Swallow Day Celtic tree month of Saille Tipsa Diena, ancient Latvia Tax Return Day, USA

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Today is

The willow weeping o'er the fatal wave,
Where many a lover finds a watery grave.
Charles Churchill, English satirical poet (1731 - 1764)

“Well, if I'm nothing but a poor maid's child
Born in an ox's stall
I'll make you believe in your latter end
That I'm an angel above you all” 
And so he built him a bridge with the rays of the sun
Over the river ran he
Them three rich lords' sons, they followed him
And it's drowned they were all three
And it's up the hill and it's down the hill
Three weeping mothers ran
Saying, “Mary mild, take home your child
For ours he's drowned each one” 
And so it's Mary mild, she took home her child
She laid him across her knee
And it's with a switch of the bitter withy
Why she's given him slashes three
Oh, bitter withy, oh, bitter withy
You caused me to smart
And now the willow shall be the very first tree
Gonna perish at the heart.
‘The Bitter Withy’, medieval Christian ballad; Jesus curses the willow, after three sons of rich lords refused to play ball with him   Source

There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook, 
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.
There on the pendant boughs her crownet weeds
Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like a while they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element. But long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
Ophelia, in Shakespeare's Hamlet 

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow:
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow:
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon:–
Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Desdemona; Othello

Mie love ys dedde,
Gon to hys deathe-bedde,
Al under the wyllowe tree.
Thomas Chatterton, English poet

The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane.
Leonardo da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452

Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different.
Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, author of Leviathan, born on April 15, 1588

No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
Thomas Hobbes; Leviathan Ch. 13

Stay a little longer, Monsieur le Curé, and we will go together.
Last words of Madame de Pompadour (died at Versailles on April 15, 1764), French courtier and mistress of Louis XV. Spoken to the curé of the Madeleine, who had called to see her, and was taking his leave, as she seemed just about to expire.

Dictionaries are like watches. The worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, whose influential Dictionary was first published on April 15, 1755

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
Samuel Johnson

When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.
Samuel Johnson

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
Samuel Johnson

They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.
Samuel Johnson

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience. You will find it a calamity.
Samuel Johnson

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.
Samuel Johnson

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.
Samuel Johnson

Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
Samuel Johnson

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
Samuel Johnson

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
Samuel Johnson

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
Samuel Johnson

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavours after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.
Samuel Johnson

I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.
Samuel Johnson

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.
Samuel Johnson  

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.
Samuel Johnson

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson

More Johnson quotations  

But if you'd fill your glorious part,
And glance upon your work with pride,
An image true or Meagher impart,
Oh, place a shamrock o'er his heart –
For it he lived, for it he died.
Thomas Meagher, Irish nationalist, who presented the tricolor national flag of Ireland on April 15, 1848

Last night we had an informal conference with the ILP leaders. Ramsay MacDonald and Frank Smith (who are members both of the Fabians and the ILP) have been for some time harping on the desirability of an understanding between the two societies. To satisfy them Sidney (Webb) arranged a little dinner of Keir Hardie, Tom Mann, Edward Pease and George Bernard Shaw and the two intermediaries. I think the principals on either side felt it would come to nothing. Nevertheless, it was interesting.
  Tom Mann said the Progressives on the LCC were not convinced Socialists. No one should get the votes of the ILP who did not pledge himself to the 'Nationalisation of the Means of Production'. Keir Hardie, who impressed me very unfavourably, deliberately chooses this policy as the only one which he can boss. His only chance of leadership lies in the creation of an organisation "against the government"; he knows little and cares less for any constructive thought or action. But with Tom Mann it is different. he is possessed with the idea of a 'church' - of a body of men all professing exactly the same creed and all working in exact uniformity to exactly the same end. No idea which is not 'absolute', which admits of any compromise or qualification, no adhesion which is tempered with doubt, has the slightest attraction to him. And, as Shaw remarked, he is deteriorating. This stumping the country, talking abstractions and raving emotions, is not good for a man's judgment, and the perpetual excitement leads, among other things, to too much whisky.
Beatrice Webb, on Tom Mann, British labour activist born on April 25, 1856; diary entry, January 23, 1895

The future of the world belongs to the youth of the world, and it is from the youth and not from the old that the fire of life will warm and enlighten the world. It is your privilege to breathe the breath of life into the dry bones of many around you. Go forth and achieve.
Tom Mann; AEU Journal, January 1921

[Tom Mann's] knowledge and charm of manner are equal to his marvellous vitality. Moreover, of all the labour leaders I have ever met, Tom Mann is the one who, however successful he may be, puts on the least 'side'. After a speech has roused his audience to the highest pitch of almost hysterical enthusiasm, down Tom will step from the chair in the open air or from the platform in the hall, and take names for the branch or organisation - and sell literature to all and sundry as if he were the least-considered person at the gathering. Even those who differ most widely from him cannot but respect him, for he has assuredly gained nothing personally by his stupendous efforts. 
HM Hyndman; Further Reminiscences, p. 464

Some people say they haven't yet found themselves. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates.
Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-born psychiatrist and author (The Myth of Mental Illness), born on April 15, 1920

I never felt scandal and confession were necessary to be an actress. I've never revealed my self or even my body in films. Mystery is very important.
Claudia Cardinale, Italian actress, born on April 15, 1938

If you're not English, you're a foreigner – so you must be sexy. it's an old British cliche.
Claudia Cardinale

As for me, I've chosen; I will be on the side of crime. And I'll help children not to gain entrance into your houses, your factories, your laws and holy sacraments, but to violate them.
Jean Genet, French novelist who died on April 15, 1986

