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There are six guineas for you and do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell.
Last words of the Duke of Monmouth, beheaded on July 15, 1685

St Swithun's Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days, it will remain:
St Swithun's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
English traditional

In this month is St Swithin's day;
On which, if that it rain, they say
Full forty days after it will,
Or more or less, some rain distill.
This Swithin was a saint, I trow,
And Winchester's bishop also.
Who in his time did many a feat,
As popish legends do repeat:
A woman having broke her eggs
By stumbling at another's legs,
For which she made a woful cry,
St Swithin chanc'd for to come by,
Who made them all  as sound, or more
Than ever that they were before.
But whether this were so or no
'Tis more than you or I do know:
Better it is to rise betime,
And to make hay while sun doth shine,
Than to believe in tales and lies
Which idle monks and friars devise.
Poor Robin's Almanac, 1697 (July)

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

Golden Bough
Folklore classic

The Oxford Book of Days

The Ancient British Goddess

Myths and Legends of the British Isles

Folk and Fairy Tales

Bulfinch's Mythology

Fasti
Roman calendar lore, by Ovid

Holiday Symbols

Life in a Medieval Village

Medieval Celebrations

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

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

Raise the Titanic
By Clive Cussler

The Medieval Cookbook

The Spiritual Traveler

Peace Under Fire

Environmental Activism

Astro pic of the day

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

Fraud

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

Every five years: Cavalcade for Castor and Pollux, Roman Empire

Castor (or Kastor) and Polydeuces (sometimes called Pollux), in Greek mythology were the twin sons of Leda, and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Castor and Pollux are the twins of Gemini.

"Every five years on this day the Romans would hold a huge cavalry parade to honor the gods Castor and Pollux, who had appeared to the Romans on this day in 168 BCE with prophetic news of their victory over Macedon. This singular event inspired the Romans to build a temple to Castor by the well where they watered their horse. Castor symbolized the horseman, and Pollux the boxer. The parade began at the Temple of Mars outside the city and ended at the Forum."   Source

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days   

Birthday of Seth, god of chaos and adversity, ancient Egypt

Synoika, ancient Greece
Peace ceremony honouring Athena and Hestia.
Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Olympic New Year
Source: Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, 88

The ides of July, Roman Empire
The gods Honos (Honour) and Virtus (Virtue; god of bravery and military strength) were honoured. Today the Roman knights were decorated with olive wreaths and paraded in the Capitol where they were reviewed. In Roman mythology, Honos was the god of chivalry, honor and military justice. He was depicted in art with a lance and a cornucopia.

Feast day of Rowana, rowan tree goddess

"Rowana, the tree goddess, is patroness of the knowledge of runes. The rowan is the tree of protection, and amulets cut from it this day will be particularly effective."   Source

Day of Rauni, Finland  

"Finnish: RAUNI. (Catherine Koppana, Ms.) 'Rauni is described by Ganander as the wife of Ukko the Thunder God, a sort of Juno. The name comes from 'ronn' or 'raun', the Nordic names for Rowan. Again a tree goddess of some kind. She appears in earlier folklore. Her Feast Day is July 15^th'."   Source

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Gorestnici, Fire Festival, Bulgaria
"July was called the 'hot month' in Bulgaria, partly because the people celebrated a fire festival of three days duration beginning on the 15th."   Source

Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

Feast day of St Anne Mary Javhouhey

Feast day of St Antoni Beszta-Borowski

Feast day of St Athanasius

Feast day of St Catulinus

Feast day of St Edith of Polesworth

Feast day of St Florentius

Feast day of St Gregory Escrivano

Feast day of St Gundisalvus Hendriquez

Feast day of St Haruch

Feast day of St Ignatius de Azevedo

Feast day of St Jacob of Nisibis

Feast day of St James Andrade

Feast day of St Januarius the Carthaginian

Feast day of St Joannicus of Saint John

Feast day of St John de Baeza

Feast day of St John de Zafra

Feast day of St John Fernandez

Feast day of St John Fernandez

Feast day of St John of Mavorga

Feast day of St John of San Martin

Feast day of St Julia

Feast day of St Justa

Feast day of St Plechelm, bishop and confessor, apostle of Guelderland

Festival of Santa Rosalia, Palermo, Sicily

Vladimir (in Ukrainian, Volodymyr) I, Prince of Kiev, in German Valdimar, in Russian known as Saint Vladimir or as Vladimis the Great, (c. 958 - 1015) in Old Ruthenian, Volodymer, was the illegitimate son of Sviatoslav I and the grandson of Olga of Kiev. Varangian ruler of Kiev from 980, he converted to Christianity in 988, reversing Sviatoslav's adherence to the pagan tradition (which was probably a mix of Norse and Slavic elements). 

