This page is big! If it fails to load fully, please click Refresh on your browser menu.
It's fully loaded when you see the purple menu bar at the foot of the page.

reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

First time here?  See the Index for How it works

Celebrate each and every day with a free subscription to the daily ezine. You can apply by form or send a blank email. Read what the 'Almaniacs' (members) say about Wilson's Almanac.

I request your support if this website pleases and informs you, as this is my livelihood. Thank you, from the bottom of my fridge. 

Inquiries from publishers are welcome, but, dear reader, please don't use my work without my written permission. If I've inadvertently used something of yours that you consider not to fall under the fair use doctrine, please tell me and I'll remove it.

Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

Our news on your homepage (that is, if you use My Yahoo, which we recommend for your start-up page)

Carpe diem! 24 Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search Open links in a New Window

Today is

June 24th. Time slips away, and we grow old with the silent lapse of years; there is no bridle that can curb the flying days. How quickly has come round the festival of Fors Fortuna! Yet seven days and June will be over. Come, Quirites, celebrate with joy the goddess Fors! On Tiber's bank she has her royal foundations. Speed some of you on foot, and some in the swift boat, and think no shame to return tipsy from your ramble. Ye flower-crowned skiffs, bear bands of youthful revellers, and let them quaff deep draughts of wine on the bosom of the stream. The common folk worship this goddess because the founder of her temple is said to have been of their number and to have gained the crown from humble rank [i.e. Servius Tullius].
Ovid, Fasti, VI. 771   Roman calendar

In Sweden the ceremonies associated elsewhere with May Day or Whitsuntide commonly take place at Midsummer. Accordingly we find that in some parts of the Swedish province of Blekinge they still choose a Midsummer Bride to whom the 'church coronet' is occasionally lent. The girl selects for herself a Bridegroom and a collection is made for the pair, who for the time being are looked on as man and wife. The other youths also choose each his bride. A similar ceremony seems to be still kept up in Norway.
Sir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941), The Golden Bough, 1922

In Sardinia the gardens of Adonis are still planted in connection with the Great Midsummer festival which bears the name of St John. At the end of March or on the first of April, a young man of the village presents himself to a girl, and asks her to be his comare (gossip or sweetheart) … At the end of May the girl makes a pot of the bark of the cork-trees, fills it with earth, and sows a handful of wheat and barley in it. The pot being placed in the sun and often watered, the corn sprouts rapidly and has a good head by Midsummer Eve … The pot is than called Erme or Nennere. On St John's Day the young man and the girl, dressed in their best, accompanied by a long retinue and preceded by children gambolling and frolicking, move in procession to a church outside the village … they sit down in a ring on the grass and eat eggs and herbs to the music of flutes. Wine is mixed in a cup and passed round, each drinking as it passes. This is the general Sardinian custom. As practised at Ozieri it has some special features … on the Eve of St John the window-sills are draped with rich clothes, on which the pots are placed, adorned with crimson and blue silk and ribbons of various colours. On each of the pots they used formerly to place a statuette or cloth doll dressed as a woman, or a Priapus-like figure made of paste … The correspondence of these Sardinian pots of grain to the gardens of Adonis seems complete …
  Customs of the same sort are observed at the same season in Sicily. Pairs of boys and girls become gossips … on St. John's Day, by drawing each a hair from his or her head and performing various ceremonies over then. Thus they tie the hairs together and throw them up in the air, or exchange them over a potsherd, which they afterwards break in two, preserving each a fragment with pious care. The tie formed in the latter way is supposed to last for life …
  We have seen that the rites of Tammuz or Adonis were commonly celebrated about midsummer; according to Jerome, their date was June.
Frazer; ibid

But the season at which these fire-festivals have been most generally held all over Europe is the summer solstice, that is Midsummer Eve (the twenty-third of June) or Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June) … we cannot doubt that the celebrations dates from a time long before the beginning of our era. Whatever their origin, they have prevailed all over this quarter of the globe, from Ireland on the West to Russia on the East, and from Norway and Sweden on the North to Spain and Greece on the South. According to a mediaeval writer, the three great features of the Midsummer celebration were the bonfires, the procession with torches round the fields, and the custom of rolling a wheel … and he explains the custom of trundling a wheel to mean that the sun, having now reached the highest point in the ecliptic, begins thenceforward to descend.
Frazer; ibid

'Tis not strange to see this land
lighted up bright on St John's night.
And the bonfires with their fiery tongues
looking skyward so far to capture a lucky star.
Showing just for a day, if only once a year, the
starry beautiful light of the Levante night.
Alberto Cortez

The Rose … the grandest, the noblest of Nature's symbols. To the Rosicrucian the 'Rose' was the symbol of Nature, of the ever prolific and virgin Earth, of Isis, the mother and nourisher of man, considered as feminine and represented as a virgin woman by the Egyptian initiates.
Helene Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine, Vol. V,  292; today is the day of Rosa Mundi   Source

Come forth, come forth, my maidens, we'll gather myrtle boughs,
And we shall learn, from the dews of the fern, if our lads will keep their vows.
If the wether be still, as we dance on the hill, and the dew hangs sweet on the flowers,
Then we'll kiss off the dew, for our lovers are true, and the Baptist's blessing is ours.
An old ballad from the banks of Guadalquivir, Spain; quoted in Hone, ibid

The young maid stole through the cottage door,
And blushed as she sought the plant of pow'r -
"Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light,
I must gather the mystic St John's-wort tonight,
The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide
If the coming year shall make me a bride."
An old German poem; quoted in Hone, ibid

Before St John's day we ray for rain: after that we get it anyhow.
English traditional proverb; GL Apperson, Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs: A Lexicon of folklore and traditional wisdom, Wordsworth, UK, 1993, 545

Cut your thistles before St John,
You will have two instead of one.
English traditional proverb; Apperson, ibid

Never rued he man
That laid in his fuel before St John.
English traditional proverb; Apperson, ibid

Previous to St John's Day we dare not praise barley.
English traditional proverb; Apperson, ibid

Rain on St John's Day and we may expect a wet harvest.
English traditional proverb; Apperson, ibid

Midsummer rain
Spoils hay and grain.
Collected in R Inwards, Weather Lore

Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry.
Henry Ward Beecher, American preacher and activist, born on June 24, 1813

Woman would be more charming if one could fall into her arms without falling into her hands.
Ambrose Bierce, American author, born on June 24, 1842; Epigrams

ACCORD: Harmony.
Ambrose Bierce; The Devil's Dictionary

ACCORDION: An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

ADMIRATION: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.

