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A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread – and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness –
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise now!
Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, born  May 18?, 1048; from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; tr. Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883)

The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Omar Khayyám, ibid  

Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned,
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!
Omar Khayyám, punning on his surname, which means 'tentmaker'

Nothing remains now for me to do but to pass upon you the awful sentence of the law, and that sentence is – That you be taken back to the prison from whence you came, and that you be taken from thence, on Monday next, to a place of Execution, and that you there be hanged by the Neck until you are Dead; and that your body shall afterwards be dissected and anatomized; and may the Lord God Almighty, of his infinite goodness, have mercy on your soul!
Judge Chief Baron Alexander passing an unusual sentence on William Corder, found guilty of the Red Barn Murder of 1827

 

Ralph Metzner, May 18, 1936

All around us lay the dead and dying, amid the groans and cries of the wounded. Our surgeons came up quickly, and, taking possession of a farmhouse, converted it into a hospital, and we began to carry ours and the enemy's wounded to the surgeons. There they lay, the blue and the gray intermingled; the same rich, young American blood flowing out in little rivulets of crimson; each thinking he was in the right … The blue and the gray took their turn before the surgeon's knife … with no anesthetic to soothe the agony, but, gritting their teeth, they bore the pain of the knife and saw, while arms and legs were being severed from their bodies. There was just one case that was no exception 
   … He was a fine looking officer and colonel of some Louisiana regiment of the Confederate army. He had been shot through the leg and was making a great ado about it. Dr Kittoe, of our regiment, examined it and said it must be amputated; the poor fellow cried and howled: "Oh I never can go home to my wife on one leg …" "Well," said the gruff old surgeon, "that, or not go home at all." The colonel finally said yes, and in a few minutes he was in a condition (if he got well) to wear a wooden leg when he went home.
Wilbur Fisk Crummer; With Grant at Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg. The USA Civil War Battle of Vicksburg commenced on May 18, 1863

Of all kinds of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Bertrand Russell, English philosopher born on May 18, 1872, Marriage and Morals 

It's co-existence or no existence.
Bertrand Russell

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
Bertrand Russell; December 23, 1954, in a broadcast on 'Man's Peril' – the H-bomb

In his youth Wordsworth sympathized with the French Revolution, went to France, wrote good poetry, and had a natural daughter. At this period, he was called a 'bad' man. Then he became 'good,' abandoned his daughter, adopted correct principles, and wrote bad poetry.
Bertrand Russell

The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.
Bertrand Russell

Freedom of opinion is important for many reasons, especially because it is a necessary condition of all progress, intellectual, moral, political, and social. Where it does not exist, the status quo becomes stereotyped, and all originality, even the most necessary, is discouraged.
Bertrand Russell

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
Bertrand Russell
 

More Bertrand Russell quotes

Behind every successful man there stands an astonished woman.
Frank Capra
, Italian-American film director, born on May 18, 1897

Life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?
Dame Margot Fonteyn, British ballerina, born on May 18, 1919
 

Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.
Dame Margot Fonteyn
 

Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable.
Dame Margot Fonteyn

Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time.
Dame Margot Fonteyn

The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.
Dame Margot Fonteyn

 

 

 

May 18 is the 138th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (139th in leap years), with 227 days remaining.
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Kallynteria, ancient Greece

Purification ceremonies of the goddess Pallas Athena. A thorough cleaning of Athena's temple by women under the direction of Athena's priestess. In Greece, this day was also celebrated as the Feast of Pan, the Greek god of flocks and shepherds, and the god Apollo.

The festivals of Athena

 

 

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American Dynasty


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Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror


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Wheel of the Year


The Trouble with Islam

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The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq


Psychedelic Experience
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The Unfolding Self
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Lady Godiva


Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture

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A Dictionary of Saints Days, Fasts, Feasts and Festivals

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The third seal of Stockholm - showing Eric IX of Sweden. First known use was in 1376.Feast day of St Eric, King of Sweden (c. 1120 - 1160), martyr

(Mouse ear, Hieracium pilosella, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

From Wikipedia: Eric IX of Sweden (or Erik the Lawgiver or Erik the Saint. In Swedish he is simply known as Erik den helige or Sankt Erik which translates as Erik the Holy and Saint Erik respectively) was a Swedish king between 1150 and 1160.

