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Pip Wilson

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Today is

As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; The Wisdom of the Sands  

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; Flight to Arras

La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever.
(You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. 
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
(It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; The Little Prince  

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures – in this century, as in others, our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; Wind, Sand, and Stars

Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit. 
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The machine does not isolate us from the great problems of nature but plunges us more deeply into them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

There is no hope of joy except in human relations.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry  

I do not respect reviewers. They are almost always failed writers, consequently envious and jealous of those who write. I find their profession kind of despicable, because it is so unfair and stupid to snap judgments in a little article after the work of years. I think that the real reviewers are the readers. I care very much for the letters of my readers. I receive them from all over the world, and they always say much more intelligent things than those written by the 'reviewers'.
Oriana Fallaci, Italian interviewer, writer and journalist, born on June 29, 1930

Listening to someone talk isn't at all like listening to their words played over on a machine. What you hear when you have a face before you is never what you hear when you have before you a winding tape.
Oriana Fallaci; The Egotists, Foreword, 1963

With our progress we have destroyed our only weapon against tedium: that rare weakness we call imagination.
Oriana Fallaci; in Words of Women Quotations for Success, Power Dynamics Publishing, 1997

I always introduce myself as an encyclopaedia of defects which I do not deny. Why should I? It took me a whole life to build myself as I am.
Oriana Fallaci
 
To have realized your dream makes you feel lost.
Oriana Fallaci; Letter to a Child Never Born, 1975
                             
The clash between us and them is not a military one. It's a cultural one, a religious one, and the worst is still to come.
Oriana Fallaci

I leave shreds of my soul on every experience.
Oriana Fallaci

... who is the pioneer of modern journalism? Not Hemingway who wrote of his experiences in the trenches, not Orwell who spent a year of his life with the Parisian poor, not Egon Erwin Kisch the expert on Prague prostitutes, but Oriana Fallaci who in the years 1969 to 1972 published a series of interviews with the most famous politicians of the time. Those interviews were more than mere conversations; they were duels. Before the powerful politicians realized that they were fighting under unequal conditions – for she was allowed to ask questions but they were not – they were already on the floor of the ring, KO'ed.
Milan Kundera, Immortality; on Oriana Fallaci

... we all ate our mushrooms facing the wall where the small altar table stood. We ate them in silence, except for Cayetano's father, don Emilio, who was consulting the mushrooms about his infected left forearm. He would jerk his head violently with each mushroom that he swallowed, and utter a smacking noise, as though in acknowledgment of their divine potency. I was seated in the corner of the room on the left of the altar. The señora asked me to move because the word would come down there…
  I joined Allan immediately behind the señora, we took about a half hour to eat our six pairs of mushrooms. By eleven o'clock we had finished our respective portions, the señora crossing herself with the last swallow. … At about 11:20 Allan leaned from his chair and whispered to me that he was having a chill. We wrapped him in a blanket. A little later he leaned over again and said, `Gordon, I am beginning to see things,' to which I gave him the comforting reply that I was too.
  The patterns grew into architectural structures, with colonnades and architraves, patios of regal splendor, the stonework all in brilliant colors – gold and onyx and ebony – all harmoniously and ingeniously contrived, in richest magnificence extending beyond the reach of sight. These architectural visions seemed oriental, though at every stage I pointed out to myself that they could not be identified with any specific oriental country...
  At one point in the faint moonlight the bouquet on the table assumed the dimensions and shape of an imperial conveyance, a triumphal car, drawn by zoological creatures conceivable only in an imaginary mythology, bearing a woman clothed in regal splendor. The visions came in endless succession, each growing out of the preceding ones. We had the sensation that the walls of our humble house had vanished, that our untrammeled souls were floating in the empyrean, stroked by divine breeze, possessed of a divine mobility that would transport anywhere on the wings of a thought. Only when by an act of conscious effort I touched the wall of Cayetano's house would I be brought back to the confines of the room where we all were, and this touch with reality seemed to be what precipitated nausea in me.
R Gordon Wasson, American mycologist, describing his first psychedelic mushroom experience with Maria Sabina on June 29, 1955   Source

A specialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less.
William Mayo

June 29 is the 180^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (181^st in leap years), with 185 days remaining.
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Feast day of St Peter the Apostle and St Paul the Apostle (Book of Common Prayer January 25)

(Yellow rattle, Rhinanthus galli, is today's plant, dedicated to St Peter.)

