Today in History

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 20 May
Viking: Festival of Mjøllnir (Thor's short-handled war hammer)
Haiti: Bro. General Toussaint L'Ouverture, revolutionary leader (born this day 1743)

1506 - Death of Christopher Columbus, Italian navigator and explorer

1799 - Birth of Bro. Honoré de Balzac, French novelist (Pere Goriot, Human Comedy)

1806 - Birth of John Stuart Mill, British Utilitarian philosopher and political economist

1834 - Death of Bro. Marquis de Lafayette, French-American general

1882 - Birth of Sigrid Undset, Norwegian novelist (Nobel laureate 1928)

1972 - Death of Walter Winchell, American newspaper and radio commentator

2002 - Death of Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist

Marlene Zuk
American evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist
(Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live)
(Born this day 1956)

There is not a moral to every story in animal behavior. Sometimes a snake is just
a snake, and sometimes snake sex is only about sex in snakes, or sex in egg-laying
reptiles. Although a biologist’s job in part is to interpret what organisms do in a
broader context, that context does not, and should not, need to include a lesson for
human beings. This is true regardless of whether the lesson is something we would
like to teach, which means that using animals as vehicles for nonsexist thinking is
just as out of bounds as using them to keep women barefoot and pregnant

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 21 May
Ancient Greece: Birth of Plato (427 BCE)

1688 - Birth of Bro. Alexander Pope, English poet (Rape of the Lock)

1810 - Death of Bro. Charles Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont, androgynous French spy

1851 - Birth of Bro. Léon Bourgeois, French statesman and Nobel laureate (Solidarité)

1894 - Execution of Emile Henry, French anarchist and murderer

1930 - Birth of Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia

1935 - Death of Jane Addams, US philosopher, sociologist, author and suffragette

1951 - Birth of Al Franken, US Senator and author (Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)

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Elizabeth Fry
English prison and social reformer and a Quaker philanthropist
(Born this day 1780)

Does Capital punishment tend to the security of the people? By no means.
It hardens the hearts of men, and makes the loss of life appear light to them; it renders
life insecure, inasmuch as the law holds out that property is of greater value than life

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 22 May
International Day for Biological Diversity (formerly 29 December)

1803 - Governor King bans Masonic meetings in New South Wales without his permission

1859 - Birth of Bro. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish author (Sherlock Holmes)

1885 - Death of Victor Hugo, French Martinist and author (Les Misérables)

1911 - Birth of Anatol Rapoport, Russian-born American mathematical psychologist

1936 - Birth of M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and author (The Road Less Travelled)

1943 - Birth of Betty Williams, US social activist, Nobel laureate (Peace Prize, 1976)

2010 - Death of Martin Gardner, American recreational mathematician, magician & skeptic

Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor
(Died this day 337)

In hoc signo vinces
("In this sign you will conquer")

[Tamrin]

Friday, 23 May
Ancient Rome: Rosalia, festival of roses (sacred to Venus)
Bahá'í: Festival of Bab’s Declaration, prophesying the coming of Bahá'u'lláh (1844)

1707 - Birth of Carolus Linnæus ("Father of Taxonomy"), Swedish botanist

1734 - Birth of Bro. Franz Anton Mesmer, Austrian physician and hypnotist (Mesmerism)

1810 - Birth of Margaret Fuller, American writer and critic (New York Tribune)

1906 - Death of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (A Doll’s House)

1924 - Birth of Karlheinz Deschner, German author (Christianity's Criminal History)

1926 - Birth of Joe Slovo, South African South African politician and anti-Apartheid activist

2012 - Death of Paul Fussell, American cultural & literary historian, academic and author

Bro. Elias Ashmole
English antiquarian, collector, politician and student of astrology and alchemy
(Born this day 1617)

I was made a Free-Mason at Warrington in Lancashire
with Coll. Henry Mainwaring of Karincham in Cheshire.
The names of those that were of the Lodge, Mr Rich: Penkett Warden.
M James Collier, Mr Rich Sanchey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Rich: Ellam, Hugh Brewer

(16 October 1646, 4:30 pm)

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 24 May
Ptolemaic Egypt: Feast day of Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice Great Hermes)
France / Roma (Gypsy): La Fete des Saintes Maries (Three Marys of the Sea)

1543 - Death of Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer (Heliocentrism)

1743 - Birth of Bro. Jean-Paul Marat, Prussian-born physician and French revolutionary

1794 - Birth of William Whewell, British philosopher (History of Inductive Science)

1879 - Death of William Lloyd Garrison, US journalist and abolitionist (Liberator)

1901 - Initiation of Bro. Sir Winston Churchill, Studholme Lodge, London

1918 - Birth of Bro. Coleman A Young, 33°, US politician and civil rights leader

1941 - Birth of Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, poet and painter

Lillian Moller Gilbreth
American psychologist and industrial engineer ("Mother' of Modern Management")
(Born this day 1878)

Wives and mothers are entitled to share in this freedom and fulfilment, but this happy situation

can be attained only if the responsibilities of the home are shared and efficiently handled

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 25 May
Ephesus: Procession of the Statue of Artemis (goddess of the hunt)

1803 - Birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist and philosopher (Concord Hymn)

1803 - Birth of Bro. Baron Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English politician and novelist

1908 - Birth of Theodore Roethke, American poet (Words for the Wind)

1927 - Birth of Robert Ludlum, American author (The Bourne Trilogy)

1935 - Birth of W.P. Kinsella, OC, OBC, Canadian novelist (Shoeless Joe)

1938 - Birth of Raymond Carver, American short story writer and poet

1985 - Death of Robert Nathan, US writer and poet (Portrait of Jennie)

Douglas Adams
English writer, humorist and dramatist (Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy)
(Died 11 May 2001)
(Commemorated this day, “Towel Day”)

Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary,
the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender

Richard Dawkins writing of Douglas Adams

[Tamrin]

Monday, 26 May
Ancient Rome: Festival of Diana (First of six day festival)
Australia: National Sorry Day (Stolen Generation)

1703 - Death of Samuel Pepys, English marine expert and diarist

1822 - Birth of Edmond de Goncourt, French writer and critic (Académie Goncourt)

1828 - Death of Bro. John Oxley, Australian explorer (Lodge of Social and Military Virtues, IC, NSW)

1907 - Birth of Bro. John "Duke" Wayne, US actor (True Grit)

1928 - Birth of Dr Jack Kevorkian ('Doctor Death'), Armenian-American medico

1949 - Birth of Ward Cunningham, US computer programmer, inventor of the first wiki

1976 - Death of Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (Holzweg)

Beda Venerabilis (the Venerable Bede)
English speaking church historian
(Died this day 735)

He alone loves the Creator perfectly who manifests a pure love for his neighbour

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 27 May
Lutheran: Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the church (died this day 1564)

1332 - Birth of Ibn Khaldûn, Tunisian historiographer and historian (al-Muqaddimah)

1818 - Birth of Amelia Jenks Bloomer, American suffragette known for her pantaloons

1867 - Birth of Arnold Bennett, English novelist, playwright & critic (Great Babylon)

1902 - Birth of Rev. Bro. Peter Marshall, Scottish-born Chaplain to the US Senate (A Man Called Peter)

1906 - Birth of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, Thai Bhikkhu and philosopher (No Religion)

1907 - Birth of Rachel Carson, American biologist & conservationist (Silent Spring)

1911 - Birth of Bro. Hubert Humphrey, Jr., 38th Vice President of the United States

Dominique Bouhours
French Jesuit, grammarian and critic
(Died this day 1702)

I am about to — or I am going to — die. Either expression is used

(Last words)

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 28 May
Ancient Greece: Purification of Pythia, priestess at Delphi (sacred to Gaia and later to Apollo)

1747 - Death of Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, French moralist and essayist

1759 - Birth of William Pitt the Younger, British Prime Minister (1783 - 1801)

1849 - Death of Anne Brontë, British author (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)

1912 - Birth of Patrick White, Australian novelist (Happy Valley, Nobel 1973)

1944 - Birth of Rudy Giuliani, KBE, US lawyer, businessman and New York City Mayor

1945 - Birth of Patch Adams, US physician, activist, author and clown

1971 - Death of Bro. Audie Murphy, American WWII army officer and actor

Zahi Hawas
Egyptian archaeologist and Egyptologist
(Born this day 1947)

Not a single piece of material culture — not a single object — has been
found at Giza that can be interpreted to come from a lost civilization

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 29 May
Fall of Byzantine Empire: Constantinople conquered this day 1453
Bahá'í: Commemoration of their founder Bahá'u'lláh (died this day 1892)

1736 - Birth of Patrick Henry, US revolutionary "Give me liberty or give me death"

1880 - Birth of Oswald Spengler, German philosopher (Decline of the West)

1906 - Birth of T.H. White, Indian-born British novelist (The Once and Future King)

1911 - Death of Bro. Sir W.S. Gilbert, British librettist and dramatist (Gilbert and Sullivan)

1917 - Birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35^th President of the USA

1932 - Birth of Professor Paul Ehrlich, American biologist and author (The Population Bomb)

1947 - Birth of Gene Robinson, American Episcopalian Bishop

Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (born this day 1914)
and Sir Edmund P. Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE
(reached the summit of Mount Everest this day 1953)

If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest,
then I will have to live with this shame

(on being persistently asked by journalists which man
was the first one to step on the summit of Everest)