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Feast day of St Hilary
(Hilarius of Poitiers)
(Coldest day of the year,
English traditional.)
(Celebrated
formerly on January
14 in the Roman Catholic calendar. Barren strawberry,
Fragaria sterilis,
is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Hilary was born in about 300 or 315 at Poitiers, France into a Gaulish pagan
family. He converted and became bishop at Poitiers. The most active
and influential part of his life was passed under Emperor
Constantius II in the East, though he is known as a Father of the
Western Church. St
Augustine praises him as "the illustrious teacher of the
churches". St Jerome
says that Hilary was "a most eloquent man, and the trumpet of
the Latins against the
Arians". His study also led him to the
conviction that man is in the world to practice moral virtue that
must be rewarded in the hereafter.
A commentator
on scripture, an orator and a poet, Hilary wrote against the sect
known as the Arians (the
Council of Nicaea in
325 had outlawed its
doctrines), who were patronized by Constantius, and was banished
for his orthodoxy. On a certain island the serpents (which were
many) fled from his holiness. He put up a stake as a boundary,
commanding them not to pass it; they obeyed.
He once raised a dead child to life, and
also prayed his daughter to death. He even obtained his wife's death
by prayers. After he died,
two merchants offered, at their own cost, an image at his shrine,
but one wouldn't pay his share, so St Hilary caused the image to
tear from top to bottom. He died in about 367
or 368 of natural causes.
Editions of his writings were produced by Erasmus
(Basel, 1523, 1526, 1528).
Hilary's
relics have been moved several times. Some parts appear to be in
Limousin, some burned by the Huguenots in Poitiers; but most of his
remains are in the abbey of St Denis, near Paris.
In art, he is portrayed holding
an open Gospel; or as a bishop with three books; sometimes with a
child (sometimes in a cradle at his feet, raised to life by him); or
with a pen or stick. He may be shown with a snake and dragon.
English
tradition has this as the coldest day of the year.
Patronage: against snakes, backward children, snake bites.
More
And more
Closed seasons for marriage
"These were of old,
from Advent (November
30) to
St Hilary's Day; Septuagesima to Low Sunday;
Rogation Sunday to Trinity
Sunday. They continued to be upheld in
the English Church after the Reformation, but lapsed during the
Commonwealth.
Advent marriage doth thee deny,
But Hilary gives thee liberty.
Eight days from Easter says you may.
Rogation bids thee to contain,
But Trinity sets thee free again.
"The Roman
Catholic Church does not allow nuptial mass during what is left of
the 'close season', ie between the first Sunday of Advent and the
Octave of the Epiphany, and from Ash Wednesday to Low Sunday."
Ivor H
Evans, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988
The terms in
English schools were marked by the festival immediately preceding
the day of commencement; viz St Hilary, Easter, The
Holy Trinity, and Michaelmas.
Frost
When
a great frost came to London, as in 1684 and 1814, labourers who
could no longer work because the ground was frozen walked around
London, wearing aprons, clutching old spades and hoisting as a sign
of distress a turnip on a long pole, crying "Frozen-out
Gardeners" or "Hall frozen hout!" or chanting
"We've got no work to do!" Sometimes they got some charity
money doled out to them from householders. Often they were impostors
who wanted the charity. Just as often, the sad procession continued
long after the warmer weather had set in.
The ides of
January, ancient Rome
St
Knut's Day,
Sweden
It is the
feast day of Canute
IV of Denmark who ruled Sweden from 1080 - 1086 declared that
Christmas should be celebrated for twenty days. Also known as Little Christmas
and Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen
(Norway), this is the day on which Scandinavians 'plunder'
their trees (julgransplundring) Christmas decorations are taken down. (In the
Western Christian tradition, still observed in some countries such
as Australia, the traditional date for that custom is Epiphany, January 6.) Today
officially ends the Scandinavian Juletid, or
Yuletide.
The confectionery and biscuits on the tree may be
eaten and finally the tree is removed from the home. It is
traditionally a festive day when friends and families get together.
