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Hail to the day, whose kind auspicious rays
Deigned first to smile on famous Bishop Blaize!
To the great author of our combing trade,
This day's devoted, and due honour's paid.
Lines spoken at the septennial festival of St Blaize, Bradford, England (from a much longer poem)

Receipt (recipe) for a stoppage in the throat:
Hold the diseased party by the throat, and pronounce these words:
 Blaize, the martyr and servant of Jesus Christ, commands thee to pass up or down!

Aëtius Amidenus, an ancient Byzantine physician

The Rev Richard Johnson, our official chaplain to the settlement, conducted the first divine service in Sydney preached in the open air on a text from Psalm 116.
Captain Arthur Phillip, first governor of the colony of New South Wales (now Australia), from his log, February 3, 1788

The wind of change is blowing through the continent
British prime minister Harold Macmillan, in a speech to the South African parliament, February 3, 1960

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
Simone Weil, French author and anarcho-syndicalist freedom fighter, born on February 3, 1909, Human Personality

As I worked in the factory, the affliction of others entered into my flesh and my soul … There I received for ever the mark of a slave, like the branding of the red-hot iron which the Romans put on the forehead of their most despised slaves.
  Since then I have always regarded myself as a slave.

Simone Weil

Celebrations for Setsubun in Ikuta Jinja, Kobe 03 February 2006. by: Shadi HIJAZI

Celebrations for Setsubun in Ikuta Jinja, Kobe February 3, 2006, by Shadi Hijazi

 

 

 

February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 331 days remaining (332 in leap years).
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St BlaiseFeast day of St Blaize (Blaise; Blase; Blasien; Blasius; Biagio; Sveti Vlaho; Vlasü) Bishop of Sebaste

(Great water moss, Fontinalis antepyretica, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

A physician and bishop of Sebaste (modern Sivas), Armenia, Blaize was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded in the persecution of Licinius around 316. Because iron combs were used to tear his flesh he is the patron saint of wool-combers. Wool-combers in Bradford and other English towns, particularly in Essex, Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Norwich, had a septennial jubilee on this day in honour of the saint and of the Greek god, Jason (he of the Golden Fleece).

At the head of the procession, the masters went on horseback, each bearing a white sliver, or ribbon, of wool. Then their sons followed, then their colours, then apprentices, uniformed and on horseback. Persons representing the royal family and attendants followed. Then came Jason and Bishop Blaize, followed by shepherds, shepherdesses, wool-combers, dyers and so on, some in woollen wigs.

Apparently for no other reason than the sound of the saint's name, in England it was customary to light fires on this evening, on hill-tops. "Country women went about during the day in an idle merry humour, making good cheer; and if they found a neighbour spinning, they thought themselves justified in making a conflagration of the distaff," says Chambers (Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 [1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days]).

It was earlier believed that by a charm in the saint's name, a thorn could be extracted from the flesh, or a bone from the throat. One held the patient and said: "Blaize, the martyr and servant of Jesus Christ, commands thee (in the case of a bone) to pass up or down; (in the case of a thorn) to come forth."  

St Blaize can cure sore throats. He lived in a cave; wild beasts came daily to be cured by him, and if he was praying, they did not interrupt. He once cured a youth who had a fish-bone caught in his throat, by praying.

He was scourged; seven holy women anointed themselves with his blood; whereupon their flesh was combed with iron combs, their wounds ran milk, their flesh was whiter than snow, and angels came and healed their wounds as fast as they were made. They were put into a fire, which would not consume them; they were then beheaded. Following this ordeal, St Blaize was ordered to be drowned in the lake, but he walked on the water, sat down in the middle, and invited his persecutors to sit with him. Sixty-eight were drowned, and he walked back to be beheaded.

A wolf once ran away with a woman's pigs. She prayed to St Blaize, and he promised she would have swine again. The wolf brought them back. She killed the beast and offered the head and feet with some bread and a candle to St Blaize, who ate, thanked God, and told her "that every yere she sholde offre in his chirche a candell". She did so, and prospered, so people burnt candles to St Blaize and these candles were found to be good for toothache.

