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Corineus and Gogmagog were two brave giants who richly valued their honour and exerted their whole strength and force in the defence of their liberty and country; so the City of London, by placing these, their representatives in their Guildhall, emblematically declare, that they will, like mighty giants defend the honour of their country and liberties of this their City; which excels all others, as much as those huge giants exceed in stature the common bulk of mankind.
Thomas Boreman, Gigantick History, 1741   Source

At last the ninth, the Lord Mayor's day, came. It is also the Prince of Wales' birthday, so the city would be very gay-looking with all the flags flying ... Once before, twenty-seven years ago, when Sir John Musgrave was Lord Mayor, not only elephants, but camels, deer, negroes, beehives, a ship in full sail, and Britannia seated on a car drawn by six horses, had made part of the show ... Through the streets we have passing visions of pink silk stockings, canary-colored breeches, and dark green coats and gold lace, also tri-colored rosettes as large as saucers; and pass by shop-windows full of sweet, eager little faces, in the place of hose, shirts, sewing-machines, etc ... after this band and that of the Royal London Militia, come the Worshipful Company of Loriners, preceded by jolly watermen in blue and white striped jerseys and white trousers, bearing banners; more watermen follow to relieve them; the beadle of the company with his staff of office; the clerk in his chariot; the wardens, wearing silk cloaks trimmed with sables, in their carriages ...

Gog and Magog

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Astro pic of the day

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Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature & Art (Seyffert)

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Night of Nicnevin (Gyre-Carling), Daughter of Frenzy, Banshee

(Martinmas Eve), Scotland

Scots Pagan festival honours an aspect of the goddess Diana. She rides with her entourage in the night hours of November 9-10. Nicnevin, who rode through the night with her followers "at the hinder end of harvest, on old Hallowe'en", as an old Scots poet describes it, made herself visible to mortals on this night. 

Nicnevin is possibly an anglicization of Nic an Neamhain or Nigh Nemhain, 'Daughter of Frenzy,' an aspect of the triple Morrigan (Mórrígan). She rides the night skies on a broomstick at Samhain (October 31). Due to calendar changes, this old tradition may be seen as applying to tonight. Cognates: bean sidhe (Banshee); Gyre-Carling; Queen of Elphame; Daughter of the Bones.

Gyre-Carling
"The short tale of Gyre Carling (in three stanzas of the riming-alliterative type, with the bob) relates how this mother-witch, who dwelt in 'Betokis bour' and fed on Christian men's flesh, was loved by Blasour, her neighbour 'on tge west syd.' For luve of hir lawchane lippies, he walit and he weipit; and he gathered a crowd of moles to warp down her tower. But the unresponsive lady cudgelled him well (as St. Peter served Kynd Kittok) until he bled 'a quart off milk pottage inwart.' She laughed, and, after the manner of Gog Magog's spouse in the Interlude of the Droichis Part, ejaculated North Berwick Law in her mirth. Then the king of Faery, with his elves and all the dogs from Dunbar to Dunblane and all the tykes of Tervey (which might well be Topsy Turvy land!), laid siege to the fair; but she transformed herself into a sow and went "gruntling our the Greik Sie." There, in spite, she married Mahomet or Mahoun, and became queen of the Jews. She was sadly missed in Scotland; the cocks of Cramond ceased to crow, and the hens of Haddington would not lay.

"All this langour for lufe befoirtymes fell, 
Lang or Betok wes born, 
Scho bred of ane acorne; 
The laif of the story to morne 
To [char] ow I sall tell.

"This piece might well be by Dunbar."   Source

"In the Lowlands, the Elves or Good Neighbours have a king and a queen Nicnevin or the Gyre-Carling – and in later days were suspected of having a good deal of intercourse with witches and of paying a tribute to the Devil."   Source: Encyclopedia of the Celts

"Her water can convert water into rocks, and sea into solid land: 

"'Lochermoss, which extends from Solway sea to Locherbrigg-hill, was once, according to tradition, an arm of the sea, and a goodly anchorage for shipping. A proud swell of the Hallowmass tide, which swept away many steeds from the Carline's assembly, so provoked her, that, baring her withered arm, she stretched over the sea her rod of power, and turned its high waves into a quagmire! There are still carved beaks, boats, keels, and other remains of shipping, dug up in the moss at peat casting time.' 
Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song 

"Women of Fife took care to spin off all the flax on their rocks (distaffs) on the last night of the year. Otherwise, it was said, the Gyre Carline would carry it off before morning."   Source apparently no longer online Nov. 15, 2006

Who is Mórrígan?

