The C18-L KALENDAR: October 26-November 1
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* THE KALENDAR - REASONS TO CELEBRATE *
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* Compiled for C18-L by Kevin Berland *
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OCTOBER 26
BIRTHDAYS: Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, divine, satirist,
practitioner of of erudite humour, encomiast of folly (1466-1536);
Dimitrie Kantemir, Hospodar of Moldavia, historian, author of The
History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire (1673-
1723); Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, Italian harpsichordist &
composer (1685-1757); Charles Francois Dupuis, French
astronomer (1742); Charles Pinckney, U.S. politician, diplomat,
contributor to writing of the Constitution (1757-1824); Georges
Jacques Dainton, French revolutionist, founder of the Cordelier,
overthrown by Robespierre & guillotined (1759-94);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Henry Deringer, U.S.
firearms manufacturer & inventor (1786-1868); Vuk Stefanovic
Karadzic, Serbian lexicographer, folklorist (1787-1864); Count
Helmut von Moltke, Prussian field marshall (1800-91); Dom Miguel,
King (1828-33) of Portugal (1802-66); Charles William Post, U.S.
breakfast cereal manufacturer (1854-1914); Take Ionescu,
Romanian writer, orator, politician, PM (1858-1922); Herbert Bryan
Warner, British actor (1876-1958); Leon Trotsky, Russian
Communist leader, associate of Lenin, exiled by Stalin, murdered
in Mexico (1879-1940); Millar Burrows, U.S. clergyman, Dead-Sea
Scrolls scholar (1889-1980); John S. Knight, U.S. newspaper
publisher (1894-1981); Igor Gorin, Russian-born U.S. operatic
baritone (1909-82); John Leslie, better known as Jackie Coogan,
U.S. actor (1914-84); Francois Mitterand, French statesmand,
president (1916); Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (1919-80);
Edward Brooke, U.S. politician, 1st black senator (1966-80) to be
elected since 1876 (1919); Bob Hoskins, U.S. actor (1942);
DEATHS: Samuel Puffendorf (1694); Sir Godfrey Kneller (1823);
Dr. Philip Doddridge (1751);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1745, a certain James Corbet
threw "scandalous and seditious" pamphlet right in the face of King
George II of England;
MISCELLANEA: Today is a National Holiday in Austria, and
Armed Forces Day in Benin & Rwanda. On this day in 1825 the
Erie Canal (New York state) opened; in 1905 Russian workers in
St. Petersburg established the 1st soviet.
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OCTOBER 27
BIRTHDAYS: Hester Chapone, English author (1727); James
Cook, British navigator, explorer of the South Pacific, including
Australia, New Zealand, and the Sandwich Islands (1728-79);
James Macpherson, Scottish poet, historian, self-proclaimed
discoverer of the Gaelic epic "Fingal", actually written by JM (he
never rebutted Dr. Johnson's refutation of his claim), MP (1736-96);
August Wilhelm, Count Neihardt von Gneisenau, Prussian field
marshall (1760-1831); Niccolo Paganini, Italian composer, violin
virtuoso (1782-1840);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Andrew Combe, Scottish
physiologist (1797); Isaac M. Singer, U.S. inventor (1851) of 1st
practical somestic sewing machine (1811-75); Marcelin Bethelot,
French chemist (1827-1907); John Davis Long, U.S. politician,
author, governor of Massachusetts (1838-1915); Giovanni Giolitti,
Italian politician, PM (1842-1928); Klas P. Arnoldson, Swedish
writer, politician, 1908 Nobel Peace Prize (1844-1916); Kenyon
Cox, U.S. muralist, painter, critic (1856-1919); Theodore
Roosevelt, U.S. politician, soldier, 26th president, 1905 Nobel
Peace Prize (for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese war),
founder of U.S. national parks (1858-1919); Emily Post, U.S.
etiquette writer (1872-1960); Lady Roderick Jones, better known
as Enid Bagnold, British novelist, playwright, author (among many
other things) of National Velvet (1889-1981); Dylan Thomas,
Welsh poet, playwright, unmatched reader of (his own) verse,
drinker ["An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as
much as you do"] (1914-53); Roy Lichtenstein, U.S. pop art painter
(1923); H.R. Haldeman, U.S. advertising executive, government
hack, Nixon Chief of Staff, convicted of Watergate crimes (1926);
Sylvia Plath, U.S. poet (1932-63); Fran Lebowitz, U.S. humorous
writer (1950);
DEATHS: Marcus Junius Brutus (42 BCE); Michael Servetus
(1553);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1659, the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, having outlawed Quakers, hanged two who returned; in
1662 Charles II of England sold Dunkirk back to France; in 1795,
Spain & the U.S. signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, aka
Pinckney's Treaty, establishing the 31st parallel as the southern
border of the U.S. & allowing USians to navigate the Mississippi;
in 1807, Spain & France signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau,
whereby Napoleon undertook a share of the task of conquering
Portugal.