At Bradford, England, a septennial festival procession was held by worsted and woollen manufacturers, seeing the saint as the inventor of wool-combing. There were thousands of people in the small town, as they came from miles around. A 'king' was elected, and Jason and Blaize were represented. Apprentices and masters' sons wore ostrich feathers, flowers and knots of variously coloured yarn, finely combed wool, and they all wore coloured clothes, with shepherds, shepherdesses and swains attired in green. Wool combs were held up on standards, as were rams' heads, golden fleeces, gilded horns and other emblems. The poem above was recited. ('Hail to the day...').

St Blaise is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, invoked in the case of sick cattle.  He patronage includes: against wild beasts, animals, builders, carvers, construction workers, coughs, goitres, stonecutters, throat diseases, veterinarians, whooping cough, wool-combers and wool weavers.

Blaise is the patron saint of the city of Dubrovnik (where he is known as 'Sveti Vlaho'). He is believed to have appeared in a vision in 971 to warn the inhabitants of an impending attack by the Venetians. In Russia, St Vlasü, as he is known, is the patron saint of herds.

In art he is depicted as a bishop with a metal comb and a tall candle. He might also be shown with crozier and two candles (no comb), or else martyred by being torn with iron combs. Sometime Blaize is shown in a cave with wild animals, or discovered by hunters, a fawn near him (not to be confused with the monk, St Giles). He might be blessing the birds in front of a cave; rescuing a poor woman's pig from a wolf; saving the life of a boy who swallowed a fishbone; or with the city of Dubrovnik in his hand or being carried over the city by angel. He may also be depicted with crossed candles. Such crossed candles are used for the blessing of throats on the feast day of St. Blaise, which in the Western Church falls on February 3, and in the Eastern Church on February 11.

The popular enthusiasm for the saint is explained by the belief that Blaise had brought prosperity (as symbolised by the Woolsack, the seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, the Upper House of Parliament in the United Kingdom) to England by teaching the English to comb wool. According to the tradition as recorded in broadsheets, Blaise came from Jersey. Jersey was certainly a centre of export of woollen goods (as witnessed by the name 'jersey' for the woollen textile). However, this legend is probably the result of confusion with a different saint, Blasius of Caesarea ('Caesarea' being also the Latin name of Jersey).

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Blessing the throats St Etheldreda's Church, Ely Place, London
Throat complaint sufferers are blessed by invoking St Blaise, the patron Saint of people with throat problems.

Festival of San Blas, patron saint of Paraguay

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Setsubun (Japan), festival of the goddess Amaterasu

Wikipedia tells us: In Japan, Setsubun is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means 'division of season'. Usually the term refers to the Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun, celebrated annually on February 3 (associated with the Lunar New Year).

Spring Setsubun is traditionally celebrated by the head of the household throwing pan-heated soybeans out the door, while chanting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!". The literal meaning of the words is "Demons out! Luck in!" – the beans are thought to symbolically purify the home. In the Heian era, a famous Buddhist monk was said to have driven away Oni (demons or evil spirits) by throwing beans.

At Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines all over the country, there are celebrations for Setsubun. Priests and invited guests will throw roasted soy beans (some wrapped in gold or silver foil), small envelopes with money, sweets, candies and other prizes. In some bigger shrines, even celebrities and sumo wrestlers will join. Many people will come, and the event turns wild, with everyone pushing and shoving to get the gifts tossed from above.

Families will also put up small decorations of fish heads and holly leaves on their house entrances so that bad spirits will not enter. People also eat the same amount of soy beans as their age, plus one for bringing good luck for the year to come.

AmaterasuIt is customary to eat uncut maki-zushi on Setsubun while facing the yearly lucky compass direction, determined by the zodiac symbol of that year. Charts are published and occasionally packaged with uncut maki-zushi during February.

"This Japanese holiday marks the official end of winter, and is the last remnant of the old Japanese festival calendar, before it was Westernized and New Year's Day moved to January 1st. The name means 'season-boundary.'