The Mórrígan ('great queen') or Morrígan ('terror' or 'phantom queen') (aka Morrígu, Mórríghan, Mór-Ríogain) is a figure from Irish mythology widely considered to be a former goddess.

She is usually seen as a terrifying figure, glossed in medieval Irish manuscripts as equivalent to Alecto of the Furies, or the child-eating monster Lamia, from Greek Mythology (in fact, another text glosses Lamia as "a monster in female form, i.e. a Morrígan"), or the Hebrew demoness Lilith. She is associated with war and death on the battlefield, sometime appearing in the form of a carrion crow, premonitions of doom, and with cattle. She is often considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with cattle also suggests a role connected with fertility and the land.

She is often interpreted as a triple goddess, although membership of the triad varies: the most common combination is the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha, but sometimes includes Nemain, Fea, Anann and others.

Ulster Cycle

Her earliest apearances are in stories of the Ulster Cycle, in which she has an ambiguous relationship with the hero Cúchulainn. In Táin Bó Regamna (the Cattle Raid of Regamain), he challenges her, not realising who she is, as she drives a heifer from his territory, and earns her enmity. She makes a series of threats, and foretells a coming battle in which he will be killed. She tells him, enigmatically, "I guard your death".

In the Táin Bó Cuailnge, queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge; the Mórrígan appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. Cúchulainn defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats, the Mórrígan appears to him as a young girl and offers him her love, but he spurns her. In response, she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a heifer leading the stampede, just as she had threatened in their previous encounter. However, Cúchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent, despite her interference. Later, she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms sustained, milking a cow. She gives Cúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed.

In one version of Cúchulainn's death-tale, as the hero rides to meet his enemies, he encounters the Mórrígan as an old woman washing his bloody armour in a ford, an omen of his death. Later in the story, mortally wounded, Cúchulainn ties himself to a standing stone so he can die upright, and it is only when a crow lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead.

Mythological Cycle

The Mórrígan also appears in texts of the Mythological Cycle. In the 12^th-Century pseudohistorical compilation Lebor Gabála Érenn, she is listed among the Tuatha Dé Danann as one of the daughters of Ernmas, granddaughter of Nuada.

The first three daughters of Ernmas are given as Ériu, Banba and Fódla. Their names are synonyms for Ireland, and they were married to Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine, the last three Tuatha Dé Danann kings of Ireland. Associated with the land and kingship, they probably represent a triple goddess of sovereignty. Next come Ernmas's other three daughters: the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan. A quatrain describes the three as wealthy, "springs of craftiness" and "sources of bitter fighting". The Mórrígan's name is said to be Anann, and she had three sons, Glon, Gaim and Coscar. According to Geoffrey Keating's 17^th century History of Ireland, Ériu, Banba and Fódla worshipped the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan respectively, suggesting that the two triads of goddesses may be seen as equivalent.

The Mórrígan also appears in Cath Maige Tuireadh (the Battle of Mag Tuired). She keeps a tryst with the Dagda before the battle against the Fomorians. When he meets her she is washing herself, standing with one foot on either side of a river. After they have sex, the Morrígan promises to summon the magicians of Ireland to cast spells on behalf of the Tuatha Dé, and to destroy Indech, the Fomorian king, taking from him "the blood of his heart and the kidneys of his valour". Later, we are told, she would bring two handfuls of his blood and deposit them in the same river (however, we are also told later in the text that Indech was killed by Ogma).

