July 16th is

Guinea Pig Appreciation Day *

Personal Chef Day

Corn Fritters Day

Fresh Spinach Day

World Snake Day

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MORE! Ida B. Wells, Roald Amundsen and J.K. Rowling, click

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World Festivals and National Holidays

Islam – On July 16, 622, Muhammad and his followers began the Hijra from Mecca to Yathrib (re-named Medina), the beginning of the Islamic calendar

American Samoa – Manu’a Cession Day
(Manu’a islands ceded to the U.S.)

Bolivia – La Paz Day

France – Holocaust Remembrance Day
(mass arrest of Jews in Paris in 1942)

Kiribati – Unaine
(Elderly Women Day)

Honduras – Engineer’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

622 – The beginning of the Islamic calendar

1099 – Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon herd Jews of Jerusalem into the central synagogue and set it on fire; those who try to escape are forced back into the flames

1194 – Clare of Assisi born as Chiara Offreduccio; Italian founder of the Catholic order of Poor Ladies, renamed the Order of Saint Clare, but commonly called the Poor Clares. Clare was one of the earliest followers of Saint Frances of Assisi, and based the Rule of Life for her order on his teachings, the first set of monastic guidelines written by a woman. She succeeded in thwarting Popes Innocent III, Honorius III, Gregory IX, and Innocent IV in their attempts to ease her order’s strict rule of poverty, which banned on accepting any possessions.

1232 – The Spanish town of Arjona declares independence, with native son Muhammad ibn Yusuf as its ruler, beginning his rise to prominence. He went on to establish the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, Spain’s last independent Muslim state

1377 – Richard of Bordeaux, aged 10, is crowned Richard II of England

1486 – Andrea Del Sarto born, Italian painter and draftsman

Madonna delle Arpie (Madonna of the Harpies) by Andre del Sarto – 1517

1529 – Petrus Peckius born as Pieter Peck, eminent Dutch jurist, one of the earliest to write about maritime law; appointed in 1582 as a justice in the Great Council, the supreme law court of the Seventeen Provinces, roughly covering the Low Countries

1546 – Anne Askew burned at the stake after being tortured in the Tower of London. She was one of the earliest known women poets in the English language, and the first Englishwoman to demand a divorce (she had been married off  by her father at age 15 to her eldest sister’s fiancée, Thomas Kyme, when her sister died), but she was a devout believer in direct prayer to God, without intercession by priests, while her husband was Catholic; she bore two children (who likely died in infancy) before he threw her out, so she moved to London, resumed her maiden name and became a gospeller (lay preacher).  Kyme had her arrested for her preaching, and dragged back, but she escaped and returned to London, was arrested twice more, and the second time she was tortured in the Tower of London, the only recorded torture of a woman there. Ordered to name like-minded women she refused, then was stretched on the rack, which dislocates joints of wrists, ankles, elbows, knees, shoulders and hips. Askew still refused to renounce her beliefs, and was convicted of heresy. She was martyred in Smithfield, having to be carried in a chair and then bound unto the stake, unable to stand because of the torture she had endured

1661 – First European banknotes issued by Stockholms Banco in Sweden

1723 – Sir Joshua Reynolds born, notable English portrait painter

Self-Portrait, by Joshua Reynolds

1748 – Cyrus Griffin born, American lawyer and judge, the last President of the Confederation Congress (1788), he resigned after ratification of the U.S. Constitution; appointed the following year by President George Washington as the first Judge of the U.S. District Court of the District of Virginia (1789-1810)

1755 – Future U.S. President John Adams graduates from Harvard

1769 – Father Junipero Serra founds first California Mission, San Diego de Alcalá

1782 – First performance of Mozart’s opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio

1790 – The District of Columbia established as permanent seat of U.S. government

1796 – Camille Corot born, French landscape painter

The Pond at Ville-d’Avray through the Trees by Camille Corot – 1871

1821 – Mary Baker Eddy born, American founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, more commonly known as Christian Science, and of the Christian Science Monitor newspaper; her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, has been a bestseller for decades

1861 – Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the American Civil War

1862 – Ida B. Wells born, American journalist, editor, suffragist, sociologist and civil rights activist, noted for her extensive documentation of racial lynchings in the United States, and as an inspiring speaker who traveled internationally on lecture tours