MISCELLANEA: In Nauru, it's Angam Day. St. Vincent
celebrates Thanksgiving and Independence Day (1979). Zaire
celebrates the Anniversary of the Country's name change (until
1971 it was called the Congo). On this day in 1904, the 1st section of
the New York Subway opened; in 1916 the 1st mention of "jass"
bands in print appeared in Variety.
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OCTOBER 28
BIRTHDAYS: Cornelius Jansen, Dutch theologian, Bishop of
Ypres (1585-1638); Dr. Nicholas Brady, Irish divine, poet, versifier
of the psalms (1659); Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, Scottish
historian (1726); Emmanuel, Marshall Grouchy, French military
commander under Bonaparte (1766);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Georges Auguste
Escoffier, French chef (1846-1935); Per Albin Hansson, Swedish
statesman, Premier (1885-1946); Hans Dreisch, German
embryologist (1891-1941); Howard Harold Hanson, U.S. composer
& conductor (1896-1981); Elizabeth Sullivan, better known as Elsa
Lanchester, English character actress (1902); Edith Head, U.S. film
costume designer (1907-81); Francis Bacon, British painter (1909);
Jonas Edward Salk, U.S. microbiologist, developer of the 1st polio
vaccine (1914); Richard Laurence Millington Synge, Anglo-Irish
biochemist (1914); Bowie Kuhn, U.S. sports executive,
Commissioner of Baseball (1926); Joan Plowright, English actress
(1929); Spyros Kyprianou, Cypriot politician, president (1932);
DEATHS: Michel le Tellier (1685); John Wallis (1703); John
Locke (1704); Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen
Anne of England (1708); John Smeaton (1792); Charlotte Smith
(1806);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1492, Christopher Columbus
landed in Cuba & claimed it for Spain; in 1636 Harvard college was
founded;
MISCELLANEA: Today is Greek National Day. It is the Feast of
St. Simon, patron of curriers, and of Saint Jude, patron of the
impossible, and of the police.
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OCTOBER 29
BIRTHDAYS: Edmund Halley, English astronomer (1656); James
Boswell, Scottish advocate, laird, and biographer of Dr. Johnson
(1740-95); William Hayley, English poet, biographer of William
Cowper (1745);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Jean Joseph Charles
Louis Blanc, French utopian socialist (1811-82); Daniel Decatur
Blackwell, U.S. entertainer, songwriter, white performer in
"blackface," composer of "Dixie" (1815-1904); Othniel Charles
Marsh, U.S. paleontologist, in 1866 1st U.S. professor of vertebrate
paleontology at Yale, founder (with his uncle George Peabody's
contributions) the Peabody Museum of Natural History (1831-99);
Abraham Cuyper, Dutch theologian, statesman (1837-1920);
Charles Henry Ingersoll, U.S. one-dollar watch manufacturer
(1865-1948); Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux, French dramatist,
diplomat, Chief of Propaganda (1882-1944); Bela Lugosi,
Hungarian-born U.S. actor (1884-1956); Fanny Borach, better
known as Fanny Brice, U.S. entertainer in vaudeville, the
Ziegfield Follies, and on radio as Baby Snooks (1891-1951);
Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi official (1897-1945); Mahalia
Jackson, U.S. gospel singer, denied use of a Washington theatre
the Daughters of the American Revolution, instead giving a
historic concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (1911-1972);
Jon Vickers, Canadian opera singer (1926); Richard Dreyfuss,
U.S. actor (1947);
DEATHS: Sir Walter Raleigh (1618); Henry Welby, the Hermit of
Grub Street (1636); James Shirley (1666); Edmund Calamy (1666);
Admiral Edmund Vernon (1757); Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1783);
George Morland
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
MISCELLANEA: Today is Turkish National Day, commemorating
the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
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OCTOBER 30
BIRTHDAYS: Jacques Amyot, French translator of Plutarch
(1513); Cardinal Caesar Baronius, Italian historian (1538); Jan
Vermeer, Dutch painter (1632-75); King George II of England
(1683); Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright, politician,
British MP (1751); John Adams. U.S. politician, diplomat, scholar,
1797-1801 2nd president, father of John Quincy Adams (1735-1826);
James Perry, Scottish author, editor of the Morning Chronicle
(1756);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Alfred Sisley, French
impressionist painter (1839-99); William Graham Sumner, U.S.