As battle is about to be joined, the Tuatha Dé leader, Lug, asks each what power they bring to the battle. The Mórrígan's reply is difficult to interpret, but involves pursuing, destroying and subduing. When she comes to the battlefield, she chants a poem, and immediately the battle breaks and the Fomorians are driven into the sea. After the battle, she chants another poem celebrating the victory and prophesying the end of the world.

In another story she lures away the bull of a woman called Odras, who follows her to the otherworld via the cave of Cruachan. When she falls asleep, the Mórrígan turns her into a pool of water.

Nature and functions

The Mórrígan is often considered a triple goddess, but her supposed triple nature is ambiguous and inconsistent. Sometimes she appears as one of three sisters, the daughters of Ernmas: the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha. Sometimes the trinity consists of the Badb, Macha and Nemain, collectively known as the Mórrígan, or in the plural as the Mórrígna. Occasionally Fea or Anu also appear in various combinations. However the Mórrígan also frequently appears alone, and her name is sometimes used interchangeably with the Badb, with no third "aspect" mentioned.

The Mórrígan is usually interpreted as a "war goddess": W.M. Hennessey's "The Ancient Irish Goddess of War," written in 1870, was influential in establishing this interpretation. Her role often involves premonitions of a particular warrior's violent death (suggesting a link with the Banshee of later folklore).

It has also been suggested (notably by Angelique Gulermovich Epstein in her thesis War Goddess: The Morrígan and Her Germano-Celtic Counterparts) that she was closely tied to Irish männerbund groups (described by Máire West in her article "Aspects of díberg in the tale Togail Bruidne Da Derga", Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie vol. 49-50, p. 950 as: "...bands of youthful warrior-hunters, living on the borders of civilized society and indulging in lawless activities for a time before inheriting property and taking their places as members of settled, landed communities,") and that these groups may have been in some way dedicated to her. If true, her worship may have resembled that of Perchta groups in Germanic areas.

However, Máire Herbert has argued that "war per se is not a primary aspect of the role of the goddess", and that her association with cattle suggests her role was connected to the earth, fertility and sovereignty; she suggests that her association with war is a result of a confusion between her and the Badb. She can be interpreted as providing political or military aid or protection to the King - acting as a Goddess of Sovereignty, not necessarily a war goddess.

The Fulacht na Mór Ríoghna, the hearth or cooking pit of the Mórrígan, in County Tipperary suggests an association with the home or possibly with hunting. The Dá Chich na Morrigna or two paps of the Mórrígan, a pair of hills in County Meath, suggest a role as an earth goddess, comparable to Danu/Anu, who has her own paps in County Kerry.

The bean sidhe, or Banshee

From Wikipedia: The banshee is a creature in Irish mythology, the word being derived from the Old Irish ben síde, modern Irish bean sídhe or bean sí, "fairy woman" (bean, woman, and sidhe, being the tuiseal ginideach or possessive case of "fairy"). They are remnants of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Long ago, when a citizen of an Irish village died, a woman would sing a traditional lament, or modern Irish caoineadh (pronounced 'kweenah'), at his funeral. These women singers are sometimes referred to as 'keeners'. Traditionally, some great Irish families had a fairy woman associated with them, who would make an appearance after a death in the family to sing this lament. Tales recount how, when the family member had died far away, then the appearance, or, in some tales, the sound of the fairy keener, might be the first intimation of the death.

When these stories were first translated into English, a distinction between the 'banshee' and other fairy folk was introduced which does not seem to exist in the original stories in modern Irish. Similarly, the funeral lament became a mournful cry or wail by which the death is heralded. In these tales, hearing the banshee's wail came to predict a death in the family and seeing the banshee portends one's own death.

Banshees are frequently dressed in white and often have long, fair hair which they brush with a silver comb, a detail scholar Patricia Lysaght attributes to confusion with local mermaid myths. Other stories portray them as dressed in green or black with a grey cloak.

Banshees were common in Irish and Scottish folk stories such as those written down by Herminie T Kavanagh. They enjoy the same mythical status in Ireland as fairies and leprechauns.

"The bean-sidhe (woman of the fairy) may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death.

