Today's the Day

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Superbissimo!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 1st

The Feast Day of St Crescentinus (or "Crescentian"), the late 2nd/[very] early 3rd Century, a former soldier in the Roman Army, who deserted when he became a Christian at the time of the Diocletian persecutions and settled in Citta di Castello in Umbria, becoming popular when he killed a dragon that was plaguing the city. Not so popular to prevent his being beheaded on the orders of Diocletian when he refused to make a pagan sacrifice at the Forum (not this one). He is the Patron Saint of the city of Urbano in North-West Italy, of Citta di Castello ... and of Headaches (along with St Panadolinus). Sufferers kneel before a statue of the saint, touching its head before getting up cured - known as "rising to a Crescentian".

And it's International Parents' Day, appreciating "all parents in all parts of the world for their selfless commitment to children and their lifelong sacrifice towards nurturing this relationship". So - do they get a "day off" as part of this "appreciation"? Probably not, as the date coincides with International Children's Day - not to be confused with Universal Children's Holiday which is celebrated globally on 20th November "to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children, and to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world's children". Or not celebrated, as different nations commemorate the day on different dates - if at all ("in the UK, it is not widely celebrated").

Also on this Date: the first known recorded reference is made to Whisky, when James IV orders malt to be sent to John Cor, a Tironensian Monk at Lindores Abbey in Fife, in order to make aqua vitae (1495); Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey (1533); the secret Treaty of Dover is signed between Charles II and Louis XIV, in which Charles promises to convert to Catholicism, and to support France with troops and ammunitions when needed (1670 - in return, Louis promises to send troops to help Charles if ever his subjects rebel against him, and grants him an annual pension of £230,000 [over £25million today - AND with the promise of a rise once Charles makes his conversion public] - a "dummy" Treaty, omitting the religious conversion aspects, is made public); Wolraad Woltemade, a dairy farmer in Cape Town, saves the lives of 14 sailors when their ship is wrecked - he rides his horse, Vonk, into the sea seven times to retrieve survivors; he and Vonk are both drowned on the 8th attempt (1773); the first naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars occurs (1794 - the 4th Battle of Ushant, also called the Glorious 1st of June); USS Chesapeake is captured by HMS Shannon in the Anglo-American War (1813); a group of Royal Navy officers, led by James Clark Ross, become the first Europeans to reach and locate the magnetic North Pole (1831); Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal is first published (1857); the US patent office receives an Application for Patent #0,091,646 for an electrical vote recording device - the first of 512 patents awarded to Thomas Edison (18699); the last surviving member of the Bonaparte dynasty, Napoleon IV, is killed by Zulus whilst serving with the British Army (1879); Robert Falcon Scott's second [and last] Antarctic Expedition sets off from Cardiff (1910); the Royal Ulster Constabulary is formed (1922); hundreds of Jewish citizens are murdered and a thousands others injured in Baghdad, following the British removal of the pro-Nazi government in Iraq (1941); BOAC Flight 777, a civilain air service from Lisbon [in neutral Portugal] to Bristol is shot down by the luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay, killing all 17 passengers - who include actor Leslie Howard, and Kindertransport organiser Wilfrid Israel (1943); Ion Antonescu, the former fascist dictator of Romania, is executed by firing squad for War Crimes (1946); Charles de Gaulle becomes President of the French Council of Ministers, founding the Fifth Republic (1958 - he has been absent from public life during the previous 12 years); Adolf Eichmann is hanged in the Israeli city of Ramla (1962); in the magazine Emergency Medicine, Henry Heimlich publishes an informal article called "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary" in which he describes his eponymous "Manoeuvre" as a means for helping choking people (1974 that's "people who are choking", not .... ); NATO negotiates a truce between members Iceland and the UK, bringing an end to the Cod Wars (1976); Bishop Abel Muzorewa becomes Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979); CNN begins broadcasting (1980); probably angry about an imposed marriage, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal probably shoots dead ten members of his family at a reunion dinner, including his father, the King (2001 - he then probably attempts suicide by shooting himself in the head, which puts him in a coma in which he dies three days later - during those three days he is proclaimed King of Nepal); the Dutch reject ratification of the European Constitution in a referendum (2005); at the end of its 25th mission, Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final landing (2011) ... and it's ten years since Air France flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.

