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reetings from Australia.
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January 30. The course of my song has led me to the altar of Peace. The day will be the second from the end of the month. Come, Peace, thy dainty tresses wreathed … and let thy gentle presence abide in the whole world. So but there be nor foes nor food for triumphs, thou shalt be unto our chiefs a glory greater than war. May the soldier bear arms only to check the armed aggressor, and may the fierce trumpet blare for naught but solemn pomp. Add incense, ye priests, to the flames that burn on the altar of Peace. Ovid, Fasti
(Roman calendar), I. 709; in Rome, a sanctuary to the goddess
Pax was dedicated on January 30, 9 BCE
This monarch wore a peaked beard
And seemed a doughty hero,
A Dioclesian innocent,
And merciful as Nero.
The Church's darling implement,
And scourge of all the people,
He swore he'd make each mother's son
Adore their idol steeple.
But they, perceiving his designs,
Grew plaguy shy and jealous,
And timely chopt his calf's head off,
And sent him to his fellows.
A song of the Calves'-Head Club, which annually celebrated the execution of King
Charles I of England (January 30, 1649)
Remember!
Said to be the last words of Charles I at his execution, January 30, 1649. It was said to Bishop Juxon and is supposed to refer to a message to his son, commanding him to forgive his enemies and murderers. Others say his last words were "From a corruptible to an incorruptible crown where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world".
I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one. Gelett Burgess, American poet, born on January 30, 1897
I do not admit that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia by the fact that a stronger race has come in and taken their place.
Winston S Churchill, whose funeral was held on January 30, 1962
I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using gases against uncivilised tribes.
Great Britain's Foreign Secretary, Winston S Churchill, referring to the Kurds
What was the greatest maritime disaster in history?
The Titanic? The Lusitania?
See On This Day in History, 1945 (below)
Principle is OK
up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you
lose.
US Vice President Dick Cheney, born on January 30, 1941; during the
1976 US Presidential campaign
Source
I had other priorities in the sixties than military service. Dick Cheney; on his five draft deferments, April
5, 1989
The good Lord didn't see
fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes
friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where,
all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the
business is. Dick Cheney; speech delivered at the
Cato Institute,
June 23, 1998
Source
The US should assert its military dominance over the world to shape
"the international security order in line with American principles and interests," push for
"regime change" in Iraq and China, among other countries, and "fight and
decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars … While the unresolved
conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a
substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the
regime of Saddam Hussein." 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century', The Project for the New American Century [members include Dick Cheney and
Donald Rumsfeld],
September, 2000
Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy. Dick Cheney;
April 30, 2001
Simply stated,
there is no doubt that
Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our
friends, against our allies, and against us. Dick Cheney; speech
at VFW 103rd National Convention, August
26, 2002
My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators [of Iraq]. Dick Cheney; March
16, 2003
We know [Saddam Hussein]'s been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. Dick Cheney; March 16, 2003 (On
June 24, 2003, at a press briefing, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld
declared: "I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons."
See
more quotes about WMDs from the Bush administration)
In Iraq, a ruthless dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He gave support to terrorists, had an established relationship with al Qaeda, and his regime is no more. Dick Cheney; November
7, 2003
I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency. Dick Cheney; on the Iraq insurgency, June
20, 2005
Go f*ck yourself. Dick Cheney; to Sen. Patrick Leahy, during an angry exchange on the Senate floor about profiteering by Halliburton,
June 25, 2004
For the first time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. Only ten years ago the
'more with less' technology reached the point where this could be done. All humanity now has the option to become enduringly successful.
R Buckminster ('Bucky') Fuller, American visionary scientist, 1980. His one-man show opened at the US Embassy in London on January 30,
1962
I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs ... But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. Woody Guthrie, American folksinger and activist; the Guthrie Center was opened on January 30, 1992
After a while we took in the clothes,
Nobody said very much.
Just some old wild shirts and a couple pairs of pants
Which nobody really wanted to touch.
Mama come in and picked up a book
An' Papa asked her what it was.
Someone else asked, "What do you care?"
Papa said, "Well, just because."
Then they started to take back their clothes,
Hang 'em on the line.
