Today in History

[Tamrin]

14 June
Australia (except W.A.): Queen's Birthday (not really but, hey, it’s a holiday)

1801 - Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary War general, dies in London

1811 - Birth of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

1834 - Hardhat diving suit patented by Leonard Norcross, Dixfield, Maine

1900 - Hawaiian Republic becomes the US Territory of Hawaii

1928 - Birth of Ernesto (Che) Guevara, Latin American revolutionary

1966 - The Vatican announced that its 'Index of Prohibited Books' had been abolished

1982 - Argentina surrenders to Britain on Falkland Is, ends 74-day conflict

Benedict Arnold
(Died this day 1801)

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

[Tamrin]

Jun 13, 2010 14:38:20 GMT 10 @maximus said:

Re: The Democrat party. They figured out in the 1960s that if you got a segment of society addicted to government aid, you create a permanent underclass, totally dependent on your party for largesse, which assures a permanent voting block to keep your party in power.

Slavery by any other name...

A test of that theory might be a comparison of relative standards of living before and after the 1960s:

Excellence in education, guaranteed employment and fair pay for everyone able to work would be preferable to welfare, but for that to become a reality we need a level playing field: No nepotism, no cronyism and, dare I say, no inherited wealth (I can't see the over-privileged giving up their advantages any time soon).

[Tamrin]

15 June

1215 - King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede, England

1381 - Wat Tyler, leader of English Peasants' Revolt, beheaded in London

1520 - Leo X issued 'Exsurge Domine,' which condemned Martin Luther as a heretic

1775 - George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of American Army

1902 - Birth of Erik H Erikson, psychologist (Existentionalist)

1942 - Birth of Xaviera Hollander [DeVries], Surabaya Indonesia, auth (Happy Hooker)

1989 - Ronald Reagan is knighted by Queen Elizabeth

Xaviera Hollander
(Born this day 1942)

In America you can get away with murder, but not with sex

[Tamrin]

16 June

1686 - BCE - Hammurabi the Great dies in Babylon

1871 - Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine founded, NYC

1904 - Bloomsday (date of events in James Joyce's Ulysses)

1938 – Birth of Joyce Carol Oates, US, novelist (Garden of Earthly Delights) (1946)

1961 - Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to West in Paris

1976 - Francis E Meloy Jr., US ambassador to Lebanon, kidnapped & killed

1976 - Student uprisings begin in Soweto, South Africa (Soweto Day)

Hammurabi the Great
(Died this day 1686 BCE)

The gods Anu and Enlil… named me by my name: Hammurabi,
the pious prince, who venerates the gods, to make justice
prevail in the land, to abolish the wicked and the evil, to
prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to rise like the
sun-god Shamash over all humankind, to illuminate the land

[Tamrin]

17 June

1703 - Birth of John Wesley, co-founded Methodist movement/author

1885 - Statue of Liberty arrived in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'

1950 - 1st kidney transplant (Chicago)

1963 - [US] Supreme Court rules against Bible reading/prayer in public schools

1967 - China becomes world's 4th thermonuclear (H-bomb) power

1972 - 5 arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party HQ at Watergate

1975 - Voters in Northern Mariana Is approve commonwealth status with US

As Masons, we cannot appropriate to ourselves alone the lessons which
this monument will teach. Not only to us, but to all men will it appeal

Deputy G.M., R.W. Bro. Lawrence
(Dedicating the site for the Statue of Liberty)

[Tamrin]

18 June

1178 - Proposed time of origin of lunar crater Giordano Bruno.
5 Canterbury monks report explosion on the moon (only such observation known)

1812 - Birth of Ivan Goncharov, Russia, novelist/travel writer (Oblomov)

1815 - Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon defeated by Wellington & Blücher

1873 - Susan B Anthony fined $100 for attempting to vote for President

1886 – Birth of George Mallory, England, mountain climber ("because it is there")

1942 - Birth of Paul McCartney, rocker, Beatles, writes silly love songs

1948 - UN Commission on Human Rights adopts Intl Decl of Human Rights

Ivan Goncharov
(Born this day 1812)

It is a trick among the dishonest to offer sacrifices that are not
needed, or not possible, to avoid making those that are required

[Tamrin]

19 June

0240 - BCE - Eratosthenes estimates circumference of Earth

1623 - Blaise Pascal, mathematician/physicist/religious writer (Pascal’s Wager)

1856 – Birth of Elbert Hubbard, US, editor/publisher/author (Message to Garcia)

1867 - Maximilian, Mexican emperor, executed, Mexican republic restored

1947 – Birth of Salman Rushdie, novelist (Midnight's Children, Satanic Verses)

1953 - Rosenbergs executed at Sing Sing, Julius takes 3 tries, Ethel 5

1989 - I.F. Stone, author, dies at 81 of heart failure

Eratosthenes
(Estimated the circumference of the Earth this day 240 BCE)

Eratosthenes declares that it is no longer necessary to inquire as to
the cause of the overflow of the Nile, since we know definitely that men
have come to the sources of the Nile and have observed the rains there

(Proclus)

[Tamrin]

20 June

1756 - 146 British soldiers imprisoned in India-Black Hole of Calcutta-most die

1837 - Queen Victoria at 18 ascends British throne following death of uncle King William IV

1837 - England issues its 1st stamp, 1P Queen Victoria

1881 - Albert Mackey, masonic author, died

1899 - Birth of Jean Moulin, hero of the French Resistance during WW II

1907 - Birth of Lillian Hellman, playwright (Toys in the Attic, Little Foxes)

1909 - Birth of Errol Flynn, Australia, actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood, Against All Flags)

Bro. Albert Mackey
(Died this day 1881)

That sacred and invisible bond that unites men of the most discordant opinions
into one band of brothers, which gives one language to men of all nations and
one altar to men of all religions, is properly, from the mysterious influence it
exerts, denominated the mystic tie; and Freemasons because they alone are
under its influence, or enjoy its benefits, are called brethren of the mystic tie

[Tamrin]

21 June
Winter Solstice (Southern Hemisphere)

1633 - Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to "abjure, curse, & detest" his Copernican heliocentric views

1876 - Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican general (took Alamo), dies at 82

1892 - Birth of Reinhold Niebuhr, US, theologian (Nature & Destiny of Man)

1905 - Birth of Jean-Paul Sartre, France, philosopher/writer (Nobel 1964; declined)

1912 - Birth of Mary McCarthy, US, novelist (Group)

1935 - Birth of Françoise Sagan, France, novelist (Bon Jour Trieste)

1953 - Birth of Benazir Bhutto, 1st female leader of a Moslem nation (Pakistan)

Françoise Sagan
(Born this day 1935)

Art must take reality by surprise

[Tamrin]

22 June
Ang: Feast of Alban, 1st martyr of Britain (legendary founder of British Freemasonry)

1675 - Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by Charles II

1772 - Slavery outlawed in England

1856 - Birth of H Rider Haggard, author (King Solomon's Mine, She)

1887 - Birth of Sir Julian Huxley, London, biologist/philosopher, Darwin's Bulldog

1898 – Birth of Erich Maria Remarque, novelist (All Quiet on the Western Front)

1907 – Birth of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, aviator/author (Gift from the Sea)

1941 - Germany declares war on Soviet Union during WW II

Erich Maria Remarque
(Born this day 1898)

A hospital alone shows what war is