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It is read that the decollation of Saint John Baptist was established for four causes, like as it is found in the Book of Office. First, for his decollation; secondly, for the burning and gathering together of his bones; thirdly, for the invention and finding of his head; and fourthly, for the translation of his finger and dedication of the Church.
'Decollation of John the Baptist' in The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275, ('Englished by William Caxton, 1483')

... it is necessary to bear in mind that on account of the movable year of the old Egyptian calendar the true or astronomical dates of the official festivals must have varied from year to year, at least until the adoption of the fixed Alexandrian year in 30 (before this era). From that time onward, apparently, the dates of the festivals were by the new calendar, and so ceased to rotate throughout the length of the solar year. At all events Plutarch, writing about the end of the first century, implies that they were then fixed, not movable; for though he does not mention the Alexandrian calendar, he clearly dates his festivals by it. Moreover, the long festal calendar at Esne, an important document of the Imperial age, is obviously based on the fixed Alexandrian year; for it assigns the mark for New Year's Day to the day which corresponds to the twenty-ninth of August, which was the first day of the Alexandrian year, and its references to the rising of the Nile, the position of the sun, and the operations of agriculture are all in harmony with this supposition. Thus we may take it as fairly certain that from 30 (before this era) onwards the Egyptian festivals were stationary in the solar year.
Sir James George Frazer, (1854 - 1941), The Golden Bough, 1922

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

Pre-order F9/11 now!

Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD or VHS

 
The Book of Saints

The Encyclopedia of Saints

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Passion
Mel Gibson

A Guide to the Passion

 
Hathor Rising

The Search for God in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Paganism for Beginners

Bast and Sekhmet

The Goddess Sekhmet

The Great Goddesses of Egypt

The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

 

The Da Vinci Code

Breaking The Da Vinci Code

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM

Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It

What Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom Hartmann

How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World

Songs in the Key of W

Pagan Christianity

In Praise of Slowness

The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set
By CS Lewis

Hello Laziness!
By Corrine Maier

For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
By James Yee

The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids

Uluru

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Wheel of the Year

Women's Activism and Globalization

The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites

Bushwhacked

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

The Clash of Civilizations

Aborigine Dreaming

The Medieval Cookbook

The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe

The New Complete Hoyle Revised: The Authoritative Guide to the Official Rules of All Popular Games of Skill and Chance

Environmental Activism

Astro pic of the day

American Folklore

Permaculture

 
Canyon Trilogy

In the Sky I am Walking

Native American Medicine

Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation: Backstage With Barry Humphries

Sun Goddess

African Folklore

Daily Everything

A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore

The Edible Asian Garden

The Secret Language of Birthdays

For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman


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Mother Earth Spirituality

Wheel of the Year

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

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Nativity of Hathor, ancient Egypt

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor is the mother goddess and goddess of love. She was worshipped c. 2700 BCE or possibly earlier, to c. 400 CE, in a cult that flourished in Ta-Netjer ('Land of God' – modern day Dendera, or Dendara) in Upper Egypt, as well as Thebes and Giza, and her priests included both men and women. One Egyptian tale describes her as being seven goddesses.

"The 12^th day of Paopi is the birthday of Hathor. Hathor is a sky goddess who displaced Nut. She was also a goddess of beer and violence. She became merged with the frog goddess Hekt, a birth and resurrection goddess married to Khnumu. Before dawn, the Priestesses would bring Hathor's image out on to the terrace to expose it to the rays of the rising sun. The day ended in song and intoxication, rejoicing and carnival."   Source

Source of date: Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Egyptian calendar    On the dating of Egyptian festivals and rites

The first day of Thoth, which is the first day of the Egyptian calendar. Thoth is the Ibis-headed god of knowledge.   Source

Ganesh Chaturthi (Hinduism; date varies annually, approx. Aug 20 to Sep 15)

Feast day of Urda
"Urda is the oldest of the three Norns (Fates) and represents 'that which was'."
Pennick, ibid, 101

"Urda is who our Mother Earth is named for. She, along with her sisters, were older and had power over every other god. They lived in a cave at the source of the Fountain of Life, the Urdabrunnr, at the roots of the World Tree, Yggdrasl. The Runic half-month of Rad begins. Rad represents harnessing energy toward a desired end."
Source: Earth, Moon and Sky

