*Ø* Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine | Book of Days | March 20 | Spring Equinox folklore customs Nowroze Nauroze Norouz Persian New Year USA invades Iraq 2003

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Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair telling porkies, March 20, 2003; the 'Coalition of the Willing' invaded Iraq today

I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on November 14, 2002, speaking on National Public Radio and Infinity Radio, USA Source Myths of the 'War on Terrorism' and Iraq

JIM LEHRER: Rightly or wrongly, Mr. Secretary, I went back and checked the record today, the impression that was given in public statements and all that sort of thing was that when this war ended, this war was going to end, that when Saddam Hussein and his regime, you know, fell, then the rest of it was going to be kind of a mop-up. And I'm just –
DONALD RUMSFELD: Not by me.
Amnesiac Donald Rumsfeld, September 10, 2003 Source: PBS News Hour

The Lesser Sabbats were the two solstices at midsummer and midwinter, and the two equinoxes in spring and autumn. These may vary by a day or two each year, as they depend upon the sun's apparent entry into the Zodiacal signs.
Doreen Valiente; ABC of Witchcraft, p. 293

All sleeping seeds She wakens,
The rainbow is Her token.
Miriam Simos; 'Chant for Spring, to Kore/Persephone', Spiral Dance, p. 88

Source

Through your mercies, Lord, may the months
be for us the source of joys, the years, of delight;
let them bequeath to us in peace, O Lord:
Nisan has its flowers, Iyyar its lilies too,
Haziran its sheaves, Tammuz its heaps of grain;
let Ab and Illul bring along grape-clusters on poles,
let the two Teshris give response to each other in the grape-pressing;
let the two Kanuns bring rest, Shebat and Adar, the Fast.
To you, Lord, be the praise.
Ancient Babylonian New Year's prayer Source: Gateways to Babylon

When on high, the heaven had not been named,
Firm ground below had not been called by name,
nought but primordial Apsu, their begetter,
[And] Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all,
Their waters commingling as a single body ...
From the opening stanzas of Enûma Elish Babylonian epic creation epic

And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts,
And with his merciless club he smashed her skull.
He cut through the channels of her blood,
And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places.
From Enûma Elish

I'm sorry for any fool who rates sleep a prime blessing
And enjoys it from dusk till dawn
Night in, night out. What's sleep but cold death's reflection?
Ovid, Roman poet, born on March 20, 43 BCE; from 'Elegy 9b', translated by Peter Green

Let others delight in the good old days; I am delighted to be alive right now. This age is suited to my way of life.
Ovid

So long as you are secure you will count many friends; if your life becomes clouded you will be alone.
Ovid; Metamorphoses

My mind is intent on singing of shapes changed into new bodies.
Ovid; ibid

Let your mistress's birthday be one of great terror to you:
that's a black day when anything has to be given.
Ovid; Ars Amatoria

One soil doesn't bear all crops: vines here
are good, olives there: this teems with healthy wheat.
There are as many manners of heart as kinds of face:
a wise man will adapt to many forms,
and like Proteus now, melt into the smooth waters,
now be a tree, now a lion, now a bristling boar.
These fish are speared, those caught on a hook:
others trawled in billowing nets with straining ropes.
Ovid; ibid

I open wide the portals of the Spring
To welcome the procession of the flowers,
With their gay banners, and the birds that sing
Their song of songs from their aerial towers.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Of Edenhall, the youthful Lord
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call.
He rises at the banquet board,
And cries, 'mid the drunken revellers all,
"Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall!"

The butler hears the words with pain,
The house's oldest seneschal,
Takes slow from its silken cloth again
The drinking glass of crystal tall;
They call it The Luck of Edenhall.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; 'The Luck of Edenhall' (see St Cuthbert's Day) Source

Buds on the bushes, and blooms on the mead,
Swiftly are swelling ;
Hark! the Spring whispereth, "Make ye with speed
Ready my dwelling."
Bayard Taylor

About the seasons of the year,
Astrologers may make a fuss:
But this I know, that Spring is here
When I cut asparagus.
Poor Robin's Almanac, 1808

We give-away our thanks to the earth which gives us our home.
We give-away our thanks to the rivers and lakes which give-away their water.
We give-away our thanks to the trees which give-away fruit and nuts.
We give-away our thanks to the wind which brings rain to water the plants.
We give-away our thanks to the sun who gives-away warmth and light.
All beings on earth: the trees, the animals, the wind and the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance.
We give-away our promise to begin to learn how to stay in balance with all the earth.
'Give-Away Thanksgiving Chant' for Equinox Festival, from La Chapelle, Dolores, Earth Festivals

Instead of a eulogy the consul Marc Antony caused a herald to recite the decree of the Senate in which it had voted Caesar all divine and human honours at once, and likewise the oath with which they had all pledged themselves to watch over his personal safety; to which he added a very few words of his own. The bier on the rostra was carried to the Forum by magistrates and ex-magistrates. While some were urging that it be burned in the temple of Jupiter of the Capitol, and others in the Hall of Pompey, on a sudden two beings with swords by their sides and brandishing a pair of darts set fire to it with blazing torches, and at once the throng of bystanders heaped upon it dry branches, the judgment seats with the benches, and whatever else could serve as an offering. Then the musicians and actors tore off their robes, which they had taken from the equipment of his triumphs and put on for the occasion, rent them to bits and threw them into the flames, and the veterans of the legions the arms with which they had adorned themselves for the funeral. Many of the women, too, offered up the jewels which they wore and the amulets and robes of their children. At the height of the public grief a throng of foreigners went about lamenting each after the fashion of his country, above all the Jews, who even flocked to the place for several successive nights.
The populace, with torches in their hands, ran from the funeral to the houses of Brutus and Cassius and after being repelled with difficulty, they slew Helvius Cinna when they met him, through a mistake in the name, supposing that he was Cornelius Cinna, who had the day before made a bitter indictment of Caesar and for whom they were looking; and they set his head upon a spear and paraded it about the streets.
Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus; 75 - 160), on the funeral of Julius Caesar, who was cremated on March 20, 44 BCE, following his murder on March 15 Source

I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, American channel/author, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin was published on March 20, 1852

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Sir Isaac Newton, who died on March 20, 1727, aged 84. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27)

Who, by vigour of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated.
Epitaph of Sir Isaac Newton

More Isaac Newton quotes

On a rock, by Lindisfarne,
Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name:
Such tales had Whitby's fishers told,
And said they might his shape behold,
And hear his anvil sound;
A deadened clang – a huge dim form,
Seen but, and heard, when gathering storm,
And night were closing round.
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832); 'Marmion'. Today is St Cuthbert's Day.

