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Pip Wilson

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Today is

June 3^rd: …on that day Bellona is said to have been consecrated … and ever she comes gracious to Latium. Her founder was Appius.
Ovid, Fasti, vi. 199. Today is the Festival of the ancient Roman goddess Bellona. 

Such is Mars, when with deadly slaughter he has devastated the Geloni and thereafter rests, a dread figure, in the Getic plain, while Bellona, goddess of war, lightens him of his armour and unyokes his dust-stained coursers; an outstretched spear, a huge cornel trunk, arms his hand and flashes its tremulous splendour over Hebrus' stream.
Claudian (court poet to the Emperor Honorius and Stilicho); 'Panegyric on the Consulship of Probinus and Olybrius', Loeb Classical Library, 1922, p. 11   Source

Mars blushed, Bellona scoffed and turned her from the disgrace of the East whene'er with arrows strung and flashing quiver the aged Amazon practises battle or hurries back as arbiter of peace and war to hold parley with the Getae.
Claudian; 'Against Eutropius', Loeb Classical Library, 1922, p. 157

Bellona, implacable goddess, who, her raiment all stained with blood, was combing her snake-hair, fattened on the slaughter of Illyrians.
Claudian; ibid, p. 193

Why delayest thou, Bellona, to sound the trumpet of hell and to arm thyself with the scythe wherewith thou mowest the people to the ground?
Claudian; ibid, p. 195

Bellona, too, hastens forth with speed no less than that of Mars' whistling spear; a hundred ways of hurt she pondered and at last approached Tarbigilus, fierce leader of the Getic squadron. It chanced he had but late returned with empty hands from a visit to Eutropius; disappointment and indignation aggravated his ferocity, and poverty, that can incite the gentlest heart to crime, inflamed his savage breast. Taking upon her the similitude of his wife she comes to meet him; proudly she steps forth like the barbarian queen, clothed in linen raiment. Close to her breast a brooch fastened her dress that trailed behind her; she had bound her locks into a coil that a polished circlet confined, and bidden her green snakes turn to gold. She hastens to greet him on his return and throws her snowy arms about his neck, instilling the poison of the furies into his soul by her kisses. Guilefully to stir his rage she asks if the great man has been generous to him; if he brings back rich presents. With tears he recounts his profitless journey, his useless toil, the pride and insults, moreover, which he had to bear at the eunuch's hands. At once she seized the favourable moment, and tearing her cheek with her nails, discloses her complaints.
Claudian; ibid, p. 199

Moreover, while the senate was busied with the soothsayers about these prodigies, and holding its session in the temple of Bellona, a sparrow came flying in, before the eyes of all, with a grasshopper in its mouth, a part of which it threw down and left there, and then went away with the other part. From this the diviners apprehended a quarrelsome dissension between the landed proprietors and the populace of the city and forum; for the latter is vociferous like a grasshopper, while the former haunt the fields (like the sparrow).
Plutarch; 'Life of Sulla'

He says, moreover, that at Silvium, a servant of Pontius met him, in an inspired state, declaring that he brought him from Bellona triumph in war and victory, but that if he did not hasten, the Capitol would be burnt; and this actually happened, he says, on the day which the man foretold, namely, the sixth day of Quintilis, which we now call July.
Plutarch, ibid

O Phoebus, O Diana, Queen of forests, radiant glory of the heavens, O ye ever cherished and ever to be cherished, grant the blessings that we pray for at this holy season when the verses of the Sibyl have commanded chosen maidens and spotless youths to sing the hymn in honour of the deities who love the Seven Hills.
  O llithyia, that, according to they office, art gracious to – bring issue in due season, protect our matrons, whether thou preferrest to be invoked as 'Lucina' or as 'Genitalis', Rear up our youth, O goddess, and bless the ancestral edicts concerning wedlock . … destined, we pray, to be prolific in new offspring, that the sure cycle of ten times eleven years may bring round again music and games thronged thrice by bright daylight and as often by gladsome night!
Horace's hymn, the Carmen Saeculare, hymn  composed for the Ludi Saeculares, Rome's centennial games, which ended today  

Of course, I do have a slight advantage over the rest of you. It helps in a pinch to be able to remind your bride that you gave up a throne for her.
Former King Edward VIII, who married Mrs Simpson on June 3, 1937

It must have been a little after three o'clock in the afternoon that it happened -- the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916 ... Rather might I have experienced a cosmic cycle, with all its changes and evolutions for that which I have seen with my own eyes in this brief interval of time – things that no other mortal eye had seen before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a world so long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of it remains …
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the opening of The Land That Time Forgot

Tall, coffee skin, ebony eyes, legs of paradise, a smile to end all smiles.
Pablo Picasso, on Josephine Baker, black American dancer, born on June 3, 1906