But now I am afraid. The signs pursue me and I pursue them patiently. They are bent on destroying me. Didn't I see, on my way to court, seven sailors on the terrace of a cafe, questioning the stars through seven mugs of light beer as they sat around a table that perhaps turned; then, a messenger boy on a bicycle who was carrying a message from god to god, holding between his teeth, by the metal handle, a round, lighted lantern, the flame of which, as it reddened his face, also heated it? So pure a marvel that he was unaware of being a marvel. Circles and globes haunt me: oranges, Japanese billiard balls, Venetian lanterns, jugglers’ hoops, the round ball of the goalkeeper who wears a jersey. I shall have to establish, to regulate, a whole internal astronomy.
Jean Genet

I never said, "I want to be alone." I only said, "I want to be left alone." There is all the difference.
Greta Garbo, who died on April 15, 1990

Today we have done what we had to do. If necessary, we shall do it again.
US President Roland Reagan, after ordering the pre-dawn bombing of Libyan President Gaddafi’s house, killing only the dictator’s infant daughter on April 15, 1986

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
Samuel P Huntington

April 15 is the 105^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (106^th in leap years), with 260 days remaining.
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Celtic tree month of Saille (Willow) (Apr 15 - May 12) commences

Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Willow.

“The Willow is traditionally associated with witchcraft, so strongly in fact that the words wicker (meaning willow, reed or osier), wicked and witch are etymologically related. Known as the Tree of Enchantment, it is the tree of growth of lunar power and water.  Linking and harmonizing to the phases of the moon.  Branches of the willow are often uses as divining rods, especially for ‘water witching’.   

“The traditional witches’ besom is made of three woods, Birch twigs for the broom, Willow to bind them together and to hold them to an Ash Stake. 

“Called helice in Greek, it gave its name to Helicon, the abode of the Muses.

“Helygenn is Cornish for willow, and the Goidelic (Irish/Scots/Manx languages).  Saille is related to the Latin name Salix.  The alleged Druidic sacrifices, as described by Strabo and Caesar, were supposed to have imprisoned their victims in a huge figure made of wickerwork.  The Latin name ‘weeping willow’ refers to the psalm in which Hebrews mourn their captivity in Babylon by the willows. 

“The month of Saille begins on April 15th and ends on May 12th. Its symbols are white birds, especially doves, and mist.  It is a time of springtime enchantments and Moon-magic, as well as intuition and wisdom. Symbolized by Arianrhod (literally 'Silver Wheel') who conceives Lugh, the Sun god, through magic.

“Since the Willow makes its home around swamps, streams and other watery areas she is associated with the moon which governs water. She is also representative of the female and earthly cycles, the rhythms and the ebb and flow of the earth's waters. Because of her lunar connections she brings an ability to see through dreams and give night visions.

Willow and aspirin

Hippocrates, a Greek for whom the Hippocratic Oath is named, wrote in the 5th century BC about a bitter powder extracted from willow bark that could ease aches and pains and reduce fevers. This remedy is also mentioned in texts from ancient Sumeria, Egypt and Assyria. Native American Indians used it for headaches, fever, sore muscles, rheumatism, and chills. The Reverend Edmund Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire England, noted in 1763 that the bark of the willow was effective in reducing a fever, but his reasoning for that was very much in error.

The active extract of the bark, called salicin, after the Latin name for the white willow (Salix alba), was isolated to its crystaline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the acid in its pure state. Salicin is highly acidic when in a saturated solution with water (pH = 2.4), and is called salicylic acid for that reason. Salicylic acid's systematic name is 2-hydroxybenzoic acid.

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

British willow lore

The willow is known as the sad tree. People who have lost their love placed mourning garlands on a willow, and exiles hung their harp on them. The hanging branches were used to thrash bad kids (hence the curse of Jesus in the quotation at the head of this page), and according to an old English saying, “The twigs are physick to drive out the folly of children.”

It grows fast: in Cambridge, England, where it was called the Cambridge oak, the old saying was “The profit by willows will buy the owner a horse before that by other trees will pay for his saddle”. 

Another saying had it that “If green ash may burn before a queen, withered willows may burn before a lady.” “She is in her willows” implies the mourning of a female for her lost mate.

There are more than 50 British willows. Salix pentandria was used in Yorkshire for making baskets. The best is the Bitter purple willow, Salix purpurea. Bark of Salix alba, Common or white willow, was used to tan leather and to dye yarn a cinnamon colour. The inner bark could be ground into a bread-making flour. Willow boughs were used on Palm Sunday instead of palms. The wood of willow is still used for tool handles. It used to furnish shoemakers with their cutting boards and whetting boards to hone knives. Weeping willow, Salix babylonica, native of Lebanon, was not grown in England till 1730. It actually weeps little drops of water, as well as having a drooping habit. 

The herbaceous willow, Salix herbacea, is about 2-3 inches tall, though it is a tree. 

Based on Hone, William, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878, 540

Australian weeping willows

It is said that all the weeping willow trees in Australia are descended from cuttings taken from four trees that surround Napoleon’s grave on St Helena. Read more, August 18 (Feast day of St Helena) in the Book of Days.

The Fordicia (Fordicalia; Fordicidia; Hordicidia) festival, ancient Rome, in honour of Tellus (Terra)

Goddess Tellus (pictured), Mother Earth; other names include Gaia or Gaeia. Besides the female deity, a god Tellumo, her male counterpart, was also worshipped today.

The Italian deity of mother-earth was often called Tellus Mater. She was seen as the goddess of the earth, fertility, motherhood and pregnant women. She had a temple (Aedes Telluris), dedicated on December 13, 268 BCE, on the Esquiline Hill near the Templum Pax (Temple of Peace) on the Forum Pacis. Tellus was invoked during earthquakes, because her temple had been dedicated in consequence of an earthquake that occurred during a battle with the Picentes.

