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When amatory poets sing their loves
In liquid lines mellifluously bland,
And pair their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves,
They little think what mischief is in hand.
The greater their success the worse it proves,
As Ovid's verse may give to understand.
Even Petrarch's self, if judged with due severity,
Is the Platonic pimp of all posterity.

Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 5; Petrarch was born on July 20, 1304

Kings are wont to pardon wicked persons, not innocent men. We have done nothing to deserve such a pardon. We have been guilty of no crime.
Robert Ket, whose Norfolk rebellion was at a high point on July 20, 1549

Cast hedge and ditch in the lake
Fixed with many a stake;
Though they be never so fast,
Yet asunder they are wrest.
Sir, I think that this work
Is as good as to build a kirk.

Cambridge ballad of the time of Ket's Rebellion, 1549, extolling the pulling down of land enclosures

I am ready, and will be ready at all times, to do whatever, not only to repress, but to subdue the power of great men. Whatsoever lands I have enclosed shall again be made common unto ye and all men, and my own hands shall first perform it.
Robert Ket

 

A la Saint Wilgefortis?

They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (Ch. 19), published on July 20, 1869

In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander: I have modest abilities, I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed.
Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, born on July 20, 1919

Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only "knocked off" Everest but lived a life of determination, humility and generosity.
Jenny Shipley, New Zealand prime minister, on Edmund Hillary

Well George, we finally knocked the bastard off.
First words of Edmund Hillary to his lifelong friend, George Lowe, upon his descent from Everest. Lowe had climbed up to meet Hillary and Norgay with hot soup.

It was a measure of the men [Hillary and Tenzing] that over the years they truly grew into the [heroic] condition. Perhaps they thought that just being the first to climb a hill was hardly as qualification for immortality; perhaps they instinctively realised destiny had another place for them. For they became, in the course of time, representatives not merely of their particular nations, but of half of humanity. Astronauts might justly claim that they were envoys of all humanity; Hillary and Tenzing, in a less spectacular kind, came to stand for the small nations of the world, the young ones, the tucked away and the up-and-coming.
TIME magazine, 100 People of the Century, 2000

I have no wish to be the victim of the Fraud of a black world.
My life should not be devoted to drawing up the balance sheet of Negro values.
There is no white world, there is no white ethic, any more than there is a white intelligence.
There are in every part of the world men who search.
I am not a prisoner of history. I should not seek there for the meaning of my destiny.
I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in introduction invention into existence.
In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.

Frantz Fanon, Algerian revolutionist, born on July 20, 1925; from Black Skin, White Masks, 1952

I walk on white nails. Sheets of water threaten my soul on fire. Face to face with these rites, I am doubly alert. Black magic! Orgies, witches' sabbaths, heathen ceremonies, amulets. Coitus is an occasion to call on the gods of the clan. It is a sacred act, pure, absolute, bringing invisible forces into action. What is one to think of all these manifestations, all these limitations, all these acts? From very direction, I am assaulted by the obscenity of dances and words.
Frantz Fanon; ibid (p 126; parody of constructions of 'blackness')

I made myself the poet of the world. The white man had found a poetry in which there was nothing poetic. The soul of the white man was corrupted, and, as I was told by a friend who was a teacher in the United States, 'The presence of the Negroes beside the whites is in a way an insurance policy on humanness. When the whites feel that they have become too mechanized, they turn to the men of color and ask them for a little human sustenance.' At last I had been recognized, I was no longer a zero.
Frantz Fanon; ibid

Is not whiteness in symbols always ascribed in French to Justice, Truth, Virginity?
Frantz Fanon

The national bourgeoisie will be greatly helped on its way toward decadence by the Western bourgeoisies, who come to it as tourists avid for the exotic, for big game hunting, and for casinos. The national bourgeoisie organizes centers of rest and relaxation and pleasure resorts to meet the wishes of the Western bourgeoisie. Such activity is given the mane of tourism, and for the occasion will be built up as a national industry.
Frantz Fanon

In guerrilla war the struggle no longer concerns the place where you are, but the places where you are going. Each fighter carries his warring country between his toes.
Frantz Fanon

The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most
powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.

