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The 4th day of January, 1688, we fell in with the Land of New Holland in the Lat. of 16 d. So m. having, as I said before, made our Course due South from the Shoal that we past by the 31st day of December. We ran in close by it, and finding no convenient anchoring, because it lies open to the N.W. we ran along shore to the Eastward, steering N. E. by E. for so the Land lies. We steered thus about 12 Leagues; and then came to a Point of Land, from whence the Land trends East and Southerly, for 10 or 12 Leagues; but how afterwards I know not. About 3 Leagues to the Eastward of this Point, there is a pretty deep Bay, with abundance of Islands in it, and a very good place to anchor in, or to hale ashore. About a League to the Eastward of that Point we anchored January the 5th, 1688, 2 Mile from the Shore, in 29 Fathom, good hard Sand, and clean Ground. 
  New Holland is a very large Tract of Land. It is not yet determined whether it is an Island or a main Continent; but I am certain that it joyns neither to Asia, Africa, nor America. This part of it that we saw is all low even Land, with Sandy Banks against the Sea, only the Points are rocky, and so are some of the Islands in this Bay. 
  The Land is of a dry sandy Soil, destitute of Water, except you make Wells; yet producing divers sorts of Trees; but the Woods are not thick, nor the Trees very big. Most of the Trees that we saw are Dragon-trees, as we supposed; and these too are the largest Trees of any there. They are about the bigness of our large Apple-trees, and about the same heighth: and the Rind is blackish, and somewhat rough. The Leaves are of a dark colour; the Gum distils out of the Knots or Cracks that are in the Bodies of the Trees. We compared it with some Gum Dragon, or Dragon's Blood, that was aboard, and it was of the same colour and taste. The other sorts of Trees were not known by any of us. There was pretty long Grass growing under the Trees; but it was very thin. We saw no Trees that bore Fruit or Berries. 
  We saw no sort of Animal, nor any Track of Beast, but once; and that seemed to be the Tread of a Beast as big as a great Mastiff-Dog. Here are a few small Land-birds, but none bigger than a Blackbird; and but few Sea-fowls. Neither is the Sea very plentifully stored with Fish, unless you reckon the Manatee and Turtle as such. Of these Creatures there is plenty; but they are extraordinary shy; though the Inhabitants cannot trouble them much, having neither Boats nor Iron. 
  The Inhabitants of this Country are the miserablest People in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for Wealth are Gentlemen to these; who have no Houses and skin Garments, Sheep, Poultry, and Fruits of the Earth, Ostrich Eggs, etc., as the Hodmadods have ...
William Dampier's account of his first visit to the shores of New Holland (Australia) in the Cygnet; The Discovery of New Holland, Chapter 16   Source

The biographical headnotes in every sophomore [literature] anthology suggest the importance of Petrarch's love for Laura, of Dante's love for Beatrice, of Wordsworth's love for Annette, but never are we told [in textbooks] that Oscar's love for Bosie informs some of his prose...; that Whitman's love for Peter Doyle influenced his prophetic theory of comradeship; that AE Housman's unrequited love for A.J. Jackson contributed to the bitter but restrained sorrow of much of his poetry …; or that Edna St Vincent Millay's frequent references to Sappho or Lesbos are not prompted by her love for Eugene, or that Tennyson's love for Arthur Hugh Hallam prompted him to write that most 'universal' of sentiments: 'Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all.'
Rictor Norton in 'Ganymede Raped: Gay Literature – The Critic as Censor', Gay Sunshine Journal #23, November 1974   Source

January 4 is the 4^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 361 days remaining (362 in leap years).
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In January – Dogon tribe, Republic of Mali

The Dogon are a group of people living in Mali, in West Africa, and there are about 300,000 Dogon people living today. They are most noted for their descriptions of the Sirius star system.

Funerals are held for those who died during the year. Every 12 years or so the dama dance is held to induce souls of recently departed to leave the local environs and join those of the ancestors. About every 60 years the Dogon celebrate the most important funeral of all, the Sigi. It involves all the Dogon villages and takes about six years to complete. It commemorates the death of the first human and initiates a new generation of males into the Dogon secrets.