He then proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. Legend says that at first Vladimir baptised his 12 sons and many boyars. He destroyed the wooden statues of Slavic pagan gods that stood on the hill by Vladimir's palace (the very same statues that he had himself raised just eight years earlier). They were either burnt or hacked into pieces, and the statue of Perun – the supreme god – was thrown into the Dnieper.

His mother was Svyatoslav I's housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. As a pagan (ie, before his conversion) he had eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity. It is probable that he instituted the practice of human sacrifices as well.

Sources: Wikipedia et al    St Volodymyr's Cathedral, Kiev

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July)

Obon, Buddhist festival, Japan (Jul 13 - 15)

Hakata Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15)

Enshu Dainenbutsu (Buddhist Chanting Ritual), Saigagake Museum, Hamamatsu, Shizoka Prefecture, Japan
When a family commemorates the first Obon holidays after the death of a loved one, they may request that a dainenbutsu (Buddhist chanting ritual) be performed outside their house. This is one of the local performing arts of the Enshu region. The group always forms a procession in front of the house led by a person carrying a lantern and marches to the sound of flutes, Japanese drums and cymbals.

President's Day, Botswana (first of two days)

Birthday of the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, Brunei

Confuflux (Discordianism)

Today in the Discordian Calendar

Annual rites of the elite cult, the Bohemian Club, at Bohemian Grove, California, USA

Bohemian Grove is an 11 km² (2700 acre) campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a three-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world; members have included George HW Bush, George W Bush, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Caspar Weinberger and Dick Cheney.

The Bohemian Club's membership includes many artists, particularly musicians, as well as many prominent business leaders, government officials (including some US presidents), and senior media executives. The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting that took place there in September of 1942, which subsequently led to the atomic bomb.

The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expensive entertainment, such as an elaborate Grove Play (known as 'High Jinx') and musical comedies ('Low Jinx') – where female roles are played by men in drag – produced by the members and associate members of the Club. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

There are also sleeping quarters, or 'camps' scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 118 as of 2007. These camps, which are frequently patrilineal, are the principal means through which high-level business and political contacts and friendships are formed. For senior corporate executives, the camps are said to be the pinnacle of socio-political networking in the USA.

A large wood carving of the cult's patron saint, St John Nepomucene, in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolizing the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove, from Google Video

The Cremation of Care

The Cremation of Care was devised in 1893 by a member named Joseph D Redding, a lawyer from New York. GW Domhoff, a sociologist, obtained access to the Bohemian Club's records and membership and was able to conduct extensive research about the organization and their activities. He was able to detail the Cremation of Care ceremony, along with the High and Low Jinx and other ceremonies and plays of the Club.

The ceremony involves the poling of a small boat across a lake containing an effigy of Care (called 'Dull Care'). Dark, hooded individuals receive the effigy from the ferryman which is placed on an altar and at the end of the ceremony, is set on fire. This "Cremation of Care" symbolizes that within the Bohemian Grove members leave the care of the outside world.

The ceremony takes place next to a 14 m-high concrete owl statue, symbolizing knowledge. During the ceremony, the voice of the former newsman Walter Cronkite, a member of the Bohemian Club, is used as the voice of The Owl. Music and fireworks accompany the ritual, for dramatic effect.

The ritual was also performed in 1913 at the world famous 'Red Rocks' Ampitheater, along with a ceremony entitled 'The arrival of the goddess of prosperity'.

Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove in 2000 and filmed the final portion of the ceremony for his film Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. The grove and Jones' investigation were also covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World.

