Today in History

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 27 March
Sufism: Martrydom of Abu al-Mughith al-Husayn ibn Mansur, (Persia 922)

1536 - Swiss Protestants in Strassbourg and Constance signed the First Helvetic Confession

1625 - Death of Bro. King James I of England and Ireland (VI of Scotland)

1797 - Birth of Alfred V Comte de Vigny, French musketeer and writer (Moïse, Chatterton)

1844 - Birth of Bro. Gen. Adolphus Washington Greely, US Arctic explorer, army general

1875 - Death of Bro. Edgar Quinet, French poet, historian and political philosopher

1893 - Birth of Karl Mannheim, Hungarian-born German/British sociologist (Ideology & Utopia)

1966 - Anti Vietnam war demonstrations in US, Europe & Australia

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
German discoverer of X-rays (Nobel 1901)
(Born this day 1875)

I did not think; I investigated

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 28 March
Ancient Greece: Feast Day of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom / patron of Athens

1592 - Birth of John Comenius, Moravian educational reformer

1760 - Birth of Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (Negro Emancipation)

1794 - Death of Bro. Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician and philosopher

1868 - Birth of Maxim Gorky, Russian author and activist

1936 - Birth of Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian author and politician

1941 - Suicide of Virginia Woolf, English author (To Lighthouse)

1968 - Birth of Iris Chang, Chinese-American historian and journalist

Fr. Joséphin Péladan
French writer/founder (French Rosicrucians)
(Born this day 1859)

Covering oneself, surrounding oneself with shapes and colors that
correspond to a plan, mean that that plan is beginning to be realized

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 29 March
Ancient Greece: Festival of Kybele (Cybele, Great Mother)

1772 - Death of Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist, philosopher and mystic

1882 - [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Columbus
]Knights of Columbus[/url][/b] chartered for Catholic men

1912 - Death of Bro. Robert F Scott, British pole explorer (Antarctica)

1913 - Birth of R.S. Thomas (Ronald Stuart Thomas), Welsh poet

1943 - Birth of Eric Idle, English comedian (Monty Python)

1943 - Birth of Sir John Major, British Prime Minister (1990 to 1997)

1957 - Death of Joyce A L Cary, English writer (Horse's Mouth)

William Cooper
Australian Aboriginal leader (Yorta Yorta Nation) and Human Rights activist
(Died this day 1941)

Several weeks after Kristallnacht in Germany, Cooper led a delegation of
the Australian Aboriginal League to the German Consulate in Melbourne to
deliver a petition which condemned the “cruel persecution of the Jewish
people by the Nazi government of Germany.” The protest has been referred
to as "the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht”

[Tamrin]

Friday, 30 March
Ancient Rome: Festival of Salus, goddess of health

1820 - Birth of Anna Sewell, British writer (Black Beauty)

1853 - Birth of Vincent van Gogh, Dutch artist (Irises)

1867 - US purchases Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 (2¢ an acre-Seward's Folly)

1870 - US 15th Amendment passes, guarantees right to vote regardless of race

1903 - Birth of Countee Cullen, US poet (Color, Ballad of the Brown Girl)

1925 - Death of Bro. Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (Anthroposophy)

1948 - Assassination of Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi

Rolf Harris, CBE, AM
Australian artist, entertainer and gentleman ratbag

My boomerang won't come back, my boomerang won't come back,
I've waved the thing all over the place, practiced till I was black in the face,
I'm a big disgrace to the Aborigine race, my boomerang won't come back

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 31 March
Ancient Rome: Festival of Luna, goddess of the full moon

1596 - Birth of René Descartes, French-Dutch philosopher (Cogito ergo sum)

1631 - Death of John Donne, English metaphysical poet

1809 - Birth of Bro. Edward FitzGerald, English translator (Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam)

1855 - Death of Charlotte Brontë, English author (Jane Eyre)

1914 - Birth of Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and poet, 1990 Nobel Prize

1926 - Birth of John Fowles, British novelist (Collector, French Lieutenant’s Woman)

1927 - Birth of Cesar Chavez, US farm labor leader (United Farm Workers)

