July 19^th is

Daiquiri Day

Seneca Falls Opening Day *

Stick Out Your Tongue Day

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MORE! Edgar Degas, Lucretia Mott and Harry Belafonte, click

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World Festivals and National Holidays

 Day of the Ancient Roman religious festival Lucaria, the “Festival of the Grove” but little is known about it now. Even the deity being honored is unknown. If the ritual for grove-clearing recorded by Cato the Elder is related to Lucaria, the invocation was deliberately anonymous 

Greece – Oropos:
Rockwave Festival

Myanmar – Martyrs’ Day

Nicaragua – Sandinista Revolution Day

Spain – Magalluf:
Creamfields Mallorca Festival

United Kingdom – Flitch Day
(happy marriage day)

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 64 – The Circus Maximus burns during the Great Fire of Rome

1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth

1553 – Protestant Lady Jane Grey, “Nine Day Queen” of England, is deposed by the Privy Council (which abruptly changed sides as Lady Jane’s popular support wanes) in favor of Henry VIII’s devoutly Catholic daughter Mary

1595 – Johannes Kepler has an epiphany, while demonstrating for students the periodic conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, about regular polygons and circles as the geometrical basis of the universe, but it doesn’t quite work, so he begins experimenting with 3-dimensional polygons; in 1596, he publishes Mysterium Cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery), the first published defense of the Copernicus Theory

1674 – The Court of Holland bans the works of Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes and Lodewijk Meyer, which assert the right of individuals to think for themselves, and to question religious beliefs

1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty with John Nanfan, acting colonial governor of New York, ceding title to vast acres of land to English King William III; much of the land had already been claimed by New France and its Algonquian allies, neither of which recognize the treaty

1759 – Marianna Auenbrugger born, Austrian pianist and composer, a student of Joseph Haydn and Antonio Salieri; Salieri publishes her Keyboard Sonata in E-flat at his own expense

1814 – Samuel Colt born, American future gun manufacturer

1817 – Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke born, served in the Civil War as a Union hospital nurse and administrator, working during nineteen battles in field hospitals

1832 – The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary

1834 – Edgar Degas born, prominent French artist, famed for his paintings of dancers

Blue Dancers by Edgar Degas

1843 – Brunel launches SS Great Britain, first ocean-going craft with screw propeller

1846 – Edward Charles Pickering born, American physicist and astronomer; co-discoverer of spectroscopic binary stars

1848 – Seneca Falls Opening Day * – the first day of the Woman’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, NY, a joint vision of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both abolitionists, who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. When women were barred from the convention floor, their common indignation at this discrimination became the impetus for their founding of the women’s rights movement in the United States. Organizers for the Seneca Falls convention included Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock and Jane Hunt. The first day was women-only. On the second day, men were also invited to attend so they could hear the speakers, including key-note speaker Lucretia Mott

1865 – Charles H. Mayo born, American surgeon; founder of the Mayo Clinic

1868 – Florence Foster Jenkins born, American amateur operatic soprano, known for her lack of singing ability, popular primarily for the amusement she provided

1875 – Alice Dunbar Nelson born of mixed-race parents, American novelist, poet, and essayist; civil rights and woman’s suffrage activist; part of the Harlem Renaissance; co-editor of the Wilmington Advocate (1920-1921), a progressive black newspaper in Delaware, where she began writing regular columns and articles for many publications, but often had to fight to get attribution and payment for them

1896 – A. J. Cronin born, Scottish novelist and physician; The Citadel and The Keys to the Kingdom are his best-known novels

1898 – Herbert Marcuse born in Germany, American political philosopher

1900 – The Paris Metro opens its first line for service

1905 – Edgar Snow born, American journalist and author

1909 – Balamani Amma born, prolific Indian poet who wrote in Malayalam; some of her poems were translated by her daughter, Indian English-language author Kamala Surayya, who often used the pen name Madhavikutty

1916 – Eve Merriam born, American poet and playwright, noted for poetry for children, recipient of the Yale Younger Poets Prize for her first book Family Circle

1919 – Peace Day celebration in Great Britain – WWI Cenotaph unveiled in London

1921 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow born, American medical physicist, 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (second American woman laureate in the category) for her part in development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique with co-laureates Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally. RIA is a radioisotope tracing technique which allows measurement of tiny quantities of biological substances in human blood and other aqueous fluids

1921 – Elizabeth Spencer born, American novelist and short story writer; Fire in the Morning, The Light in the Piazza, Starting Over; 2007 PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction; 1992 John Dos Passos Award for Literature

1922 – Rachel Isum Robinson born, African American registered nurse; in 1957, went back to school for a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University; researcher and clinician in the Department of Social and Community Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Assistant Professor at Yale School of Nursing; Director of Nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center; married to baseball great Jackie Robinson from 1946 until his death in 1972; founder of the Jackie Robinson Development Corporation, a low-to-moderate housing development company, and its president (1972-1982); founder in 1973 of the Jackie Robinson Foundation a non-profit providing educational opportunities for minority students

