Heigh ho! sing heigh ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
William Shakespeare; from As You Like It

For there was a great hole like a doorway in the side of the mound, and in that doorway the daughters of Conaran sat spinning. They had three crooked sticks of holly set up before the cave, and they were reeling yarn off these. But it was enchantment they were weaving.
James Stephens; Irish Fairy Tales, 1920; 'The Enchanted Cave of Cesh Corran'. Today begins the Celtic tree month of the holly.

In Northumberland smooth holly leaves, gathered late on a Friday, are collected in a three-cornered handkerchief and carried home. Then nine of the leaves are tied into a handkerchief with nine knots, and placed under the would-be diviner's pillow, and, as a result, interesting revelations from dreamland are confidently anticipated. In another magical ceremony, a maiden before retiring sets three pails of water on the floor of her bedroom, and pins three holly leaves on her left breast. She will then, conformably to the popular belief, be awakened from her first nap by three loud yells, followed by three horse-laughs, whereupon the form of her future husband will be revealed to her.
  The supposed efficacy of these rites doubtless depends chiefly upon the use of the magical holly, but the repetition of odd numbers is also characteristic of charms, incantations, and mystic procedures in all ages and throughout the world.
Robert Means Lawrence; The Magic of the Horse-Shoe, With Other Folk-Lore Notes, 1898, 'The Number Three'

Then in anger, Cuchulain left him and drove the sole of his foot against a holly-spit, so that it pierced through flesh and bone and skin. Thereat Cuchulain gave a strong tug and drew the spit out from its roots. And Cuchulain threw the holly-spit over his shoulder after Ferbaeth, and he would care as much that it reached him or that it reached him not. The spit struck Ferbaeth in the nape of the neck, so that it passed out through his mouth in front and fell to the ground, and thus Ferbaeth fell. 
  "Now that was a good throw, Cucuc!" cried Fiachu son of Ferfebè, who was on the mound between the two camps, for he considered it a good throw to kill that warrior with a spit of holly.
The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge), 'The Slaying Of Ferbaeth ("The Witless")'

"Then you must strike the rock with your holly staff. A cow will come forth. Put the halter on her and bring her home to your mother. It will comfort her for having lost Blackie."
  White-thorn carried out all the talking bird's instructions. With the magic shoes she walked on the sea to the first island. She went round it till she came to the rock with the sea-green reeds. With these she made a halter, as the bird had directed. Then with her holly staff she struck the rock. Instantly it opened and out of it came a cow just as the bird had said.
Elsie Masson; Folk Tales of Brittany, 1929, 'Little White-thorn and the Talking Bird'

No woman of the family could be married till her suitor had brought from the Donn Thir (brown or dark land) the Craov Cuilleann (holly-bough), the Luis Bui (marigold), and the crimson berries of the Uhar (yew).
Patrick Kennedy; Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 1891, 'An Braon Suan Or [a]'

"It is very hard," said the bird, "to kill her. There is no one in all Tir na n-Og who is able to take her life but her own husband. Inside a holly-tree in front of the castle is a wether, in the wether a duck, in the duck an egg. and in that egg is her heart and life. No man in Tir na n-Og can cut that holly-tree but her husband."
Jeremiah Curtin; Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland, 1890, 'The Three Daughters of King O'Hara'

"Take the head," said Misty, " and put it on top of the holly bush that's out here above us." Fin put the head on the holly hush, and the minute he put it there the head burnt the bush to the earth, and the earth to the clay.
Curtin, ibid; 'Fin MacCumhail The Seven Brothers and the King of France'

Holly is mi-duveléskro ruk ('God's tree'; cf. Cornish Aunt Mary's Tree); and Gypsies pitching their tent against a holly-bush are under divine protection.
Francis Hindes Groome; Gypsy Folk Tales, 1899, No 53, 'De Little Bull-calf'

