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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

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Today is

Good Friday comes this month: the old woman runs.
With one a penny, two a penny, "hot cross buns",
Whose virtue is, if you believe what's said,
They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread.
Poor Robin's Almanack, 1733
 
If it rain on Good Friday or Easter Day,
T'will be a good yar of grass but a sorrowful year of hay.
English traditional proverb

I class Rabelais with the great creative minds of the world, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, andc.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Rabelais died on April 9, 1553

Let down the curtain, the farce is over.
Last words of François Rabelais

I have nothing. I owe much. I leave the rest to the poor.
From the will of Rabelais

No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
Francis Bacon (b. 1561), English Renaissance polymath, who died on April 9, 1626; 'Of Truth'

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Death'

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Revenge'

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Adversity'

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Marriage and Single Life'

Men in great place are thrice servants,—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Great Place'

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."
Francis Bacon; 'Of Boldness'

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Goodness'

The remedy is worse than the disease.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Seditions'

I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Atheism'

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Travel'

There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Cunning'

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic [medicine]. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Regimen of Health'

Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Fortune'

Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Youth and Age'

Virtue is like a rich stone,—best plain set.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Beauty'

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Studies'

We sailed from Peru, where we had continued by the space of one whole year, for China and Japan, by the South Sea, taking with us victuals for twelve months; and had good winds from the east, though soft and weak, for five months' space and more.
Francis Bacon; opening sentence of New Atlantis, 1626

In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior, for it is a prince's part to pardon. 
Francis Bacon

For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages.
Francis Bacon; from his will

In his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him strength, for greatness he could not want.
Ben Jonson, writing of the disgraced Sir Francis Bacon

Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced.
Alexander Pope, 1741

Genius is childhood recaptured.
Charles Baudelaire, French poet, born on April 9, 1821

Be drunken always with wine, poetry ... even with virtue.
Charles Baudelaire

It would be useless and therefore cruel to provoke the further effusion of blood, and I have arranged to meet with General Grant with a view to surrender.
Robert E Lee, on the morning of April 9, 1865, speaking of Ulysses S Grant

When compared with the suppression of anarchy every other question sinks into insignificance. The anarchist is the enemy of humanity, the enemy of all mankind, and his is a deeper degree of criminality than any other. No immigrant is allowed to come to our shores if he is an anarchist; and no paper published here or abroad should be permitted circulation in this country if it propagates anarchist opinions.
US President Theodore Roosevelt, 'Message To the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Regarding Transmission Through the Mails of Anarchistic Publications', April 9, 1908

A brilliant man has passed away,
   John Norton was his name;
He made the tyrants shake with fear,
   The coward blush with shame.
For wowsers, quacks, and hypocrites
   He had not time at all,
He hated cant and humbug,
   And those who cringe and crawl.
Patrick Francis Collins ('Paddy the Poet'), street poet, on the occasion of John Norton's death on April 9, 1916

I'd like to take you now, on wings of song as it were, and try and help you forget for a while your drab, wretched lives.
Tom Lehrer, born April 9, 1928; 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park'

All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Every Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.
Tom Lehrer; ibid

Life is like a sewer – what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
Tom Lehrer

Oh, soon we'll be out amid the cold world's strife.
Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life.
Tom Lehrer 

April 9 is the 99^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (100^th in leap years), with 266 days remaining.
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Good Friday (2004)

On the dating of items in the Almanac

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good Friday is a special day celebrated by Christians on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion. Many Christians view Jesus Christ's crucifixion as a voluntary and vicarious act by which death itself was conquered, not as a temporary defeat overturned by His resurrection on the third day.

In Early Modern English, good had a meaning of "holy". A "good tide" is, for example, Christmas or Shrove Tuesday.

Eastern Orthodox Christians spend all this day in fasting from all food, to the extent that their health permits. It is the one day of the year they are forbidden from celebrating the Divine Liturgy, thereby fasting from the Eucharist as well. Instead, they meet up to three times during the day for prayer: in the forenoon, to pray the Royal Hours appointed for that day; in the afternoon, the Vespers of Holy Friday; and in the evening, the Matins of Holy Saturday.

The people relive the events of the day through public reading of the Psalms, Gospels, and singing the hymns about Christ's death. Visual imagery and symbolism is also often used: in the morning, a large cross is moved to the front or center of the nave (where the congregation gathers), and a two dimensional painted body of Christ or corpus is placed on it. During the afternoon prayers, it is removed from the cross and taken to the altar in the sanctuary, and an epitaphion is brought down to a low table in the nave representing the tomb; it is often decorated with an abundance of flowers. The epitaphion itself represents the body of Jesus wrapped in a burial shroud, and is a roughly full-size cloth icon of the body of Christ. During the evening prayers, the shroud is part of a procession outside the church, and is then returned to the tomb.

During this reliving of Christ's death, the hymns do not forget the coming resurrection. Holding both events in tension, the following troparion (type of hymn) is sung during the afternoon prayers while the shroud is being carried to the tomb:

The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy most pure Body from the tree, wrapped it in fine linen, and anointed it with spices, and placed it in a new tomb.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

The angel came to the myrrh-bearing women at the tomb and said:

Myrrh is fitting for the dead, but Christ has shown Himself a stranger to corruption.

In many historically Christian countries, such as New Zealand, the day is celebrated with the eating of hot cross buns, the withdrawal of advertising from television and radio, and the closure of most shops for the day. Eastern Orthodox Christians eat as little as possible on this day.

The term 'Good Friday' has been adopted recently by The Karma Army to denote the day of the week they perform Random Acts of Kindness, but has no connection to the Christian celebration.

