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14


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I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighbouring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority.
Horace Walpole, British writer, in a letter, on October 14, 1787

When I was but a little child, I had already a strong desire to see the world. Whenever I met a travelling-carriage, I would stop involuntarily, and gaze after it until it had disappeared ...
Ida Pfeiffer, Austrian adventuress, born on October 14, 1797; from A Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North


The missionary is the representative of a society, a polity, a social system, a religion and a code of morality which are totally different from our own. He comes as a belligerent and attacks our time-honoured customs and institutions, our sacred literature, and traditions, our historical memories and associations. He wishes to give us a new name, a new place of worship, a new set of social laws. He has declared war to the knife against everything Hindu. He hates all that we hold dear. Our religion is to him a foolish superstition; our customs are the relic of barbarism; our forefathers are to him black heathens condemned to burn in the fires of hell for ever. He wishes to destroy our society, history, and civilization.
Lala Har Dayal, Indian revolutionary, born on October 14, 1884   Source

I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.
Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand author, born on October 14, 1888

 Ida Pfeiffer

Ida Pfeiffer

As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
Dr Martin Luther King, who received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 14, 1964. Excerpted from 'The Most Durable Power', a sermon delivered on November 6, 1956 in Montgomery, Ala, USA

I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this is at the very center of Jesus' thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe.
Dr Martin Luther King, October 14, 1964. Excerpted from 'Loving Your Enemies', a sermon delivered on November 17, 1957 at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, USA

That was a great game of golf, fellas.
Last words of Bing Crosby, American actor and singer, who died on a Spanish golf course on October 14, 1977   Source

A conference on peace is tantamount to a conference on one of the basic necessities of life. In fact one could say that peace is life itself because a life without peace is hardly a life worth living. But by peace I do not mean a life of passivity, I do not mean a life without action because sometimes we have to act a lot to bring about peace. What do we mean actually by peace? I suppose basically we mean a sense of inner security that will give us the strength to work for others and for the community, to work for progress and development. Without a sense of inner security we cannot work for progress.
Aung San Suu Kyi,
who received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 14, 1991; speech, May 12, 1999

 

 

 

October 14 is the 287th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (288th in leap years), with 78 days remaining.
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Vinternatsblót/Haustblót/Winter's Day, Norse (Viking/Ásatrú)

In Norse mythology and Ásatrú, a blót is a sacred meal shared with the gods. Vinternatsblót, Vinternatsblot or Haustblót, is to bid Winter welcome. Today marks the beginning of the Winter season in the old European calendar and is a harvest/Autumn ceremony, along the lines of Michaelmas, the feast day of St Michael (September 29).

"Long distance sailing and other Summer activities also stopped on this day, as preparations for the Winter took priority" (Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, 117).

 

"Haustblót (Autumn Blot), called by some Álfablót or Dísablót (Elf-Blot or Nymph-Blot) a harvest feast with great merrymaking by the common people. At the advent of Christianity this seems to have been transferred to the feast of the Archangel Michael which now seems to precede [sic] over the Temples and Sacred Places of Njörd, the powerful God that returns to his Nether World (air and water)."   Source

"The images of the gods were placed in a half-circle in the shrine. At the center stood the altar (stallr), upon which lay a large gold ring (baugr), upon which all solemn oaths were sworn. The bowl containing the blood of the sacrificed animals (hlautbolli) was placed on the altar by the priest (goði), who, with a stick (hlautteinn), sprinkled it on the images of the gods, and on the persons present. The meat of the animals was boiled, and served to the assembled people in the large hall of the temple, where toasts were drunk to the gods for victory and good harvests. The sanctuary and the grounds belonging to it was called , a holy or sacred place, and any one who violated its sanctity was called varg i véum (wolf in the sanctuary), and was outlawed. Three religious festivals were held each year: one at the beginning of winter (October 14), the vinternatsblót, or haustblót, to bid winter welcome; another at midwinter (January 14), midvintersblót, for peace and good harvest; and a third, sommerblót, held on the first day of summer (April 14), for victory on military expeditions.

