Feast of Gwynn ap Nudd (Gwynn ab Nudd; Gwynn the son of Nudd)

Leading a pack of phantom hunters in chase after a sacred white stag is Gwynn ap Nudd, the Welsh Celtic god of the underworld and the faerie kingdom, ruler of Annwn, a place of departed souls. Today is the feast day of the god, who dwells on Glastonbury Tor, the sacred mountain also known as the resting place of King Arthur. He is like the British legendary character, Herne the Hunter.

Gwynn ap Nudd's name means 'white'. He is the son of Nudd, chief of the Welsh Children of Don. Gwynn is famed as a hunter – like Odin/Woden, the leader of the Wild Hunt, or Wild Horde – accompanied by his Faery Host and his Cŵn Annwn, white, red-eared ghostly hounds of Annwn. In the Wild Hunt, the quarry is not terrestrial, but the souls of the living. Gwynn's presence is required wherever battles are fought and warriors slain. Gwynn ap Nudd conducts the slain to the land of the dead, where he is their lord.

After Christianity came to Britain, Gwynn came to be regarded as the King of the Tylwyth Teg, the fairy folk of Wales. By the time the stories of King Arthur appear in the Mabinogion, Gwynn is a subject of Arthur, but well respected; indeed, Arthur on more than one occasion turned to the son of Nudd for advice. In the hunt of the boar Twrch Trwyth, Gwynn's involvement was required for its success.

In the early Arthurian story, Culhwch and Olwen, Gwynn ap Nudd abducted a maiden called Creiddylad after she eloped with Gwythr ap Greidawl, Gwyn's long-time rival. Gwyn and Gwythr's fight, which began on May Day, represented the contest between Summer and Winter. Gwynn also did spiritual battle with St Collen.

Gwynn ap Nudd is one of the three great astronomers of the Island of Britain, who by their knowledge of the heavens, could predict whatever was wished to be known to the end of the world. On November 8, he opens the door of the Underworld.

"Gwyn is King of the Fairies and Lord of Annwn. Annwn appears to have been a kind of Hades, a marshalling place of departed souls somehow related to Avalon. Welsh tradition adds that Gwyn is the leader of the Wild Hunt, in which the souls of the dead are whisked out of their bodies and borne away through thunderclouds. This hunt occurs in folklore from Ireland to Eastern Europe. Its personnel includes quite a number of real and fabulous heroes, Arthur among them. It's destination in any given version is the leader's abode. Thus Gwyn's prescence goes far to establishing a dim but venerable belief in the summoning of the dead to the Tor (Glastonbury Tor) for passage to Annwn."
From King Arthur's Avalon, by Geoffrey Ashe   Source

"In Gwyn ab Nudd, we become acquainted with one of the most poetical characters of Welsh romance. He is no less a personage than the King of Faerie, a realm, the extent and importance of which is nowhere better appreciated, or held in greater reverence, than in Wales. Very numerous indeed are the subjects of Gwyn ab Nudd, and very various are they in their natures. He is the sovereign of those beneficent and joyous beings, the Tylwyth Teg, or Family of Beauty (sometimes also called Bendith i Mammau, or Blessing of Mothers), who dance in the moonlight on the velvet sward, in their airy and flowing robes of blue or green, or white or scarlet, and who delight in showering benefits on the more favoured of the human race; and equally does his authority extend over the fantastic, though no less picturesque class of Elves, who in Welsh bear the name of Ellyllon, and who, on the other hand, enjoy nothing so much as to mislead and torment the inhabitants of earth. Indeed, if Davydd ap Gwylim may be believed, Gwyn ab Nudd himself is not averse to indulging in a little mischievous amusement of this kind; for one dark night the bard, having ridden into a turf bog on the mountain, calls it the 'Fishpond of Gwyn ab Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe,' to whom he evidently gives credit for having decoyed him into its mire. Perhaps he may have been tempted to exclaim like Shakespeare,

      "'Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy.'

"According to the same testimony, the Owl was more particularly considered as the bird of Gwyn ab Nudd."   Source

"Vindos, known also as Vindos maq Noudons, later became Gwynn ap Nudd, the king of the underground kingdom of Annwn and the leader of the Wild Hunt. He rides forth at night accompanied by the pale Cwn Annwn, a pack of Otherworld hunting dogs, and bears the dying souls away to Tor at Glastonbury ...

