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Bitter, bitter oh to behoulde,
The grasse to growe,
Where the walles of Walsingham
So stately did shewe. 
From 'Lament for Walsingham', a 16^th-Century poem on the dissolution of Walsingham Priory by Henry VIII; today is the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham

I owe a debt to God, and a debt I must pay; blessed by his name that he hath kept me from shedding of bloud unjustly, which is now a comfort to me: Neither did I ever wrong any poor man of the worth of a penny: but I must confess, I have (when I have been necessitated thereto) made bold with a rich Bompkin, or a lying Lawyer, whose full-fed fees from the rich Farmer, doth too too much impoverish the poor cottage-keeper.
Capt. James Hind, English highwayman who was executed on September 24, 1652; speaking in Newgate Prison, November 11, 1651

Harvest-home. harvest-home.
We have ploughed, we have sowed,
We have reaped, we have mowed,
We have brought home every load,
Hip, hip, hip, harvest-home!
Harvest song, Feast of the Ingathering, England

Come Sons of Summer, by whose toile,
We are the Lords of Wine and Oile:
By whose tough labours, and rough hands,
We rip up first, then reap our lands.
Crown'd with the eares of corne, now come,
And, to the Pipe, sing Harvest home ...
Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674); Poems

The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel.
Horace Walpole, English Gothic author, born on September 24, 1717

It is charming to totter into vogue.
Horace Walpole, on the success of The Castle of Otranto (1764)

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

Pre-order F9/11 now!

Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD or VHS

Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Read Outfoxed review

 

The Da Vinci Code

Breaking The Da Vinci Code

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM

The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Life in a Medieval Village

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Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It

What Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom Hartmann

Stolen Harvest
By Vandana Shiva

Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances EW Harper

Minnie's Sacrifice, Sowing and Reaping, Trial and Triumph: Three Rediscovered Novels by Frances EW Harper

Poems
By Frances Harper

Iola
By Frances Harper

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By Frances Harper

The Spiral Dance
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Medieval Celebrations

Women's Activism and Globalization

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The Clash of Civilizations

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

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Astro pic of the day

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Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation: Backstage With Barry Humphries

Sun Goddess

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Daily Everything

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The Secret Language of Birthdays

Live with Passion!
Anthony Robbins


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By Benjamin Franklin

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Mother Earth Spirituality

Wheel of the Year

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

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Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Jewish (2004)

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

Yom Kippur (יום כפור yom kippūr, day of atonement) is the Jewish festival of the Day of Atonement. The Bible calls the day Yom Hakippurim (Hebrew, 'Day of the Atonements'). It is one of the Yamim Noraim (Hebrew, 'Days of Awe'). 

The Yamim Noraim consist of Rosh Hashanah, which is the first two days of the Ten Days of Repentance, and Yom Kippur, which is the last of the ten days.

In the Hebrew calendar, Yom Kippur begins at nightfall starting the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishri (which falls in September/October), and continues until the next nightfall.

See also: Kol Nidre, Rosh Hashanah, Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur War

Day of Obatalá, West Africa, Orisha/Santería

Obatalá, the King of the White Cloth, the first potter and sculptor, is the oldest of the orishas (Yorùbán gods and goddesses). 

An hermaphroditic deity, he is considered to be the father of all the other orishas. In Haitian Voudon (Voodoo), Obatalá is known as Damballah, the primordial serpent; he is the orisha of peace, harmony, and purity and owns the world. When he possesses his children, they move about on the floor in the manner of snakes.

Vèvè (sacred symbol) for Damballah la Flambeau

"The Orisha Obatala is central to the creation myth of the ancient Yoruba cultures of West Africa, where he is also manifest in the 'white gods' of creativity and justice: Orishanla, Oshala, Oshagiyan, Oshalufon, Orisha Oko, and Osha Funfun. He also provides the moral purpose of the historical king Shango, the Orisha of lightning and thunder. Obatala is said to have descended from heaven on a chain to mould the first humans and indeed to mould every child in the womb, although he is only one aspect of Olodumare, the Almighty God, who alone can breathe life into the creations of Obatala."   Source

"OBATALA, the King of the White Cloth, is the oldest Orisha. He is considered to be the Father of all the other Orishas, and since they are kings and queens, for us, he is King of Kings. There are 16 caminos of Obatala, eight of them male and eight of them female. He is the servant of Olofi, and under the direction of Olofi, he became the creator of the mankind. Legend goes that Obatala was very fond of palm wine, and one day he drank a little too much while he was engaged in his work of fashioning the bodies of those to be born. The result was that some of his creations were born less than perfect with deformaties [sic] in their bodies. Naturally Olofi scolded Obatala for his error and forbid him to drink palm wine while engaged in that most important work. Since that time, those born with deformaties [sic] are considered to be children of Obatala and it is forbidden to make fun of them. Likewise, albinos are considered to be children of Obatala. White is the color of Obatala, representing purity and cleanliness and his children often wear white to please him and also as a protection. It is said that Obatala throws his white mantle over his children so that evil cannot touch them. Obatala is syncrenized [sic] in Cuba as Our Lady of Mercy. In Brazil, he is often identified with Christ the Redeamer (Cristo Redentor). Certain other Catholic Saints are associated with the different caminos of Obatala such as Saint Joseph, Saint Anne or even Saint James.

"In Haiti, Obatala is known as Damballah. When he possesses his children, they move about on the floor in the manner of snakes. Damballah is the primordial serpent. One of the oldest representations of the world or universe is the symbol of the serpent biting its own tail. Damballah in Haiti is identified with St Patrick, because in the picture of St. Patrick, he is shown chasing the serpents from Ireland. Followers of the Lwa, as the Ocha are called in Haiti, naturally assumed that the picture had to do with Damballah. Since the French, Spanish and Portugues [sic] forced the people in slavery to worship in a Christian way, the images of the Saints became means of the captive slaves to continue the adoration of the Orishas and Lwas under the guise of Christianity."   Source

Third day of Mikeli, ancient Latvia (Sep 22 - 24)
In a custom similar to the 'Leap Year proposal' discussed on February 29 – but with a twist – today is the only day of the year during which men proposed to their prospective wives.

Late Roman Empire, start of the indiction year (at least since the time of Bede)

Feast day of St Anton Martin Slomsek

Feast day of St Chuniald, or Conald, priest and missionary

Feast day of St Erinhard

Feast day of St Gerard Sagredo (Collert; Apostle of Hungary), Bishop of Csanad (Chonad), Hungary
(Dung fungus, Agaricus fimetarius, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
First bishop of Csanad in 1035.

Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like Dung

Feast day of St Geremarus (Germer; Geremar), abbot

Feast day of St Gislar

Feast day of St Isarnus of Toulouse

Feast day of the Martyrs of Chalcedon

Feast day of Our Lady of Mercy

Feast day of St Our Lady of Ransom

Feast day of St Our Lady of Walsingham

On August 4, 1538 England's King Henry VIII ordered the famed priory of Walsingham, one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in medieval England, to be desecrated as part of his program of dissolving the estates of the Catholic church. It is said that he felt the shame of this so keenly on his deathbed that he entrusted his soul to Our Lady of Walsingham.

Legend has it that the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared in Walsingham in 1051 (some sources say 1061) to Richeldis de Faverches, a Saxon noblewoman, widow of the Lord of the Manor of Walsingham Parva. Richeldis was known for her deep faith in God, her kindness to others and her devotion to Mary.

In her vision she was taken by Mary and shown the house in Nazareth where the Archangel Gabriel had announced the news of the birth of Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build an exact replica of that house in Walsingham, explaining why Walsingham became known as 'England's Nazareth'.

"In 1061 Lady Richeldis de Faverches, lady of the manor near the village of Walsingham, Norfolk, England, was taken in spirit to Nazareth. There Our Lady asked her to build a replica, in Norfolk, of the Holy House where she had been born, grew up, and received the Annunciation of Christ's impending birth. She immediately did, constructing a house 23'6" by 12'10" according to the plan given her. Its fame slowly spread, and in 1150 a group of Augustinian Canons built a priory beside it. Its fame continued to grow, and for centuries it was a point of pilgrimage for all classes, the recipient of many expensive gifts.

