Today in History

[Tamrin]

Monday, 6 February
Ancient Greece: Festival of Aphrodite (goddess of love, sex and beauty)
New Zealand: Waitangi Day (1840, treaty signed between Britain & Maoris)

1564 - Birth of Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist, poet and translator

1748 - Birth of Bro. Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher (founded the Order of Illuminati)

1804 - Death of Joseph Priestley, English dissenting clergyman and natural philosopher

1902 - Birth of Louis Nizer, US lawyer

1911 - Birth of Ronald Reagan, US actor (Bedtime for Bonzo) & 40th US President

1917 - Birth of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress (Queen of Outer Space)

1945 - Birth of Bob Marley, OM, Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician

John Henry Mackay
Scottish-German individualist anarchist, thinker and writer
(Born this day 1864)

I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will Not rule, and also ruled I will not be!

(akin to John Galt's Oath, by Ayn Rand)

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 7 February
World: Boy Scouts Day (1910)

1478 - Birth of Sir Thomas More, English lawyer and Lord Chancellor (Utopia)

1812 - Birth of Charles Dickens, English novelist (Oliver Twist, Tale of 2 Cities)

1823 - Death of Ann Radcliffe, English pioneer of the gothic novel (The Mysteries of Udolpho)

1867 - Birth of Laura Ingalls Wilder, OES Sister, American author (Little House on the Prairie)

1870 - Birth of Alfred Adler, Austrian medical doctor and psychotherapist

1885 - Birth of Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer and playwright

1981 - The Grand Lodge of Alaska was instituted

Dom Helder Camara
Bishop of Brazil (nonviolence and human rights advocate)
(Died this day 1990)

When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint.
When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 8 February
Commemoration of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (beheaded this day 1587)

1612 - Baptism Samuel “Hudibras” Butler, English poet and satirist

1810 - Birth of Bro. Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant), French magus, occultist and author

1819 - Birth of John Ruskin, English writer, artist and Gothic Revivalist (Prerafaelite)

1828 - Birth of Jules Verne, French sci-fi pioneer sci-fi (From the Earth to the Moon)

1878 - Birth of Martin Buber, German- Israeli philosopher and theologist (Ich und Du)

1911 - Birth of Elizabeth Bishop, American Pulitzer Prize winning poet

1999 - Death of Dame Iris Murdoch, Irish philosopher and author

Kate Chopin
Early US feminist and author (The Awakening)
(Born this day 1851)

The bird that would soar above the plane of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.
It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 9 February
Ancient Greece: Feast Day of Apollo

1863 - Birth of Anthony Hope, English novelist and playwright (The Prisoner of Zenda)

1866 - Birth of George Ade, American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright

1881 - Death of Feodor M Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (Crime & Punishment)

1909 - Initiation of Bro. Harry S. Truman, 33rd US President (Belton Lodge #450, Missouri)

1923 - Birth of Brendan Behan, Irish poet, short story writer, novelist and playwright

1944 - Birth of Alice Walker, US novelist (Color Purple, Meridian)

1995 - Death of J William Fulbright, US Senator (anti-Vietnam War)

Arthur Stace 'Mr Eternity'
Australian graffiti artist
(Born this day 1885)

Eternity

[Tamrin]

Friday, 10 February
Feast Day of St. Paul (commemorates his shipwreck on Malta)

1775 - Birth of Charles Lamb, English critic, poet and essayist (Essays of Elia)

1890 - Birth of Boris L Pasternak, Russian novelist and poet (Dr Zhivago, Nobel 1958)

1893 - Birth of Jimmy Durante, Italian American singer, pianist, comedian and actor

1898 - Birth of Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (Mother Courage) and composer

1944 - Birth of Frances Moore Lappé, US social activist, and author (Diet for a Small Planet)

1964 - Destroyer Voyager sinks off Australia after colliding with aircraft carrier Melbourne

1992 - Death of Alex Haley, US writer (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots)

Alex Comfort
English anarchist, gerontologist and author (The Joy of Sex)
(Born this day 1920)

We may eventually come to realize that
chastity is no more a virtue than malnutrition

[Tamrin]

Friday, 11 February
Japan: Foundation Day (660 BCE) — accession of Emperor Jimmu

1650 - Death of René Descartes, French-born Dutch philosopher, “Father of Modern Philosophy”

