Today's the Day

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

14th August

The Feast Day of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Catholic monk who was murdered on this date in Auschwitz Extermination Camp in 1941, two weeks after he had elected to take the place of another prisoner [Polish Army sergeant Franciszek Gajowniczek, whom survives until 1995] as one of 12 inmates selected to die of starvation, following the escape of another prisoner. Kolbe is the last of the 12 to die, and he had acted as Priest to the dying men - his end was hastened by a lethal injection as the Nazis wanted to use the bunker for stotage. He was canonised by John Paul II 1982. He is the Patron Saint of prisoners, and of amateur radio operators.

Also on This Date: Donnchad mac Crinain [King Duncan] is killed in battle [not his sleep] by MacBeth (1040); Dusseldorf, a village on the banks of the river Dussel, is granted Town Privileges by the Count of Berg (1288); impressed by the healing properties of its spring waters, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV establishes a spa near the town of Loket in Bohemia, which he calls "The Spa Town at Loket", conferring Town Privileges on it (1370 - it is subsequently named after him: Carlsbad); the Mainz Psalter, is published - the second book to be printed using Movable Type, and the first to feature a date of first publication, a printed colophon ["blurb" describing what the book is for], the first to use two different sizes of print [for main text and glossary], the first to use a printed illustrated initial letters, and the first to be printed in three different colours (1456 - the publishers, Fust & Schoeffer had been associates of Johannes Gutenberg, but had fallen out with him, and wanted to show that anything he could do, they could do better - now, if only they'd included the Music!); Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great is entered in the Staioners' Register (1590 - the play is published later in the year by Richard Jones); explorer John Davis becomes the first European to set foot on the Falkland Islands, when his ship is blown off-course during a storm (1592 - there has been such a shortage of food that the sailors are forced to p-p-pick up and kill several Penguins to replenish stocks, so becoming the first people to discover that Penguin meat doesn't "keep"; small consolation, perhaps, to the 52 crew members who die of starvation before reaching home. The Falkland Islanders celebrate the date as Falklands Day); Rossini's opera Il Turco in Italia is premiered at La Scala, Milan, conducted by Alessandro Rolla (1814); Cologne Cathedral, work on which had been abandoned in 1473, is completed (1880 - so Schumann only knew the unfinished structure); Thomas Edison's Phonograph is first demonstrated in London (1888 - the recording used for the demonstration is an arrangement of Sullivan's The Lost Chord for cornet & piano - Sullivan himself hears the recording in October, and sends a recorded speech to Edison:

I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the result of this evening's experiments: astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever. But all the same I think it is the most wonderful thing that I have ever experienced, and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery

France becomes the first country in the world to introduce motor vehicle licensing (1893); a forest fire breaks out in Oregon (1933 - it is not put out for over 3 weeks, during which time an area of over 600 square miles of forest is destroyed); more than 20,000 people gather to watch the public hanging of rapist & murderer Rainey Bethea in Kentucky (1936 - the official in charge of the lever is drunk and cannot remember what to do; the executioner shouts his order at him with increasing urgency, until a fellow officer nudges the drunk into position. It is the first US execution ordered by a female Sherriff, and the last public execution in the US: many of the spectators later declare themselves to be "disappointed", having spent so much money to get to the place, and seen so little); the League for the Liberation of Vietnam [the Viet Minh] led by Ho Chi Minh launches a revolution against French colonial rule in Vietnam (1945); Pakistan becomes independent of British colonial rule, and joins the Commonwealth (1947); the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics is held (1948); Strauss' opera Die Libe der Danae is given its public premiere at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Clemens Krauss (1952 - the work had been finished over 12 years earlier, and had been taken to Dress Rehearsal in 1944, where the composer decided the time wasn't best fitted to the work); the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act comes into force, making "Pirate Radio" broadcasts illegal (1967); British Army Troops are deployed in Northern Ireland (1969 - they remain there for the next 38 years); workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk go on strike in protest at rising food prices (1980); Venezualan terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ["Carlos the Jackal"] is arrested after an operation in a hospital in Sudan (1994 - he'd gone in for a vasectomy); rival BritPop bands Oasis and Blur simultaneously release singles (Roll With It, and Country House - 1995); Canadian police investigating terrorist activities begin the arrests of 24 immigrant students, chosen from a diploma mill register of 400 students because they have "Muhammad" in their name (2003 - the suspicions are proven wrong in all cases, and the Police are condemned for an operation based on "flimsy evidence and stereotypes"); 3 teachers and 61 teenaged schoolgirls at a First-Aid training camp at the Sencholai children's home for orphans in Sri Lanka are killed, and over 150 others injured when 4 Sri Lankan air force jets drop 16 bombs on them, believing they are child soldiers attending military training (2006); 796 ethnic Kurds are killed and over 1,500 injured in co-ordinated suicide bomber attacks in the towns of al-Qahtaniyah and al-Jazirah in northern Iraq (2007); the Egyptian Army kills over a thousand supporters of President Morsi [who had been ousted in a military coup the previous month] and injure at least 4,000 others in Rabaa Square, Cairo (2013 - the protestors had been engaging in a six-week long peaceful sit-down protest, and this was the only way the Army could think of to disperse them); Andy Murray becomes the only Tennis player in history to win a second Olympic Gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro games (2016).