1863 – Fannie Zeisler, née Bloomfield, born in Austria, American pianist; she came to America with her family at the age of four, and made her debut at age eleven in 1875. She studied in Vienna, then returned to Chicago. She toured both the U.S. and Europe, and performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

1872 – Roald Amundsen born, Norwegian explorer; his expedition is the first to reach the South Pole

1880 – Emily Stowe becomes the first woman granted a license to practice medicine in Canada by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. She had to get her training in the U.S. because she was denied entry into medical school in Toronto. She was a leader in the struggle for Canadian women’s suffrage; founder of the Toronto Women’s Literary Club, which became the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association in 1883. Her daughter, Augusta Stowe-Gullen, was later the first woman to earn a medical degree in Canada

1880 – Kathleen Norris born, American Catholic author of 93 sentimental novels and innumerable short stories and newspaper columns praising motherhood and large families; ironically, she was so successful that her husband took on most of the household management; she was against birth control, but supported woman’s suffrage, and was involved in the prohibition and peace movements, as well as organizations which benefited children and the poor

1882 – Violette Neatley Anderson born in England, African American lawyer. She attended Chicago Seminar of Sciences (1912-1915), then was one of the first women to earn her LL.B from Chicago Law School in 1920, and was the first black woman admitted to practice by examination by the state board of examiners. She was the first woman to open her own private practice in Illinois, and became the first woman City Prosecutor for Chicago (1922). In 1926, she was the first African American woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to be a prosecuting attorney, she ran a court reporting agency, and became vice-president of the Cook County Bar Association (1930-1926). Her testimony and advocacy was instrumental in the passage of the Bankhead-Jones Act, which was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937. It was designed to provide low-interest loans to sharecroppers and tenant farmers, enabling them to become farm owners. Neatly Anderson was a member of the Federal Colored Women’s Clubs, the League of Women Voters and served as an executive board member of the Chicago Council of Social Agencies

1884 – Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova born, Russian lady-in-waiting and close friend of Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna, who was the go-between for Alexandra and Rasputin; she was arrested  in 1917 and spent five months in prison, which included a medical exam to prove her virginity, and interrogation on her political role. She admitted seeing Rasputin once or twice a week, but feigned a childish innocence; the investigator thought she was too naïve and unintelligent to have any influence over the Tsarina; noted for her memoirs, written after she escaped to Finland

1896 – Evelyn Preer born, African American blues singer, stage and screen actress; she had major roles in over a dozen films made by African-American film pioneer Oscar Micheaux, and performed on stage with Chicago’s Lafayette Players, and on Broadway

1900 – “His Master’s Voice” the RCA Victor logo registered with U.S. Patent Office

1901 – Millicent Fawcett is appointed to lead a British government commission to South Africa to investigate conditions in the concentration camps holding Afrikaners, mostly women and children, at the end of the Second Boer War; her report corroborates welfare campaigner Emily Hobhouse’s shocking description of conditions in the camps, where an average of 50 children died every day, many from starvation

1903 – Irmgard Flügge-Lotz born in Germany, German-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and control theorist; pioneer in development of the discontinuous automatic control theory, which has wide application in guidance systems, electronics, fire-control systems, and temperature regulation. In 1961, she became the first woman engineering professor at Stanford University, and the first woman engineer elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

1907 – Barbara Stanwyck born as Ruby Stevens, American film and TV star; orphaned at the age of four, and partially raised in foster homes, by 1944, she had become the highest-paid woman in the U.S. She was nominated four times for Academy Awards for acting, but winless until she received an honorary Oscar in 1982; won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her television work. She was a conservative Republican, who believed if she could succeed, anybody else also could without help

1907 – Frances Rappaport Horwich born, American pioneer in children’s television programming; “Miss Frances” of Ding Dong School (1952-1956 at NBC, 1958-1965 in syndication)

1911 – Ginger Rogers born as Virginia McMath, actress and dancer, best remembered as the dance partner of Fred Astaire, but won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1941 for the title role in the screen drama Kitty Foyle. She was raised as a Christian Scientist, and remained a lifelong adherent. Politically, she was a Republican. Rogers married and divorced five times 

1912 – Amy Patterson, born as Amelia Cabeza de Pelayo Patterson, Argentinean composer, poet and music teacher

