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I'm starting this topic, so that anyone who is interested can add information about events that have occurred on the particular date we are on. I hope that members of the group find this interesting.

Oliver Cromwell comes down to the House of Commons in 1653 to dissolve the remainder, the Rump, of the Long Parliament elected in 1640 as recounted by S. R. Gardiner in his History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Here follows his speech given to the House of Commons today, 20 April 1653.

“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!��

From a modern media point of view, this is a clear address using excellent text to persuade and inspire the audience by a natural leader and motivator. An example of a great oration and clear dialogue. An illustration of, or allusion to, the famous events of the time seen today after five centuries. Good use of the words and language to illustrate the subject: thoughts and actions for modern parliaments and leaders in the name of democracy and progress.

Oliver Cromwell

Gill wrote: "I'm starting this topic, so that anyone who is interested can add information about events that have occurred on the particular date we are on. I hope that members of the group find this interesting."

Thank you Gill!

Paraphrasing the Bard on today’s date, we might ask: “what’s in a name?�� and “what’s in a date?�� In terms of world history, it would be hard to compete with April 20 for the title of “Worst Day of the Year��. Pre-modern people believed in the alignment of the stars and planets being responsible for mankind's collective fate. For example, in Shakespeare's "King Lear," feeling that something is amiss, Gloucester says, "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us." He wasn't talking about April 20, but he easily could have been. Same for T.S. Eliot when he called April "the cruelest month." On what might otherwise be a fine spring day, it certainly seems that way. Most infamously, today is the birthday of Adolf Hitler, who arrived into this world, much to its eventual chagrin, on April 20, 1889.

At 6:30 p.m. on the evening of April 20, 1889, he was born in the small Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn just across the border from German Bavaria. Adolf Hitler would one day lead a movement that placed supreme importance on a person's family tree even making it a matter of life and death. However, his own family tree was quite mixed up and would be a lifelong source of embarrassment and concern to him.

His father, Alois, was born in 1837. He was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber and her unknown mate, which may have been someone from the neighborhood or a poor millworker named Johann Georg Hiedler. It is also remotely possible Adolf Hitler's grandfather was Jewish. Maria Schicklgruber was said to have been employed as a cook in the household of a wealthy Jewish family named Frankenberger. There is some speculation their 19-year-old son got her pregnant and regularly sent her money after the birth of Alois.

Adolf Hitler would never know for sure just who his grandfather was. He did know that when his father Alois was about five years old, Maria Schicklgruber married Johann Georg Hiedler. The marriage lasted five years until her death of natural causes, at which time Alois went to live on a small farm with his uncle.

At age thirteen, young Alois had enough of farm life and set out for the city of Vienna to make something of himself. He worked as a shoemaker's apprentice then later enlisted in the Austrian civil service, becoming a junior customs official. He worked hard as a civil servant and eventually became a supervisor.

By 1875 he achieved the rank of Senior Assistant Inspector, a big accomplishment for the former poor farm boy with little formal education. At this time an event occurred that would have big implications for the future. Alois had always used the last name of his mother, Schicklgruber, and thus was always called Alois Schicklgruber. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was illegitimate since it was common in rural Austria.

But after his success in the civil service, his proud uncle from the small farm convinced him to change his last name to match his own, Hiedler, and continue the family name. However, when it came time to write the name down in the record book it was spelled as Hitler. And so in 1876 at age 39, Alois Schicklgruber became Alois Hitler. This is important because it is hard to imagine tens of thousands of Germans shouting "Heil Schicklgruber!" instead of "Heil Hitler!"

In 1885, after numerous affairs and two other marriages ended, the widowed Alois Hitler, 48, married the pregnant Klara Pölzl, 24, the granddaughter of uncle Hiedler. Technically, because of the name change, she was his own niece and so he had to get special permission from the Catholic Church.

The children from his previous marriage, Alois Hitler, Jr., and Angela, attended the wedding and lived with them afterwards. Klara Pölzl eventually gave birth to two boys and a girl, all of whom died. On April 20, 1889, her fourth child, Adolf, was born healthy and was baptized a Roman Catholic. Hitler's father was now 52 years old.

Throughout his early days, young Adolf's mother feared losing him as well and lavished much care and affection on him. His father was busy working most of the time and also spent a lot of time on his main hobby, keeping bees. Baby Adolf had the nickname, Adi. When he was almost five, in 1893, his mother gave birth to a brother, Edmund. In 1896 came a sister, Paula. In May of 1895 at age six, young Adolf Hitler entered first grade in the public school in the village of Fischlham near Linz, Austria.

Source: (adapted)




Adolf Hitler: A Life From Beginning to End

In the beginning somebody asked: “Is it possible to know everything?��. Now, this question has split into two : “When did it become impossible to know everything? Is it true that nowadays it has become impossible to know all?��

When in April 1952, Alan Lodge and Peter Quennel, both founders of “History Today�� the well-known monthly magazine, wrote the presentation article, they expected the answer from their readers. After more than fifty years, now that they have left this world, and I suppose do know everything, we are all left waiting for an answer.

To be honest, their question was deeper and larger. They asked: “When did it become impossible for an educated man to grasp, at least in its broader and more general outlines, the entire extent of European learning?��. They were acting not only as “educated men��, but also like Europeans. Today, this identity would be rather restricted and limited in a world that has become bigger, larger and deeper. I’d like to know from readers of this thread “Today in History�� what their answers would be. Thanks to you all.
Past Masters: The Best Of History Today

753 BC Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus today.

Believe it or not the epigram “Rome was not built in a day��, meaning that some things cannot be done at once, but require time and patience, was not coined by Romans. As a matter of fact it first appeared in England in John Heywood’s “A Dialogue Containing the Number in Effect of All the Proverbes in the English Tongue�� (1546). It was also used in “Don Quixote�� (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes. Nowadays modern Romans usually do as they like, and do not expect others do as they do.

The same story of Romulus and Remus is just a story which says that they founded on this day Rome. Read what a famous English historian wrote in his “Lays of Ancient Rome��, a collection of narrative poems, or lays: Thomas Babington Macaulay. Four of these recount heroic episodes from early Roman history with strong dramatic and tragic themes, giving the collection its name. The Lays were composed by Macaulay in his thirties, during his spare time while he was the "legal member" of the Governor-General of India's Supreme Council from 1834 to 1838.

The Roman ballads are preceded by brief introductions, discussing the legends from a scholarly perspective. Macaulay explains that his intention was to write poems resembling those that might have been sung in ancient times.The Lays were first published by Longman in 1842, at the beginning of the Victorian Era. They became immensely popular, and were a regular subject of recitation, then a common pastime. The Lays were standard reading in British public schools for more than a century. Here follows what he says about this legend:

“That what is called the history of the Kings and early Consuls of Rome is to a great extent fabulous, few scholars have, since the time of Beaufort, ventured to deny. It is certain that, more than three hundred and sixty years after the date ordinarily assigned for the foundation of the city, the public records were, with scarcely an exception, destroyed by the Gauls. It is certain that the oldest annals of the commonwealth were compiled more than a century and a half after this destruction of the records.

It is certain, therefore, that the great Latin writers of the Augustan age did not possess those materials, without which a trustworthy account of the infancy of the republic could not possibly be framed. Those writers own, indeed, that the chronicles to which they had access were filled with battles that were never fought, and Consuls that were never inaugurated; and we have abundant proof that, in these chronicles, events of the greatest importance, such as the issue of the war with Porsena and the issue of the war with Brennus, were grossly misrepresented.

Under these circumstances a wise man will look with great suspicion on the legend which has come down to us. He will perhaps be inclined to regard the princes who are said to have founded the civil and religious institutions of Rome, the sons of Mars, and the husband of Egeria, as mere mythological personages, of the same class with Perseus and Ixion. As he draws nearer to the confines of authentic history, he will become less and less hard of belief.

He will admit that the most important parts of the narrative have some foundation in truth. But he will distrust almost all the details, not only because they seldom rest on any solid evidence, but also because he will constantly detect in them, even when they are within the limits of physical possibility, that peculiar character, more easily understood than defined, which distinguishes the creations of the imagination from the realities of the world in which we live.

The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than anything else in Latin literature. The loves of the Vestal and the God of War, the cradle laid among the reeds of Tiber, the fig-tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin, the recognition, the fratricide, the rape of the Sabines, the death of Tarpeia, the fall of Hostus Hostilius, the struggle of Mettus Curtius through the marsh, the women rushing with torn raiment and dishevelled hair between their fathers and their husbands, the nightly meetings of Numa and the Nymph by the well in the sacred grove, the fight of the three Romans and the three Albans, the purchase of the Sibylline books, the crime of Tullia, the simulated madness of Brutus, the ambiguous reply of the Delphian oracle to the Tarquins, the wrongs of Lucretia, the heroic actions of Horatius Cocles, of Scaevola, and of Cloelia, the battle of Regillus won by the aid of Castor and Pollux, the defense of Cremera, the touching story of Coriolanus, the still more touching story of Virginia, the wild legend about the draining of the Alban lake, the combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul, are among the many instances which will at once suggest themselves to every reader.

In the narrative of Livy, who was a man of fine imagination, these stories retain much of their genuine character. Nor could even the tasteless Dionysius distort and mutilate them into mere prose. The poetry shines, in spite of him, through the dreary pedantry of his eleven books. It is discernible in the most tedious and in the most superficial modern works on the early times of Rome. It enlivens the dulness of the Universal History, and gives a charm to the most meagre abridgements of Goldsmith. Even in the age of Plutarch there were discerning men who rejected the popular account of the foundation of Rome, because that account appeared to them to have the air, not of a history, but of a romance or a drama …��

Lays of Ancient Rome

This morning, John Ruskin (1819-1900) English author and art critic, went into his garden very early ....

He was born in London. His "Moderrn Painters" in 5 volumes was issued over a period of many years. He helped to establish the Pre-Raphealites. Other notable works include "The Seven Lamps of Architecture", "The Stones of Venice" and "Praeterita". "Unto His Last" develops his views on social problems, and he tried to use his wealth for education. Ruskin College at Oxfors is named after him.

"I went into my garden at half-past six on the morning of April 21, 1870, to think over the final order of these examples for you. The air was perfectly calm, the sunlight pure, and falling on the grass through thickets of the standard peach (which had bloomed that year perfectly), and of plum and pear trees, in their first showers of fresh silver, looking more like much-broken and far-tossed spray of fountains than trees; and just at the end of my hawthorn walk, one happy nightingale was singing as much as he could in every moment.

