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If the hart and the hind meet dry and part dry on Holyrood Day, there will be no more rain for six weeks.
Old English weather prognostication proverb

Cleft, fruitful, fruitful, fruitful
Joy of carrots, surpassing upon me
Michael the brave endowing me
Bride the fair be aiding me.
Carmina Gadelica; in the Hebrides, females picked St Michael's wild carrots at this time

On Friday the 26th of September in the year of our Lord 1449, about the hour of Vespers, two terrible dragons were seen fighting for about the space of one hour, on two hills, of which one, in Suffolk, is called Kydyndon Hyl and the other in Essex Blacdon Hyl. One was black in colour and the other reddish and spotted. After a long conflict the reddish one obtained the victory over the black, which done, both returned into the hills above named whence they had come, that is to say, each to his own place to the admiration of many beholding them.
From a Ms in the Library of The Dean and Chapter at Canterbury (Blacdon Hyl is now known as Ballingdon Hill, and Kydyndon Hyl is Killingdown Hill at Keddington. Below the latter is a meadow known as Sharpfight Meadow) Source

Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment
And despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
'Deteriorata' (not written by Max Ehrmann; not found in Old St Paul's Church)

A man cannot have a pure mind who refuses apple dumplings.
Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834), English poet

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

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Life in a Medieval Village

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The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

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Feast day of Ss Cyprian the Magician, and Justina, martyrs
(Gigantic goldenrod, Solidago gigantea, is today's plant, dedicated to these saints.)

Old Holy-Rood Day, Britain (now October 11)

Traditionally beginning of mating season for deer.

Satan urinates on blackberries, Scotland

Yesterday was the last day for picking blackberries because the devil poisons them today by urinating and/or spitting on them at about this time of year (Old Michaelmas Day, October 11, in parts of England). Satan had fallen into a blackberry patch and cursed the plant for scratching him. In France, it was thought that the colour of the fruit resulted from when the Devil spat on it.

Sunday preceding Michaelmas (2004)

Gathering St Michael's Carrots
In the Hebrides, on the afternoon of the Sunday preceding Michaelmas, women and girls traditionally gather St Michael's wild carrots in a ritual manner. They dig triangular holes (signifying Michael's shield), with a three-pronged mattock (St Michael's trident), and tie them into bunches with a triple red thread. These are given to visitors on Michaelmas Day (see September 29), and forked roots are considered especially lucky.

In the 19^th Century, Alexander Carmichael, author of Carmina Gadelica, collected many folk customs and prayers (that are more like spells) from the Scottish highlands and islands. Here is a charm that was recited during the gathering of St. Michael's carrots:

Cleft, fruitful, fruitful, fruitful
Joy of carrots surpassing upon me
Michael the brave endowing me
Bride the fair be aiding me

Source: School of the Seasons; Charles Kightly, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames and Hudson, London, 1987

"Trick – write the word 'carrot' on a piece of paper and hide it. Ask some-one to quickly answer your questions, ask 'what is 1 + 1?', 'what is 2 + 2' etc. until the answer is 128, then ask them to name a vegetable, they will almost always answer with 'carrot' – reveal your paper." [sic]   Source

Carrot Trivia 101 things you never knew about carrots

Good Neighbor Day, USA (4^th Sunday in September)

"Good Neighbor Day was started by Mrs. Becky Mattson in Montana with Congressional correspondence to The Honorable Mike Mansfield in 1971. With Mr. Mansfield's enthusiastic support, National Good Neighbor Day was subsequently proclaimed by three United States Presidents: President Carter, President Ford and President Nixon. In addition, governors of many states also issued proclamations of Good Neighbor Day."   Source

Bureflux (Discordianism)

Prickle-Prickle, Day 50 of Bureaucracy, YOLD 3170

Today in the Discordian Calendar

Feast of Zame Ye Mebege, Gabon
God of Narcotics.   Source: The Daily Bleed

Mid-Autumn Day, Scottish Highlands
Considered the start of mating season for the deer. Whatever the weather is today, in Scotland, it will continue as such for another forty days.