"The temples seem to have been quite numerous, but especially well known were the ones at Sigtuna and Upsala in Sweden, at Leire (Hleidra) in Denmark, and at Skiringssal in Norway."
Gjerset, Knut, PhD, History Of The Norwegian People, p. 105   Source

Harvest-home in the Book of Days

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CeelictFeast day of St Ceelict (Callistus I; St Calixtus), pope and martyr

(Indian fleabane, Inula indica, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Patron of cemetery workers. Commemorated on the same day as Battle of Hastings Day (see below, 1066). Browne Willis tells us there was once a tablet in the parish church at Battle, a town in East Sussex, England, with these words:

This place of war is Battle called, because in battle here
Quite conquered and o'erthrown the English nation were.
This slaughter happened to them upon St Ceelict's day.

"Born a slave, owned by Carpophorus, a Christian of the household of Caesar. His master entrusted a large sum to Callistus to open a bank, which took in several deposits, made several loans to people who refused to pay them back, and went broke. Knowing he would be personally blamed and punished, Callistus fled, but was caught and returned to his owner. Several depositors begged for his life, believing he had not lost the money, but had stolen and hid it. They were wrong; he wasn't a thief, just a victim, but he was sent to the tin mines. By a quirk of Roman law, the ownership of Callistus was transferred from Carpophorus to the state, and when he was later ransomed out with a number of other Christians, he became a free man. Pope Saint Zephyrinus put Callistus in charge of the Roman public burial grounds, today still called the Cemetery of Saint Callistus. Archdeacon. 16th Pope. Most of what we know about him has come down to us from his critics, including an anti-Pope of the day."   Source 

 

Apaturia, ancient Greece (Oct 14 - 16)
Meeting of the clans; festival of family reunion.
Source: The
Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Feast day of St Angadrisma

Feast day of St Burchard (Birckard; Burkard), first bishop of Wurtzburg

Feast day of St Donatian, Bishop of Rheims and patron of Brussels

Feast day of St Gaudentius of Rimini

Feast day of St Petca Paraskeva
Petca dressed poor people in her expensive clothes, which led to her patronage of people involved in spinning and needlework.

Shop Saints

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Ram Mating Ceremony, Anatolia, Turkey (Oct 1 - 20)

 

Doburoku (unrefined sake) Festival, Shirakawago, Gifu Prefecture, Japan (Oct 14 -19)

Doburoku is a harvest festival in which visitors to the shrines in the area are treated to the local doboroku, a milky-white and slightly sweet home-brewed sake. Doburoku is created by adding steamed rice at the end of fermentation, starting a second fermentation and raising the alcohol level.

"In the Battle of Dannoura during the late Heian period (1185), the Heike army was overcome by Minamoto and his clan. The defeated general Heike went on to establish a settlement that became known as Shirakawa Village. The residents of Shirakawa were highly refined folk, resulting in a culture and lifestyle highly unique to the area. One defining characteristic of their lifestyle was the effort made to avoid contact with surrounding regions.

"Consequently, these people placed much emphasis on the enjoyment that could be had drinking sake. It is uncertain as to the time when people began to make 'doburoku', the local sake of the region. However as time passed, it was used without fail in festivals to honor and pay gratitude to the mountain gods, a tradition that has survived until this day.

"'Doburoku'is another word for 'unrefined sake', since it not filtered like standard brews. Despite originally being made of barnyard grass or millet, doburoku now employs rice as its standard ingredient and is brewed in shrine distilleries during the heavy snow of January. During September and October every year, the Doburoku Matsuri is held at 5 shrines throughout the Shirakawa area, attracting large numbers of residents and tourists alike.

"Since in this case sake is customarily drunk when paying homage to gods, visitors are only permitted to drink within the shrine and its precincts. A special brew of sake is prepared for this occasion, the ingredients and brewing process of which remain a tightly kept secret. For 300 yen, a visitor can purchase a sake cup and enjoy 'all-you-can-drink' sake at the Doburoku Matsuri. Side attractions also feature, taking place in the precincts of the shrine concerned. Though the session only lasts approximately 1 hour, it is more than enough time to take in the atmosphere of such an exciting event!"   Source

 

President's Day, Zaire

World Standards Day (from ISO, IEC, ITU)

World Organ Donation Day

Teachers' Day, or National Education Day, Poland

 

 

