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Pip Wilson

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Today is

And fill all fruit with
ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd,
and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel.
John Keats; from 'To Autumn'

"If you do not make these three oxen men as they were before, I will put you into a red-hot oven." She answers her: "No! go to such a dell, and take thence three hazel sticks, 4 and strike each of them three blows on the back." And she did what she told her, and they were changed into men the same as they were before.
Wentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 'Basa-Jauna, The Wild Man', 1879

The doctor always seems as if expecting you, and had full knowledge of your coming. He bids you be seated, and after looking fixedly on your face for some moments, his proceedings begin. He takes three rods of witch hazel, each three inches long, and marks them separately, "For the Stroke," "For the Wind," "For the Evil Eye." This is to ascertain from which of these three evils you suffer. He then takes off his coat, shoes, and stockings; rolls up his shirt sleeves, and stands with his face to the sun in earnest prayer. After prayer he takes a dish of pure water and sets it by the fire, then kneeling down, he puts the three hazel rods he had marked into the fire, and leaves them there till they are burned black as charcoal. Ali the time his prayers are unceasing; and when the sticks are burned, he rises, and again faces the sun in silent prayer, standing with his eyes uplifted and hands crossed After this he draws a circle on the floor with the end of one of the burned sticks, within which circle he stands, the dish of pure water beside him. Into this he flings the three hazel rods, and watches the result earnestly. The moment one sinks he addresses a prayer to the sun, and taking the rod out of the water he declares by what agency the patient is afflicted. Then he grinds the rod to powder, puts it in a bottle which he fills up with water from the dish, and utters an incantation or prayer over it, in a low voice, with clasped hands held over the bottle. But what the words of the prayer are no one knows, they are kept as solemn mysteries, and have been handed down from father to son through many generations, from the most ancient times. The potion is then given to be carried home, and drunk that night at midnight in silence and alone. Great care must be taken that the bottle never touches the ground; and the person carrying it must speak no word, and never look round till home is reached. The other two sticks he buries in the earth in some place unseen and unknown. If none of the three sticks sink in the water, then he uses herbs as a cure. Vervain, eyebright, and yarrow are favourite remedies, and all have powerful properties known to the adept; but the words and prayers he utters over them are kept secret, and whether they are good or bad, or addressed to Deity or to a demon, none but himself can tell.
How a fairy doctor treats a patient, Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, 'The Fairy Doctor', 1887

The hazel-tree has many virtues. It is sacred and powerful against devils' wiles, and has mysteries and secret properties known to the wise and the adepts. The ancient Irish believed that there were fountains at the head of the chief rivers of Ireland, over each of which grew nine hazel-trees that at certain times produced beautiful red nuts. These nuts fell on the surface of the water, and the salmon in the river came up and ate of them, which caused the red spots on the salmon. And whoever could catch and eat one of these salmon would be indued with the sublimest poetic intellect, hence the phrase current amongst the people: "Had I the net of science;" "Had I eaten of the salmon of knowledge." And this supernatural knowledge came to the great Fionn through the touch of a salmon, and made him foreknow all events.
Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde; ibid, 'The Properties of Herbs and their Use in Medicine'

"Should you ask of me the question,
How I recognized the bridegroom
Mid the hosts of men and heroes,
I should answer, I should tell you:
'As the hazel-bush in copses,
As the oak-tree in the forest,
As the Moon among the planets;
Drives the groom a coal-black courser,
Running like the famished black-dog,
Flying like the hungry raven,
Graceful as the lark at morning,
Golden cuckoos, six in number,
Twitter on the birchen cross-bow;
There are seven bluebirds singing
On the racer's hame and collar."
Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala, translated by John Martin Crawford, 'Rune Xxi. Ilmarinen's Wedding-Feast', 1888

But when the men came to the place where the field was enhazelled, there were all the hazel-poles set up to mark the ground where the battle should be.
Rev. WC Green, transl., The Story of Egil Skallagrimsson, Ch LII, 'Of the gathering of the host', 1893

The country people retaine a conceite, that the snakes, by their breathing upon a hazel-wand, doe make a stone ring of blew colour, in which there appeareth the yellow figure of a snake, and that beasts which are stung, being given to drink of the water wherein this stone hath bene socked, will there-through recover. This was clearly one of the so-called 'Druidic rings,' – examples of which may be seen in our museums, – which have been found in England and in Ireland.
Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, in Robert Hunt, ed., Popular Romances of the West of England, 'Adders, and the Milpreve', 1903, 3^rd edition

And the three things they put above all others were the plough and the sun and the hazel-tree, so that it was said in the time to come that Ireland was divided between those three, Coil the hazel, and Cecht the plough, and Grian the sun.
Lady Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland, Part I Book I: 'Fight with the Firbolgs', 1904