The joint feast of Saints Peter and Paul seems always to have been kept at Rome on June 29, and might go back at least to the time of Constantine (b. 274). In 9^th Century England, the Christian feasts were confined to Christmas, Epiphany, three days of Easter, Assumption, Saints Peter and Paul, St Gregory, and All Saints.

From the days of the early Christian Church, these two were considered the chief of the male saints; in the mosaics of the Roman basilicas, dating from the 4^th Century to the 9^th, Christ appears as the central figure, with Saints Peter and Paul on his right and left.

Today is a religious and national holiday in Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, San Marino, State of the Vatican City, and Venezuela, also a local holiday in Rome, of which Peter and Paul are patron saints.

Peter

Saint Peter (d. c. 67) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. His birth name was Simon (Hebrew שמעון Šim'ôn, Shim'on 'Hearkening; listening'), he was a fisherman, and was given the nickname of 'Peter', which means 'rock' in Greek (Petros). St Paul generally called him Cephas or Kephas, which is the Aramaic equivalent of the nickname. He was the brother of Saint Andrew the Apostle who led him to Christ. Roman Catholics believe him to be the first Pope and to their church he is known as 'Prince of the Apostles'.

According to the early Christian writers Tertullian and Origen, Peter was crucified upside-down; according to some, this had been prophesied by Jesus (John 21.18: "when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and take you where you do not want to go"). St Clement of Rome, c. 95, placed his death in the time of Nero. In later tradition, Peter is considered the first bishop of Antioch and later bishop of Rome. The New Testament includes two letters ascribed to Peter: the First Epistle of Peter and the Second Epistle of Peter. Based on the quality of the Greek, many scholars doubt that the apostle Peter actually penned those letters, but he might have had an amanuensis.

Peter's symbols in art include a bunch of keys, because Christ gave him "the keys of the kingdom of heaven". Another is  a rooster, because he went out and wept bitterly when he heard the cock crow, having denied Christ as He said he would (Matt. xxvi.75), and a double-barred cross.

He is often portrayed as a nearly bald man, often with a fringe of hair on the sides and a tuft on top.

Peter's churches

In England alone, Peter has 830 churches dedicated in his sole honour, and 30 jointly with St Paul, and 10 in connection with some other saint.

St Peter's day at the Vatican

Peter's Pence

"Annual tribute of one penny, paid at the feast of St Peter to the see of Rome, collected at first from every family, but afterwards restricted to those 'who had the value of thirty pence in quick or live-stock'. This tax was collected in England from the late 8th century until its abolition by Henry VIII in 1534. It was also called Rome-Scot, Rome fardynges, or Peter's farthings. Much of it never got as far as Rome. Peter's Pence now consists of voluntary offerings made to the Holy See by Roman Catholics."   
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

"On 29 June, or the Sunday closest to it, a voluntary collection is taken called 'Peterspence' (also written as 'Peter's Pence'). Peterspence, along with investments, once constituted the Vatican's sole source of income aside from the gifts of benefactors and voluntary alms (nowadays, the Vatican is entangled with 'Big Banking' and God knows what else). Traditional Catholics might decide to give their 'pence' to traditional Catholic organizations instead.