She seemed to move every part of her body in a different direction at once. She clowned outrageously, unable to stop herself. She crossed her eyes. Her feet tripped over each other while the other girls were kicking neatly in step. The effect of her performance was to mock the very idea of a chorus line, a row of people mechanically repeating the same gestures. The chorus line hated her. They had a simple term for what she was doing: scene stealing. But audiences loved her.
Phyllis Rose, author of Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time

... I improvised, crazed by the music…. Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.
Josephine Baker

Beautiful? It's all a question of luck. I was born with good legs. As for the rest ... beautiful, no. Amusing, yes.
Josephine Baker

I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.
Josephine Baker

If an orchid could sizzle, it would be something like Josephine Baker.
Josephine Baker; excerpt from a review in The Los Angeles Examiner

Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life.
Josephine Baker

She is the Nefertiti of now.
Pablo Picasso; on Josephine Baker

We must change the system of education and instruction. Unfortunately, history has shown us that brotherhood must be learned, when it should be natural.
Josephine Baker

It [the Eiffel Tower] looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty?
Josephine Baker

The most sensational woman anybody ever saw, or ever will.
Ernest Hemingway; on Josephine Baker

Josephine left Paris rich, adored, famous throughout Europe. But in New York, in spite of the publicity that preceded her arrival, she was received as an uppity colored girl.
Jo Bouillon, Josephine Baker's fourth husband

I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.
Josephine Baker

Art is an elastic sort of love.
Josephine Baker

One day I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States…. A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn't stand it anymore ... I felt liberated in Paris.
Josephine Baker

The picture of you in the newspaper saying that, amongst other reasons, you have come to London to see me has greatly enhanced my credit line in the neighborhood, and particularly with the greengrocer across the street.
TS Eliot; letter to his friend, Groucho Marx, June 3, 1964

The male is just a bundle of conditioned reflexes, incapable of a mentally free response … The conflict, therefore, is not between females and males, but between SCUM – dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe …
Valerie Solanis, American feminist activist and author, who shot American artist, Andy Warhol, on June 3, 1968, SCUM Manifesto

June 3 is the 154^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (155^th in leap years), with 211 days remaining.
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Festival to Bellona, goddess of war, Roman Empire

Platner (1929) tells us that Bellona (seen here as portrayed by Rembrandt) was a goddess who probably represented that characteristic of Mars, the Roman war god, which was displayed in the fierceness of battle frenzy.

In Greek mythology, Enyo ('horror') was an ancient goddess known by the epithet 'Waster of Cities' and frequently depicted as being covered in blood and carrying weapons of war. She was frequently portrayed as a companion of Ares, the chief god of war, and has been variously said to be his mother or sister. She was occasionally said to be one of the Graeae.

Enyo's Roman counterpart, Bellona, like Ares's counterpart Mars, was much more popular. She is believed to be one of the numinous gods of the Romans (without a particular mythology and possibly of Etruscan origin), and is supposed by many to have been the Romans' original war deity, predating the identification of Mars with Ares. Her name, Bellona, is derived from the Latin word for 'war' (bellum), and is directly related to the modern English word 'belligerent' (lit., 'war-bearing'). In art, she is portrayed with a helmet, sword, spear, and torch.

Near the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth is introduced as a violent and brave warrior when the Thane of Ross calls Macbeth "Bellona's bridegroom" (I.ii.54).

Politically, all Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted in the Templum Bellonae (Temple of Bellona) on the Collis Capitolinus outside the pomerium. Victorious generals on their return to Rome were received here, and had to vote upon their claims for a triumph; foreign ambassadors were also received here. In front of the building stood the Columna Bellica. This temple was vowed by Appius Claudius Caecus in 296 BCE (Liv. x.19.17; Plin. NH xxxv.12; Ovid, Fasti, vi.201-204) and dedicated some years later on June 3 Ovid, Fasti vi. 201) and was burned down in 48 BCE.

