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In this (i.e. Pennant's) account of the Beltane festival the spilling of the caudle (composed partly of milk) on the ground answers to the offering of milk to Pales, and the Highland herdsman's prayer to the being who preserved his flocks and herds corresponds to the prayer which the Italian shepherd addressed to Pales, as we learn from the following verses of Ovid. Tibullus tells us that it was his wont to purify his shepherd every year and to sprinkle Pales with milk, referring no doubt to the libation of milk to the goddess at the Parilia. Perhaps Ovid's expression, "when the viands have been cut up", is explained by the Beltane custom, described by Pennant, of breaking a cake of oatmeal in pieces and throwing the bits over the shoulder as offerings to the 88 preservers or destroyers of the flocks and herds. Among the viands so cut up at the Parilia were no doubt included the millet cakes mentioned by Ovid in a previous line. These the Italian shepherd, like the Highland herdsman, may have broken and thrown over his shoulder as an offering to Pales. Certainly the cakes were an important part of the festival.
Sir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941), The Golden Bough, 1922, pp 411 - 415

I looked for no marriage bond, no marriage portion ... The name of wife may seem more sacred or more binding, but sweeter for me will always be the word mistress, or, if you will permit me, that of concubine or whore.
From a letter by Héloise to her lover Peter Abelard (who died on April 21, 1142, aged 63)

I shall be thirty-one … My youth is gone like a dream; and very little use have I ever made of it.
Charlotte Brontë, 1847, as her 31^st birthday (April 21, 1816) approached 

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. I consider them unwise and I know they are dangerous. Also, sinful. If a man should challenge me now I would go to that man and take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet retired spot and kill him.
Mark Twain, American author, humorist, anti-imperialist, who died on April 21, 1910

My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water.
Mark Twain

Good-bye. If we meet ...
Last words of Mark Twain; spoken to his daughter Clara before the author fell asleep. He died several hours later.

 [Krazy Kat is] an immediate progenitor of the Beat Generation and its roots could be traced back to the glee of America, the honesty of America, its wild, self-believing individuality.
Jack Kerouac (see below, On This Day in History, 1918)

... after World War II, when I came home, Krazy Kat became my hero.  I had never seen Krazy Kat up until then because neither one of the papers in the Twin cities published it, so I didn't know Krazy Kat.  But then it became my ambition to draw a strip that would have as much life and meaning and subtlety to it as Krazy Kat had.
Charles M Schulz, Peanuts cartoonist, interviewed by Rick Marschall and Gary Groth in Nemo 31, January 1992  

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir, American conservation writer, born on April 21, 1838; Our National Parks , 1901

None of Nature's landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.
John Muir; ibid, p. 4

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
John Muir; My First Summer in the Sierra , 1911

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with all other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
John Muir; Travels in Alaska, 1915, Chapter 1

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir; John of the Mountains, 1938, p. 313

I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.
   There is not a 'fragment' in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself.
John Muir; A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, 1916, p. 164

Of all the upness accessible to mortals, there is no upness comparable to the mountains.
John Muir

More quotations by John Muir 

I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this whole region.
Mordechai Vanunu, peace activist released from Israeli prison on April 21, 2004

April 21 is the 111^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (112^th in leap years), with 254 days remaining.
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First Palilia (or Parilia) festivals, ancient Rome

These are festivals celebrated on April 21 honouring Pales, the Roman god (later a goddess) of shepherds and their flocks, whose name might be related to phallus, or penis. The festivals were held on the anniversary of the day on which Romulus, the boy suckled (with his brother Remus) by a she-wolf, drew the first furrow at the foot of the hill, thus laying the foundations of Rome.

Sheepfolds were decorated with green branches on this day. Fires were kindled and animals driven through the smoke; milk and cakes were offered to the deity today.

The Roman writer Ovid, in his work on Roman feast days, Fasti, tells us that the first part of the solemnities involved a public purification by fire and smoke. Smith relates:

"The things burnt in order to produce this purifying smoke were the blood of the October-horse, the ashes of the calves sacrificed at the festival of Ceres, and the shells of beans. The people were also sprinkled with water; they washed their hands in spring-water, and drank milk mixed with must (Ovid, Fast. l.c.; compare Propert. iv.1.20). As regards the October-horse (equus October) it must be observed that in early times no bloody sacrifice was allowed to be offered at the Palilia, and the blood of the October-horse, mentioned above, was the blood which had dropped from the tail of the horse sacrificed in the month of October to Mars in the Campus Martius. This blood was preserved by the Vestal virgins in the temple of Vesta for the purpose of being used at the Palilia (Solin. p2, d; Festus, s.v. October equus; Plut. Romul. 12). When towards the evening the shepherds had fed their flocks, laurel-branches were used as brooms for cleaning the stables, and for sprinkling water through them, and lastly the stables were adorned with laurel-boughs. Hereupon the shepherds burnt sulphur, rosemary, fir-wood, and incense, and made the smoke pass through the stables to purify them; the flocks themselves were likewise purified by this smoke. The sacrifices which were offered on this day consisted of cakes, millet, milk, and other kinds of eatables. The shepherds then offered a prayer to Pales. After these solemn rites were over, the cheerful part of the festival began: bonfires were made of heaps of hay and straw, and under the sounds of cymbals and flutes the sheep were again purified by being compelled to run three times through the fire, and the shepherds themselves did the same. The festival was concluded by a feast in the open air, at which the people sat or lay upon benches of turf, and drank plentifully (Tibull. ii.5.87, andc.; compare Propert. iv.4.75).

