ctober 11^th is

International Day of the Girl Child *

General Pulaski Memorial Day *

National Coming Out Day *

Sausage Pizza Day

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MORE! Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Alsop and Merieme Chadid, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Armenia – 2018 Organisation Internationle
de La Francophonie Summit

Bolivia – Bolivian Women’s Day

Germany – Berlin: Berlin leichtet
(Lights festival – ends October 14)

Hungary – Budapest: Contemporary
Arts Festival (ends October 21)

Macedonia – Antifascist Uprising Day

Spain – Galicia: Fiesta del Marisco
(Seafood festival – ends October 14)

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On This Day in HISTORY

1138 – A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria, believed to be the third deadliest earthquake in history

1142 – Jin-song Wars (1125-1234): The Treaty of Shaoxing sets the boundary between the lands of the Jianzhou Jurchen Jin dynasty and those of the Han Chinese Song dynasty, but does not end the conflict between the two empires, which continues until the fall of the Jin in 1234

1311 – Ordinances of 1311 published, imposed on English King Edward II by the Ordainers, a coalition of barons and clergy, to restrict his powers over expenditures for war, the Royal household and the exchequer, and to banish the King’s favorite, Piers Gaveston

1614 – Explorer and navigator Adriaen Block, with a consortium of Dutch merchants, present a petition to the States General, the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands,  for exclusive trading rights between the 40^th and 45^thparallels north in the New World, which is granted to their newly formed New Netherland Company for a three year term

1616 – Andreas Gryphius born, German lyric poet and dramatist; noted for tragedy, Cardenio and Celinde

1727 – George Frideric Handel’s Coronation Anthem No. 4 is first performed at London’s Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George II

1741 – James Barry born, Irish painter

Self-portrait by James Barry – 1803

1767 – Surveying the Mason-Dixon line between Maryland and Pennsylvania is completed

1779 – General Pulaski Memorial Day * Polish-American Revolutionary War hero General Casimir Pulaski dies from wounds after Siege of Savannah (see also 1929 entry)

1793 – Maria James born in Wales, American poet; emigrated to the U.S. with her family at age 7; after she was found to make neat stitches but sewed too slowly, her apprenticeship to a dressmaker was ended, and she went into domestic service, most often as a nursery maid. She wrote poetry in her limited spare time. In 1833, Sarah Nott Potter returned from a visit to friends, and showed her husband, Bishop Alonzo Potter, a copy of a poem written by a young woman in service to the family she visited . The Bishop was intrigued, and sought more poems written by Maria James. In 1839, he arranged for the publication of Wales and other Poems, with a lengthy introduction written by himself, telling readers that Maria James “solaced a life of labor with intellectual occupations,” and that “her achievements should be made known to repress the supercilious pride of the privileged and educated.”

1809 – Explorer Meriweather Lewis dies of a gunshot wound or wounds at an inn called Grinder’s Stand on the Natchez Trace road, southwest of Nashville – conflicting reports claim suicide, a duel, or murder by one or more assailants, but the truth is still unknown

Meriwether Lewis – by Michael J Deas

1811 –Inventor John Stevens’ steam-powered ferryboat, Juliana, begins operation between New York City, and Hoboken NJ

1821 – Sir George Williams born, English philanthropist; YMCA founder

1841 – Lucy Maria Field Wanzer born in Wisconsin; her family moved to California in 1858. She applied to the Toland Medical College in San Francisco, but was rejected. In 1873, the school was absorbed into the University of California system, and Wanser appealed her rejection to the UC board of regents. She was admitted, after a four-month appeal that set a precedent allowing other women to attend medical schools throughout the UC system.  Even though she was hazed by some male students, and one professor told her any woman who wanted to study medicine should have their ovaries removed, to which she replied that male students should have their testicles removed, Wanzer graduated with honors in 1876.  After graduation, she’s admitted to the San Francisco County Medical Society, but only after threats to “blackball” her failed. Her private practice, in a series of downtown San Francisco offices, focused on obstetrics and gynecology. In 1890, she was elected president of the University of California Medical Department Alumni Society. Wanzer was also a practicing pediatrician, and helped establish the San Francisco Children’s Hospital

1852 – The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university, is founded in Sydney

1865 – In Jamaica, the Mirant Bay rebellion begins with 100s marching to the courthouse led by preacher Paul Bogle, to protest injustice, widespread poverty and a high poll tax which prevents most freedmen from voting. During a violent clash between protestors and militia, the courthouse is burned, and 25 people are killed.

1869 – Thomas Edison files for a patent for his first invention, an electric vote-counting machine for the U.S. Congress

1872 – British suffragette Emily Wilding Davison born, suffragette and teacher who died from injuries caused when she was hit by the race horse owned by King George V during the 1913 running of the Epsom Derby, trying to gain attention for the cause of suffrage

1881 – David Henderson Houston patents the first roll film for cameras

1884 – Eleanor Roosevelt born, humanitarian and civil rights activist, longest-serving U.S. First Lady (1933-1945) and first U.S. delegate to the UN General Assembly (1945-1952); first American representative and first Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, deeply involved in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1885 – François Mauriac born, French novelist, playwright poet and journalist; 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature; his novel Le Désert de l’amour awarded 1926 Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française

1890 – The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is founded in Washington DC

1899 – The 2^nd Anglo-Boer War, also called the South African War, is officially declared, two days after the South African Republic (also known as the Transvaal) issues an ultimatum that the British withdraw all their troops from the border of the Transvaal within 48 hours, or the South African Republic, allied with the Orange Free State, would declare war. The news did not reach London until the day the ultimatum expired, and was greeted there as an “extravagant farce” by the Times newspaper, but caused dismay to many in the government who knew how woefully undermanned and equipped the British forces were. The war lasted from October 1899 to May 1902. British military casualties totaled 22,092 dead, and 75,430 sick or wounded, while the Boer military casualties totaled 6,189 dead, and 24,000 Boer POWs sent overseas. Their civilian casualties were much higher, 43,370 dead, including 26,370 Boer women and children who died in British concentration camps (many of starvation), and over 20,000 black Africans of the 115,000 interned in separate concentration camps. The British “scorched earth” policy of killing all the livestock, then burning and salting Boer farms made much of the region’s farmland unworkable

1906 – The San Francisco School Board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Japan when it orders racially segregated schools for Japanese students

1910 – Joseph Alsop born, influential American syndicated newspaper columnist and Washington DC insider

1910 – Former President Teddy Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane, for four minutes in St. Louis MO

1913 – Dorothy Woolfolk born, aka Dorothy Manning, pioneering woman in American comic book industry, first female editor at DC Comics, helped develop ‘Kryptonite’ for the Superman series

1918 – Jerome Robbins born, American choreographer, and theatre director-producer; best remembered for Broadway musicals, including Peter Pan, The King and I, Gypsy and West Side Story

Jerome Robins working with West Side Story dancers

1925 – Elmore Leonard born, American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter, noted for crime and suspense fiction; honored by the Mystery Writers of America with a 1992 Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement

1926 – Thích Nhất Hạnh born, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, author and peace activist; Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire and At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life, among several books

1929 – By Congressional resolution, General Pulaski Memorial Day * is established (see also 1779 entry)

1932 – In New York, a political campaign ad is broadcast on television for the first time

1939 – Jazz tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins records “Body and Soul”

1940 – Lucy Morgan born, American newspaperwoman and editorialist at the Tampa Bay Times; first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1985, shared with co-author Jack Reed, for their coverage of corruption in the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Florida

1946 – Elinor Goodman born, British journalist; political editor of ITN’s Channel 4 News (1988-2005); political correspondent for Channel 4 (1982-1988); since her 2005 retirement from journalism, chair of the Affordable Rural Housing Commission of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

1950 – The CBS mechanical color system is the first to be licensed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission

1950 – Patty Murray born, U.S. Senator (D-WA) since 1993; has chaired the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and Senate Budget Committee; served as Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference; currently Ranking Member of the Senate Health Committee and Senate Assistant Democratic Leader

1957 – Dawn French born, British comedian and writer; best known for co-writing and starring in the BBC comedy sketch show French and Saunders with comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, with whom she won the 1991 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for TV-Light Entertainment for French and Saunders

1958 – The U.S launches Pioneer 1, a lunar probe, but it falls short, and burns up in Earth’s atmosphere

1962 – Pope John XXII convenes the first session of Vatican II

1968 – NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission that broadcast live television reports from orbit

1969 – Merieme Chadid born, Moroccan astronomer, explorer and researcher; leader of an international scientific team installing a major astronomical observatory in the heart of Antarctica; first woman astronomer to work in Antarctica; her Ph.D. topic was hypersonic shock waves in pulsating stars

1975 – Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the guest host

1983 – The last hand-cranked telephones in the U.S. go out of service in Bryant Pond ME, and its 440 telephone customers get direct-dial service

1984 – Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan is the first American woman to perform a space walk, during a NASA Space Shuttle Challenger mission

1984 – Jane Zhang born, Chinese singer-songwriter, a leading contemporary Chinese recording artist, dubbed the “Dolphin Princess” for her signature whistle register; noted for her 2008 duet with Andrea Bocelli singing the song, “One World, One Dream”

1987 – The AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed to the public for the first time during a ‘National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights’ on the National Mall in Washington DC

1988 – First National Coming Out Day * held on the one-year anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights

1991 – Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, law professor Anita Hill accuses Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her; Thomas reappears before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a “high-tech lynching.”

1994 – Colorado’s Supreme Court declares the state’s anti-gay rights measure is unconstitutional

2000 – The Discovery launch marks NASA’s 100^th Space Shuttle mission

2001 – Trinidad-born writer V.S. Naipaul wins the Nobel Prize in literature

2002 – Former President Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his Middle Eastern diplomacy

2011 – The U.N. declares October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child * honoring efforts of ‘Day of the Girl’ youth-led movement in the U.S.

2013 – The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the watchdog and enforcement group of the U.N. Chemical Weapons Convention, is awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. The organization was tasked with the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, after a deadly Sarin gas attack killed over 1,000 Syrian civilians in August. The OPCW inspectors, in the middle of Syria’s civil war, were accompanied by UN guards who were not armed. They were searching for an estimated 1,000 tons of chemical weapons. The inspectors are credited with overseeing the destruction of 80% of Syria’s declared chemical weapons stockpiles

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