Source: Wikipedia

Known Members of Bohemian Grove
"Both George Bushes; Ronald Reagan; Henry Kissinger; Richard Nixon; Casper [sic] Weinberger; Dick Cheney; Malcom Forbes; Colin Powell; Helmut Schmidt; Stephen Bechtel (Bechtel Corp.); James Baker; Jerry Cole; David Rockefeller; Newt Gingrich; Tom Johnson (President of CNN and former publisher of LA Times); William Randolph Hearst Jr; Jack Howard; Charles Scripps (Of the Scripps-Howard Newspaper publishers); Walter Cronkite (On the CBS board of management).

"And a host of prominent CEOs and business leaders, most of them conservative, many of them from California, 99 percent of them white men."   Source

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

1471 Eskender (d. 1494), Emperor of Ethiopia

1553 Archduke Ernest of Austria (d. 1595)

1573 Inigo Jones (d. 1652), English architect

"English architect, founder of the English school of classical architecture. He was born shortly before July 19^th, 1573, the date of his baptism in the church of St. Batholomew of the Less, Smithfield, London. Jones was the son of a cloth worker also named Inigo. The name has never been satisfactorily explained. It was Latinized as Ignatius as early as 1606 but is not a recognised equivalent. Of the younger Inigo Jones' early years nothing is known, though Sir Christopher Wren is said to have stated that he was apprenticed to a joiner in St Paul's Churchyard …

Inigo Jones on Stonehenge
"The rustic quality of the 16th-century restoration, was transformed by the architect Inigo Jones in the 17^th century into a model of order and precision. Incapable of thinking that Druids could have been responsible for such an imposing structure, Jones identified Stonehenge as a Roman Temple and 'restored' it accordingly."  Source

1606 Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn; d. 1669), Dutch painter

"Rembrandt (1606-69). The greatest artist of the Dutch school was Rembrandt. He was a master of light and shadow whose paintings, drawings, and etchings made him a giant in the history of art.

"Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606, in Leiden, the Netherlands. His father was a miller who wanted the boy to follow a learned profession, but Rembrandt left the University of Leiden to study painting. His early work was devoted to showing the lines, light and shade, and color of the people he saw about him. He was influenced by the work of Caravaggio and was fascinated by the work of many other Italian artists. When Rembrandt became established as a painter, he began to teach and continued teaching art throughout his life …"  Source

1796 Thomas Bulfinch, mythologist, author of the classic Bulfinch's Mythology

1779 Clement Moore, the (disputed) author of the classic holiday poem, A Visit from St Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas)

1808 Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, archbishop

1812 James Hope-Scott, lawyer

1848 Vilfredo Pareto, economist and sociologist

1850 Mother Cabrini, Roman Catholic saint

1865 Alfred Harmsworth, 1^st Viscount Northcliffe, influential and successful newspaper owner with his brother Harold, Lord Rothermere

1870 Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, writer

1871 Kunikida Doppo, writer

1892 Walter Benjamin, literary critic and writer

1899 Sean F Lemass, Irish leader

1902 Jean Ray, politician, President of the European Commission 1967 - '70

1911 Edward Shackleton, explorer

1914 Gavin Maxwell (d. September 6, 1969), Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his work with otters. He wrote the book Ring of Bright Water about how he brought an otter back from Iraq and raised it in Scotland.

1914 Hammond Innes, writer

1917 Robert Conquest, British historian, one of the best-known writers on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of his classic account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s, The Great Terror, and on the millions killed in the Communists' collectivization programs (The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine)

More

1918 Bertram N Brockhouse, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

1919 Iris Murdoch, Irish-born British novelist (The Sea, The Sea; The Good Apprentice)

Iris Murdoch Resources

Quotes

1926 Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentinian dictator

1928 Carl Woese, microbiologist

1930 Jacques Derrida, philosopher

1930 Stephen Smale, mathematician who broke the dimension barrier

1931 Clive Cussler, author

1934 Harrison Birtwistle, composer

1935 Diahann Carroll, actress

1945 Jürgen Möllemann, German politician

1946 Linda Ronstadt, American country-rock singer

1947 Camilla Parker Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of the United Kingdom

1949 Carl Bildt, politician

1949 Trevor Horn, musician

1953 Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Jamaican politician

1953 John Denham, British politician

1956 Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division

1961 Scott Ritter, Jr, chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Ritter publicly argued that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), as turned out to be the case, despite what the administration of George W Bush repeatedly and disingenuously told the world. Ritter became a popular anti-war figure and public commentator as a result of his stance.

