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reetings from Australia. 

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Pip Wilson

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Colonel Tom Edwards: Why is it so important that you want to contact the governments of our earth? 
Eros: Because of death. Because all you of Earth are idiots. 
Jeff Trent: Now you just hold on, Buster. 
Eros: No, you hold on. First was your firecracker, a harmless explosive. Then your hand grenade: you began to kill your own people, a few at a time. Then the bomb. Then a larger bomb: many people are killed at one time. Then your scientists stumbled upon the atom bomb, split the atom. Then the hydrogen bomb, where you actually explode the air itself. Now you can arrange the total destruction of the entire universe served by our sun: The only explosion left is the Solaranite. 
Colonel Tom Edwards: Why, there's no such thing. 

Colonel Tom Edwards: Why, a particle of sunlight can't even be seen or measured. 
Eros: Can you see or measure an atom? Yet you can explode one. A ray of sunlight is made up of many atoms. 
Jeff Trent: So what if we do develop this Solaranite bomb? We'd be even a stronger nation than now. 
Eros: "Stronger." You see? You see? Your stupid minds. Stupid. Stupid. 

Tanna: Eros, do we have to kill them? 
Eros: Yes. 
Tanna: It seems such a waste. 
Eros: Well, wouldn't it be better to kill a few now than, with their meddling, permit them to destroy the entire universe? 
Tanna: You're always right, Eros. 

Colonel Tom Edwards: You speak of Solaranite. But just what is it? 
Eros: Take a can of your gasoline. Say this can of gasoline is the sun. Now, you spread a thin line of it to a ball, representing the earth. Now, the gasoline represents the sunlight, the sun particles. Here we saturate the ball with the gasoline, the sunlight. Then we put a flame to the ball. The flame will speedily travel around the earth, back along the line of gasoline to the can, or the sun itself. It will explode this source and spread to every place that gasoline, our sunlight, touches. Explode the sunlight here, gentlemen, you explode the universe. Explode the sunlight here and a chain reaction will occur direct to the sun itself and to all the planets that sunlight touches, to every planet in the universe. This is why you must be stopped. This is why any means must be used to stop you. In a friendly manner or as (it seems) you want it. 
Lieutenant John Harper: He's mad. 
Tanna: Mad? Is it mad that you destroy other people to save yourselves? You have done this. Is it mad that one country must destroy another to save themselves? You have also done this. How then is it "mad" that one planet must destroy another who threatens the very existence-... 
Eros: [shoves her roughly aside] That's enough. 
[to the humans] 
Eros: In my land, women are for advancing the race, not for fighting man's battles. 

[On what that strange sound was.] 
Lieutenant John Harper: It was a saucer. 
Patrolman: A flying saucer? 

The Ruler: Plan 9? Ah, yes. Plan 9 deals with the resurrection of the dead. Long distance electrodes shot into the pineal and pituitary gland of the recently dead. 

Colonel Tom Edwards: For a time we tried to contact them by radio but no response. Then they attacked a town, a small town I'll admit, but never the less a town of people, people who died." 

Criswell: My friend, you have seen this incident, based on sworn testimony. Can you prove that it didn't happen? 

Criswell: Perhaps, on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it ... for they will be from outer space. 

Jeff Trent: You promise you'll lock the doors immediately? 
Paula Trent: I promise. Besides, I'll be in bed before a half hour's gone ... with your pillow beside me. 
Jeff Trent: My pillow? 
Paula Trent: Well, I have to have something to keep me company while you're away. Sometimes in the night, when it does get a little lonely, I reach over and touch it. Then it doesn't seem so lonely anymore.

More memorable quotes from Plan 9

If it rains on St Mary's Day, it will rain for four weeks.
English traditional proverb

July the second. I, John Aleman, citizen of Marseilles, in good faith and without guile, sell and transfer to you, Peter Bertoumieu, son of the late Raymond Bertoumieu, a certain Saracen maid of ours, commonly called Aissa, for a price of ten pounds in the mixed money now current in Marseilles, which I confess to have had and to have received from you, renouncing the benefit of all laws, etc. And if the said Saracen maid is worth more at any time in the future I grant it all with the price, or I give all that extra worth to you and yours, etc.
Bill of sale for the purchase of a Saracen (Muslim) girl, Aissa, 1248   Source

On board the brig we also saw Cinques, the master spirit and hero of this bloody tragedy, in irons. He is about five feet eight inches in height, 25 or 26 years of age, of erect figure, well built, and very active. He is said to be a match for any two men on board the schooner. His countenance, for a native African, is unusually intelligent, evincing uncommon decision and coolness, with a composure characteristic of true courage, and nothing to mark him as a malicious man. He is a negro who would command in New Orleans, under the hammer, at least $1500.
  He is said, however, to have killed the captain and crew with his own hand, by cutting their throats. He also has several times attempted to take the life of Senor Montes, and the backs of several poor negroes are scored with the scars of blows inflicted by his lash to keep them in subjection. He expects to be executed, but nevertheless manifests a sang froid worthy of a Stoic under similar circumstances.
New York Journal of Commerce, August 30, 1839; the Armistad Mutiny, led by Joseph Cinqué (Cinque, or Cinques), occurred on July 2, 1839   Source

