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reetings from Australia. 

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Pip Wilson

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this done, we entred into the palisado, where we found many barres of Iron, two pigges of Lead, foure yron fowlers, Iron sacker-shotte, and such like heauie things, throwen here and there, almost ouergrowen with grasse and weedes. From thence wee went along by the water side, towards the poynt of the Creeke to see if we could find any of their botes or Pinnisse, but we could perceiue no signe of them, nor any of the last Falkons and small Ordinance which were left with them, at my departure from them. At our returne from the Creeke, some of our Saylers meeting vs, tolde vs that they had found where diuers chests had bene hidden, and long sithence digged vp againe and broken vp, and much of the goods in them spoyled and scattered about, but nothing left, of such things as the Sauages knew any vse of, vndefaced.
Richard Hakluyt describes finding the deserted settlement at Roanoke Island, August 18, 1590; Principal Navigations, Voyages of the English Nation, Vol. III, 1600

Old writers do call it [Houseleek] Jupiter's Beard, and hold opinion superstitiously that in what house soever it groweth, no Lightning or Tempest can do any harm.
William Bullein; Book of Simples, 1562 (St Helena's Day)

That which controls you has only two eyes, has only two hands, has only one body and but one thing which the least of men in all the cities has, but more than you all, it is the advantage which you give him to destroy you.
Etienne de la Boetie, French author, who died on August 18, 1563

It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly that one is led to say that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.
Etienne de la Boetie

Criswell: Greetings, my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future. 

Criswell: The ever-beautiful flowers she had planted with her own hands became nothing more than the lost roses of her cheeks. 

Criswell: My friend, you have seen this incident, based on sworn testimony. Can you prove that it didn't happen? 

Criswell: Perhaps, on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it... for they will be from outer space.
The Amazing Criswell, American psychic and actor, born on August 18, 1907; quotes above from Plan 9 from Outer Space
 
More memorable quotes from Plan 9

Ability is of little account without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who died on the island of Saint Helena, which was named for the saint commemorated on August 18

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoleon Bonaparte

There is no place in a fanatic's head where reason can enter.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.
Napoleon Bonaparte

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.
Napoleon Bonaparte

There is no class of people so hard to manage in a state, as those whose intentions are honest, but whose consciences are bewitched.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A true man hates no one.
Napoleon Bonaparte 

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.
Napoleon Bonaparte 

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The most dangerous moment comes with victory.
Napoleon Bonaparte

As a director, I wouldn't like me as an actor. As an actor, I wouldn't like me as a director.
Robert Redford, American actor and director, born on August 18, 1937

We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it.
Boris Yeltsin, 1995

August 18 is the 230^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (231^st in leap years), with 135 days remaining.
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Feast day of St Helena (St Helen), mother of Constantine the Great

(African marigold, Tagites erecta, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

St Helena (c. 248 - c. 329), the daughter of a British innkeeper, was the mother of the first Roman emperor to be converted to Christianity, Constantine I (Constantine the Great; 272 - 337).

England's Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that she was a daughter of British King Coel Godhebog, meaning 'King Cole the Magnificent'. Henry of Huntingdon, c.1129, wrote (Hist. Angl. I) that "Helena the mother of Constantine was a daughter of Coel", an early ruler or dux (chief) of Camelodunum (Colchester). (Her legendary father is not the same as King Coel Hen, meaning 'Coel the Old' – 'Old King Cole' of the nursery rhyme. See also A listing of King Coels of British Legend.)

It is possible that Helena joined her son's court from 306 when (on July 25) the Roman troops in York, England, proclaimed Constantine the successor of his father, Constantius Chlorus. However, we are not certain that she ever went to Britain (although the Roman author Polydore Vergil wrote in Historia Brit., p. 381: "Constantine, born in Britain, of a British mother, proclaimed Emperor in Britain beyond doubt, made his native soil a participator in his glory").

