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Any white person who brought the element of civilization had the right to take over this continent.
Ayn Rand, American author. Possibly the first recorded instance of scalping in the Americas took place on February 20, 1725

I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate.
Thomas Jefferson, American philosopher, statesman

Somewhere In Time is the story of a love which transcends time, What Dreams May Come is the story of a love which transcends death. ... I feel that they represent the best writing I have done in the novel form.
Richard Matheson, American author born on February 20, 1926; introduction to an Omnibus edition of his work, as quoted in Somewhere in Time (1998), pp. 318 - 319

I think What Dreams May Come is the most important (read effective) book I've written. It has caused a number of readers to lose their fear of death – the finest tribute any writer could receive.
Richard Matheson; as quoted in 'Ed Gorman Calling: We Talk to Richard Matheson' (interview originally published in Filmfax magazine in 2004)

Kurt Cobain

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

Ancient Ways

Be A Goddess

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

Spellcraft

The Encyclopedia of Saints

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Feast day of St Wulfric (Ulric; Ulrick; Ulfric) of Haselbury, England

St Wulfric, who died in 1154, was born at Compton Martin near Bristol, England. He became a priest, and kept dogs and hawks for sport, till he met a beggar who asked for alms. When Wulfric said he didn't know if he had anything to give, the beggar said "Look in thy purse, and you shall find twopence halfpenny." He found as he was told and gave it to the beggar, who prophesied that Wulfric would become a saint.

He was a hermit, fasting often. "His daintiest food was oaten-bread and water-gruel", wrote a chronicler. Those who sought his advice had to knock on his window and converse with him through the window of his cell.

Wulfric never slept unless he could not stay awake, and slept leaning against a wall. Waking up, he would chastise his body for being so lazy. After a hair-shirt became too comfortable, he changed it for an iron coat of mail. In winter he sat in a tub of cold water reciting psalms. 

He shortened his coat of mail, distributing the small rings of metal to the people, and they were cured by the metal. It was even said that he cut the chain mail with scissors as if it were linen. Envying such rare goodness, a demon attacked him till the apparition of a virgin stopped it. 

The joints of his iron coat dissolved and it miraculously fell down around his knees. Upon this he said he would die on the following Saturday, and this indeed came to pass. Or, so it is said.

He is venerated at Haselbury Plucknett (mentioned in the 11^th-Century Domesday Book as Halberge, meaning 'the hazel tree hill', from the Old English haesel and beorg; the suffix was acquired later when it was held by Alan de Plugenet c. 1265), Somerset, England, where he is buried in the cell in which he lived, which is now the site of the church's vestry.

Wulfric had the gift of prophecy and predicted the death of King Henry I of England. He also foretold that his own death and burial would cause conflict, and as if to make the prognostication come true, the Cistercians laid claim to Wulfric's relics, as did the monks of Montacute Priory, who had been feeding him and attempted to seize his body by force.  However, the saint was unaffiliated with any religious order. Wulfric was a very popular saint during the Middle Ages, and his tomb was visited by many pilgrims.

Parentalia, ancient Rome  (Feb 13 - 21)

Shiwasu Matsuri, Mikado Jinja, Nango, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan (Jan 20 - Feb 20)

Sounkyo Ice Festival, Sounkyo Onsen (spa), Hokkaido, Japan (Jan 29 - Mar 5)

Powamu, Pueblo/Hopi purification ceremony, (Feb 12 - 28)  

Feast day of St Amata of Assisi

Feast day of St Bolcan of Derken

Feast day of St Eleutherius of Tournai, bishop and martyr

Feast day of St Elizabeth of Mantua

Feast day of St Eucherius, bishop of Orleans

Feast day of St Falco

Feast day of St Jacinta Marto

Feast day of St Mildred, virgin abbess in Thanet
(Navelwort, Cynoglossum omphalodes, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Mildred was the first abbess of Minster, in the Isle of Thanet, an abbey founded in 670 by King Egbert as a commemoration for having murdered his two nephews, Etheldred and Ethelbright; to which satisfaction he was "miraculously terrified, by seeing a ray of bright light dart from the heavens upon their grave" (Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988).

Mildred was the daughter of Merewalh, King of Mercia, and Saint Ermenburga of Thanet; sister of Saint Milburga and Saint Mildgytha.

Feast day of St Leo of Catania

Feast day of St Sadoth, bishop of Seleucia and Ctesipphon, with 128 companions, martyrs

Feast day of Ss Tyrannio, Zenobius, and others, martyrs in Phoenicia

Feast day of St Winnoc (exaltation of)

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Goddess month of Moura commences

Native Agents Day   Source: The Daily Bleed

National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants, USA   Source

1757 John 'Mad Jack' Fuller (d. 1834), philanthropist and patron of the arts and sciences

1791 Émile Deschamps (pictured; d. April 23, 1871), French poet, one of the chiefs of the Romantic school; his experience with three plum puddings is a famous story of synchronicity often told, including by the psychologist, Carl Jung:

"From the book: Coincidences In The Unknown, 1902, Camille Flammarion tells of the experience of his friend, the poet Emile Deschamps. In his childhood, at a school in Orleans, Deschamps shared a table with a certain M. de Fortgibu, who had returned from England with a taste for plum puddings, then unknown in France. He insisted that Deschamps try one. Ten years later Deschamps passed a restaurant and saw a plum pudding being prepared inside. His early taste, long forgotten, urged him to enter and ask for a slice; but the pudding was reserved for another, and Deschamps was obliged to beg the favour from this stranger. It turned out to be M. de Fortgibu, and both were astonished at meeting again for the second time over the same dish. Many years passed again, and Deschamps was invited to a dinner party which featured an English plum pudding; and Deschamps delighted his hosts with the tale of his extraordinary encounter with de Fortgibu. They all joked about the possibility of the old man turning up. During the meal he really did. De Fortgibu had also been invited out to dinner, but by the occupant of another apartment in the building, and had lost his way. 'Three times in my life have I eaten plum pudding, and three times have I seen M. de Fortgibu!' said Deschamps. 'My hair stood up on my head. A fourth time I should feel capable of any thing ... or nothing!'"   Source

