29 Nov History: This Date

<< Nov 28| HISTORY “4” “2”DAY |Nov 30 >>
Events, deaths, births, of 29 NOV
[For Nov 29 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1582~1699: Dec 09 — 1700s: Dec 10 — 1800s: Dec 11 — 1900~2099: Dec 12]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 20031129 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” NOV 29

On a 29 November:

2002 Il Papa Giovanni Paolo II, nell'udienza alla Pontificia Università Urbaniana [foto >], volge lo sguardo con sofferenza sul mondo di oggi che come dimostrano i recenti, feroci attentati continua ad essere lacerato ed in balia dell'odio: “ La violenza, il terrorismo, la guerra costruiscono nuovi muri tra i popoli”.

2002 Hoping for diminished attention from the public on this Friday following Thanksgiving US minority-president George “Dubya” Bush announces by E-mail that he is using his [creepingly dictatorial] “authority” to deny civilian Federal employees the pay raise they were to receive starting on 01 January 2003, limiting it to 3.1%. (he does not cut the military's 4.1% increase in pay). His pretext: “A national emergency has existed since Sept. 11, 2001. Such cost increases would threaten our efforts against terrorism or force deep cuts in discretionary spending or federal employment to stay within budget. Neither outcome is acceptable.” Dubya ignores his own administration's estimate that Federal workers earn an average of 18.6% less than private workers in similar jobs. Dubya cuts the increase in locality pay, intended to reduce that salary gap in more than 30 metrolitan areas, including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Cincinnati, Orlando, Kansas City, and Washington DC. After citing the current 2.1% inflation rate in the US, the arrogant minority-president adds: “I do not believe this decision will materially affect our ability to continue to attract and retain a quality federal work force.” And he does not even have the excuse of being a moron! (On 26 November 2002, Françoise Ducros, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's communications director, resigned after she was overheard, on 20 November at the NATO summit meeting in Prague, saying about Dubya: “Quel crétin!”)

1999 Protestant and Catholic adversaries form a common Northern Ireland government.

1999 The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez retain attorney attorney Spencer Eig to become his legal guardians and to block any move to take the boy back to Cuba. [< photo: Elian and his great-aunt Caridad Gonzalez ]

1998 Rogue policemen beat up innocent Cuban immigrant
Cuban immigrant Yoel Pacheco is allegedly beaten by two Hialeah, Florida, police officers, Rolando Bolanos Jr. and his brother Daniel. On the night of November 29, the brothers, who were responding to a domestic violence call, found Yoel Pacheco trying to resolve a dispute between his cousin and her husband. When he later tried to leave, the two officers stopped Pacheco, a 23-year-old welder with no criminal record. According to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, whose office conducted an eight-month investigation into the incident, Pacheco was then "taken to a remote location and beaten by the defendants after he had been arrested and placed in handcuffs." Pacheco's attorney claimed that doctors could not examine Pacheco's left eye three days after the incident because his face was so swollen. After Pacheco's claims became public, eight others came forth to say that they too had been beaten by one or both of the brothers. Daniel Bolanos had been accused of police brutality twice before, but both incidents were dismissed. In 1997, his application to the Miami police force was rejected because he admitted to using steroids. In 1989, his brother Rolando, who was 17 years old at the time, pled guilty to a charge of grand theft auto. He had also been arrested for aggravated assault, burglary, and other minor charges, which he failed to mention on his application to become a police officer 10 years later. The Bolanos brothers, who tried to cover up their attack on Pacheco by falsifying a police report, were arrested for battery and official misconduct. Police brutality and corruption has received much attention in the national press in recent years, and many groups have lobbied for police reforms and closer investigation into illegal police activity. Miami-Dade State Attorney Rundle said that more efforts were being made in her county to punish officers who break the law. Her office also reported that of 159 officers charged with various crimes from 1994 to 1995, 77 of them were convicted.

1999 Wrong man shot by murderer-for-hire
Tuesday 14 November 2000 update:
Hitman who botched the job

A hired gunman shot his intended victim's neighbor by mistake, blasting him with a sawn-off shotgun.

Paul Garfield Jones shot 56-year-old Ernest Broom in the stomach from eight feet away, leaving him for dead.

Mr Broom survived the shooting after weeks in hospital.

But he has been left with 280 pellets in his abdomen because surgeons decided it was safer to leave them.

Jones, 39, of Wallis House, Glenn View, East Grinstead, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and of firearms offences at Kingston Crown Court, south London, yesterday 13 November 2000.

Jones, who denied the charges throughout a six-week trial, will be sentenced on December 4.

The court heard how Jones, an antiques dealer with a string of burglary and firearms convictions, was hired to kill a business rival.

Tony Bristow, 48, ran a security guard firm in south London and decided on revenge when his manager Douglas Burns, 49, announced he was setting up his own business, taking customers with him.

Bristow promised Jones a Ford Granada car worth £1,000 and a £200 down-payment in cash if he would kill Mr Burns.

Jones agreed but picked the wrong house when he arrived at Mr Burns's street in Cheam, south London, on November 29 last year.

After shooting the nextdoor neighbour by mistake, Jones went to Bristow's London home to collect the car.

When Bristow told Jones he had shot the wrong man, Jones still insisted on being paid and drove off in the Granada.

Scotland Yard quickly established Mr Broom had been shot by mistake and that Mr Burns was the intended victim.

Through intelligence and checking associates of Mr Bristow, they identified Jones as a suspect. He was arrested in an armed operation.

Police raided a number of addresses and found Jones's jacket which fitted the description of the gunman. Tests showed it carried traces of gunpowder.

A shotgun cartridge was found in one pocket and two more were recovered later at an address where Jones had been. The cartridges were linked through ballistics to the shooting.

Detectives also discovered a boot, belonging to Jones, that matched footprints found at the scene of the crime.

Jones claimed he was with a girlfriend at the shooting but the girlfriend decided not to give evidence. Bristow's wife testified she saw Jones arrive to collect his payment.

Bristow, found guilty of conspiracy to murder at an earlier hearing, will also be sentenced on December 4.

The inquiry was led by Detective Chief Inspector Richard Heselden, of the serious crime squad.

He described Jones as "very cold" and said: "Jones showed no emotion and remained calm throughout police interviews and the long trial.

"We are more than satisfied we charged the right man and very satisfied with the outcome."

update 2003 Jan 16, 12:29 pm ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's High Court on Thursday 16 January 2003 jailed a bungling hitman who agreed to kill a businessman in return for $160 and an old car -- but confused the address and shot the wrong man.
Paul Jones, 41, ended up shooting and severely wounding his intended victim's next-door neighbor Ernest Broom.