Good Friday Prayer    The trial of Jesus Christ, in Crime Library

Related in the Book of Days: Feast day of St Longinus, who speared the side of Jesus Christ with the Spear of Destiny; Friday the 13^th folklore and origins; Feast day of Pontius Pilate

 

Hot-cross buns! Hot-cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot-cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot-cross buns!
But if you have none of these little elves,
Then you may eat them all yourselves.
English street vendors' cry, and nursery rhyme

 

Hot cross buns

It's Good Friday in the Christian world (except for Orthodox), and traditionally today, in much of the Anglophone world, is the day to eat hot cross buns (see recipe), and they are still very popular in many countries such as Australia. In the Museo Borbonico in Rome is an ancient sculpture representing the miracle of the five barley loaves. Each loaf is marked with a cross, which is remarkable, as hot-cross buns are not eaten in Europe.

It might have started as a pagan custom, as suggested by both the early folklorists E Cobham Brewer (Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) and Robert Chambers (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]). The worship of the Queen of Heaven with cakes may well have been, as Chambers notes, "a custom to be found alike in China and in ancient Mexico, as well as many other countries. In Egypt, the cakes were horned to resemble the sacred heifer, and then called bous, which in one of its oblique cases is boun – in short, bun!"

The Greeks offered cakes with 'horns' on them to Apollo, Diana, Hecate and Selene (the moon). Such a cake was called a bous, and (it is said) never grew mouldy. The round bun represented the full moon, and the cross symbolised the four quarters.

Brewer says that Good Friday's hot cross buns were traditionally made of the dough kneaded for the host (as used in church ritual), and were naturally enough marked with a cross. They were said to keep for twelve months without turning mouldy, and some people would hang up one or more in their house as a talisman against evil.

We also note that bous was the word the Greeks used for cattle (cf English 'bull' and Latin 'bovis'). Many Middle Eastern female deities from Astarte (Ishtar/Innana) and Isis to the Virgin Mary are frequently depicted with the crescent moon or similar-shaped horn emblems. (See also Horned God.)

Diogenes Laertius, speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed. "He offered one of the sacred Liba, called a Bouse, which was made of fine flour and honey." It is said of Cecrops that he first offered up this sort of sweet bread. Hence we may judge of the antiquity of the custom from the times to which Cecrops is referred. The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he is speaking of the Jewish women at Pathros, in Egypt, and of their base idolatry; in all which their husbands had encouraged them. The women, in their expostulation upon his rebuke, tell him: "Did we make her cakes to worship her?" Jerem. xliv. 18, 19; vii. 18.
Knowlson, T Sharper, The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs, T Werner Laurie, Ltd, London, 1930

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Ireland: sow parsley

Good Friday is traditionally the time to sow parsley which, if it grows thick and strong, brings prosperity to the mother of the household.  

A Good Friday curse

"It is said that a countess of Henneberg accused a beggar of adultery because she carried twins, whereupon the beggar prayed that the countess might carry as many children as there are days in the year. According to the legend, this happened on Good Friday, 1276. All the males were named John, and all the females Elizabeth. The countess was forty-two at the time."
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

Born on Good Friday

Washing Molly Grime

"In the church of Glentham, Lincolnshire, there is a tomb with a figure, popularly called Molly Grime; and this figure was regularly washed every Good Friday by seven old maids of Glentham, with water brought from Newell Well, each receiving a shilling for her trouble, in consequence of an old bequest connected with some property in that district. About 1832, the property being sold without any reservation of the rent-charge of this bequest, the custom was discontinued."
Robert Chambers, op cit

Easter cakes, Dorset and Devon, UK

On Good Friday it was once the custom, in Dorset and Devon, that a clerk carried to each house a few white, bitter-sweet cakes as an Easter offering. They were about one eighth of an inch thick, and about five or seven inches in diameter. The clerk would receive a gratuity for this annual ritual.  

Display in Medieval Durham, England

William Hone (The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, Vol., 1, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online) tells us that in Durham Cathedral, over Our Lady of Bolton's altar, was an image called Our Lady of Bolton, made to open from the breast downward, and there in the picture was an image of Christ "marvellously finely gilt", holding up his hands, between which was a large crucifix, all of gold. Every Good Friday the men of the village crept up to it. Two of the old monks took a crucifix, lay it on a velvet cushion, with St Cuthbert's heraldic arms on it, all embroidered in gold, and took it to the lowest steps in the choir, each monk on either side of the image. One monk rose, and went away, crawling on his knees back to the cross, barefooted, and kissed the crucifix; the other monk then did the same. At this point the prior came down and did likewise. All during this time, the church choir was singing. Then the cross was carried to the sepulchre.

Jesus and the errands – April Fool forerunner?

The April 1 tradition of sending someone on a 'fool's errand' might be linked to Jesus Christ being sent uselessly back and forth between Annas, Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate and Herod before the Crucifixion.

Good Friday, until 16^th Century, England

Before the Reformation in England, a dressed figure of Jesus Christ on a crucifix was carried around the altar by two priests who laid it on ground and kissed its hands and feet with tears and sighs. People came bearing gifts, such as corn and eggs. They buried the image amidst incense burning, and placed flowers on grave.

The King blessed rings (cramp-rings), which were given to people, and said to be able to cure of cramp. The monarch came in state to his chapel, where he found a crucifix on a cushion and a carpet spread before him. He would crawl towards the crucifix, and there bless the rings in a silver basin, kneeling all the time. Afterwards, the queen and her ladies would also creep to the cross.

Bread baked on Good Friday was kept by family whole year. Crumbs from it dropped into water would help any ailment, particularly diarrhoea. Or, so it is said.

