Wilson's Almanac Scriptorium home

 

This page is big! If it fails to load fully, please click Refresh on your browser menu.
It's fully loaded when you see the purple menu bar at the foot of the page.

 

fnordreetings from Australia. 

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

First time here?  See the Index for Information How it works

Celebrate each and every day with a free subscription to the daily ezine. You can apply by form or send a blank email. Read what the 'Almaniacs' (members) say about Wilson's Almanac.

I request your support if this website pleases and informs you, as this is my livelihood. Thank you, from the bottom of my fridge. 

Inquiries from publishers are welcome, but, dear reader, please don't use my work without my written permission. If I've inadvertently used something of yours that you consider not to fall under the fair use doctrine, please tell me and I'll remove it.

Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

 

Add to My Yahoo!

Our news on your homepage
(that is, if you use My Yahoo, which we recommend for your start-up page)


 

 


To the Book of Days main calendar

 


Carpe diem!

31


Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search

Open links in a New Window

Today is

 

November 5 
A Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving; 
to be used yearly upon the Fifth Day of November for the happy Deliverance of the King, and the Three Estates of the Realm, from the most Traiterous and Bloudy intended Massacre by Gun-Powder. 
The Service shall be the same with the usual Office for Holidays in all things; Except where it is hereafter otherwise appointed. 
If this Day shall happen to be Sunday, only the Collect proper for that Sunday, shall be added to this Office in its place. 
Morning Prayer shall begin with these Sentences. 
TURN thy face away from our sins, O Lord; and blot out all our offences. Psal. li. 9 
Correct us, O Lord, but with judgment, not in thine anger; lest thou bring us to nothing. Jere. x, 14 
I will go to my father, and will say unto him; Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee; and am no more worthy to be called thy son. S. Luke xii. 18, 19.
The Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving to be used upon the Fifth Day of November, in the Book of Common Prayer, Church of England 1662. In 1858 The Earl of Stanhope successfully moved a motion that the government should ask the queen to abolish the liturgy because it was politically obsolete and unfair to Catholics. The main cause for the liturgy's abolition was a growing violent tendency of street celebrations. See 1606, On this day in history, below
.

Gunpowder Plot: The executions

The execution of the Gunpowder Plotters, 1606

Jesse had a wife to mourn him for all her life,
the children they are brave.
'Twas a dirty little coward that shot Mister Howard, 
And laid Jesse James in his grave.

It was Robert Ford, the dirty little coward, 
I wonder how he does feel,
for he ate of Jesse's bread and he slept in Jesse's bed,
Then he laid Jesse James in his grave.

'Jesse James',
American traditional ballad; Robert Ford, who killed American outlaw Jesse James on April 3, 1882, was born on January 31, 1862

... rather slender, not very robust, yet wiry and evidently capable of great endurance, as well as being shrewd and brave. His eyes are sunken,  of a hazel color, and are large, restless, and piercing. His forehead is high, and his hair is thin, short, and of a light brown color. He is about 5 feet 8 inches high, and wears a nut-brown suit. He would never be singled out of a crowd as a youth of qualities worthy of especial notice.
New York Times, April 5, 1882, description of Robert Ford, killer of Jesse James

Bob Ford I don't trust; I think he is a sneak; but Charlie Ford is as true as steel.
Jesse James as (allegedly) quoted by Frank Triplett

He pulled off his pistols and got up on a chair to dust off some picture frames, and I drew my pistol and shot him.
Bob Ford quoted by Triplett at the inquest into the death of Jesse James

The Bulletin for twenty years or more not only helped shaped Australian literature but in some respects practically was Australian literature. And it was not all bush, by any means: it published early poems and criticism by the pioneer modernist Chris Brennan, ransacked English and American publications for what it considered new and strong, peered occasionally into continental European literature, conducted arguments over style, analyzed art exhibitions, developed an oracular literary 'Red Page' (so named from the color of the newsprint cover-sheet; the Red Page still appears), hammering all the while at late Victorian and early modern stuffiness. There came, in fact, to be two literary worlds co-existing in The Bulletin: oneself-consciously, blatantly parochial; the other cosmopolitan, keen-witted, sharp-tongued. [Henry] Lawson belonged to both.
From a tribute to The Bulletin of Sydney, which was founded on January 31, 1880   Source