"Vindonnus or Vindonus, was a Celtic God who was related to the Greek god Apollo, and was referred to also as Apollo Vindonnus."   Source

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days    More

Feast day of Heimdall

This Icelandic Viking god is the guardian of Asgard, home of the gods, and lives beside the rainbow bridge that connects Asgard with other realms. He is an enigmatic deity who needs no sleep and can see in the dark even on the darkest night. He was born of nine giantesses and the waves of the sea.

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Feast day of St Alericus

Feast day of St Garcia

Feast day of St Grimoaldus

Feast day of St Gudelia

Feast day of St Heracleas

Feast day of St John de Montmirail

Feast day of St Raphael (Azariah; Azarias; Angel of Love; Angel of Joy) the Archangel (formerly October 24)

The Archangel Raphael was not honoured with a feast day until the 20^th Century. From the meaning of his name, 'God heals', Raphael is thought to be the angel who came down and troubled the water of the pool of Bethsaida in Jerusalem (John v, 2-4).

Raphael is one of the three Biblical angels known by name, and one of the seven that stand before God's throne.

"One of the three angels known by name, and one of the seven that stand before God's throne. Lead character in the deutero-canonical book of Tobit in which he travelled with (and guarded) Tobiah, and cured a man's blindness; hence his connection with travellers, young people, blindness, healing and healers. The force behind the healing power of the sheep pool mentioned in John 5:1-4."   Story

"In the Bible he cures Abraham of the pain of his circumcision, a surgery he underwent late in life. He is often portrayed carrying a walking stick, symbolizing the Staff of Life ...

"Raphael rules Wednesday, Mercury, illnesses, and numerous other things. His Colors are green and orange; Number 8; Stones, fire opal, carnelian, and agate; Tree, magnolia, almond, sandalwood, gum arabic; Plants, marjoram, ferns, mandrake and parsley; Element, air; Metals, quicksilver and aluminum; and his Signs, are Gemini, Libra and Virgo."   Source

His patronage includes blind people, bodily ills, doctors, eye disease, guardian angels, happy meetings, insanity, love, lovers, mental illness, nightmares, against, nurses, pharmacists, shepherds, travellers and young people.

Legend of Raphael and the fish

Feast day of St Theodota

Celtic tree month of Muin (Vine) Sep 2 - 29, ends

One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish calendar

Election of Lord Mayor of London

National Day of Remembrance for Policeman Killed, Australia (St Michael, patron of police)

Michaelitag, Germany

End of roebuck hunting season, old England (starts Easter)

Roe hunting season begins, old England (ends on Candlemas, Feb 2)

Hare hunting season begins, old England (until Midsummer)

Constitution Day, Brunei
A public holiday in the South-east Asian monarchy, today commemorates the constitution of September 29, 1959.

Battle of Boqueron Day, Paraguay
Today is a public holiday in Paraguay commemorating the cessation of hostilities in a 1930 border conflict.

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

106 BCE Pompey the Great (d. September 28, 48 BCE, Egypt), Roman general and politician

1328 Joan of Kent (d. 1385)

1511 Michael Servetus (Miguel Servet or, as it was originally, Serveto in Spanish; executed October 27, 1553), Spanish theologian, physician and humanist. His interests included many sciences: astronomy and meteorology; geography, jurisprudence, study of the Bible, mathematics, anatomy and medicine.

1518 Tintoretto (born Jacopo Robusti), Italian painter of the Venetian school

1547 Miguel de Cervantes (d. April 22, 1616), Spanish author (Don Quixote de la Mancha). Although the records of Cervantes indicate he wrote 20 to 30 plays, only two survive. He worked as a tax collector and as a requisitioner of supplies for the navy, but was jailed for … shall we say … irregularities in his bookkeeping.

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1725 Robert, Lord Clive (Major-General Robert Clive, 1^st Baron Clive of Plassey; d. November 22, 1774), statesman and general who established the military supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is widely regarded as a key figure in the establishment of British India.