Creeping to the cross

It is a Catholic tradition to approach the altar rails and render homage to the cross. In Europe, as late as the 16^th Century, 'creeping to the cross' was made with offering of eggs, bacon and other foods. The custom derives from the veneration of the True Cross at Jerusalem.

Serbia: Easter eggs in vineyards

Today, Easter eggs are traditionally put in vineyards to ensure a bountiful crop. 

The Tyrole

Tyrolese believe a Good Friday egg is fresh for a year, and cannot be broken even if thrown over a house. 

Good Friday egg remedy, Dauphiné  Region, France

To cure infantile stomach-ache: a Good Friday-laid egg was cooked, inserted in an acorn, and hung around the patient's neck.

The game of competitive marbles has been played at Tinsley Green in a tradition that goes back at least to 1600. Notes and Queries in 1879 records that:

From time immemorial, marbles playing has been popular in Sussex; in some parts of the county Ash Wednesday, as well as Good Friday, has been known as 'Marbles Day'.

Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection    Lunar phase info (pop-up)     More Good Friday folklore at School of the Seasons

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Click stars for Universe today Cafe Diem! Our store Highly recommended: Folklore of World Holidays by Margaret Read MacDonald Muybridge's Complete Human and Animal Locomotion Animals in Motion Edweard Muybridge River of Shadows Muybridge biography The Passion Mel Gibson A Guide to the Passion The Triumph of the Moon The Celtic Dragon Tarot Sabbat Entertaining The Fatal Shore Australia's First Fabians 1890-1910 ... One Big Union The Penguin Henry Lawson Australia: Literature and History CD-ROM Along the Faultlines: Sex, Race and Nation in Australian Women's Writing 1880s - 1930s Hell and After : Four Early English Language Poets of Australia (Mary Gilmore, Lesbia Harford et al) The Pagan Book of Days Eight Sabbats for Witches Celebrate the Earth A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition Wheel of the Year The Trouble with Islam Brave Hearts, Rebel Spirits The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq Lady Godiva Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture Activists Beyond Borders The Book of Spells Spellcraft The Book of Saints The Encyclopedia of Saints Daily Everything Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable   To support this project Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.     Search for posters What Would Jefferson Do? By Thom Hartmann The Price of Loyalty The Torture Debate in America The Culture of the New Capitalism Pagan Christianity Lawless World   The Great War for Civilisation 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 Adventures in a TV Nation Michael Moore Drawing Down the Moon Globalization/Anti-Globalization More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at   Cafe Diem! Celtic Daily Prayer Dude, Where's My Country? Photo of the day Mother Earth Spirituality Rich Media, Poor Democracy Robert McChesney Shamanism Women's Activism and Globalization Click to promote  your blog or website  another excellent  way we do