1839 Rev. Benjamin Waugh (d. 1908), founder of NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children)

1844 Ludwig Boltzmann (d. 1906), physicist

1844 Joshua Slocum (d. 1909), seaman and adventurer

1848 Edward Henry Harriman (d. 1909), American railway executive

1872 The Right Honourable William Lygon, 7^th Earl Beauchamp KG PC, (d. November 15, 1938), British politician, succeeded his father as Earl Beauchamp in 1891, and was mayor of Worcester at age 23. A progressive in his ideas, he was surprised to be offered the post of Governor of New South Wales in May 1899, where he became a patron of the Australian writer Henry Lawson. Though good at the job, he was unpopular in the colony, and Beauchamp returned to Britain in 1900, where he joined the Liberal Party.

On July 26, 1902, he married Lady Lettice Mary Elizabeth Grosvenor, granddaughter of the 1^st Duke of Westminster. They had three sons and four daughters between 1903 and 1916.

Beauchamp was Lord Steward of the Household to King Edward VII and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1906. He served in the Liberal Government as Lord President of the Council from June to November 1910, First Commissioner of Works from 1910 to 1914, Lord President again from 1914 to 1915 and was Liberal Leader in the House of Lords from 1924, supporting the failing party with his substantial fortune.

Beauchamp was made Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire in 1911, carried the Sword of State at the coronation of King George V, was made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1913 and a Knight of the Garter in 1914. He was also Chancellor of London University, a Six Master (Governor of RGS Worcester) and Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms.

In 1931, he was 'outed' as homosexual to the King and Queen by his violently Tory brother-in-law, the Duke of Westminster, who hoped to ruin the Liberal Party through Beauchamp. Homosexuality was a criminal offence at the time, and the King was horrified, saying "I thought men like that shot themselves." There was no public scandal, but Lord Beauchamp resigned all his offices, except the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, and went into exile on the Continent. He died of cancer in New York, aged 66.

Lord Beauchamp is generally supposed to have been the model for Lord Marchmain in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.

Source: Wikipedia    Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1887 Carl Ebert (d. 1980), German theatre and opera producer and administrator

1887 Vincent Massey (d. 1967), Governor-General of Canada

1902 Ansel Adams (d. 1984), photographer

1904 Alexei Kosygin (d. 1980), Premier of the Soviet Union

1909 Heinz Erhardt (d. 1979), German comedian

1912 Pierre Boulle (d. 1994), author

1924 Gloria Vanderbilt, jeans designer and entrepreneur

1925 Robert Altman, film director

1925 Heinz Kluncker, labor union leader

1926 Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter, typically of fantasy, horror, or science fiction

1927 Sidney Poitier, American (born in Miami while Bahamian parents were visiting) actor, the first black actor to win an Oscar, for Lilies of the Field

1937 Nancy Wilson, singer

1941 Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer

1943 Mike Leigh, director

1946 Brenda Blethyn, actress

1946 Jerome Geils of the J Geils Band

1947 Peter Strauss, actor

1951 Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

1954 Anthony Stewart Head, actor

1954 Patty Hearst, socialite, American heiress and sometime actress, who was kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army and then engaged in bank robberies with her captors

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1966 Cindy Crawford, model

1967 Kurt Cobain, Nirvana lead singer and de facto head of the grunge generation, found by Seattle, Washington, USA, authorities to have committed suicide on April 5, 1994 by putting a shotgun to his head and pulling the trigger, at his Seattle home.

Though the suicide verdict was accepted as the official version, it soon became apparent that his reported suicide was not an open and shut case.

Kurt and Courtney, a documentary by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield (Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam), explored allegations that Courtney Love, Cobain's widow, arranged her husband's death. Love blocked permission for Broomfield to use any of Cobain's music and ultimately had the film pulled from the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

In the words of Tom Grant, "The events surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain are filled with lies, contradictions in logic, and countless inconsistencies." Grant is a California state licensed private investigator and former detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, who, on April 3, 1994, was hired by Courtney Love, (who was in Los Angeles at the time), to locate her husband after he left a drug rehab centre in Marina Del Rey, California. Grant believes Love hired him to make it look as though she was concerned about her missing husband. Grant's website explores the case.

'Kurt Cobain Was Murdered' Yahoo! Group    Justice for Kurt Cobain

1985 Yulia, half of Russian pop group t.A.T.u.

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18 Pluto Day
19 Chocolate Mint Day
19 Temporary Insanity Day
19 Solar System Day
20 Presidents' Day (USA)
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20 Cherry Pie Day
21 Directory Day
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22 Teddy Bear Day
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5 Say Hi To Mom Day
5 Multiple Personality Day
6 Chocolate Cheesecake Day
6 Dentists' Day
7 Cereal Day
8 International Women's Day
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10 Money Day
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12 Alfred Hitchcock Day
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1171 Death of Conan IV (b. 1138), Duke of Brittany.

1194 Death of Tancred, King of Sicily.

1431 Death of Pope Martin V.

1472 Orkney and Shetland were annexed to the crown of Scotland.

1547 Edward VI of England was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

1579 Death of Nicholas Bacon (b. 1509), English politician.