January 25th is
Irish Coffee Day *
Opposite Day
Robert Burns Day *
A Room of One’s Own Day *
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MORE! Robert Burns, Virginia Woolf and Florence Li Tim-Oi, click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Aruba – G F Cross Birthday
Brazil – Sao Paulo: Founding Day
Lithuania – Midwinter Festival/Kirmeline
(day of the serpents and grass-snake dance)
New Caledonia – Marguerite Bridge Day *
Russia – St. Tatiana/Students Day *
(begins Winter Holiday)
Scotland – Burns Night *
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On This Day in HISTORY
750 – Battle of the Zab, on the banks of the Great Zab River in what is now Iraq is won by the Abbasid rebels against the Umayyad Caliphate, which is caused by wide-spread corruption among Umayyad-appointed governors, especially in the Caliphate’s outlying provinces. The Abbasids found a new dynasty, which lasts until the 13th century
1459 – Paul Hofhaimer, Austrian organist and composer, is born
1515 – Coronation of Francis I, the first French King from the Angoulême branch of the House of Valois
1575 – Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais founds Luanda, capital of Angola
1579 – The Treaty of Utrecht is signed; marks beginning of the Dutch Republic
1755 – Ivan Shuvalov, first Russian Minister of Education gets permission on his mother Tatiana’s name day for his protégé Mikhail Lomonosov to establish a state university in Moscow; Tatiana Day still celebrated as Students Day; also marks the end of term, followed by 2 week holiday – St. Tatiana now Russian Orthodox patron saint of students
1759 – Robert “Rabbie” Burns born, the Bard of Scotland, poet and lyricist, whose birthday is celebrated throughout Scotland and by poetry lovers around the world with Burns Night * suppers and recitations since 1802 (see Word Cloud: BARD)
1765 – Port Egmont, first British settlement in the Falkland Islands, is founded
1787 – Debt-ridden famers in Shay’s Rebellion fail to capture Springfield MA arsenal
1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada
1792 – The London Corresponding Society founded, a Radical reform group dedicated to universal suffrage for British men and annual parliaments
1799 – Eliakim Spooner receives the first U.S. patent for a seeding machine
1858 – Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” for Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, is popularized for weddings when played at the British Princess Royal’s wedding
1874 – W. Somerset Maugham is born, British author and playwright, Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, The Razor’s Edge
1882 – Virginia Woolf born, leading English modernist author and feminist, To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway and A Room of One’s Own *
1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days
1896 – Helen Heffernan born, developed education and childcare programs for California State Department of Education (1926-66) influencing public education policy nationally on rural education, progressive education, kindergarten and preschool, educational supervision, curriculum development, and international education
1896 – New York NY annexes Staten Island to complete its expansion to five boroughs
1909 – Richard Strauss’s opera Elektra debuts at the Dresden State Opera
1909 – The Marguerite Bridge * named for the wife of the governor, a suspension bridge over the La Foa River opens
1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco
1924 – The first Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, in the French Alps
1937 – The Guiding Light debuts on NBC radio (moves to television in 1952)
1940 – Mary Martin records “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”
1942 – According to legend, Limerick chef Joe Sheridan came up with Irish Coffee * for cold and weary travelers at the local airport where he operated a restaurant
1944 – Florence Li Tim-Oi ordained in China, becoming the first woman Anglican priest
1945 – Grand Rapids, MI is the first U.S. city to fluoridate drinking water
1949 – The first Emmy Awards are presented, at the Hollywood Athletic Club
1950 – Gloria Naylor born, American novelist; The Women of Brewster Place, Bailey’s Café, The Men of Brewster Place
1959 – American Airlines first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707
1960 – The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the “payola” scandal by threatening fines for disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records
1961 – President Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference
1969 – Creedence Clearwater Revival releases their single “Proud Mary”
1971 – Charles Manson and three female “Family” members found guilty of 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders
1971 – Idi Amin’s coup deposes Milton Obote and becomes Uganda’s ‘president for life’
1986 – The National Resistance Movement topples Tito Okello’s government in Uganda
1998 – During his historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country
1999 – In Louisville KY, a man receives the first hand transplant in the United States
2006 – Islamic militant group Hamas wins majority of seats in Palestinian parliament
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Visuals
- Irish Coffee
- A Room of One’s Own and Virginia Woolf, Beresford/National Portrait Gallery, London
- International flags
- detail from a painting of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth
- W. Somerset Maugham – democracy quote
- Nellie Bly’s book announced
- Florence Li Tim-Oi
- Gloria Naylor – story worth telling quote
- Pope John Paul II in Cuba
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Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
Oh, I used to love Irish coffee as well as The Nutty Irishman. Today not so much. I did not know the Wedding March as created for the “Midnight Summer Dream.” I knew the Dutch used to be very good sailors and nabbed many islands and landed in New York, which I recall as New Amsterdam. In reading about Dutch history, the tulip bulb at one time was just as good as gold. If I recall at one time, bulbs went for as much as $50,000. I guess the French Truffles are as good as currency in some places.
