June 7th is

Boone Day *

Chocolate Ice Cream Day

Lee Resolution Day *

National VCR Day *

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MORE! Gwendolyn Brooks, Otto Dix and Annette Lü, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Ancient Rome: First Day of Vestalia, festival in honor of Vesta, goddess of the hearth and the sacred flame of Rome

Argentina – Journalist Day

Bahamas –
Sir Randol Fawkes Labour Day *

Chile – Arica y Parinacota Region:
Battle of Arica Day

Malta – Sette Giugno
( 1919 Martyrs Day)

Norway – Union Dissolution Day
(1905 split with Sweden)

Peru – Flag Day

Slovakia – 1861 Memorandum of
the Slovak Nation Anniversary

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On This Day in HISTORY

879 – Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia under Duke Branimir as an independent state

1003 – Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia born, the first emperor of the Western Xia Empire, who reigned from 1038 to 1048. Upon his father’s death, he became leader of theTangut, a Sino-Tibetan tribal group. Jingzing knew both Tibetan and Chinese languages, and was a voracious reader who studied law, military strategy and painting. He was also known as “a vigorous and persevering leader.” In 1034, he was largely successful in his attacks on the Song Empire’s Huanqing territories, and captured Song General Qi Zongju. He next attacked the Uyghur peoples of the West, and took large portions of Gansu. After he declared himself emperor, he launched a direct campaign against the Song, and won three large battles, but the victories were very costly and left his army very depleted, especially because of the Song scorched earth policy. In 1044, he signed a treaty with the Song, acknowledging nominal Song sovereignty but also a token tribute paid by the Song to Jingzong

1099 – Knights and infantry of the First Crusade, led by Raymond of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Jerusalem, held by the Fatimid Caliphate

Window of Raymond of Toulouse – Saint-Sernin basilica, Toulouse, France

1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed by Ferdinand II and Isabella I, Prince John of Asturias, and John II of Portugal, divides the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, ignoring the rights of the existing inhabitants

1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I, prohibiting the monarch from non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and limiting use of martial law

1654 – Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil, is crowned King of France

1757 – Georgiana Cavendish born as Georgina Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire (1774-1806), English social leader, political organizer, style icon, author and a political activist. She was married at 17 to one of the wealthiest and most men in England, but he was an emotionally reserved man with whom she had little in common. He made few changes in his bachelor way of life, devoting much of his time to playing cards at Brooks, the exclusive gentlemen’s club, and continued to keep a series of mistresses, which left little time to spend with his wife. There was also much marital discord caused by a series of pregnancies which resulted in miscarriages or the birth of daughters instead of a male heir, until finally William George Spencer Cavendish was born in 1790. With the birth at last of a male heir, Georgina was able to find consolation with a lover her own, Charles Grey, who later became Earl Grey (the tea is named for him), and Prime Minister of England (1830-1834).  When Georgina became pregnant, she was exiled to France, where she gave birth to her lover’s daughter, then was forced to give the child to Grey’s family. Throughout all these tribulations, she remained a leader of fashion, but also contributed to politics, science and literature, holding a major salon where the most influential figures of the day would gather. Newspapers chronicled the details of what she wore, and all her activities. She was renowned for hosting dinners that became poltical meetings, and also cultivated brilliant radicals. She wrote both prose and poetry, some of which was published, including Emma, “A Sentimental Novel,” The Sylph, which was published anonymously, and the 30-stanza poem, The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard.  She played a role, along with Tomas Beddoes, in establishing the Pneumatic Institution, a medical research facility in Bristol, and took an interest in scientific experiments. She died in 1806, at the age of 48. It was after her death that the Duke discovered the full extent of her mountain of gambling debts, which were not fully paid off until her son succeeded his father.

1761 – John Rennie (Elder) born – Scottish civil engineer, designs canals, docks and bridges, including London’s Waterloo Bridge, with 9 arches and perfectly flat roadway

1769 – Daniel Boone begins exploring Kentucky; will found Boonesborough, one of the first Colonial settlements west of the Appalachians – the Kentucky Historical Society honors his contributions by sponsoring Boone Day *

1776 – Lee Resolution Day *  Richard Henry Lee presents the “Lee Resolution” to the Continental Congress, proposing independence for the American colonies, a call to form foreign alliances, and a plan for confederation. The motion is seconded by John Adams and leads to the Declaration of Independence

1778 – ‘Beau’ Brummell, born George Bryan Brummell, English dandy and wit; friend of the Prince Regent, the arbiter of fashion; under his sway, men in high society avoid bright colors, ornate accessories, and improve their daily grooming habits. He brings long pants, starched cravats, and black evening dress into fashion: his black-and-white evening ensemble evolves into the tuxedo, still worn for formal occasions today

