Today in History

[Tamrin]

7 January
Christian-Ethiopia: Ganna Christmas

1558 - Calais, last English possession in France, retaken by French

1610 - Galileo discovers 1st 3 Jupiter satellites, Io, Europa & Ganymede

1611 - Birth of James Harrington, England, political author (Commonwealth of Oceans)

1925 - Birth of Gerald Malcolm Durrell, Britain, zoologist/writer (Mockery Bird)

1959 - US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government

1975 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to AR Ammons (Sphere)

1990 - Tower Of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far

James Harrington
(Born this day 1611)

The law is but words and paper without the hands and swords of men

[Tamrin]

8 January

1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist/astronomer, dies at 78 in Arceti Italy

1823 - Birth of Alfred Russel Wallace, British zoologist/co-discoverer (evolution) [Wallace's Line]

1867 - Birth of Emily Greene Balch, US, sociologist/feminist/pacifist (Nobel 1946)

1902 - Birth of Carl R[ansom] Rogers, US, psychologist (Client-Centered Therapy)

1941 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, dies at 83

1942 - Birth of Stephen Hawking, English physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes)

1964 - President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"

Emily Greene Balch
(Born this day 1867)

Men who are scandalized at the lack of freedom in Russia
do not ask themselves how real is liberty among the poor,
the weak, and the ignorant in capitalist society

[Tamrin]

9 January

1324 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer, dies

1843 - Caroline Herschel, "1st lady of astronomy", dies at 98 in Germany
[Caroline Herschel was, along with Mary Somerville, appointed to honorary membership in the Royal Society in 1835, the first women to be so honored]

1879 - Birth of John Broadus Watson, behaviorist psychologist

1908 - Birth of Simone de Beauvoir, France, author (Mandarins, 2nd Sex)

1941 - Birth of Joan Baez, Staten Island, folk singer/human rights advocate

1947 - Karl Mannheim, sociologist (Diagnosis of Our Time), dies at 53

1970 - After 140 years of unofficial racial discrimination, the Mormons issued an official statement declaring that blacks were not yet to receive the priesthood "for reasons which we believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully known to man."

J.B. Watson
(Born this day 1879)

Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world
to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates
of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years

[Tamrin]

10 January
Switzerland: Meitlisunntig Festival-Woman in Villmergen War (1712)
Anglican: Commemoration of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury

0049 - BCE - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, invades Italy

1429 - Order of the Golden Fleece established in Austria-Hungary & Spain

1514 - The first section of the Complutensian Polyglot (the world's first multi-language Bible) was printed

1645 - William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, beheaded for “treason” at 71

1778 - Carolus Linnæus "Carl von Linné," Swedish botanist/explorer/"Father of Taxonomy", dies at 70

1951 - UN headquarters opens in Manhattan NY

1984 - US establishes full diplomatic relations with Vatican after 117 years

William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
(Beheaded this day 1645)

The Lord receive my soul, and have mercy on me, and
bless this kingdom with peace and charity, that there
may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them

[Tamrin]

11 January

1672 - Isaac Newton is elected a member of Royal Society

1787 - Titania & Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel

1842 - Birth of William James, US, psychologist/philosopher

1885 - Birth of Alice Paul, ERA advocate/founder (National Woman's Party)

1887 - Birth of Aldo Leopold, founder (Wilderness Society)

1913 - Bread & Roses Strike begins

1964 - US Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous

Alice Paul
(Born this day 1885)

There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it

[Tamrin]

12 January

1829 - Friedrich von Schlegel, German cultural philosopher/poet, dies at 56

1863 - Birth of Vivekananda, Calcutta, Hindu religious leader/reformer

1876 - Birth of Jack London, writer/socialist (Call of the Wild)

1879 - British Zulu War begins Lieutenant-General Chelmsford invades Zululand

1920 - Birth of James Farmer, Marshall TX, civil rights leader

1976 - Agatha Christie, mystery writer (10 Little Indians), dies at 85

1990 - Laurence J Peter, author (Peter Principle), dies from a stroke at 70

Friedrich von Schlegel
(Born this day 1829)

Virtue is reason which has become energy

[Tamrin]

13 January
Lutheran: Commemoration of George Fox, renewer of society

1599 - Edmund Spenser, poet (Faerie Queene), dies at about 46

1616 - Birth of Antoinette Bourignon, Flemish mystic/French religious fanatic

1691 - George Fox, founder of Quakers, dies at 66

1830 - Great fire in New Orleans thought to be set by rebel slaves

1898 - Emile Zola publishes his open letter (J'accuse) in defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in Paris

1941 - James Joyce, novelist (Ulysses), dies in Zürich Switzerland, at 58

1958 - 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for nuclear test ban

Antoinette Bourignon
(Born this day 1616)

I am pure nothing; but God is everything in me.
He teaches me, he works, he speaks in me,
without nature contributing more than the mere tool,
as a brush contributes to the art of a beautiful painting

[Tamrin]

14 January

1699 - Massachusetts holds day of fasting for wrongly persecuting "witches"

1741 - Birth of Benedict Arnold, US General turned traitor (Revolutionary War)

1875 - Birth of Albert Schweitzer, French doctor/humanitarian/organist (Nobel 1952)

1878 - US Supreme court rules race separation on trains unconstitutional

1940 - Birth of Julian Bond, Nashville TN, (D-GA) civil rights leader

1963 - George C Wallace sworn in as Governor of Alabama,
his address states "segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!"

1994 - Federica Montseny, anarchist/Spanish minister of Health (1936), dies at 80

Bro. Benedict Arnold, (belatedly loyal British Patriot)
(Born this day 1741)

If your great umbrage would care to meet my high dudgeon at 12 paces,
I would be happy to entertain you at dawn

[Tamrin]

15 January

1535 - Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church

1622 - Baptism of Molière, France, dramatist (Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope)

1809 - Birth of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, France, politician (libertarian socialist)

1877 - Birth of Lewis M Terman, Indiana, psychologist (developed Stanford-Binet IQ test)

1919 - Karl Liebknecht & Rosa Luxembourg, Marxist revolutionaries, murdered

1970 - Israeli archaeologists reported uncovering the first evidence supporting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D

1985 - Civil rights activist Tancredo Neves becomes 1st elected President of Brazil in 21 years

Karl Liebknecht & Rosa Luxembourg
(Both murdered this day 1919)

The basic law of capitalism is you or I, not both you and I — K.L.

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains — R.L.

[Tamrin]

16 January

1581 - English parliament passes laws against Catholicism

1759 - British Museum opens in London

1794 - Edward Gibbon, historian (Decline & Fall), dies in London at 56

1874 - Birth of Robert Service, England, Canadian poet (Cremation of Sam McGee)

1909 - British explorer Ernest Shackleton finds magnetic south pole

1932 - Birth of Dian Fossey, zoologist (Gorillas in the Mist)

1933 - Birth of Susan Sontag, US writer

Robert Service
(Born this day 1874)

Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies
for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead
that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe