*Ø* Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine | Book of Days | August 1 | Lammas Lughnasadh Celtic pagan harvest feast festival Lleu Lugh wheel year handfasting Felix Sullivan Messmer Cleopatra

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Dry August and warm
Doth harvest no harm.
Traditional English proverb

The Sun with sultry Sirius now doth rise
And Jove's red lightning flashes from the skies:
The angry gods heaven's arm'ry open flings,
And whizzing bolts ride forth on burning wings.
Anson Allen; Newtonian Reflector, 1825

August is a wicked month.
Edna O'Brien, Irish writer, 1936; title of novel

The eighth was August, being rich array'd
In garment all of gold downe to the ground
Yet rode he not, but led a lovely mayd
Forth by the lily hand, the which was crown'd
With ears of corne, and full her hand was found.
That was the righteous Virgin, which of old
Liv'd here on earth, and plenty made abound;
But after wrong was lov'd, and justice solde,
She left th'unrighteous world, and was to heav'n extolled.
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 - January 13, 1599), English poet; Faerie Queen, The Cantos of Mutabilitie

As August, so next February
Traditional English proverb

A fog in August means a severe Winter and plenty of snow.
Traditional English proverb

A halo around August moon presages rain.
Traditional English proverb

Pale moon doth rain, red moon doth blow.
White moon doth neither rain nor snow.
Traditional August weather rhyme

My father –
He knew
How many beautiful August evenings
surround an ear of corn.
Robert Sund

Sigillum Dei Aemeth (The sigil of Dei Ameth, Seal of the truth of God)
Alchemists John Dee and Edward Kelley considered the mandala known as the Sigil of Ameth the most powerful and sacred of symbols. The sigil, a large waxen disc, was placed in several places on the Holy Table – beneath Kelly's scrying stone and under each leg. It contains names of God and various angels in arcane script.

The Emperor Octavian, called the August,
I being his favorite, bestowed his name
Upon me, and I hold it still in trust,
In memory of him and of his fame.
I am the Virgin, and my vestal flame
Burns less intensely than the Lion's rage;
Sheaves are my only garlands, and I claim
The golden Harvests as my heritage.
HW Longfellow (1807 - '82); The Poet's Calendar for August

If the first week in August is unusually warm, the coming Winter will be snowy and long.
Traditional English weather proverb

For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall in Winter.
Traditional English weather proverb

If a cold August follows a hot July,
It foretells a Winter hard and dry.
Traditional English weather proverb

In harvest time, harvest folke, servants and all.
Should make all togither good cheere in the hall;
And fill out the black boule of bleith to their song
And let them be merie all harvest time long ...
Once ended they harvest, let none be begilde,
Please such as did helpe thee, man, woman and childe.
Thus dooing, with alway such helpe as they can,
Thou winnest the praise of the labouring man.
Thomas Tusser (1524 - '80), Five hundreth pointes of good husbandrie: as well for the champion or open countrie, as also for the woodland or severall ; mixed in everie month with huswiferie, over and besides the booke of huswiferie, London: 'Printed in the now dwelling house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate Street at the signe of the starre', 1586. August is harvest-time in the Northern Hemisphere.

Grant, harvest-lord, more by a penny or two,
To call on his fellowes, the better to do;
Give gloves to thy reapers a largess to crie,
And daily to loiterers have a good eie.
Thomas Tusser

It was on a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonnie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held away to Annie:
The time flew by, wi tentless heed,
Till ‘tween the late and early;
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.

The sky was blue, the wind was still,
The moon was shining clearly;
I set her down, wi' right good will,
Amang the rigs o'barley
I ken't her heart was a' my ain;
I lov'd her most sincerely;
I kissed her owre and owre again,
Among the rig o' barley.

I locked her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly!
She ay shall bless that happy night,
Amang the rigs o'barley.

I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear;
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho three times doubl'd fairley
That happy night was worth then a'.
Among the rig's o' barley.

CHORUS

Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonnie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Among the rigs wi' Annie.
Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), Scottish poet

I shall have a fine book of travels, I feel sure; and will tell you more of the South Seas after very few months than any other writer has done – except Herman Melville perhaps, who is a howling cheese.
Robert Louis Stevenson referring (without explaining what a 'howling cheese' is) to Herman Melville, American author born on August 1, 1819; letter to Charles Baxter, September 6, 1888, Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vol. 2, Ch. X Source

Now, in the whale ship, it is not every one that goes in the boats. Some few hands are reserved called ship-keepers, whose province it is to work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale. As a general thing, these ship-keepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising the boats' crews. But if there happen to be an unduly slender, clumsy, or timorous wight in the ship, that wight is certain to be made a ship-keeper. It was so in the Pequod with the little negro Pippin by nick-name, Pip by abbreviation. Poor Pip! ye have heard of him before; ye must remember his tambourine on that dramatic midnight, so gloomy-jolly ...
Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe; a tribe, which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer, freer relish than any other race.
Herman Melville, born on August 1, 1819; Moby Dick, Ch. 93, 'The Castaway'

In sum, gentlemen, what the wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by this; that our wild whale-fishery contains so many of its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of mankind, except Sydney men, are so much distrusted by our whaling captains.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Ch. 54, 'The Town-ho's Story'

August 1 is the 213^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214^th in leap years), with 152 days remaining.
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August birthstones: Sardonyx, signifying marital bliss and faithfulness; peridot; aventurine.

Wear a sardonyx or for thee
No conjugal felicity.
Those August born without this stone
'Tis said must live unloved, alone.
Traditional English rhyme

Goddess month: Kerea and Hesperis

The month of August

August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days.

August begins (astrologically) with the sun in the sign of Leo and ends in the sign of Virgo. Astronomically speaking, the sun begins in the constellation of Cancer and ends in the constellation of Leo.

August was named in honour of Augustus Caesar (Octavian). The month reputedly has 31 days because Augustus wanted as many days as Julius Caesar's July. Augustus placed the month where it is because that is when Cleopatra died. Before Augustus renamed August in 8 BCE, it was called Sextilis in Latin, since it was the sixth month in the Roman calendar which started in March.

In Brazil, folk superstition associates bad luck to August, with the proverb 'Agosto, o mês do desgosto' ('August, the month of misfortune') being often heard. This may come from the sinister memories of the St Bartholomew's day (August 24), which is particularly dreaded in the North-east of the country. Incongruously, (folklore is rarely neatly consistent) there is also a tradition that August is a lucky month, as it is ushered in by Lammas (August 1) and in the Northern Hemisphere is a time of harvest and bounty. According to legend, the goddess Demeter left Olympus in August to dwell on earth. Her beneficent qualities are most apparent in this harvest month.