Sentencing Jones to 17 years in prison, Judge Brian Barker said: "You shot him at point-blank range and it is a miracle he survived. You have ruined his life."

Jones had committed a "terrible and arrogant" crime in shooting Broom, who needed emergency surgery following the attack, the judge added.

The court heard earlier in the trial how businessman Tony Bristow had hired Jones, promising him $160 (? 200 pounds) and a second-hand Ford Granada to shoot a business rival and former employee in November 1999.

But Jones muddled the address and lay in wait outside Broom's house, next door to his target Douglas Burns.

When Broom was alerted by his wife to Jones lurking outside and gave chase, the hitman fired with a shotgun, peppering his stomach with 250 perforations.

"He just shot me and left me there. He didn't give me a chance and never said a word," Broom told the court.

When Burns heard about the attack and realized he had been the intended target he rang Bristow to brag: "You shot the wrong man."

Bristow, convicted at an earlier trial of conspiracy to murder, had promised Jones the equivalent of around $5,000 for the contract killing -- $160 in cash and the $4800-valued car (? 1000 pounds).

"You would think that life had a higher price. Sadly it does not," prosecutor Anthony Munday said.

A jury found Jones, from West Sussex in southern England, guilty of conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

1996 VW executive resigns accused of spying for GM.
Volkswagen executive Jose Ignacio Lopez resigns day under charges of industrial espionage from General Motors, his former employer. As part of a major lawsuit against Volkswagen, GM charged that Lopez, its former worldwide chief of purchasing, had stolen trade secrets from the company in 1993 when he defected to Volkswagen along with three other GM managers. Lopez's resignation was likely a result of pressure from the German carmaker, which sought to reach a settlement before the scheduled lawsuit began under US jurisdiction. In January 1997, VW and GM announced a settlement in which Volkswagen would pay General Motors $100 million and agree to buy at least $1 billion in parts from GM. VW also confirmed that the three other former GM managers accused of industrial espionage had all either resigned or were due to take administrative leave. In return, GM agreed to drop all legal action.

1996 MTV Networks was demands fees from online services that link to its site.
1994 Russian aircraft bomb Chechen capital of Grozny, in advance of long-planned ground attack to enslave the independent little republic.

1994 Intel CEO apologizes for Pentium bug
Andrew Grove, CEO of Intel Corp., posts a message on an Internet chat group, apologizing for a bug in the recently-released Pentium chip. The problem, first revealed in the November 7, 1994, issue of an electronics trade journal, caused the chip to make occasional mathematical errors. Although Intel had discovered the problem over the summer, it had not publicized the bug and had continued to sell the chip, believing the error would occur only once in nine billion random division operations. Users were upset that Pentium had not immediately publicized the problem and stopped shipments. Also, the company initially required computer users to prove that their work might be affected by the bug, but after a public outcry, the company switched to a no-questions-asked replacement policy. However, news reports six months later said only about three% of customers had requested a replacement chip.

1990 The UN Security Council, led by the United States, votes 12-2 to authorize military action if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait and release all foreign hostages by 15 January 1991.

1987 Cuban detainees release hostages
At the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, Louisiana, Cuban detainees agree to release the thirty hostages that they took eight days before in exchange for a US pledge to grant them an indefinite moratorium on their repatriation to Cuba, and a "full, fair, and equitable review" of their immigration cases. The approximately one thousand Cuban detainees held at Oakdale rioted on November 21, the day after the US government announced that it had restored immigration relations with Cuba, signaling the imminent deportation of nearly 3000 non-political Cubans held (under US laws which violate human rights) in various locations around the country. Two days after the Oakdale riots began, the 1400 Cuban detainees held at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, also rioted. The two groups took a combined total of approximately 100 hostages and caused considerable damage to both detention complexes. After a week of tense negotiations, mediated by Bishop Agustín Roman, the Oakdale group releases its hostages and surrenders, followed by the Atlanta detainees five days later. As part of the agreement, the detainees are not held financially responsible for damage caused during the riots, and a few of them are released into American society within months

1978 UN observes "international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people," boycotted by US & about 20 other countries
1975 Kilauea Volcano erupts in Hawaii
1973 Chrysler Corp. announces plans to halt production at seven plants, affecting 38,000 workers, to reduce inventory and move production away from gas-guzzlers. Generals Motors had taken similar measures a week earlier.

1971 US 23rd Division withdraws from Vietnam
The US 23rd Division (Americal) ceases combat operations and begins its withdrawal from South Vietnam. The division had been activated in Vietnam on September 25, 1967, after which it assumed control of the 11th, 198th, and 199th Infantry Brigades (and associated support troops). Its headquarters was at Chu Lai in I Corps Tactical Zone and division troops conducted operations in Quang Nam, Quang Tri, and Quang Ngai Provinces. In 1970, the division continued to fight in the Duc Pho, Chu Lai, and Tam Ky areas along the coast. When the division headquarters departed South Vietnam, the division colors were returned to Fort Lewis, Washington, where the Americal Division was officially inactivated. The only unit that remained in South Vietnam was the 199th Infantry Brigade, which continued to conduct operations as a separate brigade.

1970 In Nagpur, India, six church bodies: the Anglicans, the United Church of Northern India, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Church of the Brethren and the Disciples of Christ, merge to form the Church of India.

1968 Viet Cong vows to smash CIA's assassination program
The Viet Cong High Command orders an all-out attempt to smash the Phoenix program. Hanoi Radio broadcasted a National Liberation Front directive calling for a new offensive to "utterly destroy" Allied forces. The broadcast added that the new operation was particularly concerned with eliminating the "Phoenix Organization." The Phoenix program (or "Phuong Hoang" as it was called in Vietnamese) was a hamlet security initiative run by the Central Intelligence Agency that relied on centralized, computerized intelligence gathering aimed at identifying and eliminating the Viet Cong infrastructure — the upper echelon of the National Liberation Front political cadres and party members.
The program became one of the most controversial operations undertaken by US personnel in South Vietnam. Critics charged that American-led South Vietnamese "hit teams" indiscriminately arrested and murdered many communist suspects on flimsy pretexts. Despite the criticism and media attention, the program was acknowledged by top-level US government officials, as well as Viet Cong and North Vietnamese leaders after the war, to have been very effective in reducing the power of the local communist cadres in the South Vietnamese countryside.

