Today's ice saint is Cold Sophie (Kalte Sophie), and this is the last of the Eisheilige days. Appeals were made to the goddess of fire and warmth (Vesta in Roman religion; see below, Ides of May).

Ides of May/Feast day of Vesta, ancient Rome
On the Ides of May, the Vestal virgins (priestesses of Vesta) performed a rite to regulate water supply for the coming Summer.

Festival of the Lemuria, Festival of Ghosts, Roman Empire (also May 9 and 13)
In Roman religion, Lemures were wandering spirits of departed loved ones. They were said to revisit their homes at this time, and were shown respect by the Roman people, who set aside a week to appease, or exorcize them. We may think of it as similar, and serving a similar function to, Halloween (Samhain).

The myth of origin of this ancient festival was that it had been instituted by Romulus to appease the spirit of his unfortunate brother Remus (Ovid, Fasti, v. 473ff) …

Goddess month of Maia ends

Feast day of St Achiles

Feast day of St Andrew Abellon

Feast day of St Bertha

Feast day of St Britwin

Feast day of St Caesarea

Feast day of St Caesarn

Feast day of St Cassius

Feast day of St Dionysia

Feast day of St Dymphna/Dympna, virgin, martyr

St Dympna pilgrimage in Geel, Belgium
Patron saint of the insane, particularly observed in Geel, Belgium. Townsfolk take care of mentally disturbed through a 'boarding out' system.

Pilgrimages to the saint's tomb in Geel

Welsh poppy
Native to western Europe, this perennial grows to 18 inches with 2 to 3 inch lemon-yellow flowers May to August. Likes rich humus soil, light shade and average water. Good in mixed perennial beds. Might self sow.

Feast day of St Genebrard, martyr

Feast day of St Gerebernus

Feast day of St Hallvard

Feast day of St Hesychius

Feast day of St Hilary

Feast day of St Indaletius

Feast day of St Isaias

Feast day of St Isidore of Chios

Feast day of St Isidore of Madrid (Isidore the Farmer; pictured at right), labourer, patron of Madrid
Saint Isidore is the patron saint of Madrid and of farmers. Religious services are held in chapels in the fields of Madrid, followed by local fairs. This commemoration is an integral part of the Week of Bullfights; it's also celebrated in Mexican towns that have Isidore as a patron. See also, below, Carabao Festival in the Philippines.

Feast day of St Magdalen Albrizzi

Feast day of St Nicholas the Mystic

Feast day of St Pachomius

Feast day of Ss Peter, Andrew, and companions, martyrs

Feast day of St Torquatus

Feast day of St Waldalenus

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

National Unity Day, Latvia

Feast day of Our Lady of Azambuja, Brusque, Brazil

Aoi Matsuri, or Hollyhock Festival, Kyoto, Japan

Healing of the insane at Strathfillan pool, old Scotland

"At Strathfillan, there is a deep pool, called the Holy Pool, where, in olden times, they were wont to dip insane people. The ceremony was performed after sunset on the first day of the quarter, O. S.,* and before sunrise next morning. The dipped persons were instructed to take three stones from the bottom of the pool, and, walking three times round each of three cairns on the bank, throw a stone into each. They were next conveyed to the ruins of St Fillan's chapel; and in a corner called St Fillan's bed, they were laid on their back, and left tied all night. If next morning they were found loose, the cure was deemed perfect, and thanks returned to the saint. The pool is still (1843) visited, not by parishioners, for they have no faith in its virtue, but by people from other and distant places."
New Statistical Account of Scotland, parish of Killin, 1843; in 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's Book of Days)

[* The first day of quarters in Scotland is not same as in England and elsewhere. They are Candlemas, Feb 2; Whitsunday, (arbitrarily set at May 15); Lammas, Aug 1; and Martinmas, Nov 11. It's debatable whether to interpret these dates as OS (Old Style), or new.]

Note that today is the feast day of St Dymphna, patron of insane (see above).

Carabao Festival, Philippines
The carabao (Filipino: kalabaw; Malay: kerbau) or B. bubalis carabanesis is a domesticated subspecies of the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) found in the Philippines, Guam, and various parts of Southeast Asia. Carabaos are highly associated with farmers, being the farm animal of choice for pulling the plough and the cart used to haul farm produce to the market, and the animal is thus considered a national symbol of the Philippines. Today, carabaos will be shaved, decorated, sometimes painted and their horns and hooves will be polished (see pictures). The festival is associated with San Isidro (St Isidore of Madrid; see above), the patron saint of farmers. Some sources say that the blessing of the beasts by the priest takes place on the eve of the festival; ie, May 14.

"This is held on the feast day of San Isidro on May 15^th in the farming towns of San Isidro (Nueva Ecija); Pulilan (Bulacan); and Angono (Rizal). On this day, the three towns pay homage to the beast of burden which is the farmer's best friend – the lowly carabao. Early in the morning of May 15th, each farmer assembles his carefully groomed and gaily dressed carabao at the church yard, where the priest comes to bless them, sprinkling them with holy water. After this ceremony, the beasts of burden are lined up to parade around the town. The climax of the day's activities arrives when the carabaos line up and prepare to race against each other across the fields. A signal goes up and the thunderous hooves stampede toward the finish line. At the finish line, the bulky beasts thunder to a halt and kneel as if in prayer. The priest then comes out and once more blesses them."   Source

Independence Day, Paraguay
Celebrations for the anniversary of the independence begin on Flag Day, May 14.