Birthdays Today include: Frans Post (1612); Georg Muffat (1653); Brigham Young (1801); Mikhail Glinka (1804); John Masefield (1878); Percy Whitlock (1903); Robert Newton (1905); Jan Patočka & Frank Whittle (both 1907); John Randolph (1915); Nelson Riddle (1921); Marilyn Monroe (1926); Bob Monkhouse (1928); Edward Woodward (1930); Pat Boone (1934); Norman Foster (1935); Gerald Scarfe (1936); Morgan Freeman (1936); Robert Powell (1944); Frederica von Stade (1945); Brian Cox [the actor one] (1946); Jonathan Pryce & Ronnie Wood (both 1947); and Tom Holland (1996).

Final Days for: David Wilkie (1841); Guiseppe Martucci (1909); Lizzie Borden (1927 - leaving an estate worth about £4million in today's money); Hans Berger (1941); Helen Keller (1968); Richard Greene (1985); Herbert Feigl (1988); Christopher Cockerell (1999); and Charles Kennedy & Jean Ritchie (both 2015).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for Sunday, 1st June, 1969 were:

What's New ("a weekly programme of recent records")
Bach Cantatas: BWV 194
Your Concert Choice ("gramophone record requests")
Music Magazine introduced by Julian Herbage (features on Robert Mayer; Mozart's S5tets; "The Mirror of Music"; & Ted Greenfield reviewed books on the operas of Puccini, and Britten)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 2nd

The Feast Day of St Elmo, the 3rd Century Croatian bishop (also known as St Erasmus of Formia) who was martyred during the Diocletian Persecution by having [Warning: the following contains details that Forumistas ought to find disturbing] his stomach slit open and his intestines stretched out on a windlass [told you]. This was only the last of a whole series of tortures that he is reputed to have endured in the last days of his life, Angels protecting him, and ensuring his quick recovery. He is evoked by people suffering stmach ailments; and of sailors, because he continued preaching when a lightning bolt struck the earth beside him - the electric discharges at the head of masts becoming known as "St Elmo's Fire".

And it's International Sex Workers' Day (or International Whore's Day in some languages) - commemorating the occupation of of the Church of St Nizier in Lyon on this date in 1975, demanding an end to police harrassment and the greater threat of violent abuse that stemmed from this. The Oude Kerk ("Old Church") in Amsterdam is situated in the Red Light district of the city - for the past 12 years, there has been a statue in front of the buliding with the inscription "Respect Sex Workers all over the World". No official acknowledgement of the day in the UK.

Also on this Date: The [third] Sack of Rome begins as Vandals enter Rome and begin a fortnight's plundering (455); the trial begins of Bridget Bishop, the first of the Salem Withcraft Trials (1692 - she is found guilty and hanged a week later); troops at Fort Michilimackinac [now in Michigan] happily watch a group of Chippewas Native Americans as they play a game of baaga`adowe (= lacrosse); things get a little more tense when they hit the ball into the fort and capture it, killing most of the inhabitants (1763); Salieri's opera Armida is premiered at the Imperial Court Theatre in Vienna (1771); a mob of between 40,000-60,000 anti-Catholic protestors follow Lord George Gordon to present a petition to the House of Commons demanding the repeal of the recent Papist Act, allowing greater freedoms for British Roman Catholics (1780 - the march quickly dissolves into a riot, with buildings and individuals suspected of being, or sympathising with, Catholics); Harriet Tubman leads a raid on Southern US plantations, freeing the slaves working there (1863); Bulgarian poet Hristo Botev is shot dead whilst fighting in the Bulgarian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the Vrasta Balkan Mountains (1876 - "Whover falls in battle for freedom never dies"); Charles Rolls [partner of Henry Royce] becomes the first person to make a double crossing of the English Channel by aircraft (1910 - the return trip takes him 95 minutes); supporters of Italian terrorist Luigi Galleani detonate 8 bombs in 8 different cities in the United States (1919 - none of the intended target were killed, but a Night Watchman and one of the terrorists were, and property was extensively damaged; the bombs were huge - up to 11kg of dynamite, and were wrapped with thick metal bolts intended to act as shrapnel); the Indian Citizenship Act, which formally recognises full US citizenship rights to all native American people, comes into effect (1924); Berg's Lulu [minus the incomplete Third Act] is premiered in Zurich (1937); German paratroopers shoot dead 60 unarmed men in the Cretan village of Kondomari in reprisal at activities of the Crete Resistance (1941); the Coronation of Elizabeth II is held in Wesminster Abbey (1953); the PLO is formed (1964); Surveyor 1 becomes the first US spacecraft to land on the Moon (1966 - the mission is primarily to research conditions on the Moon's surface in preparation for the Apollo landings); Pope John Paul II begins an official visit to Poland (1979 - his homeland, and the first Papal visit to any Communist country); Nono's fragmente-stille an Diotima is premiered by the La Salle 4tet in Bonn (1980); Henze's opera The English Cat, with libretto by Edward Bond after Balzac, is premiered in Stuttgart, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies (1983); Peter Weir's film Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams is released (1989); crime series The Wire is first broadcast on HBO (2002); Mars Express, the European Space Agency's first mission to another planet, is launched from Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan (2003 - it is carrying the ill-fated British probe Beagle 2, communication with which was lost on Christmas Day); former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to Life Imprisonment for ordering the killing of protestors the year before (2012 - he is reprieved and released five years later); Sepp Blatter resigns as president of FIFA, just four days after being re-elected to his fifth term in the post (2015).