Sources: Wikipedia et al

The Anglo-Saxons called it "Arnmonat, (more rightly barn-moneth,) intending thereby the then filling of their barnes with corne" (Verstegan). Arn is the Saxon word for 'harvest'. According to some they also called it 'Woedmonath', as they also called June.

Neopagan tradition calls August the time of the 'Corn Moon' and it is described by Black Elk (Black Elk Speaks, 1932) as the 'Moon of the Black Cherries' or 'Moon when the Cherries Turn Black'.

Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days August poems and folklore

Names of the Month in Various Cultures

Scots Gaelic An Lunasdal, month of Lugh's feast

Aleuts: The Warm month

Ugric Ostiaks: Month of hay harvest

Tatars: Grass month

Karagasses: Month in which the lily-bulb is dug up

Kamchatka: Moonlight month (people fish by moonlight)

Yukon: Swans moult, young geese fly

Eskimos: Velvet-shedding (from the horns of the reindeer)

More at: School of the Seasons

Eight Stations of the Year (Sabbats) in the Book of Days

The Eight Stations are the equinoxes, solstices, and the midway points between them

Spring Equinox/Ostara May Day/Beltaine Summer Solstice/Litha Lammas/Lughnasadh

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Halloween/Samhain Winter Solstice/Yule Brigid/Candlemas/Imbolc

Helpful external links

Wheel of the Year at Mything Links Wheel of the Year at Wikipedia

School of the Seasons Calendars at Wikipedia Almanacs, calendars, time

Lughnasadh, or Lammas

Lá Lúnasa, the traditional first day of autumn in Ireland

The modern date for Lughnasadh, as for the other great Celtic festivals, Imbolc, Beltane and Samhain, is only an approximation made necessary by a solar calendar. In Ireland, the festival began in mid-July, and lasted till mid-August, but its main focus was August 1. In the (Ásatrú) (Asatru) tradition, that day is sacred to the Norse deities Odin and Frigg; celebrants used to ascend the spiral path of the Lammas hill, on way to Lammas festivities.

What is it?

In the Northern Hemisphere, halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, comes the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Lughnasadh, also called Lughnasa (or the modern Irish spelling, Lúnasa) and Lammas, one of the eight Sabbats – one of the High Holidays, or four Greater Sabbats – of the Celtic Wheel of the Year. (This is the least known of the four seasonal cross-quarter days. Certainly, Samhain (Halloween) and Beltane (May Day) get more press in our age.) In the Southern Hemisphere, some neo-pagans call this time Imbolc, after the station of the year directly opposite Lammas on the Wheel.

Lammas comes from Old English hlaf maesse, meaning ‘loaf mass', the Christian holy repast at which bread baked from the first wheat of the season was blessed. Many cultures have the ceremony of the first of the harvest being sacrificially given to the gods, or god; the ancient Hebrews offered their ‘first fruits' to Jehovah, just as the Bemanti clan of Swaziland offer theirs to their king during December's full moon, in the Ncwala ceremony. When Christianity came to the Celtic lands, most ancient festivals such as Lughnasadh were imbued by the Church with Christian symbolism, so loaves of bread were baked from the first of the harvested grain and consecrated on the church altar on the first Sunday of August, a tradition still enacted in many churches.

Some have claimed that the word is from Lamb-Mass, "because on that day the tenants who held lands under the cathedral church in York, which is dedicated to St Peter ad Vincula, were bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into the church at high mass; others derive it from a supposed offering or tything of lambs at this time" (William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online).

The similarity of the pre-Christian name Lughnasadh to the Christian name Lammas might be more than coincidental, but it is a contended matter. The etymology might go something like this: the Celtic word nasadh meant ‘commemoration', or ‘to give in marriage'; the Anglo-Saxons called this festival Lughmass; because it took place between the hay harvest and the corn harvest, the name was later confused with hlaf maesse; hence ‘Lammas'. We might, however, as easily assume that ‘Lughnasadh' means the ‘Marriage of Lugh, as ‘Lugh's Mass', a rather common interpretation.

Lammas free e-cards Celtic free e-cards pagans4peace

The Celtic Sun God, Lugh Lugh, Celtic sun god

The god associated with the season is a Celtic sun god, Lugh, whose name is related to the Latin lux, or, ‘light', and means ‘the shining one' (cf Lucia).

He was handsome, perpetually youthful, and full of vivacity and energy. Poet and author Robert Graves proposed that his name came from the Latin lucus (‘grove'), and even perhaps lu, Sumerian for son. Lugh was a deity cognate to Hercules or Dionysus, the Romans' version of the Greek god Apollo. Another name for him was ‘Lugh the Long Handed'. In Wales, he was called Lleu, or Lleu Llaw Gyffes, meaning ‘Lion with the Steady Hand'. Lleu means lion, related to the Latin leo. (Note that the Zodiacal sign of Leo is now in the sun.)

Although we are uncertain whether the Gauls' name of this Celtic deity was Romanised to Lugus/Lugos, (whom they identified with the god Mercury), or vice versa, we do know that the impact of both the name and the deity were widespread. Lyons in France, for example, was originally called Lugudunum, or the Fort of Lugus, and a festival formerly held there on August 1 was later renamed after Caesar Augustus who had assumed major deity authority. The European towns of Laon, Leyden and Carlisle (originally Caer Lugubalion) also were all named after Lugh, and the modern name Hugh also derives from the deity.

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Let the games begin!

Several important and hugely attended assemblies, all involving Olympics-like games, took place during Lughnasadh in Ireland, and there is growing evidence of such games throughout Europe, because Celtic culture took root from Ireland to as far as Galatia, the Middle Eastern town mentioned in the Bible (St Paul's Epistle to the Galatians – the word is etymologically related to ‘Celtia') ...

Read on at the Lughnasadh/Lammas page in the Scriptorium

The Gule of August

The month of August was the first in the Egyptian calendar, called Gule, which when latinized makes Gula, which in Latin signifies throat. Seeing the word at the head of the month's calendar, the Roman Catholic Church made the day a feast to the daughter of the tribune Quirinus, who was cured of a throat disease by kissing the chain of St Peter on the day of its festival. "Forcing the Gule of the Egyptians into the throat of the tribune's daughter, they instituted a festival to Gule upon the festival-day of St Peter ad Vincula."