Meantime, in the still air, the roar of the railroads from Clapham Junction, New Cross, and the Crystal Palace (I am between the three), sounded constantly and heavily, like the surf of a strong sea three or four miles distant; and the whistles of the trains passing nearer mixed with the nightingale’s notes. That I could hear her at all, or see the blossoms, or the grass, in the best time of spring, depended on my having been long able to spend a large sum annually in self-indulgence, and in keeping my fellow creatures out of my way.

Of those who were causing all that murmur, like the sea, round me, and of the myriads imprisoned by the English Minotaur of lust for wealth, and condemned to live, if it is to be called life, in the labyrinth of black walls, and loathsome passages between them, which now fills the valley of the Thames, and is called London, no tone could hear, that day, any happy bird sing, or look upon any quiet space of the pure grass that is good for seed ..."

John Ruskin

April 22 is Earth Day. It has been celebrated on different days by different groups internationally for almost fifty years. The United Nations officially celebrates it on the vernal equinox, which usually occurs about March 21. The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, was initiated by Gaylord Nelson, who was a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin and is sometimes called the "father of Earth Day." Nelson's objective was to organize a nationwide public demonstration so large that it would get the attention of politicians and force issues of environmental protection into the legislative forefront. Earth Day has been celebrated every year since its beginning. In many parts of the world Earth Day is observed with marches, teach-ins, rallies, tree-plantings, community cleanups, and celebrations. This is Senator Gaylord Nelson’s actual speech:

“I congratulate you, who by your presence here today demonstrate your concern and commitment to an issue that is more than just a matter of survival. How we survive is the critical question.

Earth Day is dramatic evidence of a broad new national concern that cuts across generations and ideologies. It may be symbolic of a new communication between young and old about our values and priorities.

Take advantage of this broad new agreement. Don't drop out of it. Pull together a new national coalition whose objective is to put Gross National Quality on a par with Gross National Product.

Campaign nationwide to elect an "Ecology Congress" as the 92nd Congress--a Congress that will build bridges between our citizens and between man and nature's systems, instead of building more highways and dams and new weapons systems that escalate the arms race.

Earth Day can--and it must lend a new urgency and a new support to solving the problems that still threaten to tear the fabric of this society... the problems of race, of war, of poverty, of modern-day institutions.

Ecology is a big science, a big concept- -not a copout. It is concerned with the total eco-system not just with how we dispose of our tin cans, bottles and sewage.

Environment is all of America and its problems. It is rats in the ghetto. It is a hungry child in a land of affluence. It is housing that is not worthy of the name; neighborhoods not fit to inhabit.

Environment is a problem perpetuated by the expenditure of 17 billion $ a year on the Vietnam War, instead of on our decaying, crowded, congested, polluted urban areas that are inhumane traps for millions of people.

If our cities don't work, America won't work. And the battle to save them and end the divisiveness that still splits this country won't be won in Vietnam. Winning the environmental war is a whole lot tougher challenge by far than winning any other war in the history of Man.

It will take $20 to $25 billion more a year in Federal money than we are spending or asking for now. Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty.

The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.

Our goal is a new American ethic that sets new standards for progress, emphasizing human dignity and well-being rather than an endless parade of technology that produces more gadgets, more waste, more pollution.

Are we able to meet the challenge? Yes. We have the technology and the resources. Are we willing? That is the unanswered question.

Establishing quality on a par with quantity is going to require new national policies that quite frankly will interfere with what many have considered their right to use and abuse the air, the water, the land, just because that is what we have always done.��

Song Of Proserpine
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth,
Thou from whose immortal bosom
Gods and men and beasts have birth,
Leaf and blade, and bud and blossom,
Breathe thine influence most divine
On thine own child, Proserpine.

If with mists of evening dew
Thou dost nourish these young flowers
Till they grow in scent and hue
Fairest children of the Hours,
Breathe thine influence most divine
On thine own child, Proserpine.

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature. It is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those, who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. With this in mind, UNESCO created the World Book and Copyright Day.

Each year, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry - publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a one-year period, effective 23 April each year. The selection committee singled out Conakry, Guinea, “on account of the quality and diversity of its programme, in particular its focus on community involvement�� as well as “for its well-structured budget and clear development goals with a strong emphasis on youth and literacy.��
Memory of the World: Documents That Define Human History and Heritage.

Welcome to the disturbing world of historical chronology of this discussion “Today in History��. We like to think of historical dates as part of a tidy grid. We can use this grid to organize great events of the past in our minds. Imagine a huge pegboard, one peg for every day in history. The peg April 23, 1616 now has, among many others, two tags: Death of Shakespeare, Death of Cervantes. Isn’t that convenient? Alas, it’s not so simple. Cervantes died in Spain, which had adopted the Gregorian calendar three decades before.

The Gregorian calendar was a reformed version of Julius Caesar’s calendar, which first put Europe in sync with the solar year. But the Julian calendar year was slightly too long. Over the centuries since Caesar, the calendar year was gradually slipping behind the natural seasons. Pope Gregory XIII called for this to be corrected, since it led to observing Easter on the wrong day. A new rule was devised for leap years, and ten days were cut to put the calendar back in line with the solar year. So when Spain adopted the reform, October 5 was immediately followed by 15th.

But Shakespeare died in England, a Protestant country where people would hardly let the Pope steal ten days of their lives. So the bard actually died ten days after Cervantes. Now we have to imagine two separate pegboards for historical events, one for each country. April 23 on the English pegboard was May 3 on the Spanish one. And they had to keep using separate pegboards in Europe for some time to come, because Protestants kept resisting the Vatican’s new calendar. Eventually, they had to give in to this reasonable adjustment. Britain and its Empire finally adopted the Gregorian reform in 1752. But by then the British had to cut a full 11 days from the calendar. Eastern Orthodox countries were even more resistant. The Bolsheviks brought it to Russia at the end of WW I. Greece didn’t adopt it until 1923!

This is troubling, because we want dates to function like longitude and latitude. But there’s no going back into the past -- no using the calendar like Google Earth. We commonly use historical dates as labels and schemes for commemoration. They’re invitations to think about the past as we move through our present calendar year. So UNESCO, inspired by the apparent coincidence in death dates, declared April 23 The International Day of the Book. Shakespeare now joins Cervantes for this festival, and we wink at the ten-day difference. But what a striking idea: the authors of Hamlet and Don Quixote dying on the same day. Why, it might even inspire us all to make a date with a book!

The Engines of Our Ingenuity: An Engineer Looks at Technology and Culture

Antonio wrote: "Welcome to the disturbing world of historical chronology of this discussion “Today in History��. We like to think of historical dates as part of a tidy grid. We can use this grid to organize great e..."

Antonio, thank you for sharing this. I found it fascinating

Evelyn wrote: "Antonio wrote: "Welcome to the disturbing world of historical chronology of this discussion “Today in History��. We like to think of historical dates as part of a tidy grid. We can use this grid to ..."
For me too, this subject is really fascinating. Thanks for your appreciation.

Launched today on April 24, 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.3 million observations of more than 42,000 celestial objects. In its 27-year lifetime the telescope has made nearly 148,000 trips around our planet. Hubble has racked up plenty of frequent-flier miles, about 3.8 billion. An average of approximately 2 terabytes of Hubble data are added to the archive every month. Hubble observations have produced more than 141 terabytes of data, which will be available for present and future generations of researchers. Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 14,600 scientific papers.

Hubble's powerful ability to detect galaxies that are much farther away than those ever seen before is allowing astronomers to trace the history of the universe. The deeper Hubble peers into space, the farther back in time it looks. The farthest galaxies detected by Hubble were forming just a few hundred million years after the big bang. Hubble's visible "core sample" of the universe shows galaxies during their youth, providing evidence that galaxies grew over time through mergers with other galaxies to become the giant galaxies we see today.

Young galaxies have close encounters that sometimes ended in grand mergers that yield overflowing sites of new star birth as the colliding galaxies morph into wondrous new shapes. The early galaxies spied by Hubble are smaller and more irregularly shaped than today's grand spiral and elliptical galaxies. By studying galaxies at different epochs, astronomers can see how galaxies change over time. The process is analogous to a very large scrapbook of pictures documenting the lives of children from infancy to adulthood.

And the evolution continues. Hubble observations of our neighbouring galaxy, M31, has allowed astronomers to predict with certainty that titanic collision between our Milky Way galaxy Andromeda will inevitably take place beginning 4 billion years from now. The galaxy is now 2.5 million light-years away, but it is inexorably falling toward the Milky Way under the mutual pull of gravity between the two galaxies and the invisible dark matter that surrounds them both. The merger will result in the creation of a giant elliptical galaxy.




HUBBLE

Above our Earth so high
The Hubble telescope now hangs
Beyond our vault-like sky:
An all embracing eye;
Now showing us the universe
In all her glory.
Those swirling galaxies give way to seemingly endless
Tracts of quasars, dust and gas.
Through Hubble we look back through time,
At remnants of the Big Bang:
The Birth, they tell us, of Creation,
That might be repeated,
Over and over again.
Yet, before this satellite was launched,
Or telescopes invented,
Just what did humans know?
What did the Aztecs know of England,
Or fourteenth century English folk know of America?
As technological advances have
Been swift, so our state of ignorance
Has been revealed for all to see.
For no-one knows The Purpose of Life.

Why?
Oh Why!
Do We Live
To Die
Why?

For we will Die
Not Knowing Why.
Ask Christ they say,
He’ll show The Way.
Ask God and He will too.
Ask Allah, Buddha,
Anyone you like;
And Me, I’ll tell you just to Hope,
For Love will see us through.

Paul Butters

Hubble: Imaging Space and Time Hubble: Imaging Space and Time

Oh I forgot that 23rd April would be using different calendars for Shakespeare and Cervantes. I was also unaware of the other literary births and deaths on this date. Thanks for the info :)

Pink wrote: "Oh I forgot that 23rd April would be using different calendars for Shakespeare and Cervantes. I was also unaware of the other literary births and deaths on this date. Thanks for the info :)"
Thanks to you for reading!