International Day of Families (UN)

International Day of Conscientious Objectors

Buddha's Birthday in Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea (2005)

Peace Officers Memorial Day, United States
To honour police officers killed in line of duty. Police Week includes May 15.

Rice-Planting Festival, Kochi City, Japan (May 15 - 17)
Festivities are held at Kochi City, Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine, and Kyoto Prefecture. The shrine at Wakamiya has a sacred rice paddy field where several hundred men take part in a ritual rice-planting. Women are absolute rulers of the community for three days of festivities. The women fling mud from paddies out of wooden buckets at any men they see.

Mid-May, Tulip Time Festival, Holland, Michigan, USA
Tulip Time has been held every year in mid-May since 1929 and is currently the largest tulip festival in the USA. The festival currently runs from the first Saturday in May through to the second Saturday.

Nakba Day
Nakba Day meaning 'day of the catastrophe' is a annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian people of their displacement and dispossession as a result of their defeat in the 1948 Palestine war, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

1948 Palestinian exodus

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

c. 570 CE Muhammad (also transliterated Mohammad, Mohammed, Muhammed, Mohammed, and, formerly Mahomet, following the Latin; born Halabi, at Mecca [Makkah]), son of Abdallah, of the family of Hashini, and of Amina, of the family of Zuhra, both of the powerful tribe of Koreish (but of a lesser branch). Various dates are given as his possible date of birth, including April 20, January 19 and May 2.

Non-Muslims consider him the founder of Islam. Muslims view him as the final prophet of Islam, which is considered by Muslims to have existed prior to Muhammad, in the same tradition as Judaism and Christianity.

Early Muslim sources report that in 611, at about the age of 40, he experienced a vision. He described it to those close to him as a visit from the Archangel Gabriel, while he was meditating in a cave near Medina, who commanded him to memorize and recite the verses later collected as the Qur'an. It is believed he died on June 8, 632 (or 634) in Medina (Madinah), Saudi Arabia.

His birthday festival is called Maulid an-Nabi (Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi or Milad al-Nabi).

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

Mawlid an-Nabi (s), Its Proofs, Its Practice, Its History

From Wikipedia: Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi or Milad al-Nabi (Arabic: مولد، مولد النبي، ميلاد النبي) is the celebration of the birthday of Muhammad, the final prophet of Islam; also known as "The Seal of the Prophets". Sunni Muslims celebrate this day on the 12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal in the Islamic calendar; whereas Twelver Shi'a Muslims celebrate this day on the 17th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal, coinciding with the birth date of the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq. Muhammad was born around 570 CE and died in 632 CE. During his life, he established Islam as a religion and, in doing so, sought to replace tribal loyalty with equality among Muslims.

It is generally believed that the celebration of Mawlid an-Nabi was first observed around 13th century CE. Conservative Muslims consider the celebration to be an innovation not practiced by the Prophet himself, his companions or amongst the earlier generations of Muslims (see Bidah). However today many Muslims in South-Asia and the South-Asian immigrant community in Western Europe and North America (particularly Barelvees) celebrate the Mawlid with great dedication; processions are held, homes are decorated, delicious food is prepared and distributed, stories about the life of Prophet Muhammad are narrated by learned people of Islam and poems are recited by children.

While Mawlid is always on the 12^th (Sunni Islam) or 17^th (Shi'a Islam) of Rabi'-ul-Awwal in the Islamic calendar, the date on the Western calendar (the Gregorian calendar) varies from year to year due to differences between the two calendars, since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. Furthermore, the method used to determine when each Islamic month begins varies from country to country. (For details, please see Islamic calendar.) All future dates listed below are only estimates:

• 2003: May 14 (Sunni), May 19 (Shi'a)
• 2004: May 2, May 7
• 2005: April 21, April 26
• 2006: April 12, April 17
• 2007: March 31, April 5
• 2008: March 20, March 25
• 2009: March 9, March 14
• 2010: February 26, March 3
• 2011: February 15, February 20
• 2012: February 4, February 9
• 2013: January 24, January 29
• 2014: January 13, January 18
• 2015: January 2, January 7
• 2016: December 22, December 27
• 2017: December 11, December 16
• 2018: November 30, December 5
• 2019: November 19, November 24
• 2020: November 8, November 13
• 2021: October 28, November 2

Islamic Holy Days    Mawlid

Mohammed: miracle man

The life of the prophet Mohammed is arguably not as replete with miracles as those of Jesus and his saints, and the Buddha, but many believe that at his birth his mother radiated light seen in distant Syria and that the prophet fed a thousand men with one sheep. Traditionally, too, it has been believed that he made predictions that came true; he read the mind of Jewish enemies about to poison him; the hand of Abu Jahl withered after throwing stones at him, and Mohammed was even saluted by a stone.

"The fundamental doctrine of the Koran is contained in the two articles of belief: 'There is no God but Allah; and Mohammed is his prophet.' The Islamic doctrine of God's nature and attributes coincides with the Christian, insofar as he is by both taught to be the Creator of all things in heaven and earth, who rules and preserves all things, without beginning, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and full of mercy. But it differs in that Jesus is only a prophet and apostle, although his birth is said to be due to a miraculous, divine operation."   Source

"Prophet Muhammad (s) was born in 570 CE in Makkah (Bakka, Baca, Mecca). His father, Abdullah, died several weeks before his birth in Yathrib (Medinah) where he went to visit his father's maternal relatives. His mother died while on the return journey from Medinah at a place called 'Abwa' when he was six years old. He was raised by his paternal grandfather 'Abd al Muttalib (Shaybah) until the age of eight, and after his grandfather's death by Abu Talib, his paternal uncle. 'Abd al Muttalib's mother, Salma, was a native of Medinah and he was born and raised as a young boy in Medinah before his uncle Muttalib brought him to Makkah to succeed him. Many years before Muhammad's birth, 'Abd al Muttalib had established himself as an influential leader of the Arab tribe 'Quraish' in Makkah and took care of the Holy sanctuary 'Ka'bah'. Makkah was a city state well connected to the caravan routes to Syria and Egypt in the north and northwest and Yemen in the south. Muhammad was a descendant of Prophet Ismail through the lineage of his second son Kedar."   Source

Modern Miracles of Islam  
Does this tomato carry a message from God?
"According to a reporter from the Express newspaper, UK, they were calling it the Miracle Tomato of Huddersfield. For when a schoolgirl sliced it in half she found written inside what thousands believe to be a message from God. Moslem Shasta Aslam 14, was astounded to see the words, spelled out in Arabic, 'There is only one God' and 'Mohammed is the messenger' in the veins of the each segment."    Source

More miracles of Islam

1567 Claudio Monteverdi (d. 1643), composer

1628 Dominique Bouhours (d. May 27, 1702), French critic

1773 Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (d. 1859), statesman

1856 L Frank Baum (d. May 5, 1919), American author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; The Road to Oz; Glinda of Oz.

The prolific Baum wrote under several pseudonyms, including: Floyd Akers, Laura Bancroft, John Estes Cooke, Capt. Hugh Fitzgerald, Suzanne Metcalf, Schuyler Saunton and Edith Van Dyne.

A Baum coincidence

When the wardrobe department of MGM was costuming for Professor Marvel in the movie The Wizard of Oz, they wanted "grandeur gone to seed", so purchased from a second-hand clothes store in Hollywood a suitably "ratty with age" greenish Prince Albert jacket. One afternoon, actor Frank Morgan turned out the pocket and inside was the name 'L Frank Baum'.

The story, sometimes called an urban legend but verified by the Snopes hoax-busting website, was told by Aljean Harmetz in her book The Making of The Wizard of Oz.

Log your coincidences at ::Aha!:: Synchronicity Central ::

Baum the racist?

The following is an editorial, related to the death of Sitting Bull, written by Baum on December 20, 1890, as it appeared in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer:

"The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirits broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these later despicable beings, and speak, in later ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroism.

"We cannot honestly regret their extermination, but we at least do justice to the manly characteristics possessed, according to their lights and education, by the early Redskins of America."

On January 3, 1891 (a few days after the Wounded Knee massacre) Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer published an editorial, written by Baum:

"The PIONEER has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination [sic] of the Indians... we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth."

Critics say 'Wizard of Oz' writer was racist    International Wizard of Oz Club

Eric Gjovaag's Oz page    Lyman Frank Baum at ClassicAuthors.net

Online e-texts of Frank L. Baum (inclusive Project Gutenberg texts) can be found at

The Online Books Page    An Online Library of Literature

Dark Side of the Rainbow

The Wonderful Website of Oz has text of Baum's books and links to related sites

1859 Pierre Curie (d. 1906), French physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1903, who with his brother Jacques discovered piezoelectricity, and helped his wife Marie in her discovery of radium

1862 Arthur Schnitzler (d. 1931), dramatist and narrator

1889 Bessie Hillman, founder, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America

1890 Katherine Anne Porter (d. 1980), American Pulitzer Prize-winning author; wrote Ship of Fools and short stories

1891 Mikhail Bulgakov (d. 1940), writer

1895 Prescott Bush (d. October 8, 1972), United States Senator from Connecticut and a Wall Street executive banker with Brown Brothers Harriman. He was the father of former US President George HW Bush and the grandfather of President George W Bush.

In 1933, Prescott Bush, along with several other bankers working with the Nazi Party in Germany, were allegedly involved in the Business Plot, a failed coup plot that purportedly planned the hiring of 500,000 rogue army veterans from WWI in order to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Major General Smedley Butler was allegedly approached by Bush and several others involved in the failed coup looking for his services. The Justice Department investigated it heavily, but no charges were ever brought up.