The Roman scholar, Varro (Marcus Terentius Varro; 116 BCE - 27 BCE), mentions Tellus in Lingua Latina V, and his pagan view is disposed of by St Augustine of Hippo, thus, in his City of God, Book VII, Chapters 23 and 24 (quoted here at some length because of the light cast on ancient rites for Tellus and Tellumo):

Chapter 23.—Concerning the Earth, Which Varro Affirms to Be a Goddess, Because that Soul of the World Which He Thinks to Be God Pervades Also This Lowest Part of His Body, and Imparts to It a Divine Force.

Surely the earth, which we see full of its own living creatures, is one; but for all that, it is but a mighty mass among the elements, 135 and the lowest part of the world.  Why, then, would they have it to be a goddess?  Is it because it is fruitful?  Why, then, are not men rather held to be gods, who render it fruitful by cultivating it; but though they plough it, do not adore it? ...

Moreover, the ether is His [God's] mind; and by the virtue which is in it, which penetrates into the stars, it also makes them gods; and because it penetrates through them into the earth, it makes it the goddess Tellus ...

What I am to say is this:  Since the earth is one, why has not that part of the soul of the world which permeates the earth made it that one goddess which he calls Tellus?  ... Let this further question be answered:  What part of the earth does a part of the soul of the world permeate in order to make the god Tellumo?  No, says he; but the earth being one and the same, has a double life,—the masculine, which produces seed, and the feminine, which receives and nourishes the seed.  Hence it has been called Tellus from the feminine principle, and Tellumo from the masculine. 

Chapter 24.—Concerning the Surnames of Tellus and Their Significations, Which, Although They Indicate Many Properties, Ought Not to Have Established the Opinion that There is a Corresponding Number of Gods. 

The one earth, then, on account of this fourfold virtue, ought to have had four surnames, but not to have been considered as four gods,--as Jupiter and Juno, though they have so many surnames, are for all that only single deities,--for by all these surnames it is signified that a manifold virtue belongs to one god or to one goddess; but the multitude of surnames does not imply a multitude of gods. But as sometimes even the vilest women themselves grow tired of those crowds which they have sought after under the impulse of wicked passion, so also the soul, become vile, and prostituted to impure spirits, sometimes begins to loathe to multiply to itself gods to whom to surrender itself to be polluted by them, as much as it once delighted in so doing. For Varro himself, as if ashamed of that crowd of gods, would make Tellus to be one goddess. "They say," says he, "that whereas the one great mother has a tympanum, it is signified that she is the orb of the earth; whereas she has towers on her head, towns are signified; and whereas seats are fixed round about her, it is signified that whilst all things move, she moves not. And their having made the Galli to serve this goddess, signifies that they who are in need of seed ought to follow the earth for in it all seeds are found. By their throwing themselves down before her, it is taught," he says, "that they who cultivate the earth should not sit idle, for there is always something for them to do. The sound of the cymbals signifies the noise made by the throwing of iron utensils, and by men's hands, and all other noises connected with agricultural operations; and these cymbals are of brass, because the ancients used brazen utensils in their agriculture before iron was discovered. They place beside the goddess an unbound and tame lion, to show that there is no kind of land so wild and so excessively barren as that it would be profitless to attempt to bring it in and cultivate it." Then he adds that, because they gave many names and surnames to mother Tellus, it came to be thought that these signified many gods. "They think," says he, "that Tellus is Ops, because the earth is improved by labor; Mother, because it brings forth much; Great, because it brings forth seed; Proserpine, because fruits creep forth from it; Vesta, because it is invested with herbs. And thus," says he, "they not at all absurdly identify other goddesses with the earth." If, then, it is one goddess (though, if the truth were consulted, it is not even that), why do they nevertheless separate it into many? Let there be many names of one goddess, and let there not be as many goddesses as there are names. 

But the authority of the erring ancients weighs heavily on Varro, and compels him, after having expressed this opinion, to show signs of uneasiness; for he immediately adds, "With which things the opinion of the ancients, who thought that there were really many goddesses, does not conflict." How does it not conflict, when it is entirely a different thing to say that one goddess has many names, and to say that there are many goddesses? But it is possible, he says, that the same thing may both be one, and yet have in it a plurality of things. I grant that there are many things in one man; are there therefore in him many men? In like manner, in one goddess there are many things; are there therefore also many goddesses? But let them divide, unite, multiply, reduplicate, and implicate as they like. 

These are the famous mysteries of Tellus and the Great Mother, all of which are shown to have reference to mortal seeds and to agriculture. Do these things, then,--namely, the tympanum, the towers, the Galli, the tossing to and fro of limbs, the noise of cymbals, the images of lions,--do these things, having this reference and this end, promise eternal life? Do the mutilated Galli, then, serve this Great Mother in order to signify that they who are in need of seed should follow the earth, as though it were not rather the case that this very service caused them to want seed? For whether do they, by following this goddess, acquire seed, being in want of it, or, by following her, lose seed when they have it? Is this to interpret or to deprecate? Nor is it considered to what a degree malign demons have gained the upper hand, inasmuch as they have been able to exact such cruel rites without having dared to promise any great things in return for them. Had the earth not been a goddess, men would have, by laboring, laid their hands on it in order to obtain seed through it, and would not have laid violent hands on themselves in order to lose seed on account of it. Had it not been a goddess, it would have become so fertile by the hands of others, that it would not have compelled a man to be rendered barren by his own hands; nor that in the festival of Liber an honorable matron put a wreath on the private parts of a man in the sight of the multitude, where perhaps her husband was standing by blushing and perspiring, if there is any shame left in men; and that in the celebration of marriages the newly-married bride was ordered to sit upon Priapus. These things are bad enough, but they are small and contemptible in comparison with that most cruel abomination, or most abominable cruelty, by which either set is so deluded that neither perishes of its wound. There the enchantment of fields is feared; here the amputation of members is not feared. There the modesty of the bride is outraged, but in such a manner as that neither her fruitfulness nor even her virginity is taken away; here a man is so mutilated that he is neither changed into a woman nor remains a man.

