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Events, deaths, births, of JUL 28

[For Jul 28 Julian go to  Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Aug 071700s: Aug 081800s: Aug 091900~2099: Aug 10]
ALTERNATE SITES    ALL FOR 030728      ANY DAY  OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY     ART “4” JUL 28
• Eiriksson arrived in America... • US Senate ratifies UN Charter... • 14th Amendment... • Worst quake ever... • Peter Rabbit's writer is born...
On a 28 July:
2061 Halley's Comet is due for its 31st recorded perihelion passage.
2002 A 1570 self-portrait by Tintoretto, [not this one of 1588] and a painting by each of Esteban Murillo, Adolphe Piot, Gustave Courbet, and an anonymous Italian master, are stolen from Paraguay's national museum. The thieves spent two months digging, from a shop they had rented 25 meters away, 3 meters underground a tunnel with electric light bulbs and a ceiling reinforced with wooden poles. The four largest paintings had been removed from their frames.
2002 A copy of the book Miss Abby Fitch-Martin is placed in the book drop of a Lincoln, Nebraska, City Library, 13'676 days late. The 178-page hardback book, written by Kataryn Loughlin (of Georgetown, Madison County NY) and published in 1952 (by Coward-McCann, NY), has been out-of-print for years earlier. This biography of a Whitesboro, Oneida County NY, woman from a New England clan that adhered to a family code of "Pedigree, Prudence, Pride and Purse," was checked out by a patient at Bryan Memorial Hospital in 1965 through the now-defunct Hospital Book Service. The due-date card stamped Feb. 17, 1965, is still in the back pocket but the index card listing the borrower is missing. The library will not try to collect the late fee of $3419 [they do not add interest, but at 3% annual compounded daily the amount would be $6315.93].
2002 Miners are rescued    ^top^
      From 00:50 to 02:44, nine miners (in the order in which they came out: 1: Randy Fogle, 43, of Garrett; 2: Harry Blaine Mayhugh, about 28; 3: Mayhugh's father-in-law Thomas Foy, 52, of Berlin, leader of the crew; 4: John Unger, 52, of Holsopple.; 5: John Phillippi, 36, of Jenner; 6: Ronald Hileman of Gray; 7: Dennis J. Hall, 49, of Johnstown; 8: Robert Pugh Jr., 50, of Stoystown; 9: Mark Popernack, 41, of Somerset) are pulled out, one at a time in an escape capsule, from the Que Creek coal mine near Somerset, Pennsylvania, where they had been trapped 74 meters underground since 20:50 on 24 July 2002, when they broke into the abandoned, ground-water-filled Saxman mine that maps showed to be 100 meters away. As water rushed in, at 21:00 Dennis Hall warned by phone a second crew of nine, which escaped at 21:30.
      A 15cm-diameter hole is completed down to the trapped miners by 03:30 on 25 July. The digging of the 66cm-diameter rescue shaft began at 17:00 on 25 July, as soon as the drilling rig arrived. But the drilling stopped for 18 hours on 26 July, after the 700-kg bit broke early in the morning. The rescue efforts, heavily overcovered by the news media, also involved pumping water out of the mine, and pumping air in, which is hot so as to combat hypothermia, and under pressure to lower the 13ºC water (this required the rescued miners to be placed in decompression chambers, to avoid “the bends”). The Black Wolf Coal Co., which operates the Que Creek mine, has been cited 26 times for minor violations of federal mine safety regulations since March 2001. Since 1870, 58'000 Pennsylvania miners have been killed on the job, but there has been only one fatality in the previous couple of years.
2001 Former Amerindian shoeshine boy, Stanford Ph.D. in economics, Alejandro Toledo, 55, is inaugurated as president of Peru, his first public office, having won a close June 2001 runoff election against former President Alan Garcia. Toledo presents himself as a modern, democratic Pachacutec, saying: “I admire Pachacutec for his capacity to integrate, unite and construct in difficult times.” — Born Cusi in 1418, Pachacutec (“World Reformer”) or Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui was a famous Inca emperor (1438-71), an empire builder who initiated the swift, far-ranging expansion of the Inca state, not just militarily but also by economic and cultural reorganization, continued by his son Topa Inca Yupanqui. Pachacuti first conquered various peoples in what is now southern Peru and then extended his power northwesterly to Quito
2000 Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, on his 62nd birthday, is sworn in for an unprecedented third term of office (which would end by his fleeing in disgrace to Japan, home of his ancestors, from where he would resign on 20 November 2000), after a rigged election (which ought to have been won by Alejandro Toledo, 54), infuriating demonstrators who set government buildings ablaze.
2000 Supposed 1000th anniversary of Eiriksson's arrival in America.    ^top^
      15'000 people descend on L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, population 44, to mark the 1000th anniversary of Leifur Eiriksson's voyage and greet the arrival of the Viking replica ship Islendingur and a flotilla of others under clear skies in this sometimes inhospitable peninsula. When Viking adventurer Leifur Eiriksson steered his ship to the barren, northern tip of Newfoundland 1000 years earlier, his landfall was likely witnessed by very few. Neither the date, nor the year, nor the place, nor Eriksson having been the first European to reach America, are historically established.
      The crowd was entertained by traditional Newfoundland music as well as a combined Icelandic, Mi'kmaq, and Newfoundland choir. A large iceberg rolled gently by as Islendingur captain Gunner Meral Eggertsson noted how seeing Newfoundland on the horizon brought to mind "all kinds of images which the Vikings must have experienced as they approached Canada." Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin welcomed the Islendingur, saying that the crew of eight men and one woman proved that in Iceland as in Newfoundland, "one woman is equal to eight men."
      Concession stands ringed a new, Viking replica village, Norstead, created as a tourist draw in this area of high unemployment. They were offering items as diverse as moose antler carvings and plush toys. One enterprising vendor had converted his left-over stock of wooden John Cabot carvings — dating from the 1997 celebration making explorer John Cabot's arrival in Newfoundland 500 years ago — into Viking carvings. Gone from the small figurines were Cabot's hands and a hat, In their place were a shield and a Viking helmet. Vendors selling Hollywood-style horned Viking helmets were outselling unhorned, but historically correct, models. Eiriksson's epic journey is being recreated by the 68-foot Islendingur, which left Iceland on 24 June, retracing the Viking journey to Greenland and then the transatlantic voyage to Canada. The captain set foot on the rocky shore right on cue in mid-afternoon. His crew, dressed in period Viking garb, were met by a young Inuit drum band from Labrador. Eiriksson established the first known European settlement in North America at the L'Anse aux Meadows site. It was likely used as a base camp for subsequent expeditions further south.
      Iceland's Deputy Prime Minister, Halldor Asgrimsson, saluted the "courage and skill" of the Islendingur crew at the welcoming ceremony and said the 1000 year-old voyage of Eiriksson was a "tribute to the human spirit of exploration and adventure". Misel Joe, chief of the Conne River aboriginal Mi'kmaq band in Newfoundland, asked the crowd to stand and observe a moment of silence in memory of the Beothuk Indians, one of Newfoundland's aboriginal people that were wiped out after the arrival of Europeans. Hotels, motels, bed and breakfast establishments, campgrounds, and private homes were also overflowing with visitors, as media from North America and Europe took over private homes as they broadcast the Islendingur's arrival during two hours and half. The Vikings' voyage ends in New York City in October as part of an Icelandic trade mission.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000729/07/odd-canada-vikings-dc
Leif Eriksson The Lucky. — He flourished 11th century Eriksson also spelled Ericson, or Erikson, Norwegian Leiv Eriksson Den Hepne Norse explorer widely held to have been the first European to reach the shores of North America. The 13th- and 14th-century Icelandic accounts of his life and additional later evidence show that he was certainly a member of an early Norse Viking voyage to North America; but it remains doubtful whether he led the initial expedition. The second of three sons of Erik the Red, the first European colonizer of Greenland, Leif sailed from Greenland to Norway in 1000, according to the Icelandic Eiríks saga (“Saga of Erik”), and was there converted to Christianity by the Norwegian king Olaf I Tryggvason. The following year Leif was commissioned by Olaf to urge Christianity upon the Greenland settlers. He sailed off course on the return voyage and landed on the North American continent at a region he called Vinland (possibly Nova Scotia), perhaps because of the wild grapes and fertile land he found there. On returning to Greenland he proselytized for Christianity and converted his mother, who built the first Christian church in Greenland, at Brattahild.