Prescott Bush and the plot to make the USA a fascist state (listen online)

1898 Arletty (d. 1992), model, actress

1901 Xavier Herbert, Australian writer (Capricornia)

1902 Richard Daley (d. 1976), the powerful mayor of Chicago, Illinois, USA, from 1955 - '76

1905 Joseph Cotten (d. 1994), US actor (Citizen Kane; The Third Man)

"Before Joseph Cotten became a movie actor, he worked as an advertiser, actor at a theatre, and also as a theatre critic. He got his chance at the movies because of his friendship with Orson Welles, which lasted since their time at the Federal Theatre (1936) and at the Mercury's Company (1937); in Citizen Kane (1941), as Jed Leland. In the following years, Cotten had important characterizations like in The Third Man (1949). Because of his age, he played later in mainly minor parts and after 1967, had various appearances in TV productions."   Source

Other Hollywood people for May 15

1909 James Mason (d. 1984), English actor

1911 Max Frisch, author

1915 Paul Samuelson, economist, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Prize in economics

1918 Eddy Arnold, American country and western singer

1923 Richard Avedon, photographer

1926 Peter Shaffer, playwright

1930 Jasper Johns, painter

1935 Utah Phillips (U Utah Phillips; b. Bruce Phillips), radical American folk singer, storyteller, and poet who describes the struggles of trade unions, the power of direct action and stories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Utah Phillips website    September 2003 interview in The Progressive

Starlight on the Rails & other songs    'The Talking NPR Blues'    

'Get A Job You Lazy Hobo'   'Moose Turd Pie'

1936 Wavy Gravy: Paul Krassner called him "The illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa". Wavy Gravy, or Hugh Romney as he was born (he got his nickname from BB King), is a clown, philanthropist and cult hero of the Californian counterculture circa 1960s. He is the founder of the famed hippie commune, the Hog Farm, but he is best known worldwide as the Master of Ceremonies at Woodstock (1969) and the second Woodstock in 1994.

Wavy is a life-long activist for peace and personal empowerment, and the official clown of the Grateful Dead. Born in New York, in 1962 he moved to California at the request of Lenny Bruce, who became his part-time manager.

During the first Woodstock Festival, Wavy Gravy and fellow members of the Hog Farm Collective were put in charge of security. Wavy called his rather unorthodox group the 'Please Force', a reference to their non-intrusive tactics at keeping order ("please don't do that, please do this instead"). When asked by the press – who were the first to inform him that he and the rest of the Hog Farm were handling security – what kind of tools he intended to use to maintain order at the event, his instant response was "Cream pies and seltzer bottles".

Wavy later established the store 'Nobody's Business', reminiscent of his 1980 'Nobody for President' campaign – as in "Who's in Washington right now working to make the world a safer place? Nobody!", "Nobody's Perfect", "Nobody Keeps All Promises", "Nobody Should Have That Much Power", and so on. Wavy took the tour on the road in the family Greyhound, which was temporarily dubbed The Nobody One.

In 1990, Wavy Gravy ran for Berkeley City Council with slogan "Let's elect a real clown for a change" and, in 1992, his name became ice-cream flavour for the Ben & Jerry's company.

"After Woodstock, Wavy Gravy wanted to keep the energy going. He returned to the Hog Farm commune, where he discovered "every hippie in the world had moved to our house." Gravy got a few thousand dollars from Warner Brothers to finance a proposed movie, "Medicine Ball Caravan." The idea was to round up some Merry Pranksters and Hog Farmers, travel across the country in a bus and film the trip. The movie was never released. Somehow, the group ended up in England. Throughout the early and mid '70s, they traveled to 13 countries, including Turkey, India and Nepal, distributing free food and medical supplies along the way."
How Woodstock came to be

Wavy Gravy's homepage    Camp Winnarainbow

A Quick Sketch of My Thumbnail, by Wavy Gravy    Hog Farm Pig-nic

Compassion comes easy to this clown (70^th birthday tribute)

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    CounterCulture Wiki

1937 Madeleine Albright, American diplomat, served as the 64^th United States Secretary of State (1997 - 2000)

1937 Trini López, musician

1941 Jack Jackson ('Jaxon'), American artist/writer considered by many to be the first underground comix artist (God Nose; I own a copy of God Nose but don't know if it is an original or a reprint); he was a co-founder of Rip Off Press, one of the first independent publishers of underground comics

"In the early years of his career, he used to publish horror and ecological science-fiction comics, in underground magazines like Skull, Slow Death, Fantagor, Mother Oats and Insect Fear. His first real underground comic, 'God Nose', appeared in 1964. These 'God Nose' stories were a series of philisophical [sic] discussions between God and the "fools he rules". Jackson used the pseudonym Jaxon to protect his day job. In 1969, Jackson co-founded publishing house Rip-Off Press together with Gilbert Shelton, Fred Todd and Dave Moriaty."   Source

Interview with Jack Jackson    More about Jack Jackson

Comix, comics and cartoons in the Book of Days

1941 KT Oslin, country musician

1943 Judyth A Vary Baker, American artist who claims to have had an affair with Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. She also claims involvement in a wide-ranging conspiracy to kill John F Kennedy, which included the CIA and a number of people traditionally associated with JFK assassination lore, including Mary S Sherman.

