September 27th is

Ancestor Appreciation Day

Chocolate Milk Day

Crush A Can Day (recycle)

World Tourism Day *

Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day *

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MORE! Grazia Deledda, Bud Powell and Fatema Mernissi, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Judaism – Yom Kippur begins at sundown

Belgium – French Community Day

Eritrea and Ethiopia – Meskel
(Discovery of the True Cross)

Madagascar – St Vincent de Paul
(Patron saint)

Mexico – Consumación
de la Independencia

Poland – Dzień Podziemnego Państwa Polskiego
(WWII Resistance) 

Turkmenistan – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

808 – Emperor Ninmyō born, reigned as the 54^th Emperor of Japan (833-850)

1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail for England for the Norman Conquest. Tostig and Hardrada, allies of William, had already defeated the local Northumbrian forces at the Battle of Fulford

Battle of Hastings as shown on the Bayeux Tapestry

1389 – Cosimo de’ Medici born, Italian banker and politician, who became the “first among equals” in Florence, and was a patron of the arts, learning and architecture. He used his immense wealth to control the votes of office holders in the municipal councils. His grandson was Lorenzo the Magnificent

1540 – A Papal Bull establishes the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, as a religious order

1552 – Flaminio Scala born, stage name Flavio, major figure in Commedia dell’Arte, actor-manager, playwright, and producer-director; author of the first published collection of commedia scenarios, Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative, which inspired Lope de Vega, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Molière

Commedia dell’arte

1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history

1657 – Sophia Alekseyevna born, ruled as Regent of Russia (1682-1689) during the minority of her brother, Ivan V and half-brother Peter I. She forged alliances with Prince Vasily Golitsyn and other key members of the court, during a time when Muscovite upper-class women were confined to the upper-floor terem (women’s separate quarters), and had to wear veils in public, always accompanied by guards, and were kept away from any open involvement in politics. She was the only girl among her siblings who was educated by the tutor for her older brothers. When her brother, Tsar Feodor III died, Sophia unexpectedly acted in the interest of her sickly 16 year-old brother Ivan to prevent her 9-year-old half-brother Peter from bypassing Ivan and inheriting the throne, as her father was considering at the time of his death. The clans of her father’s two wives, Mara Miloslavskaya and Natalia Naryshkina, were both vying to see the son of their branch on the throne. State funerals were only attended by men, but she shocked the mourners at Feodor’s funeral by storming in and insisting on staying. Her Miroslavsky relatives backed Sophia as regent, and took advantage of an uprising by the Steltsky regiments in Moscow to spread rumors of corruption, and stir up rebels, who stormed the royal residence and killed several Naryshkin supporters, including two of Peter’s uncles. Mobs of the poor began looting in the streets of Moscow. Ivan was proclaimed as the “first” tsar, with Peter as a secondary co-ruler, and Sophia as regent for them both. But Peter and his faction became increasingly insistent on his rights, especially after Ivan’s first-born was a girl child, and his Naryshkin relatives demanded after Peter married at age 17 that Sophia step down, and Ivan be demoted. Sophia was exiled to the Novodevichy convent without the formality of taking the veil, and died in the convent in 1704 at age 46

1672 – The fourth and last ‘Africa Company’ in Great Britain obtains a charter giving it the British monopoly for the slave trade from Africa

1722 – Samuel Adams born, American philosopher and Founding Father

1777 – Lancaster, PA, becomes the American capital for one day when the British capture Philadelphia and the Continental Congress flees. The next day, the revolutionary government moves to York, PA, which became the capital for the next 9 months

1779 – John Adams is selected to negotiate peace terms with the British

1822 – Jean-François Champollion announces the successful transliteration of  Egyptian script on the Rosetta Stone

1824 – Benjamin Gould born, American astronomer,  establishes The Astronomical Journal, a peer-reviewed  scientific publication, and discovers the Gould Belt, a partial ring of stars in the Milky Way

1825 – George Stephenson operates the first locomotive to haul a passenger train, for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in Britain

1840 – Thomas Nast born in Germany, American political cartoonist

1874 – Thomas Nast Republican Elephant cartoon in Harper’s Weekly

1861 – Corinne Roosevelt Robinson born, American writer, poet, and public speaker; sister of Theodore and aunt of Eleanor; first woman called on to second a nomination of a Presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party, at the 1920 Republican convention, for Leonard Wood, but he loses the nomination to Warren G. Harding; out of love and admiration for Eleanor, she does not campaign for Hoover in 1932, voting for FDR

1871 – Grazia Deledda born, Italian author and poet; won the 1926 Nobel Prize for literature, the first Italian woman to receive the prize; noted for Chiaroscuro, and Canne al vento (Reeds in the Wind) 