Myths of the 'War on Terrorism' and Iraq

1961 Forest Whitaker, actor

1966 Irène Jacob, actress

1970 Chi Cheng, musician

1973 Brian Austin Green, actor

1975 Kyla Brettle, documentary maker

 

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 Hug Week [ c. Jul 12 - 18 ] Birthdays Ice Cream Cone Day [ Jul 16 ] I Love Horses Day [ Jul 15 ]

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
Varies Hindu holidays
Varies Graduation
Early August Friendship Day

July

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 Spoonerism Day
22 Cleveland Day
23 Vanilla Ice Cream Day
23 Private Eye Day
24 Cousins Day
24 Public Opinion Day
24 Coffee Day
25 St James Day
26 Groovy Chicken Day
26 Aunt And Uncles' Day
26 Coffee Milkshake Day
26 Groovy Chicken Day
27 St Pantaleone's Day
28 Hamburger Day
29 Rain Day
30 Cheesecake Day
31 Jump For Jellybeans Day
31 Cotton Candy Day
31 Raspberry Cake Day

  ... More Events

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518 Death of Anastasius I, Byzantine Emperor.

1015 Death of Vladimir I of Kiev (see feast day above).

1085 Death of Robert Guiscard, Norman adventurer.

1099 First Crusade:  Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, captured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks under Kerbogha. Many Crusaders claimed that they saw the recently deceased French bishop of Le Puy, Adhemar (d. 1098), urging them on and scaling the walls in the vanguard.

During the Crusaders' siege of Antioch, Adhemar had organized a barefoot procession around the walls, as Joshua had done at Jericho in the Bible. After the capture of the city in June, 1098, and the subsequent siege led by Kerbogha, Adhemar organized another procession through the streets. He also had the gates locked so that the Crusaders, many of whom had begun to panic, would be unable to desert the city. He was extremely skeptical of Peter Bartholomew's discovery in Antioch of the Holy Lance (Spear of Destiny), especially because he knew such a relic already existed in Constantinople; however, he was willing to let the Crusader army believe it was real if it raised their morale.

The UnMuseum – The Holy Lance    Catholic Encyclopedia – The Holy Lance

The search for the real Holy Lance    Spear of Destiny at Wikipedia

Gesta Version    Version of Raymond d'Aguiliers     Book about Hitler and the Spear of Destiny

1162 Ladislaus II of Hungary was declared King of Hungary.

1207 John of England expelled Canterbury monks for supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton.

1291 Death of Rudolph I of Germany.

1381 John Ball, veteran of Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt a month earlier, was executed in the presence of Richard II of England

1410 In the Battle of Grunwald (aka Tannenberg or Zalgiris), the power of the Teutonic Knights was broken by a defeat from the Poles and Lithuanians, the greatest battle of the Middle Ages.

1525 The flood that didn't happen

In 1496, European astrologers were alarmed to find that a conjunction of the planets would occur on February 24. This phenomenon was supposed to be an omen of bad things to come. The astrologer to the Elector of Brandenburg predicted that on July 15, 1525 there would be a flood. The elector took his family to the hills but returned when the weather remained clear. Returning home in the afternoon, however, his coachman and four horses were struck by lightning as they went through the castle gate.

Apocalypse when? On failed prophecies and beliefs that don't work, in the Scriptorium

 

1542 Possible death date of Mona Lisa.

1685 In England, James Scott, 1^st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of King Charles II, was executed at Tower Hill, London, for his leading part in a rebellion against King James II. He had been defeated at the Battle of Sedgemore.

1767 Death of Michael Bruce, Scottish poet.

1782 Death of Farinelli, castrato.

1789 Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, by acclamation, was named colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris.

1799 In the Egyptian village of Rosetta, French Captain Pierre Bouchard found the Rosetta Stone.

1806 Pike expedition: Near St Louis, Missouri, United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike began an expedition from Fort Belle Fontaine to explore the west.

1815 Napoléon Bonaparte surrendered from aboard HMS Bellerophon.

1828 Death of Jean Antoine Houdon, sculptor.

1839 Death of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, poet.

1857 One of the worst incidents in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 occurred when 200 British men, women and children were hacked to pieces in Cawnpore (Kanpur).