1967 British troops withdraw from Aden
1967 US Secretary of Defense McNamara becomes President of the World Bank

1967 US Defense Secretary resigns to head World Bank
Robert S. McNamara announces that he will resign as Secretary of Defense and will become president of the World Bank. Formerly the president of Ford Motor Company, McNamara had served as Secretary of Defense under two presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, from 1961 until 1968. He initially supported US involvement in the Vietnam War and encouraged President Johnson to escalate in 1964, but he later began privately to question US policy and eventually advocated a negotiated settlement to the war. In the summer of 1967, he helped draft the San Antonio formula, a peace proposal offering to end the US bombing of the north and asking North Vietnam to join in productive discussions. The North Vietnamese rejected the proposal in October. Early in November, McNamara submitted a memorandum to Johnson recommending that the United States freeze its troop levels, cease the bombing of the north, and turn over responsibility for fighting the ground war to the South Vietnamese. Johnson rejected these recommendations outright. McNamara subsequently resigned; Johnson adviser Clark Clifford succeeded him.

1965 Dale Cummings does 14'118 consecutive sit-ups
1964 Roman Catholic Church in US modernizes liturgy, including replacing Latin with English.

1963 Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy assassination
One week after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes a special commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. After ten months of gathering evidence and questioning witnesses in public hearings, the Warren Commission report was released, concluding that there was no conspiracy in the assassination, either domestic or international, and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, acted alone. The report also found that Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who murdered Oswald on live national television, had no prior contact with Oswald. However, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1979 the House Assassination's Committee concluded that Kennedy likely was killed as part of a larger conspiracy that may have included members of organized crime. Some government officials disputed the committee's findings.

One week after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, President Lyndon Johnson establishes a special commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. After 10 months of gathering evidence and questioning witnesses in public hearings, the Warren Commission report was released, concluding that there was no conspiracy, either domestic or international, in the assassination and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, acted alone. The presidential commission also found that Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who murdered Oswald on live national television, had no prior contact with Oswald. According to the report, the bullets that killed President Kennedy and injured Texas Governor John Connally were fired by Oswald in three shots from a rifle pointed out of a sixth-floor window in the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald's life, including his visit to the Soviet Union, was described in detail, but the report made no attempt to analyze his motives. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee's findings, as with the findings of the Warren Commission, continue to be widely disputed.

1962 Algeria bans the Communist Party.
1961 Freedom Riders attacked by white mob at bus station in Mississipi
1961 Mercury-Atlas 5 takes chimp Enos to orbit the Earth twice.
1952 Archbishop Stepanic, still under house arrest in Yugoslavia, is created a Cardinal by the Vatican, making Tito's regime furious.

1952 Eisenhower, elected to end the war in Korea, goes there.
Making good on his most dramatic presidential campaign promise, newly elected US President Dwight D. Eisenhower goes to Korea to see whether he can find the key to ending the bitter and frustrating Korean War (called a "police action"). During the presidential campaign of 1952, Republican candidate Eisenhower was critical of the Truman administration's foreign policy, particularly its inability to bring an end to the conflict in Korea. President Truman challenged Eisenhower on October 24 to come up with an alternate policy. Eisenhower responded with the startling announcement that if he were elected, he would personally go to Korea to get a firsthand view of the situation. The promise boosted Eisenhower's popularity and he handily defeated Democratic candidate Adlai E. Stevenson. Shortly after his election, Eisenhower fulfilled his campaign pledge, though he was not very specific about exactly what he hoped to accomplish. After a short stay he returned to the United States, yet remained mum about his plans concerning the Korean War. After taking office, however, Eisenhower adopted a get-tough policy toward the communists in Korea. He suggested that he would "unleash" the Nationalist Chinese forces on Taiwan against communist China, and he sent only slightly veiled messages that he would use any force necessary (including the use of nuclear weapons) to bring the war to an end unless peace negotiations began to move forward. The Chinese, exhausted by more than two years of war, finally agreed to terms and an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. The United States suffered over 50,000 casualties in this "forgotten war," and spent nearly $70 billion. The most frustrating war in US history had come to an end. America's first experience with a "limited war," one in which the nation did not seek (and did not obtain) absolute victory over the enemy, did not bode well for the future. Conflict in Vietnam was just around the corner.

1951 1st underground atomic explosion, Frenchman Flat, Nevada.

1950 Chinese Communists overwhelm Allies in North Korea
     Three weeks after US General Douglas MacArthur first reported Chinese communist troops in action in North Korea, US-led UN troops begin a desperate retreat out of North Korea under heavy fire from the Chinese.
      Near the end of World War II, the "Big Three" Allied powers — the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain — agreed to divide Korea into two separate occupation zones and temporarily govern the nation. The country was split along the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone and Americans stationed in the south. By 1949, separate Korean governments had been established, and both the United States and the USSR withdrew the majority of their troops from the Korean Peninsula. The 38th parallel was heavily fortified on both sides, but the South Koreans were unprepared for the hordes of North Korean troops and Soviet-made tanks that suddenly rolled across the border on 25 June 1950. Two days later, President Harry Truman announced that the United States would intervene in the Korean conflict to stem the spread of communism, and on 28 June the United Nations approved the use of force against communist North Korea.
      In the opening months of the war, the US-led UN forces rapidly advanced against the North Koreans, but in October, Chinese communist troops entered the fray, throwing the Allies into retreat. By May 1951, the communists were pushed back to the 38th parallel, where the battle line remained for the rest of the war. In 1953, an armistice was signed, ending the war and reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists more than fifty years later..
      Approximately 150'000 soldiers from South Korea, the United States, and participating UN nations were killed in the Korean War, and as many as one million South Korean civilians perished. An estimated 800'000 communist soldiers were killed, and more than 200'000 North Korean civilians died. The original figure of American troops lost — 54,246 killed — became controversial when the Pentagon acknowledged in 2000 that all US troops killed around the world during the period of the Korean War were incorporated into that number. For example, any American soldier killed in a car accident anywhere in the world from June 1950 to July 1953 was considered a casualty of the Korean War. If these deaths are subtracted from the 54'246 total, leaving just the Americans who died (from whatever cause) in the Korean theater of operations, the total US dead in the Korean War numbers 36'516.
     US president Harry S. Truman, backed by Congress and the United Nations, ordered a US-led UN force to Korea in response to North Korea's invasion of South Korea across the 38th parallel in June. Two weeks after landing at Inchon in mid September, the allied force, commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and two days later had pushed the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel. On 07 October, the US-led force crossed the 38th parallel into the North, ignoring China's threat to enter the war if the allied force failed to honor the 1945 division of Korea. Over the next eight weeks, invading UN forces crush the North Korean opposition as they push to the Yula River and Manchurian border. However, at the end of November, true to their threat, several hundred thousand Chinese Communist troops pour over the border into North Korea, and allied troops begin a long, hard retreat, at the cost of thousands of Americans killed, wounded, or missing in action. Chinese forces overrun South Korea, and by the beginning of 1951 have captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Allied forces recapture Seoul by March, and by mid 1951 have pushed as far north as the 38th parallel, reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists today, despite the three bloody years of the Korean War.