"On this last day of the year, the male head of the household went around the house scattering roasted soybeans, one for each year in the life of each family member. Meanwhile his family chants Fuku wa uchi, oni wa soto! 'In with good luck, out with demons!'

"In public ceremonies, celebrities throw beans off balconies of shrines and other important buildings. They are trying to hit the demons and all the misfortunes they represent. 

"Why beans? Perhaps, suggests Rufus, because the word mame means both bean and good health. An ancient Japanese health charm is to eat a roasted soybean for every year of your age."

Anneli Rufus, The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994  
Source: School of the Seasons

Photos of Narita-san Setsubun Festival in Chiba    Setsubun (Bean Throwing Festival)

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days    Festivals in Japan

 

Amaterasu

From Wikipedia: Amaterasu (Amaterasu-ōmikami; Ōhiru-menomuchi-no-kami) is in Japanese mythology, a sun goddess, and perhaps the most important Shinto deity (kami). She was born from the left eye of Izanagi as he purified himself in a river, and went on to become the ruler of the Higher Celestial Plane (Takamagahara) and was also considered to be directly linked in lineage to the Imperial Household of Japan and the Emperor, who were considered descendants of the kami themselves.

 

 

First week of February, Easter Island festival

Men participate in a decathlon of swimming, reed rafting, and a running race around and across the crater lake of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku, home of the famed Giant Statues (Moai).

Rapa Nui, known also as Easter Island (Spanish Isla de Pascua) is an island in the south Pacific Ocean, west and slightly north of Santiago, Chile and part of the territory of Chile (Valparaíso Region). It has a population of only about 2,000 locals ... and an unknown number of ethnographers. 

The small (119 sq km, or 46 sq mi), isolated island (about 2,000 kilometres from the next nearest inhabited island) is famous for its numerous mysterious stone statues (moai) located along the coastlines. It is home of the only written language of Oceania, a hieroglyphic script known as Rongorongo, which has never been deciphered despite the work of generations of linguists.

More at Wilson's Almanac Scriptorium Rapa Nui page

 

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries, ancient Greece (Feb 1 - 3)

Festival of the Lęnaia to Dionysus, god of wine and pleasure, ancient Greece (c. Jan 28 - Feb 5)

Festivals in ancient Greece

Day of Remembrance for Oleg the Prophet (Visionary)
"The Varangian's (Viking's) king was a good example of the Rus-Viking. His history is very instructive, yet at the same time mysterious. Volhv of Kiev (a pagan wizard) prophecied to Oleg that his horse would die in battle but afterward he would also be killed. He triumphed under the Byzantines, and after his final battle, his shield was hung on the Gate of Tsargrad in Constantinople."
Source: Slavic Pagan Kalendar

Powamu Festival (for the Hopi Sky Father)
In Hopi mythology, during the Powamu ceremony, Ahöl Mana goes with Ahöla as he visits various kivas and ceremonial houses. On these visits Ahöl Mana carries a tray with various kinds of seeds.

Iroquois Midwinter Festival (Jan 30 - Feb 8)

Feast day of St Aelred

Feast day of St Berlinda of Meerbeke

Feast day of St Caellainn

Feast day of St Claudine Thevenet

Feast day of St Felix

Feast day of St Ignatius of Africa

Feast day of St Laurentius

Feast day of St Lawrence the Illuminator

Feast day of St Margaret of England

Feast day of Our Lady of the Purification, Santo Amaro, Brazil (Feb 1 - 4)

Feast day of St Remedius

Feast day of St Trifone

Feast day of St Werburg of Mercia (Wereburge of Chester)
This early Anglo-Saxon saint (d. February 3, 699) was involved with the establishment of the first nunneries in England. Pious; numerous miracles. "She died at Trentham, on the 3rd of February, 699, having declared in her will that her body should be buried at Hanbury; when the people of Trentham attempted to detain it by force, those of Hanbury were aided by a miracle in obtaining possession of it, and carried it for interment to their church" (Robert Chambers). Later the remains were taken to Chester, where she became the patroness. When a village was on fire, prayers to the saint and the monks carrying her shrine into the flaming streets stopped the fire.

