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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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Pip Wilson

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Today is

There shall be in England seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it a felony to drink small beer; all the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass.
Jack Cade, English rebel, who was murdered on July 12, 1450; in William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II, Act iv., Scene 2

A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief … on arriving there, no vestige nor any sign whatever of any material ship was to be seen either near or right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm. Thirteen persons altogether saw her.
Words used by England's future King George V to describe the phantom ship Flying Dutchman, which he claimed to have seen on July 11, 1881

She is distinguished from earthly vessels by bearing a press of sail when other vessels are unable, from stress of weather, to show an inch of canvas.
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), on the phantom ship Flying Dutchman

The living language is like a cow-path: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay.
EB White, American author, born on July 11, 1899

Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke. Whatever you do, don't smoke.
Yul Brynner, Hollywood actor born on July 11, 1915

Well may we say 'God save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General.
EG Whitlam, Australian Prime Minister 1972 - '75, spoken when the Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed him on November 11, 1975; born on July 11, 1916

Efforts to slow down population growth, to reduce poverty, to achieve economic progress, to improve environmental protection, and to reduce unsustainable
consumption and production patterns are mutually reinforcing.
Excerpt from Paragraph 3.14 of the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo 1994)

We can't abolish poverty because poverty is a function of individual behaviour.
Australian federal politician Tony Abbott revealing his depth of socio-economic analysis, reported in The Age (Melbourne), July 11, 2001   Source

July 11 is the 192^nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (193^rd in leap years), with 173 days remaining.
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World Population Day, United Nations

Although people no longer talk about a catastrophic "population bomb," world population continues to grow. Unfortunately, the most affected countries are also the ones least able to support more people.

Developing Poor countries (let's not euphemise poverty) account for more than 95 per cent of today's population growth.

• Half of the world's people are under the age of 25. Some three billion children and young people are, or will soon be, of reproductive age.

• Universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, is the starting point for a better future for the 1.5 billion young people (ages 10 to 24) who live in developing countries.

• In 57 developing countries, over 40 per cent of the population is under 15.

• The number of youth in the world surviving on less than a dollar a day in 2000 was an estimated 238 million, almost a quarter (22.5 per cent) of the world's total youth population.

• Despite a shift toward later marriage in many parts of the world, 82 million girls in developing countries who are now aged 10 to 17 will be married before their 18th birthday.

• The percentage of births to women under 20 years of age in the least developed countries is double that in developed countries. And this puts their lives and those of their babies at risk.

• Pregnancy is a leading cause of death for young women aged 15 to 19 worldwide, with complications of childbirth and unsafe abortion being the major factors.

• For both physiological and social reasons, girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as those in their twenties. Girls under age 15 are five times as likely to die as those in their twenties.

• Half of all new HIV infections occur among young people—6,000 every day, and young women are disproportionately affected. Among people living with HIV/AIDS under 24, two thirds are young women.

• In 2000, an estimated 300,000 soldiers under the age of 18 were involved in 30 conflicts around the world.

• About 57 million young men and 96 million young women aged 15-24 in developing countries cannot read or write.

Source

Population Issues Overview  

ICPD Programme of Action Keeping the Promise 

Almost all countries are taking action to: 

• Enact laws and policies to protect the rights of women and girls 
• Ensure equal access to primary education for girls and boys 
• Ensure universal access to reproductive health services as part of basic primary health care 
• Empower women and girls socially and economically 
• Prevent HIV infection 
• End gender-based violence 
  

Over the next decade, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, urges governments to honour the commitments made in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). 

Every nation knows what to do. The ICPD Programme of Action is a guiding plan for 20 years. One decade is past and much remains to be done. 

To learn how you can support the ICPD and its lead organization, UNFPA, visit www.unfpa.org

Feast day of St Benedict (or Bennet) of Nursia, abbot of Monte Cassino (Mt Casino), patriarch of the Western monks
(Bulbous fumitory, Fumaria bulbosa, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint. Formerly commemorated on March 21.)