1949 The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

1947 UN votes for the partition of Palestine
     Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations General Assembly adopts Resolution 181 which calls for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into 3 parts: a Jewish state, an Arab state, and the City of Jerusalem. One member nation is absesnt and the vote is:
33 votes in favor
Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussian S.S.R., Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian S.S.R., Union of South Africa, U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Uruguay, Venezuela.
13 votes against
Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen.
10 abstentions:
Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia.
      The modern conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine dates back to the 1910s, when both groups laid claim to the British-controlled territory. The Jews were Zionists, recent emigrants from Europe and Russia who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a Jewish national state. The native Palestinian Arabs sought to stem Jewish immigration and set up a secular Palestinian state. Beginning in 1929, Arabs and Jews openly fought in Palestine, and Britain attempted to limit Jewish immigration as a means of appeasing the Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust in Europe, many Jews illegally entered Palestine during World War II. Radical Jewish groups employed terrorism against British forces in Palestine, which they thought had betrayed the Zionist cause.
      At the end of World War II, in 1945, the United States took up the Zionist cause. Britain, unable to find a practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which on 29 November 1947, votes to partition Palestine. The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, though they made up less than half of Palestine's population. The Palestinian Arabs, aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the Zionist forces, but the Jews secured full control of their UN-allocated share of Palestine and also some Arab territory. On 14 May 1948, Britain withdrew two days before the expiration of its mandate, and the State of Israel was proclaimed by Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion. The next day, forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded. The Israelis, though less well equipped, managed to fight off the Arabs and then seize key territories, such as Galilee, the Palestinian coast, and a strip of territory connecting the coastal region to the western section of Jerusalem. In 1949, UN-brokered cease-fires left the State of Israel in permanent control of those conquered areas. The departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from Israel during the war left the country with a substantial Jewish majority.
      In 1923, in the aftermath of World War I, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate to govern the territory of Palestine, effectively ending 400 years of Turkish rule and over 1300 years of Arab rule. Following the British takeover, an international movement for the establishment of an independent Jewish state began to mount, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of World War II. During the war, Jews fleeing the Holocaust in Europe increased Palestine's already sizable Jewish population to nearly 700'000, approximately half the number of Arabs living in the territory. Britain, whose mandate over Palestine had nearly expired, was unable to reach a compromise between the Zionists and Palestinians, and in 1947 turned the issue over to the United Nations. After the UN vote for partition, Britain does not attempt to implement the decision, and when the mandate expires on 16 May 1948, the British have already withdrawn. The day of the expiration, Palestine's Jews declare the state of Israel, and all across the territory areas designated as part of the new state of Israel are seized by Jewish forces. US recognition of Israel comes within hours, but so does an Arab invasion, launched by Jordan and Egypt the day after Israel's proclamation. However, when a cease-fire is declared in January of 1949, Israel has increased its original territory by 50%. The forced departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from Israel during the war left the country with a substantial Jewish majority.

1945 Monarchy abolished as Yugoslavia proclaims it's republic 1945 est proclamée la République populaire de Yougoslavie. Très vite, le chef des communistes yougoslaves, Josip Broz Tito, va s'émanciper de la tutelle soviétique. Il va ériger la Yougoslavie en chef de file des pays non-alignés et devenir le mouton noir du monde communiste.
1944 Albania liberated from Nazi control (National Day)
1944 John Hopkins hospital performs 1st open heart surgery
1943 sont créées les Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur. Elle regroupent les différents groupes de résistance à l'occupant nazi en vue du futur combat aux côté des Alliés qui préparent leur débarquement.

1942 Coffee rationing in US
Americans are told by the Office of Price Administration (OPA) that coffee will be rationed. Rationing had begun as a voluntary crusade. With almost 90% of US rubber imports cut off by Japanese capture of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya, the federal government faced the first of many resource crises. President Roosevelt launched a successful scrap-rubber drive, urging Americans to gather "old tires, old rubber raincoats . . . whatever you have that is made of rubber." Before long, rationing was extended to gasoline and, soon thereafter, food items. About one-third of civilian food items were rationed during the war. Latin American coffee producers exported record shipments during the war years. But shipping demands—as well as increased consumption by civilians and members of the armed forces—led the OPA to issue coffee rationing stamps. These stamps were removed only from the rationing books of children under fifteen.

1939 Soviet planes bomb an airfield at Helsinki, Finland
1931 The Spanish government seizes large estates for land redistribution. .
1929