Hiketeria, ancient Greece "Supplication of Apollo at Delphinion for the rescue of Theseus and youths from the Minotaur." Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar Derivation of 'Hiketeria' "… for suppliants approached the one whose aid they would implore holding an olive branch entwined with white wool and fillets, to signify that they came as suppliants. "  Source Festivals in ancient Greece   Festival of Megalesia (Magna Mater) of Cybele (Apr 4 - 10), ancient Rome   Feast day of St Acacius Noted for his work with, and charity to Persian prisoners of war, to pay their ransom, St Acacius melted down the altar pieces and sacred vessels of his church. This so impressed the Persian King Bahram V that he ended the persecution of Christians in his domain. Feast day of St Brogan Feast day of St Casilda of Toledo Feast day of St Demetrius Feast day of St Dotto, abbot in Orkney Feast day of St Eupsychius, martyr Feast day of St Francis of Paola This prophet and miracle worker was reputed to read minds. In 1464 he desired to cross the Straits of Messina to reach Sicily, but a boatman refused to take him. Francis laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff to make a sail, and sailed happily across with his companions. The good saint died on Good Friday while still at court in France. In 1562 Huguenots opened his tomb, found his body incorrupt, and burned it. The bones were salvaged by Catholics, and distributed as relics to various churches. The Incorruptibles. an examination of extraordinary claims, by Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com Feast day of St Gaucherius (Gautier), abbot in Limousin Feast day of St Hedda Feast day of St Benedictine abbot. He and 84 of his brother monks were martyred by invading pagan Danes. Feast day of St Heliodorus Feast day of St Hilary Feast day of St Hugh of Rouen Feast day of St Innocent of Berzo Feast day of St James of Padua Feast day of St John of Vespignano Feast day of St Madrun Feast day of the Martyrs of Croyland Feast day of the Martyrs of Pannonia Feast day of the Massylitian martyrs in Africa Feast day of St Mary of Cleophas Mother of Saint James the Lesser, sister of Mary. Feast day of St Mary of Egypt (Red polyanthus, Primula polyantha rubra, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) Feast day of the Roman captives, martyrs in Persia Feast day of St Thomas of Tolentino Feast day of St Waltrude Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Procession of the Penitents and Entombment, Lessines, Belgium Ceremony on Greek island of Hydra An especially moving and colourful ceremony which is accompanied by old local folkways. Festival in Corfu, Greece The faithful proceed through the streets of the town with lighted candles, following the Epitaphios, or pall. Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan (Apr 3 - 29) Tsurugaoka Hachiman (Shrine) Spring Festival, Japan (Apr 7 - 14) Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor, celebrated as Bataan Day in Bataan) in the Philippines Today is a Philippine national holiday commemorating the Bataan Death March, a war crime involving the forcible transfer of prisoners of war, with wide-ranging abuse and high fatalities, by Japanese forces in the Philippines, in 1942, during World War II. (See below: 1942, On this day in history.) More Feast of Jalál (Glory) - First day of the second month of the Bahá'í Calendar, Bahá'í Faith Day of National Unity, an annual public holiday in Georgia Education and Sharing Day (date varies) On the dating of items in the Almanac Education and Sharing day is a day made by the United States Congress in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson's efforts for education and sharing. It was inaugurated on April 18, 1978 and since proclaimed annually on the Jewish birthday of Schneerson. In 2006 it was on April 9.     1802 Elias Lönnrot (d. 1884), collector of folklore, linguist, medical doctor, professor in Finnish philology. He compiled the Finnish national epic Kalevala  for which he travelled among the Lapps, the Estonians and the Finnish for about ten years, interviewing and writing down their stories, poems and songs. He also compiled a Finnish-Swedish dictionary and began the first magazine in Finnish, Mehiläinen (The Bee). He also wrote and arranged psalms. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used Kalevala's meter and style in his poem The Song of Hiawatha. Dear my kinsman, friend fraternal, You my fairest foster-brother! Come and sing with me in concord, Let us sing and say together, Since together we have got here Coming from two different quarters! Seldom do we see each other, Rarely reap the fruits of friendship, Here within these barren borders, In these careful Northern confines. From the Kalevala, trans. by Cid Erik Tallqvist   Other writers inspired by the Kalevala: JRR Tolkien, Eino Leino, Matti Kuusi, Lennart Meri More   1806 Isambard Kingdom Brunel (d. 1859), British engineer. The absent-minded Brunel A most remarkable man, often thought of as the greatest engineer in history, he was so absent-minded he caressed the hand of a lady, not his wife, at dinner. He would get on the wrong coach and not realise till he had travelled a long way. He would forget his own name; hand out other people's calling cards. But he had great presence of mind, too: once he was inspecting the Birmingham railway, and found himself between two lines when two trains were approaching from opposite directions. While spectators stood in horror, he buttoned up his coat, brought the skirts close to his body, and stood firmly between the two railway lines. The trains swept past and left him unscathed.   1821 Charles Baudelaire (d. 1867), French poet. Baudelaire was one of the greatest of 19th-Century French poets, who formed with Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine the so-called Decadents. His translations of Edgar Allan Poe made Poe better known in France than in Poe's home country at the time. When his Les Fleurs du Mal appeared in 1857 all – author, publisher and printer – were prosecuted and found guilty of obscenity and blasphemy. In law college, Baudelaire became addicted to opium and hashish and also contracted syphilis, which proved lethal. After a lecture tour in Belgium he became seriously ill and died in Paris in his mother's arms. Source: The Daily Bleed More   'The Sadness of the Moon' By Charles Baudelaire THE Moon more indolently dreams to-night Than a fair woman on her couch at rest, Caressing, with a hand distraught and light, Before she sleeps, the contour of her breast.   Upon her silken avalanche of down, Dying she breathes a long and swooning sigh; And watches the white visions past her flown, Which rise like blossoms to the azure sky.   And when, at times, wrapped in her languor deep, Earthward she lets a furtive tear-drop flow, Some pious poet, enemy of sleep,   Takes in his hollow hand the tear of snow Whence gleams of iris and of opal start, And hides it from the Sun, deep in his heart.   Source     1830 Eadweard Muybridge (d. May 8, 1904), British-born photographer, known primarily for his pioneering use of multiple cameras to capture motion. On December 11, 1877, Muybridge proved that when a horse runs, every foot is off the ground simultaneously at one point every stride. This he did by fixing up separate cameras that were set off by trip wires as the horse passed. The projector he invented to show these 'films' (as we now know them), he called the Zoopraxiscope. Muybridge was also one of the most prolific photographers of early Yosemite American Indian life.  