Tiugunde Day, Old England
Twenty days after
Yule there was an Old English day, sacred to
Tyr, Tiw or Tiu (after whom
Tuesday is named), the ancient Teutonic
chief god, ruler of the year. It was also called Midvintersblσt, or
Midwinter's Offering.
From
Wikipedia:
Tyr (Old
Norse: Tύr) is the god
of warfare
and battle in Norse
mythology, portrayed as a one-handed man. He was a son of either
Odin
or Hymir.
Corresponding names in other Germanic languages include Tyz (Gothic),
Ty (Old
Norwegian), Ti (Old
Swedish), Tiw, Tiu or Tew (Old
English) Tύr (Modern
Icelandic), and Ziu (Old
High German).
The name Tyr meant 'god' (cf, Hangatyr, the
'god of the hanged' as one of
Odin's
names) and goes back to a Proto-Germanic
Tξwaz, continuing Proto-Indo-European
Dyeus,
originally the chief god, the precursor also of, eg,
Zeus
in Greek
mythology, and Dyaus
Pitar in Vedic
religion. The oldest attestation of the god is Gothic Tyz
(Vienna cod. 140).
Tξwaz was overtaken in popularity and in
authority by Odin
at some point in both the North
Germanic and West
Germanic traditions. Among East
Germanic tribes, however, he seems to have remained the supreme
god: the Goths
of the 3rd
Century were feared because they sacrificed the captives they
took in battle to Tyz, their god of war, and then hung the arms of
the victims in trees as a token-offering. This custom of human
sacrifice seems to have been transferred to Odin
in Scandinavia, as reported by Adam
von Bremen in the 11th
Century (compare also Odin himself hanging from a tree as a
sacrifice to himself in the Havamal).
It is possible that the transfer of
supremacy from Tyr to Odin was facilitated by the Germanic custom of
diarchy
(see Germanic
king and cf, eg, Hengest
and Horsa, Yngvi
and Alf and Erik
and Alrik), so that the two gods might have ruled the early
Germanic pantheon as equals at some point. A trace of their
relationship may be seen in the appearance of Tyr as Odin's son in
Norse mythology, and also in Anglo-Saxon,
if Tiw is identified with Saxnot (Seaxneat), the
'war-god' and son of
Woden,
who was revered as the ancestor of the Saxons.
In an earlier version, Tyr may have been the son of Hymir,
as he is in Hymiskviπa
(cf,
Zeus
being a son of
Chronos).
There is sketchy evidence of a consort, in
German named Zisa: Tacitus
mentions one Germanic tribe who worshipped 'Isis',
and
Jacob
Grimm pointed to Cisa/Zisa, the patroness of Augsburg,
in this connection. The name Zisa would be derived from Ziu
etymologically, in agreement with other consorts to the chief god in
Indo-European pantheons, eg, Zeus
and Dione.
Grimm's
Teutonic Mythology (English
translation, chapter 9) Tyr
in Germanic Religion
Tύr
and Zisa by William Bainbridge Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Silvesterklδuse (Silvesterklause),
Urnδsch,
Switzerland (Dec
31 and Jan 13)
"The tradition
of the Urnδsch Silvesterklδuse, a custom over 200 years old, has
developed from simple begging in disguise into an expression of
creative handwork. Today, the Klδuse wear robes and masks which
require a great deal of time and effort to make.
"Three very
different groups must be distinguished: the Schφne (beautiful),
of whom more will be said, the Wόeschte (ugly), who wear natural
disguises in the form of pine branches, moss, and frightening
masks, and the Schφ-Wόeschte (less ugly), who use the same
materials for their disguise as the 'ugly ones' but look less
so.
"In the evening, most of them meet in small groups and proceed
from house to house. Singing and ringing their bells, they wish
the families a prosperous year. They receive small gifts of
money which help to cover the cost of the costumes and
refreshments ...
"The event takes place in similar form on two separate days, New
Year's Eve and January 13."
