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I was born on 21st October 1788, a day subsequently rendered memorable by being that on which the victory of Trafalgar was gained. My mother used to observe jocularly that my advent to the world prevented her from attending the public celebration of the centenary of the "Glorious Eevolu-tion" of 1688, which took place early in the November following the date of my birth. Whether the themes of liberty, which she would be hearing and reading about as that time approached, had any effect in modifying the cerebral organism of her babe, I do not know; but certain it is that she then gave birth to a child whose ruling passion through life was to act the part of a reformer.
George Combe, Scottish phrenologist, born on October 21, 1788

When yet a child I was animated by the strongest ambition to do some great and good service to my fellowmen, which should render me an object of their love and respect. I conjured up schemes in my imagination for the gratification of the desire until I wept in contemplating them ... I owe to Phrenology, presented to me by mere accident, a field in which it has been possible for me to pursue this object ...
George Combe

England expects that every man will do his duty.
Signal hoisted on Lord Nelson's flagship Victory prior to the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805

I thank God I have done my duty. Kiss me, Hardy.
Lord Nelson, to Captain Thomas Hardy, as Nelson lay dying on the deck of the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar

Conceive a poor miserable wretch, who for many years has been attempting to beat off pain by a constant return to the vice that reproduces it.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and opium-eater, born October 21, 1772; in a letter to Cottle, the Bristol bookseller

I have heard Coleridge talk, with eager musical energy, two stricken hours, his face radiant and moist, and communicate no meaning whatsoever to any individual of his hearers.
Thomas Carlyle, on Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Beneath this sod
A Poet lies; or that which once was he.
O lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.
That he, who many a year with toil of breath,
Found Death in Life, may here find Life in Death.
Coleridge's self-written epitaph

Death of Nelson, by James Gilray

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

2006 Witches' Cal

2006 Daily Planetary Guide

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry

Lempriere's Dictionary

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM

The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Life in a Medieval Village

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The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe

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

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Live with Passion!
Anthony Robbins


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Poor Richard's Almanack
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Mother Earth Spirituality

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The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

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Feast day of Blessed Karl I of Austria

Pope John Paul II prepares Austrian emperor for sainthood

"The last emperor of Austria, Karl I, will be beatified by the Pope tomorrow amid fierce political and religious argument over how saintly he really was.

"While Austrian monarchists are delighted to see the first member of the defunct Habsburg dynasty set on the path to sainthood, critics claim that Karl I was an alcoholic adulterer who advocated the use of poison gas in the First World War.

"But the Vatican insists that he performed a miracle – the requirement for beatification. In 1960 a Polish nun based in Brazil was cured of severe leg sores and varicose veins after praying to him [What more proof do these skeptics want?! – PW]."
Source: Telegraph UK

"So why has the Pope beatified a man who seems to have done so little to have deserved it and so much – 10,000 dead, gassed Italians – to disqualify him? Is it, perhaps, because Karl was once titular Grand Duke of Kraków, and His Holiness was once Archbishop and Grand Metropolitan of the same city? Or is it simply because the time has finally come for the grand old man to retire?"   Source

Austria's last emperor was a saint, some say; others disagree

Feast day of St Charles of Austria

Feast day of St Finian Munnu, abbot, in Ireland

Feast day of St Gaspare of Bufalo

Feast day of St Gebizo

Feast day of St Gundisalvus of Lagos

Feast day of St Hilarion, abbot and anchorite

St Hilarion was an anchorite (hermit) who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Saint Anthony the Great (Anthony of Egypt). Hilarion was born in Thabatha, south of Gaza in Palestine of pagan parents. 

Hilarius went to the area southwest of Majoma, the port of Gaza, that was limited by the sea at one and marshland at the other side. It was the abode of robbers. With him he took only a shirt of coarse linen, a cloak of skins given to him by St Anthony and a coarse blanket. He led a nomadic life, subsisting only on dried figs, eaten after sunset.

After he was beset by carnal thoughts, he reduced his diet to the juice of herbs and less figs. Cold showers not being available, he took to praying, singing, the hoeing of the soil and the production of baskets made from rushes. Although he was quite starved, "so wasted that his bones scarcely held together" (St Jerome) he still had visions of naked women, voluptuous meals, chariots and gladiatorial contests. Often he heard voices, of infants or of domestic animals, which he identified as demons.