Feast day of St Eusebius, 31^st pope in 310

Feast day of St Giovanni Mazzucconi

Feast day of St John of Meda

Feast day of St Louis Tezza

Feast day of St Marie Victoire Therese Couderc

Feast day of St Nilus the Younger

Feast day of the North American Martyrs

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days

Celebration day for Orunmila, Voudon (Voodoo)   Source

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

Oktoberfest (Sep 20 - Oct 5)

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

1774 Johnny Appleseed (d. March 18?, 1847), born in Leominster, Massachusetts. American pioneer, Swedenborgian Christian missionary, early conservationist and folk hero, John Chapman, was known as Johnny Appleseed for his large number of fruit tree plantings. He is regarded as the 'patron saint' of orchardists in the USA, and this is celebrated as his day. March 11 is considered Johnny Appleseed Day by some, but it is not widely commemorated and many people, your almanackist included, think that today makes a better choice.

Apple folklore links    The Real Johnny Appleseed Story    Last Orchard in Johnny Appleseed's Hometown        About the apple    More    More

Granny Smith and her apple
Your almanackist went to primary school and university near the street where Granny Smith (Maria Ann Smith; 1799 - 1870) produced the famous apple that bears her name. "The farm lay between the present North Road and Abuklea Road, Eastwood, with its northern boundary midway between today's Irene Crescent and Longview Street and its southern boundary crossing Threlfall Street."   Source    Google Maps reference

1833 Charles Bradlaugh (d. January 30, 1891), British freethinker, political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19^th Century.

Early progressives in the Book of Days

1836 (date of baptism) Thomas Crapper (d. January 27, 1910), English plumber who is said to have patented the flush toilet (see Snopes on this)

From Wikipedia: In the United States, the word "crapper" is a dysphemism for "toilet," although it is not clear if this has anything to do with Thomas Crapper. The term first appeared in print in the 1930s, and it has been suggested that U.S. soldiers stationed in England during World War I (some of whom had little experience with indoor plumbing) saw many toilets printed with T. Crapper in the glaze and brought the word home as a synonym for "toilet." Another theory is that the association came from the verb to crap, meaning "to defecate" (recorded since 1846 according to Oxford), and the connection to Thomas Crapper is an unfortunate coincidence of his surname. Yet another explanation is that Crapper's flush toilet advertising was so widespread that "crapper" became a synonym for "toilet" and people simply assumed that he was the inventor. "Crapper" remains an Americanism, but has fallen into disuse.

The noun crap is old in the English language, one of a group of words applied to discarded cast offs, like "residue from renderings" (1490s) or in Shropshire, "dregs of beer or ale", meanings probably extended from Middle English crappe "chaff, or grain that has been trodden underfoot in a barn" (c. 1440), deriving ultimately from Late Latin crappa, "chaff." The occupational name Crapper is a variant spelling of "Cropper".

Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd

1843 Joseph Furphy (d. September 13, 1912), Australian novelist (Such is Life) and a regular contributor to The Bulletin under the name of Tom Collins (at first, 'Warrigal Jack').

Such is Life is a fictional account of the life of rural dwellers, including bullock drivers, squatters and itinerant travellers, in southern New South Wales and Victoria, during the 1880s.

The book comprises a series of loosely interwoven stories of the various people encountered by the narrator as he travels about the countryside. At times the prose is difficult to understand because of the use of Australian vernacular and the author's attempt to convey the accents of Scottish and Chinese personalities. This novel nevertheless provides an insight into the character of rural dwellers in Australia in the latter half of the 19^th Century.

The title of Such is Life is said to be derived from Ned Kelly's last words when he was hanged in Melbourne on November 11, 1880.

Joseph Furphy's older brother, John, invented the Furphy Water Cart, which provided the origin of the expression 'furphy' (a rumour, urban myth or popular deceit), which came into Australian English as the carts were popular soldiers' meeting-places on World War I battlefields, and around which the soldiers would exchange gossip, rumours and fanciful tales. 'Scuttlebutt' has a similar etymology, a scuttlebutt originally being a cask of drinking water on a ship.

