February 5th is

Adlai Stevenson Day *

Shower With a Friend Day *

Western Monarch Day *

World Nutella Day *

Weatherperson’s Day

World Animal Reiki Day *

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MORE! John H Morrow, Mary Pickford and Herbie Hancock, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Australia – South Wharf: Pause Fest
(business innovation convention)

Canada – Lakefield: Hot Chocolate Festival

China, Hong Kong & Macau – Spring Festival
(New Year celebration, 2^nd day)

Bhutan – Dangpa Losar (Lunar New Year)

Burundi – Unity Day

Costa Rica – Puerto Jiménez: Metamorphosis Gathering

Denmark – Crown Princess Mary’s Birthday

France – Clermont-Ferrand: Euro Connection
(filmmakers pitch production companies)

Finland – Johan Runeberg’s Birthday *

Kenya – Nairobi: CinemAlliance Film Festival

Mexico – Día de la Constitución

Pakistan – Kashmir Solidarity Day

Peru – Santiago de Surco:
Festival Chim Pun Callao (music)

San Marino – Saint Agatha’s Day/
Liberation from Alberoni Occupation

United Kingdom – Bradford: Yorkshire Games Festival

Vietnam – Tet Nguyen Dan (Vietnamese New Year)

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy: Both Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum are severely damaged, and the main quake was followed by a series of aftershocks

756 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan

789 – Idris I reaches Volubilis and founds the Idrisid dynasty, ceding Morocco from the Abbasid caliphate and founding the first Moroccan state

1576 – Henri of Navarre, later King Henry IV of France, publicly abjures Catholicism at Tours during the French Wars of Religion; but in 1593, faced with opposition to his coronation as king by the Catholic-controlled city of Paris, he famously says, “Paris vaut une messe.” (“Paris is worth a mass”) and reconverts to Catholicism

Henry III, on his deathbed, designates Henri de Navarre as his successor

1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal born, marquise de Sévigné, noted for her wit and vivid descriptions in her voluminous correspondence,  especially with her daughter; an orphan from the age of seven, she received a good education from her uncle, Christophe de Coulanges, abbé of Livry, who was instrumental in making terms for her marriage which kept most of her fortune separate from her philandering and expensive husband, Henri, marquis de Sévigné, who was killed in a duel over his mistress when Marie was 24 years old; she never remarried, and she wrote about 1500 letters to her daughter about Parisian society and the events of the day

1745 – John Jeffries born, American physician-scientist-military surgeon; testified at the Boston Massacre trial concerning the deathbed account of one of its victims, his patient Patrick Carr; flew in a balloon with inventor and aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard over the English Channel in 1785

1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation

1783 – Sweden recognizes the independence of the United States

1788 – Robert Peel born, British statesman, Prime Minister (1834-35 and 1841-46); established London’s Metropolitan Police Force at Scotland Yard in 1829, beginning the  modern era in British policing – constables are nicknamed ‘Bobbies’  and ‘Peelers’  in tribute to Sir Robert, whose ‘Peelian Principles’ of policing by consent still define an ethical police force

1808 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg * born in the then-Kingdom of Sweden, national poet of Finland, who wrote the lyrics to the Finnish National Anthem

1818 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, former Marshal of France, ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as Charles XIV John

1840 – John Boyd Dunlop born in Scotland but lives most of his life in Ireland, veterinarian who develops pneumatic tyres, which revolutionize the bicycle industry

1846 – The Oregon Spectator, of Oregon City, is the first U.S. Pacific Coast newspaper

1849 – University of Wisconsin–Madison’s first class meets at Madison Female Academy

1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, now one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public

1859 – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state

1866 – Congressman Thaddeus Stevens offered an amendment to Freedmen’s Bureau Bill authorizing the distribution of public land and confiscated land to freedmen and loyal refugees in 40-acre lots

1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the “Welcome Stranger”, is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia

1872 – Lafayette B. Mendel born, American biochemist; his work on vitamins and proteins shaped modern concepts about nutrition

1878 – André-Gustave Citroën born, French engineer-industrialist; introduced Henry Ford’s mass production methods to Europe’s automotive industry; when WWI ended, converted his arms factory to produce the first small, inexpensive Citroën car in 1919

Citroen Type A Torpedo, 1919

1884 – Willis Johnson patents an egg beater

1885 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as his personal possession; under the guise of a “benevolent protectorship” as a civilizing influence on “savages,” Leopold’s personal mercenary army, the Force Publique, extracts a fortune in ivory and rubber using Congolese enforced labor, under such brutal conditions that estimates put the death toll between 1885 and 1909 at over 8 million people, roughly half the population of the Congo

