June 9th is

International Archives Day *

Donald Duck Day *

Coral Triangle Day *

World APS Day *

Writers’ Rights Day *

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MORE! Luis Kutner, Nandini Satpathy and Deyda Hydara, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Åland – Självstyreisedagen
(Self-Governing Day)

Jordan – Day of the Accession
of King Abdullah II

Spain – La Rioja: Dia de la Rioja
Murica:  Día de la Región de Murcia
(Autonomy Commemoration Days)

Uganda – National Heroes’ Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

411 BC – In the midst of an economic crisis brought on by the Peloponnesian War, a coup led by Alcibiades overthrows the democratic government of the city-state of Athens, and replaces it with The Four Hundred, an oligarchy of the city’s elite that was a very anti-democratic council, which in turn was replaced by an expanded oligarchy, The Five Thousand. The Five Thousand were overturned the following year

Alcibiades

68 – Roman Emperor Nero, unable to bring himself to commit suicide, implores his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging

747 – Abu Muslim Khorasani of the Abbasids begins an open revolt against Umayyad rule, using the Black Banner, one of the flags flown by Muhammad, as a rallying symbol

Abbasid Flag

1310 – Duccio’s Maestà Altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, is unveiled and installed in the Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy

1456 – 23rd recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet

1549 – The Book of Common Prayer is adopted by the Church of England

1650 – The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established. It is the first legal corporation in the Americas.

1732 – Royal charter for Georgia granted to James Oglethorpe

1762 – Seven Years’ War: The British Navy besieged and captured the city of Havana in Cuba, dealing a serious blow to the Spanish Navy in the Caribbean. Havana was returned to Spain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the war

1790 – The first book is copyrighted under the Constitution, “Philadelphia Spelling Book”

1815 – End of the Congress of Vienna: After they defeat Napoleon, Austria, Russia, Great Britain and Russia meet in Vienna and re-draw the national boundaries of Europe

1822 – Peter Henderson born in Scotland, American horticulturalist and author; he began as a market gardener in New Jersey in 1847, then moved his floral business to South Bergen. By 1890 he had five acres covered by glass.  Henderson’s contemporaries called him “the father of horticulture and ornamental gardening” in the United States.  Author of Gardening for Pleasure: A Guide to the Amateur in the Fruit, Vegetable, and Flower Garden, with Full Directions for the Greenhouse, Conservatory, and Window-garden

Peter Henderson, and one of his ‘Everything for the Garden’ catalogues

1836 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson born, first woman to complete medical qualifying exams and first woman physician in Great Britain (1870). After an 1859 lecture by Elizabeth Blackwell on “Medicine as a Profession for Ladies,” entered training as a surgical nurse – the only woman in the class, she was banned from full participation in the operating room. Rejected by medical schools, finally admitted for private study for an apothecary license, fought to take the exam and get a license. Society of Apothecaries then amended their regulations so no more women could be licensed. Opened a dispensary in London for women and children in 1866; she studied French so she could apply for a medical degree at the Sorbonne in Paris, which had just begun to accept women as medical students, and earned her degree in 1870; by 1872, the dispensary expanded into the New Hospital for Women and Children, specializing in treating gynaecological conditions; in 1874, she and Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women, the first teaching hospital in Britain to offer courses to women

1837 – Anne Isabella Thackeray born, later Lady Ritchie, English writer; her novel Mrs. Dymond contains the earliest English-language use of the proverb “give a man a fish and your feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life”

1843 – Bertha von Suttner born, Austrian novelist and pacifist; published Die Waffen nieder! (Down with Weapons!) in 1889; first woman to be solely awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1905)

1860 – The first U.S. “dime novel” is published: Malaseka, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter, by Mrs Ann Stevens

1861 – Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke begins serving in the Civil War as a Union hospital nurse and administrator (1861-1865), working in a total of nineteen battles, establishing 300 field hospitals; after the war, she is a tireless advocate for veterans, becoming a lawyer to help them and their families with legal problems, including getting their pensions

1865 – Carl A. Nielson born, considered Denmark’s most notable composer; also violinist and conductor

1865 – Helen Marot born, American writer, librarian, labor organizer and social reformer. She was the head of a private library in Philadelphia specializing in works on social and economic issues, and published Handbook of Labor Literature in 1899. Best known for her investigations, for the U.S. Industrial Commission into the working conditions in Philadelphia’s tailoring trades, and for the New York Association of Neighborhood Workers into child labor, which led to the forming of the New York Child Labor Committee. She co-authored a report with Florence Kelley and Josephine Clara Goldmark which was influential in passage of the 1903 Compulsory Education Act, which raised the end-age of compulsory attendance to age 16. She was the secretary for the New York branch of the Women’s Trade Union League (1906-1913). Marot was a key figure in the organization of the Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union of New York, one of the first trade unions for white-collar women, and was the principle organizer of the 1909-1910 strike of shirtwaist and dress makes, called the Uprising of the 20,000, under the banner of the International Ladies’ Garment Worker’s Union. She served on the editorial board of the radical journal Masses (1916-1917), then on The Dial (1981-1920), and published Creative Impulse in Industry in 1918

