August 1st is

World Wide Web Day *

Girlfriends Day

U.S. Air Force Day *

World Lung Cancer Day

(Musical) Rounds Resounding Day *

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MORE! Maria Mitchell, Jerry Garcia and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Paganism –
Northern Hemisphere: Lammas / Lunasa
Southern Hemisphere:  Imbolc / Oimelc / Brigid 

Emancipation Day in the Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat. St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Island

Azerbaijan – Language and Alphabet Day

Benin – Independence Day

China – Army Day

Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – Victory Day

Lebanon – Armed Forces Day

Nicaragua – Managua: Treida de
Santo Domingo de Guzmán (patron saint)

North Cyprus –
Social Resistance Day

Republic of the Congo – Parents’ Day

Switzerland –National Day *

Tonga – Coronation and Birthday of
the King of Tonga

United Kingdom – Minden Day
(1759 Battle of Minden*)

Vanuatu – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

10 BC – Claudius born in Gaul, first Roman emperor (41-54 AD) born outside Italy

30 BC – Octavian enters Alexandria, Egypt, as a Roman conqueror

527 – Justinian I becomes sole ruler of Byzantine Empire

845 – Kan Shōjō born as Sugawara no Michizane; Japanese Heian Period poet, scholar and politician; notable for his Kanshi poetry (Japanese poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets); his knowledge of written Classical Chinese helped him rise through the ranks of scholars to a position in the Ministry of Popular Affairs (874), where he drafted edicts, correspondence and petitions, then to the Ministry of the Ceremonial (877), and appointment as governor of Sanuki Province (886-890). He was senior third rank when Emperor Uda abdicated in 897, but he was undermined in the new administration by a rival, and died exiled from court as a minor official in the distant Kyushu capital of Dazaifu

902 – The Muslim Aghlabids army takes Taormina completing the conquest of Sicily

1291 – The Federal Charter documents the union of the three cantons that are now central Switzerland, the beginning of the Swiss Confederacy which will grow into the modern-day country; marked as National Day * in Switzerland

1579 – Luis Vélez de Guevara, Spanish author and playwright; author of over 400 plays, but best remembered for his novel, El Diablo cojuelo (“The Crippled Devil”)

Illustration from El Diablo cojuelo by Luis Vélez de Guevara

1620 – The Speedwell arrives in Southampton from Delfshaven (now part of Rotterdam) to join with the Mayflower in bringing pilgrims to America, but its hull is already leaking, and needs repairs

1714 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain

George I in his coronation robes

1759 – Seven Years’ War, Battle of Minden *: Anglo-German forces led by Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat the French army under the command of Marshal of France, Marquis de Contades, after the French tried to impose an unpopular peace treaty upon the allied nations of Britain, Hanover and Prussia (the unification of Germany wasn’t completed until the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871)

1770 – William Clark born, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; served as Governor of Missouri Territory (1813-1820)

1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele

1779 – Frances Scott Key born, “Star-Spangled Banner” lyricist

1786 – Caroline Herschel, German astronomer, discovers the first of her eight comets; she was the first woman to discover a comet; Herschel was paid 50 pounds a year by the British Crown as her brother’s assistant, which he insisted upon, becoming the first woman to be paid for her work as an astronomer

1800 – The Acts of Union unite the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland

1818 – Maria Mitchell born, American astronomer and academic, discoverer of a comet, first American woman paid professional astronomer; first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Vassar College professor of astronomy (1865-1888) – when she found out she was paid less than younger male professors, she insisted on and got a salary increase; abolitionist (refused to wear cotton clothing until after the Emancipation Proclamation) and suffragist, friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1819 – Herman Melville born, author of Moby Dick

1834 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 goes into effect in the British Empire; by 1840 existing slaves are emancipated

1837 – Mary Harris baptized after birth in Ireland, her exact birthdate unknown, but she became the American labor organizer and speaker known as  ‘Mother Jones’ after her husband and children died of yellow fever; in 1902 she was called ‘the most dangerous woman in America’ because she was so successful in organizing mine workers and their families; activist for child labor laws

1841 – Lilli Suburg born, Estonian journalist, writer and feminist. As a girl, she suffered from erysipelas, a severe skin infection which disfigured her face, but during the time she was forced to stay at home, she became an avid reader and studied on her own. By 1869, she had recovered enough that she completed the examinations required to obtain her teaching certificate. Suburg established a girls school in Pärnu (1882-1894), and published Linda, the first women’s magazine in Estonia (1887–1894). In 1894, she was forced to sell the magazine, and moved to Latvia, where she was the head of a school until 1907. She began working on her memoir after the school closed. Though recognized as one of the first feminists of Estonia and made an honorary member of the Tartu Women’s Society in 1916, she was unable to attend the first women’s congress held in Tartu in 1917. In her last years, she made periodic visits back to Estonia to see her sister Laura, and it was during one of these visits that she died in 1923, at age 81

1865 – Isobel Lilian Gloag born in London of Scottish parents, British painter known for oil and watercolour portraits, posters and stained glass designs; exhibited works at the Royal Academy of Arts, and elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours. She had suffered ill health since childhood, and died at age 51