Today’s feast (held the Ides of Aprilis) was to ensure prosperity during the year, and was celebrated under the management of the pontifices and the Vestal Virgins, partly on the Capitol in the thirty curiae, and partly outside Rome. 

Thirty-one pregnant cows (fordae) were sacrificed in separate temples, the calf foetuses burned in sacrifice on the Vestals' sacred flame, in order to protect the farms (presumably, the fecundity of the cows passing into the soil at a season when the soil was pregnant with seeds), and the ashes saved for the Parilia festival when they were used by the Vestals for the purpose of purification (it was also customary to sacrifice a pregnant cow to Tellus as part of the wedding of a widow, just as it was usual to sacrifice a pig at the beginning of a marriage, and the pig was the preferred victim of Ceres*). This was the sixth day of the nine- or ten-day festival held in honour of Ceres, the goddess of agricultural, grains, etc, culminating in the Cerealia proper, on the 19th.

From January 24 to 26, the Sementivae was held in honour of Terra and Ceres. Ceres, in Roman Mythology, is equivalent to the Greek Demeter, daughter of Saturn and Rhea, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina (Persephone), and patron of Sicily.

Tellus, says Pennick (whose authority is as good as anyone's, including that of ancient clergy), is the matron goddess of all environmentalists (Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992). 

* “Varro claimed the pig represented the untouched sexual organs of the bride, and the sacrifice the consummation of the marriage. This is consistent with what else is known about Ceres’ role in fertility and liminality. The similarity of Tellus’ and Ceres’ roles in marriage and fertility indicates some sort of unusually close relationship.”   Source

