November 8th is

Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day

Intersex Day of Remembrance *

Harvey Wallbanger Day

World Urbanism Day *

Cappuccino Day

International X-ray Day *

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MORE! Sitara Devi, Ben Bova and Alfre Woodard, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Azerbaijan – Baku Metro Employees Day

Bulgaria – Archangelovden
(Saint Michael’s Day)

Canada – Aboriginal Veterans Day

China – Chaoyang:
VeggiWorld Vegetarian Expo

Ecuador –Quito:
El Festival del Vino

Japan –  Tokyo: Asakusa
Tori no Ichi I (rooster festival)

Latvia – Liepāja: Nordic-Baltic
Arts Festival & Conference

Mexico – Torreón:
Laguna Food & Wine Fest

Malaysia – Seri Kembangan:
MURFEST Wellness Festival

Micronesia – Pohnpei: Constitution Day

Scotland – Edinburgh: Scottish Tree Festival

South Africa – George:
The George Gin Festival

Spain – Barcelona:
European Creativity Festival

United Kingdom – London:
London Early Music Festival

Uruguay – Montevideo: Festival Animal

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On This Day in HISTORY

1278 – Trần Thánh Tông, second emperor of the Trần dynasty in Đại Việt (now Vietnam), who reigned from 1258 to 1278, cedes the throne to his son Trần Nhân Tông, and assumes the title of Thái thượng hoàng (Retired Emperor)

1342 –Julian of Norwich born, English anchoress and mystic; her Revelations of Divine Love is the first theological book in the English language attributed with certainty to a woman; venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but not beatified by the Roman Catholic church

1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration

1543 – Lettice Knollys born, Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester; a grandniece of Anne Boleyn and close to Elizabeth I since childhood, she became part of the court early. At 17, she married Walter Devereux, who became Earl of Essex, but she became involved with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, while her husband was in Ireland on military duty. Two years after her husband died in Ireland, Lettice and Robert Dudley, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, were secretly married. When the queen found out, she banished the Countess from court. When Robert died in 1588, she unexpectedly married Sir Christopher Blount, 12 years younger, and a Catholic, who was one of Dudley’s household officers, but also a secret agent involved in the attempt to put Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. He was beheaded for treason in 1601, as was her son from her first marriage, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who had attempted to force his way into the court with his followers, demanding an audience with Elizabeth, which was declared to be treason. In 1604-1605, Lettice successfully defended her widow’s dower rights in court when her possessions and her good name were threatened by the Earl’s illegitimate  son, Robert Dudley, who claimed that he was his father’s legitimate heir, implicitly declaring her marriage  bigamous. She was still walking a mile a day up until she turned 90, and died at age 91 in December 1634

1555 – Nyaungyan Min born, King of Burma (1599-1605); considered the Nyaungyan Dynasty’s founder; started reunification process after the collapse of the Toungoo Dynasty

1602 –The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library opens for scholars and students

1605 – Under torture, Guy Fawkes reveals what he knows of the Gunpowder Plot, and the British government names ringleader Robert Catesby as a wanted man. Catesby and his remaining followers reach Holbeche House, but Richard Walsh, Sheriff of Worcester and his 200 men kill five conspirators, including Catesby, and take the rest into custody

1614 – Japanese daimyō Dom Justo Takayama Ukon is exiled to the Philippines by shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being a Christian

1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor, third emperor of the Qing dynasty (which originated in Manchuria), is enthroned in Beijing as the first Qing emperor to rule over China, after the collapse of the Ming dynasty

1656 – Edmund Halley born, English astronomer, computed ‘his’ comet’s orbit

1710 – Sarah Fielding born, English author; wrote The Governess, or the Little Female Academy, the first English novel aimed specifically at children

1715 – Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern born, Queen consort of Prussia (1740-1786); since her husband, Frederick II of Prussia, disliked ceremonial court life and public representation of the royal house, these duties fell more and more to Elisabeth Christine, who handled almost all the visible representation duties, and had a virtually separate court from her husband, where she was hostess to foreign dignitaries and royal birthdays and weddings, as well as sponsoring concerts and dinners, and holding card parties. During the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the king was absent from the capital for six years. Elisabeth Christine became the symbol of Prussian resilience in Berlin during the crisis, and she oversaw the evacuation of the royal house and the court when the city was twice threatened with invasion, in 1757 and 1760. Frederick made no attempt to hide his lack of interest in his wife, which made it difficult for her to be treated with the respect her position should have commanded. After his death in 1786, as the Queen Dowager, she continued to be influential in non-political matters at court, and very popular with the people, since hers was the most familiar public face of Prussian royalty, and she was well-known for her many charities, to which she gave over half of her allowance. She was interested in literature, and wrote several works of her own, as well as a translation of Le Chrétien dans la Solitude (The Christian in Solitude), which she published under the pseudonym “Constance.” She introduced silk cultivation to Prussia, and was also a support to the French émigrés community in Berlin. She died at the age of 81 in 1797