In 1860 he was injured in a stage coach crash whilst travelling overland from San Francisco to New York for a visit to Europe. On October 17, 1874, during a social event, Muybridge took out a pistol and to the horror of the assembled guests, shot and killed his wife's lover. "Baptised as Edward James Muggeridge at All Saints Church, Kingston, he later changed his surname first to Muygridge, then to Muybridge and spelt his Christian name as Eadweard. The Anglo-Saxon Kings of England often spelt their names in this fashion and Muybridge may have seen the name written in the plinth of the coronation stone which had been inaugurated at Kingston in 1850."   Source "Muybridge's professional career was interrupted briefly by tragic events in his personal life. About 1872 he had married a young divorcee, Flora Shallcross Stone, who in April 1874 gave birth to a son, Floredo Helios Muybridge. Six months after the birth, Muybridge was given reason to believe that Floredo was not his son, but that of his wife's lover, Harry Larkyns. He shot Larkyns dead on 17 October 1874 and was imprisoned until his trial for murder in February 1875. After a brilliant defence by his lawyer Wirt Pendegast, Muybridge was acquitted and set off immediately on an expedition to Central America."   Source "Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), to settle an argument, was hired to prove that a horse had all four feet simultaneously off the ground at one phase of a trot. He designed elaborate photographic systems that combined batteries of from 12 to 24 cameras with fast shutter mechanisms. The first successful sequential photographs of rapidly moving objects were taken of horses and other animals. Muybridge devoted the rest of his life to similar photographic studies of motion that are still useful to artists and physiologists alike."   Source Check out the movers    More movers Muybridge on the Web   More 1835 King Leopold II of Belgium (d. 1909)   1867 Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (d. November 18, 1941), and the first Labor PM. Watson was born in Valparaiso, Chile, probably on this day. In his lifetime he maintained that his father was a British seaman called George Watson. In fact his father was a Chilean citizen of German descent, Johan Cristian Tanck. His mother was a New Zealander, Martha Minchin, who had married Tanck in New Zealand and then gone to sea with him. In 1892, he helped to undo a terrorist bomb plot in Sydney involving anarchist Larry Petrie, poet Mary Gilmore and parliamentarian Arthur Rae ... read more. On July 9, 1893 (qv), Watson presided over a crowd of 10,000 people assembled in Sydney's Domain to farewell the emigrants on William Lane's New Australia expedition to Paraguay, which sailed on July 16. Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson 1891 Lesbia Harford (b. Lesbia Venner Keogh; d. 1927), Australian poet and novelist (The Irreplaceable Mystery, one of the first modern novels to deal with gender, class and sexuality), activist, member of Industrial Workers of the World. She fought against military conscription in the WWI conscription controversy and spoke against it night after night until "her exhausted heart and throat landed her in hospital.". 'Suburban Dames' By Lesbia Harford All day long  We sew fine muslin up for you to wear,  Muslin that women wove for you elsewhere,  A million strong.  Just like flames,  Insatiable, you eat up all our hours,  And sun and loves and talk and flowers,  Suburban dames.   "She was educated at the Sacré Coeur school at Malvern, Mary's Mount school at Ballarat, and at the university of Melbourne, where she graduated LL.B. in 1916. Becoming interested in social questions, she obtained work in a clothing factory to obtain first hand knowledge of the conditions under which women worked. She had begun writing verse, and in May 1921 Birth, a small poetry magazine published at Melbourne, gave the whole of one number to a selection from her poems. A severe attack of rheumatic fever while a young child led to a life of delicate health, and her death on 5 July 1927. She married P. Harford in 1919 but had no children. In 1927 three examples of her work were included in Serle's An Australasian Anthology, and in 1941 a small volume The Poems of Lesbia Harford, sponsored by the Commonwealth Literary Fund and published by the Melbourne University Press, revealed a poet of originality and charm." Lesbia Harford poems    Lesbia Harford – The Rebel Girl    Lesbia Harford Oration (annual) Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson   1898 Paul Robeson (d. 1976), singer, political activist 1905 James W Fulbright, American Democrat Senator from Arkansas (d. 1995) who initiated the Fulbright Scholarships 1908 Victor Vasarely (d. 1997), painter 1909 Sir Robert Helpmann (September 28, 1986), Australian ballet dancer 1919 J Presper Eckert, inventor of the ENIAC computer 1926 Hugh Hefner, American publisher/editor of Playboy magazine 1928 Tom Lehrer, American classical composer, arranger, humorist, musician, singer, folk singer and protester   Short movie free online   'The Masochism Tango' By Tom Lehrer I ache for the touch of your lips, dear, But much more for the touch of your whips, dear. You can raise welts Like nobody else, As we dance to the Masochism Tango.   Let our love be a flame, not an ember, Say it's me that you want to dismember. Blacken my eye, Set fire to my tie, As we dance to the Masochism Tango.   At your command Before you here I stand, My heart is in my hand... Yeech! It's here that I must be.   My heart entreats, Just hear those savage beats, And go put on your cleats And come and trample me.   Your heart is hard as stone or mahogany, That's why I'm in such exquisite agony. My soul is on fire, It's aflame with desire, Which is why I perspire when we tango.   You caught my nose In your left castanet, love, I can feel the pain yet, love, Ev'ry time I hear drums.   And I envy the rose That you held in your teeth, love, With the thorns underneath, love, Sticking into your gums ...   1929 Fred Hollows, AC (d. February 10, 1993), Australian ophthalmologist and self-proclaimed anarcho-syndicalist who became known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries, especially Eritrea. It has been estimated that more than one million people in the world can see today because of initiatives instigated by this doctor, who was named Australian of the Year in 1990. In 1992 The Fred Hollows Foundation was established to provide eye care for the underprivileged and poor and to improve the health of indigenous Australians. 