March 12th is

Baked Scallops Day

Girl Scout Day *

Plant a Flower Day *

World Day Against Cyber Censorship *

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MORE! Jane Delano, Dorrit Hoffleit and Lupe Anguiano, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Aztec New Year/Año Nuevo Azteca/Yancuic Xīhuitl begins at sunrise – still observed by some Nahua communities in Mexico. The Aztec calendar was a 365-day solar calendar, divided into 18 ‘months’of 20 days each, and 5 ‘nameless’ days at the end of their year. There is also some evidence suggesting they had leap years

China and Taiwan– Arbor Day

Gabon – Renovation Day
(Democratic Party anniversary)

Macedonia – Tree Day

Mauritius – National/Independence Day *

Sweden – Crown Princess Victoria’s Nameday

Zambia – Youth Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

538 – Ostrogoth King Vitiges ends his siege of Rome, retreating to Ravenna, giving the victory to Byzantine general Flavius Belisarius, sent by Emperor Justinian I to reclaim as much as possible of the Western Roman Empire

Flavius Belisarius

1386 – Ashikaga Yoshimochi born, Japanese shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate during the Muromachi period. He rules from 1394 to 1423. Though he officially abdicated in favor of his son, he actually remained in power until his death in 1428

1488 – Portuguese navigator Bartholomew Diaz erects his first padrao (stone cross) at Kwaaihoek near the mouth of the Bushman’s River on the eastern Cape coast. It is South Africa’s oldest monument

1496 – Jews are expelled from Syria

1500 – In Chile, the Arauco War, Battle of Penco: Spanish troops, with a large number of yanankuna (former serving class under the Incans) and 300 Mapochoes, led by Conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, win the battle after several thousand Mapuche commanded by Toqui Ainavillo attack the hastily-built Spanish fort. Valdivia ordered the nose and hand of each of the 200 captured Mapuche cut off, then sent them back with the message that their people must submit to the Spanish

1613 – Andre Le Notre born, French landscape architect; designs gardens at Versailles

1664 – New Jersey becomes a British colony when King Charles II grants the land in the New World to his brother James, Duke of York

1755 – In North Arlington NJ, the first time a steam engine is used

1789 – The U.S. Post Office is established

1809 – Britain signs a treaty with Persia, forcing the French to leave the country

1831 – Clement Studebaker born, American wagon and carriage manufacturer; co-founder with brother Henry of the H & C Studebaker Company, precursor of the  Studebaker Corporation, building Pennsylvania-German Conestoga wagons and carriages during his lifetime, and automobiles after his death

1832 – Captain Charles Boycott born, English land agent for Lord Erne, he is so detested by the local Irish community that his name has become the term ‘boycott‘ in the English language. When the locals withdraw their labor because of threatened evictions, demanding fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale, it becomes an anti-Irish cause célèbre in the British press, and the British government sends troops to guard 1,000 men of the Irish constabulary brought in to save the harvest, costing ₤10,000 for crops worth ₤500

1841 – Englishman Orlando Jones receives U.S. patent for process to make cornstarch

1857 – Simon Boccanegra by Verdi debuts in Venice

1858: The PONCA sign a treaty (12 stat .997) on this date which grants them a permanent home on the Niobrara River, and protection from their enemies, both white and Indians. For these privileges, the Poncas give up a part of their ancestral lands. Unfortunately, several years later, a mistake by a government bureaucrat will force them to share land with the SIOUX. Repeated protestations over this error will go unheard. The Poncas would be continue to be vulnerable to attacks by the Sioux

1862 – Jane A. Delano born, American nurse and educator, who insists on using mosquito netting in Florida in 1887 to prevent the spread of yellow fever, before doctors know mosquitoes are carriers; serving as the Red Cross national committee chair on nursing service, and superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps (1909-12), she institutes the Red Cross Nursing Service as a reserve for the Army corps, so 8,000 nurses are ready for overseas duty when the U.S. enters WWI – she oversees mobilization of 20,000 nurses, plus nurses’ aides and other workers. In 1918, she becomes wartime director of the Department of Nursing, supplying nurses to the army, navy and Red Cross. The influenza epidemic that sweeps Europe and America in 1918-19 greatly increases demands on Delano and the Red Cross – exhausted, she falls ill and dies in France on a European inspection tour in 1919 – in her spare time, Delano also had served three terms as president of the American Nurses Association (1900–12) and one as president of the Board of Directors of the American Journal of Nursing (1908–11), plus co-authoring with Isabel McIsaac, The American Red Cross Textbook on Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick (1913)

1863 – Gabriele D’Annunzio born, Italian novelist, dramatist and political leader