Roman calendar    Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

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Ludi Saeculares, or Centennial Games, ancient Rome, final day The first celebration of the ludi saeculares in the reign of Augustus Caesar took place in the summer of the year  17 BCE (Tacit. Ann. xi.11); the second took place in the reign of Claudius,  47 CE (Suet. Claud. 21). The third games were in the reign of Domitian, in 88 (Suet. Dom. 4) – so we can see that they weren't actually commemorated only every 100 years –  and the last in the reign of Marcus Iulius Philippus (Philip the Arab) in 248, which was generally believed to be just 1,000 years after the founding of the city of Rome by Romulus and Remus. The celebrations were concerned essentially with the chthonian (non-Olympian) divinities Dis (Dis Pater) and Prosperpina but, on the first day the games, in the Tarentum, sacrifices were offered also to Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Minerva, Venus, Apollo, Mercury, Ceres, Vulcan, Mars, Diana, Vesta, Hercules, Latona and the Parcae. Today, offerings were made to Apollo and Diana on the Palatine Hill of Rome. First on the Palatine and then on the Capitoline Hill, 27 boys and as many girls sang Horace's hymn, the 'Carmen Saeculare', which was commissioned by Augustus for the games. They sang other hymns and paeans in Greek and Latin, to ensure the safety of the cities under Rome; other ceremonies besides were performed.   Athena, ancient Greece "The third day of each month is sacred to the Goddess Athena." Source: Earth, Moon and Sky Feast day of St Achileo Kiwanuka Feast day of St Adolofu Mukasa Ludigo Feast day of St Albert of Como Feast day of St Ambrosio Kibuuka Feast day of St Anatoli Kiriggwajjo Feast day of St Anderea Kaggwa Feast day of St Antanansio Bazzekuketta Feast day of St Bruno Sserunkuuma Feast day of St Caecilius, confessor (Rosa de meaux, Rosa provincialis, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) Feast day of St Charles Lwanga and companions, Martyrs of Uganda Executed by by King Mwanga II. More Feast day of St Clotilde (Clotildis; Clotilda), Queen of France Feast day of St Denis Ssebuggwawo Feast day of St Diego Oddi Feast day of St Gausmarus Feast day of St Genesius, Bishop of Clermont, confessor Feast day of St Glunshallaich Feast day of St Gonzaga Gonza Feast day of St Gyavire Feast day of St Hilary Feast day of St Hypatius Feast day of St Isaac Feast day of St James Buzabaliao Feast day of St John Grande Feast day of St John Maria Muzeyi Feast day of St Joseph Mukasa Feast day of St Kevin (Coemgen; Caoimhín; Coemgenus), Irish bishop and confessor Abbot of Glendalough in County Wicklow, Ireland, b. about 498. His name signifies 'fair-begotten'. He was baptised by St Cronan, Abbott of Roscrea and educated by St Petroc. He established a church for his own community at Glendalough. This monastery was to become the parent of several others and eventually, with its seven churches, became one of the chief pilgrimage destinations in Ireland. His legend says that he lived to the age of 120. 'Kevin' is the English-language spelling of the Irish name Caoimhín (Coemgen in Old Irish, latinised as Coemgenus). Legend says he retired to a cave on the steep shore of a lake where he vowed no woman should ever land. A girl, Kathleen, followed him; he flogged her with nettles and hurled her from a rock. Her ghost never left the place where he lived. A cave at Glendalough, Wicklow, is said to be the bed of St Kevin. Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988 "On arrival in Glendalough Kevin chose the area of the upper lake and settled on the south side of the foot of that lake in St. Kevin's Bed, an artificial cave about thirty feet above the level of the lake which was originally a Bronze Age tomb. Kevin lived the life of a hermit there with an extraordinary closeness to nature, his companions were the animals and birds all around him. He lived as a hermit for seven years wearing only animal skins, sleeping on stones and eating very sparingly."   Source More  Feast day of St Kizito Feast day of St Lifard (Liphardus), abbot Feast day of St Lukka Baanabakintu Feast day of the Martyrs of Uganda Feast day of St Matiya Mulumba Feast day of St Mbaga Tuzinde Feast day of St Morand Feast day of St Muggaga Feast day of St Mukasa Kiriwawanvu Feast day of St Nowa Mawaggali Feast day of St Oliva Feast day of St Our Lady of the Holy Letter Feast day of St Ponsiano Ngondwe Feast day of St Wyllow (Willow) A Cornish hermit, saint and martyr said to have been born in Ireland, he was reputedly beheaded by Melyn ys Kynrede in the parish of Lanteglos, near Fowey. Supposedly, he then carried his head for half a mile to St Willow's Bridge, where a church was later built in his honour. Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Confederate Memorial Day, public holiday, Louisiana, USA Jefferson Davis Day (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina)   Memorial to Broken Dolls Day, Japan A Buddhist ritual attended by little girls and their mothers, in which broken dolls are enshrined by a priest. Ruth W Gregory, Anniversaries and Holidays, American Library Association, Chicago, 1983 Broken Dolls Day is dedicated to Children's Goddesses.   