"Originally, Peterspence was a medieval tax of one penny placed by English Kings on householders who had a certain amount of land. The practice spread throughout Christendom, but didn't survive the 'Reformation.' When Pope Pius IX, though, was driven from Rome and exiled after the Papal States were stolen by agents of the Masonic 'Risorgimento,' the practice was brought back, so that now Catholics voluntarily give in order to support the works of the Church."  Source

To find stolen property 

Shears are stuck in the wood of a sieve and two maidens hold up the sieve by the shears' handle. Then they say "By St Peter and St Paul, so and so has stolen such a thing".  Others say "By St Peter and St Paul, he has not stolen it." The sieve will turn when the thief is named.
John Aubrey, Remains of Gentilism, 1688 (Charles Kightly, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames and Hudson, London, 1987, June13 page)

No two Pope Peters

Peter and lingam
"The rock on which the church was founded had roots in the pagan Roman myths of the city God Petra, the Mithraic father of fathers. Petra's symbol, a phallic stone like the Siva lingam of the Hindus, was planted on the middle of the Vatican right up to the late Middle Ages."   Source

Commemorations of St Peter
June 29 (feast of Peter and Paul)
February 22 (feast of the Chair of Peter, emblematic of the world unity of the Church)
November 28 (feast of the dedication of the Basilicas of Peter and Paul)

St Paul

St Paul of Tarsus or St Paul, the Apostle (b. c. 3 - beheaded at Rome, Italy c. 66) was born Saul of Tarsus in Tarsus of Cilicia and described himself as an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee (Rom. 11:1, Phil. 3:5). He studied religion "at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3) in Jerusalem, and also pursued the occupation of tent maker (hence is the patron saint of that craft). As a youth, he was present and approving at the stoning of Christianity's first martyr, St Stephen. His conversion, however, led him to become one of the Christian Church's primary leaders, and he died a martyr himself. 

Paul himself openly admitted that he at first persecuted Christians (Phil. 3:5). He was converted to Christianity when a bright light blinded him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9). In Paul's vision, Jesus Christ rebuked him and told him he was destined to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. This event is commemorated on what is more generally thought of as his feast day, the Feast of Paul's Conversion (January 25).

After his resounding conversion, St Paul made missionary journeys all over the Middle East. Enduring imprisonment, hardship of all kinds and even shipwreck, he was a very resolute spreader of the Christian faith, profoundly affecting the very heart of Western civilisation. Many today see his texts as having had a singularly negative effect on male-female relations and tolerance for divergence of thought and behaviour.

Talmudic scholar Hyam Maccoby, in his book The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, theorises that St Paul was raised among mystery religions which featured dying and resurrected saviours, then later converted to Judaism, with the hope of becoming a Pharisee.

Paul and the sword

One of the symbols of St Paul is a sword (others include springs of water, and a book), because he was decapitated in about 66 CE, traditionally at Tre Fontaine in Rome. It is said Paul was martyred after converting one of Nero's favourite concubines, and that milk instead of blood flowed from his wounds. The Convent of La Lisla in Spain even claims to have the very sword.

"As soone as the heed was from the body" his head said "Jesus Christus fyfty tymes", according to an ancient writer. Others said his head ran milk instead of blood; the head gave three leaps and at each one a fountain sprung up where it fell, and they remain today.

Paul's patronage also includes against snakes, authors, evangelists, hailstorms, hospital public relations, journalists, musicians, newspaper editorial staff, poisonous snakes, public relations personnel, publishers, rope makers, saddlemakers, snake bites, and writers.

Commemorations of St Paul
January 25 (celebration of his conversion)
June 29 (celebration of Saints Peter and Paul, co-founders of the Church)
November 18 (feast of the dedication of the Basilicas of Peter and Paul)

St Paul's Grotto, Malta
There is a legend that states that St Paul's cave on the Mediterranean island of Malta (where he was shipwrecked) remains the same size regardless of how many pieces of rock are removed from the cave as souvenirs.   Source