(William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online)

On the dating of Egyptian festivals and rites

Feast day of St Peter ad Vincula, or St Peter's chains

(Stramony (Jimson Weed; Jamestown Weed; Thorn Apple; Angel's Trumpet; Zombie's Cucumber), Datura stramonium, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
The Roman Catholic church claimed to have one of the chains with which St Peter was bound, and from which the angel delivered him. The empress Eudocia brought the two chains in 439 from Jerusalem, sending one to Constantinople and the other to Rome. Over many years, the popes sent miracle-performing filings of it to devout princes.

"The enthronization of the pope in the Chair of St. Peter, Cathedra Petri, was formerly a very important ceremony, which took place at St. Peter's in Rome, or, exceptionally, in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula, where there was also a Cathedra Petri. This ceremony was performed immediately after the election, if the latter had taken place in the church of St. Peter, or before the coronation." Source

Webcam: Church of St Peter's Chains, Rome (the cleaning of Michelangelo's ‘Moses')

Healing of the insane at Strathfillan pool, old Scotland

"At Strathfillan, there is a deep pool, called the Holy Pool, where, in olden times, they were wont to dip insane people. The ceremony was performed after sunset on the first day of the quarter, O. S.,* and before sunrise next morning. The dipped persons were instructed to take three stones from the bottom of the pool, and, walking three times round each of three cairns on the bank, throw a stone into each. They were next conveyed to the ruins of St Fillan's chapel; and in a corner called St Fillan's bed, they were laid on their back, and left tied all night. If next morning they were found loose, the cure was deemed perfect, and thanks returned to the saint. The pool is still (1843) visited, not by parishioners, for they have no faith in its virtue, but by people from other and distant places."
New Statistical Account of Scotland, parish of Killin, 1843; in Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days)

[* The first day of quarters in Scotland is not same as in England and elsewhere. They are Candlemas, Feb 2; Whitsunday, (arbitrarily set at May 15); Lammas, Aug 1; and Martinmas, Nov 11. It's debatable whether to interpret these dates as OS (Old Style), or new.]

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The Games of Lugh

This is an old Celtic name for the Perseids, the most familiar of all meteor showers, that take place at around this time of year. Associated with the Swift-Tuttle Comet, the Perseids have been well documented since at least 830 CE and take their name from the constellation Perseus where shooting stars appear. We can well imagine ancient Celts looking upon these wonders and associating them with other phenomena of the season between the equinox and solstice, including the heat of the last of the Dog Days. They attributed the celestial display of Perseid lights to games being played by Lugh, 'the shining one'.

As is well known, most ancient cultures looked on meteor showers and other phenomena in the sky as having supernatural meaning. In pre-Zoroastrian India, the Perseids were the Pairikas, the prototypes of the Peris, the nymphs or female angels of later Persian tradition, and likewise the Parigs or witches of Manichaeism. The Pairikas, in the form of worm-stars, are said to fly between the earth and the heavens at this time. These ‘shooting stars' fall annually at about the time when Tistrya (Sirius) is supposed to be most active.

The remarkable annual appearance of the Perseids might explain why the ancient Egyptian Lychnapsia (‘Festival of Lights', or ‘The Lights of Isis') at this time of year was revered in the Osirian mysteries. In Arab folklore, shooting stars are traditionally said to be firebrands hurled by the angels against the inquisitive Jinns or Genii, who are forever clambering up on the constellations to peep into heaven.

In Greek mythology, Perseus (pictured) was the son of mortal Danae and the god Zeus.

More on the mythology and folklore of Perseus and the Perseids on August 10 in the Book of Days.

More

Festival honouring Xiuhtecuhtli (Xiuhtechuhtli; Huehueteotl, ‘old god'), god of fire and the calendar, Aztec
In Aztec mythology, the personification of light in the darkness, warmth in coldness, and life in death. Xiuhtecuhtli also represented food during famine. He was usually depicted with a red or yellow face and a censer on his head. His wife was Chalciuhtlicue.

At the end of the Aztec century (52 years), the gods were thought to be able to end their covenant with humanity. Feasts were held in honour of Xiuhtecuhtli to keep his favours, and human sacrifices were burned after the removal of the victims' hearts.
Source of date: Earth, Moon and Sky

Three Drimes, Greece
"The Greeks honor the first three days of August as a transition point in the year. Proverbs such as ‘August has come – the first step of winter,' and ‘Winter begins in August, summer in March,' reflect the sense of change which occurs on this quarter-day."
Source: School of the Seasons

Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

Kalends of August, ancient Rome

Day of the Dryads, ancient Macedonia
Dedicated to maiden spirits of wood and water.
Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Honey Day, Russia
Horses were brought to the church for a blessing on this day, and they were washed in the local river, which in turn was blessed by the priest.

Esala Perahera (Festival of Buddha's Tooth), Sri Lanka (Jul 22 - Aug 1) (2004)

Procession of the Cross, Orthodox Christianity
The Orthodox commemorate the Feast of the Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross on August 1, the day on which the relics of the True Cross would be carried through the streets of Constantinople to bless the city.

Feast day of St Aled (Eunid; Elined)

"Saint Aled (Euned) Welsh virgin from 6^th century. She was supposed to have been a young nun who refused marriage, seeking shelter in Llanfillo then at Slwch Tump. There she built a hermit's cell. She was found by the prince who caught her and cut off her head. A spring appeared where her head fell. A church was built on the site of her cell. The only accounts of her life seem to have been written by Gerald of Wales. The account seems to bear a similarity with the life of Winefride. Gerald describes her church as being close to Brecon castle and where people would gather for healing. There is also a suggestion of young people dancing in the graveyard, miming acts of work they should not have undertaken on the Sabbath before entering the church with offerings. These acts were presumed to gain remission for them." Source

Feast day of St Aleksy Sobaszek

Feast day of St Alexander

Feast day of St Almedha

Feast day of St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Feast day of St Aquila

Feast day of St Arcadius

Feast day of St Attius

Feast day of St Bonus

Feast day of St Brogan

Feast day of St Cyril

Feast day of St Domitian

Feast day of St Ethelwold (Aethelwold; Etholwold), Bishop of Winchester

Feast day of Ss Faith, Hope and Charity, virgins and martyrs (sisters of Rat Cunning)

Feast day of St Faustus

Feast day of St Friard

Feast day of St Jonatus

Feast day of St Justin

Feast day of St Kenneth

Feast day of St Leontius

Feast day of St Maur

Feast day of St Menander

Feast day of St Pellegrini (Peregrinus; Pergrinus) of Modena

Feast day of St Peter

Feast day of the Progress of the Precious and Vivifying Cross, Macedonia
Bonfires burn tonight, and a meat feast, for tomorrow the fast from meat will start, continuing until the Feast day of Assumption.

