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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Pip Wilson

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Today is

The just man builds on a modest foundation and gradually proceeds to greater things.
King Alfred the Great (attrib.)

The English resisted the Danes heroically under Alfred, never fighting except against heavy odds, till at the memorable Peace of Wedmore Alfred compelled the Danes, who were now (of course) beaten, to stop being Danes and become English and become Church of England and get properly married.
Sellar and Yeatman; 1066 And All That

To dare, and again to dare, and without end to dare!
Georges Jacques Danton, French revolutionist, born on October 26, 1759

On the 26th day of October we arrived at the metropolis, called in their language Lorbrulgrud, or Pride of the Universe. My master took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description of my person and parts.
Jonathan Swift; Gulliver's Travels

I don't mind what the opposition say of me, so long as they don't tell the truth.
Mark Twain in a speech in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, October 26, 1880

When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brains of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of 'Thus sayeth the Lord'.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American feminist, who died on October 26, 1902

I live ... 
For the cause that lacks assistance, 
For the wrong that needs resistance, 
For the future in the distance 
And the good that I can do.
Poem quoted on the title page of the diary of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The sky was set for such a role:
the great Cross glittered at the pole
Orion and his wrath were red
and the Milky Way white overhead
RAK Mason, 'Twenty-Sixth October'

October 26 is the 299^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (300^th in leap years), with 66 days remaining.
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Angam Day (Homecoming Day; Day of Fulfilment), Nauru

The people of Nauru celebrate Angam Day to commemorate the birth of the 1,500^th Nauruan citizen at the end of the epidemic in 1920s. The Nauruan word angam means: 'jubilation', 'celebration', 'to have triumphed over all hardships', 'to have reached a set goal' or 'coming home'.  

Nauruans experienced a dramatic drop in population in 1920 due to the influenza epidemic. The total number of Nauruans decreased dramatically, reaching a level of only 1,068 people. This appalling 'demographic drop' caused fear for the continuing survival of community.

The effect of this flu on the Nauruans was most ravaging because the epidemic erupted in a population that was just recovering from another disaster, a dysentery epidemic. This disease had been brought to Nauru by Chinese laborers, for whom quarantine was not sufficiently enforced, and, in 1907, 150 died of dysentery.

The health situation was in a precarious state; beside the loss of people, there was debilitation, weakening those who had escaped death. After this catastrophe, it took twelve years for the population to again reach the level of 1,500.

It was not until October 26, 1932 that the 1,500th Nauruan – a baby girl called Eidegenegen Eidagaruwo, was born. There was a great celebration and the event was commemorated by declaring the day a public holiday, called Angam Day – because it had achieved the hope of all Nauruans.

Sources vary as to Angam's date (October 26 is most commonly cited): one source gives October 27 for this event which commemorates the various times in history when the size of the Nauruan population has returned to 1,500, which is thought to be the minimum number necessary for survival. 

Every year, Angam Day is observed as a National Holiday on Nauru. Angam Day is a day of celebration and a time of reflection for the Nauruan people. Twice in its history did the Nauruan population fall below 1,500. The Nauruan Race was considered in danger of extinction. On both occasions the Nauruan population recovered and on reaching the magical figure of 1,500, a number considered to be the minimum required for the survival of a population, Angam Day was declared. The first Angam was in 1932 and the second time in 1949.

Nauru, pawn in Australia's game

An oval-shaped South Pacific island lying near the equator 4,000 km from Sydney, Australia, Nauru is the smallest republic in the world – and an ecological basket case. It lies 42km (26 miles) south of the equator, and its nearest neighbour is Ocean Island (Banaba, part of Kiribati), 305km (190 miles) to the east. Until recently, Nauru was the richest nation per capita on earth. That was before the bird-droppings phosphate ran out. It has all been mined and shipped to the Rich World, where it has fertilized our farms. (Western corporations, having dug up and shipped out all the bird-guano phosphate for fertilizer, departed – guano consists of ammonia, along with uric, phosphoric, oxalic, and carbonic acids, as well as some earth salts and impurities. The high concentration of nitrates also makes guano an important strategic commodity.)

In 2001, following the the saga of the MV Tampa, the Australian government of ultra-conservative Prime Minister John Howard, in order to keep tinted refugees/asylum seekers from white Australian shores, began shipping desperate boat people to Nauru. The Nauru government, strapped for cash following the collapse of its economy, accepted refugees for money. In Nauru, people fleeing persecution in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq found themselves locked up in this tropical isle. Hot and isolated, the inhospitable 21 sq km island has been called a "living hell" for the refugees.

