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... in the beginning of March, the seventh night, or the fourteenth day, let [i.e. spill] the blood of the right arm; and in the beginning of April, the 11th day, of the left arm; and in the end of May, 3d or 5th day, on whether arm thou wilt; and thus, of all the year, thou shalt orderly be kept from the fever, the falling gout, the sister gout, and loss of thy sight.
Book of Knowledge b. 1, p 19; quoted in
Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days)

We had heard that a monster had been born at Ravenna, of which a drawing was sent here; it had a horn on its head, straight up like a sword, and instead of arms it had two wings like a bat's, and the height of its breasts it had a fio [Y-shaped mark] on one side and a cross on the other, and lower down at the waist, two serpents, and it was a hermaphrodite, and on the right knee it had an eye, and its left foot was like an eagle. I saw it painted, and anyone who wished could see this painting in Florence.
Lucca Landucc, Florentine apothecary, on the Monster of Ravenna, March, 1512

 Monster of Ravenna

The Monster of Ravenna, 1512

I took early in the morning a good dose of Elixir and hung three spiders about my neck and they drove my ague away. Deo Gratias.
Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692), English antiquary and student of alchemy; in his diary for April 11, 1681 

Men seldom makes passes
At girls who wear glasses.

Dorothy Parker 

I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

Bob Dylan, who made his NYC singing debut on April 11, 1961

I have long been proud of the fine work of Heifer Project.
US President Jimmy Carter

 

 

April 11 is the 101st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (102nd in leap years), with 264 days remaining.
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Easter Sunday (2004)

Easter is probably for Christians the time of year with the greatest spiritual significance, and for the rest of the Western world a holiday weekend of high calorific value.

Easter is more than a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, just as it is more than merely a massive chocfest for kids and the confectionery industry. This ancient festival of the West has a rich tradition of folklore which is both fascinating and an important aid to our understanding of our own culture. A surprising amount of the folklore of Easter goes far back into time, long before the beginnings of Christianity. Neo-pagans celebrate this approximate time of year as Ostara.

One of the three great Christian festivals of the year (Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas), Easter was once called the Queen of Festivals. It is known as the paschal festival, deriving its name from the Pascha, or Jewish feast of the Passover, the annual religious ceremony that Jesus and his disciples were celebrating at his Last Supper. The French call the festival Paques, and in Cambridgeshire, England, at least until modern times, it was known as pasch.

Quite early in the history of the Christian church, after considerable controversy, the date of Easter was fixed by a formula that is still in use today. Because Jesus was crucified under the full moon, the full moon was fixed as the regulator of the feast. The rather complex formula goes: 

"Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon (PFM) date for the year.   In June 325 A.D. astronomers approximated astronomical full moon dates for the Christian church, calling them Ecclesiastical Full Moon (EFM) dates.   From 326 A.D. the PFM date has always been the EFM date after March 20 (which was the equinox date in 325 A.D.).". 

Source with some explanation, and discussion of popular errors

As a consequence, Easter Day (Easter Sunday) can occur on any day from March 21 to April 25 inclusive. Nancy Brady Cunningham (Feeding the Spirit, Resource Publications, 1988) calls the full moon of March the Spring Waters Moon; a time for going outside at sunset with a bowl of fresh water, and bathing your face and your hands in the water under the light of the full moon.

Fortunately very few people ever have to work out when Easter falls; someone in marketing always seems to know when to start putting out the chocolate eggs in the shops – usually about a week after Christmas. In fact, in days of olde, Christmas was seen as a feast that began the season leading up to Easter, such was the importance of 'Holy Week' in the Christian year.

 

Ancient deities

While Easter's origins obviously are in the events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we can trace other ancient connections with the festival. 

The old Saxon name for the month of April was Éosturmónath, with a connection both to the easterly winds at this time of year, and to the German Spring goddess Austrô. Eostre (from which the word oestrogen is derived) was the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess of Spring and goddess of dawn, and her name seems to be connected with the Indian usrâ, meaning dawn, and the Latin Aurora, Roman goddess of dawn. The folklorist Grimm refers to a female spirit of light called Austra.  

Eos, Greek goddess of the dawnWe can compare these names with the Lithuanian ausra (dawn), the Middle Indo-German ausos (dawn), the Greek goddess of dawn Eos (pictured), and the Old High German verb ostar which expressed movement towards the rising sun. The word east comes from the same root. 