1998 Spam clogs AOL E-mail    ^top^
      Newspapers report that junk e-mail caused a massive delay of America Online e-mail. Spam aimed at AOL customers listed Ameritech.net, one of the country's largest Internet service providers, as its return address. AOL rejected millions of messages, which were returned to Ameritech.net, overwhelming its system. The company delayed most incoming AOL messages until the spam abated, resulting in widespread delays of AOL e-mail.
1998 Bell Atlantic and GTE announced a $52 billion merger.
1995 Internet name policy changed    ^top^
      Network Solutions, the company in charge of assigning Internet addresses, announced a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet. Several trademark infringement lawsuits had resulted from individuals registering names of companies or organizations, some hoping to sell the names back to the companies for large prices. One man, who had registered bbb.com, was forced to relinquish the name after the Council of Better Business Bureaus filed a trademark suit. Network Solutions said that under its new policy, any domain name would be suspended from use if the individual who had registered a trademarked name refused to relinquish it to the company owning the trademark.
1990 Political newcomer, son of Japanese immigrants, Alberto Fujimori is sworn in as president of Peru, on his 52nd birthday. He would end up in disgrace, flee Peru, take refuge in Japan, claim Japanese citizenship and change his name..
1988 IBM announces price hike on older models
1986 NASA releases transcript from doomed Challenger, pilot Michael Smith could be heard saying, "Uh-oh!" as spacecraft disintegrated.
1985 A first in 20th century Peruvian history: an elected President (Alan García Pérez of Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana APRA) replaces another elected President (Fernando Belaude Terry, of Acción Popurar).
1980 Fernando Belaunde Terry [07 Oct 1912 – 04 Jun 2002] becomes president of Peru (for the second time), with his Acción Popular party having a majority in the parliament.
1978 Price of gold tops $200-an-oz level for first time
1977 first oil flow through the Alaska pipeline
1977 Roy Wilkins turn over NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) leadership to Benjamin L. Hooks
1976 Eldon Joersz and Geo Morgan set world air speed record of 3530 k/h
1972 CIA reports minor damage done to North Vietnam's dikes
      In response to Soviet accusations that the United States had conducted a two-month bombing campaign intentionally to destroy the dikes and dams of the Tonkin Delta in North Vietnam, a CIA report is made public by the Nixon administration. The report revealed that US bombing at 12 locations had in fact caused accidental minor damage to North Vietnam's dikes, but the damage was unintentional and the dikes were not the intended targets of the bombings. The nearly 2,000 miles of dikes on the Tonkin plain, and more than 2,000 along the sea, made civilized life possible in the Red River Delta. Had the dikes been intentionally targeted, their destruction would have destroyed centuries of patient work and caused the drowning or starvation of hundreds of thousands of peasants. Bombing the dikes had been advocated by some US strategists since the beginning of US involvement in the war, but had been rejected outright by US presidents sitting during the war as an act of terrorism.
1965 More US troops ordered to Vietnam
      President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that he has ordered an increase in US military forces in Vietnam, from the present 75'000 to 125'000. Johnson also said that he would order additional increases if necessary. He pointed out that to fill the increase in military manpower needs, the monthly draft calls would be raised from 17'000 to 35'000. At the same time, Johnson reaffirmed US readiness to seek a negotiated end to the war, and appealed to the United Nations and any of its member states to help further this goal. There was an immediate reaction throughout the world to this latest escalation, with communist leaders attacking Johnson for his decision to send more troops to Vietnam. Most members of Congress were reported to favor Johnson's decision, while most US state governors, convening for their annual conference, also supported a resolution backing Johnson. This decision to send more troops was regarded as a major turning point, as it effectively guaranteed US military leaders a blank check to pursue the war.
1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that he is increasing the number of US soldiers in South Vietnam from 75'000 to 125'000.
1964 Ranger 7 launched toward the Moon; sent back 4308 TV pictures.
1963 In the parish church of Panajachel, Angélico Melotto Mazzardo [20 Mar 1911 – 11 May 1999], first Bishop of Sololá, Guatemala, ordains the first Priest of the diocese.
1960 Republican National convention selects Richard Nixon as US presidential candidate
1959 In preparation for statehood, Hawaiians vote to send the first Chinese-American, Hiram L. Fong, to the US Senate and the first Japanese-American, Daniel K. Inouye, to the House of Representatives.
1951 The UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is adopted by the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons convened under General Assembly resolution 429 (V) of 14 December 1950. It is to enter into force on 22 April 1954, in accordance with its article 43.
^ 1945 US Senate ratifies UN Charter    ^top^
      By a vote of eighty-nine to two, the US Senate votes to ratify the United Nations Charter, signed one month before by delegates to the international conference held in San Francisco, California.
      In 1944, at the Dumbarton Oaks conference in Washington DC, the groundwork was laid by delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China for an international postwar organization to maintain peace and security in the postwar world. The organization was to possess considerably more authority over its members than the defunct League of Nations, which had failed to prevent the crises that led to the outbreak of World War II.
      In April of 1945, with celebrations of victory in Europe about to commence, delegates from fifty-one nations convened in San Francisco to draft the United Nations Charter. On June 26, the document was signed by the delegates, and on 24 October, formally ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council along with a majority of other signatories.
      The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, with fifty-one nations represented, would occur on 10 January 1946, in London, England. On 24 October 1949, exactly four years after the United Nations Charter went into effect, the cornerstone was laid for the present UN Headquarters, located in New York City.
     In the years to come, the United Nations would be the scene of some of the most memorable Cold War confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1919, following the close of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson implored the US Senate to approve the charter for the League of Nations. Postwar isolationism and partisan politics killed US participation in the League, however. In July 1945, with World War II coming to a close, the US Senate indicated the sea change in American attitudes toward US involvement in world affairs by approving the charter for the United Nations by a vote of 89 to 2.
      President Harry S. Truman was delighted with the vote, declaring, "The action of the Senate substantially advances the cause of world peace." Acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew also applauded the Senate's action, noting, "Millions of men, women and children have died because nations took to the naked sword instead of the conference table to settle their differences." The UN charter would provide the "foundation and cornerstone on which the international organization to keep the peace will be built." Once the charter had been ratified by a majority of the 50 nations that hammered out the charter in June 1945, the US Senate formally approved US participation in the United Nations in December 1945. Whether the United Nations became a "foundation and cornerstone" of world peace in the years that followed is debatable, but it was certainly the scene of several notable Cold War confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1950, with the Russians absent from the UN Security Council, the United States pushed through a resolution providing UN military assistance to South Korea in the Korean War. And in one memorable moment, during a speech denouncing Western imperialism in 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took off one of his shoes and pounded his table with it to make his point.
1943 Italian Facist dictator Benito Mussolini resigns
1943 President F. D. Roosevelt announces the end of coffee rationing in the US
1941 A Japanese army lands on the coast of Cochinchina (modern day Vietnam)