 

Runic half-month of Rad commences
Denotes the channeling of energies in the correct manner to produce the desired results. 
Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Feast day of St Adelphus

Feast day of St Anne Gelede, Nigeria

Feast day of St Basilla

Feast day of St Candida

Feast day of St Euthymius of Perugia

Feast day of St Hypatius

Feast day of St Merry (Merri; Medericus), Abbot of St Martin's
Born at Autun, France, in the seventh century, as a boy Merry entered the monastery there, and was eventually elected abbot against his own inclination. The constant requests for consultations with him, and his own fear of becoming vain and proud about his position, led to his giving up the position. He hid out in a forest for some time, then earned a living with his own hands. Becoming ill, he returned to the monastic life. In old age, after a successful period as abbot, during which he edified his brethren, he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Germanus of Paris (also a native of Autun) in Paris. There he lived with St Frou, a companion, in a cell adjoining the chapel of St Peter, and died about the year 700.

Church of Saint-Merri

Feast day of St Richard Herst

Feast day of St Sabina, martyr
(Yellow hollyhock; Althea flava, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St Sabina of Troyes

Feast day of St Sebbi (Sebba), King of Essex

Feast day of St Sanzia Szymkowiak

Feast day of St Theodora of Thessaloniki, Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Commemoration of the August 29, 892 death of the saint.

Feast day of St Velleicus (Willeic)

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

O-Dan; L'Orient, one of the most important mystères, Voudon (Voodoo)   Source

Late August, Early September, Freeing the Insects, Japan

Gelede, Nigeria
"The Yoruba of Nigeria celebrate Gelede. This is a rite to control women past child bearing who are considered witches."   Source  

Rakshabandhan, Hindu (2004)           

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

This festival of India and of Hindu communities worldwide is the celebration of the special bond between a brother and a sister. Send a greeting to your siblings today.

"According to ancient traditions, it is customary to have protection threads that are charged with sacred verses (Mantras) and sanctified with rice, durva grass etc.; to have these tied by people who know the Vedas or by near and dear ones. This protection thread saves from sins on the one hand and removes diseases on the other hand. By tying this thread, protection is afforded for a full one year and all kinds of fears are removed. 

"Nowadays Rakhis are decorated with soft silky threads of various colours, and also with ornaments, pictures, gold and silver threads etc. These Rakhis enhance the artistry of the people. Within these Rakhis reside sacred feelings and well wishes. It is also a great sacred verse of unity. Acting as a symbol of life's advancement and a leading messenger of togetherness."   Source

Slovak National Uprising Day (1944, against the Nazis), Slovakia

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

1619 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French minister of finance

1632 John Locke (d. 1704), English philosopher (Essay on the Human Understanding)

John Locke, The Philosopher of Freedom

1780 Jean Ingres (d. 1867), French painter

1805 Frederick Maurice, (d. 1872) English theologian

1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr (d. 1894), American physician and author best known for his humorous essays and poems published in the Atlantic Monthly

1817 John Leech (d. October 29, 1864), English caricaturist. From childhood he was a lifelong friend of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, and both of them worked on Punch.

1843 David B Hill (d. 1910), Governor of New York

1844 Edward Carpenter (d. June 28, 1928), homosexual and early proponent of gay rights, utopian and libertarian socialist, poet, songwriter, pacifist. Influenced by William Morris. EM Forster described him as "a poet, a prose writer, a mystic, a manual labourer, an anti-vivisectionist, an art critic, etcetera".

"In 1893 Carpenter joined with Keir Hardie, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Mann, HH Champion, Ben Tillett, Philip Snowden, and Ramsay Macdonald to form the Independent Labour Party.

"After the House of Commons passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act that made all homosexual acts illegal, Carpenter had to abandon his campaign for sexual tolerance. In 1908 Carpenter returned to this theme with his book Intermediate Sex. Although the book created a great deal of hostility it had a strong influence on literary figures such as Siegfried Sassoon, DH Lawrence and EM Forster.

"Carpenter was a pacifist and opposed both the Boer War and the First World War. He played an active role in the No Conscription Fellowship and wrote important anti-war pamphlets such as Healing of Nations (1915) and Never Again! (1916)."