List of Roman festivals and notable days in Wilson’s Almanac Book of Days

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Swallow Day, England One swallow a Summer does not make. English traditional proverb     April 15 is the average day on which the Chimney Swallow, Hirundo rustica, arrives back in England from down south, heralding the return of summer. Oscar Wilde’s classic fairy tale, The Happy Prince, tells of a swallow’s return from Egypt and its sacrifices for a struggling artist. In most parts of England it was a sacred bird and it was considered a great sin to kill one. The Martin and the Swallow Are God Almighty's birds to hallow. Traditional proverb, Berks, Buckingham and Oxford, UK   British folklore and poetry have more to say on swallows; here are some examples from Hone (Hone, William, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, Vol., 1, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878, 253 ff) and Inwards (Inwards, Richard, Weather Lore: A Collection of Proverbs, Sayings & Rules Concerning the Weather, Elliot Stock, London, 1893): If swallows fly low and near water, there will be rain. No weather fair expect … when dip the swallows as the pool they skim. When there are many more swifts than swallows in the Spring, expect a hot and dry Summer. If swallows touch the water as they fly, rain approaches.   Linnæus records: In Sweden the wood anemone begins to blow on the arrival of the swallow. English poet Dryden’s translation of the Roman poet Virgil’s ‘Georgics’ adds, Wet weather seldom hurts the most unwise; So plain the signs, such prophets are the skies. … The swallow skims the river’s watery face …   And this from the English poet John Gay: When swallows fleet, soar high, and sport in air, He told us that the welkin would be clear.   It was once believed by some that swallows hibernate underwater in Winter. There are, or at least were, other swallow customs elsewhere. For example, in Russia, when the first cuckoo returns (called the Christening of the Cuckoo), two girls walked in different directions around the birch trees, meeting in a circle made from their branches. They would kiss through this three times, and give each other a yellow egg. Arrival of the cuckoo, Hampshire, UK In Hampshire, UK, ‘the cuckoo goes to Beaulieu Fair to buy him a great coat’, according to the English Dialect Dictionary. The common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, overwinters in Africa and returns to the UK in Spring, but the arrival date varies. Cuckoo populations are believed to have fallen over the past 30 years, by as much as 20 per cent in farmland areas and 60 per cent in woodlands. Many factors are to blame, primarily our consumerist Western lifestyle and its effect on Nature. More on UK Cuckoo Days   Lyrid meteor showers (Apr 15 - Apr 28, peaking Apr 22) Cerealia, for goddess Ceres, ancient Rome  (Apr 12 - 19) Circensian games, ancient Rome  (Apr 12 - 19; Sep 4 - 19)   Tipsa Diena, ancient Latvia Commemorates the beginning of the ploughing of the fields. Ikuta Matsuri, Japan (Apr 15 - 16) At Ikuta Shrine, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. Celebrates construction of the shrine.  Jibeta Matsuri (Metal Phallus Festival), Japan The Japanese legend tell us that there once lived a hungry demon that lodged itself inside the vagina of a young woman of Kawasaki, southwest of Tokyo. Two successive bridegrooms had their penises bitten off by this monster, leaving the maiden distraught. A local blacksmith had the bright idea to make the lonely woman an iron phallus, which the town officials brought to the young lady’s bedchamber, thrusting it deep inside her. History does not record the maiden’s reaction. As hoped, the dragon’s teeth shattered on the object, and it slithered away, doomed to die of starvation, though history does not record whether the dragon could still suck. The townsfolk rejoiced, naturally enough, for no more of the town’s young men would be damaged, and the young woman could fulfil her life’s dream. Or, so it is said. The annual festival in Kawasaki honours the kanamara-sama, literally the honourable metal phallus. Although the festival had lapsed for many years, it was reinstated by a group of local businessmen, no doubt sniffing the possibility of tourist dollars, as is the case with so many sham festivals today. Following folk music performances, masked and costumed citizens parade with diverse phallic images. As evening draws in, local smiths ritually re-enact the forging of the originally metallic willy, and thereafter the people enjoy an outdoor banquet. Event Guide Tokyo lists the festival without reference to anything of an embarrassing nature. More, at 2camels.com Pictures More pix Poster   Tax Return Day, USA April 15 or the following Monday (if it falls on the weekend) is the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns. Post offices across the United States stay open until midnight to accommodate the procrastinators.   Zojoji (Temple) Matsuri, Tokyo, Japan (Apr 13 - 15) Nagahama Yamakyogen, Japan (Apr 13 - 16) Yayoi Matsuri, Japan (Apr 13 - 17) Feast days of Songkran, Thai New Year (Apr 13 - 15) Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan (Apr 3 - 29)         1452 Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519), Italian architect, painter, sculptor, scientist, inventor, engineer and poet who, if he were alive today would be called a Renaissance man “[Leonardo] recorded in his notebooks the records of model sittings; but nowhere can be found any records of the Mona Lisa model sitting. Why is that? Who posed for him? Dr. Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs suggests that Leonardo painted himself, and was able to support her theory by analyzing the facial features of Leonardo's face and that of the famous painting.”   Source: Why is Mona Lisa smiling? The Computer Artist's Handbook   "When you think of Leonardo Da Vinci, you probably think of the Mona Lisa or 16th-century submarines or, maybe, a certain suspenseful novel. That's old school. From now on, think of the Moon. "Little-known to most, one of Leonardo's finest works is not a painting or an invention, but rather something from astronomy: He solved the ancient riddle of Earthshine. "You can see Earthshine whenever there's a crescent Moon on the horizon at sunset ... Look between the horns of the crescent for a ghostly image of the full Moon. That's Earthshine. Right: A crescent moon with Earthshine over Yosemite National Park in October 2004. Photo credit: Andy Skinner. [Click to enlarge] "For thousands of years, humans marveled at the beauty of this "ashen glow," or "the old Moon in the new Moon's arms." But what was it? No one knew until the 16th century when Leonardo figured it out. "In 2005, post-Apollo, the answer must seem obvious. When the sun sets on the Moon, it gets dark – but not completely dark. There's still a source of light in the sky: Earth. Our own planet lights up the lunar night 50 times brighter than a full Moon, producing the ashen glow. "Visualizing this in the 1500s required a wild kind of imagination. No one had ever been to the Moon and looked "up" at Earth. Most people didn't even know that Earth orbited the sun. (Copernicus' sun-centered theory of the solar system wasn't published until 1543, twenty-four years after Leonardo died.) ..." NASA 1588 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, author of Leviathan. Hobbes was born on Good Friday 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada. It was said his birth was hastened by his mother's terror of the enemy's fleet. He was a timid person, and said that he and Fear were born together. A precocious child, he translated the Medea of Euripides from the Greek into Latin while still a boy, and at 15 went to Oxford. In 1628 he and Ben Jonson published their translation of Thucydides. He took up maths in middle age, and imagined he had discovered the quadrature of the circle – squaring the circle – an impossible concept. The Professor of Geometry at Oxford, Dr John Wallis, told him he was mistaken, but Hobbes published Six Lessons to the Professors of Mathematics in Oxford, to which Wallis replied in Due Correction for Mr Hobbes for not Saying his Lessons Right. Hobbes carried on his cerebral war for a quarter of a century with Wallis, the mathematician who not only devised the symbols for ‘infinity’ and ‘less than or equal to’, but also laid some of the groundwork for calculus. Hobbes died in 1679, aged 92.  