He finally built a hut of reeds and sedges, in which he lived for four years. Afterwards, he constructed a tiny low ceilinged cell, "a tomb rather than a house", where he slept on a bed of rushes, recited the Bible or sang hymns.

He never washed his clothes, changed them only when they fell apart and shaved his hair only once a year. He was once visited by robbers, but they left him alone when they learned that he did not fear death (and had nothing worth stealing, anyway), promising to mend their ways.

Jerome gives a detailed account of his diet:

• from 20-23: half a pint of lentils moistened with cold water
• 23-27: dry bread with salt and water
• 27-30: wild herbs and roots
• 31-35: six ounces of barley bread, and boiled vegetables without oil

After that, he suffered from signs of malnutrition, his eye-sight grew poor, his body shrivelled and he developed dry mange and scabs, so he had to slightly modify his diet.

• 35-63: six ounces of barley bread, and boiled vegetables with oil
• 63-80: six ounces of water, boiled vegetables with oil and a broth made from flour and crushed herbs, taken after sunset

After he had lived in the wilderness for 22 years, he became quite famous in Palestine. Visitors started to come, begging for his help.

His first miracle was when he cured a woman from Eleutheropolis who had been barren for 15 years. After that, he cured blindness, raised children from the dead, healed a paralysed charioteer, expelled demons, and even cured horses affected by evil magic, and a mad Bactrian Camel. In time, a monastery grew around his cell, which was so beset by visitors, especially females, that Hilarion fled. After numerous adventures, always beset by enthusiastic visitors seeking his help, Hilarion died in Cyprus in 371 CE.

Feast day of St Hugh of Ambronay

Feast day of St Imana of Loss

Feast day of St John of Bridlington

Feast day of St Margaret Clitherow

Feast day of St Wendelin

Trafalgar Day
Celebrated throughout much of the British Empire in the 19^th and early 20^th Century.  

Palolo Worm
Southern Pacific; Leodice viridis, breaks off the posterior part of its body when breeding on the day of the first quarter of the October - November moon. If you want a good bit of software to work out when that is, I highly recommend Lunabar, which sits quietly on your desktop (I have no commercial interest in it, and it's free anyway).

"The nút, known commonly as the Palolo worm (Annelid palolo viridis or Eunice virldis in Oceania; Leodice viridis in Island South East Asia), is a marine creature which lives in the crevices of coral reefs across the Pacific Ocean and is particularly abundant in Melanesian waters. For the greater part of its life, the Palolo remains within its coral abode and is rarely visible. But on two specific days in every lunar year, the rear end of all the Palolo worms, which can measure from one to five inches in length, simultaneously detach themselves from their parent body and rise to the surface of the Melanesian seas in order to participate in a massive breeding frenzy (the Palolo worm itself remains safely within the reef and gradually grows back to full size). In this part of Remote Oceania, the first such emergence of the Palolo begins in the morning, around five to seven days after the last full moon in October."   Source

More phenology (Nature/calendar relationships) in the Book of Days

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

International Day of the Nacho
Celebrated in the United States and Mexico since the early 1990s.

Sweetest Day
Celebrated mostly in the Midwest United States (2006).

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

1449 George, Duke of Clarence

1660 Georg Ernst Stahl, German scientist

1760 Japanese painter, engraver and printmaker

1772 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (d. July 25, 1834), British romantic poet ('The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'; 'Kubla Khan'), literary critic and politico-social activist.

Coleridge and the poet Robert Southey were brothers-in-law (they married two sisters, penniless like themselves). Southey went about his poetry with all the regularity of a bank clerk, while Coleridge would spend whole days in dreaming and desultory reading. A vicar's son, he dropped out of Cambridge and wandered the streets of London until destitute. He met Southey at Oxford and the two poets planned a utopian society based on what they called 'Pantisocracy', influenced in part by proto-anarchist William Godwin's Political Justice.

Coleridge started a newspaper called The Watchman, but it lasted only ten issues. He was friendly with William Wordsworth, with whom he stayed at Nether Stowey, where he composed much of the poetry for which he is justly famous.