It was January the thirtieth
And everybody was feelin' fine. Bob Dylan; 'Clothes Line'
(1975) [Do you know any famous song or book references to dates, like
this one? Send 'em in!]
"The
most important Iroquois celebration of renewal is the Midwinter Festival –
a six day festival which begins around New Years or when the Pleiades are
directly overhead at dusk, and which focuses on dreamsharing, dream
renewal and dream interpretation.
"The
Midwinter Festival, also called the 'Greatly Prized Ceremony,'
celebrates the battle between the creative and destructive forces in the
universe, as symbolized by an Iroquois myth which focuses upon the
antagonism between the Creator, Sky Holder, and his younger brother. It
concludes the old year and begins the new year, and involves both
thankfulness for the blessings of the past and hopes for the future. As
one Iroquois said, 'At the Midwinter Festival we beg the Creator for
everything; most of the time we are thanking him for what he gave us.'
"One
of the first rites of the Midwinter Festival is the extinguishing of old
household fires, the stirring of ashes, and the rekindling of new fires.
As the ashes are stirred, the Iroquois also participate in a tobacco
invocation, and pray:
'I am
thankful that I am alive in health. Now the time has come in which the
Midwinter Ceremony is marked. So then now do you, Sky-Holder who live in
the sky, do you continue to listen? ...You next, the nocturnal Orb of
Light, our Grandmother, and now also the Stars on the sky in many
places, do you know that every one of those who remain alive has made
preparation to thank you now with one voice? Now, our Grandmother, they
thank you, and also the stars fixed on the sky in many places'."Source
Livia, Diva Augusta, was born on January 30,
58 BCE and became the wife
of the emperor Octavian (Augustus Caesar). In the reign of
Claudius, she was
deified and took the new name, Julia Augusta. It was believed that empresses were carried up to Heaven by a
peacock.
"Julia Augusta shall be a new divinity." Ovid, Fasti, I. 536
On this day for many years after Oliver Cromwell had Charles I
beheaded on January 30, 1649, supporters of the monarchy commemorated the occasion. The wainscot of the house would be hung with black and no meal was to be eaten for the whole day. Because, out of compassion, the servants would usually give the children little sweets to tide them over the fast, the children looked forward to the day as a holiday and a diversion.
Many people who had an opposing political persuasion kept the day by a party at which they threw a calf's head onto a bonfire, while some would dress up in executioner's masks. As late as
1735, one group of young bucks met at a tavern in Charing Cross, calling themselves the
'Calves'-Head Club'. They kept an axe on the clubroom wall; their meal was of calves' heads and red wine, and a large pike-fish with a small one in its mouth, signifying tyranny, a large cod's head and a pig with an apple in its mouth, both representing Charles I. Present were a man dressed as Satan, and a woman with snakes in her hair, representing Rebellion.
The sheet that received the decapitated head of the king ended up at a church in Ashburnham, England.
Festival of the Lênaia to Dionysus,
god of wine and pleasure, ancient
Greece(c. Jan 28 - Feb 5)
Feast day of St Aldegundis (Aldegonde; Aldegondes),
virgin and abbess
Frankish virgin and abbess (c.
639 -
684). Having allegedly
walked across the waters of the
Sambre, she had built
on its banks a small nunnery at Malbode, which later became, under the
name Maubeuge, a
famous abbey of
Benedictine nuns.
Feast day of King Charles the Martyr (Anglicanism)
King Charles
I and his execution on this day in 1649 are commemorated by the
Society of King Charles the Martyr. Charles is the only person
to be canonized by the Church of England after the English
Reformation.
Emperor Alexander Severus decreed that all Christians must worship Roman gods or die.
He said to Martina that if she would conform he would make her his
empress. When he took her to the temple it was destroyed by an earthquake
in which even the emperor was thrown about. The statue of Apollo, lying on
the ground, spoke to her.
The emperor
ordered her to be tortured: hooks and stakes didn't hurt her. She shone
brightly and pouring hot lard on her couldn't stop the light. When in
jail, she was surrounded by angels who protected her from harm, and she
was not hurt even by 118 wounds. A lion, three days fasted, would not eat
her, andfire would not burn
her. However, a sword was used to cut off her head. (Not the sword!!