"As Judyth Baker became involved in the secretive JFK / RFK "Project Freedom" plan to make a cancer virus that would make it appear that Castro had a natural death, this type information circulated around the project's headquarters of RFK and JFK. Knowledge of the sulfur cycle not only affected the existence of Israel, but it was a key factor in illness via a sulfur dependent enzyme called glutathione. JFK shut down nuclear testing over health concerns and this new bit of information he may have well used to impact nuclear weapons production."   Source

Judyth Vary Baker's website    Biography at Spartacus    Skeptical view of Baker's claims

1945 Duarte, Duke of Braganza and presumptive heir of the Portuguese crown

1948 Brian Eno, musician, record producer

1951 Jonathan Richman, musician

1953 Mike Oldfield, British musician and composer (Tubular Bells)

1981 Jamie-Lynn DiScala (née Sigler), actress

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

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Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards International Day Of Families [ May 15 ] Birthdays Butterfly Day [ May 15 ] Islam

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
Varies Hindu holidays
Varies Hanuman Jayanti
Varies Arbor Day
Varies Child Care Professionals Day
Varies Wesak Day (Malaysia)
Varies Buddha Purnima
Varies Birthmothers' Day
Varies Mothers' Day
Varies Mothers' Day (Sweden)
Varies Memorial Day (USA)

 

May

13 Frog Jumping Day
13 Tulip Day
13 Leprechaun Day
14 Motorcycle Riders Day
14 Stars And Stripes Forever Day
14 Dance Like A Chicken Day
14 Crazy Day
15 Butterfly Day
15 Flip Your Mattress Day
15 International Day Of Families
16 Clergy Day
17 Rubber Band Day
17 Emergency Medical Services For Children Day
17 Constitution Day (Norway)
18 Visit Your Relatives Day
19 Plant Something Day
19 Hug Your Cat Day
19 Circus Day
20 Pick Strawberries Day
20 Be A Millionaire Day
20 Flower Day
20 Strawberry Festival (Maryland, USA)
21 Waitstaff Day
21 Greek Philosophers' Day
21 Neighbour Day
21 International AIDS Candlelight Memorial
22 Victoria Day (Canada)
22 Skyscraper Day
23 World Turtle Day
23 Bifocals Day
23 Mesmerism Day
25 Ascension Of Christ
25 Tap Dance Day
25 Self Reliance Day
25 Wine Day
26 Bob Day
26 Cherry Dessert Day
27 International Jazz Day
27 Bridge Day
28 Whale Day

  ... More Events

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392 Death of Flavius Valentinianus Junior (b. 371), Roman Emperor from 375 to 392, known usually by his anglicized name, Valentinian II,

1162 (Sources differ as to dates) Heloise (b. 1101) died in Paraclete Abbey. She was the brilliant student and later lover of French theologian and philosopher Pierre Abélard (Peter Abelard; 1079 - 1142), but their tragic love affair resulted in his castration..

The medieval story of Heloise and Abélard, written down by two of the protagonists of the tale, tells us that Heloise was an orphan, 18 years old, living with a canon of Nôtre Dame Cathedral at Paris, Fulbert, who was her uncle and guardian. Abélard was her tutor, at first by mail, and she grew greatly in learning. Abélard, twice her age, was the most famed man of his time, a rising teacher, philosopher and theologian, and pupils came to him by the thousands. He was also very attractive to women, had a good voice and sang beautifully. Heloise wrote "Female hearts were unable to resist (his singing)".

Fulbert took Abélard into his house to advance Heloise's studies. Abelard neglected his other students and wrote love songs to Heloise, who had become his lover, and finally even the unsuspecting Fulbert knew what all Paris knew. Heloise's guardian demanded that they marry, and Abélard consented, even though marrying Heloise would ruin his prospects of advancement. For this same reason, Heloise refused to marry him. But they were indeed married, and Fulbert took a cruel revenge on Abélard, by hiring a gang of thugs to castrate him. Both Heloise and Abélard devoted themselves to the religious life to atone for "their sins".

Heloise only found out what had happened to Abélard many years later. She still loved him, even while in the convent, but he directed her to stay a nun, and said he now loved her as a father would love a daughter; she survived him by 21 years.

When Heloise was buried in Abélard's tomb, his hand rose up to greet her after the tomb was opened. Or, so it is said. Their bodies were moved several times, and were interred in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, Paris, in 1800.

Click for their tomb (new window)

Some others in both the Book of Days and Père Lachaise cemetery

Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt, Maria Callas, Frédéric Chopin, Colette, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Doré, Isadora Duncan, Max Ernst, Jean de la Fontaine, Stephane Grappelli, Amedeo Modigliani, Molière, Yves Montand, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Claude de Saint-Simon, Georges Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Alice B Toklas, Oscar Wilde

 

1170 Death of St Isidore.  

1464 England: The Battle of Hexham, near Devil's Water, to the south of Hexham, which marked the defeat of Henry VI (of Lancaster) and the end of significant Lancastrian resistance in the north of England during the early part of the reign of Edward IV.

The Luck of Muncaster
After the battle (although some sources say after the Battle of Towton), Henry is said to have taken refuge at Muncaster Castle, the seat of Sir John Pennington, to whom he gave a glass drinking bowl which has been come to be known as 'the Luck of Muncaster', saying "Your family shall prosper so long as they preserve the this glass unbroken". (Compare with the Luck of Edenhall.)

But take this cup – tis a hallowed thing,
Which holy men have blest.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This crystal once did rest,
And many a martyr, and many a Saint
Around its brim have sate.