1745 – Charles Edward Stuart, the “Young Pretender” to the thrones of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, enters England with over 5,000 men

Prince Charles Edward Stuart, at 22, painted by Antonio David, 1732
– Scottish National Gallery

1793 – The Louvre Museum in Paris opens to the public

Projet d’aménagement de la Grande Galerie du Louvre, c. 1789
by Hubert Robert, Musée du Louvre

1805 – The Lewis and Clark expedition, aka “the Corps of Discovery” reaches the Pacific Ocean, almost a year and a half after their departure on May 14, 1804

1837 – Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes  Mount Holyoke College

1847 – Bram Stoker born, Irish author of Dracula

1878 – Dorothea Bate born, English paleontologist and pioneer in archaeozoology; studied fossils of extinct mammals to understand how and why giant and dwarf forms evolved; first known woman to be employed as a scientist by the Natural History Museum in London; made many expeditions to Mediterranean Islands and elsewhere to find prehistoric fauna remains

1880 – French actress Sarah Bernhardt makes her American stage debut in Adrienne Lecouvreur in New York City

1883 – Arnold Bax born, English composer and poet, noted for his series of symphonic poems, including Tintagel

1884 – Hermann Rorschach born, Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his development of the Rorschach Test

1895 – X-ray Day * – Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays while experimenting with electricity and takes the first X-rays  

Wilhelm Röntgen’s first X-ray

1897 – Dorothy Day born, American journalist and social activist; one of Alice Paul’s ‘Silent Sentinels’ for woman’s suffrage, carrying signs in front of the White House; co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, editor of “The Catholic Worker” newspaper

1899 – In the state of Sonora, Mexico, Federal troops crush the “La Angostura Uprising” of Yaqui Indians opposed to the government of President Díaz. Most of the Yaquis who survive the massacre were transported to the Yucatán

1900 – Margaret Mitchell born, American author of Gone With the Wind

1908 – Martha Gellhorn born, novelist, travel writer, journalist and war correspondent, was one of two little girls who represented “future voters” at a demonstration for woman’s suffrage at the 1916 national Democratic convention in St. Louis; she went to Europe in 1930, determined to become a foreign correspondent, and worked at the United Press Paris bureau; returned to the U.S. and worked with photographer Dorothea Lange for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, documenting hungry and homeless people; went with Ernest Hemingway to Barcelona in 1937 to cover the Spanish Civil War, then reported on the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, and covered WWII from Finland, Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore and England; posed as a stretcher bearer to cover D-Day, the only woman to land at Normandy; one of the journalists who covered the liberation of Dachau; her four-year marriage to Hemingway ended in divorce in 1945, in part because of conflict over her career; she worked for Atlantic Monthly, covering the Vietnam War, the Arab-Israel conflicts and the civil wars in Central America; retired in 1995 at the age of 87 because of failing eyesight; The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism was created in her honor in 1999

1910 – William H. Frost patents an insect exterminator

1920 – Sitara Devi born, Indian singer, dancer and choreographer of the classical Kathak form of dance, raised in the tradition by her parents, which was a scandal at the time because Kathak dancing had declined into dancing done by nautch girls and boys. Her father persisted in reviving the ancient form, and re-connecting Kathak with its roots in religious ceremonies. She resisted an arranged marriage proposed when she was 8 years old, wanting to continue her education. While attending Kamachhagrh High School, she was cast as the leading dancer in a dance drama, and also taught the steps to the other student performers. The performance was acclaimed in the local papers, and led to her solo performances, which brought her to the attention of the Rabindranath Tagore, a highly influential figure in the Bengali literature and music. He dubbed her Nritya Samragni (empress of dance), and she was recruited by Niranjan Sharma, a filmmaker and dance director to perform dance sequences in many Hindi movies, but gave up cinema performing in 1957 to concentrate on classical dance forms, while also doing some study of Russian ballet. Devi taught Kathak dancing to several Bollywood celebrities, and had begun work on compiling the research done by her father on the traditions of classical dance shortly before her final illness, but did not complete the book she was planning before her death in 2014

1922 – Christiaan Barnard born, South African cardiac surgeon; performed the first human-to-human heart transplant in 1967

1922 – Thea Drell Hodge born, American computer scientist, a pioneer in the field who mentored many women students; founded the Minnesota chapter of the Association for Women in Computing, and mentored countless young women in her field; member of the Association for Computing Machinery, which inducted her into their hall of fame in 2004

1923 – Adolf Hitler makes his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich now known as the “Beer-Hall Putsch”

1926 – Darleane C. Hoffman born, American nuclear chemist; in the 1950s she applied for a position in the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the radiochemistry group, but was told, “We don’t hire women in that division.” She persisted, and was hired by an enlightened male group leader, becoming a division leader of the isotope and nuclear chemistry division, the first woman to head a scientific division there; senior faculty scientist in the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; one of the researchers who confirmed the existence of Seaborgium, element 106; recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1997

