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Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.
Gustave Flaubert, writing on August 14, 1853, in a letter to Louise Colet

I am having so much fun performing, I feel almost guilty. I think, my God, I hope no one comes and busts me for this. 
David Crosby, American musician, born on August 14, 1941

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
Dr Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, who met Mrs Boswell on August 14, 1773

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
Dr Johnson 

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
Dr Johnson

When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.
Dr Johnson

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
Dr Johnson

They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.
Dr Johnson

Mata and Grifone

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Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror

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Reading Lolita in Tehran

Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM

The Elements of Ritual

The Spiral Dance
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20th Anniversary Edition

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Life in a Medieval Village

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Astro pic of the day

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Celtic Daily Prayer

Hidden Agendas

Poor Richard's Almanack
By Benjamin Franklin

Photo of the day

Wheel of the Year

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

Faradda di li candareri (Descent of the Candlesticks), Sassari, Sardinia

Assumption Day (August 15) occurs during Ferragosto, Italy's traditional mid-August holiday, which takes its name from the Roman Emperor Augustus's own personal feast day, the feriae augustae. Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy, enjoys the season as much as its mainland neighbour. And Sassari's candelabra procession is a well-known part of that season.

This feast originated following a 16^th-Century plague. It features a great procession of people carrying enormous lighted candles, each with many long ribbons attached and held by others, with ballet-like movements to flute and drums.

Beginning at the Piazza Castello, the procession wends its way to the Church of Santa Maria di Betlem. Leading the parade are nine, nine-metre candelabra, decorated with flowers, ribbons, and all manner of banners and bows, all of which are removed at sunset in front of the church. Today's food is snails, smothered in ashes and slow-roasted in their shells, then served up at Porta San Antonio.

Calendar of events in Sardinia

Day of Peace between Horus and Set, ancient Egypt
"A Day of Peace between Horus and Set follows the day of their battle."   Source

Greater Panathenaea, ancient Athens, in honour of goddess Athena (c. Aug 8 - 17)
Seventh day: horse and chariot racing.

"On this day at sun-up, the Panathenaia continues. On this day, the birth day of Athena, when she burst full-grown from Zeus's head, was celebrated. The Greeks believed that all the Olympian Gods and Goddesses attended Athena's birthday festivities on Olympus, as they were also all present at Her birth, so this celebration was an important one. Zeus gave birth to Athena because he had swallowed her mother, Metis, when he heard a prophecy that she would give birth to a son who would destroy him."
Source: Earth, Moon and Sky

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Heraclia in Kynosarges, ancient Greece (Aug 12 - 19)

Feast day of St Arnulf of Soissons

Feast day of St Athanasia

Feast day of St Eusebius of Caesaria (Eusebius of Palestine), priest and martyr, 3^rd Century
(Elegant zinnia; Zinnia elegans is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

For his ten-volume work, Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius is known as 'the father of church history'. He also wrote a 15-volume refutation of paganism called Preparation. At the First Council of Nicaea (325), Eusebius (whose name means 'faithful') attempted to mediate between the Arians and the dominant theologians of the Church. The confession that he proposed became the basis of the Nicene Creed.

More

Feast day of St Eusebius of Rome

Feast day of St Juliana Puricelli

Feast day of St Maximillian Kolbe
A 20^th-Century Polish saint, (January 8, 1894 - August 14, 1941); died at Auschwitz (near Cracow); beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1971; canonized in 1982 by Pope John Paul II. His father before him had been hanged by Tsarist authorities. He is the patron saint of drug addicts, families, imprisoned people, journalists, prisoners, the pro-life movement, and amateur radio.