It was not mere anecdotage. It was the sheer momentous life of the continent. There was no consecutive thread. Only the laconic courage of experience.
DH Lawrence; referring to The Bulletin of Sydney, founded on January 31, 1880

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists. … half of what is published is probably 50 % incorrect. The rest is 75 % wrong.
Norman Mailer, American writer, born on January 31, 1923, Esquire, June 1960

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.
Norman Mailer

The difference between writing a book and being on television is the difference between conceiving a child and having a baby made in a test tube.
Norman Mailer

Growth, in some curious way, I suspect, depends on being always in motion just a little bit, one way or another.
Norman Mailer

Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain.
Norman Mailer

The least of learning is done in the classrooms. 
Thomas Merton, American mystic and activist, born on January 31, 1915 

The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.
Thomas Merton

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. 
Thomas Merton; No Man Is an Island

Attachment to spiritual things is ... just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else.
Thomas Merton

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.
Thomas Merton; quoted by Monica Furlong Merton

In all things humility is silent and at rest and even the labor of humility is rest.
Thomas Merton

When I am liberated by silence ... my whole life becomes a prayer.
Thomas Merton

... to find our spiritual being we must travel down the path made by our spiritual activity.
Thomas Merton

The whole of life is to spiritualize our activities by humility and faith ... 
Thomas Merton

Only pure love can empty the soul perfectly of the images of created things and elevate you above desire.
Thomas Merton

The proud man loves his own illusion and self-sufficiency. The spiritually poor man loves his very insufficiency. The proud man claims honor for having what no one else has. The humble man begs for a share in what everybody else has received.
Thomas Merton

Maybe we should not have humored them when they asked to live on reservations. Maybe we should have said, "No, come join us. Be citizens along with the rest of us."
US President Ronald Reagan during a trip to Moscow, when a student asked about US treatment of Native Americans (who were ordered onto reservations on January 31, 1876)

 

 

 

January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 334 days remaining (335 in leap years).
On the dating of items in the Almanac  Translate this page  Find your birthday star  Daily Everything  NNDB  Time/Date  Google
Calendar converter  Almanacs, calendars, time, dedicated weeks, etc  Almanac screensavers  On this day  Dictionary  I recommend
IMDB days  IMDB years  Wikipedia days  Wiki decades  Wiki centuries  Timelines  Convert weights, measures, etc  Calendrica  Lunabar

When 'Source' links on this page move address or die, I might allow them to stay here, but the Wayback Machine might help you locate the original.

 

 

 

HecateFeast day of Hekate (Hecate), ancient Greece

"In Greece, this day was celebrated as the Feast of Hecate, known to the Romans as Diana Lucifera. Diana had three manifestations, Luna in the Heavens (the moon), Diana the Huntress on earth, and Diana Ludifera in Hades, the Underworld. Diana was the goddess of the moon and was called Diana Lucifera which means the Bringer of Light. The name Lucifera was also applied to the morningstar Venus. The Christians gave the name negative connotations in their systematic attempts to discredit the Roman gods. The Greeks knew Diana as Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, and daughter of Zeus and Leto. She was born under Mount Cynthus in Delos and hence was also called Cynthia and Delia. She was the goddess of hunting, carried a bow and quiver like her brother, and was especially fond of music and dance. Diana was never conquered by love, and submitted to no man, hence she was the goddess of a 'chaste' moon and, except for her family, tolerated only female companions. Her priestesses were all chaste."   Source

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In Greek mythology, Hecate (Roman equivalent: Trivia 'of the three ways') was the goddess of witchcraft and sorcery, as well as crossroads. She still pops up in the rituals of Wicca and other magic-practising groups.

She was usually portrayed as having three heads: one dog, one snake and one horse. She also had two ghostly dogs as servants by her side.

Hecate haunted three-way crossroads, where each of her heads faced different directions. She appeared when the 'ebony moon' (new moon) shone.

