Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Secularism "Religion is good for American politics. . .when it accepts the principles of tolerance and pluralism; when it appeals to a shared sense of morality. . . .Religion is bad for American politics when it undermines the civil religion; when it speaks of political matters with the certitude of faith, in a pluralistic society in which faith cannot be used as a political standard; when it treats opponents as agents of Satan." — Jim Castelli
Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Iraq War "We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators [in Iraq]. . .I think it will go relatively quickly. . .[in] weeks rather than months." — Dick Cheney, vice president and former head of Halliburton, the recipient of hundreds of millions {now in the billions} of dollars in no-bid contract in Iraq
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: On Politics "We are making steadfast progress." — Hall of Shame Member #1, George W. Bush
Thought for the day: "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}
NASA ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY
Spiral Galaxy M83: The Southern Pinwheel
Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler and Stephane Guisard
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation
EVENTS
● 1132 - Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.
● 1216 - Cencio Savelli was consecrated Pope Honorius III. During his 11-year pontificate, he confirmed two well-known religious orders: the Dominicans in 1216 and the Franciscans in 1223.
● 1411 - Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles on Scottish soil.
● 1487 - Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands strike against ban on foreign beer.
● 1534 - French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and took possession of the territory in the name of the King Francis I of France, discovering St. Laurence River; claims Canada for France.
● 1550 - French-born Swiss reformer John Calvin wrote in a letter: 'If you make a constant study of the word of the Lord, you will be quite able to guide your life to the highest excellence.'
● 1567 - Mary Queen of Scots is deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VI.
● 1651 - Anthony Johnson, a free black, receives grant of 250 acres in VA
● 1673 - Edmund Halley enters Queen's College, Oxford, as an undergraduate
● 1683 - First settlers from Germany to U.S., leave aboard the Concord.
● 1701 - Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit.
● 1704 - Great Britain takes Gibraltar from Spain
● 1725 - Birth of John Newton, an English slave ship's captain. He was converted at age22, and entered the Anglican ministry. Newton is remembered today as author of several enduring hymns, including 'Amazing Grace' and 'Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.'
● 1758 - George Washington admitted to Virginia House of Burgess
● 1781(83?) - Georgia becomes a protectorate of tsarist Russia.
● 1783 - Simon Bolivar born, Venezuela.
● 1799 - William Clark (of Lewis & Clark) is willed the slave York
● 1814 - War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advances toward Niagara to halt Jacob Brown's American invaders.
● 1819 - Birth of Josiah G. Holland, American writer who in 1874 authored the Christmas hymn, 'There's a Song in the Air.'
● 1823 - Slavery is abolished in Chile
● 1824 - Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper publishes results of 1st public opinion poll. Clear lead for Andrew Jackson
● 1832 - Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by using Wyoming's South Pass.
● 1847 - After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City. Celebrations of this event include the Pioneer Day Utah state holiday and the Days of '47 Parade.
● 1847 - Rotary-type printing press patented by Richard March Hoe, NYC
● 1849 - Georgetown University in Washington, DC. presented its first Doctor of Music Degree. It was given to Professor Henry Dielman.
● 1862 - Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook, N.Y., at age 79.
● 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown - Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
● 1866 - Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
● 1870 - 1st trans-US rail service begins
● 1877 - 1st time federal troops are used to combat strikers
● 1887 - Birth of Juan Peiro Belis (1887-1942), Barcelona. Spanish anarcho-syndicalist theorist and militant in the CNT. Peiro took refuge in France in 1939, but was extradited and shot when he refused to collaborate with the Franco government, in Valencia, July 24, 1942.
● 1893 - Birth of British pacifist Ammon Hennacy.
● 1897 - Birth of Amelia Earhart, first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
● 1900 - Race riot in New Orleans, 2 white policemen killed
● 1901 - O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
● 1911 - Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu "the Lost City of the Incas".
● 1915 - Excursion ship Eastland capsizes in Lake Michigan, 852 die
● 1918 - On Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, the cornerstone for Hebrew University was laid by Dr. Chaim Weizmann. (Weizmann was later elected first president of the modern state of Israel.)