"In the city of Rome the festival must, at least in later times, have been celebrated in a different manner; its character of a shepherd-festival was forgotten, and it was merely looked upon as the day on which Rome had been built, and was celebrated as such with great rejoicings." 

Source

Ovid (Fasti, iv, 721), tells us much about how the Parilia was celebrated:

"Ye people, go fetch materials for fumigation from the Virgins' altar. Vesta will give them; by Vesta's gift ye shall be pure Shepherd, do thou purify the well-fed sheep at fall of twilight; first sprinkle the ground with water. Deck the sheepfold with leaves and branches fastened to it. Adorn the door and cover it with a long festoon. Make blue smoke with pure sulphur, and let the sheep, touched with the smoking sulphur, bleat. Burn … olives and pine and savines, and let the singed laurel crackle in the midst of the hearth. And let a basket of millet accompany cakes of millet; the rural goddess particularly delights in that food. Add viands, and a pail of milk, such as she loves; and when the viands have been cut up, pray to Sylvan Pales, offering warm milk to her. Say, 'O, take thought alike for the cattle and the cattle's masters; ward off from my stalls all harm. O let it flee away! If I have fed my, sheep in holy ground, or sat me down under a hallowed tree … if the nymphs and the half-goat god have been put to flight at sight of me; if my pruning-knife has robbed a holy copse of a shady bough … pardon my fault … forgive it, nymphs, if the trampling of hoofs has made your waters turbid. Do thou, goddess, appease for us the springs and their divinities; appease the deities dispersed through every grove … Drive far away all diseases: may men and beasts be hale, and hale too the sagacious pack of watch-dogs. May I drive home my flocks as numerous as they were at morn … Avert dire hunger. Let grass and leaves abound, and water both to wash and drink. Full udders may I milk; may my cheese bring me in money; may the sieve of wicker-work give passage to the liquid whey … And let the wool grow so soft that it could not fret the skin of girls nor chafe the tenderest hands. May my prayer be granted, and we will year by year make great cakes for Pales, the shepherds' mistress!' With such things is the goddess to be propitiated; these things pronounce four times, facing the east, and wash thy hands in living dew. Then mayest thou get thee a wooden bowl to serve as mixer, and mayest quaff the snow-white milk, and purple must; anon leap with nimble foot arid straining thews across the burning heaps of crackling straw."

Each year there were two Parilia. The Second Palilia was celebrated on July 7 [qv]. Today was also considered the date of birth of Numa Pompilius (d. 674 BCE), who succeeded Romulus as the second King of Rome, and helped create the Roman calendar.