Feast day of St Rudolph

Feast day of St Rufus

Feast day of St Secundel

Feast day of the Seven Machabees, brothers, with their Mother, martyrs

Feast day of St Verus

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints

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

Homowo, or ‘Hooting at Hunger', in which the Ga people feast and have a mock famine, Ghana.
Source: The Daily Bleed

Late July-Early August, Ghanta Karna, Nepal
"The Ghanta Karna in late July or early August is a Nepalese festival celebrating the defeat of a demon guilty of such endless acts of slaughter and depravity that its mouth was filled with blood. In answer to the prayers of the suffering people, one Hindu god turned itself into a taunting frog who teased the demon into chasing it down a well. Villages stoned the trapped monster to death and burned the remains. Children wait at crossroads to collect money from passerby in order to raise funds to create effigies of the demon to be paraded through the town before being burned. A man of the untouchable caste takes on the persona of the demon and demands alms. Refusal to pay brings disease and bad luck. After the celebration, people go home quickly to avoid meeting the vengeful spirit of the dead demon." Source

Armed Forces Day, Angola

Emancipation Day, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago

"Visitors to Trinidad on Emancipation Day could be forgiven for thinking that they had landed in the middle of the island's famous carnival, as the streets of Port of Spain are transformed into a colourful fiesta.

"Events begin at least a month before the day itself with pre-Emancipation activities happening all over the island.

"On 1 August, a national holiday, thousands of Afro-Trinidadians clad in resplendent and intricately-designed African garb parade through the streets from the Brian Lara Promenade in downtown Port of Spain in celebration of the freedom given to their former slave ancestors over a century ago.

"These celebrations are the biggest in the Caribbean and have inspired similar events in other countries. The idea was carried back to Ghana following the participation of the country's president, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, in the 1997 festivities. Other notable guests in the past have included Winnie Mandela." Source

Emancipation Day, St Kitts and Nevis

"The purchasing of enslaved Africans was finally outlawed in the British Empire by an Act of Parliament in 1807. The abolition of slavery as an institution was not achieved until an Act of Parliament became law from the 1st August 1834. Emancipation was followed by four years of apprenticeship which was put in place to protect the plantation owners from losing their labour force.

"As a result the 1st August is now celebrated as a public holiday and is called ‘Emancipation Day'." Source

The pictures that reveal UK's hidden history

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News Online community affairs reporter

"For the first time the complex and sometimes harrowing history of immigration to the UK is being told, through rarely seen photographs, official documents, maps and personal papers. And it's all online …

"This picture was taken by a Royal Navy officer and early photography enthusiast in 1869, shortly after his patrol ship had intercepted a slave vessel bound from west Africa to the Americas .." Source

Pictured: Rescued slaves on board the Royal Navy ship

First Sunday in August, pilgrimage to the lake of Llyn y Fan fach, Wales
On this day, the faithful would make pilgrimages to Llyn y Fan fac, a lake near Llanddeusant in Dyfed, to watch for the fairy from this lake, who reappeared each year.

Annually in early August, Enshu no Hanabi fireworks festival, Fukuroi, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
This celebration is one of the largest fireworks displays in Japan, with more than 30,000 fireworks.

National Day, Benin

Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Liberation Army, People's Republic of China

Parents' Day, Democratic Republic of Congo

Fiesta Day, Nicaragua

El Salvador del Mundo, San Salvador, El Salvador

"Admittedly, El Salvador does seem to have a saint's day festival almost every other day, but El Salvador del Mundo is the biggest, best and most riotously celebrated across the nation.

"Although the festival proper is on 6 August, the festivities start at the beginning of August – to pay due respect to Jesus Christ, the ‘Divine Saviour of the World', El Salvadorans feel obliged to start partying well in advance.

"The best place to enjoy the action is in the capital, San Salvador. The city centre turns into a massive party, the plazas fill with dancers and the streets with floats and impromptu parades. The atmosphere is decidedly more carnival than religious, with music everywhere, clowns, street artists and crowds dressed in gaudy colours.

"When you're not drinking your umpteenth toast to honour the particular manifestation of Christ held sacred by Salvadorians, take some time to look around this former Spanish colony. Despite the civil war and frequent earthquakes, many old colonial churches have been preserved with their attractive white facades." Source

Celebration of the liberation of Haile Selassie from slavery, Rastafarianism

National Day, Switzerland

Feast of Kamál (Perfection)
First day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í Calendar, Bahá'í Faith

Army's Day (Eid al-Jaysh), Lebanon

Yorkshire Day, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

World Scout Day
Anniversary of the first day of the Brownsea Island Camp in 1907, where Robert Baden-Powell (1857 - 1941) began scouting.

Eisteddfod begins, Wales

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

10 BCE Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus; d. 54), Roman emperor

126 Pertinax (d. 193), Roman Emperor

1313 Emperor Kogon of Japan (d. 1364)

1368 Sigismund (d. 1437), emperor, king of Hungary and of Bohemia

1377 Emperor Go-Komatsu of Japan (d. 1433)

1476 Pope Paul IV (d. 1559)

1545 Andrew Melville (d. 1622), Scottish theologian and religious reformer

Sibly, Ebenezer: Astrology by Sibly
Public domain image courtesy of Liam's Pictures (what a nice guy!)
Part of the text is available as the second entry under necromancy here.

1555 Edward Kelley (d. 1597), alchemist, spirit medium and necromancer.

Edward Kelley (or Kelly) served the celebrated magician to Queen Elizabeth I, Dr John Dee (1527 - 1609), and attended Oxford under the name Edward Talbot. It was rumoured that he wore a black skullcap because his ears had been lopped as a punishment for forgery.

Besides the ability to summon spirits or angels on a crystal ball, which John Dee greatly valued, Kelley also claimed the secret of transmuting base metals into gold. Kelley's ‘angels' sometimes communicated in a special ‘angelic' or Enochian language which Dee and Kelley claimed was given to them by angels themselves.

Some modern cryptographers presume they invented it, possibly with the help of a cryptographic device called a Cardan grille. (It is not clear whether Dee was a victim or an accomplice of this farce.) Because of this precedent, and of a dubious connection between the Voynich Manuscript and John Dee through Roger Bacon, Kelley has been suspected of having fabricated that book too, in order to swindle Emperor Rudolf II of Bohemia (1552 - 1612).

Kelley wandered Europe, promising gold and the elixir of life (from Glastonbury) to the gullible. At first he was knighted, then imprisoned, by Rudolf. After two years in imprisonment , Kelly fell and broke his leg badly while attempting to escape, an accident that led to amputation. After another unsuccessful escape during which he broke his other leg, Sir Edward Kelley died, either by suicide or as a result of the poor conditions and treatment he experienced in Rudolf's prison.