Birthdays Today include: Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder (1502); Giambattista Benedetti (1530); Meric Casuabon (1599); Leopold Hofmann (1738); Hans Christian Ørsted (1777); Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810); Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840); Doc Holliday (1851); John Galsworthy (1867); Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892); Pierre Schaeffer & Willy Ronis (both 1910); Frank Oppenheimer (1912); Georges Prêtre (1924); René Goscinny (1926); Frederic Raphael (1931); David Crosby (1941); Steve Martin & Wim Wenders (both 1945); Maddy Prior (1947); Gary Larson (1950); James Horner (1953); Emmanuelle Béart (1963); Halle Berry (1966); ... and Nick Grimshaw is 35 today.

Final Days for: William Croft (1727); William Randolph Hearst (1951); Bertolt Brecht (1956); Clifford Odets (1963); Oscar levant (1972); Karl Böhm (1981); JB Priestley and Peter Wishart (both 1984); Vincent Persichetti (1987); Sergiu Celibidache (1996); Tikhon Khrennikov (2007).

And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Thursday, 14th August, 1969 were:

Overture ("gramophone records")
This Week's Composers: Lassus & Victoria
Moura Lympany "introduces records of her own choice"
Mozart: Sonata in Eb K282, played by Lili Kraus
Music Making: Chamber Music played by Harold Clarke & Wilfred Smith (flutes), Denis Vigay (cello), Maria Korchinska (harp), Hubert Dawkes (piano and harmonium) with Wilfrid Parry (piano) [programme including Fauré's Fantasie for Flute & Piano]; and Lieder performed by Robert Tear & Viola Tunnard.
Midday Concert: BBCNSO conducted by Walter Susskind.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

15th August

The 500th Anniversary of the founding of the city of Panama by Spanish Conquistador, Pedro Arias Dávila.