Eric's reign ended when he was murdered in Uppsala. People from Svealand recognized a miracle after Erik's death, since a fountain sprang from the earth where the king's head fell after being chopped off.

The relic casket of Eric is on display in Uppsala cathedral (Uppsala domkyrka). The casket contains bones of a male, with traces of injury to the neck. Eric is the patron saint of Stockholm and depicted in the city's coat of arms. He had a nationalistic church policy. Sweden honored him as national (patron) saint, although Pope Alexander III forbade his cult 1172, when his son, king Knut Ericsson quarrelled with the Swedish and Roman church.

 

Kurofune Matsuri, Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (May 16 - 18)

Sanja Matsuri, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan (May 16 - 18)

Kobe Matsuri, Kobe, Japan (May 16 - 18)

Tosho-gu Grand Festival, Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan (May 16 - 18)

Feast day of St Dioscorus
Burned and tortured to death c. 305.

Feast day of St Elgiva

Feast day of St Felix of Cantalice
Born to peasant parents in Cantalice, Italy, he became a Capuchin lay brother at the Citta Ducale Monastery in Anticoli. In 1549 he was sent to Rome as questor and spent 38 years aiding the sick and the poor. In Rome, he was revered by all. He helped to revise St Charles Borromeo's rules for his order of Oblates. Felix was also a companion of St Philip Neri while staying in Rome.

Feast day of St Felix of Spoleto

Feast day of St Feredarius

Feast day of Pope St John I
John I was Pope from 523 to 526. He was a native of Tuscany, and was very old and frail by the time he was elected to the papacy.

Arian King Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths had John arrested on the suspicion of having conspired with Emperor Justin. He was imprisoned at Ravenna, where he died of neglect and ill treatment. His body was transported to Rome and buried in the Basilica of St Peter. John I is depicted in art as looking through the bars of a prison or imprisoned with a deacon and a subdeacon. He is venerated at Ravenna and in Tuscany. Some sources give May 27 as his feast day.

More

Feast day of St Leonard Murialdo

Feast day of St Merililaun

Feast day of St Potamon, Bishop of Heraclea, in Egypt, martyr

Feast day of St Theodatus  (Theodotus), vintner, and seven virgins, martyrs

Feast day of St Venantius of Camerino, martyr

Eve of St Yves's Day, Brittany
St Yves, it is said, has been known to miraculously fill poor families' pots on the eve of the annual pilgrimage to Treguir on May 19.

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Philippine celebration of the fertility rites of Santa Clara, Virgin of Salambao (May 17 - 19)

Great Day of Prayer, Denmark

Peace Day

Feast of the Bathing of the Buddha, Macau

Flag Day, Haiti

Battle of Las Piedras Day, Uruguay (1828)

Feeding of Grande (Gran'n) Aloumandia, Voudon (Voodoo)   Source

 

Tottori Hijiri Matsuri, Hijiri Shrine, Tottori, Tottori Prefecture, Japan (May 18 - 19)
A festival that includes an armour parade, many floats, lion dancers, dance groups.

"The god of Hijiri has been worshipped for generations, but the origins of this shrine are unknown. The inner shrine, reconstructed in 1710, has been designated as a Cultural Property by the Tottori prefecture."  Source
International day of museums

International day of the Internet

 

 

 

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

1048 Omar Khayyám (d. December 4, 1123; approximations only; sources vary as to birth and death dates), Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer who calculated how to correct the Persian calendar. He invented the method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle.

The man known in English as the poet Omar Khayyám or Khayyam (Persian عمر خیام) was born in Nishapur (or Naishapur) in Khorasan, Persia (Iran), and named Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami (al-Khayyami means 'the tentmaker').

In the English-speaking world, he is best known for Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the English translations by Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - '83).