Anything but the sword!!) She
died in 228 CE; her feast day was formerly celebrated on January 20. She is one of the
patron saints of
Rome.
It is said that
at her martyrdom, milk flowed from her body rather than blood; for this,
she is patron of nursing mothers.
These fabulous acta, or legends, which date back at least to the 7thCentury,
are very similar to those of two other saints of Rome, Saints Prisca and Tatiana – they
may all be the same person.
Saint Martina is
pictured as a maiden with a lion. She may be shown beheaded by a sword or
martyred with a two-pronged hook, receiving the palm and lily from the
Virgin Mary and Child.
Shiwasu
Matsuri, Mikado Jinja, Nango, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan (Jan 20 - Feb 20)
Sounkyo Ice Festival, Sounkyo
Onsen (spa), Hokkaido, Japan (Jan 29 - Mar 5)
Flower festival, Hawaii
"The Flower festival, honoring an ancient nature Goddess who is
particularly associated with the narcissus flower, is celebrated." Source: Earth, Moon and Sky
1771George Bass
(d. 1803), British
naval surgeon and explorer of
Australia. What
became of Bass is unknown. He set sail on his last voyage in the
brig Venus on
February 5, 1803 and was not seen again.
"What
brought Profumo down even more than his deceit of the Commons, was
the startling revelation that Keeler had also slept with Eugene
Ivanov, the naval attache at the Soviet embassy. It was that
detail which captured world attention, notably in the United
States, where the FBI compiled a detailed report called Operation
Bowtie …
"The Profumo
affair was no passing sensation. It all but brought down the
Macmillan government and it almost certainly finished Macmillan
himself as prime minister. In October 1963, less than a month
after publication of the Denning report, the prime minister
resigned citing ill health. There were no party elections in
those days, and the mantle passed to the most improbable of
candidates, the 14th Earl of Home."Source
"And it is this class 'thing' that Keeler
believes destroyed her life. 'I took on the sins of everybody,'
she says pointing out that while Mr. Profumo at 85 is living a
respectable and comfortable life she is condemned to live with
the stigma of having been officially branded a call girl. 'It
has been a misery for me, living with Christine Keeler. Even a
criminal has the right to a new life but they made sure I did
not have that. They just didn't stop calling me a prostitute for
ever and ever and ever and ever. How can anyone live with that?'
she told an interviewer. She tried to live under the assumed
name of Sloane but was thrown out of her job when her real
identity was discovered."Source
1941Dick
Cheney, American politician, Vice President under
George W Bush.
Cheney falsely persuaded many Americans that Iraq under President
Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to
the people of the USA.
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9 BCE
The Ara Pacis, a minor
sanctuary of the goddess Pax
was consecrated, Rome. It was commissioned by (or for) the
Roman
emperor
Augustus, consecrated on this day by the
Senate
to celebrate the peace established in the Empire after Augustus's victories in
Gaul and
Spain.
1649King Charles I
of England was beheaded on the order of Oliver Cromwell who had led a bourgeois
rebellion against his cruel and corrupt monarchy, and established a cruel and
corrupt 'Commonwealth'. When Charles II was restored to
the throne, Cromwell's two-year-dead body was disinterred and beheaded, with the
head being put on a pike on London Bridge.
On this day the
'Calves'-Head Club' first undertook riotous activity outside a tavern in
Charing Cross, London, stoning houses of the rich and fighting local
authorities. The club continued meeting on January 30 annually (till
1735) to
feast while ridiculing the king they so hated.
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
Richard Lawrence, later declared to be insane (he
believed he was England's King Richard III reincarnated), made the first
attempt on the life of a US president when he fired two shots at Jackson.Both his guns misfired at point-blank
range.In the trial that
followed, the prosecuting attorney was Francis Scott Key, writer of TheStar
Spangled Banner.
1889Archduke and Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria (b. 1858), and his
17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary
Vetsera (b. 1871)
were found dead, apparently by their own hands, in the Archduke's hunting
lodge at Mayerling,
Austria.
1897 Tasmania held the first Australian election under the
Hare-Clark system – proportional voting.