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Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Horaiji Dengaku Matsuri, Horai, Japan
Held at Horaiji Temple, Aichi Prefecture, a very famous temple of the Shingon sect. Legend says demons guard the local mountains, and gave their lives to protect them. Costumes of red, black and blue represent the demons. Degaku dancers ring a bell and dance. A huge rice cake is offered at the altar.

Mando-E, or Lantern-Lighting Ceremony, Nara, Japan
Held at Kasuga Shrine, Nara Prefecture. The shrine has three thousand lanterns, which are all lit to welcome Spring. The spectacle lights the way for visits from departed spirits.

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

Owase Yaya Matsuri (Shouting Festival), Japan (Feb 1 - 8)

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

Boy Scout Sunday, USA, around now

Heroes' Day, Mozambique

Four Chaplains Day, USA
The Four Chaplains were four US Army chaplains who were killed in action when the USAT Dorchester was hit by a torpedo and sank on February 3, 1943. They helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their life jackets when the supply ran out.

Martyrs' Day, Săo Tomé and Príncipe

 

 

1338 Jeanne de Bourbon (d. 1378), wife of Charles V of France

1677 Jan Santini Aichel (d. 1723), Czech architect

1690 Richard Rawlinson (d. 1755), English minister

1721 Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz (d. 1773), Prussian general

1747 Samuel Osgood American patriot

1754 George Crabbe (d. 1832), English naturalist

1795 Antonio José de Sucre (d. 1830), South American independence leader

1809 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, German composer (Midsummer Night's Dream overture; Scotch Symphony) (d. 1847)

1811 Horace Greeley (d. 1872), American journalist, editor, publisher

1821 Elizabeth Blackwell (d. 1910), first female physician in the United States

1830 Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Lord Salisbury; d. August 22, 1903). Also known as Lord Robert Cecil (before 1865) and Viscount Cranborne (1865 - '68). British statesman and Prime Minister.

1874 Gertrude Stein, rather self-engaged American author, lover of Alice B Toklas and mentor to the 'Lost Generation' of writers in Paris after World War I  (Three Lives; Paris, France; The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas) (d. 1946)

She boasted: "I have been the creative literary mind of the century", but Clifton Fadiman was less kind: "A past master in making nothing happen very slowly".

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1883 Clarence Mulford, American writer who created Hopalong Cassidy

1894 Norman Rockwell (d. 1978), American artist, illustrator

1904 Pretty Boy Floyd (d. 1934), gangster

1907 James A Michener (d. 1997), American author (Hawaii; Tales of the South Pacific, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947). Memorable for massive, detailed novels, many of which were almost mass produced, with a team of assistants and researchers.

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1909
Simone Weil (pronounced 'vey'; d. August 24, 1943), French writer, philosopher, anarcho-syndicalist, published posthumously (Waiting for God; The Need for Roots). Among her many intellectual and spiritual influences were Plato, the New Testament, the Bhagavad Gita, and Karl Marx. And Gide, the Nobel Prize-winning French author, called her "the saint of all outsiders".

"Despite her rapturous love of Jesus Christ, she never ceased to study the truths of the religions of the East. She stayed outside of any church, but her passionate need to share the sufferings of others led her to fight with the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, to work as a field hand and an unskilled laborer, and ultimately to die in England at the age of 34 from tuberculosis complicated by her refusing to eat more than Hitler's rations allotted to her countrymen in occupied France. Seven people attended her funeral. After her death writers as diverse as T.S. Eliot and Albert Camus declared her one of our century's foremost thinkers."   Source: The Daily Bleed

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1918 Joey Bishop, American comedian

1921 Dr Ralph Asher Alpher (d. August 12, 2007), American cosmologist, best known for his 1948 prediction, along with George Gamow, of residual cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) from the Big Bang