Cure for dancing mania
"The terms tarantism and dancing mania are often used interchangeably as they share overlapping features. Tarantism was mainly confined to southern Italy. Gloyne (1950, 29) describes it as the 'mass hysterical reaction' to perceived bites of the tarantula spider. The first recorded episodes appeared during the thirteenth century and persisted on a widespread scale in southern Europe for 400 years, reaching a peak in the seventeenth century, after which it virtually disappeared. Small annual episodes have persisted in southern Italy well into the twentieth century. Hans Schadewaldt (1971) investigated an outbreak in Wardo during 1957. Italian religious history professor Ernesto de Martino (1966) identifies thirty-five cases of tarantism near Galatina in 1959. De Martino conducted his survey between June 28 and 30, as June 29 is the festival day of St. Peter and St. Paul. On that day it is customary for the 'victims' to travel from regional villages to the chapel of St. Paul to obtain a cure for various ailments. More recently, it has been observed near Sardinia, Italy (Gallini 1988)."   Source

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

Harvest herbs
An old East Anglian custom has it that today is propitious for harvesting herbs. 

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Pilgrimage to the tomb of Petosiris of Hermopolis Petosiris was an Egyptian astrologer and high priest of Thoth (pictured), Egyptian god of the moon (lunar deity); (c300 BCE); his tomb was a place of pilgrimage.  Thoth is sometimes identified with the Greek god Hermes or Hermes Trismegistus. More   Feast day of St Cassius Feast day of St Cocha Feast day of St Gemma Feast day of St Judith of Niederaltaich Feast day of St Mary Feast day of St Peter Apostle (alone, BCP) Feast day of St Salome of Niederaltaich Feast day of St Syrus of Genoa Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Mnarja folk festival, Malta, Feast of SS Peter and Paul (commemorated June 28 - 29) Niman Kachina, Hopi Pueblo (Jun 19 - 29) Inti Raymi, Incan Winter Solstice Festival of the Sun, Sacsayhuaman, Cuzco, Peru (Jun 24 - Jul 2) St Peter's Day Fiesta, Tiquin, Bolivia Beginning of Harvest, Hungary Celebration for Oggun (Ogun), Voudon (Voodoo)    Day sacred to Papa Legba, a powerful loa (l'wja) of pathways and crossroads, and arguably the most important loa. From Wikipedia: In Haitian Vodou, Papa Legba is the intermediary between the lwa and humanity. He stands at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits of Guinea, and is believed to speak all languages. He is always the first and last spirit invoked in any ceremony, because his permission is needed for any communication between mortals and the loa - he opens and closes the doorway. In Haiti, he is the great elocution, the voice of God, as it were. Legba facilitates communication, speech and understanding. In Africa, his counterpart, Eshu, is a god of prophecy and taught people how to interpret oracles. He usually appears as an old man on a crutch or with a cane, wearing a boad brimmed straw hat and smoking a pipe, or sprinkling water. The dog is sacred to him. Because of his position as 'gate-keeper' between the worlds of the living and the mysteries he is often identified with Saint Peter who holds a comparable position in Catholic tradition. However, he is also depicted in Haiti as St Lazarus, or St Anthony. In Benin and Nigeria, Legba is viewed as young and virile, is often horned and ithyphallic, and his shrine is usually located at the gate of the village in the countryside. He is somewhat cognate to the Eleggua of the Yoruba pantheon, honored in Nigeria, Cuba, Brazil, and elsewhere in the Yoruba diaspora. In contrast to Papa Legba, Eleggua is a trickster child. Alternative: Legba, Legba Atibon, Atibon Legba, Ati-Gbon Legba.   Maidyoshahem (Ghambar Maidyoshem), Zoroastrianism (Jun 29 - Jul 3) A midsummer feast, celebrating the creation of water, the sowing of the summer crop and the harvesting of grain.     Runic New Year and half-month of Feoh Important in the runic year cycle, today marks beginning of the first rune, Feoh, sacred to Frey (pictured) and Freya (Freyja), the lord and lady often worshipped in modern Wicca. It is the half-month of wealth and success. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, 1992 Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days         June - July, Tabarka, Tunisia, Jazz Festival "The town of Tabarka comes to life to the sounds of jazz from around the world. "Local and national musicians perform to provide some real fusion flavour, and jazz enthusiasts can take part in seminars and workshops. With the July climate guaranteeing perfect weather, you can enjoy music in the midst of your summer holiday."   