We have seen a wood-cut representation of the royal fellow [Joseph Cinqué]. It looks as we think it would. It answers well to his lion-like character. The head has the towering front of Daniel Webster, and though some shades darker than our great countryman, we are struck at first sight, with his resemblance to him. He has Webster's lion aspect. – his majestic, quiet, uninterested cast of expression, looking, when at rest, as if there was nobody and nothing about him to care about or look at. His eye is deep, heavy – the cloudy iris extending up behind the brow almost inexpressive, and yet as if volcanoes of action might be asleep behind it.
The Colored American, October 19, 1839   Source

I heard one of our most distinguished citizens remark yesterday, that his sympathies had at first been warmly enlisted in favor of the blacks – that he had been induced to believe, by the representations of the pseudo-philanthropists, that they were a set of hapless beings who had been torn from the enjoyments of social and domestic life and sold to hopeless misery, to feed the insatiate avarice of a blackhearted planter; and he should have rejoiced at their escape, even if they had reached our shores dyed to the elbows in the blood of their oppressors. He thought of Cinguez [sic] as he had been represented by Leavitt and his coadjutors, the heroic liberator of his enslaved brethren, who nobly preferred death to the degrading bondage of the white man; and was almost ready to wink at an infraction of our treaty with Spain, if necessary, to protect him from the consequences of his daring gallantry. But a look at the hero and his compatriots had wrought an instantaneous change in his sentiments. Instead of a chivalrous leader with the dignified and graceful bearing of Othello, imparting energy and confidence to his intelligent and devoted followers, he saw a sullen, dumpish looking negro, with a flat nose, thick lips, and all the other characteristics of his debased countrymen, without a single redeeming or striking trait, except the mere brute qualities of strength and activity, who had inspired terror among his companions by the indiscriminate and unsparing use of the lash. And instead of intelligent and comparatively civilized men, languishing in captivity and suffering under the restraints of the prison, he found them the veriest animals in existence, perfectly contented in confinement, without a ray of intelligence, and sensible only to the wants of the brute.
Mr Bennett, En Route To Hartford, September 15; 'The Captured Africans, Correspondence of the Herald'; New York Morning Herald, September 18, 1839, p. 2   Source

All hail! thou truly noble chief,
Who scorned to live a cowering slave;
Thy name shall stand on history's leaf,
Amid the mighty and the brave:
Thy name shall shine, a glorious light
To other brave and fearless men,
Who, like thyself, in freedom's might,
Shall beard the robber in his den.
Thy name shall stand on history's page,
And brighter, brighter, brighter grow,
Throughout all time, through every age,
Till bosoms cease to feel or know
"Created worth, or human woe."
Thy name shall nerve the patriot's hand
When, 'mid the battle's deadly strife,
The glittering bayonet and brand
Are crimsoned with the stream of life:
When the dark clouds of battle roll,
And slaughter reigns without control,
Thy name shall then fresh life impart,
And fire anew each freeman's heart.
Though wealth and power their force combine
To crush thy noble spirit down,
There is above a power divine
Shall bear thee up against their frown.
James Monroe Whitfield; 'To Cinque', in America and Other Poems, Buffalo, USA, 1853   Source

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.
Herman Hesse, German novelist and poet, born on July 2, 1877, Demian, Ch. 6

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Herman Hesse; Demian

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood.
A finger fired the trigger to his name.
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.
Bob Dylan; 'Only a Pawn in Their Game'; Medgar Evers, US civil rights activist, was born on July 2, 1925

A man can't just sit around.
Larry Walters ('Lawnchair Larry'; d. October 6, 1993), immediately after his flight above Los Angeles on July 2, 1982, when asked by a reporter why he did it

If the FAA was around when the Wright Brothers were testing their aircraft, they would never have been able to make their first flight at Kitty Hawk.
Larry Walters

It was something I had to do. I had this dream for twenty years, and if I hadn't done it, I think I would have ended up in the funny farm. I didn't think that by fulfilling my goal in life – my dream – that I would create such a stir and make people laugh.
Larry Walters

The human race sits in its chair. On the one hand is the message that says there's nothing left to do. And the Larry Walterses of the earth are busy tying balloons to their chairs, directed by dreams and imagination to do their thing.
Robert Fulghum; from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten   Source

July 2 is the 183^rd day of the year (184^th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. It is the middle day of a non-leap year, because there are 182 days before and 182 days after. It falls on the same day of the week as New Year's Day (of non-leap years) and New Year's Eve.
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Full moon around now, Green Corn Festival, Native American

"The Green Corn Festival or Ceremony is a Native American harvest celebration. Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Yuchi, and Iroquois as well as other Native American tribes celebrate this ceremony in some manner.