1934 48ºC, Orofino, Idaho (state record)
1932 Bonus Marchers evicted by US Army    ^top^
      During the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover orders the US Army under General Douglas MacArthur to forcibly evict the Bonus Marchers from the nation's capital.
      Two months before, the so-called "Bonus Expeditionary Force," a group of some 1000 World War I veterans seeking cash payments for their veterans' bonus certificates, had arrived in Washington DC. In June, other veteran groups spontaneously made their way to the nation's capital, swelling the Bonus Marchers numbers to nearly 20'000, most of whom were unemployed veterans in desperate financial straits.
      Camping in vacant government buildings and in open fields made available by District of Columbia police chief Pelham D. Glassford, they demanded passage of the veterans' payment bill introduced by Representative Wright Patman. The veterans conducted themselves in an orderly and peaceful way, and on June 15, the Patman bill passed in the House of Representatives. However, two days later, its defeat in the Senate infuriated the marchers, who refused to return home. In an increasingly tense situation, the US government provided money for the protestors' trip home, but 2000 refused the offer and continued their protest. On 28 July President Herbert Hoover ordered the Army under General MacArthur to remove them by force. MacArthur's men set their camps on fire, and the veterans were driven from the city. Hoover, increasingly regarded as insensitive to the needs of the nation's many poor, was much criticized by the public and press for the severity of his response.
1931 Congress makes "The Star-Spangled Banner" the US's 2nd national anthem
1930 46ºC, Greensburg, Kentucky (state record)
1920 Revolutionary and bandit Pancho Villa surrenders to the Mexican government.
1915 US forces invade Haiti, stay until 1924
1915 10'000 blacks march on 5th Ave (NYC) protesting lynchings
1914 Tuesday : in the war crisis following the June 28 assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand:    ^top^
  • Serbian armed forces Chief of Staff, General Radomir Putnik is taken prisoner in Budapest as he was returning from vacation by train. After being held for a time, he is released on "orders from the very highest level". He is escorted to the Serbian frontier in Conrad's private railroad car.
  • 11:00. One month after the assassination, almost to the minute, Austria telegraphs a declaration of war to Serbia. A telegram declaring war? At first Belgrade thinks it is a hoax. [view text of the Austrian declaration of war]
  • British Foreign Minister Grey proposes a meeting of French, German, and Italian diplomats in an effort to cool the crisis. No one is interested.
  • German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg admits he was duped by the Austrians and offers his resignation to the Kaiser. The Kaiser refuses stating: "You have cooked this broth, now you will eat it.". The Chancellor vents his frustration with Austria in a wire to the German Ambassador to Vienna, Tschirschky. [ø view text of the wire]
  • Austrian artillery opens up fire on Belgrade from across the Danube.
  • Word of the Austrian declaration of war reaches Saint Petersburg late in the afternoon. Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, is quick to assure the Czar that Russia can count on France to the fullest extent.
  • 1900 Hamburger created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut
    1898 Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Retired Colourman
    1898 Spain, through the French embassy in Washington, D.C., requests peace terms in its war with the United States.
    ^ 1868 Fourteenth Amendment adopted    ^top^
          Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of the US states, the Fourteenth Amendment, ensuring African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the US Constitution.
          In 1867, in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts divided the South into five military districts where new state governments, based on universal male suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which sees the Fourteenth Amendment, passed by Congress in 1866, finally ratified in July of 1868.
          The amendment, in its Section 1, resolves pre-Civil War controversies about African-American citizenship, reaffirms the privileges and rights of all citizens, and grants all citizens the "equal protection of the laws."
    Amendment XIV Section 1 — All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
          In the decades after its adoption, the equal protection clause was cited by a number of African Americans who argued that racial segregation denied them the equal protection of law. However, on 18 May 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson [163 US 537] that states could constitutionally provide segregated facilities for African Americans, so long as they were equal to those afforded white persons. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which announced the federal toleration of the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine, was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools.
          However, "colored" facilities were never equal to their white counterparts, and African Americans suffered through decades of debilitating discrimination in the South and elsewhere. On 17 May 1954, Plessy vs. Ferguson was finally struck down by the Supreme Court in its historic ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. [347 US 483] as argued by Thurgood Marshall.
    equal protection. — in US law, the constitutional guarantee that no person or group will be denied that protection under the law which is enjoyed by similar persons or groups—i.e., persons similarly situated must be similarly treated. Equal protection is extended when the rules of law are applied equally in all like cases and when persons are exempt from obligations greater than those imposed upon others in like circumstances. In the United States, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, one of three post-Civil War amendments, prohibits states from denying any person “the equal protection of the laws.” Traditionally, until the 1960s, the Supreme Court held that the postwar amendments had but one purpose: to guarantee “the freedom of the slave race . . . and the protection of the newly-made freeman and citizen from the oppressions of those who had formerly exercised unlimited domination over him.” Thus, the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was applied minimally, except in cases of racial discrimination. As late as 1927, in Buck v. Bell, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes referred to equal protection as “the usual last resort of constitutional arguments.”
    1866 Metric system becomes a legal measurement system in US
    1864 Atlanta Campaign — Battle of Ezra Church, Georgia, begins
          Confederates under General John Bell Hood make a third attempt to break General William T. Sherman's hold on Atlanta. Like the first two, this attack failed, destroying the Confederate Army of Tennessee's offensive capabilities. Hood had replaced Joseph Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee on 18 July 1864, because Johnston had failed to keep Sherman away from Atlanta. Upon assuming command of the army, Hood quickly scrapped Johnston's defensive strategy and attacked Sherman, first on 20 July at Peachtree Creek, and then on 22 July at the Battle of Atlanta. Both failed, but that did not deter Hood from making another attempt to break the Union hold on the important Southern city. When Sherman sent General Oliver O. Howard southeast of Atlanta to cut the Macon and Western Railroad, one of the remaining supply lines, Hood sent Stephen D. Lee's corps to block the move. Lee attacked at Ezra Church, but the battle did not go as planned for the Confederates. Instead of striking the Union flank, Lee's corps hit the Union center, where the Yankee troops were positioned behind barricades made from logs and pews taken from the church. Throughout the afternoon, Lee made several attacks on the Union lines. Each was turned back, and Lee was not able to get around the Union flank. The battle was costly for an army that was already outnumbered. Lee lost 3000 men to the Union's 630. More important, Hood lost his offensive capability. For the next month, he could do no more than sit in trenches around Atlanta and wait for Sherman to deal him the knockout blow.
    1863 Confederate John Mosby begins a series of attacks against General Meade's Army of the Potomac as it tries to pursue General Robert E. Lee in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
    1863 Siege of Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues
    1862 Confederate forces defeated at More's Hill, Mo
    1858 Transatlantic cable joined    ^top^
