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At Saint Barnabe the sithe
(scythe) in the medow.
(Or: By Barnabas put scythe to the grass.) English traditional
proverb
Barnaby
bright! Barnaby bright! The longest day and the
shortest night. Traditional English
proverb: St
Barnabas's Day used to fall on northern Summer
Solstice, before the change to the Gregorian calendar
in 1752
When Barnabas
smiles both night and day
Poor Ragged Robin blooms in the hay. English traditional proverb
Ring ye the bels, ye yong men of the
towne,
And leave your wonted labors for this day:
This day is holy; doe ye write it downe,
That ye for ever it remember may.
This day the sunne is in his chiefest hight,
With Barnaby the bright,
From whence declining daily by degrees,
He somewhat loseth of his heat and light,
When once the Crab behind his back he sees.
But for this time it ill ordainèd was,
To chose the longest day in all the yeare,
And shortest night,
when longest fitter weare:
Yet never day so long,
but late would passe.
Ring ye the bels,
to make it weare away,
And bonefiers make all day;
And daunce about them,
and about them sing,
That all the woods may answer,
and your eccho ring. Edmund Spenser(c.
1552 - '99),
Englishpoet;
'Epithalamion', 1595, written in celebration of his wedding, which coincided with summer solstice,
St Barnaby's Day in Spenser's time
Eos, by Evelyn de
Morgan (1850 - 1919), 1895 (Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia,
SC): for a Pre-Raphaelite
painter, Eos was still the classical pagan equivalent of an angel
In the mathematics I can report no
deficience, except that it be that men do not sufficiently understand
the excellent use of the pure mathematics, in that they do remedy and
cure many defects in the wit and faculties intellectual. For if the
wit be too dull, they sharpen it; if too wandering, they fix it; if
too inherent in the sense, they abstract it. So that as tennis is a
game of no use in itself, but of great use in respect it maketh a
quick eye and a body ready to put itself into all postures; so in the
mathematics, that use which is collateral and intervenient is no less
worthy than that which is principal and intended. Roger Bacon, English mathematician and alchemist, who died on
June 11, 1294; quoted in J Fauvel and J Gray, A History of
Mathematics: A Reader, 1987 Source
Et harum scientarum porta et clavis est
Mathematica. Mathematics is the door and key to the sciences. Roger Bacon; Opus Majus Source
For the things of this world cannot be made
known without a knowledge of mathematics. For this is an assured fact in
regard to celestial things, since two important sciences of mathematics
treat of them, namely theoretical astrology and practical astrology. The
first ... gives us definite information as to the number of the heavens
and of the stars, whose size can be comprehended by means of instruments,
and the shapes of all and their magnitudes and distances from the earth,
and the thicknesses and number, and greatness and smallness, ... It
likewise treats of the size and shape of the habitable earth ... All this
information is secured by means of instruments suitable for these
purposes, and by tables and by canons . Roger Bacon; Opus Majus Source
Neglect of mathematics works injury to all
knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences
or the things of the world. Roger Bacon; quoted in C B Boyer, A History of Mathematics (New
York 1968) Source
There are four great sciences ... Of these
sciences the gate and key is mathematics, which the saints discovered at
the beginning of the world. Roger Bacon; Opus Majus Source
... mathematics is absolutely necessary and
useful to the other sciences. Roger Bacon; Opus MajusSource
For we can so shape transparent bodies, and
arrange them in such a way with respect to our sight and objects of
vision, that the rays will be reflected and bent in any direction we
desire, and under any angle we wish, we may see the object near or at a
distance ... So we might also cause the Sun, Moon and stars in appearance
to descend here below ... Roger Bacon; writing approximately three centuries before Galileo, Opus
MajusSource
A little learning is a dangerous thing but
none at all is fatal. Roger Bacon; quoted in Des MacHale, Wisdom, London, 2002
(Roger Bacon) ... did sometimes use in the night season
to ascend this place (his study on Folly Bridge, on an eyot
midstream in the Thames) invironed with waters and there to take
the altitude and distance of stars and make use of it for his own
convenience ... Unknown medieval chronicler on Roger Bacon Source
He knows not his own strength,
that hath not met adversity. Ben Jonson, England's
Poet Laureate, born June
11, 1572; Discoveries
'Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.
Ben Jonson
Talking is the disease of age.
Ben Jonson
Hang sorrow! care'll kill a cat.
Ben Jonson; Every Man in his Humour, Act i. Sc. 3
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
Ben Jonson; The Forest, 'To Celia'
He was not of an age, but for all time.
Ben Jonson; ' To the Memory of Shakespeare'
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
Ben Jonson; ' Underwoods. To the immortal Memory of Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry
Morison', III
No man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
Ben Jonson
Be not ashamed of thy virtues; honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.
