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My emblem is the Lion, and I breathe
The breath of Libyan deserts o'er the land;
My sickle as a sabre I unsheathe,
And bent before me the pale harvests stand.
The lakes and rivers shrink at my command,
And there is thirst and fever in the air;
The sky is changed to brass, the earth to sand;
I am the Emperor whose name I bear.
HW Longfellow (1807 - '82); The Poet's Calendar for July

A shower of rain in July,
When the corn begins to fill,
Is worth a plough of oxen,
And all belongs theretill.
In this month is St Swithin's Day,
On which, if that rain, men say,
Full forty days after it will
For more or less some rain distill,
Till Swithin's Day is past and gone
There may be hops, or there may be none.
Traditional

If July the first be rainy weather,
It will rain for four more weeks together.
Traditional English weather prognostication proverb

Peace is indivisible.
Maxim Litvinov, Russian statesman; speaking to the League of Nations, July 1, 1936

The Cassini-Huygens probe, 2004

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

The Elements of Ritual

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

The Rule of Four

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Fasti
Roman calendar lore, by Ovid

Holiday Symbols

Life in a Medieval Village

Medieval Celebrations

Women's Activism and Globalization

The Encyclopedia of Eastern Mythology

Myths and Legends of Japan

Asian Mythology

Myths and Legends of Japan

Stand and Deliver
Hip Hop activism

The Clash of Civilizations

Imperial Crusades

The Medieval Cookbook

The Spiritual Traveler

Peace Under Fire

Environmental Activism

American Folklore

Permaculture

The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro

Sun Goddess

The Da Vinci Code

Daily Everything

A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore

Architects of Peace

Celtic Folklore Cooking

The Secret Language of Birthdays

Live with Passion!
Anthony Robbins


More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at  
Cafe Diem!

Celtic Daily Prayer

Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism
Murray Bookchin

Poor Richard's Almanack
By Benjamin Franklin

Photo of the day

Wheel of the Year

Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

Who's Who of the Conquistadors

The Conquistador

Conquistadors

Conquest

The Last Conquistador

The Broken Spears

Aztec Thought and Culture

Letters from Mexico
By Hernan Cortes

The Codex Borgia

In Defense of the Indians

Rivers of Gold

Crossing Ancient Oceans: How Prehistoric Explorers Visited the Americas

A Little Matter of Genocide

American Holocaust

Canada Day

Formerly Dominion Day

Commemorating national confederation under the terms of the British North America Act of July 1, 1867, today is a national holiday in Canada.

Today celebrates the creation of a Canadian Confederation through the British North America Act, which was proclaimed in force effective on July 1, 1867, uniting the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec) with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The holiday itself was formally established in 1879 and was originally called Dominion Day. The name was changed to Canada Day on October 27, 1982.

It is a mandatory holiday across Canada for all federal institutions. It is also celebrated by all provincial governments and businesses across Canada. The Quebec provincial government formerly refused to recognize the celebration.

Hi Pip
I just thought I would comment on the teeny tiny role of Canada Day in your July 1st almanac. Firstly, tradition states that you wear red and white on Canada Day and we have huge mass gatherings to celebrate. Music festivals everywhere and fireworks galore! We do not traditionally eat pumpkin pie on this day (shakes head in embarrassment) that is generally reserved for Christmas day, and for Thanksgiving. A traditional dessert would be a square cake with our flag in icing or strawberries on it (that's two red stripes parallel on a white field with a maple leaf in the center) Also you failed to mention that it was Queen Victoria that granted us our emancipation. Anyways :o) I hope that next year you can pay more attention to this important day. (at least for us Canadians haha)
  Thanks!  
Nicole

Inti Raymi, Incan Winter Solstice Festival of the Sun, Sacsayhuaman, Cuzco, Peru (Jun 24 - Jul 2)

The kalends of July, ancient Rome

Feast day of St Arnulf

Feast day of St Carilefus (Calais; Carilephus), Abbot of Anille

Feast day of St Castus

Feast day of St Cewydd

Feast day of St Cybar (Cybard)

Feast day of St Domitian

Feast day of St Eparchius

Feast day of St Felix of Como

Feast day of St Gall (Gal), Bishop of Clermont

Feast day of Ss Julius and Anron, martyrs
(Agrimony, Agrionia eupatoria, is today's plant, dedicated to Saints Julius and Anron.)

Feast day of St Junipero Serra

Feast day of St Juthware

Feast day of St Leonorus, or Lunaire, bishop

Feast day of St Martin of Vienne

Feast day of St Nazju Falzon

Feast of St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armaagh, martyr
Born in 1629, Oliver Plunkett was the last Catholic martyr to be hanged at Tyburn, London, England. An Irishman, he had to go into hiding as the persecution of Catholics under King Charles II increased. After the famous Titus Oates Plot in England was discovered, Oliver was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, later being hanged, disembowelled and quartered at Tyburn. His head is preserved in St Peter's Church at Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. Today there is a pilgrimage to his shrine at Drogheda.

Feast day of St Rumbold, bishop and martyr

Feast day of St Secundinus

Feast day of St Simeon Salus
This eccentric hermit monk lived in the 6^th Century. He cared for society's rejects, such as prostitutes, and deliberately did crazy things so he would share in his flock's wretchedness. That's why they called him salus, meaning crazy.

Feast day of St Servan

Feast day of St Theobald, or Thibault, confessor

Feast day of St Theodoric (Thieri; Thierry), abbot of Mont d'Hor

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Burundi Independence Day
Today is a public holiday commemorating the proclamation of sovereignty for the African republic on July 1, 1962.

Intact Day

Intact day is the first of July, which is as far as possible from the Feast of the Circumcision as is possible. Intact Day is a commemoration in which intactivists celebrate Genital Integrity. See also Genital Integrity Awareness Week, April 1 in the Book of Days.

Independence Day, Rwanda
On July 1, 1962, Belgium granted sovereignty to this African nation. Today's public holiday commemorates this event.

Union Day, Somali Republic
Today is a public holiday in Somalia. It commemorates the merger of the Italian Trusteeship of Somalia and the British Somaliland Protectorate on this day in 1960.

Day of Freedom, Suriname
The people of this South American nation celebrate the abolition of slavery in 1863 on this day with festivals and markets. Why don't we all have a Freedom Day?

Gettysburg Day, USA
Today throughout the United States there are commemorative services held on the anniversary of the commencement of the Civil War's most decisive battle.

American Stamp Day
Today commemorates the beginning of the issue of adhesive postage stamps in the USA on July 1, 1847.

Republic Day, Ghana

Hakata Gion Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15)

This festival of dolls is held at Kushida Shrine, Fukuoka and culminates in a parade on July 15 which has youths shouldering large floats, and goes to Fukuoka shrine, circles about, then returns to the two temples.

"Summer arrives at Hakata with its Gion Yamakasa Festival. In July, big, beautiful Hakata Doll Kazariyama decorations are placed at many areas throughout the city. In the early morning of the 15th, scantly dressed young men compete to carry big floats for a distance of 5 kilometers from the Kushida Jinja Shrine to the final destination of the race in Suzaki-machi."   Source

"Hakata is one of the largest downtown areas in Fukuoka City (population about 1.3 million). It has a long history of domestic and international trade, and is also noted for its long standing tradition of government by the merchant residents themselves. The famous Hakata Yamagasa festival, held annually for 750 years and always organized by the autonomous citizens' association called Nagare, is but one example of the long self-government tradition."   Source

Decoration of King William's statue, Dublin, Ireland

It was once the tradition in Dublin for the Protestants to decorate the equestrian statue of King William III (1650 - 1702), on July 1, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne which decided the fate of the Stuart dynasty.

They decked the statue on this day and November 14, William's birthday, with orange flowers and ribbons, while on the other 363 days of the year old Willy was usually spattered with filth and paint by the Protestants' rivals. The statue is no longer there.

The statue was erected in 1701, by the citizens of Dublin, to commemorate the Revolution of 1688.

It would appear from the very first moment of its erection, this statue has been a source of discontent and ill will.

During the government of the Duke of Wharton, an attack was made upon it, which called forth the interference of the Irish government.

On the 25th of June 1700, the Jacobites or Tories very much defamed it – twisted the sword from one hand and the truncheon from the other, and daubed the face with some black substance, which could not be removed without scraping.

The House of Lords, then assembling in College-green, addressed the Duke of Wharton on the transaction; who, the next day, issued a proclamation, offering a reward of 100 guineas or pounds for a discovery of the guilty persons.

The House of Commons was at the time adjourned, but when they assembled, on the 1st of August following, they also addressed his Excellency on the same subject.

The authors were never discovered; but the city having caused the statue to be repaired, the thanks of the House of Commons, without a dissentient voice were, were given to the Lord Mayor and citizens for so doing.

In more modern times its annual commemoration was a source of much exasperation among the lower orders.

This feeling, however, has of late very much died away.
From The Dublin Penny Journal, November 31, 1835

Mt Fuji climbing, Japan (Jul 1 - Aug 31)

Through July until the end of August, the warmest season, it is a Japanese rite of passage to climb to the summit of Fujiyama (Mt Fuji), which Shinto tradition says is the home of gods. A favourite time to climb is through the night so the eighth and final station can be reached at sunrise. Fuji (Konohansakuyahime no Mikoto; Konohana Sakuya Hime) is an ancient fire goddess, grandmother of the indigenous Ainu people of Japan.