1926 Shelley Berman, American comedian

1944 Dave Davies, musician (The Kinks), brother of Ray Davies

1950 Morgan Fairchild, actress

1971 Sarah Kane (d. 1999), playwright

1971 Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor

1974 Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress

1974 Elisa Donovan, American actress

1976 Isla Fisher, Australian actress

1977 Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican musician

1978 Adrian R'Mante, American actor

1980 Sarah Lewitinn, American writer

1982 Jessica Harp, American singer (The Wreckers)

1989 Ryne Sanborn, American actor

 

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3114 BCE Reciprocal date for Mayan Creation, the laying out of the ecliptic. (See also our article on the 2012 calendar convergence.)

1014 Death of Sweyn I of Denmark ('Forkbeard'; b. c. 960) who succeeded his father Harold I 'Blĺtand' (Bluetooth) as king of Denmark, probably in late 986 or early 987.

1468 The father of printing, Johann Gutenberg of Germany (born c. 1398), died in poverty and obscurity.

"Did you know that it was inevitable that medieval manuscripts were taller than they were wide? This was due to the logic of folding rectangular vellum (animal skins), or parchment, to produce hand-made manuscripts. The resulting shape was always rectangular. With the invention of paper, bookmakers naturally followed the age-old tradition. Books are still taller than they are wide because monks more than half a millennium ago used natural vellum …"   Source

1488 Bartholomeu Diaz of Portugal landed in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, becoming the first known European to travel this far south.

1573 Sir Francis Drake, from the top of a tree in Panama, first sighted the Pacific.

"Elizabeth Sydenham, wife of Sir Francis Drake, advised that her husband had been killed by the Spaniards, was on her way to marry another man when a bolt of lightning struck the ground at her very feet.  Elizabeth interpreted it as a sign that her husband was still alive and called off the wedding.  Later Sir Francis returned from his naval expedition...alive and well."   Source

1690 The first paper money issued in America was printed by Anglo colonists to pay soldiers in the war against Quebec.

1730 The London Daily Advertiser published the first stock exchange quotations.

1743 USA: Philadelphia established a 'pesthouse' to quarantine immigrants.

1783 American Revolutionary War: Spain recognised United States independence.

1787 Shays' Rebellion was crushed, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States.

1788 The first Christian service was held at Sydney Cove, in what is now known as Australia (formerly Terra Australis, New Holland, then the colony of New South Wales). The Rev. Richard Johnson preached in the open air on a text from Psalm 116.

1809 Illinois Territory was created.

1815 The first commercial cheese factory was founded (Switzerland).

1867 Prince Mutshuhito became Emperor Meiji of Japan.

1870 The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed.

1877 Chopsticks, a piece of music composed by Euphemia Bell, 16, under the pseudonym of Arthur de Lull, was registered at the British Museum. (Other sources give her surname as Allen, or Alten.) The tune's title has nothing to do with oriental eating utensils – Euphemia advised pianists to play it with their hands turned sideways, using chopping motions.

1900 USA: Gubernatorial candidate William Goebels was assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky. Former-Secretary of State, Caleb Powers, was later found guilty in a conspiracy to kill Goebels.

1910 USA: Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones addressed Milwaukee brewery workers. Mother Jones spent two months working alongside women bottle-washers in one of the breweries during a period when she was not on the United Mine Workers payroll. Her report on their working conditions went like this:

"Condemned to slave daily in the wash-room in wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul-mouthed, brutal foremen … the poor girls work in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, in their wet shoes and rags, for they cannot buy clothes on the pittance doled out to them. . . . Rheumatism is one of the chronic ailments and is closely followed by consumption . . . An illustration of what these girls must submit to, one about to become a mother told me with tears in her eyes that every other day a depraved specimen of mankind took delight in measuring her girth and passing comments."  

Source: The Daily Bleed    Early progressives in the Book of Days

 

 

1913 The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.

1915 Malawi's national hero Reverend John Chilembwe (b. 1860s) was killed by officials. He was an orthodox Baptist educator and a early figure in resistance to colonialism in Nyasaland, now Malawi. Today John Chilembwe is celebrated as a hero for independence, and John Chilembwe Day is observed annually on January 15 in Malawi.