"In 1534 Walsingham became one of the first houses to sign the Oath of Supremacy, recognizing Henry VIII as head of the Church in England. Dissenters were executed, and in 1538 the House was stripped of its valuables, its statue of the Virgin taken to London to be burned, its buildings used as farm sheds for the next three centuries.

"In 1896 Charlotte Boyd purchased the Slipper Chapel and donated it to Downside Abbey. In 1897 Pope Leo XIII re-founded the ancient shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and pilgrimages are permitted to resume. The statue of Our Lady is enshrined in 1922 beginning an era of cooperation at the shrine between Catholics and Anglicans. In 1981 construction began on the Chapel of Reconciliation, a cooperative effort between the two confessions, and located near the shrine. The feast of Our Lady of Walsingham was reinstated in 2000."   Source

Walsingham Priory in Catholic Encyclopedia    More

Feast day of St Pacificus of Severino

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days

Fourth Friday in September: Native American Day, USA (2004)
"This day is set aside to honor and celebrate Native Americans, the first Americans to live in the U.S. Still commonly referred to as American Indians, the term "Native Americans" has been used in recent years as a sign of respect and recognition that they were indeed the first people to populate our wonderful nation. By the time the first explorers and settlers arrived from Europe, Native Americans had populated the entire North American Continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the northern reaches of Canada."   Source

Black Walnut festival, Stockton, Missouri, USA
"In Stockton, Missouri, folks are flocking to the 43rd Annual Black Walnut Festival, running today through the 27th. It seems that Stockton is home to the only black walnut processing plant in the world. Stockton, however, is not home to the only black walnut festival; Spencer, West Virginia, is still gearing up for theirs (Roane County Black Walnut Festival – this one has a Black Walnut Queen) – it will be held October 9-12. Colerain Township, Ohio, also has one (Switzerland of Ohio Black Walnut Festival) and it runs October 11-12 this year."   Source

Heritage Day, South Africa

La Mercè, Barcelona, Spain
Today is the feast of the Virgin of Mercy, the festival for Barcelona's patron saint; features art and musical activities. It has been an official city holiday since 1871, when the local government first organized a program of special activities to observe the Roman Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Mercy. The year 1902 saw a new impetus to the celebrations, with parades containing the first appearance in Catalonia of paper mache "giants" (known as 'gigantes y cabezudos' in Spanish), the first Castell competition and the importation from the Emporda region of a dance that was gaining popularity throughout Catalonia: the Sardana. Ever since that time, the holiday has enjoyed immense local popularity.

Among more recently introduced traditions are the annual Catalonian Wine Fair, a special 'correfoc', a marathon race, and the particularly popular 'Pyro-Musical', which is a spectacular display of synchronized fireworks, water fountains and music at the base of Montjuic hill.

Celebration day for Orunmila, Voudon (Voodoo)   Source

Aizu Byakko Matsuri, (Aizu) Byakko Festival, Aizuwakamatsu-shi, Fukushima, Japan (Sep 22 - 24)

Autumn Equinox festival at Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico (Sep 17 - 26)

Oktoberfest (Sep 20 - Oct 5)

Independence Day, Guinea-Bissau (declared independence from Portugal, September 24, 1973)

Republic Day (1976), Trinidad and Tobago

Territorial Day, New Caledonia

Mumia Awareness Week (Sep 19 - 25)

National Punctuation Day, USA

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

15 Vitellius (d. 69), Roman Emperor

1301 Ralph Stafford, 1^st Earl of Stafford (d. 1372), English soldier

1501 Gerolamo Cardano (d. September 21, 1576), celebrated Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler

"Because John Hamilton's asthma was primarily nocturnal, Girolamo Cardano, Europe's leading physician, suggested a change in bedding. Silk substituted for feather stuffing of pillow, mattress, and blanket resolved the problem. This episode presents one of the earliest examples of identification of an allergen."   Source

1534 Guru Ram Das (d. 1581), Fourth Sikh Guru/Master

1564 William Adams (d. 1620), English navigator and Japanese samurai

1625 Johan de Witt (d. 1672), Dutch politician

1705 Leopold Josef Graf Daun (d. 1766), Austrian field marshal

1717 Horace Walpole (d. March 2, 1797), 4^th Earl of Orford, English Gothic writer (The Castle of Otranto), publisher and antiquarian, the man who coined the word 'serendipity' from Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka. He published his own works and Thomas Gray's odes from his neo-Gothic castle, Strawberry Hill.

