July 16th is

Guinea Pig Appreciation Day *

Corn Fritters Day

Fresh Spinach Day

Hot Dog Night

World Snake Day

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MORE! Anne Askew, Camille Corot and Ida B. Wells, click

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World Festivals and National Holidays

Buddhism – First Sermon of Lord Buddha

Islam – On July 16, 622, Muhammad and his followers begin the Hejira from Mecca to Yathrib (re-named Medina), the beginning of the Islamic calendar

American Samoa – Manu’a Cession Day
(Manu’a islands ceded to the U.S.)

Bolivia – La Paz Day

Botswana – President’s Day

Chile – Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Japan – Umi no Hi (Marine Day)

Morocco – Marrakech: National Festival
of Marrakech Popular Arts * (ongoing)

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On This Day in HISTORY

1099 – Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon herd Jews of Jerusalem into the central synagogue and set it on fire; those who try to escape are forced back into the flames

1194 – Clare of Assisi born, Italian founder of the Catholic order of Poor Clares

1232 – The Spanish town of Arjona declares independence, with native son Muhammad ibn Yusuf as its ruler, beginning his rise to prominence. He went on to establish the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, Spain’s last independent Muslim state

1377 – Richard of Bordeaux, aged 10, is crowned Richard II of England

1486 – Andrea Del Sarto born, Italian painter and draftsman

Madonna delle Arpie (Madonna of the Harpies) by Andre del Sarto – 1517

1529 – Petrus Peckius born as Pieter Peck, eminent Dutch jurist, one of the earliest to write about maritime law; appointed in 1582 as a justice in the Great Council, the supreme law court of the Seventeen Provinces, roughly covering the Low Countries

1546 – Anne Askew is burned at the stake after being tortured in the Tower of London. She is one of the earliest known women poets in the English language, and the first Englishwoman to demand a divorce (she had been married off  by her father at age 15 to her eldest sister’s fiancée, Thomas Kyme ,when her sister died), but she is a devout believer in direct prayer to God, without intercession by priests, while her husband is Catholic; she bore two children (who likely died in infancy)  before he threw her out, so she moves to London, resumes her maiden name and becomes a gospeller (lay preacher).  Kyme had her arrested for her preaching, and dragged back, but she escapes and returns to London, is arrested twice more, and the second time she is tortured in the Tower of London, the only recorded torture of a woman there. Ordered to name like-minded women she refuses, and is stretched on the rack, which dislocates joints of wrists, ankles, elbows, knees, shoulders and hips. Askew still refuses to renounce her beliefs, is convicted of heresy, and martyred in Smithfield, having to be carried in a chair and then bound unto the stake, unable to stand because of the torture she endured

1661 – First European banknotes issued by Stockholms Banco in Sweden

1723 – Sir Joshua Reynolds born, notable English portrait painter

Self-Portrait, by Joshua Reynolds

1748 – Cyrus Griffin born, American lawyer and judge, the last President of the Confederation Congress (1788), he resigned after ratification of the U.S. Constitution; appointed the following year by President George Washington as the first Judge of the U.S. District Court of the District of Virginia (1789-1810)

1755 – Future U.S. President John Adams graduates from Harvard

1769 – Father Junipero Serra founds first California Mission, San Diego de Alcalá

1782 – First performance of Mozart’s opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio

1790 – The District of Columbia established as permanent seat of U.S. government

1796 – Camille Corot born, French landscape painter

The Pond at Ville-d’Avray through the Trees by Camille Corot – 1871

1821 – Mary Baker Eddy born, American founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, more commonly known as Christian Science, and of the Christian Science Monitor newspaper; her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, has been a bestseller for decades

1861 – Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the American Civil War

1862 – Ida B. Wells born, American journalist, editor, suffragist, sociologist and civil rights activist, noted for her extensive documentation of racial lynchings in the United States, inspiring speaker who traveled internationally on lecture tours

1863 – Fannie Zeisler born in Austria, American pianist

1872 – Roald Amundsen born, Norwegian explorer; his expedition is the first to reach the South Pole

1880 – Emily Stowe is the first woman granted a license to practice medicine in Canada