Birthdays Today include: William Salmon (1644); the Marquis de Sade (1740); Thomas Hardy 91840); Edward Elgar (1857); Felix Weingartner (1863); Johnny Weissmuller (1904); Robin Orr (1909); Barbara Pym (1913); Ruth Atkinson (1914); Nat Mayer Shapiro (1919); Johnny Speight (1920); Betty Freeman (1921); Milo O'Shea (1926); Carol Shields (1935); Stacy Keach and Charlie Watts (1941); Marvin Hamlisch (1944); Zachary Quinto (1977);

Final Days for: Shane O'Neill (1567); Guiseppe Garibaldi (1882); Louis Vierne (1937); George S. Kaufman (1961); Vita Sackville-West (1962); Andres Segovia (1987); Rex Harrison (1990); Leon Garfield (1996); Melita Norwood (2005); Bo Diddley and Mel Ferrer (both 2008); and Peter Sallis and Malcolm Lipkin (both 2017).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Saturday, 2nd June, 1979 were:

Aubade: Bizet "Carmen" Prelude; Ravel Minuet Antique; Bottesini Capriccio di bravura; Lebow Suite for brass; Sarasate Carmen Fantasy; Gottschalk Symphony No 2 ("a Montevideo").
Record Review introduced by John Lade (Elgar's Falstaff BaL-ed by Michael Kennedy [I remember this one - he chose Barbirolli]; New Chamber Music recordings reviewed by Robert Henderson).
Release: Beethoven Mass in C (Beecham)
Bath Festival: Chilingirian S4tet - Mozart K464; Britten S4tet #3; Schubert D804 (with an interval talk on "sentimentality in Music").

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 3rd

The Feast Day of St Kevin of Glendalough, the 6th Century Irish saint who was the founder and first abbot of Glendalough Abbey in County Wicklow. He is the Patron Saint of Blackbirds, and the legend of his not wishing to disturb a blackbird that had settled on his hand (resulting in the bird building a nest and laying eggs, the saint not moving until the young birds had flown) is referred to in both Finnegans Wake, and in Heaney's poem St Kevin & the Blackbird. According to a folk song, he was less charitable to a woman who tried to seduce him - he drowned her. St Kevin's Bed is a Bronze-Age cave cut into the cliff at Glendalough.

And it's World Bicycle Day - initiated just last year, to recognize the "uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries, and that it is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation" - as some of us here are already well aware.