The Choice – by Isobel Lilian Gloag

1881 – Stanisław Kazuro born, Polish composer and conductor

1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea

1905 – Helen Sawyer Hogg born, American-Canadian astronomer and academic; did pioneering research into globular clusters and variable stars; first woman president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (1939-1941); wrote a weekly column “With the Stars” for the Toronto Star, and a column “Out of Old Books” for the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada; strong advocate for women’s careers in science; winner of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1949), the Rittenhouse Medal (1967) and the Klumpke-Roberts Award (1983)

1910 – Gerda Taro born as Gerta Pohorylle, German Jewish war photographer, one of the first women photojournalists to be killed while covering the front lines of a war; she was opposed to the Nazi party, and joined leftist groups in 1929. In 1933, she arrested and detained for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda; in 1934, she and her family were forced to leave Germany, scattering in different directions. She moved to Paris, and never saw her family again. She learned photography from Endre Friedmann, a Hungarian Jew, and they became lovers. She went to work for Alliance Photo as a picture editor. They created the fictional persona of Robert Capo for Freidmann, but both of them submitted work under the alias, as it became more difficult for Jews to get their work accepted. The secret came out, but Friedmann kept the name Capa, and she adopted Gerda Taro as her professional name. While covering the Spanish Civil War, she photographed the bombing of Valencia and the Brunete region near Madrid, where her photographs showed that the Nationalist propaganda claiming control of the region was false. She was killed in 1937, accidentally hit by a Republican tank

Spanish Civil War Workers in Munitions Factory – Gerda Taro

1911 – Harriet Quimby passes her pilot’s test, becoming the first woman in the United States to receive an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate

1911 –  Jackie Ormes born, American cartoonist, first woman African American cartoonist in the U.S.; her comic strips – Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger

1912 – Gego born as Getrud Louise Goldschmidt in Germany; Venezuelan modern artist and sculptor; because she was Jewish, her German citizenship was nullified in 1935, and she moved to Venezuela in 1939, becoming a Venezuelan citizen in 1952

Gego in her studio – 1984 photo by Isidro Nunez

1914 – Germany and Russia declare war on each other, one of the series of declarations that will engulf Europe in WWI

1914 – Jack Delano born, American photographer and composer

1916 – Anne Hébert born, Canadian author and poet, honored three times with the Governor General’s Award

1924 – Abdullad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (2005-2015); Crown Prince (1982-2005), and de facto ruler after his father suffered a stroke in 1995; Commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (1962-2005)

1926 – Hannah Hauxwell born, English farmer in the North Riding of Yorkshire. By 1961, she was working alone on her family’s 80 acre farm, Low Birk Hatt Farm, running the farm with no help after the deaths of her parents and an uncle. There was no electricity or running water, and she was struggling to survive on £240-280 a year (the average annual UK salary at the time was £1,339.) Life was a constant battle against poverty and hardship, especially in the long, harsh winters with temperatures well below freezing. In the summer of 1972, she was discovered by a friend of a researcher at Yorkshire Television who was on a walking tour. After hearing some of her story, the researcher spoke with one of the company’s producers, who decided to make a documentary about Hauxwell, which came to be called Too Long a Winter. After it was shown on television, Yorkshire TV’s phone lines and mail were jammed for days by viewers wanting to help her. A local factory raised money to fund getting electricity to the farm, and Hauxwell received thousands of letters and donations from around the world. In 1989, a second documentary was made, A Winter Too Many, which found Hauxwell better off financially, having invested in a few more cows, but finding each winter more difficult to endure than the last, and her strength and health weakening. The film showed her leaving her beloved farm after selling it, and moving into a cottage in a nearby village. She was invited to the Women of the Year Gala at the Savoy Hotel in London, which was also documented, including her meeting HRH The Duchess of Gloucester. In 1992, she was filmed leaving Britain for the first time, on a trip to Europe, which was so popular that another film was made in 1994, showing her visit to the U.S. The meadows of her old farm were designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, now called Hannah’s Meadows, and managed by the Durham Wildlife Trust. She died at the age of 91 in 2018

1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party, now commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army

1927 – María Teresa López Boegeholz born, Chilean oceanographer and pioneer in marine sciences; professor of zoology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and then professor at the University of Concepción, where she taught courses in ecology, aquaculture, women and the environment, marine biology and sustainable development; did field work on ecologic projects in the Chiloé Archipelago; advocate for women in artisanal fishing

1936 – The Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Berlin is presided over by Aldolf Hitler, who had ordered the building of a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas to outdo the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Berlin games were broadcast on radio to 41 countries, and the first to be televised

1942 – Jerry Garcia born, Grateful Dead guitarist-songwriter

1944 – The Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation breaks out in Poland

1946 – Fiona Stanley born, Australian epidemiologist, noted for research on child and maternal health, and birth defects; confirmed the benefit of folate in preventing spina bifida; her early work was on health problems among Aboriginal children caused by changes to their environment and traditional culture, then she went back to school in the UK at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and in the U.S., before returning to Australia to establish research programs at the University of Western Australia and within the health department, focusing on preventing instead of curing diseases caused by societal and environmental issues. In 1990, she was the founder and director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences since 1996; recipient of the 2001 Centenary Medal; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science since 2002; honored in 2004 by the National Trust as an Australian Living Treasure; one of the major campaigners for the Valuing Children Initiative