"Walpole, the youngest son of England's longest-ruling Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, attended Eton and Cambridge. After his schooling, he traveled on the Continent for two years with Thomas Gray, returning to take a seat in Parliament in 1741. In 1747, Walpole bought a house near Twickenham outside London, which, over the course of his life, he turned into a fantastic neo-Gothic castle called Strawberry Hill. There he housed one of the most extensive and eclectic collections of art in England, and set up a small private press, publishing works by Gray, Joseph Spence, Hannah More, and others.

"Walpole is best known for writing the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto (1765)."   Source

1755 John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1835)  

1825 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (d. February 22, 1911), African-American author, poet, orator, abolitionist and social reformer, whose first book of poetry, Forest Leaves, was published in 1845, but no copy survives. Her second, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854) sold 10,000 copies. 

Harper was a member of the American Woman Suffrage Association and a travelling lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

 

'Ethiopia'

By Frances Harper 

Yes, Ethiopia yet shall stretch 
Her bleeding hands abroad; 
Her cry of agony shall reach 
The burning throne of God. 

The tyrant's yoke from off her neck, 
His fetters from her soul, 
The mighty hand of God shall break 
And spurn the base control. 

Redeemed from dust, and freed from chains, 
Her sons shall lift their eyes; 
From lofty hills and verdant plains 
Shall shouts of triumph rise. 

Upon the dark, despairing brow 
Shall play a smile of peace; 
For God shall bend unto her woe, 
And bid her sorrows cease. 

'Neath sheltering vines and stately palms 
Shall laughing children play; 
And aged sires, with joyous psalms, 
Shall gladden every day. 

Secure by night and blest by day,
Shall pass her happy hours;
No human tigers hunt for prey
Within her peaceful bowers. 

Then, Ethiopia, stretch, O, stretch,
Thy bleeding hands abroad;
Thy cry of agony shall reach
And find the throne of God.

'To Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe', by Frances Harper    More poems    More

1870 Georges Claude (d. May 23, 1960), French engineer, chemist, and inventor, the first to apply an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas (c. 1902) to create a lamp (neon light)

1896 F Scott Fitzgerald (d. 1940), American novelist (The Great Gatsby)

1898 Howard Walter Florey (Baron Florey; d. February 21, 1968), Australian pharmacologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the extraction of penicillin. Florey was elected president of the Royal Society in 1959. Florey is regarded by the Australian scientific and medical community as probably its greatest scientist. Robert Menzies, Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, said that "in terms of world well-being, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia".

Three Nobels and one astronaut from the one Adelaide high school

1899 Sir William Dobell (d. May 13, 1970), Australian artist whose name will forever be linked to that of his friend, Joshua Smith. In 1943, Dobell won Australia's most prestigious award for portraiture, the often controversial Archibald Prize, for a painting (right) of fellow artist, Smith.

Amid claims that the painting was a caricature and not a portrait, a highly celebrated and acrimonious court case eventuated, in which lawyers drew attention to Smith's non-movie star visage. How could the portrait be a caricature, it was asked, when Smith really had those odd looks? And that was just from the lawyers on Dobell's side.

The public curiosity, or, rather, prurience, was heightened by the subtle nuances of the sexuality of Dobell and his friend. Dobell was vindicated, but some scholars say that both Smith and Dobell were ruined in health by the case.

Dobell's controversial portrait of the aged radical writer, Dame Mary Gilmore, appears on the Australian $10 note (more).