Source
Silvesterklause photos at flickr
Old New
Year (New Year's
Day in the Julian calendar)
Nigel Pennick (The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont,
USA, 1992, p. 32) says that New Year's observances are still
performed, such as wassailing (paying homage to apple trees). He
doesn't say where, nor elaborate.
From
Wikipedia:
The Old New Year (Russian:
Старый Новый год) or the Orthodox New Year (Serbian:
Православна нова година or Pravoslavna nova godina) is an informal
traditional
Slavic Orthodox holiday celebrated as the start of the New Year
by the Julian calendar. In the 20th and 21st
centuries the Old New Year falls on January 13/14.
"The Julian calendar, standardized in 46 B.C.E., was
revised by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 C.E. The length of the year
in the Julian calendar was figured at 365.25 days, which is
greater than the correct length of 365.2422 days by 0.0078 days.
The error accumulated over time and Pope Gregory XIII revised
the calendar by omitting the accumulated portion which totaled
10 days at the time, from the month of October, 1582. He
ordained that Thursday, October 4, be followed by Friday,
October 15. The leap-year rule was also revised, making the
century years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, etc., non-leap
years. The years 1600, 2000, 2400, etc. which are divisible by
400 were made into leap years. In this way, the average
year-length of the calendar was brought down to 365.2425 days,
the residual error now being 1 day every 3300 years."
Source
Runic half-month
of Peorth begins
Feast of
Brewing, Druidic
Source: The Phoenix and
Arabeth 1992 Calendar
Feast day of St Andrew of
Trier
Feast day of St Elian
Feast day of St Elian ap
Erbin
Feast day of St Enogatus of
Aleth
Feast day of St Erbin
Feast day of the Forty
Martyred Soldiers at Rome
Feast day of St Godfrey of
Cappenberg
Feast day of St Gumesindus
Feast day of St Hermylus
Feast day of St Hildemar
Feast day of St Leontius of
Caesarea
Feast day of St Potitus
Feast day of St Stephen of
Liθge
Feast day of St Stratonicus
Feast day of St
Veronica de Binasco (of
Milan, Italy)
(Yew tree,
Taxus baccata, is today's
plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Veronica was a
poor girl worked in fields near Milan. She entered the nunnery of St
Martha in Milan, and became its
mother superior. Following a six-month
illness, she died, aged 52, in 1497, on the date she had predicted.
Even when ill
she did hard duties and desired to take only bread and water.
The original Vera Iconica
The name calls to mind the devout female attendant who wiped the
face of Christ with a handkerchief. The cloth became miraculously
impressed with His countenance. It became Vera Iconica, or 'true
image'.
The cloth was sent to Abgarus, king of
Odessa and passed though a series of adventures; ultimately settling
at Rome, where it was kept for many centuries in St Peter's. From it
came the name Veronica. (That
Veronica's feast day is July 12.)
More
Feast day of St Viventius
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Nosso Senhor
do Bonfim Festival (Festa do Bonfim),
Salvador,
Bahia State,
Brazil (c. Jan
13 - 20)
Our Lord of the Happy Ending Festival, one of
Salvador's most colourful fiestas, commencing on the second Thursday
after
Epiphany and ending on the Sunday ten days later. The
Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim (Portuguese:
Igreja de Nosso Senhor do Bonfim) is the centre of the
festivities.
On the Thursday, the faithful gather in front of the
Church of Conceiηγo da Praia, in downtown Salvador (Baixa),
including a large group of Bahia women (bahianas) in
traditional white costume, with turbants and long, round skirts.
After mass, the faithful take part on a procession that leaves the
Church of Conceiηγo da Praia and, after an
8 km
course, reaches the hill of the Bonfim Church. Upon reaching the
top, the bahianas wash the steps and the square (adro) in
front of the church with aromatized water while dancing and singing
chants in the
Yoruba language. The washing ritual is called the Lavagem do
Bonfim (Washing of Bonfim) and attracts a multitude of believers
as well as tourists.
The festa reveals much about the
religious
syncretism between Catholicism and African religions in the
STate of Bahia. In the
Candomblι
religion, Our Lord of Bonfim is associated with
Oxalα, father of
the Orishas and
creator of humankind. Indeed, people dress in white during the feast
to honour Oxalα.