Pictured: Kelley and Dee

John Dee and Edward Kelley Athanasius Kirchner

Did John Dee really sell the Voynich MS to Rudolf II?

Alchemists in the Almanac: Cornelius Agrippa Roger Bacon Count Cagliostro John Dee Robert Fludd Isaac Newton Paracelsus James Price Tycho Brahe Raymond Lulle Elias Ashmole

The Alchemy Web Site Wilson's Almanac Alchemy Clock (a bit of fun) Shop Alchemy

1579 Luís Vélez de Guevara (d. 1644), Spanish writer

1626 Sabbatai Zevi (Sjabtai Tswi; Sabbetai Tzvi; Shabbethai Tebi; d. possibly September 17, 1676), rabbi and Kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah

1630 Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (d. 1673), English statesman

1713 Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1780)

1714 Richard Wilson (d. 1782), Welsh painter

1738 Jacques François Dugommier (d. 1794), French general

1744 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (d. 1829), French zoologist who coined the terms vertebrate and invertebrate

1770 William Clark (d. September 1, 1838), explorer who accompanied Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

1779 Francis Scott Key (d. 1843), US poet who wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner', the American national anthem, on September 14, 1814

1819 Herman Melville (d. September 28, 1891), American novelist (Moby-Dick; Billy Budd), short story writer, essayist and poet. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten (despite a vogue for his early sea novels in Great Britain in the 1880s), but his longest novel, Moby-Dick won recognition in the 20^th Century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. Moby-Dick has become Melville's most famous work and is often considered one of the greatest literary works of all time. It was dedicated to Melville's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne.

His paternal grandfather, Major Thomas Melvill (sic), an honoured survivor of the Boston Tea Party who refused to change the style of his clothing or manners to fit the times, was depicted in Oliver Wendell Holmes's poem, 'The Last Leaf'.

Assassinations foretold in Moby Dick! (Parody of The Bible Code, by Michael Drosnin)

"A note to the credulous

"It has come to my attention that some people have taken this page as claiming that Moby Dick really predicted the assassinations of famous people. Please be assured that none of these patterns happened by other than pure random chance.

"No laws of probability are violated here, or even stretched a little. That is also true of Drosnin's book, which is the whole point of this page. Once you learn Drosnin's rules (none) and the method (a bit of messy programming) you can find things like this anywhere. The reason it looks amazing is that the number of possible things to look for, and the number of places to look, is much greater than you imagine." Brendan McKay Source

Skeptical Inquirer on The Bible Code

1824 Paul Broca (d. 1880), anthropologist

1857 Ida Craddock (d. October 16, 1902), American advocate of free speech and women's rights, and writer of very questionable sex guides, such as 'The Wedding Night'

More

1858 Hans Rott (d. 1884), composer

1863 Gaston Doumergue (d. 1937), politician and president of France

George Augustine Taylor takes off at Narrabeen

George Taylor takes off at Narrabeen

1872 George Taylor (George Augustine Taylor; d. January 20, 1928), Australian architect, engineer, editor of the Builder and a pioneer of commercial aviation, who flew a glider in the first heavier-than-aircraft flight on the continent of Australia. This he did, with his wife Florence Taylor, Australia's first female architect, on the same day, at Narrabeen, a northern beach suburb of Sydney, on December 5, 1909. (Harry Houdini flew the first machine-powered flight in Australia four months later on March 18, 1910.)

The glider they flew in was based on the box-kite constructions invented by world aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargrave, another New South Welshman. Taylor built a biplane with a box-kite tail for balance, from coachwood, covered with oiled calico.

Taylor was a dynamic character and also was worked as a cartoonist in the 1890s, manufactured 'bagasse', a cement-plaster around 1900, was involved in the foundation of the Institute of Local Government Engineers of Australasia and the Aerial League of Australia (1909), the Wireless Institute of New South Wales (1910), and the Town Planning Association of New South Wales (1913). His death came when he drowned in his bathtub as a result of an epileptic fit.

Taylor "became interested in martial technology and established a factory to make light craft, and worked on military uses of radio and telephony, founded the Wireless Institute of New South Wales 1910, Intelligence Section General Staff, World War I, began publishing Soldier 1916, helped found the Institution of Engineers, Australia 1919, Australian Inventions Encouragement Board 1922 and the Association for Developing Wireless in Australia 1923, worked on proto-television, achieving colour transmission in the mid-1920s, stopped publication of Soldier and began publication of Australian Home 1925, partly responsible for the 1927 Federal royal commission into wireless." Source

"On March 11 1910, a meeting in Hotel Australia, Sydney, decided to form "The Wireless Institute of Australia". The chairman of that meeting was Lt. (later Major) George Augustine Taylor.
"Two weeks later, on 28 March 1910, he transmitted the first military wireless signal in Australia." Source

George Taylor and the Dawn and Dusk Club

Taylor was a drinking mate of the poet Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922). They were both members of a drinking fraternity called the 'Dawn and Dusk Club', centred around the Bulletin group of artists and writers, and named after a book by one of its founders, Victor Daley (Dawn and Dusk, pub. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, July, 1898 to glowing reviews).

Foundation members of the Dawn and Dusk Club ('the Duskers'), formed around September, 1898, were Daly, Fred J Broomfield, James Philp, Herbert Low (journalist), William Bede Melville, Bertram Stevens and Randolph Bedford. It was formed at Broomfield's home on the corner of Ice Road and Great Barcom Street, Darlinghurst, near St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. Edwin Brady says the Dawn to Dusk Club's places of rendezvous were Giovanni's wine cellar, Paris House, the Coolalta, Pfahlert's Hotel, Joe Power's, and the Hole-in-the-Wall. (He wrote: "The place was largely determined by purse; French menu and wine when the going was good, biscuits and beer when the ghost limped rather than walked.")

Australian aviation history Early Australian aviation Florence Mary Taylor More

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

Related topic: Houdini flies in Australia, disputably first heavier-than-air machine flight

1885 George de Hevesy, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry 1943 (d. 1966)

1921 Pat Macdonald, Australian soap opera actress (Number 96)

1922 Arthur Hill, actor

1925 Ernst Jandl, writer (d. 2000)

1930 Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)

1930 Lionel Bart, British writer of popular songs and musicals (Oliver)

1931 Ramblin' Jack Elliott (b. Elliott Charles Adnopoz), American folk performer. He had a musical partnership with Woody Guthrie and was a big influence on Bob Dylan.