1918 – In Russia, Tsar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks

1924 – Bess Myerson born, American politician, first and only Jewish Miss America, in 1945; New York City’s first Commissioner of Consumer Affairs (1969-1973), and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs (1983-1987); also served on several presidential commissions

1926 –  The first color underwater photograph, of a hogfish, taken by photographer  Charles Martin, appears in National Geographic magazine

1927 – Shirley Hughes born, English author and illustrator, who has written over 50 books, which have sold more than 11 million copies, and has also illustrated 200 others; honored in 1977 and 2003 with the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration, and won the inaugural Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015; noted for Dogger, the Alfie  series, and Ella’s Big Chance

‘New Kitten’ – Shirley Hughes

1928 –Anita Brookner born, novelist and art historian; first woman to hold the position of Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Cambridge (1967-1968), a visiting professorship; awarded the 1984 Man Booker Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac

1929 – Sheri S. Tepper born, American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels, noted for feminist and ecofeminst scifi, such as The Gate to Women’s Country, Beauty (winner of the 1992 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel), and the Arbai Trilogy; her pen names include A. J. Orde, E. E. Horlak, and B. J. Oliphant

1934 – Katherine Ortega born, American Republican politician and banker; Treasurer of the United States (1983-1989); as president of Santa Ana State Bank (1975-1977), she was the first woman chief executive of a bank in California

1935 – Oklahoma City is first U.S. city to install parking meters

1938 – Cynthia Enloe born, American feminist writer, theorist and academic; known for her work on gender and militarism, and her contributions to the fields of feminist international relations and political economy; the Cynthia Enloe Award was established in 2015 by the International Feminist Journal of Politics, in conjunction with the academic publisher Taylor & Francis in her honor; author of The Curious Feminist, “Gender” Is Not Enough: The Need for Feminist Consciousness, and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases

1939 – Ruth Fahnbulleh Perry born, Liberian politician; after the First Liberian Civil War, she was interim Chair of the Council of State of Liberia (1996-1997), the first Liberian woman head of state; in 1985, she won a seat in the Liberian Senate as a Unity Party candidate, and was the only opposition party member in the Senate (1985-1989) when the rest of her party boycotted taking their seats in protest of the illegitimacy of Samuel Doe’s government.  “You can’t solve the problems by staying away,” she said. After her term in the senate, she was active in Women Initiative in Liberia, Women in Action for Goodwill and the Association of Social Services, working to end to civil war

1939 – Mariele Ventre born, Italian singer and conductor; founder-director of Piccolo Coro dell-Antoniano, an award-winning children’s choir

1942 – Vichy French government orders mass arrest of Jews, deported to Auschwitz

1945 – U.S. detonates the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo NM test site

1946 – Louise Fréchette born, French Canadian public servant and diplomat; currently working on a nuclear energy and global security research project at the Centre for International Governance Innovation; member of the Global Leadership Foundation; was the first UN Deputy Secretary-General (1997-2006); Canadian Ambassador to the UN (1992-1994); Canadian Ambassador to Argentina (1985-1989); part of Canada’s UN delegation in Geneva (1978-1985)

1946 – Barbara J. Lee born, African American Democratic politician; a U.S. Representative from California since 1998; only member of either House to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), granted to President George W. Bush in 2001 after 9-11, calling it “a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events — anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. . .” Lee was also a vocal critic of the Iraqi War, and is an advocate for legislation to create a Department of Peace; strongly in favor of gun control, pro-choice, supporter of legislation to increase affordable housing, and an opponent of the Death Penalty; previously a California state assembly member and state senator; Chair of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus (2008-2010); Chair of the revived Congressional Social Work Caucus (since 2013)

1947 – Alexis Herman born, American Democratic politician; first African American woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor (1997-2001); White House Director of the Office of Public Liaison (1993-1997); Director of the U.S. Women’s Bureau (1977-1981)

1948 – Pinchas Zukerman born in Israel, Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor; came to the U.S. at age 14 to study at the Julliard School with Isaac Stern; then made his New York debut in 1963; honored as one of the great masters of the violin; two-time Grammy winner; made his debut conducting the English Chamber Orchestra in 1970

1950 – Frances Spaulding born, British art historian, specializing in 20^th century British art, and author over a dozen major books of period art history, biography, and essays; was editor of The Burlington Magazine (2015-2017), the longest-running art journal in the English language; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1984