Squaring the Circle: The War between Hobbes and Wallis   1684 Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727) 1688 Johann Friedrich Fasch, composer (d. 1758) 1707 Leonhard Euler, mathematician (d. 1783) 1793 Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer (d. 1864) 1800 James Clark Ross, English Antarctic explorer (d. 1862) 1811 Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker (d. 1874) 1832 Wilhelm Busch, poet, graphic artist and painter (d. 1908) 1843 Henry James, American author (d. February 28, 1916),)   Gutenberg Index of Henry James E-Texts Review of the Henry James novel The Princess Casamassima   1856 Tom Mann (d. March 13, 1941), noted British trade unionist. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a popular public speaker in the labor movement. He was acclaimed as the greatest labor agitator and orator of his time. From Wikipedia: Mann was born in a suburb of Coventry, the son of a clerk who worked at a colliery. He attended school from the ages of six to nine, then began work doing odd jobs on the colliery farm. A year later he became a trapper, a labour-intensive jobs that involved clearing blockages from the narrow airways in the mining shafts. In 1870, the colliery was forced to close and the family moved to Birmingham. Mann soon found work as an engineering apprentice. He attended public meetings addressed by Annie Besant and John Bright, and this began his political awareness. He completed his apprenticeship in 1877 and moved to London, however he was unable to find work as an engineer and took a series of unskilled jobs. In 1879, Mann found work in an engineering shop. Here he was introduced to socialism by the foreman, and decided to improve his own education. His reading included the works of William Morris, Henry George and John Ruskin. In 1881 he joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and took part in his first strike. In 1884, he joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in Battersea. Here he met John Burns and Henry Hyde Champion, who encouraged him to publish a pamphlet calling for the working day to be limited to eight hours. Mann formed an organisation, the Eight Hour League, which successfully pressured the TUC to adopt the eight-hour day as a key goal ... In 1894, he was a founding member of the Independent Labour Party and became the party Secretary in 1894. Mann religious belief was as strong as his politics. He was an Anglican and organised support from Christian organisations like the Salvation Army during a number of strikes. In 1893 there were rumours that he intended to become a minister. He advocated the co-operative model of economic organisation, but resisted alliance between the ILP and other socialist organisations in Britain, like the Fabians. In 1895, the Fabian Beatrice Webb criticised Mann's absolutism and described his goal derogatorily as, "a body of men all professing exactly the same creed and all working in exact uniformity to exactly the same end". In 1901, Mann emigrated to Australia to see if that country's broader electoral franchise would allow more "drastic modification of capitalism". Settling in Melbourne he was active in Australian trade unions and became an organiser for the Australian Labor Party. However, he grew disillusioned with the party, believing it was being corrupted by the nature of government and concerned only with winning elections. He felt that the federal Labour MPs were unable and unwilling to change society, and their prominence within the movement was stifling and over-shadowing organised labour. He resigned from the ALP and founded the Victoria Socialist Party ... During the Spanish Civil War he wanted to fight on the Republican side, but was by that time far too old. A unit of the International Brigade, the Tom Mann Centuria, was named in his honour. Early progressives in the Book of Days    Tom Mann Collection (with chronology) Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson    More    More   1861 Bliss Carman, poet (d. 1929) 1878 Robert Walser, lyricist and narrator (d. 1956) 1879 Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer and poet (d. 1980) 1883 Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967) 1894 Bessie Smith (d. 1937), American blues singer 1912 Kim Il Sung, communist dictator of North Korea (d. 1994) 1917 Hans Conried, American actor (d. 1982) 1920 Richard von Weizäcker, President of Germany 1984-1994 1920 Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-born psychiatrist and author   Some people say they haven't yet found themselves. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates. Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-born psychiatrist and author (The Myth of Mental Illness)           Szasz site   1921 Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (d. 1995) 1930 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland 1938 Claudia Cardinale, Italian actress “Cardinale never mastered the English language to the degree that Loren did, which may account for her inability to make the same impression on U.S. audiences. Her American-made (or American financed) films include The Pink Panther, Circus World (both 1964), Blindfold, Lost Command, The Professionals (all 1966), Don't Make Waves (1967), The Hell With Heroes (1968), and A Fine Pair (1969). Unlike many European sexpots of the 1960s, Cardinale remained active throughout the 1970s and 1980s, evolving gracefully into character roles. Her later films include The Red Tent (1971), Conversation Piece (1975), Escape to Athena (1979), The Gift (1982), Fitzcarraldo (also 1982, and one of her best, as the woman who never gives up on the dreamer played by Klaus Kinski), Henry IV (1984), History (1986), A Man in Love (1987, as Greta Scacchi's mother), and, almost thirty years after her appearance in the original, Son of the Pink Panther (1993).”   Source   1933 Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995 1940 Jeffrey Archer, British author, member of parliament, convict 1955 Dodi Al-Fayed (d. August 31, 1997), film producer (Chariots of Fire), who was dating Diana, Princess of Wales in her last days, and was killed in the same car crash in Paris. His father, Mohammed Al-Fayed (b. c.1929), wealthy Egyptian businessman and owner of Harrods store in London, erected a memorial to Dodi and Diana at Harrods on April 12, 1998. 1959 Emma Thompson, British actress Take a spell! Send a free e-card greeting for today's celebrations to a loved one Zodiac birthday Passover Birthdays Earth Day [ Apr 22 ] Tax Day, USA [ Apr 15 ] Varies Purim Varies Good Friday Varies Holi Varies Full Moon Day Varies Easter April c. April 13 - 14 Tamil New Year Varies Malayalam New Year 14 Cuckoo Day 15 Tax Day (USA) 15 Fast Food Day 15 Rubber Eraser Day 15 Freak-out Day 15 Bengali New Year 16 Eggs Benedict Day 16 Astronomy Day 16 Stress Awareness Day 17 Cheeseball Day 17 Nosy Neighbour Appreciation Day 18 Time Out Day 18 Patriots' Day (USA) Varies Ram Navami 19 Primrose Day 19 Cow Chip Day 20 Lima Bean Respect Day 21 Birthday Of Charlotte Bronte 21 Kindergarten Day 21 School Librarian Day Varies Mawlid Al-Nabi Varies Mahavir Jayanti 22 Earth Day 22 April Showers Day 22 Jelly Bean Day 22 Oklahoma Day (USA) 23 Cherry Cheesecake Day 23 Shakespeare's Birthday 23 St George's Day 24 Ambivalence Day 25 Anzac Day (Australia) 26 Pretzel Day 26 Bird Day   ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap     If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   69 Death of Otho, Roman Emperor. 1185 A strong earthquake was felt in England and recorded by the chronicler Raphael Holinshed. 1205 Battle at Adrianople: Bulgaria defeated Emperor Boudouin of Constantinople. 1250 Pope Innocent III refused the Jews of Cordova Spain to build a synagogue. 1285 A ghost danced at the wedding of Alexander III, King of Scots, and Joleteta, daughter of the Count de Dreux, at Jedburgh. 1450 Battle of Formigny; French attacked and nearly annihilated English forces, ending English domination in northern France. 