1929 Ron Haddrick, Australian actor   1932 Paul Krassner, editor and frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, which, first published in 1958, is a very early example of the "underground" countercultural press in the USA. The Realist was published intermittently until 2001. Krassner was a child violin prodigy, but his career took a different turn; he is an important figure in many aspects of politically-edged humor and satire in the US since the 1950s. He was a close protege of the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce (he edited Bruce's autobiography); he worked on early issues of MAD magazine; he was a founder of the Youth International Party in 1967, famous for prankster activism. He is known in intellectual property circles for having printed the controversial The Disneyland Memorial Orgy in The Realist. He remains a prolific writer, public speaker and stand-up comedian. "Krassner and his fellow Yippies tried to build on Woodstock. They helped put on a 'Pow Wow Symposium' at Hog Farm headquarters in New Mexico. But in December came Woodstock's bad twin, Altamont, where the Hell's Angels worked security – and some stomped members of the audience. In 1970, the trial of the Chicago Seven began, and the Yippies focused their energy and money on freeing the defendants. Krassner and Ken Kesey decided to collaborate on 'The Whole Earth Catalogue Supplement,' the successor to the post-hippie bible, 'The Whole Earth Catalogue.' In the early 70's, the entire radical community began to dissolve as its members went their separate ways. Krassner returned to New York, where he continued to perform and publish a newsletter. In 1974, Krassner moved to Venice, California, to a house by the ocean a block from actor Dennis Hopper's house." Source: How Woodstock came to be Disneyland Memorial Orgy By Paul Krassner "When Walt Disney died, in 1966 ... [on] behalf of my magazine, The Realist, I contacted Mad's Wally Wood and, without mentioning any specific details, told him my general notion of a memorial orgy at Disneyland. He accepted the assignment and presented me with a magnificently degenerate montage, a detail of which you see here ... the feature became so popular that in 1967 I decided to publish it as a poster. Recently I found a carton of those original posters in my garage, and they're now available via my Web site, paulkrassner.com." Source: LA Weekly News   Wally Wood    Ken Kesey    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list   1932 Carl Perkins, (d. 1998) American country musician 1933 Jean-Paul Belmondo, French actor 1936 Valerie Solanas (d. April 26, 1988), feminist, author of The SCUM Manifesto. She is famous for her 1968 shooting of pop-artist Andy Warhol on June 3, 1968. Feminist Hate Pictures 1954 Dennis Quaid, American actor   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. Easter [ Varies ] Tamil New Year [ Varies ] Birthdays Passover [ Varies ] Astronauts Day [ Apr 9 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Holi Varies Purim Varies Mothers' Day (UK) Varies Ugadi Varies Gudi Padwa Varies Daylight Saving Time Begins / Ends Varies Ram Navami Varies Palm Sunday Varies Mawlid al-Nabi Varies Passover Varies Orthodox Holy Friday Varies Good Friday Varies Orthodox Easter Varies Easter Varies Baisakhi Varies Mahavir Jayanti Varies Hanuman Jayanti Varies Tamil New Year Varies Bengali New Year Varies Malayalam New Year   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 12 Big Wind Day 13 Thomas Jefferson Day 14 Pecan Day 15 Tax Day (USA) 15 Fast Food Day 16 Rubber Eraser Day 16 Freak-out Day 16 Leonardo da Vinci's Birthday 17 Stress Awareness Day 17 Eggs Benedict Day 17 Birthday Of The Queen (Denmark) 18 Cheeseball Day 17 Nosy Neighbour Appreciation Day 18 Time Out Day 19 Primrose Day 19 Cow Chip Day 20 Lima Bean Respect Day 21 Kindergarten Day 21 Birthday Of Charlotte Bronte 22 Earth Day 22 April Showers Day 22 Hot Dog Day 22 Jelly Bean Day 22 Oklahoma Day 22 Crawfish Festival (Florida, USA) 23 Cherry Cheesecake Day 23 St George's Day 23 Shakespeare's Birthday 24 Ambivalence Day 25 Cuckoo Day 25 Anzac Day (Australia) 25 Holocaust Remembrance Day 25 Anzac Day (New Zealand)   ... 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   193 Septimius Severus (146 - 211) was proclaimed Roman emperor, by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans). He was born at Leptis Magna, about 100 km (about 60 miles) south-east of Carthage, in Libya, and died at Eboracum (York), England. Upon his death in 211, he was deified by the Senate. 340 Constantine II (February, 317 - 340), Roman emperor, died. Following the death of his father in 337, Constantine II became joint Emperor with his brothers Constantius II and Constans. His section of the Empire was Gaul, Britain, Spain and part of Africa. In 340 he marched against Constans, in an attempt to take Italy, but was defeated in an ambush near Aquileia and died in battle. 491 Death of Zeno, Byzantine emperor. 879 Death of Louis the Stammerer, King of France. 1024 Death of Pope Benedict VIII. 1137 Death of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. 1241 Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeated the Polish and German armies. 1553 Death of the French bawdy writer, François Rabelais. Son of an apothecary, Rabelais was born in Chinon, France, in 1483. He became a Franciscan monk, but the boy was high spirited and with a keen sense of humour. He was transferred to the more relaxed Benedictines, but he was too much for them as well, so he left and became a physician. Published the satirical romance of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Accused of heresy and irreligion, but Francis I had read and liked Rabelais's work. Calvin thought he had found in Rabelais a Protestant, and wanted him to join him, but criticized him for the profanity of his writing. So Rabelais made Calvin the model for one of his satirical characters, Panurge. Rabelaisian a. pertaining to or like the coarse, uproarious humour of François Rabelais (16th-Century French writer).   1626 Sir Francis Bacon (b. 1561), the English philosopher, scientist, author, prominent Freemason and statesman, died in London. Francis Bacon, early English philosopher, shares a birthday with Lord Byron – Bacon on January 22, 1561, and Byron on that day in 1788. Bacon was Lord Chancellor of the realm, and man of letters, author of the Rosicrucian-inspired utopian New Atlantis (1627). The English poet Alexander Pope called him "The wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind". Pope also wrote, in 1741, "Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced." Many respectable scholars believe that it was actually Bacon who wrote the plays of William Shakespeare, claiming that the supposedly uneducated Shakespeare could not possibly have done so. While the theory is perhaps fanciful (we can deduce a little about Shakespeare's probable education), it has persistence. In 1621 Lord Bacon was accused of accepting bribes as Lord Chancellor. To this, he pleaded guilty and was fined £40,000, banished from the court and disqualified from holding office. He was also sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London. The banishment, fine, and imprisonment were remitted, but his career as a public servant was finished. However, such was his popularity and the public perception of his relative innocence, his disfavour with the Crown, the Lords and the people did not last long. When he was 21, Bacon met the alchemist and original 007, John Dee. On August 11, 1582 there was an entry in Dee's journal that they met at Mortlake – the young Bacon came to the famous alchemist to learn about the ancient Hebrew esoteric numerical code known as the Gematria, one of the oldest cipher systems known, dating from 700 BCE. Esoteric themes are threaded through much of Bacon's writing and we can only guess at Dee's influence. Bacon died on April 9, 1626, ironically, a victim of scientific inquiry. He was out riding in his coach on a cold day