          Four British and American ships splice a telegraph cable together, then set sail for home the following day. The cable was laid out until the ships reached Ireland and Newfoundland. The cable, which stretched more than 3140 km and was laid as deep as 3 km under the ocean in some places, established transatlantic telegraph communication, and an initial message was exchanged by President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria in August. However, the cable's weak signal was insufficient for regular communication and service ended on September 1.
    1851 Total solar eclipse captured on a daguerreotype photograph
    1849 Memmon is first clipper to reach SF, 120 days out of NY
    1841 Senate tries to revive Bank of US under another name    ^top^
          Forces from the national bank movement receive a glimmer of hope as the Senate narrowly passes the Fiscal Bank Bill. An initiative of the embattled Whig party, this bill called for the creation of the Fiscal Bank of the United States, a federal financial institution to be located in the District of Columbia. The bank's starchy name barely disguised the ideological intent of its inventors: the Whigs sought nothing less than the revival of the Second Bank of the United States, the ill-fated institution that Andrew Jackson had putatively killed in the name of states' rights earlier in the 1830s.
          For a brief spell during the summer of 1841, it looked as though the Whigs would have their day; however, despite the Fiscal Bank Bill passing through the House in early August, the legislation — and its Whig advocates — was doomed to failure. On 16 August, President John Tyler, a staunch state supporter, announced that he was vetoing the bill. The legislation bounced back to the Senate, but the Whigs failed to marshal sufficient support to override Tyler's veto.
    1835 Louis Napoléon of France survives an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Maria Fleschi, who had rigged 25 guns together and fired them all with the pull of a single trigger.
    1830 Revolution in France replaces Charles X with Louis Philippe
    1821 Peru declares independence from Spain (National Day)
    1814 Shelley elopes away from wife with 17-year-old    ^top^
          One week before his 22nd birthday, Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (04 Aug 1792 – 08 Jul 1822) arrives in France the day after he eloped with 17-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, despite the fact that he's already married. Shelley, the heir to his wealthy grandfather's estate, was expelled from Oxford in March 1811 when he refused to acknowledge authorship of The Necessity of Atheism. He eloped with his first wife, Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of a tavern owner, in late August 1811. However, just a few years later, Shelley fell in love with the young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, daughter of a prominent reformer and early feminist writer. Shelley and Godwin flee to Europe, and would marry on 30 December 1816, after Shelley's wife drowns herself.
           Shelley's inheritance did not pay all the bills, and the couple spent much of their married life abroad, fleeing Shelley's creditors. While living in Geneva, the Shelleys and their dear friend Lord Byron challenged each other to write a compelling ghost story. Only Mary Shelley finished hers, later publishing the story as Frankenstein (1818). The Shelleys had five children but only one lived to adulthood. After Shelley drowned in a sailing accident on 18 July 1822, when Mary Shelley was only 24, she edited his Posthumous Poems (1824), Poetical Works (1839), and his prose works. She lived on a small stipend from her father-in-law, Lord Shelley, until her surviving son inherited his fortune and title in 1844. She died on 01 February 1851 at the age of 53. Although she was a respected writer for many years, only Frankenstein and her journals are still widely read.
    Shelley, Percy Bysshe — He was born on 04 Aug 1792, Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex, Eng. died 08 July 1822, at sea off Livorno, Tuscany. English Romantic poet whose passionate search for personal love and social justice was gradually channeled from overt actions into poems that rank with the greatest in the English language. Shelley was the heir to rich estates acquired by his grandfather, Bysshe (pronounced “Bish”) Shelley. Timothy Shelley, the poet's father, was a weak, conventional man who was caught between an overbearing father and a rebellious son. The young Shelley was educated at Syon House Academy (1802–04) and then at Eton (1804–10), where he resisted physical and mental bullying by indulging in imaginative escapism and literary pranks. Between the spring of 1810 and that of 1811, he published two Gothic novels and two volumes of juvenile verse. In the fall of 1810 Shelley entered University College, Oxford, where he enlisted his fellow student Thomas Jefferson Hogg as a disciple. But in March 1811, University College expelled both Shelley and Hogg for refusing to admit Shelley's authorship of The Necessity of Atheism. Hogg submitted to his family, but Shelley refused to apologize to his.
    Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, née Godwin. — She was born 30 Aug 1797, London, Eng. died 01 Feb 1851, London. English Romantic novelist best known as the author of Frankenstein (1818). She was the only daughter of William Godwin and daughter of prominent reformer and early feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft (27 Apr 175910 Sep 1797). She met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in the spring of 1814 and eloped with him to France in July of that year. The couple were married in 1816, after Shelley's first wife had committed suicide. Mary Shelley apparently came as near as any woman could to meeting Percy Shelley's requirements for his life's partner: “one who can feel poetry and understand philosophy.” After her husband's death in 1822, she returned to England and devoted herself to publicizing Shelley's writings and to educating their only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. She published her late husband's Posthumous Poems (1824), and she also edited his Poetical Works (1839), with long and invaluable notes, and his prose works. Her Journal is a rich source of Shelley biography, and her letters are an indispensable adjunct.
    PERCY SHELLEY ONLINE:
  • Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats : while we "decay Like corpses in a charnel," the creative spirit of Adonais, despite his physical death, "has outsoared the shadow of our night."
  • Alastor: or, The Spirit of Solitude (1816), blank-verse poem, warns idealists not to abandon "sweet human love" and social improvement for the vain pursuit of dreams.
  • The Cenci (1819), tragedy of incestuous rape and patricide in 16th-century Rome
  • The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1901)
  • A Defence of Poetry (1840) essay: the poet creates humane values and imagines the forms that shape the social order.
  • The Necessity of Atheism (1811)
  • Prometheus Unbound + short poems such as Ode to Liberty, Ode to the West Wind, The Cloud, To a Sky-Lark.
  • MARY SHELLEY ONLINE:
  • Frankenstein (1818): scientist creates artificial human monster.
  • Frankenstein (another site)
  • The Last Man (1826), her best novel: future destruction of the human race by a plague.
  • The Mortal Immortal
  • Valperga (1823)
  • Prometheus Unbound: a lyrical drama (1819) was the keystone of Shelley's poetic achievement, a masterpiece that combines supple blank verse with a variety of complex lyric measures.
          In Act I, Prometheus, tortured on Jupiter's orders for having given mankind the gift of moral freedom, recalls his earlier curse of Jupiter and forgives him ("I wish no living thing to suffer pain"). By eschewing revenge, Prometheus, who embodies the moral will, can be reunited with his beloved Asia, a spiritual ideal transcending humanity; her love prevents him from becoming another tyrant when Jupiter is overthrown by the mysterious power known as Demogorgon.
          Act II traces Asia's awakening and journey toward Prometheus, beginning with her descent into the depths of nature to confront and question Demogorgon.
          Act III depicts the overthrow of Jupiter and the union of Asia and Prometheus, who — leaving Jupiter's throne vacant — retreat to a cave from which they influence the world through ideals embodied in the creative arts. The end of the act describes the renovation of both human society and the natural world.
          Act IV opens with joyful lyrics by spirits who describe the benevolent transformation of the human consciousness that has occurred. Next, other spirits hymn the beatitude of humanity and nature in this new millennial age; and finally, Demogorgon returns to tell all creatures that, should the fragile state of grace be lost, they can restore their moral freedom through these "spells":
          To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night; To defy Power which seems Omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope, till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates. . .
    1808 Sultan Mustapha of the Ottoman Empire is deposed and his cousin Mahmud II gains the throne.
    1615 French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovers Lake Huron on his seventh voyage to the New World.
