Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

Dude, Where's My Country?

The Elements of Ritual

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

The Rule of Four

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Fasti
Roman calendar lore, by Ovid

Holiday Symbols

The Scarlet Letter

Medieval Celebrations

Women's Activism and Globalization

The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites

Stand and Deliver
Hip Hop activism

The Clash of Civilizations

Imperial Crusades

The Medieval Cookbook

The Spiritual Traveler

Peace Under Fire

Environmental Activism

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

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman


A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman

Celtic Folklore Cooking

Lewis Carroll

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

Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism
Murray Bookchin

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

Bullion's Day

(Feast day of the Translation of St Martin of Bullion)

His saint's day (Martinmas)  is November 11, but today is a feast day, still known in the Anglican Church) commemorating the day this saint's bones were relocated. An old proverb says that if the deer rise dry and lie down dry today, it was a sign of a good gose-harvest, 'gose' being a name for the latter end of summer. In Europe it was generally believed that rain on this day foretold wet weather for the next twenty days.

This saint is usually shown in art as a young mounted soldier. Once, while on horseback in Amiens in Gaul (modern France), he encountered a naked beggar and impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it. That night, Martin saw in a vision Jesus wrapped in the half of the cloak that he had given away. Jesus said to him, "Martin, yet a catechumen, has covered me with this garment". At this point, Martin decided he was ready for baptism and holy orders. He became bishop of Tours, France in 371. His supposed coat became one of Christendom's most sacred relics, held by the Merovingian kings of the Franks.

Once, while St Martin was at prayer in his cell, the devil came in without knocking, holding in his hand a horn covered with blood. "I've just killed one of your people," Satan told the saint – indeed, the monastery's carrier had just been gored by a bull. At this, Martin resolved to fight the surrounding devils by destroying all the pagan temples in the district. He was soon seeing devils everywhere, and this enabled him to keep out of the way of his own devil. This is probably a piece of folklore that derives from the suppression in Europe of the pagan cult of Cernunnos, the Horned God.

See also the Martinmas page in the Scriptorium

Feast day of St Albert Quadrelli

Feast day of St Andrew of Crete

Feast day of St Aurelian of Lyons

Feast day of St Bertha, widow, abbess of Blangy

(Formerly) Feast day of St Bolcan (Olcan of Kilmayle), Bishop of Derban, Northern Ireland; disciple of St Patrick (now celebrated on February 20)

Feast day of St Catherine Jarrige

Feast day of St Edward Fulthrop

Feast day of St Elizabeth of Portugal

Feast day of St Finbar of Wexford (of Crimlen)

Feast day of St Haggai

Feast day of St Hatto

Feast day of St Henry Abbot

Feast day of St Henry of Albano

Feast day of St Hosea

Feast day of St Innocent

Feast day of St John Carey

Feast day of St John Cornelius

Feast day of St Joseph Kowalski

Feast day of St Jucundian

Feast day of St Namphanion the Archmartyr

Feast day of St Odo the Good, Archbishop of Canterbury

Feast day of St Patrick Salmon

Feast day of St Peter of Luxembourg

Feast day of St Pier Giorgio Frassati

Feast day of St Sebastia

Feast day of St Sisoes, or Sisoy, anchoret in Egypt

Feast day of St Theodore of Cyrene

Feast day of St Thomas Bosgrave

Feast day of St Thomas Warcop

Feast day of St Ulric (Udalric; Uodalric; Odalrici; Ulrich of Augsburg)
(Copper day lily [Tawny day lily], Hemerocallis fulva, is today's plant, dedicated to St Ulric.)
  St Ulrich (890 - 973) was Bishop of Augsburg and a leader of the German church. He was the first saint to be canonized. Ulric was the son of a German count. When Ulrich was too old and weak to say Mass, angels are said to have come to him to assist him. He died at Augsburg, July 4, 973; after his death his ashes were laid in the form of a cross on a floor. It was an old custom for people to bring offerings of fish in Ulric's memory to churches on this day. So maybe it's a good day for a fish dinner.