Carlos Santana, musician, born on July 20, 1947

 

 

 

July 20 is the 201st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (202nd in leap years), with 164 days remaining.
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St Margaret of Antioch and the dragonFeast day of St Margaret of Antioch

Margaret was an aprocryphal virgin and martyr of the third century, a dragonslayer known to the Greeks as St Marina. The father of the beautiful Margaret was a pagan priest in Pisidian Antioch, Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Olybrius, governor of Antioch, was smitten by her beauty when he saw her tending sheep, and he tried to woo her into his bed. Being rejected by her, and because she refused to worship pagan gods, Olybrius denounced her as a Christian, and she was brought to trial. She was imprisoned in a dungeon where the Devil came to her in the form of a dragon, but she held up the cross which irritated the dragon's belly (accounting for Margaret's association with pregnancy, labour, and childbirth) and the serpent fled. Those who had imprisoned her tried to burn her, then boil her in a large cauldron, but each time her prayers kept her unharmed. She was finally martyred by beheading.

Folklorist Waverly Fitzgerald writes that the plant, Wheatfield poppy, supposedly sprang from the blood of the dragon she slew. Long before, it was dedicated to Diana and Demeter as the source of healing sleep and death. Her other flower, the daisy, is also called in France La belle Marguerite.

St Margaret of Antioch and the dragonMargaret's patronage includes against sterility, childbirth, dying people, escape from devils, exiles, falsely accused people, kidney disease, loss of milk by nursing mothers, martyrs, nurses, peasants, people in exile, pregnant women and women.

She was one of the saints who appeared to Saint Joan of Arc, and is one of the Catholic Church's Fourteen Holy Helpers. Her flower, according to the folklorist Hone, is the Virginian dragon's head, Dracocephalus virginianum

Today is Margareta name day in Sweden. In England, where she was nicknamed St Peg, people believed that honouring Peg would bring them God's protection against illness and evil spirits. In Gloucestershire, UK, her day was celebrated with a plum pudding known as 'Heg Peg Dump'.

 

 

St Michael slays the dragon, by RaphaelOf saints and serpents*

Many Christian saints are known to have been associated with dragons; some are dragon-slayers, while some are depicted in art with dragons for various other reasons, such as a representation of Satan (dragons and serpents are quite numerous in the Bible).

Saints Anatolia and Audax, Andrew Abellon, Adelphus, Armel (Armagillus) of Brittany, Armentaire (Armentarius of Antibes) of Draguignan, Attracta, Barlaam, Cadoc, Catherine, Celestine I, Clement, Columba, Donatus, Dometius of Phrygia, George, Germanus, Gilbert of Caithness, Godehard of Hildesheim, Guthlac, Hilarion of Gaza, Hilary of Poitiers, John the Divine, John of Reomay, Julian of Le Mans, Juliana of Nicomedia, Keyne, Liphardus (Lifard) of Orléans, Magnus of Füssen, Marcellus of Avignon, Marcellus (Marceau) of Paris, Margaret of Antioch, Margaret of Scotland, Martha, Michael, Paul the Apostle, Perpetua, Philip, Samson of Dol, Brittany, Simeon Stylites, Sylvester, Theodore Sratelates, Theodore Tiro, Victor of Marseille, Victoria, Virgin Mary.

Saints associated with snakes or snakebite: Dominic of Sora • Hilary of Poitiers • Magnus of Füssen • Patrick • Paul the Apostle • Pirmin • Vitus

*Know any more info? You might like to tell me at Corrigenda.

More fun for dragon hunters

The Rogation Days are a prime source of dragon legends in Britain.

Pickled dragon hoax    Feast of the Dragon, China    Snap the Dragon

Day of the Fire Dragons    Dragon and Japan's Suwa Shrine    Dragon in Slovenia

Geronimo's dragon tale    Beating the dragon, England    Ladon the dragon    Dragon boat fest

Hindu goddess Sarasvati and dragon    Dragons over London, 1222   Dragons battle, England, 1449

D.R.A.G.O.N.S.    Dragons of the British Isles    List of dragons    European dragon

Dragon bestiary    Dragon Hill    Here Be Dragons!    Angels, saints and fantasy links

 

 

 

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Feast day of St Wilgefortis, or Uncumber

Wilgefortis (Comera; Cumerana; Dignefortis; Eutropia; Hulfe; Komina; Kummernis; Kümmernis; Liberata; Librada; Lisvrade; Livrade; Ontcommene; Ontcommer; Ontkommena; Reginfledis; Uncumber; Virgo-Fortis), daughter of the King of Portugal, made a vow of chastity. When her father tried to make her marry she prayed for deliverance and immediately grew a copious beard. Her suitors fled and her father had her crucified.