Fresh water is scarce and communications poor. Amnesty International Australia said that lawyers, health professionals, churches and members of ethnic communities were prevented from going to Nauru to inspect conditions. The Naruan government closed its borders except to a very few outsiders in order to comply with the Australian government's deal.

In December of 2003, several dozen of these refugees, in protest of the conditions of their detention on Nauru, began a hunger strike. The hunger strike was concluded in early January 2004 when an Australian medical team agreed to visit the island.

There is currently some debate as to whether Nauru is a truly sovereign nation, due to the fact that the island's finances and security forces are almost entirely controlled by Australia.

Nauru and global warming

Like many low-lying poor nations, Nauru is threatened by the greenhouse effect caused by wealthy Western nations. As global warming of the earth causes sea levels to rise, the habitable low-lying land areas are becoming threatened by tidal surges and flooding.  

Sources: Wikipedia article, Angam Day; the homepage of the Republic of Nauru Permanent Mission to the UN, et al.

"Nauru is the poor little rich kid of the Pacific. Seemingly limitless mining proceeds have made Nauruans the wealthiest people in the Pacific, but at various stages in their history people, culture, forest, soil and then subsoil have been stripped or shipped away at the whim of foreign powers. Exploitation has become an art form. The bird poop that was the island has been an economic boon to islanders, but Nauru's interior could now only be described as an 'ecological basket case'."   Source

Amnesty attacks Nauru 'security'

Amnesty International Australia (Refugees –Australia)    Refugees: Australia's moral failure

Refugees Australia - National Directory    We are all Boat People

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Click stars for Universe today Cafe Diem! Our store Highly recommended: Folklore of World Holidays by Margaret Read MacDonald Fahrenheit 9/11 Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry By Prof. Peter W Singer 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 Eats, Shoots & Leaves Uluru Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations Life in a Medieval Village   To support this project Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.     Search for posters An Inconvenient Truth By Al Gore; DVD & book The Permaculture Home Garden By Linda Woodrow The Big Buy - Tom Delay's Stolen Congress The Corporation Highly recommended DVD Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America By Bruce Shapiro Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It What Would Jefferson Do? By Thom Hartmann How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World Pagan Christianity Hello Laziness! By Corrine Maier For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire By James Yee Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy By Robert F Kennedy, Jr The Price of Loyalty The Torture Debate in America The Culture of the New Capitalism Lawless World The Great War for Civilisation By Robert Fisk The God Who Wasn't There A Question of Torture By Alfred McCoy When Corporations Rule the World Alternatives to Economic Globalization Feminism Without Borders Commercializat of Intimate Life By Arlie Russell Hochschild The Skeptic's Dictionary Tell Me No Lies By John Pilger Medieval Celebrations Women's Activism and Globalization The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites Secrets and Lies The Clash of Civilizations Imperial Crusades Aborigine Dreaming The Medieval Cookbook The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe The Murray Bookchin Reader Environmental Activism Astro pic of the day American Folklore Permaculture Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature & Art (Seyffert) Sun Goddess African Folklore Daily Everything A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore The Edible Asian Garden The Secret Language of Birthdays Live with Passion! Anthony Robbins More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at   Cafe Diem! Celtic Daily Prayer Hidden Agendas Poor Richard's Almanack By Benjamin Franklin Photo of the day Mother Earth Spirituality Wheel of the Year The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable The Survival of the Pagan Gods Click to promote  your blog or website  another excellent  way we do