 Masked men come from the bush into the village, then the village erupts in celebration, noise, dancing, theatrics. The dances mime and often satirise Dogon culture. Masks represent everything: animals, trees, spirits, celebrities in Dogon culture. The neighbouring Fulani and Mossi people are often parodied, as are white people (who are represented by red masks each with a hooked nose, fluffy beard and lank hair). A colonial administrator is represented with a pad and pen. An anthropologist is satirised by a masked actor who sits imperiously on a chair and asks silly questions. A 'tourist' has a 'camera' and pushes others out of the way for a clear view. 

The Dogon people, it has been said, scorn tourists and their passion for recording their culture. "What is the point?" they ask. "Do they not have any stories of their own?" 

Sirius and the Dogon people

From Wikipedia

Dogon mythology seems to describe Sirius B, which is not visible without the use of a telescope. Some of the information given by Dogon natives on the Sirius system was recorded before it was discovered by Western science.

They call Sirius B Po Tolo. This star was the seed of the Milky Way galaxy and 'navel' of the entire universe, according to the Dogon mythological explanation of the universe. They describe the universe as "infinite, but measurable", and filled with many yalu ulo, or spiral star systems, including the one with our own sun.

According to the Dogon perception of the universe, most of the universe is part of the "external" star system, while nearer to Earth is the "internal" star system. The stars in the "internal" system include many that they claim affect the lives of people of Earth and play a part in human history, including not only the Sirius binary/ternary system, but also Orion, Pleiades and others.

The tribe neighbouring the Dogon, the Bozo, have a similar mythology about Sirius in the sky and refer to it as the "Eye Star."

According to some, the Dogons came in contact with an amphibious alien race, the Nommos, about 5000 years ago. The Nommos came from a planet orbiting Sirius and passed on information regarding the star system.

(NB: Subaru only uses six of the 'seven sisters' of the Pleiades in its logo – PW)

Pleaides star cluster    Pleiades in folklore and literature    Pleiades in Greek mythology

 

"Did amphibious beings from the star Sirius visit the earth 5,000 or more years ago and leave advanced astronomical knowledge that is still possessed by a remote African tribe called the Dogon? This astonishing claim was put forward in 1976 by Robert Temple in his 'ancient astronaut' book, The Sirius Mystery. An astronomer, familiar with the Sirius system, would say no, because astronomical theory virtually precludes the possibility that Sirius is a suitable parent star for life or that it could have habitable planets. But most of Robert Temple's readers would not know enough astronomy to judge the matter for themselves. Neither would they find the relevant astronomical information in Temple's book, most of which consists of brain-numbing excursions into Egyptology ...

"In the information imparted to the French anthropologists [Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who worked among the Dogon from 1931 to 1952], the Dogon referred to a small and super-dense companion of Sirius, made of matter heavier than anything on Earth, and moving in a 50-year elliptical orbit around its parent star. The white dwarf companion of Sirius which answers to this description was not seen until 1862, when the American optician Alvan Graham Clark spotted it while testing a new telescope; the superdense nature of white dwarfs was not realized until the 1920s. But the Dogon Sirius traditions are at least centuries old. How can we account for the remarkable accord between ancient Dogon legends and modern astronomical fact?"
Source

Dogon pages at Crystalinks    The Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B

 

Sirius in South Pacific legend

In Tahiti's legend of the Birth of the Heavenly Bodies, Ta'ura ('the Red One'), a name for Sirius, took a wife of whom princes were born, Matari'i (Makali'i) being one. Then were "created kings of the chiefs of earthly hosts on one side, and of chiefs in the skies on the other side".

In New Zealand Maori myth, Takurua is the name of Sirius. The Tuhoe people say she is a woman who ushers in Winter, and on cold nights her shining warns of heavy frost. Winter is also often known by the name Takurua. It's referred to as Hine-takurua, Winter Woman.  

Sirius and the Kalahari Bushmen

The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, have a ritual associated with the appearance of certain stars, including Sirius. When Sirius appears; the people call out to one another: "Sirius comes yonder! You must burn a stick for us towards Sirius. Who was it who saw Sirius?" One man says to another, "Our brother saw Sirius." The other man says to him, "I saw Sirius." The other man says to him: "I wish you to burn a stick for us towards Sirius; that the sun may shining come out for us; that Sirius may not coldly come out."

The other man (the one who saw Sirius) says to his son: "Bring me the small piece of wood over there, that I may put the end of it in the fire, that I may burn it towards grandmother; that grandmother may ascend the sky, like the other one, [the star] Canopus."