Sacred Cave of Rome's Founders Discovered, Archaeologists Say    Photo of grotto

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Falkland Islands Day The Falklands War was fought over these windswept islands by the United Kingdom and Argentina, April - July 1982, at the cost of about 1,000 young people's lives. The Argentines call these islands the Malvinas, but don't have much say in the matter. It is said that each Falkland Islander could have been repatriated to the British isles and given six million pounds per head for their relocation, for the amount of money spent by Margaret Thatcher on defending the islands. But then, they are part of Britain, a very oleaginous province … The islands were supposedly discovered by John Davis in 1592; however, it appears to some that the map of pirate Piri Reis (Hadji Muhiddin Piri Ibn Hadji Mehmed), drawn 79 years earlier, shows these islands. The Piri Reis Map   Lyrid meteor showers (Apr 15 - Apr 28, peaking Apr 22) The feast of Wadjet, cobra goddess, Egyptian mythology   Source Sacred Embassy to Delos, ancient Greece Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar Feast day of St Abdechalas Feast day of St Anastasius Sinaita (Anastasius the Sinaite), anchoret Feast day of St Anastasius, the Younger, patriarch of Antioch   Feast day of St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109 (Cyprus narcisse, Narcissus orientalis albus, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) This medieval philosopher and theologian was born in Aosta, Piedmont, in 1033 or 1034. Anselm early on showed a leaning to the monastic life, but his father opposed this. He wandered in Burgundy for three years and ended up in Bec, Normandy, where he became a monk. In 1078, he was made prior of that abbey; meanwhile, his theological writings brought him fame. In 1093, while he was on his second visit to England, certain clergy put forward his name to King William Rufus, as a possible successor to Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm at first refused, but he was obliged to take the position. He quarrelled often with the king until the death of the latter in August 1100. He also quarrelled with the successor of William, Henry I. Anselm spent his old age in church reform and his works have always held a very high rank in the Catholic church. He wrought miracles, or, so it is said. He died on this day in 1109. Called the founder of Scholasticism, he is famous as the inventor of the ontological argument for the existence of God. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Saint Anselm Catholic Encyclopedia article on St Anselm Professor Jasper Hopkins' homepage which contains English translations of nearly every major work by St Anselm More    More    And more   Feast day of St Apollo and Companions Feast day of St Arator Feast day of St Beuno, abbot of Clynnog, in Carnarvonshire Feast day of St Conrad of Parzham Feast day of St Eingan, or Enean, King of Scots Feast day of St Ethelwald of Lindisfarne Feast day of St Froduiphus Feast day of St Isacius Feast day of St John Saziari Feast day of St Malrubius, martyr, of Ireland Feast day of St Maximian of Constantinople Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Rome's city birthday (Natale di Roma) Queen's Birthday, Belize and Hong Kong Tiradentes Day/Dia de Tiradentes/Brasilia Day, Brazil Tiradentes, the revolutionary who was leading a movement for Brazil's independence, was hanged on April 21, 1792 (see below). After the republic was proclaimed in Brazil in 1889 the anniversary of his death became a national holiday. Grounation Day in the Rastafari movement Grounation Day is the most important Rastafari festival. It is celebrated on April 21 in honour of Haile Selassie's 1966 visit to Jamaica. San Jacinto Day, Texas, USA (1836) Kindergarten Day, USA Annual migration of the Alewives from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA First day of the festival of Ridván, Bahá'í Faith Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan (Apr 3 - 29) Bunsui Oiran Dochu, or Courtesan (oiran) Parade, Nishkanbara, Niigita Prefecture, Japan (Apr 16 - 23) Kartini Day, Indonesia "On the 21 April every year, the people of Indonesia celebrate Kartini Day. On this day a heroine of womens' rights was born. Kartini's life was devoted to the struggle for these rights so that women could enjoy freedoms in line with their male counterparts."   Source Yasukuni Matsuri, Japan (Apr 21 - 25) At the military shrine of Yasakuni, Tokyo, pilgrims worship the deified spirits of fallen Japanese soldiers. Visitors are entertained with dance, plays, films and fireworks. Many vases of flowers are exhibited, designed by master arrangers. Mibu Dainembutsu Kyogen, Mibu Temple, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan (Apr 21 - 29) his is an ancient festival, dating to 1299. Buddhist plays and farces are performed by thirty characters in mask.   Administrative Professionals Day, United States On the dating of items in the Almanac Administrative Professionals Week is celebrated the last full week in April, with Administrative Professionals Day being held on the Wednesday of that week. In 2007 it ran from April 22 to 28, with the day falling on April 25.       