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Wilson's Webcam Watch The image from the Trafalgar Square (location of Nelson's Column), at right, if it's appearing, is generated by a live webcam. Webcam images refresh at set intervals, so if you refresh this page it might show a changed image. If you click it, you'll go to an enlargement or the recommended webcam site. (Note that if it's dark, it just might be night-time! In winter, especially, take this into account as the days are extremely short at the South Pole between May and September.) List of  featured webcams and webfeeds Recommend a webcam or report malfunction

1810 Elizabeth Gaskell (d. 1865), British novelist (Cranford)

1834 Sir William Charles Windeyer (d. September 11, 1897), prominent judge in the colony of New South Wales who deliberated on many of the most famous Australian cases of the second half of the 19^th Century (eg, the Joseph James Crouch impersonation and child molestation case of 1890). He was also a politician, elected June 29, 1859 to the seat of Lower Hunter in the NSW Legislative Assembly when he was not yet 25 years old.

Windeyer was the presiding judge at the first court proceedings of the Lemon Syrup Case, a notorious 1890s criminal case in Sydney involving 'wild man of Sydney' Paddy Crick, among others. The judge was accused of judicial impropriety for almost strong-arming the jury into finding an accused wife-poisoner guilty, which the accused, George Dean, in fact turned out to be on his own confession. On another occasion (a debating society debate), Crick threw a glass of water over Windeyer, who was the chairman.

Windeyer's wife Lady Windeyer was at the first meeting (June 4, 1891) of the Womanhood Suffrage League of NSW (and an office bearer with Hon. WM Sutter, Mrs Wolstenholme [later Maybanke Anderson], Miss May Manning, Mrs Dora Montefiore and Miss Rose Scott). 

"... born at London on 29 September 1834 and came to Sydney with his parents about a year later. He was 13 years of age when his father died. His mother, a woman of much character, was left practically without means, but with some help from friends managed to buy part of her husband's estate on the Hunter River, worked it, and made a success of wine growing. The boy was educated at first at W. T. Cape's (q.v.) school, and then at The King's School, Parramatta. He was one of the first group to matriculate at the university of Sydney at the end of 1852, and during his course won a classical scholarship, and the prize for the English essay in each year. He graduated B.A. in 1856, M.A. in 1859, and was called to the bar in March 1857. He was law reporter for the Empire and then for a short time crown prosecutor in country districts. In 1859 he stood for the New South Wales legislative assembly at Paddington and was defeated by 47 votes. He was, however, returned for the Lower Hunter at the same election. In 1860 he was returned for West Sydney, but afterwards resigned his seat on account of ill-health. In 1866 he was again elected for West Sydney, defeating (Sir) John Robertson (q.v.). On 16 December 1870 he became solicitor-general in the third Martin (q.v.) ministry and held this position until 13 May 1872, but was defeated at the election held in this year. In 1876 he was returned for the university of Sydney, and from 22 March to 16 August 1877 was attorney-general in the second Parkes (q.v.) ministry. In 1878 he obtained the assent of the house to the establishment of grammar schools at Bathurst, Goulburn and Maitland with exhibitions to enable students to proceed to the university. He was attorney-general in the third Parkes ministry from 21 December 1878 to 10 August 1879 and was then appointed as acting judge of the supreme court. In August 1881 he became a puisne judge of the supreme court, and held this position for almost 15 years; he resigned on 31 August 1896. Proceeding to Europe he accepted a temporary judicial appointment in Newfoundland, but died suddenly while at Bologna, Italy, on 11 September 1897. He was given the honorary degree of LL.D. by the university of Cambridge, and was knighted in 1891. He married in 1857 Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. R. T. Bolton, who survived him with sons and daughters. Lady Windeyer took much interest in educational and social questions, particularly in regard to women, and was a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement. Of Windeyer's sons, John Cadell Windeyer, who was born in 1875 had a distinguished career as a physician and became professor of obstetrics at the university of Sydney in 1925; Richard Windeyer, born in 1868, followed his father's profession, became a K.C. and for a time was an acting-judge of the supreme court of New South Wales; William Archibald Windeyer, born in 1871, was also well known in Sydney as a solicitor and public man.

