Today in History

[Tamrin]

Friday, 30 May
France: Commemoration of Joan of Arc (martyred this day 1431)

1593 - Death of Christopher Marlowe, British dramatist (Tamburlaine the Great)

1744 - Death of Bro. Alexander Pope, English translator and poet (Rape of the Lock)

1778 - Death of Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), French Enlightenment philosopher

1814 - Birth of Bro. Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist (Catechism of a Freemason)

1901 - Birth of Cornelia Otis Skinner, US writer (When Our Hearts Were Young & Gay)

1903 - Birth of Countee Cullen, American poet (Black Christ & Other Poems)

1960 - Death of Boris Pasternak, Russian poet and novelist (Dr Zhivago)

Sir Andrew Huxley, OM, FRS, PRS
English physiologist and biophysicist (Nobel laureate, 1963)
(Died this day 2012)

I am very conscious that there is no scientific explanation for the fact that we are conscious

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 31 May
Ancient Rome: Ambarvalia, festival of Dea Dia (agricultural fertility rite)

1819 - Birth of Walt Whitman, American poet (Leaves of Grass)

1838 - Birth of Bro. Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Society for Psychical Research)

1898 - Birth of Bro. Norman Vincent Peale 33°, US clergyman (Power of Positive Thinking)

1910 - Death of Elizabeth Blackwell, first US woman doctor of medicine

1963 - Death of Edith Hamilton German-American educator, classicist & author

1976 - Death of Jacques Monod, French biologist (Nobel laureate, 1965)

1996 - Death of Timothy Leary, US psychologist, author and acid head

Bro. Henry Sidgwick
English philosopher (Society for Psychical Research)
(Born this day 1838)

My reasons for joining the Fraternity are partly general, for, although I do not at all
know what the object of it is and am aware that the ‘Great Secret’ must be a humbug,
I am still desirous of helping the mingling of classes, which I conceive Freemasonry does

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 1 June
International Children’s Day

1801 - Birth of Bro. Brigham Young, religious leader (Mormon church) & polygamist

1868 - Death of Bro. James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States

1932 - Birth of Christopher (Kit) Lasch, US historian, moralist, and social critic

1937 - Birth of Colleen McCullough, AO, Australian author (The Thorn Birds)

1952 - Death of John Dewey, American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer

1968 - Death of Helen Keller, US author, activist and lecturer (deaf & blind)

1971 - Death of Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian, ethicist, public intellectual

Capt. James Lawrence
US naval commander (USS Chesapeake)
(mortally wounded this day 1813)

Don't give up the ship!

(dying command)

[Tamrin]

Monday, 2 June
Italy: Commemoration of Bro. Guiseppi Garibaldi, liberator and unifier (died this day 1882)

1740 - Birth of the Marquis de Sade, French eponym of Sadism (Justine)

1840 - Birth of Thomas Hardy, English poet and novelist (Mayor of Casterbridge)

1945 - Birth of Michael Leunig, Australian poet and cartoonist (Curly Flats)

1949 - Birth of Frank Rich, Jr., American essayist, op-ed columnist & writer

1953 - Birth of Cornel West, African-American scholar and public intellectual

1962 - Death of Vita Sackville-West, English author and poet (The Edwardians)

1987 - Death of Anthony "Tony" de Mello, Indian-American Jesuit priest and psychotherapist

Bro. Hristo Botev
Bulgarian revolutionary hero and poet
(Died this day 1876)

We are brothers in spirit, you and I, cherishing the same ideals, and I believe there's
nothing in this world we'll have to regret, you and I. Posterity will judge — Did we good
or did we evil, But for now — hand in hand — Let's move forward, our steps more sure!

