October 29^th is

National Cat Day *

National Oatmeal Day

National Hermit Day *

International Internet Day *

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MORE! Fanny Brice, Rudyard Kipling, and Maria Callas, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Cambodia – King Norodom 
Sihamony Coronation Day

Dominica – Creole Day

Liberia – National Youth Day

Turkey & Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyrpus – Republic Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

539 BC – Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, entered the capital of Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land

632 AD – Saint Colman dies in Ireland, after seven years as a hermit in the Burren Forest – remembered by Irish-Catholic Americans on National Hermit Day, *  it’s also a good day for spending some quiet ‘alone time’ in the midst of a busy life

1390 –Witch trials in a secular court in Paris – three people are killed – two of them women, burned for ‘afliction [sic] of illness, manipulation of affections’ and diabolism

1504 – Shin Saimdang born, Korean artist, writer, poet and calligrapher; called Eojin Eomeoni (어진 어머니; “Wise Mother”), and honored as a model of Confucian ideals; pennames: Saim, Saimdang, Inimang and Imsajae; she was the oldest of five sisters in a family with no sons, so her maternal grandfather taught her as if she were his grandson, an education very rare for women in that time and place; her husband, Commander Yi Wonsu, appreciated her intelligence and education, which she passed on to their son, the Confucian scholar Yi L, who was also a revered politician and reformer, passing the Civil Service exam at the age of 13; Saimdang died suddenly of unknown cause at the age of 48. In 2009, she became the first woman to appear on a South Korean banknote, the 50,000 won

1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England

1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus

1711 – Laura Bassi born, Italian philosopher, physicist and academic; received the second recorded doctoral degree awarded to a woman by a university, the University of Bologna in 1732, (Elena Cornaro Pisopia was the first, in 1678); first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university in Europe;also recognized as first woman university chair in a scientific field of studies. Initially, the university restricted her to one lecture per year, so she conducted private lessons, and performed experiments at home; called upon to attend most of the events the University opened to the public, so petitioned for pay increases, which she used to buy her advanced equipment. When the experimental physics department chair died suddenly, she’s appointed to replace him, serving for the two years until her death. Bassi made invaluable contributions to the field of science while also helping to spread  Newtonianism in Italy

1775 – William Hayley born, English poet, biographer, patron of the arts

1787 – Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni in its first performance, in Prague

1792 – Mount Hood in Oregon is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River

1808 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer and meteorologist, is born –she discovered a comet on April 1, 1854; established a meteorological station in Rome in 1856; corresponding member of the Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence, and was honored by the Italian government for her work in 1872

 1837 – Harriet Powers born, African-American quilter and folk artist; her quilts are on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA

1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva, agreeing to form the International Red Cross

1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace

1891 – Fanny Brice born, American comic singer

1899 –Kate Seredy born in Hungary, American children’s book author-illustrator and bookstore owner; winner of a 1938 Newbery Medal and 1971 Caldecott Honor; most of her books are written in English, her second language

1901 – Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim, which had been serialized in the U.S. in McClure’s Magazine, and in the U.K. in Cassell’s Magazine, is published for the first time, in book form, quickly becoming a bestseller

1921 – Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in the U.S.

1922 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister

1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called Crash of ’29 or “Black Tuesday”, ends the Great Bull Market of the 1920s, starts the Great Depression

1930 –Natalie Sleeth born, American religious music composer and organist; noted for choral anthem, “Joy in the Morning”

1932 – Joyce Gould born, British Labour Party politician and pharmacist; member of Campaign Against Racial Discriminations (1965-1975), Secretary of the National Joint Committee of Working Women’s Organizations (1975-1985), and served in various capacities with a number of other commissions and organizations; in 1993, made a Life Peer, Baroness Gould of Potternewton, serving on House of Lords committees, involved with anti-racism, gender equity and civil liberty issues in particular

1934 – First day of the International Conference of Musicology in Madrid, sponsored by the League of Nations to encourage the musical arts

1938 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf born, Liberian politician, 24th and current President of Liberia, first elected female head of state in Africa, awarded 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

1940 – The U.S. begins a peacetime military draft, requiring all male citizens between age 26 and 35 to register

1947 – First successful cloud seeding, using dry ice, took place at Concord NH

1948 – Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture Palestinian Arab village of Safsaf in the Galilee and massacre villagers

1956 – Maria Callas makes her debut at the NY Metropolitan Opera in Norma

1956 – Israel invades Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal crisis

1956 – “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” premieres as NBC’s nightly TV newscast.

1967 – The musical Hair opens off-Broadway

1969 – ‘L’ ‘O’ – first letters transmitted on the Internet, which crashed before the rest of the message was sent – honored on International Internet Day *

1970 – Neil Diamond receives a gold record for “Cracklin’ Rosie”

1977 – Meat Loaf releases “Bat Out of Hell”

1982 – Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson release “Girl is Mine”

1986 – The M25, or London Orbital Motorway, is officially opened – almost immediately, traffic levels are double the maximum design capacity

1991 – NASA’s Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid

1998 – In South Africa, after four years of hearings, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities

2004 – European Union leaders sign the EU’s first constitution

2005 – First National Cat Day,* started by animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige

2015 – China announces the end of One-Child Policy after 35 years, and a new Two-Child Policy instituted

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