December 10th is

Dewey Decimal System Day *

National Lager Day

International Shareware Day *

International Human Rights Day *

_____________________________________________________________

MORE! Martin Luther, Emily Dickinson and Nelson Mandela, click

_____________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Angola – Foundation Day

Cambodia – Human Rights Day

Namibia – Human Rights Day

Sweden – Nobel Prize Day

Thailand – Constitution Day

Turkey – Konya:
Whirling Dervishes Festival

_____________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

1317 – The “Nyköping Banquet” – King Birger of Sweden treacherously seizes his two brothers Valdemar, Duke of Finland and Eric, Duke of Södermanland, who were subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköping Castle

1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of Pope Leo X’s papal bull Exsurge Domine (‘Arise O Lord’ in Latin) outside Wittenberg’s Elster Gate, which threatens Luther with excommunication if he doesn’t recant

1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for treason for having sexual relations with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII – in Culpeper’s case, his confession under torture may not have been true, as the evidence against him Dereham’s allegation. Catherine was beheaded the following February

1684 – Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum (“On the motion of bodies in an orbit”), is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley

1768 – The Royal Academy of Arts is founded in London by George III, with Joshua Reynolds is its first president

1787 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet born, American educator, founder of the American School for the Deaf

1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length

1815 – Ada Lovelace is born, English mathematician and computer scientist

1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state

1822 – César Franck, Belgian organist and composer, is born

1830 – Emily Dickinson is born, American poet

1845 – British civil engineer Robert Thompson patents the first pneumatic tires

1851 – Dewey Decimal System Day *– Melvil Dewey is born, American creator in 1876 of the library classification system named for him, now used in 135 countries and translated into 30 languages

1864 – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia

1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps

1869 – Women are granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory

1884 – Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published

1891 – Nelly Sachs born, German-Swedish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate

1896 – When French symbolist Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (‘King Ubu’) premieres in Paris, a riot breaks out at the end of the performance. Ubu Roi is widely regarded as a forerunner of Dadaism, Surrealism and Theatre of the Absurd

1898 – A treaty signed in Paris officially ends the Spanish-American War, and makes Cuba independent of Spain

1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize

1907 – Worst night of ‘Brown Dog Riots’ in London. 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police over an anti-vivisectionist memorial statue of the dog, after allegations in 1903 that William Bayliss of the Department of Physiology at University College London had performed a ‘cruel and unlawful’ vivisection, before an audience of 60 medical students, on a brown terrier dog – adequately anaesthetized, according to Bayliss’ team; conscious and struggling, according to Swedish activists who infiltrated the college. National Anti-Vivisection Society condemns procedure. Bayliss, whose research on dogs leads to the discovery of hormones, is outraged by the assault on his reputation, sues for libel and wins

1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

1913 – Morton Gould born, American pianist, composer, and conductor

1919 – Alexander Courage born, American composer and conductor

1925 – Carolyn Kizer is born, American poet, academic and feminist

1931 – Jane Addams becomes a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American woman to be honored

1932 – Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy

1936 – Abdication Crisis: British King Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication, so he can marry Wallis Simpson

1941 – Japan invades the Philippines

1948 – The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – In 1950, the Assembly passes a resolution inviting nations and world organizations to join with the UN in marking December 10 as International Human Rights Day *

1949 – The People’s Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan

1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is presented the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African-American to receive the award,for his mediation between Israel and neighboring Arab states

1953 – Hugh Hefner publishes the first Playboy magazine with a $7,600 investment

1955 – Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on American television

1958 – The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707, and Cornelia Funke born, bestselling German-American children’s author, the Inkheart trilogy

1960 – Kenneth Branagh born, British actor-director-producer-screenwriter

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah

1964 – In Oslo, Norway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize

1965 – The Grateful Dead’s first concert performance under the band’s new name, at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium

1966 – The Rolling Stones release the Got Live If You Want It album in the U.S.

1976 – Queen’s single “Somebody To Love” is released in the U.S.

1978 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested

1982 – The Law of the Sea Convention was signed by 118 countries in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 23 nations and the U.S. were excluded

1983 – The inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín restores democracy in Argentina

1984 – South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize

1989 – At Mongolia’s first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union

1992 – Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called “unwelcome and offensive” actions toward women, but refuses to resign

1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages

1994 – Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin receive the Nobel Peace Prize,  pledging to pursue their mission of healing the Middle East. Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated in November, 1995, by an ultra-orthodox extremist opposed to signing of the Oslo Accords

1996 – The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela

1998 – The Amnesty International Concert for Human Rights Defenders took place at Bercy Stadium in Paris, France

2007 – Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president

2013 – The first International Shareware Day* –the word “shareware” is coined by Bob Wallace in 1983

_____________________________________________________________

Visuals

• Human Rights Day poster
• International flags
• Martin Luther burns Pope Leo X’s papal bull Exsurge Domine
• The American School for the Deaf
• “A.A.L.” aka Ada Lovelace
• Emily Dickinson life quote
• Dewey Decimal System
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – page 1
• King Edward VIII’s Instrument of Abdication
• First Playboy magazine cover
• Last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland 1993
• Cristina Fernandez, President of Argentina

_____________________________________________________________