The child brings him the piece of wood and the father holds the end of it in the fire. He points the burning brand towards Sirius and says that Sirius shall twinkle like Canopus (which is in fact the second-brightest star in the sky). He sings about Canopus and Sirius; and points to them with fire, that they may twinkle like each other. Following this, he throws fire towards the stars and completely covers himself up from head to toe in his kaross (a blanket made of animal hide) and lies down.

Soon he arises, and sits down; he does not again lie down, because he feels that he has worked, putting Sirius into the sun's warmth; so that Sirius may come out in the sky and shine warmly.  

More on Sirius lore at the Dog Days of Summer page at the Scriptorium

More on Sirius at July 23 in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

 

 

 

 

Etruscan god of wine, vegetation, vitality and gaiety, son of the earth-goddess Semia. He shows many similarities to Dionysus and Bacchus, the Greek and Roman gods of wine, and there is evidence that he was also a god of the dead.  His name appears to be derived from the word for 'sprout' or 'bud', and the Etruscan city of Populonia is derived from his name.

Etruscan mythology    Etruscan religion

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The Twelve Days of Christmas Day 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swi'mmi'ng, six geese a-laying, Five golden rings. Four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves And a partridge in a pear tree.   The Quadrantids annual meteor shower (Jan 1 - 5) The meteors appear to radiate from an area inside the constellation Boötes; the name comes from Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation that is now part of Boötes. The best date to view the Quadrantids is January 3 or 4, although they can viewed from January 1 - 5. Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies mala), unlucky day in Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding I will trust the Lord" was the associated saying.) Feast day of St Aedh Dubh Feast day of St Angela of Foligno Feast day of St Elizabeth Ann Seton Feast day of St Gaius Feast day of St Geminus Feast day of St Gregory of Langres, bishop Feast day of St Rigobert, or Robert, of Rheims Feast day of St Thomas Plumtree Feast day of Saint Titus (Hazel, Corylus avellana, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint. See August 5 for the folklore of hazel.) Octave of the Holy Innocents Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Independence Day, Burma Martyrs of Independence Day, Zaire Casé gâteaux (Breaking the Cakes), a communal form of a mager-loa, Voudon (Voodoo) (Jan 2 - 4) Visit of the Magi, Austria, till January 6 Amamehagi Demons Festival, Monzen-machi, Ishikawa, Japan (Jan 2 - 6) Shusho-E Matsuri, Japan (Jan 1 - 14)     Cicada time in Australia   The cicadas make themselves known on these hot days all around Australia, which has about 220 in 38 genera of the 2,000-plus species of the world's large Cicadidae family (of the order Hemiptera, suborder Homoptera). After seven years underground as nymphs at depths ranging from about 30 cm (1 ft) up to 2.5 m (about 8½ ft) (some species have much longer life cycles; eg, the Magicicada goes through a 13- or even 17-year life cycle) they begin emerging in the spring – the earliest I have heard the drumming of one of them in Sydney was October 11, 1983; it was at Forestville.   Over generations, Australian children have bestowed names on some of the species. The most common and thus best known is the Green Grocer (Cyclochila australasiae). The Floury Baker (Abricta curvicosta) and the Black Prince (Psaltoda plaga) are less common – the latter especially so and their scarcity might help explain the dubious folklore of children that you can sell them to pharmacists for a tidy sum, and their wings will be ground up and used in important medicines. It might be that during the Australian Gold Rush days of the 1850s, Chinese herbalists really did grind up Black Prince wings for their elixirs.   Another famous Aussie cicada is the Double Drummer (Thopha saccata), and I suppose just about everyone here knows the Yellow Monday (pictured), which is also Cyclochila australasiae like its Greengrocer sibling (Greengrocer and Yellow Monday are simply two different colour forms of the same species). No one really knows when the colourful names were first given, but the terms 'Yellow Monday' and 'Green Grocer' were in popular use as early as 1896. Green Grocers, Yellow Mondays and Double Drummers can crank up a noise intensity of more than 120dB at close range, approaching the pain threshold of the human ear. And we won't mention the Pisswhacker. "From Max Moulds's book Australian Cicadas: Black Prince, Greengrocer, Yellow Monday, Double Drummer, Cherrynose, Redeye, Floury Baker, Tom Thumb. From readers: Brown Baker, Ticker, Double-spotted, Chocolate Soldier (dark tan), Razor Grinder, Black Squeaker, Masked Bandit, Blue Moon (turquoise), Whisky, and Black Princess."   