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Where the wind is on Martinmas Eve, there it will be the rest of winter.
English (Atherstone) traditional proverb

If the 10th day be cloudy, it denunciates a wet; if dry, a sharp winter.
English traditional proverb for November

… dried flitches of some smoked beeve,
Hang'd on a writhen wythe since Martin's Eve.

Hull (See November 11: Martinmas was time for killing and curing meat)

In the Isle of Man … the first of November, Old Style, has been regarded as New Year's Day down to recent times. Thus Manx mummers used to go round on Hallowe'en (Old Style) singing in the Manx language, a sort of Hogmanay song which began "To-night is New Year's Night, Hogunnaa!".
Sir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941), British folklorist; The Golden Bough, 1922

Then a clear Companie came soon after closs,
Nicneven with her Nymphs, in number anew,
With Charms from Caitness and Chanrie in Ross,
Whose Cunning consists in casting a Clew ...

Alexander Montgomerie (c. 1545 - c. 1610), Scottish poet; 'The Flyting Betwixt Polwart and Montgomery'; today is the day of Nicnevin, or Gyre-Carling

 

 Lakshmibai

Lakshmibai (1835 - 1858)

 


An absurd belief in the fables of classical antiquity lent an additional feature to the character of the woodland spirits of whom we treat. Greece and Rome had not only assigned tutelary deities to each province and city, but had peopled, with peculiar spirits, the Seas, the Rivers, the Woods, and the Mountains. The memory of the Pagan creed was not speedily eradicated in the extensive Provinces through which it was once universally received ; and in many particulars it continued long to mingle with, and influence, the original superstitions of the Gothic nations. Hence we find the elves occasionally arrayed in the costume of Greece and Rome, and the Fairy Queen and her attendants transformed into Diana and her nymphs, and invested with their attributes and appropriate insignia (Delrius, pp. 168, 807). According to the same author, the Fairy Queen was also called Habundia. Like Diana, who in one capacity was denominated Hecate, the goddess of enchantment, the Fairy Queen is identified in popular tradition with the Gyre-Carline, Gay Carline, or mother witch of the Scottish peasantry. Of this personage, as an individual, we have but few notices. She is sometimes termed Nicnevin, and is mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland, by Lindsay in his Dreme, p. 225, edit. 1590, and in his Interludes, apud Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, vol. ii, p. z8. But the traditionary accounts regarding her are too obscure to admit of explanation. In the burlesque fragment subjoined, which is copied from the Bannatyne MS., the Gyre Carline is termed the Queen of Jowis (Jovis, or perhaps Jews), and is, with great consistency, married to Mohammed.
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Scottish writer; 'Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border'

In Tyberius tyme, the trew imperatour,
Quhen Tynto hills fra skraiping of tour-henis was keipit,
Thair dwelt ane grit Gyre Carling in awld Betokis hour,
That levit upoun Christiane menis flesche, and rewheids unleipit ;
Thair wynit ane hir by, on the west syde, callit Blasour,
For luve of hir Iauchane lippis he walit and he weipit ;
He gadderit ane menzie of modwartis to warp doun the tour;
The Carling with ane yren club, quhen yat Blasour sleipit,
Behind the heil scho hat him sic ane blaw,
Quhil Blasour bled ane quart
Off milk pottage inwart,
The Carling luche, and lut fart
North Berwik Law.

The King of Fary than come, with elfis many ane,
And sett ane sege, and ane salt, with grit pensallis of pryd;
And all the doggis fra Dunbar wes thair to Dumblane,
With all the tykis of Tervey, come to thame that tyd ;
Thay quelle doune with thair gonnes mony grit stane,
The Carling schup hir on ane sow, and is her gaitis gane,
Grunting our the Greik sie, and durst na langer byd,
For bruklyng of bargane, and breiking of browis ;
The Carling now for dispyte
Is mareit with Mahomyte,
And wall the doggis interdyte,
For scho is quene of Jowis.

Sensyne the cockis of Crawmound crew nevir at day,
For dule of that devillisch deme wes with Mahoun mareit,
And the henis of Hadingtoun sensyne wald not lay,
For this wild wibroun wich thame widlit sa and wareit ;
And the same North Berwik Law, as I heir wyvis say,
This Carling, with a fals cast, wald away careit ;
For to luck on quha sa lykis, na langer scho tareit;
All this languor for love before tymes fell;
Lang or Betok was born,
Scho bred of ane accorne ;
The laif of the story to morne,
To you I sall telle.