Four and twenty horses were chosen, and Taliessin got four and twenty twigs of holly which he had burnt black, and he ordered the youth who was to ride Elphin's horse to let all the others set off before him, and bade him as he overtook each horse to strike him with a holly twig and throw it down.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic, 1898, Ch. II, 'Taliessin of the Radiant Brow'

My father left me three acres of land,
  Refrain: Sing ivy, sing ivy
My father left me three acres of land.
  Refrain: Sing holly, go whistle and ivy ...
'The Elfin Knight'

Beira's reign was now drawing to a close. She found herself unable to combat any longer against the power of the new life that was rising in every vein of the land. The weakness of extreme old age crept upon her, and she longed once again to drink of the waters of the Well of Youth. When, on a bright March morning, she beheld Angus riding over the hills on his white steed, scattering her fierce hag servants before him, she fled away in despair. Ere she went she threw her magic hammer beneath a holly tree, and that is the reason why no grass grows under the holly trees.
Donald Alexander Mackenzie; Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend, 1917, Ch. II, 'The Coming of Angus and Bride'

It is unlucky to name the fairies, here as elsewhere, except by such placating titles as "Good Neighbors" or "Men of Peace." Rowan, elm, and holly are a protection against them.
Ruth Edna Kelley; The Book of Hallowe'en, 1919, Ch. VIII, 'In Scotland and the Hebrides'

Some holly-trees bear only male flowers, which have four stamens producing a rather small quantity of pollen, and a rudimentary pistil; other holly-trees bear only female flowers; these have a full-sized pistil, and four stamens with shrivelled anthers, in which not a grain of pollen can be detected. Having found a female tree exactly sixty yards from a male tree, I put the stigmas of twenty flowers, taken from different branches, under the microscope, and on all, without exception, there were a few pollen grains, and on some a profusion. As the wind had set for several days from the female to the male tree, the pollen could not thus have been carried. The weather had been cold and boisterous, and therefore not favourable to bees, nevertheless every female flower which I examined had been effectually fertilised by the bees, which had flown from tree to tree in search of nectar.
Charles Darwin; Origin of Species, 6th ed., 1872, Ch. IV, 'Natural Selection; Or the Survival of the Fittest'

Then slackening speed awhile they went
Adown a ragged thorn-bushed bent
At whose feet grew a tangled wood
Of oak and holly nowise good ...
William Morris; 'In Arthur's House'

We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.
Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author, born on July 8, 1926

Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; On Death and Dying, 1969

It is difficult to accept death in this society because it is unfamiliar. In spite of the fact that it happens all the time, we never see it. 
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; Death: The Final Stage of Growth, 1975

Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

For years, I have been stalked by a bad reputation. Actually, I have been pursued by people who have regarded me as the Death and Dying Lady. They believe that having spent more than three decades in research into death and life after death qualifies me as an expert on the subject. I think they miss the point. The only incontrovertible fact of my work is the importance of life.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying (her autobiography), 1997

I always say that death can be one of the greatest experiences ever. If you live each day of your life right, then you have nothing to fear.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; ibid

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross quotes    And more

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Celtic tree month of Tinne (Holly) commences (Jul 8 - Aug 4)

Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Tinne.

Hollies are shrubs and trees of the genus Ilex. Many of them are highly decorative. Some have leaves with widely-spaced, spine-tipped leaves, while others have simple leaves.

"The Holly is male, and so symbolizes paternity and fatherhood. With the Ivy and the Mistletoe, the Holly has always been regarded as a potent life symbol, both for his year-long foliage and for his winter fruits. Concealed within the verses of the 'Song of Amergin', chanted by a chief Bard as the landed on the shores of Ireland, is the line 'I am a battle-waging spear' – the wood of the Holly was used in fashioning spear shafts. Magical Associations: Protection, prophecy, magic for animals, sex magic."