"Windeyer took much interest in education, was a trustee of the Sydney Grammar School, president of the Sydney mechanics' school of arts, and a trustee of the public library. He was vice-chancellor of the university from 1883 to 1887 and chancellor in 1895. He resigned in 1896 when he went to Europe. He was also first chairman of the council of the women's college at the university. As a politician he was responsible for the preservation of Belmore Park, Church Hill, and Flagstaff Hill, Clarke, Rodd, and Schnapper Islands, and the land at the head of Long Bay. He was also the author of the copyright act and the married women's property act. As a judge he was able, conscientious and hard-working, and had much knowledge of law. He had the misfortune to preside over two notorious cases, the Mount Rennie outrage and the Dean trials, which caused much popular feeling, and gave him the reputation in some quarters of being a "hanging" judge. His friends agreed that this estimate was far from his character, and that though he had a brusque exterior he was really a man of noble qualities. This estimate is in conformity with the fact that he was appointed president of the charities commission in 1873, and that he was responsible for the founding of the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society in 1874. An example of his courage and common sense is his judgment on the case dealing with the proceedings arising out of Mrs Besant's pamphlet, The Law of Population, which was published separately in 1889 under the title, Ex Parte Collins."

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson    More

1895 JB Rhine, American psychologist, founder of parapsychology

1899 Billy Butlin, South African-born British holiday camp proprietor (Butlins Holiday Camps)

1901 Enrico Fermi (d. 1954), Nobel Prize-winning Italian nuclear physicist

1901 Lanza del Vasto (d. 1981), philosopher, poet and non-violent activist

1904 Greer Garson (d. 1996), British Hollywood actress (Oscar: Mrs Miniver)

1907 Gene Autry (d. 1998), actor, singer, businessman

1911 Sir Charles Court, Premier of Western Australia, 1974 - '82

1912 Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director

1913 Trevor Howard (d. 1988), British actor (The Third Man; Sons and Lovers)

1913 Stanley Kramer (d. 2001), American film producer and director (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)

1916 (Carl Ronald) Giles, British cartoonist

1930 Richard Bonynge, Australian conductor, husband of Dame Joan Sutherland

1931 Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress and pinup girl, still best known for the 1960s influential Federico Fellini movie, La dolce vita

Gallery

1935 Jerry Lee Lewis, American rock 'n'  roll singer and piano player (biggest hit: 'Great Balls of Fire')

1936 Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, entrepreneur, media proprietor, sports team owner, real estate and insurance tycoon and songwriter. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister of the Italian Republic (President of the Council of Ministers of Italy), a position he has held on three separate occasions: from 1994 to '95, from 2001 to '06 and currently since 2008. His careers in business and politics have been beset by scandal and controversy.

1938 Wim Kok, Dutch politician and former prime minister

1939 Larry Linville (d. 2000), actor

1941 Edmund Stoiber, German politician

1942 Madeline Kahn (d. 1999), American comedienne

1943 Lech Walesa, Nobel Prize-winning Polish dissident and statesman

1948 Bryant Gumbel, American TV current affairs presenter

1956 Jenny Morris, New Zealand rock singer

1961 Rebecca DeMornay, actress

1964 Les Claypool, bassist of Primus

1964 Tom Sizemore, actor

1966 Jill Whelan, actress

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Second Mon. in Oct. Canadian Thanksgiving

 

September

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)
13 Dessert Day
13 Train Your Brain Day
14 Honey Bee Day

  ... More Events

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522 BCE The person (Gaumata/Smerdis) who impersonated the real king of Persia (Smerdis, also called Bardiya), for seven months, was killed by Darius I.

235 Death of St Pontianus, Pope.

855 Death of Lothair, King of Lotharingia.

855 Benedict III began his reign as Pope.

1364 Battle of Auray: English forces defeated those of the French at Brittany; end of the Breton War of Succession. Charles de Blois, Duke of Brittany, was killed.

1399 King Richard II became the first English monarch to abdicate.

1560 Death of King Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1496).

1567 At a dining establishment, the Duke of Alva arrested the Count of Egmont and the Count of Horne for treason.

1650 A border pact was signed recognising the English claims to parts of the coastline of Long Island, New York.

1789 The United States War Department first established a regular US army with the strength of about 700 men.

1789 The first United States Congress adjourned.

1829 Britain's first police force commenced duty. London's 1,200-man Metropolitan Police were named Bobbies or Peelers after Sir Robert Peel, the Home Secretary who formed the force which has its headquarters at Scotland Yard.