All these words can be associated with the dawn or beginning of the year which comes about in the Northern Hemisphere at around the Spring Equinox, which roughly equates with Easter. In fact, until relatively recently, New Year's day in Britain was still celebrated on March 25 (Lady Day – the Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary), which could indeed coincide with Easter Day according to the above formula. (When Easter Day did in fact all on Lady Day, the English used to say "the Lord falls in our Lady's lap".)

Because Easter was almost universally celebrated in Europe as the most important religious feast of the year, we have records of very many traditions associated with it. Many have to do with eggs, because the egg is a natural symbol of resurrection and new life, which relates as much to Springtime as to the Biblical events. (Similarly the Easter bunny is a fertility symbol, as rabbits and hares breed so prolifically.) ...

 

Read on at the Easter page at the Scriptorium

 

When is Easter?

Easter is on a different date each year according to the Northern Vernal Equinox (may fall on March 20, 21 or 22) and the phases of the moon. 

Read more

 

              Celtic Easter egg                Celtic Easter egg                Celtic Easter egg  

Folklore, customs, pre-Christian origins of: 

Epiphany  Candlemas/Imbolc  Hall Sunday  Collop Monday  Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day

  Ash Wednesday & Lent  Mid-Lent  Care Sunday  Painful Friday  Lazarus Saturday

  Palm Sunday  Spy Wednesday  Maundy Thursday  Good Friday  Easter Saturday  Easter

Easter Monday  Easter Tuesday  Hocktide  Ascension  Rogation Days  Whitsunday/Whitsuntide

Corpus Christi  May Day/Beltaine  Lammas/Lughnasadh  Michaelmas  Halloween/Samhain

Martinmas  Advent  Christmas Eve  Christmas  More at Articles Index

Hundreds of feast days of saints, gods and goddesses at Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

 

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Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald


Against All Enemies: Inside the White House's War on Terror – What Really Happened

The Passion
Mel Gibson


A Guide to the Passion


Brother Sun, Sister Moon


The Pagan Prosperity


The Triumph of the Moon

The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors


The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ


The Rise of the Creative Class


Celebrate the Earth
A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition


Wheel of the Year


The Trouble with Islam

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Brave Hearts, Rebel Spirits


The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq


Lady Godiva


Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture

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Activists Beyond Borders


The Book of Spells


Spellcraft


The Book of Saints

cover
The Encyclopedia of Saints

Lots of things to waste time each day
Daily Everything


Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

 

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What Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom Hartmann


The Price of Loyalty


The Torture Debate in America


The Culture of the New Capitalism


Pagan Christianity

 
By Robert Fisk


The God Who Wasn't There


A Question of Torture
By Alfred McCoy


When Corporations Rule the World


Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
By Robert F Kennedy, Jr


The Skeptic's Dictionary


365 Goddess

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Adventures in a TV Nation
Michael Moore

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Drawing Down the Moon

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Globalization/Anti-Globalization


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See the sun dance                   

In Ireland, the farmers would go to bed early on Easter Saturday night and rise at about four in the morning in order to see the sun rise. They believed that the Easter sun danced at dawn in honour of the Resurrection. In some parts of England, too, this was believed, and was called the lamb playing

People looked at the sun's reflection in a well and convinced themselves that the sun danced. Even now in northern Friesland, it is said that if an Easter egg peels easily the owner will see the sun dance on Easter morning.

Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies mala), unlucky day in Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord" was the associated saying.)

Feast day of St Aid, abbot in Ireland

Feast day of St Antipas, martyr

Feast day of St Barsanuphius of Gaza

Feast day of St Domnio

Feast day of St Gemma Galgani

Feast day of St George Gervase

Feast day of St Godeberta

Feast day of St Guthlac, hermit
Born in 673, Guthlac became a Benedictine monk at Repton, England, under abbess Elfrida, and a hermit on Croyland Isle. Guthlac was the son of Penwald, a noble of the English kingdom of Mercia, and his wife Tette. His sister is also venerated as St Pega. He wore skins, and ate one meal only a day, of barley-bread and water. It is said that he always appeared happy and was kind to strangers. The island was in the fen country, and is no more, due to land reclamation, but the district is today known as Crowland. Where once there was water but is now dry, still stands Trinity Bridge (Croyland Bridge), a strange triangular construction.