BORE: A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

CUSTARD: A vile concoction produced by a malevolent conspiracy of the hen, the cow, and the cook.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

CYNIC: A blackguard whose faulty vision causes him to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

LAWYER: One skilled in circumvention of the law.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

LAWSUIT:  A machine which you go into as a pig and come out as a sausage.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

LOVE:  A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

MARRIAGE: The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

NON-COMBATANT: A dead Quaker.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

PAINTING: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.
Ambrose Bierce; ibid

Goodbye, if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico – ah, that is euthanasia!
Last words of Ambrose Bierce's final written communication, a letter to his niece, Lora, in December, 1913

I don't care for war, there's far too much luck in it for my liking.
Napoleon III, Emperor of France; following a narrow French victory at Solferino on June 24, 1859

June 24 is the 175^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (176^th in leap years), with 190 days remaining.
On the dating of items in the Almanac  Translate this page  Birthday star  Your birth day  Daily Everything  NNDB  Time/Date  Google
Calendar converter  Almanacs, calendars, time, dedicated weeks, etc  Almanac screensavers  On this day  Dictionary  I recommend
IMDB days  IMDB years  Wikipedia days  Wiki decades  Wiki centuries  Timelines  Conversions  Calendrica  Lunabar  Birthday calculator
When 'Source' links on this page move address or die, I might allow them to stay here, but the Wayback Machine might help you locate the original.

Old Midsummer Day, Britain

This day is very important in most parts of Europe because it is both Midsummer Day – strictly speaking, not the same as the Summer Solstice – and the feast of one of the most important saints, John the Baptist.

"The observances connected with the Nativity of St John commenced on the previous evening, called, as usual, the eve or vigil of the festival, or Midsummer eve." People kept the leafy boughs up on their houses, because they protected against thunder, storm and "all kinds of noxious physical agencies".
Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days)

In old England today was a time for moving house. It is known as a quarter day. "On this day some may quit, some may remain; all must pay – that can!"

The bonfires were lit at midnight on Midsummer Eve. There were, anciently, sacrifices, and the people danced around the fire and leaped over it. Firebrands were taken out and the ashes were scattered to the wind in a custom that was thought to dispel evil.

"Traditional locations for St John's Day fires are often places where the sun was observed in former times." 
Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, 82

In the olden days in Britain, a girl, first born, was dressed as a bride. There was much feasting, dancing and leaping; by the sea they poured some salt water into a narrow-necked vessel and into certain things belonging to each of them. At this point a girl would be asked what the future held, and she would take out of the vessel the first thing that came to hand, show it, and give it to the owner, with a suitable prognostication. 

In Cornwall they went from village to village with lighted brands. As late as 1800, in a custom that calls to mind ancient Druidic practices, a farmer would burn alive his finest calf to dispel disease from his ill cattle.

At Northumberland, stools were put out with cushions of flowers. A layer of clay was placed on a stool, and flowers put in it. This was exhibited in doors of the villages and in streets where the attendants would beg money, to enable them to have an evening feast and dancing.

West Country, England: (to divine future husband) "... girls put egg-white and water in the sun at noon and left it for five minutes before examining the result". The evening, too, was a suitable time. (Newall, Venetia, An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971, 63)

Midsummer (more strictly, the Summer Solstice, or Litha) is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. Among the Neopagan sabbats, Midsummer is preceded by Beltaine and followed by Lughnasadh or Lammas. See also Wheel of the Year.

Midsummer dancing madness 

In Europe, there were originally pagan celebrations with wild dancing. Midsummer Day was Christianised as the Feast of St John the Baptist, patron of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in Germany. There, German people thronged on his day, June 24, for the dancing. In 1374, the Rhine flooded and the dancing of the peasants, whose lives were sorely afflicted beyond their normal poverty, went wild. The "dancing madness" became known as St John's Dance. The mania spread after a few months to Maastricht, Utrecht, Liege and elsewhere. It died out after six months in the Low Countries. In Germany, the authorities tried to suppress it but it continued for centuries. Recorded in 1518, tthis was later called St Vitus's Dance after that saint (feast day June 15).

Feast day of the Nativity of St John the Baptist
(St John's wort, Hypericum pulchrum, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

John the Baptist is the only Christian saint whose birth date is a feast, as well as the day of his death (August 29). He was born six months before Jesus (whose birthday of December 25 roughly equates with the Winter Solstice of December 22), so the Church fixed his nativity at the Summer Solstice, which has altered over the centuries by a few days for astronomical reasons ('Calendar Shift', about six hours per year).  In ancient times, today was as important as a calendar marker as its opposite, Christmas. Today celebrates the elements of fire (bonfires) and water (baptism; cleansing).

He is said to have been a cousin of Jesus Christ and the son of Zachary, a priest, and Elizabeth, a descendent of Aaron. An angel brought Zacharia news that his wife would bear a child who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of his birth. Doubting, Zachary was struck dumb until Elizabeth gave birth.

John died a victim of the vengeance of a scheming woman. In about the year 30 he was imprisoned by King Herod Antipas (b. 20 BCE), whom John had rebuked for the sin of having sexual relations with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Luke 3:19). John's prison cell was in the castle of Machaerus, a fortress on the southern extremity of Peraea, about 16 km (about 9 miles) east of the Dead Sea. 

