In the Christian tradition, she was a widow of Rome during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus, 76 - 138), the legendary mother of the virgin martyrs Faith, Hope, and Charity (also known as Agape). Faith, 12, was scourged and went unharmed when boiling pitch was poured on her; she was then beheaded. Hope, 10, and Charity, 9, were also beheaded after emerging, unscathed, from a furnace. Three days after the death of the daughters, Sophia passed peacefully away while praying by their tomb. (A fourth, and lesser-known daughter, Rat Cunning, escaped the persecution of heathens and lived out her days for at least another 80 years.) 

In the Roman Catholic Church, Sophia's memorial day is August 1, in the Antiochian Church, September 17, and in the Roman Martyrology on September 30.

To the Gnostic Christians, Sophia had an esoteric meaning, and was the Mother of Creation; her consort and assistant was Jehovah. In the Gnostic creation myth, Sophia sought the unknowable One, being so distant from her. In one account, she saw a distant light which was in fact a mirror image, and thus drifted even farther away from the pleroma, or fulness of God. The Gnostic religion's sacred texts include Pistis Sophia: The Books of the Saviour.

Her sacred shrine, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, is one of the remarkable buildings of the world. The first church on the site was built by Constantine the Great. The temple itself was so richly and artistically decorated that Justinian I, after rebuilding it, is believed to have said Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών (Solomon, I have surpassed you!). It was converted to a mosque at the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II in 1453. [Read about this seminal event in history in our article, 'Celestial wonders and the fall of Constantinople, 1453']. A Christian church in Sophia, capital of Bulgaria, gave its name to the city.

As Asherah (the Semitic name of the Great Goddess, whose origin differs from Astarte, or Ishtar, or Inanna in Sumerian mythology), who was principally worshipped at the Philistine Pentapolis (coalition of five cities forming a kingdom – namely, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath and Gaza) but also along Canaan and, for some time, Israel, she was even given a place in Solomon's Temple of Yahweh (Jehovah God), which was built under the direction of skilled Phoenician builders and workmen:

"When the Hebrew tribes under the leadership of the votaries of the god of Sinai came out of the 'land of drought' into a land flowing with milk and honey of the Queen of Heaven, they found their own race there and their own releigion [sic] but modified by the effects of agricultural civilization ... The Queen of Heaven, under whatever name,. she may have been worshipped – possibly Miriam, ... the high-priestess among the Levites, - belonged from time immemorial to Jewish cult ... The Host of Heaven – the very Elohim of the astral deities was a notable component of this worship. ... The temple of Jerusalem was simultaneously dedicated to Yahweh and the the Queen of Heaven. Before it stood the Asherah, symbolic trees that are throughout Semitic lands associated with the female aspect of the deity."

(Briffault 3, 110)   Source

"The Holy of Holies, or inner sanctuary, in Solomon's Temple was deemed to represent the womb of Ashtoreth (alternatively called Asherah, as mentioned several times in the Old Testament). Ashtoreth was openly worshipped by the Israelites until the 6th century BC. As the Lady Asherah, she was the supernal wife of El, the supreme male deity, and they were together the 'Divine Couple'. Their daughter was Anath, Queen of the Heavens, and their son, the King of the Heavens, was called He. As time progressed, the separate characters of El and He were merged to become Jehovah [YHWH]. Asherah and Anath were then similarly conjoined to become Jehovah's female consort, known as the Shekinah or Matronit.

"Originally, these four consonants [in YHWH] represented the four members of the Heavenly Family: Y represented El the Father; H was Asherah the Mother; W corresponded to He the Son; and H was the Daughter Anath. In accordance with the royal traditions of the time and region, God's mysterious bride, the Matronit, was also reckoned to be his sister. In the Jewish cult of the Cabbala God's dual male-female image was perpetuated. Meanwhile other sects perceived the Shekinah or Matronit as the female presence of God on Earth. The divine marital chamber was the sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple, but from the moment the Temple was destroyed, the Matronit was destined to roam the Earth while the male aspect of Jehovah was left to rule the heavens alone."
Laurence Gardner, Bloodline of the Holy Grail, pp. 17-18   Source

Appearing in the Biblical book of Proverbs, she is also found in the apocryphal books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, which are accepted as canon by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, and found in the Greek Septuagint of the early Church.