Social and Cultural History in Literary History.
Why is Walter de La Mare’s poem called “The Listeners��? Who are these Listeners? We all agree that the title of the poem should have been called “The Traveller��. I have always asked myself these questions since I learned this beautiful poem when I was young. Many critics have given diverse reasons and explanations. I’ve discovered in due course of time that it is always possible to give a plausible answer to questions like these.

It often happens when Literary History is influenced by Cultural and Social History. Poets, novelists, and artists at large think, write their masterpieces, using their artistic, internal inspirations and they are also guided or conditioned by the external environment. This is the case with Walter de la Mare, born today April 25 (1873-1956) when he wrote and published this poem in 1912. He was 39 then. In a few days ahead, May 1912, he would have published his second collection of poetry, called “The Listeners��.

Although the famous title-poem was actually penned three years earlier, its moment arrived when the collection as a whole was published. Despite recognition during his lifetime, and the admiration of writers such as WH Auden, Vladimir Nabokov, Ezra Pound, and Thomas Hardy, de la Mare’s reputation as a poet has slumped somewhat since his death in 1956.

Mysterious and chilling, ‘The Listeners�� remains his best known work, while its author has grown, rather like the poem’s eponymous characters, somewhat phantasmal. Whatever the state of de la Mare’s reputation, 'The Listeners' remains loved, surviving even the teaching of it in schools. What is it about the poem that continues to attract attention? It must be its eerie atmospherics. Formally, the poem is relatively straightforward, 36 lines structured by an abcb rhyme scheme (Robert Frost admired the poem’s versification). The language too is clear. It's the story the poem hints at that is enigmatic.

Who is the Traveller? Why in the dead of night has he travelled by horse to a seemingly deserted house, deserted that is but for ‘a host of phantom listeners��? Ghosts? What is the promise he has made, and to whom? Theories, of course, abound, although perhaps we should bear de la Mare’s own advice in mind: ‘You can’t prove a poem: it proves you.�� Theresa Whistler, de la Mare’s biographer, writes, ‘He would say of poetry how it is said is what it means.�� The closest he got to explaining the poem came in the 1950s when he told a friend ‘The Listeners�� was "about a man encountering a universe".

And what was the “universe�� he was referring to? At the turn of the century, a new electrical technology, radio, or wireless as it was originally known, emerged out of principles coming from physics, most notably the electromagnetic spectrum. Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi’s 1901 wireless broadcast of Morse code across the Atlantic began a global period of feverish activity, especially among young men with a technological bent. It was the “hot�� technology of the day. By 1912, it was a young profession, with radio telegraph stations connecting ships at sea and far places on land. This “universe�� presupposed “listeners�� to signify the transnational nature of communication.

A man, identified as “the Traveller", arrives on horseback late at night to call at a forest dwelling. Its turret suggests that it is a mansion or château. The traveller knocks on the door, asking, “Is anybody there?" Spirits, a “host" of them, gather on steps leading downstairs to listen, but no one answers the door. The traveller knocks again. Still, no one responds, either by answering the door or looking out a window.

Somehow sensing the presence of the unearthly listeners inside, the traveller says, “Tell them I came, and no one answered / That I kept my word." There are at this stage two view points of action: one is used by the “speakers��, the other one is that of the “listeners��. In the middle, there is something called “wireless��. Just imagine, “broadcasters�� who speak and transmit, “listeners�� who hear, listen but don’t answer.

The narrator, or the speaker, presents the story in third-person point of view, describing what is taking place outside the house and what is taking place inside the house. "The Listeners" is narrative poem centring a traveller's encounter with the supernatural. The action can take place anywhere, anytime. The people that the Traveller came to see do not respond, they do not wish to see the Traveller, or they are now living elsewhere. It is also possible that they died and became the phantom listeners.

Like the traveller, readers experience the loneliness, bewilderment, and anxiety that is part of living in a world which they do not and cannot, fully comprehend. In “The Listeners,�� Walter de la Mare has made excellent use of what Ernest Hemingway called “the fifth dimension�� in literature: He has deliberately omitted details in the material, especially details which would explain the context of the situation.

He does this not to confuse readers, but to cause them to wonder, and to engage with him in the mutual enterprise of seeking to comprehend at least partially what is finally incomprehensible: their nature as individual persons, their relations with one another, and their place in the physical world in which they live.

“Is there anybody there?�� said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor ��
Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,�� he said …��

“I broadcasted, did you hear me? The medium is the message��. We are continually broadcasting when we “travel��. We are all “travellers�� and “listeners��. Nowadays we would be “surfers��. We are never sure whether we are heard, listened to or read. But let them know that “the medium is the message��, he seems to say. McLuhan would have said that a century after. Walter de la Mare was broadcasting his message in form of a poem to his reader-listeners not only of his time but also of our time. His medium was the wireless. He was the “broadcaster��. His readers were the “listeners�� and also the “travellers��. He wanted to be sure we would have listened to him �� We are “The Listeners�� ...

The Life of Walter de La Mare



Sold on Radio: Advertisers in the Golden Age of Broadcasting

Dear Reader, I’m proposing you to face the reading of a pretty long passage translated from Italian, written more than seven hundred years ago. I can assure you that it is worthwhile. It seems to me the perfect context for an extended look into the psychology of a conversion, the dynamics of a particular religious experience, leading to reflections on the relationship of conversion to humanist thought in general as a modus for the management of consciousness.

Francesco Petrarca, the Italian poet (1304-1374), accompanied by his brother Gherardo, made an ascent of 6,263-foot (1,912-meters) Mont Ventoux on April 26 in 1336, a towering rounded mountain that overlooks the Provence region of southern France. Mont Ventoux translated "Windy Peak" for the ferocious Mistral winds which rake its summit with gales exceeding 180 miles per hour, is not a difficult mountain to surmount by modern standards, but it was indeed in those days.

With the idea of this ascent many historians, in conceptualising Renaissance, tried a game of perspectives. In defining this world and its natural man, the prose of the poet could be cited for the purpose of supporting the general thesis to perceive some of its essential concepts, such as humanism, search for truth, morality, scepticism, secularism, happiness, individualism, human all-roundness.

The Ascent of Mount Ventoux gives various novel ideas of human being and the world unknown to the medieval times. In writing this the Poet is just writing for the joy of writing, as his background and his upbringing very much testify. On the other hand, it tells that Petrarch as a man of letters, can not be pigeonholed as most of his writings have been. His works do not just concern only with philosophical thoughts and history, but also with practical life.

“To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer. I have had the expedition in mind for many years; for, as you know, I have lived in this region from infancy, having been cast here by that fate which determines the affairs of men. Consequently the mountain, which is visible from a great distance, was ever before my eyes, and I conceived the plan of some time doing what I have at last accomplished to-day. The idea took hold upon me with especial force when, in re-reading Livy's History of Rome, yesterday, I happened upon the place where Philip of Macedon, the same who waged war against the Romans, ascended Mount Haemus in Thessaly, from whose summit he was able, it is said, to see two seas, the Adriatic and the Euxine ��

When I came to look about for a companion I found, strangely enough, that hardly one among my friends seemed suitable, so rarely do we meet with just the right combination of personal tastes and characteristics, even among those who are dearest to us �� I finally turned homeward for aid, and proposed the ascent to my only brother, who is younger than I, and with whom you are well acquainted. He was delighted and gratified beyond measure by the thought of holding the place of a friend as well as of a brother ��

At the time fixed we left the house, and by evening reached Malaucene, which lies at the foot of the mountain, to the north. Having rested there a day, we finally made the ascent this morning, with no companions except two servants; and a most difficult task it was. The mountain is a very steep and almost inaccessible mass of stony soil. But, as the poet has well said, "Remorseless toil conquers all." It was a long day, the air fine. We enjoyed the advantages of vigour of mind and strength and agility of body, and everything else essential to those engaged in such an undertaking and so had no other difficulties to face than those of the region itself.

We found an old shepherd in one of the mountain dales, who tried, at great length, to dissuade us from the ascent, saying that some fifty years before he had, in the same ardour of youth, reached the summit, but had gotten for his pains nothing except fatigue and regret, and clothes and body torn by the rocks and briars. No one, so far as he or his companions knew, had ever tried the ascent before or after him. But his counsels increased rather than diminished our desire to proceed, since youth is suspicious of warnings. So the old man, finding that his efforts were in vain, went a little way with us, and pointed out a rough path among the rocks, uttering many admonitions, which he continued to send after us even after we had left him behind.

Surrendering to him all such garments or other possessions as might prove burdensome to us, we made ready for the ascent, and started off at a good pace. But, as usually happens, fatigue quickly followed upon our excessive exertion, and we soon came to a halt at the top of a certain cliff. Upon starting on again we went more slowly, and I especially advanced along the rocky way with a more deliberate step. While my brother chose a direct path straight up the ridge, I weakly took an easier one which really descended. When I was called back, and the right road was shown me, I replied that I hoped to find a better way round on the other side, and that I did not mind going farther if the path were only less steep.

This was just an excuse for my laziness; and when the others had already reached a considerable height I was still wandering in the valleys. I had failed to find an easier path, and had only increased the distance and difficulty of the ascent. At last I became disgusted with the intricate way I had chosen, and resolved to ascend without more ado. When I reached my brother, who, while waiting for me, had had ample opportunity for rest, I was tired and irritated.

We walked along together for a time, but hardly had we passed the first spur when I forgot about the circuitous route which I had just tried, and took a lower one again. Once more I followed an easy, roundabout path through winding valleys, only to find myself soon in my old difficulty. I was simply trying to avoid the exertion of the ascent; but no human ingenuity can alter the nature of things, or cause anything to reach a height by going down. Suffice it to say that, much to my vexation and my brother's amusement, I made this same mistake three times or more during a few hours.

After being frequently misled in this way, I finally sat down in a valley and transferred my winged thoughts from things corporeal to the immaterial, addressing myself as follows: - "What thou hast repeatedly experienced to-day in the ascent of this mountain, happens to thee, as to many, in the journey toward the blessed life. But this is not so readily perceived by men, since the motions of the body are obvious and external while those of the soul are invisible and hidden. Yes, the life which we call blessed is to be sought for on a high eminence, and strait is the way that leads to it. Many, also, are the hills that lie between, and we must ascend, by a glorious stairway, from strength to strength. At the top is at once the end of our struggles and the goal for which we are bound.

