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Heraclia in Kynosarges, ancient
Greece (Aug
12 - 19)
Feast day of Augustus
Caesar
Deified first Roman emperor
who lived from 63
BCE - 14 CE , remembered on this, his death
day.
Nigel
Pennick, The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont,
USA, 1992, p. 102 (Pennick places it at
August 29; most sources
give August 19 at the death day)
The
Deeds of the Divine Augustus,
by Augustus
Odin's Ordeal (Aug 17 - 25)
Egyptian
day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies
mala), unlucky day in Medieval
Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord"
was the associated saying.)
Feast day of
St Christopher
Robinson
Feast day of
St Ezekiel
Moreno Y Diaz
Feast day of
St Guenninus
Feast day of
St Guerricus
Feast day of
St Hugh Green
Feast day of
St James Denxi
Feast day of
St Joachim
Firayama-Diz
Feast day of
St John Eudes
Feast day of
St John Foyamon
Feast day of
St John Nangata
Feast day of
St John Yano
Feast day of
St Louis of
Toulouse
St Louis of Toulouse
(February 1274
- August 19, 1297)
was a cadet of the royal French
house
of Anjou who was made a Catholic
bishop.
The California
mission and city of San
Luis Obispo, California, are named after him and he is the patron
saint of Valencia,
Spain. He can be
recognized in iconography
as a boy bishop, often with a discarded crown by his feet.
More
More
Feast day of
St Magnus
Feast day of
St Mochta (Mochteus),
bishop and confessor
Feast
of the translation (repositioning of
her relics) of St
Nympha
(Ninfa), Palermo,
Sicily
Feast day of
St Sarah
(Sara)
St Sarah
is a Patron
Saint venerated
by the Roma
(Gypsy) people. She is also known as Sara-la-Kali (Sara the Black).
The centre of her cult is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer,
a place of pilgrimage
for Roma in the Camargue,
in southern France,
where legend identifies her as the servant of the two saints Mary (Mary,
mother of Jesus,
and Mary
Magdalene) commemorated in the town. An alternative legend has her as a pagan
of noble birth and being converted to the faith of Abraham.
More
at May 24 in the Book of Days (Feast of the Three Marys)
More
Feast day of
St Sebaldus (Sebald)
The patron of Nuremberg, Germany. He once told a peasant woman
to throw icicles in the fire because there was no fuel, and the fire
burned on. For this reason he is invoked during cold spells.
Feast
day of Ss Timothy of
Gaza, Agapius,
and Thecla,
martyrs
(Branched herb Timothy, Phleum panniculatum, is
today's plant, dedicated to St Timothy.)
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Afghan
Independence Day, Afghanistan
(see below: 1919)
Afghan Independence Day has at
various times been celebrated in Afghanistan
on August 19 to commemorate the Treaty
of Rawalpindi in 1919.
The treaty granted independence from Britain.
The day was celebrated until 1992, when mujahedeen
backed by the United
States overthrew the former communist
regime backed by the Soviet
Union. Civil wars and unrest prevented the celebrations. The Taliban,
who captured Kabul
in 1996 reinstated the holiday.
National Day of the Filipino Language, Philippines
Holiday for Quezon
City, Quezon
Province and other municipalities named after Manuel Quezon who
was born on this day in 1878.
National
Aviation Day, USA
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here
1631
John Dryden (d. May
12, 1700),
English poet and playwright who led the way in Restoration
comedy, his best known such work being Marriage
A-la-Mode, (1672). He savagely
attacked playwright Thomas Shadwell
in the poem MacFlecknoe, and attacked both Shadwell and Elkanah Settle
in part two of 'Absalom
and Achitophel'. In 1668, he was appointed to succeed William
Davenant as Poet Laureate,
a post which he lost when King James II
was deposed twenty years later.
1689 Samuel
Richardson, printer and author of
Pamela:
Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740),
Clarissa:
Or the History of a Young Lady (1748)
and Sir
Charles Grandison (1753), was baptised in Mackworth,
near Derby, England. Richardson had been an established printer and publisher
for most of his life when, at the age of 51, he wrote his first novel
– and immediately became one of the most popular and admired
writers of his time.
More
More late
starters and late achievers, in the Scriptorium
1744 Rev. John Brand
(d. September
11, 1806), British
antiquary,
born in Durham,
author of
Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain:
Including the Whole of Mr. Bourne's 'Antiquitates Vulgares' (1777), generally
referred to as Popular Antiquities, "with very large corrections and additions"
by William Carew Hazlitt, grandson of the radical English journalist and essayist, William Hazlitt. Like Miscellanies
Upon Various Subjects by John Aubrey
(1626 - 1697), the book catalogued and described the origins of many customs and became the standard British work on
folklore. After
Brand's death, a new edition embodying the Mss left by him, was
published by Sir Henry Ellis in 1813. Brand was appointed secretary
to the Society of Antiquaries of
London in 1784 and was
annually re-elected until his death.
