September 29^th is

National Biscotti Day

World Heart Day *

V.F.W. Day *

International Coffee Day

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MORE! Barbara Mertz, Lech Wałęsa and Gwen Ifill, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Argentina – Inventors Day *

Haiti – Manman Aloumandia
(Voudin Mama Aloumandia)

Paraguay –
Battle of Boquerón Anniversary *

Russia – Machine-Building
Industry Workers Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

522 BC – King Darius I ‘the Great’ of the Persian Achaemenid Empire kills the Magian usurper Gaumāta, who was impersonating Prince Bardiya, the son of Cyrus II

Darius I

106 BC – Pompey born, Roman politician and general, also known as ‘the Great’ (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus), a man who really insisted on getting his triumphs (big parades and religious sanctification) in Rome, and wouldn’t disband his armies until he got them. In 61 BC, he celebrated his third triumph in Rome, for his victories in the third Mithridatic War, where he arrived after Lucius Licinius Lucullus had already led most of the fighting against the Kingdom of Pontus (parts of present-day Turkey and surrounding countries)

929 – Qian Chu born, known as Qian Hongchu, last king of Wuyue before surrendering to the Song dynasty, during the China’s Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period

Lei Feng Pagoda in 1910 (it collapsed in 1924) – Built by Qian Hongchu to honor
concubine Huang for giving birth to his child when he was 50 years old

1066 – William the Conqueror’s army occupies Hastings, on England’s South coast

1547 – Miguel de Cervantes born, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright; renowned as the author of Don Quixote (El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha)

1571 – Caravaggio born, Italian painter whose tenebroso  style, brightly highlighting a central image before a shadowy background, influenced many Baroque painters

Caravaggio’s Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy, circa 1595

1578 – Spanish settlers found Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, on the site of existing settlement of the Pech, Tolupans and Twahkas

1650 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters in Threadneedle Street, London, charging 6 pennies for answers to questions, mostly about real estate and employment – a pioneering attempt at employment and rental agencies

1654 – Vincent Lübeck born, German composer

1674 – Jacques-Martin Hotteterre born, French composer and flautist, into a family of wind instrument makers and performers

1703 – François Boucher born, French Rococo painter and decorative artist; Madame de Pompadour was his patroness

Portrait of Madame Pompadour by François Boucher

1725 – Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive born, also known as Clive of India; controversial Commander-in-Chief of British India and agent of the East India Company, who subjugated Bengal and much of the rest of India, while amassing a huge personal fortune

1758 – Horatio Nelson born, 1st Viscount Nelson, British admiral, flag officer of the Royal Navy; hero of the Battle of Trafalgar against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish navies during the Napoleonic Wars

1786 – Guadalupe Victoria born, Mexican general and leader in the Mexican War of Independence against the Spanish Empire; first President of Mexico (1824-1829)

1789 – The U.S. War Department establishes a regular army of several hundred men, and the first U.S. Congress session adjourns

1810 – Elizabeth Gaskell born, English author of Cranford, North and South, and Wives and Daughters; first biographer of Charlotte Brontë

1829 – First public appearance of London’s re-organized Metropolitan Police Force is jeered by political opponents; the force later becomes known as Scotland Yard

1848 – Caroline Yale born, American educator who revolutionizes teaching of the deaf; co-developer of the Northampton Vowel and Consonant Charts

1855 – The port of Iloilo in the Philippines is opened to world trade by Queen Isabella II of Spain, exporting sugar and other products to the U.S., Australia and Europe

1864 – The Treaty of Lisbon defines the boundaries between Spain and Portugal and abolishes the Couto Misto microstate, which had been in existence since the 10^th century

1879 – Joaquín Nin y Castellanos born, Cuban composer and pianist; father of writer Anaïs Nin and composer Thorvald Nin

1882 – Lilias Armstrong born, English phonetician, reader at University College London, known for her work on English intonation, and pioneering studies of the phonetics and tone of Somali and Kikuyu; co-author with Ida C. Ward of Handbook of English Intonation, a classic which remained in print for over 50 years, and author of A Burmese Phonetic Reader, The Phonetic Structure of Somali and The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu

1885 – First practical public electric tramway opens in Blackpool, England

1891 – Ian Fairweather born in Scotland, painter who worked much of his life in Australia; regarded as one of Australia’s greatest painters – became allergic to oil paint in his later years

Ian Fairweather Alligator Creek- Cairns -1939

1899 – Malolos Congress ratifies Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain

1899 – Inventors Day * – László Bíró born in Hungary, Hungarian-Argentine inventor of the first commercially successful ballpoint pen, co-patented in 1938 with his brother György, a chemist (the first ballpoint pen was invented roughly 50 years earlier by John J. Loud, but it was not a commercial success). László Bíró and his brother fled the Nazis, and settled in Argentina in 1943, then filed for a U.S. patent, which was issued in 1945

1899 – V.F.W. Day * – The Veterans of Foreign Wars is founded by veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, “to honor the dead by helping the living”

1901 – Enrico Fermi born in Italy, American physicist, notable figure in development of the first U.S. atomic weapons, 1938 Nobel Prize laureate

1902 – David Belasco opens his first Broadway theatre in NYC

1903 – Diana Vreeland born, noted columnist for Harper’s Bazaar (1936-1962), editor-in-chief of Vogue (1963-1971) and consultant to the NY Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute (1971-1989)

1911 – Tripolitanian War: Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire over territories in North Africa, which approximate modern-day Libya

1918 – The Armistice of Salonica ends Bulgarian participation in WWI

1923 – League of Nations ‘British Mandate for Palestine’ goes into effect, legitimizing temporary British rule of the newly formed territory, along with the ‘French Mandate’ for Syria and Lebanon

1925 – Paul MacCready born, American aeronautical engineer, designer of human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross, which won the first and second Kremer prizes for flying from England to France; founder of AeroVironment

1927 – Barbara Mertz born, American Egyptologist, historian and popular novelist under the pen names Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels

1930 – Colin Dexter born, English crime author of the Inspector Morse series

1931 – James Cronin born, American particle physicist, Nobel Laureate (1980)

1932 – The Chaco War: Battle of Boquerón Anniversary * – On September 7, the armies of Bolivia and Paraguay begin fighting in and around the stronghold of Boquerón, which was occupied by the Bolivians, in the escalation of a border conflict over control of the northern section of the Gran Chaco. The Bolivians, down to 240 men, most of them wounded, surrendered on this day

1933 – Samora Machel born, Mozambican military commander, revolutionary and politician; first President of Mozambique (1975-1986), from independence until his death in a plane crash returning while from a summit meeting in Zambia. The Margo Commission investigation’s finding that the cause was ‘pilot error’ is still disputed

1938 – The Munich Agreement settles the Sudetenland dispute in Germany’s favor

1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis born, Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famer

1939 – Molly Haskell born, American feminist film critic for the Village Voice in the 1960s, then New York magazine and Vogue; her influential 1974 book, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, was revised and reissued in 1987 

1941 – Babi Yar Massacre: Nazi forces under Major-General Kurt Eberhard, along with Ukranian collaborators, kill over 33,000 Jews in two days in the Babi Yar ravine in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine

‘Babi Yar’ – painting by Chaim Goldberg

1942 – Janet Powell born, Australian Democrats and Green party (after 2004) politician; Leader of the Australian Democrats (1990-1991); Senator for Victoria (1986-1993).
In 1986, Powell campaigned successfully to get psychiatric illness included in definitions of disability for the purposes of disability services legislation. In 1989, she introduced the Smoking and Tobacco Products Advertisements (Prohibition) Bill, banning cigarette advertising in all print media. The measure was the first introduced by a woman Australian federal parliamentarian to become law. Powell, a former smoker, had been converted to the anti-smoking cause by her children. She was an inaugural appointee to the Victorian Honour Role of Women in 2000 for her “services to the community,” and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012. Powell died at age 71 in 2013

1943 – Lech Wałęsa born, Polish electrician and politician, 2nd President of Poland, 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

1951 – The Memphis Archaeological and Geological Society is chartered, dedicated to the preservation of paleoindian Chucalissa Indian Village site in Tennessee

1951 – Michelle Bachelet Jeria born, Chilean physician and politician; first woman elected as President of Chile, first Executive Director of UN Women

1954 – The re-make of A Star Is Born with Judy Garland and James Mason has its world premiere in Hollywood

1955 – Ann Bancroft born, American author, wilderness instructor and explorer, teacher and public speaker; first woman to cross both the North and South Poles, and has been on a source-to-sea expedition on the Ganges River, and the first east-west crossing of Greenland. Bancroft is an openly gay advocate for LGBT rights. Inducted into the U.S. National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005

1955 – Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge opens at New York’s Coronet Theatre

1955 – Gwen Ifill born, American journalist, television newscaster, political analyst, and author; first African American woman to host a nationally televised public affairs program in the U.S., Washington Week in Review, and was the co-managing editor of the PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff. Ifill was awarded the Women in Film and Video Women of Vision Award in 2000..She wrote the best-selling book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, published in 2009

