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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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If it
rains on Seven Brothers' day it will rain for seven weeks. After Hadrian's death there was
erected to him a huge equestrian statue representing him with a
four-horse chariot. It was so large that the bulkiest man could walk
through the eye of each horse, yet because of the extreme height of
the foundation persons passing along on the ground below believe that
the horses themselves as well as Hadrian are very small. The Countess Godiva devoutly anxious to
free the city of Coventry from a grievous and base thralldom often
besought the Count, her husband, that he would for love of the Holy
Trinity and the sacred Mother of God liberate it from such servitude.
But he rebuked her for vainly demanding a thing so injurious to
himself and forbade her to move further therin. Yet she, out of her
womanly pertinacity, continued to press the matter insomuch that she
obtained this answer from him: "Ascend," he said, "thy horse
naked and pass thus through the city from one end to the other in
sight of the people and on thy return thou shalt obtain thy
request." Upon which she returned: "And should I be willing to do
this, wilt thou give me leave?" "I will," he responded. Then the
Countess Godiva, beloved of God, ascended her horse, naked, loosing
her long hair which clothed her entire body except her snow white
legs, and having performed the journey, seen by none, returned with
joy to her husband who, regarding it as a miracle, thereupon granted
Coventry a Charter, confirming it with his seal. But
Gaufride sayth that this gentle and good Lady did not onely for the
freeing of the said Citie and satisfying of her husbands pleasure,
graunt vnto her sayde Husband to ryde as aforesayde: But also called
in secret manner (by such as she put speciall trust in) all those that
then were Magistrates and rulers of the said Citie of Couentrie, and
vttered vnto them what good will she bare vnto the sayde Citie, and
how shee had moued the Erle her husband to make the same free, the
which vpon such condition as is afore mencioned, the sayde Erle
graunted vnto her, which the sayde Lady was well contented to doe,
requiring of them for the reuerence of womanhed, that at that day and
tyme that she should ride (which was made certaine vnto them) that
streight commaundement should be geuen throughout all the City, that
euerie person should shut in their houses and Wyndowes, and none so
hardy to looke out into the streetes, nor remayne in the stretes, vpon
a very great paine, so that when the tyme came of her out ryding none
sawe her, but her husbande and such as were present with him, and she
and her Gentlewoman to wayte vpon her galoped through the Towne, where
the people might here the treading of their Horsse, but they saw her
not, and so she returned to her Husbande from the place from whence
she came, her honestie saued, her purpose obteyned, her wisdome much
commended, and her husbands imagination vtterly disappointed. And
shortly after her returne, when shee had arayed and apparelled her
selfe in most comely and seemly manner, then shee shewed her selfe
openly to the peuple of the Citie of Couentrie, to the great joy and
maruellous reioysing of all the Citizens and inhabitants of the same,
who by her had receyued so great a benefite. |
Lady Godiva by Edward Henry Corbould
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In the Forenoone all householders were
Commanded to keep in their Families shutting their doores & Windows
close whilest the Duchess performed this good deed, which done she rode
naked through the midst of the Towne, without any other Coverture save
only her hair. But about the midst of the Citty her horse neighed, whereat
one desirous to see the strange Case lett downe a Window, & looked
out, for which fact, or for that the horse did neigh, as the cause
thereof. Though all the Towne were Franchised, yet horses were not
toll-free to this day.
The first mention
of Peeping Tom, from the account of Humphrey Wanley (1672 - 1726),
600 years after the Lady Godiva event
The idea, then, which I form of the progress of organic life upon the globe
– and the hypothesis is applicable to all similar theatres of vital being
– is, that the simplest and most primitive type, under a law to which that of like-production is subordinate, gave birth to the type next above it, that this again produced the next higher, and so on to the very highest, the stages of advance being in all cases very small
– namely, from one species only to another; so that the phenomenon has always been of a simple and modest
character.
Robert Chambers, Scottish author and publisher, born on July 10, 1802; Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,
1844
It is most interesting to observe into how small a field the whole of the mysteries of nature thus ultimately resolve themselves. The inorganic has one final comprehensive law, GRAVITATION. The organic, the other great department of mundane things, rests in like manner on one law, and that is
– DEVELOPMENT. Nor may even these be after all twain, but only branches of one still more comprehensive law, the expression of that unity which man's wit can scarcely separate from Deity itself.