1864 American Civil War: The Battle of Chaffin's Farm was fought.

1894 British social activist and Theosophy co-founder Annie Besant began her lecture series at the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, having appeared in Melbourne in the days around September 15. An advertisement in The Bulletin described her as "The Most Eloquent of Living Women" and offered seats for 6s (six shillings), 3s, 2s and 1s. Mrs Besant enjoyed a reputation as "the most important woman of the century". Her first first Sydney lecture was chaired by Judge Windeyer (born on this day in 1834, see above), a prominent member of Sydney society.

Early progressives in the Book of Days

 

 

1902 Scottish bard William Topaz McGonagall (b. March, 1825 ?), Knight of the White Elephant, Burmah, weaver, actor, and poet, died in Edinburgh, aged 72, best known for 'The Tay Bridge Disaster'. His work has been distinguished as,

"The worst poetry ever written, in any language, at any time."

A self-educated Scottish weaver, McGonagall discovered his bathetic muse in 1877 and embarked upon a 25-year career as a working poet, delighting and appalling audiences across his native land and beyond. He was 52 years of age when he first received direction from his Muse, to "WRITE! WRITE!".

From Wikipedia:

• The memory of McGonagall was resurrected by comedian Spike Milligan. A character called McGoonagall frequently appears in The Goon Show, alternately played by Milligan and Peter Sellers. Milligan also occasionally gave readings of McGonagall's verse.
• A 1970s movie called The Great McGonagall starred Milligan as a fictionalized William McGonagall. Sellers played Queen Victoria.
• William Topaz McGonagall's name was also inspiration for the name of Minerva McGonagall, a fictional character in JK Rowling's Harry Potter books.
• A Muppet character named 'Angus McGonagall, the Argyle Gargoyle' appeared on one episode of The Muppet Show. His stage act was that he 'gargled Gershwin'.
• In The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, the Nac Mac Feegle have a battle poet, or Gonnagle, who repels the enemy through the awfulness of his poetry.
• Dundee held a McGonagall Supper on June 12, 1997.

See also: Scottish literature    Tommy Atkins    Florence Foster Jenkins    Mrs Miller

The Real McGonagall gives a different interpretation of McGonagall's work, suggesting he was a deliberate satirist.

Poetic Gems by William Topaz McGonagall

McGonagall on the Internet

More on McGonagall

Poetic Gems    Last Poetic Gems    More Poetic Gems

World's Worst Poet: Selections from "Poetic Gems"

The railway bridge of the silvery Tay, and other disasters

No Poets' Corner in the Abbey: the dramatic story of William McGonagall

Milligan, Spike, The great McGonagall scrap book

Milligan, Spike, William McGonagall, the truth at last : shock horror-a fantasia

Milligan, Spike, Hobbs, Jack, William McGonagall Meets George Gershwin

[About the dates: In his autobiography, McGonagall writes that he was born in 1830: "I was born in the year of 1830 in the city of Edinburgh, the garden of bonnie Scotland". However, in another memoir, 'A Summary History of Poet McGonagall', he gives his approximate date of birth as March, 1825. It seems most online sources accept the earlier year as authentic.

As to when he died, the photo of the memorial plaque to the poet in Dundee (also to be seen here) shows September 2 as his date of death. However, the Today in Literature biographical article and the Wikipedia article on McGonagall both have September 29.]

'The Moon'

By William Topaz McGonagall

Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou seemest most charming to my sight;
As I gaze upon thee in the sky so high,
A tear of joy does moisten mine eye. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the Esquimau in the night;
For thou lettest him see to harpoon the fish,
And with them he makes a dainty dish. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the fox in the night,
And lettest him see to steal the grey goose away
Out of the farm-yard from a stack of hay. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the farmer in the night,
and makes his heart beat high with delight
As he views his crops by the light in the night. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the eagle in the night,
And lettest him see to devour his prey
And carry it to his nest away. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the mariner in the night
As he paces the deck alone,
Thinking of his dear friends at home. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the weary traveller in the night;
For thou lightest up the wayside around
To him when he is homeward bound. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the lovers in the night
As they walk through the shady groves alone,
Making love to each other before they go home. 
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the poacher in the night;
For thou lettest him see to set his snares
To catch the rabbit and the hares. 