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson    More on 'furphy'    More    More

1844 Rev. Charles Strong, DD (d. February 12, 1942), Scottish-born Australian dissident Presbyterian minister, anti-conscription activist in WWI (see WWI anti-conscription struggle), social activist and founder of the Australian Church, which continued until 1957. Prime Minister Alfred Deakin was a member of the Australian Church (more here), as was radical lawyer and poet, Bernard O'Dowd.

"Acknowledged as one of the most controversial clergyman in the history of the Victorian Presbyterian Church, Strong was born at Dailly, Ayrshire, Scotland on 26 September 1844 the son of Rev. David Strong and Margaret née Roxburgh. While attending University of Glasgow (Hon. LL.D., 1887) between 1859 and 1864 he came under the influence of Edward Caird, professor of moral philosophy and rejected the scholastic Calvinist teaching as the true and sufficient expression of the evangelical faith, instead following a more liberal theological view. Ordained in 1868, his success as a 'pastor, preacher, liberal theological teacher and social reformer' led to his appointment as head of Scots Church, Collins Street (1875-83) in Melbourne. Yet, 'almost from the hour of his arrival', controversy was never far away and his essays, outspoken criticism of social evils and advocacy of evangelical reform soon led to friction within the presbytery; Strong offered his resignation in August 1881 but instead agreed to take leave and he left to visit Scotland in 1882. But his absence did little to resolve the theological divide and soon after his return he became embroiled in fresh controversy over his failure to denounce George Higinbotham's (q.v.) lecture he chaired titled 'The Relation between Science and Religion' and was threatened with a libel for heresy; in a tense and dramatic sequence of events he refused to attend the General Assembly on 14 November 1883 arguing the action against him as 'unconstitutional and illegal' according to the laws of the Church and defiantly set sail for Scotland the next day. In November 1884, Strong returned to Melbourne and the following year founded the Australian Church – a free religious fellowship – yet it was his controversial views that led to its eventual demise in 1957. Among the many admirers of Strong were the politician Sir James Lorimer (St. Kilda Cemetery), Alfred Felton (St. Kilda Cemetery) of 'Felton, Grimwade & Co', and Alfred Deakin (St. Kilda Cemetery), thrice Prime Minister of Australia. Residing at 7 Barnalo Grove, Armadale he died while holidaying at Lorne on 12 February 1942." [sic]  Source

More

1869 Komitas (d. 1935), Armenian composer

1870 King Christian X of Denmark (d. 1947)

1871 Winsor McCay (d. 1934), American cartoonist. His two best-known creations are the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, which appeared in the New York Herald and William Randolph Hearst's New York American newspapers from October 15, 1905 - April 23, 1911 and April 30, 1911 - '13 (under the title In the Land of Wonderful Dreams) respectively and again with little success from 1924 - '26. He also created the pioneer animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur, in 1914.

"In 1924 he left Hearst and returned to the now Herald Tribune and tried to revive Little Nemo. It lasted for two years, but proved to be out of touch with the public. McCay was allowed to purchase all rights to the character for $1 – a magnanimous gesture that doubled as a sad evaluation of his efforts."   Source

"Robert McCay, the cartoonist's son (and original model for Nemo) tried twice to resurrect the strip, once in the late 1930s and again a decade later. The second attempt ended in 1947, and that was the end of Little Nemo in Slumberland as a newspaper feature.

"But the strip was far from forgotten! In 1966, it was part of an exhibit of McCay's work at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the few such exhibits ever devoted to a comic strip cartoonist. Maurice Sendak, the highly-acclaimed children's author and illustrator, cited McCay as a major influence on his own work. Publisher Woody Gelman reprinted much of the strip's run in the 1940s, and even more in the '70s. In 1995, in company with Toonerville Folks, Brenda Starr, Terry & the Pirates and other 'Comic Strip Classics', it appeared on a U.S. postage stamp. Between 1989 and 1993, Fantagraphics Books reprinted both of the early runs of the strip — Bennet and Hearst — in a six-volume set which stands, today, as the strip's definitive edition.

"Even today, nearly a century after its first appearance, Little Nemo in Slumberland has seldom been equalled, and perhaps never surpassed, as an example of the sheer beauty of which the comics form is capable."
Source: Toonopedia: Little Nemo in Slumberland

Big graphics    Winsor McCay online    Flash views

Sinking of the Lusitania, by McCay    Example    Another    More    Links

1872 Max Ehrmann (d. September 9, 1945), an attorney from Indiana, USA, best known for writing the 'Desiderata' (Latin: something desired as essential) in 1927. Unfortunately, he died some two decades before that poem became popular, and protected by copyright law.

In about 1965, copies of the poem were published in hundreds, or more likely, thousands, of publications with the fraudulent (or perhaps simply mistaken) attribution 'Found in Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore; Dated 1692', and it was widely reprinted on the assumption that it was in the public domain, but it is still under copyright. Although it would seem quite apparent that the poem's concepts and wording belong to the 20^th Century rather than the 17^th, even today the hoax has wide currency.

In the Scriptorium: Hoaxes and frauds through history

1874 Lewis Hine (d. 1940), photographer, social activist

1875 Edmund Gwenn (d. 1959), actor

1876 Edith Abbott (d. 1957), social worker, educator, and author

1888 TS Eliot (d. 1965), American-born poet, playwright and critic ('The Waste Land'; 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock')

From 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night'

By TS Eliot

TWELVE o'clock.
Along the reaches of the street
Held in a lunar synthesis,
Whispering lunar incantations
Dissolve the floors of memory
And all its clear relations
Its divisions and precisions,
Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.

1888 J Frank Dobie, Texas folklorist and newspaper columnist

1889 Martin Heidegger (d. 1976), German philosopher

1895 George Raft (d. 1980), actor

1897 Pope Paul VI (d. 1978)

1898 George Gershwin (d. 1937) American  composer whose 1925 composition Rhapsody in Blue is the most famous jazz-based piece played in concert halls. In 1919, wrote the hit song 'Swanee', which was popularised by Al Jolson and brought Gershwin success. When some woman after a concert said to him, "You were just wonderful," he retorted, "Just wonderful?" He died at 38.

1914 Jack LaLanne, fitness advocate

1925 Marty Robbins (d. 1982), country music singer

1926 Julie London (d. 2000), American singer and actress

1926 John Coltrane (d. 1967), American musician

1932 Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

1936 Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist, kidnapper, criminal and former wife of South African terrorist Nelson Mandela. Mrs Mandela urged her followers to 'necklace' the ANC's enemies, and those (including children) alleged to be traitors to the Mandelas' Marxist-Leninist  movement as well as their relatives and associates. She said, "with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country".

Necklacing refers to the practice of summary execution carried out by forcing a rubber tyre, filled with gasoline, around a live victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire. The fatality rate among necklacing victims was higher than usual for persons with a similar portion of their body covered by burns of like severity. In 1991, Winnie Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault in connection with the death of Stompie Moeketsi. Her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and two years' probation on appeal.

1945 Bryan Ferry, British entertainer, former lead singer with Roxy Music

1946 Andrea Dworkin (d. April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she believed to be linked with rape and other forms of violence against women

1948 Olivia Newton-John, English-born Australian singer and actress (Grease), granddaughter of 1954 Nobel prize-winning physicist, Max Born. Her biggest hit was 'Physical' which sold over 2 million copies and spent 10 consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 (beginning November 21, 1981).

"Born in 1948 Olivia, also known as Livvey, has had 5 #1 hits. She's starred in the highest grossing musical ever, Grease. In 1982 the song Physical which had been banned from some radio stations because of its suggestive lyrics reached #1 at the charts and stayed there an amazing 10 weeks, a record for a woman singer. Her palmares include 4 Grammys, a star on hollywood boulvard and a dozen of more awards. She recently recovered from breast- cancer and released a CD, GAIA."   Source

1956 Clip Payne, musician (P Funk)

1956 Linda Hamilton, American movie actress

1962 Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress

1964 Les Claypool, American musician

1967 Shannon Hoon (d. 1995), singer (Blind Melon)

1968 James Caviezel, actor (The Passion of the Christ)

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Second Mon. in Oct. Canadian Thanksgiving

 

September

22 Autumnal Equinox / Spring Equinox
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
11 "You Go, Girl" Day
11 Sausage Pizza Day
12 Columbus Day (USA)

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70 CE Jerusalem fell to the legions of Roman Emperor Vespasian (Caesar Vespasianus Augustus,  9 CE - 79), under Titus, ending the Jewish War, despite the besieged fortress of Masada holding out for another three years. After the sacking of Jerusalem, all that remained was the Wailing Wall.