753 BCE (supposed date, found at Wikipedia) Numa Pompilius (pictured; d. 674 BCE), who succeeded Romulus as the second King of Rome. Though he was a Sabine by birth, the Romans selected him as their king to better unite the Romans and Sabines as one. During his reign the great cultural integration between the Romans and Sabines occurred. His reign was marked by a period of great religious advancements and also more than forty years of continuous peace. Though his successor Tullus Hostilius would be remembered as the complete opposite to Numa, his biological grandson would serve as the fourth King of Rome and continue Numa's legacy of peace and religious devotion. Numa Pompilius and the calendar He attempted, also, the formation of a calendar, not with absolute exactness, yet not without some scientific knowledge. During the reign of Romulus, they had let their months run on without any certain or equal term; some of them contained twenty days, others thirty-five, others more; they had no sort of knowledge of the inequality in the motions of the sun and moon; they only kept to the one rule that the whole course of the year contained three hundred and sixty days. Numa, calculating the difference between the lunar and the solar year at eleven days, for the moon completed her anniversary course in three hundred and fifty-four days, and the sun in three hundred and sixty-five. Numa's calendar consisted of January (29 days), February (28 days), March (31 days), April (29 days), May (31 days), June (29 days), Quintilis (31 days), Sextilis (29 days), September (29 days), October (31 days), November (29 days), December (29 days). The months Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed July and August after Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus, respectively. Numa added the months January and February to the Roman Calender. The Romans, at first, comprehended the whole year within ten, and not twelve months, plainly appears by the name of the last, December, meaning the tenth month and that March was the first is likewise evident, for the fifth month after it was called Quintilis, and the sixth Sextilis, and so on. Though originally following December in sequence, Numa later decreed to begin the year on the month of January, named after the Roman god of doors, Janus. Source: Wikipedia "Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome (trad. 715-673BC). He searched for knowledge. Having been instructed by Pythagoras (a fable, see the Metamorphoses Bk. XV), he returned to Latium and ruled there, teaching the arts of peace. His wife was Egeria, the nymph. "Book I: Introduction Book III: Introduction Added January and February to the calendar. "Book II: February 1 Book VI: June 9 His sanctuary, the Temple of Vesta. "Book III: March 1 His wife, Egeria, the nymph. He restrained the Quirites. "Book IV: April 15 The origins of the Fordicidia in Numa's reign. "Book V: Introduction He worshipped http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/OvFastIndexLMNO.htm#Majesty."    Source (book references refer to Ovid, Fasti, translated by AS Kline) Roman calendar    Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days      1619 Jan van Riebeeck (d. January 18, 1677), Dutch naval surgeon and colonist; founder of Cape Town, South Africa. He reported the first comet discovered from South Africa, C/1652 Y1, which was spotted on December 17, 1652 (most likely not "discovered" by him, but his report is the only one surviving). 1652 Michel Rolle (d. 1719), mathematician 1759 'Parson' Mason Locke Weems, biographer, best remembered for his fictitious stories that he presented as fact. He was responsible for the story about George Washington cutting down his father's cherry tree [... he bravely cried out, "I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet."]. 1775 Alexander Anderson (d. 1870), American wood-engraver and illustrator 1810 John Putnam Chapin (d. 1864), mayor of Chicago 1811 Alson Sherman (d. 1903), mayor of Chicago 1814 Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (d. 1906), English philanthropist 1816 Charlotte Brontë (d. 1855), author       1838 John Muir (d. 1914), American environmentalist and conservation writer, discovered glaciers in High Sierras (seen here with US President Theodore Roosevelt)     1851 Charles Barrois (d. 1939), geologist 1864 Max Weber (d. 1920), economist and a founder of sociology 1879 Raden Adjeng Kartini, Javanese feminist 1910 Cahit Arf, Turkish mathematician 1912 Marcel Camus (d. 1982), film director 1913 Norman Parkinson, British photographer of celebrities 1913 Mary Sherman (Mary Stults Sherman; Mary S Sherman; d. July 21, 1964), prominent American orthopedic surgeon who was murdered in a still unsolved mystery. She is linked historically to Judyth A Vary Baker, a woman often cited in conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of US President John F Kennedy. 1915 Anthony Quinn (d. 2001), Mexican-born Hollywood actor (The Guns of Navarone; Lawrence of Arabia; Zorba the Greek); the Oscar-winning actor who has appeared in more movies with other Oscar-winning actors (for acting) than any other: 28 male actors, 18 female actors   1918 Francis James (d. August, 1992), eccentric Australian journalist and managing director of The Anglican newspaper. In 1952, James took over management of The Anglican, a publication of the Church of England. In 1960, The Anglican was subject to a takeover bid by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), which culminated in a street brawl in which Packer's forces unsuccessfully attempted to occupy the building. Controversy continued when in 1964, James was fined 50 pounds for the offensive publication of Oz magazine. During the 1960s he used The Anglican to campaign against the Vietnam War and, in 1966, stood as a candidate for the Liberal Reform Group in the federal election. He visited North Vietnam twice. In 1969, James was imprisoned in China for alleged espionage and finally released on January 16, 1973. The day before, the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, a long-term personal friend of James, had announced that the Australian Mission in Peking had been told Mr James would be released as a friendly gesture following the establishment of diplomatic relations. "Australian journalist imprisoned by the Chinese Government for many years is released on this day following the efforts of Gough Whitlam and the Australian Government over some years. "Francis James had attended Canberra Grammar School with E.G. Whitlam. He had disappeared on a visit to China in November 1969. For at least one year before his release, Gough Whitlam had made discreet submissions to Zhou Enlai, saying James might be eccentric but was not an enemy of China."   