Anonymous; quoted in Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Scottish writer; 'Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border'

It is not a unique, unheard-of thing for the Devil to thump about and haunt houses. In our monastery in Wittenberg I heard him distinctly. For when I began to lecture on the Book of Psalms and I was sitting in the refectory after we had sung matins, studying and writing my notes, the Devil came and thudded three times in the storage chamber [the area behind the stove] as if dragging a bushel away. Finally, as it did not want to stop, I collected my books and went to bed. I still regret to this hour that I did not sit him out, to discover what else the Devil wanted to do. I also heard him once over my chamber in the monastery.
Martin Luther, German church reformer, born on November 10, 1483

"Ship, ahoy! Hast seen the White Whale?"
  So cried Ahab, once more hailing a ship showing English colours, bearing down under the stern. Trumpet to mouth, the old man was standing in his hoisted quarter-boat, his ivory leg plainly revealed to the stranger captain, who was carelessly reclining in his own boat's bow. He was a darkly-tanned, burly, good-natured, fine-looking man, of sixty or thereabouts, dressed in a spacious roundabout, that hung round him in festoons of blue pilot-cloth; and one empty arm of this jacket streamed behind him like the broidered arm of a hussar's surcoat.
  "Hast seen the White Whale!"

'The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London', Ch. 100, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville; Samuel Enderby commenced the whaling industry in Australia on November 10, 1791

When sailing up the coast within 3 leagues of the shore, I saw more whales at one time around my ship than in the whole of the six years which I have fished the coast of Brazil.
Herman Melville, writing in 1791, on the Britannia off the coast of New South Wales, Australia

The Ranee was remarkable for her bravery, cleverness and perseverance; her generosity to her subordinates was unbounded. These qualities, combined with her rank, rendered her the most dangerous of the rebel leaders.
General Sir High Rose, the officer commanding the force that took Jhansi and Gwalior, of Lakshmibai, who was born on November 10, 1835

There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them.
Walt Whitman, American poet, on seeing survivors of Major Henry Wirz's prison camp at Andersonville; Wirz was hanged on November 10, 1865

I know what orders are, Major. I am being hanged for obeying them.
Major Henry Wirz, on the scaffold, to his superior officer

Doctor Livingstone, I presume?
Famous words of Henry Morton Stanley, spoken on November 10, 1871 when he found Dr David Livingstone at Ujiji, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika

Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.
David Livingstone's reply to Stanley

Cable from Laurence Olivier to Richard Burton at the height of the Cleopatra movie scandal: "Make up your mind, dear heart. Do you want to be a great actor or a household word?" Burton replied: "Both."
Richard Burton, Welsh actor, born on November 10, 1925

When I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn't know how to play them when I was drunk.
Richard Burton

I've done the most awful rubbish in order to have somewhere to go in the morning.
Richard Burton

My father considered that anyone who went to chapel and didn't drink alcohol was not to be tolerated. I grew up in that belief.
Richard Burton

The minute you start fiddling around outside the idea of monogamy, nothing satisfies anymore.
Richard Burton; on adultery, 1963

I've played the lot: a homosexual, a sadistic gangster, kings, princes, a saint, the lot. All that's left is a Carry On film. My last ambition.
Richard Burton

I have to think hard to name an interesting man who does not drink.
Richard Burton

Perhaps most actors are latent homosexuals and we cover it with drink. I was once a homosexual, but it didn't work.
Richard Burton

I rather like my reputation, actually, that of a spoiled genius from the Welsh gutter, a drunk, a womanizer; it's rather an attractive image.
Richard Burton

You may be as vicious about me as you please. You will only do me justice.
Richard Burton

American Indians are caught in the same dilemma as libertarians. We're neither left nor right. We're just for freedom.
Russell Means, Native American activist, born on November 10, 1939

Freedom is for everyone, whatever lifestyle they choose, as long as it's peaceful and honest – from high-tech entrepreneur to hippie in a commune and everyone in between ...
Russell Means

Kesey's belly was hurting and the docs did a scan and found a black spot on his liver. It was cancerous but encapsulated which meant there was no cancer anywhere else. They decided to cut it out and the surgery went okay. He had sixty percent of his liver left to carry the load but in one of those dirty tricks the body can play on you everything else went to hell and this morning at 3:45 AM his heart stopped beating. 
  A great good friend and great husband and father and grand dad, he will be sorely missed but if there is one thing he would want us to do it would be to carry on his life's work. Namely to treat others with kindness and if anyone does you dirt forgive that person right away. This goes beyond the art, the writing, the performances, even the bus. Right down to the bone.