1874 – Myrtle Reed born, author, poet, journalist and philanthropist; noted for Lavender and Old Lace, which became a long-running play; Old Rose and Silver; and A Weaver of Dreams; also several cookbooks published under the pen-name Olive Green

1878 – Mary Emily Sinclair born, American mathematician; she earned her A.B. degree in 1900 from Oberlin College, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. In 1908, she became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago. From 1907 to 1944, she taught at Oberlin College, as an instructor (1907-1908); associate professor (1908-1925); full professor (1925-1941); Department Chair (1939-1944); Clark Professor of Mathematics (1941-1944). During several sabbaticals, she continued her mathematical research, at University of Chicago, Cornell University, University of Rome, the Sorbonne, and the Institute for Advanced Study

1879 – Cyril Meir Scott born, English composer, writer and poet

1886 – Wilhelmina (Minnie) Vautrin born, American missionary in China for 28 years, and president of Ginling Women’s College. She saved lives of thousands of Chinese refugees, many of them women and girls, during the 1937  Japanese invasion of Nanjing, using documents issued by the Japanese Embassy proclaiming Ginling College as a refugee center in the Neutral Zone to prevent Japanese soldiers from entering the school’s campus. In the aftermath, Vautrin saw to the burial of the dead, care for newborn babies, and had some success in tracing missing husbands and sons. Industrial or crafts classes were provided for women who had lost their husbands, so that they might support themselves. One hundred widows graduated under this program. In 1940, she returned to the U.S., suffering from severe stress. In May, 1941, she wrote in her journal, “Had I ten perfect lives, I would give them all for China” shortly before she committed suicide. Chinese historian Hu, Hua-Ling wrote an account her heroism in American Goddess at the Rape of Nanjing

1894 – The Aqueduct Race Track opens in New York

1898 – Vincent Youmans born, American songwriter for Broadway and Hollywood; “Tea for Two,”  “More Than You Know,” “Flying Down to Rio,” “I Want to Be Happy” and many others, with a long list of lyricists as collaborators

1905 – The physics journal Annalen der Physik receives Albert Einstein’s paper “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” which introduces E= mc²

1908 – First production of a ‘Model T’ Ford at the Ford Motor plant in Detroit MI

1911 – Marcey Jacobson born, American photographer; a socialist and lesbian who did most of her best-known work in Mexico during the McCarthy era, photographing indigenous peoples of Chiapas, in Southern Mexico

Iglesia Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico, by Marcey Jacobson

1916 – Iyasu V is deposed as ruler of Ethiopia, his aunt becomes Empress Zewditu, the first female head of an internationally recognized state in 20^th century Africa, and the last Empress regnant to date

1918 – Sir Martin Ryle born, English physicist and astronomer; develops revolutionary radio telescope systems, used for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources

1924 – Earl “Bud” Powell born, American jazz pianist and composer

1928 – The U.S. announces its recognition of the Nationalist Chinese government

1928 – Margaret Rule born, British archaeologist, leader of the project to excavate and raise the Tudor warship Mary Rose in the 1980s

Margaret Rule in 1980 – project director for lifting the Mary Rose

1932 – Marcia Neugebauer born, American geophysicist whose work yielded the first direct measurements of the solar wind

1938 – The League of Nations condemns the Japanese as aggressors in China, eight months after the end of the Nanjing Massacre, which began in December of 1937. An investigating tribunal after the end of WWII estimated that over 200,000 people were murdered, and there was widespread rape and looting during the two-month period

1938 – “Thanks for the Memory” is heard for the first time on radio’s Bob Hope Show

1938 – Artie Shaw records “Nightmare”

1939 – Carol Lynn Pearson born, American poet, author, screenwriter and playwright. A fourth-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, she is best known for her memoir,  Goodbye, I Love You, about her marriage to Gerald Neils Pearson, a gay man who died of AIDS. They were both devout Mormons, and he told her while they were engaged that he had engaged in sexual relationships with men, but had left that ‘phase’ of his life behind. Mormon authorities assured the couple that marriage would turn him into a heterosexual, but after 12 years of marriage and four children, they separated and then divorced in 1978. When he was being diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, he returned to live with his ex-wife and children, and she cared for him until his death. Since then, Pearson has been an unofficial spokesperson for acceptance of gay people by their Mormon families, and for a stronger leadership role for women in the Mormon community

1939 – Warsaw, Poland, surrenders after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II

1940 – Fatema Mernissi born, Moroccan sociologist and scholar, one of the founders of Islamic feminism

1941 – The SS Patrick Henry is launched, the first of over 2,700 Liberty ships

1947 – Meat Loaf born as Marvin Aday, American singer-songwriter, record producer