Starving laborers in Leopold’s Belgium Congo

1887 – Verdi’s opera Otello premieres at La Scala

1900 – Adlai Stevenson II * born, American progressive Democratic politician-diplomat; Governor of Illinois (1949-1953); candidate for U.S. President in 1952 and 1956, lost party’s nomination to JFK in 1960; U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. (1961-1965) – (see also 2008 entry)

1903 – Joan Whitney Payson born, American heiress philanthropist, patron of the arts and businesswoman; co-founder of the New York Mets, the first woman to buy majority control of a major-league baseball team in North America instead of inheriting it;   president of the Mets organization (1968-1975); she was also involved in thoroughbred horse racing, as a partner with her brother in the highly successful Greentree Stable

1905 – In México City, Hospital General de México (General Hospital of Mexico) is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties

1907 – Birgit Dalland born, Norwegian Communist Party politician; deputy representative from Bergen to the Norwegian Parliament (1945-1949); she lived to the age of 100

1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic

1909 – Grażyna Bacewicz born, Polish composer-violinist; won gold medal at 1965 International Competition for Composers in Brussels for Violin Concerto No. 7

1910 – John Howard Morrow born, African-American scholar and diplomat;  studied Latin, spoke French and Spanish, and had a reading knowledge of German and Portuguese; appointed by President Eisenhower as the very first U.S. Ambassador to the newly independent African country of Guinea  (1959-1961); President Kennedy appointed him as the first U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO (1961-1963); Chair of Foreign Service Institute’s Foreign Service Officers University Studies Program (1963-1964)

June 22 1959: John H Morrow takes oath
(Secretary of State Christian Herter in light suit)

1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane

1914 – William Burroughs born, American novelist; noted for Naked Lunch

1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 to curtail immigration, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto

1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane, the first aerial victory by the U.S. military

1919 – Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists

From left: Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin

1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting its ‘pips’ – hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal

1934 – Hank Aaron born, African-American baseball great who played in the Major Leagues from 1954 to 1976

1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th “Caudillo de España”, or Leader of Spain

1939 – Jane Bryant Quinn born, American financial journalist and author; Making the Most of Your Money; adviser on the development of Quicken Financial Planner

Jane Bryant Quinn – Sigrid Estrada photo

1940 – Glenn Miller and his orchestra record “Tuxedo Junction”

1947 – Mary L. Cleave born, American engineer and NASA astronaut; Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (2004-2007)

1952 – Eleven-year-old Herbie Hancock plays the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.26 in D Major, K. 537 (Coronation) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

1953 – Walt Disney’s animated film Peter Pan opens at NYC’s Roxy Theater

1956 – Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya: Eleven Mau Mau prisoners, sentenced to life imprisonment, escape from Mageta Island, a volcanic rock in Lake Victoria, in a stolen canoe. Three of the escapees are killed during the massive manhunt that follows. Questions are raised in the British Houses of Parliament about the prisoners’ harsh conditions and forced labor

1958 – Gamal Abdel Nasser nominated to be first president of the United Arab Republic

1958 – Clifton R. Wharton Sr., a career U.S. diplomat, is confirmed as minister to Rumania, the first black person to head a U.S. embassy in Europe

1959 – Jennifer M. Granholm born in Canada, American Democratic politician; Attorney General of Michigan (1999-2003) and Governor of Michigan (2003-2011)

1959 – After champagne and an elegant lunch, Carson McCullers invites Marilyn Monroe and Isak Dinesen to dance with her on the marble-topped dining room table; Arthur Miller got to watch

1960 – Bonnie Crombie born, Canadian Liberal Politician; Mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, since 2014; Mississauga City Councillor (2011-2014); Member of the Canadian Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville (2008-2011)

1961 – The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue

1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh born, American actress; in 2001, she co-wrote and co-directed with Alan Cumming the independent film, The Anniversary Party

Jennifer Jason Leigh with Alan Cumming – photo by S Granitz

1962 – French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence

1962 – A suit seeking to bar Englewood, N.J., from maintaining “racial segregated” elementary schools is filed in U.S. District Court

1963 – The European Court of Justice’s ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen, one of the most important decisions in the development of European Union law; establishes the principle of direct effect, that Union law may confer rights on individuals which the courts of member states are bound to recognize and enforce, particularly in regard to regulations

1967 – The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premieres in television

