Today in History

[Tamrin]

Friday, 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

1920 - Birth of An Wang, Chinese American computer engineer (Wang Laboratories)

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]

Saturday, 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)

1921 - Death of Prince Peter Kropotkin, Russian geographer, zoologist and philosopher

1999 - Death of Dame Iris Murdoch, Irish philosopher and author (Under the Net)

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]

Sunday, 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)

[Tamrin]

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

1685 - Birth of Aaron Hill, English dramatist and miscellaneous writer

1755 - Death of Baron de Montesquieu, French Enlightenment political theorist

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

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]

Tuesday, 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)

1900 - Birth of Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (Truth and Method)

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 ourselves 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]

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

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) 16^th US 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

1929 - Death of Lillie Langtry (born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton), English actress

1980 - Death of Muriel Rukeyser, American poet and political activist

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]

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

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

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

1781 - Death of Bro. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German enlightenment philosopher ( Conversations for Freemasons)

1811 - Birth of M.W. Bro. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine President, activist, intellectual and statesman

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

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

1910 - Birth of Irena Sendler, Polish social worker and WWII underground resistance activist

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?

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 16 February
UN: Kyoto Protocol Day (2005)

1497 - Birth of Philip Melanchthon, German theologian (Protestant Reformation)

1802 - Birth of Phineas Quimby, American spiritual philosopher (“New Thought Movement”)

1834 - Birth of Ernst Haeckel, German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician and artist

1838 - Birth of Henry Adams, US historian, writer (Education of Henry Adams)

1944 - Birth of Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning US novelist

1954 - Birth of Iain Banks, Scottish author (Humanist Society of Scotland)

1992 - Death of Angela Carter, British novelist (Magic Toyshop)

Bro. Francis Galton, FRS
English explorer, statistician and anthropologist (eugenics )
(Born this day 1822)

Poor humanity! I often feel that the tableland of sanity upon which most of us dwell,
is small in area, with unfenced precipices on every side, over any one of which we may fall

[Tamrin]

Monday, 17 February
Hindu: Kali Yuga (432,000 years) commenced this day 1302 BCE
Lord Howe Island: Discovery Day, 1788

1600 - Martyrdom of Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher and religious reformer (plurality of worlds)

1673 - Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin), French playwright (Learned Lady)

1848 - Birth of Louisa Lawson, Australian 'Mother of Women's Suffrage'

1864 - Birth of Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, Australian poet (Waltzing Matilda)

1908 - Death of Geronimo (Goyaałé), Bedonkohe Apache chief (Apache Wars)

1934 - Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Australian multimedia megastar

1986 - Death of Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (Kingdom of Happiness)

Bro. Col. Henry Steel Olcott
US co-founder of The Theosophical Society
(Died this day 1907)

There is not an example recorded of anyone speaking irreverently of the course of
initiation after having passed through it. On the other hand, the most divine characters in
history who have been so blessed, have unanimously expressed their joy at having entered
"The Path" and pursued it bravely to the end. Their testimony is that, until man has had this
evolution, he cannot conceive of the nature of truth or the possibilities latent in humanity

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 18 February
Zoroastrian: Day of Spenta Armaiti (earth and fertility goddess)

1546 - Death of Martin Luther, German biblical scholar and religious reformer

1564 - Death of Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor

1836 - Birth of Swami Ramakrishna (Gadadhar Chatterji), Indian mystic and Hindu leader

1883 - Birth of Bro. Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher and novelist (Zorba the Greek)

1896 - Birth of André Breton, French poet and principal theorist of Surrealism

1934 - Birth of Audre Lorde, Caribbean-American writer and civil rights activist

1967 - Death of Robert J Oppenheimer, US physicist (creator of atomic bomb)

Isaac Casaubon
French-born English classical scholar, theologian and Huguenot
(Born this day 1559)

It mightily affects me to see how many there were in the earliest times of the Church,
who considered it as a capital exploit to lend to heavenly truth the help of their own
inventions, in order that the new doctrine might be more readily received by the wise
among the Gentiles. These officious lies, they were wont to say, were devised for a good end