 

1902 The death of Emile Zola (b. 1840), of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a blocked chimney. Controversy has existed for more than a century as to whether the great French author's death was an accident or murder.

"It was murder," said Deborah Rechter, curator of the exhibition J'Accuse: The Dreyfus Affair, at Melbourne's Jewish Museum of Australia. "Fifty years later, his killer made a deathbed confession that he had deliberately blocked up Zola's chimney."   Source

"The most famous French writer of his day died at sixty-two in curious circumstances. Emile Zola and his wife Alexandrine returned to their house in the rue de Bruxelles in Paris on September 28th from a spell in the country. It was wet and cold, and a smokeless coal fire was lit in their bedroom for the night ... Many death threats had been made against him in the last few years. Without realising what was happening, the two of them were slowly overcome by carbon monoxide fumes ...

"At nine o'clock, with something obviously wrong, the bedroom door was forced. Zola was on the floor, dead or nearly so. Alexandrine was lying on her bed, unconscious. Doctors were sent for and gave Zola artificial respiration for twenty minutes or more, in vain ...

"Rumours were rife that Zola had been murdered. An inquest was ordered and specialists conducted tests at the Paris house. Fires were lit but there was little sign of carbon monoxide fumes and guinea pigs shut in the room survived unharmed. The flue was dismantled, but nothing of much significance was found, though the amount of soot suggested that the chimney had not been properly swept. The coroner, apparently anxious to clamp the situation down, refused to make the experts' reports public and announced that Zola's death had been due to natural causes. 

"Years later, in 1953, a letter to a French newspaper claimed that Zola had been murdered by an anti-Dreyfusard stove-fitting contractor while the roof of the house next door was being mended. He and his men had deliberately blocked the chimney of Zola's house without anyone noticing in the general to-ng [sic] and fro-ing, and they had then quietly unblocked it early the next day, again without being spotted. Allegedly, he confessed what he had done on his death bed in 1927. Some of Zola's biographers have accepted the confession, but Frederick Brown in his magisterial biography comes to the conclusion that the story may have been true, but that it is no longer possible to be sure."   Source

"PARIS : Mr. Emile Zola was found dead in his bedroom yesterday [Sept. 29] morning, while Mme. Zola is in great danger. Such was the news which spread consternation throughout Paris yesterday forenoon. M. and Mme. Zoal inhabited, since 1887, a hotel in the rue de Bruxelles, Nos. 21 and 22 bis. They returned to Paris yesterday from Medan, Mr. Zola's property near Poissy. They were in the habit of stopping there till late in the autumn, but the chilly weather of the last few days caused them to return earlier than usual." International Herald Tribune, contemporary report

 

1902 Impresario David Belasco's first Broadway theatre opened.

1911 Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire, claiming that Italians had been mistreated in Libya.

1913 In Belfast, the Ulster Unionist Council decided to set up a provisional government if the British parliament should approve home rule for Ireland.

1918 The Hindenburg Line was broken by Allied forces during World War I.

1921 Russian Revolution: The Cheka (Bolshevik Secret Police) executed Fanya Baron, poet Lev Chernyi (executed on the 21^st) and nine other anarchist prisoners. Emma Goldman, a friend and fellow anarchist, was so outraged that friends had to dissuade her from chaining herself to a bench in the hall to shout her protests to the delegates where the Third International was meeting.

1930 George Bernard Shaw declined a peerage.

1936 USA: Eleven members of the Detroit 'Black Legion' were convicted for the murder of Charles Poole, a WPA organiser.

"The Black Legion was founded in the mid-1920s as the Black Guards, a security force for the officers of the Ohio Ku Klux Klan. A Michigan regiment was established in 1931. Organized along military lines, the Michigan Legion had five brigades, 16 regiments, 64 batallions, & 256 companies & probably numbered between 20,000 & 30,000 members, one third of whom lived in Detroit. It had a political front as well, the Wolverine Republican Club. The legion saw as its enemies not only blacks, Jews, & Catholics, but also welfare workers & recipients & labor union organizers.