Beau Brummell, circa 1815 on the left wearing black, at Almack’s, a
subscription-by-invitation-only social club nicknamed “the Marriage Mart”

1788 – Journée des Tuiles / Day of the Tiles: Civilians in Grenoble toss roof tiles and various objects down upon royal troops, one of the earliest disturbances leading to the French Revolution

1825 – Richard S. Blackmore born, English author; Lorna Doone

1831 – Amelia B. Edwards born, English novelist, journalist, travel writer, women’s rights activist, and Egyptologist; co-founder of the Egypt Exploration Fund, which sponsored the early work of Flinders Petrie; author of A Thousand Miles up the Nile

1843 – Susan Elizabeth Blow born, American pioneer in kindergarten education

1848 – Paul Gauguin born, French post-impressionist painter

Paul Gauguin: Self-Portrait, left, and Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) – 1892

1848 – Dolores Jiménez y Muro born, Mexican schoolteacher, poet and socialist activist, who became a revolutionary and supporter of General Emiliani Zapata during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). A collection of her poems written when she was in her 20s was published as Un rayo de luz (A Ray of Light). She was teaching in the rural school system until 1904, but was also published in newspapers like La Sombra de Zaragoza, and worked on La Potosina magazine. She was arrested and sent to prison for writing articles against the regime of Porfirio Diaz. In prison, she met Elisa Acuña Rossetti, Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza, and Inés Malváez, and they joined forces to publish a radical journal, Fiat Lux, which became the voice of the Mutual Society for Women.  They called for better working conditions for women, labor strikes, and protested election fraud in 1910, and were again imprisoned. Jiménez continued to work from prison for land reforms and improving the economy, and for the rights of women and indigenous people. She campaigned to replace Diaz with Francisco Madero, and wrote a position paper for the Mexican Liberal Party, calling for fair wages, affordable housing, safer working conditions and curbs on foreign investments. She was arrested again and wasn’t released until she staged a hunger strike. Disappointed by Madero, she switched her loyalty to Zapata, joining his forces and directing the newspaper La voz de Juárez. After yet another term in prison, she rejoined Zapata until his assassination in 1919. Jiménez worked in the Secretary of Education’s Cultural Missions program (1921-1924) and died in 1925

1861 – Alice Moore Hubbard born, feminist, educator and author; Justinian and Theodora, Woman’s Work

1861 – Memorandum of the Slovak Nation *: The Slovak National Assembly, comprised of representatives from Slovak towns and villages, met at Turčiansky Svätý Martin. Štefan Marko Daxner headed a group that wrote a “Memorandum of the Slovak Nation” defining four requirements of the Slovaks for asserting their national identity, which was adopted by the assembly. First, National Identity: recognition and legal provision for the identity of Slovaks as a nation and their right to use their language in all spheres of public life. Second, Territorial Identity: recognition of the traditional territory inhabited by Slovaks as a separate administrative area, since Hungary was a state composed of several different nations, and asserting that each of them should enjoy the same rights. Third, National Equality: Slovak to be used in public, civic, church and educational life, as well as in the highest state offices, and the right of Slovaks to have their own higher educational and cultural institutions. Fourth, Civic Equality: Slovaks claimed solidarity with Ruthenians, Serbs and Croats, and called for prohibition of discrimination against non-Hungarian populations

1868 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh born, Scottish Art Nouveau/Art Deco architect, designer, and illustrator; leader of the Glasgow Style in art and design

Charles Rennie Mackintosh – design for a Music Room

1884 – Ester Claesson born, Swedish landscaping pioneer; considered the first Swedish woman landscape architect; after studying and working in Germany and Austria, she returned to Sweden, and soon started her own business, where she designed gardens to compliment the work of Swedish architects like Ivar Tengborn, becoming the best-known and most-published landscape architect in Sweden during the early 20^th century, but died at age 47 in 1931

1896 – Vivien Kellems born, American woman industrialist/inventor, lecturer/political activist, co-inventor of a cable grip to pull and relieve strain on electrical cables. Enthusiastic supporter of voting reform, the Equal Rights Amendment, and abolishing the income tax

1899 – Carrie Nation, believing God called her, destroys Dobson’s Saloon in Kiowa, Kansas with “smashers,” rocks wrapped in paper. A leader in the prohibition movement, she and other women smash saloons with hatchets, in many  “hatchetations”