Source: Earth, Moon and Sky

 

The holly and the ivy

"Traditionally at Christmas time a man was dressed up and covered in Holly branches and leaves, and a woman was likewise dressed in Ivy (the female counterpart of Holly). Together they would be paraded through the streets hand in hand leading the old year into the new. This is symbolic of the fertile interaction of the goddess and god during natures decline and the darkest time of the year, from which the new light of the sun-god springs forth encouraging fresh growth and renewed vegetation during the coming new year. Today the Holly King has been stylized by the figure of Santa Claus."   Source

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Vitulatio, or Day of Joy, Roman Empire (Jul 8 - 9) Today's festival honoured Vitula, the personified goddess of joy, exaltation, mirth and victory. It is believed this day celebrates the victory of the Romans over the Etruscans, the calamities preceding the Populifugia ('Flight of the People', July 5).  Chanting and singing for joy and the fruits of the Earth were offered by the pontifices (priests) to the goddess, who might be a tutelary Goddess of life (vita). However, Macrobius refers also to the calf (vitula) which Virgil (October 15, 70 - 19 BCE) says were to be offered "pro frugibus" (for the fruits). Sacrifices were offered to Jupiter as well, and games were held. It is likely that the words 'violin' and 'fiddle' derive from the Latin vitularia, 'celebrate joyfully', which in turn derives from the name and character of the goddess. Prehistoric West and North German borrowed it as 'fithulon', and thus the German word 'fiedel', the Dutch 'vedel', and the English 'fiddle'. Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days   Festival of the Ludi Apollinares, ancient Rome (Jul 6 - 13) Nonae Caprotinae (the Caprotine Nones), Latium, Roman Empire (Jul 7 - 8) Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11) Feast day of St Abrahamite Monks Feast day of St Adrian III Feast day of St Adrian Fortescue Feast day of St Albert of Genoa Feast day of St Apollonius Feast day of St Aquila Feast day of St Arnold Feast day of St Auspicius Feast day of St Brogan Feast day of St Colman Feast day of St Edgar the Peaceful Otherwise known as King Edgar of England, he died on July 8, 975 (see below). Edgar supported his friend St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, St Oswald of York, and St Ethelwold of Winchester in founding abbeys, and enacted penalties for non-payment of tithes and Peter's pence. Edgar was father of Saint (King) Edward the Martyr. Source Feast day of St Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (Evening primrose, Oenothera biennis, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) Feast day of St Eugene III Feast day of St Grimbald, Abbot of New Minstre Saint Grimbald was a Benedictine abbot also called Grimwald, invited to England by King Alfred the Great in 885. Grimbald arrived in England and declined the see of Canterbury, preferring to remain a monk. He became the abbot of New Minster Abbey at Winchester appointed by King Edward the Elder. Grimbald is credited with restoring learning to England. Feast day of St Jeanne-Marie Kerguin Feast day of Ss Killian (Kilian), Solman and Totnan (Totnam) Feast day of St Landrada Feast day of St Mancius Araki Feast day of St Maria Chaira Feast day of St Marie Adolphine Dierks Feast day of St Marie Amandine Feast day of St Marie de Saint Just Feast day of St Martyrs of Shanxi Feast day of St Morwenna Feast day of St Peter the Hermit Feast day of St Priscilla Feast day of St Procopius, martyr Feast day of St Raymond of Toulouse   Feast day of St Sunniva Sometimes observed as the continuation of the Caprotine Nones (Jul 7 - 8), this is also the feast of St Sunniva, the medieval Christianised version of the Norse solar maiden, Sunna, or Frau Sonne, a Scandinavian sun goddess, also known as Sol. From Wikipedia: In Norse mythology, Sol was the goddess of the sun, a daughter of Mundilfari and Glaur and the wife of Glen. Every day, she rode through the sky on her chariot, pulled by two horses named Alsvid and Arvak. She was chased during the day by Skoll, a wolf that wanted to devour her. Solar eclipses signified that Skoll had almost caught up to her. It is fated that Skoll will eventually catch Sol and eat her, though she would then be replaced by her daughter.   