1862 American Civil War: Confederates broke the naval blockade of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1870 Reconstruction: Georgia became the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1891 In the Queensland Legislative Council, during a 'Vote of Thanks' to the armed police who broke up a Barcaldine labor meeting (see 1891 Shearers' Strike), MP Frederick Brentnall (1834 - 1925) recited the last two stanzas of Henry Lawson's 'Freedom on the Wallaby', as evidence of the danger of the radicals. There were calls in the chamber for Lawson's arrest for sedition. Lawson wrote a bitter rejoinder to Brentnall, 'The Vote of Thanks Debate'.

1916 In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing incorporated Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

1918 World War I: Second Battle of the Marne – The battle began near the River Marne with a German attack.

1922 Bronx Zoo proudly displayed, for the first time in the United States, a platypus.

"Native only to Tasmania and eastern and southern Australia (in red), the platypus is the sole member of the mammal family Ornithorhynchidae. It is one of two animals that form the order Monotremata (egg-laying mammals), the other being Australia's spiny anteater ..."    Source

The plural of 'platypus' is platypodae, because it is a Greek word (derived from the Greek platys meaning 'flat' or 'broad', and pous meaning 'foot', a reference to the monotreme's webbed feet). However, 'platypuses' is quite acceptable in English. Not so, 'platypi', which would suggest a Latin suffix, as in the word 'radius'.

1929 USA: The first weekly radio broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

1930 The British government ordered 1,000 Spitfire fighter planes.

1938 Millionaire industrialist Howard Hughes broke the record for a round-the-world flight, taking just three days, 19 hours and 17 minutes.

1944 World War II: Americans took Saipan.

1953 John Reginald Christie was executed.

1954 The first Boeing 707 made its maiden flight.

1958 In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines landed in the capital, Beirut, in order to protect the pro-Western government there.

1964 The Australian, the first national daily newspaper in Australia, was first published.

1971 The NY Times finally reviewed Steal This Book, by Abbie Hoffman. Although most media refused to run advertising, Steal This Book hit the bestseller list in 1971, selling more than a quarter of a million copies between April and November.

1975 Apollo Soyuz Test Project: Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft took off for a US-Soviet link-up in space.

1977 Australia: Donald Mackay, anti-drugs campaigner, disappeared from a car park in his home town of Griffith, New South Wales. At the scene of Mackay's disappearance, his locked van contained blood stains, Mackay's car keys and three used .22 shotgun shell casings.Many believed Robert Trimbole was responsible for the contract style killing of Mackay.

1989 Many casualties were recorded in clashes between Georgians and Abkhazians, Georgia, USSR.

1990 Tamil Tiger Marxist terrorists massacred 168 Muslims, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

1996 MSNBC cable-DBS channel was launched.

1997 In Miami, Florida, USA, spree killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan gunned down Gianni Versace outside his home.

2000 Bohemian Grove: Texas-based journalist and filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, infiltrated the elite cult, the Bohemian Club, and filmed some of the club's bizarre rituals.

2002 So-called 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh pleaded guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a felony. Lindh agreed to serve 10 years in prison for each of the charges.

2002 Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects were convicted of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

2003 AOL Time Warner disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation was established on the same day.

2003 The USA's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed a SARS-related travel advisory for Taiwan, the last area to have such a travel alert.

2004 USA: A monorail service began in Las Vegas.

2004 The BBC aired the documentary The Secret Agent, exposing racism by members of the British National Party.

2005 Disneyland "re-launched" Space Mountain in Anaheim, California.

 

 

Tomorrow: Voodoo goddess

 

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Two aliens were visiting Earth to research the local customs and landed in England. They split up so that they could learn more in the time allowed. When they met to share their knowledge, the first alien told of a religious ceremony it had seen. "I went to a large green field shaped like a meteorite crater. Around the edges, several thousand worshippers gathered. Then two priests walk to the centre of the field to a rectangular area and hammer six spears into the ground, three at each end. Then eleven more priests walk out, clad in white robes. Then two high priests wielding clubs walk to the centre and one of the other priests starts throwing a red orb at the ones with the clubs." "Gee," replied the other alien, "what happens next?" "Then it begins to rain." 

 

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© My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.

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