Also on This Date: Basque forces attack and wipe out troops in Charlemagne's army at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in retaliation for the Emperor's attack on the Basque capital Pamplona (778 - amongst the many casualties is the paladin Roland, and the battle and his fate are commemorated in the 11th Century Song of Roland, and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso); 17 years and a day after he had killed King Duncan in battle, MacBeth is fatally wounded at the Battle of Lumphanan by Duncan's son, Malcolm (1057); the Foundation Stone of Cologne Cathedral is laid (1248 - building is completed 632 years, minus one day, later); the Battle of Kōan marks Kublai Khan's second attempt to conquer Japan - and his second failure, as his invading ships are destroyed in a violent storm (1281 - the Japanese refer to the storm as a "Divine Wind" [shades of the Spanish Armada] - the first recorded use of the term "kamikaze"); the Catholic Knights of St John conquers the city of Rhodes and establish themselves there under the name of The Knights of Rhodes (1309); the Empire of Trebizond, one of the last fragments of the Byzantine Empire, surrenders to Islamic forces (1461); the Tivoli Gardens opens in Copenhagen (1843); the Representation of the People Act 1867 receives Royal Assent, enfranchising larger numbers of the male working class; the Panama Canal opens for its first traffic (1914 - things aren't so auspicious in Europe, as the 1st Russian Army invades Prussian territory [about their high point in the War]and Serbian forces begin an assault on the Austro-Hungarian army at the Battle of Cer); the Hollywood premiere of The Wizard of Oz is held in Grauman's Chinese Theatre (1939); German spy, Josef Jakobs is shot by Firing Squad - the last execution at the Tower of London (1941); Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France, begins (1944); Emperor Hirohito's announcement of the Japanese surrender is celebrated by the Allies as V-J Day (1945); India becomes Independent of British rule (1947 - Mohammed Ali Jinnah is sworn in as Governor-General of Pakistan); 34 people are killed in the overnight flooding of the Devon town of Lynmouth (1952); East German border guard Conrad Schumann defects to the West whilst on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall (1961); US Army private James Dresnok defects to to North Korea, where he subsequently appears in propaganda films (1962); Henry James Burnett is hanged at Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen - the last person to be executed in Scotland (1963); the Beatles begin their second Tour of the United States with a concert in front of over 55,000 people, each paying over $5 each to hear the half-hour performance, in Shea sports Stadium in New York (1965); the four-day Woodstock Festival opens (1969); Bangladesh President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, one of the driving forces of Banladeshi independence from Pakistan is murdered along with most of his family and staff in a military coup (1975); a narrowband radio signal, appearing to originate in the constellation of Sagittarius is recorded at the Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio (1977 - with all the appearances of an extra-terrestrial communication, astronomer Jerry Ehman is moved to scribble "Wow!" on the signal printout - despite many attempts, no further signals have been detected); Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now goes on release in the United States (1979); Penderecki's opera Die Schwarze Maske is premiered in the Kleines Festspielhaus at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Woldemar Nelsson (1986 - Josephine Barstow is in the cast, and Karajan in the audience - he decides at this performance that Barstow will be the ideal Amelia for his forthcoming production of Un Ballo in Maschera); 29 people are killed and over 220 injured in a Car Bombing outside the Omagh Courthouse by dissident Republican group the Real IRA, opposed to the Good Friday Agreement (1998); Israeli citizens living in the Gaza Strip who have refused to leave voluntarily are evicted by the Israeli Army (2005); the Smithsonian Institute announces the discovery of a new carnivorous species, the Olinguito, a member of the Racoon family (2013); Kim Jong-un moves North Korean clocks back half-an-hour to create Pyongyang time, 8.5 hrs ahead of GMT [and 300 years behind] (2015).

Birthdays Today include: St Anthony of Padua (1195); John Metcalf ["Blind Jack of Knaresborough"] (1717); Napoleon Bonaparte (1769); Walter Scott (1771); Thomas de Qunicey (1785); Wilhelm Rust (1822); Keir Hardie (1856); Edith Nesbit (1858); Louisa Aldrich-Blake (1865); Sri Aurobindo (1872); Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875); Marion Bauer (1882); Jacques Ibert (1890); Louis de Broglie (1892); George Klein (1904); Wendy Hiller (1912); Lukas Foss (1922); Robert Bolt (1924); Oscar Peterson (1925); Julius Katchen (1926); Nicolas Roeg (1928); Mike Seeger (1933); Stieg Larsson (1954).

Final Days for: Alexander Agricola (1506); Thomas Kyd (1594); Marin Marais (1728); Joseph Joachim (1907); Paul Signac (1935); Artur Schnabel (1951); Rene Magritte (1967); Hugh Casson (1999); Licia Albanese (2014 - aged 105).

And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Wednesday, 15th August, 1979 were:

Your Midweek Choice: Schumann Konzertstuck Op 86; Loewe Odins Meeres Rill; Weber Symph #1; Tchaikovsky Jurists' March; Mahler Adagietto (from 5th Symph); Strauss Standchen; Liszt Vallee d'Obermann; Milhaud Le Boeuf sur le Toit.
This Week's Composers: Ireland (Phantasy 3o; 2 Piano Pieces; Fantasy-Sonata) & Scott (Tallahassee Suite Op 73)
Organ Recital given by John Kitchen playing the Organ of St Salvator's Chapel, University of St Andrews (Music by Stanley, Böhm, Buxtehude, & Bach)
Piano Recital by Tomas Vesmas (Mozart Sonata in F, K332; Brahms 7 Fantasies, Op. 116; Schubert Sonata in a, D845)
Music of the 18th Century played by the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Steuart Bedford (JC Bach Sinfonia in Eb, Op 6 No 3; Michael Haydn Concerto C for viola, organ and strings; Joseph Haydn Symphony #46 in B

[vinteuil]

The 500th Anniversary of the founding of the city of Panama by Spanish Conquistador, Pedro Arias Dávila.... the Panama Canal opens for its first traffic (1914)

... but were they aware of one of the most elegant palindromes in the English language, celebrating the project of de Lesseps :

" a man, a plan, a canal - Panama! "

Particularly elegant in that it is also an extreme (monovocalic) example of a lipogram - using only one vowel. How cool is that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipogram

.

