March 26th is

Nougat Day

Spinach Day

Epilepsy Awareness Purple Day
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MORE! Sandra Day O’Connor, Erica Jong and Dorothy Porter, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bangladesh – Independence Day

France – Morzine: Snowboxx

Indonesia – Batuan:
BaliSpirit Festival

Mali – Martyr’s/Democracy Day

United Kingdom – Mothering Sunday

United States –
Hawaii: Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana’ole Day
Ashland OR: Oregon Shakespeare Festival
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On This Day in HISTORY

1031 – Malcolm III born, King of Alba (Scots), called ‘Canmore’ (great chief), who will reign from 1058 to 1093; the character of the same name in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is loosely based on him

1169 – Saladin becomes the emir of Egypt

1344 – The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder is used

1351 – Combat of the Thirty: 30 Breton knights challenge and defeat 30 English knights

1484 – William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop’s Fables

1516 – Conrad Gessner born, Swiss naturalist; five-volume Historia animalium marks the beginning of modern zoology

1636 – Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands

1698 – Prokop Diviš born, Czech theologian and natural scientist; while trying to create a device to prevent thunderstorms, he accidentally invented one of the first grounded lightning rods

1753 – Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, born; American inventor; a percolator, pressure cooker and kitchen stove

1773 –  Nathaniel Bowditch born, American mathematician and navigator; founder of modern maritime navigation;  his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S. Naval vessel, and also on thousands of private vessels

1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra NY

1839 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held, annual rowing event on the Thames River

1859 – A.E. Houseman born, English poet

1871 – The elections of Commune council of the Paris Commune are held

1873 – Dorothea Bleek born in South Africa, German anthropologist, philogist and author; studied the Bush people; Mantis and His Hunter and Bushman Dictionary

1874 – Robert Frost born, American poet

1875 – Syngman Rhee born, Korean journalist/politician, South Korea’s 1st President

1876 – Kate Richards O’Hare born, American socialist, editor, orator and activist; arrested in 1919 and sentenced to 5 years in prison after giving an anti-war speech during WWI; she is pardoned in 1920

1879 – Othmar Ammann born in Switzerland, American engineer; designed the George Washington Bridge and the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge

1881 – Guccio Gucci born, Italian fashion designer, founded Gucci

1885 – The Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel begin the North-West Rebellion against Canada

1888 – Elsa Brändström born, Swedish nurse, philanthropist and aid worker, known as the “Angel of Siberia” by German and Austrian prisoners of war in Russia during WWI

1885 – Eastman Dry Plate & Film Co. begins making commercial motion picture film

1904 – Joseph Campbell born, American mythologist and author

1911 – Tennessee Williams born, American playwright, and poet

1913 – Jacqueline de Romilly born, French philologist, author, and scholar, of Jewish ancestry, is prohibited from teaching during the occupation of France by the Vichy government, later first woman nominated to the Collège de France, second woman in the Académie française

1925 – Pierre Boulez born, French pianist, composer, and conductor

1925 – James Moody born, American Jazz musician

1930 – Sandra Day O’Connor born, American lawyer and judge, first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court

1930 – Gregory Corso born, American ‘Beat’ poet

1931 – Swissair is founded as the national airline of Switzerland

1934 – The United Kingdom driving test is introduced

1939 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists begin their final offensive of the war

1940 – Nancy Pelosi born, American politician, Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, first and to-date only woman to be Speaker of the House

1942 – First female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland

1942 – Erica Jong born, American author and poet; Fear of Flying

1944 – Diana Ross born, American singer, record producer and actress, founding member of The Supremes, inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

1948 – Richard Tandy born, English keyboard player for Electric Light Orchestra

1948 – Stephen Tyler born, American singer-songwriter with Aerosmith

1949 – Fran Sheehan born, American bass guitarist for Boston

1950 – Teddy Pendergrass born, American singer-songwriter

1950 – Alan Silvestri born, American composer and conductor

1954 – Dorothy Porter born, Australian poet; The Monkey’s Mask

For more on Dorothy Porter: https://flowersforsocrates.com/2016/09/09/word-cloud-sensation/

1958 – The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris

1964 – The musical Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand, opens on Broadway

1970 – South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu implements a land reform program to solve the problem of land tenancy

1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins

1975 – The Biological Weapons Convention comes into force

1979 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.

1981 – Social Democratic Party is founded as a party in the UK

1982 – A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C..

1991 – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur, the South Common Market.

1992 –Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is sentenced to six years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant

1999 – Dr. Jack Kevorkian is convicted of second-degree murder for giving a lethal injection to an ailing man whose death is shown on 60 Minutes

2000 – Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia

2005 – The BBC broadcasts “Rose” (starring Christopher Eccleston), the first returning episode Doctor Who, after its cancellation in 1989; now world’s longest running TV sci-fi

2011 – More than 250,000 people take to London’s streets to protest Britain’s toughest spending cuts since WWII
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Visuals

• Nougat
• Spinach
• Epilepsy Awareness Purple Day info sheet
• International flags
• Malcolm III with his second wife, Margaret
• Portrait of Saladin (before A.D. 1185)/Saladin’s elite garrison – Siege of Acre
• Page from the fox and the grapes story in William Caxton’s version of Aesop’s Fables
• Pages from The New American Practical Navigator by Nathaniel Bowditch
• Dorothea Bleek, wearing a hat and gloves, to lecture on the Bushmen
• Robert Frost, life quote
• Kate Richards O’Hare, women pay price of war quote with her photo in 1915, and WWI bombed field in the same year
• Tennessee Williams, time quote
• Sandra Day O’Connor, church and state quote
• Erica Jong, advice quote
• Dorothy Porter

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