1929 Byrd flies over the South Pole NOT.
     Lt Cmdr Richard E Byrd flying an airplane over Antarctica radioes "My calculations indicate that we have reached the vicinity of the South Pole" (His calculations are wrong)     US explorer Richard Byrd and three companions claim that they make the first flight over the South Pole, flying from their base on the Ross Ice Shelf to the pole and back in 18 hours and 41 minutes. Richard Evelyn Byrd learned how to fly in the US Navy and served as a pilot in World War I. An excellent navigator, he was deployed by the navy to Greenland in 1924 to help explore the Arctic region by air. Enamored with the experience of flying over glaciers and sea ice, he decided to attempt the first flight over the North Pole. On May 9, 1926, the Josephine Ford left Spitsbergen, Norway, with Byrd as navigator and Floyd Bennet as pilot. Fifteen hours and 30 minutes later, the pair returned and announced they had accomplished their mission. For the achievement, both men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. However, some doubt lingered about whether they had actually flown over the North Pole, and in 1996 a diary Byrd had kept on the flight was found that seemed to suggest that the Josephine Ford had turned back 150 miles short of its goal because of an oil leak. In the late 1920s, however, few suspected Byrd had failed in his mission. In 1927, Byrd's prestige grew when he made a harrowing nonstop flight across the Atlantic with three companions. Famous as he was, he had little trouble finding financial backers for an expedition to Antarctica. Byrd's first Antarctic expedition was the largest and best-equipped expedition that had ever set out for the southern continent. The explorers set out in the fall of 1928, building a large base camp called "Little America" on the Ross Ice Shelf near the Bay of Whales. From there, they conducted flights across the Antarctic continent and discovered much unknown territory.
      At 15:29 on 28 November 1929, Byrd, the pilot Bernt Balchen, and two others took off from Little America in the Floyd Bennett, headed for the South Pole. Magnetic compasses were useless so near the pole, so the explorers were forced to rely on sun compasses and Byrd's skill as a navigator. At 20:15, they dropped supplies for a geological party near the Queen Maud Mountains and then continued on. The most challenging phase of the journey came an hour later, when the Floyd Bennett struggled to gain enough altitude to fly safely above the Polar Plateau. They cleared the 11,000-foot pass between Mount Fridtjof Nansen and Mount Fisher by a few hundred meterss and then flew on to the South Pole, reaching it at about 01:00 on 29 November. They flew a few kilometers beyond where they thought the Pole vas and then to the right and the left to compensate for any navigational errors. Byrd dropped a small American flag on the pole, and the explorers headed for home, safely landing at Little America at 10:11 a.m.
      In 1933, Byrd, now a rear admiral in the navy, led a second expedition to Antarctica. During the winter of 1934, he spent five months trapped at a weather station 123 miles from Little America. He was finally rescued in a desperately sick condition in August 1934. In 1939, Byrd took command of the US Antarctic Service at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and led a third expedition to the continent. During World War II, he served on the staff of the chief of naval operations. After the war, he led his fourth expedition to Antarctica, the largest ever attempted to this date, and more than 500,000 miles of the continent were mapped by his planes. In 1955, he led his fifth and final expedition to Antarctica. He died in 1957.

1916 US declares martial law in Dominican Republic
1887 US receives rights to Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, Hawaii
1877 Thomas Edison demonstrates the hand-cranked phonograph

1864 Affair at Spring Hill, Tennessee
1863 The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
1863 Siege of Knoxville, Tennessee continues
1863 Mine Run Campaign continues in Virginia

1850 L'union allemande retardée
A Olmütz, la Prusse doit renoncer provisoirement à son projet de fédérer autour d'elle l'Allemagne. A la faveur des révolutions de 1848, les représentants du peuple allemand s'étaient réunis en Assemblée nationale à l'église Saint-Paul de Francfort et avaient décidé de restaurer sous une forme constitutionnelle l'empire dissous en 1806 (le 1er Reich). Le 28 mars 1849, les 568 membres de l'Assemblée avaient élu à une petite minorité le roi de Prusse Frédéric-Guillaume IV à la dignité impériale (de devenir le premier souverain d'Allemagne. Mais celui-ci n'avait pas voulu d'une "couronne ramassée dans la rue" tandis que l'empereur d'Autriche avait protesté contre cette entorse à sa traditionnelle hégémonie. Frédéric-Guillaume IV préfère solliciter les princes allemands. Un Parlement de l'Union est convoqué à Erfurt. S'y retrouvent surtout les petits Etats de l'Allemagne du Nord. Leurs représentants élaborent un projet de Constitution fédérale autour d'une Union restreinte (sans l'Autriche, coupable d'être plurinationale) et Frédéric-Guillaume IV se propose naturellement d'en être le monarque, avec les encouragements de son ministre Radowitz. L'initiative déplaît au nouvel empereur d'Autriche, le jeune François-Joseph 1er (20 ans), furieux d'être évincé. Le roi de Prusse n'ose pas risquer une épreuve de force. Il se sépare de Radowitz et appelle le baron von Manteuffel. Ce dernier rencontre son homologue autrichien Schwarzenberg à Olmütz, en Moravie (dans l'actuelle République tchèque). Sous la menace d'une guerre, le Prussien doit renoncer au projet d'Union restreinte et accepte le rétablissement de la Confédération germanique, une entité sans pouvoir créée en 1815 et dominée par l'Autriche. La reculade d'Olmütz convainc les Allemands qu'il faudra bien se battre contre l'Autriche pour fédérer le pays. C'est la voie dans laquelle s'engagera Otto von Bismarck, dès sa nomination à la tête du gouvernement prussien, en 1862.

1830 Insurrection polonaise contre les russes
Les Polonais se soulèvent contre l'occupant russe. Le bruit avait couru que le tsar allait envoyer des jeunes gens combattre l'insurrection belge au titre de la Sainte-Alliance. Les insurgés, d'abord victorieux, s'emparent de Varsovie et proclament l'indépendance du pays. Mais ils se montrent divisés et incapables de maîtriser leur succès. Le tsar Nicolas 1er reprend Varsovie le 08 septembre 1831 avec 110'000 hommes de troupe. Il exerce une répression féroce. A Paris, le gouvernement s'attire la colère de l'opinion en résumant en une phrase la situation: "l'ordre règne à Varsovie". 10'000 patriotes polonais sont contraints à l'exil et beaucoup se rendent en France, au nom de la vieille amitié entre les deux pays. Parmi eux figure Frédéric Chopin (20 ans). Le musicien apportera une contribution majeure au mouvement romantique. Après une longue histoire pleine de grandeur et de prestige, l'ancien royaume polonais avait été partagé entre l'Autriche, la Prusse et la Russie au XVIIIe siècle. Napoléon 1er l'avait brièvement rétabli dans son indépendance sous le nom de Grand-duché de Varsovie. En 1815, à la chute de Napoléon 1er, le Congrès de Vienne place la plus grande partie de la Pologne sous l'autorité du tsar Alexandre 1er. Celui-ci accorde à son royaume polonais (la "Pologne du Congrès") une large autonomie. Il se montre respectueux de sa culture, de sa langue et de sa religion catholique. Suite à l'insurrection de 1830, son successeur Nicolas 1er met fin à l'autonomie du pays. Il transforme le royaume en une simple province russe et entreprend une politique de russification forcée. L'insurrection de Varsovie marque un tournant pour les nombreuses minorités de l'empire russe. Celles-ci ne bénéficient plus de la bienveillance d'antan. Elles doivent se confronter désormais à la montée du nationalisme grand-russe.

