Carpe diem!

26

Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search

Open links in a New Window

Today is

Ich bin ein Berliner.
USA President John F Kennedy, on this day in 1963, in a speech in Germany  

Wally, what is this? It is death, my boy. They have deceived me.
King George IV of the United Kingdom, to his page, Sir Walthen Waller. Last words, June 26, 1830. George IV died of diseases associated with his addiction to alcohol.

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.
Pearl S Buck, American Nobel Prize-winning novelist, born on June 26, 1892

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.
Pearl S Buck

Marree Man, South Australia, discovered on June 26, 1998

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

The Elements of Ritual

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

Fasti
Roman calendar lore, by Ovid

Holiday Symbols

Holidays and Anniversaries of the World

Secrets and Lies

Come September
By Arundhati Roy

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

Prehistory of Australia

The Spiritual Traveler

After Hamelin

The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro

Sun Goddess

The Da Vinci Code

Daily Everything

A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore

Architects of Peac

True History of the Kelly Gang

Ned Kelly
Heath Ledger

UFOs

Are We Alone in the Universe?

Hitler's Flying Saucers

The Twelfth Planet

Flying Saucers 101

 
The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries

The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries

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

Mother Earth Spirituality

Wheel of the Year

Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

The United Nations Day in Support of Victims of Torture

"This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world."
Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General

"Torture is one of the most profound human rights abuses, taking a terrible toll on millions of individuals and their families. Rape, blows to the soles of the feet, suffocation in water, burns, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, shaking and beating are commonly used by torturers to break down an individual's personality. As terrible as the physical wounds are, the psychological and emotional scars are usually the most devastating and the most difficult to repair. Many torture survivors suffer recurring nightmares and flashbacks. They withdraw from family, school and work and feel a loss of trust."   Source

US admits using torture

'We wrote this cookbook to show how well these people are treated'

US acknowledges torture at Guantanamo; in Iraq, Afghanistan - UN

Amnesty International to hold demonstration against torture

More torture news from Google News    More

Entrance of Centre Earth, Icelandic legend
"According to ancient Icelandic legend, every year at noon on the date, the tip of the shadow of Mount Scartaris points to the secret entrance of 'Centre Earth', in which dwell giant humanlike creatures and prehistoric monsters."

Source

Feast day of St Andrea Giacinto Longhin

Feast day of St Anthelm, Bishop of Bellay, confessor

Feast day of St Babolen, abbot in France

Feast day of St Corbican

Feast day of St David

Feast day of St Hermogius

Feast day of St Jane Gerard

Feast day of Ss John and Paul, martyrs in Rome under Julian the Apostate

Feast day of St John of the Goths

Feast day of St Josemaria Escriva

Feast day of St Marie Magdalen Fontaine

Feast day of St Maxentius, abbot in Poitou

Feast day of St Pelagius

Feast day of St Perseveranda

Feast day of the Venerable Raingarda of Auvergne, widow
(Blue sowthistle, Sonchus ceruleus, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St Salvius

Feast day of St Terence

Feast day of St Teresa Fantou

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Feast for the Shemsu of Heru (Shemsu-Hor), ancient Egypt

Niman Kachina, Hopi Pueblo (Jun 19 - 29)

The bonfires of San Juan, Alicante, Spain (Jun 20 - 28)

Festival of San Juan, Coria, Spain (Jun 23 - 27)

The San Juan or Mother of God Festivals, Soria, Spain (Jun 23 - 27)

Alexandra Rose Day, UK
Inaugurated on June 26, 1912, by Queen Alexandra, Danish-born wife of Britain's King Edward VII. Rose emblems are sold to raise funds for hospitals. The original date was the fiftieth anniversary of the queen's arrival in England. Still today roses are sold in Britain on a day in June.

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (UN)

Commemorates Lin Zexu's efforts against the opium trade in Humen,Guangdong, People's Republic of China just before the Opium War. (June 3, the day on which Lin confiscated crates of opium, is celebrated as Anti-Smoking Day in the Republic of China in Taiwan.)