The image at right, from the British Library, shows St Guthlac with his sister, St Pega. The spectacles on Guthlac have been added at a later date by some graffitist.

He gave sanctuary to Ethelbald (Æthelbald), future king of Mercia, who was fleeing from his cousin Ceolred. Guthlac predicted that Ethelbald would become king, and so Ethelbald promised to build Guthlac an abbey if his prophesy became true. Ethelbald did become king and, even though Guthlac had died previously, kept his word and started construction of Croyland Abbey on St Bartholomew's Day, 716. St Guthlac died of natural causes on April 4, probably in 714.

"There is in Britain a fen of immense size which begins from the river Granta, not far from the city, which is named Grantchester ... a man named Tatwine said that he knew an island especially obscure, which ofttimes many men had attempted to inhabit, but no man could do it on account of manifold horrors and fears, and the loneliness of the wild wilderness.... No man ever could inhabit it before the holy man Guthlac came thither on account of the dwelling of the accursed spirits there.... There was on the island a great mound raised upon the earth, which same of yore men had dug and broken up in hopes of treasure.... Then in the stillness of the night it happened suddenly that there came great hosts of the accursed spirits, and they filled the house with their coming, and they poured in on every side from above and beneath and everywhere. They were in countenance horrible, and they had great heads and a long neck and lean visage; they were filthy and squalid in their beards, and they had rough ears and distorted face, and fierce eyes and foul mouths: and their teeth were like horses' tusks, and their throats were filled with flame, and they were grating in their voice: they had crooked shanks and knees, big and great behind, and distorted toes, and shrieked hoarsely with their voices, and they came with such immoderate noises and immense horror that it seemed to him that all between heaven and earth resounded with their dreadful cries. Without delay, when they were come into the house, they soon bound the holy man in all his limbs, and they pulled and led him out of the cottage and brought him to the black fen and threw and sunk him in the muddy waters. After that they brought him to the wild places of the wilderness, among the dense thickets of brambles that all his body was torn. After they had a long time thus tormented him in darkness they let him abide and stand awhile, then commanded him to depart from the wilderness, or if he would not do so they would torment and try him with greater plagues."
The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Life of St. Guthlac, Hermit of Crowland
, by Felix of Crowland, edited by CW Goodwin, London, 1848   Source

Scenes from the life of St Guthlac showing the attacks of the dæmones

Fenland logic, myths with language and mysteries    More    More    More

 

Feast day of St Hildebrand

Feast day of St Isaac of Monteluco

Feast day of St John of Cupramontana

Feast day of St Leo the Great, Pope
(Dandelion, Taraxacum dens leonis, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)  

From Wikipedia: Leo was a Roman aristocrat and Pope from 440 to 461. He is the first widely known Pope, and even sometimes assigned the title 'first Pope'. He stopped the invasion of Italy by Attila the Hun in 452 by his moral persuasion, was a theologian, and was a leading figure in the centralization of the government of the Church.

Feast day of St Maccai (Machai), abbot

Feast day of St Maedhog

Feast day of St Philip of Gortyna

Feast day of St Raynerius Inclusus

Feast day of St Stanislaus of Cracow

Feast day of St Waltmann of Cambrai

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan (Apr 3 - 29)

Tsurugaoka Hachiman (Shrine) Spring Festival, Japan (Apr 7 - 14)

Anniversary of the Battle of Rivas (State holiday in Costa Rica)

 

 

 

146 Septimius Severus (d. February 4, 211), Roman emperor from April 9, 193 to 211.

1357 King John I of Portugal (d. 1433)

1370 Frederick the Warlike (Frederick I), Elector of Saxony

1373 Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

1492 Margaret of Navarre (d. 1549), Queen of Navarre and writer. She was a patron of humanities and religious reformers. As an author, her most important works were Heptameron and Les Dernieres Poesies, both published posthumously.