"According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list. Whatever her origins, the banshee chiefly appears in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, namely Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain. She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman). Although not always seen, her mourning call is heard, usually at night when someone is about to die. 

"In 1437, King James I of Scotland was approached by an Irish seeress or banshee who foretold his murder at the instigation of the Earl of Atholl. This is an example of the banshee in human form.There are records of several human banshees or prophetesses attending the great houses of Ireland and the courts of local Irish kings. In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as the bean chaointe (keening woman) whose wail can be so piercing that it shatters glass."   Source

Source: Wikipedia    War Goddess: the Morrígan and her Germano-Celtic Counterparts (WinZip)

See also Sheela-na-gig in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

What is the Goddess Calendar?    More    More

From 1752 until recent years, Lord Mayor's Day, London, UK

"Originally the Lord Mayor of London was elected on the feast of St Simon and St Jude (28 October), and although the election day was altered, admittance to office continued to take place on that day until 1751. From 1752, owing to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, Lord Mayor's Day became 9 November. In recent years the Lord Mayor has been sworn in at Guildhall on the second Friday [now Saturday] in November, being presented to the Lord Chief Justice on the following day ..."
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

What we would today call parades, but in former days were known as moving pageants, passed down London's streets on this day. The spectacle included floats, such as fishing boats, dolphins, and representations of the 'King of the Moors', attended by six tributary kings on horseback. One float regularly contained a bower adorned with the names and arms of all members of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. There were mermen and mermaids; angels; kings; leopards; giants (on stilts), and characters from classical mythology. Puritanism put a temporary end to the pageantry, as did the onset of war.

In 1655, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Dethick, attempted a restoration of the old shows, by introducing an armed Virgin Mary on horseback. With the Restoration of monarchy, the pomp returned, with King Charles II himself attending, but unfortunately the Plague and the Great Fire interrupted, and the last great show was in 1702.

In the 19^th Century some attempts were made at restoring the pageant. In 1837, two colossal giants (the Guildhall Giants, Gog and Magog, pictured at head of page) were taken in procession; in fact, these giants were part of the pageant since the days of King Henry V (1387 - 1422).

Gog and Magog are the respective names of a mysterious Biblical land, and its people, who feature in apocalyptic prophecy. They appear in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation. One will also find them mentioned in the Qur'an as Yecuc-Mecuc (Yajooj-Majooj). They are also giants who appear in English folklore.

From Wikipedia: "The Lord Mayor's account of Gog and Magog says that the Roman Emperor Diocletian had thirty-three wicked daughters. He found thirty three husbands for them to curb their wicked ways; they chafed at this, and under the leadership of the eldest sister, Alba, they murdered them. For this crime, they were set adrift at sea; they were washed ashore on a windswept island, which after Alba was called Albion. Here they coupled with demons, and gave birth to a race of giants, among whose descendants were Gog and Magog.

"According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gogmagog was a giant who was slain by the eponymous Cornish hero Corin or Corineus. The tale figures in the body of unlikely lore that has Britain settled by "Brutus" and other fleeing heroes from the Trojan War. Corineus is supposed to have slain the giant by throwing him into the sea near Plymouth."

By folklorist Chambers's day (late-19^th Century), it was still a small procession, but the banquet following was the main event, with all the cabinet ministers invited. The after-dinner speeches were generally the occasion for party political policy statements.

The Lord Mayor's procession still takes place in London, led by the giants Gog and Magog as in earlier days.

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

Of Gog and Magog, Who Are Imprisoned in the North

Feast day of St Agrippinus

Feast day of St Alexander

Feast day of St Benignus (Binen), bishop

Feast day of the Dedication of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano
(Memorial feast day of the Roman Catholic Church; Glaucus aletris, Veltheimia glauca, is today's plant, dedicated to St John Lateran's.)
St John Lateran (Italian San Giovanni in Laterano) is the oldest, and ranks first among the great patriarchal basilicas of Rome. Many are unaware that it, not St Peter's Basilica, is the cathedral of Rome and the seat of the Pope as bishop of Rome: its official name is the Archbasilica of the Holy Saviour.