More

Feast day of St William Andleby

Feast day of St William of Hirsau

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

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

Hakata Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15)

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July)

Gahan Ceremonial
Around this time the Mescalero Apache Native Americans honour the mountain spirits. It is also the time of the sun dance of the Southern Utes, performed for the sun god.

American Independence Day … Denmark
American Independence Day has been celebrated officially in Denmark since 1909. Especially in Rebild National Park in the north of Jutland, Danish-Americans in their thousands celebrate Danish-American relations. In previous years, speakers at Rebild have included members of the Danish royal family and former USA presidents George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

Alaska's F-Day, or Flag Day
Today is the anniversary of July 4, 1959, when Alaska became a US state and the 49^th star was added to the American flag.

F-Day, or Flag Day, Hawaii
July 4, 1960, the 50^th star, representing the new state of Hawaii, became part of the American flag.

Caricom Day, Barbados, Guyana and St Vincent
Today's public holiday commemorates the establishment of the Caribbean Community, by which ten member states formed an economic and political community.

Filipino-American Friendship Day
Today is a public holiday in the Philippines in which American institutions are honoured.

Garibaldi Day, Italy
The great military genius and adventurer, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is commemorated today. He was born on this day in 1807.

Tom Sawyer Fence-painting Day, Hannibal, Missouri, USA
In Mark Twain's famous writings, Tom Sawyer enticed his friends to paint a fence for him by pretending he was enjoying the laborious task. Today in the home town of this fictional character, people re-enact the event with a fence-painting competition.

Trinidadian Carnival, Washington, DC, USA
"Carnival is a major festival on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago ... There, as is customary worldwide, Carnival is celebrated immediately prior to Easter, climaxing on Mardi Gras, the day before the Lenten fast begins. Here this Carnival tradition, transplanted from Trinidad to Montreal to Washington, DC, is celebrated on the 4th of July. This is part of a larger process in which Caribbean festivals migrate into metropolitan areas."   Source  

How you can celebrate NAIDOC Week

Here's some examples on how your school or office can celebrate:

Have a flag raising ceremony

Display Indigenous Posters around your class room.

Learn how to play an Indigenous Traditional Game

Invite local Indigenous elders to speak at your school.

Listen to Indigenous music.

Study a famous Indigenous Australian.

Find out about the Traditional people from your area.

Study Aboriginal Arts and Crafts.

Read a dreamtime story.

Start your own Indigenous Hall of Fame featuring any local role models and achievers.

Make your own Aboriginal Art

Visit Indigenous websites on the Internet

Send an electronic NAIDOC e-postcard to a friend

Make your own Indigenous Trivia Quiz – and test your friends

Visit local Indigenous sites of significance or interest.

Learn the meanings of local or national Aboriginal Place names.

Source

In astronomy, July 4 is the approximate date of Earth's aphelion

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

1546 Murat III (d. 1595), Ottoman Emperor

1799 Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte (d. 1859), future king Oscar I of Sweden-Norway

1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne (d. 1864), American novelist (The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables), who was friends with the Transcendentals in Concord – such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Bronson Alcott. He had a warm friendship with Herman Melville, who dedicated Moby-Dick to him.

1807 Giuseppe Garibaldi (d. June 2, 1882), Italian patriot, brilliant guerrilla fighter and Italy's most famous soldier of the Risorgimento. He was called the 'Hero of Two Worlds' in tribute to his military adventures in both South America and Europe.

A fisherman's son, the remarkable military genius Garibaldi was born in Nice and grew up to be a sea captain. He became involved in radical politics and ended up in exile in South America, under sentence of death in Italy.

After military adventures in South America he returned to lead the Italian struggle for independence from Austria. He later drove out French forces from Sicily and Naples. Garibaldi is remembered as a great Italian patriot.