1931 Tom Wilson, cartoonist (Ziggy)

1932 Lowitja O'Donoghue (Lois O'Donoghue), AC, CBE, Aboriginal Australian health worker and administrator. She was Australian of the Year in 1984 and in 1990 became the inaugural Chairperson of ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission).

1932 Meir Kahane (d. 1990), founder of the Jewish Defense League

1932 Lady (Sonia) McMahon, wife of Australian Prime Minister Sir William McMahon

1933 Dom DeLuise, American actor

1936 Yves Saint Laurent, French couturier

1937 Alfonse D'Amato, New York Senator

1942 Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)

1950 Jim Carroll, poet, actor

1953 Robert Cray, singer

1956 Tom Leykis, radio personality

1959 Joe Elliot, rock and roll musician (Def Leppard)

1960 Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy); Richard Roeper, columnist for Chicago Sun-Times, film critic partner of Roger Ebert

1963 Coolio, rapper

1965 Sam Mendes, film director

1973 Tempestt Bledsoe, actress

1981 Ashley Parker Angel, singer

Horses' Birthday for all horses, regardless of their actual date of birth

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August

1 Respect For Parents Day
1 Girlfriends Day
2 Ice Cream Sandwich Day
3 Watermelon Day
3 Grab Some Nuts Day
4 Champagne Day
4 Coast Guard Day
4 Pie Day (Minnesota, USA)
5 Blackmail Day
5 Mustard Day
6 Halfway Point Of Summer
6 Cards For Sister
6 International Forgiveness Day
7 Lighthouse Day
8 Cheesecake Day
9 Send An Email Greeting Day
10 Lazy Day
10 Grab Some Nuts Day
11 Sons And Daughters Day
11 Chinese Valentine's Day
12 Thank You Day
12 Aloha Day
13 Left-Handers Day
14 Independence Day (Pakistan)
15 Sit Back And Relax Day
15 Independence Day (India)
16 True Love Forever Day
16 Joke Day
16 Roller Coaster Day
17 #2 Pencil Day
19 Daffodil Day
19 Soft Ice Cream Day
19 Spicy Food Day
20 Lemonade Day
20 Zoroastrian New Year
22 Be An Angel Day
23 Hug Your Sweetheart Day
23 Ride The Wind Day

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Cleopatra, from an ancient coin, and modern poster

30 BCE Roman emperor Octavian (later known as Augustus) entered Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.

Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony, born c. 83 BCE) committed suicide at the court of Cleopatra VII of Egypt (b. December, 70 BCE or January, 69 BCE) when he wrongly heard that his queen was dead.

Cleopatra later committed suicide (legend has it she clasped an asp, the royal snake of Egypt, to her bosom) when she thought she would be exhibited by Octavian (Augustus Caesar) in his triumph at Rome.

‘Asp' technically refers to a variety of venomous snakes, but in the case of Cleopatra's suicide it refers to the Egyptian cobra, which was sometimes used to execute criminals.

I've never been very fond of Elizabeth Taylor, but if I had to choose ...

371 Death of St Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop.

527 Justinian I became Byzantine Emperor.

607 Ono no Imoko was dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607).

1137 Louis VI ‘the Fat' of France (b. December 1, 1081; reigned 1108 - 1137) died and was succeeded by his son Louis VII, responsible for launching the disastrous Second Crusade.

1203 Isaac II Angelus, restored Eastern Roman Emperor, declared his son Alexius IV Angelus co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade.

1227 Death of Shimazu Tadahisa (b. 1179), Japanese warlord.

1291 Swiss Confederation: The cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden formed the Everlasting League, also called League of the Three Forest Cantons, the Eternal Alliance, or in German, the Ewige Bund, or Dreiwaldstätterbund, a confederation from which Switzerland was later formed. It was set up as a league for defence purposes against any attacker. The death of Rudolf I of Habsburg on July 15, 1291 probably prompted the alliance.

1216 The Virgin Mary appeared, with a host of holy virgins, to St Peter Nolasco, and said that it was the divine pleasure that he institute a new order under the title of Our Blessed Lady of Mercy. King James of Aragon had the same vision at precisely the same time.

1245 First Council of Lyons opened.

1291 The Swiss Confederation was formed.

1492 Ferdinand and Isabella drove the Jews out of Spain.

1461 Edward IV was crowned king of England.

1469 King Louis XI of France (reigned 1461-1483) created the Order of St Michael. The 36 knights of the order could only be degraded for three crimes: heresy, treason, and cowardice.

1498 Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover Venezuela.

1560 Scotland's Parliament abolished Papal jurisdiction and approved a Calvinistic Confession of Faith, thus founding the Church of Scotland.

1619 The first African slaves landed in Jamestown, Virginia.

1635 Guadeloupe became a French colony.

1714 Death of Queen Anne of England.

1714 George I of England (1660 - 1727) acceded to the British throne on the death of Queen Anne (b. 1665).

1774 The element oxygen was discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph Priestley.

1775 New World: Thomas Paine, Anglo-American political philosopher, published an article in the Pennsylvania Gazette supporting women's rights.

1776 Formal signing of the US Declaration of Independence.

1778 The first savings bank opened in Hamburg, Germany.

1790 The first census of the United States was completed. The total population of the thirteen states was 3,929,214.

1797 Those on board the convict transport ship Lady Shaw, one female and sixty male convicts, mutinied on the way to from Britain to Australia.

1798 Battle of the Nile started between French and British fleets. The British fleet led by Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir Bay, cutting Napoleon's supply route to the army in France.

1820 London‘s Regent's Canal opened.

1831 Notorious lothario King William IV of England (1765 - 1837) and his longsuffering consort Queen Adelaide (1792 - 1849) opened the new London Bridge.

1832 Black Hawk War ended.

1834 Slavery Abolition Act: Slavery was abolished in the British Empire, largely thanks to the untiring efforts of William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833), who died just weeks before the Act was passed, and a year before it came into force. Emancipation of slaves came into force throughout the Empire, after 400 years of British involvement in the trade. This ostensibly freed 770,280 slaves in British colonies … however …

"On August 1, 1834, the Emancipation Act came into force, after fifty years of bitter debate in Britain over the morality and profitability of slavery. It did not abolish servitude, but it was the first significant promise of freedom.

"This act did not make a difference to the more than half million slaves in Britain's Caribbean colonies, for although the Emancipation Act outlawed slavery in theory, the slaves had to wait another four years for the most elementary liberties.

"The government was afraid of liberating half a million slaves without controls, while the planters did not want their estates to collapse, as forced labour would no longer be available.