"The saint with the largest following
in Bahia, Senhor do Bonfim or Lord of the Good End associated
with the Candomblι deity Oxalα, the father of all the orixαs
(o-RICK-sa) is honored in the month of January.
Nearly 800,000 people dressed in white accompany traditional
'Baianas' wearing typical multi-layered white-lace petticoats
and turbans. The multitudes parade through the Lower City from
Conceiηγo da Praia to Bonfim church, where the Bahian women
bless those present by showering them with lavender water and
perform the traditional 'washing of the steps', in a ritual of
faith and hope. A fireworks display marks the beginning of the
parade. Immediately thereafter, priestesses and initiates of
Candomblι carrying clay vases filled with flowers and lavender
water on their heads begin the procession to the Holy Hill to
wash the steps of Bonfim Church. Civilian authorities, the
faithful, and revelers accompany the parade on foot or in
horse-drawn carts. The festivities include a novena, a solemn
mass and the open-air festival."
Source: Bahia annual events
Liberation Day,
Togo
Lohri.
A celebration of
winter, primarily observed in the Punjab state of
India.
Meitlisunntig Festival Woman in the
Battles
of Villmergen (1712),
Switzerland
Shusho-E Matsuri,
Japan (Jan 1
- 14)
Fire
Festival, Scalloway, Shetland Islands, Jan 12 - 13
Redemption Day, Ghana
Commemorates the military
government seizing power in 1972.
1334
King Henry
II of Castile (d. 1379)
1381 St
Colette, abbess and reformer (Order of Poor
Clares)
1562
Mark
Alexander Boyd (d. 1601),
Scottish poet
1596
Jan
van Goyen (d. 1656),
Dutch painter
1610
Maria
Anna of Austria (d. 1665)
1616
Antoinette
Bourignon (d. 1680),
Flemish mystic
1635
Philipp
Jakob Spener (d. 1705),
German theologian
1651
Henry
Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington (d. 1694),
English politician
1720
Richard
Hurd (d. 1808),
English bishop and writer
1749
Friedrich
Mόller (d. 1825),
painter, narrator, lyricist and dramatist
1805
Thomas
Dyer (d. 1862),
Mayor of Chicago
1808
Salmon
P Chase (d. 1873),
6th Chief
Justice of the United States
1810 Ernest Rose, utopian socialist (Source: Daily
Bleed; I can't find any more info)
1832
Horatio
Alger, Jr, American clergyman and author of boys' adventure stories (Ragged Dick; From Canal Boy to President); he wrote well for boys because he
loved them so
1866? George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
(GI Gurdjieff; d. October 29,
1949),
Greek-Armenian mystic and 'teacher of dancing' born in Alexandropol,
Armenia (then of the Russian Empire, now Gumri, Armenia).
His students
included US architect Frank Lloyd
Wright, US author Kathryn Hulme,
PL Travers
(Australian author of
Mary Poppins) and New Zealand author Katherine
Mansfield.
"The Way of
Gurdjieff is an oral tradition. The understanding of his work
can only be received by direct contact between teacher and
pupil, and by the work of pupils together in organised groups." Source
More
1884
Sophie Tucker
(born Sophie Kalish), American entertainer billed as the 'Last of
the Red-Hot Mammas' (Gay
Love (1934))
1911 Sir Johannes
Bjelke-Petersen (d April
23, 2005),
New
Zealand-born Premier
of the state of Queensland,
Australia, whose long political career went under after his poor
showing in the Fitzgerald
Inquiry
Joh's
Jury (TV docu-drama)
1919
Robert Stack,
American actor
1926 Michael
Bond, British creator of Paddington Bear
1926 Carolyn
Gold Heilbrun (d. 2003),
American feminist author
1927
Brock
Adams (d. 2004),
American politician
1927 Sydney
Brenner, British Nobel
Laureate
1930
Frances
Sternhagen, American actress
1930
Liz
Anderson, American singer
1931
Charles
Nelson Reilly, American actor
1934
Rip
Taylor, American actor
1938
William
B Davis, Canadian actor
1942
Richard
Moll, American actor
1943
Carol
Cleveland, English actress
1946
Eero
Koivistoinen, Finnish musician
1947
Jacek
Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakσw
1948
Gaj
Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur
1949
Brandon
Tartikoff (d. 1997),
American television executive
1954
Trevor
Rabin, South African guitarist (Yes)
1955
Paul
Kelly,
Australian
singer-songwriter, member of the
ARIA Hall of Fame 1955
Jay
McInerney, American writer 1958
Andrew
Stanton, American actor and director
1961
Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, American actress (Saturday
Night Live;
Seinfeld) who made her movie debut in 1986 in the Woody Allen film,
Hannah and Her Sisters. Julia's
character did not appear in the original Seinfeld pilot show.