The Sons of Turann went searching for the Island of Caer, the Land that is under the Sea-Wave. They heard tidings of it in many places, but no one knew where it could be found. Wise Druids told them that the Island was protected by the magic of Fand, the Sea-Queen, the daughter of Flidias, and no one who went there ever returned.
The sun had risen and set many times on the search. Brian, Urcar and Ur were weary; the wind had failed hem, and they were labouring at the, oars: it seemed to them that they would never find the Island of Caer.
"Let us rest a little," said Urcar, "for my strength is spent."
They rested from the oars, and Brian cast a line over the side of the boat. He drew up a fish, white as silver and covered with. crimson spots.
"Brother," said Ur, "your fish is purple-spotted like the Salmon that swims in Connla's Well and eats the crimson nuts of the Hazel of Knowledge: let him go free for sake of his beauty."
Brian threw the fish back to the water, and suddenly knowledge came to him ...
Ella Young, Celtic Wonder Tales, 'The Eric-Fine of Lugh', 1910

Of Lir but little may be affirmed, and nothing can be revealed. In trance alone the seer might divine beyond his ultimate vision this being. It is a breath with many voices which cannot speak in one tone, but utters itself through multitudes. It is beyond the gods and if they were to reveal it, it could only be through their own departure and a return to the primeval silences. But in this is the root of existence from which springs the sacred Hazel whose branches are the gods: and as the mystic night trembles into dawn, its leaves and its blossoms and its starry fruit burgeon simultaneously and are shed over the waters of space.
Æ (George William Russell); The Candle of Vision, 1918

Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation?
Guy de Maupassant, French writer, born on August 5, 1850

Love means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being. We feel love as we feel the warmth of our blood, we breathe love as we breathe air, we hold it in ourselves as we hold our thoughts. Nothing more exists for us.
Guy de Maupassant

I went out to the hazel-wood
Because a fire was in my head 
Cut and peeled a hazel-wand 
Tied a berry to a thread 
And when white moths were on the wing
And moth-white stars were flickering out
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout ...
WB Yeats; from 'The Song of Wandering Aengus'

As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry, American author, born on August 5, 1934; Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front 

My work has been motivated by a desire to make myself responsibly at home in this world and in my native and chosen place.
Wendell Berry

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
USA President George W Bush, speaking to a roomful of top Pentagon brass, Washington, DC, August 5, 2004. No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted.    Source    And another source    Watch video clip

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August 5 is the 217^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218^th in leap years), with 148 days remaining.
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Celtic tree month of Coll (Hazel) commences  (Aug 5 - Sep 1)

Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Coll.

Hazels are a group of about ten species of trees and large shrubs that are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The botanic name of the genus is Corylus, and it is placed in the family Corylaceae, though some botanists include this family within the Betulaceae.

The nuts obtained from the species Corylus avellana are the common edible hazelnuts. This large shrub is grown extensively for its nuts. Nuts are also harvested from some of the other species, including the filbert, from the Balkan species Corylus maxima, however the terms hazelnut and filbert are often used interchangeably, particularly in the USA, where imported filberts were grafted onto native hazel rootstock.

The term 'filbert' may derive from 'full beard' (German vollbart), for its long, leafy husk, or simply because hazelnuts mature on or around the feast day of Philibert and Fabrician, August 22 (Middle English, from Old French (nois de) filbert, [nut of] Philibert). Both types are sometimes called cobnuts. There is also an Australian 'hazel' tree (Pomaderris apetala) grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and edible nuts.

Coll, the hazel, is symbolic of wisdom and druidry. Through its use by water dowsers, hazel symbolises divination of hidden or lost things.

Holy Rood Day, September 14, is traditionally known in Britain as Devil's Nutting Day (a custom which persisted in England until the First World War), or the Day of the Holy Nut, and hazel nuts gathered today are said to have magical powers. If you find two on one stalk on Nutting Day, they will guard against rheumatism, toothache and evil spells from witches. But you must not gather nuts early in the morning, as that is unlucky.

Prognosticating the future was always an important part of Samhain (Halloween), and European girls would look for signs of their future husbands in the way hazelnuts burned on the kitchen fire-grate, on 'Nutcrack Night' as Britons sometimes called Halloween. Hazelnuts' greatest magical potency is at Samhain, when the veil between the material and metaphysical worlds is thinnest.

Wishes are said to be come true if, when making the wish, one adorns the hair with individual twigs or with 'wishing caps' made of hazel twigs.

The cutting of hazel should be done at the waxing moon, because when the moon is waning, the sap of the hazel wood goes down into the root, leaving the wood brittle and without pith. Or, so it is said. The same is true of willow and pine (but you can cut gum trees at any old time if you're a fair dinkum Aussie).