"The Emancipation Act simply transformed the slaves into apprenticed labourers for a further four to six years. The only slaves to be immediately free were those under six years old, while the incubus of slavery persisted for the others." Source

Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500-1850 More

1838 Victoria was crowned Queen of Britain.

1840 Transportation of convicts to New South Wales ceased.

1842 The Sydney Herald was renamed, becoming The Sydney Morning Herald.

1864 American Civil War: General Philip Sheridan took command of the Army of the Shenandoah.

1859 The first dog show was held, in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.

1869 "Flesh and blood fell for three minutes and covered over 2 acres of Mr. J. Hudson's farm near Los Nitos, California, on August 1, 1869. The day was perfectly clear and windless, and the flesh fell in fine particles as well as strips from an inch to six inches long. Short fine hairs also fell with it. In the article on this story in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin dated August 9, 1869 it was also reported that flesh and blood had fallen in Santa Clara County some two months earlier." Source

1873 Cable cars started operation in San Francisco, California, USA, operated by Hallidie's Clay Street Hill Railroad Co.

1876 Colorado was admitted as the 38^th US state.

1882 Henry Kendall (b. 1841), Australian poet, died in poverty, of 'consumption' (tuberculosis). His widow (Charlotte, née Rutter) survived him by more than four decades, and during the last few years of her life received a Commonwealth literary pension.

Louisa Lawson and Henry Kendall's grave

About four years after the death of Henry Kendall (pictured), Louisa Lawson (mother of Australia's foremost poet Henry Lawson as well as mother of Australian women's suffrage), although poor herself, began a subscription to raise funds for a suitable memorial at his grave, which had only had a simple cross marker in Waverley Cemetery until Louisa succeeded.

Lorna Ollif recounted the story (Ollif, Lorna, Louisa Lawson: Henry Lawson's Crusading Mother, Rigby, Sydney, 1978): Late in 1885, when an artist named Lowe (not David Low the cartoonist, who was not born yet) first came to Sydney (soon to work for The Bulletin), someone gave him the name of Louisa Lawson as someone who might give him lodgings. She couldn't put him up, but found someone who could. Louisa told Lowe of her concerns about the poor state of Kendall's grave, and as her new friend was also interested in Kendall, they went together to Waverley Cemetery to see it. While Lowe sketched the grave by the South Pacific, Louisa decided to take action. Soon after, she sold the artist's sketch on his behalf to the Sydney Mail, which helped Lowe get a start in Sydney. She then asked the editor to subscribe to a grave restoration fund, and he gave her two pounds (quite a lot in those days) "for her enthusiasm".

She got another two pounds from The Bulletin and continued fundraising. Soon Sir Henry Parkes and others chipped in, and Louisa Lawson's efforts were joined by Lady Carrington, wife of the Governor of New South Wales. Louisa saw that a larger plot was needed for the poet's monument, so from her own pocket (which was never a full one) she bought the plot adjoining where Kendall lay in his unkempt grave. Lectures and concerts helped the cause, but the more socially proper and influential members of the fundraising drive started by Louisa Lawson, having collected more money than was envisaged (including 80 pounds raised by the poor widow), had their own plans and without the knowledge of Louisa, had the body moved a short distance up the hill to a better view, and an elaborate monument of Australian stone and Italian marble, eight metres high, was soon erected, where it stands today. I used to live nearby and have admired it on a few occasions.

Unfortunately for Louisa, most of the credit for this act of recognition of Kendall, and for the monument, went to the better-heeled members of Sydney 'society'. And to top it all, Louisa was too ill to attend the ceremony on November 20, 1886, when Lord Carrington unveiled the tomb.

Now Louisa was left with an empty plot beside the former Kendall grave, and even at this stage she had plans that it would be for her son Henry, who she was quite sure would become a famous Australian and should one day rest in peace near that other Henry, who many believe she named her son after. Indeed, Henry Lawson is buried in that unpretentious plot, Grave Number 504, paid for by a woman who knew poverty most of her life, just as her son did. Louisa herself was buried in Rookwood cemetery, no doubt at her own request so that Henry could be on that Waverley hill. Up the hill from Henry Lawson is his indomitable mother's magnificent tribute to the great poet Henry Kendall, who also travelled hard all his life.

Ollif notes, "Henry Lawson died forty years after Kendall, and it was said that his death marked the end of the period in Australian literature which had begun with Kendall."

Henry Kendall Cottage Kendall's verse More And more

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1889 Germany: Reported rain of ants at Strasbourg.

1893 Shredded wheat was patented.

1894 War erupted between Japan and China over Korea.

1895 El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua formed the Central American Union.

1902 The United States bought the rights to the Panama Canal from France.

1902 One of Australia's most popular and enduring magazines for women, New Idea, was launched.

1909 The United States Army Air Corps was founded.

1914 Germany declared war on Russia.

1917 Death of Frank Little, IWW organiser, lynched in Butte, Montana, USA.

1919 According to the Literary Calendar, Doubleday published nine-year-old Daisy Ashford's The Young Visiters [sic]; or, Mt Salteena's Plan with James M Barrie's preface – leading the public to believe the famous Barrie (1860 - 1937), author of Peter Pan, to be the real author.

1923 Debut of Felix the Cat in a daily comic strip.

"Felix The Cat was the world's first cartooning superstar. But just who created Felix has become an international tug of war. For 50 years it was assumed Australian Pat Sullivan was the author. But in 1977 American animation historian John Canemaker claimed Felix was a yank dreamt up by Sullivan's sidekick Otto Messmer."
Source

Felix was the first cartoon character to attain a level of popularity sufficient to draw movie audiences based solely on his star power. Australian-born American film producer Pat Sullivan (born in Ivy Street, Paddington, Sydney, 1885 or 1887 - February 15, 1933) had brought Felix to the screen for Paramount Pictures in 1919, but it was Otto Messmer (August 16, 1892 - October 28, 1983), working for the entrepreneurial Sullivan, who actually created the cat that in the 1920s was the world's favourite animation character – by 1921 Felix was in 60 per cent of the cinemas in North America.

Pat Sullivan (pictured), who had set up his studio in 1915 and created his first film, The Tail of Thomas Kat (a Felix-style feature) in 1917, marketed Felix relentlessly, pioneering cinema-related merchandising and making a fortune in the process.