Garibaldi and Australia

Less well known, perhaps, is the fact that Garibaldi came to Australia. In December, 1852, he landed on the virtually deserted Three Hummock Island, in Bass Strait off the north-west tip of Australia's southernmost state, the island of Tasmania. Of Three Hummock he later wrote:

O desert island of the Hunter Group – how many times have you pleasantly excited my imagination. When tired of this civilised society, so full of tyrants and gendarmes, I have often transported myself with thoughts into your gracious bosom where landing for the first time, I was received by a flock of very beautiful partridges and where among ancient plants with tall trunks the best limpid and poetic rivulet was murmuring at which we quenched our thirst with great pleasure.

He never forgot the wild beauty of that isolated place, and his memories of his happy sojourn there led to his purchase of his eventual retreat on the island of Caprera, off the coast of Sardinia:

I returned in thought to that pleasant bay ...

The European discoverers of Three Hummock Island were George Bass and Matthew Flinders, who found and named the island in 1798.

Three Hummock and Caprera were just two of the islands in the famous leader's life: for some time he worked in a candle factory on Staten Island, at the entrance of New York Harbor.  

1826 Stephen Foster (d. 1864), American songwriter ('Oh! Susanna'; 'Camptown Races'; 'Old Folks at Home'; 'Beautiful Dreamer')

1845 Thomas Barnardo, Irish founder of homes for underprivileged children

1847 James Anthony Bailey, co-founder with Phineas Taylor Barnum of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus

1872 Calvin Coolidge, 30^th president of the United States

1878 George M Cohan (some sources say July 3; d. November 5, 1942), American songwriter, actor, singer, and dancer

Some events from Cohan's life

1933 Cohan starred in Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!, a hit.

1937 Cohan played FD Roosevelt in I'd Rather Be Right, a Rodgers and Hart hit show.

1940 Cohan wrote the Broadway play, The Return of the Vagabond. It had a seven-performance run and closed on May 18, the day after it commenced. Cohan told a friend "They don't want me no more".

1942 Hollywood filmed Yankee Doodle Dandy, a biography (so-to-speak) of his life. James Cagney won an Academy Award for his representation of Cohan.

1883 Rube Goldberg (d. 1970), American cartoonist who created weird contraptions much like those of British illustrator W Heath Robinson

"Comics have given many now-familiar words and phrases to the English language – 'Dagwood sandwich' from Blondie, 'goon' and 'jeep' from Popeye, 'yellow journalism' from The Yellow Kid, to cite but a few. But only one cartoonist has enriched our linguistic heritage by the donation of his own name. Even people who have never seen the work of Rube Goldberg know what a 'Rube Goldberg device' is. 

"Nor is that the only phrase that contains his name. Not as many people know about The National Cartoonists' Society's Reuben Award. But of those who do, a great majority know who it was named after, and who designed the zany-looking statuette – the NCS's first president, Reuben Lucius Goldberg."    Source

The Official Rube Goldberg Web Site   Official Gallery   Hasbro Games Mouse Trap

Amazing Honda Commercial    Also here    Patently absurd inventions    More

1885 Louis B Mayer, American founder of MGM

1898 Gertrude Lawrence (born Alexandra Lawrence-Klasen), British actress

1899 Benjamin Péret, early Parisian Dadaist and a founder of Surrealism. He was the most admired writer within the group and perhaps the best poet. Peret wrote a novel, Death to the Pigs and to the Field of Glory (1923), short fiction, and critical essays. A Communist, he was deported from Brazil for revolutionary activity.

1900 Louis Armstrong ('Satchmo'), celebrated his birthday on July 4, but was born on August 4

From Wikipedia: Armstrong said he was not sure exactly when he was born, but celebrated his birthday on July 4. He usually gave the year as 1900 when speaking in public (although he used 1901 on his Social Security and other papers filed with the government). Using Roman Catholic Church documents from when his grandmother took him to be baptized, New Orleans music researcher Tad Jones established Armstong's actual date of birth as August 4, 1901. With various other collaborative evidence, this date is now accepted by Armstrong scholars.