Sir John, he bent him on his knee,
And the King's word ne'er did err,
For the Cup is called to this blessed hour
The Luck of Muncaster.
Roby; Traditions

 

Relics of Henry VI

"After the battle of Hexham (15th May 1464), by which the fortunes of the House of Lancaster were for the time overthrown, the imbecile King Henry VI fled from the field, and for some time was entirely lost to public observation; nor has English history been heretofore very clear as to what for a time became of him. It appears that, in reality, the unfortunate monarch was conducted by some faithful adherents into Yorkshire, and there, in the wild and unfrequented district of Craven, found a temporary and hospitable shelter in Bolton-hall, with Sir Ralph Pudsey, the son-in-law of a gentleman named Tunstall, who was one of the esquires of his body. It was an old and primitive mansion, of the kind long in use among the English squirearchy, having a hall and a few other apartments, forming three irregular sides of a square, which was completed by a screen wall. Remoteness of situation, and not any capacity of defence, must have been what recommended the house as the shelter of a fugitive king. Such as it was, Henry was entertained in it for a considerable time, till at length, tiring of the solitude, and fearful that his enemies would soon be upon him, he chose to leave it, and was soon after seized and carried to the Tower.

"The family of Pudsey was a hospitable and not over-prudent one. The spacious chimney-breast bore a characteristic legend, 'There ne'er was a Pudsey that increased his estate.' Nevertheless, and though for a number of years out of their old estate and house, the family is still in the enjoyment of both, although not in the person of a male representative. They have for ages preserved certain articles which are confidently understood to have been left by King Henry when he departed from their house. These are, a boot, a glove, and a spoon, all of them having the appearances of great age. Engravings of these objects are here presented, taken from sketches made so long ago as 1777. The boot, it will be observed, has a row of buttons down the side. The glove is of tanned leather, with a lining of hairy deer's skin, turned over. The only remark which the articles suggest is, that King Henry appears to have been a man of effeminate proportions, as we know he was of poor spirit."
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's Book of Days)

1527 When the Last Judgement failed to come on this day, Anabaptist leader Hans Huth postponed it to 1529.

Apocalypse when?  On failed prophecies and beliefs that don't work

1602 Bartholomew Gosnold became the first European to discover Cape Cod.

1618 Johannes Kepler confirmed his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).

1634 Death of Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter.

1718 James Puckle, a London lawyer, patented the world's first machine gun.

1719 The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) appeared for the first time to New Englanders, USA.

1756 Seven Years' War: The war began when England declared war on France.

1782 Death of Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese prime minister.

1795 First Coalition: Napoleon I of France entered Milan in triumph.

1800 James Hadfield (James Hatfield) attempted to assassinate King George III at Drury Lane Theatre, London. Hadfield was acquitted of attempted murder by reason of insanity.

1811 Paraguay gained independence from Spain.

1829 US Congress designated the slave trade as piracy.

1836 Francis Baily observed 'Baily's beads' during an annular solar eclipse.

 

1840 Vikings' mysterious Cuerdale Hoard

At Cuerdale, near Preston, Lancashire, England, the local people had an ancient tradition that there was a treasure somewhere in that vicinity. It had been said from time immemorial that if you stood on the south bank of the River Ribble at Walton le Dale, looking up river towards Ribchester, you would be within sight of England's richest treasure. For centuries people had searched for the fabled treasure, often using divining methods such as forked willow or hazel sticks and silver chains.

Then, on this very wet May day in 1840, workmen walking home from repairing the embankment on the south side of the river marvellously noticed a wooden box exposed by a slump of the rain-sodden earth. The box contained a leaden casket, which in turn held a massive hoard (nearly 40 kilograms, or 88 pounds) of something highly prized by Vikings because they had virtually no mineral deposits of their own – namely, silver. 

The landowner's bailiff made certain that almost the entire hoard was secured, and the labourers, who must have been very honest, were each allowed to retain one coin. At an inquest on August 15 of that year it was declared 'treasure trove', the property of Queen Victoria in right of her Duchy of Lancaster, which handed it over to the British Museum for examination before it was distributed to more than 170 lucky recipients. Fortunately, most of the Cuerdale find was allocated to the British Museum where it remains.

The hoard was dated to around 905 and contained coins from as far afield as Afghanistan ...

Read on at the Vikings! page at the Scriptorium

 

1851 Rama IV was crowed King of Thailand.

1855 Walt Whitman, after registering Leaves of Grass with the United States District Court, brought the copyright notice to the Brooklyn printing office of James and Thomas Rome, where he was working on the first, privately printed, edition. Brother George later commented, "I saw the book, but I didn't read it at all – didn't think it worth reading. Mother thought as I did."

 

'Drum-Taps. Dirge for Two Veterans'

By Walt Whitman

Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the East, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.

Song of Myself

Poem:
Walt Whitman Shall Not Sleep
by your almanackist
(Give yourself about 20 minutes … it's long!)

 

1858 Third Royal Opera House officially opened in London.

1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA).

1864 American Civil War: Battle of Resaca, Georgia ended.

1864 American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia – Students from the Virginia Military Institute fought alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1869 Women's suffrage: In New York, Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1879 Persian Gulf:

"Two very large 'wheels' were seen spinning in the air and slowly coming to the surface of the sea. Estimated diameter: 40 m. Distance between the objects: 150 m. Speed: 80 km/h/ Duration: 35 min. Witnesses aboard the ship 'Vultur' (Round up 17; Anatomy 12)"   Source

1886 American poet, Emily Dickinson (b. 1830), died of nephritis in Amherst, Massachusetts, at 55, having not left her home, literally, since 1865. By the time of her death, no more than seven of the 1776 known Dickinson poems had been published.