In some versions of the myth, Hecate rescued Persephone from the underworld. Indeed, in the earliest records of her, Hecate bears little resemblance to the night-walking crone.

Medea was said to be a priestess, or avatar, of Hecate.

"The last day of each month is sacred to the Goddess Hekate. In ancient times, worshippers would leave a 'Hecate's Supper' with specially prepared foods as offerings to Hecate. The offerings were also gifts to appease the restless ghosts, called apotropaioi by the Greeks. These offerings are best prepared for the goddess on the eve of the new moon, to be left behind at crossroads at night, without looking back."   Source

Hecate in Shakespeare

Macbeth
Now o'er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, toward his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Macbeth speaks after seeing the dagger before him; Act II, Sc. I

King Lear
Lear: So young, and so untender?
Cordelia: So young, my lord, and true.
Lear: Let it be so; thy truth then be thy dower:
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night,
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever.

King Lear, Act 1, Sc. i

Festivals in ancient Greece

 

BrighidEve of Brigantia, festival of St Brighid (Bridget; Brigid; Bride; Briid), Ireland

Celtic goddess of fire and crops

People once believed that the good saint travelled about the countryside on the eve of her feast day (February 1), bestowing her blessing on the people and their livestock. Token gifts of a cake or pieces of bread and butter were left on the window-sill outside. A sheaf of corn was often placed beside the cake, as refreshment for the saint's white cow which accompanied her on her rounds.

In Ireland it was believed that Bridget would 'touch the brat' (a woman's article such as a ribbon or mantle) and imbue it with healing powers. The brat was a ribbon or a piece of linen or other cloth, or any item of clothing. The ribbon, cloth or garment would possibly be laid on the doorstep or the window sill, or thrown on a low roof; in Munster it was often tied to the door latch so that the saint would touch it when entering the house. A sash, scarf or handkerchief thus touched by the saint would keep the wearer safe from harm. Once touched by the saint it kept its power forever, and many believed that the older it was, the more potent it became. Men, on the other hand, often put out a belt, a tie or a pair of braces to gain this protection.

The brat also gave omens for the future: its length was carefully measured, and when it was brought in again next morning it was again carefully measured against the marks made on the eve. If its length had increased during the night, this was a good sign that foretold of a long life, freedom from accident, illness and misfortune and success with crops and cattle.

In Ireland on the Eve of Brigantia the people prepared an image of Bride, fashioned out of corn straw. This effigy was supposed to come alive with the spirit of Bride during the night. They left out offerings of food and drink overnight for Bride to partake of as she journeyed around the land on her Eve.

Frazer (Sir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941), British folklorist; The Golden Bough, 1922) tells us that in the Hebrides islands off the west coast of Scotland, the mistress and servants of each family took a sheaf of oats, and dressed it up in women's apparel, put it in a large basket and lay a wooden club next to it. They called this Briid's bed; and then the mistress and servants would cry three times, "Briid is come, Briid is welcome." They did this just before retiring to bed, and when they rose in the morning they looked among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club. If they did, they took it to be a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill omen. Frazer continues:

"The same custom is described by another witness thus: 'Upon the night before Candlemas it is usual to make a bed with corn and hay, over which some blankets are laid, in a part of the house, near the door. When it is ready, a person goes out and repeats three times, … "Bridget, Bridget, come in; thy bed is ready." One or more candles are left burning near it all night.' Similarly in the Isle of Man 'on the eve of the first of February, a festival was formerly kept, called, in the Manks language, Laa'l Breeshey, in honour of the Irish lady who went over to the Isle of Man to receive the veil from St. Maughold. The custom was to gather a bundle of green rushes, and standing with them in the hand on the threshold of the door, to invite the holy Saint Bridget to come and lodge with them that night. In the Manks language, the invitation ran thus: "Brede, Brede, tar gys my thie tar dyn thie ayms noght Foshil jee yn dorrys da Brede, as lhig da Brede e heet staigh." In English: "Bridget, Bridget, come to my house, come to my house to-night. Open the door for Bridget, and let Bridget come in." After these words were repeated, the rushes were strewn on the floor by way of a carpet or bed for St. Bridget. A custom very similar to this was also observed in some of the Out-Isles of the ancient Kingdom of Man.' In these Manx and Highland ceremonies it is obvious that St. Bride, or St. Bridget, is an old heathen goddess of fertility, disguised in a threadbare Christian cloak. Probably she is no other than Brigit, the Celtic goddess of fire and apparently of the crops."