"In 1987, the UN General Assembly decided to observe 26 June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse."   Source

Feast of the Shepherds, Aragon, Spain
The head sheep is clown for the day; music, dancing and clowning all afternoon, and in the evening people do whatever they please.
Source: The Daily Bleed

Pershore fair day, UK
Traditionally the last day that one will hear cuckoos. See Fair-day of Tenbury, Worcestershire, UK, April 20.

Flag Day, Romania

Independence Day, Madagascar

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

1653 Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, chief minister of France under Louis XV

1824 Lord Kelvin (d. 1907), physicist, inventor of the Kelvin temperature scale

1839 Emma Miller (d. January 22, 1917), pioneer Australian trade union organizer, suffragist, foundation president of the Woman's Equal Franchise Association between 1894 and 1905, and a founder of the Australian Labor Party in Brisbane, Queensland. On February 2, 1912 (qv) she famously stuck a hatpin in a horse ridden by the Queensland Police Commissioner, Patrick Cahill, causing him to be thrown and injured.

"On 2 February 1912, known as Black Friday, at the height of a general strike, Miller led a contingent of women to Parliament House, avoiding police with fixed bayonets. The women were charged by baton swinging police on their return from Parliament House. Miller reputedly stuck her hatpin into a horse ridden by the Police Commissioner, Patrick Cahill. Cahill fell from his horse and claimed to have been permanently injured. Direct political action was not Miller's only cause. She was anti-militarist and opposed conscription in World War I. She believed that 'those who make the quarrel should be the only ones to fight'. As vice-president of the Women's Peace Army, Miller attended the Peace Alliance Conference in Melbourne in 1916. She also fought hard for free speech and civil liberties. During the First World War, Miller preached equal pay to those fearing that women would take the jobs of men away at the war."   Source

A world chronology of women's suffrage     Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson 

1854 Robert Laird Borden, eighth Prime Minister of Canada

1865 Bernard Berenson (d. 1959), art connoisseur

1892 Pearl S Buck (d. March 6, 1973), American Nobel Prize-winning novelist (1938), the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, with her novel The Good Earth.

"Pearl was forced to flee China in 1934 due to political tensions. She returned to the United States, and obtained a divorce from her husband. She would then marry Richard J Walsh, president of the John Day Publishing Company, and adopt six other children. In 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, after writing biographies of her parents, The Exile, and The Fighting Angel.

"In her lifetime, Pearl S Buck would write over 100 works of literature, her most known being The Good Earth. She wrote novels, short stories, fiction, and children's stories. Many of her life experiences are related to or in her books. She wanted to prove to her readers that universality of mankind can exist if they accept it. She dealt with many topics including women, emotions (in general), Asians, immigration, adoption, and conflicts that many people go through in life."   Source

1898 Willy Messerschmitt (d. 1978), German aircraft designer, best known for his planes flown in World War II

1899 Maria Nikolaevna Romanova (d. 1918), daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia

1904 Peter Lorre (d. March 23, 1964), born Lazlo Lowenstein, Hungarian-born Hollywood actor (The Man Who Knew Too Much; Crime and Punishment; Casablanca).

At age 21 he moved to Berlin and caught the attention of German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Lorre became famous when Fritz Lang cast him as the child killer in M in 1931. Scenes from that film were re-used by the Nazi propaganda agencies in the anti-Semitic movie Der ewige Jude.

According to IMDB, "During the Hayes Commission investigation of 'reds' in Hollywood during the late 40s, Lorre was interviewed by investigators and asked to name anyone suspicious he had met since coming to the United States. Lorre responded with a list of everyone he knew".

Lorre's caricature was frequently used in Warner Brothers cartoons, and his persona was used as the basis of the character Flat Top in the 1961 Dick Tracy Show cartoons.