All wish to reach this goal, but, as Ovid says, 'To wish is little; we must long with the utmost eagerness to gain our end.' Thou certainly dost ardently desire, as well as simply wish, unless thou deceivest thyself in this matter, as in so many others. What, then, doth hold thee back? Nothing, assuredly, except that thou wouldst take a path which seems, at first thought, more easy, leading through low and worldly pleasures. But nevertheless in the end, after long wanderings, thou must perforce either climb the steeper path, under the burden of tasks foolishly deferred, to its blessed culmination, or lie down in the valley of thy sins, and (I shudder to think of it!), if the shadow of death overtake thee, spend an eternal night amid constant torments."

These thoughts stimulated both body and mind in a wonderful degree for facing the difficulties which yet remained. Oh, that I might traverse in spirit that other road for which I long day and night, even as to-day I overcame material obstacles by my bodily exertions! And I know not why it should not be far easier, since the swift immortal soul can reach its goal in the twinkling of an eye, without passing through space, while my progress to-day was necessarily show, dependent as I was upon a failing body weighed down by heavy members.

One peak of the mountain, the highest of all, the country people call "Sonny," why, I do not know, unless by antiphrasis, as I have sometimes suspected in other instances; for the peak in question would seem to be the father of all the surrounding ones. On its top is a little level place, and here we could at last rest our tired bodies. Now, my father, since you have followed the thoughts that spurred me on in my ascent, listen to the rest of the story, and devote one hour, I pray you, to reviewing the experiences of my entire day. At first, owing to the unaccustomed quality of the air and the effect of the great sweep of view spread out before me, I stood like one dazed.

I beheld the clouds under our feet, and what I had read of Athos and Olympus seemed less incredible as I myself witnessed the same things from a mountain of less fame. I turned my eyes toward Italy, whither my heart most inclined. The Alps, rugged and snow-capped, seemed to rise close by, although they were really at a great distance; the very same Alps through which that fierce enemy of the Roman name once made his way, bursting the rocks, if we may believe the report, by the application of vinegar. I sighed, I must confess, for the skies of Italy, which I beheld rather with my mind than with my eyes. An inexpressible longing came over me to see once more my friend and my country. At the same time I reproached myself for this double weakness, springing, as it did, from a soul not yet steeled to manly resistance. And yet there were excuses for both of these cravings, and a number of distinguished writers might be summoned to support me.

Then a new idea took possession of me, and I shifted my thoughts to a consideration of time rather than place. "To-day it is ten years since, having completed thy youthful studies, thou didst leave Bologna. Eternal God! In the name of immutable wisdom, think what alterations in thy character this intervening period has beheld! I pass over a thousand instances. I am not yet in a safe harbour where I can calmly recall past storms. The time may come when I can review in due order all the experiences of the past, saying with St. Augustine, 'I desire to recall my foul actions and the carnal corruption of my soul, not because I love them, but that I may the more love thee, 0 my God.' Much that is doubtful and evil still clings to me, but what I once loved, that I hove no longer.

And yet what am I saying? I still love it, but with shame, but with heaviness of heart. Now, at last, I have confessed the truth. So it is. I love, but love what I would not love, what I would that I might hate. Though loath to do so, though constrained, though sad and sorrowing, still I do love, and I feel in my miserable self the truth of the well known words, 'I will hate if I can; if not, I will love against my will.' Three years have not yet passed since that perverse and wicked passion which had a firm grasp upon me and held undisputed sway in my heart began to discover a rebellious opponent, who was unwilling longer to yield obedience ..."

Petrarch's Ascent Of Mount Ventoux: The Familiaris Iv, I

http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/petrarch-ventoux.asp

April 25, 1940 - Québec women allowed to vote and run for office in provincial elections, as Bill 18 gets royal assent 22 years after women were granted the federal vote. In 1927, Idola St-Jean founded l'Alliance canadienne pour le vote des femmes du Québec. The following year, Thérèse Casgrain founded La Ligue des droits de la femme. Both these groups lobbied Liberal Premier Adélard Godbout, who finally succeeded in getting the clergy to drop their opposition to electoral discrimination against women. Québec, Québec

also in 1940 April 25 - World War II - Two Canadian army battalions held back in Scotland; on the way to join British force bound for Norway. Scotland

A History of Discrimination

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born April 27, 1759, in London.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects is considered by many to be the manifesto of feminism and one of the first written expressions of feminist ideas. Although others before Wollstonecraft had written about the need for women’s rights, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (as the work is best known) is the first comprehensive statement about the need for women to be educated and for philosophical treatises on the nature of gender differences.

Chapter 4 of the book analyses some of the causes that lead to women’s inferior state in society. First, Wollstonecraft points out that women have always been treated as either slaves or despots, and neither situation is conducive to reason. Second, pleasure is exalted as the business of women’s lives, and while society continues to hold this view, women will continue to be weak. Third, women are praised and rewarded (usually by acquiring a husband) for being beautiful and useless. With nothing solid to occupy their minds, they occupy themselves with mindless coquetries and exchange their liberty, health, and virtue for the sake of a man who provides them with physical sustenance but little else.

Wollstonecraft laments the fact that men spend their youth in preparing for and advancing in a profession, but women spend their time exciting their emotions, for this is the chief faculty for which they are awarded. This same focus on the emotions will unfit women for motherhood, as it disposes them to tantrums and to indulging their children and spoiling them. Further, for women who do not have husbands to meet their daily financial needs, their complete lack of training will lead them to become burdens on their relatives or even prostitutes, who further degrade society and the family bond.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a British philosopher and women's rights advocate. She lived from 1759 until 1797. Hence, when she writes about women's issues and society, she does so within a historical context. So, perhaps in her day some women have been systematically miseducated to be seductive rather than rational citizens. However, when we look at our context, things have changed.

First, women and men have the same education today. There is no segregation and hence they both share a common education system. Moreover, they are measured based on the same standards.

Second, women have more power today. They are in the workplace, just as men are. They have a source of income and can make independent decisions. Hence, there is real liberation.

Finally, even from a cultural point of view, women are seen as equal to men for the most part. I am not saying that inequalities do not exist, but what Mary Wollstonecraft says does not reflect our society today.

In short, the women's movement has made some prodigious strides towards the end of discrimination.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Dongo near Lake Como, Northern Italy · April 27, 1945

On this date in 1945, with the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) in Italy in full retreat—indeed, their com­manders had signed sur­render docu­ments on this date—Ital­ian strong­man Benito Mussolini was en route to a safe haven in Swit­zer­land. The Duce was wearing a Ger­man non­com­mis­sioned officers over­coat and hel­met in a truck con­voy of Ger­man troops. When the Ger­mans were searched by a group of Ital­ian parti­sans near Dongo on Lake Como, Musso­lini’s unmis­takable fea­tures gave him away amid loud cries of “We have got Mus­so­lini!�� The next day he and his 33-year-old mis­tress, Claretta Petacci, were pushed into a car.

When the car later stopped, the two pri­soners were ordered out and pumped full of bullets fired from a sub­machine gun. Their exe­cu­tioner, a mem­ber of the North Ital­ian Com­mit­tee of Nation­al Liber­a­tion, reportedly ex­claimed at the time, “I exe­cute the will of the Ital­ian people.�� The bodies of Musso­lini and Petacci, plus those of four­teen other mem­bers of Italy’s Fas­cist leader­ship, were brought to the North­ern Ital­ian city of Milan for pub­lic display, then muti­lated and strung up­side down on butchers�� hooks in the Piaz­zale Loreto, the huge open square where fif­teen Ital­ian anti-Fascists had been exe­cuted by Musso­lini’s Black­shirts the year before.

Mus­so­lini’s com­rade-in-arms Adolf Hitler, hiding in the clammy recesses of his Fuehrer­bunker under the wrecked Reich Chan­cel­lery in Berlin, heard Radio Stock­holm’s an­nounce­ment of the Duce’s death. Whether he also learned the gory de­tails of Mus­so­lini’s end is uncer­tain. But it would only have reaf­firmed his desire to take his own life before it was too late, and to prevent his body from being seized and put on display by his enemies. To that end, with the Red Army with­in a stone’s throw of his bun­ker and the Chan­cel­lery gar­den, Hitler ordered his per­sonal adju­tant to ob­tain as much gaso­line as pos­sible.

With­in minutes of the sui­cides of Hitler and his wife Eva Braun, their bodies were laid side by side in the sandy soil only yards from the door leading into the gar­den. Shortly before 3:00 p.m., five bar­rels of gaso­line were poured over the remains and set on fire. As the men of the fu­ner­al party watched the corpses burn, they gave their dead Fuehrer one last Hitler salute and scurried back into the pro­tec­tion of the bun­ker when Soviet artil­lery shells started falling into the garden.



Benito Mussolini: They hanged him by his feet at a gas station. Mussolini's death scared Hitler

The Mutiny of the Bounty. April 28, 1789

The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789. Led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, disaffected crewmen seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Bligh meanwhile completed a voyage of more than 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) in the launch to reach safety, and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice.

Lord Byron’s work “The Island�� is based on the actual mutiny that took place upon the HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789. The result being Captain Bligh and the crew loyal to him being thrown into lifeboats with a small amount of food and other items to survive on their own. Under the command of William Bligh, the Bounty was to transport breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies as a cheap source of food for the plantation slaves located there. Slaves on the sugar plantations in the West Indies were often “short of food when hurricanes wiped out banana crops or yam crops failed��. The West Indies also imported expensive corn from America. However, with the loss of the American colonies, the search for more viable and less expensive food sources that could be grown in the West Indies was more prevalent.

Lord Byron’s poem “The Island�� is a fictionalisation of some of the events that occurred on the HMS Bounty itself and other events surrounding the mutiny. Fletcher Christian’s act seems heroic in the book, taking down the tyrannical Bligh and restoring order through revolution and living on Pitcairn Island with Polynesian women. However, the act was seen as much less heroic by the real world. According to James C. McKusick, “The Mutiny on the Bounty was a deeply political, and politicised, event. The mutiny of 28 April 1789 came to be widely regarded as a British equivalent of the Fall of the Bastille, endowed with all the attendant hopes and anxieties of those who witnessed that dramatic event and its turbulent aftermath.��

McKusick goes on to say that “Just as the people of Paris rose up against tyranny, so too the [crew] of the Bounty rose up against the arbitrary and erratic rule of Captain Bligh.�� The case for Bligh as a tyrannical leader is debatable, but Gall offers some insight on the matter. Gall cites historian Greg Dening who says that “through statistical analysis that, in this era, Bligh used the lash least of any naval commander in the Pacific.�� Some individuals believe, however, that this lack of lash usage resulted in Bligh being too soft which lead to the undermining of the “institutional codes which gave meaning to the daily grind on the shipboard duties.��

The Island

Great Poetry Reading Day 2017

April 28, 2017 in the World

Great Poetry Reading Day is observed on April 28, 2017. It celebrates great poetry and the great poets who write them. You can take part by reading poetry, listening to poetry or writing your own poetry. Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language - such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre - to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. There are many different genres of poetry, e.g. dramatic, lyric or prose poetry. In addition there are different forms, such as Sonnet, Villanelle or Haik.