Feast day of St George Napper

Feast day of St Helen of Hungary

Feast day of St Mathurin, priest and confessor

Feast day of St Orestes

Feast day of St Pabo

Feast day of St Theodore Stratelates (Theodore the General; Theodore Tyro; Theodore the Recruit; Theodore Tiro), martyr

Feast day of St Ursinus

Feast day of St Vitonus (Vanne), Bishop of Verdun, confessor

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

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

Loy Krathong, Thailand
"Feast of Lights to appease the water spirits, dedicated to Mae Kongkha, Goddess of Rivers."
Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Snakes and Ladders, Mirano, Italy
"The town of Mirano holds its annual human-scale Snakes and Ladders game on the main square, except that the snakes in Italy and France are in fact geese... The whole province shows up to watch the six teams representing the six neighbourhoods of the town fight it out in traditional costumes, climbing up ladders, jumping over geese, through the 63 squares and over multiple obstacles.

"The Gioco dell'Oca appeared for the first time in Italy during the Medici period (around 1580), but the oldest board game found dates back to 1640 and was made in Venice."   Source

Independence Day, Cambodia (1953)

The British neo-Nazi "November 9^th Society" takes its name from the Munich Beer Hall Putsch on this day.

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

1414 Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg (d. 1486)

1522 Martin Chemnitz (d. 1586), theologian

1731 Benjamin Banneker, American scientist

More

1801 Robert Dale Owen, Scottish-born American social reformer and politician. Son of the English reformer Robert Owen, he was steeped in his father's utopian socialist philosophy while growing up at the radical industrial community of New Lanark in Scotland.

Owen taught at the school at the Indiana, USA, New Harmony community founded by his father, and published the journal, New Harmony Gazette and worked closely with the feminist, Fanny Wright. Together they advocated socialism, the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, free secular education, birth control, and changes in the marriage and divorce laws.

"In 1853 Owen was appointed as charge d'affaires at Naples and two years later became the minister to Italy. On his return to the United States in 1858 he became an outspoken opponent of slavery. During the American Civil War Owen urged Abraham Lincoln to force the South to emancipate the slaves. He wrote two books on the subject, The Policy of Emancipation (1863) and The Wrong of Slavery (1864)."   Source  

 

1802 Elijah P Lovejoy (murdered November 7, 1837), American abolitionist

1818 Ivan Turgenev (Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev; d. 1883), Russian writer (Fathers and Sons; A Month in the Country)

1825 AP Hill (d. 1865), American Confederate general

1831 Henry Labouchere (d. January 15, 1912), prominent British politician and writer/publisher in the late-19^th Century. During the break in his Parliamentary career, Labouchere gained renown as a journalist, editor, and publisher. His style, wit, and fearlessness gained a large audience for first his reporting, and later his personal weekly journal, Truth (started in 1876). The fame and name of this journal inspired one of the same name, a famous, scurrilous periodical in Sydney, Australia.

1841 King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (d. 1910)

1869 Marie Dressler (d. 1934), actress

1877 Enrico De Nicola, Italian politician

1877 Allama Iqbal (d. 1938), philosopher-poet

1879 Milan Sufflay (d. 1931), Croatian politician

1880 Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (d. 1960), architect

1881 Dr Herbert Kalmus, American inventor of Technicolor

1883 Edna May Oliver (d. 1942), actress

1885 Velimir Chlebnikov (d. 1922), writer

1885 Hermann Weyl (d. 1955), mathematician

1886 Ed Wynn (d. 1966), American actor

1889 Jean Monnet (d. 1979), internationalist

1892 Mabel Normand (d. 1930), silent film actress

1902 Anthony Asquith (d. 1968), British film director and producer (The Millionairess; The Yellow Rolls-Royce)

1915 Sargent Shriver, former candidate for Vice President of the United States, brother-in-law of John F Kennedy

1913 Hedy (that's Hedy, not Hedley) Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Kiesler; d. 2000), Austrian-born American actress (White Cargo; Samson and Delilah); she turned down the lead roles in both Gaslight and Casablanca