 

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

1257 King Przemysl II of Poland (d. 1296)

1493 Shimazu Tadayoshi (d. 1568), Japanese warlord

1499 Claude of France (d. 1524), wife of Louis XII of France

1574 Anne of Denmark (d. 1619), wife of James I of England and VI of Scotland

1630 Sophia of Hanover

1633 James II of England and VII of Scotland (d. September 16, 1701), whose subjects distrusted his religious policies and alleged despotism, leading a group of them to depose him in the Glorious Revolution

"From the time of James II up to the birth of Princess Margaret, at least one member of the government - and sometimes the entire Privy Council, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and other dignitaries - had to witness the birth of a royal child. This was to establish beyond doubt the maternity of the new heir."
Cawthorne, Nigel, The Sex Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, quoted in Reid, Stuart, "Royal Humbuggery", The Independent Monthly, April 1995, p. 27

1644 William Penn (d. 1718), English founder of the American Quaker colony of Pennsylvania

Ida Pfeiffer1797 Ida Pfeiffer (Ida Laura Pfeiffer; d. October 28, 1858), Viennese-born world traveller and author (A Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North; A Woman's Journey Around the World) who wrote 13 books from her seven journeys around the world, visiting such countries as Egypt, Iraq, Brazil, Iceland, Tahiti, China, Madagascar and India.

On her travels, Pfeiffer collected insects and reptiles; these and other souvenirs she sold back in Vienna, with which to finance further journeys. Her best-sellers were translated into seven languages and showed a dry humour.

On one of her journeys, the remarkable adventuress was attacked by cannibals, fending them off alone with an umbrella. Both she and an aggressor were wounded in the incident and after this experience she decided to carry a double pistol. She kept the broken-off handle of the umbrella as a trophy.

When she was in Madagascar, in May, 1857, when the island was embroiled in political turmoil, Pfeiffer became unwittingly involved in the troubles. Queen Ranavalona I punished her for this, sending Pfeiffer for 50 days through the dangerous swamplands of Madagascar up to the coast. To the queen's dismay, Pfeiffer survived, but on her return to Vienna she succumbed to fever and died in October, 1858, of 'Madagascar fever'.

Pictured below is the palace in Antananarivo, Madagascar, of which Pfeiffer wrote:

"... the building of their wooden palace in Antananarivo cost the life of 15,000 humans. Ringing the building 80-foot-tall (approx. 24 metres) columns rise, bearing a tent-like roof, whose peak is at 120 feet (approx. 40 meters). All these columns had to be brought here out from forests 60 miles away. Since the way was almost impassable, one must rank the building of this palace among the miracles of the world."

 

"She continued on to Baghdad in Mesopotamia (today's Iraq) where she joined a camel caravan for a 300-mile journey across the desert to the city of Mosul and then to Tabriz in northern Persia. The British consul stationed in Tabriz was amazed to see her. He didn't think it possible for a woman to travel alone in that part of the world without even knowing local languages."   Source  

"Ida inherited a considerable fortune from her father, and it was probably with the idea of her contracting a splendid alliance that she was thwarted in her present wishes. But though many other eligible suitors proffered themselves, she would listen to none of them, and the result was a sad series of domestic contentions. 'Worn out at last by importunity, she consented to receive the proposals of Dr. Pfeiffer, an advocate of considerable celebrity in Lemberg, but twenty four years older than herself, and a widower with a grown up son. He was a man of the highest honour and integrity, almost too much so, as would seem from his subsequent history; and though there was never any profound feeling of sympathy between him and his wife, he treated her throughout with the most uniform kindness and attention. But his resolute denunciation of abuses stirred him up many enemies, and he was obliged to resign his appointment of counsellor at Lemberg, and remove to Vienna, where from being looked on by the authorities with suspicion, as an enemy of existing institutions, the same star of ill fortune pursued him, and he was soon reduced to great straits. His generosity also was excessive, rendering him the dupe of numerous individuals, who borrowed large sums of money from him, including his wife's fortune, which was lent to a friend in pecuniary embarrassment, and entirely lost. The distress to which his family was subjected in consequence of these acts of improvidence is thus stated by Madame Pfeiffer.