If this glass do break or fall,
Fairwell the luck of Edenhall!
What the fairies said to the Musgrave's butler at St Cuthbert's well when he grabbed the glass cup

When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter-life- everlasting, goldenrods, pinweeds, and graceful wild grasses, more obvious and interesting frequently than in summer even, as if their beauty was not ripe till then; even cotton-grass, cat-tails, mulleins, johnswort, hardhack, meadowsweet, and other strong-stemmed plants, those unexhausted granaries which entertain the earliest birds – decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears. I am particularly attracted by the arching and sheaf-like top of the wool-grass; it brings back the summer to our winter memories, and is among the forms which art loves to copy, and which, in the vegetable kingdom, have the same relation to types already in the mind of man that astronomy has. It is an antique style, older than Greek or Egyptian. Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.
At the approach of spring the red squirrels got under my house, two at a time, directly under my feet as I sat reading or writing, and kept up the queerest chuckling and chirruping and vocal pirouetting and gurgling sounds that ever were heard; and when I stamped they only chirruped the louder, as if past all fear and respect in their mad pranks, defying humanity to stop them. No, you don't – chickaree-chickaree. They were wholly deaf to my arguments, or failed to perceive their force, and fell into a strain of invective that was irresistible.
The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever! The faint silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and moist fields from the bluebird, the song sparrow, and the red-wing, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they fell!
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - '62); Walden, Ch. 17, 'Spring'

... And what does it mean, then to be a poet? It was a long time before I realized that to be a poet means essentially to see, but mark well, to see in such a way that whatever is seen is perceived by the audience just as the poet saw it. But only what has been lived through can be seen in that way and accepted in that way. And the secret of modern literature lies precisely in this matter of experiences that are lived through. All that I have written these last ten years, I have lived through spiritually.
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist, born on March 20, 1828; 'Speech to the Norwegian Students, September 10, 1874, from Speeches and New Letters, 1910

A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.
Henrik Ibsen; Ibsen's Workshop, 1912

The major problems of the world today can be solved only if we improve our understanding of human behavior.
BF Skinner, American psychologist, born on March 20, 1904

The earth will continue to regenerate its life sources only as long as we and all the peoples of the world do our part to conserve its natural resources. It is a responsibility which every human being shares. Through voluntary action, each of us can join in building a productive land in harmony with nature.
US President Gerald Ford, proclaiming the first Earth Day

The US, once a guarantor of peace, is now perceived in the rest of the world as an aggressor. Its victim is a small Muslim nation unable to defend its own air space, much less to project power beyond its borders. If Iraqis attempt to resist invasion, they will be slaughtered.
Paul Craig Roberts; Washington Times, March 20, 2003

March 20 is the 79^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80^th in leap years), with 286 days remaining.
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Eight Stations of the Year (Sabbats) in the Book of Days

The Eight Stations are the equinoxes, solstices, and the midway points between them

Spring Equinox/Ostara May Day/Beltaine Summer Solstice/Litha Lammas/Lughnasadh

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Halloween/Samhain Winter Solstice/Yule Brigid/Candlemas/Imbolc

Helpful external links

Spring: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, and Links for Gardeners

Wheel of the Year at Mything Links Wheel of the Year at Wikipedia

School of the Seasons Calendars at Wikipedia Almanacs, calendars, time

Vernal Equinox (March 20, 21 or 22), Northern Hemisphere

"In astronomy, the vernal equinox (spring equinox, March equinox, or northward equinox) is the equinox at the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere: the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading northward. The equinox occurs around March 20 - 22, varying slightly each year according to the 400 year cycle of leap years in the Gregorian Calendar. At the present time, the vernal equinox occurs as the sun moves through the constellation Pisces. 2000 years ago the equinox was in Aries and by 2600 it will be in Aquarius.

"In the southern hemisphere, the equinox occurs at the same moment, but at the beginning of autumn. There are two conventions for dealing with this: either the name of the equinox can be changed to the autumnal equinox, or (apparently more commonly) the name is unchanged and it is accepted that it is out of sync with the season. The alternative terms March equinox or northward equinox avoid any such ambiguity.

"At the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. In the northern hemisphere, before the vernal equinox, the sun rises and sets more and more to the south, and afterwards, it rises and sets more and more to the north.

"Also, Vernal Equinox Day is an official national holiday in Japan, and is spent visiting family graves, and holding family reunions."
Source: Wikipedia

Ostara, Alban Eiler, Esther, Eostre, Ostarun, ôstartag', Eastre, Eoastrae, Oestre

One of the Lesser Wiccan Sabbats, Ostara is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the Spring Equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere circa March 20 and in the Southern Hemisphere circa September 21, but, because of its origins, may instead be celebrated on the fixed date of March 25.

The name may refer to an ancient Germanic goddess named Eostre; it is alleged that this name was used in English when the Paschal holiday was introduced, and this name (not the holiday) was converted to Easter, in German Ostern. However, many scholars doubt that a goddess of that name was ever venerated by the Germanic tribes, since there would seem to be one and only one speculative mention of her in any early medieval work and no mention in any ancient manuscript.

The holiday is a celebration of spring and growth; light and darkness are in balance, yet the light grows stronger day by day. The forces of masculine and feminine energy, yin and yang, are also said to be in balance at this time. Traditional decorations include budding boughs, flowers, and decorated eggs. Animals associated with Ostara are rabbits and snakes.

Among the sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc and followed by Beltane.

Sources: Wikipedia et al

You Call It Easter, We Call It Ostara

Festival of Idun (Iduna; Idun;, Ithun; Idunnor), Norse Goddess of Spring

Goddess of youth, fertility, and death. Bearer of magic apples of life, she personifies the light half of the year, at the Equinox. She appears today as a sparrow, bringing joy to people.
Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar
See also Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 52

Goddess month of Columbina begins (Mar 20 - Apr 17)

What is the Goddess Calendar? More

"Columbina is the archetypical Great Mother. Together with her lover, Harlequin, they represent the cycle of life and death, and are the origin of the modern-day clown. They are the inspiration behind pantomime performance and the Commedia del Arte.