1961 Graham
McPherson, English singer
1961
Wayne
Coyne, American singer (The
Flaming Lips)1962
Trace
Adkins, American musician 1964
Penelope
Ann Miller, American actress
1966
Patrick
Dempsey, American actor 1966 Tabitha Stevens, fictional character (Bewitched)
1970
Keith
Coogan, American actor1972
Nicole
Eggert, American actress 1977
Orlando Bloom,
English
actor
(The
Lord of the Rings films; Pirates
of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Troy;
Elizabethtown;
Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest); Bloom actively supports many environmental causes 1980
Krzysztof
Czerwinski, Polish conductor and organist 1983
Julian
Morris, English actor
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Eid ul-Adha
![Valentine's Day [ Feb 14 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_valentine_1.gif) 
January
6
Orthodox Christmas
7
Nordic Festival (Montana, USA)
8
Bubble Bath Day
8
Secret Pal Day
8
Elvis "The King's" Birthday
8
Eat Something Raw Day
8
Postal Day
9
Clean Off Your Desk Day
9
Dance Day
9
Coming-Of-Age Day
9
Stepfathers' Day
9
Apricot Day
11
Thank You Cards
11
Make Your Dreams Come True Day
11
Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friend Day
11
Tattoo Pride Day
12
Roller Skating Day
12
Make Your Mark Day
12
Rubber Band Veteran Day
12
Family Communications Day
12
Pharmacists' Day
13
Accordion Day
13
Door-To-Door Salespeople Day
13
Blame Someone Else Day
14
Makar Sankranti
14
Pongal
14
Dress Up Your Pet Day
14
Assembly Line Worker's Day
14
Oatmeal Festival (Colorado, USA)
15
Strawberry Ice Cream Day
15
World Religion Day
Mid-Jan
Martin Luther King, Jr Day, USA
16
Nothing Day
Mid-Jan
Robert E Lee Day (Alabama, USA)
16
Appreciate a Dragon Day
16
Elementary School Teachers Day
17
Ditch Your New Year's Resolution Day
17
St Anthony's Day
17
Ben Franklin Day
18
Thesaurus Day
18
Metric System Day
19
Whisper "I Love You" Day
19
Popcorn Day
19
Penguin Awareness Day
19
Brew A Potion Day
...
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85
BCE Death of Gaius
Marius, Roman general and politician.
533 St Remigius of
Reims, first bishop of Reims (459 - 533),
died aged about 96.
His feast day is October
1 (qv).
858 Aethelwolf, King of Wessex, died at the Battle at Aclea.
703
Death of Empress
Jitō of Japan (b. 645).
858
Death of King Ethelwulf
of Wessex.
888
Death of Charles
the Fat, Holy
Roman Emperor. Odo, Count of Paris became
King of the Franks
on
the Fat One's death.
1099 Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria.
1138
Death of Simon
I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1076).
1151
Death of Abbot
Suger, French statesman and historian.
1177
Death of Henry
II of Austria (b. 1107).
1205 In England, a
great frost began that left the ground too frozen to plough until March 20.