Ida Pfeiffer"'Heaven only knows what I suffered during eighteen years of my married life not, indeed, from any ill treatment on my husband's part, but from poverty and want! I came of a wealthy family, and had been accustomed, from my earliest youth, to order and comfort; and now I frequently knew not where I should lay my head, or find a little money to buy the commonest necessaries. I performed household drudgery, and endured cold and hunger; I worked secretly for money, and gave lessons in drawing and music; and yet, in spite of all my exertions, there were many days when I could hardly put anything but dry bread before my poor children for their dinner. I might certainly have applied to my mother or my brothers for relief, but my pride revolted against such a course. For years I fought with poverty, and concealed my real position: often was I brought so near to despair, that the thought of my children alone prevented me from giving way. At last the urgency of my necessities quite broke my spirit, and I had recourse several times to my brothers for assistance.'

"Perseverance and self denial enabled Madame Pfeiffer to struggle through her difficulties, give her two sons a good education, and see them prosperously established in the world. She was now at liberty to indulge that darling wish of her heart, the desire of seeing strange countries, which had haunted her from girlhood, but which circumstances had hitherto prevented her from gratifying. The feeling may indeed be regarded as eccentric, which could prompt the mother of a family, at the age of forty five, and almost wholly inexperienced in travelling, to set forth on such an expedition. But she quitted no duties at home to embark on it, and as she had so bravely fulfilled these in the day of privation and trial, she may well be excused for following her own inclinations afterwards, when the doing so involved no dereliction of maternal or conjugal obligations. The funds which she possessed were by no means ample, but adversity had taught her economy, and her own nature was one that shrank not from hardship and privation. Her first journey was a visit to the Holy Land, which she accomplished in 1842, proceeding down the Danube to the Black Sea and Constantinople, thence to Syria and Palestine, and returning by way of Egypt, Sicily, and Italy." 
Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers's Book of Days)

Project Gutenberg Titles by Pfeiffer, Ida    Shop Ida Pfeiffer    More    And more

 

 

1857 Elwood Haynes, American inventor and automobile pioneer

1861 Artur Gavazzi (d. 1944), Croatian geographer

 

1879 Miles Franklin (Stella Martin Sara Miles Franklin; d. September 19, 1954), Australian best-selling author (My Brilliant Career), 'discovered' by Henry Lawson, who contributed a preface and took it to his own publishers in Edinburgh when he was in the UK.

Franklin was born at Talbingo, New South Wales and grew up in the Brindabella Valley. Shortly after the publication of My Brilliant Career, Franklin wrote a sequel, My Career Goes Bung, which would not be published until 1946.

In 1906, Franklin moved to the USA and undertook secretarial work for Alice Henry, another Australian, at the Women's Trade Union League in Chicago, and co-edited the league's magazine, Life and Labor.

In her will, she bequeathed her estate to establish an annual literary award known as the Miles Franklin Award. A revival of interest in Franklin occurred in the wake of the celebrated Australian New Wave film My Brilliant Career. In this 1979 film adaptation, Sybylla was played by Judy Davis and Harry by Sam Neill. The film was directed by Gillian Armstrong and produced by Margaret Fink. It won numerous awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Costume Design.

"However, Mr Brunton says Miles Franklin did not have a life without romance.

"'There were a great many romances – in Australia and America – she was in fact a flirt all her life and a most engaging one at that.' 

"Mr Brunton says at one stage Banjo Patterson even proposed.

"'She arranged for Henry Lawson to publish or help publish My Brilliant Career and on its publication AB Patterson fell rather smitten with Miles and it's believed he proposed marriage,' he said.

"'He certainly proposed a South Pacific cruise.

"'But she had other suitors in Australia, in America, many suitors in Chicago all of whom were either rich, very rich or disgustingly rich but she rejected all of these of course for a single life.'

"On publication of My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin became a celebrity, it was reviewed well by the critics and sold well but it was not what she wanted. 

"'First of all the title she wanted was My Brilliant? Career, which of course changes the whole tone of the novel,' Mr Brunton said.

"'Second of all Henry Lawson wrote a preface to the novel, in which he blew her cover, and told everyone she was a young bush girl when she said she wanted to be a "bald headed steer of the sterner sex". 