Also on this Date: Admiral of the Fleet, the Duke of York defeats the Dutch fleet off the coast of Lowestoft (1665 - the Dutch have their revenge some years later when he becomes King james II); Chinese official Lin Zexu orders the destruction of over a thousand tons of opium seized from British merchants, giving the British the pretext for the First Opium War (1839); Ernest Thayer's poem Casey at the Bat is first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner (1888); Stravinsky's Mavra is premiered in Paris (1922); the Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson (1937); the last British soldiers are evacuated from Dunkirk (1940); in retaliation for Greek Resistance killing of 25 German soldiers, the Cretan town of Kandanos is destroyed (1941); the Japanese air force bombs the US naval base at Dutch Harbor on the Alaskan island of Unalaska Island, beginning the 14-month Aleutian Islands Campaign (1942); Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias is premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris, conducted by Albert Wolff (1947); Valerie Solanas attempts to murder Andy Warhol, shotting him at his studio, The Factory (1968); three [or, possibly four] palestinaian Nationalists working for the Iraqi Intelligence Service attempt to kill Israeli Ambassador the the UK Shlomo Argov as he gets into his car outside the Dorchester Hotel, London (1982 - he survives the attack, but is left paralysed for the remaining 21 years of his life - the incident prompts the Israeli government to launch the First lebanon War); Indian President Indira Gandhi orders Operation Blue Star, a military offensive to remove militant Sikhs from the Golden Temple in Amritsar (1984); Penny Marshall's film Big, starring Tom Hanks is released (1988); the Chinese government orders troops to clear Tiananmen Square "by any means necessary, without delay, by 6am the next day" (1989); following a referendum two weeks earlier, Montenegro declares independence from Serbia (2006 - Serbia does not object); the somewhat damp Diamond Jubilee pageant for Elizabeth II is held on the Thames (2012); the trial of US private Chelsea Manning for passing classified information to WikiLeaks begins (2013); three ISIS-inspired Islamist terrorists perpetrate the London Bridge Attack, killing 8 poeple and injuring 48 others before they themselves are shot dead by police (2017).

Birthdays Today include: Sejanus (20 BCE); Pietro Paolini (1603); Philippe Quinault (1635); John Hale (1636); Manuel Belgrano (1770); Flinders Petrie (1853); Otto Erich Hartleben (1864); Raoul Dufy (1877); Jan Peerce (1904); Josephine Baker (1906); Paulette Goddard (1910); Ignacio Ponseti (1914); Patrick Cargill (1918); Igor Shafarevich (1923); Tony Curtis (1925); Allen Ginsberg (1926); Donald Judd (1928); Ian Hunter (1940); Bill Paterson (1945); Penelope Wilton (1946); Suzy Quatro (1950); James Purefoy (1964); Rafael Nadal (1986).

Final Days for: William Harvey (1657); Julius Reubke (1858); Georges Bizet (1875); Ludwig Ritter von Köchel (1877); Johann Strauss II (1899); Mary Kingsley (1900); Franz Kafka (1924); Roberto Rossellini (1977); Anna Neagle (1986); Ruhollah Khomeini (1989); Robert Morley (1992); Anthony Quinn (2001); Muhammed Ali (2016).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Saturday, 3rd June, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Haydn Passione Symphony; Verdi MacBeth Prelude; Stenhammar Two Sentimental Romances; Gade Symphony #2.
The Week on 3: highlights from the week ahead's broadcasts
BBCWelshSO conducted by Andrew Litton: Stravinsky Apollo; Mozart Symphony #33 ["in B hat" according to the Genome!]
Saturday Review presented by Richard Osborne (Britten's 'cello Symphony BaL-ed by Arnold Whittall; Choral releases reviewed by Alan Blyth; an Interview with Stephen Cleobury; & the La Salle recording of the Beethoven S4tet arrangement of the Piano Sonata Op14 #1)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Gerald of Wales in his History & Topology of Ireland (1185 - translated by John O'Meara)

Once upon a time, the same St Kevin fleeing during Lent, as was his wont, the society of men, was by himself in a small cabin which warded off from him only the sun and the rain. He was giving his attention to contemplation and was reading and praying. According to his custom he put his hand, in raising it to heaven, out through the window, when, behold, a blackbird happened to settle on it, and using it as a nest, laid its eggs there. The saint was moved with such pity andwas so patient with it that he neither closed nor withdrew his hand, but held it out in a suitable position without tiring until the young were completely hatched out. In perpetual remembrance of this wonderful happening, all representations of Saint Kevin throughout Ireland have a blackbird in the outstretched hand.

[johncorrigan]

Bill Pateron....always great value! Happy Birthday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGfGZZ2Q7U

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 4th

The Feast Day of Saint Petroc of Cornwall - the 6th Century Welsh Prince who preached the gospel to the heathens of Cornwall and Devon, and after whom St Padstow is named. He brought prestige to Bodmin Abbey when his remains were removed there in the Ninth Century. He is also celebrated in Devon in Petrockstowe, and nearby Newton St Petroc. In the Land of His Fathers, he is commemorated at St Petrox in Pembroke, and at Llanbedrog on the Llyn Peninsula. According to some traditions, he studied in Ireland as a young man, and taught St Kevin [see yesterday] whilst there - and, not to be outdone by Kevin's Blackbirds, Petroc is said to have tamed a wolf, and he is sometimes represented in iconography with his pet as a companion. [To my regret, no birds are associated with him, depriving me of the opportunity of a Tweet joke.] He is one of the patron Saints of Cornwall and Devon.