Housewives always provided a festive supper or at least tasty dishes on St Brighid's Eve. Sowans, apple-cake, dumplings and colcannon were favourite food. They also made a fruit cake called Bairin-breac. The neighbours were invited, and they drank ale together, the evening carrying on with mirth and festivity.

Butter was always part of the meal so fresh butter was churned on this day. Wealthier farmers gave gifts of butter and buttermilk to poor neighbours. 

The Brideog

In much of Ireland on St Bridget's Eve young people went about from house to house carrying a symbol of the saint. It was sometimes a well-dressed doll borrowed from a little girl; often such a doll was re-dressed or decorated for the occasion. Usually the image was specially made from a sheaf of straw, suitably dressed, or garments might be stuffed with straw or hay to appear like a human figure. The basis of the figure might be a broom or a churn-dash, or some sticks or pieces of lath fastened together, padded and dressed. The head and face were sometimes made from a mask or a carved turnip, or else a piece of white cloth suitably painted.

The effigy was supposed to represent the saint/goddess herself. Sometimes no effigy was carried, but a chosen girl, dressed wholly or partly in white, and carrying a finely made St Brighid's cross, impersonated the saint. These crosses varied in pattern from place to place.

In the Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1945, p. 46), TGF Paterson recalls:

"On the Louth-Armagh border I have heard of 'Brigid's Shield' and 'Brigid's Crown', and was informed of a tradition that in days gone by, the most modest and most beautiful girl of a particular area, wearing a crown of rushes, a shield on her left arm, and a cross in her right hand, was escorted by a group of young girls from house to house on Brigid's Eve or Brigid's Morning."

Crios Bride

In West County Galway (Ireland) the party of young people going round tonight usually carried the crios Bride (St Brighid's Girdle), a straw rope, some eight or ten feet long, spliced or woven into a loop. At the houses visited, the houeholders were expected to pass through the crios in order to obtain her protection from illness, especially 'pains in the bones', during the coming year.

 

More on Brighid tomorrow

 

 

 

Find an error or dead link? 
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda

 

Click for the Universe today (new window)
Click stars for Universe today

Books, DVDs, calendars, posters, mousemats, T-shirts and more. Sales support this project.
Cafe Diem! Our store



Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald


The Price of Loyalty: Bush, the White House, & the Education of Paul O'Neill


The Da Vinci Code


Ancient Ways


A Short History of Nearly Everything


Garden Witchery


The Twilight of American Culture


Golden Bough
Folklore classic


Sabbat Entertaining


The Pagan Book of Days


Eight Sabbats for Witches


Celebrate the Earth
A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition


Wheel of the Year


The Trouble with Islam


Be A Goddess


The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq

cover
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints


Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture


Cassell's Dictionary of Superstitions


White Noise


Encyclopedia of Superstitions


Faith and Treason: The Gunpowder Plot


Guy Fawkes


The Desperate Remedy: Henry Gresham and the Gunpowder Plot


A Fifth of November


Gunpowder Plot Terror and Faith In 1605


The Gunpowder Plot


What They Don't Tell You About the Gunpowder Plot


5 November 1605


Bonfire Night


Streets of Fire


Don't Forget


The Book of Saints

cover
The Encyclopedia of Saints

Lots of things to waste time each day
Daily Everything


Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

cover
Lord of the Rings

 

To support this project
Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.