"'Of course she thought that if people thought she was a man the book would be reviewed better. 

"'Thirdly, because it was published in Britain they toned down her Australianisms, which she was very upset about, so it wasn't quite the book she had wanted published.'

"Despite critical acclaim for her novel Miles Franklin was only paid 25 pounds for her efforts."
Source

[I think it's likely my erudite friend Paul Brunton, Manuscripts Librarian at Sydney's Mitchell Library, was somewhat misquoted in this interview about a Miles Franklin exhibition he was curating at the National Library in Canberra in May, 2005. Paul would know that Miles didn't "arrange" for Henry Lawson to to "publish or help publish My Brilliant Career". The unknown teenage Franklin wrote to the famous Lawson and he replied from Chaplin Cottage, Charles St, North Sydney on December 29, 1899 (beginning "Mr M. Franklin, Dear sir ..." and an apology for his tardy reply, saying "Send your yarn and I'll read it and tell you what I think of it". Young Miss Franklin had obviously written to the great Lawson hoping he would read her novel and was in no position to arrange anything. Ensuing Lawson correspondence with Franklin, David Scott Mitchell and George Robertson shows Lawson's enthusiasm for the novel and his efforts to have it published, at a time that he himself was feeling the pangs of destitution. Follow the interesting correspondence in Colin Roderick, Henry Lawson Letters 1890-1922, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1970, pp 110 ff.]

"She struggled to get women the vote. Her son was Australia's most famous writer. They drove each other crazy." Novel about Henry and Louisa Lawson.

Works by Miles Franklin at Project Gutenberg    Miles Franklin: A Brilliant Career? (PDF file)

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson    AB 'Banjo' Paterson

A Miles Franklin chronology   PDF   View as HTML    More

 

1882 Eamon de Valera (d. 1975), American-born Irish patriot, Irish Republic prime minister and its first president

Lala Har Dayal 1884 Lala Har Dayal (Hardayal; Hardyal; d. March 4, 1939), Indian revolutionary and scholar dedicated to the removal of British influence in India. Har Dayal graduated from the Government College, Lahore (University of the Punjab). On a government of India scholarship to St. John's College at Oxford, he became a supporter of the Indian revolutionary movement. In March, 1914, he was arrested by US immigration authorities for his undesirable activities. Released on bail, he fled to Switzerland and then to Berlin, where he tried to foment an anti-British rising in north-western India.

1888 Katherine Mansfield  (d. January 9, 1923), New Zealand-born author.

From Wikipedia: Born into a socially-prominent Wellington, New Zealand family, Beauchamp moved to London in 1902. A talented cellist, she was not at first attracted to literature, and after finishing her schooling in England, she returned to her New Zealand home in 1906. Weary of the provincial New Zealand lifestyle, Beauchamp returned to London two years later.

It was upon her return to London that Kathleen Beauchamp began writing short stories and entered London's cultural circles, where she met such contemporaries as DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. Her work drew the attention of several publishing houses, and Beauchamp took on the pen-name Katherine Mansfield upon the publication of her first collection of short stories, In a German Pension, in 1911.

Discouraged by the volume's lack of success, Mansfield met and moved in with her future husband, fellow writer John Middleton Murry. Though she continued writing between her first and second collections (Prelude, 1918), she rarely published her work, and sank into depression. Her health declined further when she contracted tuberculosis in 1917. It was while combating the disease in health spas across Europe, that Mansfield began writing the works for which she would become best known.

'Miss Brill', the bittersweet story of a fragile woman living in an ephemeral life of observation and simple pleasures in Paris, established Mansfield as one of the pre-eminent writers of the Modernist period, upon its publication in 1920's Bliss. The title story from that collection, 'Bliss', which involved a similar character facing her husband's infidelity, also found critical acclaim. She followed with the equally praised collection, The Garden Party, published in 1922.

Mansfield spent her last years at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, France, where she continued to write despite her failing health. After publishing an additional two volumes, one of poetry, and the other short stories, Mansfield succumbed to tuberculosis shortly after her thirty-fourth birthday. She was buried in a cemetery in the Fontainebleau District in the town of Avon.

 

1890 Dwight D Eisenhower (d. 1969), US General of the Army, 34th president of the United States, commander of the Allied invasion in World War II

1893 Lillian Gish (d. 1993), actress (The Birth of a Nation)

1894 ee cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings; d. 1962), American poet, famous not only for his skills as a poet, but for using neither capitals nor punctuation

mOOn Over tOwns mOOn
whisper
less creature huge grO
pingness¡@

whO perfectly whO
flOat
newly alOne is
dreamest¡@

oNLY THE MooN o
VER ToWNS
SLoWLY SPoUTING SPIR
IT

1904 Christian Pineau, French World War II resistance fighter

1906 Hannah Arendt, German political theorist

1906 Hassan al Banna, founder of Muslim Brotherhood movement.

1908 Allan Jones (d. 1992), actor, singer

1911 Le Duc Tho (d. 1990), Nobel Peace Prize recipient

1916 C Everett Koop, United States Surgeon General

1927 Roger Moore, British actor

1930 Joseph Mobutu (d. 1997), president of Zaire

1935 La Monte Young, American composer

1938 John W Dean III, former White House counsel, Watergate figure

1938 Empress Farah Diba of Iran

1939 Ralph Lauren, fashion designer

1940 Cliff Richard, British rock singer

1944 Udo Kier, actor

1946 Craig Venter, American biologist

1946 Justin Hayward, musician (The Moody Blues)

1946 Demond Wilson, actor (Sanford and Son)

1958 Thomas Dolby, rock musician

1965 Steve Coogan, English actor, impressionist, and comedian best known for his character Alan Partridge, an inept TV chat show host and disc jockey (Knowing Me, Knowing You ... with Alan Partridge; I'm Alan Partridge)

1969 David Strickland (d. 1999), American actor

1978 Usher Raymond, singer, actor

 

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Ramadan [ Sep 24 - Oct 23 ]Canadian Thanksgiving [ Oct 9]Boss's Day [ Oct 16 ]Sweetest Day [ Oct 21]

 

October

14 Honey Bee Day
14 World Egg Day
15 Sweetest Day
15 Grouch Day
15 Sewing Lovers Day
15 Mother's Day (Paraguay)

16 Bosses' Day
16 Dictionary Day
16 Oatmeal Day
17 Pasta Day
17 Black Poetry Day
17 Gaudy Day
18 Chocolate Cupcake Day
18 Watch A Squirrel Day
18 Alaska Day
18 Boost Your Brain Day
18 Long Distance Day
18 St Luke's Feast Day
19 Electricity Day
19 Change Your Life Day
19 Look Back On Your Life Day
20 Shampoo Day
21 Caramel Apple Day
21 Electric Light Day
21 Babbling Day
21 Can Can Day
22 Eat A Pretzel Day
22 Make A Difference Day
22 Used Car Day
23 Mole Day
23 Mothers-in-law Day

  ... More Events

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530 Antipope Dioscorus ended his reign as Catholic Pope.

1066 Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings – In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman invasion forces of William the Conqueror defeated the English army and killed King Harold II of England.

Halley's Comet was in the sky for two months while the English and Normans planned for the invasion (it first appeared on April 24 that year). The Normans were victorious and from that time on the comet was said to have been a sign that favoured William the Conqueror. 

In the Bayeux Tapestry (detail at right), which recorded some of the events, fear can be seen on Harold's face as he hears the news of the comet. Harold is seen in the tapestry detail at March 7 in the Book of Days, which looks at comets as portents.

The misidentification of Harold in the tapestry has led to the widespread but incorrect idea that Harold was killed by an arrow striking his eye.

 

1307 Following Philip the Fair's 'Black Friday' raids against the Knights Templar in France (see October 13), Guillaume de Nogaret read the Mandate of Maubuisson against the Templars to the leading members of the University of Paris.

1322 Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeated King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.

1495 A statute was enacted in England regulating the content of feather-bed stuffing.

1549 Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector of England was sent to the Tower.

1582 Due to the implementation of the Gregorian Calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1586 Mary, Queen of Scots went on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England.