Source: The Daily Bleed and Spartacus

1862 Andrew Fisher (d. 1928), 5^th Prime Minister of Australia

1862 Maurice Maeterlinck (d. 1949), writer

1876 Charles F Kettering, inventor of the electric starter

1898 Preston Sturges (d. 1959), screenwriter

1915 Ingrid Bergman, Swedish-born Hollywood actress, nominated seven times for an Academy Award (Oscars: Gaslight, Anastasia and Murder on the Orient Express). She died on her birthday, August 29, 1982.

"She made only one film in 1942 opposite the great Humphrey Bogart in the now classic Casablanca (1942). Ingrid was choosing her roles well. In 1943 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), the only film she made that year. The critics and movie public didn't forget her when she made Gaslight (1944) the following year. For her role of Paula Alquist she won the Oscar for Best Actress. In 1945, Ingrid played in Spellbound (1945), Saratoga Trunk (1945), and Bells of St. Mary's, The (1945). Once again she received her third Oscar nomination for her role of Sister Benedict. With no appearances in 1947, she bounced back with her fourth nomination in Joan of Arc …  She continued to make films in Italy and finally returned to the Hollywood scene in 1956 in the title role in Anastasia (1956) which was filmed in England. For this she won her second Academy Award."   Source

"Folksinger Woody Guthrie wrote a song in praise of her, titled 'Ingrid Bergman,' but died before he had a chance to record it. The song can now be heard on Billy Bragg's 'Mermaid Avenue' CD."   Source

1916 George Montgomery (Letz [d. 2000]), actor

1917 Isabel Sanford (d. 2004), actress (All in the Family, The Jeffersons)

1920 Charlie Parker (d. 1955), jazz saxophonist, composer

1922 Richard Blackwell (d. October 19, 2008), American fashion critic, journalist, television and radio personality, artist, former child actor and former fashion designer, sometimes known just as Mr. Blackwell. He was the creator of the 'Ten Worst Dressed Women List', an annual awards presentation he unveiled in January of each year.

Obituary

1923 Lord Richard Attenborough, British actor and film director (Directed: Cry Freedom; Oscar for directing: Gandhi)

1924 Dinah Washington (d. 1963), singer

1933 Arnold Koller, member of the Swiss Federal Council

1936 John McCain, American politician

1938 Robert Rubin, former United States Secretary of the Treasury

1938 Elliott Gould, American actor (M*A*S*H; The Long Goodbye)

1939 William Friedkin, film director

1939 Joel Schumacher, film director

1941 Robin Leach, television host

1949 Richard Gere, American actor (American Gigolo; Pretty Woman; Shadow Over Tibet: Stories in Exile)

"Above all, Richard is a humanitarian. He's a founding member of 'Tibet House,' a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture. Richard has been an active supporter of "Survival International" for several years; that's a worldwide organization supporting tribal peoples, affirming their right to decide their own future, and helping them protect their lives, lands and human rights. (These tribes are global, including the Indians of the Amazon, the Maasai of East Africa, the Wichi of Argentina, and others.) In 1994, Richard went to London to open Harrods' sale, donating his £50,000 appearance fee to Survival. And Richard has been prominent in their charity advertising campaigns. Humanitarian Richard says, 'If people lose their land, they have nothing. You lose your land – you lose your culture, you lose self.' As for the duty of rich nations helping developing countries, Richard says, 'This planet can't exist anymore unless all peoples are taken into account.'"   Source

Tibet House

1958 Lenny Henry, British comedian and actor, active member of Comic Relief and a key member of their fundraising team.

More

1958 Michael Jackson, American pop singer (Albums: Thriller; Bad)

1962 Rebecca De Mornay, actress

Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section

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Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards National Parks Month [ August ] Birthdays Summer Janmashtami [ Varies ]

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
Varies Hindu holidays
Varies Graduation
Varies Raksha Bandhan
Early August Friendship Day
Varies Janmashtami
Varies Ganesh Chaturthi
Varies Onam
1st Sunday in Sep Fathers' Day (Australia)
1st Monday in Sep Labor Day (USA and Canada)