"In the last decade of his career, Lorre – whom Charlie Chaplin and others had once called the 'world's greatest actor' – was reduced to playing character parts or cameo roles, as in 'Around the World in Eighty Days' (1956, along with Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, and what seems to be hundreds of other film stars of the day!). He also played some comedy roles, as in 'Comedy of Terrors' (1964) with Boris Karloff, and he enjoyed doing radio mysteries, for which his distinct nasal voice was well suited."   Source 

1909 Colonel Tom Parker (d. 1997), manager of Elvis Presley.

Parker claimed to have been born in Huntington, West Virginia, on June 26, 1909. But the rather iconoclastic author, Albert Goldman, in his unauthorised biography Elvis, claims that the Colonel was in fact born Andre van Kuijk in Breda, southern Holland, and entered the USA illegally. It was claimed that Parker never owned a credit card (possibly to avoid credit checks that might expose his lack of genuine ID), and had no passport.

1912 Jay Silverheels (d. 1980), Canadian Mohawk Indian actor, best known for his many appearances as the Lone Ranger's friend Tonto

1919 Richard Neustadt, political historian

1925 Pavel Belyayev (d. 1970), cosmonaut

1929 June Bronhill (d. January 24, 2005), Australian soprano opera singer

1933 Claudio Abbado, conductor

1936 Robert Maclennan, British politician

1943 Klaus von Klitzing, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1985

1956 Chris Isaak, pop singer

1964 Zeng Jinlian (born Hunan, China; d. February 13, 1982), who became the tallest known woman at 241.3 cm (8'1")

1970 Chris O'Donnell, actor

1980 Jason Schwartzman, actor

 

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 Pets Birthdays Anniversary Encourage/Inspire

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
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

 

363 CE Roman emperor Julian the Apostate (Julianus 'Apostata' – so named because he was the first emperor since Constantine the Great to reject Christianity), died of spear wounds sustained in battle with the Persians in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Modern Neo-Pagans (particularly reconstructionists) sometimes refer to him as 'Julian the Faithful', in direct opposition to the pejorative epithet 'the Apostate'.

Portrait gallery of Roman emperors with brief biographies    More

684 Benedict II became Pope.

 

1284 This is one of numerous dates claimed for the day that the Pied Piper (Rattenfänger) led the children of Hamelin, Germany, into a mountain cave. See July 22, 1376 for the tale.

A German version of the tale seems to have survived in a 1602/1603 inscription found in Hamelin in the Rattenfängerhaus (Pied Piper's, or Ratcatcher's house):

Anno 1284 am dage Johannis et Pauli
war der 26. junii
Dorch einen piper mit allerlei farve bekledet
gewesen CXXX kinder verledet binnen Hamelen gebo[re]n
to calvarie bi den koppen verloren  

which has been roughly translated into English as:

In the year of 1284, on John's and Paul's day
was the 26th of June
By a piper, dressed in all kinds of colours,
130 children born in Hamelin were seduced
and lost at the place of execution near the Koppen.   (Source)

Read on at the Pied Piper page in the Scriptorium

 

1409 Western Schism: The Catholic church was led into a double schism as Petros Philargos was crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.

1483 Richard III became king of England.

1541 The Spanish conqueror of Peru, Francisco Pizarro (born c. 1475), was assassinated in his own home by followers of  another adventurer, Diego de Almagro (1475 - 1538), whom Pizarro had executed.

Greed, gold and God: Pizarro and the Battle of Cajamarca

1794 The Battle of Fleurus (1794) (so named to distinguish it from at least two other Battles of Fleurus), in which the Austrians were defeated by the French.

1819 The bicycle was patented.

1830 William IV took the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the death of his elder brother, King George IV. The cause of George's death, aged 68, was given as a combination of  rupture of the stomach blood vessels, alcoholic cirrhosis, gout, nephritis and dropsy. However, by the time of his coronation he was seriously overweight and possibly addicted to laudanum as well as showing some signs of the insanity that had affected his father, King George III. Lake George, located in New South Wales, Australia, is named after him, and is just as crazy.