Jack Jouett Day, Virginia, USA Honours the anniversary of the ride of Jack Jouett from Cuckoo Tavern to Charlottesville to warn Thomas Jefferson of the approach of the British. Gregory, Ruth W, Anniversaries and Holidays, American Library Association, Chicago, 1983, 75 Festival of Cataclysmos, Cyprus "[A] seaside ritual which consists of prayers for the souls of the departed, water games, and a sacred dance." Source: Earth, Moon and Sky Anti-Smoking Day, Republic of China in Taiwan Commemorates the day on which Lin Zexu confiscated crates of opium. National Reconciliation Week, Australia (May 27 - Jun 3) Green Week (May 31 - Jun 3)       On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1726 James Hutton (d. 1797), geologist 1761 Henry Shrapnel (d. March 13, 1842), British Army officer and inventor (shrapnel shell). The Oxford English Dictionary documents that the term 'shrapnel' is often incorrectly used to describe fragments or shot included in explosive weapons. Hence, 'shrapnel' is also British and Australian English slang for loose change. In fact, according to the dictionary, the term is correctly used to describe the weapon itself. 1774 Robert Tannahill (d. May 17, 1810), Scottish poet known as the 'Weaver Poet' 1780 William Hone (d. November 6, 1842), English folklorist, author and publisher (The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, 1825-26 edition online; The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information). In 1816, Hone opened a shop at 67 Old Bailey, London, and associated with leading radicals of his time. Three times in 1817, he was arrested for blasphemous and seditious libel charges allegedly made against Lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh in three pamphlets, The late John Wilkes’s Catechism of a Ministerial Member; The Political Litany, Diligently Revised; and The Sinecurist’s Creed, or Belief. Hone's three trials and three acquittals marked a turning point in the fight for British press freedom, and he became a national celebrity. In The Political House that Jack Built, a George Cruikshank-illustrated pamphlet published by Hone in 54 editions (1819 - '20), he satirized the corruption of government and excesses of royalty. "A few dozens of miles to the west in Bath, a young woman is delivered of her first child – a boy named after his father, William Hone. The Gordon Riots, as an amused Hone would remember in his later years, offered an entirely fitting backdrop for his introduction into the world. After all, Hone worked for much of his life to level the economic divisions and aristocratic hierarchies that constituted the very fabric of eighteenth-century life in Britain. He achieved celebrity (or notoriety, depending on one's perspective) as an 'infidel' parodist, and, though his methods were not so overtly disruptive as the various popular insurrections that troubled England during his lifetime, he nonetheless became a kind of humble giant-killer who permanently altered the nature of the printing and publishing industries and paved the way for the emergence of a free and politically critical press. To put the case simply, Hone, more than any of the other radical journalist/publishers of the early nineteenth century, reconfigured the relations between writers, publishers, and the reading public. At the beginning of his career, 'print culture,' and the social and political clout that goes with it, was chiefly the province of the wealthy or aristocratic few; at the end, a mass reading public that is the precursor to a more modern demographics of mass readership had emerged. Hone's activities as a parodist, a publisher, a political commentator, and even as an antiquarian did much to encourage this shift."   Source Hone Manuscript Collection    More 1804 Richard Cobden (d. April 2, 1865), British manufacturer, peace campaigner and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. In 1849, he brought forward a proposal in parliament in favour of international arbitration, and, in 1851, a motion for mutual reduction of armaments. He was not successful in either case, nor did he expect to be. In pursuance of the same object, he identified himself with a series of peace congresses which from 1848 to 1851 were held successively in Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Early progressives in the Book of Days 1808 Jefferson Davis (d. 1889), President of the Confederate States of America 1844 Detlev von Liliencron (d. 1909), poet 1853 Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, archaeologist 1864 Ransom E Olds, automobile pioneer 1865 King George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1936), born at Marlborough House, London 1877 Raoul Dufy (d. 1953), French painter 1888 Tom Brown (d. 1958), jazz musician 1901 Maurice Evans (d. 1989), actor   1906 Josephine Baker (d. 1975), Afro-American dancer, singer and actress. By age 15, Baker ran away from home, left her first husband, and joined Clara Smith in a travelling show. After a short stay in Harlem, NYC, Baker left for Paris to appear in La Revue Negre where her nude dance with Joe Alex tantalized audiences. Eclipsing every other performer in Paris, Josephine Baker represented Europe's new black music following WWI. During WWII, Baker spied in German-occupied France for the resistance. Returning to the US in 1951, Baker refused to perform at segregated venues. She housed the first black troupe in any Las Vegas hotel. But in the 1970s, Baker was forced to wander the streets begging for her adopted children. In 1975, her funeral drew 20,000 people. Josephine Baker became the first American woman to receive a 21-gun salute from the French government. Source: The Daily Bleed      1911 Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; d. 1990), American actress (Modern Times; The Great Dictator) 1918 Lili St Cyr (d. 1999), ecdysiast 1922 Alain Resnais, director 1924 Colleen Dewhurst (d. 1991), actress 1925 Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz), Hollywood actor (Some Like it Hot; The Boston Strangler) 1925 Gerhard