August

22 Be An Angel Day
23 Hug Your Sweetheart Day
23 Ride The Wind Day
25 Kiss And Make Up Day
26 Women's Equality Day
26 Cherry Popsicle Day
26 Toilet Paper Day
27 Just Because Day
27 Banana Lovers Day
29 Lemon Juice Day
29 Chop Suey Day
30 Toasted Marshmallow Day
31 Eat Outside Day

September

1 Cherry Popover Day
3 Football Day
5 Labor Day
5 Be Late For Something Day
5 Teachers' Day (India)
5 Cheese Pizza Day
6 Coffee Ice Cream Day
7 Do It Day
9 Teddy Bear Day
9 Hot Dog Day
11 Grandparents Day
12 Chocolate Milkshake Day
13 Positive Thinking Day
13 Programmers' Day
14 Cream-filled Donut Day
16 Independence Day (Mexico)
18 Women's Friendship Day
19 Thank You Day
20 Student Day
21 International Day Of Peace

  ... More Events

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25 BCE Christian Cross Asterism (astronomy) at Zenith of Lima, Peru.

30 CE (Traditionally), the date on which John the Baptist was beheaded. According to the Alexandrian calendar, which survives in the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches, this is New Year's Eve.

284 The first day of the 'era of Diocletian', according to 19^th-Century scholars.

708 Copper coins were minted in Japan for the first time. (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).

886 Death of Basil I, Byzantine Emperor.

1093 Death of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy.

1189 Ban Kulin wrote 'The Charter of Kulin', a foundation document of Bosnian statehood.

1261 Urban IV became Pope, the last man to do so without being a Cardinal first.

1475 The Treaty of Picquigny ended a brief war between France and England.

1484 Pope Innocent VIII, a staunch supporter of the Spanish Inquisition, was elected Pope

1521 The Ottoman Turks captured Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.

1526 Battle of Mohacs: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeated and killed the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary.

 

 

1533 The last Inca ruler of Peru, Atahualpa (born c. 1502), was executed on the orders (and perfidy) of Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro had promised Atahualpa's people that their king would be returned to them if the Spaniards received gold, but despite receiving many tons of the yellow metal, Pizarro had Atahualpa strangled.

At the Battle of Cajamarca, on November 16 the preceding year, Pizarro, with only 168 men, had conquered the Incan king in one of the most extraordinary battles of all time. Atahualpa had 80,000 battle-hardened soldiers who had recently defeated an indigenous enemy. However, the Spaniards had iron swords, guns, horses and armour, which the Incas did not.

Pizarro himself had grabbed Atahualpa from the litter, or palanquin, on which the great king was borne, calling out the Spanish war cry ("Santiago!", or "St James!") as he did so. The conquistador took Atahualpa prisoner and demanded a ransom, which the Incan king's subjects duly paid. The ransom was almost unbelievable – enough gold to fill a room 22 feet long by 17 feet wide to a height of over 8 feet. When it was delivered, the good Christian Pizarro reneged on his promise and had Atahualpa strangled to death.

The tragedy at Cajamarca was not the only occasion in 1532 on which Western technology was able to trounce Incan technology – for technology such as guns and steel swords, rather than fighting skills and valour – were what won the day. In his excellent, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs and Steel (Vintage, 1998), Jared Diamond, writes:

"During Pizarro's march from Cajamarca to the Inca capital of Cuzco after Atahualpa's death, there were four such battles: at Jauja, Vilcashuaman, Vilcaconga, and Cuzco. Those four battles involved a mere 80, 30, 110, and 40 Spanish horsemen, respectively, in each case ranged against thousands or tens of thousands of Indians."

Atahualpa and Cajamarca, one of history's most incredible battles, in the Scriptorium

More    Atahualpa    More    And more

1541 The Ottoman Turks captured Buda, the capitol of the Hungarian Kingdom.

1756 Frederick the Great attacked Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.  

1769 Death of Edmund Hoyle, author, teacher (b. 1672), who wrote on the rules of games. 'According to Hoyle' has become an expression in English.

Hoyle, also known as 'the father of whist' (a card game), was a Londoner with a passion for card games. He wrote a best-selling book, Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, which was reprinted many times. In 1748, it was eventually incorporated with his manuals on games such as backgammon, quadrille, piquet and chess, into one volume, Hoyle's Standard Games. This work brought him international fame, and led to the expression 'according to Hoyle', which has a meaning transcending its reference to the rules of games. 'According to Hoyle' also means 'ship-shape', 'correct' or, as the Macquarie Dictionary puts it, 'in accordance with the recognised rules'.