1723 Franz Anton Bustelli (d. 1763), porcelain moulder

1775 Dr James Parkinson, English physician who defined Parkinson's Disease

1810 Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (d. 1895), soldier and orientalist

1819 Charles Hallé, (d. 1895) pianist and conductor

1825 Ferdinand Lassalle (d. 1864), politician

1852 François Bérenger Saunière (d. January 22, 1917), priest in the French village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region, officially from 1885 to 1909. He is a central figure in many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Rennes-le-Château. These speculations form the basis of several pseudohistorical documentaries and books such as the 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, although few, if any, historians subscribe to them. Many elements of these theories were later used by Dan Brown in his best-selling 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail at Wikipedia

The Da Vinci Code at Wikipedia

I Remember Union: The Story of Mary Magdalena, by Flo Calhoun, et al    Priory of Sion debunked

AIDS Prevention & Mary Magadalene    The Priory of Sion Hoax    Priory of Sion (debunk) links

See also Feast day of St Mary Magdalene in the Book of Days

 

Bernard O'Dowd; National Library of Australia. Image used in Fair Use for non-profit, educational purposes, and linked to the page of origin by way of recommendation.1866 Bernard O'Dowd (d. September 1, 1953), Australian child prodigy, radical activist, public servant, poet, journalist and editor. He co-founded the influential radical journal, Tocsin. In 1886, O'Dowd joined the Melbourne Lyceum, the educational and social arm of the Australasian Secular Association.

He was a member of the Theosophical Society, as well as Dr Charles Strong's Australian Church and, later, Frederick Sinclaire's Free Religious Fellowship. Active as a lecturer with the Victorian Socialist League c. 1900, O'Dowd was a founding member of the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP) in 1905. In 1920, he left his wife and commenced a de facto relationship with Marie Pitt (1869 - '48), Christian-anarchist poet. A few weeks before his death O'Dowd expressed his firm belief in anarcho-communism.

From 'May Day'

By Bernard O'Dowd 

Come Jack, our place is with the ruck 
On the open road today, 
Not with the tepid "footpath sneak" 
Or with the wise who stop away. 

A straggling, tame procession, perhaps, 
A butt for burgess scorn; 
Its flags are ragged sentiments, 
And its music's still unborn. 

Though none respectable are here, 
And trim officials ban, 
Our duty, Jack, is not with them, 
But here with Hope and Man. 

Nor have we cause for shame, who see, 
In the glory-lighted street, 
The Old Brigade of Liberty 
The partial ranks complete. 

There's Shelley, Byron, arm in arm, 
With Schiller, Uhland, near: 
While cheek by jowl with anarch "crank" 
See young Camille appear. 

Marat keeps line with Spartacus, 
Lone Dantes grimly stalk; 
The meagre Knights of Labour "push" 
With the Twelve Apostles walk. 

Bakunin, Marx, Lassalle are there, 
Grey Whitman's with the Greeks, 
Dutch "Beggar" chums with Ironside, 
Or to Bastille hero speaks. 

Valliant and Brutus, Vane, Kossuth, 
Find here a fitting tryst; 
That Yarra-banker far ahead 
Is keeping step with Christ ...


(In the last two lines, O'Dowd compares Melbourne anarchist Chummy Fleming with Jesus Christ. The Yarra is the river that flows upside-down through Melbourne.)

"Bernard O'Dowd was born in Beaufort, Victoria on April 11, 1866 of Irish parents. He was educated in Victorian State school and obtained his B.A. and his law degree from Melbourne University. O'Dowd was an opponent of Federation and many of his satirical poems reflect his opposition. He was a journalist, public servant and for many years worked with the Victorian Supreme Court as a Librarian while maintaining his involvement in literature and politics. O'Dowd's collections of poetry include: Dawnward? (Sydney, 1903), reprinted in A Southern Garland (Sydney, 1904); The Silent Land, and Other Verses (Melbourne, 1906); The Poems of Bernard O'Dowd (Melbourne: Lothian. 1941). Reference sources include: Hugh Anderson, Bernard O'Dowd (New York, 1968); Hugh Anderson, The Tocsin: Contesting the Constitution; 1897-1901 (includes poetry and prose by O'Dowd); W.H. Wilde, Three Radicals: Australian Writers and Their Work 20-28 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1969) [Selected Poems] [Poem: Australia] [Poems: Love's Substitute and Our Duty]"   Source