Where is the event?
Worldwide
World
When is the event?

Friday, the 28th of April 2017

This text has been taken from

April 29, 1958: “My Fair Lady�� dazzles London.
The Broadway musical My Fair Lady has opened for its first night in London, to a rapturous reception. The event, at the Drury Lane theatre, was star-studded: Ingrid Bergman, Dirk Bogarde, Terence Rattigan and John Strachey were among those who arrived at the theatre to be greeted with cheers and applause by a crowd of several hundred lining the street. The show has also attracted the attention of ticket touts for the first time in the West End. Black-market tickets were selling for as much as £5 - almost five times their original prices. There were several incidents between police and touts before the show, and two men were later arrested and charged.

The show kept much of its original Broadway cast, with Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins, and Julie Andrews playing Eliza Doolittle. From the moment the curtain went up to reveal the opening scene, at St Paul's Church outside Covent Garden, the applause was thunderous. Mr Harrison, who has played Professor Higgins for the last two years in New York, admitted he was nervous before his first performance in front of a London audience. But, he said, he was glad to be back in London. "I'm happier in the part in London," he said, "for I am home, and Drury Lane is a glorious theatre to work in."

The excitement surrounding the transfer of the musical to London has been intense. Advance ticket sales are estimated at over £350,000, and the first month is already sold out - with more expensive seats sold out until the end of the year. The London show is expected to match its Broadway version in breaking records: the New York show has earned $7.3m (£2.5m) in its two-year run, overtaking South Pacific to become the second-highest grossing Broadway musical. Only Oklahoma, which has made $9m (£3.2m), is more popular. The actors are now waiting nervously for the first reviews. But whatever the critics think, the show's popularity is already assured.

Gloriously witty adaptation of the Broadway musical about Professor Henry Higgins, who takes a bet from Colonel Pickering that he can transform unrefined, dirty Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady, and fool everyone into thinking she really is one, too! He does, and thus young aristocrat Freddy Eynsford-Hill falls madly in love with her. But when Higgins takes all the credit and forgets to acknowledge her efforts, Eliza angrily leaves him for Freddy, and suddenly Higgins realizes he's grown accustomed to her face and can't really live without it.



Loverly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady

Walpurgis Night 2017
April 30, 2017 in Europe

Walpurgis Night is the night when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg. It is a traditional spring festival on 30 April or 1 May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. Its celebration is associated with dancing and with bonfires. The current festival is, in most countries that celebrate it, named after Saint Walpurga (ca. 710-777/9). As Walpurga was canonised on 1 May (ca. 870), she became associated with May Day, especially in the Finnish and Swedish calendars. The eve of May day, traditionally celebrated with dancing, came to be known as Walpurgisnacht ("Walpurga's night").

In Germany, Walpurgisnacht, the night from 30 April to 1 May, is the night when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of spring. In some parts of northern coastal regions of Germany, the custom of lighting huge fires is still kept alive to celebrate the coming of May, while most parts of Germany have a derived Christianized custom around Easter called "Easter fires".

In rural parts of southern Germany, it is part of popular youth culture to play pranks such as tampering with neighbours' gardens, hiding possessions, or spraying graffiti on private property. These pranks occasionally result in serious damage to property or bodily injury. In Berlin, traditional leftist May Day riots usually start at Walpurgis Night in the Mauerpark in Prenzlauer Berg. There is a similar tradition in the Schanzenviertel district of Hamburg, though in both cases, the situation has significantly calmed down in the past few years.

Night of the Witches: Folklore, Traditions & Recipes for Celebrating Walpurgis Night

Joseph Addison writer and politician was born May 1, 1672. With Richard Steele, Addison wrote “The Tatler�� and “The Spectator��, whose combination of literature and journalism established the magazine as an important medium of cultural expression. They are literary and historical achievements of the first rank. They are verbal mosaics of literary criticism, lighthearted social commentary, short fiction, and advice about manners. Addison’s special contributions to these periodicals were his learning, his wit, and his prose style. His knowledge of classical and contemporary literature enabled him to write accessible, intelligent literary criticism. His The Spectator papers on the “pleasures of the imaginations,�� for example, are a landmark in criticism, often regarded as the starting point of a Romantic sensibility in English literature. Addison’s wit is gentle in comparison to the slashing repartee of Restoration writers; its subtlety and good-naturedness became synonymous with the British sense of humor.

Most important, Addison revolutionized English prose style. By cultivating a middle style that combined the self-conscious artistry of the high style with the conversational immediacy of the low style, Addison perfected a prose that was literate yet easy to read. Addison’s style invites the reader’s participation in the writer’s imaginative act. It was the style that underlay the explosion of literature (the novel, the familiar essay, the travel book) in the later eighteenth century. Samuel Johnson, the most knowledgeable critic of the time, summed up Addison’s importance thus: “Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.��

In issue Number 166, Addison discusses the concept of Aristotle that the world is a transcript of the mind of the first being and that the ideas of men are transcripts of the world. Following this logic, says Addison, books are the legacies left by geniuses to mankind:

"There is no other method of fixing those thoughts which arise and disappear in the mind of man, and transmitting them to the last periods of time; no other method of giving a permanency to our ideas, and preserving the knowledge of any particular person, when his body is mixed with the common mass of matter, and his soul retired into the world of spirits. Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn."

Essays of Joseph Addison

Antonio wrote: "April 29, 1958: “My Fair Lady�� dazzles London.
The Broadway musical My Fair Lady has opened for its first night in London, to a rapturous reception. The event, at the Drury Lane theatre, was star-s..."

I really enjoy that movie better than the play because they chose to do the happier of the two alternate endings plus I like the music! I read the play in high school and was rather unhappy about that other ending.

1611, May 2: the Authorized (King James) Bible published.
David Norton in his book A Textual History of the King James Bible says:

“The printing history of the KJB is plagued throughout by inadequate publishing records. Presumably, because it was considered a revision rather than a new book, the first edition was not entered on the Stationers�� Registers, so we do not know when in 1611 it appeared.�� (page 46)

The historian Donald Brake, on the publication of his book, "A Visual History of the English Bible", wrote:

“The actual date of the publication is unknown. Tradition has placed it in May but no specific date can be verified. We know it was being sold in November from a diary of a resident in England, a Mr Throckmorton. I believe David Norton is correct and I too am puzzled by the fact it was not in Stationer’s Registers. They were generally disciplined to include all new publications. I question the reason ‘because it was considered a revision rather than a new book.�� While it was designed to be a revision of the Bishops�� Bible as clearly stated in the Introduction, few would consider it an actual revision of the Bishops��. The translators consulted most of the 16th century Bibles (as set forth in the 15 rules for translators) plus the Greek and Hebrew texts. Having said that, I don’t have a better explanation. Perhaps it was released over a period of time as the copies were sold.��

Brake was in DC during May 2nd and 3rd for a celebration of the KJV anniversary. The date, he said, was a “date the anniversary committee decided as the official day.�� Since we don’t know the date we may as well pick May 2.

King James authorised the new Bible translation for political reasons. He believed that a single ‘authorized version�� was a political and social necessity. He hoped this book would hold together the warring factions of the Church of England and the Puritans which threatened to tear apart both church and country. Most of the translators, however, were clergymen belonging to the Church of England, but at least some had Puritan sympathies.
King James issued over a dozen rules that the translators had to follow. He disliked the Geneva Bible, the Bible used by the Puritans, because he believed that some of the commentary in the margin notes did not show enough respect for kings. James�� new translation was to have no commentary in the margins.

King James favoured the hierarchical structure of the Church of England and wanted the new translation to keep words that supported a bishop-led hierarchy. In keeping with James�� preferred views on church government, he specified, “The old ecclesiastical words [are] to be kept; as the word church [is] not to be translated congregation.�� (I personally believe that congregation is a better translation in some instances.) King James also ruled that only his new Bible could be read in England’s churches. The political motives of King James had a direct influence on the translation of the KJV.

A Visual History of the English Bible: The Tumultuous Tale of the World's Bestselling Book

Source:

Born: May 3, 1469. Full Name: Niccolò Machiavelli. Nationality: Italian. Humanist philosopher. Founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics. Also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His masterpiece, "The Prince", after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility in Florence. Star Sign: Taurus. Birthplace: Florence, Italy.

All the dictionaries agree on what Machiavellianism means. They speak of cunning, expediency, deceit, of unscrupulousness in pursuing political objectives; opportunism and power politics, of the irrelevance of morality in political life. Yet the man responsible for this dubious enhancement of the world’s vocabulary was a high public official who served his city-state of Florence indefatigably and without any personal gain until he was ignominiously sacked.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), who was born and died in his beloved Florence, is regarded by many Italians as a fervent patriot who dreamed of national unification three and a half centuries before the fact. On the basis of his History of Florence (1520-25), Machiavelli is considered one of the two creators of modern historiography, the other being Francesco Guicciardini.

Among Machiavelli’s works are, besides the famous “The Prince��, poems, letters, diplomatic reports, translations from Latin, a treatise on the art of war, and a story about a devil called Belfagor who comes to Earth and marries a woman who ends up scaring him back to Hell. He also wrote one of Italy’s greatest comedies “La Mandragola�� (The Mandrake, 1518) a fierce satire of Italian corruption, centering on a man’s seduction of a virtuous young woman with help from her mother, her confessor, and her duped old husband, who wants to become a father at any cost. The play’s moral is the triumph of intelligence over all other considerations.