Her name means 'little dove' in Italian, so she shares the symbol of the dove with another Great Mother, the goddess Ishtar. Traditionally, she is depicted as a beautiful raven-haired clown, wearing a white costume with black pom-poms. As lore has it, both she and Harlequin are invisible to the eyes of mortals.

"Although they appear now as light-hearted clowns, further research reveals a much darker history of the two lovers. In ancient England and Europe, Columbina was the undying Earth Mother, while a new Harlequin (or 'Herle King') was chosen each year and sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the land and its inhabitants, and the continuation of the seasons." Source
Columbina is also one of the stock characters in commedia dell'arte:

"Generically, the female of zanni: zagne. The role was first called sobretta (soubrette in French, later known as fantesca (maid) or servetta (female servant). Although Columbina became the dominant name, especially as Columbine in France and England, she was originally also called Franceschina, Smeraldina, Oliva, Nespola, Spinetta, Ricciolina, Corallina, Diamantina, Lisetta, etc." – Rudlin

Source

Columbina (in Italian, Colombina, 'little dove'; in French, Columbine) is a comic servant character from the Commedia dell'Arte.

She is dressed in a ragged and patched dress appropriate to a hired servant. Occasionally, under the name Arlecchina she would wear a motley similar to her counterpart Arlecchino. She was also known to wear heavy makeup around her eyes and carry a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of Pantalone.

She was often the only functional intellect on the stage. Columbina aided her mistress, the inamorata to gain the affections of her one true love by manipulating Arlecchino and counter-plotting against Pantalone while simultaneously managing the whereabouts of the inamorato.

Source: Wikipedia

Higan (O-Higan; Higan no Chu-Nichi), Japan

Celebrated at both the Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox

This is an important festival in the Japanese calendar which, Since January 1, 1873, Japan has been based on the Gregorian Calendar, with local names for the months and mostly fixed holidays (before 1873 a lunisolar calendar was in use, which was adapted from the Chinese calendar). Higan is the week-long period of Buddhist memorial services peculiar to Japan and held twice a year.

On or around the day of the Autumn Equinox, Japanese people celebrate Shuubun-no-hi, also known as Higan (Higan no Chu-Nichi). There is another Higan at the time of the Spring Equinox, which is also called Higan no Chu-Nichi. Both are usually observed on the Sunday on or immediately preceding the equinoxes. The middle days of each Higan, Shunbun no hi (Spring Equinox) and Shuubun no hi (Autumnal Equinox) are national holidays.

The name Higan means 'the other shore' and derives from the Buddhist notion that there is a river that marks the division of the mundane world and the afterlife. This river is one of illusions, passion, pain and sorrow. Only when one crosses the river, swimming against the currents of temptation, to the other shore, does one gain enlightenment.

During the whole of this week there is a Buddhist observance, three days either side of the equinox, when the spirits of one's ancestors are commemorated. Usually on the equinoctial day, families and friends visit their family tombs, where they tend and weed the graves of their loved ones. They leave flowers, incense and ohagi (sweet rice balls covered with soybean paste) – it is tradition that ancestors' spirits prefer food that is round. The visitors sweep the ground, say prayers, and may even have a bit of a family party, drinking sake rice wine.

Japanese consider this period the changing of the season. Usually around the autumnal Higan the Japanese summer heat-wave weakens, and the weather changes to autumn. Thus the Japanese have a saying, "Atsusa samusa mo Higan made" ("Neither heat in summer, nor cold in winter last beyond higan").

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First day of month of Germinal (Windy month), French Revolutionary Calendar

On October 24, 1793 the French National Convention adopted the French Republican Calendar (French Revolutionary Calendar) retrospectively as from September 22, 1792.

Napoleon Bonaparte abolished it and restored the Gregorian calendar on January 1, 1806 (the day after 10 nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. However, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX).

It was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the descriptive names of the months. Instead of most days having a saint as in the Catholic Church's calendar, each day has a plant, a tool or an animal associated with it. Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar.

Each month lasted 30 days and was divided into three decades. Every day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the 5^th (Quintidi) and 10^th day (Decadi) of every decade, which had the name of a domestic animal (Quintidi) or an agricultural tool (Decadi).

Autumn
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, 'vintage'), begins Sep 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, 'mist'), begins Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, 'frost'), begins Nov 21, 22 or 23

Winter
Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, 'snowy'), begins Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, 'rainy'), begins Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, 'windy'), begins Feb 19, 20 or 21

Spring
Germinal (from Latin germen, 'seed'), begins Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, 'flower'), begins Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, 'meadow'), begins May 20 or 21

Summer
Messidor (from Latin messis, 'harvest'), begins Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (from Greek thermos, 'hot'), begins Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, 'fruits'), begins Aug 18 or 19

Sansculottides
The Sansculottides (also Epagomenes; French Sans-culottides, Sanculottides, jours complementaires, jours épagomènes) are the end of the calendar. They follow Fructidor and precede Vendémiaire of the next year, belonging to the summer quarter of the year.

The Sansculottides, named after the Sansculottes, amend the 360 days of the calendar so that the beginning of the next year is on the autumnal equinox. There were five Sansculottides in a common year and six in a leap year (from this derives the French name of the leap year année sextile). The Sansculottides start on September 17 or 18 and end on September 22 or 23.