And it's International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression ["guilty children" not counting, it seems] Initiated in 1982 to focus on the victims of the Lebanon War, it now "acknowledge[s] the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN's commitment to protect the rights of children."

Also on this Date: Charles the Mad of France grants a monopoly to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon to ripen their distinctive cheese (1411 - an early example of a European PDO); the Montgolfier brothers give their first public demonstration of their Hot Air Ballooon (1783 - a year to the day later, Élisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to make a flight in such a balloon); Weber's opera Abu Hassan is premiered at the Residenz Theater in Munich, condicted by the composer (1811); as a publicity stunt, the Transcontinental Express train completes its 1,868 mile non-stop journey from New York to San Francisco, having taken 83hrs 39mins (1876); Henry Ford test drives his first automobile - the Quadricycle (1896); Women's Rights Activist, Emily Davison runs in front of Anmar, George V's horse as it gallops at over 35mph at the Derby at Epsom (1913 - she dies of her wounds four days later; jockey Herbert Jones is also injured in the collision - but 15 years later, at Emmeline Pankhurst's funeral, he lays a wreath in honour of both Pankhurst and Davison); the first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded (1917 - on the same day, George V introduces the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire); the Treaty of Trianon is signed formally ending the war between the Allies and the Kingdom of Hungary, and establishing the boundaries of the country which remain largely the same today (1920); Hindemith's first two One-At Operas, Das Nusch-Nuschi and Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen are premiered as a Double bill at the Wurtemberg landestheater in Stuttgart, conducted by Fritz Busch (1921); Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony is premiered in Prague, condicted by the Composer (1924); Berg's Concert Aria Der Wein is premiered in Königsberg, with soprano Ružena Herlinger [the dedicatee] and conducted by Herman Scherchen (1930); the Motorschiff St Louis is denied permission to dock in the United States (1939 - the ship is forced to return to Germany with its 963 Jewish passengers, over 200 of whom are to die in the Extermination Camps (1939); the last of 75,000 French troops are evacuated from Dunkirk (1940 - leaving 40,000 to surrender to the German forces; on the same day, Churchill gives his "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech in the House of Commons); William Wyler's film of Jan Struther's Mrs Miniver stories goes on release, starring Grier Garson and Walter Pigeon (1942); at the Vienna Summit, Kennedy and Kruschev discuss recent deterioration in relationships between the USSR and the US (1961); Tonga achieves independence from the UK (1970); Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan is released (1982); Bruce Springsteen's album Born in the USA is released (1984); a tale of two Presidents: this time last year, Trump tweeted that he had the absolute right to Pardon himself [but didn't need to because he hadn't done anything wrong] and Clinton said he did not owe Monica Lewinsky any apology.

... and it's 30 years to the day since Solidarity's success in the Polish Elections sparks a series of mass public protests against Soviet rule in Eastern Europe ... AND since we witnessed the lone Chinese man "dancing with a tank" in Tiananmen Square, the last positive image from that seven-week long protest, as units from the Chinese Army begin a violent supression of the protesters on this date (1989 - up to 1,000 students are killed).

Birthdays Today include: Nictzin Dyalhis (1873); Mabel Lucie Atwell (1879); Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903); Christopher Cockerell (1910 - he died 3 days before his 89th birthday); Robert jacobsen (1912); Fernand Leduc (1916); Robert Merrill (1917); Dennis Weaver (1924); Judith Malina (1926); Geoffrey Palmer (1927); Ruth Westheimer (1928); Oliver Nelson (1932); Daphne Sheldrick (1934); Anthony Braxton (1945); Bob Champion (1948); Val McDermid (1955); Bradley Walsh (1960); Sean Pertwee (1964); Cecilai Bartoli (1966); Russell Brand and Angelina Jolie (both 1975);

Final Days for: Flavio Biondo (1463); Giacomo Casanova (1798); Eduard Mörike (1875); Serge Koussevitsky (1951); Dorothy Gish (1968); Ronnie Lane (1997); Marguerite Patten (2015 - five months short of her 100th birthday).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Wednesday, 4th June, 1969 were:

Overture ("gramophone records")
Your Midweek Choice: ("a request programme of gramophone records")
This Week's Composer: Handel (The King Shall Rejoice; Organ Concerto in d minor; My Heart is Inditing)
Orchestral Concert ("gramophone records")
Organ Music played by Martin Neary
Music Making: Piano Music played by Susan McGaw, Chamber Music played by the MacGibbon S4tet; and Lieder performed by Thomas Allen and Viola Tunnard
Midday Concert ("gramophone records")

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 5th

The Feast Day of St Boniface, one of those early 8th-Century English missionaries who took the gospel to Germany. He was born Winfrith, in Crediton Devon, in 675, but spent most of his life in the Frankish Empire - he was Archbishop of Mainz and was murdered on this date in 754 by thieves whilst he was performing missionary work in Frisia - his last words reportedly an order to his followers to put down their swords "Cease fighting. Lay down your arms, for we are told in Scripture not to render evil for good but to overcome evil by good." The thieves had expected Boniface's "treasure" to be gold and jewels, but it turned out to be entirely books [I know the feeling], which they scattered in disgust. Some were reputedly recovered from the scene with what looks like damage inflicted by a sword.

And it's World Day Against Speciesim, and World Environment Day

Also on this Date: Krakow is granted City Rights (1257 - it had been the seat of Government for 200 years already, but had been destroyed 12 years earlier in the Mongolian Invasion); Isaac Newton eneters Cambride University as a Sizar [a student whose fees are paid from menial work he performs at the University] (1661); at the Battle of New Ross, British troops prevent Irish Nationalists from extending their Rebellion against British rule out of County Wexford into Munster (1798); the two-day Republican Uprising begins in Paris (1832); the first Danish Constitution is signed, establishing Denmark as a constitutional monarchy (1849 - the date is still celebrated); the ten-month serial Uncle Tom's Cabin begins in the Nationalist Era, an Abolitionist newspaper (1851); the first regular train service with the name "Express d'Orient" begins (1883 - the route runs all the way from Paris to ... Vienna, so hardly the service we think of nowadays thanks to Hercule Poirot, james Bond and other); the Trial of Lizzie Borden for the murder of her parents begins in New Bedford, Massachusetts (1892 - during this first day, the skulls of the victims are brought into the courtroom as evidence, the sight of which causes the defendent to collapse); Pretoria surrenders to British troops in the Second Boer War, effectively bringing an end to the fifty-year-old Transvaal Republic (1900); Danish women become legally entitled to vote in national elections (1915 - it's Constitution Day in Denmark); amidst considerable opposition, President Wilson appoints Louis Brandeis to the US Supreme Court - the first Jew to be so appointed (1916 - the opposition isn't just because of his ethnic origin: he was opposed because he was " a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible ... "); Ramsey MacDonald begins his second term as Prime Minister of a minority Labour government (1929); the Japanese Air Force bombs the Chinese city of Chongqing non-stop for three hours - around 4,000 citizens shetlering from the attack in a tunnel were asphixiated (1941); the RAF drop around 5,000 tons of bombs on German Gun batteries in Normandy, in readiness for the D-Day landings (1944 - meanwhile, later that night, Squadron Leader - later Air Vice Marshal - Jack Furner leads 214 Squadron in dropping strips of tin foil over Normandy to jam Nazi radar); a major fire at Chicago's La Salle Hotel results in the deaths of 61 people (1946 - the rebuliding costs $2million - around £23million today); Elvis Presley performs Hound Dog on US TV, scandalising some viewers - and, no doubt, delighting many others [including the scandalised] - with his pelvic girations (1956); John Profumo admits to having lied to parliament and resigns as Secretary of State for War (1963 - on the same day, the Shah of Iran has Ayatollah Khomeini arrested for opposing his program of liberalisation and secularisation, sparking three days of rioting); the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War begins (1967); a referendum on continued membership of the European Communities is held in the UK (1975 - 2/3 of those who voted vote to remain); the first Tree Planting action by Wangari Maathai's Green Belt environment and development Movement takes place in Kamukunji Park in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi (1977); the weekly report of the US Center for Disease Control & Prevention reports a rare form of pneumonia in five men - the first report of the disease later called AIDS (1981); Kay Cottee becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the globe solo and non-stop (1988); the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough changes from being a Clff-top building to a pile of rubble on the sea front (1993 - it waits its moment, and its collapse is caught on TV as Richard Whiteley is reporting on how dangerous the situation had become); sub-atomic particles in gas form are frozen to near-absolute zero for the first time, allowing scientists to observe quantum phenomena at macroscopic level (1995 - the Bose-Einstein Condensate); the 2.5-year Civil War in the Republic of the Congo begins (1997); Peter Weir's film The Truman Show starring Jim Carey goes on general release (1998); tropical Storm Allison causes $5.5billion worth of damage to Texas (2001 - about £6.5billion today); the first documents from the US national Security Agency leaked by journalist Edward Snowden are published in The Guardian (2013);