When Machiavelli’s tomb in the church of Santa Croce in Florence was erected in the mid-nineteenth century, Italian unification was finally becoming a reality. From that perspective, his role as a patriotic foe of foreign oppression overrode all hairsplitting moral discriminations. The inscription reads:

“TANTO.NOMINI.PAR.ELOGIUM: “To so great a name, no epitaph can do justice��.

The Prince and Other Writings

On May 2, 1797 Abraham Gesner was born, He was a Canadian geologist, chemist and author who was born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia (d. 1864)

Among other thing he did, he invented kerosene and was one of the founders of the modern petroleum industry. He did various things during his life, including starting a museum and working as a professor later one.



A Practical Treatise of Coal, Petroleum, and Other Distilled Oils for eg

On this day, George Gordon, Lord Byron, swims across the Hellespont, a tumultuous strait in Turkey now called the Dardanelles. Legendary Greek hero Leander supposedly swam the same four-mile stretch. Byron’s visits to Greece later made him a passionate supporter of Greek independence from Turkey. One night, Lord Byron drowned, whereupon Hero threw herself into the sea ...

TO MR. HENRY DRURY.
“Salsette frigate, May 3. 1810.
“My dear Drury,
“When I left England, nearly a year ago, you requested me to write to you–I will do so. I have crossed Portugal, traversed the south of Spain, visited Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and thence passed into Turkey, where I am still wandering. I first landed in Albania, the ancient Epirus, where we penetrated as far as Mount Tomarit–excellently treated by the chief AH Pacha,–and, after journeying through Illyria, Chaonia, &c., crossed the Gulf of Actium, with a guard of fifty Albanians, and passed the Achelous in our route through Acarnania and AEtolia. We stopped a short time in the Morea, crossed the Gulf of Lepanto, and landed at the foot of Parnassus;–saw all that Delphi retains, and so on to Thebes and Athens, at which last we remained ten weeks.
“His Majesty’s ship, Pylades, brought us to Smyrna; but not before we had topographised Attica, including, of course, Marathon and the Sunian promontory. From Smyrna to the Troad (which we visited when at anchor, for a fortnight, off the tomb of Antilochus) was our next stage; and now we are in the Dardanelles, waiting for a wind to proceed to Constantinople.
“This morning I swam from Sestos to Abydos. The immediate distance is not above a mile, but the current renders it hazardous;–so much so that I doubt whether Leander’s conjugal affection must not have been a little chilled in his passage to Paradise. I attempted it a week ago, and failed,–owing to the north wind, and the wonderful rapidity of the tide,–though I have been from my childhood a strong swimmer. But, this morning being calmer, I succeeded, and crossed the ’broad Hellespont�� in an hour and ten minutes.
“Well, my dear sir, I have left my home, and seen part of Africa and Asia, and a tolerable portion of Europe. I have been with generals and admirals, princes and pashas, governors and ungovernables,–but I have not time or paper to expatiate. I wish to let you know that I live with a friendly remembrance of you, and a hope to meet you again; and if I do this as shortly as possible, attribute it to anything but forgetfulness...

Source:

Antonio wrote: "On this day, George Gordon, Lord Byron, swims across the Hellespont, a tumultuous strait in Turkey now called the Dardanelles. Legendary Greek hero Leander supposedly swam the same four-mile stretc..."

Cool--literally and figuratively. I know little about him. He probably would have enjoyed Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer if he lived now, being that kind of a swimmer!

Karin wrote: "Antonio wrote: "On this day, George Gordon, Lord Byron, swims across the Hellespont, a tumultuous strait in Turkey now called the Dardanelles. Legendary Greek hero Leander supposedly swam the same ..."

"Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?"
Let me offer you a quote by Lord Byron (1788-1824) He was only 36 when he died ...

April 4, 1926: an earthquake shook the very foundations of British capitalism. In the greatest display of militant power in its history, the British working class moved into action in the General Strike of 1926. For 9 days, from May 3, not a wheel turned nor a light shone without the permission of the working class. In such a moment, with such power, surely it ought to have been possible to have transformed society?

"It is a conflict which, if it is fought out to a conclusion can only end in the overthrow of parliamentary government or its decisive victory." (Winston Churchill, Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer)

"I have never disguised that in a challenge to the constitution, God help us unless the government won." (Jimmy Thomas, Labour MP and Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen)

"There's never been anything like it. If the blighters o' leaders here... dinna let us down we'll have the capitalists crawlin' on their bellies in a week. Oh boy, it's the revolution at last!"
(ILP activist quoted in John Paton's 'Left Turn')

5th May
An exact diary of the Strike would be interesting. For instance, it is now a 1/4 to 2: there is a brown fog; nobody is building; it is drizzling. The first thing in the morning we stand at the window & watch the traffic in Southampton Row. This is incessant. Everyone is bicycling; motor cars are huddled up with extra people. There are no buses. No placards. no newspapers. The men are at work in the road; water, gas & electricity are allowed; but at 11 the light was turned off. I sat in the press in the brown fog, while L. wrote an article for the Herald. A very revolutionary looking young man on a cycle arrived with the British Gazette. L. is to answer an article in this. All was military stern a little secret. Then Clive dropped in, the door being left open. He is offering himself to the Government. Maynard excited wants the H[ogarth]. P[ress]. to bring out a skeleton number of the Nation. It is all tedious & depressing, rather like waiting in a train outside a station. Rumours are passed round—that the gas wd. be cut off at 1—false of course. One does not know what to do. And nature has laid it on thick today—fog, rain, cold. A voice, rather commonplace & official, yet the only common voice left, wishes us good morning at 10. This is the voice of Britain, to wh. we can make no reply. The voice is very trivial, & only tells us hat the Prince of Wales is coming back (from Biarritz), that the London streets present an unprecedented spectacle. (Diary of Virginia Woolf during the 1926 General Strike)

Sources:


A Writer's Diary

Did Queen Anne Boleyn write a letter to her husband King Henry VIII on May 6, 1536, thirteen days before being beheaded?

Background
This letter may be a fake. Or it may not. The debate over its authenticity continues and no definitive answer is possible. The original no longer exists; a copy was said to be found amongst Thomas Cromwell’s papers after his execution. Most of Anne’s modern biographers believe it to be a forgery. Their reason? They don’t believe any 16th century prisoner would have been allowed to write to their monarch in such a familiar manner.

Yet, Anne was not just any political prisoner �� she was Henry VIII’s wife and had been his grand passion for several years. Locked away in the Tower, aware of the concurrent arrests of her brother and friends and worried about her young daughter, she may very well have written to the king. She was in a desperate situation, of course, but she also believed (as witnesses attest) that Henry would be merciful and simply divorce her and send her to a convent.

She was proven wrong and executed thirteen days after this letter was supposedly written. If Anne had written a letter to Henry from her prison, it would undoubtedly read exactly like this one. I have decided to publish in any case because it because it is an interesting historical curiosity, whether authentic or forged. It is up to the individual reader to reject or accept it.

“Your grace’s displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange to me, that what to write, or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant. Whereas you send to me (willing me to confess a truth and so obtain your favor), by such a one, whom you know to be mine ancient professed enemy, I no sooner received this message by him, than I rightly conceived your meaning; and if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety, I shall with all willingness and duty, perform your duty. But let not your grace ever imagine that your poor wife will be brought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought ever proceeded.

And to speak a truth, never a prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true affection, than you have ever found in Anne Bulen �� with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your grace’s pleasure had been so pleased. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my exaltation or received queenship, but that I always looked for such alteration as I now find; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation than your grace’s fancy, the least alteration was fit and sufficient (I knew) to draw that fancy to some other subject. You have chosen me from low estate to be your queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire; if, then, you found me worthy of such honor, good your grace, let not any light fancy or bad counsel of my enemies withdraw your princely favor from me; neither let that stain �� that unworthy stain �� of a disloyal heart towards your good grace ever cast so foul a blot on me, and on the infant princess your daughter.

Try me, good king, but let me have a lawful trial, and let not my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and as my judges; yea, let me receive an open trial, for my truth shall fear no open shame. Then you shall see either my innocency cleared, your suspicions and conscience satisfied, the ignominy and slander of the world stopped, or my guilt openly declared. So that, whatever God and you may determine of, your grace may be freed from an open censure; and my offense being so lawfully proved, your grace may be at liberty, both before God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unfaithful wife but to follow your affection already settled on that party for whose sake I am now as I am, whose name I could some while since have pointed unto �� your grace being not ignorant of my suspicions therein.

But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but an infamous slander must bring your the joying of your desired happiness, then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin herein, and likewise my enemies, the instruments thereof; and that he will not call you to a strait account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general judgment-seat, where both you and myself must shortly appear; and in whose just judgment, I doubt not (whatsoever the world may think of me), mine innocency shall be openly known and sufficiently cleared. My last and only request shall be, that myself only bear the burden of your grace’s displeasure and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, whom, as I understand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If ever I have found favor in your sight �� if ever the name of Anne Bulen have been pleasing in your ears �� then let me obtain this request; and so I will leave to trouble your grace any further, with mine earnest prayer to the Trinity to have your grace in his good keeping, and to direct you in all your actions. From my doleful prison in the Tower, the 6th May.��

Monarchs, Murderers and Mistresses

This is a personal experience I lived with my family 19 years ago. I wrote a book about this catastrophe. I'm one of the survivors.

Sarno and Quindici are in the western Campanian Apennines of Italy at the base of Pizzo d’Alvano, a carbonate ridge reaching 1133m a.s.l. The limestone basement has been covered with layered pyroclastics following repeated volcanic eruptions from the nearby Mt. Vesuvius. Landsliding of the slopes of Pizzo d’Alvano has occurred episodically throughout history.

Following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall on 4 and 5 May 1998 more than 400 soil slips created numerous debris flows that inundated nearby towns and claimed the lives of 136 people. Excessive rainwater infiltration saturates the pyroclastic cover reducing the soil’s shear strength causing slope instability and failure occurs initiating debris flows. Man-made trackways and natural cliff scarps are less stable environments and are often the zones of soil slip occurrence.

The 5 May 1998 events destroyed many structures resulting in physical, financial and mental health consequences for locally affected people. Research into landslide occurrence and extent has been conducted and continues to be as it is an ongoing threat. Various models have been devised to simulate and predict landslide occurrence and extent with varying degrees of success.