"The incident was also noteworthy because beneath a thin veneer of high-minded aesthetic discussion lurked a voyeuristic curiosity about the true nature of the relationship between Dobell and his sitter, Joshua Smith, a friend and fellow artist."   Source

" … the most famous incident in Australian Art History, the Archibald trial of 1944, was generated by the press' interest in art. What held the press interested for over four days of hearing was the potential scandalous relationship between Dobell and Joshua Smith. And of course one Sydney paper got what they wanted with the headline "Dobell tells of two years in a tent with Joshua Smith". For the Press, the 1944 trial was about homophobia, not art. Art critic Joanna Mendelssohn stated in 1997: "In a time and place where homosexuality was a criminal act, Dobell was well and truly outed".(Review of William Dobell: the painters progress, The Australian, Fri 28 Feb.1997 p. 11) …"   Source

"What Dargie calls 'an absurdist trial' followed, because 'Dobell exaggerated the body of his subject, the naturally elongated Joshua Smith.'

"Dargie however supported Dobell, and commented 'How dare they call that picture of Smith caricatured? I saw him in Sydney one day. He was caricatured in himself.' It is interesting to note that in the following year, the Archibald Prize was awarded to Joshua Smith.

"Sixty years later this work of 'Joshua Smith' by Dobell, because of the controversy and the trial, is one of the best known of the Archibald Prize works, and still generates media attention."   Source

1905 Severo Ochoa, biochemist, Nobel Prize winner

1905 Howard Hughes (d. 1976), aviator, inventor, film producer, eccentric

1914 Sir John Kerr, AK, GCMG, GCVO, QC (d. April 7, 1991), Australian judge and 18^th Governor-General of Australia, most notorious for dismissing the Labor government of Gough Whitlam on November 11, 1975, sparking probably the most significant constitutional crisis in Australian history. (Malcolm Fraser succeeded Whitlam.)

1921 Jim McKay, sports commentator

1931 Anthony Newley (d. 1999), British actor and lyricist (co-wrote musical, Stop the World - I Want to Get Off)

1936 Jim Henson (d. May 16, 1990), creator of the Muppets and Sesame Street

http://www.henson.com

1941 Linda McCartney (b. Linda Eastman; d. 1998), singer and animal rights activist, wife of Paul McCartney

1942 Gerry Marsden, British singer (Gerry and the Pacemakers)

1946 Lars Emil Johansen, Prime Minister of Greenland

1948 Phil Hartman (d. 1998), actor

1951 Pedro Almodovar, movie director

1958 Kevin Sorbo, actor

1959 Steve Whitmire, voice actor

1962 Nia Vardalos, actress, writer, comedienne

1969 Antye Greie, German musician, poem producer

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

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Second Mon. in Oct. Canadian Thanksgiving

 

September

22 Autumnal Equinox / Spring Equinox
24 Kiss Day
24 Good Neighbor Day
24 Innergize Day
24 World Heart Day
25 Family Day
25 New Horizons Day
25 One Hit Wonder Day
26 International Tool Day
28 Strawberry Cream Pie Day
28 St Wenceslas Feast Day
29 All Angels Day
29 Pumpkin Day
29 Coffee Day
29 Goose Day
29 Michaelmas Day
29 Pumpkin Day
29 All Angels Day
29 Coffee Day
30 Ask A Stupid Question Day

October

1 World Vegetarian Day
1 Independence Day (Nigeria)
1 Pumpkin Day
1 International Day Of Older Persons
1 National Day (China)
2 Name Your Car Day
2 Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday
2 World Farm Animals Day
4 Taco Day
4 World Animal Day
4 Golf Lovers Day
4 International Toot Your Flute Day
4 St Francis Day
5 Long Walk Day
5 World Teacher's Day
6 Biscuit Day
6 Soap Opera Day
6 German-American Day
6 Physician Assistant Day
7 Send A Smile Day
7 Bathtub Day
7 Frappe Day
8 Tube Top Day
8 Fluffernutter Day
8 Pumpkin Festival (Oklahoma, USA)
9 Children's Day
9 Leif Erikson Day
9 Clergy Appreciation Day

  ... More Events

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1912 BCE According to Kevin Pang, a Pasadena, California, USA, geology consultant, when 4^th-Century BCE Chinese philosopher Motze wrote, in his account of a battle some 1,500 years earlier, "The sun rose at night", he was referring to a total solar eclipse that took place on this day. The sun's re-emergence from behind the moon was thus recorded as a nocturnal sunrise.

Because Pang knew precisely where the battle took place, by astronomical calculations done with the help of a computer program by Kevin Yau of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it was possible to discover the eclipse of September 24, 1912 BCE and thus understand what event Motze was referring to.

