December 29th is

Pepper Pot Day *

Tick Tock Day

YMCA USA Day *

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MORE! Thomas Beckett, Ellen Terry and Sun Yat-sen, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Judaism– Fifth Day of Hanukkah

Mongolia –
National Independence Day

Myanmar – Kayin State:
Kayin New Year

Nepal – Sonam Lhosar
(Tamang New Year)

United States – Pharr TX:
Winter Fantasy Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated by followers of Henry II, King of England, because of his conflict with the king over the rights and privileges of Church vs the authority of the Monarchy

1777 – During the harsh winter at Valley Forge, the Continental Army was low on food. Legend has it that Christopher Ludwick, baker general with the army, gathered whatever food he could find: tripe, scraps of meat, and peppercorns. These he turns into a hot spicy soup now called Pepper Pot * but which the soldiers at Valley Forge call “the soup that won the war”

1800 – Charles Goodyear born, American inventor, pioneer in commercial use of rubber

1808 – Andrew Johnson born in North Carolina, future 17^th U.S. President, and first president to be impeached

1809 – William Gladstone born, British statesman and four-time Prime Minister

1812 – First performance of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Opus 96

1835 – The treaty of New Echota is signed in Georgia by representatives of the U.S. government and member s of a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party, which ceded all Cherokee Nation territory in the southeast to the U.S. and committed the Cherokee people to moving to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). This treaty was not approved by the Cherokee Nation Council or signed by Principal Chief John Ross, but after the U.S. Senate amended and ratified it in March 1836, it was used as the legal basis for the forcible removal of all the Cherokee known as the Trail of Tears.

1843 – ‘Carmen Sylvia’ born Princess Elizabeth of Wied, becomes Queen consort of Romania; author as Carmen Sylvia of poetry, prose aphorisms, plays, novels and short stories; The Bard of the Dimbovitza

1844 – Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee born, first president of Indian National Congress

1845 – The U.S. annexes the Republic of Texas, which is admitted to as the 28^th state.

1848 – President James K. Polk turns on the first gas light at the White House

1851 – The first YMCA * in the U.S. opens in Boston MA – four rented rooms on the third floor over a store and a bank

1876 – Pablo Casals born, Spanish cellist and conductor

1888 – Opening night at New York’s Lyceum Theatre of Henry Irving’s production of Macbeth, starring Henry Irving as the title character and Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

1890 – The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacre at least 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek SD

1895 – The Jameson Raid from Mafikeng into the Transvaal, an attempt to overthrow Kruger’s Boer government

1911 – Sun Yat-sen becomes the first president of a republican China, and Mongolia gains its independence

1913 – The Adventures of Kathlyn, the first motion picture serial: its first episode, The Unwelcome Throne, is released by Selig’s Polyscope Company

1916 – Gregory Rasputin, monk who wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, is murdered by a group of noblemen

1916 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, is published in America

1919 – Roman Vlad born, Bukovinan-Italian modern composer, also did film scores

1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930

1940 – Germany begins dropping incendiary bombs on London

1941 – Ray Thomas born, English flautist-songwriter, The Moody Blues

1943 – “San Fernando Valley” is recorded by Bing Crosby

1946 – Marianne Faithfull born, English singer-songwriter

1947 – ‘Cozy’ Powell born, English Rock drummer, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, and Black Sabbath

1952 – The first transistorized hearing aid is offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation

1963 – The Weavers give their farewell concert at Orchestra Hall in Chicago IL

1996 – The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a civil war that lasted 36 years

1997 – Hong Kong begins killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of ‘bird flu’

1998 – Khmer Rouge leaders apologize for the 1970s genocide that claimed 1 million Cambodian lives

2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies in Russia’s Kolas Peninsula region

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Visuals

• Pepper Pot
• ‘Time travel’ clock
• Boston YMCA – first in America
• International flags
• Tomb of Thomas Beckett at Canterbury
• Author ‘Carmen Sylvia’ born Princess Elizabeth of Wied, Queen consort of Romania
• Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, painted by John Singer Sargent circa 1888
• The Adventures of Kathlyn – publicity photo and newspaper ad for first silent film serial
• James Joyce, with ruin of space quote
• Sami elder in traditional dress

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