Feast day of Blessed Theobald, Abbot of Vaux de Cernay Feast day of St Withburge (Withburga), virgin, of Norfolk, England Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Hakata Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15) Running of the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain (Jul 6 - 14) Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July) Fiesta at village of Lefkimi, Corfu, Greece NAIDOC Week, Australia (c. Jul 4 - 11)   Lobster Carnival, Pictou, Nova Scotia (Jul 8 - 11) (2004) This festival, which commenced in 1934, marks the end of Pictou's fishing season and harvest, and is celebrated with traditional Scottish piping, dancing and feasting. The Lobster Carnival is normally held each year on the first full weekend in July after Canada Day. "This four-day festival running since 1934, honours lobster fishermen. Includes main stage fishermen, beer garden entertainment, daily contests (boat races, lobster trap hauling, etc.), parades (children & mardi gras concert), pipe band, buskers, beer garden, yacht races, 10 k road race, lobster dinners, food concessions, children's games, ship tours, pageant, dancers, midway and much more."   Source "In the beginning, 'the Carnival of the Fisher Folk' was a daylong event with games and entertainment, a celebration to mark the end of the lobster season.  Family and friends would gather to watch the fishermen march through Pictou in the annual parade and then race their boats on the harbour competing for "the fastest lobster boat' trophy."   Source   Annual Soapy Smith wake, held each year in Skagway, Alaska in the Gold Rush Cemetery and in Hollywood, California at the Magic Castle       On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1593 Artemisia Gentileschi (d. 1651), painter 1621 Jean de la Fontaine (d. April 13, 1695), the most famous French fabulist and probably the most widely read French poet of the 17th Century 1819 Francis Leopold McClintock, naval officer and explorer 1836 Joseph Chamberlain (d. 1914), British politician, advocate of free education 1838 Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (d. 1917), aviator; creator of the dirigible that bears his name 1839 John D Rockefeller (d. 1937), capitalist, founder of Standard Oil 1851 Sir Arthur Evans (d. 1941), British archaeologist who excavated Knossos in Crete 1867 Käthe Kollwitz (d. 1945), painter and graphic artist   1882 Percy Grainger (d. February 20, 1961), Australian-born American pianist, composer and champion of the saxophone. He is also remembered for his sexual peccadillos. He was born in Brighton, Victoria, Australia. From 1901 to 1914 Grainger lived in London where he befriended and was influenced by Edvard Grieg. He moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. His most enduring compositions are folk music settings for piano written during this time, including 'Country Gardens'. In collaboration with Burnett Cross, Grainger invented the 'Free Music Machine', an ancestor of the electric synthesizer. Percy Grainger died in New York City and was buried in Adelaide, Australia. "A major influence was folk song, of which he collected over 500 examples to form the basis of his British Folk Music Settings including Country Gardens, Molly on the Shore and Shepherd's Hey!  So popular have many of these pieces become that his brilliantly original way with the tunes has often been overlooked …"  Source Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson   1885 Ernst Bloch (d. 1977), philosopher 1908 Louis Jordan (d. 1975), singer, saxophonist ('Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby'), actor (Fuzzy Wuzzy; Five Guys Named Moe) 1908 Nelson A Rockefeller, American oil heir, United States vice president during Gerald Ford's presidency; former Governor of New York 1914 Billy Eckstine (born William Clarence Eckstein), American bebop singer ('That Old Black Magic') 1918 Craig Stevens (d. 2000), actor 1919 Walter Scheel, politician 1924 Peter Hamilton (d. October 29, 2008), Australian architect, environmentalist and progressive political activist. Having a keen interest in low-cost sustainable housing and cohesive social interaction, Hamilton was a key player in the creation of planning legislation allowing Multiple Occupancy in NSW. He was a founding member of the Bodhi Farm community near The Channon in northern New South Wales. Trained as an architect, in the 1960s Hamilton lived with Aboriginal people in Central Australia studying traditional aboriginal architecture. He made an extensive photographic study of the traditional wiltja (shelter), focusing on the construction and design in relation to desert conditions and social interaction. Peter Hamilton was a pioneer in Australian folk music recording. Together with Edgar Waters (deceased), he founded Wattle Records and Films in the 1950s and sparked an interest in traditional Australian bush music which continues today. In the late 1940s he organized the first Sydney University Film Festival which was so successful it led to the formation of the Sydney Film Festival.   