with Dr Witherborne, the physician to James I of England, on the Holloway Road to Highgate, near London. Always exercising his inquiring mind, Bacon had noticed that cold meats seemed not to go rotten as quickly as others, so it suddenly occurred to the great experimental scientist that flesh might be preserved in snow as well as in salt. The two men got out of the carriage and bought a hen from the cottage of a poor woman and helped each other to stuff the bird with snow by way of experiment. Sadly, poor Francis Bacon got a bad chill and could not return home, spending several days seriously ill at the nearby home of the Earl of Arundel, in a bed which was damp, having been unused for some time. His health deteriorated till the great man finally passed away. Highgate is reputedly haunted by the chicken's ghost. Against cold meats was he insured? For frozen chickens he procured brought on the illness he endured, and never was this Bacon cured. PW     ... It is evident also that the mispaginations in the Shakespearian Folios and other volumes are keys to Baconian ciphers, for re-editions--often from new type and by different printers--contain the same mistakes. For example, the First and Second Folios of Shakespeare are printed from entirely different type and by different printers nine years apart, but in both editions page 153 of the Comedies is numbered 151, and pages 249 and 250 are numbered 250 and 251 respectively. Also in the 1640 edition of Bacon's The Advancement and Proficience of Learning, pages 353 and 354 are numbered 351 and 352 respectively, and in the 1641 edition of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks pages 346 to 350 inclusive are entirely missing, while page 450 is numbered 442. The frequency with which pages ending in numbers 50, 51, 52,53, and 54 are involved will be noted. The requirements of Lord Verulam's biliteral cipher are fully met in scores of volumes printed between 1590 and 1650 and in some printed at other times. An examination of the verses by L. Digges, dedicated to the memory of the deceased "Authour Maister W. Shakespeare," reveals the use of two fonts of type for both capital and small letters, the differences being most marked in the capital T's, N's, and A's, (See the First Folio.) The cipher has been deleted from subsequent editions. The presence of hidden material in the text is often indicated by needless involvement of words. On the sixteenth unnumbered page of the 1641 edition of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks is a boar surmounting a pyramidal text. The text is meaningless jargon, evidently inserted for cryptographic reasons and marked with Bacon's signature--the hog. The year following publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623, there was printed in "Lunæburg" a remarkable volume on cryptography, avowedly by Gustavus Selenus. It is considered extremely probable that this volume constitutes the cryptographic key to the Great Shakespearian Folio. Peculiar symbolical head- and tail-pieces also mark the presence of cryptograms. While such ornaments are found in many early printed books, certain emblems are peculiar to volumes containing Baconian Rosicrucian ciphers. The light and dark shaded A is an interesting example. Bearing in mind the frequent recurrence in Baconian symbolism of the light and dark shaded A and the hog, the following statement by Bacon in his Interpretation of Nature is highly significant: "If the sow with her snout should happen to imprint the letter A upon the ground, wouldst thou therefore imagine that she could write out a whole tragedy as one letter?" The Rosicrucians and other secret societies of the seventeenth century used watermarks as mediums for the conveyance of cryptographic references, and books presumably containing Baconian ciphers are usually printed upon paper bearing Rosicrucian or Masonic watermarks; often there are several symbols in one book, such as the Rose Cross, urns, bunches of grapes, and others ... The forging of Shakspere's [sic] handwriting; the foisting of fraudulent portraits and death masks upon a gullible public; the fabrication of spurious biographies; the mutilation of books and documents; the destruction or rendering illegible of tablets and inscriptions containing cryptographic messages, have all compounded the difficulties attendant upon the solution of the Bacon-Shakspere [sic]-Rosicrucian riddle ... From 'Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicrucians', by Manly P Hall Bacon and alchemist, John Dee    http://www.sirbacon.org Summary of Baconian Evidence for Shakespeare Authorship Shakespeare? Bacon? Who wrote the Works? (looks at Bacon-like ciphers in Shakespeare) Did Shakespeare write Bacon's Essays?   Map of the Arctic by John Dee Yet more on Dee Francis Bacon and the Rose Cross    List of unusual deaths 1682 Robert de LaSalle 'discovered' the mouth of the Mississippi River, claimed it for France and named it Louisiana. 1731 The War of Jenkins's Ear was declared. A war about very little Robert Jenkins, British captain of the brig Rebecca, had his ship boarded off Havana by Spanish coast guards, who cut off his ear. In 1738, he was called to the Bar of the House of Commons, who used his case as a casus belli for a four-year war. A Very Oddly Named War Some of the consequences and little known events that took place because of this war. More   1747 Ninety-year-old Lord Lovat was executed on London's Tower Hill for treason. 1833 The first US tax-supported public library opened, in Petersborough, New Hampshire. 1844 Australia: William Clarke revealed his gold discoveries to the New South Wales legislature. 1860 The Pony Express began in the USA, the creation of three men, Russell, Major and Waddell. 1865 American Civil War: Robert E Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war. The two generals met at about lunchtime at the home of Wilmer McClean in the village of Appomattox Court House. Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant hastened the conclusion of the Civil War. In the weeks following, Confederate forces surrendered, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured. 1867 Alaska purchase: By a single vote, the United States Senate ratified a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska. 1869 The Hudson's Bay Company ceded its territory to Canada. 1908 US President Theodore Roosevelt investigated the legality of not only barring anarchist propaganda that advocates political violence, but also prosecuting those who produce the material. 1914 The first full-colour film, The World, The Flesh and the Devil, directed by F Martin Thornton, was shown in London. 1916 World War I: Battle of Verdun – German forces launched their third offensive of the battle. 1916 Sydney, Australia: Death of John Norton (b. 1857), the wealthy, influential and probably psychopathic Member of Parliament and publisher of the Truth scandal newspaper which published a number of items of the poems and prose of Henry Lawson among other Australian writers. Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson 1917 World War I: Battle of Arras – The battle began with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on the Vimy Ridge. 1919 The 8th 'Dada-Soirée', at the 'Kaufleuten-Saal'. During a reading of Walter Serner the audience began with interjections and finally some of them attacked the stage. The whole auditorium was in commotion and Dada-Zurich ended in chaos as it had begun. 