Daily Chat 04/10/09

The first complete English language Bible was published in Antwerp in 1537.  Belgium declared independence from the Netherlands in 1830.  The Boys' Brigade was founded in Glasgow in 1883, with the aim of developing Christian manliness.  Gutzon Borglum began sculpting Mount Rushmore in 1927.  Sputnik I was launched in 1957.

Born today:  Richard Cromwell (1626-1712), Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), Frederic Remington (1871-1909), Buster Keaton (1895-1966) and Ann Widdecombe (1947).

I don't normally include anniversaries of deaths, but Graham Chapman died twenty years ago today and I think that's worth a mention.  The world isn't quite as funny as it could be.

It is World Animal Day, so be nice to an animal today.

Daily Chat 03/10/09

Vercingetorix surrendered to the Romans in 52 BC.  Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the first person to be executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered in 1283.  Edgar Allen Poe was found in a gutter, muttering incoherently, in Baltimore in 1849.  Pravda was founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, et al., in Vienna in 1908.  The Maze Prison hunger strike came to an end in 1981 after seven months and ten deaths.  And the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist on this day in 1990.

Born today:  James Herriott (1916-1995), Gore Vidal (1925), Stevie Ray Vaughn (1954-1990) and Clive Owen (1964).

As luck would have it, today is German Unity Day.  Happy German Unity Day, elementary watson!

Daily Chat 02/10/09

Saladin captured Jerusalem in 1187.  John Logie Baird performed the first test of a working greyscale television in 1925.  Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei in 1928.  Thurgood Marshall became the first black man to serve as a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States in 1967.  And in 2006, five Amish girls were killed in their school house in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  They were; Naomi Ebersol, age 7, Marian Fisher, 13, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, Lena Miller 7, and Mary Miller, 8.  The Amish community reacted by immediately forgiving the gunman and offering support to his family.

Born today:  Richard III (1452-1485), Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), Graham Greene (1904-1991), Richard Hell (1949), Sting (1951) and Phil Oakey (1955).

It is Independence Day in Guinea.

Daily Chat 01/10/09

In 331 BC, Alexander the Great defeated Darius III at the Battle of Guagamela.  News of the World began enriching the world of British journalism in 1943.  Congress established Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks in 1890.  The Shinkansen bullet trains began service between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964 and Denmark became the first country to allow civil partnerships for homosexual couples in 1989.

Born today:  Jimmy Carter (1924), Julie Andrews (1935) and Tim O'Brien (1946).  If you've never heard of Tim O'Brien -- he is the author of one of my favourite books, The Things They Carried, about the Viet Nam War.  It is brilliant.

It is Independence Day in Tuvalu, Nigeria and Cyprus.