"The ceremony is typically held during the full moon when the first corn crop is ready to harvest. The exact date cannot be determined ahead of time; it's all up to the corn. It is a time of thanks and forgiveness. A thanksgiving for the crops and old grudges are forgiven. The ceremony lasts for several days. The holy man as a symbol of health, life, and spiritual power tends a sacred fire. The first few days, known as the Busk, people fast, cleanse themselves, and their homes. Men and women then drink an herbal concoction, the 'Black Drink' that help cleanse and purify their bodies. Then the first corn harvest is tasted followed by dancing, singing, playing, and feasting. Many foods are included in the feast with an emphasis on corn: roast corn, corn tortillas, corn soup, corn bread ...

"A ball game is quite popular in which teams of boys and girls try to hit a target on a large pole, the original source of our lacrosse. The game varies, of course, from tribe to tribe."   Source

"The Creek Indian women perform the Ribbon Dance. Four women who have been appointed for life by the tribal elders dance for three hours, adorned with vivid ribbons, rattles, and shells. The Santa Ana Pueblo, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, has an annual feast day, open to the public, on July 26th with a green corn dance and fiesta."
Source: Earth, Moon and Sky

The first Friday in July, the Fairlop Fair

Traditions don't fall from the sky, they are created by people, and sometimes by good-hearted people whose simple acts of generosity become enshrined over time and bestow on their originators a place in history. The Fairlop Oak Festival (or Fairlop Fair) is a good example.

Long ago in England – the early- to mid-18^th Century – on the first Friday in July, the Fairlop Oak Festival was held. The Fairlop Oak, a large tree, in Hainault Forest, Essex was said to have a whopping diameter of 6.7 metres (22 feet) and a girth of 20 metres (66 feet). These estimates are no doubt exaggerated; however, one Peter Kalm, a student of the great Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707 - '78), measured the tree at 9.1 metres (30 feet) in 1748.

A prosperous pump-maker named Daniel Day (1673 - 1767), known to his friends as Good Day (perhaps he had an Australian cousin called Gid Day), started the practice of sharing a meal with his friends (and tenants, for Day had inherited some property and this was his annual rent-collecting day) under the oak on the first Friday in July. Day was quite particular as to the meal served each year: they always ate just beans and bacon beneath the 91-metre (300-feet) circumference canopy.

The English poet, John Gay (1685 - 1732) referred to this quaint repast:

Pedlars' stalls with glitt'ring toys are laid,
The various fairings of the country maid.
Long silken laces hang upon the twine,
And rows of pins and amber bracelets shine.

Good Day's friends in the pump-and-block trade, about 40 of them, used to come, accompanied by a band, from Wapping town via the hamlets of Bow, Stratford and Ilford in a huge six-horse-drawn float which was a brightly decorated boat mounted on a carriage – not just any boat, but a fully rigged frigate created by Good Day who was a keen sailor.

A circus atmosphere
Day's day developed into a major festival, complete with stalls and amusements, as more and more people became interested in the tradition. In the 1750s, more than 100,000 people attended the Fair from all over London. Stalls sold gingerbread men, toys, ribbons, and there were entertainments such as puppet shows, musicians, circus acrobats and even wild beasts. Fairlop Fair enjoyed a reputation of being a very well conducted day, but as early as 1736 certain stallholders were prosecuted for gaming and illegal sales of liquor. In 1793, the Fair was banned for its bacchanalian reputation ...