Fairly accurate models are available and in use currently but are still not perfect. Continuing research, model refinement and more widespread monitoring will improve the reliability of models on which to base warning systems. Better long-range weather forecasting and detailed real-time monitoring in conjunction with these models will aid in risk assessment and management in the future. Better land management and road infrastructure regulations could potentially help prevent soil slip occurrence and reduce the impact of future events. Hazard zonation assessment and evacuation procedures need to be in place in order to prevent recurrence of the effects of the catastrophic events of 1998.

Dizionario di una Catastrofe

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Antonio wrote: "Did Queen Anne Boleyn write a letter to her husband King Henry VIII on May 6, 1536, thirteen days before being beheaded?

Background
This letter may be a fake. Or it may not. The debate over its au..."

I think I've heard about this letter before. If it was real, I wonder if it would have been passed to Henry, or if Anne's enemies would have conspired to keep it from him, incase he relented and spared her life.

May 6, 1994: President and Queen open Chunnel.

The Queen and France's President Francois Mitterrand have formally opened the Channel Tunnel during two elaborate ceremonies in France and Britain. After travelling through the tunnel, which took eight years and billions of pounds to build, the Queen said it was one of the world's great technological achievements.

The tunnel is the first land link between Britain and Europe since the last Ice Age about 8,000 years ago.

The first leg of the Queen's journey took her from London's Waterloo station through the tunnel by high-speed Eurostar passenger train.

She arrived at Calais at the same time as the President Mitterrand's train which had travelled from Paris' Gard du Nord via Lille.

The two locomotives met nose to nose - a computer that prevents two trains travelling on the same track was switched off for the occasion.

The two heads of state cut red, white and blue ribbons simultaneously to the sound of their respective national anthems played by the band of the French Republican Guard.

They were accompanied by their Prime Ministers John Major and Edouard Balladur and other government ministers to the Eurotunnel terminus.

Eurostar will not start carrying passengers until July at the earliest and private cars will have to wait until October.

After lunch, the Queen and President Mitterrand took the royal Rolls-Royce on Le Shuttle for the 35-minute trip to Folkestone.

There was a similar ribbon-cutting ceremony on English soil. Among those present were joint Eurotunnel chairmen Sir Alastair Morton and André Bénard as well as Frenchman Philippe Cozette, who drilled the hole that first joined the two ends of the tunnel in December 1990.

Behind today's celebrations lies the reality that the tunnel has run up huge debts. It cost £10bn to build, more than double the original forecast in 1987 - and there are serious doubts about its long-term financial viability.

Pink wrote: "Antonio wrote: "Did Queen Anne Boleyn write a letter to her husband King Henry VIII on May 6, 1536, thirteen days before being beheaded?

Background
This letter may be a fake. Or it may not. The de..."

Whether a fake or true, this letter is a document of the time ...

Sorry for the day's delay. Yesterday I had problems with the line in my part of the world.

Beethoven's 9th (Chorale) Symphony, premiere at Karnthnerther Theatre, Vienna; May 7, 1824

“Deafness kept Beethoven from ever hearing a note of his Ninth Symphony, and death kept him from hearing of his masterpiece's adventures and misadventures. Bismarck proclaimed the Ninth and inspiration for the German race, Bakunin heard it as the music of anarchy, Engels declared it would become the hymn of humanity, and Lenin thought it more revolutionary than "The Internationale." Von Karajan conducted it for the Nazis, and years later he used it to consecrate the unity of free Europe. The Ninth accompanied Japanese kamikazes who died for their emperor, as well as the soldiers who gave their lives fighting against all empires. It was sung by those resisting the German blitzkrieg, and hummed by Hitler himself, who in a rare attack of modesty said that Beethoven was the true fuhrer. Paul Robeson sang it against racism, and the racists of South Africa used it as the soundtrack of their apartheid propaganda. To the strains of the Ninth, the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. To the strains of the Ninth, the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.��

-Eduardo Galeano in "Mirrors"-

Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

GERMAN “ODE TO JOY�� LYRICS
The “Ode to Joy�� text employed, and slightly modified, by Beethoven was written by the German poet, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, in the summer of 1785. It was a celebratory poem addressing the unity of all mankind.

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
Freude!
Freude!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein;
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
Über Sternen muß er wohnen.

ENGLISH “ODE TO JOY�� TRANSLATION

O friends, no more of these sounds!
Let us sing more cheerful songs,
More songs full of joy!
Joy!
Joy!
Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread
Within thy sanctuary.
Thy magic power re-unites
All that custom has divided,
All men become brothers,
Under the sway of thy gentle wings.
Whoever has created
An abiding friendship,
Or has won
A true and loving wife,
All who can call at least one soul theirs,
Join our song of praise;
But those who cannot must creep tearfully
Away from our circle.
All creatures drink of joy
At natures breast.
Just and unjust
Alike taste of her gift;
She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,
A tried friend to the end.
Even the worm can feel contentment,
And the cherub stands before God!
Gladly, like the heavenly bodies
Which He sent on their courses
Through the splendor of the firmament;
Thus, brothers, you should run your race,
Like a hero going to victory!
You millions, I embrace you.
This kiss is for all the world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
There must dwell a loving father.
Do you fall in worship, you millions?
World, do you know your creator?
Seek Him in the heavens;
Above the stars must he dwell.

Source:

Julian of Norwich continues to inspire devotion today, yet still little is known about her life. In 1373, at the age of 30, on this day, she was struck down by a terrible illness and at the point of death was seized with 16 visions, or ‘shewings��, which would become both the Short Text, written soon after her experiences, and the Long Text, in which Julian offers a deeper and more reflective examination. Having possibly taken her name from the church where she was confined as an anchoress �� voluntarily sealed away in a cell attached to the church at Norwich �� she spent decades in contemplation of God’s love.

‘Julian of Norwich is one of the most famous spiritual figures of the Middle Ages ... This new translation conveys the beauty of her prose and her belief that we are beings capable of spiritual transformation��

Written in a simple, expressive style, Julian’s account is both vivid and affecting. Her visions contain the Passion of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the love of God, who reveals to her the entirety of creation in a ball ‘as small as if it had been a hazelnut��. Her direct manner and questioning nature make Julian an engagingly modern voice, and she envisions a loving God who promises an eventual end to suffering: ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.��

Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, has written a thoughtful introduction that praises the accessibility of Julian's work, observing that ‘the spirit of her writings has a lightness which has travelled well down the centuries��. This edition is artfully decorated with a series of calligraphic designs by Gemma Black, while the binding reflects the contemplative nature of Julian’s writings.

A Revelation of Divine Love: Julian of Norwich

Now my dad's recording of Ode to Joy (part of the entire symphony) is ringing in my head.

Friday 10th May 1940. Hitler launches a devastating attack that in days will overrun France, Holland and Belgium, and bring Britain to its knees at Dunkirk ...

Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is called to replace Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister following the latter’s resignation after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons.

In 1938, Prime Minister Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, giving Czechoslovakia over to German conquest but bringing, as Chamberlain promised, “peace in our time.�� In September 1939, that peace was shattered by Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Chamberlain declared war against Germany but during the next eight months showed himself to be ill-equipped for the daunting task of saving Europe from Nazi conquest. After British forces failed to prevent the German occupation of Norway in April 1940, Chamberlain lost the support of many members of his Conservative Party. On May 10, Hitler invaded Holland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The same day, Chamberlain formally lost the confidence of the House of Commons.

Churchill, who was known for his military leadership ability, was appointed British prime minister in his place. He formed an all-party coalition and quickly won the popular support of Britons. On May 13, in his first speech before the House of Commons, Prime Minister Churchill declared that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat�� and offered an outline of his bold plans for British resistance. In the first year of his administration, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, but Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would “never surrender.�� They never did.

Never Surrender

Source:

Springer - Driving academic publishing since 1842

On 10 May 1842 (his 25th birthday), Julius Springer founded his bookstore and publishing house in Berlin, laying the foundation for today’s company.

After 175 dynamic years, the name Springer stands for a globally active publisher dedicated to the advancement of science, putting its authors and editors at the heart of the company’s publishing activities.

The Springer story (1842-2017)

From politics to science �� the first and second Springer generation (1842-1906)
Becoming Germany´s leading scientific publisher (1906-1945)
Reconstruction and globalisation (1945-1992)
Growth without limits? (1992-1996)
The digitalization breakthrough (1996-1999)
Transition and restructuring (1999-2007)
Digitalization 2.0 �� from Open Access to the Springer Book Archives (2007-2010)
Content for a knowledge-based society �� editorial for the 21st century (2011-2016)
The road to Springer Nature �� background and vision through 2017

Springer-Verlag: History of a Scientific Publishing House: Part 1: 1842 - 1945. Foundation - Maturation - Adversity Part 2: 1945 - 1992. Rebuilding - Opening Frontiers - Securing the Future

May 11, 868

The Diamond Sutra, the earliest dated example of woodblock printing, and the earliest surviving dated complete book, was published in China on May 11, 868. A scroll sixteen feet long by 10.5 inches wide, made up of seven strips of yellow-stained paper printed from carved wooden blocks and pasted together to form a scroll 16 feet by 10. 5 inches wide, its text, printed in Chinese, is one of the most important sacred works of the Buddhist faith. The Diamond Sutra bears an inscription which may be translated as follows:

"reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Chieh on behalf of his parents on the fifteenth of the fourth moon of the ninth year of Xian Long (May 11, 868)."

A woodcut illustration at the beginning of Diamond Sutra shows the Buddha expounding the sutra to an elderly disciple called Subhuti. That is the earliest dated book illustration, and the earliest dated woodcut print.

"How did the Diamond Sutra get its name? The sutra answers that question for itself. Towards the end of the sermon, Subhuti asks the Buddha how the sutra should be known. He is told to call it ‘The Diamond of Transcendent Wisdom�� because its teaching will cut like a diamond blade through worldly illusion to illuminate what is real and everlasting".

The unique extant copy of the Diamond Sutra was purchased in 1907 by the archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein in the walled-up Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in north-west China from a monk guarding the caves known as the "Caves of a Thousand Buddhas." It is preserved in the British Library.

Source:

The Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra

St Pancras’s Day: from Roman Martyr to London Station.

May 12 is St Pancras’s Day. As the name of London’s second busiest railway and underground station, the name ‘St Pancras�� is well known to many Londoners, as well as travellers from abroad, as the station is the terminus for Eurostar trains arriving from Europe.