1926 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (d. August 24, 2004), psychiatrist and author (On Death and Dying, 1969). Weighing barely two pounds at birth, Elisabeth Kübler was the first of triplets born to Ernst and Emma Villiger Kübler.  She developed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model. Kübler-Ross completed her degree in psychiatry at the University of Colorado in 1963 and also received more than 20 honorary doctorates. The March 29, 1999 issue of Time Magazine named her one of 'The Century's Greatest Minds' in a summary of the 100 greatest scientists and thinkers of the century. At her death she had recently finished drafting her final book, On Grief and Grieving, with long-time collaborator and friend, David Kessler. In recent years many of her theories have been called into question, and her late-life beliefs in channelled spirits led to much skepticism from many of her erstwhile supporters. "Disastrously, she then went much further. She began to fill her lectures with tales of her out-of-the body experiences, including travelling through space at the speed of light. She fell in with Jay Barham, a charlatan from Arkansas who practised "channelling", "spiritual cloning" and batty sorts of religio-sexual therapy. Four "spooks" from the spirit world called Salem, Ankh, Mario and Willie became her guides and mentors. Her husband, horrified by her antics, divorced her. By the 1980s her healing centres in Virginia and California were being shot at and burned down. Although the best parts of her work had taken hold—there are now more than 2,500 hospices in America—her reputation was in ruins."  Economist obituary "'Every moment of her life was devoted to dying patients and what they were going through,' noted long-time friend Mwalimu Imara, who had been close to her since the beginning of her research. 'Her prolonged illness following several strokes only made her even more determined to speak up for the rights of the terminally ill.' "Enter the spirit medium of Escondido—a guy she had invited to her workshops, who somehow facilitated intercourse between the grieving widows and the 'afterlife entities.' The scandal erupted when several of the widows came down with similar vaginal infections, and one turned on the light during a session with an 'afterlife entity' and discovered the opportunistic spirit medium himself, naked except for a turban. (He offered the completely plausible explanation that the afterlife entities had "cloned" him—and the turban, too, I guess—to help enable the afterlife entities to engage in the pleasures of the flesh.)  "I'm not making this up. It's just sort of conveniently been forgotten that the founder of the so called 'scientific' 'five stages' encouraged and at first defended these practices. ... "I just feel we who are about to die (well, sooner or later) deserve better than this treacly simulacrum of pseudo-science to guide us. Her Five Stages of dying is the Emperor's New Shroud."    'Dead Like Her: How Elisabeth Kubler-Ross went around the bend' Guardian obituary   1929 Bruce Gyngell, TV executive and the first face on Australian TV in 1956 1932 Barbara Loden, actress (Splendor in the Grass) 1933 Marty Feldman, British comedian and actor (Young Frankenstein) 1935 Steve Lawrence, entertainer, singer 1935 Vitali Sevastyanov, cosmonaut 1939 Paul Cronin, Australian actor 1945 Micheline Calmy-Rey, member of the Swiss Federal Council 1951 (Some sources give July 9) Anjelica Huston, actress (Prizzi's Honor; The Addams Family); daughter of director John Huston Director John Huston's daughter, Anjelica, was born in 1951 in Los Angeles. She appeared in one of her father's films, A Walk With Love and Death, at the age of 16. She surprised everybody – critics, audiences, movie-industry types with her sly performance in 1985's brilliant black comedy Prizzi's Honor (again, directed by her father), which won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Since then she's limned many fine characters in a string of meritorious movies with varying box-office success. She earned additional Academy Award nominations as Ron Silver's long-lost wife in Enemies, A Love Story (1989) and as John Cusack's amoral mom in The Grifters (1990). Huston was perfectly cast as the sinister but svelte Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values. Source: IMDB 1958 Kevin Bacon, actor (Apollo 13; Wild Things) 1961 Andy Fletcher, musician (Depeche Mode) 1970 Beck, rock and roll singer 1975 Kathleen Robertson, actress (Beverly Hills 90210; Scary Movie 2)   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 Ice Cream Sundae Day [ Jul 8 ] Birthdays July Flowers [ July ] Cute e-cards Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Graduation July 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 21 Monkey Day 22 Spoonerism Day 22 Cleveland Day 23 Vanilla Ice Cream Day 23 Private Eye Day 24 Cousins Day 24 Public Opinion Day 24 Coffee Day 24 Coffee Day 25 St James Day 26 Groovy Chicken Day 26 Aunt And Uncles' Day 26 Coffee Milkshake Day 26 Groovy Chicken Day 27 St Pantaleone's Day 28 Hamburger Day 29 Rain Day 30 Cheesecake Day 31 Jump For Jellybeans Day   ... 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   975 Death of Edgar of England ('St Edgar the Peaceful', see above; born c. 942), king of only Mercia and Northumbria from 957 until his brother's death in 959, then king of England from 959 till 975. Edgar was succeeded by King Edward the Martyr. 1099 First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mocked them. 1108 (Date uncertain, some sources give 1115; Albert of Aix records that he died in 1131) Death of Peter the Hermit, preacher of the First Crusade. Peter the Hermit was a man of low birth, priest of Amiens, in northern France. He went to Jerusalem and was moved by the ill treatment meted our there to the Christians by the Moslems, who ruled the 'Holy City'. Before 1096, Jesus Christ appeared to him in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and bade him preach the crusade and deliver Jerusalem from the infidels. Or, so it is said. The legend is without any basis in fact, though it appears in the pages of William of Tyre. At any rate, he proceeded to Rome, preaching on the way, on the back of a mule and wearing the traditional hair shirt of the prophets. Pope Urban II was impressed with Peter and endorsed a crusade to 'liberate' the 'Holy Land' (Palestine/Israel). Peter's band set out in March, 1096. Peter's garments were filthy, his bare feet had not been washed in years, and he partook of no meat or fruit, living almost entirely on wine and fish. Unfortunately, the masses who were enthused by this remarkable orator chose him to lead them in this first crusade, a task to which he was ill-fitted. Some sources say his troops numbered nearly 300,000 men, while others give a figure of less than one-tenth this number. Believing that they were on a mission for God and that God would provide for them on the road from Europe to Israel, the mainly uneducated followers of Peter scarcely took any food or money with them and they begged on the way. The Germans and others treated them with hospitality. By the time they reached Bulgaria, they were destitute and not well received by the locals, and they went about stealing and murdering to survive; the Bulgarians responded by attacking and slaughtering the crusaders. In Hungary, Peter had them slaughter thousands of locals for the prior murder of followers of Walter the Penniless by the Turks near Nicaea (October, 1096). In Constantinople, the poor crusaders went on a thieving spree, even stealing the lead from the roofs of churches. Christians massacre Jews "The German contingents who followed Peter, especially the one led by the Swabian Count Emich von Leiningen, became notorious for their cruelty. Emich first attacked the Jews of Spier, 12 of whom were saved through the intervention of the local bishop. The Bishop of Worms tried to protect that town's Jewry when Emich arrived in May 1096, but the Crusaders stormed into his palace and slaughtered 500 people who had taken shelter there and killed another 300 over the next two days. "At Mainz, Emich laid siege to the city and demanded ransom from the Jews to spare their lives. The ransom was paid, but Emich stormed the city anyway. The Jews sought refuge in the palace of the archbishop, a relative of Emich, but he was driven from the city. With their situation hopeless, the Jews chose quick death to the more agonizing doom they could expect at the hands of the Christians. Since suicide was prohibited under Jewish law, they first killed their elderly brethren and then each other. "About 1,000 Jews died in Mainz, but its chief rabbi and some 50 survivors sought asylum in Rudesheim, where the archbishop had retreated to his country villa. The archbishop agreed under condition that the Jews convert to Christianity--at which point the rabbi, crazed with rage, seized a knife and attacked him. In consequence, the last of Mainz's Jews were also slain. "Finally the Jews in the Rhineland were all murdered or bled dry, and large groups of Germans started out on the road previously traveled by Walter and Peter."   