However, one writer, Fr William Most, argues (rather strongly) that Sophia was not known as a goddess to the writers of the Old Testament, but rather as a personification of wisdom – a rhetorical device, as it were.

"The three sensations experienced by Sophia creates three types of humans: hylics (bond to the matter, the principle of evil), psychics (bond to the soul and partly saved from evil) and the pneumatics that can return to the plemora if they achieve gnosis and can behold the world of light. The gnostics regarded themselves as members of this group."   Source  

From 'Daring Night'

By Van Morrison

Baby squeeze me don't leave me in the daring night
Capture it all oh with the Lord of the Dance
Oh with the Lord of the Dance in the daring night
With the Lord of the Dance in the daring night
With the lord of the dance and the great Goddess
Of the eternal wisdom
Standing by the light of the moon in the daring night 

As goddess of wisdom, her faces are many: Black Goddess, Divine Feminine, Mother of God. To Gnostic Christians, Sophia was the Mother of Creation; her consort and assistant was Jehovah. Her symbol, the dove, represents spirit; she is crowned by stars, a Middle Eastern icon, to indicate her absolute divinity.

Other sources connect Sophia to the Celtic goddess-figures known as 'Sheela-na-gigs'.

"The feminine Goddess has taken a number of forms:

"The Moon, signifying transformation, creativity, birth, new beginnings;

"The Good Mother and Bad Mother - mother as source of nourishment and fertility and the mother as snake;

"Bridgit, the Celtic Mother; the triple goddess, related to learning, craftsmen, healing, childbirth and animal abundance;

"The Terrible Mother who can appear as devouring monster who eats her children – the hungry earth which devours its own children;

"Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom/Fate."

Source

Sophia has also been associated with the 23^rd Trump in the Tarot.

Ásatrú Feast of Ullr (Ullur; Ull)

From Wikipedia: In Norse mythology, Ullr is a son of Sif and a stepson of Thor. While extant sources are scant, he appears to have been a major god in prehistoric times, or even an aspect of the head of the Proto-Germanic pantheon, mentioned on the 3^rd-Century Thorsberg chape.

"The Feast of Ullr was to celebrate the Hunt and to gain the personal luck needed for success. Weapons are dedicated on this day to Ullr. If your arms were blessed by the luck of the God of the Hunt, your family and tribe shared the bounty with a Blot and Feast to Ullr ."   Source

Ásatrú is an Icelandic/Old Norse term consisting of two parts: Ása (Genitive of Æsir) referring to the gods and goddesses, and trú meaning faith. Thus Ásatrú literally means faith in the gods. It is commonly misunderstood to mean 'true to the gods'. The faith is also referred to as Norse or Germanic Heathenry. The Old Norse term for 'heathenry' is 'heiðni'. Yet another Old Norse designation is 'forn siðr'; the ancient custom.

The faith may be regarded as an indigenous ancestral faith much like Shinto, Native American spirituality, and Judaism. It represents the indigenous pre-Christian beliefs of the Germanic peoples.

Vikings!    The Troth    The Asatru Folk Assembly

The Asatru Alliance    Google category: Ásatrú

Goddess month of Cailleach/Samhain ends

Feast day of St Acacius

Feast day of St Acharius

Feast day of St Fergus

Feast day of St Francesco Antonio Fasani

Feast day of St Gallgo

Feast day of St Hirenarchus

Feast day of St Humilis of Bisignano

Feast day of St James Intercisus, martyr

Feast day of St John Angeloptes

Feast day of St John Ivanango

Feast day of St John Montajana

Virgil, or Vergilius of Salzburg (born about 700 in Ireland; died November 27, 784 in Salzburg) was a holy bishop of the Diocese Salzburg.

He originated from an noble family of Ireland, where his name was Feirgil, and was educated in the Iona monastery. It is controversial whether he is identical to Abbot Feirgil of Aghaboe Abbey in Queens County.