1864 – Alice Tegnér born, Swedish, music educator, poet and composer, especially of children’s songs; became a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music in 1926

1868 – Henry James O’Farrell is the first person to attempt a political assassination in Australia when he shoots HRH Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria’s son, in the back during the Royal’s good-will tour. The Prince is hospitalized for 2 weeks, nursed by women trained by Florence Nightingale, while incidents of anti-Irish protests and threats sweep Australia. When Prince Alfred learns of O’Farrell’s history of mental illness, he tries to intercede to get his death sentence commuted, but O’Farrell is hanged on April 21, 1868. A public subscription raises the funds to build the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital to give thanks for the Prince’s recovery – still an important hospital in New South Wales

1877 – Annette Abbott Adams born, American lawyer and judge, first woman to serve as Assistant U.S. Attorney General

1881 – Tunisia becomes a French protectorate

1884 – Mississippi authorizes the first state-supported college for women, Mississippi Industrial Institute and College

1889 – Vaslav Nijinsky born, Russian ballet dancer-choreographer, often cited as greatest male dancer of the early 20^th century; star of the Ballets Russes

1894 – Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time, in Vicksburg, Mississippi

1903 – Der Wald, a one-act opera by Dame Ethel Smyth, debuts at the NY Metropolitan Opera, the only opera written by a woman ever performed at the Met

1904 – Lyudmila Keldysh born, Russian mathematician known for her work on set theory and geometric topology; she taught at the Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, beginning in 1934, but had to flee with her family in 1941 from the advancing German troops to Kazan, living in the gym of Kazan University until they were assigned a dorm room. In late 1942, they returned to Moscow. She was honored with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Maternal Glory in the 2nd degree and in 1958 received the Prize of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. In 1964, she became a full professor at Moscow State University, but resigned in 1974 to protest of the expulsion of one of her students, and died in 1976

1907 – Dorrit Hoffleit born, American senior research astronomer at Yale University, works on variable stars, astrometry, meteors spectroscopy, and the Bright Star Catalog, and mentors generations of young women and men in astronomy

1908 – Rita Angus born, a leading artist of New Zealand, known for portraits and landscapes; her iconic 1936 painting Cass, shown below, is voted New Zealand’s most-loved painting in a 2006 poll

1912 – Juliette Gordon Low founds the Girl Scouts * of the USA in Savannah, Georgia

1913 – Canberra Day * –Australia’s future capital is officially named Canberra (a temporary capital remains at Melbourne until 1927 while construction is underway)

1918 – Elaine De Kooning born, artist and art critic; her portraits and other art work have gained acclaim after being overshadowed by her husband William

Robert de Niro Sr. by Elaine De Kooning – 1973

1922 – Jack Kerouac born, American Beat poet, novelist; On the Road

1923 – Clara Fraser born, American feminist and socialist political organizer; leader of the Freedom Socialist Party in 1966, and co-founder of Radical Women in 1967. Hired in 1973 by publicly-owned utility Seattle City Light to run a hiring/training program for female electrical workers, she was fired in 1974, and filed a discrimination complaint documenting political bias and pervasive sexism. After a 7-year battle, she won a ruling affirming workers’ right to speak out against management and organize on their own behalf; reinstated in her former job at City Light, just as renewed furor arose over discrimination against women in non-traditional trades. Fraser joined with women and pro-affirmative action male employees to form the Employee Committee for Equal Rights at City Light (CERCL)

1924 – Mary Lee Woods born, English mathematician and computer programmer; during WWII, worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern; worked at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia (1947-1951); in 1951, joined the Ferranti International team that developed programs for University of Manchester Mark 1, Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers

1928 – Edward Albee born, American playwright; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1929 – Lupe Anguiano born, Mexican-American civil rights activist, advocate for women’s rights, the rights of the poor, and protection of the environment; she was a member of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters (1949-1964) but left the church after joining picket lines and protesting a proposed law to reverse the 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Act, aimed at stopping racial discrimination by landlords; worked for and in consultation with government agencies and legislative bodies, as well as Cesar Chavez, and as a national organizer for the United Farm Workers; founder of National Women’s Employment and Education, and founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus, which has helped hundreds of women gain education and work skills enabling them to get off welfare; advocate for the California Coastal Protection Network

1930 – Mahatma Gandhi begins his 240 mile ‘walk’ to the sea, to protest British rule of India by breaking the British salt monopoly, gathering thousands of followers as he goes

1932 – Andrew Young Jr. born, American Civil Rights leader, Southern Christian Leadership Executive Director (1964-68), first black U.S. Congressman (D) from Georgia (1973-1977) since Reconstruction, first African-American U.S. Ambassador to the UN (1977-1979)