"Long, long ago Mt. Fuji and Mt. Yatsugatake were the highest mountains in Japan. The goddess of Mt. Fuji, Konohanasakuyahime, and the goddess of Mt. Yatsugatake, Oyamazumi began to argue and bicker.

"'I'm the tallest mountain in Japan!'

"'Oh no, I can see straight into your crater! I'm much higher than you!'

"This fighting didn't seem to have an end until finally, an idea struck them: 'Let's use water!'

"Taking advantage of gravity, they placed a pipe full of water on the peaks of their respective mountains. When they opened both ends of the pipe, the water began to flow rapidly in the direction of Mt.Fuji! Oyamazumi squealed in delight, but Konohanasakuyahime was so enraged that she swept up a stick the size of Yamanashi prefecture and bashed Mt. Yatsugatake on the head over and over again. She hit it so many times, and with such force, that it broke into the eight peaks that it is named after today."   Source

Getting to the top in Japan    Volcano myths and legends of Japan    Japanese Gods and Goddesses   

The climb in 1898    Japanese mythology   

National Cherry Festival, Traverse City, MI, USA (Jul 1 - Jul 8, 2006)

July Morning, Bulgaria
According to Wikipedia, "in Bulgaria, there is a tradition called July Morning dating from the hippy period in 1980s and maybe as far back as the 1970s. Young (and not so young) people from all over the country travel (often hitchhike) to the Black Sea coast to meet the first sun rays on the 1st of July. Naturally Uriah Heep's 'July Morning' is the main refrain. Although the tradition is linked to the hippy movement in America, it is still popular in Bulgaria. Strangely, it seems that there is no such tradition in other European countries."

Memorial Day, Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador

Establishment Day, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Keti Koti (Breaking of Chains) Day of Liberty, Surinam
On July 1, 1863 slavery was abolished in Surinam.

First Saturday in July, International Day of Cooperatives (UN)

Click for month of July folklore

On which day of the week were you born? Find out here

1646 Gottfried Leibniz (d. November 14, 1716), German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer.

One of the main intellectual shapers of his day, Gottfried was the son of a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig, a precocious child who loved learning. At the age of seven, Leibniz entered the Nicolai School in Leipzig. His talents found him patrons, early in life, among the princes of Europe.

He wanted to join a group of alchemists who were searching for the philosopher's stone: in order to do so, he wrote to the society, and his letter was filled with as many long and difficult words as he could think of, though he didn't know their meaning. Still, the phoney letter impressed the 'scientists', who did not wish to appear ignorant, and he got the position. He graduated from Leipzig University with a bachelors degree in philosophy in 1663, with a thesis De Principio Individui (On the Principle of the Individual) which "emphasised the existential value of the individual, who is not to be explained either by matter alone or by form alone but rather by his whole being". He graduated with a doctorate in law at 20.

Leibniz had various grants or pensions, so was able to follow his mind's exploratory nature. He knew the classical languages and some half-dozen modern tongues. He constructed the first mechanical calculator capable of multiplication and division, and developed the modern form of the binary numeral system, used in digital computers. He also had notions about calculating machines, improved watches, a universal alphabet, hydraulic engines, fast carriages, medicine and much more. Leibniz is generally, with Sir Isaac Newton, jointly credited with the development of modern calculus; in particular, with his development of the integral and the product rule.

On October 24, 1676, Newton wrote a polite letter to him suggesting that Leibniz had stolen his methods; this was an issue that continued for decades.

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians.
John Maynard Keynes; lecture to the Royal Society Club, 1942 

See Newton the alchemist, at the Scriptorium

1804 George Sand (Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin; d. 1876), French novelist

1818 Ignaz Semmelweiss, Hungarian obstetrician, pioneer of  antiseptic procedures in hospitals

1863 William Stairs (d. 1892), Victorian explorer

1872 Louis Blériot (d. 1936), French aviator, first man to fly across the English Channel.

In his youth, Bleriot amassed a fortune making car headlamps, and by age thirty he was a pioneer in the manufacture of monoplanes. After the London Daily Mail offered a prize for the first person to fly the English Channel, Bleriot set off from France on July 25, 1909, on a rainy day and in pain from a badly abscessed foot. Despite the handicaps, he arrived at Dover 37 minutes later; in fact, the cooling effect of the rain on the engine might actually have made the great feat possible.

1885 [Isobel Marion] Dorothea Mackellar (d. January 14, 1968), Australian poet, author of what is possibly Australia's best-known poem, 'My Country'

"Dorothea Mackellar was born on the July 1st at Rose Bay in Sydney 1885. She was educated privately and also at the University of Sydney. Dorothea lived with her family in the Allyn River valley and experienced a drought breaking. This sight enriched her with ideas to write the poem 'My Country.'

"The Spectator published this poem in September 1908, while she was travelling London. 'My Country' quickly became Australia's best-known lyric poem."  Source

'My Country'

By Dorothea MacKellar

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins;
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror-
This wide brown land for me …

The complete poem
 

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson    Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards

Australia, My Country audio of a song based on the poem    More

1885 Max Oppenheimer (d. May 19, 1954), Austrian artist/printmaker, who contributed, along with Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, to the development of Austrian Expressionist painting. He was for a time associated with the Dada movement and Cabaret Voltaire.

1894 Sir Bernard Heinze, Australian conductor and violinist

1899 Charles Laughton (d. 1962), British-born American actor (Mutiny on the Bounty; The Hunchback of Notre Dame), who won an Oscar for his role as King Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII

1899 Indiana Jones, fictional professor, archaeologist, and adventurer who originally appeared in a series of films produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg in the 1980s

1899 Thomas A Dorsey (d. 1993), gospel musician

1902 William Wyler (d. 1981), French-born Hollywood director (Academy Awards: Mrs Miniver; The Best Years of Our Lives; Ben-Hur; also directed Funny Girl; How to Steal a Million; The Big Country; The Heiress; Wuthering Heights)

1903 Amy Johnson (d. 1941), English aviator

1906 Estée Lauder (d. 2004), American businesswoman in the cosmetics industry

1912 David R Brower (d. 2000), founder of many environmentalist organizations

1916 Olivia de Havilland, American actress (won Oscars in The Heiress and To Each His Own). She was the older sister of Joan Fontaine.

1917 Dr Humphry Osmond (d. February 6, 2004), British psychiatrist, known for coining (on April 7, 1956) the word 'psychedelic' and his groundbreaking research in using psychedelic drugs in medical research

1917 Rolf Rodenstock (d. 1977), industrialist

1926 Hans Werner Henze, German composer

1931 Leslie Caron, French actress (Gigi)

1934 Jean Marsh, actress, originator of Upstairs, Downstairs

1934 Sydney Pollack, film director, producer, actor

1941 Twyla Tharp, American choreographer

1942 Andraé Crouch, singer, conductor, actor

1942 Geneviève Bujold, actor

1945 Deborah Harry, one-time Playboy bunny, American rock singer, formerly with Blondie

1945 Lord Bloody Wog Rolo (b. Rolo Mestman Tapier; d. December 3, 2007), colourful eccentric Sydney identity and one of the founding members of BUGAUP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions)

Obituary

1946 June Montiero, singer formerly of the group, the The Toys

1949 John Farnham, English-born Australian rock and pop singer (first hit: 'Sadie the Cleaning Lady')

1952 Dan Aykroyd, American comic actor (The Blues Brothers; Trading Places)

1953 David Gulpilil, Australian actor (Mad Dog Morgan; Storm Boy; Crocodile Dundee; Rabbit-Proof Fence; Ten Canoes)

1961 Dr Kalpana Chawla (d. February 1, 2003), Indian astronaut

1961 Lady Diana Frances Spencer, Diana, Princess of Wales (Princess Diana; Princess Di; d. 1997)

1961 Michelle Wright, Canadian singer/guitarist, songwriter, drummer

1967 Pamela Anderson, actress

1971 Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott, hip hop artist

1972 Claire Forlani, actress

1977 Liv Tyler, actress

Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section

Send a free e-card greeting for today's celebrations to a loved one

Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year.

Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Christmas In July [ Australia ] Birthdays International Joke Day [ Jul 1 ] Canada Day [ Jul 1 ]

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
Varies Hindu holidays
Varies Dragon Boat Festival (China)
Varies Graduation

June

30 Sky Day
30 Meteorite Day

July

1 Canada Day
1 International Joke Day
2 I Forgot Day
2 Mullet Day
2 Violin Lovers' Day
3 Chocolate Wafer Day
3 Eat Beans Day
3 Air Conditioning Day
4 Fourth of July (USA)
4 Barbecue Day
4 Country Music Day
5 Workaholics Day
7 Chocolate Day
7 Macaroni Day
7 Tanabata
7 Father And Daughter Take A Walk Together
8 Ice Cream Sundae Day
8 Be A Kid Day
8 Milk Chocolate With Almonds Day
8 Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Omelette Day
9 Rock N' Roll Day
9 Sugar Cookie Day
9 Barn Day
9 Martyrdom Of The Báb
10 Teddy Bears' Picnic Day
10 Intern Appreciation Day
11 Cheer Up Day
11 Swimming Pool Day
11 Blueberry Muffin Day
12 Simplicity Day
13 International Puzzle Day
13 Beans And Franks Day
14 French Fries Day
14 Bastille Day
14 Pick Blueberries Day
14 Pandemonium Day
15 Cow Appreciation Day
15 I Love Horses Day
15 Respect Canada Day
15 Shark Awareness Day
15 No-Hitter Day
16 Ice Cream Cone Day
16 Talk To A Telemarketer Day
17 Peach Ice Cream Day
18 Chrysanthemum Day
18 Dental Awareness Day
18 Wiener Day
19 Bloomer Day
20 Moon Day
20 Lollipop Day
20 Fortune Cookie Day
20 Chess Day

  ... More Events

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868 Death of Ali al-Hadi, Shia Imam.

1277 Death of Baibars, Mameluk sultan of Egypt.

1520 La Noche Triste (The Sad Night), and the Vergin de los remedios

[Sources vary as to date; Your almanackist has seen dates from June 30 to July 10. Errors might be due to the later change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. I have chosen to settle on July 1 until evidence indicates otherwise. – PW]

Conquistadors such as Hernán Fernando Cortés and the Catholic missionaries who followed, appear to have innately believed that the indigenous people of America were to be subdued, converted and plundered.

As discussed in our article Greed, gold and God Part 1: The Aztecs and Cortés, in the Scriptorium, the small army of the Spaniard Cortés devastated the Aztec Empire in an incredibly short time. After they had seized and killed the local nobles of Cholula, Mexico, they set fire to the city, and killed an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 of the inhabitants, before eventually destroying almost the entire city of Tenochtitlán and killing some 120,000 to 240,000 Aztecs there.

Cortés and his men pillaged the great 40-acre Aztec temple to the great feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, and placed a doll-sized wooden statuette of the Virgin Mary, the Vergin de los remedios, on the altar. Naturally enraged, on the night of June 20 (possibly), 1520 the Aztecs erupted in rebellion, stoning emperor, Moctezuma II (Montezuma II; the Aztec Hueyi Tlatoani), as he tried to placate them. He died four days later, either from the stoning or killed by the Spanish.

One of the Spaniards there, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, recorded the events. He tells of one of Cortés's men, by the name of Botello, who claimed to have powers of divination, and fully four days before warned Cortés that danger was imminent. In fact, he said that July 1 was the very night that they must leave or they would be destroyed. Cortés agreed, though whether this was because of the prophecy or his strategic cunning, is not known. At midnight the troops armed, ready to march out of the great city they had conquered. Mass was performed by Father Olmedo, who invoked the protection of God.

Cortés decided to try to break out of Tenochtitlán by muffling the horses' hooves and carrying boards to make a bridge over one of the causeways (which had been opened to prevent escape), but a woman saw them and alerted the city. The flight was hindered by the fact that the Spaniards were carrying so much looted gold that it was difficult to move. The gap in the causeway was so filled with bodies the fugitives were able to run over them. Untold treasure was lost in the sludge at the bottom of the shallow lake. This major Aztec victory is still remembered as La Noche Triste, the Night of Sorrow. Cortés, legend has it, later sat under a tree in Tacuba and wept.

Most of the Spaniards and some 2,000 Indian allies were killed, but Cortés and just a few of the most skilled of his men managed to fight their way out of the city and escape. The handful of female survivors included La Malinche (c.1505 - c.1529), a Native American woman whom Cortés had made his common-law wife and used as his interpreter, called Doña Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche by the Aztecs.

The conquistadors attributed to the little Vergin their good fortune in escaping. The statuette (which some reported seeing actually taking up arms against the conquered race), disappeared for twenty years, until, Anneli Rufus tells us in The World Holiday Book, the Virgin Mary herself appeared to an old Indian and told him where the Madonna image could be found. Another source tells us that it was found by an Otom' Indian chief called Juan Ce Cuautli ( One Eagle) under a maguey (cactus) plant.

On September 6, thousands make an annual pilgrimage to the Vergin at San Bartolo Naucalpan, enjoying fireworks, dances, food stalls and many elaborate church rituals.

The Catholic Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, has a similar tradition regarding the important role of a Conquistadora/Madonna statuette in the conversion and subjugation of local peoples.

The religious virgins and saints of Mexico    Books on Cortés and Aztecs

The Sad Night, the Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss, by Sally Schofer Mathews

Greed, gold and God Part 1: The Aztecs and Cortés, in the Scriptorium

Aztec Accounts of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico    More

 

1690 (Julian calendar) The Battle of the Boyne was fought, deciding the fate of King James II and the Stuart dynasty, and establishing William III on English, Scottish and Irish thrones.

1766 A 20-year-old youth, the Chevalier de la Barre, was decapitated then burned for mutilating a figure of Christ at Abbeville, France.

1782 American privateers attacked Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.

1837 The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages was opened, to record the hatching, matching and dispatching in England and Wales.