Source "James claimed that he and his Chinese nun-interpreter were caught in, a snowstorm in 1956, stayed overnight in a deserted hut, and, as a result, a beautiful child was born." "After his death in August, it is time for the full story of how and why Francis James found himself locked up in a Chinese jail in 1969. The story has the right ingredients spies, false passports, Chinese nuclear secrets, the CIA, sex, camels , chequebook journalism, politics-and, as GREGORY CLARK reports, the ideal leading man." Francis James: Spies, gold bars, mystery. Read about him here "In 1992 when delivering the eulogy at James's funeral, Sir Marcus Loane, the former Archbishop of Sydney, described Francis James as a born entertainer, a complete extrovert and a real mischief-maker who revelled in controversy … "Bob Ellis recounted some of James's clownish interventions into history including flying to Hanoi during the Vietnam War and feigning an assassination attempt (with an egg timer) on then United States President, L. B. Johnson."   Source   1922 Alistair MacLean (d. 1987), author 1923 John Mortimer, barrister, writer 1924 Clara Ward (d. 1973), gospel music singer 1926 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom 1929 Martin Kruse, theologian 1930 Silvana Mangano (d. 1989), actress 1932 Elaine May, comedienne 1935 Charles Grodin, actor, journalist 1935 Thomas Kean, governor of New Jersey 1947 Iggy Pop (James Osterberg), musician 1949 Patti Lupone, singer, actress 1951 Michael Hartley Freedman, mathematician 1958 Andie MacDowell, actress 1959 Robert Smith, musician 1963 Roy Dupuis, actor 1970 Nicole Sullivan, actress, comedienne and writer   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section Send a free e-card greeting for today's celebrations to a loved one Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year. Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards School Librarian Day [ Apr 21 ] Birthdays St George's Day [ Apr 23 ] Earth Day [ Apr 22 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th 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 Arbor Day Varies Child Care Professionals Day   April 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 29 Zipper Day 29 Spring Festival (California, USA) 29 International Dance Day 30 Oatmeal Cookie Day 30 Hairstylist Day May 1 May Day 1 Chocolate Parfait Day 1 New Homeowner's Day 1 Plant A Flower Day 1 Beltane 1 Lei Day (Hawaii, USA) 1 Bird Day (Oklahoma, USA) 1 School Principals' Day 1 Global Love Day 2 Teacher Day 2 Brothers And Sisters Day 2 Baby Day   ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap           If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   Romulus, Remus and the founding of Rome 753 BCE Romulus founded Rome (traditional, from Roman mythology). Romulus, considered by the ancient Romans to be the first King of Rome, began laying the foundations on this day. The same day, his brother Remus was slain by Romulus or his workmen, for having ridiculed the walls being built. Roman writers of the late centuries BCE (Before the Common Era), working backwards from their own time, arrived at this as the date of the founding of their great city. There were two traditions on the founding of Rome. According to one, Aeneas was the founder, while, according to the other, it was Romulus. According to Jane Gardner, Cato, in the early second century BCE, combining the two stories came up with what is the generally accepted version, with Aeneas coming to Italy and Romulus founding the actual seven-hilled city of Rome. The seven hills are the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline or Capitolium, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline and Caelian. Tarquin the Proud, an early king of the city, had been expelled and the Roman Republic was founded, in (it was believed) 510 BCE. By counting back through the reigns of Tarquin's predecessors, ancient researchers counted back about two or three hundred years. After various 'guesstimates' by a number of writers, the author Varro, greatly respected for his learning in the first century BCE, settled on the year 753, which became the official date. All subsequent dates were expressed ab urbe condita" (a.u.c. – 'from the city's founding') ... Read on at the article Romulus, Remus and the founding of Rome, at the Scriptorium See also the Consualia festival of ancient Rome 43 BCE Mark Antony was defeated in battle by the consul Hirtius, who was killed, in the Battle of Mutina. 121 CE "On April 21, 121, the dies natalis of the city of Rome, Hadrian began construction of a temple unique in design and larger than any other ever built by the Romans. Its length of more than 100 meters made it the only Roman addition to the short list of temples built by the Greeks which were at least that long. Even more extraordinary was the interior, within a fully peripteral colonnade. There were two cellae, back to back, with an apse at the end in which were placed the statues of the goddesses Venus and Roma, gigantic statues which, Apollodorus is said to have sneered, would bang their heads if they got up."   Source 1073 Death of Pope Alexander II. 1109 Death of Anselm of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the founders of medieval scholasticism. More   1142 Peter Abelard (Pierre Abélard; b. 1079), French theologian and philosopher, the celebrated lover of Heloise, died in Burgundy, aged 63. Some sources say he was born this day in 1079. Sometime shortly before 1120, Abelard was famously castrated by Heloise's uncle, Fulbert. Towards the end of his life, he wrote Historia Calamitatum (The Story of My Misfortunes) and told the tale: "So, after our little son was born, we left him in my sister's care, and secretly returned to Paris. A few days later, in the early morning, having kept our nocturnal vigil of prayer unknown to all in a certain church, we were united there in the benediction of wedlock her uncle and a few friends of his and mine being present. We departed forthwith stealthily and by separate ways, nor thereafter did we see each other save rarely and in private, thus striving our utmost to conceal what we had done. But her uncle and those of his household, seeking solace for their disgrace, began to divulge the story of our marriage, and thereby to violate the pledge they had given me on this point. Heloise, on the contrary, denounced her own kin and swore that they were speaking the most absolute lies. Her uncle, aroused to fury thereby, visited her repeatedly with punishments. No sooner had I learned this than I sent her to a convent of nuns at Argenteuil, not far from Paris, where she herself had been brought up and educated as a young girl. I had them make ready for her all the garments of a nun, suitable for the life of a convent, excepting only the veil, and these I bade her put on.  "When her uncle and his kinsmen heard of this, they were convinced that now I had completely played them false and had rid myself forever of Heloise by forcing her to become a nun. Violently incensed, they laid a plot against me, and one night while I all unsuspecting was asleep in a secret room in my lodgings, they broke in with the help of one of my servants whom they had bribed. There they had vengeance on me with a most cruel and most shameful punishment, such as astounded the whole world; for they cut off those parts of my body with which I had done that which was the cause of their sorrow. This done, straightway they fled, but two of them were captured and suffered the loss of their eyes and their genital organs. One of these two was the aforesaid servant, who even while he was still in my service, had been led by his avarice to betray me." Abelard's clash with St Bernard of Clairvaux, August 20 in the Book of Days     1420 Treaty of Saint Maartens Dike.   1531 Ulrich Zwingli and many other Swiss Protestants, died in battle as their attack on Catholics turned to rout. "The Protestants established a blockade, threatening Catholics with starvation. In 1531 the Catholic cantons marched against Zurich. Zwingli joined the troops on the battlefield. Fifteen-hundred men from Zurich faced 6,000 from the Catholic cantons. Under feeble leadership, on badly chosen ground near Kappel, they made critical errors. Failing to maul their opponents at an opportune moment, they allowed them to gain the cover of a beech wood. They did not retreat to a safer line while able. About 4:00 PM, on this day, October 11, 1531, the Catholics began the assault. Half an hour later the Protestants were wiped out. Zwingli was among the dead. His body was quartered and mixed with dung."   Source 1574 Death of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1519). 1699 Death of Jean-Baptiste Racine (b. 1639), French dramatist. 1792 Tiradentes (b. 1746), revolutionary who was leading a movement for Brazil's independence, was hanged. Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes, was part of the Brazilian liberation movement known as the Inconfidência Mineira. He practiced several professions — cattle driver, miner, dentist (hence his nickname, Tiradentes or 'tooth puller'). "Tiradentes martyrdom made him a national hero. Thirty years after his death the king designate of Portugal declared Brasil's independence and became its first emperor. April 21 is a national holiday."   Source 1793 Death of John Michell (b. 1724), seismologist. 1815 Death of Joseph Winston (b. 1746), American patriot and Congressman from North Carolina. 1828 Lexicographer Noah Webster published The American Dictionary of the English Language. 1836 Texas Revolution: Battle of San Jacinto – Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeated troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. (Santa Anna and hundreds of his troops were taken prisoner along the San Jacinto River the next day.) 1847 The Donner Party arrived at Fort Sutter, after apparently having eaten a number of their own, and shooting two of their Indian guides for food.   Banner from the Melbourne, 1856 demonstration 1856 One of the world's first eight-hour working day processions was held, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In March 1856, stonemasons working on the University of Melbourne held a public meeting and agreed that from April 21 they would work for only eight hours a day. Each working day should be one-third sleep, one-third work and one-third leisure. Their goal was achieved in exactly one month, on the following May 21. It was not a new concept; Robert Owen (1771 - 1858) had raised the demand for a ten-hour day as early as 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark, Scotland. As early as 1817, he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan "Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest". In New Zealand in 1840, carpenter Samuel Parnell refused to work more than eight hours a day when erecting a store for merchant George Hunter. On April 21, there was a march to Parliament House as Members of the Stonemasons Society gathered other members of the building trade. The movement in Melbourne was led by veteran chartists and mason James Stephens (1821 - '89), TW Vine and James Galloway. The government agreed that workers employed on public works should enjoy an eight-hour day with no loss of pay and stonemasons celebrated with a holiday and procession on Monday, May 12, 1856, when about 700 people marched with 19 trades involved. Plaque in Quadrangle, University of Melbourne By 1858, the eight-hour day was firmly established in the building industry, and by 1860 the eight-hour day was fairly widely observed in the State of Victoria. From 1879, the eight-hour day was a public holiday in that state. The initial success in Melbourne led to the decision to organise a movement, to actively spread the eight-hour idea and secure the condition generally. Australia became the first country in the world to legislate for an eight-hour day, and each state still has a public holiday for Eight Hour Day (sometimes called 'Labor Day'). By 1864, the eight-hour day became a central demand of parts of the American labor movement, namely in Chicago, but it was slow to eventuate in that country, with the United Mine Workers winning an eight-hour day in 1898. As late as January 5, 1914, the Ford Motor Company took the radical step of doubling pay to $5 a day, and cut shifts from nine hours to eight, moves that were not popular with rival companies. In 1903, veteran socialist Tom Mann spoke to a crowd of a thousand people at the unveiling of the Eight Hour Day monument, funded by public subscription, and located on the corner of Victoria and Russell Streets, outside Melbourne Trades Hall. In 1884, inspired by the Australian successes a quarter of a century earlier, he had called for the eight-hour day in the United Kingdom. Source: Wikipedia    Early progressives in the Book of Days    CounterCulture Wiki See also the article, 'The Abolition of Work', by Bob Black, in the Scriptorium   1863 Bahá'u'lláh was proclaimed as the head of the Bahá'í Faith. 