1901 Johannes Schmidt, German linguist

1902 George Murphy (d. 1992), dancer, actor, Senator from California

1902 Meyer Lansky (d. 1983), American mobster

1910 Gloria Stuart, actress

1911 Mitch Miller, American band leader and television personality, famous for his Sing Along with Mitch records and TV shows of the 1950s and '60s

1916 Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose), World War II propaganda broadcaster for Japan

1917 Manolete (Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez; d. 1947), bullfighter

1918 Ann Landers (d. 2002), American newspaper 'agony aunt'

1918 Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers

1921 Tibor Varga, violinist, conductor and pedagogue

1924 Eva Marie Saint, actress: North by Northwest, On the Waterfront

1927 Gina Lollobrigida, Italian-born actress (American soap opera Falcon Crest)

1927 [Marvin] Neil Simon, American playwright (The Odd Couple; The Goodbye Girl)

1931 Stephen Boyd (born William Millar), American actor

1938 Bill Withers, singer/songwriter

1943 Geraldo Rivera, American reporter, talk show host

1944 Bryan Davies, British-born 1960s Australian pop star (song Dream Girl)

1946 Ron Kovic, author: Born on the Fourth of July

1951 Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, American politician, daughter of Robert F Kennedy

Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section

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Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Pets Birthdays Religion Fourth Of July

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

July

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

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965 Death of Pope Benedict V.

993 Saint Ulrich of Augsburg was canonised.

1054 A supernova was observed by the Chinese and Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remained bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants formed the Crab Nebula.

1187 Saladin defeated Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, at the Battle of Hattin. Raynald of Chatillon was executed.

1627 New World: Virginia Colony ordered a 'scorched earth' policy against Tanx Phwhatan, Weanocs, Appomattocx, Chicahominies, Warrisquojacke, Nansemonds and Chesapeakes.

1631 The first employment agency opened in Paris. Both employer and employee were charged (three sous) for registration.

1636 New World: The City of Providence, Rhode Island formed.

1653 The 'Barebones Parliament' of England began: The Nominated Assembly, or Little Parliament, approved by Oliver Cromwell, so named because one of its members was a Baptist tract-writer and wealthy leather merchant of London, Praise-God Barebon (c. 1596 - 1679), whose nickname was 'Barebones'. He does not seem to have contributed much to the assembly other than a derisive nickname, and he appears to have taken no part in the debates.

The brainchild of Major-General Thomas Harrison, the Nominated Assembly was the most radical constitutional experiment of the Commonwealth and gained its membership from separatist congregations such as Baptist or Fifth Monarchist churches. The Assembly's collapse ushered in the Protectorate of Cromwell under the Army's Instrument of Government.

1712 Nine 'white people' were killed in a New York slave rebellion.

1776 American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress approved a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence was written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, under the instructions of a five-man committee. Signing actually began on August 2.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed  the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His  fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Author unknown, sent by Almaniac Bill Donoghue, with thanx

Was the USA founded on Christianity?

 

1802 At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opened.

1803 The Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people.

1817 At Rome, New York, construction began on the Erie Canal, New York State. It was opened on October 26, 1825.

1821 Death of Richard Cosway (b. 1742), English artist.

1826 Death of John Adams, second president of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. In a remarkable coincidence, both of these framers of the United States Declaration of Independence died on the 50^th anniversary of its adoption.

The last words of America's second president John Adams were "Thomas Jefferson survives", but Adams did not know that on that very morning Jefferson had died.

1826 Declaration of Mental Independence, New Harmony Colony, USA.

1829 The first horse-drawn buses began service in London (from Paddington to the Bank of England). The service was begun by a George Shillibeer, and the vehicles were known as Shillibeers, a name which was used for some time afterwards as far away as New York.