Around 743 he went to Pippin the Younger of Franconia, who in 745 sent him to Odilo of Bavaria, which then also encompassed Salzburg. The same year he became abbot of St Peter Abbey and leader of the Salzburg Diocese.

St Boniface of Crediton (d. 755) accused Vergilius of "teaching a doctrine in regard to the rotundity of the Earth, which was 'contrary to the Scriptures'" (Catholic Encyclopedia).

More

National Holiday, Gibraltar

Annual sermon to commemorate the great storm in England (1703)
Preached at the Baptist chapel in Little Wild Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, England. Instituted by Joseph Taylor and still going in the late-19^th Century.

Lancashire Day, Lancashire, UK (see historical entry below, 1295)

1127 Emperor Xiaozong of China (d. 1194)

1630 Archduke Sigismund Francis of Austria, Regent of Tyrol and Further Austria

1701 Anders Celsius (d. 1744), Swedish astronomer, invented the Celsius scale of temperature that bears his name

1710 Robert Lowth (d. 1787), bishop of the Church of England

1746 Robert Livingston, (d. 1813) politician

Perdito and Perdita, the Man and Woman of the People. (Mary and Charles James Fox.)   Source

1758 Mary Robinson ('Perdita'; d. December 26, 1800), English courtesan and poet. She was also known for her role as Perdita (heroine of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale) on December 3, 1779, a night that was to completely change her life.

It was during this performance that the 21-year-old beauty attracted the notice of the 17-year-old Prince of Wales, later King George IV of Great Britain and Ireland. George wrote to Mrs Robinson, saying that if she were Perdita, then he would be Shakespeare's Florizel, the son of King Polixenes in the play. The prince showered expensive gifts on her in a very public love affair that lasted a little over two years, and all of British society knew her as 'Perdita'. Her portrait was painted by some of the greatest artists of her day, including Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Romney.

When she and the Prince of Wales split up, he refused to give her any more money so Robinson resorted to blackmail, demanding £25,000 for the return of personal letters he had sent her. It would appear that King George III stepped in to pay off the blackmailer, who settled for £5,000. Now financially comfortable, Robinson produced poetry, plays, novels, newspaper essays, and even pamphlets. Her outstanding success earned the title 'The English Sappho'. It has been said that she was interested in any man who was wealthy and attractive, but perhaps the attractiveness lay chiefly in the wealth, for one of her best known men was the obese Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons, Charles James Fox (1749 - 1806). She was also connected to the better-looking Banastre Tarleton (1754 - 1833), member of the House of Commons and a veteran of the American War of Independence.

She was not completely abandoned by Prince George. His society connections gained her a subscription list for her Poems (1791) that reads like a Who's Who of late-18th-Century Britain.

Literary friends

William Godwin and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who, as far as we know, had met only once before (December 21, 1794 at the home of playwright Thomas Holcroft), took tea together at Perdita's home on January 15, 1800, and had supper with her on January 18 and February 22, 1800. Coleridge (1772 - 1834) and the much older Robinson were friends and poetic colleagues during the last years of her life, and she was also acquainted with Godwin's wife Mary Wollstonecraft, John Wolcot, Robert Merry and William Wordsworth.

"Over time, Robinson rejected her early Della Cruscan style, and strove for less florid, more elegant verse. In poems such as 'All Alone', she reacted to the work of Southey and Wordsworth. She experimented with a variety of forms, including blank verse, of which 'The Widow's Home' is a distinctive example. Her later work in particular shows considerable expertise, and a sensitivity to sound and metre (c.f. 'The Haunted Beach'). Her mature work excited the admiration of Coleridge, who showed her parts of his as-yet unpublished 'Kubla Khan'.

"Many of Robinson's poems have a tone of sadness and alienation. Some later works communicate an awareness of systemic abuses of power (e.g. imperial racism in 'The Lascar'). To publish her more assertive, overtly sexual, and comedic verses (e.g. 'Mistress Gurton's Cat. A Domestic Tale.'), Mary Robinson tended to publish under pseudonyms such as 'Tabitha Bramble' (a feisty spinster), 'Oberon' (a male voice), and 'Bridget'.