 

1449 According to a medieval chronicle, on St Cyprian's Day, Friday, September 26, two fire-breathing dragons battled each other at Great Cornard by the River Stour, Kent, England.

The two dragons, one from Killingdown Hill in Suffolk, the other from Ballingdon Hill in Essex, met in the marshy field known as Sharpfight Meadow, and the ground shook as the two beasts fought it out, watched by the amazed villagers from miles around.

Dinosaurs from Anglo-Saxon and other Records

Dragon accounts in historical records    More

 

1580 (Some sources say September 20) Sir Francis Drake completed the first round-the-world voyage by an Englishman, in the Golden Hind, bringing treasure and spices back to England.

1687 The Parthenon in Athens was partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morozini who were besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens. Some sources say that the Turks were using part of the temple for an ammunition magazine, which exploded under the Venetian shelling.

1777 British troops occupied Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.

1789 Thomas Jefferson was appointed the first United States Secretary of State; John Jay was appointed first Chief Justice of the United States; Samuel Osgood was appointed first United States Postmaster General;, and Edmund Randolph appointed first United States Attorney General.

1791 The first convicts sent directly from Ireland to Australia arrived from Cork on the Queen. The youngest was David Fay of Dublin (11) and the oldest was Patrick Fitzgerald (64). There were 133 males and 22 females.

"A large body of traditional customs and belief in Ireland centred on holy places and seasonal festivals. The holy places had been left behind, and in Australia the hemisphere (reversing the seasons), the warmer climate in which seasonal transitions were nothing so marked, and an agricultural economy very different from Ireland's, all conspired against celebration of the Irish folk calendar. Nevertheless, Father Therry, when he arrived in 1820, found a congregation with many 'curious beliefs', including the crediting to him of what amounted to magical powers …"
O'Farrell, Patrick, The Irish in Australia: 1788 to the Present, Cork University Press, Ireland, 2001, p. 22

1802 Death of Baron Jurij Vega (b. 1754), Slovene mathematician, physicist and artillery officer.

1808 At Stronsay, one of the Orkney Islands off northern Scotland, a fisherman, John Peace was working east of Rothiesholm Point when he saw what seemed to be the carcass of a whale cast up onto the rocks. The carcass measured 55 feet in length. It has come to be known as the Stronsay Beast, a favourite globster of cryptozoologists. One suggestion is that it might have been a remarkably long Basking shark.

Attack of the Globsters! at Skeptoid.com

1810 A new Act of Succession was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte became heir to the Swedish throne.

1815 The Holy Alliance was signed by Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Francis I of Austria, and Frederick William III, King of Prussia.

1820 Death of Daniel Boone (b. 1734), American frontiersman.

1824 Kapiolani defied Pele (Hawaiian volcano goddess) and lived.

Hawaiian legends tell that eruptions were caused by Pele, the beautiful but tempestuous Goddess of Volcanoes, during her frequent moments of anger. Pele was both revered and feared; her immense power and many adventures figured prominently in ancient Hawaiian songs and chants. She could cause earthquakes by stamping her feet and volcanic eruptions and fiery devastation by digging with the Pa'oe, her magic stick. An oft-told legend describes the long and bitter quarrel between Pele and her older sister Namakaokahai that led to the creation of the chain of volcanoes that form the islands.  

Source: The Daily Bleed

"Not long after the old religion was abolished in 1819, the high chiefess Kapi'olani defied Pele by eating 'ohelo berries at the edge of Halema'uma'u caldera without first offering them to or requesting Pele's permission. In open defiance, Kapi'olani threw stones into the molten lava below. When she was not harmed, she insisted it proved Pele had no power and it was time for Hawaiian people to accept Christianity as their religion."   Source

From Wikipedia: In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Hawaii), Pele is a goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes and violence, a daughter of Haumea and Kane Milohai. She lives on Kilauea.

