October 20^th is

All American Rose Day

Brandied Fruit Day

International Sloth Day *

Mammography Day

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MORE! Christopher Wren, Nellie McClung and Robert Pinsky, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Canada – Toronto ON:
38^th International Festival of Authors

Guatemala – Revolution Day

Kenya – Mashujaa (National Day)

New Zealand –
Hawke’s Bay Anniversary

Vietnam – Women’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1435 – Andrea Della Robbia born, Italian Renaissance sculptor

Madonna and Child, by Andrea Della Robbia

1572 –Eighty Years’ War: The Relief of Goes – the Spanish Netherlands city of Goes is besieged by Dutch forces, supported by English troops sent by Queen Elizabeth I; some 3,000 soldiers of the Spanish Tercios (infantry) under  Cristóbal de Mondragón wade across the river Scheldt at its mouth, walking 15 miles overnight in water up to chest deep. Their surprise arrival forces the withdrawal of the Anglo-Dutch troops from Goes

1620 – Aelbert Cuyp born, Dutch landscape painter

The Maas at Dordrecht, by Aelbert Cuyp circa 1650

1632 – Christopher Wren, English architect, mathematician and physicist; designer of  St Paul’s Cathedral

1720 – Pirate Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham is captured at Bry Harbour Bay, Jamaica; his ship flies a distinctive ‘Jolly Roger’ flag with a skull above crossed swords, and Anne Bonny and Mary Read are among his ship’s crew

1740 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, sole surviving male member of the House of Habsburg, had issued an edict, dubbed the Pragmatic Sanction, on 19 April 1713, to ensure that the Habsburg hereditary possessions could be inherited by a daughter. When he dies on October 20, 1740, his daughter, Maria Theresa, ascends the throne of Austria, but France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honor the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins

Empress Maria Theresa, portrait by Martin van Meytens, 1759

1740 – Isabelle de Charrière born, aka Belle van Zuylen, Dutch writer of the Enlightenment; noted for her novels and letters, but she also penned pamphlets, plays and music; corresponded with writers like James Boswell and Benjamin Constant; she publishes her first novel, Le Noble, a satire against the nobility, anonymously at age 43, but her identity is soon discovered, and her parents withdraw the work from sale

Isabelle de Charrière by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, 1766

1774 – The new Continental Congress passes an order proclaiming that all citizens of the colonies “discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions and entertainment”

1781 – Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Austria issues the Patent of Toleration, an edict extending religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians living in Habsburg lands – an additional edict extends tolerance to Jews the following year

1803 – The U.S. Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase

1818 – The U.S. and Great Britain settle the border between the U.S. and Canada will be on the 40^th parallel for most of its length

1819 – The Báb, born as Sayyed ‘Ali Muhammad Shirāzi, Iranian religious leader, founder of Bábism, an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, precursor to the Bahá’í Faith

1827 – The Battle of Navarino during the Greek War of Independence, becomes the last significant battle fought with wooden sailing ships

1832 – Ellen Hardin Walworth born, author, lawyer, historic preservationist, early advocate for the establishment of the U. S. National Archives. one of the first women in New York State to hold a position on a local board of education, a role she used to bolster the call for women’s suffrage

1854 – Arthur Rimbaud born, French poet; his work prefigured surrealism

1859 – John Dewey born, influential American philosopher

1862 – Maud Nathan born, social worker, activist and suffragist, cousin to poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo

1873 – P.T. Barum opens a Hippodrome in New York City

1873 – Nellie McClung born, Canadian politician, activist, Liberal member of Legislative Assembly of Alberta (1921-26), one of Canada’s ‘Famous Five’ in the Persons’ Case

1874 – Charles Ives born, modern American composer

1891 –Sir James Chawick born, English physicist who discovered the neutron; 1935 Nobel Prize for Physics

1892 – Chicago dedicates the World’s Columbian Exposition

1904 – Chile and Bolivia sing the Treaty of Peace and Friendship delineating the border between the two countries

1904 – Enolia Pettigen McMillan born, African American high school teacher and principal, civil rights activist and community leader; President of Maryland’s State Colored Teachers’ Association; first female chair of Morgan State University Board of Regents; first woman president of the NAACP (1984-1990)

1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland

1914 – Fayard Nicholas born, American dancer-choreographer, elder of the Nicholas Brothers tap dance duo; performed at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and featured in MGM and 20^th Century-Fox musicals of the 1930s and 40s

1920 – Nick Cardy born, American comic book illustrator for DC Comics on Aquaman; inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2005

1924 – Robert Peters born, American scholar, poet, playwright and editor; his first book of poetry, Songs for a Son, published in 1967, is still in print

1925 – Art Buchwald born, American humorist, his Washington Post political satire column was nationally syndicated; 1982 Pulitzer prize for Commentary

1927 – Joyce Brothers born, American psychologist, author, television personality; columnist for Good Housekeeping magazine for almost 40 years

1935 – The Long March of the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party ends

1936 – Bobby Seale born, American activist, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

1937 – Emma Tennant born, British postmodern novelist; The French Dancer’s Bastard

1939 – Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra recorded “All the Things You Are”

1940 – Robert Pinsky born, American poet and translator, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1997-200)

1942 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard born, German developmental biologist; co-winner of 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on identifying genes involved in embryonic development

1946 – Democratic Republic of Vietnam sets 10-20 as Vietnam Women’s Day *

1946 – Elfriede Jelinek born, controversial Austrian playwright, novelist and feminist; 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature; her novel, The Piano Teacher, inspired the 2001 film

1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into supposed Communist infiltration of Hollywood – leading to blacklisting over 300 directors, actors and screenwriters – only 10% of them were able to rebuild their careers

1950 – Tom Petty born, American singer-songwriter

1951 – Al Greenwood born, American rock keyboardist with Foreigner

1952 – Governor of Kenya Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency, arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya after the country gains its independence in 1963

1954 – The musical Peter Pan premieres on Broadway

1955 – No Time for Sergeants opens on Broadway

1955 – Thomas Newman born, American composer-conductor; nominated 14 times for Academy Awards for his films scores, and winner of six Grammy Awards

1957 – Hilda Solis born, American politician; California State Assemblywoman, and first Hispanic woman to serve in the State Senate; Congresswoman (2001-2009 D-CA); U.S. Secretary of Labor (2009-2013); currently serving on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; her parents are immigrants from Nicaragua and Mexico

1961 – Kate Mosse born, English novelist and non-fiction author; her novel, Labyrinth, has been translated into 37 languages

1962 – The Four Seasons release “Big Girls Don’t Cry”

1973 – In President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” he fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy A.G. William Rucklehouse after the refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox – Robert Bork finally fires Cox

1977 – Led Zeppelin’s film The Song Remains the Same premieres in London

1980 – U2 releases their first album Boy

1994 – The website WhiteHouse.gov is launched

2010 – International Sloth Day * is launched by the AIUNAU Foundation to highlight their work rescuing and rehabilitating sloths that have been illegally trafficked, mistreated or injured, and returning them to the wild

2011 –  Libyan National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte, and kill him

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