	1^re Décade		2^e Décade		3^e Décade
Primidi	1.	Pomme (Apple)	11.	Salsifis (Salsify)	21.	Bacchante (asarum baccharis)
Duodi	2.	Céleri (Celery)	12.	Macre (Water Chestnut)	22.	Azerole (Crete Hawthorn)
Tridi	3.	Poire (Pear)	13.	Topinambour (Jerusalem Artichoke)	23.	Garence (Madder)
Quartidi	4.	Betterave (Beet Root)	14.	Endive (Endive)	24.	Orange (Orange)
Quintidi	5.	Oye (Goose)	15.	Dindon (Turkey)	25.	Faisan (Pheasant)
Sextidi	6.	Héliotrope (European Turnsole)	16.	Chervi (Skirret)	26.	Pistache (Pistachio)
Septidi	7.	Figue (Fig)	17.	Cresson (Cress)	27.	Macjonc (Sweetpea)
Octidi	8.	Scorsonère (Black Salsify)	18.	Dentelaire (Leadwort)	28.	Coing (Quince)
Nonidi	9.	Alisier (Chequer Tree)	19.	Grenade (Pomegranate)	29.	Cormier (Service Tree)
Decadi	10.	Charrue (Plough)	20.	Herse (Harrow)	30.	Rouleau (Roller)

Source: Wikipedia Website converts Gregorian calendar to FRC (and has desktop program)

High resolution image of the calendar by Louis-Philibert Debucourt (951x1098, 486 KB)

Antique Decimal Watches Criticisms and shortcomings of the FRC Julian day calculator (pop-up)

Date converter for numerous calendars, including this one Calendrica, great calendar comparisons

The Book of Days index page shows the current day's date in the French Republican Calendar

Autumn amongst certain clans around the Murray River, Australia

Australia's Murray River system is the seventh largest river system in the world, covering 1,057,000 square kilometres (408, 110 sq mi). It is 2,560 kilometres (1,590 miles) long and continuously navigable for 1,986 km (1,234 mi). It encompasses 30,000 wetlands and today has only five billion trees remaining out of an estimated 28 billion at the time of the earliest European settlement.

Today, due to inappropriate agricultural practices over two centuries, the grand old Murray is faced with immense salination and other serious ecological problems. It was not always thus, and for tens of millennia the Murray River, as we now call it, provided bioregions that sustained Aboriginal communities that lived much more harmoniously with this great river.

The clans:

Circle colour	Name	Clan	Region
Green/blue	Yiatmathang	Wombat	Kiewa/Mitta Mitta Valley
Tan	Waradjuri	Kangaroo	Lower NSW
Green	Dora Dora	Possum	Jindabyne
Mauve	Duduroa	Tasmanian Tiger	Wodonga
Yellow	Minjambutta	Echidna	Ovens/King Valley
Blue	Pangerang	Koala	Goulburn Valley
Brown	Kwatt Kwatta	Emu	Rutherglen Plains

After their annual Bogong Moth (Agrotis infusa) meeting (see November 26), where the tasty and nutritious moths provided sustenance, these clans returned to lands near the river. The waterholes would generally now be empty so the only water would be in waterholes along the Murray, so they camped at the end of Summer by these waterholes. Animals and birds also were drawn to these areas so the hunting was good. By end of Autumn after the first rains had started, the clans moved from the river to their plains further west. They started burning grass in controlled patterns; the burning cycle was every three-four years, so as not to over-burn. When winter came, they moved to the shelter of the wooded foothills.
Based on The Bogong Moth Dreaming, pamphlet by Eddie 'Kookaburra' Kneebone, c. 1995 (courtesy Francis Firebrace)

Murray Watch

Akitu Festival (Nissan), Sumeria (c. Mar 20 - 31)

Akitu belongs approximately to this time of the year, the days around the Spring Equinox. It comes from the ancient cultures of the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the land known to the Greeks as Mesopotamia ('between the rivers'), in the Bible as Babylon and which we now know as Iraq. Akitu was like Christmas, and in some ways, one of its ancestors.

It is your almanackist's belief that if we are to be known as civilized peoples, we should get to know cultures a little before we fire-storm them and their ancient heritage back into the Paleolithic Age, so here is a bit about Akitu, from the 'cradle of civilization', Iraq.

Akitu was the Babylonian New Year's festival, celebrated to honour the supreme god Marduk (the son of Enki), his crown prince Nabû, and other gods.

Marduk, who is a cognate of Jehovah of the ancient Hebrews, was the solar god who defeated the sea goddess/dragon Tiamat and took claim to the creation of the world. According to the Babylonians, it was Tiamat who caused the Great Flood, freeing Marduk from the stigma of being a murderer of innocent men, women, and children. Marduk was the consort of the goddess Bel or Belit, and in the south, sometimes of Ishtar. Some scholars believe that the Biblical personality Mordechai (Book of Esther) used this Gentile name in replacement of his Hebrew name Bilshan.

This (2004) New Year for the predominantly Christian Assyrian people of the region is the start of the year 6754. I found some current Akitu cards here.

Zagmuk was the first day of the Akitu festival, celebrated on the first New Moon after the Spring Equinox. Commemoration was to help Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for another year.

"Akitu: the Babylonian New year's festival, celebrated to honor the supreme god Marduk, his crown prince Nabû and other gods.
"The name Akitu is very ancient. In the third millennium BCE, the Sumerian population of southern Iraq celebrated the á-ki-ti-še-gur₁₀-ku₅, the festival of the sowing of barley. It was celebrated in the first month of the year, that is in March/April. In the Babylonian calendar, this month was known as Nisan (and in the modern Jewish calendar is still called Nisan). Since the festival was celebrated on the first days of the Babylonian year, we can call it a New year's festival. In fact, the ancient Babylonians already called it rêš šattim, 'beginning of the year'." Source

The Sumerian Akitu Festival (New Year´s Festival) at Ur See also April 4, 539 BCE

Glossary of Mesopotamian Religion More

New Year of Nissan, ancient Assyria

"The beginning of spring was the day of a major civic and religious celebration for the ancient Assyrians. It was a time of nature's resurrection and the start of the New Year. It was a time to make sense of life, death the universe and its creator. Assyrians were just as anxious to understand the mysteries of life, to find god and worship him as we are today. Theirs was man's first attempt to explain god, his work and his will …

"The Assyrian New Year celebrations started on the first day of Neesan, the month of the spring equinox. It was based on the belief that this was the time when the act Creation happened." Source

More

Farvardigan, The Ten Days of the Dead, ancient Persia, Zoroastrianism (Mar 10 - 20)

Festival of Hilaria, in honour of the Mother of Gods, ancient Rome (Mar 15 - 27)

Quinquatria, Festival of Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, ancient Rome (Mar 19 - 23)
Today, the second of the five days, a festival from Egypt called the Pelusia was interposed. Pelusia's purpose was to ensure, by sympathetic magic, the annual flooding of the Nile by the intercession of the goddess Isis. In Egypt, this Spring Equinox festival was one of Isis's two great commemorations, the other being held at harvest time.