Ben Jonson
(I) shall be glad
to know what you admire in it … the book is interesting – only I wish
the characters would talk a little less like the heroes and heroines of
police reports.
English novelist George
Eliot writes to a friend who recommended she read Charlotte
Brontë's Jane
Eyre, on June 11, 1848
Don't
compromise yourself – it's all you got! Janis Joplin, who began her singing career on June 11, 1966
It
is forbidden to forbid. Freedom begins by forbidding something: interference
with the freedom of others.
Wall graffiti, Paris, during the student/worker rebellion of May - June, 1968
"A festival celebrated at Rome every
year on the 11th of June, in honour of the goddess Mater Matuta, whose
temple stood in the Forum Boarium. It was celebrated only by Roman matrons,
and the sacrifices offered to the goddess consisted of cakes baked in pots of
earthenware (Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. p31, Bip.; Ovid. Fast. vi.475, &c.). Slaves were
not allowed to take part in the solemnities, or to enter the temple of the
goddess. One slave, however, was admitted by the matrons, but only to be exposed
to a humiliating treatment, for one of the matrons gave her a blow on the cheek
and then sent her away from the temple. The matrons on this occasion took with
them the children of their sisters, but not their own, held them in their arms,
and prayed for their welfare (Plut. Camil. 5, Quaest. Rom. p267). The statue of the
goddess was then crowned with a garland, by one of the matrons who had not yet
lost a husband (Tertull. Monogam. c17). The Greek writers and their Roman
followers, who identify the Mater Matuta with Leucothea or Ino, explain the
ceremonies of the Matralia by means of the
mythological stories which relate to these Greek goddesses. But the real import
of the worship of the Mater Matuta appears to have been to inculcate upon
mothers the principle, that they ought to take care of the children of their
sisters as much as of their own, and that they should not leave them to careless
slaves, the contempt for whom was symbolically expressed by the infliction of a
blow on the cheek of the one admitted into the temple (Compare Hartung, Die
Religion der Römer, vol. ii p75)." Source
The Roman
equivalent of the Greek goddess Eos,
or Dawn, was Aurora; her Etruscan equivalent
was Thesan. The
Dawn became associated in Roman cult with Matuta; later known as Mater
Matuta, who was celebrated today in the festival of the Matralia, she was
also associated with the sea harbours and ports.
From Wikipedia: Eos ('dawn')
was, in Greek mythology, the Titan
Goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the Ocean that
surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the sun. As the dawn
goddess, she opened the gates of heaven (with 'rosy fingers') so that
Helios could ride his chariot across the sky every day. In Homer (Iliad viii.1;
xxiv.695), her yellow robe is embroidered or woven with flowers (Odyssey
vi:48 etc); rosy-fingered and with golden arms, she is pictured on Attic vases
as a supernaturally beautiful woman, crowned with a tiara or diadem and with the large
white-feathered wings of a bird. Eos is the iconic original from which
Christian angels
were imagined, for no images were available from the Hebrew tradition, and the
Persian angels were unknown in the West. The worship of the dawn as a goddess is
inherited from Indo-European times; Eos
is cognate to Latin Aurora
and to vedicUshas.
Quintus Smyrnaeus
pictured her exulting in her heart over the radiant horses (Lampos and
Phaithon) that drew her chariot, amidst the bright-haired Horai, the feminine Hours,
climbing the arc of heaven and scattering sparks of fire (1.48).
She is most often associated with her Homeric epithet
'rosy-fingered' (rhododactylos), but Homer also calls her
'Eos Erigeneia':
"That brightest of stars appeared, Eosphoros,
that most often heralds the light of early-rising Dawn (Eos
Erigeneia)." Odyssey 13.93
And Hesiod:
"And after these Erigeneia
["Early-born"] bore the star Eosphorus
("Dawn-bringer"), and the gleaming stars with which heaven is
crowned." Theogony 378-382
Thus Eos, preceded by the Morning Star, is seen
as the genetrix of all the stars.
Eos was the daughter of Hyperion and Theia (or Pallas and Styx) and sister
of Helios
the sun and Selene
the moon, "who shine upon all that are on earth and upon the
deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven" Hesiod told in Theogony
(371-374). The generation of Titans preceded all the familiar deities of
Olympus, who supplanted them.
Eos was free with her favors and had many
consorts, both among the generation of Titans and among the handsomest
mortals. With Aeolus,
the keeper of the winds, she bore all the winds and stars. Her passion for
the Titan Orion was
unrequited. Eos kidnapped Cephalus, Clitus and Tithonus
to be her lovers. Eos' most faithful consort was Tithonus, from whose
couch the poets imagine her arising. She asked for Tithonus to be made
immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. Tithonus indeed lived
forever but grew more and more ancient, eventually turning into a cricket.
Tithonus and Eos had two sons, Memnon and Emathion.