Those
who worked the land became quickly unemployed; food became extremely scarce, and
thus expensive. "Also the money was so sore clipped that there was no remedy
but to have it renewed", says Stowe's
Chronicle, referring to the 'clipping'
or shaving of coins, an old
trick practised to steal small amounts of silver from the government. It
might just be that this event gave rise to the folklore about St Hilary's day
(today) being the coldest of the year, though probably just because it is the middle of
the coldest month.
1330
Death of Duke Frederick
I of Austria (b. 1286).
1363
Death of Meinhard
III, Count of Tyrol.
1488 Hermann Vischer 'the Old', was buried.
Whoever he was, I hope it was because he was dead, not just because of his age.
1501 The world's first hymnbook printed in the vernacular was
published on this day in Prague, containing 89 hymns in the Czech language. Only
the title page has survived.
1547
Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey (b. 1517),
English poet was sentenced to death for treason.
1599
Sir
Edmund Spenser (born
c. 1552),
English Renaissance poet ('The Faerie Queen';
'The Shepheardes
Calender'; 'Epithalamion'),
died, aged about 46, in Westminster. It
is said that his friends wrote memorial verses to him with golden pen-nibs and
then put the poems in the vault with him.
He was a 'Sir' not because
Queen Elizabeth I thought he was better than other poets (like Non-Sir
William Shakespeare) but because he was attending a wedding in which all the other
groomsmen were knights and the Queen dubbed him on the spot for reasons of
protocol. When Spenser was buried in
Poets' Corner in
Westminster Abbey, his poet
friends, including William Shakespeare, gathered in the Abbey and read memorial verses
that they had written about Spenser with golden pen-nibs. Then the poems and the
nibs were immured (put in the niche) with Spenser.
Source:
The Daily Bleed The
Edmund Spenser Home Page
1691 Death of George Fox, 67, English
founder of the Religious Society
of Friends (Quakers). Fox left the Anglican church at 23 and founded the
Quaker movement in 1660 at age 36, believing that the direct experience
of the divine presence was available to all, without the need for any kind of
mediation. Quakerism has always placed
a great emphasis on the Inner Light as a source of inspiration. Early Quakers
believed in the truth of the Bible, but also believed that the Inner Light could
speak to everyone just as it spoke to the authors of the Bible.
Early Quakers objected to the names of the days and
months in the English
language, because many of them referred to pagan gods. As a
result, the days of the week were known as 'First Day', 'Second Day', and so on.
Similarly, the months of the year were 'First Month', 'Second Month', and so
forth.
1695 Author Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels)
was ordained an Anglican priest in Ireland and given the small
prebend of
Kilroot. He did not rise in ecclesiastical circles a fact that disturbed
him, as a Tory defender of the Church's place of privilege. Such ideas were
called Antidisestablishmentarianism (which used to be regularly cited as the
English language's longest word). He would have liked to have been a bishop,
but never ranked higher than Dean of St Patrick's in Dublin.
Source: The Daily Bleed
1777 USA: Freedom-lovin',
slave-ownin' Thomas Jefferson got the state of Virginia to make
'sodomy'
punishable by castration.
1785
The Times newspaper
was established, London.
1787
In Austria, the last of the witchcraft laws were repealed.
1854 The
first US patent for an accordion
was issued, to Anthony Faas of Philadelphia.
1863 Thomas Crapper demonstrated the one-piece
pedestal flushing toilet that still bears his name, more or less.
See
Snopes on this
1892 UK: Prince Edward died of typhoid fever. A
closeted gay man, court officials no doubt gave a silent sigh of relief.
Students of the Jack the Ripper case often pose Eddy as a candidate for the
Ripper's secret identity.
Shop
Jack the Ripperiana
1893 James Keir Hardie, a member of parliament for West Ham in the
UK, became the leader of the newly formed British Labour party.
Early
progressives in the Book of Days
1897
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi),
Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, on landing at Durban, South
Africa, was mobbed by crowd angered by reports of his speeches in India on
conditions of indentured Indian labour in South Africa.
1898 Emile Zola
published J'Accuse.