Isis (Greek version, Egyptian is Aset) is the goddess of motherhood and fertility in ancient Egypt. She is a life-death-rebirth deity (see Legend of Osiris and Isis), as well as one of the Ennead. Later, she acquired the goddess Sopdet.

Autumnal Equinox, Southern Hemisphere

Fredafrewling
"The day of the angel of spring and felicity, whose symbol is a butterfly; today will be bright and sunny." Source

Alban Eilir, Ostara, Fifth Station of the Year

Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies mala), unlucky day in Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding I will trust the Lord" was the associated saying.)

Feast day of St Alexandra and Companions

Feast day of St Ambrose Sansedoni of Siena

Feast day of St Anastasius XVI

Feast day of St Archippus

Feast day of St Benignus

Feast day of St Clement of Ireland

Feast day of St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, patron saint of Northumbria

The incorruptible Cuthbert, (c. 634 - 687)

This 7^th-Century English monk became prior of the monastery at Muilros (Melrose) on the Tweed River and later transferred to one of the Farne Islands, south of the sacred island of Lindisfarne. While there, he instituted special laws to protect the Eider ducks and other seabirds nesting in the vicinity – these might have been the first bird protection laws anywhere in the world.

Cuthbert died on March 20, 687. After 11 years, his body was found to be not rotted when it was put in a new coffin, and found to work healing miracles. The body was inspected in 1104 and still found to be perfect. When the tomb was opened, a small pocket gospel, now known as the Stonyhurst Gospel, was found. It was also discovered that his vest was made of Byzantine "Nature Goddess" silk, indicating the extent of the silk trade at this time (more).

Again in 1540 the body was inspected and found to be incorrupt. In May 1827 it was again inspected, more closely this time, but it was found that an elaborate hoax had been perpetrated: the body had been artificially treated, such as having plaster eyeballs, to appear perfect. Bones found in 1827 under the cathedral probably belong to St Cuthbert, the man who was more important dead than alive.

St Cuthbert once washed his feet in the Jordan River and never wore shoes again.

St Cuthbert: Northumbrian legend – St Cuthbert's beads

When the night is dark and the sea running high, and the night windy, St Cuthbert can be heard in the lulls forging beads for the faithful. He sat on a rock on the shore of the island of Lindisfarne, hammering away. The beads have always been found on the shore after storms: they are the bones of fossilised animals called crinoids, related to sea urchins.

A story that names St Cuthbert

Easter 1333, Durham, England. The Queen of Edward III, staying with king at the prior's lodgings, went to bed with him. A monk came in and said that St Cuthbert did not love the company of her sex. She got up, hastily dressed, went to the castle for the rest of the night, asking pardon for the inadvertent crime against the patron saint of their church.

When he was a boy he was playing handball with his friends and a "fayre yonge chylde" came up and admonished Cuthbert against "vayne playes" and fell down weeping. Cuthbert and the other boys tried to console him, then the boy (an angel) vanished. Cuthbert never played again.

The choristers of Durham Cathedral annually ascend the tower on the eve of Corpus Christi and sing the Te Deum, commemorating the day in 1429 when the tower was struck by lightning but the bells were saved from the ensuing fire. The monks at the time put it down to the influence of the uncorrupted body of St Cuthbert enshrined in the cathedral.

The Luck of Edenhall

At Edenhall, Cumbria, England, the seat of the ancient family of Musgrave, for centuries the family has kept a 13^th-Century drinking cup called the Luck of Edenhall. It is made of very thin glass, and the Musgraves depend on its not breaking.

The ancient legend has it that the family butler went one night to draw water at the well of St Cuthbert, a copious spring in the Edenhall garden. He surprised a group of fairies as they played by the spring, at the edge of which stood the glass. He seized hold of it, and in the ensuing struggle with the fairies, the little people ran away, exclaiming:

If this glass do break or fall,
Fairwell the luck of Edenhall!

The glass was once nearly dropped by the clumsy Duke of Wharton, but was caught in a napkin by the butler. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was inspired to write a poem, 'The Luck of Edenhall', to tell the tale.

The Luck of Edenhall: History and Myths The Luck of Muncaster

Bede's The Life and Miracles of St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindesfarne

Saint Cuthbert in Orthodoxy Sacred wells, springs and grottoes More More And more

Feast day of St Herbert

Feast day of St Hippolytus Galantini

Feast day of St John of Parma

Feast day of St John Sergius

Feast day of St Mark of Montegallo

Feast day of St Martin of Braga

Feast day of St Nicetas

Feast day of St Paul and Companions

Feast day of St Photina

Feast day of St Tetricus

Feast day of St Urbitius

Feast day of St Wulfram (Wulfran), Archbishop of Sens
(Dog's violet [Heath dog-violet or Heath violet], Viola canina, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St William of Penacorada

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints

Norouz (Nauroze; No Rooz; No-Rooz), Iranian (Persian) New Year

The traditional Iranian festival of the New Year starts at the precise moment of the Vernal Equinox, as Spring 'officially' begins. Norouz has been celebrated for more than 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. The ancient Persians stained eggs red. Even today in remote areas of Iran, Muslims exchange scarlet eggs during the days of Ali in Ramadan.

In Afghanistan, also a Persian-speaking country, Spring Equinox is called Nowroze - New Year's Day. People give gifts and children wear new clothes and carnivals are set up. At Mazar-e-Sharif, all the red poppies are out and people celebrate the 'Picnic of Red Flowers' (Maila gula sorkh). They camp and play buskashi, a polo-loke horseback game in which a headless goat, representing the invader Genghis Khan, is chased and hit.

No-Rooz, The Iranian New Year at Present Times

Legba Zaou, Voudon (Voodoo)
Eating consists mainly of a black goat and of bananas laudanne.
Source

Naw Rúz (Norouz) Bahá'í Faith

Neopagan festival of Ostara

End of the fast (end of the 19 day sunrise to sunset fast), Bahá'í Faith

International Astrology Day

Meat Out Day

Third Saturday of March, National Quilting Day, USA

International Earth Day (on the March Equinox)

From Wikipedia: Earth Day is celebrated in most countries on the vernal equinox to mark the precise moment that spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. At this global moment, night and day are equal all over the world, the sun sets at the South Pole and rises at the North Pole and anyone standing on the equator at noon will not cast a shadow. Earth Day is a day of equilibrium when differences are forgotten and nature's renewal is celebrated by all.