The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs (1910) by T Sharper Knowlson
was based on Brand's Popular Antiquities. Sadly, at time of
writing the latter seems not to be available online, but references
to Brand's works may be found in the library
catalogue at the Society of Antiquaries
of London.
"Brand's lack of system in compiling his material was apparently mirrored in his employment. After his death, the Society's accounts were found to be in complete disorder.
"Brand had a guarded attitude to strangers but improved on acquaintance. He was especially warm to those interested in his own line of study. As well as his
Popular Antiquities (1777), based on Bourne's previous work, Brand left a vast mass of manuscript collections to add to that work. His
History and Antiquities of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was published in London in two volumes in 1789."
Source
Other
works Brand
family crest Brand
on 'will-o-the-wisp'
1870 Bernard
Baruch (d. 1965), financier
1871 Orville
Wright (d. 1958), American
pioneer of aviation
1875 Stjepan
Seljan (d. 1936), Croatian
explorer
1877 Pierre
Jules Ruff (d. 1942), Algerian anarchist and antimilitarist
who died in a Nazi concentration camp
1878
Manuel Quezon
(Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina; d. August
1, 1944),
first president of the Commonwealth
of the Philippines. In the Philippines he is considered the
second President,
after Emilio
Aguinaldo.
1883 Coco
Chanel (d. 1971), influential
French fashion designer. In 1931, Chanel was hired by movie producer
Samuel Goldwyn for one million dollars to dress his stars, including
Katharine
Hepburn, Grace
Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and
Gloria
Swanson.
"No doubt the sisters at the convent in Moulins,
who took her in when she was 17, raised their eyebrows when the
young woman left the seamstress job they had helped her get to
try for a career as a cabaret singer. This stint as a
performer--she was apparently charming but no Piaf--led her to
take up with the local swells and become the backup mistress of
Etienne Balsan, a playboy who would finance her move to Paris
and the opening of her first hat business."
Source
1892 Alfred
Lunt (d. 1977), actor
1902 Ogden
Nash (d. 1971), American
writer of mainly light and humorous verse
More
1906 Philo T Farnsworth (d. 1971), inventor, television
pioneer
1909 Jerzy
Andrzejewski, Polish novelist, short-story writer, and political
dissident.
Portrayed in Czeslaw Milosz's Captive Mind (1953), which revealed the problems of
intellectuals living under Stalinism. In the 1950s and '60s
Andrzejewski moved towards more or less open criticism of the
government, starting from the novel The Inquisitors
(translated 1960). His ambiguities of style and thought eluded
simplistic interpretation and several of his works went unpublished.
In 1979 he helped found the workers' defence committee (KOR) to
aid families of striking workers, who were jailed or dismissed from
their jobs.
Source: The Daily Bleed
1915 Ring Lardner, Jr
(d. 2000), actor, screenwriter
1916 Marie Wilson (d. 1972),
American actress
1919 Malcolm
Forbes (d. 1990), publisher
1921 Gene Roddenberry (d. 1991), author, producer
1925 Claude Gauvreau (d. 1971), Quebec playwright, poet
and polemist
1930 Frank
McCourt, author
1938 Diana
Muldaur, actress, dog breeder, dog judge (LA Law;
Star Trek: The Next
Generation)
1939 Ginger
Baker, drummer, trumpet player; with Jack Bruce
and Eric
Clapton in Cream;
later joined Clapton and Steve Winwood
in the 1969
group Blind Faith
Wilson's
Almanac Book of Days hip list
1940 Johnny
Nash, American pop
singer (I Can See Clearly Now)
1940
Jill
St John, actress
1942 Fred
Thompson, Watergate counsel, Senator from Tennessee,
actor (Cape Fear; Law & Order)
 1944
Skip Williamson,
American underground
comix artist, co-founder (with Robert
Crumb and Jay
Lynch) of Bijou Funnies and creator of
Snappy Sammy Smoot ("Don't wee wee on your teevee")
"In 1968, along with Robert Crumb and Jay Lynch, Williamson helped launch
Bijou Funnies, one of the earliest and longest-running underground comics titles. The Comics Journal says that
'Skip Williamson is still the quintessential underground comix
artist,' and that 'where [Robert] Crumb's primary comix aim was
introspective ... Williamson took a broader look, skewering both left-wing trendiness and right-wing overreaction to a time of much-publicized left-wing trendiness. Crumb's approach may have been more
... artistically legitimate, but to those struggling to make sense of the sociopolitical chaos, Williamson was frequently the
funnier.'