"Khayyam measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days. Two comments on this result. Firstly it shows an incredible confidence to attempt to give the result to this degree of accuracy. We know now that the length of the year is changing in the sixth decimal place over a person's lifetime. Secondly it is outstandingly accurate. For comparison the length of the year at the end of the 19th century was 365.242196 days, while today it is 365.242190 days."   Source

 

1711 Rudjer Josip Boscovich (d. February 13, 1787), Croatian atomic theorist

1785 John Wilson (d. 1854), Scottish writer

1797 Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, (d. 1854)

1850 Oliver Heaviside, physicist and mathematician

1855 Francis Bellamy (d. August 28, 1931), American Baptist minister, a graduate of the University of Rochester, and a socialist; he composed the original 'Pledge of Allegiance' for the Boston-based Youth's Companion in 1892 – the Youth's Companion was a nationally circulated family-oriented magazine, and by 1892 was the largest publication of any type in the United States, with a circulation around 500,000. His cousin, Edward Bellamy, is better known for he was the author of the best-selling socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

A negative viewpoint on Francis Bellamy and his 'Pledge'

1868 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918). (This is the Gregorian calendar date of his birth. He was born on May 6  in the Julian calendar used in Russia until after the Bolshevik Revolution.)

1872 Lord Bertrand Russell (d. 1970), British mathematician, philosopher, Fellow of the Royal Society, and peace and social activist, who was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought".

"By the late 1960s, not long before his death, Russell turned decisively against the United States. He was convinced that their war in Vietnam was immoral and dangerous to civilization. Some of his last actions were plans to set up a war crimes tribunal in Sweden to try American policy-makers from the Johnson Administration. Such actions turned this man, then in his nineties, into a guru for many of the youth of the 'sixties who looked to him for moral leadership."   Source 

Bertrand Russell Archives    Bertrand Russell Research Centre

Bertrand Russell Society    Bertrand Russell's Nobel Prize in Literature 1950

Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies

University of St Andrew's MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive: Bertrand Russell

Writings by Bertrand Russell    Sound Clips of Russell Speaking

Are you a late starter? Other late starters and late achievers in the Scriptorium

 

Madeleine Pelletier1874 Madeleine Pelletier (d. December 19, 1939), French physician, psychiatrist, feminist, and socialist activist. She joined the French Communist Party upon its creation, but left it in 1926; following her break with Communism she embraced Anarchism. Pelletier was a pioneer of women's rights activism and campaigned for abortion and contraception rights.

She founded the review La suffragiste, and collaborated on neo-Malthusian and libertarian newspapers. Pelletier wrote La femme en lutte pour ses droits (1908), L'émancipation sexuelle de la femme (1911), L'éducation féministe des filles (1914), Idéologie d'hier: Dieu, la morale, la patrie (1910).

Pelletier participated in L'encyclopédie Anarchiste, and in the defence of Nestor Makhno in La fronde (1927). Pelletier was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 1937. However, she continued to openly practice abortion, and was arrested in 1939. Following her arrest she was interned in an asylum and her physical and mental health deteriorated. She died within the year. Ephéméride Anarchiste gives the date of her death in 1939 as December 29, as do some other sources.

Early progressives in the Book of Days    CounterCulture Wiki    More

 

1883 Walter Gropius (d. 1969), architect, founder of Bauhaus

1889 Thomas Midgley (d. 1944), chemist and inventor

1889 Gunnar Gunnarsson, prolific Icelandic writer

1891 Rudolf Carnap (d. 1970), German philosopher

1892 Pops Foster (d. 1969), jazz musician (assumed birthdate)

1897 Frank Capra (d. 1991), Italian-American film writer, producer and director (It Happened One Night; You Can't Take it With You)

1902 Meredith Willson (d. 1984), composer

1911 Big Joe Turner (d. 1985), blues singer

1912 Walter Sisulu (d. 2003), anti-apartheid activist

1912 Perry Como (d. 2001), American singer

1914 Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer

1919 Dame Margot Fonteyn (born Peggy Markham; d. 1991),  ballet dancer

1920 Pope John Paul II (d. April 2, 2005), born Karolum Wojtyla (Karol Józef Wojtyła)

1922 Kai Winding (d. 1983), jazz musician

1928 Pernell Roberts, American actor

1931 Don Martin (d. 2000), MAD magazine cartoonist

1931 Robert Morse, American actor

1934 Dwayne Hickman, American actor who played the title role in 1960s TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

Ralph Metzner

1936 Ralph Metzner, American psychonaut, psychotherapist and professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, colleague of Timothy Leary and co-author with him and Richard Alpert of the seminal work The Psychedelic Experience. Metzner was also a colleague of Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass). Metzner coordinates the Green Earth Foundation, and is also a poet and singer-songwriter.