Source Peter assembled the remnants of his band and in May, 1097, joined the army of Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060 - 1100), near Nicomedia. The Catholic Encyclopedia records: "After this he had but an unimportant part. In Jan., 1098, at the siege of Antioch, he even attempted to desert the army, but was prevented by Tancred. In spite of this cowardice he was one of the envoys sent to Kerbûga. On his return to Europe he founded the monastery of Neufmoutier." Peter the Hermit joined a later crusade and was present when Jerusalem was captured, preaching from the Mount of Olives, and he was hailed as a true prophet. He was further popularised in the Middle Ages in a poem by Raymond of Antioch. Ill-Fated Crusade of the Poor People   1153 Death of Pope Eugene III (pope from 1145 till his death). 1497 Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, set sail from Lisbon in the search for a sea passage to India. 1524 The return to France of Italian navigator, Giovanni da Verrazano (sometimes spelt Verrazzano), gave King Francis I his nation's claim to the New World. False Sea of Verazzano Giovanni da Verrazano was a Florentine employed by the King of France to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean. However, he mistook the large body of water to the west of the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the Pacific Ocean, an error that persisted on some maps for more than a century. Thanks to the False Sea of Verazzano, John Farrer's 1652 map of Virginia located the Pacific Ocean just over the Blue Ridge. Mythical lands    More    And more Read about Atlantis in the Scriptorium Read about Prester John's realm in the Scriptorium 1623 Death of Pope Gregory XV. 1630 The Massachusetts Bay Colony celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day. 1663 Charles II of England granted John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island. 1685 Sir Samuel Morland opened the first drinking water fountain, at Hammersmith, England. 1695 Death of Christiaan Huygens, Dutch scientist. 1709 Battle of Poltava – In the Ukraine, Peter I of Russia defeated Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava, thus effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe. 1758 French and Indian War: French forces held Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York. 1760 French and Indian War: Battle of the Restigouche – The British defeated French forces in the last naval battle in New France. 1776 USA: The Liberty Bell summoned citizens for the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress. 1799 Matthew Flinders (1774 - 1814) began exploration of the north-east coast of Australia. More   1822 One of the greatest English-language poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley (b. 1792), drowned on this day, aged only 29. Shelley was the eldest son of a British member of parliament and grandson of a baronet; he was sent to Eton for his education, where he was mocked and bullied as 'Mad Shelley', and later to Oxford University from which he was 'sent down' – expelled – for circulating a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism. After eloping to Scotland with Harriet Westbrook he became interested in the ideas of the anarchist philosopher William Godwin ('The First Anarchist' as he is sometimes known). He began to visit Godwin's house and fell in love with Mary Godwin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Godwin by his first wife, the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who had written A Vindication of the Rights of Women and had died eight days after Mary's birth in 1797. Smitten by Godwin's daughter, his marriage with Harriet in tatters, Shelley eloped to France with Mary Godwin (Mary Shelley) and her 15-year-old stepsister Claire Clairmont. The sisters maintained a ménage à trois with the poet in various parts of Europe for the next eight years. In the summer of 1816, Claire urged that they should go to Lake Geneva (to be with the man of her obsession, Lord Byron, with whom she had previously had a one-night stand and to whom she later bore a child). It was at Lake Geneva that, as a result of a bet to see who could write the best Gothic novel, the brilliant young Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. In the Autumn of 1816, Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine in London. Two years later, Shelley, pursued by creditors, suffering from ill-health, and understandably a social outcast in England, took his lovers to Italy, "the Paradise of Exiles" as he called it, where they could live more cheaply. In Italy, he wrote prolifically much of the best poetry of his career. It was in Italy, however, that he met his demise. Shelley had often forecast his death by drowning ... Read on at The heart that would not burn in the Scriptorium   Fragment: 'To the Moon' By Percy Bysshe Shelley Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing Heaven, and gazing on the earth,    Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth,– And ever changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy?   