Such was the popularity of the cheeky cat (based loosely on Charlie Chaplin), the Sullivan studio turned out (churned out) 13 Felix films in 1922 alone; at Sullivan's death in 1933, there were more than 100 of them. In 1923, a song, 'Felix kept on Walking', was the most popular tune in England. By 1925, at the height of Felix's fame, three-quarters of the world's population could recognise him, it has been estimated, and Felix's image could be seen on clocks, Christmas ornaments, and as the first giant balloon ever made for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Felix was even the first image ever broadcast by television, when RCA chose a papier-mâché Felix doll for a 1928 experiment via W2XBS New York in Van Cortlandt Park. The image was chosen for its tonal contrast and its ability to withstand the intense lights needed. The doll was placed on a rotating phonograph turntable and photographed for approximately two hours each day. After a one-time payoff to Sullivan, the doll remained on the turntable for nearly a decade as RCA fine-tuned the picture's definition.

Felix's great success also generated a host of imitators – Walt Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Bosko, even Mickey Mouse himself were designed to look as much like Felix as possible.

Felix's famous magical "bag of tricks" was an addition to a rather more boring later Felix incarnation, in a series of 260 television cartoons from 1959 and 1960. Felix's voice in these vapid toons was performed by Jack Mercer, the voice of Popeye the Sailor.

The official website is www.felixthecat.com/. Curiously, the website's History of Felix page gives no mention of Pat Sullivan. The person most responsible for the cartoon cat, Sullivan or Messmer, has long been in dispute, as the ABC-TV (Australia) documentary tells.

"MICHAEL CATHCART: Pat Sullivan, having failed to establish himself in Sydney as a cartoonist, set out for London in 1909 to seek fame and fortune. What happened to him next is the stuff of a cartoon plot. He's a hard drinker, he's poverty-stricken and one day he goes aboard a ship bound for New York to farewell some friends and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he's on his way to the Big Apple where he jumps ship.
"LINDSAY FOYLE, CARTOONIST: By the time he got to New York, he'd done it tough. He'd slept on the Thames embankment when he couldn't make money in England. And he'd been a professional boxer, he'd been a vaudeville showman, he'd done everything. So I think by the time he got to New York and discovered animation and things that were happening there, he wanted to make the most of everything." Source

In 1933, Sullivan died of pneumonia and the effects of chronic alcoholism.

Mickey Mouse's debut, as Steamboat Willie Comix, comics and cartoons in the Book of Days

Reclaiming Felix the Cat Goose that Laid the Golden Egg (downloadable film) More And more

Toonopedia entry on Felix Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat Yet more

Click the thumbnail at right for the first Felix the Cat comic strip, which debuted in Britain's Daily Sketch on August 1, 1923 and in the US (The Boston American) on August 24 the same year. Although this was Messmer's work, note Sullivan's signature. 106kb, opens in new window.

1927 China: Formation of the People's Liberation Army.

1936 The Berlin Olympic Games were opened.

1941 The first Jeep was produced.

1943 PT-109, with Lieutenant John F Kennedy aboard, sank.

1944 Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary.

1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation broke out in Warsaw, Poland. General Tadeusz Komorowski, commander of Poland's Home Army, ordered his 40,000 followers to oust the German occupying forces from Warsaw.

1950 Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies committed Australian troops to Korea.

1950 King Leopold III of Belgium (1901 - 1983) abdicated.

1957 Approximate date of death of Bertha Lawson (b. 1877), writer, daughter of Bertha McNamara (née Bredt) and stepdaughter of WHT McNamara; wife of Australian writer Henry Lawson. Co-author with John Le Gay Brereton of Henry Lawson, By His Mates (1931).

Twenty years after Henry's 1922 death, she published a memoir entitled My Henry Lawson, co-written by Will Lawson (no relation; 1876 - 1957), who was inspired to literary pursuits by reading Henry Lawson, edited the publication Australian Bush Songs and Ballads (1944), wrote a number of novels including When Cobb & Co was King (1936), as well as historical and travel books, and became NSW secretary of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. English-born Will Lawson lived with Bertha at Northbridge, NSW from approximately 1943 until she died several weeks before him in 1957. A heavy drinker said to be ‘awkward in his cups', he wrote that Bertha "saved me from the grog".

1957 The completion of the first solar-heated commercial building.

1957 The United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1965 President Lyndon Johnson authorised the first use of American ground troops in the Vietnam War.

1965 Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announced her engagement to Claus von Amsberg.

1966 Charles Whitman killed 15 people shooting from a tower at the University of Texas in Austin, in the United States, before being killed by the police.

1967 Israel annexed East Jerusalem.

1969 US Mariner 6 sent back pictures of Mars.

1971 George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in New York features, among others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1975 The Helsinki Agreement on security and cooperation was signed by the United States and Canada, the Soviet Union and the countries of Europe (including Turkey but excluding Albania and Andorra). The agreement put the USSR in a position of having to improve its human rights or forego advantageous economic links with other nations.

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1976 Trinidad and Tobago became an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.

1981 First broadcasts by MTV. The first video played was Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles.

1985 The USA imposed sanctions on South Africa because of apartheid.

1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait with the tacit approval of the USA Government.

1991 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir accepted a formula for peace talks in the Middle East.

1994 Singer Michael Jackson and actress Lisa Marie Presley confirmed rumours that they had married eleven weeks earlier.

2001 In talks between the government and representatives of the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia, an agreement was reached on the position of the Albanian language in the Republic.

2001 Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia joined the European Environment Agency.

2001 USA: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore had a 2-1/2 ton Ten Commandments monument installed in the rotunda of the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office.

2002 "A Justice Department Memo ('The Torture Memo') requested by Gonzalez narrowly defines 'torture' under US law and the Geneva Convention, as limited to practices causing physical pain 'equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.' Specific practices like 'water boarding' are discussed and approved. The memo opined that laws prohibiting torture 'do not apply to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants,' because he is Commander-in-Chief of the US military. The author, Jay Bybee, has subsequently been appointed to a lifetime position as a federal appellate judge."

A Chronology of US War Crimes & Torture, 1975-2005

2003 Death of Marie Trintignant (b. 1962), French actress.

2004 Death of Philip Hauge Abelson American physicist (b. 1913), Nobel Prize laureate.

2004 A supermarket fire killed 215 people and injured 300 in Asunción, Paraguay.

2004 A bomb attack occurred in front of Prague's Casino Royal.

2005 German spelling reform of 1996 was formally implemented.

2005 Death of Al Aronowitz (b. 1928), American music journalist.

2005 Death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia (b. 1923).

2005 Death of Constant Nieuwenhuys (b. 1920), Dutch painter.

2005 Death of Wibo (b. 1918), Dutch cartoonist.

Tomorrow: Was England's King William Rufus a pagan sacrifice?

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Lammas

Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research.
I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude.
© My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.

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