It was here that John was beheaded at the instigation of Herodias who prompted her daughter (unnamed in the Biblical text but called Salomé in Christian mythology) to ask Herod for John's head when Herod offered the daughter a wish in exchange for her dancing, which had pleased him. (Josephus simply attributes John's execution to Herod's uneasy jealousy over John's influence.) John's head was brought to Salome on a platter and she gave it to her mother; his body was buried by Jesus' disciples. According to St Jerome (c. 340 - September 30, 420), Herodias kept John's head for a long time after, occasionally stabbing the saint's tongue with a dagger. John was buried at Sebaste, Samaria, the mountainous northern part of the area that we now call the West Bank.

The Bible says St John was sent to "prepare the way of the Lord". He is represented in art in a coat of sheepskin, because of his life as a hermit in the desert. He either holds a rough wooden cross with a pennon that says Ecce Agnus Dei, or is shown with a book on which a lamb is seated. Sometimes John is depicted holding in his right hand a lamb surrounded by a halo, and bearing a cross on the right foot. According to the Bible, St John met his death by decapitation.

In the early 16^th century, a visitor to a monastery in France was shown what the cleric said was the skull of St John the Baptist. "Ah! The monks of another monastery showed me the skull of John the Baptist yesterday," said the visitor. "True", said the cleric, "But those monks only have the skull of St John when he was a young man. We have the skull of John the Baptist when he was much older and wiser." Or, so it is said. 

The patronage of St John includes baptism, bird dealers, converts, epileptics, farriers, hail, hailstorms, Jordan, Knights Hospitaller, Knights of Malta, lambs, monastic life, motorways (because he said "Make straight the way of the Lord"), printers, spasms and tailors. As a baptizer, he is associated, naturally enough, with the healing qualities of water and sacred wells and springs, so he is also the patron saint of Jordan, Florence, Genoa and Turin and the patron of spas.

The fruit of the Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) is also called St John's bread because John ate it while he wandered in the wilderness. However, the main plant associated with today, as with the Eve of St John, is Hypericum, St John's wort.

John the Baptist is regarded as a prophet by at least three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Mandaeanism. Adherents of the latter believe that they follow the true teachings of John and that Jesus was a false prophet.

St John's Day celebrations in Spain
On the banks of the Guadalquivir, maidens would go forth on the morning. They would gather flowers to dress a wether. These young women learned from the dew on ferns about their loved ones-to-be. [See poem above.]

Hair cutting day for women, State of Oaxaca, Mexico
According to legend, on the Feast of San Juan (St John), a mermaid left the river to comb her hair on this day, setting a precedent for local women to do likewise on this day.

The value of goofing off

According to tradition, the apostle John had a hobby raising pigeons. On one occasion a fellow church leader who was returning from a hunting trip stopped by John's place and found him playing with one of his birds and gently corrected him for wasting his time.

John, noticing his friend's hunting bow, said that the string was loose whereupon the man replied, "Yes, I always loosen the string of my bow when it's not in use. If it stayed tight, it would lose its resilience and fail me in the hunt."

St John of the Divination, Greek Macedonia

Apple-john

"An apple so called from its being mature about St John the Baptist's Day, 24 June. The French call it Pomme de Saint Jean. We are told that apple-johns will keep for two years, and are best when shrivelled.

I am withered like an old apple-john.
Shakespeare; Henry IV, Part I, III, iii.

Midsummer lore in the Book of Days
Summer Solstice: June 21
Midsummer Eve: June 23

See also St John's Eve, and its magickal herb, St John's wort, in the Scriptorium

Frazer, Sir James George (1854 - 1941), The Golden Bough, 1922, Ch. 62. The Fire-Festivals of Europe. Section 5. The Midsummer Fires

Find an error or dead link? 
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda

Click stars for Universe today Cafe Diem! Our store Highly recommended: Folklore of World Holidays by Margaret Read MacDonald The Sabbats Midsummer Celebrate with Bonfires The Book of Saints The Encyclopedia of Saints The Oxford Dictionary of Saints A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses Magic in Ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends The Oxford Book of Days The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce's Civil War The Spiral Dance By Starhawk 20th Anniversary Edition The Rule of Four Hypnerotomachia Poliphili Fasti Roman calendar lore, by Ovid Holiday Symbols Holidays and Anniversaries of the World Secrets and Lies   To support this project Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.     Search for posters What Would Jefferson Do? By Thom Hartmann When Corporations Rule the World Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism The Corporation Highly recommended DVD Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America By Bruce Shapiro Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America By Bruce Shapiro Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy By Robert F Kennedy, Jr The Skeptic's Dictionary A Dictionary of Saints Days, Fasts, Feasts and Festivals Confessions of an Economic Hit Man 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 Lonely Planet Australia Prehistory of Australia 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 Celtic Folklore Cooking 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