Moon festival of the goddess Hathor, ancient Egypt In Egyptian mythology, Hathor is the mother goddess and goddess of love of ancient Egypt. She was worshipped c. 2700 BCE or possibly earlier, to c. 400 CE, in a cult that flourished in Ta-Netjer ('Land of God' – modern day Dendera, or Dendara) in Upper Egypt, as well as Thebes and Giza, and her priests included both men and women. Other names for Hathor are Het-Hert, Athyr and Hetheru. Her name appears to mean 'house of Horus', a reference to her role as a sky goddess, the 'house' denoting the heavens depicted as a great cow. (At the temple of Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel, Nefertari is shown as Hathor, and her husband Ramses II is shown in one sanctuary receiving milk from Hathor the cow.) Hathor was often regarded as the mother of the Egyptian pharaoh, who styled himself the 'son of Hathor'. During the Old Kingdom she assumed the properties of an earlier bovine goddess, Bat. She is an ancient goddess and appears to have been mentioned as early as the 2nd Dynasty. Hathor existed for the entire history of the ancient Egyptian culture as a powerful and influential deity. She was goddess of death, and the cow goddess. Her father is the sun god Ra (or Re); Hathor is often described as mother of all pharaohs. In myth, she is referred to as both Ra's Mother and his Daughter, serving as both his purpose to continue his daily cycle (the progression of the sun through the sky), and alternatively as an agent of his will. In the 'daughter' aspect, she sits upon Ra's brow as a coiled cobra, breathing flames and venom at his enemies. In early Egyptian mythology, she was the mother of the sky god Horus, but was later replaced in this capacity by Isis. One of the tales of Hathor tells that she was originally a goddess of destruction (Hathor-Sekhmet), but Hathor later became a consort and/or protectress of Horus. She was depicted either as a cow, or in human form wearing a crown consisting of a sun disk held between the horns of a cow ... Read on at the Hathor page in the Scriptorium    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days Source of date    On the dating of Egyptian festivals and rites   Ludi Victoriae Sullanae, ancient Rome (Oct 26 - Nov 1) Games instituted by Roman general and dictator Sulla (c. 138 BCE - 78 BCE) in celebration of his victories. The games were dedicated in his honour for up to 200 years after his death. Roman festivals    Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days Ancient Ones, Slavic pagan calendar "This is the fourth day of commemoration/worship of the Ancient Ones in the year. This is also a day of remembrance for the warriors who were slain in the year 1380 on Kulikovskoe Field. Say a toast to the honor and glory of the Russian Heroes."   Source Feast day of St Albinus Feast day of St Alfred the Great, King of England Feast day of St Amandus of Strasburg Feast day of St Amandus of Worms Feast day of St Bonaventura of Potenza Feast day of St Damian dei Fulcheri Feast day of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki (Demeter) St Demetrius' relics are kept in Thessaloniki, Greece, a city of which he is the patron saint. He is also revered by the Serbian Orthodox Church as Mitar, having a feast of Mitrovdan on November 8. The Greek tradition for today is to broach the wine barrels and taste the new season's wine. "In Albania, this is the day on which houses are prepared for winter. Blankets and sheepskins are brought out and the house made snug. Like other autumn saints, St. Luke and St. Michael, St. Demetrius often brings a spell of good weather called 'the summer of St. Demetrius.'." Spicer, Gladys Dorothy, The Book of Festivals, The Womans Press 1937 Source: School of the Seasons Feast day of St Evaristus, pope and martyr (Late golden rod, Solidago petiolaris, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) Feast day of St Gaudiosus of Salerno Feast day of St Gibitrudis Feast day of St Gwinoc Feast day of St Humbert Feast day of Ss Lucian and Marcian, martyrs Lucian "was formerly a demon worshipper and sorcerer. It is said that when a good Christian woman was able to ward off his spells simply by making the Sign of the Cross, he gave up his idolatrous life and converted to the Church. He spent the rest of his days explaining and working against the error [sic] of his earlier life. St Marcian, another former 'devil worshiper' who converted to the Church is also remembered on this day. They are both reported to have been martyred c. 250 CE and are the patrons of converts and possessed people." Source: Earth, Moon and Sky Feast day of St Quadragesimus Feast day of St Quodvultdeus Shop Saints Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days International Red Cross Day Disarmament Week (UN) (Oct 24 - 30) National Magic Week, USA  (Oct 25 - 31) National Day, Austria Anniversary of the Declaration of Neutrality (1955).   Intersex Awareness Day Intersex Awareness Day is the (inter)national day of grass-roots action to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children. "What is intersex? Intersex refers to a series of medical conditions in which a child's genetic sex (chromosomes) and phenotypic sex (genital appearance) do not match, or are somehow different from the "standard" male or female. About one in 2,000 babies are born visibly intersexed, while some others are detected later. The current medical protocol calls for the surgical "reconstruction" of these different but healthy bodies to make them "normal," but this practice has become increasingly controversial as adults who went through the treatment report being physically, emotionally, and sexually harmed by such procedures. What's so significant about October 26? On October 26, 1996, intersex activists from Intersex Society of North America (carrying the sign "Hermaphrodites With Attitude") and our allies from Transexual Menace held the first public intersex demonstration in Boston, where American Academy of Pediatrics was holding its annual conference. The action generated a lot of press coverage, and made it difficult for the medical community to continue to neglect our growing movement. That said, events related to Intersex Awareness Day can take place throughout October and does not necessarily have to be on the 26th."   