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 3 June
Ancient Rome: Festival to Bellona, goddess of war

1469 - Birth of Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian, philosopher, humanist and writer

1906 - Birth of Josephine Baker, African-American dancer

1924 - Death of Franz Kafka, Bohemian-born Austrian novelist (The Trial)

1926 - Birth of Allen Ginsberg, American beat poet (Howl)

1930 - Birth of Marion Zimmer Bradley, US science fiction and fantasy author (The Mists of Avalon)

1936 - Birth of Larry McMurtry, American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter

1963 - Death of Nâzým Hikmet, Turkish poet, playwright, novelist and memoirist

Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America (1861-5)
(Born this day 1808)

Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 4 June
Ancient Greece: Nativity of Socrates, Athenian philosopher (born this day 470 BCE)

1916 - Birth of Gaylord Nelson, American Senator & Governor (Earth Day founder)

1931 - Birth of Sir Gustav Nossal, AC, CBE, FRS, FAA, Australian research biologist

1937 - Birth of Robert Fulghum, American Unitarian Minister and author

1943 - Birth of Joyce Meyer, American author and public speaker

1951 - Birth of Melanie Phillips, British conservative journalist and author

1955 - Birth of Val McDermid, Scottish crime writer (Dr. Tony Hill)

1989 - Death of Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran (good riddance)

Bhagat Puran Singh
Indian writer, publisher, environmentalist and philanthropist
(Born this day 1904)

Freedom is not an achievement but an opportunity

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 5 June
World Environment Day

1820 - Initiation of Bro. James K. Polk, 11^th US President, in Columbia Lodge #31, Tennessee

1883 - Birth of John Maynard Keynes, English economist, mathematician and journalist

1884 - Birth of Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE, English novelist (Mother and Son)

1910 - Death of O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), American writer (Gift of the Magi)

1934 - Birth of Bill Moyers, American journalist and public commentator

1937 - Birth of Hélène Cixous, French academic, feminist writer, poet and philosopher

1939 - Birth of Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, DBE,FRSL, English novelist

Bro. Lord Herbert Kitchener
Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul
(Died this day 1916)

Don't talk to me about atrocities in war; all war is an atrocity

[Tamrin]

Friday, 6 June
Allied Nations: D-Day commemoration (1944)

1787 - The Grand Lodge of New York was instituted

1806 - The Grand Lodge of Delaware was instituted

1832 - Death of Jeremy Bentham, English Utilitarian philosopher

1875 - Birth of Thomas Mann, German novelist (Magic Mountain, Nobel 1929)

1935 - Birth of Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader

1961 - Death of Dr Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist

1968 - Assassination of Robert F Kennedy, US Senator

Bro. Aleksandr Pushkin
Russian poet, novelist and dramatist
(Born this day 1799)

The heavy hanging chains shall fall, the walls shall crumble at the word,
And freedom greet you with the light and brothers give you back the sword

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 7 June
Scotland: Commemoration of Robert the Bruce (died this day 1329)

1848 - Birth of Paul Gaugin, French post-impressionist painter

1866 - Death of Chief Seattle, Native American leader

1899 - Birth of Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist (The Death of the Heart)

1943 - Birth of Nikki Giovanni, American poet (LHJ Woman of the Year 1973)

1952 - Birth of Orhan Pamuk, Turkish post-modernist author (Nobel laureate, 2006)

1954 - Death of Alan Turing, OBE, FRS, British mathematician and cryptographer

1980 - Death of Henry Miller, American writer (Tropic of Cancer)

Susan Blow
US teacher, pioneered kindergarten education
(Born this day 1843)

To each man is reserved a work which he alone can do

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 8 June
Revolutionary France: Inauguration of new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being

0632 - Death of Muhammad, warrior prophet of Islam (Koran)

1809 - Death of Thomas Paine, English-American-French writer (Age of Reason)

1845 - Death of Bro. Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States

1876 - Death of George Sand, French novelist and early feminist

1916 - Birth of Francis Crick, FRS, English biologist, co-discovered DNA's structure

1955 - Birth of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, FRS, English scientist (inventor of the WWW)

1970 - Death of Abraham Maslow, American humanistic psychologist (Hierarchy of Needs)

Attila the Hun
Germanic warlord
(Invaded Italy this day 452)

Huns only make enemies on purpose