1880 – Kathleen Norris born, American Catholic author of 93 sentimental novels and innumerable short stories and newspaper columns praising motherhood and large families; ironically, she was so successful that her husband took on most of the household management; she was against birth control, but supported woman’s suffrage, and was involved in the prohibition and peace movements, as well as organizations which benefited children and the poor

1884 – Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova born, Russian lady-in-waiting and close friend of Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna, who was the go-between for Alexandra and Rasputin; she was arrested  in 1917 and spent five months in prison, which included a medical exam to prove her virginity, and interrogation on her political role. She admitted seeing Rasputin once or twice a week, but feigned a childish innocence; the investigator thought she was too naïve and unintelligent to have any influence over the Tsarina; noted for her memoirs, written after she escaped to Finland

1896 – Evelyn Peer born, African American blues singer, actor with Lafayette Players

1900 – “His Master’s Voice” the RCA Victor logo registered with U.S. Patent Office

1901 – Millicent Fawcett is appointed to lead a British government commission to South Africa to investigate conditions in the concentration camps holding Afrikaners, mostly women and children, at the end of the Second Boer War; her report corroborates welfare campaigner Emily Hobhouse’s shocking description of conditions in the camps, where an average of 50 children died every day

1903 – Irmgard Flügge-Lotz born in Germany, German-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and control theorist; pioneer in development of the discontinuous automatic control theory, which has wide application in guidance systems, electronics, fire-control systems, and  temperature regulation. In 1961, she became the first woman engineering professor at Stanford University, and the first female engineer elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

1907 – Barbara Stanwyck born as Ruby Stevens, American film and TV star; the highest-paid woman in American in 1944; nominated four times for Academy Awards for acting, but winless until she received an honorary Oscar in 1982; won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her television work

1907 – Frances Rappaport Horwich born, American pioneer in children’s television programming; “Miss Frances” of Ding Dong School (1952-1956 at NBC, 1958-1965 in syndication)

1911 – Ginger Rogers born as Virginia McMath, dancer-actor, memorable partner of Fred Astaire; Oscar winner for Best Actress in 1941 for title role in drama Kitty Foyle

1912 – Amy Patterson, born as Amelia Cabeza de Pelayo Patterson, Argentinean composer, poet and music teacher

1918 – In Russia, Tsar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks

1924 – Bess Myerson born, American politician, first and only Jewish Miss America, in 1945; New York City’s first Commissioner of Consumer Affairs (1969-1973), and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs (1983-1987); also served on several presidential commissions

1926 –  The first color underwater photographs appear in National Geographic magazine

1927 – Shirley Hughes born, English author and illustrator, who has written over 50 books, which have sold more than 11 million copies, and has also illustrated 200 others; honored in 1977 and 2003 with the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration, and won the inaugural Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015; noted for Dogger, the Alfie series, and Ella’s Big Chance

1928 –Anita Brookner born, novelist and art historian; first woman to hold the position of Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Cambridge (1967-1968), a visiting professorship; awarded the 1984 Man Booker Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac

1929 – Sheri S. Tepper born, American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels, noted for feminist and ecofeminst scifi, such as The Gate to Women’s Country, Beauty (winner of the 1992 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel), and the Arbai Trilogy; her pen names include A. J. Orde, E. E. Horlak, and B. J. Oliphant

1934 – Katherine Ortega born, American Republican politician and banker; Treasurer of the United States (1983-1989); as president of Santa Ana State Bank (1975-1977), she was the first woman chief executive of a bank in California

1935 – Oklahoma City is first U.S. city to install parking meters

1938 – Cynthia Enloe born, American feminist writer, theorist and academic; known for her work on gender and militarism, and her contributions to the fields of feminist international relations and political economy; the Cynthia Enloe Award was established in 2015 by the International Feminist Journal of Politics, in conjunction with the academic publisher Taylor & Francis in her honor; author of The Curious Feminist, “Gender” Is Not Enough: The Need for Feminist Consciousness, and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases

1939 – Ruth Fahnbulleh Perry born, Liberian politician; after the First Liberian Civil War, she was interim Chair of the Council of State of Liberia (1996-1997), the first Liberian woman head of state; in 1985, she won a seat in the Liberian Senate as a Unity Party candidate, and was the only opposition party member in the Senate (1985-1989) when the rest of her party boycotted taking their seats in protest of the illegitimacy of Samuel Doe’s government.  “You can’t solve the problems by staying away,” she said. After her term in the senate, she was active in Women Initiative in Liberia, Women in Action for Goodwill and the Association of Social Services, working to end to civil war

1942 – Vichy French government orders mass arrest of Jews, deported to Auschwitz

1945 – U.S. detonates the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo NM test site

1946 – Louise Fréchette born, French Canadian public servant and diplomat; currently working on a nuclear energy and global security research project at the Centre for International Governance Innovation; member of the Global Leadership Foundation; was the first UN Deputy Secretary-General (1997-2006); Canadian Ambassador to the UN (1992-1994); Canadian Ambassador to Argentina (1985-1989); part of Canada’s UN delegation in Geneva (1978-1985)

1946 – Barbara J. Lee born, American Democratic politician; a U.S. Representative from California since 1998; only member of either House to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), granted to President George W. Bush in 2001 after 9-11, calling it “a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events — anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. . .” Lee was also a vocal critic of the Iraqi War, and is an advocate for legislation to create a Department of Peace; strongly in favor of gun control, pro-choice, supporter of legislation to increase affordable housing, and an opponent of the Death Penalty; previously a California state assembly member and state senator; Chair of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus (2008-2010); Chair of the revived Congressional Social Work Caucus (since 2013)

1948 – Pinchas Zukerman born in Israel, Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor; came to the U.S. at age 14 to study at the Julliard School with Isaac Stern; then made his New York debut in 1963; honored as one of the great masters of the violin; two-time Grammy winner; made his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1970

1950 – Frances Spaulding born, British art historian, specializing in 20^th century British art, and author over a dozen major books of period art history, biography, and essays; was editor of The Burlington Magazine (2015-2017), the longest-running art journal in the English language; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1984

1951 – J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is published

1954 – Jeanette Mott Oxford born, American activist and Democratic politician; first openly lesbian member of the Missouri House of Representatives, since 2005; Executive Director of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare (1991-2000)

1955 – Susan Wheeler born, American poet and academic; has published six volumes of poetry and a novel; won the 1994 Pushcart Prize for her poetry collection Bag o’ Diamonds

1957 – Alexandra Marinina born as Marina Anatolyevna Alekseyeva in the Ukraine, best-selling Russian author of detective fiction; her 30 novels have sold over 17 million copies, and been translated into 20 languages, but only Confluence of Circumstances is currently available in English translation

1959 – King Mohammed V of Morocco inaugurates the National Festival of Marrakech Popular Arts * to preserve and display a rich heritage of oral, musical and visual arts, with traditional crafts and music workshops, and many presentations by storytellers, poets, musicians, and dancers

1959 – The Coasters record “Poison Ivy”

1959 – James MacMillan born, Scottish orchestral and sacred music composer

1964 – Barry Goldwater accepts the Republican presidential nomination at their San Francisco convention

1969 – Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the moon

1969 – The Who release “I’m Free”

1971 – Jeanne M. Holm is promoted to brigadier general in the United States Air Force, becoming the first woman brigadier general in the Air Force

1973 – Former aide Alexander Butterfield reveals President Nixon’s secret taping system during his testimony at the Senate Watergate hearings

1974 – Maret Maripuu born, Estonian libertarian Reform Party politician; Minister of Social Affairs (2007-2009); Vice President of the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament (2006-2007), and member of the Riigikogu (1999-2007); Tallinn City Council member (1999-2005)

1980 – The Republicans nominate Ronald Reagan to be U.S. President at their convention in Detroit

1989 – South Africa’s largest labour federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, holds its third annual congress and intensifies its campaign against apartheid

1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter

2005 – J.K. Rowling’s sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sells 9 million copies in the first 24 hours after its release

2007 – Niigata, Japan: Two earthquakes injure 800, damage a nuclear power plant

2015 – NASA reveals first close-up pictures of Pluto, sent by the New Horizons probe

2016 – The first Guinea Pig Appreciation Day * is launched by Piggles Guinea Pig Rescue, a Canadian group which is a member of Helping Homeless Pets.com

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