Adam, Eve and hazel

According to one ancient legend, after banishing Adam and Eve from Eden, God gave both of them the power to create any animal he desired. To create this beast Adam had to strike the sea with a rod of hazel. The first animal that Adam created in this manner was the sheep, while Eve created a wolf which attacked the sheep. In order to control the wolf, Adam then created a dog. The dog overcame the wolf and harmony was restored. Thus, the mystical properties of Corylus was attached to humankind's breeding of the domestic dog from the wild wolf, with the former's abilities to protect humans and their husbandry from its ancestor.

The legend of Fionn MacCuill

In Irish mythology, MacCuill (Fionn mac Cumhail; Finn Mac Cumhaill; MacCool), one of the last Tuath kings, may have been so-called because he worshipped the hazel (coll). Hazel, in fact is associated with him in legend:

The ancient Irish believed that there were fountains at the head of the largest rivers of Ireland, over each of which grew nine hazel trees that at certain times produced beautiful red nuts. These nuts fell on the surface of the river, and when the salmon in the river came up and ate them, the fishes' flesh gained red spots.

It was believed that whoever could catch and eat one of these Salmon of Knowledge would receive praeternatural powers. (Moreover, it was hazel nuts that gave the bards their ability to write their poems and songs of the ancient legends.) A bard lived by the river Boyne, and caught such a salmon. The hero Fionn (Finn; Finne), who was studing under the bard for seven years, cooked the fish and burned his thumb. While it cooked, he burst a blister on the salmon, which burned his thumb; Fionn then sucked his thumb. As piece of the salmon's skin had become attached to his thumb, which Fionn then swallowed, thus gaining special knowledge, including precognition. He then knew how to gain revenge against his rival, Goal mac Morn, and in subsequent stories was able to call on the knowledge of the salmon by sucking his thumb.  

Pictured at right: Finn Mac Cumhaill (Before his encounter with Aillén the Burner) Stephen Reid, 1910

More folklore

The hazel tree and nut are allied to the supernatural or witchly in many lands. For the divining rod, which is, according to "La Grande Bacchetta Divinatoria O Verga rivelatrice" of the Abbate Valmont, the great instrument for all magic and marvels, must be made of "un ramo forcuto di nocciuòlo" – a forked branch of hazel-nut" – whence a proverb, "Vracarice, coprnjice, kuko ljeskova!" – "Sorceress, witch, hazel-stick." This is a reproach or taunt to a woman who pays great attention to magic and witchcraft. "This reveals a very ancient belief of the witch as a wood-spirit or fairy who dwells in the nut itself." More generally it is the bush which, in old German ballads, is often addressed as Lady Hazel. In this, as in Lady Nightingale, we have a relic of addressing certain animals or plants as if they were intelligences or spirits. In one very old song in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," a girl, angry at the hazel, who has reproached her for having loved too lightly or been too frail, says that her brother will come and cut the bush down. To which Lady Hazel replies:–

"Although he comes and cuts me down,
I'll grow next spring, 'tis plain,
But if a virgin wreath should fade,
'Twill never bloom again."

To keep children from picking unripe hazel-nuts in the Canton of Saint Gall they cry to them, "S' Haselnussfràuli chumt" – "The hazel-nut lady is coming!" Hence a rosary of hazel-nuts or a hazel rod brings luck, and they may be safely hung up in a house. The hazel-nut necklaces found in prehistoric tombs were probably amulets as well as ornaments.
Leland, Charles Godfrey, Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, 1891

Hazelnut and Filbert Recipes and Cooking Instructions

"Hazel produced record wind gusts at a number of locations. In Hampton, winds gusted to 130 mph; Norfolk had 78 mph sustained hurricane force winds with gusts to 100 mph. Washington National Airport in Arlington, VA had sustain winds reach 78 mph (over hurricane force) with a gust of 98 mph; Baltimore had a sustained wind of 73 mph with a gust to 84 mph; Salisbury recorded 52 mph with a gust to 101 mph and Philadelphia gusted to 100 mph ... Hazel caused a total of 95 deaths in the U.S. and over a quarter of a billion dollars (1954 dollars) in damages."
Hurricane Hazel, USA, October 15, 1954

Hazel Heb. luz , (Gen 30:37), a nut-bearing tree. The Hebrew word is rendered in the Vulgate by amygdalinus, 'the almond-tree', which is probably correct. That tree flourishes in Syria.