Read on at the Fairlop Fair page in the Scriptorium

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Former feast day of Visitation of the Blessed Virgin (White lily, or Madonna lily, Lilium candidum, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) The visit paid by the Virgin Mary to her cousin St Elizabeth (Luke i, 39, 40) is celebrated. Instituted by Pope Urban VI in 1383. Originally, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Feast of the Visitation was celebrated on this day, although it has since been transferred to May 31. "The Archangel Gabriel, at the time of the Annunciation, informed the Mother of God that Her cousin Elizabeth had miraculously conceived and was soon to be the mother of a son, the destined precursor of the Messiah. The Blessed Virgin out of humility concealed the wonderful dignity to which She Herself was raised by the Incarnation of the Son of God in Her womb, but in the transport of Her holy joy and gratitude, determined She to go to felicitate and assist the mother of the Baptist. 'Mary therefore arose,' Saint Luke says, 'and with haste went into the hill country into a city of Judea, and entering into the house of Zachary, greeted Elizabeth.'"   Source   Inti Raymi, Incan Winter Solstice Festival of the Sun, Sacsayhuaman, Cuzco, Peru (Jun 24 - Jul 2) Feast of Expectant Mothers, ancient Rome Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar Feast day of St Acestes Feast day of St Ariston Feast day of St Bernadine Realino Feast day of St Crescention Feast day of St Felicissimus Feast day of St Felix Feast day of St Futychian Feast day of St Justus Feast day of St Lidanus Feast day of St Marcia Feast day of Ss Processus and Martinian, martyrs Feast day of St Monegundis (Monegondes), recluse at Tours Feast day of St Otto  (Otho), bishop, Bishop of Bamberg Feast day of St Oudoceus, Bishop of Landaff Feast day of St Swithun (Swithin; Svithin; July 15 feast of the translation of his relics) Feast day of St Symphorosa Feast day of St Urban Feast day of St Vitalis Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Hakata Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15) This festival of dolls is held at Kushida Shrine, Fukuoka and culminates in a parade on July 15 which goes to Fukuoka shrine, circles about, then returns to the two temples. Zumarraga, Basque region of Spain "On Saint Isabel's day, on 2nd July, a very special romeria is held in the lovely setting of the Hermitage 'de la Antigua', in Zumarraga. Dancers inside the hermitage perform the Ezpatadantza 'de la Antigua', first on their knees and then on foot, dance in front of the image of the Virgin, making amazing movements with their daggers."   Source National Literacy Day, USA Blessed Virgin of the Berries, Poland Corso del Palio (Palio di Siena – Race for the Palio), Siena, Italy The Palio di Siena (known locally simply as the Palio), the most famous palio in Italy, is a horse race held twice each year on July 2 and August 16 in Siena, in which the horse and rider represent one of the seventeen Contrade, or city wards. The race is preceded by a spectacular pageant, which includes (among many others) Alfieri, flag-wavers, in medieval costumes. Just before the pageant, a squad of carabinieri on horseback, wielding swords, demonstrate a mounted charge around the track. National Anisette Day, Kiribati Distressed Elves' Creditors' Day (Fairy) Royal International Agricultural Show, UK Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July) First Friday in July (July 2 in 2010), Action Mesothelioma Day (UK) This is a UK event which, as I am a person who has lost an uncle and a family friend to 'meso', I strongly feel should be an international annual event, and urge that people make it so. Thank you, Ruby Cartagena, for bringing this annual United Kingdom commemoration to my attention. "Mesothelioma, more precisely malignant mesothelioma, is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, the mesothelium. It is usually caused by exposure to asbestos ... "In 1962 McNulty reported the first diagnosed case of malignant mesothelioma in an Australian asbestos worker. The worker had worked in the mill at the asbestos mine in Wittenoom from 1948 to 1950. "In the town of Wittenoom, asbestos-containing mine waste was used to cover schoolyards and playgrounds. In 1965 an article in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine established that people who lived in the neighbourhoods of asbestos factories and mines, but did not work in them, had contracted mesothelioma."   Source Mesothelioma: Questions and Answers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute 'He Fades Away' a song about a Wittenoom asbestos worker, by the late Alistair Hulett    http://www.mesotheliomaweb.org   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 ... More at July 1     Wilson's Webcam Watch The image 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         On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 419 Valentinian III (d. 455), Roman Emperor who assassinated Flavius Aetius with his own hands   1489 Thomas Cranmer (d. March 21, 1556), made Archbishop of Canterbury for his support of King Henry VIII, and also served under Edward VI. During the reign of Queen Mary I ('Bloody Mary'), who had been brought up a Catholic and wished to return the country to its former faith, Cranmer was removed from office, imprisoned and charged with both treason and heresy on February 14, 1556 and later burnt at the stake as a heretic. 1644 Abraham a Sancta Clara (Johann Ulrich Megerle; d. December 1, 1709), court vicar, appointed imperial court preacher at Vienna in 1669 1714 Christoph Willibald Gluck (d. 1787), German composer (Alceste; Orfeo ed Euridice) 1724 Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (d. 1803), poet 1821 Sir Charles Tupper (d. 1915), Father of Canadian Confederation, sixth Prime Minister of Canada   King O'Malley (right) at the Naming of Canberra ceremony, Capital Hill, Canberra, Australia, 1913 1858 King O'Malley (d. December 20, 1953), eccentric American-born Australian politician in the Australian Government, one of the most colourful characters of the early federal period of Australian political history. Neither the date nor the place of O'Malley's birth is known with certainty. His biographers Larry Noye and Arthur Hoyle say he was born on July 2, while the Australian Parliamentary Handbook says July 4, which would be appropriate given O'Malley's American origins. O'Malley claimed all his life to have been born in Canada, which would have made him a British subject and thus eligible to stand for election, but it is more likely that he was born at his parents' farm in northern Vermont. 