Source Republic Day (Independence Day), Seychelles The Republic of Seychelles is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600km east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar. Today commemorates the proclamation of the republic on June 29, 1976. The people of the Seychelles celebrated their independence for three months and it is said they regard themselves as 'the happy heirs of Paradise Lost'. Gregory, Ruth W, Anniversaries and Holidays, American Library Association, Chicago, 1983, p. 85 Veterans Day, The Netherlands       On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1746 Joachim Heinrich Campe (d. 1818), pedagogue 1754 Marie-Louise Victoire Girardin (d. December 18, 1794), French ship's steward and cross-dresser. On April 23, 1792 (qv), the expedition of French admiral, Joseph-Antoine Raymond de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (1739 - '93) reached Recherche Bay in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and ship's steward Girardin, disguised as a man, became probably the first European woman to visit the island. 1798 Giacomo Leopardi (d. 1837), Italian poet and lyricist 1844 King Peter of Serbia (d. 1921) 1858 George Goethals, American civil engineer, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to direct the construction of the Panama Canal 1861 Dr William Mayo, American surgeon, co-founder, with his brother Charles, of the famous Mayo Clinic. Born the elder son of a doctor in Minnesota, USA, William James Mayo is remembered for the famous Mayo Clinic he founded with his brother Charles in 1889. The brothers were pioneers of medical group practice. William was a specialist in cancer and gallstones. More than three million patients have attended the clinic, which today has more than 500 physicians on the staff. The Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, has a reputation for excellence in medicine second to none in the world. 1880 Ludwig Beck (d. 1944), general 1888 Squizzy Taylor (Joseph Leslie Theodore Taylor; d. October 27, 1927), Melbourne, Australia-based gangster 1900 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (d. July 31, 1944), French aviator and novelist (The Little Prince) "In 1943 Saint-Exupéry published his best-known work, The Little Prince (1943), a children's fable for adults, which has been translated into near fifty languages. Its narrator is a pilot who has crash-landed in a desert. He meet a boy, who turns out to be a prince from another planet. The prince tell about his adventures on Earth and about his precious rose on his planet. He is disapointed [sic] when he discovers that roses are common on Earth. A desert fox convinces him, that the prince should love his own rare rose and finding thus meaning to his life, the prince returns back to home. "On July 31, 1944 Saint-Exupéry took off from an airstrip in Sardinia on a flight over southern France. His plane disappeared – he was shot down over Mediterranean, or perhaps there was an accident, or it was a suicide."   Source Site officiel Saint Exupery    More 1901 Nelson Eddy (d. 1967), American actor and singer who starred opposite Jeanette McDonald in many musical films (Rose Marie; Maytime) 1908 Leroy Anderson, composer 1910 Frank Loesser (d. 1969), composer 1911 Bernhard Leopold Friedrich Eberhard Julius Kurt Karl Gottfried Peter zu Lippe-Biesterfeld (Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands), Dutch royal with a history of numerous scandals 1911 Bernard Herrmann (d. 1975), composer 1914 Rafael Kubelik, Czech conductor and composer 1915 Ruth Warrick, actress 1919 Slim Pickens (d. 1983), American actor 1920 Ray Harryhausen, film maker 1921 Reinhard Mohn, publisher 1930 Oriana Fallaci, Italian interviewer, writer (Interview with History) and journalist (Wikipedia's entry gives her birth date as July 24, 1929, but most sources give today) Shop Oriana Fallaci 1941 Kwame Ture, (born Stokely Carmichael), American civil rights activist 1942 Michael Willesee, Australian  TV journalist and presenter (A Current Affair) 1943 Little Eva, pop singer (main hit: 'The Loco-Motion') 1944 Gary Busey, American actor (The Buddy Holly Story) 1953 Colin Hay, lead singer of Australian reggae-influenced rock band, Men At Work, the first album of which, 1982's Business as Usual, set a record for the most weeks of a debut album at number one on the US charts 1963 Anne-Sophie Mutter, violinist 1972 