"The Gaelic word for hazel is Coll. It appears frequently in placenames in the west of Scotland, such as the Isle of Coll and Bar Calltuin in Appin, both in Argyll-shire where the tree and its eponymous placenames are the most common. It also appears in the name of Clan Colquhoun whose clan badge is the hazel. The English name for the tree and its nut is derived from the Anglo-Saxon haesel knut, haesel meaning cap or hat, thus referring to the cap of leaves on the nut on the tree."
Mythology and folklore of the hazel

The cock and hen a-nutting (Norse folk tale)

Witch hazel

The nones of August, ancient Rome

In the Roman calendar, the nones of a month were the fifth day of the months January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December, and the seventh day of March, May, July, and October; traditionally the day of the Half Moon. The nones were nine days before the ides (depending on the month, these could be the 13^th and 15^th day; traditionally the day of the Full Moon), reckoning inclusively, according to the Roman method.

The term none came into Christian liturgical use, meaning 'the fifth of the seven canonical hours' (no longer used) or 'the time of day appointed for this service, usually the ninth hour after sunrise'.

"While the Lares and Di Penates are honored every day in the pious Roman household, the Nones (celebrated on either the 5th or 7th day of the month; see the Calendar) are days when a more elaborate ceremony should be observed. The Nones are sacred to Iuno Covella (Iuno of the Hollow Moon).

"The Nones ritual is usually celebrated early in the morning at sunrise by the head of the household (usually the eldest male). If circumstances (or family tradition) dictate, it may be performed at noon or before sunset. No sexual activity is permitted prior to the rite. The performer of the rite does not break his fast prior to performing the rite (if celebrated at sunrise); only a little tea or coffee is permitted.

"Before the rite the Paterfamilias washes his hands (having also previously bathed or showered beforehand) while saying the prayer for ablution …"
Nones Ritual