"His poem 'Hoist the Flag' Lyceum published in the Lyceum Tutor in 1888, outlined ideas that were very similar to anarchism. O'Dowd had become a friend of the Melbourne anarcho-communist Jack Andrews, and in 1897, O'Dowd and two others set up the radical paper Tocsin. In 1898, he was co-editor of Tocsin with Jack Andrews. He continued to be an editor, contributor and financial supporter of Tocsin until Andrews died of tuberculosis in 1903. During these six years, he published numerous radical poems, and used the pages of the Tocsin to express his opposition to Federation and The Boer War. In 1902, he issued a pamphlet "Conscience and Democracy" which opposed the Boer War."   Source

"Also writes as: Lucian (1 work); A Faun of Thrace (3 works); Alcheringa (3 works); Delmer, F. S. (1 work); Pagan (7 works); Danton (16 works); Fenton, D.; Alcaeus; Australeros; Gavah; Gavah the Blacksmith; Clopps, Q.; D; Delmar; Delmar, F. S.; Denton; Denton, F.; Fenton; Fenton, D.; Fenton, Delmar; Hazel, Wych; P. M. (1 work); Mars; Minnesinger; Mulholland, Miranda; B. O'D.; M. I. Olnir; Pandemos; Sowton, Nothy; Tiresias; Tocsinger; Tocsynic; Ulimaroa; Warbler, Reed."   Source

"Over the years, O'Dowd's official career had remained intriguingly distinct from his poetic and political avocations. In his fiery private capacity he had joined the Theosophical Society, Dr Charles Strong's Australian Church* and, later, Frederick Sinclaire's Free Religious Fellowship. Active as a lecturer in the Victorian Socialist League from about 1900, he was a foundation member of the Victorian Socialist Party in 1905. In 1907 he founded the Essendon Socialist Group and in 1912-13 assisted in editing the Socialist. One of his colleagues in the V.S.P. was John Curtin. In 1912 he denounced the White Australia policy as 'unbrotherly, undemocratic and unscientific'. In 1913 O'Dowd was president of the Victorian Rationalist Association. On the official side, he had been appointed, 'on loan', assistant librarian in the Supreme Court, Melbourne, in 1887. From the mid-1890s he had written and edited - sometimes ghosted - several law books. In 1913 he became first assistant parliamentary draughtsman."   Source

* Rev. Charles Strong and the Australian Church

Sonnets by Bernard O'Dowd    Poems by Bernard o'Dowd    Anarchism in Australia

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson    More

1866 Annie Sullivan (d. 1936), teacher of Helen Keller

1869 Gustav Vigeland (d. 1943), Norwegian sculptor

1883 Hozumi Shigeto, (d. 1951) Japanese author

1889 Nick LaRocca (d. 1961), jazz musician

1893 Dean Acheson (d. 1971), United States Secretary of State

1896 Wieland Herzfelde (d. 1989), publisher and author who founded the Malik publishing house in Berlin, which brought out a number of Dada publications

1906 Dale Messick, cartoonist

1908 Leo Rosten, humourist, author (d. 1997)

1908 Jane Bolin, attorney: first black woman graduate of Yale School of Law (USA); first black, female judge in USA

1913 Oleg Cassini, fashion designer

1928 Ethel Kennedy, wife of Robert F Kennedy

1930 Anton LaVey (d. 1997), founder of the Church of Satan

1932 Joel Grey, singer, actor

1938 Kurt Moll, German operatic bass

1944 John Milius, director, writer

1949 Bernd Eichinger, film producer

1951 Doris McGowen Beck Angleton (d. 1997), Houston, Texas socialite

1953 Andrew Wiles, mathematician

1953 Guy Verhofstadt, prime minister of Belgium

1955 Kevin Brady, American politician

1961 Doug Hopkins, lyricist and musician

1963 June Gibbons, author, whose life was a curious case involving psychology and language

1963 Jennifer Gibbons, author, twin sister of June Gibbons

1966 Lisa Stansfield, singer

1968 Sergey Lukyanenko, Russian science fiction author

1969 Cerys Matthews, singer

1971 Oliver Riedel, bassist for Rammstein

1987 Joss Stone, singer

 

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April

7 World Health Day
8 Buddha Day (Japan)
8 Hana Matsuri
9 Astronauts Day
10 Siblings Day
10 Salvation Army Founder's Day
11 Cheese Fondue Day
11 Civil Rights Day
12 Look Up At The Sky Day
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13 Thomas Jefferson Day
14 Pecan Day
15 Tax Day (USA)
15 Fast Food Day
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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 Holocaust Remembrance Day
25 Anzac Day (New Zealand)

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672 Deusdedit II began his reign as Roman Catholic Pope.

