy agreed to send a one billion dollar food aid shipment to the Soviet Union.

1991 The parliament of the USSR voted to dissolve the Soviet Union.

1996 Uday Hussein was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

1997 Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal was indicted as an adult on three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder for the shooting of his classmates at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, USA on December 1.

When asked why he did it, the boy cried and asked authorities to kill him. Later, he claimed that he was inspired by the movie, The Basketball Diaries, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

2000 The United States Supreme Court released its decision in Bush v. Gore, deciding the presidential election of 2000.

2003 Paul Martin, Jr was sworn-in as the 21^st Prime Minister of Canada.

 

Tomorrow: The Ember Days