1660 Death of Thomas Harrison, English soldier.

1665 "Captain Cocke and I in his coach through Kente Street, a sad place through the plague, people sitting sick and with plaisters about in the street begging". (Diary of Samuel Pepys)

1774 US Declaration of Rights and Grievances was passed by the First Continental Congress.

1791 The Society of United Irishmen was set up in Belfast as a lobby group for Catholics.

1812 Work commenced on London's Regent's Canal.

1834 Henry Blair became the second African American to obtain a US patent – for a corn planter. For a long time Blair was thought to be the first African American to receive a patent, but Thomas Jennings received a patent for his invention of the dry cleaning process in 1821. Blair is that he is the only person in the United States Patent Office records to be identified as a "colored man". No other inventor is identified by their race.

1854 Florence Nightingale offered her services to Britain's War Office.

1863 American Civil War: Battle of Bristol Station – Confederate General Robert E Lee's forces failed to drive the Union army out of Virginia.

1893 Cook Islands women voted in the New Zealand elections, becoming the first women in the world to vote in national elections. See September 19, 1893, NZ women gain the vote; December 21, 1894, South Australian women gained the vote.

A world chronology of women's electoral rights

1893 The Gaiety Girl, the first musical comedy, was performed in London.

1912 While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former American president Theodore Roosevelt was shot by saloonkeeper William Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivered his scheduled speech.

1913 An explosion in a South Wales colliery killed 439 miners, this being the worst mining disaster in British history.

1919 Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, and Dorothy Parker wore signs around their necks that revealed their salaries when forbidden by Vanity Fair to discuss their paltry pay.

1926 The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by AA Milne, was published for the first time.

1944 World War II: Given the choice between a public treason trial and a certain death by firing squad or suicide with honour (to avoid punishment for his part in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler), German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel apparently chose the latter.

1944 Athens was liberated.

1947 Chuck Yeager flew Glamorous Glennie, a Bell X-1 rocket-powered plane, faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.

1960 US presidential candidate John F Kennedy first suggested the idea for the Peace Corps.

1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis began: An American U-2 flight over Cuba took photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.

Cuban Missile Crisis multimedia at JFK Presidential Library and Museum    More

1962 At 2.30 pm, Lord Lichfield, fashion photographer and cousin to Queen Elizabeth II, began in photography. (Source: Interview on TV show Jane Seymour's Discovering Britain: A Grand Performance.)

1964 Leonid Brezhnev became general secretary of the CPSU and leader of the Soviet Union, ousting Nikita Khrushchev.

1964 American civil rights movement leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr (1929 - 1968), became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1966 The city of Montreal, Canada, inaugurated its metro system (see Montreal Metro).

1968 Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announced that the United States Army and United States Marines would be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.  

1968 Australia: At 10.59 am, Meckering, Western Australia, about 130 km east of Perth, was devastated by an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.

"Eleven days before the main earthquake, at 11.03 am on 3rd October 1968, Constable Skehan, the local policeman, was walking in the main street when, he reported, 'the ground seemed to turn to jelly' and he had difficulty keeping his feet. Further shaking at 11.18 am and 11.55 am confirmed the constable's opinion that a severe earth tremor had occurred."   Source

List of earthquakes  

1977 Bing Crosby (b. 1903), American actor and singer, died on a golf course outside Madrid following a successful tour of England.

1979 The first gay rights march in the United States took place in Washington, DC, involving many tens of thousands of people.

1981 Vice President Hosni Mubarak was elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

1987 Eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure ('Baby Jessica') fell down an abandoned well in Midland, Texas. Her nationally televised rescue took 58 hours, dominating rich-world media.

1991 The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945), the opposition leader in Burma who was under house arrest and unable to receive the prize in Stockholm.

Peace Prize Winner's Son Picks Up Nobel    Daw Aung San Suu Kyi    More links

1998 USA: Eric Robert Rudolph was charged with six bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.

2001 Delta Flight 458 from Atlanta to Newark, New Jersey, was diverted to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, and passengers are taken off the flight while officials investigate a report of two "Middle Eastern men" making threats in a foreign tongue. It turned out to be two Orthodox Jews who were praying peacefully.

 

Tomorrow: The day our calendar began

 

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fnord norton

Bayeux Tapestry Construction Kit 

(Make your own tapestry! Great fun; requires Flash)


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