Hogueras de San Juan: The bonfires of San Juan, Alicante, Spain (Jun 20 - 28) Tradition says that the night of San Juan is a magical one and anyone swimming in the sea or who washes his/her face with sea water at the stroke of midnight will preserve eternal beauty.  Alicante is famous for its Summer Solstice week bonfires, the 'bonfires of San Juan', which, although they do not culminate until June 28, reach a climax on the feast day of St John the Baptist. Tonight is called Nit del Foc, and following a huge palmera (a firework display that can be seen all over the city) at St Barbara Castle, the monuments that have been paraded this week are fuel for the cremà or bonfires. "The 'cremá', or burning, is the big day of the festival, held on 24 June, the feast night of St John the Baptist, a farewell ceremony. At midnight from the top of Mount Benacantil, commanded by the imposing Santa Barbara Castle, a monumental display of white fireworks looking like a palm tree signals the beginning of the 'cremá', and hundreds of adult bonfires and children's bonfires surrounding their respective 'barracas' are set to the torch.  [Alicante will be amass in flames, and people will dance and sing, or perhaps shed a tear ...] Around the official bonfire installed in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, hundreds of young people will defy the heat of the flames with the help of the local firemen, who douse them with water, producing what is known as the typical 'banyá' or 'bath'. Meanwhile the gentle sea breeze will cool the city, as poetically described in the official Bonfire Hymn in the Valencian vernacular: 'A la llum de les fogueres, s'abaniquen les palmeres' (In the light of the bonfires, the palm trees wave). "On 25 June the city slowly gets back to normal, looking like nothing has happened the night before, despite all the flames. But in fact the fiesta continues. People find new strength to go on, with new attractions in the town: along the narrow streets and tiny plazas of the old town quarter, a medieval marketplace is set up to sell decorative objects, fashion jewellery and typical food and drink from the region, offering puppet shows and traditional music. At night, as of twelve o'clock, there are fireworks displays, continuing up to 29 June, the feast day of St Peter, when the bonfire action finishes for the year. [People flock to the Postiguet beach to stand beside the sea and watch the beautiful fireworks competitions staged by renowned national and foreign pyrotechnic companies.] Following these displays, bright hundred-metre-long strings of firecrackers are set off along the nearby Gómiz promenade."   Source     Rites of Ishtar and Tammuz, Babylon (Jun 23 - 24) In the Syrian and Graeco-Roman traditions, rites of Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus and Adonis. Festival of the Burning of the Lamps, ancient Egypt Egyptian mythology: A festival held in the city of Sais (Greek Zau) in the temple of Isis, known also in the guises of Athena and Neith. Priestesses and priests assembled with initiates in an underground chapel beneath the main temple, carrying lamps and marching in a procession around a wooden coffin for the god Osiris, symbolising the life-giving power of the moon, that Isis could rekindle life in the dead god's body. Feast day of Fors Fortuna, ancient Rome Proclaimed on behalf of the goddess of good fortune by Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, because he dedicated a shrine to Fors Fortuna beside the Tiber, outside the city of Rome, in the month of June. Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days     The well-dressing, Buxton, England   In1840, the Duke of Devonshire improved the water facilities of Buxton, supplying water at his own expense. Today, the people decorate the wells annually. The day is a holiday, with bands playing. The pinnacles of the bath house are festooned with bunting and wreaths of laurel. There are two wells at Buxton, including St Anne's Well (pictured) and when they are dressed, hundreds of flowers spell out slogans such as (in the 19th century) 'Life, Love, Liberty and Truth' or make tableaux such as biblical scenes. There is traditional morris dancing at the well-flowering. "The earliest recordings of Well Dressings, rather than offerings, date back to around the time of the Black Death (1348-49) when Tissington (one of the local villages) escaped the ravages of the disease. This was put down to the purity of their drinking water and as such the villagers "dressed" the wells with foliage as a measure of their gratitude."   Source     Click for full image of St Anne's Well, decorated Sacred wells and springs at the Scriptorium   More Zuni Corn Dance Native American rites for fertility and propitious weather to grow the maize, bean, and squash crops. The witches' night, old England The old chronicler Aubrey writes: "'Tis Midsommer-night, or Midsommer-eve (St Jo. Baptist) is counted or called the witches night ... of the breaking of hen-egges this night, in which they may see what their future will be.'"  (John Aubrey, The Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme [1686 - 87], London, 1881, 133) Watching march "The guard of civilians enrolled in mediaeval London to keep order in the streets on the Vigils of St Peter and St John the Baptist during the festivities; used also of the festivities themselves." Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988   Inti Raymi, Incan Winter Solstice Festival of the Sun, Sacsayhuaman, Cuzco, Peru (Jun 24 - Jul 2) Inti Raymi is a major Incan festival of the Winter Solstice, and the main festival of Peru, also celebrated as the Day of the Indian throughout Peru. It was reinstituted in 1944 and integrated with Dia del Cuzco, a local festivity. It is now the second largest festival in South America and hundreds of thousands of people converge on Cuzco from all over Peru, South America and the world for a nine-day celebration. In the original celebrations, the Incas invoked their mythical ancestors in their order of importance, beginning with the 'Hacedor', the 'Creator', called Viracocha and Pachacamac, followed by the Sun. This page is an excellent resource for more information.   