1918 Spiro Agnew (d. 1996), disgraced Vice President of the United States

1923 Dorothy Dandridge (d. 1965), American actress

1928 Anne Sexton (d. 1974), poet

1929 Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer

1934 Ingvar Carlsson, Swedish politician

1934 Carl Sagan (d. 1996), American astronomer, writer (The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark)

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1934 Ronald Harwood, South African-born playwright (The Dresser) and screenwriter (Oliver Twist, 2005)

1939 Ulrich Schamoni, German film director

1941 Tom Fogerty, musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

1952 Lou Ferrigno, American actor (The Incredible Hulk)

1959 Edward Porter Felt, American engineer

1959 Thomas Quasthoff, German bass-baritone

1959 Tony Slattery, British actor/comedian

1961 Jill Dando (d. 1999), British television presenter

1964 Robert Duncan McNeill, actor (Star Trek: Voyager)

1978 Sisqo, rap music singer

1984 Delta Goodrem, Australian singer, songwriter, actress

 

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November

6 Saxophone Day
7 Hug A Bear Day
7 Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day
7 Republican Elephant Day (USA)
8 I Hate To Cook Day
8 Abet And Aid Punsters Day
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10 Toothpaste Day
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11 Veterans Day (USA)
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12 The Birth Of Baha'ullah
13 World Kindness Day
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694 Spanish King Egica accused Jews of aiding Moslems, and sentenced them to slavery.

1282 Pope Martin IV excommunicated King Peter III of Aragon.

1492 Peace of Etaples between Henry VII and Charles VIII.

1494 The Family de' Medici became rulers of Florence.

1520 Swedish King Christian II executed 600 nobles.

1541 Queen Catherine Howard was confined in the Tower of London.

1729 Spain, France and England signed the Treaty of Seville.

1794 The Russians entered Warsaw, ending a Polish rebellion.

1799 France's Coup of 18 Brumaire. Thirty-year-old Corsican General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory in France and established the Consulate, ending the power of the revolutionary oligarchy. It is still known as the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, its date in the calendar of the French Revolution.

1813 The victorious allies offered Napoleon peace terms at Frankfurt.

1813 USA: Andrew Jackson (later 7^th President of the USA) destroyed the American Native village of Talladega, killing more than 500.

"The action now became general along the whole line, while the Indians, who had at first fought courageously, were now seen flying in all directions. But owing to the halt of Bradley's regiment, and the cavalry under Alcorn having taken too wide a circuit, many escaped to the mountains. A general charge was made, and the wood for miles was covered with dead savages. Their loss was very great, and could not be ascertained. However, two hundred and ninety-nine bodies were counted on the main field. Fifteen Americans were killed and eighty-five wounded."  Albert James Pickett: History of Alabama. Entered according to the act of Congress, by Albert James Pickett, on 27th January, 1851, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama."   Source

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1851 USA: Kentucky marshals abducted abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and took him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape.

1862 American Civil War: Union General Ambrose Burnside assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, following General George McClellan's removal.

1872 USA: Great Boston Fire of 1872.

1875 USA: The Indian Bureau reported that Plains Indians outside reservations were "well-fed ... lofty and independent in their attitudes, and are a threat to the reservation system."

Maybe we should not have humored them when they asked to live on reservations. Maybe we should have said, No, come join us. Be citizens along with the rest of us.
Acting USA President Ronald Reagan during a trip to Moscow, when a student asked about US treatment of Native Americans

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1887 The United States received rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1888 Mary Jane Kelly, a 25 year old London sex worker, fell victim to Jack the Ripper. Mary's face had been mutilated; her breasts had been removed and she had been disembowelled. Her various internal organs were scattered about.  

One of the suspects in the jack the Ripper case was Frederick Deeming, 'The Demon  Murderer', an Australian serial murderer who was in London at the time.

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper – Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell

A different view from Cornwell's    More    Shop Jack the Ripperiana

 

1906 Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside of the United States when he left to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal.