1925The
government of Turkey
expelled Patriarch Constantine VI from Istanbul.
1932The New York Herald
Tribune reported that thirty members of an audience had fallen ill, with
food poisoning the suspected cause. They had been listening to an after-dinner
speech by the Massachusetts State Commissioner of Health, Dr GH Bigelow, at the
Harvard Medical School, Boston. The subject of the good doctor's speech: 'Food
poisoning'.
1933The
Lone Rangerdebuted
on American radio. The
program ran for 2,956 episodes and came to an end in late
1954.
"George Seaton (Stenius) was the first voice of the
Lone Ranger. Jack Deeds and Earle Graser followed in the role. However, it was
Brace Beemer who is best remembered as former Texas Ranger, John Reid. He played
the part of the black-masked ranger, fighting for frontier justice for thirteen
consecutive years.
"Riding alongside the Lone Ranger was Tonto, the Indian
who had rescued him from death and nursed him back to health after an outlaw
ambush had massacred his entire company. The part of Indian scout, Tonto, was
played for almost the entire run by a bald-headed Irishman named John Todd."Source
1935
American poet Ezra Pound(1885 -
1972) met
one of his heroes, Benito
Mussolini, and read aloud several lines from a draft of the Cantos, which he
gave to the fascist dictator as a present.Mussolini found the reading entertaining.
"As a poet, Pound was one of the first to
successfully employ free verse in extended compositions. His Imagist poems
influenced, among others, the Objectivists and The Cantos were a
touchstone for Ginsberg and other Beat poets. Almost every 'experimental' poet in English since
the early 20th century is in his debt.
What was the greatest
maritime disaster in history?
The Titanic? The Lusitania? In fact, the sinking of the Wilhelm
Gustloff makes these tragedies look tiny by comparison. Perhaps six or seven
times as many people died in this sinking as in either of the more famous
tragedies – 9,372 as estimated by Discovery Channel.
From Wikipedia: The
Wilhelm Gustloff was a ship built by Blohm & Voss and named
after the assassinated leader of the SwissNazi party, Wilhelm
Gustloff. It was launched on May 5, 1937, and was sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13
on January 30,
1945. The sinking remains the worst disaster in shipping history, in terms of
loss of life in a single vessel.
It is estimated that of the approximately 5,000 to
7,000 refugees and over 1,000 soldiers and sailors on board at the time, only
1,239 passengers survived (other sources: 966 survivors), saved by German
vessels in the vicinity. According to the ship's own records, the official total
was 6,050 people. However taking into an account those who sneaked on board the
ship unaccounted, the death toll was actually much higher. Today one may find
reports of 9,000, 10,000 and more. Of course, these numbers are only estimates
made by different methods. For example, the Discovery Channel
program "Unsolved History" has undertaken an extensive computer
analysis of the sinking of the Gustloff, which in particular supported an
estimate of 9,400 dead (among over 10,600 on board). The analysis considered:
load density based on eye-witness reports and simulation of escape routes and
survivability in conjunction with the timeline of sinking.
"The sinking of the TITANIC in 1912 and the LUSITANIA three years later are commonly thought of as two of the greatest maritime disasters of all time. Yet, a German ship carrying mostly civilian refugees and sunk in the Baltic Sea in the closing months of World War II claimed more than twice as many lives as both ships combined. But little has been written about it.
Why? ...
Gandhi's principle of satyagraha
– using nonviolent
methods when working for social change – not only helped deliver independence
to India, but has also inspired countless activists, such as Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
During a trip to India in 1959, King met some of Gandhi's followers and
decided the Gandhian method was the one to use in the US civil rights movement,
though King had been influenced by Gandhi (and Henry David Thoreau, one of
Gandhi's influences) as
early as 1950.
The
Indian lawyer, activist and spiritual leader was shot three times in the chest
from point blank range. Gandhi died with the name of Lord Rama on his lips –
his last words: "Hey Ram!"