The Wedgwood family of pottery magnates gave him funds to go to Germany to study. On his return he changed from a Revolutionist to a Conservative, and from a Unitarian to an English Churchman. He started a periodical, The Friend, but it ran for only 27 issues although its effect was felt on writers and philosophers from John Stuart Mill to Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was not of the right nature to run a periodical, with its deadlines; Coleridge tended to be disorganized and had no head for business, indicating that the publication was doomed from the start. His poem, 'Dejection: An Ode', is one indication that he suffered from a major depressive disorder.  His earnings were spent in pursuit of opium, to which he was addicted after taking laudanum for pain relief for many ailments, including toothache and facial neuralgia. He was well aware of the desperation of his addiction, but did not have the strength to resist. (There was no stigma associated with taking opium as an analgaesic at the time, but also little understanding of the dangers of addiction.) A physician named Dr Gilman helped him kick the habit and he spent the last years of his life quite happily, near London.

Early progressives in the Book of Days    CounterCulture Wiki    Coleridge poems online    More    More

1788 George Combe (d. 1858), the most prolific British phrenologist of the 19^th Century, whose Constitution of Man sold approximately 350,000 copies between 1828 and 1900, a sales figure almost unmatched at the time

"Combe's nephew Sir James Cox later recalled that Combe had a 'strong desire for posthumous fame'.

"In short, Combe was something of an opinionated egoist and exceedingly keen on acquiring as much attention for himself as possible-so long as it was respectable. As an egotistical phrenologist he was in good company. The history of phrenology could be written as the biographies of egotistical men, beginning with Gall, Spurzheim (the two indeed may have parted over a clash of egos), Combe, H.C. Watson, Charles Caldwell, and John Elliotson, for whom Cooter remarked phrenology was an 'egotistically satisfying means of affronting the conventional.' It should not be taken as censure to appeal to these character traits for the leading phrenologists. Instead it seems these character traits are important parts of the explanation for their behaviour. Phrenology attracted such men because of its promise of superlative intellectual authority with minimal effort."   Source

Phrenology    The History of Phrenology on the Web

The Constitution of Man in Relation to External Objects (8th ed., 1847)

Gibbon, Charles, The Life of George Combe: Author of 'The Constitution of Man', 2 vols., Macmillan and Co., London, 1878 (RTF document)

 

1790 Alphonse de Lamartine (d. February 28, 1869), French writer, poet (considered to be the first French romantic poet) and politician famous for his partly autobiographical poem, 'Le Lac' ('The Lake')

1821 The Monster of Glamis (reportedly a deformed member of the British peerage kept in seclusion in Glamis Castle, Scotland; whether fact or myth is hard to determine)

1833 Alfred Nobel (d. 1896), Swedish chemist and industrialist,  inventor of dynamite whose estate provided the capital for the Nobel Prize

1842 Thomas Price (Colonel Tom Price; d. July 3, 1911), soldier, lieutenant-colonel in Victoria's Permanent Military Forces. In Melbourne on August 30, 1890, during the Maritime Strike, Price earned the wrath of the nascent labor movement by telling his men that if they were commanded to fire on protesting strikers they should "fire low and lay the disturbers of law and order out so that their duty would not have to be performed again!'"

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1895 Edna Purviance (d. 1958), actress

1912 Sir Georg Solti (d. 1997), conductor

1914 Martin Gardner, American writer on mathematics and games

1917 Dizzy Gillespie (d. 1993), American trumpet player, an originator of Bebop (Night in Tunisia)

1920 Hy Averback (d. 1997), film and television director

1921 Malcolm Arnold, British composer

1924 Celia Cruz (d. 2003), singer

1929 Ursula K Le Guin, American science fiction author

1940 Manfred Mann, English rock musician

1941 Steve Cropper, musician

1942 Elvin Bishop, musician

1942 Judge Judy Sheindlin, American judge, television host

1943 Tariq Ali, British-Pakistani writer (Bush in Babylon), activist and filmmaker, a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review, and regular contributor to The Guardian, Counterpunch, and the London Review of Books. In the 1960s, he was drawn into revolutionary socialist politics through his involvement with The Black Dwarf newspaper; he became a Trotskyist but rejected that ideology. He was the inspiration for the Rolling Stones' song 'Street Fighting Man', recorded in 1968. Ali was one of 19 signatories of the Porto Alegre Manifesto.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1949 Benjamin Netanyahu, the 9^th Prime Minister of Israel