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Feast day of St Oswald of Bernicia (Oswald of Northumbria), King of Northumbria and martyr English King of Northumbria and saint, Oswald (604 - 642) was son of the pagan King Aethelfrith the Ravager of Bernicia and Princess Aacha of Deira, the second of seven children. How much Anglo-Saxon pagans suffered at his sainted hand, we shall probably never know. Oswald, a benefactor of the poor, was sitting eating one day, when crowds of beggars came and he gave them food from his own table. There was insufficient to feed them all, so he had one of his silver dishes cut into pieces to distribute among the rest. Aidanus, a Scottish bishop, took him by the hand and blessed his hand, saying "Nunquam inveterascat haec manus!" ("May this hand never perish!"). On  August 5, 642, Oswald lost his life in the Battle of Maserfield with a neighbouring king, Penda of Mercia (d. 654 or 655); his friends, remembering Aidanus's blessing, took care to preserve his arm. The saint's body had been hacked to pieces on the battle field, and his head and arms stuck triumphantly stuck on poles. One of his arms was taken to an ash tree by Oswald's pet raven, and where the arm fell to the ground, a holy well sprang up. According to Bede, the place of his death came to be associated with miracles; people took so much dirt from the site, a hole was dug as deep as a man's height. The arm of St Oswald was kept at Peterborough Cathedral, England, and held in special esteem because King Stephen once came to see it. When the monks washed the bones prior to enshrinement, they poured the water onto the ground nearby and the locals came to believe that the ground had power to heal. Now, it is enshrined as a relic in the Bamburgh church. Picture of St Oswald's Church, Oswestry, Shropshire, UK where you will also find a link to shopping in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. And if you can say that, they should give you a shopping voucher. More   Clipping the Church Day, Guiseley, England At the Yorkshire, UK village of Guisely, on St Oswald's Day, it is a day to carry out the ancient custom of forming a human ring around the church. During the 9:30 am service on that day, the congregation led by the choir, churchwardens, and clergy process out of, and around the church singing Saint Oswald's Ballad. Then all join hands to encircle (clip) the church and say 'God Bless our Church' three times. For a reason I cannot divine, this church celebrates St Oswald's Day on the first Sunday in July. Other 'clipping the church' customs in the UK Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11) Feast day of St Abel Feast day of St Addai Feast day of St Afra, and companions (her mother, Hilaria, and the servants Digna, Eunomia and Eprepria), martyrs Feast day of St Aggai Feast day of St Cantidius Feast day of St Cassian of Autun Feast day of the Dedication of St Mary ad Nives (Our Lady of the Snows; Dedication of Saint Mary Major) (Egyptian water lily, Nelumbo nilotica, is today's plant, dedicated to this feast.) A feast day to commemorate the dedication of a church on the Equiline Hill, Rome. A silver image of the infant Jesus is on display in an underground chapel; touching it excited the religious fervour of such saints as Jerome and Paula. "The legend says that during the pontificate of Liberius, the Roman patrician John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to Our Lady. They prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. On 5 August, during the night, snow fell on the summit of the Esquiline Hill."   Source   Feast day of St Emidius (Emygdius; Æmedius, Emigdius) A cephalophore Christian martyr (c. 304 during the Diocletian persecution) and bishop also commemorated on August 18, 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 Gormeal Feast day of St James Gerius Feast day of St Mari Feast day of St Memmius, or Menge, first bishop and apostle of Chalons-sur-Marne Feast day of St Nonna Feast day of St Our Lady of Copacabana Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Benediction of the Sea, Bretagne, France Going out in boats, priests bless the water over the sunken fairy city of Ys, to keep the waterlogged fairies from mischief. Rush-Bearing Day, Grasmere, England On or near St Oswald's Day, children carry garlands and rushes to the churchyard where the poet Wordsworth is buried. "The custom of bearing rushes to the church comes from the time when houses and churches had earthern floors and rushes were strewn for warmth.  Several times a year, but most thoroughly in summer, they were renewed.  The custom of taking these rushes to church gradually developed into a religious festival, held annually on the feast day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated."   Source Rushbearing.com    More Independence Days, Bolivia (Aug 5, 6 and 7) Independence Day, Burkina Faso Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, Croatia First Thursday in August, Hat and Ribbon Race, Inverkeithing, near Dunfermline, Scotland  "The quaintly-named Hat and Ribbon Race opens the annual three day fair at Inverkeithing. This is run through the streets of the town and the winner is resented with a hat and a bunch of ribbons. "The fair has been held at Inverkeithing since the Middle Ages, and the race was instituted for the young men who gathered at the fair to hire themselves out: it presumably helped the farmers to pick out a likely lad. The hat was doubtless for the laddie and ribbons likely for his lassie, and these trophies are carried on halberd of the Burgh Officer to the finishing line, at the head civic procession. It is the provost who has the honour of presenting the prize."   Source     On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 978 Murasaki Shikibu (973? - 1025? or d. 992?), novelist, poet, and servant of the imperial court during the Heian period of Japan, noted for her diary.  Her first name refers to her father's office as a Japanese governor; her personal name is not recorded, it being considered impolite to write the names of women of high rank. After her husband died, Murasaki joined the retinue of Empress Akiko, and wrote The Tale of Genji, the world's first surviving long novel. Her book is called the finest work of Japanese literature. Nothing is known of Murasaki's life after leaving the court of the empress. The tales of Prince Genji, known as 'the Shining Prince', became popular immediately on its release. It was meant to be read aloud, and the earliest Genji manuscript was lost. Luckily, early 12th-Century scrolls of the tale survived, and through the ages, the novel has been translated into many languages.   