Known in England as Uncumber or Liberata, she was invoked by women who wanted to 'uncumber' themselves of suitors or troublesome husbands. In German lands she was known as St Kümmernis (where her name means 'grief' or 'anxiety'). She was known as St Liberata in France, and Saint Librada in Spain.

Linda Ours Rago (The Herbal Almanac, Starweed Publishing, Washington DC, USA, 1992) says you can achieve the same thing by picking parsley at dawn and wishing aloud for release. Other authorities recommend self-reliance.

The  story and feast day of St Uncumber might derive from the stories of the Corinthian Aphrodite who grew a beard and impregnated women.

Another theory is that the legend explained ancient church icons that showed a long-haired, bearded Christ crucified while wearing what appeared to be a dress. Later versions of the image assumed she was a woman, and dropped the beard. The Roman Catholic Church in the liturgical reform of 1969 removed Wilgefortis from its calendar of feast days, but your almanackist is doing his best to keep her on his.

 

 

Adonia, ancient Greece (Jul 19 - 20)

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

Lucaria, Roman Empire (Jul 19 - 21)
"The observance of the Lucaria, the commemoration of the sack of Rome by the Gauls and the subsequent destruction of the Gallic army, continued today, although as an even numbered day, it was not named as such."   Source

Yamaguchi Gion Matsuri, Japan (Jul 20 - 27)
"The festival is one of local Gion Matsuri which originally started in Kyoto and this festval is famous for its elegant dance called Sagimai costumed as snowy herons."   Source

 

Fiesta at Monastery of Profitis Ilias, Cycladic island of Thera or Santorini

A great annual religious fiesta when all visitors are invited to join the islanders in a meal of a traditional dried pea and onion soup, followed by dancing of the traditional Syrto and Repati folk dances.

In 1628 BCE there was a huge volcanic eruption on Santorini that was estimated to have had three times the force of the 1883 Krakatoa explosion. (Krakatoa was heard over 7.5 per cent of the world's surface.) Some authorities believe the Santorini explosion might have given rise to the Atlantis legend.

Binding of the Wreaths, England
Young people used to go to the woods, bedeck themselves with wildflower wreaths, entwine the branches of the two trees into an arch and pass through it as couples, asking the goddess to bless them, and kissing.

Feast day of St Ansegisus

Feast day of St Aurelius
Died around 430. He was a bishop of Carthage from c. 391.

Feast day of St Barhadbesciabas

Feast day of St Elias

Feast day of St Flavian

Feast day of St Gregory Lopez

Feast day of St John of Pulsano

Feast day of St Joseph Barsabas (Joseph Justus)
In the Christian New Testament this Joseph figures momentarily in the casting of lots among the 120 or so gathered together after the Ascension of Jesus Christ, to replace Judas Iscariot and bring the Apostles again to the number twelve. In Christian tradition, this Justus went on to become Bishop of Eleutheropolis, where he died a martyr and is venerated as St Justus of Eleutheropolis.

Feast day of St Paul of Saint Zoilus

Feast day of St Sabinus

Feast day of St Severa

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

 

Perun's Day, Ukraine

From Wikipedia: In Slavic mythology, Perun (also Parom [in Slovak, sometimes]) is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and lightning. His other attributes were the mountain, oak, eagle, firmament (in Indo-European languages this was joined with the notion of the sky of stone), horses and carts, weapons (the hammer, axe and arrow), war, and fire. He was first associated with weapons made of stone and later with those of metal.

"On this day a human sacrifice was chosen by ballot. There is record of a Viking's son being chosen and the Viking refusing to give him up. Both father and son were killed as a result. This day was considered a 'Terrible' holiday. The sacrifice was seen as necessary to placate the God and keep him from destroying the crops with late summer storms. According to Dr. Buhler in De Diis Samogitarum, the prayer uttered by the officiating priest went as follows:

Perkons! Father! Thy children lead this faultless victim to thy altar. Bestow, O Father, they blessing on the plough and on the corn. May golden straw with great well-filled ears rise abundantly as rushes. Drive away all black haily clouds to the great moors, forests, and large deserts, where they will not frighten mankind; and give sunshine and rain, gentle falling rain, in order that the crops may thrive!'"   Source

A bull was also sacrificed and it was eaten as a communal meal.