'King' was his mother's maiden name. He was educated at a primary school in New York City, then worked in a bank and as an insurance and real estate salesman, travelling widely around the United States. According to his biographer Hoyle, women found him very attractive and this, as well as his espousal of the women's suffrage issue, won him many female votes when some of his opponents in his early political career had not yet awoken to this political factor. In 1881, he married Rosy Wilmot, but she died in 1886. In 1889 he migrated to Queensland, probably to escape debt and possibly prosecution for embezzlement. In Australia, he again worked as an itinerant insurance salesman, also preaching evangelical Christianity and temperance. In 1895, he settled in Gawler, South Australia, and, in 1896, he was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly as a radical democrat, opposed to the wealthy landowners who then dominated colonial politics. O'Malley was defeated in 1899, and the following year he moved to Tasmania, the smallest and most parochial of the Australian colonies. Here a tall, fashionably dressed American preaching the Gospel and radical democracy drew immediate attention (he was known to wear a lavender suit and 10-gallon hat), and, in 1901, he was elected as one of Tasmania's five members in the first Australian Parliament. Although there was no Labour Party in Tasmania at this time, he joined the Labour Caucus when the Parliament assembled in Melbourne. Historian Gavin Souter describes O'Malley at this time: O'Malley's monstrously overgrown persona seemed to be inhabited simultaneously by a spruiker from Barnum's three-ring circus, a hell and tarnation revivalist, and a four-flushing Yankee Congressman. He was a moderately big man, auburn-haired with watchful grey eyes and a red-brown beard, wearing a wide-brimmed felt hat, blue-grey suit with huge lapels and a low-cut vest, loose cravat with a diamond collar stud, and in the centre of his cream silk shirt-front a fiery opal. O'Malley was thus one of the most prominent and colourful members of the Parliament, but his radical ideas were not widely accepted, and many regarded him as a charlatan. He became a prominent advocate of a national bank as a means of providing cheap credit for farmers and small businessmen - one of the most common platforms of the late 19th century populism. He was not a member of Chris Watson's first Labor ministry in 1904, or of Andrew Fisher's first ministry in 1908. But in 1910 the Caucus elected him to the ministry of Fisher's second government. In the same year he married again, to Amy Horton. O'Malley became Minister for Home Affairs, and played a prominent role in selecting the site of the future capital of Australia, Canberra. He was present at the ceremony for the naming of Canberra on March 12, 1913; he also drove in the first peg which marked the start of development of the city in February 1913. As a teetotaller he was responsible for the highly unpopular ban on alcohol in the Australian Capital Territory. He could also claim credit for beginning the building of the Transcontinental Railway from Melbourne to Perth. He also agitated for the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a state-owned savings and investment bank, although he was not the bank's sole inspirer as he later liked to claim. He later wrote that he had led a "torpedo squad" in Caucus to force a reluctant Cabinet to establish the bank, but historians do not accept this. Prime Minister Fisher was the bank's principal architect. Partly to allay fears of "funny money" aroused by O'Malley's populist rhetoric, Fisher ensured that the bank would be run on firmly "sound money" principles, and the bank as established did not provide easy credit for farmers as the radicals desired. O'Malley's other legacy was the spelling of "Labor" in the Australian Labor Party's title in the American style. He was a spelling reform enthusiast and persuaded the party that "Labor" was a more "modern" spelling than "Labour". Although the American spelling has not become established in Australia, Labor has preserved the spelling. Labor was defeated at the 1913 elections, and, when it returned to office in 1914, O'Malley was not re-elected to the Cabinet. In 1915, however, Fisher retired and O'Malley returned to office in the first ministry of Billy Hughes, again as Minister for Home Affairs. But, within a year, the government split over the determination of Hughes to introduce conscription for Australia's contribution to World War I. O'Malley resigned from Hughes's Cabinet in protest and became an outspoken anti-conscriptionist. Hughes called an election in 1917, and O'Malley was very narrowly defeated in his northern Tasmanian seat by a Nationalist candidate. He stood for the seat again in 1919, and for another seat in 1922, but he never returned to elective office. Although he was only 59 at the time of his defeat, he retired to Melbourne and devoted his time to building up his own legend, particularly in relation to the Commonwealth Bank, and to polemical journalism on a variety of pet causes. He lived to be 95, outliving his nemesis Hughes. At the time of his death he was the last surviving member of the first Australian Parliament. A popular pub in Canberra, King O'Malley's Irish Pub in Civic, is named after him – this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to his above-mentioned role in an unpopular alcohol ban in the Australian Capital Territory. The Canberra suburb of O'Malley is also named after him. Based on the Wikipedia article    Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson   1862 William Henry Bragg (d. March 10, 1942), English physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1915. Bragg was educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He served on the faculties of the University of Adelaide in Australia (1886-1908), the University of Leeds (1909-15), and the University College London (1915 - '25). From 1923, he was Fullerian professor of chemistry in the Royal Institution and director of the Davy-Faraday research laboratory. He shared with his Australian-born son William Lawrence Bragg (1890 - 1971) the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies, using the X-ray spectrometer, of X-ray spectra, X-ray diffraction, and of crystal structure. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1906 and served as president of the society from 1935 to 1940. 1865 Lily Braun (d. 1916), writer 1877 Hermann Hesse, (d. 1962), German poet and novelist (Siddartha; Steppenwolf), recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1946 1884 Alfons Maria Jakob (d. 1931), neurologist 1900 Tyrone Guthrie (d. 1971), actor, Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival 1903 Olav V (d. 1991), King of Norway 1903 Sir Alec Douglas-Home (d. 1995), Prime Minister of the UK 1906 Hans Bethe, Nobel-winning nuclear physicist 1908 Thurgood Marshall (d. 1993), US Supreme Court Justice The Legacy of Thurgood Marshall 1915 George Forbes (d. August 1, 2006), Australian philanthropist and women's advocate. In 1950, he was appointed General Secretary of The Smith Family, one of Australia's best-known not-for-profit organizations, and remained with that organization for 32 years. In 1972, he retired as General Secretary and became Honorary Director. Seeing the need for women to have a greater opportunity to participate in Australian politics, in 1960 he founded the VIEW Clubs of Australia movement. Within the first year, 26 clubs were formed, in Sydney. According to the organization's magazine (No. 3, 2006), VIEW in 2006 had 23,000 members working in 400 communities across Australia. 1925 Patrice Lumumba (d. 1961), Congolese prime minister from 1960 to 1961 1925 Medgar Evers, American black civil rights leader, murdered June 12, 1963 1927 Ruth Berghaus, choreographer/film director 1929 Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines. In 1986, when she went on the lam from the poverty-stricken Philippines, she left behind in Manila more than 2,000 pairs of size 8-1/2 shoes and around 50 identical black bras. 1930 Carlos Menem, former President of Argentina 1931 Robert Ito, actor, ballet dancer 1932 Dave Thomas (d. 2002), founder of Wendy's International 1942 Vicente Fox, president of Mexico 1947 Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld 1956 Jerry Hall, actress/model, ex-wife of Mick Jagger 1964 Andrea Pia Yates, mother who drowned her five children 1970 Yancy Butler, actress 1971 Evelyn Lau, pop author 1974 Matthew Reilly, Australian author 1981 Alex Koroknay-Palicz, youth rights activist. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, Koroknay-Palicz grew up in Holland, Michigan. He then moved to the Washington, DC, area to attend American University and begin a career in politics. He quickly became involved in the Youth Rights Movement and currently heads the National Youth Rights Association. 1983 Michelle Branch, popular musician 1986 Lindsay Lohan, 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 Cards for Sister Fourth Of July Wishes Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Graduation 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 Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap Your family and friends will get a kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!! You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)         If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   1298 The Battle of Göllheim was fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg. 1566 "I Didn't See That One Coming" Dept:  Michel de Nostradame (Michel de Notre-Dame; Nostradamus), died in Salon, France. 1578 Martin Frobisher sighted Baffin Island. 1613 First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia – led by Samuel Argall. 1644 In just two hours, the Battle of Marston Moor in the First English Civil War turned events to the favour of Oliver Cromwell. 1679 Europeans (in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth) first visited Minnesota and saw the headwaters of Mississippi. 1777 Vermont became the first US state to abolish slavery. 1808 Simon Fraser reached the Pacific near New Westminster. 1811 George Johnston was cashiered from NSW Corps for action in deposing Governor William Bligh. 1833 Death of Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader.   1839 Amistad Mutiny: Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué took over the slave ship Amistad. From Wikipedia: La Amistad (Spanish: friendship) was a Spanish merchant ship on which a rebellion by the slaves it was carrying broke out when the schooner was travelling along the coast of Cuba. The ship was taken over by a group of Africans who had been kidnapped from their homes in Africa and illegally sold into slavery. The Africans were later apprehended on the vessel near Long Island, New York by the United States Navy and taken into custody. The ensuing widely publicized court cases in the United States helped the abolitionism movement along. In 1841, a federal trial court found that the initial transport of the Africans across the Atlantic had been illegal and that they were not legally slaves but free; after being affirmed on March 9 [qv], 1841 by the United States Supreme Court on appeal, the Africans travelled home in 1842.   1843 An alligator fell from the sky during a Charleston, SC, USA, thunderstorm. 1863 Second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. 1865 William Booth, British evangelist and social activist, established the Salvation Army in Whitechapel, a London slum area. 1881 Charles J Guiteau shot and fatally wounded 20th US President James Garfield (b. 1831), who eventually died from infection on September 19, 1881, probably more because of the bungling of doctors and telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, than because of the bullet wound. "In an effort to find the bullet, that phone guy Alexander Graham Bell rigged up a crude metal detector to help find the bullet. After several passes, Bell said he had located the bullet. It was much deeper than was originally thought.  "With Garfield's condition growing steadily worse, doctors decided to cut him open to remove the slug. It was not found.  "What Bell had actually located so deep in the body was the metal spring under the mattress! No wonder they couldn't find the bullet." How Alexander Graham Bell helped kill the President 1900 Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin made the first flight, at Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany, in the kind of dirigible that bears his name. 1937 American pilots Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan took off from New Guinea while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator, but were never seen again, presumably downed in the Pacific Ocean.   