Birthdays Today include: Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646); Sarah Churchill (1660); Johan Gadolin (1760); Pat Garrett (1850); James Connolly (1868); Robert Mayer (1879); John Maynard Keynes (1883); Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884); Federico Garcia Lorca (1898); Tony Richardson (1928); Jacques Demy (1931); Christy Brown (1932); Moira Anderson (1938); Margaret Drabble (1939); Martha Argerich and Spalding Gray (both 1941); Bill Hopkins (1943); Nigel Rees (1944); Laurie Anderson and David Hare (both 1947); Simon Hopkinson (1954); Sandrine Piau (1965); Simon Stockhausen (1967); Susan Lynch (1971).

Final Days for: Leonel Power (1445); Orlando Gibbons (1625); Johann Kuhnau (1722); Giovanni Paisiello (1816); Carl Maria von Weber (1826); Stephen Crane (1900); O. Henry (1910); Herbert Kitchener (1916); Georges Feydeau (1921); Jules Pascin (1930); Sleepy John Estes (1977); Anthony Lewis (1983); Conway Twitty (1993); Mel Torme (1997); Janet Owen Thomas (2002); Manuel Rosenthal (2003); Iona Brown (2004); Arne Nordheim (2010); Ray Bradbury (2012).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Tuesday, 5th June, 1979 were:

Overture: Rossini Serenade in Eb; Verdi S4tet; Bellini Oboe Concerto in Eb; Puccini Capriccio sinfonico; Beethoven Fidelio Ovt; Mozart Piano Concerto in A; Brahms Haydn/St Anthony Vars
This Week's Composer: Ockeghem (various vocal and instrumental Motets)
Now & Then ("Music of all periods, but always containing something broadcast for the first time"): Chopin Ballade in Ab; David Matthews S4tet #1; Patrick Piggott Music at Night; Glazunov S4tet #5 in d minor.
The Song of the Green Man by Trevor Hold.
Midday Concert (BBCWSO/Handford): Mathias Helios; Mozart Pno Conc in d minor (with Justus Franz).

[johncorrigan]

Final Days for: Orlando Gibbons (1625); Johann Kuhnau (1722); Giovanni Paisiello (1816); Carl maria von Weber (1826); Anthony Lewis (1983); Janet Owen Thomas (2002); Manuel Rosenthal (2003); Arne Nordheim (2010)

Final day for the great Sleepy John Estes too, ferney...died in Brownsville Tennessee in '77.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxBVxU6VVvg

[Petrushka]

Birthdays Today include: Bill Hopkins (1943); Simon Stockhausen (1967);

... and i am 65 today!

You could also have had Moira Anderson (1938); Nigel Rees (1944); Simon Hopkinson (1954) and, if you go by the old Russian calendar, Igor Stravinsky (1882)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... and i am 65 today!

- and very many happy returns, Pet.

You could also have had Moira Anderson (1938); Nigel Rees (1944); Simon Hopkinson (1954) and, if you go by the old Russian calendar, Igor Stravinsky (1882)

I don't - because that would mean Russian entries would end up with two birthdays and death days each. (And because there'd be the extra point that everybody born before their country adopted the Gregorian Calendar would have to be checked ... there are other ways where madness lies that have better scenery.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Actually, it looks as if I forgot to include quite a lot of Birth and Final days for June 5th!

I thought it had seemed to take less time than usual!

[Petrushka]

Actually, it looks as if I forgot to include quite a lot of Birth and Final days for June 5th!

I thought it had seemed to take less time than usual!

If you add them in feel free to edit my post (and delete this one).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If you add them in feel free to edit my post (and delete this one).

Ooh nooooooooo! That would be like airbrushing my mistakes from the Forum record!

Missing births/deaths now added

[teamsaint]

... and i am 65 today!

You could also have had Moira Anderson (1938); Nigel Rees (1944); Simon Hopkinson (1954) and, if you go by the old Russian calendar, Igor Stravinsky (1882)

Happy Birthday for yesterday ,Pet .

Is it still December for full retirement ?