● 1919 - Race Riot in Washington DC (6 killed, 100 wounded)
● 1920 - Birth of women's rights champion Bella Abzug.
● 1923 - The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in the First World War.
● 1925 - Scopes guilty of teaching evolution in a TN HS, fined $100 & costs
● 1927 - The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.
● 1929 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers). {Obviously BushCo thinks this pact which was proclaimed by Republican President Hebert Hoover is "quaint."}
● 1931 - A fire at a home for aged people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kills 48 people.
● 1933 - K Reinmuth discovers asteroids #1645 Waterfield, #1668 Hanna, #1726 Hoffmeister, #2136 Jugta & #2158
● 1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his fourth "Fireside Chat."
● 1934 - 1st ptarmigan hatched & reared in captivity, Ithaca, NY
● 1934 - Death of Nestor Makhno, Paris. Anarchist general; led insurrectionary army of peasants; fought Red and White Russian armies during the Russian Revolution. Eventually crushed by the Trotsky's Red Army.
● 1935 - The dust bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109°F (44°C) in Chicago and 104°F (40°C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
● 1935 - The world's first children's railway opens in Tbilisi, USSR.
● 1936 - 118° F (48° C), Minden, Nebraska (state record)
● 1936 - 121° F (49° C), near Alton, Kansas (state record)
● 1936 - Forty thousand gather in Barcelona, Spain to mock religious icons and exhumed bodies.
● 1937 - The state of Alabama dropped charges against five black men accused of raping two white women in the so-called Scottsboro case.
● 1942 - Heavy air raids begin on Hamburg, Germany.
● 1942 - Valencia, Spain - Spanish anarcho-syndicalist theorist and militant and former government official Juan Piero Belis executed for refusing to collaborate with the Franco dictatorship.
● 1943 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
● 1946 - First underwater atomic explosion, Bikini Atoll, South Pacific.
● 1948 - Soviet occupation forces in Germany blockaded West Berlin. The U.S.-British airlift began the following day.
● 1950 - V-2/WAC Corporal rocket launch; 1st launch from Cape Canaveral
● 1952 - 112° F (44° C), Louisville, Georgia (state record)
● 1952 - Pres Truman settles 53-day steel strike
● 1956 - Khartoum University College is awarded university status becoming the University of Khartoum.
● 1959 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate."
● 1961 - Beginning of a trend, a US commercial plane is hijacked to Cuba
● 1964 - One criticality (nuclear) accident at Charlestown in Rhode Island (US), killing one.
● 1965 - Vietnam War: Four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against American planes in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage.
● 1966 - Michael Pelkey made the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping is now been banned from El Cap.
● 1967 - During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
● 1967 - Three days of rioting begin in Cambridge, Md., the site of a 1963 confrontation between civil rights demonstrators and white segregationists.
● 1969 - The Apollo 11 astronauts, two of whom had become the first men to set foot on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific.
● 1969 - Muhammad Ali is convicted for refusing induction in US Army on appeal
● 1969 - U.S. nuclear missile production comes to a temporary halt due to a serious fire at an Atomic Energy Commission plant.
● 1969 - Briton freed from Soviet prison; British lecturer Gerald Brooke is returned to London after four years in a Soviet jail.
● 1972 - Jigme Singye Wangchuk becomes king of Bhutan at 16
● 1974 - After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus the Greek military junta collapses and democracy is restored.
● 1974 - House Judiciary Committee debates Pres. Nixon's articles of impeachment. Vote favorably on three - obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers (using CIA, FBI, IRS, and other federal agencies to violate citizens' constitutional rights, and creating "Plumbers" to engage in illegal acts) and failure to supply subpoenaed materials to the committee.
● 1974 - Watergate Scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
● 1975 - Apollo 18 returns to Earth
● 1977 - End of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
● 1979 - A Miami jury convicted Ted Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy.