1782 The British 100-gun ship Royal George sank while undergoing repairs, with the loss of more than 900 lives.

1786 USA: Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, began in response to high debt and tax burdens.

1799 Death of Pope Pius VI (b. 1717).

1831 Michael Faraday demonstrated the first electrical transformer, London.

1833 Slavery in the West Indies was abolished.

1835 John Batman and his associates bought land from the aboriginal owners and established Melbourne, Australia.

1842 The Opium War ended when Britain and China signed the Treaty of Nanking.

 

1871 At the Meudon Observatory in France, astronomer Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827 - 1895) saw several flying objects high in the atmosphere. He described one object as descending like a disc falling through water. Ufologists suggest this might have been the first description of the 'falling leaf motion' that is known in modern UFO cases. Some sources say Trouvelot's objects resembled those seen at Basel, Switzerland, on August 7, 1566.

Trouvelot, by the way, made a living as an artist, painting mostly portraits, but he had an amateur interest in entomology. He was the person who introduced gypsy moths to North America, bringing them back from a trip to Europe between late 1868 and early 1869 with a view to raising them to make silk, a plan which failed. Over the next seventeen years, the gypsy moth population exploded and it is now a major pest.

Fed up with entomology, Trouvelot turned to astronomy and became famous for his illustrations of astronomical details of the sun and of Venus. In 1872 he was given a faculty position at Harvard University in astronomy. A crater on the moon was named in his honour and he won the French Academy's Valz prize for his astronomical research.

 

1862 Battle of Aspromonte: Italian royal forces defeated rebels.

1874 Dressed as a knight in bright metal, the famed French tightrope walker and 'Hero of Niagara' Charles Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet, 1824 - 1891) made several crossings of Middle Harbour, Sydney, Australia. Blondin stood on his head once or twice on the journey and at one point performed the feat blindfolded.

"Blondin then carried his secretary Mr Niaud on his back across the rope. In the middle of the journey Blondin bowed and Mr Niaud's hat fell off, further scaring the tense spectators below. Finally the chevalier concluded the performance by riding a bicycle across the rope. He rode it at a pace which would have been considered reckless on land.

"Blondin performed each feat with a coolness and casual calm that astounded the onlookers. He crossed the rope with a 'careful and often with a kind of jaunty air'. However he was at pains to emphasise the danger inherent in the act with his feints at falling and with the loss of Mr Niaund's hat. It was a skilful, astonishing performance. At its conclusion the large crowd acknowledged this with 'ringing cheers.'

"On Sunday 30^th August heavy winds struck Sydney and rumours flew that Blondin's tent had been levelled. The Sydney Morning Herald assured readers that this was mere hearsay. Only a couple of splicings had been damaged, although the canvas was taken down due to the gusts of wind. The paper reassured readers that the tent would be re erected for the next show on Monday August 31^st."   Source

Blondin's third performance was on Wednesday, September 3. "Saturday October 3^rd marked Blondin's last professional appearance in New South Wales. It was attended by a large crowd and was similar to the previous two performances. The next Monday, Blondin performed twice for the benefit of The Asylum For Destitute Children at Randwick and for The Asylum for the deaf dumb and blind."   Source

 The feat of crossing Middle Harbour was repeated on April 14, 1877 [qv] by Henri L'Estrange, an Australian daredevil who billed himself as 'The Australian Blondin'.

Blondin made his first Australian appearance at Brisbane's Botanical Gardens on July 25, 1874.

More Blondin in Book of Days

1885 Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first motorcycle

1896 Chop suey was invented in New York City.

1898 Goodyear tire company was founded

1907 The Quebec Bridge collapsed during construction, killing 75 workers.  

1911 USA: Ishi (c. 1860 - March 25, 1916), the last surviving member of the Yahi tribe and considered to be the last 'Stone Age' Native American, emerged from the wilderness of north-eastern California.  

