Today in History

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 21 March
World: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

1763 - Birth of Jean Paul, German poet and humorist

1806 - Birth of Bro. Benito Pablo Juárez, President of México (1858-72)

1816 - Birth of Charlotte Bronte, English novelist and poet

1889 - The remaining dissenting lodges in Victoria, Australia joined its Grand Lodge, forming the United Grand Lodge of Victoria

1917 - Birth of Frank Hardy, Australian novelist (Power Without Glory)

1923 - Birth of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (Nirmala Srivastava), founder of Sahaja Yoga

1949 - Birth of Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic

Thomas Cranmer
Archbishop of Canterbury
(Burned at the stake this day 1556)

And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ's
enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine

[Tamrin]

Friday, 22 March
International Mother Earth Day

0337 - Death of Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome (In hoc signo vinces)

1832 - Death of Bro. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer

1896 - Death of Thomas Hughes, English lawyer and novelist (Tom Brown’s School Days)

1928 - Birth of Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr., American educator and academic literary critic

1972 - US Congress approves Equal Rights Amendment (ERA not yet ratified)

1974 - Initiation of Bro. Sir William McMahon, Australian PM, Lodge University of Sydney

2007 - Death of U.G. Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher, (anti-guru)

Stephen Pearl Andrews
American abolitionist, anarchist and Universalist
(Born this day 1812)

Every variety of interpretation has been put upon my opinions, usually the least favorable which the
imagination of the writer could devise, with a view, apparently, of cultivating still further the natural
prejudice existing in the public mind against any one bold enough to agitate the delicate and difficult
question of the true relations of the sexes, and the legitimate role which the Passions were intended
to play in the economy of the Universe. In the absence of any readiness on the part of the public to
know the truth on the subject, false, extravagant and ridiculous notions have flooded the country
in its stead. I reject and repudiate the interference of the State, precisely as I do the interference of
the Church. A grand social revolutions will occur. Tyranny of all kinds will disappear, freedom of all
kinds will be revered, and none will be ashamed to confess that they believe in the Freedom of Love

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 23 March
UN: World Meteorological Day

1749 - Birth of Bro. Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician, astronomer and physicist

1842 - Death of Bro. Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), French author (Lamiel)

1858 - Birth of Ludwig Quidde, German historian and politician (Nobel Prize 1927)

1900 - Birth of Erich Seligmann Fromm, German-American psychologist and philosopher

1931 - Death of Bhagat Singh, Indian freedom fighter (Indian independence movement)

1933 - Birth of Philip Zimbardo, American professor of psychology (Stanford Prison Study)

1992 - Death of Friedrich Hayek, Austrian Nobel laureate in economics (Austrian School)

Dietrich Eckart
German drug addict, occultist (Thule Society), and Nazi
(Born this day 1868)

Follow Hitler! He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune. I have initiated him into the
'Secret Doctrine', opened his centers in vision and given him the means to communicate with
the Powers. Do not mourn for me: I shall have influenced history more than any other German

(dying words)

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 24 March
Great Britain: Feast Day of Britannia, goddess of Albion / personification of Britain
World Tuberculosis Day

1603 - Death of Elizabeth I / Scottish king James VI becomes King James I of England

1773 - Death of Bro. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, British statesman and man of letters

1834 - Birth of William Morris, England, designer, craftsman, poet and socialist

1882 - Death of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (Song of Hiawatha)

1903 - Birth of Malcolm Muggeridge, English writer (Observer of Life)

1905 - Death of Jules Verne, sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days)

1936 - Birth of Dr. David Suzuki, Japanese-Canadian academic and environmental activist

Bro. Harry Houdini
Hungarian-born American magician and escape artist
(Born this day 1874)

How the early priests came into possession of these secrets [ledgermain] does not appear, and
if there were ever any records of this kind the Church would hardly allow them to become public

[Tamrin]

Monday, 25 March
Christian: Feast day of the Annunciation (Lady Day)

1801 - Death of Bro. Baron Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg (aka Novalis)

1840 - Lodge Australia Felix No 697 EC first meets in Melbourne (later No. 1 UGLV)