1863 American Civil War: Streight's Raid began – Troops led by Union Colonel Abel Streight moved into northern Alabama and Georgia to cut the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia (the raid failed). 1890 USA: The Daughters of the American Revolution, an ultra-conservative women's association, was founded in Washington, DC. 1894 Norway formally adopted the Krag-Jørgensen rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years. 1894 George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man opened to the unanimous cheers of the audience, with the sole exception of one man who booed. Shaw bowed to the dissenter and quipped, "I quite agree with you, sir, but what can two do against so many?" 1898 Spanish-American War: The US Congress, on April 25, recognized that a state of war existed between the United States and Spain as of this date. 1901 Auguste Rodin's semi-nude sculpture of Victor Hugo went on display and shocked much of Paris. 1906 SF April 18 - 23, 1906 earthquake and fire chronology 1910 Mark Twain (b. 1835), American author, humourist, pacifist, anti-imperialist, died at Redding, Connecticut, USA, upon the reappearance of Halley's Comet, which had last shone as he was being born. Mark Twain's 'War Prayer', in the Scriptorium 1914 US troops occupied Veracruz, Mexico, to prevent German weapons falling into hands of the Mexican command. 1916 Roger Casement arrived in Ireland from a German submarine to lead the Sinn Féin rebellion, but was arrested by the British.   1918 World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as 'The Red Baron', was shot down and killed by Allied fire over Vaux-sur-Somme in France. Various combatants, including at least one Australian, took the credit for the kill. "Who really killed the Red Baron? Many have claimed credit since that fateful day, April 21, 1918. All have their detractors and supporters. Principal claimants are: Captain A Roy Brown Gunner Robert Buie (Lewis Gun) Australian 53rd battery #3801 Gunner Sgt CB Popkin (Vickers gun) with the Australian 24th machine gun company. And someone who cannot be discounted is an unknown soldier with a Lee-Enfield .303 who could have fired the fatal shot in the rain of bullets fired at Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen. He was not a 'Baron', by the way. His title of 'Freiherr' loosely translates as 'freeman'."   Source: Who killed the Red Baron?   1918 George Herriman, creator of Krazy Kat, wrote the following poem. The Whoest of the Whos were There. The Dimless Dames of Coconino, the Merry Wives in Full Galaxy, The Representatives of the "Desierto Pintado's" Social Apex. Drifting now to a Lower Social Level, We find `Krazy Kat' Propelled by a Great Sense, and urge of Kuriosity on his Way to the Enchanted Mesa, on Whose Topside, `Joe Stork' The Bird of Destiny, Makes his Home. George Herriman Comix, comics and cartoons in the Book of Days More in the Book of Days, June 20 1930 USA: A fire at a Columbus, Ohio penitentiary killed 320 people. 1935 King Boris II of Bulgaria forbade all political parties. 1938 Death of Allama Iqbal (b. 1877), philosopher-poet. 1939 Albert Einstein urged President Franklin D Roosevelt to develop nuclear weapons. 1944 Women in France received the right to vote. 1945 World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attacked the German High Command headquarters. 1951 The National Olympic Committee of the USSR was formed. 1952 USA: Administrative Professionals' Day (formerly Secretaries' Day), was first celebrated. 1953 Roy Cohn and G David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides, recommended the removal of 30,000 books from the libraries of the United States Information Service posts in Europe, including works by Dashiell Hammett, WEB DuBois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, and Henry David Thoreau, calling them "pro-Communist". 1955 USA: Bob Hope's radio program aired its last segment. 1956 Elvis Presley's song, 'Heartbreak Hotel', became the 'King's' first song to reach the top of the Billboard magazine music charts. 1959 Mr Alf Dean landed the biggest fish ever caught with a rod and reel - a 5.13 m (16' 10") Great white shark weighing 1.2 tonnes, off Ceduna, South Australia. When queried about bait, he replied, "kittens". 1960 Brasília, a planned city based on principles of Le Corbusier, was officially inaugurated as the capital of Brazil. At 9:30 am the Three Powers of the Republic were simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. 1960 The founding of the Orthodox Baha'i faith in Washington, DC. 1963 The Beatles met The Rolling Stones for the first time. 1966 Rastafarianism: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day. 1967 A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos led a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasted for seven years. 1968 British Conservative MP Enoch Powell made a fiery parliamentary speech calling for an end to non-white immigration.   1970 Hutt River Province seceded from the Commonwealth of Australia.     1975 Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu fled Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls. 1975 Myrna Opsahl was murdered by the Symbionese Liberation Army (Patty Hearst's mob) in a bank robbery gone wrong. Despite much evidence gathered, her killers are still free. 1976 China: The Gang of Four were arrested. 1985 Tancredo de Almeida Neves, president-elect of Brazil, died in São Paulo. 