Her greatest achievement was the finding of the True Cross on which Christ died, which miraculously brought to life a corpse passed under its shadow. Bits of the cross found their way into churches all over Europe. The efforts of this remarkable woman later resulted in the discovery of the nails used to hold Christ on the Cross, the hay that filled the manger in which the baby Jesus lay, and bodies of the three Magi (Three Wise Men). Or, so it is said.

Helena died with her son, the Emperor, at her bedside. In art she is seen in royal robes, wearing an empress's crown, and sometimes carrying a model of the Holy Sepulchre, sometimes a large cross. Sometimes she also bears the three nails by which Jesus was hung on the cross. Her patronage includes archeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people and empresses.

Constantine was responsible for the renovation of many roads in Britain, and somehow Helen/Elene/Elaine has become associated with some of them. As Helen, Elena is goddess of the holy road, in particular the four royal roads of Britain. In Wales, some causeways and roads are called Sarn Helen. She is cognate with the Elaine of Arthurian romance.

More

 

Napoleon Bonaparte and Saint Helena

Napoleon Bonaparte, the military genius known contemptuously by the British as 'the Little Corporal', died in exile on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena.

The island was discovered by the Portuguese on May 21, 1502 (St Helena's Day in the Eastern Church - which is celebrated elsewhere on August 18). Napoleon lived there in exile from 1815 till his death in 1821.

In the year before his death he told Montholon, his secretary, "There is no more oil in the lamp". At the age of 51 he took ill and fell into a coma on May 5, 1821, dying only a few hours later.

His wife, the Empress Josephine, whom he divorced in 1809 because she did not produce a male heir, died seven years before the great dictator, but his last word was her name.

It is said that all the weeping willow trees in Australia are descended from cuttings taken from four trees that surround Napoleon's grave on St Helena. (More willow lore.)

Napoleon's grave still may be seen at Longwood, one of the two houses he lived in on St Helena (the other being The Briars). His remains were moved to Paris were they were interred at Les Invalides in a tomb made of porphyry from Finland. The emperor's body is contained in a series of six coffins of tin, mahogany, lead, ebony, and oak, and he is buried in uniform with his hat across his legs.

The Bois-Préau Château in France is a chateau that once belonged to Napoleon's wife Josephine, and is now a museum devoted to the period of Napoleon's life spent on St Helena.

 

"Nineteen years after Napoleon's death and entombment at St. Helena, his casket was opened to identify Napoleon before returning the body to France as the Emperor desired. Former attendants present, aged by nearly two decades, were astonished to see that the emperor's unembalmed body was almost perfectly preserved. Arsenic has checked the processes of decay in the triply enclosed and sealed coffin."
Source: The Assassination of Napoleon

 

"According to [Georges Rétif de la Bretonne; I Desire That My Cinders …), the corpse in the magnificent marble tomb in Paris is that of another Corsican, a vague look-alike named Franceschi Cipriani who served the Emperor on St. Helena as his maitre d'hotel, or butler. An old and trusted friend of the Bonaparte family, he sold out to the English and acted as their spy. His treachery finally discovered, he committed suicide (or was he murdered?) by taking rat poison. This happened three years before the death of the master he betrayed."
Mysteries surrounding the disinterment of Napoleon's body