This annual event marks the beginning of Earth Day which has been traditionally observed with the ringing of bells. Earth Day was created to remind us of our shared responsibility to protect the planet. The United Nations celebrates Earth Day each year on the vernal equinox (around March 21). On February 26, 1971, Secretary-General U Thant signed a proclamation to that effect. At the moment of the equinox, the Peace Bell is rung at the UN headquarters in New York.

John McConnell first introduced the idea of a global holiday called Earth Day at a UNESCO Conference on the Environment in 1969, the same year that he designed the Earth flag. The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto on March 21, 1970. UN Secretary-General U Thant supported John McConnell's global initiative to celebrate this annual spring equinox event. In his statement on March 21, 1971, Secretary-General U Thant said: "May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life." Secretary General Waldheim observed EARTH DAY with similar ceremonies in 1972. The United Nations EARTH DAY ceremony continued each year on the day of the March equinox (20th or 21st), with the ringing of the U.N. Peace Bell at the very moment of the equinox. In 1975 the US Congress and President Ford proclaimed and urged observance of Earth Day on the March equinox.

The symbol for Earth Day is a green Θ (Greek theta) on a white background.

Due to historical reasons, in the USA and some other nations, Earth Day is commemorated on April 22.

Earth Day Network The Tale of the Two Earth Days How to Celebrate Earth Day 77 Theses

43 BCE Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso; d. 17/18 CE), Roman poet (Metamorphoses), born at Sulmona, in the Abruzzi. His Fasti is the source of much of what we know today about the feast days of ancient Rome.

He was banished from Rome, ostensibly for writing The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) a guide to lovemaking in which he encouraged men to deceive females in order to bed them.

"The reasons behind the emperor's decisions are unsolved, but he may have objected to a rumored affair between Ovid and the emperor's nymphomaniac daughter Julia, whose portrait is drawn among others in Robert Graves's Claudius novels. Perhaps Ovid witnessed the affair between Julia and Silanus. Augustus himself wanted to restore old Roman family values and criminalize adultery …" Source

Ovid's erotic poems More And more

1770 Friedrich Hölderlin (d. 1843), German poet, novelist, and dramatist

1811 Napoleon II of France (d. 1832)

1823 Ned Buntline (d. 1886), 'dime novelist', publisher, writer, publicist

1828 Henrik Ibsen (d. 1906), Norwegian dramatist

"Norwegian playwright, one of 'the four great ones' with Alexander Kielland, Jonas Lie and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson of the 19th-century Norwegian literature. Ibsen is generally acknowledged as the founder of modern prose drama. He moved away from the Romantic style, unmasking the romantic hero, and brought the problems and ideas of the day onto his stage." Source

"In his final period, Ibsen returned to the more mystical subjects of his youth, tempered now by the Classical restraint of his middle period. Embittered by the lack of public enthusiasm for some of his plays, the dramatist painted a moving portrait in The Master Builder of an aging architect who, having given up his dreams of building great monuments and churches with towers reaching up to the heavens, instead devotes his life to building regular houses for people to live in. When the architect finally realizes that society doesn't even appreciate his sacrifice, he returns once again to the more mystical structures of his youth." Source

Shop Ibsen

1831 Solomon L Spink (d. 1881), US Congressman from Illinois

1834 Arthur Orton (d. April 1, 1898), the Tichborne fraudster who was found guilty on February 28, 1874.

Arthur Orton, false claimant to the Tichborne fortune, was found guilty of perjury after 260 days, the longest trial in England, and was sentenced to 14 years' hard labour.

So ended a celebrated English impersonation case. In March, 1853, Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne, heir to the ancient Hampshire baronetcy, sailed for South America. On April 20 he departed from there on the Bella for Jamaica. The ship sank, and Tichborne was not heard of again. In October, 1865, 'RC Tichborne' showed up in Wagga Wagga, Australia, in the person of a man known locally as Tom Castro.

On Christmas Day, 1866, Tichborne/Castro landed in England where he claimed the baronetcy. The real Roger's mother, Dowager Lady Henriette Felicité Tichborne, confirmed the impostor as her son, though the rest of the family was not deceived at all. Finally the impostor lost in court, where he was revealed as Arthur Orton, son of a Wapping (England) butcher.

The Gilbert and Sullivan opera Trial by Jury is said to be based on the famous Tichborne Case.

1834 Charles W Eliot (d. 1926), President of Harvard University

1836 Sir Edward Poynter (d. 1919), painter

1845 Lord Jersey (The Right Honourable Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, 7^th Earl of Jersey; d. May 31, 1915), Governor of New South Wales, 1891 - '93. He was preceded by Lord Carrington (Charles Wynn-Carington [spelled thus], 3^rd Baron Carrington) and succeeded by Sir Robert Duff. Jersey was the UK's Paymaster-General from 1889 - '90. He married Hon. Margaret Elizabeth Leigh, daughter of William Leigh, 2^nd Baron Leigh, on September 19, 1872, and they had six children.

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1856 Frederick Winslow Taylor (d. 1915), inventor, efficiency expert

1856 William Gocher (d. August 18, 1921), Australian artist, publisher, bimetallist and pioneer of daylight surf-swimming in Australia

1870 Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck (d. 1964), German general

1874 Börries von Münchhausen (d. 1945), poet

1885 Ruby Lindsay (d. March 12, 1919), Australian artist and book illustrator, sister of artist/author Norman Lindsay and the wife of Bulletin artist and cartoonist Will Dyson (1880 - 1938). Dyson and Ruby Lindsay moved to London to further their careers, but she died during the influenza epidemic that swept Europe at the end of World War I.

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1890 Beniamino Gigli (d. 1957), tenor

1890 Lauritz Melchior (d. 1973), Danish opera singer (first baritone, then tenor)

1895 Fredric Wertham, (d. 1981) psychologist

1897 Mother Ruby Muhammad, matriarch of Black Islam

1904 BF Skinner (Burrhus Frederic Skinner) (d. 1990), American behavioural psychologist

"With pigeons, he developed the ideas of "operant conditioning" and "shaping behavior." Unlike Pavlov's "classical conditioning," where an existing behavior (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (bell ringing), operant conditioning is the rewarding of a partial behavior or a random act that approaches the desired behavior.