Ken Babbs on Ken Kesey, American author and Merry Prankster who died on November 10, 2001

I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is on trial here, and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learned here may prove useful to it, for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war the company has waged in the delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
  On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and all those who assist them. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected of a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, judges, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of their urine.
  We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our country and jeopardised the future of our children. As we subscribe to the subnormal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, degrade our hospitals, and make ourselves the slaves of those who subscribe to higher standards, who pursue the truth, and honour justice, freedom and hard work.

Ken Siro-Wiwa, Nigerian environmental activist; statement made just before his execution on November 10, 1995

 

 

 

November 10 is the 314th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (315th in leap years), with 51 days remaining.
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Martinmas Eve, Germany

Bonfires for the Eve of St Martin are still found along the Rhine and Moselle rivers, and these are pagan in origin. It was believed that one can be cleansed and protected by dancing around a fire, just as domestic beasts such as cattle were cleansed of vermin by driving them through blazing fires.

Moselle, song sung while dancing around fire:

Vine branches, vine branches, wood shavings,
Give us something for our
Martinmas fire.
Here with the wine,
Here with the apples,
Beer will be brewed,
Wine will be drunk,
Holy St Martin. 

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Festival of Martini, ancient Latvia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia: In ancient Latvia, Martini (Mārtiņi) was the name of a festival, celebrated on November 10, marking the end of the Autumn and the beginning of Winter. The festival marks the transfer from Usins to Martins, two deities of horses. Usins is invoked during the summer, while Martins (see St Martin) is a Winter god. The festival marked the end of the preparations for Winter, such as salting meat and fish, storing the harvest and making preserves. Martini also marked the beginning of masquerading and sledding, among other wintry activities.

 

Feast day of St Aedh Mac Bricc

Feast day of St Andrew Avellino, confessor

Feast day of St Anianus

Feast day of St Demetrius

Feast day of St Elaeth the King

Feast day of St Eustosius

Feast day of St Guerembaldus

Feast day of St Hadelin

Feast day of St John of Ratzenburg

Feast day of St Justus, Archbishop of Canterbury

Feast day of St Leo the Great

Feast day of Ss Milles, Bishop of Susa; Abrosimus and Sina, martyrs in Persia

Feast day of St Nympha (Ninfa), virgin
(Scotch fir, Pinus silvestris, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Little is known about this saint. One tradition held that Nympha was a virgin martyr from Palermo, Sicily, who was put to death for the faith at the beginning of the 4th Century. According to other versions of the legend, when the Goths invaded her island she fled from Palermo to the Italian mainland and died in the 6th Century at Savona. The feast of her translation (repositioning of her relics) is observed at Palermo on August 19. Some believe that there were two saints of this name. Before 1624, Palermo had four patron saints, one for each of the four major parts of the city. They were St Agatha, St Christina, St Nympha, and St Olivia.

Feast day of Ss Tryphon (Trypho) and Respicius, martyrs
Tryphon is said to have been born at Kampsade (Lampsakon) in Phrygia, near Apamea, and as a boy took care of geese. In about 250, during the Decian persecution, he was taken to Nicaea and following crucifixion and other tortures was murdered and decapitated, after he had converted the heathen prefect Licius. He is greatly venerated in the Greek Orthodox Church which observes his feast on February 1 (qv). In 1969, St Tryphon's feast day was removed from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints due to lack of evidence and documentation. Attached to his feast day since the 11th Century have been two other saints, Respicius and Nympha (see above), of whom very little is known.

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Feast day of Reason, French Revolutionary period
During the French Revolution, the Goddess of Reason was celebrated in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, which had been converted into a temple of philosophy. Let's be reasonable today.

Your almanackist humbly proposes the revival of this well-established feast. Therefore, let us call November 10:

Reason Day (International Day of Rational Thought)

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Carl Sagan (1934 - '96), American scientist

A day for commemoration and celebration of healthy skepticism, reasoned thinking and the human capacity for rationality, and criticism of superstition and irrational beliefs.

Wuwuchim (Hopi) Fire Ceremony (Nov 5 - 21)

Kitano Odori, Kyoto, Japan (Nov 1 - 15)  

Day of Remembrance of Kemal Atatürk (Ataturk), Turkey

 

 

 

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

745 Musa al-Kazim (d. 799), Shia Imam

1341 Henry Percy Northumberland (d. 1408), English statesman

 

Luther throws an inkstand at the devil1483 Martin Luther (d. 1546), German church reformer and leader of the Protestant Reformation.

Although Martin Luther's reputation rests largely on his opposition to religious cant and superstition, he was no slouch when it came to these himself. In 1521, he claimed, he had a confrontation with Satan in which he threw an inkstand at the devil while he was staying in Wartburg Castle, where the ink stain is still to be seen on the wall. Or, so it is said.

Luther reported poltergeist experiences. Once he was brought a bag of hazelnuts; after Luther went to bed, the nuts jumped about in the sack and flew into the air. Later, though sleeping in a locked building, the great Protestant reformer heard a sound like a hundred barrels falling down stairs.

 

1566 or 1567 Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (d. 1601), English soldier

1668 François Couperin (d. 1733), French harpsichordist and composer

1683 King George II of England (1727 - '60)

1697 William Hogarth, artist (d. October 26, 1764), painter, engraver, and pictorial satirist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art (read: comics)

Links to Hogarth images

1728 Oliver Goldsmith (d. 1774), playwright (The Rising Village, With Other Poems; She Stoops to Conquer; The Vicar of Wakefield)

1759 Friedrich von Schiller (d. 1805), German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist

1801 Samuel Gridley Howe (d. January 9, 1876), prominent 19th-Century United States physician, abolitionist, advocate of education for the blind; husband of pacifist Julia Ward Howe and the father of Pulitzer prize-winning writers Laura E Richards and Maud Howe Elliott

 

Lakshmibai1835 Lakshmibai (Rani, or Ranee, Lakshmi Bai; d. 1858), the warrior queen of Jhansi, a Maratha-ruled princely state of northern India. She is sometimes referred to as the Boudicca (Boadicea) of India.

Lakshmibai was born into a Brahmin family in Varanasi, India. She received an unusual education for a girl, learning to read and write, and even studying horsemanship and martial arts.

At age eight, Lakshmibai married the Raja of Jhansi. When her husband died in 1853, the English seized Jhansi and denied Lakshmibai the throne. During the Great Rebellion – which the British insisted on calling "the Sepoy Mutiny" (1857) – 22-year-old Lakshmibai joined the rebels and trained an army of women to defend her fortress.

In 1858, she was forced to abandon Jhansi, but escaped with most of her troops. Male rebel leaders ignored her warnings of imminent British attack. Lakshmibai died in the ensuing battle while commanding 300 troops. She became a national heroine in India.

Source: The Daily Bleed

Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi    In memory of our Rani

Poetry on Jhansi Ki Rani by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan

1845 Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, fourth Prime Minister of Canada

1879 Vachel Lindsay (d. 1931), American poet

1880 Sir Jacob Epstein, American-born British sculptor

1887 Arnold Zweig (d. 1968), author

1889 Claude Rains (d. 1967), British-born Hollywood actor

1890 Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward (d. 1963), car manufacturer

1890 Eli Lissitsky (d. 1941), American painter

1893 John P Marquand (d. 1960), American writer

1905 Tommy Dorsey, big band leader

1909 Paweł Jasienica (d. 1970), Polish historian

1919 Moise Tshombe (d. 1969), Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

1919 Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47

"Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, in the village of Kurya, Altai Territory. He would grow up to be a Soviet army officer and inventor of weapons, notably in 1947 the AK-47 assault rifle [image >]. On 27 July 2002, Kalashnikov told the German Bild newspaper: "I am proud of it. And sad, too, that the weapon is used by terrorists." and: "I would have preferred to invent something which helps people and makes life easier for farmers. A lawnmower, for example." The AK-47, which can fire 400 rounds per minute and is light and easy to maintain, has become the weapon of choice for guerrillas and insurgents."   Source

Altogether, about 100 million automatic rifles and machine guns of the Kalashnikov system have been made in the world. Kalashnikov stated that he created the gun for "purely patriotic reasons".

General Kalashnikov now has a commercial interest in Kalashnikov Vodka. The general agreed to give his name to it in 2004 after being approached by a British entrepreneur.

Nondrinkers to attack "Kalashnikov"

Kalashnikov matriarch emerges to tell of her life as an Afghan warlord

 

1925 Richard Burton (d. August 5, 1984), Welsh actor (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Cleopatra; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). Together with fellow Britisher, Peter O'Toole, he still holds the record for the most Oscar nominations (7) without a single win.

"Richard Burton was banned from the BBC ... From the New York Times Arts and Leisure Section, November 23, 1974, in Richard Burton's article about his experience playing Churchill in a television drama [probably the 1960 series, Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years. Although 1974 was also the year he played Churchill in the movie, The Gathering Storm.] comes this: 'In the course of preparing myself ... I realized afresh that I hate Churchill and all of his kind. I hate them virulently. They have stalked down the corridors of endless power all through history.... What man of sanity would say on hearing of the atrocities committed by the Japanese against British and Anzac prisoners of war, "We shall wipe them out, everyone of them, men, women, and children. There shall not be a Japanese left on the face of the earth"? Such simple-minded cravings for revenge leave me with a horrified but reluctant awe for such single-minded and merciless ferocity.' The BBC response printed in the NY Times on the 30th of November 1974 banned him from future productions with the BBC. The supervisor of drama productions said, 'As far as I am concerned, he will never work for us again.... Burton acted in an unprofessional way.'"   Source (this text no longer at that site, Nov. 15, 2006)

1928 Ennio Morricone, Italian composer (film score A Fistful of Dollars)

1932 Roy Scheider, American actor

1935 Igor Dmitrievich Novikov, theoretical astrophisicist, cosmologist

1940 Russell Means, Native American activist

 

Screamin' Lord Sutch1940 Dave Screaming Lord Sutch, British singer, eccentric and founder of the Monster Raving Loony Party, who died by his own hand on June 16, 1999

"He couldn't properly be considered part of the British Invasion — he never had a hit in the U.S. or the U.K. — but Screaming Lord Sutch laid some unheralded groundwork for the phenomenon. With a rock and horror act based to a large degree on Screamin' Jay Hawkins, David "Lord" Sutch was one of the first genuine rock and roll longhairs, and his bands employed such sterling instrumentalists as Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Nicky Hopkins, and Mitch Mitchell before they became famous. His early-'60s singles — mostly over-the-top Halloween novelties or covers of early rock and RandB standards — are genuinely energetic and fun performances that rank among the few out-and-out raunchy rock and roll records waxed in Britain before the ascension of the Beatles."   Source

Official Monster Raving Loony Party homepage

 

1942 Hans-Rudolf Merz, elected member of the Swiss Federal Council

1944 Silvestre Reyes, American politician

1944 Sir Tim Rice, composer

1947 David Loggins, musician

1948 Greg Lake, musician

1949 Ann Reinking, actress, dancer, choreographer

1956 Sinbad, actor, comedian

1959 Mackenzie Phillips, American singer and actress, and daughter of Papa John Phillips of Mamas and Papas

1960 Neil Gaiman, science fiction writer

1977 Brittany Murphy, actress

1979 Eve, rapper

1985 Giovonnie Samuels, television actress

 

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8 X-ray Discovery Day
8 Young Readers Day
8 Election Day
8 Parents As Teachers Day
9 Neon Sign Day
9 Cake Appreciation Day
9 Parade Day, USA
9 Mariachi Night (California, USA)
10 Forget Me Not Day
10 USMC Birthday
10 Toothpaste Day
10 Headache Day

11 Veterans Day (USA)
11 Sundae Day
11 Remembrance Day (Canada)
11
Ones Day
11
Independence Day (Poland)

11 Veterans Day Parade (Alabama, USA)
11 Independence Day (Poland)
12 Pizza But No Anchovies Day
12 The Birth Of Baha'ullah
13 World Kindness Day
13 Start A Rumour Day

13 Actors' Day
14 Pickle Appreciation Day
14 Guacamole Day
14 Monet Day
14 Children's Day (India)
15 Guru Nanak's Birthday
15 America Recycles Day
15 Pikes Peak Day
15 Shichi-Go-San (Japan)
15 Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
16 Fast Food Day
16 Birth Of The Blues Day

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1444 Battle of Varna The crusading forces of King Ladislaus III of Poland (or Ulaszlo I of Hungary) were crushed by the Turks under Sultan Murad II, and Ladislaus was killed.

1556 Richard Chancellor, British seaman, drowned off Aberdeenshire, Scotland on his return from a second voyage to Russia, where he had already gone in 1553 - '54 and laid the foundations for English trade.

1674 Anglo-Dutch War: As provided in the Treaty of Westminster, Netherlands ceded New Netherlands to England.

1766 The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signed the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).

1775 American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines (later renamed the United States Marine Corps) to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy.


1791 Samuel Enderby, of the whaling and sealing firm of Samuel Enderby & Sons, began the whaling industry in Australia. Within 50 years, whales in Australian waters had been hunted nearly to extinction for such 'essential' products as cosmetics and corsets.

"Whaling was Australia's first primary industry. Hunting was initially carried out from small boats and the whales were towed back to a shore station for processing.

"The main species caught was the southern right whale; so named because it was slow moving (making it easy to catch), and once killed, the whale would float. It was simply the 'right' whale to catch.

"By 1845 twenty six thousand whales had been killed and by 1935 there were so few southern right whales remaining that whaling ceased and they became protected internationally.

"Before World War II, most hunting for humpback whales near Australia took place on the west coast and in Antarctic waters. Between 1936 and 1938 more than 12,000 humpback whales were killed.

"In 1939 a ten year moratorium on humpback whaling was declared to allow the numbers to increase. After the lifting of the moratorium, 18,00 [sic] whales were caught and processed (between 1949 and 1963) at Carnarvon, Point Cloates and Albany in Western Australia. The population there was reduced to about 800 whales."   Source

 

International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling    Whaling history

Humpback whaleListen to the Humpback's song    Whale Cry (62K)    Haunting Whale Cry (86K)

Long Whale Cry  (137K)    Whale Trumpet (83K)    Whale Whistle (102K)

Humpback Whale "Gentle Giant of the Sea"    Whale Net    The Curious Humpback

Humpback whales migration, September 7 in the Book of Days

 

1865 Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, was hanged, and became the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes. Wirz oversaw an operation in which nearly a third of the 46,000 prisoners died.

Archeology at Andersonville    More

1871 Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1885 "The world's first motorcycle, designed by Gottlieb Daimler, made its debut. The frame and wheels were made of wood. A leather belt transfered power from the engine to large brass gears mounted to the rear wheel. The leather saddle wasn't very comfortable since there was no suspension (front or rear). The single cylinder engine had a bore of 58mm and stroke of 100mm giving a displacement of 264cc's. The engine gave 0.5hp at 700 rpm. The top speed for the motorcycle was 12 km/h. This was built as an experimental vehicle to test the new Daimler engine, which was to power Daimler's first motorized carriage the following year."   Source

1908 A Bible was placed in a room at the Superior Hotel in the Iron Mountains, Montana, USA, starting a long-standing tradition – the Gideon's Bible.

1913 The first 'coloured' mayor in Britain, John Archer, was elected in Battersea.

1913 South Africa: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, took 'one meal a day' pledge till repeal of tax.

1918 After abdicating, German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II appeared at the frontier of Holland.

1919 USA: The first national convention of the American Legion, an organization of veterans of the United States armed forces, was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (convention ended on November 12).

1926 In San Francisco, California, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed 'Gorilla Man') killed and then raped his ninth victim, Mrs William Edmonds.

1928 Michinomiya Hirohito, 27, was crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan

1938 Kate Smith sang Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America' for the first time, on her weekly radio show.

1938 Death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (b. 1881), political founder of Turkey.

1942 World War II: Germany invaded Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.

1951 Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1952 Dr Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work in Africa.

1954 US President Dwight D Eisenhower dedicated the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery.

1958 British speed-maniac, Donald Campbell, set a new water speed record of 248.67 mph.

1969 National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuted the children's television program Sesame Street.

1970 Vietnam War: 'Vietnamization' (a word extemporaniazated by the US military/political nexus). For the first time in five years, an entire week ended with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia.

1970 Soviet Lunar probe Lunokhod 1 was launched.

1971 In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attacked the city Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine planes.

1971 Two women were tarred and feathered in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for dating British soldiers, while in Londonderry, a Catholic girl was also tarred and feathered for her intention of marrying a British soldier.   Source

1974 "The discovery of the 'charmed quark' subatomic particle was announced simultaneously by the two American experimental groups responsible. One was an MIT group at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the other a SLAC-Berkeley group on the west coast at Stanford Linear accelerator centre. The new particle, of mass 3095 MeV had a lifetime about 1000 times more than that of other particles of comparable mass. This announcement set on fire the world of high energy physics and is now known in the physics community as the November revolution. Within two years, in 1976, the scientists leading those groups Samuel Ting and Burton Richter, were awarded the Nobel prize in physics."   Source

1975 The 222-m (729ft)-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew.

Song: 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald', by Gordon Lightfoot

1975 United Nations Resolution 3379: The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism (the resolution was repealed in December 1991).

1983 Microsoft announced Windows.

"Microsoft announced its first graphical user interface, to be called Windows 1.0, which would allow users to multitask, on this day in 1983. Microsoft was one of only a few companies racing to develop a graphical interface for the IBM PC. VisiCorp, makers of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet and one of the most popular applications to date, had started shipping VisiOn, a competitive desktop manager that failed to catch on. Although Microsoft said it would ship the product in April, it was in fact two years until Windows appeared, and even then, it was not a hit until the introduction of Windows 3.1 in March 1992."   Source

1989 After 35 years of Communist rule in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov was replaced by former Prime Minister Petar Mladenov who changed the party's name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

1989 Pilot Gaby Kennard became the first Australian woman to fly around the world in a single-engine plane, when she landed at Bankstown (New South Wales, Australia) Airport after a 99-day flight.

1990 "The Washington Post on this day in 1990 carried a report about a tomato that dialled the law. The tomato in question was overripe and was hanging over the telephone of Linda and Danny Hurst in Blacksburg, Virginia. On 2 December it burst, dripping into the answering machine. This caused the telephone to dial the sheriff's office ten times. 'Maybe they had speed dialling and it shorted out' was one speculation. The police tracked down Linda Hurst who told them her house in the Jefferson National Forest was locked and empty. The police entered with guns drawn."   Source

Finally, Linda Hurst's brother spotted the culprit – an overripe tomato.  The tomato was hanging over the telephone in a wire basket, dripping juice into the couple's answering machine.

Chief Deputy Milton Graham said the tomato juice apparently got into the telephone's dialling system and caused it to dial the sheriff's office. "We're not sure how. Maybe they had speed dialling and it shorted out," he said. "I didn't know the answering machine could even dial out," Linda Hurst said. "It's just supposed to take messages."

1995 In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Siro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), was hanged by government forces.

Siro-Wiwa had spoken out aggressively against the Nigerian military regime and the Shell Oil company for causing environmental damage in Ogoni lands. In a trial denounced by human rights groups, he was found guilty for alleged complicity in the murders of four Ogoni chiefs who were killed at a political rally in 1994.

Before his death, Saro-Wiwa had won Sweden's prestigious Right Livelihood Award, and had also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

1997 Telcoms WorldCom and MCI announced a US$37 billion merger (the largest merger in US history).

1997 USA: A jury in Fairfax, Virginia found Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of the murder of two CIA employees in 1993.

2001 Death of Ken Kesey (b. 1935), American author.

2003 Death of Canaan Banana (b. 1936), first President of Zimbabwe.

2003 Death of Irv 'Kup' Kupcinet (b. 1912), American columnist and television personality.

2004 John Ashcroft and Don Evans resigned their posts as US Attorney General and US Secretary of Commerce respectively.

2084 A transit of Earth from Mars will be visible to hypothetical future Mars colonists.


Tomorrow: Martinmas; St Martin and the mule

 

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Humpback whale


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