On January 23, 1915 Chilembwe staged an uprising: he and 200 followers attacked local plantations that they considered to be oppressing African workers. They killed three white plantation staff, including Livingstone, whom they beheaded. Several African workers were also killed, but they did not harm any women. When the uprising failed to gain local support, Chilembwe tried to flee to Mozambique; however he was killed on this day. The colonial officials also killed a number of his followers. Malawi did not gain independence until 1964.

Source: Wikipedia

1916 Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada were burned down.

1917 World War I: The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. The threat to American shipping was a main cause of the USA's entry into WWI.

1919 The League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris, chaired by US president Woodrow Wilson.

1931 Some 258 people died in New Zealand's worst natural disaster, the Napier earthquake.

1941 World War II: The Nazis forcibly restored Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.

1944 United States troops captured the Marshall Islands.

1945 World War II: Russia agreed to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.

1954 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrived in Sydney on the first visit of a reigning monarch to Australia. Huge, adulatory crowds turned out to see them.

1959 News of the February 2 plane crash near Mason City, Iowa, USA that killed Buddy Holly, 22, Ritchie Valens, 17, and The Big Bopper (JP Richardson), 29, became widely known. This date became known as 'The Day The Music Died'.

Coroner's investigation
Air crash, Feb. 3, 1959

SW1/4 Section 18, Lincoln Twp.
Cerro Gordo County, Iowa

Jiles P. Richardson, Charles Holley, Richard Valenzuela and Roger A. Peterson, pilot of the plane were killed in the crash of a chartered airplane when it fell within minutes of takeoff from the Mason City Airport. The three passengers were members of a troupe of entertainers who appeared at the Surf Ballroom at Clear Lake, Iowa, the evening of February 2, 1959, bound for Fargo, N.D. and was headed northwest from the airport at the time of the crash in a stubble field, 51/2 miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane was discovered about 9:00 A.M., February 3, 1959, when Mr. H.J. Dwyer, owner of the crashed plane, made aerial search because he had received no word from Peterson since his takeoff …

Source

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singing "This'll be the day that I die,
This'll be the day that I die."


"One of Holly's hits was 'That'll be the Day'; the chorus contains the line 'That'll be the day that I die'".

Annotated American Pie   The day the music died    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

 

1966 The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft made the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.

 

1967 Ronald Ryan (b. 1925) was executed at Pentridge Prison, Victoria, Australia and his body buried in an unmarked grave. The killing of Ryan, who was probably not guilty, caused such outrage in the land that no Australian has been killed by Australian lawyers or politicians since – not officially, anyway. Within twenty years, capital punishment was abolished federally and in all State and territory jurisdictions.

In 1967, Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, was killed by the State. It was a killing that helped the Premier of the State of Victoria, Henry Bolte, win an election, but it split the community deeply, such that no politician or judge ever again dared take anyone's life. Bolte brushed aside all protests, appeals and petitions, including one signed by seven of the jurors who sat on the Ryan case.

The judge, who had to impose a mandatory death penalty, was summoned by the Premier, who was soon to go before the electorate. Bolte asked the judge if there was any chance Ryan might have been innocent. The judge, who, despite the evidence, believed Ryan guilty, could have won a State reprieve by telling a white lie, but as a Roman Catholic, he felt he could not tell a mistruth to the premier. He thought it more ethical, rather, to allow a man to be hanged by the neck until dead. Years later, the troubled judge said on TV that he prayed to Ryan each night. I wrote a poem about it because I think this incident says a lot about people and belief.

'I could not tell a lie'
By Pip Wilson

(Based on an anecdote; avowedly a true story)

The judge sat through the weeks of trial 
and sentenced Ryan to hang. 
Premier Bolte sent for him 
and asked him if this man, 
this Ronald Ryan was truly guilty, 
or was there "some way out, 
with the election coming up and all" – 
said the judge, "No reasonable doubt". 
  