1933 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt makes a presidential address to the nation on the radio, the first of his “Fireside Chats”

1935 – Vakentyna Shevchenko born, Ukrainian politician; deputy chair of the Supreme Council Presidium of the Ukrainian SSR (1975-1985); when Oleksandr Andreyev died in office in 1984, she became acting chair of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, and then officially chair (1985-1990). In 1989, she refused to sign the prohibition against the People’s Movement of Ukraine

1936 – Virginia Hamilton born, African American children’s author; won a National Book Award for Children’s Books, and the 1975 Newbery Award for M.C. Higgins, the Great; and in 1992, the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature

1938 – The “Anschluss” takes place as German troops enter Austria; Adolf Hitler annexes his homeland the following day

1940 – Finland surrenders to Russia, ending the Russo-Finnish War

1946 – Liza Minnelli born, singer-actress, international star of stage, screen and television; on the board of the non-profit Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP/child brain development) for 20 years; and given generously of her time to AmfaR (foundation for AIDS research)

1947 – U.S. President Harry Truman establishes the “Truman Doctrine” – asks Congress for $400 million in aid to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism

1948 – Sandra Brown born, American bestselling mystery and suspense novelist; has also used pen names, including Rachel Ryan and Erin St. Claire, usually for romance novels; noted for The Alibi, Seeing Red and Tailspin

1953 – Carl Hiaasen born, American author, journalist and newspaper columnist

1959 – U.S. House joins the Senate to approve Hawaiian statehood

1967 – In Indonesia, after two years of resistance and an attempted coup, the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPRS) strips President Sukarno of his remaining power, and names Suharto as acting President

1968 – Tammy Duckworth born in Thailand, Thai-American Democratic politician; Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director (2006-2008); U.S. Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2009-2011); first disabled woman elected to Congress, and first Asian American elected to U.S. Congress from Illinois (2013-2017); elected as U.S. Senator (D-IL) in 2017; during the Iraq War, she served as a U.S Army helicopter pilot, and lost both her legs, the first female double amputee from that war

1968 – Mauritius gains its independence * from Great Britain, even though Elizabeth II remained nominal head of state. Mauritius was first colonized by the Dutch (1598-1710), then the French (1710-1810), and the British took over in 1810. In 1947, a new Legislative Assembly was the country’s first step toward self-rule. The independence campaign gained momentum after 1961, when the British agreed to additional self-government and eventual independence, and got another boost when the pro-independence coalition won a narrow majority in 1967 elections. On the 1992 anniversary of independence, Mauritius became a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations

1978 – Arina Tanemura born, Japanese shōjo manga artist, known for I.O.N., and several series, including Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite

1985 – The U.S. and the USSR begin arms control talks in Geneva

1987 – Les Miserables opens on Broadway

1989 – About 2,500 veterans and supporters march at the Art Institute of Chicago protesting the placement of an American flag on the floor as part of an exhibit

1989 – The World Wide Web is conceived by computing legend Tim Berners-Lee

1992 – Mauritius becomes a republic but remains a member of the British Commonwealth

1993 – In the U.S., the Pentagon calls for the closure of 31 major military bases

1994 – A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster is exposed as a hoax, taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached

1994 – The Church of England ordains its first women priests

1999 – Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), all three countries are former members of the Warsaw Pact

2002 – The U.N. Security Council approves a U.S.-sponsored resolution endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time

2003 – The Chinese government orders the Rolling Stones to eliminate four songs from their upcoming performances in Shanghai and Beijing, banning “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Beast of Burden,” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together”

2003 – The U.S. Air Force announces resumption of reconnaissance flights off North Korea’s coast, which stopped March 2 after an encounter with 4 armed North Korean jets

2006 (year uncertain) – Plant a Flower Day * is a good day to start your spring gardening, even if you’re just planting seeds in containers indoors – the National Wildlife Federation encourages all of us to plant flowers that attract pollinators like butterflies, bees and hummingbirds – just garden organically, NO pesticides or herbicides

2008 – The first World Day Against Cyber Censorship * is launched by Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International to rally support for a single, unrestricted internet, accessible to all, and to draw attention to the ways governments around the world are deterring and censoring free speech online. Mass surveillance is a form of censorship, since many activists actively self-censor when they know that the authorities are listening in to all their communications, and there is also increasing evidence of organized troll attacks on activists and journalists

2009 – Announcement that the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago, IL, will be renamed the Willis Tower

2009 – Financier Bernard Madoff pleads guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street’s history

2011 – The Arab League asks the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone to protect Libyan rebels

2016 – In Santiago, Chile, Iron Maiden’s plane, Ed Force One, is damaged when a ground tug collides with two of the jet’s engines

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