1961 – Julia Gillard born, Australian Labor Party politician, who served a difficult and tumultuous term as the first woman Prime Minister of Australia (2010-2013); the first Australian woman to hold the positions of Deputy Prime Minister, Prime Minister and leader of a major party; leader of the Labor Party (2010-2013); Deputy Prime Minister (2007-2010); member of the House of Representatives (1998-2007)

1961 – Stephanie Miller born, American comedian and host of the liberal talk radio program, The Stephanie Miller Show, since 2004

1962 – President Kennedy nationalizes the Mississippi National Guard when officials defy federal court orders to enroll James Meredith at University of Mississippi

1963 – My Favorite Martian debuts on CBS-TV

1969 – The Dmitri Shostakovich 14^th Symphony premieres

1975 – WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, becomes first black-owned-and-operated TV station in the U.S.

1983 – U.S. Congress  uses the War Powers Act for the first time to authorize President Reagan to keep Marines in Lebanon for 18 more months

1983 – A Chorus Line becomes Broadway’s longest-running show: 3,389 performances

1984 – Elizabeth Taylor is voted “the world’s most beautiful woman” in a Harris poll

1985 – MacGyver starring Richard Dean Anderson, debuts on ABC-TV

1987 – Whitney Houston’s “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” is #1 on the charts

1988 – NASA shuttle Discovery launches, the first manned space flight since the Challenger disaster

1989 – Fatima Lodhi born, Pakistani social activist against Colorism, prejudice and discrimination against people with darker skin and viewing lighter skin as a standard of attractiveness, especially in women; she launched a campaign with the slogan ‘Dark Is Divine’ which has garnered international attention

1990 – Millie’s Book by Barbara Bush becomes a “non-fiction” #1 best-seller

1993 – Bosnian Parliament overwhelmingly rejects an international peace plan unless Bosnian Serbs return land they took by force

1994 – U.S. House votes to end lobbyists buying meals/entertainment for its members

1997 – The Rolling Stones release “Bridges To Babylon” in the U.K.

2000 – Israeli riot police storm a major Jerusalem shrine and open fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175

2008 – Dow Industrial Average drops 777 points, its largest one-day point decline, after  U.S. House of Representatives votes down $700 billion bank bailout plan, then Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual declare bankruptcy

2009 – NASA’s Messenger spacecraft makes a third and final flyby of Mercury

2012 – Bank of America agrees to pay $2.43 billion USD to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2009 by investors angry about alleged misleading statements about the financial health of Merrill Lynch, which the bank acquired in 2008, and about Bank of America’s financials as well. CEO Brian Moynihan denies the allegations, but said the settlement would “remove uncertainty and risk, and is in the best interests of our shareholders.”

2015 – During the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin clashed openly over the Syrian civil war. Obama said in a speech that Russia’s support of the Syrian government was harmful to “democratic principles and human rights.” Putin responded that the West’s effort to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was a violation of international law and “an enormous mistake,” because his army can defeat the Islamic State

2016 – The Obama administration issued a rule on Thursday requiring federal government contractors to give workers paid sick leave. Under the rule, the Labor Department estimates that more than 1.1 million people will be able to get sick leave — up to seven days per year. “This is really part of a broader conversation across America about what a 21st-century social compact should look like,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said. “Back in the day, when Beaver Cleaver got sick and June Cleaver was home, who takes off [from work] to stay with the Beav was a non-issue. In today’s world of dual-career couples in the work force, our public policy has not caught up.”

2019 – Cardiologist Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan warned, “Heart attacks have never been more treatable. Yet women are dying needlessly because heart attacks are often seen as a man’s disease, and women don’t receive the same standard of treatment as men.” The British Heart Foundation, a leading charity, issued a report that inequalities at every stage lead to women being diagnosed late and not getting the prompt treatment and aftercare they need to survive a heart attack. Research funded by the foundation found more than 8,000 women who died between 2002 and 2013 in England and Wales because they did not receive the same standard of care as men. “Public understanding of women and heart attacks is beset by misperceptions. These are dangerous when they mean a woman doesn’t recognise the symptoms of her heart attack and delays seeking and receiving medical help,” the BHF report said. “Worldwide, coronary heart disease is the single biggest killer of women.” Women are 50% more likely to get a wrong diagnosis than a man, and are also less likely to be put on medication to prevent a second heart attack. The most common symptoms, for both men and women, are sudden central chest pain or discomfort in the chest that doesn’t go away, which can feel like pressure, tightness or squeezing. There may be pain that radiates down the left arm, or both arms, or to the neck, jaw, back or stomach. People can feel sick, sweaty, light-headed or short of breath.

Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan

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