12th August
The Feast Day of St Jaenberht, the 8th Century Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 765 thanks in part to the friendship he had with Egbert II King of Kent. Unfortunately, his relationship with Offa King of Mercia (and overlord of Kent) wasn't so amiable, Jaenberht siding with Egbert against Offa's plans to expand direct rule over his entire Kingdom, believing that he was an Offa that nobody could refuse. Some scholars believed that Jaenberht was behind the widespread rumour that Offa was plotting with Charlemagne to overthrow the Pope - other rumours included Jaenberht's own conspiracy with Charlemagne to undermine Offa's power in Mercia: jaenberht certainly had coins minted with his own image on them as a direct mark of disrespect for the King. The hostilities, which resulted in Offa's creation of Archdiocese of Lichfield as a rival centre to Canterbury, continued until the Archbishop's death on this date in 792 [three years before Offa's] - after which Jaenberht became revered as a Saint.
It's also International Youth Day, and World Elephant Day, the latter dedicated to the preservation and protection of the pachyderms. No such consideration today for Red Grouse or ptarmigans, of course.
Also on this Date: Godfrey of Bouillon launches a surprise attack on the Muslim forces of vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah at the Battle of Ascalon, driving them back into Egypt (1099 - this marks the end of the First Crusade, and most of the European Christians return home); the Islamic forces of Atabeg Nur ad-Din Zangi inflict heavy losses on the Christian armies in Syria at the Battle of Harim (1164 - Nur ad-Din had looked as if he was pulling his forces away from the battle, encouraging their opponents to launch an attack, in which 10,000 are slaughtered); following 3 months plotting, chief minister Charles, duc de La Vieuville is arrested on charges of corruption, allowing Cardinal Richelieu to take up the role (1624); the Treaty of Allahbad is signed between Robert Clive of the East India Company and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, granting the Company the right to gather Taxes in East India, marking the beginnings of Company Rule in India (1765); George III gives Robert Southey an unusual 39th Birthday Present - he is made Poet Laureate (1813); the City [the still a town] of Chicago is incorporated (1833); Isaac Singer receives US payent #US8294 A for his double treadle Sewing machine (1851); at Glasgow Infirmary, Joseph Lister treats a 7-year-old boy whose leg had been run over by a cart - he applies carbolic acid only to the wound; the first surgery using antiseptic (1865); the last Quagga [a species of South African zebra] dies in a zoo in Amsterdam (1883); the 4-year-old Republic of Hawaii comes to an end, as the territory is annexed by the United States (1898); the Battle of Halen results in a tactical victory for the Belgian Cavalry over their German opponents (1914 - but it doesn't hold up the German invasion to any significant degree); William Wellman's film Wings, starring Clara Bow, is released (1927); Clarence Birsdeye receives US Patent 199693A for his method of preparing and fast- freezing food goods (1930); 560 villagers from Sant'Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany are murdered by Nazi and Fascist troops in reprisal for Italian Resistance activities (1944 - 130 children are including in the total; on the same day in Poland, Nazi troops aided by Russian fascists end the week-long Massacre of Wola, in which over 40,000 Polish Resistance fighters had been murdered; also on this same day, the Normandy city of Alençon becomes the first French city to be liberated from Nazi occupation); over 600 peaceful Pashtun protesters in Pakistan are shot dead by police and militia forces on the orders of the province's governor (1948 - over 1,000 others are injured in the massacre); the North Korean People's Army murders 75 US prisoners of war South Korea (1950); 13 of the 15 members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee who had been arrested for treason the year before and subjected to beatings and torture, are executed in the cellar of a Soviet prison (1952 - another is in a coma in hospital, and dies there a few months later; only onbe survives, to be freed after Stalin's death just over 6 months later); the Battle of the Bogside begins after the Apprentice Boys' March in Derry - the violence continues for the next 3 days (1969); Luciano Berio's Opera is premiered at the Santa Fe Opera House, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies (1970); the IBM Personal Computer goes on sale (1981 - its commercial success during iots 6 years of existence results in the widespread use of the term "PC" to describe such devices); in South Dakota, fossil collector Sue Hendrickson discovers the largest, most complete, and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex yet found (1990 - her colleagues call the reconstructed skeleton "Sue" in her honour); the Russian Navy nuclear-powered submarine Kursk sinks after one of the torpedos it is carrying explodes - all but 23 of the crew are instantly killed in the explosion, the remaining survivors die later as a result of President Putin's refusal to accept offers of help from Britain and Norway (2000); American neo-Nazis at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia attack counter-demonstrators, driving a ca into a group, killing one of them (2017 - President Trump condemns "in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides");
Birthdays Today include: Heinrich Biber (baptised 1644); Maurice Greene (1696); Robert Southey (1774); Helena Blavatsky (1831); Radclyffe Hall (1880); Cecil B DeMille (1881); Erwin Schrödinger (1887); Samuel Fuller (1912); Guy Gibson (1918); Fulton Mackay (1922); Norris & Ross McWhirter (1925); George Soros (1930); William Goldman (1931); Pat Metheny (1954); Pete Sampras (1971); ... Mark Knopfler is 70, and astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge celebrates her 100th birthday today.