Robert Chambers, ibid
It being admitted that the system of the Universe is one under the dominion of natural law (natural law being guardedly defined as a mere term for that order which the Deity observes in his operations), it follows that the introduction of species into the world must have been brought about in the manner of law also.
Robert Chambers, ibid
The Eternal One has arranged for everything beforehand, and trusted all to the operation of the laws of his appointment, himself being ever present in all things.
Robert Chambers, ibid
Source
There
are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent
with a favorite book.
Marcel Proust, French novelist, born on July 10, 1871
Let us be grateful to people who
make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
Everything great that we know has
come from neurotics … never will the world be aware of how much it owes
to them, nor above all what they have suffered in order to bestow their
gifts on it.
Marcel Proust
Blessed are the cracked for they will
let in the light!
Spike Milligan
Mr Whistler
always spelt art, and we believe still spells it, with a capital 'I'.
Oscar Wilde; on
artist James Whistler, born on July 10, 1834;
in the Pall Mall Gazette, January 1889
I have seen, and
heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a
coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the
public's face.
John Ruskin, English art critic, 1877; on Whistler's Nocturne in
Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
... I have never
known what freedom is. I keep on working for it and hoping for it and
wanting it, but I know that I never shall have it. In this, no doubt, my
life has been like the life of every being that ever lived. Even while I
have fought for freedom, the freedom of others and the freedom of myself,
I have always had a consciousness that I was doing it to amuse myself, to
keep myself occupied so I might forget myself; which after all is the best
thing that any of us can do as we go along. I remember reading a while ago
a statement of Anatole France. He said that the chief business of life is
'killing time'. And so it is. What is the difference if we gather all
the facts of the universe into our brains for the worms to eat? They might
give the worms indigestion ...
Clarence Darrow, defence lawyer in the Scopes Monkey Trial, which began
on July 10, 1925
Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I
angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a
PNAC
Neo-Con agenda to
benefit Israel. My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel.
Cindy Sheehan, American peace activist born on July 10, 1957; letter to
editors of ABC's Nightline,
March 15, 2005
I'm finished crying for Casey. I'm crying for all
the other mothers.
Iraq was not involved in
9-11, Iraq was not a
terrorist state. But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are
open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and they [the US
government] have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country ...
Cindy Sheehan;
interview with CBS News's Mark Knoller, upon her arrival in Crawford, Texas
on August 6, 2005
The moment that
[Stephen] Hadley
– the top geopolitical advisor to the Most Powerful Man on This Planet – spent
45 minutes with Sheehan, it became impossible to credibly dismiss her as a
publicity-seeking nutcase rendered irrational by grief.
Walter Shapiro, August 12,
2005
Source
July 10
is
the 191st
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (192nd
in leap years), with 174
days remaining.
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Lady Godiva Day
On July 10, 1040, according to one tradition, Lady Godiva made her famous ride, naked on horseback, through the streets of Coventry, England. Thus, today is Lady Godiva Day in that city.
Lady Godiva – Godgyfu as her name was originally – really did exist and was a Saxon noblewoman and patron of the arts, married to Leofric, Duke of Mercia in England. The couple moved to Coventry, Warwickshire, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire (where Leofric had earned his fortune and title from the mutton trade). It is known that Leofric began spending large amounts of taxpayers' money, as politicians are wont to do, on grandiose public works, while the people of Coventry, as people are wont to do, lived in poverty.
The legend
says that Godiva, generous and strong-willed, was outraged at a poll or tax that
Leofric was planning to levy on the people of Coventry, and she persistently
asked him to lift the imposition, or at least use the money for the provision of
works of art that the peasants might enjoy. Leofric laughed so much that he
injured his left wrist slightly as he fell off his stool in the hall of the
village burghers. However, the nouveau-riche gentleman offered her a deal: if
his wife would ride naked on horseback through the town, then he would agree to
waive the tax.
Feast day of Knut the Reaper, Hel, Holda
and Skadi
After a while, she and her husband separated,
because she loved the mountains (
Wikipedia's 