1927 Massachusetts, USA: Death sentences for "those anarchist bastards" (quote from trial Judge Thayer during the trial) Nicolas Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were upheld.   excerpt ... AMERICA  By Allen Ginsberg ... America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood? I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles more so they're all different sexes America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe America free Tom Mooney America save the Spanish Loyalists America Sacco and Vanzetti must not die ...   1939 African-American contralto, Marian Anderson, sang at the Lincoln Memorial, after having been refused the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall. 1940 World War II: Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. 1942 World War II: Battle of Bataan – United States forces surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula. Approximately 70,000 Filipino and US soldiers, commanded by Lt Gen. Jonathan M Wainwright, formally surrendered to the Japanese, under General Masaharu Homma, which forced Japan to accept emaciated captives outnumbering them. Due to a shortage of trucks, captives were forced to march, beginning the following day, about 100 kilometres north to Nueva Ecija to Camp O'Donnell, a prison camp. At least 10,000 died. The Bataan Death March    More 1947 The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes killed 181 and injured 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, USA. 1953 Sixteen-year-old Abbie Hoffman agreed with Worcester Police Chief to distribute his father's drugs to the Red Cross, along with plasma, intravenous solutions, and cold compresses. Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list 1959 Mercury program: NASA announced the selection of the United States's first seven astronauts, who the news media quickly dubbed the 'Mercury Seven'. 1960 South African President Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was wounded in assassination attempt by white man, David Pratt. 1963 British Director David Lean won Best Director at the Academy Awards for his masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia, which also scooped another six Oscars. 1963 Winston Churchill became the first honorary USA citizen, posthumously. 1966 Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer, married Italian actress Sophia Loren, while still married to his former wife. Like, can you blame him? 1967 The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) took its maiden flight. 1969 The 'Chicago Eight' pleaded not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, USA. 1970 Paul McCartney issued a British High Court writ to wind up the Beatles business partnership, Apple. 1981 The longest scientific word (207,000 letters) ever contrived was published in Nature journal. 1986 The government of France ruled against the privatization of French automaker Renault. 1991 Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union. 1992 Manuel Noriega was convicted of eight crimes. 1997 Lateral thinking: Mad Cow Disease – while much of the world still shunned British cows, a Cambodian newspaper suggested that the animals be shipped to Cambodia and allowed to roam free and detonate the millions of land mines littering the country.   Source 1999 Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected president of Djibouti. 1999 Nigerian President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was assassinated. 2002 The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was buried in Westminster Abbey. 2003 The USA military faked the tearing down of the statue of Saddam Hussein for the world TV news. Trouble was, it was all organized by USA Army public relations professionals, and a classic piece of disinformation lapped up by compliant media. While many of us felt sure it was all an obvious crock, for United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the scene was "breathtaking". For the British Army it was "historic". For BBC Radio it was "amazing". For people who discovered how they did it, it was a cynical exercise of the George W Bush administration in deceiving the people of the United States of America, and of the world. On televisions around the world, the US government, with the complicity of media corporations and their 'embedded' journalists, told the lie that crowds of rapturous locals pulled down Hussein's statue in the main square of Baghdad. This, of course, was a utilization of the time-tested archetype the world is familiar with, especially from the time of the fall of the Soviet Union when statues of Lenin came tumbling down in many places. Military public relations officers must have seen the significance and thus staged the Baghdad event. Here's how it was done: What really happened Photos (such as the one at the head of this page) from a hotel adjacent to the square, plainly show US military vehicles and tanks preventing access to the square, with only a small number of people assembled at the statue. Because the manipulated media showed the world close-up footage and adroitly cropped photos of the so-called 'crowd', it falsely appeared that jubilant Iraqis were tearing down the statue. In fact, Rumsfeld's "breathtaking" crowd was basically just a few military and managed media personnel, and some Iraqis brought in for the photo opportunity, some of whom had just arrived from outside the country, it has been alleged. At the time, the true version of the events circulated widely on the Internet, including the Almanac, much to the anger of people worldwide. Army psyops (psychological operations) team responsible "As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel – not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images – who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking. "After the colonel – who was not named in the report – selected the statue as a 'target of opportunity,' the psychological team used loudspeakers to encourage Iraqi civilians to assist, according to an account by a unit member." Los Angeles Times: Source Adding insult to injury But wait, there's more. While Dubya scratches his head and asks "Why do they hate us?" the US military made yet another tactical blunder even bigger than this pretence that Iraq will now be happy and the US has finished its job there. To top off the charade, they clumsily revealed that they had not come on a spurious 'WMDs' mission but to gain control of some great oil-rich Middle Eastern real estate. This they did by draping a flag over the statue's head. An Iraqi people's flag? No, the stars 'n' stripes was unfurled, watched by simmering billions worldwide. The pulling down of Saddam's statue was a staged media event    Video of the action The Toppling Of Saddam Statue: An Eyewitness Report  The photographs tell the story News report exposes Saddam statue toppling as "staged event"    Stage Managing Toppling of Saddam Statue    Saddam Hussein Statue Falling US regime worse than Saddam, statue slayer says    Regrets of the Statue Man   More    More   2005 HRH Charles, Prince of Wales wed Camilla Parker Bowles.     Tomorrow: Some myths about Lenin    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     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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