educator, folklorist, professor of political & social science at Yale,
promulgator of laissez-faire theories of economics (1840-1910);
Gertrude Franklin Atherton, U.S. novelist (1857-1948); Emile
Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor, painter, collaborator with
Rodin (1861-1929); Paul Ambroise Toussaint Jules Valery, French
symbolist poet (1871-1945); Francisco Indalecio Madero, Mexican
patriot, president (1873-1913); William Frederick "Bull" Halsey, Jr.,
U.S. naval officer (to whom Paul McCartney rather cryptically
refers in "Hands across the water": Admiral Halsey notified me...)
(1882-1959); Ezra Loomis Pound, U.S. poet, critic, fascist, exile
(1885-1972); Zoe Adkins, U.S. dramatist (1886-1958); Gerhard
Domagk, German bacteriologist, developer of sulfa drugs (1895-
1964); Ruth Gordon, U.S. actress ["You have to have a talent for
having talent"] (1896); Ragnar Granit, Swedish neurophysiologist
(1900); Fred W. Friendly, U.S. journalist, news executive,
collaborator with broadcaster Edward R. Murrow (1915); Ruth
Carol O'Rourke, better known as Ruth Hussey, U.S. actress (1917);
Harold Pinter, English playwright (1930); Louis Malle, French film
director (1932); Claude Lelouch, French film director; Grace
Slick, U.S. rock singer, songwriter (1939); Henry Winkler, U.S.
actor, "the Fonze," producer (1945);
DEATHS: Hadrian's favourite Antinous (130 CE); Charles
Alexandre de Calonne (1802); Rev. John Whitaker (1808);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1769, Captain Cook landed in
New Zealand and claimed it for Great Britain.
MISCELLANEA: October 30 is the day of Blessed Dorothy of
Montau, popularly regarded as the patron of Prussia. On this day
in 1939, Orson Welles' broadcast of the radio drama "War of the
Worlds" caused a widespread panic.
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OCTOBER 31
BIRTHDAYS: John Evelyn, English writer (1620); Clement XIV,
pope from 1769-74 (1705-74); Christopher Anstey, author of the
New Bath Guide (1724);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: John Keats, Englis poet
(1795-1821); Benoit Fourneyron, French inventor of the water
turbine (1802-67); Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (1815-
97); Heinrich Graetz, Jewish historian (1817-91); Karl Havlicek,
aka Havel Borousky, Czech poet, journalist, critic, imprisoned for
his liberal beliefs (1821-56); Richard Morris Hunt, U.S. Beaux-Arts
architect (1827-95); Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, English photographic
chemist (1828-1914); Adolph von Baeyer, German chemist (1835-
1917); Luis I, King of Portugal 1861-89, freed slaves in Portuguese
colonies (1838-89); Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, U.S. "local
color" novelist & short-story writer (1852-1930); Juliett Gordon
Low, U.S. youth leader, founder of N. American Girl Guides
(1860-1927); Andrew Joseph Volstead, U.S. politician, author of the
Volstead Act enforcing prohibition of making & selling alcohol
(1860-1947); William Gibbs McAdoo, U.S. politician (1863-1941);
Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese Nationalist leader, president, exile in
Taiwan (1887-1975); Sir George Hubert Wilkins, Australian polar
explorer (1888-1958); Basil.Henry Liddell Hart, British military
scientist, author, military editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica
(1895-1970); Ethel Waters, U.S. actress, singer (1900-77); Frances
Smith, better known as Dale Evans, U.S. actress & singer, costar of
film & tv westerns with husband Roy Rogers & his horse (now
stuffed) Trigger (1912); Ivo Levi, better known as Yves Montand,
Italian-born French actor (1921); Barbara Bel Geddes, U.S. actress
(1922); Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia (1922); Robert
Lowell "Robin" Moore, Jr., U.S. novelist (1925); Michael Collins,
U.S. astronaut (1930); Dan Rather, U.S. tv journalist (1931);
DEATHS: John Bradshaw (1659); King Victor Amadeus of
Sardinia (1732); William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1765);
Jean Pierre Brissot (1793);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95
Theses to the door of the Palace Church in Wittenberg; in 1638
Marie de Medici arrived in London on a visit to the English court;
in 1754, King George II granted a charter to New York City's
King's College, now known as Columbia University;
MISCELLANEA: Today is UNICEF Day; Taiwan celebrates the
birthday of Chiang Kai-shek. Today is the Eve of the Feast of All
Saints, widely known as Halloween, celebrated in North America
as a night of scary things, pranks, and neighbourhood candy-
banditry. The Romans used to celebrate the harvest Festival of
Pomona, goddess of orchards & gardens, around this time. Many
protestant denominations celebrate Reformation Day today. It's
also the Feast of St. Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon, invoked to heal
the good, and to keep sheep & oxen fat. On this day in 1879, the
Irish National Land League was founded, with Charles Parnell as
president; in 1981, the Caribbean islands of Antigua & Barbuda
became a single independent nation.