Memnon fought among the Trojans in the Trojan War and was
slain. Her image with the dead Memnon across her knees, like Thetis with
the dead Achilles,
are icons
that inspired the Christian Pietà.
Eos kidnapped Cephalus when he was
hunting. Some sources say he refused to be unfaithful to Procris,
his wife; others that he had a relationship with Eos for some time and
that she bore him three sons, but that he then began pining for Procris,
causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her - and put a curse on them.
Cephalus accidentally killed Procris some time later after he mistook her
for an animal while hunting; Procris, a jealous wife, was spying on him.
In the more restrictive Hellenic world, Apollodorus,
a later Greek poet, claimed, in an anecdote rather than a myth, that her
disgraceful abandon was a torment from Aphrodite, who found her
on the couch with Ares.
(Apollodorus, Library 1.27).
Find an error or dead link?
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda
(Midsummer daisy, Chrysanthemum
leucanthemum, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Also known as Barnaby
Day, or Long Barnaby Day, in olden times in Europe before the change to
the Gregorian calendar,
this was Summer
Solstice. Midsummer is said to go from today till July 2, according
to Dr Forster's Perennial Calendar. St
Barnabas's Thistle (Centaurea solstialis), also known as the
Yellow starthistle, has a radiant yellow flower with yellow spikes,
resembling the sun that its Linnaean name suggests.
Barnabaswas an early
Christian mentioned in the New
Testament. His original name was Joses, and he was surnamed by the apostles
(in Aramaic) Barnebhuah, which is
explained by the Greek huios parakleseos ('son of
exhortation', not 'of consolation', see Acts 11:23) and denotes a prophet in the
primitive Christian sense of the word (cf. Acts 13:1; 15:32).
He
worked with St Paul
in Cyprus and Asia, but 'There arose a
sharp contention between them. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away
to Cyprus' (Acts 15:39). He was of the tribe of Levi and is said
to have been martyred. Barnabas
is traditionally associated with the Epistle of Barnabas, although modern
scholars think it more likely that that epistle was written in Alexandria
in the 130s. Some other apocryphal works
are attributed to him, and he is also credited by Tertullian (probably
incorrectly) with having penned the Epistle to the Hebrews.The Acts of Barnabas,
once attributed to his cousin, John Mark, are now known to have been
written in the 5th century.
The Gospel
of Barnabas, which
purports to depict the life of Jesus, is
currently widely published in Islamic circles (it foretells the coming of Muhammad
by name).Christians
who have studied this work believe it to be a Medieval
Muslim forgery, made for the purposes of Muslim propaganda.
They point to phrases in Barnabas which are very similar to phrases used
by Dante, suggesting that the author of Barnabas
borrowed from Dante's works. The Italian manuscript survives in a library
in Austria, while the Spanish manuscript was lost in the eighteenth or
nineteenth centuries; however an eighteenth century copy of the original
Spanish manuscript was discovered in the 1970s in the University of Sydney's Fisher Library. Chapter
53 has a description of the Apocalypse of the Last
Days. Jesus describes the various signs of Judgement to his disciples,
naming fifteen days of signs. These bear more than a passing resemblance
to parts of
The Golden Legend
(Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine,
1275, (' Englished by William Caxton, 1483')
.
Tradition says that Barnabas preached in
Alexandria and Rome, and was stoned to death at Salamis about 61 CE. In religious art he is depicted as a bearded,
middle-aged, tall and handsome man with a book and an olive branch. His symbol is a rake, because June 11
is the time of hay-harvest. His patronage includes against hailstorms, Antioch and Cyprus and he is invoked as peacemaker.
Priests and clerks in English churches
wore garlands of rose and woodruff on this day; sometimes garlands
also included the pink ragged robin, also known as Wild Williams. A miraculous
walnut tree in the abbey churchyard of Glastonbury was supposed to bud
invariably on St Barnaby's day. [Hone says Queen Anne, King
James and many nobles gave large sums for small cuttings from it.
See William Hone,
The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the
Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition
online.]In the
University of Cambridge, four lecturers elected annually on St Barnabas's
Day, to lecture on mathematics, philosophy, rhetoric, and logic, were
called the 'Barnaby lecturers'.
"As the Solstice initiates the month of Bodily Saining, or
Fire-Hallowing, today we practice purification by passing our
children, our possessions, and ourselves through the Midsummer fires
lit of sacrificial Oak (now is the best time to practice
fire-walking). These fires are to burn on hilltops throughout the
night, to usher in the Creator (Baelibream or Baermaebi or Barnaby,
whose feast day is June 22, Old Style) …"Source
Devil's Birthday, Denmark In Denmark, this was the end of the contract year
and masters and servants were free to renegotiate their contracts or
not. It was also called The Devil's Birthday.