 

 Click for Poster Store, or use the seach box to find your subject

Search for posters


An Inconvenient Truth
By Al Gore; DVD & book


The Permaculture Home Garden

By Linda Woodrow


The Corporation
Highly recommended DVD


A Question of Torture
By Alfred McCoy


Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It


What Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom Hartmann


How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World


Pagan Christianity


For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
By James Yee


Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
By Robert F Kennedy, Jr


The Price of Loyalty


The Torture Debate in America


The God Who Wasn't There


A Question of Torture
By Alfred McCoy


When Corporations Rule the World


Alternatives to Economic Globalization


Feminism Without Borders


The Skeptic's Dictionary

cover
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them


365 Goddess

cover
Adventures in a TV Nation
Michael Moore

cover
Drawing Down the Moon

cover
Globalization/Anti-Globalization

cover
Body Wisdom

Your purchases at Cafe Diem help keep this project alive
More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at
 
Cafe Diem!

cover
Celtic Daily Prayer

cover
Dude, Where's My Country?

Photo of the day
National Geographic's Photo of the Day

cover
Mother Earth Spirituality

cover
Bushwhacked

cover
Shamanism


10 Reasons to Abolish the IMF & World Bank


Click to promote 
your blog or website 
another excellent 
way we do

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

An annual festival honouring Kuan Yin, the gentle Goddess of Mercy, China   Source

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Feast day of St Adamnan of Coldingham

Feast day of St Aedan of Ferns

Feast day of St Athanasia

Feast day of St Cyrus

Feast day of St Francis Xavier Bianchi

Feast day of St John, Arab physician

Feast day of St John Bosco
St John Bosco (August 16, 1815 - January 31, 1888), baptismal name Giovanni Melchior Bosco, commonly called Don Bosco ('Don' being the Italian honorific for elders, including priests) was the founder of the Salesian Society, a Roman Catholic order.

More

Feast day of St Madoes 

Feast day of St Marcella, widow
(Hartstongue, Asplenium Scolopendium, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St Martin Manuel

Feast day of St Metranus of Alexandria

Formerly the feast day of St Peter Nolasco (Pedro Nolasco)
With the reform of the general Roman calendar in 1969, the feast of St Peter Nolasco on January 31 was suppressed; he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology and in local and particular liturgical calendars on January 28.

Feast day of St Saturninus

Feast day of St Tarskius

Feast day of St Thyrsus

Feast day of St Tryphaena of Cyzicus

Feast day of St Zoticus

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

February Eve

Start of festival of Imbolc or Brigantia

Feast of Nordic gods, the Disir, the Valkyries and the Norns

 

January/February, Vasant Panchami (Shree Panchami; Saraswati Puja)

On the dating of items in the Almanac

Celebrated in honour of Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, music, and art, this Hindu festival is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the Indian month Magh (January-February), and is seen as commencing the spring season. During this festival children have their first lessons in the alphabet; brahmins are fed; ancestor worship (Pitri-Tarpan) is performed; the god of love, Kamadeva, is worshipped; and most educational institutions organise special prayer for Saraswati. The colour yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweetmeats are consumed within the families.

"On this day Goddess Saraswati is worshipped as the Goddess of Learning, the deity of Gayatri, the fountain of fine arts and science, and the symbol of supreme vedantic knowledge. Religious paintings depict each of these goddess alighted on a vehicle that symbolizes their special power. The white swan of Saraswati symbolizing Satwa Guna (purity and discrimination), the lotus of Lakshmi the Rajas Guna and the tiger of Durga the Tamas Guna. Saraswati is shown possessing four hands and plays 'Veena', an Indian string musical instrument. Vasant Panchami is also known as Saraswati Day and commemorates the birth of goddess Saraswati. Hindu temples throng with people and are abuzz with prayers and rituals."   Source

Saraswati

Saraswati (Sarasvati; Saraswathi) is the Hindu goddess of fertility, art, science, wealth, education, writing and water. Her husband is Brahma. In the Rig-Veda (6,61,7), she is credited with killing the dragon Vritra (also romanized as Vrtra), a demon that hoarded all of the earth's water and so represents drought, darkness, and chaos. (However, in Hindu scripture, the slaying of Vritra is generally attributed to Indra.)