1899 – Elizabeth Bowen born in Ireland, Anglo-Irish author; moved to England r at age 8, brought up by her aunts after her mother died in 1912; became acquainted with the Bloomsbury Group, and was befriended by writer Rose Macaulay, who helped her find a publisher for her first book, Encounters; worked for the British Ministry of Information during WWII; noted for her novel The Heat of the Day; her final book Eva Trout, or Changing Scenes won the 1969 James Tait Black Memorial Prize

1909 – Jessica Tandy born, award-winning actress, who appeared in over 100 stage productions and 60 films, 1920s to 1990s, including A Streetcar Named Desire (the original Blanche Dubois, on Broadway, 1948) and Driving Miss Daisy (film, 1989)

1909 – Virginia Apgar born, anesthesiologist, developed the Apgar score to assess the health of newborns, increasing infant survival rates. Pioneer in anesthesiology, raised  respect for the discipline; she warned use of some anesthetics during childbirth negatively affected infants; helped refocus March of Dimes from polio to birth defects

1910 – Marion Post Wolcott born, documentary photographer for the Farm Security Administration (1938-1941); she usually traveled alone, and is notable for contrasting images of the poorest and the wealthiest during the Depression. Her FSA photographs are in the permanent collections of many major U.S. museums. She was honored with  Society of Photographic Educator’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Press Photographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award, and were published in 1983 in FSA photographs / Marion Post Wolcott, and featured in other books covering photography of the period

 Taken during the Memphis Cotton Festival, by Marion Wolcott, circa 1939

1917 – Gwendolyn Brooks born, poet, first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1950), and the first black woman to be named a Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry (1985-1986)

1925 – Ernestina Herrera de Noble born, prominent Argentine publisher, largest shareholder in the Grupo Clarín media conglomerate, and director of its flagship newspaper, Clarín. She was the first woman to be director of a mainstream newspaper in South America (1971-2017). She died at age 92 

1929 – Vatican City becomes a sovereign state

1930 – NY Times editorial: “In our Style Book ‘Negro’ is now added to the list of words to be capitalized. It is not merely a typographical change; it is an act of recognition of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations in ‘the lower case.”

1931 – Virginia McKenna born, British stage and film actress, author and wildlife activist. Best known portraying Joy Adamson in the film Born Free, which inspired her activist for animal rights and protection of their natural habitat, and her work as a Trustee of the Born Free Foundation. She is also a Patron of Cinnamon Trust, a charity that helps elderly people keep their pets. Her autobiography, The Life in My Years, was published in 2004

1933 – Otto Dix, notable artist of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) Movement, paints on this day The Seven Deadly Sins, an allegorical work representing the political situation in Germany, after he had been removed from his teaching position at the Dresden Art Academy by the Nazi regime, labeling him a degenerate. His WWI paintings The Trench and War cripples are burned, and Dix is forced to join the Nazi’s Reich chamber of Fine Arts and to promise he would paint only inoffensive landscapes, but he still worked on anti-Nazi paintings in secret, which will be discovered in 2012 among a large cache of paintings hidden away by an art dealer

The Seven Deadly Sins: The hag is Avarice, ridden by Envy (with a Hitler mustache,
added by Dix after the painting was first exhibited); death is Sloth, representing the German people dragging their feet in acknowledging the Nazi danger; Anger is the red demon; Pride is
the giant head with plugged ears, and whose mouth is an asshole; Lust is the bare-breasted woman; and Gluttony is the pig-like child at the back, head encased in a cookpot

1933 – The last collaboration between Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht is for the music and libretto of a ballet chanté (sung ballet) called The Seven Deadly Sins, after both of them had left Germany because of the rising power of the Nazis. It is produced, directed and choreographed by George Balanchine, premiering on this day in Paris. The French audience found it bewildering, especially since it was sung entirely in German, but German émigrés at the performance were enthusiastic

1938 – The first flight of the Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat

1944 – Annette Lü born, Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party politician and feminist; elected to the Legislative Yuan (1993-1996); Magistrate of Taoyuan County (1997-2000); Vice President of the Republic of China (2000-2008); author of Xin Nüxing Zhuyi (New Feminism) and the novel These Three Women, written while she was in prison, after a 1979 International Human Rights Day rally held by the Taiwanese democracy movement, where she and all the other speakers were arrested for violent sedition. Amnesty International named her as a prisoner of conscience, and pressure both internationally and in Taiwan secured her release after 5½ years

1946 – U.S. Supreme Court rules in Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia that racial segregation requirements on buses are unconstitutional, interfering with interstate  commerce, and violate the 14^th Amendment due process and equal protection clauses