Shirane Takogassen, or
Kite-fighting Event, at Shirane, Niigata Prefecture, Japan (June 5 - 12)
Feast day of St Eskil
Medieval patron saint of the Diocese
of Strängnäs in Sweden (later moved to June 12 outside that
diocese in order not to collide with the Feast of Barnabas).
Kamehameha Day,
official state holiday of Hawai'i,
United States, in honour of its first
monarch, celebrated with floral parades, hula competition and
festivals
1540Barnabe
Googe (d. February, 1594),
Englishpoet,
son of Robert Googe, recorder of Lincoln,
born at Alvingham,
Lincolnshire.
His works include The Zodyake of Life (1560) and The
Popish Kingdome, or reign of Antichrist (1570), translated from
Thomas Kirchmeyer or
Naogeorgus. Googe's poetry is known in Australia
for one line of verse: I did but see her passing by, and yet I
love her till I die. This quote was used in a speech by Prime
Minister Robert
Menzies on a tour of Queen Elizabeth
II in 1963.
Most of his work has disappeared, but we are left
with nearly 20 plays, about 40 masques, a book of epigrams, many
small poems, epistles and translations, and more. We don't know much
about his life. Born at Westminster, he
followed his step-father's trade of bricklayer, which he hated. He
tried soldiering in Flanders, returning poverty stricken to England.
He started writing plays, and went to jail for killing a man in a
duel. In jail he converted to Catholicism, later marrying a Catholic
wife.
His writing became famous, and he
gained favour with James I, being employed to write court masques.
Jonson went to France in 1613 as tutor to son of Sir Walter Raleigh.
In 1619 King James I
made him Poet Laureate and wanted to knight him, but Jonson was too
modest to accept. He was known as generous and a jovial companion.
After the death of James he fell again into poverty, and had to ask
for assistance; the Earl of Newcastle became his chief patron.
After the English theatres were
reopened on the Restoration of Charles II, it was Jonson rather
than Shakespeare
who was the dominant influence in shaping English theatre.
Buried standing up
Ben Jonson reposes near Dryden,
Tennyson, Browning, Masefield, Samuel Johnson, Dickens, Kipling and
others in Poets'
Corner, Westminster
Abbey, buried in an upright position (standing on his feet). One
of the explanations given for this is that, dying in great poverty,
Jonson begged King Charles I
for "18 inches of square ground in Westminster Abbey". Another
says that one day the Dean of Westminster spoke to him about being
buried in Poets' Corner, and Jonson is said to have told him:
"six feet long by two feet wide is too much for me. Two feet by
two is all I want".
His grave has the
epitaph "O rare Ben Johnson!" (spelt thus), which is said to
have been put up temporarily, but remained. The tale is that it was
made at the expense of Jack Young who was walking by when the grave
was covered and gave the mason eighteen pence to cut it. The
inscription has also been ascribed to Sir William D'Avenant,
Jonson's successor as Poet Laureate; on his gravestone in the
Abbey, too, the words "O Rare ..." are inscribed. Others say
that the Civil
War prevented a longer inscription being made, paid for by
subscription as planned.It
has been suggested that the famous epitaph could be read "Orare
Ben Jonson" (pray for Ben Jonson), which would indicate a deathbed
return to Catholicism.
The original headstone was moved in
the l9th century to the base of the wall opposite the grave to
preserve it. The official Westminster Abbey website
tells us that "In 1849, the place was disturbed by a burial nearby
and the clerk of works saw the two leg bones of Jonson fixed upright
in the sand and the skull came rolling down from a position above
the leg bones into the newly made grave.There was still some red
hair attached to it.It
was seen again when Hunter's grave was dug".
Ben Jonson Day
The expression,
'Ben Jonson day', has nothing to do with his birthday, nor indeed with the great old man of letters himself. It is a corruption of
'Banian Day', an early nineteenth-century term for a day on which no meat is served. The reference is to the Banian people, Hindu vegetarians. The term sprang up in Jamaica, applied to any day of austerity or fasting, especially before
pay-day.
You know that broke feeling on a Wednesday, the day before pay day, especially when you're paid fortnightly.
Or any day if you are unemployed. The day when you search down the back of the couch for a few coins to buy some milk for the coffee or a loaf of bread for the kids' school lunches. That is Ben Jonson Day.
[I formerly had
Ben's birth date at January 31,
1574. Sources differ but I think this is right now, based on Wikipedia and this
biography, but I'm open to advice]
When he
Wither was about to be executed by the Royalists, poet Sir John
Benham pleaded for his life, saying to King Charles
I.
"If your majesty kills Wither, I will then be the worst poet
in England."