The station is also across the road from the British Library. Colin St John Wilson's iconic, red-brick design for the library visually riffs on St Pancras Station's Victorian architecture.

How many of the thousands of people who pass through St Pancras Station and past the British Library each day are aware of the story behind the name? Not much is known about the martyr St Pancras. The main source for his life is a short Latin account of his martyrdom. According to this text, Pancras was born to a wealthy Christian family somewhere in Phrygia (in modern day Turkey). After the death of his parents, he moved to Rome with his guardian. There Pancras and his guardian gave shelter to Christians persecuted by the Emperor Diocletian (284-305 CE). When the Emperor heard of Pancras’s efforts to save Christians, he immediately summoned him. To his surprise, he discovered that Pancras was only 14 years old and, seeing his youth and determination, subjected him to a long trial.

According to this account, Diocletian was impressed by Pancras, telling him, “My dear boy, take my advice and save yourself and give up this madness and I will treat you as my own son.�� But, even after a long discussion to dissuade him from Christianity, Pancras remained true to his faith. Enraged, the Emperor ordered his immediate execution. Pancras was beheaded and buried by the Via Aureliana in Rome around 287CE.

Devotion to Pancras definitely existed from the fifth century onwards, for the basilica of Saint Pancras was built by Pope Symmachus (498-514), on the place where the body of the young martyr had been buried; his earliest passio seems to have been written during this time. Pope Gregory the Great gave impetus to the cult of Pancras, sending Augustine to England carrying relics of that saint and including his legend in Liber in gloria martyrum (for this reason, many English churches are dedicated to Pancras; St Pancras Old Church in London is one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England). In medieval iconography, Pancras was depicted as a young soldier, due to his association with the paired soldier saints Nereus and Achilleus.By the mid-nineteenth century, pious embroidery set Pancras's martyrdom in the arena among wild beasts, where the panther refrains from attacking and killing him until the martyr gives the beast permission.

As with many of the early Christian martyrs, it was not his life or even his martyrdom that made Pancras' cult so popular, but the miracles associated with his tomb and relics. In around 590 CE Gregory, the archbishop of Tours in France, claimed that anyone making a false oath at the saint’s tomb would be seized by a demon or would collapse and die. Consequently, an oath on Saint Pancras' relics was thought so potent that it could be held up in court as proof of a witness's testimony. No wonder, therefore, that Pancras’s relics were soon distributed to many other churches, towns and countries, including far-flung regions like Britain.

Sources:

This rather off-topic, but out of the corner of my eye I thought it was St Pancreas at first.

Karin wrote: "This rather off-topic, but out of the corner of my eye I thought it was St Pancreas at first."

The importance of a vowel ...

13th May, 1938 : "When the Saints Go Marching In" was recorded by Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. Though the song was first written to be a spiritual song, many jazz and folk artists have adopted it and made it very popular throughout the years.

The task of discovering the actual origin of “When the Saints Go Marching In�� is a difficult one. The song’s history has sometimes been confused with the origin of “When the Saints ARE Marching In,�� written by James M. Black and Katherine Purvis. They are totally different songs.

Louis Armstrong’s recording of “When the Saints Go Marching In�� (Decca Records, 1938) is credited with the launch of its popularity and with bringing Armstrong to the forefront of the music world. It was a song that Armstrong had sung as a child. He was born in New Orleans on Aug. 4, 1901, in a ghetto at Uptown New Orleans, better known as the “Back of the Town.�� His childhood was spent in abjection and hardship.

Over time, many other artists have recorded the song, but with far less success than the “Satchmo�� rendition. The length of the title has caused some New Orleans residents to simply refer to the song as “Saints.�� As with many numbers with long traditional folk use, there is no one "official" version of the song or its lyrics. This extends so far as confusion as to its name, with it often being mistakenly called "When the Saints Come Marching In".

As for the lyrics themselves, their very simplicity makes it easy to generate new verses. Since the first and second lines of a verse are exactly the same, and the third and fourth are standard throughout, the creation of one suitable line in iambic tetrameter generates an entire verse.

The song is apocalyptic, taking much of its imagery from the Book of Revelation, but excluding its more horrific depictions of the Last Judgment.

The verses about the Sun and Moon refer to Solar and Lunar eclipses; the trumpet (of the Archangel Gabriel) is the way in which the Last Judgment is announced. It is impossible to list every version of the song, but a common standard version runs:

Go marching in

Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the drums begin to bang
Oh, when the drums begin to bang
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the stars fall from the sky
Oh, when the stars fall from the sky
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the moon turns red with blood
Oh, when the moon turns red with blood
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the horsemen begin to ride
Oh, when the horsemen begin to ride
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the fire begins to blaze
Oh, when the fire begins to blaze
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in.

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

“On this day April 14, in 1998, the legendary singer, actor and show-business icon Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, at the age of 82.

Sinatra emerged from an Italian-American family in Hoboken, New Jersey, to become the first modern superstar of popular music, with an entertainment career that spanned more than five decades. In the first incarnation of his singing career, he was a master of the romantic ballads popular during World War II. After his appeal began to wane in the late 1940s, Sinatra reinvented himself as a suave swinger with a rougher, world-weary singing style, and began a spectacular comeback in the 1950s.

In addition to his great musical success, Sinatra appeared in 58 films; one of his earliest was Anchors Aweigh (1945). Playing a cocky Italian-American soldier who meets a violent death in From Here to Eternity (1953), co-starring Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift, Sinatra won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His film career flourished after that, as he starred as Nathan Detroit in the movie musical Guys and Dolls (1955) and played a heroin addict in The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), for which he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. He also starred in the musicals High Society (1956) and Pal Joey (1957) and turned in a memorable performance as an Army investigator in the acclaimed film The Manchurian Candidate (1962).

By the late 1950s, Sinatra had become the epitome of show-business success and glamorous, rough-edged masculinity. He even headed up his own entourage, known as the Rat Pack, which included Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. The group had originally formed around Humphrey Bogart, who died in 1957. The Rat Pack first appeared together on the big screen in 1960’s casino caper Ocean’s Eleven. They would go on to make Sergeant’s Three(1962), Four for Texas (1963) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964). Onscreen and in real life, the Pack’s famous stomping grounds included Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York (notably the Copacabana Club).

Sinatra worked steadily in film throughout the 1960s, though many of his performances seemed almost perfunctory. His last major Hollywood role came in 1980’s The First Deadly Sin. A famous heartthrob, Sinatra married four times, divorcing his longtime sweetheart Nancy Barbato after a decade and three children (Nancy, Frank Jr. and Christina) to marry the actress Ava Gardner in 1951. Their marriage lasted less than two years, and in 1966 Sinatra married the 21-year-old actress Mia Farrow, 30 years his junior; they were divorced in 1968. In 1976, he married Barbara Blakely Marx (the former wife of Zeppo Marx), and they remained together until his death.��

“The Best Things In Life Are Free"

The moon belongs to everyone,
The best things in life are free.
The stars belong to everyone,
They gleam there for you and me.
The flowers in spring, the robins that sing,
The moonbeams that shine, they're yours, they're mine.
And love can come to everyone,
The best things in life are free.��

�� Frank Sinatra

Source: “This Day in History�� (adpt)

Frank Sinatra: An American Legend

It was on this day, May 15 in 1886 that poet Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55. This is a historical not literary remembrance of one of the greatest women poets in the world.

She had made her sister promise to burn all of her letters when she died, but didn’t say what to do with her notebooks. There were 40 of them, and they contained nearly 1,800 poems that she’d written. Only a handful had been published while she was alive.

Relatives and friends fought over publishing her poems, and it wasn’t until 1955 that a complete volume appeared that contained Dickinson’s poems just as she herself had written them, with punctuation, capitalization, and obscure diction intact. She wrote:

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

The theme of death, including her own death, occurs throughout Emily’s poems and letters. Although some find the preoccupation morbid, hers was not an unusual mindset for a time and place where religious attention focused on being prepared to die and where people died of illness and accident more readily than they do today. Nor was it an unusual concern for a sensitive young woman who lived fifteen years of her youth next door to the town cemetery.

The poet’s death on 15 May 1886 came after two and a half years of ill health. From the time her nephew Gib died in October 1883 and she suffered a consequent “nervous prostration,�� Dickinson became what her sister termed “delicate.�� On two later occasions she experienced “blackouts,�� and she was confined to bed for the seven months preceding her death.

On her death day, her brother Austin recorded in his diary: "She ceased to breathe that terrible breathing just before the whistles sounded for six [p.m.]" (Years and Hours, Vol. II, p. 471). In a remarkable obituary for The Springfield Republican, Susan Dickinson wrote about her friend: "A Damascus blade gleaming and glancing in the sun was her wit. Her swift poetic rapture was like the long glistening note of a bird one hears in the June woods at high noon, but can never see" (Years and Hours, Vol. II, 473).

On a beautiful May afternoon four days later, Dickinson’s white-garbed body lay in a white coffin in the Homestead parlor, where the family’s former pastor Rev. Jonathan Jenkins of Pittsfield (Mass.) led a prayer and Thomas Wentworth Higginson of Cambridge (Mass.) read Emily Bronte’s poem on immortality, “No coward soul is mine.��

Higginson, who gazed into the casket before it was closed for the service, reported: “E.D.’s face a wondrous restoration of youth �� she is 54 [55] & looked 30, not a gray hair or wrinkle, & perfect peace on the beautiful brow. There was a little bunch of violets at the neck & one pink cypripedium; the sister Vinnie put in two heliotropes by her hand ‘to take to Judge Lord’�� (Years and Hours, Vol. II, 475).

The honorary pallbearers, among them the president and professors of Amherst College, set the casket down after exiting the Homestead’s back door, and their burden was shouldered, at the poet’s own request, by six Irish workmen who had been hired men on the Dickinson grounds.

Following her late directions, they circled her flower garden, walked through the great barn that stood behind the house, and took a grassy path across house lots and fields of buttercups to West Cemetery, followed by the friends who had attended the simple service. There Emily Dickinson was interred in a grave Sue had lined with evergreen boughs, within the family plot enclosed by an iron fence.

Originally the grave was marked by a low granite stone with her initials, E.E.D., but some decades later niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi replaced it with a marble slab bearing the message “Called Back.�� The title of a popular Hugh Conway novel, the words were also the complete content of a letter the poet sent her cousins as she entered her final phase of illness.

Sources:

The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson