August 1st is

Girlfriend’s Day

Earth Overshoot Day *

U.S. Air Force Day *

World Lung Cancer Day

World Wide Web Day *

(Musical) Rounds Resounding Day *

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MORE! Claudius, Caroline Herschel and Chubby Checkers, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Paganism –
Northern Hemisphere: Lammas / Lunasa
Southern Hemisphere:  Imbolc / Oimelc / Brigid 

Emancipation Day in the Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat. St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Island

Benin – Independence Day

North Cyprus –Social Resistance Day

Republic of the Congo – Parents’ Day

Switzerland – National Day *

Vanuatu – Independence Day

Nicaragua – Managua:
Treida de Santo Domingo de Guzmán

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On This Day in HISTORY

10 BC – Claudius born in Gaul, first Roman emperor (41-54 AD) born outside Italy

30 BC – Octavian enters Alexandria, Egypt, as a Roman conqueror

527 – Justinian I becomes sole ruler of Byzantine Empire

845 – Kan Shōjō born as Sugawara no Michizane; Japanese Heian Period poet, scholar and politician; notable for his Kanshi poetry (Japanese poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets); his knowledge of written Classical Chinese helped him rise through the ranks of scholars to a position in the Ministry of Popular Affairs (874), where he drafted edicts, correspondence and petitions, then to the Ministry of the Ceremonial (877), and appointment as governor of Sanuki Province (886-890). He was senior third rank when Emperor Uda abdicated in 897, but he was undermined in the new administration by a rival, and died exiled from court as a minor official in the distant Kyushu capital of Dazaifu

902 – The Muslim Aghlabids army takes Taormina completing the conquest of Sicily

1291 – The Federal Charter documents the union of the three cantons that are now central Switzerland, the beginning of the Swiss Confederacy which will grow into the modern-day country; marked as National Day * in Switzerland

1579 – Luis Vélez de Guevara, Spanish author and playwright; author of over 400 plays, but best remembered for his novel, El Diablo cojuelo (“The Crippled Devil”)

Illustration from El Diablo cojuelo by Luis Vélez de Guevara

1620 – The Speedwell arrives in Southampton from Delfshaven (now part of Rotterdam) to join with the Mayflower in bringing pilgrims to America, but its hull is already leaking, and needs repairs

1714 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain

George I in his coronation robes

1770 – William Clark born, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; served as Governor of Missouri Territory (1813-1820)

1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele

1779 – Frances Scott Key born, “Star-Spangled Banner” lyricist

1786 – Caroline Herschel, German astronomer, discovers the first of her eight comets; she was the first woman to discover a comet; she was paid 50 pounds a year by the British Crown as her brother’s assistant, the first woman to be paid for her work as an astronomer 

1800 – The Acts of Union unite the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland

1818 – Maria Mitchell born, American astronomer and academic, discoverer of a comet, first American woman paid professional astronomer; first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Vassar College professor of astronomy (1865-1888) – when she found out she was paid less than younger male professors, she insisted on and got a salary increase; abolitionist (refused to wear cotton clothing until after the Emancipation Proclamation) and suffragist, friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1819 – Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, is born

1834 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 goes into effect in the British Empire; by 1840 existing slaves are emancipated

1837 – Mary Harris baptized after birth in Ireland, her exact birthdate unknown, but she became the American labor organizer and speaker ‘Mother Jones’ after her husband and children died of yellow fever; in 1902 she was called ‘the most dangerous woman in America’ because she was so successful in organizing mine workers and their families; activist for child labor laws

1841 – Lilli Suburg born, Estonian journalist, writer and feminist, established a girls school in Pärnu, published the first women’s magazine in Estonia

1865 – Isobel Lilian Gloag born in London of Scottish parents, British painter known for oil and watercolour portraits, posters and stained glass designs; exhibited works at the Royal Academy of Arts, and elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours. She had suffered ill health since childhood, and died at age 51

1881 – Stanisław Kazuro born, Polish composer and conductor

1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea

1905 – Helen Sawyer Hogg born, American-Canadian astronomer and academic; did pioneering research into globular clusters and variable stars; first woman president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (1939-1941); wrote a weekly column “With the Stars” for the Toronto Star, and a column “Out of Old Books” for the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada; strong advocate for women’s careers in science; winner of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1949), the Rittenhouse Medal (1967) and the Klumpke-Roberts Award (1983)

1910 – Gerda Taro born as Gerta Pohorylle, German Jewish war photographer, one of the first women photojournalists to be killed while covering the front lines of a war; she was opposed to the Nazi party, and joined leftist groups in 1929. In 1933, she arrested and detained for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda; in 1934, she and her family were forced to leave Germany, scattering in different directions. She moved to Paris, and never saw her family again. She learned photography from Endre Friedmann, a Hungarian Jew, and they became lovers. She went to work for Alliance Photo as a picture editor. They created the fictional persona of Robert Capo for Freidmann, but both of them submitted work under the alias, as it became more difficult for Jews to get their work accepted. The secret came out, but Friedmann kept the name Capa, and she adopted Gerda Taro as her professional name. While covering the Spanish Civil War, she photographed the bombing of Valencia and the Brunete region near Madrid, where her photographs showed that the Nationalist propaganda claiming control of the region was false. She was killed in 1937, accidentally hit by a Republican tank

1911 – Harriet Quimby passes her pilot’s test, becoming the first woman in the United States to receive an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate

1911 –  Jackie Ormes born, American cartoonist, first female African American cartoonist in the U.S.; her comic strips – Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger

1912 – Gego born as Getrud Louise Goldschmidt in Germany; Venezuelan modern artist and sculptor; because she was Jewish, her German citizenship was nullified in 1935, and she moved to Venezuela in 1939, becoming a Venezuelan citizen in 1952

Gego in her studio – 1984 photo by Isidro Nunez

1914 – Germany and Russia declare war on each other, one of the series of declarations that will engulf Europe in WWI

1914 – Jack Delano born, American photographer and composer

1916 – Anne Hébert born, Canadian author and poet, honored three times with the Governor General’s Award

1924 – Abdullad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (2005-2015); Crown Prince (1982-2005), and de facto ruler after his father suffered a stroke in 1995; Commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (1962-2005)

1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party, now commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army

1927 – María Teresa López Boegeholz born, Chilean oceanographer and pioneer in marine sciences; professor of zoology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and then professor at the University of Concepción, where she taught courses in ecology, aquaculture, women and the environment, marine biology and sustainable development; did field work on ecologic projects in the Chiloé Archipelago; advocate for women in artisanal fishing

1936 – The Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Berlin is presided over by Aldolf Hitler, who had ordered the building of a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas to outdo the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Berlin games were broadcast on radio to 41 countries, and the first to be televised

https://youtu.be/I7JlhNC6uLg

1942 – Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead guitarist-songwriter, is born

1944 – The Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation breaks out in Poland

1946 – Fiona Stanley born, Australian epidemiologist, noted for research on child and maternal health, and birth defects; confirmed the benefit of folate in preventing spina bifida; her early work was on health problems among Aboriginal children caused by changes to their environment and traditional culture, then she went back to school in the UK at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and in the U.S., before returning to Australia to establish research programs at the University of Western Australia and within the health department, focusing on preventing instead of curing diseases caused by societal and environmental issues. In 1990, she was the founder and director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences since 1996; recipient of the 2001 Centenary Medal; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science since 2002; honored in 2004 by the National Trust as an Australian Living Treasure; one of the major campaigners for the Valuing Children Initiative

1947 – President Truman signs proclamation of Air Force Day on 40^th Anniversary of date the Aeronautical Division was established under Chief Signal Officer of the Army

1947 – Lorna Goodison born, Jamaican poet, writer and painter; first woman Poet Laureate of Jamaica, since 2017; honored with 1999 Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for literary contributions, and the 2018 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in Poetry; her poetry collections include I Am Becoming My Mother, Oracabessa and Supplying Salt and Light

1957 – The U.S and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

1960 – Chubby Checkers releases “The Twist”

1960 – Aretha Franklin records “Today I Sing the Blues”

1964 – Augusta Read Thomas born, American composer and conductor; Chair of the Board of the American Music Center; in 2007, Astral Canticle was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music; in 2017, she was commissioned to compose music commemorating the first nuclear chain reaction and its legacy: ‘Plea for Peace’

1966 – Charles Whitman kills 16 people with a rifle from the tower at the University of Texas-Austin

1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir takes office as Iceland’s first woman president, and first world’s first democratically elected female head of state

1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England

1987 – Rounds Resounding Day * is founded by Gloria Delamar, celebrating rounds, catches and canons in the folk contrapuntal tradition – gather some friends and sing a round of “Row, Row Row Your Boat”

1989 – World Wide Web Day * – The World Wide Web was created by English engineer and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee at the the Europe Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland, so he could communicate with co-workers via hyperlinks. He is now the director of the World Wide Web Foundation, campaigning to ensure the web serves humanity by establishing it as a global public good and a basic right

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau develop a prototype browser and introduce HTML at CERN in Switzerland

2000 – First time a Jarvik 2000 artificial heart is put into a human patient, the first artificial heart able to maintain blood flow as well as generating a pulse

2006 – The first Earth Overshoot Day * is launched in October by the New Economics Foundation, now co-sponsored by the Global Footprint Network ; the day when humanity’s demand on the planet’s ecological resources exceeds what the Earth will generate in that year, creating an ever-growing deficit in resources, and an escalating excess of waste byproducts, such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In 2018, today is the day we exceed this year’s resources. In just 12 years, our consumption has increased so much that the overshoot day  has moved back from October to the first of August. Unless we make major changes, at our present rate, the overshoot day in 2030 will be in June, meaning we’ll be using up a full year’s resources in just six months

2008 – The Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway begins operation, the fastest commuter rail system in the world

2010 – Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, habitat for hundreds of unique species, including the endangered Hawaiian Monk seal, Hawksbill sea turtle and the Nihoa finch, becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is now the second largest protected area on the planet.

2014 – The Council of Europe (COE) Convention to Prevent and Combat Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence goes into force

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