Pictured above: Inka Marka photographed in Coffs Harbour, Australia. They're all Aussies from many lands and play great South American music, including a beautiful song for Peru's Winter Solstice Festival of the Sun. They very graciously permitted me to take their photo and I told them I would put it on my site and recommend that people get hold of their CDs. Wianki, Festival of Floating Wreaths, Poland (Jun 23 - 24) Feast day of St Amphibalus Feast day of St Bartholomew of Farne (of Dunelm; of Durham) Feast day of St Faustus and Companions Feast day of St Germoc Feast day of St Henry Feast day of St Heros Feast day of St Ivan Feast day of St John of Tuy Feast day of St Jean (John the Baptist), Voudon (Voodoo) Feast day of St John of the Divination, Greek Macedonia Feast day of St Joseph Yuen Feast day of St Kundegunda Feast day of the Martyrs of Rome under Nero Feast day of St Orentius Feast of Seven Brothers (Orthodox Christian Church) Orentius, Pharnacius, Eros, Firmus, Firminus, Kyriakos and Longinus. The Roman Catholic Church has a different set of Seven Brothers on July 10 (qv). Feast day of St Theodulphus Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Laulupidu, National Singing Festival, Tallin, Estonia, every five years Niman Kachina, Hopi Pueblo (Jun 19 - 29) Festival of San Juan, Coria, Spain (Jun 23 - 27) The San Juan or Mother of God Festivals, Soria, Spain (Jun 23 - 27) Feast day of Rosa Mundi, Rose of the World, Theosophy and Rosicrucian A day for meditating on the Mother Goddess. What is the Goddess Calendar? One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish Calendar Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Labrador (celebrating the 1497 discovery by John Cabot) Fête nationale du Québec, also called St-Jean-Baptiste Day Bannockburn Day, Scotland (see 1314 below) Feast of Rahmat (Mercy), Bahá'í Faith – First day of the sixth month of the Bahá'í Calendar One of the Quarter days of England Original Midsummer's Eve in Finland and Sweden, although the official holiday is now moved to the nearest Friday   Procession of the minstrels, Chester, UK The ancient noble family of Dutton at Chester took its name from a small township near Frodshaw, which was purchased for a coat of mail and a charger, a palfrey and a sparrowhawk, by Hugh the grandson of Odard, son of Ivron, Viscount of Constantine, one of William the Conqueror's Norman knights.  During the midsummer fair [there was an amnesty for criminals at the two fairs (Midsummer and Michaelmas) – PW], Ranulph de Blundeville, Earl of Chester, was besieged in his castle of Rhuddlan, by the yet unsubdued Welsh. When John Lacy, constable of Chester heard this, he called together the minstrels from the fair, plus all the ruffians who were hanging about the fair, and under command of Hugh Dutton they scared off the Welsh. The Earl gave the captain (Dutton) jurisdiction over the minstrels forever. Every year the minstrels had to appear before the Lord of Dutton. On this day for centuries, until 1756, minstrels assembled in Eastgate Street. The Lord of Dutton's banner hung from whatever place he was staying; this is where court was held. A drummer went round town collecting people and informing all of the venue and time. At 11 am there was a procession: first several musicians, then two trumpeters, in "gorgeous attire", as Chambers* puts it, then the rest of the  minstrelsy with their white napkins on shoulders, and a banner was carried.  After them came the higher ranks, the Lord of Duttton's steward bearing a white wand. Then the Lord himself paraded by. They processed to the Church of St John the Baptist for a sermon, followed by a feast. A jury was empanelled to inquire into any treason against the sovereign or Dutton, or if a minstrel had played without a licence, or any other misdemeanour.   * Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days   Egg-shell hanging: some Rhineland villages in Germany A large cascade of eggs (Eierkrone), generally crown-shaped, is hung up in the street by two white-clad youths at midsummer, where it stays until crop harvested.  At Beuel-Kuedinghoven, a village near Bonn, the eggs are collected by bachelors.  These festivals are called Kirmis in the north and Kerwe further south. They are common in the Rhineland. There are inter-village competitions for the best Eierkrone. Bendorf men hold the record for the biggest in central Rhineland (as of 1971). In 1955 their bell was made of 25,000 eggs. In the Netherlands, one known to have existed in 1453. But it is believed by some that these were originally Springtime fertility rites which shifted to midsummer over the centuries. Newall, Venetia, An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971, 116   Omelette making, Dauphiné former province, France Eggs collected at Easter were made into an omelette at dawn today. The Rose Rent, Leicester, England "Each year on this day, the landlord of the Crown and Thistle, a pub in Leicester, pays an unusual rent to the city's mayor: four old pence and a single rose. There is a similar 'rose rent' custom at London's Mansion House."   Source American Radio Relay League, Field Day 2006 Battle of Carabobo Day, Venezuela (1821)       On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1519 Theodore Beza (Theodore de Beze or de Besze) (d. October 13, 1605), French Protestant Christian theologian and scholar who played an important role in the early Reformation. He was closely associated with Calvinism. He lived most of his adult life in Switzerland. 1542 St John of the Cross, mystical Spanish poet (Spiritual Canticle) (feast day December 14) 1777 John Ross (d. 1856), naval officer and explorer 1795 Ernst Heinrich Weber (d. 1878), anatomist and physiologist 1803 George James Webb, composer   1813 Henry Ward Beecher (d. March 8, 1887), American abolitionist, and advocate of women's suffrage and temperance; younger brother of Uncle Tom's Cabin novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe. Beecher-Tilton Affair From Wikipedia: In the highly publicized scandal known as the Beecher-Tilton Affair he was tried on charges that he had committed adultery with a friend's wife, Elizabeth Tilton. In 1870, Elizabeth had confessed to her husband, Theodore Tilton, that she had had a relationship with Henry Ward Beecher. Tilton was then fired from his job at the Independent because of his editor's fears of adverse publicity. Theodore and Henry both pressured Elizabeth to recant her story, which she did, in writing. She subsequently retracted her recantation. The charges became public when Theodore Tilton told Elizabeth Cady Stanton that his wife, Elizabeth, had confessed to a "free love" relationship with Henry Ward Beecher. Stanton repeated the story to Victoria Woodhull and Isabella Beecher Hooker. Victoria became angry, as Henry Ward Beecher had publicly denounced her advocacy of free love. She published a story in her paper (Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly) on November 2, 1872, claiming that America's most renowned clergyman was secretly practicing the free-love doctrines which he denounced from the pulpit. The story created a national sensation. As a result, Victoria was arrested in New York City and imprisoned for sending obscene material through the mail. The Plymouth Church held a board of inquiry and exonerated Beecher, but excommunicated Mr. Tilton in 1873. Tilton then sued Beecher: the trial began in January 1875, and ended in July when the jurors deliberated for six days but were unable to reach a verdict. A second board of enquiry was held at Plymouth Church and this body also exonerated Beecher. Two years later, Elizabeth Tilton once again confessed to the affair and the church excommunicated her. Despite this Beecher continued to be a popular national figure. Mr Tilton's statement    Article on Beecher-Tilton Scandal Susan B Anthony's Statement about the scandal    Early progressives in the Book of Days   1842 Ambrose Bierce (d. 1913 or 1914, speculative), American author noted for his cynical epigrams (The Devil's Dictionary). A fictional account of his last days is related in Old Gringo (1989) by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes (adapted to screen in 1989, directed by Luis Puenzo, starring Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck). Bierce's twelve-volume Collected Works were published in 1912. In October 1913 the septuagenarian went to Mexico, then in the throes of revolution, to join the army of Pancho Villa. His wrote a last letter on December 26, 1913 and was expecting to travel to the Battle of Ojinaga. He disappeared; subsequent investigations to ascertain his fate were fruitless and his disappearance remains a mystery. "One of the many ironies about Bierce is that he detested William Randolph Hearst, his employer. Hearst, who owned extensive hacienda lands in northern Mexico, had been involved in intrigues that were calculated to reestablish the pre-revolutionary dictatorship. Bierce had written a lengthy exposé of the newspaper magnate but, not wanting to embarrass Hearst's aging mother, a woman the writer admired very much, he stored the manuscript with the manager of a Laredo, Texas, hotel for safekeeping before he went to Mexico. Bierce, it seems evident, intended to return for the material at a later date and then submit it for publication. However (and this complicates the puzzle), before the manuscript could be recovered by Bierce's representatives in 1914 or 1915, it vanished from the hotel, never to reappear! This issue raises the question of the possibility of Hearst's involvement in the confiscation of the manuscript by some means, and even of the possibility of some complicity on the part of Hearst, or of his henchmen, in the final disappearance Bierce."   Source The Devil's Dictionary was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in covers with the title The Cynic's Word Book, a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve. To quote the publishers of the present work: "This more reverent title had previously been forced upon him by the religious scruples of the last newspaper in which a part of the work had appeared, with the natural consequence that when it came out in covers the country already had been flooded by its imitators with a score of 'cynic' books – The Cynic's This, The Cynic's That, and The Cynic's t'Other. Most of these books were merely stupid, though some of them added the distinction of silliness. Among them, they brought the word 'cynic' into disfavor so deep that any book bearing it was discredited in advance of publication." Source: Preface, The Devil's Dictionary, Copyright 1911 by Albert and Charles Boni, Inc. A public domain text, copyright expired Some links    Filmography at IMDB    The Ambrose Bierce Site Ambrose Bierce: Master of the Macabre    The Devil's Dictionary online The Devil's Dictionary, at AmericanLiterature.com    The Devil's Dictionary, at Project Gutenberg Can Such Things Be?, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library Can Such Things Be?, Project Gutenberg    Fantastic Fables, at Project Gutenberg The Damned Thing    An Inhabitant of Carcosa    Moxon's Master My Favorite Murder    An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge    Bierce Appreciation Society   1848 Albert Parsons, radical American editor and printer, former Confederate soldier, husband of radical labor organizer and anarchist (later Communist), Lucy Parsons (1853 - 1942). He was one of the anarchists unjustly accused of and executed November 11, 1887 (amid international protest) for the Haymarket bombing in Chicago, USA. If the world must lose eight of its people, it can better afford to lose the eight members of the Illinois Supreme Court. George Bernard Shaw Haymarket chronology     Evidence from the Haymarket affair   Early progressives in the Book of Days    Haymarket Affair Downunder 1850 Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum (d. 1916), British Secretary for War in World War I, original Order of Merit member   1860 (?) Robert Bradford Williams (d. 1942), African-American-New Zealander lawyer (Class of 1885, Yale), born a slave in Georgia. He was a 'black minstrel' in Australia for a lengthy period beginning in the late 1880s, a colleague of Orpheus Myron McAdoo in the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Williams later became the longest-serving Mayor of Onslow, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. "He graduated from Yale in 1885, and from 1886 to 1889 travelled in England, Australia and New Zealand with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. During this period he studied law and was admitted to practice in New Zealand in 1889, and was a lawyer in Wellington until 1910, and then elsewhere. Listed among his credits are his Judgeship and his being the Mayor of a suburb of Wellington. His granddaughter and great-grandchildren still live in New Zealand ... Robert Williams died in New Zealand in 1942 ..."   Source "ROBERT BRADFORD WILLIAMS bn 24 June 1860 Augusta, GA. and his parents AIKEN WILLIAMS bn abt 1843 and JANE BRUCE? bn abt 1842. In 1880 census the family excluding Robert was in Richmond, GA.along with Aiken's parents GEORGE WILLIAMS bn abt 1809 and LUCRETIA bn abt 1810. Robert Bradford would have been attending Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. at time of census but unable to find record. What school did he attend in Georgia? ... "   Source Do you have any more information on minstrels, such as Williams, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Virginia Jubilee Singers and Orpheus Myron McAdoo, as they pertain to Australia? If so, I am interested – please contact your almanackist. Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson The Jubilee Singers (PBS)    George Leonard White, Jubilee Singers' musical director The Story of the Jubilee Singers, Hodder & Stoughton, 1876 Fisk Timeline    Jubilee Songs    More    More    More    And more    Yet more Citizenship Over Race?: African Americans in American-South African Diplomacy, 1890-1925   1869 Mary Ellen 'Mammy' Pleasant, abolitionist, named Voodoo Queen of San Francisco who detested the nickname 'Mammy' More 1882 Carl Diem (d. 1962), sports scientist 1883 Victor Franz Hess, American physicist 1888 Gerrit Rietveld (d. 1964), Dutch architect 1901 Harry Partch (d. 1974), microtonal composer 1909 David Rose (d. 1990), composer, musician 1915 Professor Fred Hoyle (d. 2001), British cosmologist and science fiction author 1928 Wolfgang Altenburg, German general 1930 Claude Chabrol, French nouvelle vague (new wave) film director 1942 Mick Fleetwood, musician with Anglo-American blues/rock band Fleetwood Mac 1942 Michele Lee, actress 1944 Chris Wood, rock musician 1944 Jeff Beck, rock guitarist (Yardbirds) 1945 Colin Blunstone, English pop singer/songwriter, vocalist (The Zombies) 1945 George Pataki, Governor of New York 1953 Garry Shider, musician (P Funk) 1970 Glenn Medeiros, Hawaiian singer-songwriter 1986 Solange Knowles, actress, singer   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 Typewriter Day [ Jun 23 ] Birthdays Swim Day [ Jun 24 ] Flying Saucer Day [ Jun 24 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Dragon Boat Festival (China) Varies Graduation June 21 Summer Solstice 23 Typewriter Day 24 Flying Saucer Day 24 Swim Day 24 Blueberry Festival ((New Jersey, USA) 24 Feast Of John The Baptist 25 Strawberry Parfait Day 25 Leon Day 26 Chocolate Pudding Day 26 Beauticians' Day 27 Sunglasses Day 28 Treaty Day 29 Remote Control Day 30 Sky Day 30 Meteorite Day July 1 Canada Day 1 International Joke Day 2 I Forgot Day 2 Mullet Day 2 Violin Lovers' Day 3 Chocolate Wafer Day 3 Eat Beans Day 3 Air Conditioning Day 4 Fourth of July (USA) 4 Barbecue Day 4 Country Music Day 5 Workaholics Day 7 Chocolate Day 7 Macaroni Day 7 Tanabata 7 Father And Daughter Take A Walk Together 8 Ice Cream Sundae Day 8 Be A Kid Day 8 Milk Chocolate With Almonds Day 8 Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Omelette Day 9 Rock N' Roll Day 9 Sugar Cookie Day 9 Barn Day 9 Martyrdom Of The Báb   ... 