Kevin Pang's work on celestial portents and the fall of Constantinople

366 Death of Pope Liberius.

622 Muhammad completed his hegira from Mecca to Medina.

768 Death of Pepin III (Pepin the Short; Pippin the Short; b. 714), King of the Franks.

1143 Death of Pope Innocent II.

1235 The first official investigation of a UFO sighting occurred. General Yoritsume and his army observed mysterious lights in the southwest for many hours, swinging, circling, and moving in loops. Yoritsume ordered a 'full-scale scientific investigation' of these phenomena. The report finally submitted to him dismissed the strange sight as the wind making the stars sway.

1493 Christopher Columbus departed on his second expedition to the New World.

1541 One of history's greatest alchemists, Paracelsus, made his will, but there was no mention of gold or silver, the alchemists' holy grail. His only legacy was a 125 grams (approx. 4 oz Troy/Apoth.) silver chalice.

More on the philosophers' stone    More on Paracelsus    More

Alchemists in the Almanac:  Cornelius Agrippa  Roger Bacon  Count Cagliostro  John Dee
Edward Kelley  Robert Fludd  Isaac Newton  James Price  Tycho Brahe  Raymond Lulle   Elias Ashmole

The Alchemy Web Site   Wilson's Almanac Alchemy Clock (a bit of fun)     Shop Alchemy

 

1572 Death of Tupac Amaru, last leader of the Incan Empire, great-grandfather of Túpac Amaru II (Tupac Amaru II; 1738 - '81), Peruvian revolutionary.

 

1652 English highwayman, Captain James Hind, known by every man and woman in England for his daring crimes, was executed at Newgate Prison. Hind grew up in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, the son of a saddler, served an apprenticeship and worked as a butcher for two years until running away from his disagreeable master.

He went up to London, where he met and teamed up with Thomas Allen, a prominent highwayman. On one occasion they bailed up none other than Oliver Cromwell and his seven bodyguards, but were overpowered by the latter. Tom Allen died on the gallows for this crime, but James Hind somehow managed to make his escape.

A battle of the Bible

Another time on the road, Captain Hind met Hugh Peters, who was one of the Puritan republicans responsible for the death of King Charles I, and commanded him to hand over his purse. Peters, a religious man, regaled Hind with verses from the Bible. "It is written in the Law"' he chastised the highwayman, "that thou shalt not steal. And furthermore, Solomon, who was surely a very wise man, speaketh in this manner: 'Rob not the poor, because he is poor'."

Hind decided to debate his victim in kind, and challenge Peters for his crime of regicide. "Verily," said Hind, "if thou hadst regarded the divine precepts as thou oughtest to have done, thou wouldst not have wrested them to such an abominable and wicked sense as thou didst the words of the prophet, when he saith, 'Bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron'. Didst thou not, thou detestable hypocrite, endeavour from these words to aggravate the misfortunes of thy Royal master, whom thy accursed republican party unjustly murdered before the door of his own palace?"

Here Hugh Peters began to make excuses for the king's assassination, and brought forward other parts of Scripture in his defence, and also to preserve his money. "Pray, sir," replied Hind, "make no reflections on my profession; for Solomon plainly says, 'Do not despise a thief'; but it is to little purpose for us to dispute. The substance of what I have to say is this: deliver thy money presently, or else I shall send thee out of the world to thy master in an instant."

These words of the captain so frightened the old Presbyterian that he gave him thirty broad-pieces of gold, and then the highwayman and regicide parted. However, Hind was not thoroughly satisfied with letting such a notorious enemy to the Crown get off so lightly. He rode after Peters at full speed, caught up with him and cheekily said to him: "Sir, now I think of it, I am convinced that this misfortune has happened to you because you did not obey the words of the Scripture, which say expressly, 'Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses for your journey'; whereas it is evident that you had provided a pretty deal of gold. However, as it is now in my power to make you fulfil another command, I would by no means slip the opportunity. Therefore pray give me your cloak."