So Ronald Ryan's neck was stretched; 
the judge spoke to the press: 
"I could not tell a lie", he said 
"I'm of the faith" he stressed. 
  
And further pressed on how he felt, 
said the judge, "Ryan had the right 
to absolution, he's now in heaven. 
I pray to him each night."

At 8:00 am Ryan fell through the trapdoor and died on the same gallows as Ned Kelly. Ronald Ryan is buried in quicklime within the grounds of Pentridge Prison. His family are forbidden to visit the unmarked grave. On November 28, 2005 on ABC Radio National, elderly Judge Philip Opas, who was Ronald Ryan's lawyer to the end, stated that he still firmly believes that Ryan was innocent.

"Because I’m 88 years of age, I haven’t got long to go and I feel that I let Ryan down. I can’t help feeling that. It’s been on my conscience now for nearly 40 years and it will never disappear. He’s a man that I came to like. He never pretended to be anything but what he was, a battler. He affected almost everybody that knew him and Father Brosnan who accompanied him to the gallows, he also believes he was innocent. I still have recurring nightmares. I’m not joking about that, you don’t joke about that. I can see in my mind the pantomime going on in the death cell as he’s being manacled and led out to the gallows and I became friendly afterwards with three people who were present at the hanging ... The last thing Ryan did was write me a letter. I never got it but Father Brosnan who accompanied him to the gallows told me what was in it. Obviously somebody stole it. It was full of gratitude to me and it expressed the wish that I attend his hanging as he wanted to see as the last vision on earth, the face of a friend ... To my surprise when I arrived in Melbourne I was met with a battery of cameras and TV interviewers and I heard he was going to hang the next day. And the first thing that happened when I got to my chambers: the phone rang, I picked up and there was a tearful girl at the other end said, 'You’ve got to save my Daddy, they’re going to hang him in the morning.' ... I think she was about 13 and she rang me several times after the hanging just to get some comfort from me, I think. I needed more comforting than she did by then. However, that didn’t put me in much of a frame of mind to make an urgent plea before Justice Stark claiming, 'What was the indecent haste to hang this man because we had some possibility of further evidence', but he was not prepared to grant any further extension of the hanging ... I left the bar as a result of it. It changed my life ... I think he was convicted before the jury got into the box ... I can only quote from what an eminent judge in America said. He said that our emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime but we know that killing the criminal cannot undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes, doesn’t benefit the victim, destroys human life and brutalises society. If we are to still violence, we must cherish life. Executions cheapen life and I’ve come to adopt those words as my mantra and to say now, 'Life is precious and who are we to play God and say somebody no matter what they’ve done deserves to be put to death.'"
Dr Philip Opas, QC, who defended Ronald Ryan and believed him innocent

Listen (requires RealAudio) – extraordinary interview with two elderly men. One is a journalist who witnessed the last execution in Australia. The other is Judge Opas.

Innocent of murder?    'Ryan was innocent': lawyer    Ronald Ryan was innocent, says accomplice

1969 In Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

1970 Police in Britain seized Andy Warhol's film Flesh on grounds of obscenity.

1988 Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejected President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 After a stroke, PW Botha resigned party leadership and the presidency of South Africa.

1989 Generalissimo Alfredo Stroessner, the dictator of Paraguay for 35 years, was ousted by a coup.

1998 Karla Faye Tucker was executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

1998 Mary Kay Letourneau, 36, a former Seattle, Washington, USA teacher, violated probation with the 14-year-old father of her baby.

1998 Cavalese cable-car disaster: A United States Military pilot caused the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cut the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

1999 In Jammu and Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) was revived.

2004 Jóannes Eidesgaard became Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands.

 

 

Tomorrow: Giambattista Della Porta, Italian magus

 

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Pilgrims celebrate after helping to evacuate an older fellow traveller 
in the city of Mena during the third day of hajj in Saudi Arabia. Photo: Reuters

 

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.

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