1641 John Hathorn, magistrate (d. May 10, 1717) one of the associate magistrates in the Salem witch trials, and later, the only one not to repent of his actions. He was also the grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of, among other things, The Scarlet Letter, who changed his surname slightly to avoid the shame of being associated with his grandfather. 1802 Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician 1811 Ambroise Thomas (d. 1896), French opera composer 1813 Ivar Aasen, Norwegian poet and the inventor of Nynorsk 1815 Edward John Eyre (d. November 30, 1901), Australian explorer. Born in Hornsea, Yorkshire, Eyre was an English land explorer of the Australian continent and a controversial Governor of Jamaica. Lake Eyre and the Eyre Peninsula, both in South Australia, and the Eyre Highway (the main highway from South Australia to Western Australia) are named in his honour. In 1840 - 1841, Eyre, together with his Aboriginal companion Wylie, was the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land on an almost 1,600-km (1,000-mile) trip to Albany, Western Australia, setting out at age 25, reaching his destination on July 7, 1841. He had originally led an expedition with John Baxter and three aborigines. Two of the aborigines killed Baxter and left with most of the supplies, and Eyre and Wylie were only able to survive because of a lucky meeting with a French whaler in Rossiter Bay. He later served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand (from 1846 under Sir George Grey) and later Governor of several Caribbean island colonies. Whilst Governor of Jamaica he ruthlessly suppressed the Morant Bay Rebellion, and had many black peasants killed. He also authorised the execution of George William Gordon, a mixed-race member of the colonial assembly who was suspected of involvement in the insurrection. These events created great controversy in Britain, leading to calls for Eyre to be arrested and tried for Gordon's murder. John Stuart Mill organised the Jamaica Committee, comprising leading members of the Victorian intelligentsia, calling for his prosecution. The Committee included liberals, such as John Bright, Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Thomas Hughes and Herbert Spencer. Thomas Carlyle set up a rival committee for the defence, arguing that Eyre had acted decisively to restore order. His supporters included John Ruskin, Charles Kingsley and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Twice Eyre was charged with murder, but the cases never proceeded.   Source Works by Edward John Eyre at Project Gutenberg    Dictionary of Australian Biography    More   1842 Ferdinand Keller (d. 1922), painter 1850 Guy de Maupassant (d. 1893), French writer renowned for short stories "In his teens Maupassant was shown, by the poet Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), a mummified hand. He used this haunting image in his early short story La Main Ecorchée (1875). In 1869 Maupassant started to study law in Paris, but soon, at age 20, he volunteered to serve in the army during Franco-Prussian War. After his return to Paris, Maupassant joined the literary circle of Gustave Flaubert. He was a friend of Maupassant's mother's friend, and introduced him to some of the leading writers, among them Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James. From Flaubert, who was obsessed with the writer's craft, Maupassant learned the exactness and accuracy of observations, and balance and precision of style."   Source   1862 The so called 'Elephant Man', Joseph Merrick (d. April 11, 1890), who was displayed as a sideshow freak in Victorian Britain.  Today it is believed that he might have suffered from Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1, or von Recklinkhausen syndrome) and Proteus syndrome, a congenital disorder that causes skin overgrowth, atypical bone development, and tumour appearance over half the body. Scientists have DNA samples from Merrick and might carry out further tests in the future. The 1980 David Lynch movie, The Elephant Man, starring John Hurt, was made about Merrick. Elephant Man mystery unravelled    Proteus syndrome Merrick seems to have a healthy copy of the PTEN gene 1866 Carl Harries (d. 1923), chemist 1877 Tom Thomson (d. 1917), painter 1889 Conrad Aiken (d. 1973), poet 1890 Erich Kleiber (d. 1956), conductor 1906 John Huston (d. 1987) American-born Irish actor and film director Huston trivia At one time he kept a pet monkey. His wife of the time, Evelyn Keyes, became fed up with the noise and the mess and told Huston that either she or the monkey would have to leave. "Honey, " replied Huston, "It's you!" Son of the actor Walter Huston, whom he directed and with whom he bit-played in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Appeared with daughter Anjelica Huston in A Walk with Love and Death (1969). (1983) American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, California, USA. Became an Irish citizen in 1964. "Huston wrote a somewhat sanitized autobiography in 1980 (friends who read it said, "Good book, John – who's it about?").   Source 1906 Wassily Leontief (d. 1999), economist 1908 Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia, 1966 – 7, who drowned at Cheviot Beach, Victoria in 1967 while still in office "Thirty years on, conspiracy theories still rage about what happened to Australia's then 59-year-old Prime Minister. "A colleague tells me of how he recently heard a classic Holt conspiracy yarn: While travelling in far North Australia he bumped into a man who claimed to be a former spook for the Australian Government who had helped Holt return to Australia several times since his death. Holt travelled incognito from a home in France. It appears the PM had swum around to the next bay, hopped in a car driven by a lover, and slipped out of the country. The spook claimed Holt had later died of a heart attack on the French South Coast sometime during the 1980s. The conspiracy theory has it that many people know about this, including one very senior Liberal Party figure. Just when we were trying to laugh away this theory, one former very senior Labor Minister told us he had 'the astounding truth' about Holt buried in his confidential files – only to be released in the event of his and his informant's death. "Some of the wilder theories had it that Holt was assassinated by the CIA because he wanted to get Australia out of Vietnam. The best one of all came in 1983 when British author Anthony Grey published a book claiming that Holt was a Chinese spy and fled Australia via a Chinese submarine parked off his beach. "A Victorian State Court officially declared the Prime Minister dead, presumed drowned. Nothing, not even a piece of clothing, was ever found of the PM's body."   