1842 In Britain it became illegal to apprentice a chimney sweep under the age of 16.

1847 The first USA adhesive postage stamps went on sale - the Benjamin Franklin 5 cents and George Washington 10 cents.

1851 Australia: Victoria formally separated from New South Wales.

1858 The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society

1860 Charles Goodyear, American inventor of the rubber-vulcanizing process, died in debt and impoverished by patent suits.

1863 Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War began.

The place where USA President Abraham Lincoln gave one of America's, and the world's, most famous speeches, Gettysburg, was the scene of probably the American Civil War's most important battle. Confederate General Robert E Lee ordered 15,000 men to charge to northern lines, but more than two-thirds of them were killed, wounded or captured.

1867 The British North America Act took effect as the constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation; John A Macdonald was sworn as first Prime Minister.

1870 The United States Department of Justice formally came into existence.

1872 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom opened the Albert Memorial, London.

1873 Prince Edward Island joined the Canadian Confederation.

1878 Canada joined the Universal Postal Union.

1881 World's first international telephone call, between St Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, USA.

1884 American detective and spy Allan Pinkerton (b. 1819) died in Chicago, Illinois, of gangrene resulting from having bitten his tongue when he slipped on a footpath.

List of unusual deaths

1885 United States terminated its reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.

1890 Canada and Bermuda were linked by telegraph cable.

 

1890 "Stoddart's Lippincott's Monthly Magazine published the first authorized appearance of The Picture of Dorian Gray in America. The text was substantially changed before the first English edition."   Source

Lippincott's Monthly Magazine    The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

 

1898 Britain gained a 99-year lease to the New Territories on mainland China.

1899 The first juvenile court sat, at the Cork County Court in Chicago.

1899 The Gideons were founded by Christian businessmen in the USA with the aim of placing a Bible in every hotel room.

1907 The world's first Air Force was established with the founding of the Aeronautical Division of the US Army's Signals Office, under the command of Captain Chandler.

1912 The UK's first Royal Command Performance took place, at the Palace Theatre, London.

1913 Garden Island, in Sydney Harbour, was officially relinquished to the Australian Commonwealth Government for use as a naval dockyard.

1916 First day of the First Battle of the Somme. On this, the first day, 20,000 soldiers of the British Army were killed, and 40,000 wounded. It was the bloodiest battle of the modern era, with more than one million dead at its end on November 8.

1916 Coca-Cola introduced its bottle with the enduring, famous shape.

1918 The pop-up toaster was invented.

1923 Canadian Parliament suspended all Chinese immigration.

1929 The world's first emergency telephone line, 999, began in Britain.

1932 The ABC was created by Australia's federal government.

1935 Canada: Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in On-to-Ottawa-Trek.

1937 The constitution of the Republic of Ireland was approved by a plebiscite.

1940 German forces occupied the English Channel island of Guernsey.

1941 Television's first commercial was broadcast - an ad for Bulova clocks on Channel WNBT, New York.

 

1942 The sinking of the Montevideo Maru with the loss of approximately 1,053 mainly Australian lives. About 610 Australian soldiers and 130 civilians perished when American submarine, USS Sturgeon (SS-187), commanded by Lieutenant Commander WL Wright, mistakenly opened its torpedoes on the 7,267-ton transport, Montevideo Maru. The Japanese ship, carrying hundreds of Australian POWs, was sailing from Philippine waters off Cape Bojidoru, Luzon, westwards towards the South China Sea. 

Although the sinking had been reported in Japanese newspapers, the American and Australian governments did not inform Australian loved ones anxiously wondering about the fate of the hundreds of victims until October 30, 1945 – more than three years later.

Almost twice as many Australians lost their lives in that one night as did in the ten years of the Vietnam War, and some 71 Japanese crewmen and naval guards also perished in the tragedy. However, even today, the exact number of lives lost, and the names of the victims, are not known, and the event is still shaded in mystery. Peter Stone, in his book Hostages to Freedom, writes that "a confirmed list of all Australians who died on the Montevideo Maru is not available although several reports indicate that the ship's complement consisted of 845 prisoner of war servicemen, 208 civilian prisoners of war, 71 Japanese crew and 62 naval guards". Most Australians are still unaware of the tragedy on the night of July 1, 1942.

"The Japanese Navy Dept. had reported the sinking to the owners on 20 July 1942 and on 6 January 1943 to the Prisoner of War Information Bureau in Japan with a 'complete nominal roll of 848 POWs and 208 civilians who were on board and presumed lost'. The Bureau had, despite many requests for information made by the International Red Cross and the Swiss Legation acting on behalf of Australia, through the Japanese Foreign Office, failed to communicate the information it had, and admitted it had, since January 1943. The roll was discovered by Australian officer Major H.S. Williams in the files of the Bureau on 28 September 1945 and reported on 6 October 1945 and the first telegrams notifying the bereaved were sent on 30 October 1945."   Source

The sinking of the Montevideo Maru, 1 July 1942    www.montevideomaru.info

Major Williams's supporting document (PDF file)    USS Sturgeon    More    And more

 

1946 The US tested an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The explosion inspired the name of the bikini two-piece swimming costume, which its designer described as "four triangles of nothing".