 

Osorezan Taisai, Bodai-ji Temple, Mutsu-shi, Aomori Prefecture, Japan (Jul 20 - 24)
Mt Osorezan is believed to be a gathering-place for dead souls – a gateway to the dead. Women mediators called Itako help visitors hear the voice of the dead relatives.
The pathway to the summit is studded with pinwheels placed by parents praying for deceased children.

During the Grand Festival several dozen blind female shamans (itako) act as the mediums of communication with the other side, clicking their strings of beads as they enter a trancelike state and convey messages from the spirits to grieving relatives.   More

Yasaka Jinja Festival, Yasaka Shrine, Shimane Prefecture, Japan (Jul 20, 24, 27)
"Summer shrine festival featuring sagimai, an elegant dance performed in a winged costume that represents the graceful courting dance of the heron."   Source

Nagasaki Peiron Senshukan, Matsugae International Pier, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, (Jul 20 - 21)
"A dragon boat racing festival begun by Chinese residents of Nagasaki in the 17th century. Long wooden boats crewed by a total of 35 people including a drummer and a bailer race on a 4km course in the harbour."   Source

Uchiwa Matsuri, Yasaka Shrine, Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan (Jul 20 - 22)
"Most famous for a parade of 12 highly-decorated dashi floats and the uchiwa or round fans that are given out to festival goers."   Source

Kurosaki Gion Matsuri Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (Jul 20 - 22)

Independence Day, Colombia

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July)

Peace and Freedom Day, Northern Cyprus

Marine Day, Japan (Umi-no-hi, currently it falls on the third Monday in July)

Día del Amigo, Argentina (Friendship Day)

Friendship Day, Brazil

 

 

 

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

1304 Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca; d. July 19, 1374), scholar, poet, and humanist, who is credited with having given the Renaissance its name. He was crowned poet laureate in Rome on April 8, 1341.

Petrarch meets Laura, April 6 in the Book of Days

1847 Max Liebermann (d. 1935), painter and graphic artist

1873 Alberto Santos-Dumont (d. July 23, 1932), important early pioneer of aviation. Although he was born, grew up, and died in Brazil, his contributions to aviation were made while he was living in France.

From Wikipedia: Santos-Dumont described himself as the first "sportsman of the air." He designed, built, and flew a variety of balloons before developing the first practical dirigible balloons (i.e. airships.) In addition, he made the first fully public flight of an airplane, in Paris in October of 1906 (In comparison, the secretive Wright brothers did not make any public flights until 1908.) That aircraft, designated 14 Bis or Oiseau de proie (French for "bird of prey"), is considered by many to be the first to take off, fly, and land without the use of catapults, high winds, or other external assistance. Thus, Brazilians, as well as many other admirers of Santos-Dumont, consider him to be the "Father of Aviation" as well as the inventor of the airplane. (Much controversy persists around the many competing claims of early aviators. See first flying machine for more discussion.)

1889 Sir John Reith, influential BBC head

1890 Theda Bara (Theodosia Burr Goodman; d. 1955), American silent movie actress

1894 Errett Cord, automobile entrepreneur

1895 László Moholy-Nagy (d. 1946), painter, photographer, sculptor

1915 Mary Martin (d. January 25, 1973), Australian bookseller; business partner of bookseller and publisher Max Harris (1921 - '95)

Tenzing1919 Sir Edmund Hillary (d. January 11, 2008), New Zealand mountaineer and explorer, most famous for the first successful 'summiting' of Mount Everest. 

The New Zealand bee-keeper and the Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay (pictured) were the first humans to reach the 29,035-foot summit of Mt Everest, on May 29, 1953. At left is the famous photo taken by Hillary of his friend Tenzing on the roof of the world.