More

Feast day of Our Lady of the Good Death, Cachoeira, Brazil (Aug 13 - 15)

Feast day of Our Lady of Protection, Marcia, Brazil

Feast day of St Ursicius

Feast day of St Werenfrid
"Died at Arnheim, c. 780. Werenfrid was an English missionary who accompanied Saint Willibrord to Frisia (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Werenfrid is vested for Mass holding a ship with a coffin in it. Sometimes his body is placed in a ship, with or without sails (Roeder). He is venerated at Arnheim, and is the patron of vegetable gardeners. Werenfrid is invoked against gout of stiff joints."   Source

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Assumption Eve

V-J Day, end of World War II

National Creamsicles Day, USA

Tetsuya Odori Festival, Gujo-Hachiman, Gifu Prefecture (Aug 13 - 16)

Liberty Tree Day, Massachusetts, USA

Bud Billiken Day, Chicago, USA, an African-American children's holiday

Allegiance of Oued Eddahab or Río de Oro, Morocco

Early to Mid-August, Scarecrow Festival, Kettlewell, UK
"Over 100 life-size scarecrows made and displayed around the village by local people in early to mid-August."   Source

More    And more    Yup more

Saturday and Sunday after August 12, Saddleworth Rushcart, W Yorks., UK
"The reads (12-1500 bundles) are collected from the moors three weeks before the event and built onto the cart in the week before. A jockey from the Saddleworth Morris Men rides the 15' high cart as it is pulled around the Saddleworth villages during Saturday by Morris and mumming groups from all over the area and the home side. There are displays of all styles of Morris at each village and then an evening of music back at Uppermill, in the Church Inn and Cross Keys Inn. On Sunday morning the cart is pulled up the steep hill to the mother church for a service where the cart and morris men are blessed. … There are also competitions for wrestling, music, clog stepping and gurning and music in the pubs ..."   Source

Yaum e Azadi, Independence Day, Pakistan

On which day of the week were you born? Find out here

1740 Barnaba Chiaramonti (Pope Pius VII; d. 1823)

1771 Sir Walter Scott (d. September 21, 1832), Scottish historical novelist, poet and folklorist.

In some ways Scott was the first author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Australia, and North America.

His novels and (to a lesser extent) his poetry are still read, but he is far less popular nowadays than he was at the height of his fame. Nevertheless many of his works remain classics of English literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Lady of the Lake, Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian. Many of his works were illustrated by his friend, William Allan.

Project Gutenberg e-texts of some of Walter Scott's works

University of Edinburgh library's digital archive of Scott's works and memorabilia

Selected poetry    'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'    More

1840 Briton Rivière (d. 1920), English artist

1851 John Henry 'Doc' Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter who is usually remembered for his associations with Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the OK Corral

1861 Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress

1863 Ernest Thayer (d. 1940), poet: Casey at the Bat

1867 John Galsworthy (d. 1933),  Nobel Prize for Literature-winning English novelist and playwright series of novels: The Forsyte Saga)

1882 Gisela Richter (d. 1972), art historian

1910 Pierre Schaeffer, composer and pioneer of musique concrète

1913 Hector Crawford, Australian producer of TV series such as Homicide

1920 Nehemiah Persoff, actor

1925 Russell Baker, columnist

1926 Ted Noffs (Theodore Delwin Noffs, d. 1995), Mudgee-born Methodist minister, writer and founder of the Ted Noffs Foundation and Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, Sydney, in 1964. During the youth revolt of the 1960s, Noffs was attracted to what he saw as the life-affirming side of the movement. Although aware of the problem of drug-abuse and the alienation of youth, he believed that they were '... a part of the paraphernalia behind the revolution, the symbolism behind the revolt.' Noffs sought fairness and equality for all. With a focus on the practical, he raised funding from both government and business to set up facilities for the disadvantaged; in many cases these projects were the first of their kind in Australia.

Many hated him. "I wouldn't feed him to a goanna out of respect for the goanna. He's a con man:" said one man. (Listen) A woman said "Ted Noffs is an evil, wicked man. He's destroying religion."  Three times he was accused of heresy by his church seniors. I believe that most people now think that was a cruel folly.