1947 The Australian Commonwealth government bought up all available shares in Qantas Empire Airways.

1951 Australia: The State of New South Wales introduced the world's first legislation providing for paid sick leave and paid long service leave.

1951 Mrs Mary Reeser, of St Petersburg, Florida, USA, became the victim of one of the world's most famous cases of 'spontaneous human combustion'. Only Mrs Reeser was burnt in her apartment, and she was burnt away to almost no remnants.

"Mary Reeser burnt to dust along with her armchair in her apartment in St Petersburg, Florida. Her landlady took her a telegram and found the doorknob too hot to handle. Firemen discovered a blackened circle on the floors, a few coiled springs, a charred liver, a backbone fragment, skull shrunk to fist size, and a black slipper enclosing a left foot burnt off at the ankle. The rest of the apartment was virtually untouched by the fire. The case became a classic in the annals of Spontaneous Human Combustion."   Source

1957 Sixty-seven countries cooperated in measuring the earth from more then 2,000 stations for the International Geophysical Year.

1958 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation linked television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.

1959 Mister Squiggle (a moon-dwelling marionette with a pencil for a nose) made his debut on TV. The lovable puppet was created by Norman Hetherington, and was on Australian TV for nearly three decades, becoming Australia's longest-running children's TV show.

1960 UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched the Freedom From Hunger Campaign.

1960 The Somali Democratic Republic was created by the merger of British and Italian trusteeships.

1960 Ghana became a republic, with Kwame Nkrumah as its first president.

1961 The first community A-bomb shelter was completed (Boise, Idaho, USA).

1962 A referendum in Algeria overwhelmingly supported French President Charles de Gaulle's independence plan for the country.

1962 Rwanda was granted sovereignty by Belgium.

1962 Burundi proclaimed its sovereignty.

1963 Kim Philby (1912 - 1988), the missing British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officer who spied for the USSR, surfaced in Moscow.

1963 Zip codes were introduced for United States mail.

1966 USA: Riots broke out in African-American ghettos.

1966 First colour television transmission in Canada, from Toronto.

1968 Nuclear non-proliferation treaty was signed by about sixty countries in Geneva, Switzerland.

1969 Prince Charles of the United Kingdom was invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle, Wales. (It was also the eighth birthday of Lady Diana Spencer, later his wife.)

1970 Australian Prime Minister John Gorton opened Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport.

1972 Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins of the Red Army Faction were captured in Frankfurt after a shootout with the police.

1972 Hair closed on Broadway after 1,729 performances.

1972 USA: John Mitchell resigned as President Nixon's campaign manager.

1975 Australia: Free health care for all citizens (Medibank) commenced.

1978 Australia: The Northern Territory gained self-government.

1980 O Canada officially became the national anthem of Canada.

1982 Four thousand 'Moonies' (members of the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon) were wed by their leader in a ceremony at New York City.

1982 The 1,114^th and final episode of the popular Australian soap opera, The Sullivans, was filmed by Crawford Productions.

1983 Commonwealth of Australia v Tasmania: In a landmark decision, Australia's High Court ruled by a vote of 4-3 in the federal government's favour and the Franklin River was saved from damming by the Tasmanian Hydro Electric Commission. Fifteen hundred people had been arrested in the widespread protests against the damming, which was eventually blocked by the Bob Hawke Commonwealth Government.

Campaigners mark Franklin River anniversary    History of the Franklin River Campaign 1976-83

1983 Bucky Fuller (R Buckminster Fuller; b. 1895), Canadian engineer, inventor, social theorist, died.

1985 Australia: More than 25,000 farmers protested outside Parliament House, Canberra, over government policies.

1986 The last of 93 whales which had been beached at Augusta, Western Australia, was freed by hundreds of locals who had fought for three days to save them.

1986 Fifteen-year-old Melinda Leeves won a court case against the government of New South Wales, Australia. She had accused it of discrimination because she had been unable to study the same school courses as her twin brother.

1989 Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev announced on TV that he would not tolerate separatism amongst the Soviet republics.

1990 The Deutschmark became the official currency in both East and West Germany. The two Germanys also merged their economies and social welfare systems.