Samantha Smith, American social activist, actress   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 Remote Control Day [ Jun 29 ] Birthdays Canada Day [ Jul 1 ] Sky Day [ Jun 30 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Dragon Boat Festival (China) Varies Graduation June 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 10 Teddy Bears' Picnic Day 10 Intern Appreciation Day 11 Cheer Up Day 11 Swimming Pool Day 11 Blueberry Muffin Day 12 Simplicity Day 13 International Puzzle Day 13 Beans And Franks Day 14 French Fries Day 14 Bastille Day 14 Pick Blueberries Day 14 Pandemonium Day 15 Cow Appreciation Day 15 I Love Horses Day 15 Respect Canada Day 15 Shark Awareness Day   ... 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   48 BCE Julius Caesar defeated his brother-in-law Pompey at Pharsallus and became the absolute ruler of Rome. 67 Traditional date of the death of St Peter, apostle (by being crucified upside down). 1149 Raymond of Antioch was defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din. 1194 Sverre was crowned King of Norway. 1613 The Globe Theatre in London burnt down as a cannon was fired for a scene in Shakespeare's Henry VIII. Very shortly after the blaze, Shakespeare retired back to Stratford. The play being performed at the time was also called All This is True, supposed to be a revival of King Henry the Eighth – this we know from the contemporary ballad, 'On the Pitiful Burning of the Globe Play-house':    Out ran the knights, out ran the lords,      And there was great ado,    Some lost their hats, some lost their swords,      Then out ran Burbage too;    The reprobates, though drunk on Monday,    Prayed for the fool, and Henry Condy.    Oh! sorrow, pitiful sorrow, and yet      All This is True. New Globe Theatre (modern reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe) Matt Groening the Elder Henry VIII at Simpson Court    Tudor Humour   1620 The English government maintained a Virginian tobacco-growing monopoly by banning the growing of the leaf in Britain.   1676 USA: The first American Thanksgiving proclamation. On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, met to discuss how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community established. By unanimous vote they instructed the clerk, Edward Rawson, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving. That proclamation is reproduced here in the same language and spelling as the original: "The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present War with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgments he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions: "The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ." On December 11, 1621 EW Winslow wrote (in Mourt's Relation, pub. 1622) of what many believe to be the first American Thanksgiving, which apparently occurred prior to that day.  On October 3, 1789, US President George Washington proclaimed the first Thanksgiving Day. Also on October 3, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln officially established the last Thursday in November as a USA national holiday, Thanksgiving ... More Use our Search to see other dates for the first Thanksgiving, as the origins are disputed.   1749 A new Governor, Charles de la Ralière Des Herbiers, arrived at Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island). 1786 Bishop Alexander Macdonnell and more than five hundred Catholic highlanders left Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario, Canada. 1801 Britain's first census was conducted. 1804 The world's first passenger railway was incorporated in Wales. At first powered by sails, the railway was converted to horse power when the wind dropped. 1850 Coal was discovered on Vancouver Island, Canada. 1855 Britain's The Daily Telegraph commenced publication as a liberal newspaper (it now tends towards conservative). 1861 Death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (b. 1806), English poet. 1864 Ninety-nine people were killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire. 1864 Samuel Crowther, linguist, became the first African Anglican bishop (in Nigeria). 1865 Australia (colony of New South Wales): Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral, built in 1821, was destroyed by fire. Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1821 had given to the Catholic Church a grant of the land on which St Mary's was built. The damages bill from the fire was estimated at £20,000. The following year construction began on the new cathedral, with the crypt being completed in 1960. The southern end finally got its two spires in about 2000. 