Understandably, Peters was dumbfounded. Hind explained himself, quoting from the New Testament: "You know, sir, our Saviour has commanded, that if any man take away thy cloak, thou must not refuse thy coat also; therefore I cannot suppose you will act in direct contradiction to such an express direction, especially now you can't pretend you have forgot it, because I have reminded you of your duty." The old Puritan hesitated, then delivered his coat, which Hind was delighted to receive, and no doubt the highwayman went on his way laughing heartily.

A 17^th-Century Robin Hood?
As might be expected, perhaps, an aura of the Robin Hood type grew up around the highwayman, and many stories were told of his kindness, sympathy and generosity to the poor. Once, he came upon a poor man riding on an ass. He rode up to meet him, and asked him very courteously where he was going. The old man replied, "To the market at Wantage, to buy me a cow, that I may have some milk for my children." "How many children," asked Hind, "may you have?" The old man answered ten. "And how much do you think to give for a cow?" Hind asked the peasant. "I have but forty shillings, master, and that I have been saving together these two years," came the answer ...

Read on at the Capt. James Hind page in the Scriptorium

 

1664 The Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to England.

1789 The Supreme Court of the United States and the position of United States Attorney General were established. The United States Post Office Department was also established on this day.

1841 The Sultan of Brunei ceded Sarawak to Britain.

1852 The first dirigible flown, a hydrogen-filled airship, made its maiden flight at Versailles, France.

1869 'Black Friday'. Gold prices plummeted as Jay Gould and James Fisk plotted to control the market. It's one of several days in history known as 'Black Friday' (others include December 6, 1745, May 11, 1866 and April 15, 1921). Many US speculators were ruined by the government's release of gold onto the market, as a corrective to the effects caused by stock manipulators.

1877 The modernised Japanese army put down a rebellion by 40,000 feudal samurai warriors who were resisting the loss of their bushido traditional code of honour.

1890 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounced polygamy.

1908 The first Ford Model T was built.

1908 The first Old Age Pension Act was passed, Britain.

1917 Herbert Klingberg passed the driving test for the first Australian car licence.

1930 Noel Coward's play, Private Lives, opened, starring the playwright and Gertrude Lawrence.

1941 The Siege of Leningrad began.

1947 Sikhs at Amritsar, Punjab, India, massacred 1,200 defenceless Muslim refugees on a train, in revenge for similar attacks by Muslims against Sikhs and Hindus.

1948 The Honda Motor Company was founded.

1957 President Dwight Eisenhower sent United States National Guard troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce desegregation.

1960 USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Virginia.

1962 The United States court of appeals ordered the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.

1973 Guinea-Bissau declared its independence from Portugal.

1973 Juan Perón was re-elected president of Argentina after nearly 20 years in exile.

1975 The first all-British ascent of Mt Everest was made.

1980 Iraq invaded Iran in force, destroying the huge oil refinery at Abadan.

1983 In Italy, chemical company executives responsible for the Seveso dioxin disaster (July 10, 1976, in which a toxic gas cloud contaminated a large area around Seveso) were jailed.

1985 "In 1985 Li Yungzhong, a farmer from Hunan in China, found a 1.18 carat uncut diamond in the gizzard of a chicken he was preparing for dinner. He sold it for about £300, three times the average peasant's annual income. Only the month before, the wife of Sioux Indian Benny Left Hand was cutting up a chicken she had recently killed on Standing Rock reservation when she found a one-ounce gold nugget in its gut, with an estimated value of £300. Since the news got out, there were several attempts to steal the other chickens belonging to the Left Hands."   Source

1988 Rev Barbara Harris, an African-American, was elected the world's first Anglican (USA: Episcopalian) bishop.

1991 Death of Theodor Geisel, aka Dr Seuss (b. 1904), American writer and illustrator (The Cat in the Hat; How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Green Eggs and Ham; Hop on Pop).

1991 Nirvana's Nevermind album was released.

1993 Broderbund released the computer game Myst.

1994 The National League for Democracy was formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various people to help fight against dictatorship of Myanmar.

2004 USA: Hurricane Ivan dissipated over Texas, and headed north into the plains.

2005 Hurricane Rita made landfall in the United States, devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of south-western Louisiana.

 

 

Tomorrow: Last blackberry-eating day

 

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Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research.
I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude.
© My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.

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