1812 Napoleon's Grand Army crosses Berezina River in retreat from Russia 1812

Last remnants of Napoléon's Grande Armée retreat across the Beresina River in Russia.
1812 Passage de la Bérézina.
Depuis trois jours la Grande Armée est arrivée devant la Bérézina. La température est moins 20 degrés centigrade le jour et la nuit la température descend jusqu'aux alentours de moins 30. Oudinot et Ney cherchent à retarder l'avancée des troupes russes de Koutouzov. Il faut que le gros des troupes passent le fleuve. A une heure du matin, le 28, les troupes de Victor s'engagent sur les deux ponts construient par les hommes de Eblé. Elles seront les premières engagées sur ceux-ci. 25'000 combattants parviennent à passer et 30'000 hommes qui ne peuvent plus combattre passent encore. L'armée n'a perdu que 25 de ses canons et peut se replier vers Wilna. Le 29 au matin, Eblé met le feu aux ponts pour empêcher les Russes de poursuivre l'armée française. Les traînards sont sacrifiés aux Russes ou se noient dans les eaux glacées. Quelques 8000 hommes qui n'ont pas eu le temps de passer sont massacrés par l'avant-garde et les cosaques de Koutouzov. Avant d'arriver à Wilna l'empereur écrit : "L'armée n'est pas belle à montrer aujourd'hui."

1791 En France, la Législative prend un décret contre les prêtres réfractaires qui refusent la Constitution civile du clergé, votée un an plus tôt. La Révolution démocratique et quasi-unanime des débuts tourne à la guerre civile
1789 Près de Valence, 12'000 gardes nationaux et les représentants des villages environnants célèbrent la première "Fédération". C'est l'époque bénie de la première Révolution, avant que les contraintes financières, le sectarisme religieux et les égoïsmes des uns et des autres n'engagent le pays dans la voie de la Terreur et de la guerre.
1787 Louis XVI promulgates an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
1760 Major Roger Rogers takes possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain.
1644 The Massachusetts General Court issued a call for local pastors to learn the dialects of neighboring Indian tribes, as an aid toward converting them to the Christian faith.
1516 Le roi de France François 1er signe une "paix perpétuelle" avec les cantons suisses. C’est la conséquence de sa victoire sur les Suisses à Marignan. 1516 Paix de Fribourg. Le roi de France François Ier signe avec les Suisses : la "paix perpétuelle". Les Suisses s'engagent à ne plus apporter leur concours à des adversaires de la France,et celle-ci paye près de 300'000 écus d'or pour leurs frais.
1226 Sacre de Louis IX, 11 ans: Sa mère, Blanche de Castille, précipite le sacre de son fils car une révolte des vassaux menace la couronne. La cathédrale est en construction et le siège épiscopal de Reims est vacant. C'est l'évêque de Soissons qui officie. Seul parmi la noblesse, Thibaud IV de Champagne apporte son soutien à la régente
1223 Through publication of "Regula Bullata," Pope Honorius III formally authorized the "Regula Prima," a settled rule of organization and administration for the Franciscan order. . The Franciscans are to be marked by complete poverty and preaching.

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Deaths which occurred on a 29 November:

2002 (estimated date) Faheem Williams, 7 [photo >], of starvation, and beating to the abdomen; he has been beaten elsewhere too, and burned with cigarettes. The mummified body is found on 05 January 2003 in a plastic storage bin in the Newark NJ row house home of Sherry Murphy, in a locked filthy basement of which, on 04 January 2003, Faheem's twin Raheem Williams and (half?) brother Tyrone Hill, 4, were found abandoned, starved, dehydrated, with bruises and burns. Raheem tells investigators that he had a twin which he had not seen “for a long time” (estimade by police to be “more than a month”). Sherry Murphy, 41, had been entrusted with the boys while their mother was in prison. When she was released in August 2002, Murphy and the children were nowhere to be found. Fugitive Murphy would be arrested on 09 January 2003. Joseph Reese, 45, would be arrested on 08 January 2003, charged with sexual assault of Raheem.

2000 Barry Schneider, 43, of a heroin overdose, in his home in Courtenay, British Columbia. He was a constable of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, their drug awareness co-ordinator on Vancouver Island

1987 All 115 aboard Korean Air Boeing 707 which disappears off Burma, on route to Seoul.

1980 Dorothy Day, 83, founder of the Catholic Worker movement.
      Dorothy Day was born on 08 November 1897.
      In November 1917 Day went to prison for being one of forty women in front of the White House protesting women's exclusion from the electorate.
      As a child she had attended services at an Episcopal Church. But the Catholic climate of worship appealed to her. While she knew little about Catholic belief, Catholic spiritual discipline fascinated her. She saw the Catholic Church as "the church of the immigrants, the church of the poor."
      On 03 March 1927, she gave birth to Tamar Theresa Day was born. Day could think of nothing better to do with the gratitude that overwhelmed her than arrange Tamar's baptism in the Catholic Church. "I did not want my child to flounder as I had often floundered. I wanted to believe, and I wanted my child to believe, and if belonging to a Church would give her so inestimable a grace as faith in God, and the companionable love of the Saints, then the thing to do was to have her baptized a Catholic."
      On 28 December 1927 , Day was received into the Catholic Church. A period commenced in her life as she tried to find a way to bring together her religious faith and her radical social values.
      In the winter of 1932 Day travelled to Washington, D.C., to report for Commonweal and America magazines on the Hunger March.
      Back in her apartment in New York the next day, Day met Peter Maurin, a French immigrant 20 years her senior. Maurin, a former Christian Brother, had left France for Canada in 1908 and later made his way to the United States. When he met Day, he was handyman at a Catholic boys' camp. During his years of wandering, Maurin had come to a Franciscan attitude. As remarkable as the providence of their meeting was Day's willingness to listen.
      What Day should do, Maurin said, was start a paper to publicize Catholic social teaching and promote steps to bring about the peaceful transformation of society.
      Day found that the Paulist Press was willing to print 2500 copies of an eight-page tabloid paper for $57. Her kitchen was the new paper's editorial office. She decided to sell the paper for a penny a copy, "so cheap that anyone could afford to buy it."
      On 01 May 1933, the first copies of The Catholic Worker were handed out on Union Square.
      By December, 100'000 copies were being printed each month. Readers found a unique voice in The Catholic Worker. It wasn't only radical but religious.
      For the first half year The Catholic Worker was only a newspaper, but as winter approached, homeless people began to knock on the door.
      Surrounded by people in need and attracting volunteers excited about ideas they discovered in The Catholic Worker, it was inevitable that the editors would soon be given the chance to put their principles into practice. Day's apartment was the seed of many houses of hospitality to come.
      Many were surprised that, in contrast with most charitable centers, no one at the Catholic Worker set about reforming them. A crucifix on the wall was the only unmistakable evidence of the faith of those welcoming them. The staff received only food, board and occasional pocket money.
      The Catholic Worker became a national movement. By 1936 there were 33 Catholic Worker houses spread across the country.
      The Catholic Worker also experimented with farming communes.
      Long before her death, Day found herself regarded by many as a saint. The Claretians have launched an effort to have her canonized.
      "If I have achieved anything in my life," she once remarked, "it is because I have not been embarrassed to talk about God."
MORE
DOROTHY DAY ONLINE: Complete on-line works — From Union Square to Rome — House of Hospitality — On Pilgrimage