Source Intersex Society of North America   Origins and folklore of Halloween, in the Scriptorium         On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1673 Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian writer and linguist 1685 Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer of hundreds of sonatas 1759 Georges Jacques Danton, a leader of the French Revolution 1790? William Charles Wentworth (d. March 20, 1872), Australian explorer, poet ('Australasia', 1823) and statesman; most usually associated with the first expedition to cross the Blue Mountains, led by Gregory Blaxland. The discovery of a passage through the mountains opened up the vast Australian continent to European exploration and settlement. He founded the University of Sydney in 1852 and co-founded the newspaper The Australian in 1824. Wentworth was a prominent and prescient advocate of self-government for Australia. More   1811 Isaac Singer (Isaac Merritt Singer; d. July 23, 1875), American inventor, actor, entrepreneur, and magnate. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. He was also an actor and founder of the Merritt Players ... and a notorious serial polygamist. On August 12, 1851, he patented his famous sewing machine. The first American patent had been issued to Elias Howe some five years earlier, and Singer's machine was so similar to Howe's that the earlier inventor sued Singer for patent infringement, and won. By 1860, Isaac had fathered and recognized eighteen children (sixteen of them remaining alive), by four women. Singer left an estate of about US$14,000,000.  "In 1839, Singer received his first patent. It was for a rock-drilling machine, and it earned him $2,000. Singer used this money to found his own acting troupe, the 'Merritt Players', with Mary Ann Sponseler. Singer, not free to remarry legally, entered into a common-law marriage with Sponseler, who went on to bear him 10 children. With the Merritt Players, Singer performed under the name Isaac Merritt, and Sponseler performed under the name 'Mrs Merritt'. The Merritt Players toured the country until the money finally ran out. They happened to be in Fredericksburg, Ohio, when the troupe disbanded, and Singer had to take a job in a local print shop, where he conceived the idea of a machine to cut wood blocks for printing images. After a short stint there, he also worked in Pittsburgh and then in New York City. In New York City, the prototype of Singer's cutting machine was at the machine shop of A. B. Taylor & Co., but when the boiler blew up at A. B. Taylor's, Singer's prototype was destroyed. However, Orson C. Phelps, who had a machine shop in Boston, had heard about this cutting machine and invited Singer to recreate it in his shop ..."   Source Singer the polygamist "The financial success gave Singer the ability to by [sic] a mansion on Fifth Avenue, into which he moved his second family. In 1860, he divorced his first wife, on the basis of her adultery with Stephen Kent. He continued to live with Mary Ann, until she spotted him driving down Fifth Avenue seated beside one Mary McGonigal, an employee, about whom Mary Ann had well-founded suspicions, for by this time Mary McGonigal had borne Isaac Singer five children. The surname Matthews was used for this family. Mary Ann (still calling herself Mrs. I. M. Singer) had her husband arrested for domestic violence. Singer was let out on bond and, disgraced, fled for London, taking Mary McGonigal with him. In the aftermath, another of Isaac's families was discovered: he had a "wife" Mary Eastwood Walters and daughter Alice Eastwood in Lower Manhattan, who both adopted the surname 'Merritt'. By 1860, Isaac had fathered and recognized eighteen children (sixteen of them remaining alive), by four women … "Singer then began seeing Mrs. Isabella Eugenie Boyer Summerville, said to have been a model for Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, who left her husband and married Isaac on June 13, 1863, while she was pregnant. Mary Ann, unaccountably, did not sue Isaac for bigamy."   Source More (in German)   1844 Tennessee Claflin ('Tennie C'; d. January 18, 1923), American suffragette best known as one of the first women to open a Wall Street brokerage firm; sister of Victoria Woodhull (1838 - 1927) 1854 CW Post, cereal entrepreneur 1865 Benjamin Guggenheim (d. 1912), businessman, went down on the Titanic 1873 Thorvald Stauning (d. 1942), Prime Minister of Denmark 1874 Martin Lowry, British chemist 1911 Mahalia Jackson (d. 1972), American gospel singer 1911 Sorley MacLean, Scots Gaelic poet 1912 Don Siegel (d. 1991), American director 1914 Jackie Coogan (d. 1984), American child actor whose action against his parents for withholding his earnings led to the Coogan Act which protects child stars. Later, Uncle Fester in TV series The Addams Family 1916 François Mitterrand (d. 1996), socialist president of France 1981 - '95 1919 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran (d. 1980), shah of Iran 1932 Eidegenegen Eidagaruwo, first Angam Baby 1942 Bob Hoskins, British-born Hollywood actor (Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Hook) 1945 Pat Conroy, novelist 1946 Pat Sajak, game show host 1947 Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator from New York, wife of former President of the United States, Bill Clinton 1947 Jaclyn Smith, American actress 1947 Holly Woodlawn, actress 1951 Bootsy Collins, American musician (P Funk) 1953 Keith Strickland, drummer (The B-52's) 1954 DW Moffett, actor 1958 Rita Wilson, actress 1961 Dylan McDermott, actor (The Practice) 1962 Cary Elwes, British actor 1963 Natalie Merchant, singer   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section