A Man to Match His Mountain

1920 Elliot Richardson (d. 1999), American politician

1925 Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission

1925 Frantz Fanon, Martinique-born Algerian psychiatrist, author (The Wretched of the Earth; Black Skin, White Masks) and revolutionist who scorned non-violence

More

1928 Pavel Kohout, writer

1929 Hazel Hawke, Australian who has worked in social policy areas; former wife of Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke

1932 Otto Schily, politician

1933 Cormac McCarthy, author

1934 Uwe Johnson, writer

1936 Elizabeth Dole, American politician

1938 Natalie Wood (d. 1981), actress: From Here to Eternity, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story

1938 Dame Diana Rigg, English actress (1960s TV series The Avengers)

1945 Kim Carnes, American singer (1981 hit: Bette Davis Eyes)

1946 Randal Kleiser, film director

1947 Carlos Santana, guitarist, singer (Black Magic Woman; She's Not There)

1953 Marcia Hines, American-born Australian singer (You; I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself)

1973 Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway

 

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514 Pope Hormisdas assumed the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church.

1031 Death of Robert II, king of France.

1304 Fall of Stirling Castle: Edward I of England took the last rebel stronghold in the Wars of Scottish Independence.

1402 Battle of Ankara. Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeated forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.

Ket1549 The Norfolk Rising (or Commotion), aka Ket's Rebellion

At Mousehold, England, a herald of child King Edward VI was turned away, his message of conciliation from the monarch to some 16-20,000 rural insurrectionists rejected. The herald had promised the king's pardon to all who would depart quietly to their homes.

The rebellion of farmers and farm workers was aimed at bringing attention to the economic problems faced by agricultural workers in East Anglia. Like the Diggers (founded exactly one century later, in 1649 by Gerrard Winstanley) and even the rather more conservative Levellers, the rebels demanded the abolition of land enclosures, the end of private ownership of land, and the dismissal of counsellors. A commonwealth was established on Mousehold Heath.

The 'commotion' was led by Robert Ket (or Kett), a fairly prosperous landowner (he held the manor of Wymondham – pron. 'Windum' in Norfolk) and tanner, and he and his followers occupied the city of Norwich, but were defeated on August 25 by the overwhelming military power of John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick. Thousands of men were killed, Warwick's men cutting them to pieces in the slaughter of Dussin's Dale (Dussindale).

They had met daily under 'the Oak of Reformation', upon which many of them were later hanged. Robert Ket was executed at Norwich, and his body was hanged on the top of the castle on December 7, 1549.

Land and Freedom Pages    Wikipedia on the Diggers    Tree of Knowledge (Barcaldine, Australia)

Wikipedia on the Levellers    Modern Diggers    More    More    And more    Yet more

1588 The Spanish Armada set sail for England from Corunna.

1605 French cartographer Samuel de Champlain arrived at Cape Cod, America.

1618 Pluto reached, according to sophisticated mathematical calculations, its second most recent aphelion. The next one occurred in 1866, and the following one will occur in 2113.

1629 Sir David Kirke took Quebec from the French.

1662 A tornado blew through Lancashire and Cheshire, England. A lot of property damage was incurred but no people were killed.

1712 The Riot Act took effect in the Great Britain.

1738 North America: French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reached the western shore of Lake Michigan.

1801 A 560kg (1,235-pound) cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown, Jr. The huge ball of cheese was later loaded on a horse-driven wagon and presented to President Thomas Jefferson at the White House.

Source: The Daily Bleed

1808 Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte entered Madrid. Whether Madrid was satisfied by this is not known.

1810 Colombia declared independence from Spain.

1833 An Anti-Mormon mob destroyed the press for the Book of Commandments, now among the most valuable 19th-Century books.

1837 Euston, the first London railway station, was opened.

1861 Australia: The Sydney Morning Herald reported anti-Chinese riots by gold miners at Lambing Flat, New South Wales.

1864 American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attacked Union troops under General William T Sherman.

1871 British Columbia joined the confederation of Canada as the sixth Canadian province.

1874 USA: General George Armstrong Custer and the first official exploring expedition entered the Black Hills with 110 wagons and 1,000 men, in direct violation of treaty of 1868 that barred whites from sacred hills.   Source: The Daily Bleed

1877 Rioting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers was suppressed by the state militia, resulting in nine deaths.

1881 US Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull led the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.

1917 The Corfu Declaration that enabled the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia

1917 IWW Class War Picnic in Seattle, Washington, USA.

1940 Billboard magazine published its first 'Music Popularity Chart'.

1940 The first British 'Hit Parade' was published. Tommy Dorsey's 'I'll Never Smile Again' was Number 1.

1944 Adolf Hitler survived the July 20 Plot an assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg. A bomb exploded at Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg, but the Führer escaped injury, which he took as a sign of Providential support for his program.