Andrew Lang
Scottish author (The Blue Fairy Book)
(Born this day 1844)

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts
— for support rather than illumination

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 1 April
April Fools’ Day (Noddy Day, Gowkie Day, Gowkin' Day)

1578 - Birth of William Harvey, England, physician (discovered blood circulation)

1815 - Birth of Prince Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor

1908 - Birth of Abraham H Maslow, US psychologist (humanistic psychology)

1926 - Birth of Anne McCaffrey, American fantasy and science fiction author

1929 - Birth of Milan Kundera, Czech-French novelist (Unbearable Lightness of Being)

1930 - Death of Zawditu, 1st reigning female monarch of Ethiopia since Makeda

1942 - Birth of Samuel Delany, US science fiction writer

Edmond Rostand
French poet and dramatist (Cyrano de Bergerac)
(Born this day 1868)

A pessimist is a man who tells the truth prematurely

[Tamrin]

Monday, 2 April
International Children's Book Day (Hans Christian Andersen born this day 1805)

1725 - Birth of Bro. Giacomo Casanova, Venetian soldier, spy, diplomat, writer and adventurer

1805 - Birth of Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author of 150 fairy tales

1840 - Birth of Émile Zola, French novelist (Nana, J'Accuse)

1877 - Initiation of Bro. Lawrence Hargrave, Australian inventor & aviation pioneer in United Service Lodge of NSW (EC)

1891 - Birth of Max Ernst, German Dada painter

1922 - Death of Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychologist and psychoanalyst

1927 - Birth of Kenneth Tynan, British author and theatre critic

George MacDonald Fraser
British author (Flashman)
(Born this day 1925)

There's a point, you know, where treachery is so
complete and unashamed that it becomes statesmanship

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 3 April
Considered the least unlikely date of crucifixion (33 CE)

1593 - Birth of George Herbert, English metaphysical poet (5 Mystical Songs)

1783 - Birth of Washington Irving, American writer (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle)

1822 - Birth of Edward Everett Hale, US clergyman and author (Man without a Country)

1837 - Birth of John Burroughs, US writer and nature enthusiast (Burroughs Medal namesake)

1934 - Birth of Jane Goodall, British primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist

1950 - Death of Carter G Woodson, American "father of black history"

2000 - Death of Terence McKenna, American writer and polymath

Graham Greene
British writer (3rd Man, Our man in Havana)
(Died this day 1991)

Sentimentality — that's what we call the sentiment we don't share

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 4 April
Ancient Rome: Megalesia (first day of festival honouring the Great Mother)

1507 - Ordination of Martin Luther as a Catholic priest (credited as Protestant founder)

1541 - Ignatius of Loyola becomes 1st Superior-General of the Jesuits

1774 - Death of Oliver Goldsmith, Irish poet (She Stoops to Conquer)

1778 - Initiation of Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), Les Neuf Soeurs Lodge, Paris

1802 - Birth of Dorothea Dix, US social activist (drew attention to the treatment of mental inmates)

1928 - Birth of Dr. Maya Angelou, American poet, playwright and novelist

1968 - Assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., US civil rights leader

Edith Södergran
Swedish-speaking Russian-Finnish poet

My self-confidence comes from the fact that I have discovered my own
dimensions. It does not behoove me to make myself smaller than I am

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 5 April
Ancient Rome: Festival of Felicitas, honouring Fortuna, goddess of fate and fortune

1588 - Birth of Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (Leviathan)

1765 - Death of Edward Young, English poet (Love of Fame)

1837 - Birth of Algernon Swinburne, English poet and author

1886 - Initiation of Bro. Rudyard Kipling, Hope and Perseverance Lodge No. 782 (EC), Lahore Punjab, India

1917 - Birth of Robert Bloch, American horror writer (Psycho)

1964 - Death of Bro. Douglas MacArthur, US General (Pacific theater-WWII)

1997 - Death of Allen Ginsberg, US beat poet

Bro. Georges-Jacques Danton
Prominenent French Revolutionary
(Executed this day 1794 for be too moderate)

In revolutions authority remains with the greatest scoundrels