Final Days for: Cleopatra (if not 10th - 30BCE); Alfonso Ferrabosco (1588); Giovanni Gabrieli (1612); Jacopo Peri (1633); William Blake (1827); George Stephenson (1848); Leos Janacek (1928); Thomas Mann (1955); Ian Fleming (1964); Leopold Spinner (1980); Henry Fonda (1982); Margaret Sutherland (1984); John Cage (1992); Victoria Gray Adams (2006); Les Paul (2009); Lauren Bacall (2014); John Scott & Stephen Lewis (both 2015).
And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Sunday, 12th August, 1979 were:
Mozart Piano Concertos: Vanhal S4tet in F; Mozart Concerto in d K466.
Your Concert Choice: Rossler Sinfonia in c minor: karppalzische [this is what the Genome says - I can find no other reference to either composer or work or subtitle, which seems to mean "carpets hiss"! I suspect it should read "karpatische" = "Carpathian", but can find no reference here, either]; Chopin Sonata in Bb minor; Bartok Suite #2 Op 4.
Prom Talk: Haitink talks about Haydn; Gordon Crosse introduces his new work; Opera in the RAH.
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel "1st of 4 programmes" (Druckman Chiaroscuro; Schumann Pno Conc [with Bruno Leonardo Gelber]; Berlioz Harold en Italie [with Robert Vernon] - with an interval talk by Roy Strong).
The Feast Day of St Jaenberht, the 8th Century Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 765 thanks in part to the friendship he had with Egbert II King of Kent. Unfortunately, his relationship with Offa King of Mercia (and overlord of Kent) wasn't so amiable, Jaenberht siding with Egbert against Offa's plans to expand direct rule over his entire Kingdom, believing that he was an Offa that nobody could refuse. Some scholars believed that Jaenberht was behind the widespread rumour that Offa was plotting with Charlemagne to overthrow the Pope - other rumours included Jaenberht's own conspiracy with Charlemagne to undermine Offa's power in Mercia: jaenberht certainly had coins minted with his own image on them as a direct mark of disrespect for the King. The hostilities, which resulted in Offa's creation of Archdiocese of Lichfield as a rival centre to Canterbury, continued until the Archbishop's death on this date in 792 [three years before Offa's] - after which Jaenberht became revered as a Saint.
It's also International Youth Day, and World Elephant Day, the latter dedicated to the preservation and protection of the pachyderms. No such consideration today for Red Grouse or ptarmigans, of course.