1908 The first woman mayor in the UK, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, was elected in Aldeburgh.

1909 The Times of London reported failure of the Gandhi-South African Government negotiations on the Transvaal laws.

1913 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, was arrested at Teakworth, taken to Balfour.

1914 HMAS Sydney disabled the German light cruiser SMS Emden off the Cocos Islands in Australia's first naval battle.

1918 Germany was proclaimed a Republic. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and chose to live in exile in the Netherlands as a result of the German Revolution.

1918 Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declared Bavaria a republic.

1922 The SS (Schutzstaffel) was formed in Germany.

1923 Beer Hall Putsch failed: In Munich, policeman and troops crushed the first Nazi Party attempt to seize control of the German government.

1932 Riots between conservative and socialist supporters in Switzerland – 12 dead, 60 injured.

1938 Kristallnacht (Crystal Night – from the image of shattered glass; The term Kristallnacht is a widely used euphemism for Reichspogromnacht): Nazi thugs went on the rampage in Nazi Germany, looting 7,000 shops and burning 267 synagogues. Thirty-six people were killed in the night of terror against Jews, ostensibly in retaliation for the killing in Paris of a German diplomat by a young Polish Jew.

1953 Cambodia became independent from France.

1953 Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died, age 39, following a six-day coma brought on by drinking 18 straight whiskeys in a New York tavern. At the funeral parlour, a friend looking down at the body with its rouged face and garish suit, carnation in buttonhole, said: "He would never have been seen dead in it".

Thomas's body was sent back to Laugharne, Wales, where his grave is marked by a simple wooden cross.

'Clown in the Moon'

By Dylan Thomas 

My tears are like the quiet drift
Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.

1961 UK: Brian Epstein went to The Cavern in Liverpool for the first time and saw The Beatles, whom he later was to manage.

1965 Northeast Blackout of 1965: Several US states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13½ hours.

1965 Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in protest against the Vietnam War.

 

1966 Paul McCartney died. At least, that was what the worldwide 'Paul is dead' rumour of 1969 alleged.

The 'Paul is dead' rumour started with a series of events in the 1960s that led many fans of The Beatles to believe that McCartney was actually dead and had been replaced with a look-alike.

From Wikipedia: The rumour began in earnest on October 12, 1969, when someone identifying himself as "Tom" (Zarski) called Russ Gibb, a radio DJ on WKNR-FM in Detroit, Michigan, and announced that McCartney was dead. Fred Labour, a junior at the University of Michigan, published a review of Abbey Road called 'McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light', itemizing various 'clues' of McCartney's death on Beatles album covers, in the October 14, 1969 issue of the Michigan Daily. (Adding to the mystery, Terry Knight, a former Detroit DJ and then singer on Capitol Records released a cryptic, portentous song, 'Saint Paul', shortly after his alleged meeting with McCartney in London.) Soon, national and international media picked up on the story and a new 'Beatle craze' took off.

The rumour eventually became a full-fledged conspiracy theory as members of the media and Beatles fans searched album artwork and song lyrics for clues to the cover-up and McCartney's supposed death. Believers eventually decided that McCartney had died in a car accident that happened at 5 a.m. on a Wednesday morning (the time and day, mentioned in the song "She's Leaving Home"), and that "he hadn't noticed that the lights had changed" ('A Day in the Life') because he was busy watching the pretty girl on the sidewalk ('Lovely Rita') after narrowly missing her (dressed in blue) jaywalking ('Blue Jay Way'). According to believers, McCartney had been replaced with the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest. The name of this look-alike has been recorded as both William Campbell and William Shears. Though it has been denied by all four members numerous times, many fans are convinced that the rumor was a hoax perpetrated deliberately by the Beatles as a joke. The rumour and its history have been exhaustively examined in the book Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the "Paul-Is-Dead" Hoax by Andru J. Reeve, the latest edition published in October 2004.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    Wikipedia's big list of clues    More

1967 Apollo program: NASA launched the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft from Cape Kennedy.

1967 The first issue of the rock-oriented magazine, Rolling Stone, which included a free roach clip, was published in San Francisco.