Zwerenz, German actor   1926 Allen Ginsberg (d. April 5, 1997), American Beat poet ('Howl'; Kaddish; Reality Sandwiches) and anti-authoritarian activist "Allen Ginsberg, b. Newark, N.J., June 3, 1926, is an American poet and leading apostle of the beat generation. His first published work, Howl and Other Poems (1956), sparked the San Francisco Renaissance and defined the generation of the '50s with an authority and vision that had not occurred in the United States since T. S. Eliot captured the anxiety of the 1920s in The Waste Land. Ginsberg's bardic rage against material values, however, was in a voice very different from Eliot's scholarly mourning for the loss of the spirit. In his second major work, Kaddish (1961), a poem on the anniversary of his mother's death, Ginsberg described their anguished relationship. In the 1960s, while vigorously participating in the anti-Vietnam War movement, he published several poetic works, including Reality Sandwiches (1963) and Planet News (1969). The Fall of America received the National Book Award for 1974. Collected Poems, 1947-85 (1995) contains all of his important work; White Shroud (1987) includes poems from the 1980s. Ginsberg sees himself as a part of the prophetic tradition in poetry begun by William Blake and continued by Walt Whitman. He names his contemporary influences as William Carlos Williams and his friend Jack Kerouac."   Source Ginsberg clearinghouse Ginsberg's FBI file AllenGinsberg.org Erowid Allen Ginsberg Vault Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list LSD Timeline 1938 - 1973 Shop Allen Ginsberg   Shop Beat Poetry The Beat Museum CounterCulture Wiki    More       1926 Boots Randolph, musician 1929 Chuck Barris, game show host, producer, purported spy 1930 Marion Zimmer Bradley (d. 1999), science fiction and fantasy author 1932 Gordon Piper, Australian actor (TV series: A Country Practice) 1936 Larry McMurtry, author 1942 Curtis Mayfield (d. 1999), songwriter, musician 1946 Ian Hunter, musician (Mott the Hoople) 1950 Suzi Quatro, American rock singer, guitarist and actress 1987 Lalaine, actress (Lizzie McGuire)   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 World Environment Day [ Jun 5 ] Birthdays Shavuot [ Varies ] Summertime! Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Buddha Purnima Varies Memorial Day (USA) Varies Dragon Boat Festival (China) Varies Pentecost Varies Shavuot Varies Fathers' Day   June 1 Children's Day (China) 3 Love Conquers All Day 3 Egg Day 3 Family Day 3 Tattoo Day 3 Repeat Day 3 Strawberry Festival (New Jersey, USA) 3 Blueberry Festival (Florida, USA) 4 Cheese Day 5 World Environment Day 6 Applesauce Cake Day 6 D-Day Anniversary 7 Boone Day 8 Best Friends Day 8 Ice Cream Day 8 World Ocean Day 9 Cuddle Up Day 9 Profess Your Love Day 10 Iced Tea Day 10 Great Turtle Races Day 10 Strawberry Festival (West Virginia, USA) 10 Tomato Festival (Louisiana, USA) 10 Mourn For Your Money Day 10 Tomato Festival (Texas, USA) 11 Red Rose Festival 11 King Kamehameha Day (Hawaii) 12 Diary Day 13 Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day 13 Lobster Day 14 Flag Day 15 Sneak A Kiss Day 15 Smile Power Day 15 Electricity Day 15 A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed Day 15 Career Nursing Assistants Day 16 Morticians Day 17 International Violin Day 17 World Juggling Day 17 Sweden-America Day 17 Sandcastle Day (Oregon, USA)   ... 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   350 Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaimed himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.   Crusaders "liberate" Muslim Saracens 1098 First Crusade: Crusaders took Antioch, Turkey. (See June 10 for a prophetic dream – associated with the Spear of Destiny (Holy Lance) – which occurred during the Siege of Antioch, qv.) More on the Siege of Antioch 1395 Execution of Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria, tsar. 1397 Death of William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury (b. 1328), English military leader. 1140 Peter Abelard (1079 - 1142), French scholar, famed medieval lover of Heloise (1101 - 1162), was found by a church court guilty of heresy. 1381 England: Sir Simon de Burley (Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle from 1384 - '88) charged a man with being a serf, in Gravesend; this touched off Wat Tyler's Rebellion the next day. (That event is listed at June 11 in the Book of Days, due to the calendar change in the 18th century.) In 1388, Simon de Burley along with other favourites of King Richard II was attainted for treason and executed. 1608 Samuel de Champlain completed his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec. 1620 Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, began at Quebec City, Quebec Canada. 1621 The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands. 1658 The Pope appointed François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France. 