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NOVEMBER 1:
BIRTHDAYS: Etienne de La Boetie, French poet, translator,
friend of Montaigne (1530-63); Piero Berretini da Cortona, Italian
painter, architect (1596-1669); Denzil Hollis, English reformer
(1597); Sir Matthew Hale, English jurist, active in arranging the
Restoration of King Charles II (1609-76); Nicolas Boileau-
Despreaux, French poet, neoclassicist, critic (1636-1711); Bishop
George Horne, English divine, biblical expositor (1730); Antonio
Canova, Italian sculptor, founder of modern neo-classical sculpture
(1757-1822); George Rapp, German-born U.S. millenarian
religious leader, founder of celibate, communal religious
communities in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Harmony, Indiana, and
Economy, Pennsylvania (preserved as a National Parks museum,
not far upriver from Pittsburgh) (1757-1847); Gustavus Adolphus
King of Sweden 1792-1806, exiled 1809, died in poverty (1778-
1837);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Lydia Huntley
Sigourney, U.S. poet (1791); Crawford Williamson Long, U.S.
surgeon, 1st to use ether (1815-78); James Renwick, U.S. gothic
revival architect, designer of NY's St. Patrick's Cathedral &
Washington's Smithsonian Institution (1818-95); Stephen Crane,
U.S. novelist & short-story writer (1871-1900); Carlos de Saavedra
Lamas, Argentine statesman, 1936 Nobel Peace Prize (1878-1959);
Grantland Rice, U.S. sportswriter (1880-1954); Sholem Asch,
Polish-born U.S. novelist (1880-1957); Alfred Wegener, German
geophysicist, 1st to state continental drift theory (1880-1939); Philip
J. Noel-Baker, English politician, League of Nations official, 1959
Nobel Peace Prize (1889-1982); George Joseph Hecht, U.S.
publisher (1895-1980); Leo Kerz, German-born U.S. theatrical
designer, director (1912); Gary Player, South African professional
golfer (1935);
DEATHS: Charles II of Spain (1700); Dr. John Radcliffe (1714);
Dean Humphrey Prideaux (1824); Louisa de Kerouaille, Duchess
of Portsmouth (1734); Alexander Cruden (1770); Edward Shuter
(1776); Lord George Gordon (1793);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1700, Philippe d'Anjou,
grandson of King Louis XIV of France, was proclaimed King
Philip V on the death of King Charles II of Spain, leading to the
War of the Spanish Succession; in 1755 the Great Earthquake of
Lisbon & the attendant floods & fires killed tens of thousands &
destroyed the city; in 1762, French troops fighting in the 7 Years'
War capitulated at Cassel & evacuated the right bank of the Rhine.
MISCELLANEA: Today is celebrated in Algeria as the
Anniversary of the Revolution (1954); Today is All Saints' Day,
also known as All Hallows Day, a major holy day in all Roman
Catholic countries. It is also the Feast of St. Maturinus (Mathurin),
patron of fools; of St. Cadfan, patron of warriors; of St. Dingad,
founder of the tribe of Brychan and patron of Llandingat, Wales;
and of St. Gwythian, patron of St. Gwythian's, North Cornwall. On
this day in 1922, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk proclaimed the abolition
of the sultanate of Turkey; in 1941, the Rainbow Bridge between
Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Canada, was opened;
in 1956 Hungary proclaimed neutrality & withdraw from the Soviet-
aligned Warsaw Pact;