1979 Herbert “Zeppo” Marx, comedian born on 25 February 1901.
1924 Giacomo Puccini Italian composer, in Brussels
1910 Étienne Prosper Berne-Bellecour, French artist born on 29 July 1838.
1892 Alexander Helwig Wyant, US artist born on 11 January 1836. — more with links to images.
1872 Mary Somerville, mathematician

1864 Hundreds of peaceful Cheyennes, murdered by the Colorado militia: the Sand Creek Massacre, also 9 militiamen.
At dawn in Colorado territory, the 3rd Colorado Volunteers, a militia under Major John M. Chivington, attacks a winter encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, massacring 150 or over 400 (depending on accounts) Indians, the majority of whom are women, children, or old men. — MORE

1847 Marcus & Narcissa Whitman, and 11 settlers, killed by Indians in Walla Walla Ore 1847 American Indians massacre missionary Marcus Whitman, his wife and 12 others at Walla Walla Washington. Whitman had recently returned from a successful 5000 km journey to convince the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions not to close down one of his three mission stations. Indian fury comes to a head when many die of measles, some because Whitman gave them vaccinations.
Dr. Whitman massacred

MORE, from an account by Catherine Sager Pringle, who was present and 13 at the time.

1780 Maria Theresa, 63, leader of Austria
1759 Nicolaus (I) Bernoulli, mathematician
1742 Louis Dorigny, French artist born on 14 June 1654. — more
1530 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey adviser to England's King Henry VIII
1516 Giovanni Bellini, Italian painter born in 1430. — Giovanni Bellini, 87 ans, peintre, meurt à Venise. Il appartient à une famille vénitienne qui compte plusieurs peintres illustres. Son père Jacopo (1400-1470) fut grand peintre, de même que son frère aîné Gentile (1429-1507); mais on s'accorde à reconnaître que Giovanni est le plus grand de tous. La plus belle de ses toiles La Madone et les Saints, date de 1490. On peut admirer les brillantes couleurs qui caractérisent l'École Vénitienne. Deux de ses élèves, Giorgione (1477-1510) et surtout Le Titien (1485?-1576) deviendront aussi célèbres que leur maître. — MORE ON BELLINI AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1314 Philippe IV le Bel, de maladie après un long règne troublé sur sa fin par les déboires de ses fils et les infidélités de ses brus.

Births which occurred on a 29 November:
1972 “The Mellow Yellow” is opened by Wernard Bruining, 22, in Amsterdam, as its first marijuana café. It would close six years later, but others would sprout up like... well ... like weeds, numbering some 800 in the Netherlands 30 years later and tolerated by the authorities. Possession of up to 30 grams of “soft” drugs (marijuana and hashish, considered no more harmful than alcohol and tobacco) would be decriminalized in the Netherlands in 1978.
1950 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States is founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations. It has would become a strong voices for its brand of social justice.

1948 The First All-Australian automobile
Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley attends the unveiling of the first car to be manufactured entirely in Australia — an ivory-colored motor car officially designated the 48-215, but fondly known as the Holden FX. In 1945, the Australian government had invited Australia's auto-part manufacturers to create an all-Australian car. General Motors-Holden's Automotive, a car body manufacturer, obliged, producing the 48-215, a six-cylinder, four-door sedan. The 48-215 was an instant success in Australia, and 100,000 Holden FXs were sold in the first five years of production. During the next few decades, General Motors-Holden's Automotive went on to introduce a number of other successful marquees, including the Torana and the Commodore. Four million Holdens, with their trademark "Lion-and-Stone" emblem, were sold in Australia and exported around the world by the 1980s. In 1994, General Motors-Holden's Automotive finally adopted Holden as its official company name, and today Holden continues its mission of meeting Australia's unique motoring needs.

1943 Sue Miller, novelist, in Boston.
Miller graduated from Radcliffe College in 1964 and briefly worked as a high school teacher. She later worked as a model, a cocktail waitress, and administered psychological tests to rats in a university lab. She took three different masters' degrees, in creative writing, teaching English, and early-childhood education. She taught preschool for eight years and married. When she was 35, she took a creative writing workshop and almost immediately published several short stories.
In 1986, she published her first novel, The Good Mother, about a single mother whose ex-husband sues for custody of their child because she's involved with another man. Critics praised the book's maturity, grace, and subtlety, and expressed surprise at finding these qualities in a first novel. Miller has continued to write accomplished novels portraying the modern family, including Family Pictures (1990), about rearing an autistic child; For Love (1993), about a woman who returns to her childhood home after her mother's death; and While I Was Gone (1999), about a happily married veterinarian who flirts with the idea of an affair when an old lover moves to town.

1933 James Rosenquist, US Pop painter, printmaker and sculptor.. — MORE ON ROSENQUIST AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1933 Dr David Reuben writer (Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex)
1932 Jacques Chirac, à Paris, président de France.
1928 Paul Simon (Sen-D-Ill), presidential candidate
1918 Madeleine L'Engle, writer (A Wrinkle in Time).
1911 Konrad Fuchs, German atomic physicist.
1908 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and Civil Rights leader.
1902 Carlo Levi Italy, painter/novelist (Of Fear & Freedom)
1900 Mildred Elizabeth Sisk, aka Axis Sally, Nazi propagandist.
1898 Clive Staples Lewis English writer / scholar (Le Roman de la Rose, Out of the Silent Planet) CS LEWIS ONLINE: Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics, Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics.
1895 William V.S. Tubman (Whig), 17th Liberian President (1943-70)
1879 Nikolai Krylov, mathematician
1874 Antonio Egas Moniz Portugal, lobotomist (Nobel 1949)
1866 Brown, mathematician
1866 Jozef Pankiewicz, Polish artist who died in 1943. — more
1863 Jules Alexis Meunier, French artist who died in 1942.
1858 Emil Karl Rau, German artist who died in 1937.
1849 Sir Ambrose Fleming inventor (diode)
1849 Lamb, mathematician
1847 Greenhill, mathematician
1846 Konrad Kiesel, German artist who died on 28 May 1921.
1840 Francesco Beda, Italian artist who died on 21 June 1900.
1832 Louisa May Alcott, novelist (Little Women).
1818 George Brown Canada, publisher (Toronto Globe), PM (L) (1858)

