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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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A graceful and honourable old age is the childhood of immortality.
The original writer is
not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be
imitated by none. |
St Paul's Cathedral,
London, as it was until |
A master in the art of living draws no sharp
distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure;
his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows
which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through
whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is
working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.
François-René de Chateaubriand
There is nothing more servile, despicable, cowardly and
narrow-minded than a terrorist.
François-René de Chateaubriand
You can make an audience see nearly anything, if you yourself
believe in it.
Mary Renault; The Mask of Apollo (1966)
The perpetual stream of human nature is formed into ever-changing
shallows, eddies, falls and pools by the land over which it passes.
Mary Renault
In times like these, it's helpful to remember that there have
always been times like these.
Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster, born on September 4, 1918
Republicans always pull down the shades though there is seldom a
reason. Democrats never pull down the shades though they always should.
Paul Harvey
Hello, Americans, it's Paul Harvey. Standby for news.
Paul Harvey; his method of signing on the air
September 4
is
the 247th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (248th
in leap years), with 118
days remaining.
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Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
Circensian games, Roman Empire (Sep 4 - 19)
The Circensian games (Circenses
Ludi; Ludi Romani; Ludi Magni) were celebrated at the Circus Maximus in
Rome on this day in honour of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. (They were also celebrated from April 12 - 19.) The games included chariot
racing, hunts of wild animals, public executions and, in the latter
period of the Republic,
gladiator fights.
Located in the valley between the Palatine
Hill and Aventine Hill, the Circus was probably built by
the Etruscan kings of Rome, and was the site
of public games and festivals influenced by the Greeks in
the 2nd Century BCE.
The Circensian games, according to legends, were
instituted by Romulus
(legendary founder of Rome) in order to attract the Sabine population to Rome
for the purpose of furnishing the Romans with wives. These were first
called Consuales (Consualia),
in honour of the god Consus.
After the construction of the Circus Maximus the games were called
indiscriminately Circenses, Romani, or Magni.
The games began with a grand procession, in which
all those who were about to exhibit in the Circus, as well as persons of
distinction, bore a part.
The horse-races, either in two-horse bigoe
or four-horse chariots, quadriga, were the earliest form of games;
but others were added from time to time, such as wrestling, boxing and
footraces. The Ludus Trojoe, described in the fifth book of Virgil's Æneid, was one of
these.
Originally the games occupied a single day, and
often not the whole of that; by degrees they were lengthened, until in the
time of the Empire, they lasted a week or more, and scenic games, ludi
scenici, that is theatrical performances, were added to those in the
Circus. The Circensian games regularly came last.
Of the wild animal hunts (venatio), Sir William Smith (1813 - 1893), English classical lexicographer, writes: "It is mentioned as a proof of the growing magnificence of the age that in the Ludi Circenses, exhibited by the curule aediles P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus B.C. 168, there were 63 African panthers and 40 bears and elephants (Liv. xliv.18). From about this time combats with wild beasts probably formed a regular part of the Ludi Circenses, and many of the curule aediles made great efforts to obtain rare and curious animals, and put in requisition the services of their friends (compare Caelius's letter to Cicero, ad Fam. viii.8). Elephants are said to have first fought in the Circus in the curule aedileship of Claudius Pulcher, B.C. 99, and twenty years afterwards, in the curule aedileship of the two Luculli, they fought against bulls (Plin. H.N. viii.7). A hundred lions were exhibited by Sulla in his praetorship, which were destroyed by javelin-men sent by king Bocchus for the purpose. This was the first time that lions were allowed to be loose in the Circus; they were previously always tied up (Senec. de Brev. Vit. 18). The games, however, in the curule aedileship of Scaurus B.C. 58 surpassed anything the Romans had ever seen; among other novelties he first exhibited an hippopotamos and five crocodiles in a temporary canal or trench (euripus, Plin. H.N. viii.40)." Source
Sources: Walsh, William S, Curiosities of
Popular Customs And of Rites, Ceremonies, Observances, and Miscellaneous
Antiquities, JB Lippincott Company, Philadelphia; copyrights 1897 and
1925, et al
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
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Highly recommended:
 Breaking The Da Vinci Code
To support this
project
Astro pic of the day
Photo of the day
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 Feast day of the Translation of St Cuthbert
of LindisfarneThe incorruptible Cuthbert This
seventh-century saint became prior of the monastery at Muilros
(Melrose) on the Tweed River in what became the UK; later he
transferred to the sacred site of Lindisfarne. He died on March 20
(his feast day), 687,
but before his death, fearing future incursions of the Danes, he
charged his community that if an invasion occurred, they would take
his bones with them. After 11 years, his body was found to be not
rotted, and it was put in a new coffin, after which it was found to
work healing miracles. The removal of his bones on September 4, 995 is known as the Translation. The body was inspected in 1104 and still found to be perfect. Again in 1540 it was inspected and found to be uncorrupted. In May, 1827 it was again inspected, more closely this time, but it was found that an elaborate hoax had been perpetrated: the body was artificially treated, such as having plaster eyeballs, to appear perfect. Cuthbert is a good example of a man who was more important dead than alive.