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   1128 Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães. Portuguese forces led by Afonso I defeated his mother D Teresa and D Fernão Peres de Trava. After this battle, the future king called himself 'Prince of Portugal', the first step towards "official independence" in 1143. 1314 Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeated those of Edward II of England. Scotland regained its independence.    England's royal garter a witches' badge? 1348 The exact day is not known, but some time between this day and August 6, King Edward III of England (1312 - '77) instituted the Order of the Garter, with St George as the patron. During a festival at court, a lady happened to drop her garter. King Edward picked it up, and noticed that the others were giggling. He said, with displeasure, "Honi soit qui mal y pense" – "Shame to him who thinks ill of it". In the spirit of gallantry, perhaps to prevent any further impertinence, he put the garter around his own knee. Or, so it is said. Traditionally, the lady was the Countess of Salisbury. The garter was an object of note in the year preceding June 24, 1348. Garters with the motto embroidered on were common, as were banners and couches with the motif, and a surcoat provided to the king in 1348 was covered with garters. The Australian folklorist, Rabbi Dr Rudolph Brasch, says the story is hardly convincing. "Fourteenth-century ladies, even those attending royal functions, were not so finicky or modest that the mere loss of a garter would have caused them to blush or feel uncomfortable," he writes. The choice of the garter may also owe something to the princess's girdle in the article on St George in The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda, 1275), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, which she used to lead the monster once St George had speared it with his lance. British anthropologist and folklorist, Margaret Murray (1863 - 1963), advanced a different theory. In the14th Century the garter symbolized witches. To lose it was to give away her allegiance to Satan and was an acute danger. Her very life was threatened. By making light of it, the king was protecting her honour, saving her life. By picking up the garter, King Edward was showing his confidence that she was not a witch. Perhaps.   Dudleys Who Were in the Order of the Garter    More    And more   1374 At Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Midsummer dancing madness on a large scale broke out.  1398 Death of the Hongwu Emperor of China (b. 1328), founder of the Ming Dynasty. 1439 Death of Frederick IV of Austria, Regent of Tyrol and Further Austria. 1441 Eton College was founded. 1497 North America: John Cabot (real name Giovanni Caboto), a Venetian navigator in the service of the English King Henry VII, landed on either at Newfoundland or Cape Breton; the first European discovery of the region since the Vikings. 1497 Cornish 'traitors' Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank were executed at Tyburn, London. 1502 The Perpetual Peace – the peace began on this day between England and Scotland. Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, was betrothed to James IV of Scotland. The treaty concluded when in 1513 the Scots invaded England. 1509 Henry VIII was crowned King of England. 1519 Death of Lucrezia Borgia (b. 1480), duchess of Ferrara. 1527 Basel, Switzerland: Paracelsus (1493-1541), Swiss alchemist and physician, burned the books of Galen and Avicenna. " … on June 24, 1527, surrounded by a crowd of cheering students, he burned the books of Avicenna, the Arab 'Prince of Physicians,' and those of the Greek physician Galen, in front of the university."   Source More   More on the philosophers' stone   More on Paracelsus    And more on Paraclesus Alchemists in the Almanac:  Cornelius Agrippa  Roger Bacon  Count Cagliostro  John Dee Edward Kelley  Robert Fludd  Isaac Newton  Paracelsus  James Price  Tycho Brahe  Raymond Lulle   Elias Ashmole   1534 Jacques Cartier made the European discovery of Prince Edward Island. 1535 The Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and disbanded. 1596 John Stewart, Master of Orkney, charged with consulting a witch, Anne Balfour, Mistress of Ornery. 1597 The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reached Bantam (on Java). 1604 Death of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England.   1647 Margaret Brent (1601- '71) urged the women's vote before the Maryland Assembly, America. She was ejected. Brent appeared before the Maryland colonial assembly to demand a voice and vote for herself in that body. She completely shocked the all-male Assembly, which refused her the vote. Born in England in 1601, Brent and her sister in 1638 settled in Maryland, a Catholic colony founded by Lord Baltimore. She became the first woman freeholder in the colony when she was granted a 70-acre estate that she and her sister called 'Sisters Freehold'. Refusing to marry, the two sisters were the only spinsters in 17th-century Maryland. Brent's unusual stature in the community and the resulting confusion of sex roles led her to sign official documents as 'Margaret Brent, Gentleman'. Earlier the same year, Brent quelled a rebellion among soldiers by selling some of Lord Baltimore's land to pay them. In London, Baltimore objected after the fact, but the legislature defended her actions and she emerged a heroine. Source: The Daily Bleed 1662 The Dutch unsuccessfully attempted to capture Macao. 1664 The colony of New Jersey was founded. 1692 Kingston, Jamaica was founded. 1717 The formation of the Grand Lodge of English Freemasons in London. 