1953 – Johnny Clegg born in England, South African musician and anthropologist, an important figure in South African popular music, whose music mixed Zulu and English lyrics and traditional African music and rhythms with Western music. He was arrested more than once for the songs he sang, and the privately performing fusion band Juluka, a group of three black and three white musicians led by Clegg and Mchunu, defied apartheid, recording their first album, Universal Men, in 1979. Juluka’s music, which often contained thinly disguised anti-apartheid messages, and used trade union slogans in the songs on their Work for All album, was banned on South African radio, but managed to tour internationally, and win two platinum and five gold albums, before disbanding in 1985 

1954 – Louise Erdrich born, Ojibwe novelist/poet/children’s book author, enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, a band of Anishinaabe (aka Ojibwe and Chippewa)

1955 – The $64,000 Question game show premieres in CBS-TV

1965 – The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 7-2 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut,  cutting down state laws that made use of birth control by anyone, including married couples illegal, citing the “right to marital privacy” in deciding whether or when to have a child, which becomes the basis for extending right to privacy in later reproductive rights decisions, including Roe v. Wade

1968 – Women sewing machinists at Ford Motor Company Limited’s Dagenham plant in London go out on strike; Barbara Castle, the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity in Harold Wilson’s government, intervenes and the strike ends three weeks later, after a deal that immediately increases their rate of pay to 8% below that of men, to rise to the same category B rate as the men the following year. This had repercussions in the U.S. as well: international media attention to the Dagenham strike contributed to the passage of the U.S. Equal Pay Act of 1970

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace in Cohen v. California, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; Cohen was arrested for wearing a jacket imprinted with “F*ck the Draft” in the public corridors of a courthouse, labeled as “offensive conduct” which was disturbed the peace; the vote was 5-4, the minority saying the wearing of the jacket was conduct, not speech

1972 – The musical Grease opens on Broadway

1975 – National VCR Day * – The Sony Betamax videocassette recorder goes on sale to the public for $995.00

1975 – John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” is #1 on the charts

1977 – Anita Bryant leads a successful, well-funded crusade by the ultra-right-wing Christian group “Save Our Children” to overturn a Dade County Florida ordinance that banned sexual orientation discrimination in housing, employment, or public accommodation. The Save Our Children charity sued the campaign, citing their loss of donations because of confusion over the name. It also resulted in increased activism by both right-wing Evangelicals, spawning Falwell’s “Moral Majority,” and opposition from the LGBT community’s Gay Rights Movement

1986 – Madonna’s single “Live to Tell’’ is #1 on the charts

1998 – James Byrd Jr. is murdered in Jasper TX by three white supremacists who drag him behind their pick-up truck until his unconscious body hits a culvert, decapitating him. The killers dump his torso in front of an African-American cemetery; because of the high-profile trial and conviction of the murderers, the state of Texas passes a hate crime law, and the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is signed into law by President Obama on October 28, 2009

2006 – The British Houses of Parliament temporarily shut down due to anthrax alert

2012 – The remains of the Curtain Theatre, where some of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, are found under a London pub

2015 – G7 (Group of Seven) leaders focused on climate change on the final day of their summit in Bavaria. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for her fellow democratic leaders to commit to sharp cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases. Merkel, President Obama, and their counterparts from the UK, Canada, Italy, France, and Japan also took a firm stand on sanctions against Russia over its support for separatist rebels in  Ukraine. Claims were later made by former Ukrainian minister Alexander Khodakovsky that Russia was directly funding pensions and state wages in Donetsk and Luhansk, both pro-Russian regions within Ukraine

2017 – A team of anthropologists, paleontologists, and evolutionary scientists found 300,000-year-old bones from “early anatomically modern” humans in a cave in Morocco — making them about 100,000 years older than the oldest Homo sapiens bones found previously, according to two papers published  in the journal Nature. These newly discovered human ancestors have some primitive traits, but would not appear out of place in a modern crowd, said one of the study’s authors, Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Quarry workers discovered the bone site in the 1960s, but the find was overshadowed by other human fossils found in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, until the search in the Jebel Irhoud area resumed in earnest in 2004

2019 – The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement is opening a new emergency facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to house up to 1,600 unaccompanied minors who crossed into the U.S., mostly from Central America. Up to 1,400 more children will be housed at three military bases in Oklahoma, Georgia, and Montana. None of the new facilities will be subject to state child welfare licensing requirements because they will be classified as temporary emergency shelters, said ORR spokesman Mark Weber. ORR cut several services for detained migrant children due to an influx of migrants. Attorneys and immigrant advocates say those cutbacks, and the extended incarceration of the child migrants, violate the Flores legal settlement governing housing of minor immigrants

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