1948 Cold War: President Harry S Truman issued the first peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.

1951 King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.

1954 Hostilities between North and South Vietnam ceased under the Geneva Agreement.

1960 Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first female head of government.

1964 Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attacked the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of whom were children).

1968 British Actress Jane Asher broke off her engagement with Paul McCartney on BBC radio, before telling the Beatle personally.  

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

Apollo 11

 

1969 (USA time): Apollo ProgramApollo 11 landed on the Moon and Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin became the first humans to walk on its surface. Because it happened on July 21 in UT (Universal Time), we spread this over two days and there will be more tomorrow.

"The Eagle has landed."

 

1973 Kung fu movie superstar Bruce Lee was found dead in a bathroom in Hong Kong, possibly due to an allergic reaction to aspirin.

1974 War of July 1974: Forces from Turkey invaded Cyprus.

1976 Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully landed on Mars and broadcast pictures back to Earth.

1979 While still presenting a non-Marxist-Leninist façade, the Sandinistas established one-party rule in Nicaragua.

1982 The Provisional IRA detonated two bombs in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding 47 people, and leading to the deaths of 7 horses.

1984 "On July 20 in the Baku mountains of Azerbaijan, a UFO was seen to crash into the mountains."   Source

1985 The main ship wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha (which sank in 1622) was found about 70 km (c. 40 miles) off the coast of Key West, Florida, USA, by treasure hunters who soon began to raise $400 million in coins and silver.

1985 "A UPI report in 1985 concerned a cat called Muddy Water White, so called because of his black coat sprinkled with white. He had jumped out of a van being driven by his owner, Barbara Paule, in Dayton, Ohio on 23/24 June 1982. On 24 June 1985 he returned to his home in Dauphin, Pennsylvania, 450 miles from Dayton. 'He came in and just flopped down like he was home,' said Ms Paule. She fed him for three days before realising he was Muddy Water White. A vet who examined him as kitten was confident it was the same cat, with its very leathery lower lip."   Source

1992 Václav Havel resigned as president of Czechoslovakia.

1993 Bill Clinton friend and confidant Vince Foster committed suicide during the height of the Whitewater investigation.

Clinton's lamentable record as President  

1997 US: The launch of the USS Seawolf, flagship for a new series of attack submarines of the same name, was accompanied by protests and 25 arrests.

1999 Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 was raised from the Atlantic Ocean.

2000 The leaders of Salt Lake City's bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics were indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering.

2000 In Zimbabwe, Parliament opened its new session and seats opposition members for the first time in a decade.

2000 Terrorist Carlos the Jackal sued France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.

2000 American President Bill Clinton arrived on Okinawa, Japan, for the G8 summit and pledged to the islanders that the United States would reduce the impact American military bases have on their lives.

2000 Presumed death of Greg Hill (Gregory Hill, Malaclypse the Younger, Mal-2; b. 1941), who wrote the Principia Discordia with Kerry Thornley (aka Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst). According to a Usenet post, Hill died of cancer on July 20, 2000 in the San Francisco Bay area.

Today in the Discordian Calendar

2001 Vanessa Legget was found in contempt by a USA Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.

2001 Italy: Black Block anarchist demo, part of the numerous attempts to breach the red zone in at the G8 Summit in Genoa.

2001 The London Stock Exchange goes public.

2002 Italy: The 27th Annual G8 summit opened in Genoa. An Italian protester in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.

2002 The United States Senate confirmed Roger L Gregory as the first black to sit on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

2002 South America: A fire in a discotheque in Lima, Peru killed more than twenty-five.

2003 Liberia: Fighting between militias controlled by the country's president, Charles Taylor, and rebels continued in Monrovia.

2003 Illegal invasion of Iraq: Richard Sambrook, the Director of BBC News, revealed that David Kelly was the source of claims that Downing Street had "sexed up" the 'Dodgy Dossier'.

2003 France: Sixteen people were injured after two bombs explodes outside a tax office in Nice.

2005 Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 received its Royal Assent.

2005 In China's Shaanxi province, a coal mine explosion killed two dozen.

2005 In Yemen, several people died during demonstrations against oil price increases.

2006 World Jump Day – the first global flash mob event.

 

Tomorrow: What did Neil Armstrong really say?

 

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Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research.
I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude.
© My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.

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