1951 – J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is published

1954 – Jeanette Mott Oxford born, American activist and Democratic politician; first openly lesbian member of the Missouri House of Representatives, since 2005; Executive Director of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare (1991-2000)

1954 – Julie Lyonn Lieberman born, American pioneer in music improvisation and ergonomic performance; violinist, vocalist,  composer, author, educator, and recording artist. She was composer-in-residence for the feminist theatre company, Emmatroupe, and co-creator with Leonardo Shapiro of The Yellow House, a play based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh, which was performed at La Mama in New York City. She is the Artistic Director for the summer program, Strings Without Boundaries

1955 – Susan Wheeler born, American poet and academic; has published six volumes of poetry and a novel; won the 1994 Pushcart Prize for her poetry collection Bag o’ Diamonds

1957 – Alexandra Marinina born as Marina Anatolyevna Alekseyeva in the Ukraine, best-selling Russian author of detective fiction; her 30 novels have sold over 17 million copies, and been translated into 20 languages, but only Confluence of Circumstances is currently available in English translation

1959 – King Mohammed V of Morocco inaugurates the National Festival of Marrakech Popular Arts * to preserve and display a rich heritage of oral, musical and visual arts, with traditional crafts and music workshops, and many presentations by storytellers, poets, musicians, and dancers

1959 – The Coasters record “Poison Ivy”

1959 – James MacMillan born, Scottish orchestral and sacred music composer

1964 – Barry Goldwater accepts the Republican presidential nomination at their San Francisco convention

1969 – Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the moon

1969 – The Who release “I’m Free”

1971 – Jeanne M. Holm is promoted to brigadier general in the United States Air Force, becoming the first woman brigadier general in the Air Force, and the first woman two-star general in any branch of the U.S. military

1973 – Former aide Alexander Butterfield reveals President Nixon’s secret taping system during his testimony at the Senate Watergate hearings

1974 – Maret Maripuu born, Estonian libertarian Reform Party politician; Minister of Social Affairs (2007-2009); Vice President of the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament (2006-2007), and member of the Riigikogu (1999-2007); Tallinn City Council member (1999-2005)

1980 – The Republicans nominate Ronald Reagan to be U.S. President at their convention in Detroit

1989 – South Africa’s largest labour federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, holds its third annual congress and intensifies its campaign against apartheid

1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter

2005 – J.K. Rowling’s sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sells 9 million copies in the first 24 hours after its release

2015 – NASA reveals first close-up pictures of Pluto, sent by the New Horizons probe

2016 – The first Guinea Pig Appreciation Day * is launched by Piggles Guinea Pig Rescue, a Canadian group which is a member of Helping Homeless Pets.com

2018 – Federal Judge Dana Sabraw in California temporarily halted the deportation of immigrant families the Trump administration had reunited after separating them at the Mexican border. Judge Sabraw then ordered the government to reunite all the families which had been separated. The Trump administration said it had reunited all eligible families of children under age 5, and was racing to reunite roughly 2,550 older undocumented immigrant children with their parents by Sabraw’s July 26, 2018, deadline. “The judge once again made clear that the government unconstitutionally took these children away and now must do everything in its power to reunite them safely and by the deadline,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the ACLU, which filed the lawsuit. However the Trump administration has continued to separate migrant families at rates that alarm immigration attorneys and advocates, in spite of Judge Sabraw’s barring of family separations as a systemic policy. The Judge’s ruling allowed separations in rare, specific circumstances, but the Trump administration had officially separated at least another 389 children from their families as of May 2019. Immigrant advocates say that many more separations have gone unreported. At least six immigrant children have died in custody

2019 – German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen is elected the first woman European Commission president, the European Union’s executive branch. She is also the first German elected to the position in over 50 years. “Exactly 40 years ago, the first president of the European parliament, Simone Veil, was elected and presented her vision of a united Europe,” Von der Leyen said. “It is thanks to you, and to all the other European icons, that I present to you today my vision of Europe. And 40 years later, it is with great pride that it is finally a woman who is the presidential candidate of the European commission . . . If member states do not propose enough female commissioners, I will not hesitate to ask for new names,” she said. “Since 1958 there have been 183 commissioners. Only 35 were women. That is less than 20%.”

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