"During the 1970s and 80s Skip Williamson toiled in the carnal fleshpool of Hugh Hefner's
Playboy magazine where he created the 'Playboy Funnies' section and introduced millions of readers to his characters, the sordid Neon Vincent and the post-modern couple, Neil 'n' Void.
"Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, Skip Williamson continues to prod the plebeian rottweiler by self-publishing his own comic books
Naked Hostility, Class War Comix, Pigheard, Gag Reflex and the on-going title
Smoot, featuring his most famous character, the gullible and compulsive Snappy Sammy Smoot. Recently Williamson moved his home and studio to the Atlanta area where, down among the sheltering Southern Baptists, he intends to begin his fiery march to the sea."
Source
Hi Pip Wilson,
I just discovered my (Aug. 19) entry in Wilson's Almanac. Thanks, man. You might want to add a link to my new
website www.skipwilliamson.com
The Art & Life of Skip Williamson, from the rowdy days of the Underground
Comix movement, through his years at Playboy magazine to art galleries and
comix pages worldwide. Film-clips, animation, comix, and autobiographical
nihilistic rant lushly illustrated.
Skip Williamson, November 3, 2005
Comix,
comics and cartoons in the Book of Days More
More
 1946 Bill Clinton
('Slick Willy'; 'Talk from the left, govern from the right'), 42nd
(1993
- 2001)
President of
the United States.
This is how the White
House's official website describes that tricky stuff from the
closing years of Clinton's presidency:
"In 1998, as a
result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a young
woman White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to
be impeached by the House of Representatives. He was tried in the
Senate and found not guilty of the charges brought against him. He
apologized to the nation for his actions and continued to have
unprecedented popular approval ratings for his job as president." Source
William Jefferson Clinton's appalling record
"He has signed a bill providing for federal funds to be distributed to
'faith-based' charitable organizations.
"He has expanded the number of federal crimes for which the death penalty can be given to a total of sixty.
"He has signed a bill outlawing gay marriages and has taken out ads on Christian radio stations touting his opposition to any form of legal same-sex couplings.
"In a short span of time, he has been able to kick ten million people off welfare – that's ten million out of fourteen million total recipients.
"He has promised states 'bonus funds' if they can reduce their welfare numbers further, and made it easier to get these funds by not requiring the states to help the ex-welfare recipients find jobs.
"He has introduced a plan that would bar any assistance to teenage parents if they drop out of school or leave their parents' home.
"Though he is careful not to draw attention to it, he supports many of the old provisions of Newt Gingrich's
'Contract With America,' including lowering the capital gains tax.
"In spite of calls from Republican governors like George Ryan of Illinois to support a moratorium on capital punishment, he rejected all efforts to slow down the number of executions even after it was revealed that there are dozens of people on death row who are innocent.
"He has released funds for local communities to hire over a hundred thousand new police officers and supports laws that that put people behind bars for life after committing three crimes--even if those crimes were shoplifting or not paying for a pizza.
"There are now more people in America without health insurance than when he took office, even though he campaigned on the idea of universal health care. And universal health care has now been removed from the Democrats platform.
"He has signed orders prohibiting any form of health care to poor people who are in the United States illegally.
"He supports a ban on late-term abortions and promised to sign the first bill to cross his desk that includes an exemption only if the mother is in jeopardy.
"He has signed an order prohibiting any U.S. funds going to any country to be used in helping women secure an abortion.
"He signed a one-year gag order that prohibits using any federal funds in foreign countries where birth control agencies mention abortion as an option to pregnant women.
"He refused to sign the international Land Mine Ban Treaty already signed by 137 nations – but not by Iraq, Libya, North Korea, or the United States.
"He has scuttled the Kyoto Protocol by insisting that 'sinks' (e.g., farmlands and forests) be counted toward the U.S. percentage of emissions reductions, thus making a mockery of the whole treaty (which was written primarily to reduce the carbon dioxide pollution from cars and factories.)
"He has accelerated drilling for gas and oil on federal lands at a pace that matches, and in some areas exceeds, the production level during the Reagan administration.
"He has approved the sale of one California oil field in the largest privatization deal in American history, and he opened the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (something even Reagan wasn't able to do).
"And he became the first President since Richard Nixon not to force the auto manufacturers to improve their mileage per gallon – which would have saved millions of barrels of oil each day."
Source: Michael
Moore, Stupid White
Men, Chapter 10, 'Democrats, DOA'
If you came upon Bill Clinton
struggling in a raging river, and you had a choice between rescuing
him or taking a prize-winning photograph, what shutter speed would
you use?
Clinton
timeline
1946 Beat
Raaflaub, conductor
1948 Tipper
Gore, American author, activist for 'Parental Advisory'
labels on music
1952 Jonathan Frakes, actor, director (Star Trek: The Next
Generation)
1955 Peter Gallagher, actor (The
O.C.)
| reetings from Australia.
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