Dickinson Electronic Archives    Emily Dickinson International Society

Emily Dickinson – The Complete Poems

 

'A Dying Tiger - Moaned For Drink'

By Emily Dickinson

A Dying Tiger – moaned for Drink –
I hunted all the Sand –
I caught the Dripping of a Rock
And bore it in my Hand –

His Mighty Balls – in death were thick –
But searching – I could see
A Vision on the Retina
Of Water – and of me –

Dickinson sorcery (my poem)  

1888 Sydney, Australia: From 138 Phillip Street, Dawn, a magazine entirely produced and even printed by women, and published for women, was launched, under the editorial pen-name 'Dora Falconer'. The news magazine was boycotted after just a few months by the New South Wales Typographical Association at the behest of the Trades and Labour Council, because women were doing the typesetting.

Its publisher and editor was actually Louisa Lawson (1848 - 1920; pictured below), soon to become known throughout the colony as the prominent feminist and 'Mother of Women's Suffrage'. She was also the mother of Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922), considered by many to be the national poet of Australia.

Mrs Lawson had been inspired to do establish a journal after hearing a lecture by Susan Gale, "the sweet grey-frocked Quakeress" at the Sydney Progressive Spiritualist Lyceum at Leigh House, 223 Castlereagh Street. "The Australian Woman's Journal and mouthpiece ... [would be] the phonograph to wind out the whispers, pleadings and demands of the sisterhood." The Dawn came out at threepence a copy, with sixteen pages (later 32). The first four pages came from the April Republican, a simple matter of re-using the type from that radical Sydney journal. On page 2 it said: "Half of Australian women's lives are unhappy, but there are paths out of most labyrinths, and we will set up finger posts ... it is not a new thing to say there is no power in the world like that of women." There was a poem, 'To a Bird', by Louisa.

Her son Henry was in Sydney at the time and helped with this first and some subsequent editions; his job was to crank the old press, which he did while composing poems in his head, sometimes forgetting what he was supposed to be doing. It was on The Dawn's press that Henry's first slim little book of verse, Short Stories in Prose and Verse (1894), was (poorly) printed, with some of the printed pages, on the way to binding,  famously blowing off the back of a cart onto the newly watered street near Wynyard Station.

Soon after the publication of Issue 1, Louisa established The Dawn Club, which met at (among other venues) Quong Tart' tea rooms at 137 King St and 777 George St, one at  the Queen Victoria Markets (called the Queen Victoria Building, or QVB, from 1898), and possibly in the George St markets (aka Paddy's Markets, near Chinatown). One of Louisa's meeting places was 43 Royal Arcade (possibly another Quong Tart establishment).

The all-male New South Wales Typographical Association enacted a boycott, but Louisa Lawson managed to set by hand and publish for 17 years with the aid of other women and sometimes her famous son.

The NSWTA issued a report, which read in part:

"It is not in the interests of humanity that young girls or young women should be employed at an occupation fifty per cent of whose followers die of chest and lung diseases, and whose statistical death-rate stands fourth on the list of those whose trade or occupation causes them to be short-lived. It is hoped that the public will sympathize with your board in their efforts to put a stop to the employment of females at a trade which is most trying to the strongest male constitution."

To this, Louisa replied in Dawn:

"In the sacred name of humanity the compositors step in to save unthinking women from sacrificing themselves on the altar of this fatal occupation. It happens very conveniently, of course, that women are not wanted in the trade, because it is a nice, easy, healthy occupation, where wages are kept at a good level, and therefore well suited to the tastes of the present possessors, but whether it is suited for women or not, and whether it is just to leave women free to enter it if they can, matters not at all. That dread power, the compositor's conscience, calls upon him for pure humanity's sake to step in, and by boycott or any other means, to interpose between 'young girls' and 'young women' and the sure death that awaits them in this deadly trade of typesetting."

She also wrote, in an editorial, 'Boycotting The Dawn':

"Associated labour seems to be in its own small way just as selfish and dictatorial as associated capital. The strength which comes of union has made labour strong enough, not only to demand its rights, but strong enough also to bully what seems weak enough to quietly suffer under petty tyranny."   Read the full text

William Lane's The Boomerang stood strongly behind The Dawn:

"Owing to the survival of the slavish idea that half the race is born solely to cook for and bear children to the other half, women have been kept from taking part in the struggle for the readjustment of industrial conditions and have been the millstone on the neck of Progress. Woman's mission, as the enthusiasts call it, is very different. She is a citizen of the community first and all the time, a cook and mother afterwards. She has a right to work, and to the fruits of that work, equally with the best man living, and those who would continue her degradation by compelling her always to seek her livelihood as an accommodating housekeeper are simply pulling against the tide of Time."

The Woman's Journal (co-founded by Julia Ward Howe; editors and publishers: Henry B Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell – husband and daughter of Lucy Stone) wrote:

"In Australia women now occupy about the same position in labour matters that they did in America twelve or fifteen years ago. History repeats itself. The printer girls in Australia will hold their own, and in due time labour organizations there will learn, as they have already learned in America, that to treat working women as equals is a 'policy of self-protection'."