Metzner Vaults

Shop Ralph Metzner

Shop Timothy Leary

 

1949 Rick Wakeman, British musician (Yes), composer

1949 Bill Wallace, musician (The Guess Who)

1950 Mark Mothersbaugh, composer, musician

1952 George Strait, country musician

1955 Chow Yun-Fat, actor

1969 Martika, Cuban-American singer

1970 Tina Fey, writer, comedienne, actress

 

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May

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
29 Mount Everest Day
29 Wisconsin Day
30 Compact Disc Day
31 Poetry Day
31 World No Tobacco Day

June

1 Children's Day (China)
3 Love Conquers All Day
3 Egg Day
3 Family Day
3 Tattoo Day
3 Repeat Day
3 Strawberry Festival(New Jersey, USA)
3 Blueberry Festival (Florida, USA)

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1152 Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1313 Robert I, 'Robert the Bruce', landed on the Isle of Man.

1268 The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, fell to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch; Baibars' destruction of the city of Antioch was so great as to permanently negate the city's importance.

1593 Though no accurate documentation remains, it is believed that a warrant was issued on this day for the arrest of English poet, Christopher Marlowe, accused of heresy by his ex-roommate, playwright Thomas Kyd, in an effort to protect his own skin.

1631 Massachusetts Bay Colony: In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop took the oath of office and became the first Governor of Massachusetts. On the same day, the General Court of the colony decreed that "no man shall be admitted to the body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of the colony."

1652 Rhode Island passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal.

1692 Death of Elias Ashmole (b. 1617), English antiquarian, collector, politician and student of astrology, and alchemy who founded the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University.

1703 The death of Charles Perrault (b. 1628), the French writer who gave us such classic fairy tales as Cinderella and Tom Thumb. He published them in 1697 at the age of 69, not under his own name but that of his infant son, Perrault d'Armancourt.

Are you a late starter? Other late starters and late achievers in the Scriptorium

1736 Witchhunts: The witchcraft laws were repealed, England.

1765 Fire destroyed one quarter of the town of Montreal, Quebec.

1778 In Philadelphia, the British occupying force under General Sir William Howe held what they called the Mischianza, a kind of fête or festival, to celebrate the forthcoming retirement of Howe. George Washington's army lay only a few miles away. A tournament was held featuring mock jousting, sword fighting and pistol duels, followed by a grand ball. Several weeks later the British vacated Philadelphia.

1781 Túpac Amaru II (Tupac Amaru II), leader of Inca Rebellion, was executed, with Micaela Bastidas and other leaders, in the same Peruvian square (Plaza Mayor del Cuzco) as his ancestor two centuries before.  

Túpac Amaru is a symbol of indigenous resistance to Spanish domination. The Tupamaros, a Uruguayan revolutionary group active in the 1970s, and also the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a guerrilla group active in Peru since the early 1980s, have both associated their contemporary movements with Túpac Amaru.

Source: The Daily Bleed

1783 Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada – First United Empire Loyalists reached Parrtown.

1803 Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revoked the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.

1827 Polstead, Suffolk, UK: Maria Marten, 25-year-old daughter of mole catcher Thomas Marten, went missing. Her subsequent death became a notorious British case called the Murder in the Red Barn. Her lover, William Corder, 24, was arrested and pleaded not guilty but was sentenced to death and for his body to be "anatomized", or dissected. The sentence was carried out on August 11 of the same year, shortly after Corder made a confession. George Creed, the surgeon who performed the dissection, later had an account of the trial bound in leather made from Corder's skin.

"After the widespread press coverage of the murder, thousands of visitors made a pilgrimage to the Red Barn - Curtis estimated over 200,000 during the summer of 1828 alone."   Source

1830 England: Edwin Budding signed an agreement for manufacture of his invention, the lawn mower.

1832 French author George Sand (Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin) published her first novel, Indiana, which affirmed women's right to independence.

