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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Pip Wilson

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Today is

A strong people needs no leader.
Emiliano Zapata, Mexican anarchist revolutionist, born on August 8, 1879 

Little star in the night
that rides the sky like a witch
where is our chief Zapata
who was the scourge of the rich?

Little flower of the fields
and valleys of Morelos,
if they ask for Zapata,
say he's gone to try on halos.

Little bubbling brook,
what did that carnation say to you?
It says our chief didn't die.
that Zapata's on his way to you.
corrido mexicano

That Zapata appeared here in the mountains. He wasn't born, they say. He just appeared just like that. They say he is Ik'al and Votan who came all the way over here in their long journey, and so as not to frighten good people, they became one. Because after being together for so long Ik'al and Votan learned they were the same and could become Zapata. And Zapata said he had finally learned where the long road went and that at times it would be light and and times darkness but that it was the same, Votan Zapata, and Ik'al Zapata, the black Zapata and the white Zapata. They were both the same road for the true men and women …
  He is and is not all in us … He is underway …Vota'n Zapata, guardian and heart of the mountain … Us … Vota'n, guardian and heart of the people. He is one and many. None and all. Living, he comes. Vota'n Zapata, guardian and heart of the people …
  Zapata will continue to live as long as people believe that they have a right to their land and a right to govern themselves according to their deeply held beliefs and cultural values.
Source

We must put forth all our strength. The more Australia sends to the front the less the danger will be to each man. Not only victory, but safety belongs to the big battalions.
Australia turns to you for help. Fifty thousand additional troops are to be raised to form the new units of the expeditionary forces. Sixteen thousand men are required each month for reinforcements at the front.
  This Australia of ours, the freest and best country on God's earth, calls to her sons for aid. Destiny has given to you a great opportunity. Now is the hour when you can strike a blow on her behalf. If you love your country, if you love freedom, then take your place alongside your fellow-Australians at the front, and help them to achieve a speedy and glorious victory.
  On behalf of the Commonwealth Government, and in the name of the people of Australia, I ask you to answer 'Yes' to this appeal, and do your part in this greatest war of all time.
William Hughes, Australian Prime Minister, pro-conscription speech quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, December 15, 1915

I should keep quiet if I were you, mate, There are some right bastards here.
Ronnie Biggs to train driver Jack Mills, during the Great Train Robbery, August 8, 1963

My father is not a murderer, a terrorist, a paedophile or a rapist. He was once a small time thief, who, on the day of his 33rd birthday, made the costliest mistake of his life. He is now an extremely frail 72-year-old man and has been punished enough.
Open letter from Michael Biggs

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first.
US President Richard Nixon, from his resignation speech on August 8, 1974

August 8 is the 220^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221^st in leap years), with 145 days remaining.
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Panathenaea, ancient Athens, in honour of goddess Athena (c. Aug 8 - 17)

First day: Ritual dressing of statue of Athena in the Parthenon.

Greece's two greatest festivals, both in honour of Athena, goddess of Athens, were the Greater Panathenaea and the Lesser. The Lesser was held every year and the Greater every four years in the third year of the Olympiad, in the month of Hekatombaion.

The greater one was more solemn, and on that occasion (not on the Lesser) the peplus (a crocus-coloured garment woven with images of Enceladus and the giants conquered by the goddess) of the goddess was carried on the mast of a ship to her temple in Athens (the Parthenon, on the hill known as the Acropolis), in a great procession. Maidens from the noblest families of Athens carried baskets with offerings.

Sacrifices of bulls were offered at the Panathenaea festivals. Athenians held foot, horse and chariot races, gymnastic and musical contests, recitations from Homer, philosophy, cock fights, and other entertainments. The prizes in contests were jars filled with oil from the ancient, scarred olive tree of Athena on the Acropolis.

The Origin of the Olympics: Ancient Calendars and the Race Against Time    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days     More

The scandal of the Parthenon Marbles

The British government holds, and refuses to return, a sacred marble frieze stolen from Athena's famous and majestic temple, the Parthenon. 

The Elgin Marbles is the popular term for the Parthenon Marbles, a large collection of marble sculptures brought to Britain between 1801 and 1805 by Thomas Bruce, 7^th Earl of Elgin, the official British resident in Ottoman Athens, who had ordered them removed from the Parthenon. Since 1939 they have been housed in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery of the British Museum, London. Considerable debate surrounds the meaning of the frieze but all agree that it depicts the Panathenaic procession that paraded through Athens.

Read more on the misnamed 'Elgin Marbles'

 

The Panathenaic Games

From Wikipedia: These were a set of games held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece.

The games were actually part of a much larger religious festival, the Panathenaia, which was held every year. Every fourth year when the games were also held, the festival was known as the "Great Panathenaia," and was 3 or 4 days longer than the regular festival. They were the most prestigious games for the citizens of Athens, but they were not as important as the Olympic Games or the other Panhellenic Games.