1991 The Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved.

1996 Version 1.0 of PNG, an open source competitor to the GIF image format, was finalised.

1997 The United Kingdom handed sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

2003 About 500,000 people took part in a march in Hong Kong to protest, amongst other things, the Communist government's handling of the plans to implement a new anti-subversion law required under Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law.

Wilson's Webcam Watch The image of Hong Kong at right, if it's appearing, is generated by a live webcam. Webcam images refresh at set intervals, so if you refresh this page it might show a changed image. If you click it, you'll go to an enlargement or the recommended webcam site. List of  featured webcams Recommend a webcam or Report malfunction

 

 

2004 Saturn Orbit Insertion of Cassini-Huygens began at 01:12 UT and ended at 02:48 UT.

Cassini-Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA unmanned space mission intended to study Saturn and its moons. The spacecraft consists of two main elements: the Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe. It was launched on October 15, 1997 and entered Saturn's orbit on July 1, 2004. It is the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn and just the fourth spacecraft to visit Saturn.

The Huygens probe, supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA), was named after the Dutch 17^th century astronomer Christiaan Huygens, and its purpose was, and is, to scrutinize the clouds, atmosphere, and surface of Saturn's moon Titan. It was designed to enter and brake in Titan's atmosphere and parachute a fully instrumented robotic laboratory down to the surface.

Cassini Mission Homepage by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Cassini Imaging Homepage

Cassini information by the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC).

ESA Huygens Homepage about the probe that will study Titan's atmosphere and possibly the surface

Cassini's Tour de Saturn part A  B  C  D  E  F – descriptions of the 4-year tour of Saturn by Bruce Moomaw

SpaceflightNow news coverage of the mission

 

Countdown to Cancel the Cassini Space Probe by the Baltimore Peace Network in 1997 due to concerns over the use of plutonium

 

 

2004 About 530,000 people took part in a march in Hong Kong to urge for faster pace of democratisation and universal suffrage, according to Article 45 and Article 68 of Hong Kong's Basic Law.

2005 Microsoft planned to end official support of Windows 2000.

2005 Make Poverty History Day and Live8 Concert.

2005 The United Kingdom took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

2005 Revaluation of the Romanian Leu.

2006 The first operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in China.

2006 Austria handed over Presidency of the European Union to Finland.

 

 

Tomorrow: Green Corn Festival, Native American

 

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An American, a Canadian, and an Australian were sitting in a seedy bar enjoying a few beers. The American grabbed his beer, knocked it back in one gulp, then he threw the glass into the air and shot it with his handgun. As he set the handgun on the bar, he told the Canadian and the Australian that in the great U.S. of A, they had so much money they never drank out of the same glass twice. Next the Australian drank his beer, threw the glass into the air and shot the glass with the American's gun. As he was setting the gun back on the bar he proclaimed that in Australia they had so much sand that glass was cheap and he too never drank out of the same glass twice. Next the Canadian drank his beer, grabbed the gun off the bar, and shot the American. As he was setting the gun back on the bar, he told the Australian that in Canada they have so many Americans you never have to drink with the same one twice.

http://www.wedonotliveinigloos.com/ 

Only in Canada …

1. Can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

2. Are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

3. Do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

4. Do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

5. Do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

6. Do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

7. Do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

8. Do we buy hot dogs in packages of twelve and buns in packages of eight.

9. Do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

10. Do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

You know you're from Canada when

1. You only know three spices: salt, pepper and ketchup.

2. You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

3. The mosquitoes have landing lights.

4. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

5. You have 10 favourite recipes for moose meat.

6. Canadian Tire on any Saturday is busier than the toy stores at Christmas.

7. You live in a house that has no front step, yet the door is one metre above the ground.

8. You've taken your kids trick-or-treating in a blizzard.

9. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled in with snow.

10. You think sexy lingerie is tube-socks and a flannel nightie with only 8 buttons.

11. You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car.

12. The local paper covers national and international headlines on 2 pages, but requires 6 pages for hockey.

13. At least twice a year, the kitchen doubles as a meat processing plant.

14. The most effective mosquito repellent is a shotgun.

15. Your snow blower gets stuck on the roof.

16. You think the start of deer season is a national holiday.

17. You head south to go to your cottage.

18. You frequently clean grease off your barbecue so the bears won't prowl on your deck.

19. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.

20. The major parish fund-raiser isn't bingo it's sausage making.

21. You find -40C a little chilly.

22. The trunk of your car doubles as a deep freeze.

23. You attend a formal event in your best clothes, your finest jewellery and your Sorels.

24. You can play road hockey on skates.

25. You know 4 seasons: Winter, Still Winter, almost Winter and Construction.

26. The municipality buys a Zamboni before a bus.

27. You understand the Labatt Blue commercials.

28. You perk up when you hear the theme from "Hockey Night in Canada".

29. You actually get these jokes and forward them to all your Canadian friends.

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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