More

1868 Death of August Ferdinand Möbius (b. 1790), German mathematician and astronomer.

1871 Cement was patented.

1903 Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity.

1907 New Zealand became a dominion of the United Kingdom, gaining self-government.

1914 The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.

1918 Battle of Meuse. On the Western Front in France, the Allies launched the first offensive that broke Germany's Hindenburg Line, ultimately breaking German morale.

1928 The representatives of 23 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in the League of Nations Assembly, outlawing war as a means for settling disputes. Damn cheese-eatin' surrender monkeys.

1932 After the British accepted the Poona Pact (Yervada Pact), Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, concluded his fast against separate electorates for Untouchables, in the presence of Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, a friend with whom the Mahatma often had a turbulent relationship.

1934 Cunard launched the steamship RMS Queen Mary in Clydebank, Scotland.

1937 Bessie Smith, popular American blues singer of the 1930s, died after a car crash in Clarksville, Mississippi, aged 43. Rumours, unsubstantiated according to your almanackist, persist that she died outside a 'Jim Crow' hospital in Mississippi when the ambulance refused to hurry because she was black.

1944 Operation Market Garden failed.

1950 United Nations troops recaptured Seoul from the North Koreans.

1957 The premiere performance of West Side Story, by Bernstein and Sondheim, on Broadway, New York City.

1959 Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, died from wounds inflicted by an assassin.

1960 In Chicago, Illinois, USA, the first televised debate took place between presidential candidates Richard M Nixon and John F Kennedy. The celebrated debate reached more than 69 million people via TV and another 17 million on radio.

During one of the debates, Nixon demanded that Kennedy apologize for the salty language used by former Beloved and Respected Comrade Leader President Harry Truman in his vigorous anti-Nixon speeches. As Nixon pointed out to the television audience:

"I can only say that I am very proud that President Eisenhower restored dignity and decency, and frankly, good language to the conduct of the Presidency. and I can only hope – should I win this election – that I would approach President Eisenhower in maintaining the dignity of the office."

Kennedy's reaction was off-camera laughter. A few minutes later, the debate over, Nixon retired to his dressing room and exploded in front of reporters.

"That fucking bastard," he said, "he –  he wasn't supposed to use notes!"

Source: The Daily Bleed

 

1960 The longest speech in UN history (4 hrs, 29 mins, by Fidel Castro).

1961 Bob Dylan made his public debut.

1962 Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed.

1962 USA: Premiere of The Beverly Hillbillies on CBS.

1969 The Beatles album Abbey Road was released in the UK.

Abbey Road webcam

1970 The Laguna Fire Fire started in San Diego County burning 175,425 acres.

1973 The National Gallery of Australia was reported as having purchased its most controversial acquisition ever – Jackson Pollock's painting, Blue Poles, for which the gallery paid $1.3 million, an Australian record at the time.

1977 The first flight of Freddie Laker's Skytrain air service got airborne. Laker's price for the London to New York flight was less than a third of those of his competitors.

1980 The Hand of Faith gold nuggest was found at Wedderburn, Victoria, Australia, by Kevin Hillier using a metal detector. At 876 troy ounces (27.2 kilograms or 61 pounds, 11 ounces), it is the largest gold nugget on display in the world, now on show at the Golden Nugget Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Holtermann Nugget    Welcome Stranger Nugget

 

The day Stanislav Petrov saved the world

1983 On this day, it is likely that more lives were saved than on any other occasion in history, and it was by a man most of us haven't heard of, and because he refused to obey orders.

Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov (b. c. 1939) averted a worldwide nuclear war (because of time-zone differences, the date was September 26 in the Soviet Union, and September 25 in the West). Petrov refused to accept that missiles had been launched against the USSR by the United States of America despite the indication given by his computerised early warning systems.

For three terrifying minutes, Petrov held firm while alarms around him in his bunker were telling him his country was under attack, with five US missiles launched and headed towards Soviet territory.