[vinteuil]

Emperor Hirohito's announcement of the Japanese surrender is celebrated by the Allies as V-J Day (1945);

... with one of the great understated euphemisms of all time :

"Despite the best that has been done by everyone – the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of our servants of the state, and the devoted service of our one hundred million people – the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel_Voice_Broadcast

.

[Alain Maréchal]

the Hollywood premiere of The Wizard of Oz is held in Grauman's Chinese Restaurant (1939);

Grauman's Chinese Theatre, I think. (I would have liked to have attended a premiere at Casanova's Chinese Restaurant.)

Also, for which many around here are noisily preparing, (Bretagne being rather fond of elaborate festivals) it is the Feast of the Assumption of the BVM. If only somebody had recorded on what day it actually happened.

[vinteuil]

Also ... the Feast of the Assumption of the BVM. .

... yes indeedy - the kanzoot!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_Mary

How could our ferneygosto have forgotten??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto

.

.

[Alain Maréchal]

My family and connexions, in commemoration of le désert will be conspicuously ignoring it. (Conspicuously ignoring something is surprisingly difficult to make public).

[vinteuil]

My family and connexions, in commemoration of le désert will be conspicuously ignoring it.

... but not this one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_d%C3%A9sert

( apologies for the facetiousness... )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_D%C3%A9sert

.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Grauman's Chinese Theatre, I think.

Ooooooooooopps! - I was feeling peckish when I wrote!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Ferragosto"? Sounds like a poor ventriloquist with a penchant for Early Baroque viol Music.

[Richard Tarleton]

Also on This Date: Basque forces attack and wipe out troops in Charlemagne's army at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in retaliation for the Emperor's attack on the Basque capital Pamplona (778 - amongst the many casualties is the paladin Roland, and the battle and his fate are commemorated in the 11th Century Song of Roland

Although the Chanson de Roland alters the story by changing the force which destroyed Roland and Oliver's rearguard from the understandably cross Basques (Charlemagne had destroyed Pamplona's fortifications so that they could not be occupied by the Moors) to, er, the Moors/Paynims/Infidels, because it made for a better story in the view of the chansonnier than Roland being demolished by co-religionists ....

On one of our many trips to the Pyrenees, back in the 1980s, we stayed in the hotel in the monastery of Roncesvalles, and very nice it was. Roncesvalles is of course on the route of the Camino, and the main crossing place for pilgrims from France into Spain - at the foot of the pass is the little town of St Jean Pied de Port, where we had an authentic Basque piperade for lunch....

[LezLee]

I remember VJ day very well. We had a big bonfire and fireworks down by the station, with baked spuds and sausages, the butcher having found some meat and quite a lot of breadcrumbs. It was also the only time in my life I cheated. We played 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' and I didn't let on I could see below the blindfold. I deliberately didn't get it spot on so nobody would guess. I still cringe with guilt when I think about it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

16th August

The 200th Anniversary of the Peterloo massacre, where 18 people are killed and 700 others injured in a Cavalry charge by the 15th Hussars on a meeting at St Peter's Fields, Manchester of 80,000 unarmed people demanding electoral reform.

The Feast Day of Roch, patron saint of bachelors, dogs, diseased cattle, gravediggers, dealers in second-hand goods, falsely accused people, tilemakers, pilgrims, surgeons, apothecaries, tile-makers, invalids, and Istanbul - he was also evoked by those suffering from cholera, knee problems, plague, skin diseases, and epidemics. (Is there anyone left?) His name can also be spelt "Rock", "Roque", "Rocco", and, in Glasgow, "Rollox". In Britain up until the 17th Century, his Feast Day used to be celebrated as "Rock Monday", but if there were special traditions associated with the day, none have been remembered or recorded. The patronage of cattle is grimly ironic, as the day was sometimes used in the Staffordshire town of Tutbury for the custom of Bull Running, when an unfortunate animal - whose horns had been sawn off, its tail and ears "clipped", its body smeared in grease and into whose nostrils pepper was blown - was chased around and across a field by a crowd [originally limited to the "minstrels" of the town - members of a proto-Musicians' Union - later involving anyone who turned up who wanted to take part] until it was exhausted. The first person to be able to keep a grip on the beast long enough to cut off a piece of its hair won the animal, to keep, sell, or slaughter as they wished. The custom was abolished in 1778.