1871 Trade unions were made legal in Britain. Membership in a trade union had some time previously been punishable by transportation to Australia. 1891 Street railway in Ottawa , Canada commenced operation. 1895 Doukhobors burned their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government. 1905 The Automobile Association was founded in Britain. One objective was to have repealed the 20mph speed limit. 1912 Aviator William Hart won Australia's first air race when he flew his box kite from Sydney to Parramatta Park. "William E. Hart, a Parramatta dentist and holder of Australia's first aerial pilot's licence, won Australia's first air race. "He challenged the visiting American flier, 'Wizard' Stone, to a twenty mile race for a stake of 250 pounds. Stone lost his way, landing at Lakemba, but Hart, a much less experienced pilot, finished the flight in 23 minutes and landed as planned in Parramatta Park."   Source 1922 France granted 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes". 1925 The South African government adopted a policy of disallowing black citizens from holding skilled or semi-skilled jobs. 1925 Canada House opened in London 1927 First test of Wallace Turnbull's variable-pitch propeller. 1937 Joseph-Armand Bombardier received a patent for a sprocket and track traction system used in snow vehicles. 1950 Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies involved Australia in the Korean War four days after its outbreak. (The war ended in July 1953 with the deaths of millions of Koreans and 278 Australians.) 1955 R Gordon Wasson (1898 - 1986), American mycologist, had his first psychedelic mushroom experience (Psilocybe caerulescens var. Psilocybe caerulescens var. mazatecorum) with Mazatec curandera (shaman, or spirit-healer), Maria Sabina (1898 - 1985), at a velada or vigil at the home of her friend Cayetano García. Wasson's account, and a LIFE magazine article on June 10, 1957, brought unwanted international fame to Sabina. 1956 American actress Marilyn Monroe and American playwright Arthur Miller married. 1963 Del Shannon beat The Beatles into the USA Hot 100 with 'From Me to You', which had been recorded in the UK during his recent tour there with the Fab Four. 1965 The USA commenced ground actions in Vietnam. 1966 Australia's Prime Minister Harold Holt arrived in Washington, DC, for talks with President Lyndon Johnson, where he later declared "All the way with LBJ". 1967 American sex-symbol actress, Jayne Mansfield (b. 1933), star of numerous Hollywood movies, such as The Girl Can't Help It, was decapitated in a car crash in New Orleans. 1967 Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Mick Jagger received jail sentences on drugs charges. 1970 Pink Floyd were top of the bill at a rock concert in London's Hyde Park. Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list 1973 Chile: El Tancazo - a military coup against the Salvador Allende government which was hurriedly aborted, although a tank regiment approached La Moneda (the presidential palace) before returning to the barracks when challenged by vice-president General Prats, the commander-in-chief. Twenty-two people were killed, including a foreign cameraman (whose film remained running as he was shot - the footage was retrieved and shown around the world). 1974 Isabel Perón, third wife of Juan Perón took over the presidency of Argentina following the illness of her husband. 1976 Seychelles became an independent republic. 1986 Richard Branson, the rock music and airline entrepreneur, and the crew of his Virgin Atlantic Challenger II, beat the Atlantic crossing record, reducing it by two hours and nine minutes. 1989 USA: It was revealed that a homosexual prostitution and blackmail ring had been operating in Washington, DC, with the scandal reaching right to White House officials. 1990 Lithuania announced it would suspend its declaration of independence for 100 days. 1995 The Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir space station for the first time. 1995 The Sampoong Department Store collapsed in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937. 2000 Vandals broke into the tombs of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines. 2002 USA: President George W Bush chose to invoke the 25th amendment, temporarily transferring his powers to Vice President Dick Cheney while Bush underwent a colonoscopy.   Tomorrow: Siberian fireball: The Tunguska Event    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

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