● 1982 - E Bowell discovers asteroid #2763 Jeans
● 1983 - Women tag U.S. warplane with graffiti at Greenham Common, England.
● 1985 - Gandhi signs peace contract with Sikh leader Harchand Singh Longowai
● 1986 - SF Federal jury convicts navy radioman Jerry Whitworth of espionage
● 1987 - Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji. Hulda became the oldest person to climb Japan’s highest peak.
● 1987 - Archer wins record damages; Former deputy chair of the Conservative Party Jeffrey Archer is awarded record libel damages at the High Court.
● 1988 - Ten thousand form a human chain for a cleaner North Sea, West Germany.
● 1990 - "Looking Glass," U.S. flying nuclear command post, ends its 24-hour-a-day flights.
● 1990 - Iraqi forces start massing on the Kuwait/Iraq border.
● 1991 - Government of India announces the New Industrial Policy, marking the start of India's economic reforms.
● 1991 - U of Manchester scientist announce finding a planet outside of the solar system
● 1997 - Retired Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan died at age 91.
● 1998 - Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.
● 2000 - Loyalist killer Michael Stone freed from Maze; Loyalist paramilitary hitman Michael Stone is released from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland.
● 2001 - Larry A. Silverstein signs a $3.2 billion, 99-year lease on the entire World Trade Center complex, 7 weeks before the September 11, 2001 attacks .
● 2001 - Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, was sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, and became the only monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.
● 2001 - The Taiwan Solidarity Union is established.
● 2002 - Alfred Moisiu becomes President of Albania.
● 2002 - James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1, who had been convicted of bribery, racketeering and tax evasion.
● 2003 - The U.S. released pictures of the bodies of Odai and Qusai Hussein. The two died during a battle with U.S. forces near Mosul, Iraq. {The fact that this is a clear violation of the Geneva Accords is ignored.}
BIRTHS
● 1660 - Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (d. 1718)
● 1686 - Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer, writer and poet (d. 1739)
● 1725 - John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (d. 1807)
● 1757 - Vladimir Borovikovsky, Russian painter (d. 1825)
● 1783 - Simón Bolívar, South American liberator (d. 1830)
● 1786 - Joseph Nicollet, French mathematician and explorer (d. 1843)
● 1794 - Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist (d. 1865)
● 1802 - Alexandre Dumas, père, French writer (d. 1870)
● 1803 - Alexander Davis, American architect, designer and illustrator (d. 1892)
● 1803 - Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (d. 1856)
● 1826 - Ivan Bloch, military theorist and peace activist (d. 1902)
● 1851 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (d. 1935)
● 1853 - William Gillette, American actor and author (d. 1937)
● 1856 - Charles Émile Picard, French mathematician (d. 1941)
● 1857 - Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
● 1860 - Alfons Mucha, Czech artist (d. 1939)
● 1864 - Frank Wedekind, German writer (d. 1918)
● 1874 - Oswald Chambers, Christian writer (d. 1917)
● 1878 - Lord Dunsany, Irish writer (d. 1957)
● 1880 - Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (d. 1959)
● 1880 - Kristian Hellström, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)
● 1895 - Robert Graves, English author (d. 1985)
● 1897 - Amelia Earhart, American aviator (disappeared 1937)
● 1899 - Chief Dan George, Meti actor (d. 1981)
● 1900 - Zelda Fitzgerald, American artist, wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (d. 1948)
● 1904 - James Rhyne Killian, American president of M.I.T. (1948-59); helped create NASA (d. 1988)
● 1904 - Leo Arnaud, French-American composer (d. 1991)
● 1908 - Cootie Williams, American trumpeter (d. 1985)