This
famous open letter was published by Zola's friend Georges Clemenceau in
the Paris daily, L'Aurore. Novelist Emile Zola published
an open letter to the President of the French republic, entitled J'Accuse (I Accuse), attacking the French
Army over its treatment of Captain Alfred
Dreyfus, a Jewish officer. Dreyfus was
accused of treason, but in fact he had never given information to the Germans as
it was said he was a victim of anti-Semitism.
"The fact that
national security was repeatedly asserted as the reason for the secrecy of
the Dreyfus trial should make us cautious about that claim. But for the
gradual emergence of the truth, the army and many other powerful interests
in France, would have closed the Dreyfus case. Gradually, most people would
have forgotten him. He would have rotted away on Devil's Island. Politicians
of all persuasions, and the demonstrators on the streets, would have
continued to denounce Dreyfus as a traitor. It was only a band of
supporters, and the gradual emergence of the truth, that saved this innocent
man from that fate. That was not the outcome of the closed and secret trial
which officialdom wanted ...
"What changed the outcome of the Dreyfus case was the gradual adherence
of intellectuals and civil libertarians to the Dreyfus side."
The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG Source:
The Dreyfus Case a century on: Ten lessons for Australia (PDF)
"Many Australians, particularly women, also sent telegrams and letters to Dreyfus' wife expressing their support.
"The churches joined the chorus of outrage against the case, calling it one of the
'foulest crimes' and 'bitterest outrages' of the 19th century and 'the most appalling prostitution of justice that the modern world had ever
known' (The Argus, September 18, 1899)." Source
The Dreyfus Affair
Defending
Dreyfus
More
1908
Henri Farman of France won a 5,000-pound prize as the first man
to fly an aircraft around a 1-kilometre circuit.
1910 The first radio
broadcast. Inventor Lee De Forest broadcast a live performance of
Enrico
Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera.
1914
USA: IWW (Wobblies) organizer
and song-writer Joe Hill
born
Joel Hδgglund,
and also known as Joe Hillstrom
(1879 - 1915)
was arrested in Utah. Hill
was executed for murder
after a frame-up and controversial trial, and after his death became the subject
of a famous folksong.
Paul
Robeson and Pete
Seeger often performed this song and are associated with it, but the best
known performance and recording of "Joe Hill" was done by Joan
Baez at Woodstock
in 1969.
Hear
Paul Robeson sing Joe Hill (mp3)
Songs
of Joe Hill and tributes
Hear
the midi
1923 England: Having refused him for two years, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
(the late Queen Mother) sent Albert, Duke of York (later King George
VI) a
telegram accepting at last his marriage proposal with this message: "All
right, Bertie".
1929 US: Wyatt
Earp, the noted crook and US marshal (OK Corral), died at the ripe old age of
80.
 1939
The 'Black
Friday' bushfires in
Victoria,
Australia, killed 71 people. The
accompanying
heatwave which triggered the blazes claimed 438 lives. Victoria's
capital city of Melbourne
experienced a temperature of 45.6 degrees Celsius (114.1 F).
The
Ash Wednesday (January 16, 1983)
bushfires in Victoria and South
Australia claimed the lives of 75 people in Australia's
worst ever fires.
Picture
source
1942 Henry
Ford patented a plastic automobile,
which was 30 per cent lighter than a regular car.
1948 Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) (1869 -
1948),
Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience,
undertook a fast for 5 days to bring about communal unity.
"Mohandas Karamchand 'Mahatma' (Sanskrit:
'great soul') Gandhi ... was one of the founding fathers of the modern Indian state
and an influential advocate of pacifism
as a means of revolution. (See also: Mahatmas.)" Source
Gandhi Timeline
1953 Marshal
Josip
Broz Tito was chosen President of Yugoslavia.
Tito was elected by a secret ballot President of the Federal People's Republic
of Yugoslavia. He was the only nominee; he won by 568-1.
1957 The Wham-O Company
produced the first Frisbee.
1957 Elvis Presley recorded All
Shook Up in Hollywood.
1964 The Beatles entered the American charts with
I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
Wilson's
Almanac Book of Days hip list
1970 Large cutbacks in the US space program were announced.
1974 The world's largest airport opened at Dallas, Texas.
1977 The Court of Appeal in London ruled that mere possession of
leaves from a cannabis plant was not an offence under English law.
1979 USA: The Concorde began regular service from Washington, DC, to
Dallas, Texas.
1979 USA: The
Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) filed a lawsuit
against the Village People over their song, 'YMCA'. The suit was later
dropped.
1985 An express train derailed in Ethiopia, killing
at least 428 people.
1987 Dallas Hayden, wife of Australia's
foreign minister, Bill
Hayden (who was later Australia's
governor-general), was
detained for alleged shoplifting offences in
Sydney. No charges were laid.
1990 Twenty-four people were killed in riots in Soviet
Azerbaijan.
1991
As
Moscow cracked down on the breakaway movement in
Lithuania, 13 people were
killed by Soviet troops in Vilnius.1992 Japan apologised for forcing many Korean women into
sexual slavery during World War II.
2001
An earthquake
hit El
Salvador, killing more than 800.
2002
US
President George
W Bush fainted, allegedly after choking on a pretzel.
2004 Harold Shipman (b.
1946), British serial
killer, was found dead in his prison cell.
Harold Shipman, the killer doctor
2005
"The New York Times reports that in December 2004 the White House persuaded Congress to drop a new law that would have restricted
'extreme interrogation measures.' 'Among the procedures approved by the document was waterboarding, in which a subject is made to believe he might be drowned. At times, their discussion included an assessment of whether specific measures, on a detainee by detainee basis, would cause such pain as to be considered
torture.'"
A
Chronology of US War Crimes & Torture, 1975-2005 The
Torture Working Group
Working
Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism (PDF)
Tomorrow: Feast of the Ass
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So many gods, so little time
A diagnostic is someone who doesn't know whether there are two gods.
Jesus saves, Allah forgives, Cthulhu thinks you'd make a nice sandwich.
If God is watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.
I am an agnostic pagan. I doubt the existence of many gods.
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God: Thy will be done, and those to whom God says: All right, then, have it your way.
CS Lewis
Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.
GK Chesterton
Make God laugh plan for the future.
I am ready to meet my maker. Whether or not my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Winston Churchill
A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, some kind of joke?"
When you do a good deed, get a receipt, in case heaven is like the IRS.
Adam to Eve: I'll wear the plants in this family!
And on the 8th day God said, OK Murphy, you take over.
Atheist achieving orgasm: Oh Random! Oh Chance!
Blessed are the Fundamentalists, for they shall inhibit the earth.
Give me some of that old-time Religion ... HAIL ZEUS!
If money is the root of all evil, why do churches want it so badly?
Instant shaman - add one drum and beat slowly.
Jesus loves you. Then again, so does Barney.
Jesus Saves ... Passes to Moses. He shoots ... He SCORES!
That was Zen. This is Tao.
Want a taste of religion? Bite a minister...
Sects, sects, sects. Is that all you monks ever think about?
The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies, probably because they are generally the same people.
The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.
To YOU I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the Loyal Opposition.
On the sixth day, God created the platypus. And God said: let's see the evolutionists try to figure
this one out.
When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and suddenly realized that I was talking to myself.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
If you freeze to death and end up in hell ... wouldn't you be really comfortable some point along the way?
If Jesus came back today and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.
If God is inside us, then I hope he likes fajitas, cause that's what he's getting.
You've given your life to Jesus, I've rented mine to Cthulhu.
Confession without repentance is just bragging. Rev. Eugene Bolton
They think, therefore I am. God
SATAN, SATAN! It's the main megafurnace! She's losin' power and the temperature is dropping fast! I'm not sure if I can hold her!
(Star Trek) Scotty in Hell.
Campus Crusade for Cthulhu: If your god's dead, blame mine.
Go thou and sin more creatively next time.
Every time someone predicts the date of the end of the world, God pushes the date back a little, just to be funny.
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
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reetings from Australia.
How it works
Feast day of St Kentigern (or
Mungo), of Glasgow