1932 – Ben Bova born, American science-fiction writer; six-time winner of the Hugo Award; editor of Analog magazine (1972-1978); noted for Exiles and Grand Tour series

1932 – Franklin Roosevelt defeats Herbert Hoover for his first term as U.S. president

1933 – The Civil Works Administration is created by executive order by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed Americans

1939 – Life With Father premieres on Broadway

1947 – Margaret Rhea Seddon born, American physician, researcher on the effects of radiation therapy on nutrition in cancer patients, and NASA astronaut (1979-1997); she was the seventh woman in space, and flew on missions in 1985, 1991 and 1993; currently assistant Chief Medical Officer of the Vanderbilt Medical Group in Nashville, Tennessee

1949 – Día Mundial del Urbanismo, World Urbanism Day, * also  known as World Town Planning Day, founded by Argentinian Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires to promote creating livable communities

1951 – Dame Laura M. Cox born, English, Queen’s Bench High Court judge (2002-2016). In 2018, she was appointed to lead an independent inquiry into allegations of bullying and sexual harassment of House of Commons staff

1952 – Alfre Woodard born, African-American actress, producer and political activist; four-time Emmy winner. She began her career in theatre. After her break-through role in the 1977 Off-Broadway production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, she made her film debut in a small role in the 1978 film, Remember My Name. She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1983 for Cross Creek. Woodard is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa, which has raised over $9 million USD to provide healthcare for South African AIDS orphans. She is an active member of the Democratic Party, and  supported Barack Obama in his runs for president and for re-election. She is a supporter of LGBT rights and same-sex marriage

1956 – After turning down 18,000 names, the Ford Motor Company decided to name their new car the “Edsel,” after Henry Ford’s only son

1960 – Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy defeats VP Richard Nixon for the U.S. presidency

1965 – The soap opera “Days of Our Lives” debuts on NBC-TV

1966 – Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, and Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California

1971 – Led Zeppelin releases album Led Zeppelin IV, including “Stairway to Heaven”

1978 – Emma Lewell-Black born, British Labour politician, Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2013, the first women to represent South Shields; member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee since 2013, and of the Work and Pensions Select Committee since 2015

1979 – The program, The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, premieres on ABC-TV, and evolves into the evening news program Nightline

1980 – Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California announce the discovery of a 15th moon orbiting the planet Saturn

1983 – Danielle Evans born, American fiction writer; her first short story collection won the 2011 PEN/Robert Bingham Prize

1984 – South Africa: a year after the United Democratic Front (UDF) was formed, Security police raided their offices during nation-wide unrest. The UDF became the umbrella organisation of anti-apartheid groups after the banning of leading groups like African National Congress (ANC), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and the South African Communist Party (SACP) under the Unlawful Organisations Act passed after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960

1985 – Sting’s concert movie Bring On the Night opens in the U.S.

1985 – Under Nigerian head of state Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime, which overthrew the civilian government of Shehu Shagari in 1983, the national debt greatly increased, and at this time emergency economic action was taken, including cutting Nigeria’s international diplomatic missions by half

1990 – President George H. W. Bush orders 150,000 more soldiers to be deployed in the Persian Gulf, joining the multi-national forces fighting Iraq

1991 – The European Community and Canada impose economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an attempt to stop the Balkan civil war

1992 – About 350,000 people rally in Berlin against racist violence

1993 – Five Picasso paintings and other artwork valued at $52 million are stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Sweden

1994 – Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1954

1997 – Chinese engineers divert the Yangtze River to begin work on Three Gorges Dam

2000 – Waco special counsel John Danforth releases report absolving the federal government of wrongdoing in the 1993 Branch Davidian siege

2004 – U.S. troops attack Sunni insurgent strongholds in Iraq

2005 – Intersex Day of Remembrance * is started, originally as Intersex Solidarity Day, by Joëlle-Circé Laramée, Canadian spokeswoman for Organisation Intersex International, on the birthday of Herculine Barbin (1838-1868), a French intersex person whose memoirs were published in 1980 by Michel Foucault as Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs

2011 –Asteroid 2005 YU55 passes .85 lunar distances from Earth (201,700 mi/324,600 km), the closest known approach by an asteroid of this brightness since 1976

2016 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi abruptly announces demonetization of  ₹500 and ₹1000 denomination banknotes, effective November 9, trying to curb corruption, black money, the use of counterfeit currency , and terrorism. It causes severe cash shortages in banks across India, and 86% of Indian currency in circulation becomes invalid

2018 – U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Montana temporarily blocked construction on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, putting a hold on the Trump administration’s permit for the project pending further environmental review. The judge ordered the Trump administration to provide more comprehensive information on the pipeline’s potential to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, oil spills, and impact on Native American communities in its path. The 1,200-mile pipeline would transport oil south from Alberta, Canada. The decision was praised by environmentalists. It was a major setback for the oil industry and Trump, who had reversed a decision by former President Barack Obama and approved the project in January 2017, promising it would provide jobs and boost the economy

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