1969 USA: Seventy-eight Native Americans landed on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay to "hold the rock", which they occupied for six months. It is the site of an abandoned military base and famous prison.

To draw attention to the government's systemic disregard for all previous Amerindian treaties, they demanded recognition of the 1868 Sioux treaty that allowed Amerindians to reclaim land that had been taken for government use and later abandoned.

The occupiers comprised members of the Tlingit, Iroquois, Blackfoot, Chippewa and Navajo nations.

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1970 Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States decided not to hear a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.

1979 USA: A computer error caused a six-minute 'nuclear war alert'. A US Air Defense Command computer reported that Russia was attacking.

1982 The Young Ones (English comedy show) made its debut on TV.

1985 Toasting Princess Diana on her first visit to America, Acting President Reagan referred to her as "Princess David". Better yet, observed a BBC correspondent,

"President Reagan greeted the Prince and Princess wearing a plaid jacket that was remarkably similar to the carpet at Balmoral Castle".

1986 Israel admitted that it had arrested – many said kidnapped – Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israel Atomic Energy Commission worker who leaked to the Sunday Times information about his country's secret nuclear weapons program.

Vanunu was held in solitary confinement for much of his 18 years imprisonment, and was released on April 21, 2004. (Upon release Vanunu claimed his abduction on September 30, 1986 was by the CIA rather than Israel's notorious Mossad secret agency.)

Vanunu has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. He was the recipient of the 1987 Right Livelihood Award "... for his courage and self-sacrifice in revealing the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons programme".

"Israel is believed to possess the largest and most sophisticated arsenal outside of the five declared nuclear powers. Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons, but abundant information is available showing that the capability exists."
Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program

How Vanunu revealed Israel's nuclear weapons secret    Charges Served Against Vanunu

Search for Vanunu articles    Interview (during Vununu's house arrest in 2007)

Israel 'may have 200 nuclear weapons'    The US Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu

 

1988 The Pentagon revealed its new stealth bomber, the Lockheed F-117A.

1989 Cold War: A rumour spread around West Berlin that the Berlin Wall was coming down. Although no official orders had been given, and one knows how the demolition began, the Wall did in fact fall. All that is known is that it fell in response to non-violent action. Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Wall, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time in decades.

"We walked through the border. On both sides the guard towers were empty and the barbed wire was shoved aside in great piles. Large signs told us that we needed sets of car documents. The East German guard asked if we had documents. I handed him my Danish cat's vaccination documents, in Danish. He waved us through."    Source

1993 Stari Most, the 1566-constructed 'old bridge' in Bosnian Mostar collapsed after several days of bombing.  

More

1998 In the largest civil settlement in United States history, a federal judge approved a US$1.03 billion settlement requiring dozens of brokerage houses to pay investors cheated in a price-fixing scheme on the NASDAQ.

2000 USA: Ballots were reviewed in Florida after Bore lost to Gush by a margin of 666 votes.

2002 USA: Television and film actor Merlin Santana was shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of a friend's car.

2003 A total lunar eclipse was seen in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Central Asia.

2003 A suicide-terrorist attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 17 people, during the holy month of Ramadan.

2004 Mozilla Foundation launched Version 1.0 of its flagship browser, Mozilla Firefox.

2006 The US Army announced that First Lieutenant Ehren Watada would face a court martial. In June 2006, Lt Watada had refused to deploy to Iraq for his unit's assigned rotation to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Watada said he believed the war to be illegal and that, under the doctrine of command responsibility, it would make him party to war crimes. On February 5, 2007, Watada's court martial began with him entering a plea of not guilty to all of the specifications against him.

Myths of the 'War on Terrorism' and Iraq    Lt Ehren Watada on Citizen Responsibility (YouTube)

2346 According to one source, apparently no longer on the Net, Romulans will commit an atrocity now known as the Khitomer Massacre, slaughtering more than 4,000 Klingons in an agricultural colony. Worf and Kahlest will be the only two to survive.

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Tomorrow: Martin Luther's poltergeist

 

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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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