    1588 Spanish Armada sails to overthrow England's Queen Elizabeth I
    1586 Sir Thomas Harriot introduces potatoes to Europe
    the 6 wives of Henry VIII1540 Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Howard.         ^top^
         Catherine Howard becomes the fifth wife of King Henry VIII, a fatal mistake on her part (she ought to have seen as an omen that, on this very day, Henry VIII has his faithful adviser, Thomas Cromwell, decapitated).
         Catherine was one of 10 children of Lord Edmund Howard (died 1539), a poverty-stricken younger son of Thomas Howard, 2nd duke of Norfolk. Henry VIII first became attracted to the young girl in 1540, when he was seeking to end his politically motivated marriage to Anne of Cleves, to whom Catherine was a maid of honor. He had his marriage to Anne annulled on 09 July, and on 28 July Henry and Catherine are privately married. He would publicly acknowledge her as queen on 08 August.
         Catherine's downfall came when Henry learned of her premarital affairs. He had her tried for them as treason against the state, and beheaded on 13 February 1542.
    [Click here for 1840 portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein]
    Henry VIII had been born on 28 June 1491, at Greenwich, near London, and was king of England from 1509. Henry VIII was never satisfied for long with any of his six wives, who were, successively,
    1. Catherine of Aragon (married at age 23 in 1509, gave birth on 18 February 1816 to the future queen Mary I, Henry left her in July 1531, and got the Anglican Church started for it to annul his marriage, which it did on 23 May 1533. She died on 07 January 1536 of natural causes),
    2. Anne Boleyn (married at age 26 on 25 January 1533, gave birth on 07 September 1533 to the future queen Elizabeth I, was beheaded on 19 May 1536 for adultery, almost certainly falsely alleged, while Henry was guilty of same).
    3. Jane Seymour (married at age 27 on 30 May 1536, gave birth on 12 October 1537 to Henry's successor, Edward VI, and died of natural causes on 24 October 1537)),
    4. Anne of Cleves, (married at age 24 on 6 January 1940, marriage annulled by Anglican Church on 09 July 1540, she died on 16 July 1557 of natural causes)
    5. Catherine Howard, (married on 28 July 1540, proclaimed queen on 08 August 1540, beheaded on 13 February 1542 for treason, namely her premarital affairs)
    6. Catherine Parr. (married at age 31 on 12 July 1543, Henry died 28 January 1547, she remarried, and, on 07 September 1548, died shortly after giving birth).
    TO THE TOP
    Deaths which occurred on this date:
    2002 Nizin Jamjoum, 14, Palestinian, standing on the balcony of her home in Hebron, shot in the head by Jewish enclave settlers rampaging after the funeral of Israeli soldier Elazar Leibowitz killed in ambush on 26 July; they wound six other Palestinians.
    2002:: 14 of the 16 aboard a Pulkovsky Airlines Il-86 plane bound for St. Petersburg, which crashes into a forest soon after take off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo-1 airport.
    2002 Johnny Joslin, 20, shot by Clayton Frank Stoker, 21, in Godley, Texas, some 60 km southwest of Fort Worth, where the two had spent the previous night (Saturday to Sunday) with two other men night in bars. The four men were sitting at a table outside a trailer park after their night on the town and entered into an argument about religion. The talk became heated when the subject turned to who would go to heaven and who would go to hell. Stoker said he would settle the argument and went into a house and returned with a shotgun, which he loaded and placed in his mouth. Joslin then took the gun out of Stokers mouth, saying, “If you have to shoot somebody, shoot me.”. The shotgun went off, hitting Joslin in the chest and killing him. Stoker, a Johnson County corrections officer, is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. There is no information as to the whereabouts of Joslin's soul. Neither is there any report of anyone suggesting that the town be renamed Ungodly.
    1999 Tiffany Eunick, 6, killed by Lionel Tate, 12.    ^top^
         Tiffany, weighing 22 kg, dies at about 22:30 from a fractured skull, lacerated liver, broken rib, internal hemorrhaging and numerous cuts and bruises, suffered from Lionel, weighing 77 kg, who claimed this was an accident while he was imitating professional wrestlers. Tiffany was at the Tate home, supposed to be baby-sat by Lionel's mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, who, however, was asleep upstairs.
         Before Lionel goes on trial (as an adult!), he, his mother, and his attorney reject a plea agreement that offers 3 years in prison, one year of house arrest and 10 years of probation. At the conclusion of the 2-week trial, on 25 January 2001, the jury finds Lionel Tate guilty of first-degree murder. On 09 March 2001, he is given the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. However the prosecutor says that he will join the defense in requesting the governor to reduce the sentence. The governor would refuse.
    1987 James Burnham, 81, philosopher (Coming Defeat of Communism)
    ^ 1976 Perhaps 250'000 or 500'000 people in the worst modern earthquake.    ^top^
          Early in the morning in eastern China, a massive earthquake of 8.2 magnitude strikes (epicenter 39.5ºN 117.9ºE, depth 23 km) Tangshan, an industrial city with a population of about one million people. As almost everyone is at home in bed, instead of outside in the relative safety of the streets or fields, the earthquake is especially costly in terms of human life. By the time that the rescue effort comes to an end, the Chinese government estimates that up to 250'000 people had been killed, making it the deadliest earthquake of the twentieth century.
          Additionally, in the decades since the quake, some evidence has been found suggesting that the death toll may have been twice as high. Caught between the Indian and Pacific plates, China has been a very active location for earthquakes throughout history. Earthquakes have also played a significant part in China's culture and science, and the Chinese were the first to develop functioning seismometers. A record of major earthquakes in the region has been reconstructed dating back to 2000 B.C. The area of northern China hit by the Tangshan earthquake is recognized as being particularly prone to the westward movement of the Pacific plate
          At 03:42, an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude on the Richter scale flattens Tangshan, a Chinese industrial city with a population of about one million people. As almost everyone was asleep in their beds, instead of outside in the relative safety of the streets, the quake was especially costly in terms of human life. An estimated 242'000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas were killed, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in recorded history, surpassed only by the 300'000 who died in the Calcutta earthquake in 1737, and the 830'000 thought to have perished in China's Shaanxi province in 1556.
          Caught between the Indian and Pacific plates, China has been a very active location for earthquakes throughout history. Earthquakes have also played a significant part in China's culture and science, and the Chinese were the first to develop functioning seismometers. The area of northern China hit by the Tangshan earthquake is particularly prone to the westward movement of the Pacific plate. In the days preceding the earthquake, people began to notice strange phenomena in and around Tangshan. Well-water levels rose and fell. Rats were seen running in panicked packs in broad daylight. Chickens refused to eat. During the evening of 27 July and the early morning hours of 28 July people reported flashes of colored light and roaring fireballs. Still, at 03:42 most people were sleeping quietly when the earthquake struck. It lasted for 23 seconds and leveled 90% of Tangshan's buildings. At least a quarter-of-a-million people were killed and 160'000 others injured. The earthquake came during the heat of midsummer, and many stunned survivors crawled out of their ruined houses naked, covered only in dust and blood. The earthquake started fires and ignited explosives and poisonous gases in Tangshan's factories. Water and electricity were cut off, and rail and road access to the city was destroyed.
          The Chinese government was ill-prepared for a disaster of this scale. The day following the quake, helicopters and planes began dropping food and medicine into the city. Some 100'000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army were ordered to Tangshan, and many had to march on foot from Jinzhou, a distance of close to 300 km. About 30'000 medical personnel were called in, along with 30'000 construction workers. The Chinese government, boasting self-sufficiency, refused all offers of foreign relief aid.