List of British monarchs, at Wikipedia

1846 UK: Repeal of the hated Corn Laws. These laws, in force between 1815 and 1846, were import tariffs ostensibly designed to protect British farmers and landowners, against competition from cheap foreign grain imports.

In reality, according to Prof. David Cody, they

"... were designed to protect English landholders by encouraging the export and limiting the import of corn when prices fell below a fixed point. They were eventually abolished in the face of militant agitation by the Anti-Corn Law League, formed in Manchester in 1839, which maintained that the laws, which amounted to a subsidy, increased industrial costs. After a lengthy campaign, opponents of the law finally got their way in 1846 – a significant triumph which was indicative of the new political power of the English middle class."

 

1857 At a ceremony in Hyde Park, London, 62 servicemen became the first recipients of the Victoria Cross, presented by Queen Victoria.

1880 The Kelly Gang (led by bushranger Ned Kelly) executed police informer Aaron Sherritt near Beechworth, Victoria, Australia. The gang's demise came on June 28.

The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey    Ned Kelly's Last Stand in the Scriptorium

1893 USA: Imprisoned Haymarket anarchists (Neebe, Fielden, and Schwab) not already hanged by the state of Illinois the previous day were pardoned by Illinois governor, John Peter Altgeld. The show trial and convictions were a travesty, but this effectively ended his political career.

The Dramas of Haymarket    Haymarket chronology    Evidence from the Haymarket affair

The Physiognomy of the Anarchists    More in the Book of Days

1894 Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) founded the movement for Indian rights, South Africa.

African resources

1894 The American Railway Union, headed by Eugene V Debs (1855 - 1926), refused to handle Pullman cars, in solidarity with Pullman strikers.

1909 The Victoria and Albert Museum opened in London.

1913 Emily Dawson became the first female magistrate in London.

1917 One million American troops under General John Pershing arrived in France to assist the Allies in their war against Germany.

1924 American occupying forces left the Dominican Republic.

1926 Death of Nelson Illingworth (b. August, 1862), English-born Australian sculptor and colourful bohemian, one of the seven heptarchs of the Dawn and Dusk Club of which Henry Lawson was a member around 1898.

Illingworth was born in Portsmouth, England, studied at the Lambeth art school and worked as a modeller at the Royal Doulton potteries. He emigrated to Sydney in 1892, and in 1895 his head of an Australian aboriginal was bought for the National Art Gallery in Sydney. Other busts were purchased for the same gallery in 1896 and 1900.

There is speculation that Hannah Thornburn, loved by Lawson, was one of his models and that Lawson met her through him. At Papawai pa, New Zealand, Illingworth erected a monument in 1911, to the memory of Hamuera Tamahau Mahupuku, a distinguished chief of Ngati-Kahungunu.

It was Illingworth who made the death mask of Lawson which is in the Mitchell Library, Sydney (though there is still debate whether the mask was made in the writer's life or death). Illingworth also sculpted a bust of Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, and one of Sir Henry Parkes (the 'Father of Federation'). Illingworth was also something of a composer. Henry and Bertha Lawson stayed with Illingworth's parents for some weeks when they arrived in London. He was preparing models for the Henry Lawson statue competition when he died suddenly on June 26, 1926.

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

 

1930 Joseph Stalin announced that his purges, in which many thousands of people were tortured and killed, were 'purifying' the Soviet Union.

1937 The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of Britain, married American divorcee Wallis Simpson in France.

1940 Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union asked in an ultimatum to Romania for Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina.

1945 The charter of the United Nations was signed by delegates of 50 nations at San Francisco. Australian statesman Herbert Vere Evatt ('Doc' Evatt) was instrumental in the charter's establishment.

1948 The Western allies commenced an air lift to Berlin after the Soviet Union had blockaded West Berlin.

 

1959 In perhaps the best documented and most celebrated UFO experience of all time, Australian missionary Father William Booth Gill and the entire staff and clients of an Anglican Mission at Boianai, in the former Australian colony of Papua New Guinea, saw an aerial disc-shaped object and exchanged waves with four passengers on board. The 'close encounters' carried over into the next two days.

For some time, a spate of alleged UFO sightings had been reported by numerous people around the mission, and Gill's colleague Rev. Norman EG Cruttwell had been keeping records and interviewing witnesses, while Father Gill himself had been dubious. Even a sighting by his assistant, Stephen Gill Moi, who claimed to have seen an "inverted saucer" above the mission at 1 am on June 21, had left Gill sceptical, but the priest's doubt was not to last.

He wrote out a formal report on Moi's earlier sighting and sent it to Rev. D Druiry in the Church of England (Anglican) Missions home office in Sydney, Australia. In a postscript, Gill added, "My simple mind still requires scientific evidence before I can accept the 'from out of Space' theory … I am inclined to think that many unidentified objects are more likely to be some kind of electrical phenomenon. I prefer to wait for some bright boy to catch one and exhibit it in Martin Place [main square in Sydney – PW]."

Waving to the strangers

This new sighting, with Gill present (though why the missionary's testimony should carry more weight than those of the other witnesses is rather telling) began at around 6.45 pm on June 26 and lasted several hours, with Gill later estimating that length of the craft was similar to five full moons lined up end to end. The priest and at least 38 of his fellow-villagers saw four human-like figures moving about on the top of the object, occasionally disappearing below, and reappearing soon after. Later, Father Gill wrote:

"As we watched it 'men' came out from the object and appeared on what seemed to be a deck on top of the huge disc. There were four figures in all, but only occasionally were all on view at once."

At about 7:30 pm, the disc ascended and was lost from view in the clouds. About an hour later, smaller objects appeared in the sky; then, at about 8:50, the larger one that Father Gill later referred to as the "mother ship" reappeared, and the large body of observers watched the UFOs until about 10:50 pm, when clouds once again obstructed the view. Thirty-nine witnesses including William Gill signed documents attesting to their experience.

On the following two nights, the UFOs reappeared and stayed above the village for hours at a time. Gill records that he and his companions even waved to the occupants of the craft, and on the third night (Sunday June 28) one of mission teachers flashed a torchlight at the UFO. In response, the craft "swung like a pendulum," Father Gill wrote, "presumably in recognition ... it hovered, came quite close towards the ground ... and we actually thought it was going to land, but it did not. We were very disappointed about that."

Following his experience, the priest wrote to a friend the letter quoted at the head of this page.

Other UFOs in the general region of Papua-Niugini

Drury UFO film: On Sunday, August 23, 1953, at Port Moresby, Papua-Niugini, Flight Lieutenant Tom Drury of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) filmed a flying silver object.

Indonesian UFO sightings    UFOs over Papua-New Guinea

Out Of The Blue (UFO documentary)    More

 

1963 In a speech in in Berlin, USA President John F Kennedy spoke the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner", to one and a quarter million Germans at the Brandenburg Gate. The speech contained the following sentences:

"Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner'."

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!'."

Listen to and watch the Ich bin ein Berliner speech

It's frequently said that Kennedy's words meant that he was a jelly donut, but this seems not to be so. Wikipedia says: According to the context of the speech, Kennedy meant that he stood together with West Berliners in their struggle to maintain their freedom against communist aggression.

Jelly doughnuts are called 'Berliner' outside Berlin (but usually referred to as 'Pfannkuchen' in Berlin itself). This has led some people to believe that the phrase Kennedy uttered was amusingly ambiguous ("I am a jelly doughnut"), which is, for the most part, incorrect. While the phrase could possibly be understood that way, both the context of the quote and the fact that jelly doughnuts are not actually called 'Berliner' in Berlin made this unlikely. Normally a Berliner would say "Ich komme aus Berlin' ("I am from Berlin"), but because Kennedy wanted to emphasize the common identity among people of the "world of freedom", that usage would have been misleading. "Ich bin Berliner" (cf. "Ich bin Amerikaner", "Ich bin Deutscher" etc.) would be preferred in common usage, but "Ich bin ein Berliner" is not grammatically incorrect (especially in a larger context such as "Ich bin ein Berliner von Millionen" – "I am one Berliner among millions").

