Today in History

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 4 December
Roman Catholic: Commemoration of St Barbara, virgin/martyr (one of our Patron Saints)
México: Day of the Artisans

1679 - Death of Thomas Hobbes, early Enlightenment philosopher (Leviathan “Social Contract”)

1795 - Birth of Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist/historian (French Revolution)

1807 - Prince Hall, activist/Masonic leader, dies in Boston

1835 – Birth of Samuel Butler, English satirical novelist (Erewhon; The Way of All Flesh)

1906 - Alpha Phi Alpha, 1st Black Greek Letter Fraternity, forms

1917 - Bro. Dr. Sir Earle Page, Australian PM, was made a Mason in Lodge Prince Leopold, NSW

1975 – Death of Hannah Arendt, German/US sociologist

Edith Cavell, English nurse (WWI)
(Born this day 1865)

I realize that patriotism is not enough.
I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 5 December

1730 - Benjamin’s Franklin’s ‘Pennsylvania Gazette’ included news about several lodges of free-Masons meeting in that ‘province.’ Franklin was not yet a Freemason when his newspaper printed this item.

1791 - Death of Bro. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer

1830 - Birth of Christina Rossetti, English poet

1870 - Death of Bro. Alexandre Dumas, French writer (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo)

1901 - Birth of DeMolay Bro. Walter Elias Disney, Chicago IL, animator (Mickey Mouse)

1901 - Uncertain birth of Werner Heisenberg, German physicist (Nobel 1932)

1934 - Birth of Joan Didion, American journalist and novelist

Rosaleen Norton
New Zealand-born Sydney artist, known as 'the Witch of Kings Cross'
(Died this day 1979)

This figleaf morality expresses a very unhealthy attitude

[Tamrin]

Monday, 6 December
Feast Day of Archbishop Nicholas of Myra (Santa Claus)

1823 - Birth of Friedrich Max Müller, German Orientalist

1875 - Birth of Evelyn Underhill, English mystic & poet

1882 - Death of Anthony Trollope, English writer

1892 - Birth Sir Osbert Sitwell, English author

1898 - Birth of Gunnar Myrdal, Sweden, sociologist/economist (Nobel 1974)

1954 - Simone de Beauvoir receives Prix Goncourt

1956 - Nelson Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa

Sir Osbert Sitwell, English author
(Born this day 1892)

The artist, like the idiot, or clown, sits on the edge
of the world, and a push may send him over it

[Tamrin]

Tuesday, 7 December
US: Pearl Harbor Day (1941)

0043 - BCE - Assassination of Cicero, Roman philosopher and statesman

1872 - Birth of Johan Huizinga, Dutch cultural historian

1873 - Birth of Wilella Sibert 'Willa' Cather, American author

1889 - Birth of Honoré-Gabriel Marcel, French philosopher and playwright

1928 - Birth of Noam Chomsky, US linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist

1975 - Death of Thornton Wilder, US playwright & novelist

1985 - Death of Robert Graves, English writer/poet (The White Goddess)

Joyce Cary, Anglo-Irish writer (House of Children)
(Born this day 1888)

It is a tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know
- the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything

[Tamrin]

Wednesday, 8 December
Ancient Egypt: Festival of Neith, creation goddess
Ancient Greece: Feast of Astraea, goddess of justice

1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims “Immaculate Conception”, makes Mary free of Original Sin!?

1858 - The Grand Lodge of Washington State was instituted

1903 – Death of Herbert Spencer, British engineer/philosopher

1913 - Birth of Delmore Schwartz, US, poet/short story writer/critic (Shenandoah)

1925 – Birth of Sammy Davis, Jr, American all-round entertainer and film actor

1943 - Birth of Jim Morrison, Melbourne FL, singer (Doors)

1980 - John Lennon murdered in New York

Delmore Schwartz, US poet
(Born this day 1913)

Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn

[Tamrin]

Thursday, 9 December

1315 - Swiss Woudsteden renews Eternal Covenant (Oath Society)

1608 - Birth of John Milton, London, poet/puritan (Paradise Lost)

1848 - Birth of Joel Chandler Harris, US journalist (created Uncle Remus stories)

1869 - Noble Order of Knights of Labor founded, Philadelphia

1933 – Birth of Ashleigh Brilliant, English-American academic, cartoonist (Pot-Shots)

1964 – Death of Edith L Sitwell, English poet/author (Wheels)

1999 - The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of D.C. voted to recognize the Grand Lodge of D.C.