Benedict, the father of Western monasticism, was born about 480, son of a Roman noble of Nursia, a small town near Spoleto, Umbria, Italy. A tradition, which St Bede accepts, makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica. He went to study at Rome and, disgusted by what he saw as the vices in that city, at about 15 years of age fled to the wild mountains of Subiaco. He had a strong sense of asceticism and lived alone in what is now called the Holy Grotto, where a nearby monk, Romanus, supplied him with food.

Once, the Devil came to him as a blackbird. After this, he rolled himself in briars and nettles, till he was covered with blood. His fame spread and others joined him in such endeavours.

His life was attended by many wonders. Once, there was a lazy monk being led out of the church by a little black boy. Benedict hit the monk's shoulders with a cudgel because the boy was the devil. By Benedict's prayers a fountain once sprung up. On another occasion, a monk was chopping wood when his axe-head fell in the well: it floated to the top. Benedict commanded Nature and could foresee events; he made heavy stones light, and raised the dead; he exorcised; he miraculously found a flagon of wine; a dead boy was cast out of the grave and the saint put the host on his body to hold him down; a glass bottle cast on the stones was not broken; an empty tun was filled with oil by his prayers; he saw the soul of his sister in the form of a dove.  Or, so it is said.

After some time, Benedict was made Abbot of Vicovara. However, he disagreed with the monks and returned to his cave. Later, he went to Monte Cassino, near Naples where at the old temple of Apollo, some residents were still pagans. He converted many and demolished the temple. There he founded an abbey, as well as others in the area, thus beginning the Benedictine order, the main duty of which was obedience.

Benedictine monks were required to work seven hours and study two hours a day. They were allowed no animal food and had their possessions in common. The order amassed great wealth. His strict rules influenced all Western monasteries, but in time, the order became renowned for its members' luxurious living; reform movements led to the Cistercian and Cluny orders. 

Pope Gregory the Great wrote the biography of St Benedict. The saint died on Saturday, March 21, probably in the year 543. In England he is usually called Bennet, but he is not to be confused with the English St Benedict Biscop.

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Click stars for Universe today Cafe Diem! Our store Highly recommended: Folklore of World Holidays by Margaret Read MacDonald Fundamentals of Spiritual Alchemy The Ancient Celtic Festivals The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore 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 Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites Stand and Deliver Hip Hop activism The Clash of Civilizations Imperial Crusades Lonely Planet Australia The Medieval Cookbook The Spiritual Traveler Peace Under Fire Environmental Activism Astro pic of the day American Folklore Permaculture The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro   To support this project Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.     Search for posters What Would Jefferson Do? By Thom Hartmann When Corporations Rule the World The Big Buy - Tom Delay's Stolen Congress The Corporation Highly recommended DVD Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America By Bruce Shapiro 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 Skeptic's Dictionary The Daily Planet Sun Goddess The Da Vinci Code Daily Everything A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore Architects of Peace Celtic Folklore Cooking The Edible Rainbow Garden Live with Passion! Anthony Robbins More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at   Cafe Diem! Weapons of Mass Deception Legends of the Goddess Poor Richard's Almanack By Benjamin Franklin Photo of the day Mother Earth Spirituality   The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries Unsolved Mysteries of History The Mary Celeste The Story of the "Mary Celeste" Ghost Ship Wheel of the Year The Twilight of American Culture The Survival of the Pagan Gods

On a day in July: Brick-throwing competition, Stroud The towns of Stroud in England, the United States, and Australia hold an International Brick and Rolling Pin Throwing Competition on the same day in July. It all started in 1959, when residents of the small town of Stroud, Oklahoma, USA, home to a brick factory, discovered that an English town with the same name also made bricks. Teams of six contestants throw a normal house brick. Stroud, Australia joined the contest later, and so did Stroud in Canada but it's since dropped out. A rolling pin-throwing competition was added because the Australians make rolling pins.   Commemoration of Theano, wife of Pythagoras Theano was a philosopher in her own right, sometimes seen as the patroness of vegetarianism. Theano, according to John Lempriere (Class. Dict.), was a native either of Crete or Croton (in Calabria, southern Italy, on the Gulf of Taranto), and it is believed she was the wife of Pythagoras and mother of Damo of Croton. Festival of the Ludi Apollinares, ancient Rome (Jul 6 - 13) Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11)   Goddess month of Kerea commences   Feast day of St Abundius Feast day of St Amabilis Feast day of St Benedict Feast day of St Cindeus Feast day of St Cyprian Feast day of St Drostan, abbot of Dalcongaile Feast day of St James, Bishop of Nisibus (Yellow lupin, Lupinus luteus, is also today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) Feast day of St Hidulphus, bishop Feast day of St Januarius Feast day of St John of Bergamo Feast day of St Leontius the Younger Feast day of St Marcian Feast day of St Olga First Russian saint. Feast day of St Oliver Plunkette Feast day of St Pelagia Feast day of St Feast day of St St Pius I, pope and martyr Feast day of St Placid Feast day of St Sabinus Feast day of St Turketil Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Flemish Day (Battle of the Golden Spurs, 1302), Belgium Celebrated in the Flanders region in Belgium (not a public holiday). Independence Day, Benin (1960) Independence Day, Burkina Faso (1960) Independence Day, Niger (1960) National Day of Commemoration, Ireland, held on nearest Sunday to this date (see Irish calendar) Naadam, Mongolia and Inner Mongolia region of China (Jul 11 -13) National festival of Mongolia, also called 'Eriin Gurvan Naadam', meaning 'men's three variety of games'. The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery. Originally it was a religious festival but now it formally commemorates the 1921 revolution when Mongolia declared itself a free country. Mongolia - Naadam Holiday China National Maritime Day, China   Shirongo Matsuri, Shirahige Shrine, Sugashima, Mie Prefecture, Japan On July 11, white-costumed ama women divers of the district dive for abalone. When a note is sounded from a triton horn, the women dive into the water, competing to be the first to catch an abalone. The women who catch the first male and female abalone offer them at the shrine in order to ensure safe sea journeys and an abundant harvest, and become the following year's head divers. The numbers of abalone have decreased over the years as the environment has been degraded, and since the time that divers started wearing wetsuits and were able to dive longer in the cold sea. Diving is controlled by the government, and divers may work only 25 days of the year. The word ama literally means 'sea person'. Japanese tradition holds that the practice of ama divers may be 2,000 years old. Traditionally, and even as recently as the 1960s, ama dived wearing only a loincloth. Even in modern times, ama dive without scuba gear or air tanks, in dives that typically last about 80 seconds. "They plunge 20 metres down into the seabed and hold their breath for up to 2 minutes. They have to work fast underwater cutting the abalone from the rock. When they return to the surface they make a sigh-like sound - the isobue - symbolising their deep connection and respect for their surroundings and the environment. "All the ama women on the island gather to dive from a sacred beach. They compete to find a pair of red and black abalone to offer the white bearded Sea-God, Shirongo-san, the fisherfolk's guardian." Waiting for the tide   Video (RAM file) More    More   Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July) Hakata Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15) Running of the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain (Jul 6 - 14) NAIDOC Week, Australia (c. Jul 4 - 11) Lobster Carnival, Pictou, Nova Scotia (Jul 8 - 11) (2004) Diabetes Awareness Week, Australia (2004) (Jul 11 - Jul 17) Free Slurpee at 7-Eleven, USA Most stores provide a free 7.11oz Slurpee on 7-11. Bonfire night, Northern Ireland Precursor to The Twelfth.       