Today in History

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 19 February
Celebration of Copernicus (Polish astronomer, born this day 1473)

1811 - The Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia was instituted

1916 - Death of Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist, philosopher and psychologist

1917 - Birth of Carson McCullers, American novelist and playwright (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)

1951 - Death of André Gide, French author and Nobel laureate (Literature, 1947)

1952 - Birth of Amy Tan, Chinese-American writer (The Joy Luck Club)

1958 - Birth of Helen Fielding, English novelist and screenwriter (Bridget Jones’s Diary[)

1963 - Birth of Laurell Kaye Hamilton, American novelist (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter)

Bro. Eduard Douwes Dekker (aka, Multatuli)
Dutch anarchist essayist and novelist
(Died this day 1887)

There is only one evil, one crime, one sin: lack of heart

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 20 February
UN: World Day of Social Justice

1805 - Birth of Angelina Grimke, US reformer, abolitionist, politician and lawyer

1860 - Death of Henry Drummond, English banker and religious leader

1888 - Birth of Georges Bernanos, French author and soldier (The Open Mind)

1895 - Death of Frederick Douglass, US anti-slavery leader, escaped slave

1902 - Birth of Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist

1927 - Birth of Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE, Bahamian actor, director, author, and diplomat

2005 - Death of Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (Gonzo journalism)

Henri de Lubac
French theologian and anti-fascist
(Born this day 1896)

Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy

[Tamrin]

Friday, 21 February
World: Brotherhood Day

1677 - Death of Baruch Spinoza, Dutch Jewish philosopher

1801 - Birth of John Henry Newman, English cardinal and author (Dream of Gerontius)

1878 - Birth of Mirra Alfassa (“The Mother”), French-born Indian spiritual leader

1900 - The Grand Lodge of Western Australia was instituted in Perth with 37 lodges

1903 - Birth of Anaïs Nin, French novelist (Winter of Artifice, House of Incense)

1907 - Birth of Wystan Hugh Auden, US poet (Age of Anxiety Pulitzer 1948)

1921 - Birth of John Rawls, American professor of moral and political philosophy

Group Capt. Sir Douglas Bader, CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAeS, DL
British fighter ace (WWII, RAF)
(Born this day 1910)

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't do this or that. That's nonsense.
Make up your mind, you'll never use crutches or a stick, then have a go at every-
thing. Go to school, join in all the games you can. Go anywhere you want to.
But never, never let them persuade you that things are too difficult or impossible

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 22 February
U.S.: Washington’s Birthday (1732)

1788 - Birth of Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (Principle of Sufficient Reason)

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

1857 - Birth of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder (Boy Scouts, Girl Guides)

1889 - Birth of Robin G Collingwood, British philosopher and historian

1892 - Birth of Edna St Vincent Millay, American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist

1978 - Death of Phyllis McGinley, American writer and poet

1987 - Death of Andy Warhol, US pop artist (15 minutes of fame)

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
German physicist (electromagnetic theory of light)
(Born this day 1857)

Outside our consciousness there lies the cold and alien world of actual things. Between the
two stretches the narrow borderland of the senses. No communication between the two worlds
is possible excepting across the narrow strip. For a proper understanding of ourselves and of
the world, it is of the highest importance that this borderland should be thoroughly explored

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 23 February
Constantinople: Hagia Sophia commissioned (Justinian I, 532)
US: Iwo Jima Day (1945)

1633 - Birth of Samuel Pepys, English navy expert, composer and diarist

1821 - Death of John Keats, English Romantic poet (To Autumn)

1842 - Birth of Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (“Transcendental Realism”)

1883 - Birth of Karl Theodor Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (“Axial Age”)

1904 - Birth of William L. Shirer, US journalist and historian (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)

1995 - Death of James Herriot, English veterinary surgeon and author

2003 - Death of Robert King Merton, American sociology professor (Columbia University)

Rev.Allan Boesak
South African cleric, politician and anti-apartheid activist
(Born this day 1883)

When we go before Him, God will ask, "Where are your wounds?" And we will say,
"I have no wounds." And God will ask, "Was there nothing worth fighting for?”

[Tamrin]

Monday, 24 February
Inauguration of Gregorian Calendar (Pope Gregory XIII, 1582)

1852 - Birth of George Moore, Irish novelist (Confessions of a Young Man)

1853 - The Grand Lodge of Minnesota was instituted

1928 - Birth of Michael Harrington, US socialist and author (Fragments of Century)

1956 - Birth of Judith Butler, American feminist and philosopher (post-structuralism)

1983 - Death of Tennessee Williams, US playwright (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)

1999 - Death of Andre Dubus, American novelist and essayist (Broken Vessels)

2006 - Death of Octavia E. Butler, American science fiction writer (Lilith’s Brood)

Wilhelm Carl Grimm
German folklorist and co-author (Brothers Grimm)
(Born this day 1786)

He who helped you when you were in trouble ought not afterwards be despised by you

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 25 February
Commemoration of Bro. Sir Christopher Wren (died this day 1723)

1707 - Birth of Bro. Carlo Goldoni, Italian writer (Servant of Two Masters)

1778 - Birth of M.W. Bro. José Francisco de San Martín, liberated Argentina, Chile & Perú

1861 - Birth of Bro. Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher and educator

1916 - Birth of Reinhard Bendix, German-American sociologist (Kings or People)

1943 - Birth of George Harrison, British songwriter, musician and film producer (The Beatles)

2001 - Death of Bro. Sir Donald Bradman, iconic Australian cricketer (99.94 Test batting average)

2005 - Death of Peter Benenson, English founder of Amnesty International

Benedetto Croce
Italian idealist philosopher and politician
(Born this day 1866)

We are products of the past and we live immersed in the past, which encompasses us.
How can we move towards the new life, how create new activities without getting out of
the past and without placing ourselves above it? And how can we place ourselves above
the past if we are in it and it is in us? There is no other way out except through thought, which
does not break off relations with the past but rises ideally above it and converts it into knowledge

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 26 February
Ancient Egypt: Day of Mut (mother goddess)

1564 - Baptism of Christopher Marlowe, English poet and dramatist (Doctor Faustus)

1671 - Birth of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English philosopher and politician

1715 - Birth of Bro. Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher and litterateur

1802 - Birth of Victor Hugo, French Martinist and author (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables)

1846 - Birth of Bro. Buffalo Bill (William Cody), American Wild West showman

1918 - Birth of Theodore Sturgeon, American Science-Fiction writer, essayist and poet

1954 - Death of William R Inge, “The Gloomy Dean”, English theologian and philosopher

Emile Coué, French psychotherapist
(Born this day 1857)

Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux
(“Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better”)

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 27 February
Ancient Greece: Day of Selene (moon goddess)

0272 - Birth of Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (Constantine the Great), Roman Emperor

1807 - Birth of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (Hiawatha)

1902 - Birth of John Steinbeck (DeMolay Bro.), American Nobel Prize winning author (The Grapes of Wrath)

1912 - Birth of Lawrence Durrell, Indian-born English writer (Alexandria Quartet)

1934 - Birth of Ralph Nader, US consumer advocate (Unsafe at Any Speed)

1989 - Death of Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist and ornithologist (Nobel 1973)

2002 - Death of Sir ‘Spike’ Milligan, KBE, Indian-born, Irish comedian and writer (Goon Show)

Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant
Australian poet and soldier (Boer War)
(Wrongfully executed this day 1902)

Shoot Straight, You Bastards!
(last words)

[Tamrin]

Friday, 28 February
Finland: Kalevala (National Epic) Day

1533 - Birth of Michel de Montaigne, French essayist and philosopher

1893 - Birth of Ben Hecht, US screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist

1901 - Birth of Linus Pauling, American scientist, peace activist, author and educator

1909 - Birth of Sir Stephen Spender, CBE, English poet, novelist and essayist

1915 - Birth of Sir Peter Medawar, English zoologist, immunologist (Nobel 1953)

1916 - Death of Henry James, American-British writer (Bostonians)

1970 - Birth of Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), US author (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Ernest Renan
French philosopher, historian and scholar of religion
(Not definitely a Freemason but a Parisian lodge is named after him)
(Born this day 1823)

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths
for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life