1665 British forces, commanded by the Duke of York, defeated the Dutch fleet off the coast of Harwich. One of the reasons the two nations were at war was that the British had captured the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, renaming it New York. 1769 The transit of Venus across the Sun was observed at Tahiti by a party led by mariner Captain James Cook (1728 - '79), on his First Voyage on which Cook claimed the continent of Australia in the name of King George III of Britain. Transits of Venus are rare, coming in pairs, 8 years apart, separated by approximately 120 years. The one preceding this one was on June 6, 1760 (qv). The most recent one at the time of writing was, June 8, 2004. Pictured is Cook's demountable observatory as used in Tahiti. "[Joseph] Banks' log entry on the day of the transit consists of 622 words; fewer than 100 of them concern Venus. Mostly he chronicled a breakfast-meeting with Tarróa, the King of the Island, and Tarróa's sister Nuna, and later in the day, a visit from 'three handsome women.' Of Venus, he says, 'I went to my Companions at the observatory carrying with me Tarróa, Nuna and some of their chief attendants; to them we shewd the planet upon the sun and made them understand that we came on purpose to see it. After this they went back and myself with them.' Period. If the King or Banks himself was impressed, Banks never said so. "Cook was a little more expansive: 'This day prov'd as favourable to our purpose as we could wish, not a Clowd was to be seen … and the Air was perfectly clear, so that we had every advantage we could desire in Observing the whole of the passage of the Planet Venus over the Suns disk: we very distinctly saw an Atmosphere or dusky shade round the body of the Planet which very much disturbed the times of the contacts particularly the two internal ones.'" James Cook and the transit of Venus History of Venus transits   Venus Transit: Cycles of the Heart  Viewing Venus in broad daylight    transitofvenus.org    More    More   1770 Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 1800 US President John Adams took up residence in Washington, DC (in a tavern – the White House was not yet completed). 1851 The first baseball inter-club match was played, the Knickerbocker Club taking on the Washington Baseball Club, at Red House Grounds, New York. 1864 American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor – Confederate forces attacked Union troops at Hanover County, Virginia; 6,000 Unionists were killed or wounded in less than an hour. 1866 Fenians were driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario into the United States to a heroes' welcome. 1885 The last military engagement was fought on Canadian soil: Cree leader Big Bear escaped the North West Mounted Police. 1887 The Mayor of Sydney, Australia, Alderman Alban Joseph Riley (1844 - 1914), held a Friday-night public meeting to organise a feast for schoolchildren on the Jubilee (June 20) of Queen Victoria. The crowd voted it down by a large majority as "calculated to injure the democratic spirit of this Colony". Riley hastily closed the meeting (called by The Bulletin "one of the most important in the history of the people") and soon called another meeting stacked with monarchists (by ticket only). However, that meeting, on June 10 [qv], was crashed by hundreds of republicans, and was called 'the Republican Riot'. Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson 1889 The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed from coast to coast 1889 The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States was completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon. 1906 Belgian King Leopold II first named Belgian Congo his private possession. 1916 The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was established by the United States Congress. 1916 USA: The National Defense Act was signed into law, increasing the size of the National Guard by 450,000 men. 1921 Alexander Berkman sustained a foot injury, delaying his departure with Emma Goldman from Russia. The veteran anarchists were now being thoroughly disillusioned with the Bolshevik 'counter' revolution. The Cheka used the opportunity to raid Goldman's Moscow apartment. Goldman and Berkman met regularly with the European and Scandinavian anarcho-syndicalists, delegates to the international congresses, and they renewed their friendship with Vera Figner, a leader of the Narodnaya Volya ('People's Will') movement. Source: The Daily Bleed More 1924 Franz Kafka died, Kierling, Austria, leaving a plea to his friend Max Brod to destroy all his unpublished manuscripts –  including The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika. 1926 "June 3. In 1926, the Cornish Echo reported that two young boys had been attacked by a very large and aggressive 'feathered thing' between Mount Hawke and Porthtowan in Cornwall. Hunted and killed, it defied identification. On 17 April 1976, June Melling, 12, saw a menacing 'owl man' near Mawnan church in Cornwall. The following 3 July, Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, both 14, saw it near the church where they were camping. It was man-sized, with glowing red eyes, grey feathers and large wings, and rose straight up, disappearing into the trees."   Fortean Times 1935 Canada: About 1,000 unemployed men boarded freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario. 1937 Paris, France: The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson. 1940 World War II: The Luftwaffe bombed Paris. 1942 Off the Midway Islands, in the Pacific, airborne warfare between American and Japanese carrier-based planes began (the Battle of Midway). 1943 The decision was made at the UN Food Conference to establish an Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. 1944 General Charles de Gaulle became Prime Minister of France. 1946 The first bikini swimming costume went on show, Monts, France, named after the Pacific atoll that was destroyed by a nuclear explosion.   Bikini Atoll in the Book of Days 1948 Korczak Ziolkowski began his sculpture of Crazy Horse near Mt Rushmore, South Dakota, USA. "Memorial is dedicated June 3rd with first blast on the mountain. Special guests include five of the nine survivors of Battle of Little Big Horn. Korczak promises that Crazy Horse will be a nonprofit educational and cultural humanitarian project financed by the interested public and not with government tax money; he pledges never to take a salary at Crazy Horse. Korczak single-jacks four holes for the first blast, which takes off only 10 tons. He falls, suffering his first injury on the mountain."   