"Known as Mahatma, or 'the great soul',
during his lifetime, Gandhi gave up Western ways to lead a life of
abstinence and spirituality and began an effective campaign of civil
disobedience against Britain's oppressive rule of India. Always nonviolent,
he asserted the unity of all people under one God and preached Christian and
Muslim ethics along with his Hindu teachings. The British authorities jailed
him several times, but his following was so great that his threats to fast
until death usually forced his release."Source
"Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" (Sanskrit: "great soul")
Gandhi
(October 2,
1869 - January 30,
1948) 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
1956USA: As Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
stood at the pulpit, leading a mass meeting during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus
boycott, his home was bombed. By chance, King's wife, Coretta
Scott King, and 10-week-old baby
escaped unharmed.
Later that night, a
thousand angry African Americans assembled on King's lawn. When King appeared on
his devastated front porch, he told them:
"If you have
weapons, take them home .... We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory
violence ... We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to
us."
King's speech lifted the nonviolent protest movement to new
levels of effectiveness.
Who was 'Bucky' Fuller?
From a short biography of the inventor of the
geodesic dome:
"Buckminster Fuller was truly a man ahead of his
time. His lifelong goal was the development of what he called 'Comprehensive
Anticipatory Design Science' – the attempt to anticipate and solve
humanity's major problems through the highest technology by providing "more and more life support for everybody, with less and less resources.
"Fuller was a practical philosopher who demonstrated
his ideas as inventions that he called 'artifacts [sic].' Some were built as
prototypes; others exist only on paper; all he felt were technically viable.
He was a dogged individualist whose genius was felt throughout the world for
nearly half a century. Even Albert Einstein was prompted to say to him,
'Young man, you amaze me!' …"
1962Two
of the high-wire 'Flying Wallendas' were killed when their famous
seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit,
Michigan.
1964Ranger 6 was launched by NASA. Its mission was
to carry television
cameras and to crash-land on the moon. A plan to crash television sets onto the lunar surface
was rejected by the mission's corporate sponsors.
1969The Beatles
played their last public gig, on the roof of Apple
Records. The impromptu concert, which was shown in the last Beatles film, Let
it Be, was broken up by the police.
1972 Self-styled prophet and apostle,
Herbert W Armstrong, temporarily
decommissioned his son, Garner Ted Armstrong, from ministerial duties in the
American Worldwide Church of God
cult, for Ted's licentious
lifestyle which included having sex with hundreds of women. Some believe that
Herbert W Armstrong
himself might have been something of a philanderer, as there were allegations of
him having had sex with his
own daughter over a ten-year period.
2006 Death,
from liver cancer, of
Stew Albert,
progressive activist and co-founder of the
Yippies. Two days before his death
he posted on his blog, "My
politics haven't changed".
The Lone Ranger was ambushed and captured by an enemy Indian war party. The Indian Chief proclaimed, "So, you are the great Lone Ranger. In honor of the Harvest Festival, you will be executed in three days. But, before I kill you, I will grant you three requests. What is your first request?"
The Lone Ranger responded, "I'd like to speak to my horse." The Chief agreed, and Silver was brought before the Lone Ranger, who whispered in Silver's ear, and then the horse galloped away. Later that evening, Silver returned with a beautiful blonde woman on his back. As the Indian Chief watched, the blonde entered the Lone Ranger's tent and spent the night.
The next morning, the Indian Chief had to admit he was impressed. "You have a very fine and loyal horse, but I will still kill you in two days. What is your second request?" The Lone Ranger again asked to speak to his horse. Silver was brought to him, and he again whispered in the horse's ear. As before, Silver took off across the plains and disappeared over the horizon. Later that evening, to the Chief's surprise, Silver again returned this time with a voluptuous brunette, even more attractive than the blonde. She entered the Lone Ranger's tent and spent the night.
The following morning, the Indian Chief was again duly impressed. "You are indeed a man of many talents, but I will still kill you tomorrow. What is your last request?"
The Lone Ranger responded, "I'd like to speak to my horse – alone." The Chief was curious but he agreed, and Silver was brought to the Lone Ranger's tent. Once alone with his trusted horse, the Lone Ranger grabbed Silver by both ears, looked him square in the eye and said, "Listen carefully. For the last time, I said,
'Bring posse!'"
reetings from Australia.
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Day of Livia, ancient Rome
Commemoration of the execution of King 
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