1848 Opening of first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany

1863 American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg began (ended July 4).

1869 Surrender of the Ezo Republic to Japan and its dissolution.

1896 The United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that 'separate but equal' is constitutional.

1900 The United Kingdom proclaimed a protectorate over Tonga.

1901 The first wireless transmission was made to Australia, from the Royal yacht at Queenscliff, Victoria.

1908 In God We Trust

"In a move that seemingly flew in the face of America's founding belief in the separation of church and state, Congress passed legislation on this day in 1908 that made the maxim 'In God We Trust' an obligatory element of certain coins. The motto dates back to the early 1860s, when the Civil War stirred religious feelings throughout the nation. America's heightened piety manifested itself in many places, including the treasury department, which received countless letters requesting that the nation's coins pay some form of tribute to God. Concerned citizens and religious leaders found a fast friend in Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who readily agreed that the 'trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.' James Pollock, director of the US Mint at Philadelphia, was charged with devising a suitable motto. After some key revisions from Chase, Pollock decided upon the now-familiar 'In God We Trust.'"   Source

Was the USA founded on Christianity?

1910 Comet Halley passed in front of the Sun, the display of light causing great concern and wonder on Planet Earth. Two of the comet's visits – 1835 and 1910 – are the same years as the birth and death of the American novelist Mark Twain. He wrote in 1909, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it." And so he did.

From Wikipedia: The May 1910 approach was notable for several reasons: it was the first approach of which photographs exist, and the comet made a relatively close approach, making it a spectacular sight. Indeed, on May 19, the comet transited the Sun's disk, and the Earth actually passed through its tail. At the time, the comet's tail was known to contain poisonous cyanogen gas. The popular media picked up this fact and, despite the pleas of astronomers, wove sensational tales of mass cyanide poisoning engulfing the planet. In reality, the gas is so diffuse that the world suffered no ill effects from the passage through the tail.

Many people who claim to remember seeing the 1910 apparition are in fact remembering a different comet, the Great Daylight Comet of 1910, which surpassed Halley in brilliance and was actually visible in broad daylight for a short time about four months before Halley made its appearance.

1917 World War I: The Selective Service Act passed the United States Congress giving the President the power to draft soldiers.  

Aimee Semple McPherson and Kenneth Ormiston1926 USA: The famous and eccentric American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 - 1944), disappeared while visiting a Venice, California beach. 

Authorities later discovered that radio announcer Kenneth Ormiston, a friend of McPherson, had also vanished, and evidence was strong that the two had set up a 'love nest'. After 32 days (on June 23), McPherson stumbled out of the desert in Agua Prieta, Mexico, just across the border from Douglas, Arizona with a tale of having been kidnapped by persons unknown.

McPherson claimed to have faith-healing abilities and she put on entertaining Pentecostal-style shows for the public.

The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel that she founded is still in existence.

 

1927 Bath Township, Michigan, USA: The Bath School Disaster. Andrew Kehoe, seeking revenge against the community for taxes imposed on his farm to pay for a new school, set off a TNT bomb in the school, killing 43 people, including 39 grade-school children. After the explosion, Kehoe killed his wife, then drove his truck back, loaded with dynamite and nails, to the school, and set it off, killing himself and the school superintendent. The bombings were the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in US history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre, and many more than the Virginia Tech Massacre.

1927 The first footprints made in concrete outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood were made by actress Norma Talmadge (1893 - 1957).

Norma's big step
Outside Grauman's Chinese in Hollywood you can see where the stars have placed their hand prints and footprints in the concrete footpath.

Legend has it that before the theatre officially opened, owner Sid Grauman was giving a tour to some celebrities, during which Norma unintentionally walked across a wet slab of cement. Grauman's publicists saw the fortunate mistake as the opportunity for publicity, so they continued the practice.

Variations of this honoured tradition are imprints of the spectacles of Harold Lloyd, the cigars of Groucho Marx and George Burns, the legs of Betty Grable, the ice skating blades of Sonja Henie and the noses of both Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope, Al Jolson's knees and John Wayne's fist.