Complete Works online    Shelley's Declaration of Rights Shelley - Adonais: An Elegy On The Death Of John Keats Early progressives in the Book of Days    More on William Godwin   1822 Chippewas turned over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom. 1826 Death of Luther Martin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, only a few days after both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. (The two died on July 4, 1826.) 1835 According to some sources, America's Liberty Bell cracked for the second time (it also cracked the first time it was rung). 1850 Death of Prince Adolphus of the United Kingdom, 1st Duke of Cambridge. 1859 Death of King Oscar I of Sweden-Norway. King Charles XV / Carl IV acceded to the throne. 1889 The first issue of the Wall Street Journal was published. 1907 Theatrical promoter Florenz Ziegfeld premiered his Follies on Broadway, New York. 1941 Writer PG Wodehouse was discussed in British Parliament as he had been broadcasting from Berlin during World War II. 1946 Margaret Roberts, later to become UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was elected first woman president of Oxford University Conservatives. 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, USA: The Roswell Daily Record printed the following story about the 'UFO' that allegedly crashed on July 2 (qv): "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region "No Details of Flying Disk Are Revealed "Roswell Hardware Man and Wife Report Disk Seen "The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into possession of a flying saucer. "According to information released by the department, over authority of Maj. J. A. Marcel, intelligence officer, the disk was recovered on a ranch in the Roswell vicinity, after an unidentified rancher had notified Sheriff Geo. Wilcox, here, that he had found the instrument on his premises. "Major Marcel and a detail from his department went to the ranch and recovered the disk, it was stated. "After the intelligence officer here had inspected the instrument it was flown to higher headquarters. "The intelligence office stated that no details of the saucer's construction or its appearance had been revealed. "Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wilmot apparently were the only persons in Roswell who saw what they thought was a flying disk."   1951 Paris celebrated its 2,000th anniversary. 1973 Bob Hawke (later Prime Minister) was elected Federal President of the Australian Labor Party. 1973 Australian Labor Party former leader, Arthur Calwell, died. 1977 Associated Press reported that an unemployed man had bitten off the ear of an officer of the Koldby, Denmark, employment office, leaving it on the counter with the message, 'This is your ear'. 1978 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, two German mountaineers, became the first to climb Mt Everest without the use of oxygen. 1980 The Australian Government announced protection of South-west Tasmania, the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu National Park. 1983 In a Melbourne hospital, a US citizen became the first person in Australia to die from AIDS. 1986 Two French security agents were jailed for their involvement in the bombing of Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior. 1997 Mayo Clinic researchers warned that the dieting-drug fen-phen could cause severe heart and lung damage. 1997 NATO invited the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999. 1999 USA: Allen Lee Davis was executed by electrocution by the state of Florida. That is the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida. 2003 Wikipedia introduced its Hebrew (http://he.wikipedia.org/) and Hungarian (http://hu.wikipedia.org/) versions.   Tomorrow: Nikola Tesla, genius    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin?  No-one minds if you spill beer on a fiddle.  Why do violinists put a cloth between their chin and their instrument?  Violins don't have spit valves.  Why should you never try to drive a roof nail with a violin?  You might bend the nail.  Jacques Thibault, the violinist, was once handed an autograph book by a fan while in the greenroom after a concert. "There's not much room on this page," he said. "What shall I write?"  Another violinist, standing by, offered the following helpful hint: "Write your repertoire."  Source: Violin jokes   What is the difference between a violist and a terrorist? Terrorists have sympathizers. More violin jokes 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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