"More lucrative than Mary Robinson's poetry, was her prose. The money helped to support herself, her mother and daughter, and often Banastre Tarleton. Novels such as Vancenza (1792), The Widow (1794), Angelina (1796), and Walsingham (1797) went through multiple editions and were often translated into French and German."   Source

Poems online    Contemporary obituaries    Perdita, by Paula Byrne

Coleridge, Mary (Perdita) Robinson, and 'Kubla Khan'

Works by Mary Robinson at Project Gutenberg    More    More    And more

1804 Julius Benedict (d. 1885), composer

1809 Fanny Kemble (d. 1893), actress

1843 Cornelius Vanderbilt (d. 1899), businessman, philanthropist

1843 Elizabeth Stride (d. 1888), third confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper

1857 Charles Scott Sherrington, (d. 1952) physiologist, winner of 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

1865 José Asunción Silva, (Jose Asuncion Silva; d. 1896) poet

1867 Charles Koechlin (d. 1950), composer

1874 Chaim Weizmann (d. 1952), first President of Israel

1874 Charles A Beard (d. 1948), historian

1900 Leon Barzin (d. 1999), conductor

1903 Mona Washbourne (d. 1988), actress

1907 L Sprague de Camp (d. 2000), science fiction writer

1909 James Agee (d. 1955), Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic

1911 David Merrick (d. 2000), Broadway producer

1917 Buffalo Bob Smith (d. 1998), American television host (Howdy Doody)

1921 Alexander Dubček (Alexander Dubcek; d. 1992), Czech political leader who tried to reform the Communist government of his country, but lost to a Soviet invasion

1925 Ernie Wise (d. 1999), British comedian

1925 Marshall Thompson (d. 1992), actor

1925 Michael Tolan, actor

1926 Barbara Anderson, author

1932 Benigno Aquino Jr (d. 1983), Philippine opposition leader

1936 Jacqueline Danno, actress

1937 Gail Sheehy, writer

1940 Bruce Lee (d. 1973), actor, martial arts expert

1942 Jimi Hendrix (d. September 18, 1970), American master rock guitarist

The loss of three J's
Hendrix, Janis Joplin (1943 - 1970) and Jim Morrison (1943 - 1971), three rock legends, all leaders of their respective bands, whose names all started with the letter J, were all born within 12½ months of each other, and all died of drug overdoses aged 27, within ten months of each other.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    Video: Hendrix plays Woodstock

Official Jimi Hendrix website

1944 Eddie Rabbitt (d. 1998), singer

1945 Simon Townsend, Australian TV personality (producer and presenter of Simon Townsend's Wonder World), who first came to public notice in the 1960s when he was a celebrated conscientious objector during the Vietnam War

1952 James D Wetherbee, astronaut

1953 Curtis Armstrong, actor

1957 Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, journalist

1959 Charlie Burchill, Scottish musician (Simple Minds)

1962 Charlie Benante, heavy metal drummer/guitarist (Anthrax)

1963 Fisher Stevens, actor

1964 Robin Givens, actress

1965 Fiachna Ó Braonáin, musician (Hothouse Flowers)

1968 Paul J Perrone, author and roboticist

1968 Michael Vartan, actor

1971 Edward Schocker, composer

1976 Jaleel White, actor

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

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November

21 World Hello Day
22 Independence Day (Lebanon)
22 Stop The Violence Day
23 Eat A Cranberry Day
23 Jukebox Day
24 Espresso Day
25 Saint Catherine's Day
25 You're Welcome Day
25 Winter Wonderland And Parade Of Lights (California, USA)
26 Cake Day
26 Good Grief Day
26 College Fraternity Day (USA)
26 Lighted Christmas Parade (NM, USA)
27 Electric Guitar Day
27 Pie In The Face Day
27 Freckle Pride Day
27 John F Kennedy Day (Massachusetts, USA)
28 Auto Race Day
28 Red Planet Day
28 Camera Day
28 Independence Day (Albania)
29 Throw Out Your Leftovers Day
30 Computer Security Day
30 St Andrew's Day
30 Independence Day (Barbados)
30 Clear Up The Clutter Day