Source 1911 Robert Taylor (d. 1969), American actor (The Crowd Roars; Three Comrades; A Yank at Oxford; TV series The Detectives) 1930 Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, first man on the Moon 1934 Wendell Berry, American author, 'the Prophet of Rural America' "Wendell Berry is the author of thirty-two books of essays, poetry and novels. He has worked a farm in Henry County, Kentucky since 1965. He is a former professor of English at the University of Kentucky and a past fellow of both the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has received numerous awards for his work, including an award from the National Institute and Academy of Arts and Letters in 1971, and most recently, the T.S. Eliot Award."   Source From 'Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front' By Wendell Berry Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest ... Shop Wendell Berry   1935  John Laws, New Guinea-born Australian conservative broadcaster 1935 John Saxon, actor 1939 Princess Irene of the Netherlands 1946 Loni Anderson, American actress 1946 Erika Slezak, American actress, Vicki Buchanan on One Life To Live 1946 Jimmy Webb, composer, musician 1947 Rick Derringer, rock and roll musician 1951 Airto Moreira, percussionist 1956 Maureen McCormick, actress, The Brady Bunch 1959 Barry Ethridge, inventor 1964 Adam MCA Yauch, Beastie Boy 1971 Jeff Somers, author   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section Send a free e-card greeting for today's celebrations to a loved one Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year. Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards National Parks Month [ August ] Birthdays Friendship Day [ Early August, varies ] Endangered Species Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Graduation Varies Raksha Bandhan Early August Friendship Day Varies Janmashtami Varies Ganesh Chaturthi 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) 5 Blackmail Day 5 Mustard Day 6 Friendship Day 6 Halfway Point Of Summer 6 Cards For Sister 6 International Forgiveness Day 6 Fresh Breath Day 6 American Family Day 6 Try Hypnosis Day 7 Lighthouse Day 7 Say 'Cheese' Day 7 Colorado Day 7 Unity In Diversity Day 7 Picnic Day 8 Cheesecake Day 8 Happiness Happens Day 8 Prank Night 9 Send An E-mail Day 10 Lazy Day 10 Grab Some Nuts Day 11 Sons And Daughters Day 11 Chinese Valentine's Day 11 Alcatraz 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   ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap Your family and friends will get a kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!! You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)         If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   465 BCE King Xerxes I of the Persian Empire was murdered by his uncle, Artabanus the Hyrcanian. He was succeeded by Artaxerxes I, possibly with Artabanus acting as Regent. (I wonder if this was something to do with the following quotation from Herodotus, The Histories, 7.11: "'Artabanus," he replied, "you are my father's brother, and that alone saves you from paying the price your empty and ridiculous speech deserves. But your cowardice and lack of spirit shall not escape disgrace: I forbid you to accompany me on my march to Greece. You shall stay at home with the women, and everything I spoke of I shall accomplish without help from you. If I fail to punish the Athenians, let me be no child of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the son of Arsames, the son of Ariaramnes, the son of Teispes, [and let me be no] son of [Atossa, the daughter of] Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, the son of Teispes, the son of Achaemenes!" That would get me angry.   X was King Xerxes, whom       Papa much wished to know; But this he could not do, because       Xerxes died long ago. Words and picture by Edward Lear, Nonsense Alphabet       642 Battle of Maserfeld: Penda of Mercia defeated and killed Oswald of Bernicia (St Oswald). 882 Death of King Louis III of France. 1100 Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, three days after the death of his brother, William Rufus. (Was William Rufus killed as a pagan sacrifice? See August 2.) 1305 William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution. 1391 Castilian sailors set fire to Barcelona's Jewish ghetto, killing 100. 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland. 1600 King James, then ruling only Scotland, narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother Alexander Ruthven, at Gowrie House. The king was led to a secluded room and was about to be stabbed by Ruthven, but managed to yell out "Treason!" from a window, and was saved by his attendants. 1608 UFOs were seen over Nice, France.          At 8 pm on this day, citizens of Nice, France, saw three luminous objects race across the sky at the Baie des Anges. Soon the oval objects hovered about a metre over the water. Then emerged humanoid creatures, with huge heads and two luminous eyes, dressed in red with silver scales. They left the craft and later re-entered, and the three objects then flew away. They reappeared on August 22 in Genoa and were treated to 800 cannon shots from the citizens there. On August 25, a single craft appeared at Martigues, near Marseilles. Two beings emerged and appeared to duel in the air. The following week there were heavy falls of red rain. Or, so it is said. 1618 Lord Salisbury wrote to King James VI of Scotland (then James I of England) that the importation of golf balls from Holland was costing "na small quantitie of gold and silver" to "his Hienes' kingdome of Scoteland". Soon after, James issued a royal prohibition on the importation of golf balls, to promote and protect the local industry. The Salisbury document adds weight to the theory that the Dutch, not the Scots, might have invented the game. (However, the game was mentioned in two 15th-Century Scottish laws prohibiting the playing of a game called "gowf". Some scholars, however, suggest that this refers to another game which is much akin to shinty or hurling.) 1689 About 1,500 Iroquois attacked the village of Lachine, in New France. 1729 The death of Thomas Newcomen, pioneer of the steam engine. 1763 Pontiac's War, Battle of Bushy Run: British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeated Chief Pontiac's Native Americans at Bushy Run. 1772 First Partition of Poland began. 1812 War of 1812: Tecumseh's Indian forces ambushed Thomas Van Horne's 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat. 1842 The 'Plug Plot' riots, England, in response to economic crisis, high unemployment, high food prices and decreased wages There was a spontaneous strike wave of weavers and spinners, starting at Ashton under Lynn. Its name came from the fact that the plugs were pulled out of factory boilers. Source: The Daily Bleed 1851 Little Crow, chief of the Koposia division of the Mdewakanton Lakota, signed a treaty ceding most Minnesota land to USA. 1858 Cyrus West Field and others completed the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It operated for less than a month. 