Source Ancient cicada myths and legends "To the ancient Greeks the cicada symbolised resurrection, rebirth and immortality and is mentioned as being sacred to the ancient Greek sun god Apollo. Homer mentions cicadas in the Iliad around 9000 BC and compares the discourse of "sage chiefs exempt from war" to the song of the cicada. "Ancient Greeks and Chinese made a habit of keeping male Cicadas in cages for the pleasure of hearing them sing. One Greek ode to the cicada says: 'We call you happy, O cicada, because after you have drunk a little dew in the treetops you sing like a queen'. "Cicadas also had a powerful effect on artists as they feature on numerous coins both before and after the time of Christ. A number of beautiful gems have also been found from around 300 BC carved in the likeness of the cicada. The cicada's emergence from the earth was a powerful symbol for ancient Romans with members of the nobility taking to wearing a gold brooch featuring a cicada to hold back their hair. "In Taoism the cicada is the symbol of the hsien, or soul, disengaging itself from the body at death. Cicadas also feature in Japanese carvings on small medicine boxes and they are mentioned in ancient Hindu law as long ago as 200 BC in India." Source: The Summer of singing cicadas   Greengrocer, Yellow Monday Fact File    Australian cicadas    The Singing Cicadas    Bugbios The cicada sounds page    Australian Cicadas    Cicada Central   Cicada Sing-Song Cicada Mania: "Dedicated to the most amazing insect in the world"    More         1334 Amadeus VI (the Green Earl), Earl of Savoye 1567 François d'Aguilon, Jesuit physicist, mathematician,  and architect 1579 Willem Teellinck, Dutch theologian and vicar 1581 Bishop James Ussher (d. March 21, 1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Northern Ireland, who calculated Earth's creation at October 23, 4004 BCE. The Great Flood began on November 25, 2438 BCE. 1710 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (d. 1736), composer 1720 Johann Friedrich Agricola (d. 1774), composer   1785 Jacob Grimm (Jakob Grimm), German folklorist and philologist, who was one half of the Brothers Grimm (Jakob at left of picture). Jacob and his younger brother Wilhelm, were professors at Berlin, investigators of the early history and literature of Germany. They published a large dictionary of the German language (Deutsches Wörterbuch), and their famous Grimm's Tales. They were better known in their day – and still are highly reputed – as linguists. They proposed the Great Vowel Shift of the 15th Century, when English vowels changed from their Continental values. Jakob propounded Grimm's law  (an informal name for what is formally known as the First Germanic Consonant Shift), the first description of systematic phonetic transformation within a language. "Before they could fall asleep a peasant woman appeared before their house, knocked on the door, and asked to be let inside. The girl got up immediately and told the woman that the dwarfs had only seven beds, and that there was no room there for anyone else. With this the woman became very angry and accused the girl of being a slut, thinking that she was cohabiting with all seven men. Threatening to make a quick end to such evil business, she went away in a rage. "That same night she returned with two men, whom she had brought up from the bank of the Rhine. Together they broke into the house and killed the seven dwarfs …" Not by Grimm, but 'The Death of the Seven Dwarfs', Ernst Ludwig Rochholz, Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau, vol. 1 (Aarau: Druck und Verlag von H. R. Sauerländer, 1856), no. 222, p. 312 Little Red Riding Hood    Hansel and Gretel    Rumpelstiltskin Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs    The Pied Piper of Hamelin    More   1809 Louis Braille (d. 1852), French inventor of alphabet for blind; blind from the age of three, at 15 he developed the famous system of writing for the blind 1813 Sir Isaac Pitman, English inventor of system of shorthand 1822 Georg Büchmann (d. 1884), philologist 1832 Edward Cole (Edward William Cole; EW Cole; d. December 16, 1918), Australian bookseller and founder of book arcade, Melbourne. His 'Cole's Funny Picture Books' entertained children for more than a century, its 1966 reprint bringing total sales up to 885,000. More 1838 General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton; d. 1883), dwarf who was a famous circus performer 1878 Augustus John, Welsh painter 1881 Wilhelm Lehmbruck (d. 1919), sculptor 1896 Everett Dirksen (d. 1969), American politician 1914 Jane Wyman, American actress 1920 William Colby (d. April 27, 1996), USA Director of Central Intelligence who died in mysterious circumstances 1937 Dyan Cannon, American actress 1942 Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, English jazz fusion guitar player 1943 Doris Kearns Goodwin, writer 1960 Michael Stipe, singer (REM)   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section Send free e-cards to friends & family for celebrations & any topic Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year. Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Flower Basket Day [ Jan 4 ] Birthdays Epiphany [ Jan 6 ]   Celebration of Life Month [ January ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Buddhist e-cards Varies Christian e-cards Varies Hindu e-cards Varies Jewish e-cards Varies Muslim e-cards Varies Pagan e-cards Varies Peace e-cards Varies Friendship e-cards Varies Eid ul-Adha January 1 New Year 1 Bad Hangover Day 1 Universal Hour Of Peace 1 Daydreamers' Day 1 Solemnity Of Mary 1 Bloody Mary Day 1 New Year's Day Parade (Wisconsin, USA) 2 Science Fiction Day 2 Get Over It Day 3 Drinking Straw Day 3 Start Your New Year's Resolution Day 3 Festival Of Sleep Day 4 Flower Basket Day 4 Spaghetti Day 4 Trivia Day 4 Blender Day 5 Take The Cake Day 5 Get On The Computer Day 5 Turn Up The Heat Day 5 Bird Day 6 Cuddle Up Day 6 Twelfth Night / Epiphany 6 Smith Day 6 Three Kings Day Parade (New York) 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 ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap Your family and friends will get a kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!! You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)         If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   536 Tradition has it that two monks came from the Indies to Constantinople, bringing with them the art of silk making, thus introducing it to Europe. It was not practised in England until the reign of Henry VI, ie, the middle of the 14th Century. 871 Battle at Reading: Ethelred of Wessex defeated the invading Danish army. 1066 Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon English king, died at Westminster. Patron saint of England until the 13th Century, he lost this place to St George. Edward and the woodcutter Old Windsor, Berkshire, UK "A woodcutter who went to sleep in the forest of Bruelle was horrified, on waking, to find that he had been stricken blind. He suffered long in his affliction, until in a dream he was directed to offer prayer in eighty-seven churches. This he did and, at the end of his pilgrimage, he went to (Old) Windsor, where he sat in the King's porch. King Edward the Confessor, hearing of the man's trouble and of his dream, sent for him and placed his hand, dipped in holy water, upon the blind man's eyes. Immediately the woodcutter's sight was restored."   Source Death of Edward the Confessor This English king and saint is credited with numerous miracles. Soon after ascending the throne, he was called on by a leper in the street to carry him on his shoulders into a church. When Edward did so, the unfortunate was cured. He once saw the Devil sitting on the money in the treasury. When told by Satan that the money came from an unfair tax that the king hadn't known about, Edward immediately returned the money to its rightful owners. Once, while lying before the altar, this English monarch and saint had a vision of the Danes embarking to invade England. When he saw the Danish king fall into the water, Edward described the vision and asked all present to note the hour and the day. Inquiries revealed he had seen the true incident, or, so it is said.   1493 Christopher Columbus left the New World, ending his first journey. 1642 English Civil War:  Charles I of England, with a guard of cavalier soldiers, burst into Parliament in an attempt to arrest the "traitors", Pym, Hampden, Hollis, Haselrig and Strode, following the publication of the Grand Remonstrance, a document critical of the king. A lady of the court tipped them off, and they made their getaway in a boat on the Thames. The king withdrew in anger to the sound of heckling from the remaining parliamentarians.   1688 William Dampier (1651 - 1715), the explorer, sea captain, scientific observer and early explorer of Australia, touched on the coast of Western Australia. The continent was at that time called New Holland. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) called Dampier a genius and "a man of exquisite mind" and advised contemporary travel writers "to read and imitate him". On February 1, 1709, Alexander Selkirk (or Selcraig; 1676 - 1721), the model for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, was rescued by the ship Duke, after four years on a deserted island four hundred miles west of Valparaíso, Chile, by Captain Woodes Rogers and Dampier, who recognised him and vouched for his identity. According to Diana Preston and Michael Preston, A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier, among the many words William Dampier introduced into the English language are: avocado; barbecue; breadfruit; baress (verb); cashew; chopsticks; excursion (trip); kumquat; Nor'wester (wind); posse; rambling; sea-breeze; sea-lion; serrated; settlement; soysauce; tortilla … read on 1798 Forty hectares of Bankstown, New South Wales (named after Sir Joseph Banks, English explorer and botanist) land were auctioned – the first land sale in Australia. 