"Jacques Cousteau produced more
than 115 films,
which have won numerous Emmys and other awards, including three
full-length theatrical feature films: The Silent World (Oscar
and Palme d'Or), World Without Sun (Oscar and Grand Prix
du Cinéma Français pour la Jeunesse) and Voyage to the Edge
of the World. Captain Cousteau wrote, in collaboration with
various co-authors, more than 100 books, published in more than a
dozen languages. Books in
English include Jacques Cousteau's Amazon Journey (1984),
and Jacques Cousteau / Whales (1988); in French, Les
Iles du Pacifique(1990), L'Ile des esprits (1995), Le
Monde des Dauphins (1995) and the posthumously published L'homme,
le pieuvre et l'orchidée …
"Through
The
Cousteau Society, which he founded in 1973, the Captain
focused his efforts to protect and improve the quality of life
for present and future generations. Supported by contributions
from members and the public, the Society has carried out
expeditions throughout the world to document humanity's
interaction with natural ecosystems, and to rouse the
consciousness of Earth's citizens."Source
Azaria's
parents, Lindy
Chamberlain and [Seventh Day Adventist] Pastor Michael
Chamberlain, were tried and convicted of her murder on October 29,
1982 under baffling
conditions that could be described as Trial by Media.
This was despite the fact that there were known to have been dingoes
(wild dogs) around the camp and there was no evidence of a murder,
nor anything whatsoever that might indicate that the loving
Chamberlain parents had the slightest motive to commit the murder.
Somehow the media, in their usual
rush to sell their products, managed to persuade a sizeable
proportion of Australians (not known for their media savvy) that the
Chamberlains had committed infanticide. Lindy Chamberlain was not
pardoned until June 2,
1987. It is likely that prejudice against the Seventh Day Adventist
Church was a strong factor in the case.
Phew!!
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day in history section
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323 BCE While returning to Macedonia from India, Alexander the Great (b. late July, 356 BCE)died
of a fever (possibly malaria) and fatigue at the age of only 33.
After his death in Babylon,
Alexander's family and children were all put to death, and his generals
quarrelled over his empire. Bloody wars erupted and the national spoils were
distributed to the great general's successors.
Many sources give June 10 as the day he
died. How do we know the date of his death? This article
explains.
"Alexander did not win any war on the Indian soil, he in fact lost to Porus, the king of Punjab, and had to sign a treaty with Porus in order to save his diminishing band of soldiers who were grief-stricken at the loss of their compatriots at the hands of Porus's army, and expressed their strong desire to surrender." Alexander
the Ordinary
(in India he is not as revered as in Europe)
1294Death of Roger Bacon, monk, philosopher, alchemist
and
scientist. He has been credited with the invention of the camera obscura, the
air-pump and the diving bell. He was aware that the earth was a sphere, and of
the basic principles of light and the telescope three centuries before Galileo,
yet his name is little known these days.
He
received a degree from the University of Paris around 1241. After taking his
degree he lectured at Paris on Aristotle
but at this stage he showed little interest in science.
The magickal Roger Bacon
There is an old legend that Roger Bacon made a
brazen head; he believed that to earn his fame and to save England from being
conquered, if he could make this head speak he could encompass England with an
impregnable wall, also of brass. He and his colleague Friar Bungye consulted a
demon, who said that if they watched the brazen head for a month it would speak.
Bacon and Bungye watched
incessantly for three weeks, but then, growing tired, Bacon employed his
manservant Miles to watch for him. Bacon and Bungye went to sleep, whereupon the
head said "Time is", but Miles thought nothing of it, and didn't wake
his master. Then the head said "Time was", then "Time is past".
Then the head fell to the ground and smashed into pieces, waking the two friars.
Their faith in Miles had been misplaced.
In 1256 Bacon retired to
Paris. Twenty-two years later, the Franciscan Order banned his books and he was
imprisoned, the charge being of suspected novelties in his teaching.
Bacon left quite a legacy:
he successfully demonstrated the magnifying glass and he predicted aeroplanes,
steamships, telescopes and diving suits. He was called Doctor Mirabilis, and
reputedly signed a pact with the devil (like Faust) in return for magic
abilities. He promised his soul unless he died neither in the church nor out of
it, and cheated the devil by living in a cell in the wall, neither in nor out of
the church.
A 16th-Century chronicler
wrote, in The History of Friar Bacon: containing the wonderful things that he did in his life; also the manner of his death; with the lives and deaths of the two conjurers, Bungye and Vandermast:
"then caused he to be made in the church wall a cell, where he locked himself in, and there remained till his death Thus lived he some two yeeres space in that cell, never coming forth: his meat and drink he received in at a window, and at that window he did discourse with those that came to him. His grave he digged with his owne nayles, and was laid there when he dyed. Thus was the life and death of this famous fryer, who lived most part of his life a magician, and dyed a true penitent sinner, and an
anchorite."
"Good people, things
cannot go right in England and never will, until goods are held in common and
there are no more villeins and gentlefolk, but we are all one and the same. In
what way are are those whom we call lords greater masters than ourselves? How
have they deserved it? Why do they hold us in bondage? If we all spring from a
single father and mother, Adam and Eve, how can they claim or prove that they
are lords more than us, except by making us produce and grow the wealth which
they spend?"