1955 Rich Mullins (d. 1997), American musician

1956 Carrie Fisher, American actress (Star Wars) and novelist (Postcards from the Edge)

1972 Felicity Andersen, actress

 

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

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Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards World Rainforest Week [ c. Oct 18 - 25 ] Birthdays Halloween Samhain [ Oct 31 ] Diwali [ Varies ]

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Varies Daylight Saving Time Begins / Ends
4th Mon. in Oct. International School Library Day

 

October

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
24 International Forgiveness Day
24 Match Day
24 United Nations Day
25 Say "Hey" Day
25 Picasso Day
26 Mule Day
27 Boxer Shorts Day
28 Chocolate Day
28 Statue Of Liberty Day, USA
29 The Internet's Birthday
30 Candy Corn Day
30 Bodybuilders' Day
31 Halloween
31 Samhain
31 Magic Day

 ... More Events

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310 Death of Pope Eusebius.

686 Conon became Pope.

1512 Martin Luther joined the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

1558 Death of Julius Caesar Scaliger, humanist scholar.

1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marked the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, which in effect ruled Japan until the mid-Nineteenth century.

1652 French king Louis XIV, aged 14, returned to Paris from exile.

1716 'The Dark Day of October', New England, USA. According to a contemporary almanac, a day so exceptionally dark that "one could not recognize another four seats away, nor read a word in a psalm book".

Read more October weather records of the world

1789 France was subjected to martial law.

1797 In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution was launched to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli (in 1805 the Tripoli peace treaty was signed on Constitution's deck).

 

1805 Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar – The British fleet led by Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet (under Admiral Villeneuve) off the coast of Spain.

Nelson lost his life on the deck of his flagship Victory, mortally wounded by a sniper from the French ship Redoutable. A bullet entered his shoulder, pierced his lung, and came to rest at the base of his spine. Famous even while alive, after his death Nelson was lionized like almost no other military figure in British history.

His last dispatch, written on the 21^st, read:

At daylight saw the Enemy's Combined Fleet from East to E.S.E.; bore away; made the signal for Order of Sailing, and to Prepare for Battle; the Enemy with their heads to the Southward: at seven the Enemy wearing in succession. May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my Country, and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious Victory; and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature in the British Fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may his blessing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Nelson became a legend, and his statue atop Nelson's Column towers triumphantly over London's famous Trafalgar Square, which was named for the victory.

Trafalgar Square webcam    Trafalgar interactive    Trafalgar 200th anniversary

Famous last words?

There is no definitive account of Nelson's last words, although many books say that he said "Kiss me, Hardy", or else "Kismet [fate] Hardy". Both versions are speculative and there's no primary record of anyone present at his death reporting either of them.

However, the artist, Arthur Devis spent three weeks aboard the Victory, making sketches and talking to men present at Nelson's death in order to create an authentic image of the actual scene on the afternoon of  October 21, 1805.

According to Devis's informants, Nelson said: "Take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, Hardy, take care of poor Lady  Hamilton."  He paused then said – very faintly – "Kiss me, Hardy."  Hardy knelt and kissed his admiral on the cheek.  Nelson then whispered, "Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty."  Hardy rose, paused silently, then knelt again and kissed Nelson's forehead.

 

The famous signal

 

The story of Nelson's famous flag signal to his men at the Battle of Trafalgar, "England expects every man to do his duty" was told by the signaller who arranged the coded flags. Captain Pasco, Nelson's flag-lieutenant said that Nelson told him to hoist the message "England confides that every man will do his duty". Nelson ordered him to be quick as he had another signal to put up. Pasco said that, because there was the word 'expects' in the flag code, but that the word 'confides' would have to spelled out, the quicker message would be the words we know so well today.