Sa'di, Persian poet (Orchard; Rose Garden)
(Died this day 1292)

A scholar without diligence is a lover without money; a traveler without
knowledge is a bird without wings; a theorist without practice is a tree
without fruit; and a devotee without learning is a house without an entrance

[Tamrin]

Friday, 10 December
Ancient Rome: Festival of Lux mundi (the “Light of the World”, goddess of liberty)
Turkey: Beginning of Whirling Dervish festival, in honour of Rumi
International: UN Human Rights Day

1198 - Averroës ibn-Rusjd, Moorish philosopher, dies

1815 - Birth of Countess of Lovelace (Augusta Ada Byron King), English mathematician

1824 - Birth of George MacDonald, Scottish sci-fi author (Lilith, Princess & Curdie)

1830 - Birth of Emily Dickinson, Amherst MA, poet (Collected Poems)

1896 – Death of Alfred Nobel, Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony on this date

1936 – Death of Luigi Pirandello, Italian writer (Enrico IV, Nobel 1934)

1968 – Death of Thomas Merton, French/US priest/writer (7 Story Mountain)

Averroës ibn-Rusjd, Moorish philosopher
(Died this day 1198)

Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect

[Tamrin]

Saturday, 11 December
Ancient Rome: Septimontium, the Feast of the Seven Hills of Rome

1849 - Birth of Ellen Key, Swedish author, feminist (Courageous Woman)

1911 – Birth of Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian novelist, 1988 Nobel laureate

1918 - Birth of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russia, writer (Cancer Ward, Nobel 1970)

1920 - Death of Olive Schreiner, South African writer and anti-war campaigner

1931 - British Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Newfoundland

1939 – Birth of Tom Hayden, US social and political activist and politician

1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established

Max Born
German physicist (quantum mechanics, Nobel 1954)
(Born born this day 1882)

Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible;
reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless.
Even the possible can be senseless

[Tamrin]

Sunday, 12 December
World: National Ding-a-ling Day
Mexico: Memorial of Dark Virgin of Guadalupe

1098 - 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria

1204 - Death of Maimonides (Moses Ben Maimon), Jewish philosopher, Talmudic scholar

1381 - [url=http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/nov/12.htm
]The Order of Fools[/url][/b] was set up by Adolphus, Count of Cleves

1731 - Birth of Erasmus Darwin, English physician, scientist and poet

1787 - The Grand lodge of North Carolina was instituted

1805 - Birth of William Lloyd Garrison, US abolitionist publisher (The Liberator)

1821 - Birth of Bro. Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (Madame Bovary)

Richard Baxter
English Puritan church leader, poet and theologian
(Born this day 1615)

Unity in things Necessary, Liberty in things Unnecessary, and Charity in all

[Tamrin]

Monday, 13 December
Ancient Rome: Festival of Tellus, archaic Earth goddess (equivalent to Greek Gaia)
Sweden: Lucia Day, memorial of St Lucy, virgin & martyr

1784 - Death of Samuel Johnson, English author, poet and lexicographer

1797 - Birth of Heinrich Heine, German journalist & essayist

1810 - Birth of Clark Mills, US, sculptor (Freedom, Armed Liberty)

1903 - Wright Brothers make their first flight at Kittyhawk

1906 - Birth of Laurens Jan van der Post soldier/explorer/conservationist

1924 - Death of Samuel Gompers, Union organizer (American Federation of Labor)

1990 - Death of Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and dramatist

William Drummond,, Scottish poet
(Born this day 1585)

He that will not reason is a bigot;
he that cannot reason is a fool;
he that dares not reason is a slave