From Wikipedia: A group of
common people from the eastern counties of England marched
on London. The
most vociferous of their leaders, Walter or "Wat" Tyler, was at the
head of a contingent from Kent. Egged on by a renegade priest, John Ball, the rebels
arrived in Blackheath on June 12, and the
following day they crossed London Bridge into the heart of the city. Meanwhile
the 'Men of Essex' had gathered with Jack Straw at Great
Baddow and had marched on London, arriving at Stepney. On June 14, they
were met by the young king himself, and presented him with a series of demands,
including the dismissal of some of his more unpopular ministers and the
effective abolition of the feudal system. At the same time, a group of rebels
stormed the Tower of London and summarily executed the Lord
Chancellor, Archbishop Simon Sudbury (who was particularly associated with
the poll tax), and the Lord Treasurer. The Savoy
Palace of the king's uncle John of
Gaunt was one of the London buildings destroyed by the rioters. The king
agreed to reforms such as fair rents, and the abolition of serfdom.
At Smithfield, on the following day, further
negotiations with the king were arranged, but on this occasion the assassination
of Wat Tyler by a leading member of the Drapers led to the dispersal of the rebel group. Most of its
leaders were pursued, captured and executed, including John Ball. Following the
collapse of the revolt, the king's concessions were quickly revoked, and the tax
was levied.
1892Australia: The Limelight Department,
one of the world's first film studios, was officially established in Melbourne.
In the next nine years it produced arguably the first feature-length film and
documentary film in the world.
The Limelight Department was
operated by The
Salvation Army in Melbourne,
Australia,
between 1891 and 1910.
It produced evangelical material for use by the Salvation
Army, as well as private and government contracts. In its 19 years of operation,
the Limelight Department produced about 300 films of various lengths, making it
the largest film producer of its time.
The Salvation Army Limelight
Department unofficially started in 1891, when Adjutant Joseph
Perry started a photographic studio in Ballarat,
Victoria,
to supplement the income of the Salvation Army's Prison
Gate Home. At the time, Perry was on compassionate leave from active
ministry, as his wife Annie had died earlier that year, leaving Perry to raise
their three children. In September of 1891, Perry was temporarily reassigned to
the Australasian Headquarters in Melbourne to assist Australasian commander,
Commissioner Thomas
Coombs, in putting together a presentation of General William
Booth's In Darkest England program. At this stage, Perry was using lantern
slides which projected hand coloured photographs onto a large screen. Coombs
was impressed by the quality and effectiveness of presentation, making Perry's
move to Melbourne permanent. The Limelight Department was officially established
on June 11, 1892.
In 1896, when
Commissioner Coombs was replaced as Australasian commander by General Booth's
youngest son, Commandant Herbert Booth. Booth immediately warmed to the
innovation of the Limelight Department, giving Perry the freedom and the
financial support to expand into the newly developing medium of film.
Under Booth's direction, Perry started work on Social Salvation in 1898,
one of the first presentations of it's type to integrate the traditional
lantern slides with film segments. On December
30, 1899, the
Limelight Department premiere a series on the Passion at the Collingwood
corps. The presentation contained thirteen, ninety second sections which
portrayed the life of Jesus
from birth to death. The presentation was similar in style to that produced by
the Lumiere Company earlier that year, however, as none of the original film
remains, it can never be determined if the Limelight Department used Lumiere
footage in the presentation.
Soldiers of the
Cross
The major innovation of the
Limelight Department would come in 1899
when Booth and Perry began work on Soldiers
of the Cross, arguably the first feature length film ever produced
(please see the last section for discussion on this point). The presentation
contained fifteen, ninety second sections and two hundred lantern slides and ran
for nearly two hours and a half. While some Lumiere footage was used in the
opening passion sequence of the film, the majority of the footage was filmed in
Melbourne, either in the attic of 69 Bourke Street, on the tennis court of the
Murrumbeena Girls Home and in the pool at Richmond
Baths. The presentation itself focused of the lives and deaths of early
Christian martyrs and cost £550 to produce. The scenes were considered
extremely violent for their time, including such images and the stoning of St Stephen,
the burning of Polycarp
and unnamed Christians being tortured, beheaded, killed by gladiators, drowned
and brunt alive. The presentation included a cast of 150 Salvation Army officers
who were stationed in Melbourne at the time. The many death scenes took there
toll, with the cast suffering various injuries, including scorched hair and eye
brows from some of the fires used. The presentation premiered on September
13, 1901, at
the Melbourne town hall to a crowd somewhere between three and four thousand.
One reviewer spoke of how the death scenes caused several women to faint in the
aisles.
The Federation
of Australia
Soldiers of the Cross
fortified the Limelight Department as a major player in the early film industry.
However, Soldier of the Cross would be dwarfed when the Limelight Department was
commissioned to film the Federation
of Australia ceremony (January
1, 1901), creating arguably the world's first documentary film. It was the hope of the New South Wales government that the
film would prove an imperishable record of the event, though very little of the
footage still exists. Perry set up five cameras a various point of the
procession route and had to use a fire carriage to move quickly from one camera
to the next.
"Captain Joseph Perry, when managing the Ballarat Prison Gate Home, produced and used his own glass lantern slides to illustrate sermons. Such was the impact that in November 1891 he was brought to the Melbourne Headquarters to produce a set of lantern slides to advertise the visit of William Booth to Australia. This led to the creation of the Limelight Department.
"By 1895 Perry had visited nearly every Corps in Australasia. He travelled over 46,500 km presenting illuminated religious shows to 522 astounded audiences.
"Commandant Herbert Booth, William and Catherine's youngest son, was appointed as Australasian Territorial Commander in 1897. Soon after arriving in Melbourne he met Joseph Perry and saw the possibilities of an expanded Limelight Department. He enthusiastically authorised the purchase of a Cinematographe machine for the Department.
"Australia's first 'purpose built' film studio was added to the Headquarters at 69 Bourke Street, Melbourne and production began under the guidance of the innovative Joseph Perry.
"In May 1897, the Limelight Departments first Cinematographe Show was premiered in Western Australia followed by Queensland in October. The Melbourne launch was held in May 1898 and included film footage of Salvation Army street marches,
'War Cry' sellers and Commandant Booth.
"In late 1899, the 'Passion Films' were produced; these are possibly the first dramatic films produced in Australia. Perhaps the best known production of the Limelight Department was an ingenious mix of moving film, glass slides, oratory and music. Entitled
'Soldiers of the Cross' it premiered to an audience of 4000 at the Melbourne Town Hall in September 1900.
"The New South Wales Government commissioned the Limelight Department to film Australia's 1901 Federation ceremonies. This resulted in a 35 minute documentary under the title of
'Federation Films'. Some historians consider it to be the world's first feature documentary.
"In 1902 the Limelight Department adopted the title of Biorama Company. New studios were built by The Salvation Army in Caulfield in 1908. Production of
'Heroes of the Cross' and the 'Scottish Covenanters', amongst others, soon followed.
"Commissioner James Hay became the Territorial Commander of the Australian Salvation Army in 1909. He quickly closed down the Limelight and Biorama Department because he felt there was
'a weakness and lightness incompatible with true Salvationism'. Source
1955 Eighty-three people were killed and more
than 100 injured when a Mercedes-Benz ran out of control at Le Mans racetrack,
France. The race continued.
1957Students fought with police and attacked
the Communist Party headquarters in Hang Yang, China. The Revolution is Dead!
Long Live the Revolution!
1959US Postmaster General Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield
banned DH Lawrence's book, Lady Chatterley's Lover from the mails.
Something of a literary critic, he labelled it:
"Pornographic,
smutty, obscene, and filthy."
1963American Civil Rights Movement: Alabama Governor
George
Wallace, Canute like, stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block
two black students from attending that institution. The two black
students quietly registered. President Kennedy gave a speech on TV, promising a
Civil Rights bill, which Southern Democrats vowed to block.
The Beatles arrived in
Australia at Darwin airport at the beginning of their 'down under' tour. An
enterprising Australian promoter had booked them some time prior to their major
international success, at a price that by this day had become ludicrous.
However, Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, was a true gentleman and
honoured the contract to bring the Fab Four to the antipodes, despite the fact
that they made no money on the tour and could easily have paid out the contract.
Much to the fans'
disappointment, Ringo Starr wasn't there, but at home in London hospital with
a bad case of tonsillitis. The band hired
Jimmy Nicol as a stand-in for Ringo.
He only played a few shows before Mr Starkey (Ringo) arrived on June 14. A press typo
at the time had fans believing the Beatles' drummer had had his 'toenails'
removed.Their opening act was
Kiwi rocker, Johnny
Devlin, the guy who introduced The Stomp dance to Oz with 'Avalon Stomp'.
Record
crowds in 'the City of Churches'
The next day, the Fab Four hit Adelaide,
South Australia. There, even though it was a working day (Friday),
not a weekend, an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 people – out of a
population of fewer than 900,000 – lined the streets to see the
band. Very few crowds in history, it's been said, had been bigger
anywhere –
Mahatma Gandhi's funeral being a notable exception with about
one million. Big stars had rarely been to Adelaide before, but the
Beatles' amazing success there helped put the town on the world
entertainment map and must have contributed to the small city's
current standing as one of the music and art centres of Australia.