1802 - Birth of Lydia Child, American author and slavery abolition activist

1847 - Birth of Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor

1898 - Birth of Leo Szilard, Hungarian physicist (chain-reaction)

1963 - Death of Sylvia Plath, US poet & novelist (Ariel)

1986 - Death of Frank Herbert, US sci-fi author (Dune)

1994 - Death of Paul Feyerabend, Austrian-born philosopher of science (Against Method)

Bernard Fontenelle
French scientist & author (Plurality of Worlds)
(Born this day 1657)

Let us be well assured of the Matter of Fact, before we trouble our selves with
enquiring into the Cause. It is true, that this Method is too slow for the greatest part of
Mankind, who run naturally to the Cause, and pass over the Truth of the Matter of Fact

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 12 February
Ancient Greece: Feast Day of Artemis
Ancient Rome: Feast Day of Diana

1688 - The “Glorious Revolution”: William and Mary of Orange took the throne of England

1804 - Death of Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (Zum ewigen Frieden)

1809 - Birth of Charles Darwin, FRS, English evolutionist (Origin of species)

1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln, Hodgenville KY, (R) 16th President (1861-65)

1828 - Birth of George Meredith, English poet and novelist (Shaving of Shagpat)

1892 - Initiation of Bro. Sir Joseph Cook, Australian P.M. (1913/4), Lodge Independent, NSW

1909 - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded

Rev. Dr Cotton Mather
Controversial Puritan minister (Salem witch trials)
(Born this day 1663)

Families are the nurseries of all Societies; and the first combinations of mankind

[Tamrin]

Monday, 13 February
Ancient Greece: Anthesteria, festival of Dionysus
Ancient Rome: Bacchanalia

0858 - Death of Kenneth I, King of the Picts and legendary first King of the Scots

1883 - Death of Richard Wagner, German composer and anti-Semite

1903 - Birth of Georges Simenon, Belgian crime writer (Maigret)

1907 - English suffragettes storm British Parliament & 60 women are arrested

1923 - Birth of General Charles “Chuck” Yeager, US pilot (first supersonic flight)

1924 - Howard Carter, British Egyptologist, opens Tutankhamun's tomb

1944 - Birth of Jerry Springer, British-born American TV presenter (The Jerry Springer Show)

Bro. Sir Joseph Banks, FRS & PRS
British naturalist and botanist (founder of Kew Gardens)
(first known Freemason to set foot on Australia)
(Born this day 1743)

A man is never so well Employ'd, as when he is labouring for the
advantage of the Public; without the Expectation, the Hope or Even
a wish to derive advantage of any Kind from the Result of his exertions

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 14 February
Saint Valentines Day (our wedding anniversary, 1976)

1483 - Birth of Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah, prince and founder Mogols Dynasty

1766 - Birth of Thomas Malthus, FRS, British clergyman, economist and demographer

1780 - Death of William Blackstone, English jurist (Commentaries on the Laws of England)

1817 - Birth of Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor

1831 - Death of Bro. Vincente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero

1882 - Birth of George Jean Nathan, US editor, author and critic (American Mercury)

1929 - St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago IL, 7 gangsters killed

Capt. James Cook
British explorer (last to “discover” Australia)
(Killed in fracas with Hawaiians this day 1779)

Do just once what others say you can't do, and you
will never pay attention to their limitations again

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 15 February
Ancient Rome: Feast of Juno Februata (goddess of love, marriage, and women)
Tanna Island, Vanuatu: Jon Frum Day (Cargo Cult)

0399 - BCE - Trial of Socrates

1564 - Birth of Galileo Galilei, Pisa, Italy, astronomer and physicist

1728 - Earliest warranted English Constitution Lodge outside England was French Arms Lodge, Madrid, Spain

1748 - Birth of Jeremy Bentham, English Utilitarian philosopher

1820 - Birth of Susan B. Anthony, US women's suffragette

1861 - Birth of Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (Adventures of Ideas)

1954 - Birth of Matt Groening, American cartoonist (creator: The Simpsons)

Father Camilo Torres
Colombian socialist and Roman Catholic priest
(Killed by Colombian troops, this day 1966)

We know that hunger is mortal, and if we know that, does it
make sense to waste time arguing whether the soul is immortal?