On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1274 Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland (1306 - '29) "Robert Bruce is surely the greatest of all the great Scottish heroes, yet the Hollywood movie Braveheart gave all the heroics to his compatriot William Wallace, making Bruce out to be nothing more than a self-serving opportunist. However, it was the patience and cunning of Bruce that Scotland needed, not the impetuousness of Wallace, especially facing such formidable enemies as the English, first under Edward I and then under his son and heir Edward II. Bruce bided his time; he first had to establish his authority as King of Scotland. By the time of Bannockburn, he was ready. "Earl of Carrick, Robert Bruce was born at Turnberry Castle, Ayrshire, in 1274, of both Norman and Celtic ancestry. Two years before his birth, Edward Plantagenet had become King Edward I of England. The ruthlessness of Edward, who earned the title 'the Hammer of the Scots' brought forth the greatness of Bruce whose astonishing victory at Bannockburn in 1314 over the much larger and better-equipped forces of Edward II ensured Scottish freedom from control by the hated English."   Source Images of Robert the Bruce 1657 King Frederick I of Prussia (1701 - '13) 1754 Thomas Bowdler (d. February 24, 1825), English physician who published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work that he considered to be more appropriate than the original for women and children. (When your almanackist was at high school in the 1960s in Australia, his school-issued Shakespeare was in a Bowdler-edited volume.) Bowdler similarly edited Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His expurgation has long been the subject of criticism and ridicule and, through the eponym bowdlerise (or bowdlerize), his name is now associated with prudish censorship of literature, motion pictures and television programs. 1767 John Quincy Adams, president of the United States (1825 - '29) The Diaries of John Quincy Adams: A Digital Collection 1857 Alfred Binet (d. 1911), psychologist 1897 Blind Lemon Jefferson, American blues musician "Considering he was the most popular male blues recording artist of the 1920s, we know surprisingly little about Blind Lemon Jefferson. The bare bones of his biography are as follows. Born in Couchman, near Wortham in Freestone County, Texas, probably sometime in (July?) 1897. Blind from childhood, possibly even from birth. May, like Sonny Terry, have had some residual sight (which would explain his wearing clear, rather than dark, glasses.) Between 1925 and 1929, he made at least 100 recordings, including alternate versions of some songs. Had 43 records issued, all but one on the Paramount label. Died in Chicago, in mysterious circumstances, towards the end of December, 1929. Taken back to Texas by pianist Will Ezell. Buried at the Wortham Cemetery, reputedly on New Year's Day, 1930. Inspired a generation of male bluesmen, but had few imitators, due to the complexity of his guitar playing and the distinctiveness of his high, clear voice."  Source 1897 Eugene Bull Connor (d. 1973), sheriff of Birmingham, Alabama, resisted civil rights 1899 EB White (Elwyn Brooks White; d. 1985), American author (Charlotte's Web), who revised and enlarged The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr 1903 OE Hasse (d. 1978), actor 1906 Herbert Wehner (d. 1990), politician 1910 Irene Hervey (d. 1998), actress 1913 Cordwainer Smith, writer 1915 Yul Brynner, Siberian-born Hollywood and Broadway actor, best known for his stage and screen portrayal of the King of Siam in The King and I Yul Brynner Foundation 1916 (Edward) Gough Whitlam, twenty-first Prime Minister of Australia, 1972 - 75. Much to the astonishment and dismay of millions of Australians, he was dismissed by the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr on November 11, 1975. Gough Whitlam: That politicians have lost their sense of humour (debate speech) 1921 Ilse Werner, actress 1926 Frederick Buechner, author 1927 Brett Somers, actor 1929 Hermann Prey (d. 1998), baritone 1930 Harold Bloom, literary critic 1931 Tab Hunter, American B-movie star (Movie: Damn Yankees) 1934 Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer 1939 Seth Gaaikema, Dutch comedian 1949 Liona Boyd, classical guitarist 1957 Michael Rose, musician (Black Uhuru) 1959 Suzanne Vega, singer 1959 Richie Sambora, singer/guitarist (Bon Jovi) 1976 Lil' Kim, rap singer   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 Love e-cards Birthdays Cheer Up Day [ Jul 11 ] Bastille Day [ Jul 14 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Graduation July 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 21 Monkey Day 22