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Vendémiaire | Brumaire | Frimaire | Nivôse | Pluviôse | Ventôse | Germinal | Floréal | Prairial | Messidor | Thermidor | Fructidor | Sansculottides   First day of month of Fructidor (Fruit month), French Revolutionary Calendar On October 24, 1793 the French National Convention adopted the French Republican Calendar (French Revolutionary Calendar) retrospectively as from September 22, 1792. Napoleon Bonaparte abolished it and restored the Gregorian calendar on January 1, 1806 (the day after 10 nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. However, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX). It was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the descriptive names of the months. Instead of most days having a saint as in the Catholic Church's calendar, each day has a plant, a tool or an animal associated with it. Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar. Each month lasted 30 days and was divided into three decades. Every day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the 5th (Quintidi) and 10th day (Decadi) of every decade, which had the name of a domestic animal (Quintidi) or an agricultural tool (Decadi). Autumn Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, 'vintage'), begins Sep 22, 23 or 24 Brumaire (from French brume, 'mist'), begins Oct 22, 23 or 24 Frimaire (From French frimas, 'frost'), begins Nov 21, 22 or 23 Winter Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, 'snowy'), begins Dec 21, 22 or 23 Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, 'rainy'), begins Jan 20, 21 or 22 Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, 'windy'), begins Feb 19, 20 or 21 Spring Germinal (from Latin germen, 'seed'), begins Mar 20 or 21 Floréal (from Latin flos, 'flower'), begins Apr 20 or 21 Prairial (from French prairie, 'meadow'), begins May 20 or 21 Summer Messidor (from Latin messis, 'harvest'), begins Jun 19 or 20 Thermidor (from Greek thermos, 'hot'), begins Jul 19 or 20 Fructidor (from Latin fructus, 'fruits'), begins Aug 18 or 19 Sansculottides The Sansculottides (also Epagomenes; French Sans-culottides, Sanculottides, jours complementaires, jours épagomènes) are the end of the calendar. They follow Fructidor and precede Vendémiaire of the next year, belonging to the summer quarter of the year. The Sansculottides, named after the Sansculottes, amend the 360 days of the calendar so that the beginning of the next year is on the autumnal equinox. There were five Sansculottides in a common year and six in a leap year (from this derives the French name of the leap year année sextile). The Sansculottides start on September 17 or 18 and end on September 22 or 23.   1re Décade 2e Décade 3e Décade Primidi 1. Pomme (Apple) 11. Salsifis (Salsify) 21. Bacchante (asarum baccharis) Duodi 2. Céleri (Celery) 12. Macre (Water Chestnut) 22. Azerole (Crete Hawthorn) Tridi 3. Poire (Pear) 13. Topinambour (Jerusalem Artichoke) 23. Garence (Madder) Quartidi 4. Betterave (Beet Root) 14. Endive (Endive) 24. Orange (Orange) Quintidi 5. Oye (Goose) 15. Dindon (Turkey) 25. Faisan (Pheasant) Sextidi 6. Héliotrope (European Turnsole) 16. Chervi (Skirret) 26. Pistache (Pistachio) Septidi 7. Figue (Fig) 17. Cresson (Cress) 27. Macjonc (Sweetpea) Octidi 8. Scorsonère (Black Salsify) 18. Dentelaire (Leadwort) 28. Coing (Quince) Nonidi 9. Alisier (Chequer Tree) 19. Grenade (Pomegranate) 29. Cormier (Service Tree) Decadi 10. Charrue (Plough) 20. Herse (Harrow) 30. Rouleau (Roller)   Source: Wikipedia    Website converts Gregorian calendar to FRC (and has desktop program) High resolution image of the calendar by Louis-Philibert Debucourt (951x1098, 486 KB) Antique Decimal Watches    Criticisms and shortcomings of the FRC   Julian day calculator (pop-up) Date converter for numerous calendars, including this one    Calendrica, great calendar comparisons The Book of Days index page shows the current day's date in the French Republican Calendar   Heraclia in Kynosarges, ancient Greece (Aug 12 - 19) Odin's Ordeal (Aug 17 - 25) Feast day of St Agapitus (Agapetus), martyr Feast day of St Aimo Taparelli Feast day of St Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga Hurtado Cruchaga's ministry included pastoring to the Chilean poor. He was a chaplain of the Catholic Action youth movement and founder of the Chilean Trade Union Association. More Feast day of St Clare