1782 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, today saw the first recorded use of the word 'quiz', and it was not as the popular tale tells it. "The story goes that a Dublin theatre proprietor by the name of Richard Daly made a bet that he could, within forty-eight hours, make a nonsense word known throughout the city, and that the public would give a meaning to it. After the performance one evening, he gave his staff cards with the word 'quiz' written on them, and told them to write the word on walls around the city. The next day the strange word was the talk of the town, and within a short time it had become part of the language. This picturesque tale appeared as an anecdote in 1836, but the most detailed account (in F. T. Porter's Gleanings and Reminiscences, 1875) gives the date of the exploit as 1791. The word, however, was already in use by then, meaning 'an odd or eccentric person', and had been used in this sense by Fanny Burney in her diary on 24 June 1782. 'Quiz' was also used as a name for a curious toy, something like a yo-yo and also called a bandalore, which was popular around 1790. The word is nevertheless hard to account for, and so is its later meaning of 'to question, to interrogate', which emerged in the mid-19th century and gave rise to the most common use of the term today, for an entertainment based on questions and answers."   Source 1793 The first republican constitution in France was adopted. 1812 Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's invasion of Russia began. 1856 Universal male suffrage was established in South Australia. 1859 Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeated Austria in northern Italy. 1861 Tennessee became the 11th and last state to secede from the USA. 1870 Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon (b. 1833) shot himself and died at Brighton Beach, Victoria. In 1867 he went to Mt Gambier, South Australia, to live by writing and horse-training. He ran into debt from gambling, drinking and from borrowing heavily to finance a lawsuit to recover some ancestral lands in Scotland. In June, 1870 he lost his suit. He saw his last book of verses through the press on June 23, but, burdened with money worries, the next day committed suicide. From 'Doubtful dreams' By Adam Lindsay Gordon We know not whether they slumber  Who waken on earth no more, As the stars of the heights in number,  As sands on the deep sea-shore. Shall stiffness bind them, and starkness  Enthral them, by field and flood, Till "the sun shall be turn'd to darkness,  And the moon shall be turn'd to blood." Gordon poems online     The Poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson   1877 Robert Dale Owen died. He was the American social reformer/politician and son of the English reformer Robert Owen. He became steeped in his father's socialist philosophy while growing up at the New Lanark community in Scotland. Early progressives in the Book of Days 1880 The first performance of 'O Canada', the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. 1901 An exhibition by a new young painter, Pablo Picasso, opened at the Ambrose Vollard Gallery, Paris, France. 1902 King Edward VII of the United Kingdom underwent an emergency appendicectomy – one of the earliest ever performed – just two days before his proposed coronation. 1902 Struggling to meet a deadline for Blackwood's, Joseph Conrad upset an oil lamp and burned the second instalment of The End of the Tether. 1910 Japan invaded Korea. 1912 "Until the Executive Order of June 24, 1912, neither the order of the stars nor the proportions of the [American] flag was prescribed. Consequently, flags dating before this period sometimes show unusual arrangements of the stars and odd proportions, these features being left to the discretion of the flag maker. In general, however, straight rows of stars and proportions similar to those later adopted officially were used."   Source 1913 Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria. 1915 Top-heavy with too many lifeboats (required by law for her to carry), the steamer SS Eastland capsized in Chicago. Some 841 passengers and four crew members died. "SINKS IN BARELY SIX MINUTES; Great Majority of Victims Women and Children, Bound for Picnic. HUNDREDS TRAPPED BELOW Throngs Dumped from Upper Decks Into the River to Struggle and Die. CHICAGO PUTS ON MOURNING Rows of Bodies, Awaiting Identification, Fill Armory -- Heroes Not Lacking. 1,800 [sic] DROWN AS STEAMER CAPSIZES" NY Times headline 1915 Albert Jacka was awarded the first Australian VC (Victoria Cross) of World War I. 1916 Mary Pickford became the first film star to get a million-dollar contract. 1918 The first airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto. 1918 The giant cannon Big Bertha began bombardments on Paris. 1932 A military coup ended the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand). 1940 France and Italy signed an armistice. 1941 The Germans captured Vilna, Brest-Litovsk, and Kaunas. 1946 Georges Bidault became Prime Minister of France 1947 USA: The first well-publicized sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold, flying over Mt Rainier, Washington, noticed nine disc-shaped luminous discs coming from Mt Baker, flying "like speedboats on rough water". He later referred to them as "flying saucers". 1948 Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union made overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible. After the Soviets blockaded Berlin, the Allies began the Berlin Airlift and relieved the city with food and essential supplies. 1953 John F Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announced their engagement. 1963 Zanzibar was granted internal self-government by the UK. 1965 John Lennon's second book, A Spaniard in the Works was published. It went through four impressions and sold 100,000 copies within three months. Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    Bagism 1968 Tony Hancock (b. 1924), the British comedian, committed suicide in Sydney, NSW, Australia. 1971 The first 'White House Enemies List' was circulated by the staff of Special Presidential Counsel Charles Colson. 1974 The UPC label was used for the first time to ring up purchases at a supermarket. 1978 Twelve white missionaries were massacred in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). 1983 Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returned to earth. 1983 Yasir Arafat was banned from Damascus. 1983 Peaks for Peace commemorated the dead of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings with a peace plaque at the summit of Ben Nevis, Scotland. 1990 In Belfast, Ireland, two women deacons were ordained priests of the Anglican Church, the first female priests in the history of Europe. 1999 The guitar with which Eric Clapton recorded Layla was sold at auction for $US497,500. 2004 Habib Dodo, the general secretary of the Communist Youth of Côte d'Ivoire, was assassinated by pro-government forces.   Tomorrow: An Gorta Mor, the Irish Famine    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research. I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude. © My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

Tell J-9 You've Read It!

Subscribe free Almost Prophetic Quotes "Because our readers are bored  with the usual quotations"

Subscribe free Wilson's Almanac Illustrated free daily ezine "Think universally. Act terrestrially."