1953 – Diane Abbott born, British Labour politician, the first black woman to hold a seat in the House of Commons, serving as the Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987

Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott at 2016 Labour conference

1953 – Mātā Amritānandamayī born, also known as ‘Amma’ (Mother); Indian Hindu spiritual leader, guru and humanitarian. If the two wings of a bird are devotion and action, knowledge is its tail. Only with the help of all three can the bird soar into the heights.” She stresses the importance of selfless service, the need for inter-religious harmony, for environmental protection, and of desegregating science and spirituality. She also regularly speaks on the importance of women’s empowerment  and gender equality 

1954 – The “Tonight!” show debuts on NBC-TV with Steve Allen as host

1961 – Sierra Leone becomes the 100^th member of the United Nations

1962 – Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is published; in Sweden, their word for pesticides is changed to mean biocide because Carson argues that ‘insecticide’ is inaccurate as all living things are being poisoned through water and soil contamination

1964 – The Beach Boys perform “I Get Around” on the Ed Sullivan Show

1964 – The Warren Commission issues its report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy

1964 – Tracy Camp born, American computer scientist, noted for wireless network research, and her leadership in broadening participation in computer science; honored as an Association for Computing Machinery 2006 Distinguished Scientist, and named an ACM Fellow in 2012

1966 – Stephanie D. Wilson born, American aerospace engineer and NASA astronaut; second African American woman in space

1968 – Mari Kiviniemi born, Finnish politician, second woman Prime Minister of Finland (2010-2011); since 2014, Deputy Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

1970 – Jordan’s King Hussein and Al Fatah guerrilla leader Yasser Arafat meet in Cairo with ten Arab chiefs of state and sign an agreement ending the civil war in Jordan

King Hussein and Yasser Arafat

1973 – U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew insists he won’t resign after his “no contest” plea to charges of tax evasion and corruption, but he does resign on October 10

1979 – U.S. Congress gives final approval to Department of Education Organization Act, establishing the federal agency

1980 – The U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) promotes the first World Tourism Day *

1981 – Sophie Crumb born in the U.S., American-French comics artist who has lived most of her life in France since age 9. Best known for her Belly Button comix

1986 – U.S. Congress passes Tax Reform Act to simplify the tax code, and eliminate several tax shelters and loopholes, but many of them were quickly restored again

1989 – Columbia Pictures Entertainment buys out Sony Corporation for $3.4 billion

1991 – The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocks, 7-7, on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court

1991 – The U.S. eliminates all land-based tactical nuclear arms and calls on Soviet Union to do the same

1994 – The “Contract with America” signed by more than 300 Republican Congressional candidates is unveiled at a press conference: shrink government, cut spending, slash government assistance programs to restore “individual responsibility,” cut taxes and eliminate government regulations

1995 – Redesigned $100 bill features larger off-center portrait of Benjamin Franklin

1996 – The Taliban drives the government of Afghani President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of Kabul, captures Afghanistan’s capital and executes former leader Najibullah

2004 – North Korea announces it turned 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons as a deterrent against U.S. “nuclear threats” and to “prevent” nuclear war in
northeast Asia. U.S. State Department issues statement that the U.S has no plans to attack North Korea

2007 – NASA launches the Dawn probe to study objects in the asteroid belt

2008 – National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) launches Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day *

2009 – Voters in the German Federal elections re-elect Angela Merkel for a second term as Chancellor of Germany

2017 – Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of independence in a non-binding referendum, according to the Kurdish election commission. Over 92% of the three million Kurds who cast ballots voted for independence. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the vote to be annulled. His government had urged officials in the semi-autonomous Kurdish north not to hold the referendum, which the national government said violated the country’s constitution. Regional powers and the U.S., a longtime supporter of the region, also had opposed the vote, saying it could stoke instability. Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani urged the world to “respect the will of the people of Kurdistan.”

2019 – In India, five judges of the supreme court unanimously declared  unconstitutional a colonial-era law that made having a sexual relationship with a woman without her husband’s consent a crime. It is also archaic, discriminatory, and deprived women of agency. The case, brought by an Indian businessman living in Italy, sought to have section 497 of the Indian penal code and another similar provision made gender neutral. But the court said the offence, which carried a prison sentence of up to five years, was arbitrary and needed to go. “It is time to say husband is not the master,” said the chief justice, Dipak Misra. He quoted John Stuart Mill: “Legal subordination of one sex over another is wrong in itself.” Indu Malhotra, one of two women among the 25 judges on the court, said: “The time when wives were invisible to the law, and lived in the shadows of their husbands, has long since gone by.”

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