1240 Death of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd.

1241 Batu Khan defeated Bela IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.

1471 King Edward IV of England conquered London from Henry VI. Henry died, possibly murdered, on May 20 or 21 in the Tower of London.

 

Monster of Ravenna1512 Battle of Ravenna, Italy: France under Gaston de Foix (Duke of Nemours; b. 1489) vanquished a pontifical alliance of Spaniards, Swiss and Venetians. De Foix (a nephew of King Louis XII) was killed by a pike in his side, and a further twelve thousand men perished in the battle; the city was not held by the French for long, and returned to papal rule.

The Monster of Ravenna

We are all mutants. But some of us are more mutant than others.
Armand Marie Leroi, 2004

In March, a month before the battle, and documented in many publications of the time, the 'Monster of Ravenna' was one of the earliest monstrous births to attain international notoriety. A child was born with severe birth defects (possibly Roberts's Syndrome) in the city of Ravenna, shortly before Italian forces were defeated there. An apothecary named Lucca Landucci recorded in his journal an account of a drawing that had been put on public display in Florence.

The 'monster' was described as having a large horn sticking out of its head and no arms. On its chest were the letters 'XYV', and its scaly leg had an eye on its knee. News of the child was quickly communicated to Rome, and soon all of Europe had heard of it. It is believed that Pope Julius II ordered the baby starved to death, but according to legend the poor child grew to adulthood and proceeded to terrorize peasants in the Italian countryside.

The unfortunate child became a symbol of the Italians' defeat, supposedly brought about by their moral degradation. Its arms were undeveloped, it was said, because the Italians were not given to performing good actions. The so-called 'wings' of the 'monster' indicated the Italians' allegedly flighty, frivolous nature, its raptor's foot denoted rapacity. Its hermaphroditic genitalia was supposed to be emblematic of sexual immorality, such as sodomy. Its one large claw was said to signify the greed of the vanquished nation, and an eyeball said to have been on its knee showed covetousness. A supposed horn on the poor child's head represented pride. Some said it was the progeny of a nun and a friar. By the time images of the baby reached Paris, they showed a different, although still deformed, child; in some, it had a giant erection.

"The victorious army was no sooner returned to camp than the people of Ravenna sent deputies to treat of surrendering their city; but when they had agreed or were upon the point of agreement, and the inhabitants being employed in preparing provisions to be sent to the camp were negligent in guarding the walls, the German and Gascon foot entered through the breach that had been made and plundered the town in a most barbarous manner, their cruelty being exasperated not only by their natural hatred to the name of the Italians, but by a spirit of revenge for the loss they had sustained in the battle."
Source: Ravenna, A Study

Gallery of birth hoaxes    Ravenna, in Catholic Encyclopedia

 

1551 England: John Dudley (1501 - '53) was appointed Duke of Northumberland, a title created for him.

1564 England and France signed the Peace of Troyes.

1567 Dutch prince William of Orange fled from Antwerp to Breda.

1626 Death of Marin Getaldić, (Marino Ghettaldi; b. 1568) Croat physicist and astronomer.

1713 War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War): Treaty of Utrecht.

1713 France ceded Gibraltar and Newfoundland to Britain.

1775 The last execution for witchcraft in Germany.

1803 French Foreign Minister Charles Talleyrand offered to sell all of the Louisiana Territory to the United States.

1812 "The night of April 11 was especially cold. In a field near the Dumb Steeple, less than a mile from Robin Hood's grave, more than 300 Luddites gathered. Marching north along the packhorse tracks on Hartshead Moor, then past the home of Patrick Bronte, whose daughter Charlotte would later describe the Rawfolds attack in her novel Shirley, they went quietly so as not to arouse the sleeping regiments quartered nearby. Other Luddites from nearby Leeds failed to show at their appointed meeting place, but the army, too eager to turn back, pressed on until it came to the mill on the Spen River. Two men jumped the guards outside and gagged them. 'Hatchet men, advancet' came the order. In regimental formation, men approached the mill. Inside, a barking dog awoke Cartwright. When he opened the door of his makeshift bedroom, musket fire shattered the ground-floor windows, and sledgehammers hit the door."    Source

1814 Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to Elba.