Chronology   1950 Annapurna I in Nepal, one of the highest Himalayan peaks (8,078 m) and tenth highest mountain in the world, was first climbed, by French mountaineers Herzog and Lachenal. 1952 Guangzhou, China: Officials marked a campaign against opium with a rally of 4,000 ex-addicts. In 1800, its import was forbidden by the imperial government. Despite this restriction, the opium trade continued to flourish at the hands of Britain, the USA and other Western nations. The government in Peking noted that the foreigners seemed intent on dragging down the Chinese through the encouragement of opium addiction. 1955 The first successful operation to separate Siamese twins: Folke and Tsitske de Vries, in Holland. 1956 British Rail abolished Third Class seats on its trains. 1960 In Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court ruled that all accused persons must be given the right to an attorney. 1964 Conscientious objection was legally recognized in Belgium.     Ed White on his spacewalk 1965 Gemini 4 was launched, the first multi-day mission by an American crew – James McDivitt and Edward White. During this trip, White became the first American to walk in space. He later said the spacewalk was the most comfortable part of the mission, and that the order to end it was the "saddest moment" of his life. 1966 The US spacecraft Gemini 9A, bearing two astronauts, was launched. 1969 The science fiction television series Star Trek aired its final new episode after being cancelled by NBC. The show premiered on September 8, 1966. 1968 Valerie Solanas (1936 - '88), author of the notorious misandrist document, SCUM Manifesto, shot Andy Warhol (1928 - '87) in the shoulder. The crime was the subject of a movie, I Shot Andy Warhol. Misandry From SCUM Manifesto, by Valerie Solanas "It is now technically feasible to reproduce without the aid of males (or, for that matter, females) and to produce only females. We must begin immediately to do so. Retaining the male has not even the dubious purpose of reproduction. The male is a biological accident: the Y (male) gene is an incomplete X (female) gene, that is, it has an incomplete set of chromosomes. In other words, the male is an incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage. To be male is to be deficient, emotionally limited; maleness is a deficiency disease and males are emotional cripples. "The male is completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, or love, friendship, affection of tenderness. He is a completely isolated unit, incapable of rapport with anyone. His responses are entirely visceral, not cerebral; his intelligence is a mere tool in the services of his drives and needs; he is incapable of mental passion, mental interaction; he can't relate to anything other than his own physical sensations. He is a half-dead, unresponsive lump, incapable of giving or receiving pleasure or happiness; consequently, he is at best an utter bore, an inoffensive blob, since only those capable of absorption in others can be charming. He is trapped in a twilight zone halfway between humans and apes, and is far worse off than the apes because, unlike the apes, he is capable of a large array of negative feelings -- hate, jealousy, contempt, disgust, guilt, shame, doubt -- and moreover, he is aware of what he is and what he isn't. "   Source (PDF file) 1969 South China Sea (off Luzon) at the height of the Vietnam War: The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, which had gained notoriety for its disastrous collision (February 10, 1964, qv) with HMAS Voyager in which 82 sailors died, crashed again, this time ramming American destroyer USS Frank E Evans amidships, killing 74. List of disasters in Australia by death toll    List of United States disasters by death toll 1972 Sally Priesand became the first female rabbi, Cincinnati, USA. 1979 A blowout at the Ixtoc oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico caused at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters – the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons. 1980 In an actual scene like something from Dr Strangelove, a computer malfunction – specifically, failure of a 46-cent computer chip – signalled a Soviet nuclear attack on the USA. American forces were called back in the nick of time. It happened again on June 6. 1981 Australia: Plans were announced to redevelop Sydney's Luna Park (first opened October 1935). 1984 Australia's first 'test-tube' gorilla, a male, was born at Melbourne Zoo, only the second in the world to be conceived artificially. 1984 Australia: The Sydney to Newcastle railway line was electrified. 1989 Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The government of China sent troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation. The demonstrations culminated in the June 4 Massacre.   Photos   More Human rights in China Replica of goddess, San Francisco Google news results on Human Rights in China China's propaganda 'human rights' site       Iguazú National Park, located in Argentina near its borders with Brazil and Paraguay, contains remnants of highly endangered rain forest. These images clearly show how protecting an area can halt encroaching deforestation."  Source: Changing planet revealed in atlas 1992 The United Nations Earth Summit began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The USA government obstructed passage of most proposed agreements. The rate of destruction of the Amazon Rainforest increased. Business as usual. 