1632 Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War. 1661 The Demon Drummer of Tedworth, England was first heard by Mr Mompesson round the middle of April (sources vary as to date). The Demon Drummer of Tedworth is a famous supernatural story told by Joseph Glanvill in his Sadducismus Triumphatus. In 1668, Glanvill published Sadducismus Triumphatus, Latin for The Defeat of Sadducism, meant as A Blow at Modern Sadducism ... To which is added, The Relation of the Fam'd Disturbance by the Drummer, in the House of Mr. John Mompesson. By Sadducism, Glanvill meant something close to modern scepticism, the deliberate denial of the supernatural. The tale Glanvill told was that a local landowner, John Mompesson, owner of a house in the town of Tedworth, had brought a lawsuit against a local drummer, whom he accused of extorting money by false pretences. After he had won judgment against the drummer and confiscated his drum, he found his house plagued by nocturnal drumming noises. It was assumed that the drummer had brought these plagues of noise upon Mompesson's head by witchcraft. The story is considered by some to be an early account of the activity of a poltergeist, a mischievous spirit that makes noises unexplainable except by supernatural causes. Charles Mackay, in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), considers the entire story a hoax.   1718 Death of Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian geographer (b.1793). 1738 Premiere in London of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel. 1755 English lexicographer, Dr Samuel Johnson, published his magnum opus, the Dictionary, mother of all dictionaries of the English language. Although it was not the first dictionary, it was Johnson who devised the use of quotations as illustrations of the usage of words. Johnson’s Dictionary  is remembered not only for its great scholarship and prodigious feat of compilation (all on cards), but also for its wit, as exemplified below. Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge. Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. Excise duty: a hateful tax levied by wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid. Pension: an allowance made to anyone without an equivalent [service of equal value]. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country. Pensioner: a slave of state hired by a stipend to obey his master [when Johnson took a pension, critics reminded him of his definition. He replied, “I wish my pension were twice as large that they might make twice as much noise”.] Tory: one who adheres to the ancient constitution of the State and the apolitical hierarchy of the Church of England; opposed to a Whig. Whig: the name of a faction. Grub Street: the name of a street in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called Grub Street. Pastern: the knee of a horse [on being asked by a lady, why he defined it thus, he said, "Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance"]. The opposite of a pastern is a hock, the hind joint of the horse. Network: anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances with interstices between the intersections. Source   James Boswell’s Life of Johnson is itself a classic of English literature Johnson's Plan of an English Dictionary   1783 USA: Preliminary articles of peace ending the  Revolutionary War were ratified.   1792 The guillotine was first tested on human corpses. 1793 The Bank of England issued the first five-pound note. 1797 British naval personnel mutinied at Spithead, near Portsmouth, over poor working conditions.   1846 The Donner Party The families of James F Reed and George and Jacob Donner, 31 people in nine wagons, left Springfield, Illinois. It was the commencement of the Donner Party, the most famous group of American emigrants ever to attempt the cross-country wagon journey to California. Almost ninety wagon train emigrants were unable to cross the Sierra Nevada before winter, and almost one-half starved to death. Cannibalism has been suspected. “The Donner Party was made up of eighty-seven migrants in 23 wagons heading to the modern-day American state of California from Sangamon County, Illinois. The Donner Party was two families: the Donners and the Reeds. They left Illinois in 1846 and had much difficulty passing the Great Salt Lake in the modern-day state of Utah. By November they were trapped by heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They were forced into camping at a small lake (now called Donner Lake) “Reports seem to vary, but a party of perhaps sixteen or twenty eight attempted a crossing of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Ultimately this party landed in deep, impassable snow, their supplies running low and they were reported to have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive the winter. Reputably nine men died and seven were eaten by hungry companions. Seven (five women, two men) reached safety over the mountains in February, 1847, naked and frostbitten. “In 2003 near the modern city of Truckee, California by Lake Tahoe, close by Alder Creek archeologists found a campfire pit and solid evidence that cannibalism actually took place; a bone fragment of a "large mammal" bearing butcher marks of an ax was discovered; at present writing (August 20, 2003) it has not been verified as human (someone please fill this in if more information comes available). “Eventually forty-seven of the group were rescued and brought to California over what is now called Donner Pass.” Source: Wikipedia New York Times on the Donner Party PBS on the Donner Party Museum of San Francisco on the Donner Party More New Light on the Donner Party More       1802 William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy came across a ‘long belt’ of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.     1848 Thomas Francis Meagher, Irish nationalist (1823 - 1867) – and later convict in Australia, prison escapee, American Civil War commander and Governor of Montana – presented the tricolor national flag of Ireland to the public for the first time at a meeting of the Young Irelander Party. Earlier that year, Meagher had travelled to Paris with a Young Irelander delegation. Inspired by the tricolor French flag, he came up with similar design for the Irish flag, with orange, white and green stripes. The colours symbolized the uniting of the two traditions, Protestant orange, and Catholic green, in one new nation. In 1916, Meagher's flag was revived by the Irish Volunteers and later adopted by Sinn Fein. Today, it is the flag of the Republic of Ireland, though Meagher's version had the orange stripe closest to the staff, while the modern version has the green stripe in that position. In the 1840s, at the time of the great Irish famine, a party of radical Irish nationalists called the ‘Young Irelanders’ wrote articles in The Nation and The United Irishman newspapers arguing that the Irish people, if they had an Irish Parliament, could better deal with An Gorta Mor (‘the great hunger’), than could British parliamentarians sitting in London so removed from the Irish peasants dying by the hundreds of thousands. One of the Young Irelanders who came to prominence, at a young age, was Thomas Meagher.   Meagher & Young Irelanders page in the Scriptorium   Reports on An Gorta Mor, from The Illustrated London News Reports on An Gorta Mor, from The Times of London More on An Gorta Mor (Irish Potato Famine; An Gorta Mór) in the Book of Days An Gorta Mor    Irish History: The ‘Famine’ and Emigration An Gorta Mor    An Gorta Mor, the 'famine' An Gorta Mor in Book of Days     An tInneal Mallachtaí (Irish curse engine) The Great Shame: And the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World by Thomas Kenneally (Australian author of Schindler’s Ark, which became Schindler’s List, the movie)   1865 Andrew Johnson was inaugurated as the 17th President of the United States following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865. 1870 Last day that USA silver coins were allowed to circulate in Canada. 