She was originally a river-goddess (see Vedic Saraswati River). As a river-deity, she came to be the goddess of everything that flows: words (and knowledge, by extension), speech, eloquence, and music. In the Shakta Brahmanism (worshippers of Shakti or Devi, the female aspect of the divinity), Saraswati represents intelligence, consciousness and cosmic knowledge.

In art she is depicted in human form, as a woman with four arms, often playing a string instrument called sitar. She rides a peacock.

Besides her role in Hinduism, she became part of the Buddhist pantheon and came to China via the Chinese translations of the Sutra of Golden Light, which has a section devoted to her. Now largely forgotten in China, she is still worshipped in Japan under the name Benzaiten. Other names for her include Sarada, Sharada, Vani.

 

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

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

Iroquois Midwinter Festival (Jan 30 - Feb 8)

Winter-een-mas (Jan 25 - 31)
Seventh and final day.

More

Independence Day, Nauru

Late January to early February, for nine days, the Festival of Country Serenades, Santo Amaro, Brazil

 

National Gorilla Suit Day, USA
"National Gorilla Suit Day, which mysteriously falls on January 31 of each year, is perhaps the important holiday of the year. Every National Gorilla Suit Day, people of all shapes and colors around the world get their gorilla suits out of the closet, put them on and go door-to-door." National Gorilla Suit Day was invented by "MAD's Maddest Artist" (ie, the weirdest of all the cartoonists in MAD magazine), Don Martin.

Comix, comics and cartoons in the Book of Days

 

 

 

1338 Charles V the Wise (French: Charles V le Sage) (d. September 16, 1380), King of France (1364 to '80) and a member of the Valois Dynasty

1686 Hans Egede (d. November 5, 1758), Norwegian Lutheran missionary, called the Apostle of Greenland. He founded Godthåb (Nuuk), the capital of Greenland. Egede saw the so-called 'Egede Sea Monster' on July 6, 1734.

1752 Gouverneur Morris (d. 1816), American lawmaker and diplomat

1762 Colonel Lachlan Macquarie (d. July 1, 1824), British military officer and colonial administrator who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of that colony. Historians assess his influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement as being crucial to the shaping of Australian society.

Places named after Lachlan Macquarie

1797 Franz Schubert (d. 1828), Austrian composer

1862 Robert Ford (Bob Ford; d. June 8, 1892), American outlaw who gained fame by killing the criminal Jesse James on April 3, 1882. Ford shot the famous outlaw in a cowardly way, and was himself killed in a brawl in his own tent bar (pic) in Creede, Colorado, in 1892. His headstone says that he was born on December 8, 1841, but photos clearly show he was much younger than 40 when he shot James and his birthdate is sometimes given as January 31, 1862.

 

1866 Sam Rosa (SA Rosa; d. May 25, 1940), journalist, editor, socialist activist, novelist (The Coming Terror), member of Melbourne Anarchists and there an associate of Chummy Fleming, JA Andrews, Larry Petrie et al, active also in Sydney. Member of the Labor Electoral League ( a forerunner of the Australian Labor Party).

He was co-founder of the Social Democratic League in 1889 and active in the Australian Socialist League, but deposed in January 1892 as the league tended to espouse the state socialism that he opposed. In September, 1892 he sued Truth for libel. Editor of Truth in 1906, he wrote an editorial "I DEMAND JUSTICE" and signed in the name of John Norton when the latter was too drunk to do so following legal proceedings initiated by John Haynes that alleged Norton was a criminal and murderer. He described his many detractors in the labor movement as generally persons who "have parasitically fastened themselves upon organised labour and have long been in receipt of absurdly high salaries". From 1937, he was President of the Society of Australian Composers and Authors.

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

 

1872 (Some sources say 1875) Zane Grey (b. Pearl Zane Gray; d. October 23, 1939), American author of popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West (Riders of the Purple Sage), born in Zanesville, Ohio. In his lifetime alone, 17 million Zane Grey books were sold. A world-champion angler, he regularly came to Australia for deep-sea fishing, catching a world-record 470 kg (1,036 lb) Tiger shark off Sydney in 1936, but he usually fished out of Bermagui, New South Wales. He published 54 books, one of which was An American Angler in Australia (1937). In Australia, '