Another hurdle presented itself. The Postal Amendment Act required that Dawn be registered as a newspaper, but the Postmaster-general's department knocked Louisa back on a number of grounds, including the use of the word 'journal' in the subtitle. To this, Louisa replied in her typical manner that she would remove the word if two other prominent periodicals of New  South Wales did the same, thus becoming Town and Country and Freeman's. She discovered that all kinds of periodicals and even pamphlets could be registered as a newspaper, but not Dawn. The paper was saved from annihilation at the hands of conservative authorities by the intervention of Sir William Windeyer, Vice-Chancellor (Chancellor from 1895) of Sydney University, Attorney-General in the Henry Parkes - John Robertson NSW Government (1878 - 79), and one of an impressive number of prominent citizens with whom the poor girl from the bush became acquainted in Sydney.

Dawn contained hard hitting editorial matter on women's rights, divorce reform and women's suffrage, as well as material similar to that in the modern woman's magazines: handy hints, fashion news, a short story, women's affairs.

Also in Wilson's Almanac:

A world chronology of women's electoral rights

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

Louisa and Henry Lawson – they drove each other crazy!

 

1890 A blood-like substance fell from the sky over Messignadi, Calabria. Popular Science News 35:104 later reported that the Italian Meteorological Bureau identified it as birds' blood.

1905 Las Vegas, Nevada was founded when 110 acres (in what later would become downtown) were auctioned off.

1902 In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore (1874 - 1951) reportedly became the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider). In 1981 historians discovered a log claiming Gilmore had made a powered flight on this day, 19 months before the Wright Brothers (December 17, 1903).

On March 15, 1907 Gilmore opened the first commercial airfield, Gilmore Airfield.

1911 The United States Supreme Court declared Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company to be dissolved.

More

1918 Civil War in Finland ended.

1918 The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) began the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).

1928 The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia was launched by Dr K St Vincent Welch. It was formed by Reverend John Flynn (1880 - 1951), the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM), a branch of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.

1928 Release of the animated short Plane Crazy, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

1930 Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess (the flight was from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois). Church took care of eleven passengers.

1932 Japan: The May 15 incident occurred (an attempted coup d'état).

1934 The United States Department of Justice offered a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.

1936 Aviatrix Amy Johnson broke the record for a flight from London to Cape Town and back.

1940 Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the United States.

1940 World War II: German troops occupied Amsterdam and invaded Northern France.

1942 World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was signed into law.

1943 Joseph Stalin dissolved the Comintern (or 'Third International').

1948 Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attacked Israel.

1955 First ascent of Makalu, fifth highest mountain.

1957 Christmas Island: Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

1958 The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 3.

1960 Sputnik 4 was launched into Earth orbit.

1963 Mercury program: NASA launched the last mission of the program, Mercury 9 (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E Webb told Congress the program was complete).

1970 The Beatles' last LP, Let It Be, was released in the United States.

1972 In Laurel, Maryland, USA, a disturbed, out-of-work janitor named Arthur Bremer shot and paralyzed Alabama Governor George Wallace while Wallace was campaigning to be president.

1988 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army began its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

1989 Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev and China's Deng Xiaoping broke the longstanding quarrel between the two nations. The event, in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, however, was upstaged by the gathering of half a million protesters in Tienanmen Square (trying to get world attention while 'Gorby' was in town), soon to end in the catastrophe of June 4.

1990 A Japanese businessman, Ryoei Saito, paid a record $82.5 million for a Vincent van Gogh painting, Portrait of Dr Gachet, in New York. In van Gogh's own lifetime he only ever sold one painting.

1991 Edith Cresson became France's first female premier.

1992 The Genoa Expo '92 World's Fair opened in Genoa, Italy.

1994 "On May 15 in the Ukraine, some 40 kilometres south/south-west of Kharkov, near the village of Ohochee, an unidentified object crashed. Debris examined by civilian UFO researchers revealed it as extraterrestrial in origin."   Source

2001 A runaway freight train rolled about 70 miles through Ohio, USA, with no one aboard before a railroad employee jumped onto the locomotive and brought it to a stop.

2003 The journal Nature reported that all species of large fish in the world's oceans have been so thoroughly overfished that just 10 per cent of the population that there was in 1950 remains. The scientists who authored the report conclude that the world's oceans are no longer even close to their natural state. Sharks, Atlantic cod, and Pacific sardines are noted as particularly imperilled with extinction. The scientists recommend drastic measures to reduce ocean fishing. 

Nature, BBC

 

2003 The poles did not shift despite Zeta warnings.

Why we are still on Planet Earth

In case you were wondering whether the poles of the planet shifted on or shortly after May 15, 2003, apparently the Zeta aliens deliberately gave a phoney date. Now I get it. That's why all the calamities didn't happen. I see. But they will. Oh.

You can catch all the latest (so you can prepare for the calamities) here. The actual date stuff is here and some light-reading background is here. Nancy's a Wilson's Almanac kind of channel, so please give her your support.

Apocalypse when? On failed prophecies and beliefs that don't work

Piltdown & Co. Best hoaxes and frauds from the annals of history

 

Tomorrow: Brendan the voyager

 

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