of Monte Falco, virgin Feast day of St Crispus Feast day of St Daig Maccairaill Feast day of St Emidius (Emygdius; Æmedius, Emigdius) A cephalophore Christian martyr (c. 304 during the Diocletian persecution) and bishop also commemorated on August 5, Emidius was a pagan Teuton of Trier who became a Christian. He was ordained and consecrated a bishop by Pope Marcellus I (reigned 308 - 309). When Emidius cured a blind man, the people of Rome believed him to be the son of Apollo and carried him off by force to the temple of Aesculapius (Asclepius) on an island in the Tiber, where he reportedly cured many of the sick. Emidius declared himself a Christian, however, and tore down the pagan altars and smashed a statue of Aesculapius into pieces. He and his followers, Euplius (Eupolus; Euplus), Germanus, and Valentius (Valentinus), were decapitated at Ascoli Piceno, Italy, on the spot now occupied by the Sant'Emidio Red Temple. Emidius stood up, carried his own head to a spot on a mountain where he had constructed an oratory (the site of the present-day Sant'Emidio alla Grotte). A dazzling vision of Emidius deterred Alaric I from destroying Ascoli Piceno in 409. Or, so it is said. In 1703, a violent earthquake occurred in the Marche but did not affect Ascoli. As the city's salvation was attributed to Emidius, he was thenceforth a patron against earthquake. In the painting The Annunciation with St Emidius, by Carlo Crivelli (1486), the Archangel Gabriel kneels with St Emidius who holds a model of the town of Ascoli, of which he is patron. It was painted to commemorate the papal grant (1482) of certain rights of self-government to Ascoli's citizens. More Feast day of St Evan Feast day of St Firminus of Metz Feast day of St Florus Feast day of St Hermas Feast day of St James Guengoro Feast day of St Jeanne de Chantal Feast day of St John Feast day of St Juliana Feast day of St Laurus Feast day of St Leo Feast day of St Macarius the Wonder Worker Feast day of St Mary Guengoro Feast day of St Raynald of Ravenna Feast day of St Thomas Guengoro Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Buhe, Ethiopian Orthodox Church Today involves tying a bundle of sticks together to make a chibo, and setting it on fire while singing songs outside people's homes. Hope this isn't your birthday and you live in Salzburg, Austria In Salzburg, any child born on August 18 had to be tested for possible witchcraft. This is due to a local legend that an evil warlock was born on that day in 1638. Submitted by Almaniac Lynn Perry (USA); looking for primary sources       On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1587 Virginia Dare (d. 1588), first English child born in North America born to Ellinor White Dare (John White's daughter) and Ananias Dare at Roanoke Island 1750 Antonio Salieri, composer (d. 1825) 1774 Meriwether Lewis (d. 1809), American explorer who, with William Clark, led the first overland expedition to the Pacific Northwest (1804–06). It is a matter of speculation whether he committed suicide or was murdered. Some even suggest he might have died of malaria. 1830 Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria (d. 1916) 1896 Jack Pickford, actor, Hollywood's first 'bad boy', (d. June 7, 1996) 1904 Max Factor, Jr (Frank Factor), cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 1996) 1907 The Amazing Criswell (d. October 4, 1982), American self-styled prophet and actor (Night of the Ghouls; Orgy of the Dead). Criswell is best known for playing the host in what is often called the world's worst movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space. "Whereas it is true Criswell made the amazing forecast (on the Jack Paar TV special, March 10, 1963): 'I predict that President Kennedy will not run for reelection in 1964, because of something that will happen to him in November 1963' – Criswell also predicted ... the destruction of Denver, shifting polar caps, Castro's assassination, and the End of the World … "In 1955 issue of Spaceway Science Fiction, Criswell predicted that Mae West would be elected U.S. President in 1960 on a pro-space travel platform and fly to the moon with Criswell and friend George Liberace five years later!"   Source See foot of page for some amazing Amazing Criswell prophecies! 1917 Caspar Weinberger, former United States Secretary of Defense in President Ronald Reagan's administration 1918 Walter Joseph Hickel, former