1827 The Greek national assembly at Troezene elected Capo d'Istria president of the republic.

1856 Battle of Rivas in the war between the Central American coalition and freebooter William Walker.

1856 Death of Juan Santamaría, national hero of the Republic of Costa Rica.

1868 The Shogunate was abolished in Japan, ending the reign of the warlords.

1873 Death of Edward Canby (b. 1817), US Army General, assassinated at a peace conference during the Modoc War.

1876 USA: The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized.

1888 The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was inaugurated.

Joseph Merrick, 'Elephant Man'1890 The death, at the age of 27, of the so called 'Elephant Man', Joseph Merrick (b. 1862), who spent much of his life displayed as a sideshow freak in Victorian Britain. The weight of his malformed head caused a dislocation of his neck while sleeping.

Today it is believed that he might have suffered from Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1, or von Recklinkhausen syndrome) and Proteus syndrome, a congenital disorder that causes skin overgrowth, atypical bone development, and tumour appearance over half the body. Scientists have DNA samples from Merrick and might carry out further tests in the future.

The 1980 David Lynch movie, The Elephant Man, starring John Hurt, was made about Merrick. Merrick's preserved skeleton is on permanent display at the Royal London Hospital. Creepy American singer Michael Jackson is reported to have trieded to purchase it for his private collection in 1985 but was refused.


Elephant Man mystery unravelled   
Proteus syndrome

Merrick seems to have a healthy copy of the PTEN gene

 

1899 Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States.

1906 Death of Francis Pharcellus Church (b. 1839), American editor and publisher.

1906 Death of James Anthony Bailey (b. 1847), co-founder with Phineas Taylor Barnum of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

1913 By flying the round trip from Dunkirk to Dover and back in 90 minutes, French aviator Gustav Hamel established a record.

1916 Death of Richard Harding Davis (b. 1864), author.

1919 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, was arrested in Delhi for refusal to comply with orders not to enter Punjab. He was escorted back to Bombay; violence occurred in several towns.

1919 The International Labour Organisation was formed through the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It is now a specialized agency of the United Nations to deal with labor issues.

1921 The Emirate of Transjordan was created.

1925 The Bleckenstad Pseudometeorite: A ball of limestone was seen to fall to the ground near Bleckenstad, Sweden, and broke apart on impact. A geologist named Dr Assar Hadding (1886 - 1962) of Lund University identified marine shells and a trilobite-like animal within the mysterious object, which he reported in 1939. Or, so it is said.

I believe the original source of this unlikely 'fact', which pops up time and again on the Internet, might be John Mitchell and Robert Rickard, Phenomena: A Book of Wonders p.17.

Meteorite identification gone wrong    Similar accounts of stone-falls    Meteor near-misses and strikes

Meteorite recognition    Getafe pseudometeorite, June 21, 1994, Book of Days

 

1926 Death of Luther Burbank (b. 1849), botanist.

1941 World War II: The Luftwaffe bombed Coventry, England.

1941 The Siege of Tobruk ended.

1945 World War II: United States forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.

1951 Korean War: President Harry S Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea, primarily because the general rashly issued a statement on March 24, threatening to invade China.

1961 Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, made the first successful manned space flight.

1961 Bob Dylan made his New York City singing début, as a warm-up act for John Lee Hooker, at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village.

1961 Adolf Eichmann, Nazi war criminal, faced his first day of trial in Jerusalem, Israel.

1964 The Beatles had a record number of 14 songs in the Billboard Top 100 (USA).

Source: Today in Beatles History    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1965 The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six USA Midwestern states, killing 256 people.

1968 US President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

1968 German student leader Rudi Dutschke was shot in Berlin.

1970 Apollo 13 was launched.

1981 Brixton riot, England.

1986 Citing the reason that company secrets were at risk due to spies from other cereal companies, Kellogg's stopped giving tours of its breakfast-food plant, the end of an 80-year tradition.

1990 British customs officials confiscated a shipment of 'oil pipes' which they believed to be parts of a 'super gun' illegally bound for Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

1992 The hospital tag tied to the toe of the corpse of Lee Harvey Oswald fetched $US6,600 at auction.

2001 The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft, that landed in Hainan, People's Republic of China after a collision with an F-8 fighter, was released.

 

Tomorrow: The Cerealia, to the goddess Ceres;

                     Easter Monday folklore and customs

 

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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.

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