          In the crucial first week after the crisis, many died from lack of medical care. Troops and relief workers lacked the kind of heavy rescue training necessary to efficiently pull survivors from the rubble. Looting was also epidemic. More than 160'000 families were left homeless, and more than 4000 children were orphaned. Tangshan was eventually rebuilt with adequate earthquake precautions. Today, nearly two million people live there. There is speculation that the death toll from the 1976 quake was much higher than the official Chinese government figure of 242'000. Some Chinese sources have spoken privately of more than 500'000 deaths.
    1945 Fourteen persons, by a US Army bomber plane crashing into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building.
    1943, 42'000 civilians in Hamburg firestorm    ^top^
          The worst British bombing raid on Hamburg so far virtually sets the city on fire, killing 42'000 German civilians. On July 24, British bombers had launched Operation Gomorrah, repeated bombing raids against Hamburg and its industrial and munitions plants. Sortie after sortie dropped fire from the sky, as thousands of tons of incendiary bombs destroyed tens of thousands of lives, buildings, and acreage.
          But the night of the 28th sees destruction unique in more than three years of bomb attacks: In just 43 minutes, 2326 tons of bombs are dropped, creating a firestorm (a word that entered English parlance for the first time as a result of these events). Low humidity, a lack of fire-fighting resources (exhausted from battling blazes caused by the previous nights' raids), and hurricane-level winds at the core of the storm literally fanned the flames, scorching twenty square kilometers of Hamburg.
          One British flight lieutenant recalled seeing "not many fires but one. … I have never seen a fire like that before and was never to see its like again." Despite the terrible loss of civilian life, the horrific bombing affected Hitler's war machine only marginally. It did more to wound the morale of the German people and its army officers than it did to the production of munitions, which was back running full speed within a matter of weeks.
    1945 Fourteen persons as B-25 crashes into skyscraper    ^top^
          On a foggy Saturday morning, a B-25 bomber, lost in low clouds above New York City, crashes into the Empire State Building, the world's tallest building. The plane comes to a stop lodged between the seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth floors. The Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931, stands 449 m from the top of its radio antennae to the streets below.
    1942 W.M. Flinders Petrie, 89, English archaeologist. He was regarded by colleague William Foxwell Albright as 'the greatest genius among biblical archaeologists.'
    1942:: 10,000 Jews in Minsk Ghetto in Belorussia, murdered by Nazis.
    1935 Some 12 persons as train crashes with a bus at Coliseo, Cuba.
    1923 Charles William Wyllie, British artist born on 18 February 1853.
    1923 James McLaughlin, Indian agent.
          Best known today for his inadvertent role in the death of Sitting Bull, the prominent Indian agent James McLaughlin dies in Washington, DC. Unlike some Indian agents of the later 19th century, McLaughlin genuinely liked and respected his charges. His wife was half Sioux, and she taught her husband to speak her native language reasonably well. In 1871, this valuable skill won McLaughlin a position at the Devils Lake Indian Agency in Dakota Territory and he eventually became the chief agent. At Devils Lake, McLaughlin gained a reputation for fair and sympathetic treatment of Indians.
          His appreciation for Indians was strictly limited, however. Like most Indian agents of the day, McLaughlin believed that his mission was to "civilize" the Indians by forcing them to adopt white ways. McLaughlin viewed traditional Indian practices like the Sun Dance and buffalo hunting as obstacles to the inevitable assimilation of the Native Americans into white society. Thus, while he worked hard to improve Indian living conditions, he simultaneously tried to stamp out their culture by promoting the use of English and the adoption of sedentary farming. In 1881, McLaughlin was transferred to the larger Sioux reservation at Standing Rock, South Dakota.
          Two years later, the great Sioux Chief Sitting Bull was assigned to the reservation. McLaughlin worried about Sitting Bull. The chief was infamous for his role in the defeat of Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876. He was also among the last of the Sioux to accept confinement to a reservation, and his disdain for white ways was well known. For several years, McLaughlin and Sitting Bull enjoyed a strained but peaceful relationship.
          In 1890, however, a popular religious movement known as the Ghost Dance swept through the Standing Rock reservation. The Ghost Dancers believed that an apocalyptic day was approaching when all Whites would be wiped out, the buffalo would return, and the Indians could return to their traditional ways. McLaughlin wrongly suspected that Sitting Bull was a leader of the Ghost Dance movement. In December 1890, he ordered the arrest of the old chief, believing this might calm the tense situation on the reservation. Unfortunately, during the arrest, a fight broke out and McLaughlin's policemen killed Sitting Bull. The murder only exacerbated the climate of fear and mistrust, which contributed to the tragic massacre of 146 Indians by US soldiers at Wounded Knee later that month.
          In 1895, McLaughlin moved to Washington DC, where he became an inspector for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He eventually became familiar with Indians all around the nation, leading him to write a 1910 memoir entitled, My Friend the Indian. He died in Washington in 1923 at the age of 81 and was buried at the South Dakota reservation town that bears his name.
    1902 Jehan Georges Vibert, French painter and playwright born on 30 September (06 July?) 1840. — MORE ON VIBERT AT ART “4” JULY LINKSLe Médecin MaladeThe Final TouchThe DietTea for the BishopThe Wrath of the BishopLa Tireuse de CartesNapoléon et son filsGulliver of Gulliver's Travels by Swift — Chatting by the FountainPreparations for the ProcessionL'Aveu
    1883 Some 2000 persons as shocks triggered by the volcano Epomeo (Isle of Ischia, Italy) destroys 1200 houses at Casamicciola.
    1818 Gaspard Monge, French mathematician born on 09 May 1746. He is considered the father of differential geometry because of his work Application de l'analyse à la géométrie where he introduced the concept of lines of curvature of a surface in 3-space.
    click to put Robespierre's  head back on his shoulders1794 (10 thermidor an II) Maximilien Robespierre, Augustin Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, Hanriot, Lebas, et 16 autres, guillotinés.    ^top^
          Arrêtés sur ordre de la Convention, leur mort met fin au régime de " la terreur " qu'il imposait au pays. Devenu l'un des principaux chefs de la Révolution française, l'avocat Maximilien Robespierre avait joué un rôle prépondérant dans la condamnation et l'exécution de Louis XVI. Hanriot est l'ancien Commandant de la Garde de Paris.
         La veille Billaud-Varenne s’exclamait à l’Assemblée: “nous mourrons tous ou le tyran mourra”. Robespierre n’a pas eu la possibilité de se défendre; un décret d’accusation fut voté contre lui ainsi que contre Augustin Robespierre, son frère, Saint-Just, Couthon, et Lebas. Les 22 qui sont guillotinés ce soir, seront suivis de 71 autres partisans de Robespierre guillotinés le lendemain et 12 le surlendemain.
    — [click on image to put Robespierre's head back on his shoulders in a portrait by Adelaïde Labille-Guiard >]
    Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre, (born on 06 May 1758) radical Jacobin leader and one of the principal figures in the French Revolution. In the latter months of 1793 he came to dominate the Committee of Public Safety, the principal organ of the Revolutionary government during the Reign of Terror, but in 1794 he was overthrown and guillotined at 18:00 on 28 July 1794, in the Thermidorian Reaction.
    — Augustin Bon “Bonbon” de Robespierre was born on 21 January 1763 (Louis XVI was guillotined on his 30th birthday).
    click to put Saint-Just's  head back on his shoulders— [< click on image to put the head of Saint-Just back on his shoulders in a portrait by Prudhon]
    Louis-Antoine-Léon de Saint-Just, (born on 25 August 1767) was neither a saint nor just. He got a law degree in April 1788, was elected to the Convention in September 1792, joined the governing Comité de Salut Public in May 1793, then was elected president of the Convention and led it to pass the Décrets de Ventôse An II (March 1794) confiscating the property of the enemies of the Revolution for the benefit of the poor patriots, and led the victory over the Austrians at Fleurus on 26 June 1794. He was more bloodthirsty even than Robespierre, and said: “le vaisseau de la Révolution ne peut arriver à bon port que sur une mer rougie par des torrents de sang.” and “Nous devons punir non seulement les traitres, mais aussi tout ceux qui manquent d'enthousiasme. Il n'y a que deux sortes de citoyens: les bons et les mauvais. La République doit aux bons sa protection. Aux mauvais elle ne doit que la mort.” He was the author of Organt (1789) an epic poem with political allusions, Esprit de la Révolution et de la Constitution de France (1791) [where he wrote (4.11): “les lois qui règnent par les bourreaux périssent par le sang et l'infamie” which now is verified in him], Fragments sur les Institutions Républicaines (1794).