1947 – President Truman signs proclamation of Air Force Day on 40^th Anniversary of date the Aeronautical Division was established under Chief Signal Officer of the Army

1947 – Chantal Montellier born, French cartoonist, artist, graphic novelist, writer, political leftist and feminist. She was the first woman editorial cartoonist in France, and a pioneering woman in comic books. In 2007, she and Jeanne Puchol, a cartoonist and graphic designer, founded the Prix Artémisia, named for the 17^th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi, an annual prize awarded to comics created by one or more women

1947 – Lorna Goodison born, Jamaican poet, writer and painter; first woman Poet Laureate of Jamaica, since 2017; honored with 1999 Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for literary contributions, and the 2018 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in Poetry; her poetry collections include I Am Becoming My Mother, Oracabessa and Supplying Salt and Light

1957 – The U.S and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

1960 – Chubby Checkers releases “The Twist”

1960 – Aretha Franklin records “Today I Sing the Blues”

1964 – Fiona Hyslop born, Scottish National Party politician; Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs (2011-present); Member of the Scottish Parliament for Linlithgow since 2011

1964 – Augusta Read Thomas born, American composer and conductor; Chair of the Board of the American Music Center; in 2007, Astral Canticle was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music; in 2017, she was commissioned to compose music commemorating the first nuclear chain reaction and its legacy: ‘Plea for Peace’

1966 – Charles Whitman kills 16 people with a rifle from the tower at the University of Texas-Austin

1972 – The Eagles release “Witchy Woman”

1974 – Cher Calvin born, Filipina American television journalist, working for KTLA television in Los Angeles since 2005, and winner of six Emmy Awards for News Journalism. She speaks English and Tagalog, and participates in many Filipino and Asian community events, including a program at the Center for the Pacific Asian Family to help stop violence against women

1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir takes office as Iceland’s first woman president (1980-1996), five years after the Icelandic ‘Women’s Day Off.’ This was a national strike for women’s equality in which 90% of Icelandic women took part, not going to work, and leaving the children and the housework for the men to manage, so fathers were unable to go to work either, virtually shutting down the country for a day.

1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England

1987 – Rounds Resounding Day * is founded by Gloria Delamar, celebrating rounds, catches and canons in the folk contrapuntal tradition – gather some friends and sing a round of “Row, Row Row Your Boat”

1989 – World Wide Web Day * – The World Wide Web was created by English engineer and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee at the the Europe Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland, so he could communicate with co-workers via hyperlinks. He is now the director of the World Wide Web Foundation, campaigning to ensure the web serves humanity by establishing it as a global public good and a basic right

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau develop a prototype browser and introduce HTML at CERN in Switzerland

2000 – The first time a Jarvik 2000 artificial heart is put into a human patient, the first artificial heart able to maintain blood flow as well as generating a pulse

2008 – The Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway begins operation, the fastest commuter rail system in the world

2010 – Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, habitat for hundreds of unique species, including the endangered Hawaiian Monk seal, Hawksbill sea turtle and the Nihoa finch, becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is now the second largest protected area on the planet

2014 – The Council of Europe (COE) Convention to Prevent and Combat Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence goes into force

2017 – The Venezuelan government confirmed it was holding opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma at the Ramo Verde military prison. The men, who have been arrested several times before, were taken from their homes in overnight raids, stoking fears of a renewed crackdown on the government’s critics. The country’s Supreme Court, which is allied with the embattled government of President Nicolas Maduro, accused Lopez and Ledezma of violating their house arrest, claiming they were plotting to escape and had released video statements criticizing Maduro

2018 – A federal appeals court ruled that President Trump’s threat to withhold some federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in its 2-1 decision that Trump exceeded his authority with his January 2017 executive order because an administration can’t withhold authorized funds to pursue its policy goals without congressional authorization. Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley claimed the executive order was lawful and necessary to get local governments to stop shielding undocumented immigrants. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the court had served as a check against a “power grab” by Trump

2019 – Khadijah Mellah, age 18, became the first jockey in Britain to ride in a race wearing a hijab under her helmet, which she won aboard Haverland.  The Magnolia Cup, a charitable race at Goodwood Racecourse, was also her first race. Her journey from the multiethnic community of Brixton to one of Britain’s most famous racecourses reads like a fairytale. She had not even been on a horse before her early teens, when her mother saw an ad for the Ebony Horse Club, an outreach program for south London’s most disadvantaged youth. Oli Bell, an ITV racing presenter is a patron of the club, and arranged for her to take part in the Magnolia Cup. Before the race, Mellah went though just two months of intense training at the British Racing School in Newmarket, but her coach was Hayley Turner, British’s most successful woman jockey.  Mellah said, “Haverland is such an amazing horse and I love him so much . . . Ambitious women can make it . . . I’ve had so much support, and I can’t wait to see other stories of other women getting into the industry and doing amazing.” Mellah began studying mechanical engineering at Brighton University in the fall of 2019

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