1847 Samuel Colt (1814 - '62), rescued his faltering gun company by winning a contract to provide the US government with 1,000 of his .44 calibre revolvers. Colt received a patent for his revolver on February 24, 1836, and made the first production model on March 5 of the same year. 1874 USA: Eskiminin, an Apache chief, escaped from imprisonment and led his people away from a reservation. 1884 The Fabian Society was formed in London. 1885 The first successful appendectomy (or appendicectomy in some countries) was performed (Dr William Grant; the patient was Mary Gartside). 1896 Utah was made a State of the USA. 1912 The smallest earth-moon distance during the 20th Century, 356,375 km (221,441 miles) centre-to-centre. Planetary Photojournal (NASA) 1913 The Church of Christ in Bassendean, Western Australia, was built in its entirety by 120 volunteers on this day. 1932 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, was arrested in Bombay and imprisoned without trial in Yeravda Prison. 1933 Farmers in Iowa, USA, threatened to lynch any insurance company representatives or law officers who instituted foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Great Depression. 1936 Billboard published the first pop chart based on record sales, New York. 1938 Billie Holiday recorded 'When You're Smiling'. 1939 George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair; 1903 -'50) signed the Breton/Rivera manifesto, Towards a Free Revolutionary Art. English author Orwell, a novelist best known for his book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was a political activist who wrote, for example, Homage to Catalonia, a book of his experiences during the Spanish Revolution, which was very sympathetic to the anarchists. More on Orwell    More    More-well 1941 Hollywood actor, Charles Chaplin, refused the New York Film Critics' Award for the film, The Great Dictator, saying that he sought "only to please the public" and that acceptance of the trophy would recognise the fact "that actors are competing with each other". 1944 Adolf Hitler issued an order mobilizing all children over 10 years of age to be war-ready. 1948 Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom. 1951 Seoul was taken from United Nations forces by Chinese and North Korean communist forces. 1957 Elvis Presley had his pre-induction army medical examination. 1960 Albert Camus, French Nobel Prize-winning novelist, was killed in a car crash near Sens, France. 1961 In Copenhagen, apprentice hairdressers ended the longest strike in history, which they carried on for more than 22 years. 1964 Pope Paul VI met Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople in Jerusalem; this was the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 1400s. 1965 Right-wing modernist poet, TS Eliot, expatriate American, died in England, his adopted country. How can they write or paint In a country where it Would be nicer to be Fed intravenously? Kenneth Rexroth 1967 Sir Donald Campbell, holder of world speed records on both land and water, died when his jet-powered speedboat Bluebird crashed on Coniston Water in northern England. 1970 The Beatles, excluding John Lennon, who was holidaying in Denmark, did the final overdubs for their farewell album, Let it Be. Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list 1971 An angry American soldier in Vietnam, George Mellendorf, sent a letter to President Richard Nixon complaining about slow delivery of mail to soldiers; "It seems as if nobody cares if we get our mail." Mellendorf got his reply in 1978. 1972 Rose Heilbron became the first British female judge at the Old Bailey. 1974 Hanging onto power at almost any cost, United States President Richard Nixon refused to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. 1976 The Family Law Act was instituted. Henceforth, the only grounds for divorce in Australia were to be irretrievable breakdown of marriage. 1980 US President Jimmy Carter announced the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.   Boycott the Beijing Olympics 1981 The Broadway show, Frankenstein, opened and closed, losing $2 million. 1982 Former Australian prime minister Sir William McMahon retired from politics. 1985 'Do They Know it's Christmas', a song by Band Aid, achieved sales of 47 million by this date. Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list 1986 Phil Lynott of the rock group Thin Lizzy was found dead of a drug overdose. 1986 British writer Christopher Isherwood (b. 1904) – one of the first internationally known figures to announce his homosexuality – died. 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev granted Lithuanian communists the right to leave the Soviet Communist Party. 2002 Death of Antonio Todde of Thiana, Sardinia, Italy (112), the oldest man in the world at the time.   Tomorrow: The pole-sitting saint    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     Top 10 Least Popular Dwarf Names 10. Gróin 9. Borin 8. Stalin 7. Síli 6. çrtu-Dítu 5. Íni 4. Míni 3. Myni 2. Mö 1. Bashful   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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