1815 Augusta Ada Byron (later Countess of Lovelace)
Lovelace, a mathematical prodigy and daughter of the poet Lord Byron, was an important influence on Charles Babbage, who developed one of the first mechanical computers. She is sometimes credited with the invention of computer programming. In June 1833, Lovelace first met Babbage, while attending one of his celebrated parties. A well-known mathematician whose frequent salons drew luminaries like Darwin, Longfellow, and Dickens, Babbage was hard at work on a calculating machine he called the "Difference Engine." Lovelace became fascinated by the machine and quickly befriended Babbage. The two kept up a lively correspondence about the machine for many years. Lovelace helped spread the ideas behind the Difference Engine by publishing scientific papers describing the machine. These papers were published anonymously — women in nineteenth-century England rarely published under their own names. In 1852, she died at age thirty-six.

1803 Christian Doppler, mathematician, physicist, discoverer of Doppler Effect (frequency shift)
1789 Jan van Ravensway, Dutch artist who died on 02 March 1869.
1781 Andres Bello Venezuela poet/diplomat/scholar (Selvas Americanas)

1627 John Ray, leading 17th-century English naturalist and botanist who contributed significantly to progress in taxonomy. His enduring legacy to botany was the establishment of species as the ultimate unit of taxonomy.
      John Ray and his friend Francis Willughby made an amazing pact together: they would make a systematic description of all the plants and animals! Ray was to do the plants; Willughby the animals. The two naturalists traveled throughout England and Europe carefully observing the flora and fauna. Their descriptions were to be totally based on observations; they would not include the mythical creatures often included by naturalists in their works. Though
      Willughby died in 1672 at the age of 37, he left Ray a stipend in his will, and Ray faithfully edited and published Willughby's notes on birds and fishes while continuing his own work on plants. Ray's true contribution to science was in his system of organization and definition of species. If plants were to be arranged logically according to types or species, what would be the guiding principle? Should a plant be classified according to its root system, leaf shape, blossom, fruit, or habitat? Ray's definition of a species was boldly simple, yet could apply equally to plants and animals. He asked himself the question, "What fundamental ordering principle had God used?" Based on Genesis 1, Ray said species were descendants of a male-female pair created by God, like the human race. A species, then, was a set of individuals who reproduce new individuals similar to themselves. Though there might be vast variations and mutations within a species, Ray believed there was a fixity of species. The German Lutheran scientist Carl Linneaus based his famous classification system on Ray's important definition of species.
      Once the detailed observations of plants and animals had been made, then Ray began the task of interpreting the significance of physical processes, including how form and function were adapted to the environment and the nature of instinctual behavior. For example, Ray asked the question, "Why are there so many unpleasant creatures like insects?" His answer looked for God's purpose in creation. Ants were more numerous than any other tribe of insects because so many other creatures lived upon them and their eggs. Some insects yielded medicines for men, while others might be used by God as a scourge on the wicked.
      Ray wrote Catalogus Plantarum Angliae (1670). After Willughby's death, Ray completed Willughby's Willughbeii . . . Ornithologia (1676) and Willughbeii . . . de Historia Piscium (1685).
     In 1682 Ray had published Methodus Plantarum Nova (1682, revised in 1703 Methodus Plantarum Emendata...), his contribution to classification, which insisted on the taxonomic importance of the distinction between monocotyledons and dicotyledons, plants whose seeds germinate with one leaf and those with two, respectively. On the basis of the Methodus, he constructed his masterwork, Historia Plantarum, three huge volumes that appeared between 1686 and 1704. After the first two volumes, he was urged to compose a complete system of nature. To this end he compiled brief synopses of British and European plants, Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium (published posthumously, 1713), and Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini Generis (1693). Much of his final decade was spent on a pioneering investigation of insects, published posthumously as Historia Insectorum. In all this work, Ray contributed to the ordering of taxonomy. Instead of a single feature, he attempted to base his systems of classification on all the structural characteristics, including internal anatomy.
      In the 1690s Ray also published three volumes on religion. The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691), an essay in natural religion that called on the full range of his biological learning, was his most popular and influential book. It argued that the correlation of form and function in organic nature demonstrates the necessity of an omniscient creator. This argument from design, common to most of the leading scientists of the 17th century, implied a static view of nature that impeded the development of evolutionary ideas even throughout the 19th century. Still working on his Historia Insectorum, John Ray died on 17 January 1705.

Holidays Albania : Liberation Day (1944) / Liberia : President Tubman's Birthday / UN : International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People / Yugoslavia : Proclamation Day of Socialist Federal Republic

Religious Observances RC : St Saturninus, bishop and martyr / Saint Saturnin Premier évêque de Toulouse, Saturnin (ou Sernin) aurait été martyrisé vers 250, au temps des empereurs illyriens. Il fut attaché à un taureau sur le Forum de Toulouse, l'actuelle place Esquirol, et traîné dans les rues jusqu'à l'endroit où s'élève aujourd'hui l'église Notre-Dame du Taur (ou du taureau). Son corps fut enseveli sur place par deux soeurs dénommées Puelles. Les restes du saint reposent aujourd'hui dans la basilique Saint-Sernin. C'est un magnifique exemple d'architecture romane en pierres et briques roses, construite au XIIe siècle pour recueillir les prières des pélerins à destination de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. / Christian : St Francis Fasani, Italian priest.

Thoughts for the day : “Losing weight: the triumph of mind over platter.”
“Monastic silence: the triumph of mind over chatter.”
“Spring cleaning: the triumph of mind over clutter.”
“Triumph of mind over matter: if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.”
“Don't pull out from under me the rug under which you swept the dirt of the skeleton in your closet.”
“It's of no use to lock the barn door after beating a dead horse which was changed in midstream.”
“Don't call me a wet blanket when you're the one who rained on my parade.”
“When Hell freezes over the cows will come home to roost skating on thin ice.”
“You work best when you're thoroughly tired, or else after you're retired, if you are a car wheel.”
“Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better.” — USurper-President George “Dubya” Bush. — [Yeah... but are they as good as the border relations between the US and Nepal?]

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