August 18th is

Bad Poetry Day

Ice Cream Pie Day

Fajita Day *

Mail Order Catalog Day *

Pinot Noir Day

Serendipity Day *

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MORE! Antonio Salieri, Rosalynn Carter and Vladimir Nabokov, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Japan – Tokyo and Osaka:
Summer Sonic Festival (til August 20)

Norway – Trondheim: Pstereo Festival

Russia – Saint Petersburg: Roof Music Fest

Scotland – Edinburgh: 70^th annual Fringe
of the Edinburgh Festival celebration

Wales – Brecon Beacons: Green Man Festival
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On This Day in HISTORY

684 – Second Islamic Civil War – Battle of Marj Rahit: The combined forces supporting Umayyad Caliph Marwan I defeat the army of Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr of Mecca, self-proclaimed Caliph, strengthening Umayyad control of Syria

1572 – Protestant Henry IV, King of Navarre, and Margaret of Valois (daughter of Catherine de’ Medici and Henry II) marry at Notre Dame – a week later, thousands of Huguenots, who flocked to Paris for the wedding celebration, are murdered in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre – King Henry escapes with the help of his wife after he promises to convert to Catholicism; he is kept at the French court until his escape in 1576, when he repudiates Catholicism and rejoins the Protestant forces

1612 – At Lancashire England Assizes, 8 of 9 accused ‘Pendle Witches’ found guilty

1735 – Boston’s Evening Post newspaper begins publication

1750 – Antonio Salieri born, Italian composer

1774 – Meriwether Lewis born, American explorer, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery

1834 – Marshall Field born, American department store owner; benefactor of the University of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History, re-named for him

1849 – Benjamin Louis Godard born, French composer

1871 – Francis John McConnell born, American university president, Methodist bishop, and labor reformer; as chair of an interfaith commission of inquiry, influential in abolishing the 7-day workweek and 12 hour workday in the steel industry

1872 – Mail Order Catalog Day *- Aaron Montgomery Ward publishes his first mail order catalog – a single page with 163 items for sale

1885 – Gertrude “Nettie” Higgins Palmer born, Australian poet and essayist, one of Australia’s leading literary critics

1893 – Ragini Devi born, American specialist in classical and folk ethnographic dances, won acclaim from dance critics, author of Dance Dialects of India (1972) performed with her daughter and granddaughter

1894 – U.S. Bureau of Immigration established by Congress

1902 – Leona Baumgartner born, physician, first woman to be commissioner of New York City Department of Health (1954); advocate for public health education; head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (1962)

1902 – Margaret ‘Mardy’ Murie born, author and conservationist,”Mother of Wilderness,” worked for wilderness preservation, especially the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge; wrote Two in the Far North, and Wapiti Wilderness

1907 – Howard Swanson born, American composer

1911 –  Amelia Boynton Robinson born, American suffragist, civil rights activist and playwright; American Civil Rights Movement leader; founding vice-president of the Schiller Institute; awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal

1914 – President Wilson issues “Proclamation of Neutrality” for U.S. at WWI start

1916 – Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace becomes a national shrine

1919 – The ‘Anti-Cigarette League of America’ forms in Chicago IL

1920 – U.S. Constitution’s 19^th Amendment is ratified, giving women the right to vote. But it almost didn’t happen. Battle of the Roses – Yellow roses were worn by suffrage supporters, red roses by opponents. Tennessee became the 36th and deciding state to ratify the 19th Amendment, by a single vote, cast by 24-year-old Harry Burn who had been in the anti-ratification camp and was still wearing his red rose when he voted for passage, because he received a last-minute letter from his mother that morning. Phoebe Ensminger Burn, called “Miss Febb,” wrote, “Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet.” She ended the missive with a rousing endorsement of the suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, imploring her son to “be a good boy and help Mrs.Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.” He explained his sudden change of heart, “I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

Harry Burn and his mother ‘Miss Febb’

1927 – Rosalynn Carter born, U.S. First Lady (1977-81), politically active while in White House, focused on mental health, senior citizens, and community voluntarism; co-founder with husband of the Carter Center; strong supporter of Habitat for Humanity

1937 – First FM radio station permit issued in Boston MA

1938 –  FDR at the opening of Thousand Islands Bridge connecting U.S. and Canada

1940 – ‘The Hardest Day’ of WWII’s Battle of Britain: The British RAF has 29 casualties, and loses 56 aircraft, with another 52 damaged; the Luftwaffe has 129 casualties, loses 69 aircraft, and another 31 damaged

1954 – J Ernest Wilkins Sr., appointed as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor under Eisenhower, becomes the first African-American to attend a cabinet meeting as a member of a government department

1957 – Tan Dun born, Chinese composer, noted for the filmscore for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

1958 – Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita is published

1962 – Peter, Paul & Mary release “If I Had A Hammer”

1963 – James Meredith is first black man to graduate from University of Mississippi

1966 – First photographs of Earth taken from moon orbit sent back to Earth

1973 – “China Grove” is released by the Doobie Brothers

1977 – Anti-Apartheid activist Steven Biko arrested in South Africa – later dies from injuries while in custody

1982 – Japanese election laws are amended to allow proportional representation

1988 – The FDA approves Minoxidil to treat hair loss

1994 – The 15^th British Commonwealth Games open in Victoria BC Canada

1997 – Beth Ann Hogan becomes first woman to attend Virginia Military Institute (VMI)

2000 – A Federal jury finds the US Environmental Protection Agency guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo; she was passed over for promotion after repeatedly reporting complaints that a U.S. company was mining toxic vanadium in South Africa; her example helped to pass “No FEAR,” the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act (2002)

2010 –First ‘Serendipity Day’ * is established to celebrate life’s happy surprises

2016 – The first Fajita Day is launched in honor of the sizzling Tex-Mex dish, evolved from a transplanted Catalan dish merged with Mexican cuisine

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