Ishi chose to remain in Western civilization and helped anthropologists at the Anthropology Museum of the University of California Affiliated Colleges, San Francisco (now the site of UCSF), where he lived in apparent contentment for the rest of his life. While at the museum, Ishi was studied closely by the anthropologist Alfred L Kroeber (the father of fantasy author, Ursula K Le Guin). Ishi shared knowledge about his culture and beliefs, but, exposed to a society hosting diseases foreign to the Yahi, he contracted tuberculosis and died on March 25, 1916.

"In 1908 a group of men surveying for the Oro Light and Power Company inadvertently walked right into the hidden camp of the Yahis, whose population had by then been reduced to four. Three fled, leaving behind an old woman who couldn't walk. The surveyors left the woman unharmed, but took all the Yahis' possessions with them—blankets, acorns, salmon, traps, arrows, even a fire-making tool. Soon only one Yahi was still alive. Three years later he decided to join other humans, even though, given the facts of history, he probably expected to be killed.

"The people who found the silent and acquiescent 'wild man' called Sheriff J. B. Webber, who took him to the Oroville jail for his own protection. No one could communicate with him. Sam Batwi, one of the few remaining Yana people, was brought to try to talk with him because they were both Indians from the same general area. But although the Yahis were a part of the same linguistic group as the Yanas, their languages were not very similar, and the two men did not understand each other well."   Source

More

1918 More than 6,000 British policemen went on strike for better pay.

1929 The Graf Zeppelin completed the first airship 21-day round-the-world voyage, Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA.

1931 Mohandas Gandhi arrived in London as the representative of the Indian National Congress, for the second Round Table Conference on the future of India.

Epigrams from Gandhi    More

1934 The first American Scout Camp was established.

1943 German-occupied Denmark scuttled most of its navy; Germany dissolved the Danish government.

1944 The Slovak National Uprising took place as 60,000 Slovak troops turned against the Nazi rulers.

1949 The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1952 Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York.

1953 At Siracusa, Sicily, a sick woman prayed before a small image of the Virgin Mary. The statue began weeping, did so for four days, and the woman was miraculously healed. This called Our Lady of the Tears.

1958 The United States Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

1966 The last Beatles concert, in San Francisco (Candlestick Park).

1966 Execution of Sayyid Qutb, an important theoretician of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

1968 Democratic Party National Convention: Antiwar protesters clashed with police and national guardsmen in the streets outside, and hundreds of people, including innocent bystanders and members of the press, were brutally beaten by Chicago's finest.

"Thursday: Senator Eugene McCarthy addresses about 5,000 gathered in Grant Park. Several attempts are made to march to the Amphitheatre. A group of delegates try to lead a march but are turned back with tear gas. Dick Gregory invites all the demonstrators to his house, which happens to be in the direction of the Amphitheatre. This too is turned back, at 18th Street.

"Near midnight, the 1968 Democratic National Convention is adjourned. The arrest count for Convention Week disturbances stands at 668. An undetermined number of demonstrators sustained injuries, with hospitals reporting that they treated 111 demonstrators. The on-the-street medical teams from the Medical Committee for Human Rights estimated that their medics treated over 1,000 demonstrators at the scene. The police department reported that 192 officers were injured, with 49 officers seeking hospital treatment."   Source

1970 USA: Huey Newton offered Black Panther troops to the Vietnamese National Liberation Front.

1982 The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, was first synthesized in a German laboratory.

1990 A blockade by Mohawk Indians of a bridge on the St Lawrence River, Canada, ended.

1991 The Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

1997 USA: Serial killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz, bludgeoned to death Christopher Maier of Lexington, Kentucky, the first of nine victims.

2001 The MV Tampa affair: Captain Arne Rinnan of the Norwegian cargo ship, MV Tampa, having lost patience with the Australian authorities, and increasingly concerned for the safety of the asylum seekers and the ship's crew on board, declared a state of emergency and proceeded to enter Australian territorial waters without permission. The crew of the Tampa received the Nansen Refugee Award for 2002 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for their efforts to follow international principles of saving people in distress at sea, despite repeated threats of imprisonment and confiscation of the ship from the Australian government.

See also the SIEV-X affair in the Book of Days

2003 Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, was assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they left a mosque in Najaf.

2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing thousands and costing over 100 billion dollars in damage.

Hurricane Katrina timeline    http://del.icio.us/almanac/katrina

 

Tomorrow: Robert Crumb, comix genius

 

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