Tapping the admiral

Nelson's body was preserved first in a cask of brandy lashed to the mainmast and guarded day and night by a marine sentry. On December 4, 1805, Victory bearing Nelson's body arrived at Spithead, England. Nelson's body was removed from its cask and an autopsy was performed, followed by entombment in St Paul's Cathedral. It has been suggested that on arrival in England, the cask was less than full – the sailors of Victory had sampled the Nelson vintage.

From this incident, some claim, the antique phrase 'tapping the admiral' arose. British sailors formerly said 'tapping the admiral' for drinking rum out of a coconut shell; later the phrase was used for surreptitiously drinking from a cask through a straw.

Drake's Drum
Sir Francis Drake's drum was with Drake when he circumnavigated the world and when he died of dysentery off Panama in 1596. The worn drum, with Drake's coat of arms painted on one side, is currently located in the Drake, Naval and West Country Folk Museum at Buckland Abbey in Devonshire, Drake's former home. It is said to beat at times of danger for England. The drum, so it is said, was heard at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Scapa Flow in 1918 and at the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. Some said it was even heard when Germany surrendered in 1918. Another version of the legend is that the drum should be beaten to summon Drake in times of danger for England.

An extract from the poem 'Drake's Drum' by Sir Henry Newbolt:

Take my drum to England, hang et by the shore,

Strike et when your powder's runnin' low;

If the Dons sight Devon, I'll quit the port o' Heaven,

An' drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago.

Photo of Drake's Drum    Buckland Abbey    Drake's Drum    More

"Hundreds of prostitutes were press ganged into the navy during the Trafalgar sea battles. On top of their day jobs, they also bravely doubled up as nurses."
Bottle of Trafalgar turns blind eye to hookers

Nelson portraits    Britain marks Battle of Trafalgar

 

1824 Joseph Aspdin patented Portland cement.

1854 Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.

1858 The first performance of Orpheus in the Underworld, by Jacques Offenbach, was given in Paris.

1861 American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff – Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker were defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, was killed in the fighting.

1867 'Manifest Destiny': Medicine Lodge Treaty – Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas a landmark treaty was signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty required Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.

1872 The first telegraphic communication between London and Adelaide, Australia.

1879 Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tested the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13 ½ hours before burning out).

1890 The Chief Justice proclaimed Western Australia's constitution.

1892 USA: The 'Pledge of Allegiance' was first spoken publicly. It was written by the Baptist socialist Francis Bellamy (cousin of famed utopian socialist, Edward Bellamy), but the reference to 'under God' was not added until much later, following a 1950s lobbying campaign by the Knights of Columbus – a Catholic fraternal organization – and others. On December 28, 1945, United States Congress officially recognised the 'Pledge'.

Congress approved the addition of the words 'under God' within the phrase 'one nation indivisible', and on June 14, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill into law. This was despite the fact that the US founding fathers made it clear that the nation was not founded on Christianity or any other religion, and regardless of the constitutional separation of Church and State.

More at November 23, 1964 in the Book of Days    A negative viewpoint on Francis Bellamy and his 'Pledge'

1895 The Republic of Taiwan collapsed as Japanese forces invaded.

1896 Death of James Henry Greathead, British engineer.

1902 In the United States, a five month strike by United Mine Workers ended.

1906 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, was in England (until Nov 30) on deputation to present the Indian case to the Colonial Secretary.

1923 In Munich, the world's first planetarium was opened.

1941 World War II: Germans rampaged in Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilians.

1942 Australia's Minister for the War Organisation of Industry, Mr Dedman, announced simplified shirts, pyjamas and collars for men and boys – 'austerity clothes' – were to be manufactured, as a wartime savings measure.

1944 The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound) bomb off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.

1945 Women's suffrage: Women were allowed to vote in France for the first time.

A world chronology of women’s suffrage

1945 Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón married actress Eva 'Evita' Duarte.

1952 In Kenya, the president of the Kenya African movement, Jomo Kenyatta, was arrested as Britain crushed the Mau Mau Uprising.

1957 The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opened.

1959 In New York City, the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum opened to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

1959 US President Dwight D Eisenhower signed an executive order transferring Wernher Von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

 

1966 Aberfan disaster: A wall of coal slag from a coal tip fell on the Welsh coalmining village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, including 116 children in Pantglas Junior School.