1947 The town of Roswell, New Mexico, USA, was launched into a new form of economic sustenance – UFO tourism, and I don't mean aliens – when a rancher named William 'Mac' Brazel, near Corona in the same state, heard a loud crash. Brazel informed Sheriff George Wilcox, who reported it to Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell. On July 7, military personnel including Major Jesse Marcel (pictured at right) arrived at the area, retrieved the wreckage, and transported it to Roswell Army Airfield whence it was later flown to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Initial Air Force press releases (issued by Lt. Walter G Haut, Public Information Officer at RAAB under order from the Commander of the 509th Bomb Group, Col. William Blanchard) reported the recovery of a "flying disk", "hexagonal in shape". However, this story was rapidly changed to say that the crash was in fact a weather balloon, which it probably was, although some ufologists have argued an alien craft crashed near Roswell. It is also said that an alien body was found at the crash site, and then moved by military to the infamous Area 51 in Nevada. There is now evidence that the 'UFO' was in fact part of Project Mogul, a top secret project involving high-altitude balloons carrying low-frequency microphones and radar corner reflectors, designed to detect possible Soviet atomic bomb explosions and forewarn of an atomic attack on the United States. To skeptics, the Roswell incident is a classic example of what DH Rawcliffe called retrospective falsification. More    And more    Skeptic Dictionary on Roswell    Skeptoid on Roswell 1950 Henri Queuille became Prime Minister of France. 1951 Floods in Missouri and Kansas, USA, killed 41 and left 200,000 homeless. 1956 Elvis Presley (1935 - '77) recorded 'Don't Be Cruel' and 'Hound Dog'.   1959 Ed Wood, Jr premiered Plan 9 From Outer Space (Unspeakable Horrors From Outer Space Paralyze The Living And Resurrect The Dead!). Plan 9, reputedly the worst film ever made, is perhaps the funniest I have ever seen. Edward Davis Wood, Junior (1924 - '78), a film maker known for his awful movies and transvestite tendencies, was 'rediscovered' when promoters in the early 1980s tagged him the worst director of all time – and was given the singular honour of a full-length 1994 biopic (Ed Wood) by Tim Burton. He is probably the most famous lousy film maker in existence, famed for his ultra-low budget horror, science fiction and cowboy flicks. Plan 9 was compered by self-styled prophet Criswell (1907 - '82; Night of the Ghouls; Orgy of the Dead). One-time Dracula, Bela Lugosi, was in the film at first but died during filming, so his part was played by a chiropractor who kept his face covered with a vampire cape. The set inside the flying saucer was in places identical to the interior of the USA Air Force plane. But one of the nicest touches was the ladder on the saucer.   1961 "Conchita Gonzales and three other young girls from Garbandal in Northwest Spain, witnessed the appearance of a 'brilliant angel' in the wake of a mysterious thunderclap in the evening of 18 June 1961. The angel appeared on succeeding days and announced the arrival of the Virgin Mary as 'Our Lady of Mount Carmel', who finally appeared on 2 July, a day known to the Church, appropriately enough, as 'The visitation of the Blessed Virgin', when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and blessed the future John the Baptist in utero (see Luke I, 39)."   Source 1964 Racial discrimination was outlawed in the USA by President Lyndon B Johnson's Civil Rights Bill. 1965 USA: The FBI began tapping Yippie Abbie Hoffman's home telephone. 1967 Abbie and Anita (née Kushner) Hoffman renewed their vows before Rabbi Nathan A Perilman in a traditional style Jewish wedding. The next day, FBI Special Agent Lefkowitz called to congratulate them. 1969 Brian Jones, founder member of the Rolling Stones, drowned.   1970 Death of Jessie Street ('Red Jessie' Street; b. 1889), Australian delegate to the UN, and selective human rights activist. 1973 James R Schlesinger was sworn in as the 12th United States Secretary of Defense.   1975 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (b. 1916) sacked Treasurer and Deputy PM Dr Jim Cairns (1914 - 2003), for allegedly misleading parliament and him over foreign loans (the 'Khemlani Loans Affair'), bringing to an end the significant parliamentary career of the prominent alternative movement and peace activist. Today it is believed by many that the loans affair was part of a CIA set-up that ended with Whitlam's left-leaning government being dismissed by Whitlam's own appointee, the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr (1914 - 1991), on November 11 that year. Cairns had denied to Whitlam that he and another senior minister, Rex Connor, had tried to borrow, for the Commonwealth Treasury, huge amounts of petrodollars from the Middle East through an intermediary, a Pakistani banker called Tirath Khemlani. Although it was an offence that could have had Cairns removed from the Ministry altogether, the idiosyncratic minister had enough respect and political clout in the Labor Party for the PM to remove him from Treasury and place him as Minister for the Environment.  Cairns, who had led hundreds of thousands of Australian in anti-Vietnam War 'Moratorium' marches' went on to be a leader of the Down to Earth movement, an alternative lifestyles organization that organised many 'confests', or convention/festivals. He also wrote a number of books on what may be called 'counter culture' or 'New Age' topics, with an orientation towards the theories of Wilhelm Reich. Cairns was never far from controversy, especially when a minister. For a while, much of it revolved around his friendship with one of his staff, Juni Morosi (pictured with Dr Cairns at left). Those opposed to Cairns' heterodoxy used their relationship to impute scandal, as Cairns was married to someone else. However, Mrs Cairns never made any public complaints about anything her husband was doing.  