    Georges Couthon was born on 22 December 1750.
    Bach1750 Johann Sebastian Bach  Eisenach, Germany, composer       ^top^
         The very thought of a majestic old church and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach [< portrait] leaps gloriously to mind. Born on 21 March 1685 in Germany, "J. S." is the most famous member of the illustrious Bach family, which gave the world seven generations of distinguished musicians and composers. Bach began his keyboard studies at the age of 10 and sought and got important posts through the years.
          By 1708 he has secured himself a position as court organist and chamber musician to the reigning Duke, with plenty of opportunity to compose music for the organ. He later became "Kapellmeister" for the court of Prince Leopold. At age 38 he became "Cantor" of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig and stayed there until his death.
          Bach was one of the finest organists and ablest contrapuntists of his time and the noblest writer of fugues who ever lived. Little of his music was published during his lifetime and it was not until 1829 when Mendelssohn performed the St. Matthew Passion that the general public realized his genius and the music of Bach was "reborn."
          Memorable works out of thousands of compositions include the Magnificat in D Major, the Orchestral Suites, Violin Concerto in A Minor, the 48 Preludes and Fugues, Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins and Orchestra, the Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Passion of St. Matthew and Passion of St. John, Christmas Oratorio, and Mass in B Minor.
    1741 Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, 63 ans, à Vienne, célèbre compositeur italien ("Les 4 saisons").    ^top^
          Vivaldi a exercé une influence capitale sur l’évolution de la musique préclassique. Il a imposé, sinon inventé de toutes pièces, la forme du concerto de soliste, contribué puissamment à l’élaboration de la symphonie, donné au théâtre et à l’Église des œuvres dont on commence seulement à mesurer l’importance. Son retour à la lumière est un des phénomènes les plus curieux et les plus troublants de l’histoire musicale des temps modernes.
          De son vivant, célèbre, admiré de l’Europe entière, il était tombé brusquement, à l’extrême fin de sa vie, dans un oubli si profond que sa mort passa inaperçue et que pendant un siècle son nom disparut, même dans sa patrie, des histoires et recueils biographiques. Il dut sa résurrection à celle de Bach, au milieu du XIXe siècle, lorsqu’en inventoriant les manuscrits du Cantor on retrouva les copies et transcriptions qu’il avait faites d’originaux vivaldiens restés jusqu’alors ensevelis sous la poussière des bibliothèques.
          Longtemps mésestimée, l’originalité créatrice de Vivaldi fut révélée au début du XXe siècle par les travaux d’Arnold Schering, de Marc Pincherle, de l’Accademia Chigiana, puis, après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, par la colossale édition intégrale de la musique instrumentale par l’Istituto italiano Antonio Vivaldi. Le tricentenaire de sa naissance (4 Mars 1678) donna une impulsion nouvelle aux recherches sur Vivaldi, dont la musique d’Église et le répertoire lyrique (cantates et opéras) sont désormais systématiquement explorés.
    1711 Gérard de Lairesse, Flemish Dutch Baroque painter, etcher, and writer on art, who died on 11 September 1641. — Portrait of the young Lairesse by RembrandtMORE ON DE LAIRESSE AT ART “4” JULY LINKSAllegory of the SciencesCleopatra's BanquetSelene and EndymionAllegory of the Freedom of TradeAllegory of the Five SensesVenus Presenting Weapons to Aeneas
    1655 Cyrano de Bergerac, 36, French big-nosed dramatist and novelist, in Paris. Born on 06 March 1619, he studied under Pierre Gassendi. His works include L'Autre Monde ou les Etats et Empires de la Lune (+...soleil...) [Same, other site] (1656), Histoire comique des états et empires du soleil (1662), a tragedy, La Mort d'Agrippine (1654), a comedy, Le Pédant joué 1654), Lettres.
    1649 (28 June?) Gioacchino Assereto, Italian painter born in 1600. Assereto was a Caravaggio follower in Genoa. MORE ON DE ASSERETO AT ART “4” JULYLINKS David with the Head of Goliath ZOOM IT Moses Drawing Water from the RockTobias Healing the Blindness of His Father
    1631 Pietro Damini , Italian artist born in 1592.
    1540 Thomas Cromwell, Earl Of Essex, Baron Cromwell Of Okeham. — He was born in 1485, in Putney, near London died 28 July 1540, probably London principal adviser (1532–40) to England's Henry VIII, chiefly responsible for establishing the Reformation in England, for the dissolution of the monasteries, and for strengthening the royal administration. At the instigation of his enemies he was eventually arrested for heresy and treason and executed.
    Births which occurred on this date:
    1954 Gerd Faltings, German mathematician.
    1945 Jim Davis, cartoonist (''Garfield'')
    1943 William Warren "Bill" Bradley, in Crystal City Mo, Rhodes scholar, NY Knick professional basketball player (1967-77), senator (D~NJ, 1979-96); candidate for 2000 Democratic presidential nomination in opposition to Al Gore, gave up early in 2000.
    1938 Alberto Fujimori, would be a dictatorial president of Peru, disgraced in 2000, and would flee to the country of his ancestors, Japan..
    1929 Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, wife of President John F. Kennedy, first lady (1961-63), wife of Aristotle Onassis.
    1922 Jacques Piccard Switzerland, undersea explorer (bathyscaph Trieste)
    1909 Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (Under the Volcano), short story writer, and poet. He died on 27 June 1957.
    1907 Earl S. Tupper, US inventor of Tupperware plastic containers, who died on 05 October 1983..
    1901 Harry Bridges, Australian-born US labor leader who headed the West Coast Longshoremen's Union. He died on 30 March 1990.
    1896 The city of Miami, Florida, is incorporated.
    1887 Marcel Duchamp part-time French-born US Dada artist, who tried to shock people with his small but controversial output. It exerted a strong influence on the development of 20th-century avant-garde art. He died on 02 October 1968. — MORE ON DUCHAMP AT ART “4” JULYLINKS Nu Descendant un Escalier Nº2 (no nude, just a descending robot)Le Passage de la vierge à la mariéeFatherL.H.O.O.Q.Large GlassYou and Me
    1887 Max Burchartz, German photographer who died in 1961. — LINKS
    1881 John Gresham Machen, a US Presbyterian theologian who taught at Princeton and Westminster seminaries. Two of his writings still endure: New Testament Greek for Beginners (1923) and The Virgin Birth of Christ (1932). — Machen was born in Baltimore; died on 01 January 1937, in Bismarck ND, US Presbyterian scholar (Princeton Theological Seminary) who joined in forming the doctrinally conservative Presbyterian Church in America (1936; later named the Orthodox Presbyterian Church) after his suspension from the ministry by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA., for his opposition to modern liberal revision of the 17th-century English Presbyterian creed, the Westminster Confession of Faith. Criticizing Liberal Protestantism as unbiblical and unhistorical in his Christianity and Liberalism (1923), he left Princeton (1929) to help found Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
    1879 Lucy Burns, US suffragette who died on 22 December 1966.
    1874 (25 July?) Joaquín Torres García, Montevideo painter, sculptor, teacher, and theorist, who died on 08 August 1949. — moreLINKS
    1867 Charles Dillon Perrine, US astronomer who died on 21 June 1951.
    1866 Helen Beatrix Potter (children's stories author and illustrator: Peter Rabbit books)         ^top^
        Potter would grow up to be the author and illustrator of 23 tiny books for children featuring Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and other animal characters.
         From childhood, Beatrix was an avid student of Nature. She drew and painted all the animals she could find, and loved painting mushrooms. Her two strongest interests were always being in the natural world and painting what she saw there. Beatrix filled many sketchbooks and kept a journal all her life. Beatrix was financially self-supporting at a time when women rarely were. With money earned from her books she eventually bought land and became a farmer and sheep breeder. During her later years she was widely respected throughout England as an expert on fungi (a mycologist). She was also a respected watercolor painter; she painted many landscapes and over 270 watercolors of mushrooms
          . Beatrix Potter died on 22 December 1943.
    POTTER ONLINE:
  • Peter RabbitThe Tale of Peter Rabbit
  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit

  • Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

  • Ginger & Pickles
  • The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter

  • The Pie and the Patty-Pan

  • The Roly-Poly Pudding

  • The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit
  • The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse

  • The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

  • The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

  • The Tale of Mr. Tod

  • The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

  • The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

  • The Story of Miss Moppet

  • The Story of Miss Moppet
  • Jemima Puddle-Duck The Tale of Mrs. Jemima Puddle-Duck

  • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

  • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

  • The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
  • The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan

  • The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes

  • The Tale of Two Bad Mice
  • 1844 Gerard Manley Hopkins England, poet (The Windhover): HOPKINS ONLINE: Poems  
    1835 Giosué Carducci, Italian poet, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1906, highly influental literary figure in his time. Carducci was regarded as the unofficial national poet of modern Italy.
    1819 Henri-Joseph Harpignies, French painter specialized in landscapes, who died on 28 August 1916. — Photo of HarpigniesMORE ON HARPIGNIES AT ART “4” JULY LINKSLandscape at CapriBords de l'Allieruntitled landscapeAutumnal River LandscapeGoats Grazing Beside A Lake At SunsetMidday In The MeadowsBoys By The SeaEnvirons De Menton, Le RoyalPont Neuf, Paris
    1816 Joseph Pierre Olivier Coomans, Belgian artist who died on 31 December 1889.
    1774 Maximilien Joseph Wagenbaur, French artist who died on 12 May 1829.
    1750 Philippe Fabre d'Églantine France, poet/satirist/politician.
    1728 Nicolas-Henri Jeaurat de Bertry , French artist who died after 1796.
    1609 Judith Leyster, Dutch Baroque era painter of genre scenes, portraits, and still-life, who died on 10 February 1660, wife of Jan Miense Molenaer. — MORE ON LEYSTER AT ART “4” JULY LINKSThe SerenadeSelf-PortraitCarousing CoupleThe PropositionYoung Flute PlayerA Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an EelMan Offering a Woman MoneyMerry TrioLaughing Youth with a Wine Glass
    1456 Jacopo Sannazzaro, Italian poet who died on 24 April 1530. — SANNAZZARO ONLINE: Arcadia (zipped)
    1165 Ibn al-'Arabi Muslim mystic/philosopher
    Holidays Bermuda : Adm George Somers Day (1609) / San Marino : Fall of Facism Day (1943) / US : Joseph Lee Day-honors playgrounds (1937) / US : Volunteers of America founders day (1859) / Gilroy, California : Garlic Festival - ( Friday ) / Peru : Independence Day (1824)

    Religious Observances Luth : JS Bach, Heinrich Schütz, GF Handel / RC : SS Nazarius, Celsus, martyrs and Innocent I, pope / RC : St Victor I, 14th pope (189-199)
    Thoughts for the day:
    “To make pleasures pleasant, shorten them.”
    “To make pains less unpleasant, shorten them.”
    “To make the Revolution's enemies pleasant, shorten them.” —
    (the philosophy of Robespierre [06 May 1658 – 28 July 1794])
    “To make peasants pleasant, shorten the Revolution's enemies.”
    “To make the Revolution pleasant, shorten Robespierre.”
    “To make pheasants pleasant and less fattening, cut out the shortening.”
    “To make a long story short: ‘
    Once upon a time they lived happily ever after’.
    “To cut short Terreur history: ‘
    Once upon a time they were guillotined and so was Robespierre, soon after’.
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    updated Monday 28-Jul-2003 2:36 UT
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