Petrov's dilemma was this: if he was disregarding a real attack, then the Soviet Union would be devastated by nuclear weapons without any warning or chance to retaliate, and he would have failed at his duty. On the other hand, if he were to report a non-existent attack, his superiors might launch an equally catastrophic assault against their enemies. In either case, millions of people would die.

The experience nearly ruined his health, and his incredible tale was hushed up. Petrov was even investigated for his conduct during the incident, and he believes that the investigators tried to make him a scapegoat for the false alarm. It was not until 1998 that the story leaked out.

Less than two months after the event of September 1983, ABC-TV in the USA broadcast a controversial movie titled The Day After. This fictional drama was about a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union and what effect it would have on families living in a typical American city. The events surrounding Petrov were unknown at this time to the American public. Most people (incorrectly, but understandably) felt the Cuban Missile Crisis, twenty years prior, was the most recent event in which nuclear war would have been possible.

Petrov is now a pensioner, spending his retirement in relative poverty in the town of Fryazino. He has said he does not regard himself as a hero for what he did that day; nevertheless, on May 21, 2004, the San Francisco-based Association of World Citizens gave Colonel Petrov its World Citizen Award along with a trophy and US $1,000  in recognition of the part he played in averting a catastrophe.

Source: Wikipedia    

BrightStarSound.com a Petrov tribute website

S Petrov on SkySurfer.co.uk    Cdi.org article May 28, 2004

The Man Who Saved the World Finally Recognized    A YTMND tribute to Petrov

See also October 7, 1962: for a similar story about Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov

See also January 25, 1995, USSR nearly responded with nukes to mistaken attack by Norway

20 mishaps that might have started an accidental nuclear war    BBC story   More 

1984 China and Britain agreed that Hong Kong would revert to Chinese rule on the expiry of Britain's lease in 1997.

1988 Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson flew home in disgrace from the Seoul Olympics after his gold medal (and world record) for the 100-metre dash were stripped from him. Johnson had failed a drug test and tested positive for anabolic steroid use.

1989 The Vietnamese Army completed its withdrawal from Cambodia.

1990 "On September 26 traces of a possible UFO crash were found in the Kyzylkumy desert in the Uzbekistan Republic, Soviet Middle Asia."   Source

1991 Biosphere 2 opened.

 

2002 P2OG: United Press International (UPI) announced that it had exclusively obtained documents summarizing the report of the Defense Science Board, which were to be publicly released in late October, after it had been presented to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

In August, 2002, the first public hints of a new US secret counterintelligence group – the Proactive Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG) – emerged from a report of the Defense Science Board (DSB), a Pentagon advisory group, and found its way into daylight. P2OG is a proposed US intelligence agency that would employ 'black world' (black operations) tactics.

The DSB briefing was first reported by Dan Dupont in Inside the Pentagon on September 26, 2002. The briefing was also discussed by William M Arkin in the Los Angeles Times on October 27, 2002.

Source

P2OG allows Pentagon to fight dirty, by David Isenberg    The Secret War

What is the P2OG GROUP? - Chemtrail Central Forum    Rummy's plan to provoke terrorist attacks

Into the Dark: The Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks

The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon can now do in secret

 

2002 The Joola, an overloaded Senegalese ferry capsized in the ocean off the coast of The Gambia, killing more than 950.

2002 Thirty people were killed in gun attack at a temple in Gandhinagar, India.

 

Tomorrow: Prester John, mythical emperor

 

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Albert Einstein arrives at a party and introduces himself to the first person he sees and asks, "What is your IQ?" to which the man answers "241." "That is wonderful!" says Albert. "We will talk about the Grand Unification Theory and the mysteries of the universe. We will have much to discuss!" 

Next Albert introduces himself to a woman and asks, "What is your IQ?" to which the lady answers, "144." "That is great!" says Albert. "We can discuss politics and current affairs. We will have much to discuss!" 

Albert then goes to another person and asks, "What is your IQ?" to which the man answers, "51." Albert ponders this for a moment, and then says, "GO REDSKINS!"

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