Australia was Beatle crazy, and the Mop
Tops said they were overwhelmed by the size of reception in each
Australian city they played: Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and
Brisbane, larger than the crowds in any other country. My own memory
of 1963-65 (I was ten in 1963) is of shops selling Beatle wigs,
Beatle toy guitars, Beatle ice creams and chocolates, and so on. I
can still picture the main street of Eastwood (a Sydney suburb),
with 'Love Me Do' emanating loudly from a speaker placed on a chair
outside the door of the record shop, and down the street a shop
window display of silver beetle jewellery, while the large hardware
store window display was of a vast set of Beatle crockery featuring
the faces of the Fab Four. Their influence was ubiquitous, and a
worry to many parents.
"2.53am The Beatles' BOAC Boeing 707 from Hong
Kong touches down in Darwin. A contingent of 400 fans greet the plane, which
has been diverted from its original flight plan after a scheduled stopover in
Manila was ruled out by the Phillipine airport authorities because of extreme
heat. From the brief stop in Darwin, The Beatles plane flew on to Sydney's
Kingsford-Smith International Airport at Mascot.
"7.43am John, Paul, George and Jimmy Nicol arrive
in Sydney. They are welcomed by around 1,000 fans, 100 journalists, at least
one sociology lecturer there to observe teenage behavioural patterns – and a
torrential rainstorm."Source
4 June
K.B. Hallen Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
6 June Veilinghal, Blokker, The Netherlands
10 June Princess Theatre, Hong Kong
12-13 June Centennial Hall, Adelaide, Australia
15-17 June Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia
18-20 June Sydney Stadium, Sydney, Australia
22-23 June Town Hall, Wellington, New Zealand
24-25 June Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand
26 June Town Hall, Dunedin, New Zealand
27 June Majestic Theatre, Christchurch, New Zealand
29-30 June Festival Hall, Brisbane, Australia Source
1965The Beatles were
awarded MBE (Member of the British Empire) awards from Queen Elizabeth
II. This
sparked controversy, and some previous winners handed their medals back. John
Lennon returned his MBE in 1969 protesting the war in Biafra, Britain's
support of the US involvement in Vietnam, and "Cold Turkey going down in the
charts".
1965 The first
'happening' – Wholly Communion, with Beat poets Allen
Ginsberg,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso and English poets, at the Royal Albert
Hall, London. An historic Beat underground reading.
1971A nineteen-month
occupation by Native American protesters of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco
Bay, ended.
1977 Dutch marines stormed
a train in which South Moluccan terrorists were holding hostages. Some South
Moluccans still to this day are demanding independence.
1985 Karen Ann Quinlan, 31,
died after being in a coma in a New Jersey, USA, hospital for ten years.
1988 More than 80,000
people crammed London's Wembley Stadium for a rock concert to celebrate Nelson
Mandela's 70th birthday.
1988 Kenya: "… a
'tall, slim, swarthy man in white robed and a turban' appeared in a crowd
who had gathered in the Kawangware slums of Nairobi to hear faith healer Mary
Ataska. As a bright star had been observed three times in the light of day, the
people recognised the man as Jesus Christ. He blessed them in Swahili before
uttering a Hebrew curse and departing in a car driven by Mr Gurnam Singh. They
drove to the bus terminal, where the son of God asked Mr Singh to stop the car
so He could get out and 'head for heaven.' A photo of the man appeared the next
day in Kenya Times."Source
1990USA: Former Reagan national security
adviser, John Poindexter,
(b. 1936) was
sentenced to six months imprisonment, having been indicted on March 16, 1988 on
charges of conspiracy
to defraud the United States. He was the first Iran-Contra defendant
to receive prison time in the arms-for-hostages scandal.
However, seems you can't keep a bad man down. On February
13, 2002, the
media learned that he had become the Director of The
Pentagon's Information Awareness Office (IAO), a
secretive intelligence bureau whose mission is to gather and centralize as much
information as possible about everyone, intending to unify all private databases
about US citizens into one central database run by the government (including
information about travel, credit card purchases, medical history, and so on).
The IAO uses the full
capabilities of Echelon
technology and a sister organization called the Information Exploitation Office for its
Big Brother capabilities. In being selected to head up this domestic
spying operation, Poindexter joined a growing list of recycled Reagan/Bush
officials with Iran-Contra scandal involvement to find a home in the George W
Bush administration, including Otto Reich, Elliott
Abrams and John
Negroponte. Controversy over Poindexter's integrity followed his
appointment to the position due to his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.
The
eyeball animation above, by the way, is not one of my toonimations. Hard though it
might be to believe, it is the actual animated logo that the IAO put on
the Web, providing the public with an insight into these people's utter
bereftness of a sense of irony and ... how shall I put this ... lack of
awareness.
"I don't want to alarm anyone who still
thinks that life and liberty are safe because of Western
intelligence agencies, but if you click on this actual logo from
The Firm you'll see what 'intelligence' means in the USA
administration. No, it's not a joke, it's the actual website, if
you check the URL. There really are people like that in
power."
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