1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission

1980 – Jo Swinson born, British Liberal Democratic Politician; Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and the party’s Spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs since 2017; Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs (2012-2015); Deputy Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (2010-2012); Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Scotland (2006-2007); Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire (Incumbent since 2017, and previously 2005-2015)

1981 – Mia Hansen-Løve born, French film director and screenwriter; noted for All is Forgiven; Father of My Children (which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard section and won the Special Jury Prize); Goodbye First Love; Eden; and L’Avenir (Things to Come), for which she won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival

1982 – Great Britain imposes economic sanctions against Poland and Russia to protest martial law in Poland

1985 – Ugo Vetere, mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, mayor of Carthage, meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship, officially ending the Third Punic War after 2,131 years

1986 – Prince releases the song “Kiss”

1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling, bribery and money laundering charges

1988 – Comic Relief is launched to raise funds to combat famine in Africa

1988 – The Arizona House of Representatives moves to impeach Governor Evan Mecham; he is later convicted by the state Senate and removed from office

1990 –Harvard University law student Barack Obama becomes the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review

1992 – World Animal Reiki Day * Kathleen Prasad rescues Dakota from an animal shelter, who becomes her beloved canine companion for over 16 years, and convinces her of the benefits Reiki massage therapy for animals as well as people

1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers

1995 – Trayvon Martin born; in 2012, fatally shot by George Zimmerman for being black while wearing a hoodie

1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families

1997 – Investment bank Morgan Stanley announces its merger with Dean Witter

1999 – South African President Nelson Mandela delivers his last major address to parliament: “. . . Today we start the ultimate session of our first democratic parliament. The profound changes of the past four-and-half years make the distance traversed seem so short; the end so sudden. Yet with the epoch-making progress that has been made, this period could have been decades. South Africa is in a momentous process of change, blazing a trail towards a secure future. The time is yet to come for farewells, as many of us – by choice or circumstance – will not return. However, there is no time to pause. The long walk is not yet over. The prize of a better life has yet to be won . . .”

2003 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presents evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq’s material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441; he later called this speech, laying out the Bush administration’s rationale for war in Iraq, a “blot” on his record; subsequent intelligence showed the Iraqi “breach” never existed

2004 – The California state legislature establishes California Western Monarch Day * to celebrate these beautiful butterflies and their annual migration to spend winters on the central coast of California; now of national interest as they are an at-risk species

2007 – World Nutella Day * is started by Sara Rosso, an American blogger in Italy, now sponsored by Ferrero, the makers of Nutella

2008 – U.S. House of Representatives approves the measure to name February 5^th as Adlai Stevenson Day * (see also 1900 entry)

2014 – Shower with a Friend Day * is launched by New Wave Enviro to promote their products, but I am posting it to promote saving our dwindling supply of clean water, with a bit of humor

2017 – Ninety-seven companies, including tech giants Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter, filed an amicus brief opposing Trump’s executive order on immigration, saying it was discriminatory and hurt businesses. “Immigrants make many of the nation’s greatest discoveries, and create some of the country’s most innovative and iconic companies,” the companies said in the brief, which was filed in a case brought by Minnesota and Washington state. A federal judge in Seattle blocked the ban, and the Trump administration has filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump has responded with angry tweets, first saying that the “so-called judge” would be overturned, then saying that he had left the country vulnerable to a terror strike. “If something happens blame him and court system,” Trump tweeted. 

2017 – At the opening of what’s expected to be three weeks of public hearings, the head lawyer for Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse said that 7 percent of Catholic priests in the country have been accused of sexually abusing minors between 1950 and 2010, with 4,444 cases of abuse reported at more than 1,000 Catholic institutions between 1980 and 2015. The royal commission has been investigating how religious and secular organizations have responded to the sexual and physical abuse of children.  Sixty percent of all sexual abuse survivors were abused at faith-based organizations, with nearly two-thirds of those cases tied to the Catholic Church. “As Catholics, we hang our heads in shame,” said Francis Sullivan, the head of the Australian Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council

Francis Sullivan

2019 – Pope Francis publicly acknowledged for the first time the scandal of sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops. “It’s not that everyone does this, but there have been priests and bishops who have,” he told reporters while flying from the United Arab Emirates to Rome. “And I think that it’s continuing because it’s not like once you realize it that it stops. It continues. And for some time we’ve been working on it. Should we do something more? Yes. Is there the will? Yes. But it’s a path that we have already begun.” In November, 2019, the International Union of Superiors General said there is a “culture of silence and secrecy” that keeps nuns from reporting their abuse, and urged them to come forward and speak with their superiors and law enforcement. 

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