Also on This Date: the forces of Henry VIII and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I defeat the French Cavalry at the Battle of Guinegate (1513 - also known as the "Battle of the Spurs" because of the French troops reputed eagerness to engage said items in getting away from the victors); bare-knuckle boxer Jack Broughton publishes his Rules to be Observed in all Battles on the Stage ["as agreed by several gentlemen"](1743 - the earliest-known boxing code); Wagner's Siegfried is premiered as part of the first Bayreuth Festival conducted by Hans Richter 1876); local miners discover gold in the Klondike area of North-Western Canada, triggering the Klondike Gold Rush (1896); the Migratory Bird Treaty between the US and the UK (on behalf of Canada) is signed "being desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such objects" (1916); the first Empire Games [a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing goodwill and good understanding of the British Empire", and later renamed the Commonwealth Games] opens in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada (1930); George Gershwin's Rumba is premiered by the New York Philharmonic for an audience of 17,845 at an all-Gershwin concert given at the Lewisohn sports Stadium (1932 - the work is renamed the Cuban Overture for its second performance, 3 months later, to give it a little more gravitas); the Week of the Long Knives begins in India with widespread rioting in Calcutta between Hindus and Muslims demonstrating the strength of feeling for an autonomous Muslim country, independent from India (1946); Cyprus gains independence from Britain (1960); Pete Best is sacked as drummer for the Beatles (1962); the House Un-American Activities Committee makes a last attempted show of strength when it meets to try to introduce legislation making contributions to the Viet Cong illegal - anti-War Protestors persistently disrupt their meetings, and they have to be abandoned (1965); a Solar Proton Storm disrupts computers on the Toronto Stock exchange, preventing trading (1989); South African Police open fire with assault rifles on a group of striking miners, killing 34 of them, and injuring more than 78 others (2012 - the most lethal violence by Police since the Sharkeville Massacre of 48 years earlier); the Minamata Convention on Mercury comes into force, to protect the environment from poisoning from mercury and mercury-based compounds (2017 - the Treaty had been signed four years earlier, showing how the international community regards the urgency of the matter).

Birthdays Today include: Jean de la Bruyère (1645); Heinrich Marschner (1795); John Bosco (1815); Gabriel Pierne (1863); TE Lawrence (1888); Otto Messmer (1892); Georgette Heyer (1902); Charles Bukowski (1920); Eydie Gormé (1928); Bill Evans (1929); Bruce Beresford (1940); Kevin Ayers (1944); Nigel Terry (1945); Katherine Hamnett (1947); James Cameron (1954); Madonna & Angela Bassett (1958); Franz Welser-Möst (1960); Frankie Boyle (1972); ... and Trevor McDonald is 80 today.

Final Days for: Thomas Fuller (1661); Andrew Marvell (1678); Jacob Bernoulli (1705); Matthew Tindal (1733); Carl Theodor Schulz (1914); Robert Johnson (1938); Babe Ruth (1948); Margaret Mitchell (1949); Bela Lugosi (1956); Wanda Landowska (1959); Elvis presley (1977); Stewart Grainger (1993); Max Roach (2007); Jacob Bekenstein (2015).

And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Wednesday, 16th August, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Bruckner Intermezzo & Trio; Prokofiev "Classical" Symph; Delius A Song Before Sunrise; Britten Young Apollo; Bridge Summer; de Severac Sunbathers; Prokofiev Summer Night.
Composers of the Week: Berwald (I Enter a Monastery Ovt; 7tet in Bb) & Gade (Symph #2).
'cello Sonatas (DSCH & Brahms #2 in F) plyed by Alexander Baillie & Piers Lane.
Songs by Warlock & Delius performed by members of the Partridge Family.
Midweek Choice: Arne Symph #2; Mozart Pno Conc #15 in Bb; Ramirez Misa Criolla; Bruch Scottish Fantasy; Weill 2 songs; Prokofiev Scythian Suite.

[johncorrigan]

James Cameron (1954);

This is the James Cameron that I wish was still around - what, I wonder, would he have made of our present farrago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeLCxIXyNX8

...and thanks for the info about St Roch - I used to wonder who St Roch's Primary in Glasgow was named after - a real St Jack of all trades, ferney.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This is the James Cameron that I wish was still around

- although that doesn't at all mean that I wish tomorrow's birthday boy wasn't!