"Destroyed after this trial, its reputation, however, remained & reached all the way to Hollywood. One of Humphrey Bogart's least-known movies was entitled "The Black Legion," in which Bogart plays a factory mechanic whose expected promotion to foreman is instead given to a foreign-born worker. Bogart first joins, then stands up to the legion."   Source

Why Does the Ku Klux Klan Burn Crosses?

 

1938 Britain and France, Nazi Germany and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The Munich Conference was attended by Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Deladier, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

1941 The Babi Yar massacre began. Babi Yar, a ravine in Kiev, Ukraine, is the site of a mass murder by both the Soviet and German governments.

1943 United States General Dwight D Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship HMS Nelson off the shore of Malta.

1943 Six war objectors imprisoned at Lewisburg, PA, USA, started a hunger strike against censorship of mail and reading material by prison authorities.

1944 Soviet forces invaded Yugoslavia.

1947 Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie presented his first Carnegie Hall concert, New York, NY, USA. He was a jazz trumpeter and bandleader, one of the founders of the bebop jazz style.

1950 The first automatic telephone answering machine was tested by the Bell Telephone Company, USA.

1952 John Cobb, world water speed record holder, was killed on Loch Ness, Scotland, in his vessel Crusader, at 384 kph.

1962 Canada launched her first satellite - Alouette.

1963 The opening of the second period of the Second Vatican Council.

1963 The Rolling Stones, still with relatively few fans, went on a UK tour as support act for the The Everly Brothers and Bo Diddley. Little Richard was flown in later to increase ticket sales.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1969 Poseidon bubble: The start of the 'Poseidon' share boom in Australia: 80 cent shares reached $290. Huge numbers of Australian investors joined the rush, most of them to be disappointed as the inevitable crash came.

1969 The US Army's case against Green Beret Colonel Robert Rheault and others for "terminating with extreme prejudice" the life of an alleged Vietnamese double agent was dropped when the CIA refused to allow its agents to testify.

1972 Sino-Japanese relations: Japan established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.

1975 Australia: Actress Marlene Dietrich fell on stage at Sydney's Her Majesty's Theatre, breaking her leg.

1976 After the pound collapsed, Britain asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for US$3.9 billion.

1977 American wine merchant house ,Addy Bassin's, paid £8,300 at Christie's, London, for a bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild.

1978 John Vorster (BJ Vorster) became President of the Republic of South Africa.

1978 Pope John Paul I was found dead after only 33 days in office. He was discovered dead in bed at 4:45 am by the nun who had brought him his morning coffee for 19 years.

1979 Pope John Paul II arrived in Ireland for the first ever Papal visit.

 

1986 The biggest flotilla ever to enter an Australian port, 26 ships from six navies, assembled in Sydney Harbour. It was larger even than Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet that sailed into the harbour in 1908 on its own global propaganda tour. Surfing anti-nuclear protester Ian Cohen clung to the bow of USS Oldendorf, appearing on front pages worldwide.

Ian is the author of the book Green Fire, an account of the Australian environmental movement, a movement that has transformed Australian politics. He is also a Green Party member in the Legislative Council ('Upper House') of the Parliament of New South Wales, and, I'm proud to say, an old battle comrade of your almanackist.

The stunning Sydney Morning Herald photo by Robert Pearce was in newspapers worldwide. We reproduce a small version here in 'fair use' by way of review and recommendation.

Ian Cohen gets into the drink again, 2002    Ian Cohen's listing in NSW Parliament website

1986 The Soviet Union freed American journalist, Nicholas Daniloff, held for a month on dubious spying charges.

1987 John Poindexter resigned from the Navy over the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka declared a de facto republic in Fiji after dismissing the governor-general.

1988 NASA resumed space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster.

2004 The asteroid 4179 Toutatis was projected to pass within four lunar distances of Earth.

2004 The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performed a successful space flight, thereby halfway to winning the prize.

2005 The US Senate confirmed John Roberts to be the next Chief Justice of the United States.

 

Tomorrow: Roman goddess of medicines

 

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