The jelly doughnut urban legend apparently arose in Florida, USA, in the 1980s and culminated in a letter to the editor to the New York Times in 1987 which claimed that the error was embarrassing and resulted in laughter. The context made the meaning very clear, though, so nobody misunderstood Kennedy when he delivered his speech. He did however pronounce the sentence with a very strong American accent, reading from his note "ish bin ine bear-LEAN-ar". Contrary to the urban legend, it was not followed by a roar of laughter. Audio and film recordings show the remark was followed by applause and cheers, as was witnessed by television audiences in Europe and the United States at the time.

"It is true that the German word Berliner can denote either a person who is a citizen of Berlin, or a particular kind of jelly-filled pastry. But look at it this way: if I were to tell a group of Americans that my editor is a New Yorker, would any of them really think I've confused him with a certain weekly magazine of the same name?"   Source

More presidential lore is debunked and historical trivia dispensed on the following Web pages:

• George Washington: Fact & Fancy – by Robert Longley
• The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend – the legacy of Parson Weems
• Lincoln: Stories, Legends, and Myths – from the Lincoln Museum
• Was Abraham Lincoln a Racist? – book review by Robert Longley
• The Lincoln/Kennedy Coincidences – deconstructed by David Mikkelson
• W.H. Taft: Originator of Baseball's 7th-Inning Stretch? – further adventures in pseudo-Americana
• The Kennedy Curse – debunked by the Skeptik's Dictionary
• Grace Under the Scalpel – some famous Reagan quips, semi-confirmed
• On G.W. Bush's IQ (or Lack Thereof) – an Internet hoax
• The Queen, the President and the Flatulent Horse - a well-traveled joke
• Tecumseh's (Year Zero) Curse – are presidents elected in years ending in zero doomed to die in office?
• Presidential Trivia – oddments from Salon magazine

Source

On Lincoln as Pro-Life Hero and Other Assorted Myths  

1964 The Beatles released the album A Hard Day's Night.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1964 Spain's government and the Roman Catholic Church jointly announced an agreement on legislation to grant Spanish Protestants a range of civic rights and legal recognition formerly denied them.

1975 Indira Gandhi established authoritarian rule in India.

1977 Last concert of Elvis Presley.

1984 Negotiations between Rev. Jesse Jackson, the American politician, and Fidel Castro, led to the release of 22 jailed Americans.

1990 An IRA bomb exploded in the Carlton Club, a London club frequented by Conservative politicians.

1990 South African statesman Nelson Mandela addressed US Congress, thanking it for imposing sanctions against his home country but asking that they remain in place until South Africa irreversibly outlawed apartheid.

1991 The Maguire Seven, after having served 15 year sentences for running a bomb factory, were cleared by a court of appeal.

More on the Maguire Seven

1992 USA: Navy Secretary Garrett resigned, accepting responsibility for the so-called 'Tailhook' scandal involving the harassment of Navy women by naval aviators.

More

1997 The USA Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment.

1998 Australia: Trec Smith, a charter pilot flying between Marree and Coober Pedy in the remote north of South Australia, discovered Marree Man, which is both the world's largest known geoglyph, and the world's largest known work of art. The geoglyph appears to depict an Indigenous Australian man, most likely of the Pitjantjatjara tribe, hunting with a throwing stick. The figure is 4.2 kilometres long, with a circumference of 15-28 km. The image was made in modern times, by an unknown person, or persons, using a tractor.

Amazing Geoglyphs Around the World: a Google Earth Tour    More on Marree Man    More    And more

2003 In Lawrence v. Texas the USA Supreme Court ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional.

 

Tomorrow: The Infant of Lübeck and other child prodigies

 

 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