1878 Harley Procter introduced Ivory Soap 1897 “Linn Grove (Iowa). A large object was seen to fly slowly toward the north. It seemed ready to land and five men (F. G. Ellis, James Evans, David Evans, Joe Croaskey, Benjamin Buland) drove toward it. About 7 km north of Linn Grove, they found the craft on the ground, came within 700 m of it but it "spread its four giant wings and rose towards the North." Two strange figures aboard the craft made efforts to con- ceal themselves. Witnesses were surprised at the length of their hair. Most residents of Linn Grove saw the craft in flight. (190)”   Source 1897 “Howard-Artesian (South Dakota). A flying object coming closer and closer to the ground followed a train, as reported by the engineer, Joe Wright (FSR 66,4)”   Source 1897  Perry Springs (Missouri). A passenger train on the Wabash line, going toward Quincy, was followed by a low-flying object for 15 min between Perry Springs and Hersman. All the passengers saw the craft, which had a red and white light. After Hersman it flew ahead of the train and disappeared rapidly, although the train was then running at 65 km/h.   Source 1912 The passenger liner RMS Titanic sank, having struck an iceberg on April 14. 1920 Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly murdered two security guards while robbing a shoe store. 1921 One of several days in history known as ‘Black Friday’ (others include May 11, 1866, December 6, 1745 and September 24, 1869). So named by the British Labour Movement for the day on which the threatened General Strike was cancelled. Yesterday, April 14, was called Black Monday in 1360, and Black Sunday, 1935. 1923 Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics. 1925 The execution, by decapitation, of Fritz Haarmann (born October 25, 1879), one of the famous serial killers of the 20th century. Haarmann was born in Hannover, Germany. He killed 27 men and boys and ate their bodies. “‘I want to be executed on the marketplace. On the tombstone must be put this inscription: “Here Lies Mass-Murderer Haarmann”.’ The court acceded to neither request and Haarmann was duly decapitated within the walls of Hannover Prison.”   Source 1928 GH Wilkins and CB Eilson began the first transpolar flight. 1925 Sir James Barrie donated the copyright of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London. 1940 The Allies started their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany. 1955 The first McDonald's hamburger restaurant opened, in San Bernardino, California, USA (one source says Des Plains, a suburb of Chicago). The man who took McDonald’s from humble hamburger dive to transnational corporation was Ray Kroc, who was a late starter. 1957 England's Sunday Express reported that "thousands" of 1,000 franc notes had rained on Bourges, France, without explanation.       1967 US: The first mass burning of draft cards as 400,000 marched in New York City and 80,000 in San Francisco opposing the Vietnam War.  It was the culmination of the April 10-15 Vietnam Week featuring draft card burnings and turn-ins and anti-draft recruiter demonstrations all over the country. In NY speakers included Martin Luther King, Jr, Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael, Dr Benjamin Spock.   Source         1968 Chicago, USA: Mayor Richard J Daley publicly criticised Superintendent of Police James Conlisk's cautious handling of the riots that followed the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. Daley announced he was giving the police specific instructions “to shoot to kill any arsonist and to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting”. 1983 Tokyo Disneyland opened. 1986 Jean Genet, French criminal and social outcast later turned novelist and a leading figure in the avant-garde theatre, died in Paris. “Saint Jean Genet dies in Paris. French criminal, social outcast later turned novelist and a leading figure in the avant-garde theater and political radical. “At age 32, while in prison, he started writing his first manuscript, Our Lady of the Flowers. It was discovered and destroyed. Genet rewrote it from memory. It was smuggled out of his cell and came to the attention of Cocteau and Sartre, who lobbied vigorously for a pardon from a life-sentence. “Over 40 intellectuals and artists petitioned the French government on his behalf. Genet's stature as an original and important writer was cemented with Sartre's study of him in the work Saint Genet. “After five novels, and then a silence of several years in the late 40s/early 50s, Genet re-emerged as a playwright. “Genet, like Artaud, believed the theatre should be an incendiary event. He also portrayed the gay world openly, without apology or explanation. Genet's sense of solidarity was even stronger with thieves, and others of society's dispossessed. In later life, he championed the causes of the Black Panthers in the US and Palestinian soldiers in Jordan and Lebanon. His final work, Un captif amoureux (Prisoner of Love), is a record of his years spent with these two groups. “Jean Genet died in a hotel room of the same working class district where he'd been abandoned as a child 75 years earlier. He is buried in Morocco.” Source: The Daily Bleed   1986 On orders from President Reagan, American planes bombed Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi's house in Tripoli as his family slept. The leader escaped harm but his 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed. 1989 Hillsborough disaster, Ninety-five football fans were crushed to death at Hillsborough stadium, Sheffield, England in one of the worst tragedies of European football and Britain's worst sports disaster. 1989 Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 began. 1994 Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities signed the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995). 1996 But was he grateful? The rest of Jerry Garcia's ashes were scattered near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA. A small portion of the Grateful Dead singer’s remains had been scattered in India’s Ganges River eleven days previously. 1997 Fire swept through a campsite of Muslims, making the Hajj pilgrimage, the official death toll was 343. 2002 An Air China Boeing 767-200 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea killing 122   2003 The Mosul Massacre. American troops opened fire on anti-US protesters in the northern city of Mosul, Baghdad, killing at least ten unarmed Iraqis. The Americans had marched their newly appointed puppet in Mosul, Mashaan al-Juburi, onto a stage in front of a few hundred people. The new governor was making a passionate pro-American speech, telling the people that the Americans had come to liberate them and would improve their lives. The crowd retorted he was a liar, and children began to hurl stones at him. People began chanting and denouncing the American occupation. According to reports, this incensed the American troops, who had been arrogantly moving amongst the crowd with their American flag. When the crowd began to shout “the only democracy is to make the Americans leave” whilst continuing to hurl stones and abuse at the puppet governor, the American troops opened fire upon the people killing and injuring many. “The people moved towards the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing. Then they prevented the people from recovering the bodies," said Marwan Mohammed, who was amongst the protestors. Dr Iyad al-Ramadhani, from the hospital caring for the victims, said “there are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead”. Another doctor reported “The wounded said (the governor) Juburi asked the Americans to fire”. Source: Sydney Morning Herald Meanwhile, President Bush, speaking in the White House Rose Garden, was declaring that the Iraqi people were “regaining control of their own destiny”, US soldiers were turning their weapons on civilians opposed to American and US-appointed rulers. Hours earlier, 20,000 people marched through the southern city of Nasiriyah to oppose Washington’s plans to install a puppet government. On the same day, in Baghdad, the US military tried to prevent journalists from reporting on the third straight day of anti-US demonstrations. Tomorrow: End of the world fails to occur yet again    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     (Believe it or not, actual button)   Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research. I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude. © My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

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