The first Great Panathenaia was organised by Pisistratus in 566 BCE, and was modelled on the Olympic Games. Pisistratus also added music and poetry competitions, which were part of the Nemean Games but not the Olympics. The games were divided into games for Athenians only, and games for Athenians and any other Greeks who wanted to participate. The games for all Greeks were essentially the same as the Olympics, with boxing, wrestling, pankration, pentathlon, and chariot racing, but chariot racing was the most prestigious of these, unlike the Olympics where the stadion (foot race) was more important. The winner of the chariot race received as a prize 140 amphorae full of olive oil.

The games in which only the Athenians were allowed to participate were somewhat different. These included a torch race to the Parthenon (the ancestor of the modern Olympic torch relay that takes place prior to the Games), mock infantry and cavalry battles, a javelin throw on horseback, the apobotai (a chariot race in which the driver had to jump out of the chariot, run alongside, and jump back in), the pyrriche (apparently military exercises accompanied by music), and the euandrion (essentially a beauty contest among the athletes). In later years there was also a rowing competition.

The procession to the Parthenon was, however, more important than the games themselves. During the Great Panathenaia (but not the regular Panathenaia held every year), a special robe (the peplos) was made by the women of Athens for the statue of Athena, which was carried to the Parthenon as part of the procession. There was also a large sacrifice made to Athena, and the meat from the sacrificed animals was used in an enormous banquet on the final day of the festival.

See also Birthday of Athena

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Find out here 1079 Emperor Horikawa of Japan (d. 1107) 1602 Gilles de Roberval (d. 1675), French mathematician 1605 Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (d. 1675), colonial Governor of Maryland 1646 Godfrey Kneller, German-born painter (d. 1723) 1673 John Ker (d. 1726), Scottish spy 1693 Laurent Belissen (d. 1762), French composer 1694 Francis Hutcheson (d. 1746), Irish philosopher 1720 Carl Fredrik Pechlin (d. 1796), Swedish politician 1814 Esther Morris (d. 1902), suffragist and the first U. S. woman judge 1839 General Nelson Miles (d. 1925), American soldier who served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War 1866 Matthew Henson, explorer (North Pole) 1879 Emiliano Zapata (d. April 10, 1919), Mexican revolutionary 1880 Earle Page (d. 1961), eleventh Prime Minister of Australia 1896 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (d. 1953), author 1901 Ernest Lawrence, Nobel Prize-winning physicist who invented the colour TV tube and the subatomic particle accelerator 1902 Paul Dirac (d. 1984), physicist 1907 Benny Carter, musician, arranger 1914 Unity Mitford (Unity Valkyrie Mitford; d. May 28, 1948), English aristocrat and a member of Adolf Hitler's entourage; one of the noted Mitford sisters (Jessica Mitford, Diana Mitford, Nancy Mitford) 1919 Dino De Laurentis, Italian-born American film producer (Year of the Dragon (1985); Conan the Destroyer (1984)) 1921 Webb Pierce (d. 1991), country and western singer 1921 Esther Williams, United States competitive swimmer and movie star 1921 William Asher, film producer 1921 John Herbert Chapman, physicist 1922 Rudi Gernreich (d. 1985), fashion designer 1922 Rory Calhoun (d. 1999), American actor 1923 Jimmy Witherspoon, American blues singer 1925 Alija Izetbegovic (d. 2003), former Bosnian president 1929 Ronnie Biggs (Ronald Biggs), British Great Train Robber (see below, 1963), which he took part in on his 34th birthday 1931 Sir Roger Penrose, mathematical physicist 1932 Mel Tillis, country and western singer 1935 John Laws, Australian 'king' of right-wing talkback radio, a central figure in the 'cash for comment' scandal 1936 Donald P Bellisario, television producer 1937 Dustin Hoffman, Hollywood actor (The Graduate; Midnight Cowboy; Tootsie) "During the filming of Wag the Dog (1997) Hoffman, his co-star Robert De Niro and director Barry Levinson had an impromptu meeting with President Clinton at a Washington hotel. 'So what's this movie about?' the president asked De Niro. De Niro looked over to Levinson hoping he would answer the question. Levinson, in turn, looked over to Hoffman. Hoffman, realizing there was no one else to pass the buck to, is quoted as saying 'so I just started to tap dance. I can't even remember what I said.'"   Source  1938 Connie Stevens, singer, actress 1944 Peter Weir, Australian film director (Gallipoli; Dead Poets Society; The Truman Show) 1949 Keith Carradine, actor 1951 Mamoru Oshii, film director 1958 Deborah Norville, reporter, television host 1961 The Edge (David Evans), guitarist of U2 1973 Scott Stapp, Creed frontman 1976 JC Chasez, singer (N Sync) 1976 Drew Lachey, American singer and actor 1981 Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer/songwriter 1988 Princess Beatrice of York   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? 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