1988 The first factoring of a 100-digit number. A network of hundreds of computers in the United States, Europe, and Australia successfully factored a 100-digit number. 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to commemorate the late Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang. 1992 Death penalty (USA): After 13 years on death row, convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris was executed in California's gas chamber. 1993 Bolivia's Supreme Court sentenced former military dictator General Luis García Meza Tejada to 30 years imprisonment for crimes ranging from mass murder and torture to fraud against the state.   1994 The first discoveries of extrasolar planets were announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan. 1994 A Belfast court cleared Paul Hill of the 1974 murder of a former British soldier. Hill was formally absolved of IRA guerrilla links for which he was wrongfully jailed for 13 years.   1995 The remains of French scientist Marie Curie, who won two Nobel Prizes for Science but was never able to vote, were moved and reinterred in the Panthéon in Paris, 61 years after her death. The Panthéon bears an inscription saying "A nation grateful to its great men". 1995 China's Xinhua newsagency reported that a south China schoolboy recited the value of Pi to 4,000 places, easily breaking the world record. He performed this feat in 25 minutes 30 seconds. 1999 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: The Age newspaper published the inaugural Lesbia Harford Oration on behalf of Victorian Women Lawyers, delivered by John Harber Phillips, Chief Justice of Victoria. Lesbia Harford – 'The Rebel Girl' (1891 - 1927) – was an Australian IWW (International Workers of the World, or 'Wobblies') labor activist and poet, and a strong advocate of 'free love'. 2001 South Korea: Demonstrations nationwide, enraged over the extreme police crackdown on a peaceful labour rally of workers laid off by Daewoo Motors, which left 45 workers seriously injured. More 2002 Peace activist Shaden Abu Hijla, about 65, was machine-gunned to death from a passing Israeli army jeep, while she was sitting in her garden embroidering, in Nablus, West Bank. Her husband, a doctor, and her son, a university professor, were wounded. Activism page    Protest pictures page 2003 At least 37 Maoist rebels and 3 other persons were killed in a fight between the Maoists and police in the west of Nepal.   2004 Mordechai Vanunu (b. 1954), former Israeli nuclear technician who publicly exposed Israel's possession of nuclear weapons, was finally freed.   He was kidnapped on September 30, 1986, tried in secret, and sentenced to eighteen years in prison. Upon release Vanunu claimed his abduction had been by the CIA rather than Israel's notorious Mossad secret agency. He added that he was proud of his actions and complained that he had been treated cruelly by his jailers. Between 1976 and 1985, Vanunu was a nuclear technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, an Israeli facility for manufacturing nuclear weapons, located in the Negev desert south of Dimona. There he had increasingly grown troubled about the Israeli nuclear program for which he worked. In 1985, he was laid off from Dimona and left Israel. He fled to Nepal, converted to Buddhism, and unsuccessfully attempted to defect to the Soviets. In 1986, he travelled to Sydney, Australia, where he converted again, to Christianity. He then, while still in Sydney, met with Peter Hounam, a journalist from The Sunday Times … read on at Wikipedia's article on Vanunu. The Israeli government kept him in solitary confinement or near total isolation for more than 11 years, allegedly afraid that he might reveal more Israeli nuclear secrets. The European Parliament has condemned Israel's treatment of Vanunu, and referred to his kidnapping as a gross violation of Italian sovereignty and international law. Vanunu has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. "Vanunu, dressed in a checkered shirt and black tie, flashed victory signs and waved to cheering supporters as he walked into the courtyard of Shikma Prison in the coastal town of Ashkelon. Counter-demonstrators booed. "In the courtyard, Vanunu held an impromptu news conference, flanked by two of his brothers. Vanunu said was given 'very cruel and barbaric treatment' by Israel's security services. "'I am proud and happy to do what I did,' Vanunu said in accented English. He refused to answer questions in Hebrew because of the suffering he said he sustained at the hands of the state of Israel. "Vanunu, who converted to Christianity in the 1980s, said he was mistreated because of his religion. He also said there was no need for a Jewish state."   Source "Israel is believed to possess the largest and most sophisticated arsenal outside of the five declared nuclear powers. Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons, but abundant information is available showing that the capability exists." Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program How Vanunu revealed Israel's nuclear weapons secret    Israel 'may have 200 nuclear weapons' Search for Vanunu articles    Interview (during Vununu's house arrest in 2007)   2005 John Negroponte became the first United States Director of National Intelligence.   Stay in touch at Daily Planet News and our Action page Big podcasts page   Young Blogosphere   Yellow Pages current affairs   Protest pictures page Popup headlines: Climate Change    Refugees    AIDS in Africa    Pandemic   Permaculture   Tomorrow: Who was 'the Wandering Jew'?    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     The slave driver of the Roman trireme leered down at his galley slaves and bellowed, "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you'll be getting double rations tonight!" The murmuring of the surprised slaves as they struggled with their oars was interrupted by the slave driver. "The bad news is that this afternoon the commander's son wants to water-ski." 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 Blogmanac

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