"Operant conditioning can be used to shape behavior. If the goal is to have a pigeon turn in a circle to the left, a reward is given for any small movement to the left. When the pigeon catches on to that, the reward is given for larger movements to the left, and so on, until the pigeon has turned a complete circle before getting the reward. Skinner compared this learning with the way children learn to talk …

"Skinner expressed no interest in understanding the human psyche. He was as strict a behaviorist as John Watson, and he sought only to determine how behavior is caused by external forces. He believed everything we do and are is shaped by our experience of punishment and reward." Source

BF Skinner Foundation More

1906 Ozzie Nelson (d. 1975), American TV star of the 1950s, who starred as the pre-eminent sitcom dad of the '50s in one of the first sitcoms (The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet), based on his real family, also starring his son, pop star Ricky Nelson (1940 - 1985). The show lasted 14 years, a record unbroken for what is considered America's first 'reality' TV sitcom.

1908 Sir Michael Redgrave (d. 1985), actor

1915 Rudolf Kirchschläger (d. 2000), Austrian President

1915 Sviatoslav Richter (d. 1997), Ukrainian pianist

1917 Dame Vera Lynn, actress, singer nicknamed the 'Forces' Sweetheart' in WWII

1921 Rudolf Noelte (d. 2002), film director

1921 Sister Rosetta Tharpe (d. 1973), singer

1922 Carl Reiner, director, producer, actor, comedian

1925 John Ehrlichman (d. February 14, 1999), counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon and a key figure in events leading to the Watergate first break-in and in the ensuing Watergate scandal

1928 Fred Rogers (d. February 27, 2003), American children's television host

1931 Hal Linden, American actor (title role in 1975 TV series: Barney Miller)

1934 Willie Brown, mayor of San Francisco, California

1937 Jerry Reed, country musician

1939 Brian Mulroney, 18^th Prime Minister of Canada

1948 John de Lancie, actor

1950 William Hurt, Oscar-winning (Kiss of the Spider Woman) American actor, stepson of TIME magazine founder Henry R Luce

1950 Carl Palmer, veteran of a number of British bands, including The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake), and Asia

1957 Spike Lee, American film director, actor

1958 Holly Hunter, American actress

1962 Stephen Sommers, film director

1963 Kathy Ireland, supermodel and actress

1964 Natacha Atlas, Belgian singer

1964 Tracy Chapman, musician

1972 Alexander Kapranos, singer/guitarist (Franz Ferdinand [band])

1974 Paula Garces, actress

1974 Andrzej Pilipiuk, Polish writer

1976 Chester Bennington, musician (Linkin Park)

1984 Winta, Norwegian pop star

Year unknown Big Bird

Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section

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March

17 St Patrick's Day Parade (New York)
17 Submarine Day
18 Paper Dress Day
18 Grandparents And Grandchildren Day
18 Quilting Day
19 Let's Laugh Day
19 St Joseph's Day
19 Chocolate Caramel Day
19 Swallows Day
20 Autumnal Equinox / Spring Equinox
20 Smile Rejuvenation Day
20 Astrology Day
21 Nowruz
21 Flower Day
21 Baha'i New Year
21 Single Parents Day
22 Sing Out Day
22 International Goof Off Day
22 Roller Coaster Day
22 World Water Day
23 Cuddly Kitten Day
23 Liberty Day
24 Chocolate Covered Raisins Day
24 Houdini Day
25 Pecan Day
25 Independence Day (Greece)
26 Birthday Of Robert Frost
27 Photography Day
27 Fly A Kite Day
27 World Theatre Day
28 Hot Tub Day
28 Respect Your Cat Day
30 Doctors' Day
31 Bunsen Burner Day

April

1 April Fools' Day
1 Firefighters Day
1 World Catfish Festival (Mississippi, USA)
1 Taro Festival (Hawaii, USA)
2 Great Lovers Day
2 Reconciliation Day
2 Peanut Butter And Jelly Day
3 Find A Rainbow Day
3 Chocolate Mousse Day
3 Circus Day
3 Workplace Napping Day
4 Tell A Lie Day

... More Events

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44 BCE Roman emperor Julius Caesar, killed on March 15, was cremated.

More

687 Saint Cuthbert died on the Isle of Lindisfarne, of natural causes.

1413 Death of King Henry IV of England (b. 1367; ascended the throne in 1399). Henry died in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey thus fulfilling a prophecy made that he should die in Jerusalem. Henry was succeeded as King of England by his son, Henry V.

The later years of Henry's reign were marked by serious health problems. In 1412, King Henry IV announced that he intended the following year to visit the Holy Sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem, even though it had been prophesied to him that he would die there. A great council was held, deciding that preparations were to be made, including the provision of galleys of war to support the king's journey. After Christmas, he was at the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, where he was praying in preparation for the journey. But he became very ill, as he might have suffered from both leprosy and epilepsy, and he was put in a chamber at the abbot's residence.

He gained consciousness and asked if the chamber had any special name, whereupon the answer was given that its name was 'Jerusalem'. Then he said, "Loving be to the Father of Heaven, for now I know that I shall die in this chamber, according to the prophecy of me before said that I should die in Jerusalem". Or, so it is said. The king died shortly thereafter, on the day of St Cuthbert, 1413. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral and his body was well embalmed, as an exhumation some centuries later established.

Shakespeare relates this story in Henry IV, Part II. The Jerusalem Chamber, now called Pyx House or Chapel of the Pyx, was also the meeting place of the authors of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

The 19^th-Century British folklorist, Robert Chambers, in his Book of Days, writes that this may be compared with a medieval legend about the hero Gerbert, who cast the head of a statue, which, by means of astrology, he endowed with the ability to speak, and only speak the truth. He asked, "Will I be pope?", to which the statue answered that he would. He asked when he would die, and was told that he would not die before singing mass in Jerusalem.

He became pope in due time, and believed he would live forever by not going to Jerusalem. But he performed mass at Rome in a church which, unbeknown to him, was called Jerusalem. He sickened and died.

See Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days)

"Henry, ailing from leprosy and epilepsy, watched as Prince Henry controlled the government for the last two years of his reign. In 1413, Henry died in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. Rafael Holinshed explained his unpopularity in Chronicles of England : '... by punishing such as moved with disdain to see him usurp the crown, did at sundry times rebel against him, he won (himself) more hatred, than in all his life time ... had been possible for him to have weeded out and removed.' Unlikely as it may seem (due to the amount of rebellion in his reign), Henry left his eldest son an undisputed succession." Source

"Jerusalem Chamber, part of the deanery [of Westminster Abbey], was originally the abbot's parlour and dates from the late 14th century. It derives its name probably from the tapestries of the history of Jerusalem which formerly adorned it. The chamber, which contains outstanding mid‐13th‐century stained glass, was restored in 1624." Source

Bas-Relief From the Entablature, Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey

1568 Death of Albert of Prussia (b. 1490), first duke of Prussia.

1602 The Dutch East India Company was established, with a monopoly of all trade granted it, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan.

1619 Death of Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1557).

1727 Death of Sir Isaac Newton (b. 1642), English physicist; he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

1730 Death of Adrienne Lecouvreur (b. 1692), French actress.

1739 Nadir Shah occupied Delhi in India and sacked the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.

1760 The 'Great Fire' of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.

1792 France's legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine as a means of capital punishment.

1809 UK: Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire witch, was hanged.

"On March 20, 1809, Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire witch, was led to her execution in front of a large crowd. Some of the spectators still believed her to have supernatural powers and that she would somehow escape the noose. But it was not to be. None of her spells or imaginary 'friends' was able to help her and she died on the gallows, still protesting her innocence." Source

1815 After escaping from Elba, Napoleon entered Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his 'Hundred Days' rule.

1815 Switzerland proclaimed perpetual neutrality.

1841 The world's first detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (in which the murderer was an orang-utan), by Edgar Allan Poe, was published in America.

1848 King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicated.

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published. When Abraham Lincoln met Stowe he joked, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."

1855 Death of Joseph Aspdin (b. 1788), inventor of Portland cement.

1883 Signature of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

1899 At Sing Sing prison, Martha M Place became the first woman executed in an electric chair.

1904 Aleister Crowley invoked Horus in Egypt and declared the start of the New Aeon known as the Aeon Of The Crowned And Conquering Child.

1913 Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese nationalist party (KMT), was wounded in an assassination attempt and died two days later.

1916 Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity.

1917 Frank McNamara became the first Australian airman to win the Victoria Cross.

1922 The USS Langley was commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.

1933 Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, was completed.

1934 Radar was first demonstrated in Kiel Harbour, Germany.

1942 General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, made his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he said: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".

1952 The United States Senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan.

1956 Tunisia gained independence from France.

1964 The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) was established according to an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.

1966 The World Cup was stolen from Central Hall, London.

1969 Marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (honeymoon bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton commenced on March 26).

John Lennon: Saint or Sinner?

1974 UK: Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were shot at in an unsuccessful assassination attempt by a former psychiatric patient, Ian Ball, who was trying to draw attention to the declining standards of care in Britain's mental hospitals. Their personal detective and chauffeur were wounded in the incident which occurred in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.

1976 Hearst heiress Patty Hearst was found guilty of the armed robbery of a San Francisco, California bank.

1979 REXX programming language was created

1980 Radio Caroline, the British pirate radio ship, sank.

1985 Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod dog sled race.

1986 Jacques Chirac became Prime Minister of France.

1987 USA: The Food and Drug Administration approved the anti-AIDS drug AZT.

1990 Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, went on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering. Acquitted in 1993, she returned in 1992 to the Philippines and ran for president. She was badly defeated, but in 1995 she was able to win a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives.

1990 Namibia declared its independence from South Africa, with its new president Sam Nujoma of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO).

1991 Eric Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, fell to his death from a 53^rd-storey New York City apartment window. The tragedy inspired Clapton's song 'Tears in Heaven'.

1993 A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded in Warrington, north-west England, killing two children.

1995 A Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway killing 12 and injuring 1,300 people.

1996 In Los Angeles, California, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.

2000 USA: Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a formerly known as H Rap Brown, was captured after a gun battle that left a Georgia sheriff's deputy dead. Former head honcho of the Black Panthers (a Maoist militia) Al-Amin maintains his innocence.

More

2003 Invasion of Iraq: Happy New Year, towelheads!

Land troops from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland illegally invaded Iraq, preceded by an air strike on the suspected bunker of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

Myths of the 'War on Terrorism' and Iraq

Text of President Bush's leaflet being dropped over Iraq
A parody that might get me sent to Guantanamo hell-hole

America's imperial eagle
An essay in pictures: The US symbol says much about today

President Bush announces his Global Peace Imaginatorium
Is it satire, is it prophetic, or is it just maybe a good idea?

Terror alerts!
From our Department of Homeland Fascism

Who cares about 1.2 million dead Iraqis?

Casualties of the Iraq War How Iraq’s War Shaped our World What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy

2004 Millions worldwide protested the 2003 Iraq War under the slogan, "The World STILL Says No To War!".

2004 Two demonstrators from Greenpeace displayed a banner next to the clock in the clock tower of the palace of Westminster, London (popularly, but incorrectly, called Big Ben, which is the bell, not the clock).

"Two demonstrators from Greenpeace display a banner beneath the clock face of Big Ben, in central London on the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2004. Two anti-war protesters climbed London's landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament on Saturday ahead of a demonstration to mark the first anniversary of war in Iraq, police said. The pair reached the clockface 328 feet (100 metres) above London using ropes and mountaineering equipment after scaling the tower early in the morning."
Source: Yahoo/Reuters

Thousands march in anti-war protests
"About 4,500 people have rallied in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as part of a global day of action against the American occupation of Iraq.

"It is a year since United States-led forces invaded the country.

"About 2,000 protesters have marched to Hyde Park in the heart of Sydney ..."
Source: ABC Oz

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2005 Protests took place across the world marking two years since the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Thousands turned out in Japan and Australia to complain about their countries' involvement in Iraq.

"Protest marches took place around Europe and similar events occurred in cities across the US." Source: BBC

2005 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit Fukuoka, Japan, its first major quake in over 100 years. One person was killed, hundreds were injured and evacuated.

Climate Change News (popup)

2006 Australia: Tropical Cyclone Larry, a Category 5 cyclone, hit Far North Queensland.

Tomorrow: Captain James T Kirk, born March 21, 2228

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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.

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