● 1910 - Harry Horner, American art director (d. 1994)
● 1916 - John D. MacDonald, American novelist, (d. 1986)
● 1917 - Robert Farnon, Canadian-born conductor, composer, and arranger (d. 2005)
● 1918 - Ruggiero Ricci, American violinist
● 1919 - Ferdinand Kübler, Swiss cyclist
● 1920 - Bella Abzug, U.S. Congresswoman from New York (d. 1998)
● 1921 - Billy Taylor, Jazz pianist
● 1929 - Peter Yates, Director
● 1930 - Jacqueline Brookes, Actress
● 1931 - Ermanno Olmi, Italian director
● 1931 - Éric Tabarly, French sailor (d. 1998)
● 1933 - Doug Sanders, American golfer
● 1933 - John Aniston, American Actor
● 1935 - Pat Oliphant, Australian political cartoonist
● 1936 - Ruth Buzzi, American actress and comedian ("Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In")
● 1936 - Mark Goddard, American actor
● 1938 - Eugene J. Martin, American painter, artist
● 1940 - Dan Hedaya, Actor
● 1940 - Stanley Hauerwas, American theologian
● 1942 - Chris Sarandon, American actor
● 1945 - Azim Premji, Indian businessman
● 1946 - Gallagher, Comedian
● 1947 - Robert Hays, American actor ("Airplane!" movies)
● 1947 - Peter Serkin, American pianist
● 1947 - Zaheer Abbas, Pakistani cricketer
● 1949 - Michael Richards, American comedian ("Seinfeld")
● 1949 - Yves Duteil, French singer and songwriter
● 1951 - Lynda Carter, American actress ("Wonder Woman")
● 1951 - Chris Smith, British politician
● 1952 - Gus Van Sant, American film director
● 1953 - Claire McCaskill, U.S. senator, D-Mo.
● 1955 - Andrzej Łuczak, Polish stucco decorator, painter, photographer
● 1956 - Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida
● 1957 - Pam Tillis, American singer
● 1961 - Kerry Dixon, former English footballer
● 1963 - Paul Geary, American musician (Extreme)
● 1963 - Julie Krone, American jockey
● 1963 - Karl Malone, American basketball player
● 1964 - Barry Bonds, American baseball player
● 1964 - PJ Phillips, British musician
● 1964 - Banana Yoshimoto, Japanese author
● 1965 - Kadeem Hardison, American actor
● 1966 - Martin Keown, English footballer
● 1968 - Kristin Chenoweth, American singer and actress
● 1968 - Laura Leighton, American actress
● 1968 - John P. Navin Jr., Actor
● 1969 - Rick Fox, Bahamian basketball player
● 1969 - Jennifer Lopez, American actress and singer
● 1970 - Stephanie Adams, American model and author
● 1971 - John Partridge, English singer
● 1971 - Oliver Jones, Australian singer, songwriter, musician, producer, and audio engineer
● 1972 - Reverend Jen Miller, American poet, painter, writer and actress
● 1975 - Torrie Wilson, American wrestler
● 1975 - Eric Szmanda, American actor ("CSI")
● 1975 - Jamie Langenbrunner, American ice hockey player
● 1976 - Nate Bump, American baseball player
● 1976 - Rafer Alston, American basketball player
● 1976 - Tiago Monteiro, Portuguese Formula One driver
● 1977 - Mehdi Mahdavikia, Iranian football player
● 1979 - Stat Quo, American rapper
● 1979 - Anne-Gaëlle Sidot, French tennis player
● 1979 - José Valverde, American baseball player
● 1979 - Rose Byrne, Australian actress
● 1980 - Gauge, American pornographic actress
● 1981 - Summer Glau, American actress
● 1982 - Anna Paquin, Canadian-born actress
● 1982 - Elise Crombez, Belgian supermodel
● 1982 - Thiago Medeiros, Brazilian racing driver
● 1983 - Daniele De Rossi, Italian footballer
● 1984 - John Dhani Lennevald, Swedish singer (former A-Teens member)
● 1985 - Teagan Presley, American pornographic actress
● 1985 - Patrice Bergeron, Canadian hockey player
● 1986 - Justin Berry, American anti-child porn advocate
● 1987 - Mara Wilson, American actress
● 1990 - Daveigh Chase, American actress
● 1998 - Bindi Irwin, activist and daughter of Steve Irwin
DEATHS
● 1115 - Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (b. 1046)
● 1129 - Shirakawa, Emperor of Japan (b. 1053)
● 1240 - Konrad von Thüringen, fifth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
● 1394 - Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, Scottish prince (b. 1343)