Iin the 1980s lived very close to the Wayside Chapel in the 1980s. I never met him, but see him as one of Australia's leading lights of humanity and a beacon for Sydney and Australia. Some saw him as a heretic. He was even charged three times with heresy, but he was a good man.

1926 René Goscinny, Polish-French author, editor and humorist, who is best known for the comic strip Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo, and for the comic strip Lucky Luke

1926 Lina Wertmüller, director

1940 Dash Crofts, musician

1941 David Crosby, folk-rock musician, played with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (50 Ways to Leave Your Liver)

"The singular odyssey of David Crosby remains one of the more remarkable tales in the annals of music history. As a founding member of the pioneering American groups the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, he helped create and popularize the highly influential folk-rock sound, forging the richly harmonic, radiantly acoustic approach which defined the West Coast music scene for years to follow; he also sold millions of records and enjoyed a cultural impact equaled by few of his contemporaries. Yet despite his often overwhelming success, Crosby is recognized far less for his artistic achievements than for his larger-than-life offstage exploits, specifically a long and fantastically excessive battle with drug abuse which seemingly kept him teetering on the brink of death for over a decade; that he not only survived but remained as colorful and newsworthy a character as before, is a testament [sic] to his continued creativity and unpredictability …

"Crosby was again the subject of tabloid headlines when in early 2000 it was revealed that he fathered the children of singer Melissa Etheridge and her life partner Julie Cypher; that same year, he also published a second book, Stand and Be Counted, which assembled interviews with actors and musicians to explore the intersection of celebrity and social activism."    Source

1945 Steve Martin, comedian, actor

1945 Wim Wenders, director

1946 Antonio Fargas, actor

1946 Susan Saint James, actress

1947 Danielle Steel, novelist

1950 Gary Larson, cartoonist

1952 Carl Lumbly, actor

1959 Marcia Gay Harden, Academy Award winning actress

1960 Sarah Brightman, British singer best known for her role in Phantom of the Opera

1961 Susan Olsen, actress, The Brady Bunch

1964 Brannon Braga, writer, director

1965 Emmanuelle Béart, Cesar Award winning actress

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

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Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Janmashtami Birthdays Smile Month Independence Day (India) [ Aug 15 ]

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
Varies Hindu holidays
Varies Graduation
Varies Raksha Bandhan
Early August Friendship Day
Varies Janmashtami
Varies Ganesh Chaturthi

August

11 Alcatraz Day
12 Thank You Day
12 Aloha Day
13 Left-Handers Day
14 Independence Day (Pakistan)
15 Sit Back And Relax Day
15 Independence Day (India)
16 True Love Forever Day
16 Joke Day
16 Roller Coaster Day
17 #2 Pencil Day
19 Daffodil Day
19 Soft Ice Cream Day
19 Spicy Food Day
20 Lemonade Day
20 Zoroastrian New Year
22 Be An Angel Day
23 Hug Your Sweetheart Day
23 Ride The Wind Day
25 Kiss And Make Up Day
26 Women's Equality Day
26 Cherry Popsicle Day
26 Toilet Paper Day
27 Just Because Day
27 Banana Lovers Day
29 Lemon Juice Day
29 Chop Suey Day
30 Toasted Marshmallow Day
31 Eat Outside Day

  ... More Events

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1040 King Duncan I of Scotland was killed in battle against his cousin and successor Macbeth.

1183 Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan took the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and fled to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei.)

1385 1383-1385 Crisis: The Castilians were defeated by Portuguese at the Battle of Aljubarrota.

1433 Death of King John I of Portugal.

1464 Death of Pope Pius II.

1598 The Irish under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, destroyed English force at the Battle of Yellow Ford.

1619 The Jamestown, Virginia colony in the New World held its first legislative assembly, which passed laws against drinking and gambling.