Aberfan premonitions

Reports of premonitions about Aberfan came from all over Wales and England. The Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (Vol. 44, No 734, Dec. 1967) records a number of premonitions that people had about this disaster. One ten-year-old girl, named E. M. J. in the journal, had told her mother a fortnight before the disaster, "Mummy, I'm not afraid to die." Her mother replied "Why do you talk of dying, and you so young; do you want a lollipop?" "No", she said "but I shall be with Peter and June".

The day before the disaster she said "Mummy, I dreamt I went to school and there was no school there. Something black had come down all over it!"

The girl lost her life in the disaster, and was buried in a communal grave with her friends, Peter on one side, and June on the other. This tragic story was put together by a local clergyman, and signed by both of the little girl's parents as correct.

 

More Aberfan (and other disaster) premonitions    Aberfan and the Titanic: Twin tragedies

 

More    Stop awhile in the Aberfan Memorial Garden

Log your premonitions and coincidences, etc ::Aha!:: Synchronicity Central

 

1967 [October 21 - 23] Vietnam War: More than 100,000 anti-war protesters gathered in Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial was followed by a march to the Pentagon organized by the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE). The demo was attended by 100,000 people. Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman organized an 'Exorcism of the Pentagon', in which he led over 50,000 people to surround the Pentagon in a humorous effort to levitate the building by their combined psychic energy. When arrested (as were 682 others), Hoffman gave his name as Abby Digger. American novelist Norman Mailer was also arrested on this weekend of anti-Vietnam War protests.

Tens of thousands of protesters were met at the Pentagon and stopped by armed United States Marshals. Flowers and songs were met with guns in a highly publicized event that gave the impression at home and abroad, even to people outside the antiwar movement, that the United States government was excessively authoritarian in its response. Afterwards, MOBE began to talk about antiwar protests to be held during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where President Lyndon Johnson was expected to be nominated for a second term.

Following the Pentagon demo, Jerry Rubin, Ed Sanders, and Keith Lampe hit upon the idea of creating a free music festival (the Monterey Pop Festival) in Chicago to diffuse the political tensions.

The idea was floated to Hoffman, Anita Hoffman, and Paul Krassner. They all agreed that a more fun and youth-oriented festival would be a welcome alternative to the more formal and militant groups currently operating. The group decided to form their own group, Yippie! or YIP, which later came to stand for the Youth International Party (Yippies).

Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.  

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    CounterCulture Wiki

See also Chicago 8, March 19, 1969    Levitate the Pentagon

The Day The Pentagon Was Supposed to Lift Off Into Space    More    More

 

1969 Willy Brandt was elected Chancellor of West Germany.

1969 Beat guru Jack Kerouac (b. 1922) died, aged 47. He was part of the 'Beat Generation', which included people like Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S Burroughs. His On the Road is listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library. Among his other best-selling novels is Dharma Bums.

"Despite the 'beatnik' stereotype, Kerouac was a political conservative, especially when under the influence of his Catholic mother. As the beatniks of the 1950's began to yield their spotlight to the hippies of the 1960's, Jack took pleasure in standing against everything the hippies stood for. He supported the Vietnam War and became friendly with William F. Buckley."   Source

Kerouac links    DHARMA BEAT: A Jack Kerouac newszine  

Kerouac scroll fetches $2.4 million    Shop Kerouac

 

1978 The Valentich Disappearance, Australia: Frederick Valentich, piloting a Cessna 182L, registered as VH-DSJ, disappeared in mysterious circumstances en route to King Island. The case attracted significant press attention and became part of UFO lore. It has been said that the unsolved Valentich Disappearance has generated more media discussion than the unsolved 1937 disappearance of famed aviatrix, Amelia Earhart (b. 1898).

Twenty-year-old Valentich was flying from Melbourne's Moorabbin Airport to King Island, which is in Bass Strait, the body of water between the states of Victoria and Tasmania.

"During that time, twenty people located in different areas around Bass Strait observed a green light in the same direction and at the same time the pilot was reporting the approach and description of an object with a green light."
Source: The Frederick Valentich Accident

Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report Ref. No. V116/783/1047

More (short radio documentary)    More    More

1986 In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claimed to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he was released in August 1991).