1860 Carl IV of Sweden-Norway was crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim. 1861 American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issued the first US income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3 per cent of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872). 1862 American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge – Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drove Union forces back into the city. 1864 American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay began. At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut led a Union flotilla through Confederate defences and sealed one of the last major Southern ports. 1878 The Cyclists' Touring Club of Britain was founded. 1882  On the evening of August 5/6 in the Montceau-les-Mines, Burgundy, France, the famed 'Bande Noire – made up of anarchist miners – made one of its first attacks against clericalism (supported by the mine employers against the workers), by throwing the Croix de Mission du Bois du Verne to the bottom of the mine. 1882 USA: Standard Oil of New Jersey was established. 1884 The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor. 1890 American utopianist Aldin Ballou died. 1895 Death of Friedrich Engels, socialist philosopher. 1914 In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light was installed.   1936 "Adolf Hitler walked out of the 1936 Summer Olympics stadium in Berlin, Germany after African-American athlete Jesse Owens (1913 - 1980) won gold in the 200 metre race. Owens's four gold medals were an eloquent refutation of Hitler's theory of the inferiority of the black races." So says the story, repeated in many places including here. However, it isn't so. Hitler wasn't at the Olympics that day, and it was probably a story invented by journalists at the time. As the Congressional Gold Medal website says, "In fact Hitler was absent on the days in question and the German athletes and German public welcomed and praised Owens, just like everyone else."   Source At first, Owens denied the tale to interviewers at Berlin and to reporters on his return home. However, he must have found that the constant denial was a bother and that to claim the 'snub' occurred would work to his advantage. However, Jesse Owens himself throws some confusion into an already confused question. In his 1970 autobiography, The Jesse Owens Story, Owens himself recounted an opposite but also historically inaccurate variation on the myth – that Hitler had stood up and waved to him: "When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany." Owens was later to remark that it was Roosevelt, not Hitler, who snubbed him. "Ironically, the real snub of Owens came from his own president. Even after ticker-tape parades for Owens in New York City and Cleveland, President Franklin D. Roosevelt never publicly acknowledged Owens' achievements (gold in the 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter relay, and long jump). Owens was never invited to the White House and never even received a letter of congratulations from the president."   Source It's often claimed that Hitler snubbed Owens because he couldn't stand to see Germany being humiliated at the Olympics: " … Owens destroyed Adolf Hitler's hopes to use the Games to prove his theory of Aryan superiority." (BBC) This theory, too, doesn't withstand scrutiny. Germany did exceedingly well at the Olympics on its own soil, winning a total of 89 gold, silver, and bronze medals, compared to 56 for the United States.     1936 James Colton, who married Emma Goldman in 1925 to provide her British citizenship, died of cancer. Colton, an elderly anarchist from Wales, married Emma so she would be free of the problems of travel and speech which plagued her friend Alexander Berkman until his death. Source: The Daily Bleed    Emma Goldman in the Book of Days 1944 Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners. 1944 World War II: Possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurred as 545 Japanese POWs attempted to escape outside the town of Cowra, NSW, Australia, resulting in the deaths of 234 prisoners and five Australian guards. 1949 In Ecuador an earthquake destroyed 50 towns and killed more than 6,000. 1958 USS Nautilus, the nuclear-powered submarine, completed a record-breaking undersea journey of 3 200 km from Alaska to the Greenland Sea. 1960 Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, became independent from France. 1962 Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe, was found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills. Following Monroe's tragic death, America's suicide rate briefly increased by twelve per cent. 1962 Nelson Mandela was jailed. He was not released until 1990. 1963 United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union signed a nuclear test ban treaty. 1964 Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bombed North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes attacking US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. LBJ's speech to Congress, August 5, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin and the rush to war We look at the Gulf of Tonkin incident and resolution of US Congress in a little more detail on August 7. 1969 Mariner program: Mariner 7 made its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometres). 1981 Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work. 1990 US President George HW Bush sent Marines into Monrovia, Liberia, to evacuate US citizens. 1990 Iraq declared that it had begun withdrawing troops from Kuwait. 1991 Australia: Queensland Police Commissioner Sir Terrence Lewis was sentenced to 14 years for corruption. 1993 Popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering was released. First trading card game to date. 1995 The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, was liberated by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated as the day of victory ('Homeland Thanksgiving Day') in Croatia. 2000 Academy Award winning actor Sir Alec Guiness died at Midhurst in West Sussex at the age of 86. He had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer. 2003 A car bomb exploded in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.     Tomorrow: Hiroshima Peace Festival    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research. I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude. © My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

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