December

1 World AIDS Day
1 Eat A Red Apple Day
1 Pie Day
1 Rosa Parks Day
1 Christmas Parade Of Lights (Texas, USA)
2 Play Basketball Day
2 Mars Landing Day
3 Make A Gift Day
3 Telescope Day
3 Flamenco Guitar Day
3 Christmas Parade (CA, USA)

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8 BCE Death of Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (b. 65 BCE), Roman lyrical and satirical poet.

399 St Anastius I became pope.

450 Death of Galla Placidia, daughter and mother of Roman emperors.

511 Death of Clovis I, king of the Franks.

602 Byzantine troops in the Balkans mutinied.

835 Death of Muhammad at-Taqi, Shia Imam.

1095 Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. His two main purposes: to relieve the Eastern Roman Empire of pressure by the Seljuk Turks, and to secure free access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims.

1295 The first elected representatives from Lancashire were called by King Edward I to Westminster to attend what later became known as 'The Model Parliament'. Celebrated today as 'Lancashire Day'.

1582 A licence was issued for 18-year-old William Shakespeare and three-months pregnant Anne Hathaway to marry. The banns were probably read on St Andrew's Day, and we might guess that they were married almost immediately, since any later would have been in the forbidden marriage period of Advent, December 1 to Christmas.

1676 American colonies: A fire destroyed 46 houses in colonial Boston, the first major fire disaster in American history.

1680 Death of Athanasius Kircher (b. 1601), German Jesuit scholar, one-time owner of the mysterious Voynich Manuscript.

1703 Britain and Ireland: The Great Storm of 1703 (commenced November 24, most violent November 25 - 26) continued. A strong wind had been increasing every day since the middle of the month; 123 people were killed by falling dwellings. As many as 8,000 perished at sea. In one part of Gloucestershire, 15,000 sheep drowned. London's losses were greater than for the Great Fire of London in 1666. The first Eddystone Lighthouse, a wooden structure, was destroyed in the storm, and its designer, Henry Winstanley (b. 1644), died in it.

1755 A parcel of land for America's first Jewish settlement was bought by Joseph Salvador – 10,000 acres near Fort Ninety-Six, in the southern part of the Carolina Colony.

1784 Following the American War of Independence, Britain was nearly bankrupt and its 24-year-old Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, imposed a number of new taxes, including a window tax and a horse tax, to lift the country back into the black. In humorous protest against the latter, a certain John Thatcher on this day rode his cow to and from the market of Stockport, England.

1789 Lieutenant John Macarthur and Captain Thomas Gilbert, Captain of the Neptune, who had been at odds with each other on a voyage from Australia to England, fought a duel at Plymouth. Each fired a shot, but only Gilbert's overcoat was holed, and the duel was called off.

1811 Death of Andrew Meikle, mechanical engineer.

1839 In Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association was founded.

1863 American Civil War: Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escaped the Ohio state prison and returned safely to the South.

1868 Indian Wars: Battle of the Washita River – United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led an attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living on reservation land. Custer's 7th Cavalry burned a Cheyenne village and Chief Black Kettle and 102 other peaceful Cheyennes, including many women and children, were massacred. It was hailed as the first substantial American victory in the Indian Wars

1872 Australia: Large sales of Queensland sugar in Melbourne at 35 pounds per ton.

1885 The first known photograph of a meteor shower was taken.

1889 Australia: A public holiday throughout Sydney (the whole County of Cumberland) for the opening of Centennial Hall, part of Sydney Town Hall. In the next few years, Henry George (1890) and Mark Twain (1895) were just two of many who spoke on its platform. On June 10, 1887 (qv), Sydney Town Hall had been the scene of the Republican Riot.