When the night is dark and the sea running
high, and the night windy, St Cuthbert can be heard in the lulls
forging beads for the faithful. He sat on a rock on the shore of the
island of Lindisfarne, hammering away. The beads have always been
found on the shore after storms: they are the bones of fossilised
animals called crinoids, related to sea urchins.
Cahambai (Mayan) Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies mala), unlucky day in Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord" was the associated saying.) Religious celebration at the Faneromeni Monastery, Greek island of Salamis Birthday Celebration, Los Angeles, USA Feast day of St Ammianus Feast day of St Boniface I Feast day of St Caletricus Feast day of St Candida the Elder Feast day of St Castus Feast day of St Hermione Feast day of St Ida of Herzfeld, widow Feast day of St Julian Feast day of St Magnus Feast day of Ss Marcellus and Valerian, martyrs Feast day of St Maximus Feast day of St Monessa Feast day of St Oceanus Feast day of St Rebecca Feast day of St Rhuddlad Feast day of St Rosalia,
virgin Feast day of St Rose of
Viterbo (1235 - March 6, 1252) The
'Macchina di Santa
Rosa'
Feast day of St Rufinus Feast day of St Salvinus Feast day of St Silvanus Feast day of St Thamel Feast day of St Theodore Feast day of St Ultan, Irish bishop Feast day of St VictalicusLate August, early September, Freeing the Insects, Japan Changing Woman Ceremony, Apache,
USA Looking At The Boundaries,
Guatemalan Highlands
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here c. 518
BCE (sources differ as
to year) Pindar,
Greek poet, generally regarded as the greatest Greek lyric poet. He
was born in the suburbs of Thebes
and died aged 80 in 438. Pindaric Odes Isthmian
Nemean 1241 Alexander III of Scotland ,
Scottish king 1768 François-René de
Chateaubriand (d. 1848), French writer and Minister of Foreign
Affairs. Born in Saint-Malo, France, he was one of that country's first Romantic writers. His Christian writings caught Napoleon's attention and approval. Later he was made France's Minister of Foreign Affairs. 1824 Anton Bruckner (d. 1896), Austrian composer 1832 Antonio Agliardi, Italian
diplomat 1851 John
Dillon (d. 1927), Irish nationalist
Collins campaigned for social reforms in the prisons and worked for the abolition of capital punishment. He was vigorously active in the movements for the eight-hour working day, veterans' pensions, education, tenants' rights, deaf and mute children, and women's rights, especially in cases of divorce.
Early
progressives in the Book of Days
1875 Kirby Rollin, Pulitzer Prize winning author 1891 Fritz
Todt, Nazi official 1896 Antonin Artaud (d. 1948), playwright, actor, director 1905 Mary Renault (d. 1983), novelist 1906 Max Delbrück, German
biologist
1908 Richard Wright (d. 1960), American writer 1908 Edward
Dmytryk (d. 1999), film director 1917
Henry Ford II 1918 Paul
Harvey, American radio
broadcaster 1928
Dick
York (d. February 20,
1992),
American actor (TV series: Bewitched); iatrogenic
addiction to
painkilling drugs, due to a back injury, and bad investments put an
end to his career and he and his wife were reduced to cleaning
houses for a living. In his later years he dedicated his life to helping
the homeless poor. What
happened to Darrin? 1931 Mitzi Gaynor
(Francesca Marlene von Gerber), Hollywood dancer and actress (Anything Goes; My Blue Heaven;
South Pacific). Born in Chicago, she started
dancing lessons at four; at twelve she joined a prestigious ballet
company. Mitzi made her screen debut at 20. In 1956, she co-starred
with Bing Crosby in Anything
Goes; she starred with Frank Sinatra and
Gene Kelly in hit
movies. 1941 Sushilkumar Shinde, Indian politician 1957 Khandi Alexander, American actress 1957 Patricia Tallman, American actress 1960 Damon Wayans, actor, comedian 1970 Daisy Dee, singer and actress 1981 Beyoncé Knowles, singer
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