1868 – First meeting of the University of California Board of Regents

1870 – In Washington DC, President Grant meets with Sioux Chief Red Cloud

1885 – The Treaty of Tientsin is signed, officially ending the Sino-French War, in which China was required to recognize the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin (most of present-day Vietnam)

1891 – Cole Porter born, highly influential American lyricist and composer

1896 – Catherine Shouse born, philanthropist and political activist; worked for the Women’s Division of the U.S. Employment Service of the Department of Labor, and was the first woman appointed to the Democratic National Committee in 1925. She was also the editor of the Woman’s National Democratic Committee’s Bulletin (1929-1932), and the first woman to chair the Federal Prison for Women Board.  In 1966, she donated her personal property, Wolf Trap Farm, to the National Park Service, which became the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, where Shouse served as the founding member until her death in 1994

1898 – China leases Hong Kong’s new territories to the United Kingdom for 99 years

1903 – Marcia Davenport born, American author, biographer, music critic and commentator on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts; noted for the saga, The Valley of Decision, and her memoir, Too Strong for Fantasy

1908 – Luis Kutner born, American lawyer and human rights activist; co-founder in 1961 with Peter Benenson of Amnesty International. He was also notable for creating the concept of a living will, and for founding World Habeas Corpus, which fought for the development of an international habeas corpus to protect individuals from unwarranted imprisonment. Author of The International Court of Habeas Corpus and the United Nations Writ of Habeas Corpus

1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22-year-old housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the U.S., in a Maxwell 30; travels 3,800 miles from Manhattan to San Francisco in 59 days

1915 – Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns after a disagreement over President Wilson’s tough stand against Germany for the sinking of the Lusitania

1921 – Phyllis Wallace born, American economist and pioneer in the study of sex and race discrimination in the workplace. She earned a master’s degree (1944) and Ph.D. (1948) in Economics from Yale University. Wallace worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the 1960s, and was an important contributor to the anti-workplace-discrimination contingencies of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She was the first African-American woman full professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT (1974), and the first African American and the first female president of the Industrial Relations Research Association. Author of Pathways to work: Unemployment among black teenage females and Women, minorities and employment discrimination 

1924 – Jelly Roll Morton records “Jelly-Roll Blues”

1931 – Nandini Satpathy born, Indian politician and Odia language author; a leader in the national youth movement in college, she was severely injured in 1951 when police charged the students during a protest, and was jailed with many others; in 1962, she was elected to the upper house of India’s Parliament, and served two terms; appointed as Minister of Information and Broadcasting in 1966; became Chief Minister of Odisha (1972-1976); accused in 1977 of corruption, but her attorney argued several points concerning the manner of the investigation, which led to strengthening the rights of the accused, including the right to an attorney, the right for a woman to be questioned at home with relatives present, and only to be brought to the police station if formally arrested, and the right for women to be searched only by women; over the next 18 years, Satpathy won all of the cases against her

1931 – Phoebe Burnett Snetsinger born, birder and amateur ornithologist. After receiving a “terminal cancer” diagnosis, she became famous for her birding life list of 8,398 species (out of about 10,000 in the world) before her death, a world record for the time, often traveling to remote areas, some in politically unstable countries. Her copious field notes included distinctive subspecies. She is killed in 1999, not by cancer, but when the vehicle overturned while she is traveling in Madagascar. Her memoir,  Birding on Borrowed Time, is published posthumously (2003)

1934 – Donald Duck makes his cartoon debut in Wise Little Hen (see also 1984)

1936 – Nell Dunn born, English playwright, screenwriter and author; best known for her play Steaming, winner of the 1981 Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy; her novel Poor Cow and the screenplay for the film version; Up the Junction, a collection of short stories, and her book of interviews, Talking to Women

1943 – “Pay-as-you-go” (withholding) U.S. income tax deductions authorized

1946 – Deyda Hydara born, Gambian journalist; co-founder and primary editor of The Point, a major independent newspaper in Gambia. He was also a correspondent for both AFP News Agency and Reporters Without Borders for more than 30 years. He was an activist for freedom of the press, and a fierce critic of the administration of President Yahya Jammah (1996-2017), who passed anti-media laws allowing prison terms for defamation and sedition, and imposing expensive operating licenses on newspaper owners, and requiring them to register their homes as security. Hydara had announced his intention to challenge these laws shortly before he was assassinated by two unknown gunmen while driving home from work. Hydara was posthumously honored with the 2010 Hero of African Journalism Award of The African Editors’ Forum. His murder remains an open case