Also on this Date: Godfrey of Bouillon launches a surprise attack on the Muslim forces of vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah at the Battle of Ascalon, driving them back into Egypt (1099 - this marks the end of the First Crusade, and most of the European Christians return home); the Islamic forces of Atabeg Nur ad-Din Zangi inflict heavy losses on the Christian armies in Syria at the Battle of Harim (1164 - Nur ad-Din had looked as if he was pulling his forces away from the battle, encouraging their opponents to launch an attack, in which 10,000 are slaughtered); following 3 months plotting, chief minister Charles, duc de La Vieuville is arrested on charges of corruption, allowing Cardinal Richelieu to take up the role (1624); the Treaty of Allahbad is signed between Robert Clive of the East India Company and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, granting the Company the right to gather Taxes in East India, marking the beginnings of Company Rule in India (1765); George III gives Robert Southey an unusual 39th Birthday Present - he is made Poet Laureate (1813); the City [the still a town] of Chicago is incorporated (1833); Isaac Singer receives US payent #US8294 A for his double treadle Sewing machine (1851); at Glasgow Infirmary, Joseph Lister treats a 7-year-old boy whose leg had been run over by a cart - he applies carbolic acid only to the wound; the first surgery using antiseptic (1865); the last Quagga [a species of South African zebra] dies in a zoo in Amsterdam (1883); the 4-year-old Republic of Hawaii comes to an end, as the territory is annexed by the United States (1898); the Battle of Halen results in a tactical victory for the Belgian Cavalry over their German opponents (1914 - but it doesn't hold up the German invasion to any significant degree); William Wellman's film Wings, starring Clara Bow, is released (1927); Clarence Birsdeye receives US Patent 199693A for his method of preparing and fast- freezing food goods (1930); 560 villagers from Sant'Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany are murdered by Nazi and Fascist troops in reprisal for Italian Resistance activities (1944 - 130 children are including in the total; on the same day in Poland, Nazi troops aided by Russian fascists end the week-long Massacre of Wola, in which over 40,000 Polish Resistance fighters had been murdered; also on this same day, the Normandy city of Alençon becomes the first French city to be liberated from Nazi occupation); over 600 peaceful Pashtun protesters in Pakistan are shot dead by police and militia forces on the orders of the province's governor (1948 - over 1,000 others are injured in the massacre); the North Korean People's Army murders 75 US prisoners of war South Korea (1950); 13 of the 15 members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee who had been arrested for treason the year before and subjected to beatings and torture, are executed in the cellar of a Soviet prison (1952 - another is in a coma in hospital, and dies there a few months later; only onbe survives, to be freed after Stalin's death just over 6 months later); the Battle of the Bogside begins after the Apprentice Boys' March in Derry - the violence continues for the next 3 days (1969); Luciano Berio's Opera is premiered at the Santa Fe Opera House, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies (1970); the IBM Personal Computer goes on sale (1981 - its commercial success during iots 6 years of existence results in the widespread use of the term "PC" to describe such devices); in South Dakota, fossil collector Sue Hendrickson discovers the largest, most complete, and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex yet found (1990 - her colleagues call the reconstructed skeleton "Sue" in her honour); the Russian Navy nuclear-powered submarine Kursk sinks after one of the torpedos it is carrying explodes - all but 23 of the crew are instantly killed in the explosion, the remaining survivors die later as a result of President Putin's refusal to accept offers of help from Britain and Norway (2000); American neo-Nazis at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia attack counter-demonstrators, driving a ca into a group, killing one of them (2017 - President Trump condemns "in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides");
Birthdays Today include: Heinrich Biber (baptised 1644); Maurice Greene (1696); Robert Southey (1774); Helena Blavatsky (1831); Radclyffe Hall (1880); Cecil B DeMille (1881); Erwin Schrödinger (1887); Samuel Fuller (1912); Guy Gibson (1918); Fulton Mackay (1922); Norris & Ross McWhirter (1925); George Soros (1930); William Goldman (1931); Pat Metheny (1954); Pete Sampras (1971); ... Mark Knopfler is 70, and astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge celebrates her 100th birthday today.
Final Days for: Cleopatra (if not 10th - 30BCE); Alfonso Ferrabosco (1588); Giovanni Gabrieli (1612); Jacopo Peri (1633); William Blake (1827); George Stephenson (1848); Leos Janacek (1928); Thomas Mann (1955); Ian Fleming (1964); Leopold Spinner (1980); Henry Fonda (1982); Margaret Sutherland (1984); John Cage (1992); Victoria Gray Adams (2006); Les Paul (2009); Lauren Bacall (2014); John Scott & Stephen Lewis (both 2015).
And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Sunday, 12th August, 1979 were:
Mozart Piano Concertos: Vanhal S4tet in F; Mozart Concerto in d K466.
Your Concert Choice: Rossler Sinfonia in c minor: karppalzische [this is what the Genome says - I can find no other reference to either composer or work or subtitle, which seems to mean "carpets hiss"! I suspect it should read "karpatische" = "Carpathian", but can find no reference here, either]; Chopin Sonata in Bb minor; Bartok Suite #2 Op 4.
Prom Talk: Haitink talks about Haydn; Gordon Crosse introduces his new work; Opera in the RAH.
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel "1st of 4 programmes" (Druckman Chiaroscuro; Schumann Pno Conc [with Bruno Leonardo Gelber]; Berlioz Harold en Italie [with Robert Vernon] - with an interval talk by Roy Strong).
- duly corrected (a combination of poor maths and a psychological rejection of my own advancing years).
. They disappeared from the marketplace rather abruptly in the mid-80s.
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