1994 North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States signed an agreement that required North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

2002 Violence in Badlapur located in Mumbai Conurbation created a tension in the city resulted in much property damage and four people injured.

2003 Images of the dwarf planet Eris were taken and subsequently used in its discovery by the team of Michael E Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L Rabinowitz.

 

Tomorrow: Nelson Mandela on trial

 

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Lord Admiral Nelson: "Order the signal, Hardy."

Hardy: "Aye, aye sir."

Nelson: "Hold on, that's not what I dictated to the signal officer. What's the meaning of this?"

Hardy: "Sorry sir?"

Nelson (reading aloud): "England expects every person to do his duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability". What gobbledygook is this?"

Hardy: "Admiralty policy, I'm afraid, sir. We're an equal opportunities employer now. We had the devil's own job getting 'England' past the censors, lest it be considered racist."

Nelson: "Gadzooks, Hardy. Hand me my pipe and tobacco."

Hardy: "Sorry sir. All naval vessels have been designated smoke-free working environments."

Nelson: "In that case, break open the rum ration. Let us splice the mainbrace to steel the men before battle."

Hardy: "The rum ration has been abolished, Admiral. Its part of the Government's policy on binge drinking."

Nelson: "Good heavens, Hardy. I suppose we'd better get on with it. Full speed ahead."

Hardy: "I think you'll find that there's a 4 knot speed limit in this stretch of water."

Nelson: "Damn it man! We are on the eve of the greatest sea battle in history. We must advance with all disatch. Report from the crow's nest, please."

Hardy: "That won't be possible, sir."

Nelson: "What?"

Hardy: "Health and safety regulations closed the crow's nest, sir. No harness. And they said that rope ladder doesn't meet regulations. They won't let anyone up there until a proper scaffolding can be erected."

Nelson: "Then get me the ship's carpenter without delay, Hardy."

Hardy: "He's busy knocking up a wheelchair access to the fo'c'sle Admiral."

Nelson: "Wheelchair access? I've never heard anything so absurd."

Hardy: "Health and safety again, sir. We have to provide a barrier-free environment for the differently abled."

Nelson: "Differently abled? I've only one arm and one eye, and I refuse even to hear mention of the word. I didn't rise to the rank of admiral by playing the disability card."

Hardy: "Actually, sir, you did. The Royal Navy is under-represented in the areas of visual impairment and limb deficiency."

Nelson: "Whatever next? Give me full sail. The salt spray beckons."

Hardy: "A couple of problems there too, sir. Health and safety won't let the crew up the rigging without safety helmets. And they don't want anyone breathing in too much salt - haven't you seen the adverts?"

Nelson: "I've never heard such infamy. Break out the cannon and tell the men to stand by to engage the enemy."

Hardy: "The men are a bit worried about shooting at anyone, Admiral."

Nelson: "What? This is mutiny."

Hardy: "It's not that, sir. It's just that they're afraid of being charged with murder if they actually kill anyone. There's a couple of legal-aid lawyers on board, watching everyone like hawks."

Nelson: "Then how are we to sink the Frenchies and the Spanish?"

Hardy: "Actually, sir, we're not."

Nelson: "We're not?"

Hardy: "No, sir. The Frenchies and the Spanish are our European partners now. According to the Common Fisheries Policy, we shouldn't even be in this stretch of water. We could get hit with a claim for compensation."

Nelson: "But you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil."

Hardy: "I wouldn't let the ship's diversity co-coordinator hear you saying that sir. You'll be up on a disciplinary."

Nelson: "You must consider every man an enemy who speaks ill of your King."

Hardy: "Not any more, sir. We must be inclusive in this multicultural age. Now put on your Kevlar vest; it's the rules."

Nelson: "Don't tell me - health and safety. Whatever happened to rum, sodomy and the lash?"

Hardy: "As I explained, sir, rum is off the menu! And there's a ban on corporal punishment."

Nelson: "What about sodomy?"

Hardy: "I believe it's to be encouraged, sir."

Nelson: "In that case ... kiss me, Hardy."

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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