1948 – The International Council on Archives becomes part of UNESCO (see 2004)

1949 – Georgia Neese Clark confirmed as the first woman U.S. Treasurer

1949 – Kiran Bedi born, Indian politician and activist, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry since 2016; the first woman to join the Indian Police Service (1972-2007), rose from police officer to the first woman appointed as a UN civilian police advisor (2003-2005) to her retirement as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development; founder of India Vision Foundation (IVF) which advocates for police and prison reform, empowerment of women, and community development; a key leader of the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement

1954 – Elizabeth May born in America, leader of the Green Party of Canada, and first Green Party candidate to be elected as a Member of Parliament, for Saanich-Gulf Islands, incumbent since 2011; environmental activist, author, lawyer and politician; Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada (1989-2006)

1954 – Army counsel Joseph Welch asks US Senator Joseph McCarthy “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” during Senate-Army hearings

1956 – Patricia Cornwell born, American crime fiction author; known for her Dr. Kay Scarpetta series

1958 – “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley hits #1

1958 – HRM Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London Gatwick Airport

1961 – Aaron Sorkin born, American screenwriter, playwright, producer and director; creator of the television series The West Wing (1999-2006)

1962 – Tony Bennett makes his first appearance at Carnegie Hall

1967 –  Israeli troops reach Suez Canal

1969 – Warren Burger confirmed as US Chief Justice

1970 – Harry A Blackmun is sworn in as Supreme Court Justice

1973 – Secretariat won horse racing’s Triple Crown with a victory at the Belmont Stakes, leading the field by a record 31 lengths

1975 – UK House of Commons is broadcast live by radio for first time

1977 – Silver jubilee of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II

1978 – A Gutenberg Bible (1 of 21 still existing) sells for $2.4 million in London

1978 – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) strikes down 148 year policy of excluding black men from the LDS priesthood

1983 – Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party wins British parliamentary election

1984 – Cyndi Lauper gets her first US #1 hit with “Time After Time”

1984 – Donald Duck Day *  – Donald Duck’s 50th birthday is celebrated at Disneyland

1986 – The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts

1992 – Writers’ Rights Day is inaugurated

1997 – British lease on the New Territories in Hong Kong expires

1999 – Kosovo War: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty

2004 – International Congress in Vienna suggests a UN International Archives Day * which is proclaimed in 2005

2007 – The first World APS Day * sponsored by the APS Foundation of America; Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome (APS) an autoimmune disease which increases the chance of developing blood clots; Primary Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome is singular version of APS; Secondary Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome is complicated by its connection to other illnesses, especially Lupus; Catastrophic Antiphospholipid Syndrome is a very rare complication characterized by multiple small blood clots in key organs: heart, lungs, nervous system, and kidneys

2011 – The world’s first artificial organ transplant is an synthetic windpipe coated with stem cells from the patient’s body, developed in London and transplanted by a surgical team in Sweden led by Italian thoracic surgeon Paolo Macchiarini

2012 – Coral Triangle Day * is first observed by the member countries (Indonesia,  Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and East Timor) of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI CFF) to raise awareness of the threat to this epicenter of marine biodiversity. 76% of all known coral species, 37% of all known coral reef fish species, 53% of the world’s coral reefs, the greatest extent of mangrove forests in the world, and spawning and juvenile growth areas for the world’s largest tuna fishery are all found in the Coral Triangle

2013 – Edward Snowden makes his identity public as the leaker of NSA documents

2014 – Actress and LGBT advocate Laverne Cox becomes the first transgender person to appear on the cover of TIME magazine

2016 – The World Health Organization (WHO) advises delaying pregnancy in areas affected by the Zika virus

2018 – Justify became the 13^th horse to win American horse racing’s Triple Crown, taking an early lead in the Belmont Stakes and winning by just under two lengths

2019 – Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam vowed to continue pushing controversial amendments to an extradition bill despite massive protests on Sunday, June 9. Lam dismissed suggestions the bill was “an order from Beijing,” and tired to strike a conciliatory tone with protesters by promising to include human rights protections in the measure. Protesters called for Lam’s resignation and warned that the bill could erode Hong Kong’s legal autonomy from mainland China, and expose Hong Kong residents to China’s judicial system without basic protections. Organizers said Sunday’s March drew a million people into the streets, although Hong Kong police put the number at 270,000

2019 – Ali Stroker accepted the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for the revival of Oklahoma!, becoming the first wheelchair user to win the Tony, annual awards for the best of Broadway theatre given since 1947 by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League

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