1635 The Great Hurricane of 1635 and the Legend of Thacker Island.

1642 Abel Tasman set sail from Batavia in the East Indies (now Djakarta, Indonesia) for Australia.

1773 Dr Samuel Johnson, the great lexicographer of the English language, while visiting Edinburgh, met his biographer James Boswell's wife, who complained of his manners and her husband's relationship with him. He wrote, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear".

Boswell's Life of Johnson

1784 Death of Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (b. 1718).

1842 The Second Seminole War ended, Seminole Indians forced from Florida to Oklahoma.

1848 The Oregon Territory was organised by Act of US Congress.

1861 William Landsborough began the relief expedition for the missing Australian explorers, Burke and Wills.

Last days of Burke and Wills

"After their return to the Cooper, the men became increasingly dependent on the generosity of the local Yantruwanta people, who brought them fish and cakes of nardoo, an edible seed. Burke, apparently galled by this dependence on 'inferiors', had jeopardised the relationship by rudely refusing a gift of fish. Left to fend for themselves, the explorers finally found banks of nardoo fern and confined all their efforts to gathering the seed. They failed to understand, however, that nardoo seed, if not correctly prepared, is toxic and robs the body of vitamin B1.

"The nardoo quelled their hunger, but Wills was puzzled by their inability to derive any real nourishment from it. By late June, Burke could no longer move: he asked King to place a pistol in his hand and leave him unburied, and died where he lay. King set out to get help from the Aborigines but was unsuccessful, and by the time he returned to camp, Wills was also dead. King buried Wills and set out again to join the Yantruwanta. As he later described it, they treated him as 'one of their own' for two and a half months, until a relief party sent from Melbourne discovered him on 15 September."   Source

Successful Exploration through the Interior of Australia: Text -- ZIP -- HTML -- Zipped HTML

More    And more

1880 Cologne Cathedral was completed.

1896 Gold was discovered in the Yukon.

1900 Beijing was occupied by a joint European-Japanese-United States force in a campaign to end the Boxer Rebellion in China.

1901 The first powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

1906 In Brownsville, Texas, USA, two white men were killed in racial violence.

1912 The United States Marines invaded Nicaragua.

1932 The death of the canine Hollywood star Rin Tin Tin.

1933 Loggers caused a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, USA, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It was extinguished on September 5, after destroying 970 km² (240,000 acres).

1935 The USA's Social Security Act was passed.

1941 World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter of war, stating postwar aims.

1945 World War II: Japan surrendered following Soviet invasion of Manchuria and devastation of two cities by atomic bombs, ending the war.

1947 Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain at midnight, Pakistan commemorating the event on August 14 and India on August 15. Pakistan became separate from India as demanded by the Muslim League.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi; 1869 - 1948), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, hailed the following day (August 15) as one of rejoicing for the deliverance from British bondage; but deplored Partition.

1949 Konrad Adenauer became chancellor of West Germany.

1956 In England, RAF personnel saw a UFO.

1961 American rock star Gene Vincent collapsed of exhaustion during his UK tour.

1966 London's Catholic Herald called John Lennon's apology for his remark about the Beatles being more popular than Lenny Bruce Jesus Christ, "arrogant". However the publication admitted, as Lennon asserted, it was probably true.

Source: The Daily Bleed    Shop Beatles

1967 In the United Kingdom, a Marine Offences Act came into force prompting many offshore radio stations ('pirate radio stations') to close, most prominently Radio London off Frinton in Essex at 3pm local time on this day. The act boosted a campaign for onshore commercial radio to be legalised, enabling listeners to choose a non-BBC English language station. 

See BBC Radio 1

1969 British troops were deployed in Northern Ireland.

1971 Bahrain declared its independence from Britain.

1980 Lech Walesa led strikes at the Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, Poland.

1986 Benazir Bhutto, daughter of executed Pakistani prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was jailed by General Zia ul-Haq.

2003 Wide-scale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.

2004 Sales tax holiday in Massachusetts, USA. All sales taxes were suspended on purchases of $2500 or less.

Tomorrow: Woodstock

 

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© My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.

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