1992 "The High Court of Australia handed down its judgement on the Mabo case. Eddie Mabo was from Mer, one of the Murray Islands off the coast of Northern Australia. He argued in the High Court that Murray Islanders' rights to their land were not extinguished by the annexation of the islands by the State of Queensland, or by subsequent Queensland or federal governments' legislation. The High Court agreed with this view and the idea of 'terra nullius' – that Australia had been empty of people when settled by the British – was abandoned and the pre-existing rights of indigenous Australians acknowledged."   Source The Mabo Case    See National Reconciliation Week, Australia 1995 The Blue Mountain declaration The Council for Responsible Genetics, a public interest organization headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, convened a meeting to address the problems presented by the patenting of life forms. Those assembled issued the following statement: The humans, animals, microorganisms and plants comprising life on earth are part of the natural world into which we were all born. The conversion of these life forms, their molecules or parts into corporate property through patent monopolies is counter to the interests of the peoples of the world.  No individual, institution, or corporation should be able to claim ownership over species or varieties of living organisms. Nor should they be able to hold patents on organs, cells, genes or proteins, whether naturally occurring, genetically altered or otherwise modified.  Indigenous peoples, their knowledge and resources are the primary target for the commodification of genetic resources. We call upon all individuals and organizations to recognize these peoples' sovereign rights to self-determination and territorial rights, and to support their efforts to protect themselves, their lands and genetic resources from commodification and manipulation.  Life patents are not necessary for the conduct of science and technology, and may in fact retard or limit any benefits which could result from new information, treatments or products.  Recent developments emphasize the importance of our common position:  - the European Parliament in March 1995 soundly rejected a bill to authorize patents on life in the European Union;  - three weeks later, the Indian Parliament refused a similar bill on life patents;  - in May 1995, a large coalition of religious leaders in the United States openly opposed patents on humans and animal life;  - a recent attempt by the US Department of Commerce to patent a human cell line from an Indigenous Guaymi woman from Panama was opposed by a coalition of activists and withdrawn;  - following protests by citizen groups, scientists and governments, W.R. Grace's controversial patent covering all genetically engineered cotton has been revoked in both the United States and India;  - in May, 1995 the indigenous peoples organizations of the South Pacific began drafting a treaty to declare the region a life form patent-free zone; Other indigenous peoples are working to enact similar treaties in their territories;  - in the last two years, the European Parliament decided to stop all public European Union funding for research associated with the Human Genome Diversity Project. Additionally, the European Parliament legislated that publicly funded research should not give rise to privately held patents.  As part of a world movement to protect our common living heritage, we call upon the world and the Congress of the United States to enact legislation to exclude living organisms and their component parts from the patent system. We encourage all peoples to oppose this attack on the value of life. Participants of the Blue Mountain conference: Alternative Agricultural Projects (AS-PTA) (Brazil) The Canadian Environmental Law Association The Community Nutrition Institute The Council for Responsible Genetics The Cultural Conservancy Cultural Survival Canada The Edmonds Institute The Feminist Alliance on New Reproductive and Genetic Technology (Canada) The Foundation on Economic Trends The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy The International Center for Technology Assessment Debra Harry, a Northern Paiute activist Brewster Kneen, The Ram's Horn Rural Advancement Foundation International The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church The Washington Biotechnology Action Council Source    1997 Lionel Jospin became Prime Minister of France.   2002 The peak day of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II occurred in the United Kingdom. "It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day" 19?? Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, USA, year unknown: Today is the day that the [unnamed] parents of Billy Joe McAllister's girlfriend made some insinuations about what their [also unnamed] daughter had been doing recently with Billy Joe McAllister at the Tallahatchie Bridge. It's a mystery. The probably fictitious Billy Joe jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge, too, on this day, an incident recalled in the 1967 international hit song 'Ode to Billy Joe' by Bobbie Gentry, a singer from Tallahatchie County. In 1976, the incident was made into a movie starring Robby Benson and directed by Max Baer, Jr, best known as Jethro on the 1960s American TV show, The Beverly Hillbillies. The year 1953 is given by some sources but I have seen no evidence. 'Ode to Billie Joe' midi   Tomorrow: Tragedy at Tienanmen    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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