In a 1982 defamation case he initiated before the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Cairns denied on oath having had a sexual relationship with Morosi. The jury in that case found that the article in question did contain "an imputation" that Cairns was "improperly involved with his assistant, Junie Morosi, in a romantic or sexual association," but that this statement was not defamatory. Cairns did not receive money for defamation, although Morosi did. In 2002, Cairns admitted that he had had a sexual relationship with Morosi. The CIA's role in the dismissal of Australia's government "Jerry Aaron: We do know that in 1981 he was actually employed as the Italian companies manager in Haiti which is run by the government and in 1981 he was found guilty of trying to move millions in stolen US dollars out of the US on behalf of the Mafia and he was given a light sentence for turning state's evidence. So, perhaps he is available for further work now. One of the interesting features of this Khemlani affair is that just before Whitlam was dismissed from office he got a letter from Hawaii which contained a copy of the message which was allegedly sent to Fraser giving details of the role Khemlani was playing there and which was being paid for in order to destroy the Labour government. And the message contained instructions which should be decoded before transmission by calling a certain number, which turned out to be the Hawaiian headquarters of the CIA. "Tony Douglas: If the CIA set up the Whitlam government it got great assistance from two quarters. Firstly, the Labour ministers themselves who used go-betweens like Harris and Khemlani neither of whom had the necessary bona fides to conduct such negotiations and both of whom were dependent on the arms company Commerce International to supply the money, a company with documented CIA links. However, they also received crucial assistance from the Australian media who blew up the story. Was this done, as Clyde Cameron suggested, by Marshall Green cultivating three or four media owners in Australia or has the CIA penetrated the media itself? That's the question I put to former CIA agent Ralph McGehee. "Ralph McGehee: Well, the first thing that the agency tries to build or create is penetration into the media of the world. They had a worldwide organisation. And this was penetration of media assets around the world and they called it "the world" because that brings a name of an organ and here is an organ which you can play any propaganda you want anywhere in the world. So, from the fact that the media took it up [in Australia] one can suspect heavy CIA involvement ... "Clyde Cameron [Whitlam Gov't Minister]: What I do know is that as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Kerr had been in communication with chiefs of the Armed Forces. I know the Governor-General's office had been in touch with the American embassy. They contemplated the possibility of a general strike in which there would be a revolt of the trade union movement resulting in a complete shutdown of all power or gas supplies or transport, all activity, even the waterworks, the sewage, everything would have been cut off. The country couldn't have lasted any more than 24 hours. So, it was decided that the army would be put on red alert so [that] in the eventuality of that sort of thing happening they would be able to move in. And in the event of the army finding that the whole matter had gone beyond their control ... because what could the army do? They couldn't man the power stations and the water-works and the sewage plants and all the transport facilities with the kind of army we've got. And it was then decided that they would call on the Americans to send in the Pacific Fleet and would stand ready to take and bombard Sydney. "Tony Douglas: For most Australians the dismissal is an uncomfortable reminder of a turbulent period of Australian politics. If they reflect on the events of 1975 at all, the scenario of an Australian Governor-General using the authority of the English Crown to trigger a series of events that would lead to the American Fleet bombing an Australian city to bring about the downfall of a duly elected government is beyond belief. Surely these things only occur in banana republics. Whether or not that is the scenario of 1975 it's evident that the CIA was deeply implicated and that leading conservative politicians knew in advance of Kerr's actions."   Source The Hidden Australia (CIA and Whitlam dismissal) Toohey, Brian and Van Atta, Dale. 'New Light on CIA Role in 1975.' National Times, 21-27 March 1982: 12, 14-17 The CIA in Australia Part 1, Part 2    A Timeline of CIA Atrocities   1976 North and South Vietnam united, after 22 years separated, to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. 1976 The US Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual. In short, nothing is. 1978 Australia bought the Cocos (Keeling) Islands for A$6,250,000 from the Clunies-Ross family.   1982 Larry 'Lawnchair Larry' Walters (d. October 6, 1993) used 45 helium balloons and a lawnchair to propel himself to 16,000 feet above Los Angeles. On his descent, Larry was immediately arrested by waiting members of the LAPD. When asked by a reporter why he had done it, Walters replied "a man can't just sit around". The film, Deckchair Danny, filmed in my hometown of Bellingen, Australia, was loosely based on this story. Darwin Awards: 1982 Honorable Mentions   The Official Site Of 'The Lawn Chair Pilot'   1990 A hundred Muslim pilgrims died of suffocation in a tunnel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. 1992 The Canadian Government closed the northern cod fishery for two years, to conserve stocks. 1992 Christie's auctioneers of London sold a 182-year-old French condom for £3,000. 2001 Melbourne, Australia: lawyer John Keogh took out a patent for … the wheel. This was to demonstrate flaws in a new patent system introduced by the Australian government. Keogh claimed that the system had removed the need for a patent lawyer after complaints that it was too expensive, but it had become possible to patent absolutely anything. (Despite rumours that Melbourne actually didn't have the wheel before this day in 2001 and stole the idea from modern Sydney which had discovered both the wheel and fire on the same day in 1993, the Keogh explanation is the story told by Melbournians, and they're sticking to it.) 2002 Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world non-stop in a balloon. 2004 ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) accepted Pakistan as the 24th member. 2005 Ten Live 8 concerts were held around the world in an attempt to force G8 countries to address poverty. 2006 Space Shuttle Discovery launch for STS-121. Due to weather problems on July 1, the launch was postponed for July 2.   Tomorrow: What are the Dog Days?    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     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. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

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