1923 – Insulin is introduced in the U.S. as a treatment for Diabetes

1937 –Die Ausstellung Entartete Kunst, the infamous “degenerate art exhibition” opens in Munich, Germany, presenting 650 works of art confiscated from German museums, denounced as works that “insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill.” Works by Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Piet Modrian, Marc Chagall and Wassily Kandinsky are among those exhibited

1941 – Winston Churchill launches WWII British “V for Victory” campaign

1941 – Neelie Kroes born, Dutch People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) politician, served in the Netherlands House of Representatives (1981-1986), and as Undersecretary (1977-1981), then Minister (1982-1989), of Transport, Public Works and Waste Management. Chancellor of Nyenrode Business University (1991-2000). European Commissioner for Competition (2004-2010), which is the merger authority for the European Economic Area, responsible for upholding anti-trust laws; European Commissioner for Digital Agenda (2010-2014)

1942 – The North American premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony #7 is broadcast from New York City by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscannini; often called ‘the Leningrad Symphony’ because Shostakovich dedicated the work to his home town (called St. Petersburg at the time of his birth), which he wrote during the WWII 900-day Siege of Leningrad

1945 – Paule Baillargeon born, French Canadian film director and actress; nominated for a Genie Award (Canada’s Oscars) for Best Director for her 1993 film Le Sexe des étoiles (The Sex of the Stars); won the Genie award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Gabrielle in the 1987 film I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing

1949 – Harry Belafonte begins recording his first sessions for Capitol Records

1952 – Jayne Anne Phillips born, American novelist, short story writer and academic; her 1976 short story collection Sweethearts won the Pushcart Prize; 1979’s Black Tickets won the American Academy’s Sue Kaufman Prize; her novels include Machine Dreams, Shelter (American Academy Award in Literature winner) and Quiet Dell

1956 – Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announces that the United States is withdrawing its offer of financial aid to Egypt for the construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, officially because of “difficulties” in arranging the financial details with the Egyptian government, but motivated by antagonism toward Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and his outspoken attacks on Western colonialism. This also causes a rift in American-British relations, as the two allies were to partner in funding the project. The Soviet Union rushes to Egypt’s aid, and the dam is built without U.S. assistance, a major American diplomatic blunder

1969 – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, aboard NASA’s Apollo 11, go into orbit around the moon

1970 – Nicola Sturgeon born, Scottish politician; current First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party, both since 2014; Depute (deputy) First Minister of Scotland (2007-2014); Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investments and Cities (2012-2014); Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing (2007-2012); Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party (2004-2014); Scottish Parliament Member (since 1999); feminist, campaigner for women’s and LGBT rights, and gender equality. She received both criticism and praise for being the Honorary Grand Marshall of the Glasgow Pride Parade during the July 14-15 2018 weekend instead of meeting with Donald Trump, especially since she mentioned in her speech at the march that she was “a wee bit tickled” by reports that Trump hates her and was “bitching” about her to Theresa May, adding “I suppose I should take it as a compliment. I certainly don’t spend that much time talking about him.” She also praised Blair Wilson, a 21-year-old gay man who was beaten up when he asked people who were shouting abuse at him, “Why?” Wilson posted an account of the attack with a selfie of his bloodied face smiling defiantly on Facebook. Sturgeon praised him for speaking up and said Wilson showed values that should define the country

1976 – The Sagarmāthā National Park is established in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal and includes Mount Everest; it is classified as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) by Birdlife International; Sagarmāthā translates into English as “sky head”

1979 – The civil war in Nicaragua ends with the Sandinistas taking control of Managua as President Somoza flees the country

1980 – Billy Joel gets his first gold record for “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”

1984 – Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman nominated by a major party for U.S. Vice President at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco

1993 – President Clinton announces “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays in the military

2005 – George W. Bush nominates John Roberts to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

2011 – The movie Captain America: The First Avenger premieres in Los Angeles

2011 – Summoned by British lawmakers for a three-hour grilling, Rupert Murdoch says he is humbled and ashamed, but takes no responsibility for wrongdoing in a phone hacking and bribery scandal at one of his tabloids, claiming only that he trusted the wrong people

2014 – A Florida jury slammed R.J. Reynolds with $23.6 billion in punitive damages; in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker, Reynolds was charged with knowingly selling a dangerous product, hiding tobacco risks from the public, and targeting children and teenagers with their advertising

R. J. Reynolds cigarette ads: 1950s Doctors Smoke and 1980s Joe Camel
(note Joe’s resemblance to “the Fonz” from TV’s Happy Days (1974-1984)

2016 – After a failed military coup in Turkey, President Recep Erdogan began pushing lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty, which Turkey abolished in 2004. About 20,000 police officers, civil servants, members of the judiciary, and army personnel were detained or suspended after the coup attempt on July 15, 2016

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