● 1568 - Prince Don Carlos of Spain (b. 1545)
● 1594 - John Boste, Catholic saint and martyr (b. 1544)
● 1739 - Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer (b. 1686)
● 1768 - Nathanial Lardner, English theologian (b. 1684)
● 1862 - Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)
● 1910 - Arkhip Kuindzhi, Russian painter (b. 1841)
● 1927 - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese writer (b. 1892)
● 1957 - Sacha Guitry, French actor, director, screenwriter and playwright (b. 1885)
● 1965 - Constance Bennett, American actress (b. 1904)
● 1966 - Tony Lema, American golfer (b. 1934)
● 1969 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)
● 1970 - Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman (b. 1897)
● 1974 - James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
● 1980 - Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor (b. 1925)
● 1986 - Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
● 1991 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born Yiddish author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
● 1992 - Sam Berger, Canadian football owner (b. 1900)
● 1992 - Arletty, French singer and actress (b. 1898)
● 1995 - George Rodger, British photojournalist (b. 1908)
● 1996 - Mohammed Farah Aidid, Somali warlord (b. 1934)
● 1997 - William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1906)
● 1997 - Saw Maung, Burmese dictator (b. 1928)
● 2001 - Georges Dor, French Canadien author, composer, singer and playwright (b. 1931)
● 2005 - Richard Doll, English epidemiologist (b. 1912)
HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES
● Roman Catholic:
● St. Christina the Astonishing (d.1224), virgin, martyr
● St. David
● St. Declan, bishop of Ardmore
● St. Dictinus
● St. Francis Solanus
● St. Godo
● St. John Boste
● St. Kinga/Cunegundes (d. 1292)
● St. Lewine/Livina, virgin, martyr
● St. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, confessor
● St. Menefrida
● Sts. Meneus & Capito
● Sts. Niceta and Aquilina
● St. Pavacius, bishop of Le Mans
● Sts. Romanus and David, martyrs
● St. Romanus, second bishop of Rochester
● St. Ruffin
● St. Segolena, widow
● St. Sharbel Makhluf
● St. Turibius and companions, martyrs
● St. Ursicinus, bishop of Sens, confessor
● Sts. Victor, Stercntius, and Antigones
● St. Vincent
● St. Wulfhad and Ruffin, martyrs
● Vigil of St. James apostle
● Bl. Joseph Fernandez
● Bl. Maria Pilar Martinez Garcia & Companions
● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for July 11 (Civil Date: July 24)
● Great-Martyr Euphemia the All-praised Blessed Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga, princess of Russia, in holy baptism called Helen.
● (services combined) Hieromartyr Cindeus of Pamphylia.
● St. Nicodemus of Vatopedi (Mt. Athos).
● New-Martyr Nicodemus of Mt. Athos.
● New-Martyr Nectarius of St. Anne's Skete (Mt. Athos).
● Greek Calendar:
● St. Leo, monk of Mandra.
● Martyr Martyrocles.
● Repose of cavedweller Anastasia of St. Cornelius of Padan hermitage in Olonets (1901).
● Anglican: Commemoration of Thomas Kempis, priest
● Ancient Latvia - Jekaupa Diena held.
● Astrology - Second day of sun sign Leo.
● Denmark : Midsummer Day
● Ecuador, Venezuala : Bolivar Day (1783)
● Idaho, Utah : Pioneer Day (1847)
● Spain : Valencia Fair Day-Battle of the Flowers
● Vanuatu - Children's Day.
● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Virgin Islands : Hurricane Supplication Day - ( Monday )
Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.
Additional facts taken from:
On this day in the New York Times
The BBC’s Take on the day
On This Day Website
Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.
Scope Systems Any Day Website
Roman Catholic Saint of the Day
Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar
Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day taken from 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said Edited by Steven D. Price ©2004
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