1831 Death of James Monroe, fifth president of the United States.

1838 USA: The Iowa Territory was organized.

1837 UK: Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opened between Birmingham and Liverpool.

1840 The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departed from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.

1845 Near Concord, Massachusetts, USA, Henry David Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (see Walden).

"Climate change is devastating the flowers of Walden Pond, picking off those species that cannot react to rising temperatures.

"Comparing data meticulously gathered by Henry David Thoreau more than a century and a half ago with more recent observations, Harvard biologists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that more than a quarter of Walden's plant species have already been lost. And an additional 36 percent are in imminent danger, including lilacs, roses and buttercups."   Source   (Related: Phenology in the Book of Days)

1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto.

1853 Suffragist Amelia Bloomer shocked her Connecticut, USA, audience, by wearing loose trousers (later named bloomers) as a form of protest at the requirements of women's dress.

A world chronology of women's suffrage    US chronology    Louisa Lawson, Australian suffragette

1855 In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, was published at the poet's own expense. Sadly, the book did not sell. Leaves of Grass, now a classic of the Western canon, is notable for its frank delight in and praise of the senses, during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral.

1859 Second Italian War of Independence: The Battle of Magenta.

1863 American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg – Ulysses S Grant and the Union army captured the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi after the town surrendered. The siege lasted 47 days.

1862 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and his friend Duckworth rowed ten-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters up the river at Oxford, telling them the story on the "golden afternoon" that became Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published.

1879 The Taughannock Giant

"Unearthed on July 4, 1879 on the shores of Lake Cayuga in Ithaca. It was pronounced authentic by scientists and physicians, though it turned out to be the work of Ira Dean who had spent months carving it in his home, with the simple desire of fooling someone."   Source

1881 In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opened.

1891 Death of Hannibal Hamlin, US Vice President under Abraham Lincoln.

1892 James Keir Hardie became the first socialist in the British House of Commons.

Early progressives in the Book of Days

1894 The short-lived Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed by Sanford B Dole.

 

1902 End of the Philippine War of Independence (Philippine-American War), with more than 4,200 US soldiers, 20,000 Filipino soldiers, and 200,000 Filipino civilians dead. Some historians place the civilian death toll at 500,000 or higher.

Some Americans, notably Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie. strongly objected to the annexation of the Philippines. Twain wrote 'Incident in the Philippines' (published posthumously in 1924) in response to the Moro Crater Massacre.

We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag. And so, by the Providences of God – and the phrase is the government's, not mine – we are a World Power.
Mark Twain

Source

"In Dover, New Hampshire, and across the United States, stand more than 50 statues of 'The Hiker.' He represents the Spanish-American War much as 'the doughboy' represents World War I. Almost every monument also includes this Maltese Cross in a circle, the symbol of the war. But why do these monuments say 'Spanish-American War Veterans, 1898-1902,' when the Spanish-American War lasted only about three months? The answer is, because these monuments are not really about the Spanish-American War, at least not primarily. They commemorate our war against the Philippines, which began in 1899, when we attacked our ally the Filipinos in the suburbs of Manilla. Teddy Roosevelt declared that war over on July 4, 1902, although army historians note that guerilla warfare dragged on for several more years. The Dover hiker even claims we fought 'to succor the weak and oppressed against foreign tyranny and to give Cuba and the Philippines a place among the free peoples of the earth.' Actually, the Spanish-American War did begin with some anti-imperialist sentiment, but in the Philippine-American War we were the 'foreign tyranny.' That's why our monuments to it bear the name of a much nicer war."   Source

 

Soldier's Letters: Materials for the History of a War of Criminal Aggression

Lies My Teacher Told Me    Links

See also Moro Crater Massacre, March 8, 1906  in the Book of Days

See also the Battle of Bud Bagsak, June 15, 1913 in the Book of Days

 

1902 Death of Swami Vivekananda.

1904 Construction began on the 40-mile long Panama Canal, which was opened on August 15, 1914.

1910 African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocked out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States.

1918 Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascended the throne.

1918 Bolsheviks killed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date)  Julian day calculator (pop-up) .

1925 The world's first parliamentary broadcast was made, by Sydney radio station 2FC.

1928 'Smiling Jean' Lussier survived the trip over Niagara Falls in a large rubber ball.

Daredevil Chronological Lists

1930 Australian pioneer aviator Charles Kingsford-Smith completed the first London to New York flight.

1941 A mass murder of Polish scientists and writers was committed by Nazi Germans in the captured Polish city of Lvov.

1943 Władysław Sikorski (Wladyslaw Sikorski), Polish soldier and Prime Minister, was killed in an air crash over Gibraltar.

1946 After more than 400 years a subjugated country, the Philippines achieved full independence. The people were given independence by the USA, with the first president of the republic being Manuel Roxas.

1950 The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe

1959 With the admission of Alaska as the 49^th US state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1960, on the same day, Hawaii's star was added, making a 50-star flag

1960 The fifty-star flag was adopted as the official flag of the United States, following the admission of Hawaii and Alaska as new States.

1966 USA: President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.

1967 The British House of Lords voted to decriminalise homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1968 Alec Rose landed at Portsmouth after sailing single-handed around the world in Lively Lady.

1970 Tonga gained its independence from British; formerly it had protectorate status.

1973 David Bowie "retired" from concert life.

1973 Ziggy the Elephant was unchained for the first time in 30 years, at Brookfield, Illinois, USA, zoo.

1974 "During their lunchbreak on this day in 1974, children and teacher in the Mochdre Primary School, near Newton in Mid Wales, witnessed a pile of hay in a nearby filed rise in the air 'as high as the highest little white cloud', for about seven minutes before breaking up and falling slowly into the surrounding fields. A similar occurrence was reported on the farm of Mr Summerfield ad Llidiart, Moelygarth, near Welshpool, on the same day. Three days later there was a third incident of this kind when the hay of smallholder Jack Thomas of Belan was lifted up and scattered."  Source

1975 Australia: Kings Cross, Sydney, newspaper proprietor Juanita Neilsen, who had been campaigning against urban developers, entered a nightclub and was never seen again. Her killers have never been found, and many suspicions have arisen about the validity of the police enquiry.

1976 Israeli commandos raided Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing 103 hostages, most of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. Four commandos, seven hijackers and twenty Ugandan soldiers were killed.

1978 Russia: A Joan Baez concert in Leningrad with Santana and The Beach Boys was abruptly cancelled without explanation by Soviet officials. Baez headed to Moscow, met dissidents, including Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, and brought messages and gifts from friends and relatives in the USA.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1979 After 14 years in prison, Algerian statesman Ben Bella was released.

1981 In opposition to Apartheid, sixty thousand New Zealanders demonstrated against the New Zealand Rugby Union's invitation to play South Africa.

1982 Two hundred Israeli army reservists marched against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

1987 In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie ('the Butcher of Lyon') was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1991 Brilliant Australian heart surgeon Victor Chang (b. 1936) was shot dead with a .32-calibre pistol in Mosman, Sydney. The incident was allegedly related to issues surrounding transplant waiting lists.

1997 NASA's Pathfinder space probe landed on the surface of Mars.

1998 USA: Lin 'Spit' Newborn and Daniel Shersty were murdered by neonazis. Both men's bodies were found on July 6 in the desert outside Las Vegas, Nevada.

2002 Three people were shot at the El Al check-in booth at Los Angeles International Airport. The gunperson was shot and killed by a security officer.

2004 The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.

2005 The Deep Impact (space mission) collider hit the comet Tempel 1.

 

Tomorrow: The Tynwald, Viking parliament still functioning

 

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Yellow Pages News, current affairs	Book of Days Birthdays, folklore, history
Sandy Beach Almanac Daily Aussie sand	Daily Planet News 600+ headlines, 200+ sources

 

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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