Grauman's Chinese Theater    More    More    And more

1933 New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

1944 World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino – Germans evacuated Monte Cassino and Allied forces took the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.

1948 The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convened in Nanking.

1953 Rogers Dry Lake, California, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles per hour).

1953 The 100,000th FX Holden car rolled off the assembly line (to coin a cliché) at the company's plant at Fisherman's Bend, Victoria, Australia.

1954 The European Convention on Human Rights came into effect.

1958 An F-104 Starfighter set a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph.

1958 In the face of President Dwight D Eisenhower's denials that the US was aiding anti-Sukarno rebels in Indonesia, an American B-26 was shot down by Indonesia while bombing Sumatra. The US dismissed the pilot as a "soldier of fortune," but he was eventually unmasked as a CIA employee.   Source

1969 Apollo program: Apollo 10 was launched.

1969 The Klamath Native American tribe won US$4.1 million for loss of Oregon lands during fraudulent government surveys in 1880s.

1972 Founding of USA radical senior advocacy group Gray Panthers.

1974 Nuclear test: Under project Smiling Buddha, in the Rajasthan desert, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon, becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1974 Gough Whitlam's Labor Government returned to office in Australia, but without control of the Senate. This state of affairs led eventually to Australia's greatest constitutional crisis, the dismissal of Whitlam's reformist government by the representative of the English Queen, Governor-General Sir John Kerr, on November 11, 1975.

1979 The Silkwood vs. Kerr-McGee case established that US corporations are responsible for any people they irradiate.

 

US Government image1980 Mount St Helens erupted in Washington, USA, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.

After having been dormant for 123 years, Mt St Helen's erupted, with the destruction of almost a cubic mile of its summit. A resident of the mountain, Harry R Truman, refused to evacuate and was lost. Songs and articles have been written about his obstinate courage.

The mountain killed 58 and destroyed 65,000 ha (160,000 acres) of forest. The violent blast, estimated to be 500 times as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, was followed by others on May 25 and June 12. Economic losses were estimated at nearly $3 billion.

"Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments."   Source

 

Wilson's Webcam Watch

The image of Mt St Helen's at right, if it's appearing, is generated by a live webcam. Webcam images refresh at set intervals, so if you refresh this page it might show a changed image. If you click it, you'll go to an enlargement or the recommended webcam site.

List of  featured webcams

Recommend a webcam or report malfunction

A static image (updated every five minutes) of Mount St Helens, Washington USA, taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The summit of Mount St. Helens is at an elevation of 2,549 Meters (8,364 feet), at 46.20 N, 122.18 W.  The summit stood at 9,677 feet before the May 18, 1980, eruption. The Observatory and VolcanoCam are located at an elevation of approximately 4,500 feet, about five miles from the volcano. You are looking approximately south-southeast across the North Fork Toutle River Valley. The Mount St Helens VolcanoCam is brought to you by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Vancouver, Washington, and Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument, Amboy, Washington USA.

 

1987 Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the US naval frigate Stark, killing 26; Iraq claimed it was accidental.

1989 Demonstrations continued in Beijing's Tiananmen (Tian'anmen) Square during USSR-China talks.

The demonstrations culminated in the June 4 Massacre.

Photos    Human rights in China    More

Google news results on Human Rights in China

China's propaganda 'human rights' site

In the Scriptorium: Activism & action page    Protest pictures (current)

1995 Alain Juppé became Prime Minister of France.

1998 Microsoft antitrust case: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states filed an antitrust case against Microsoft.  

2003 Death of Barb Tarbox, Canadian anti-smoking crusader, 41.

2003 "In the village Sit Tbow, Cambodia, a reporter takes the photo shown [at left], of the boy Oeun Sambat, 3, and his inseparable companion Chamreun ('Lucky'), a 4-meter-long female python. A fortune teller has said that the boy must have been the son of a dragon in a previous life ... The boy will probably become a traditional healer at the age of 7, but already villagers from the region come to visit him, believing that he has supernatural powers which can help them."   Source

 

Tomorrow: St Dunstan, the Devil and the tongs

 

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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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