It’s interesting how the Anglicized Church has done a role reversal, denying women the role of priest, which became a rallying cry for the episcopal church, which ordained the first openly same sex priest, then on to bishop.in the Northeast USA.
Texas not to be outdone, the Fort Worth diocese split into episcopal and Anglican. It started with the Bishopric taking the episcopal diocese property and rebranding it as the Anglican Church property. This has started many lawsuits with the Bass Family funding one side of the legal battle and the Moncrief Family funding the other sides legal battle. The only one making money are the attorneys.
It is my understanding that the Bishop owns all of the property in the diocese. And that the property is owned by the episcopal church. When the Bishop switched sides he took the property with him. It will make for a good book and/or movies.
It reminds me of the Mariners Church in Detroit, the episcopal Church laid claim to the Church and its money, it had been operated under the episcopal Church banner. Well, this Church was where all of the monied people went to church, what was interesting is that this church was created by an act of the legislature, because at the time Detroit was heavily influenced by the Catholic Church, and some would do anything to defend the church and its claim to property in Michigan.
Hi Russell –
Thanks for commenting.
There’s a long history of composers writing music for non-musical plays, the precursor to movie soundtracks – Mendelssohn’s music for ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is some of the very best.
Tulip Mania was a big economic disaster – ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’, written by British journalist Charles Mackay was written quite some time after the bubble exploded, but it’s still a classic study.
The Anglican Church just baffles me – it was started so Henry VIII could get a divorce, yet was really anti-divorce well into the 20th century. It let Florence Li Tim-Oi become a priest in 1944, and now they’re rolling that back to the 19th century – it’s always one step forward and two steps back with them. Why don’t they just re-join the Roman Catholics and be done with it?
What a mess with all the property disputes! This is why no one person should ‘own’ church property – it’s like saying that the National Parks are owned by the President instead of the Nation. If that were the case, the current occupant of the Oval Office would have already sold all the parks off at fire-sale prices to his cronies.
There is a movement within the Anglicized Church to become one with the Roman Catholic, not to be confused by the SA catholic or the Eastern European Catholic Church.
What I think is funny is if you come from the Anglican Church and are married, if you promise to be celebate, you can join the ranks of the Catholic Church.
However, if you are a catholic priest, you may not have the privilege of having a wife, many girlfriends with benefits.
The Eastern Europeans and Greek Catholics may have a wife.
If I recall the split in the Church happened because too many priest and Bishops had children while in that role.?And if they had a child that was male, the rights of inheritance attached to the oldest son.
All the religions that have dogma always have at least one thing that’s a deal-breaker for me – even the Bahá’ís, who are admirably open to questioning and discussion, are still stuck in the Middle Eastern patriarchal rut when it comes to marriage – both men and women have to have their parent’s permission to marry, no matter how old they are, even if the parents aren’t Bahá’ís. Waiting around for your parents to die so you can finally marry the person you love doesn’t make for cordial family relations. Honoring your father and mother shouldn’t mean you have to obey their wishes no matter what.
ICYMI …
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Good. Glad there’s still a record
I’ve always been amused by the notion of ownership by divine proclamation. Indeed, it is a very silly part of human history that the rule of law once rested upon the idea of divine right. A god, by definition, is unbound by physics and as such a human’s understanding of such a being much less their desires or deeds is nonsensical. It’s what physics would call a frame of reference problem. In addition, a god would not need a human medium to exert ownership for there is nothing a human could do – bound by physics of this here universe – that a god could not do with great ease. Would a being not constrained by physics even have a concept of ownership like we do? Exclusive control over a period of time? It could take what it wanted and time would be immaterial (caveat: most likely but we have a poor understanding of the nature of time – it may be illusory).
So pardon me while I giggle at the notion of a church laying claim.
I lay claim this blog in the name of Socrates and may his words ring eternal!
“I drank what?”
Yep.