Photo of Sydney Town Hall in 1889, showing the hole in the ground that became the Queen Victoria Markets, commenced in 1893 and opened July 21, 1898 (later Queen Victoria Building). Photo of invitation to the opening.

Town Hall chronology

 

New Zealand women, world's first to vote nationally

1893 Thanks to people like Kate Sheppard, leader of the New Zealand female suffrage movement, women in New Zealand voted for the first time in a national general election anywhere in the world. Australia was the second nation, fully nine years later (1902), although on December 18, 1894 women in the State of South Australia became the first in the world to be able to vote and stand for election.

Among the earliest nations to grant women the vote include Finland (1906), United Kingdom (1918), and Afghanistan (1922). Switzerland was one of the last, in 1971.

Women's worldwide electoral chronology and Louisa Lawson, Australian suffragette at the Scriptorium

 

1895 At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death.

1895 Death of Alexandre Dumas, fils, author.

1912 Spain declared a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.

1914 Policewomen went on the beat in Grantham, Lincolnshire, the first in Britain.

1919 A huge meteor crashed into Lake Michigan, USA.

1924 New York City: the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held.

1926 USA: In Williamsburg, Virginia, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg began.

1934 Death of bank robber Baby Face Nelson in a gun battle with the FBI.

1940 In Romania, General Ion Antonescu's Iron Guard arrested and executed more than 60 of exiled king Carol II of Romania's aides, including former minister and acclaimed historian Nicolae Iorga.

                                    1942 The French scuttled their fleet after German forces arrived at the Toulon naval base.

                                    1944 The RAF Fauld Explosion: four thousand tonnes of explosives stored in a cavern in Fauld, Staffordshire, England, blew up, killing approximately 75. The explosion was heard as far away as Geneva, Switzerland. A crater, 100 feet deep and half a mile in diameter, was caused by the explosion. The RAF Fauld explosion was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

1946 Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster".

1965 Vietnam War: The Pentagon told US President Lyndon B Johnson that if planned operations were to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam would have to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

1965 Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and his Merry Pranksters started their public experiments with the still-legal hallucinogen, LSD, at La Honda, California.

Kesey died on November 10, 2001.  

Obituary   Merry Pranksters

1967 French president Charles de Gaulle rejected British entry into the Common Market.

1970 The Gay Liberation Front held its first demonstration in London.

1970 Manila, the Philippines: An attempt was made on the life on Pope Paul VI by a man with a knife.

1973 The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States, succeeding Spiro T Agnew, who had resigned. On December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35.

1978 In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White. Milk had been the first openly homosexual politician to be elected to an important local office in the USA.

1990 The British Conservative Party chose John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1991 The United Nations Security Council adopted UN Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.

1991 A 15th-Century Bible was sold at Christie's in London for £1.1 million.

1996 US President Bill Clinton, in a televised address, told the nation that that he would send 20,000 troops to Bosnia on a peacekeeping mission.

2000 UK: Ten-year-old Damilola Taylor, on his way home from school, was stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle by four teenagers and left by indifferent passers-by to bleed to death, in the North Peckham area of south-east London.

2002 Living up to being a Pole. An unemployed Polish pole-sitter, Daniel Baraniuk, 27, from Gdansk, completed his world record feat of 196 days on a 60x40cm seat atop a 2.5m-high pole at the Heidepark amusement park in Soltau, Germany.

2003 According to countless reports, such as this one in The Guardian of December 6, 2003, US President George W Bush served  to US troops in Baghdad, Iraq, a plastic turkey for a USA Thanksgiving meal. However, it is apparently an urban myth originating at the New York Times, which carried on July 11, 2004, this correction: "An article last Sunday about surprises in politics referred incorrectly to the turkey carried by President Bush during his unannounced visit to American troops in Baghdad over Thanksgiving. It was real, not fake."

2005 The first partial human face transplant was completed in Amiens, France.

2007 The death of Bernie Banton, AM (b. 1946), Australian campaigner for compensation for victims of asbestos-related diseases.

Asbestos campaigner Banton dies    James Hardie Ltd accused of underestimating compensation costs

 

Tomorrow: William Blake, mystical poet

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