1873 - Birth of Rudolf Rocker, German-born anarachist, writer, historian and social activist

1882 - The Grand Lodge of Arizona was instituted

1906 - Birth of AJP Taylor, British historian, Nuclear Disarmament campaigner

1934 - Birth of Gloria Steinem, American feminist and publisher (Ms Magazine)

1939 - Birth of Prof. Toni Cade Bambara, African-American author, film-maker and social activist

Anthony Meredith Quinton, Baron Quinton
British political and moral philosopher, metaphysician, and philosopher of mind
(Born this day 1925)

Philosophy is rationally critical thinking, of a more or less systematic kind about the general
nature of the world (metaphysics or theory of existence), the justification of belief (epistemology
or theory of knowledge), and the conduct of life (ethics or theory of value). Each of the three
elements in this list has a non-philosophical counterpart, from which it is distinguished by its
explicitly rational and critical way of proceeding and by its systematic nature. Everyone has some
general conception of the nature of the world in which they live and of their place in it. Metaphysics
replaces the unargued assumptions embodied in such a conception with a rational and organized
body of beliefs about the world as a whole. Everyone has occasion to doubt and question beliefs,
their own or those of others, with more or less success and without any theory of what they are
doing. Epistemology seeks by argument to make explicit the rules of correct belief formation. Every-
one governs their conduct by directing it to desired or valued ends. Ethics, or moral philosophy, in its
most inclusive sense, seeks to articulate, in rationally systematic form, the rules or principles involved

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 26 March
Zoroastrianism: Birthday of Zarathushtra
Taiwan: Birthday of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy

1814 - Death of Bro. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician and humanitarian (guillotine)

1827 - Death of Bro. Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist

1892 - Death of Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist and journalist

1904 - Birth of Joseph Campbell, American mythologist (Mythic Image)

1909 - Birth of Bro. Chips Rafferty, MBE, iconic Australian actor and member of Lodge Literature

1911 - Birth of Tennessee Williams, American dramatist (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)

1941 - Birth of Richard Dawkins, FRS, Kenyan-born British biologist (The Selfish Gene)

Louise Otto
German writer, feminist, poet, journalist
(Born this day 1819)

The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that...
women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves

[Tamrin]

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

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[/i], Chatterton)

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

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

1918 - Death of Henry Adams, U.S. historian, journalist, novelist and educator

1921 - Birth of Hélène Berr, Jewish French woman, novelist and Holocaust victim

2012 - Death of Adrienne Rich, American feminist, poet, teacher and writer

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

I did not think; I investigated

[Tamrin]

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

1515 - Birth of Teresa of Avila, Spanish mystic philosopher, saint and Doctor of the Catholic Church

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 Bro. Maxim Gorky, Russian author and activist

1934 - Birth of Lester Russel Brown, American environmental analyst

1942 - Birth of Daniel Clement "Dan" Dennett III, American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist

Fr. Joséphin Péladan
French Martinist, novelist and 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]

Friday, 29 March
Ancient Greece: Festival of Kybele (Cybele, Great Mother)
Christian: Good Friday

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

1824 - Birth of Ludwig Büchner, German philosopher, physiologist and physician

1882 - Knights of Columbus chartered for Catholic men

1895 - Birth of Ernst Jünger, German writer (Storm of Steel)

1900 - Birth of Bro. Sir John "Black Jack" McEwen, GCMG, CH, 18th Prime Minister of Australia

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

1929 - Birth of Richard C. Lewontin, American evolutionary biologist and geneticist (Not in Our Genes)

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]

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

1135 - Birth of Maimonides (Rambam), Spanish Jewish physician and philosopher

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

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

1870 - US passes 15th Amendment, 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

Mary Whiton Calkins
American philosopher and psychologist (President of the American Psychological Association)
(Born this day 1863)

The student trained to reach decisions in the light of logic and of history will be
disposed to recognize that, in a democratic country, governed as this is by the
suffrage of its citizens, and given over as this is to the principle and practice of
educating women, a distinction based on difference of sex is artificial and illogical