Newsgroups: bit.listserv.c18-l
Date:         Sun, 13 Dec 1992 20:37:15 -0500
From:         BCJ@PSUVM.BITNET
Subject:      C18-L's KALENDAR: December 14-20 - Reasons to Celebrate!

*********************************************************************
*                                                                   *
*             THE KALENDAR - REASONS TO CELEBRATE                   *
*                                                                   *
*             Compiled for C18-L by Kevin Berland                   *
*                       BCJ@PSUVM.BITNET                            *
*                       BCJ@psuvm.psu.edu                           *
*********************************************************************
                            DECEMBER 14

     BIRTHDAYS:  Michael Nostradamus, Provencal mystic, prophet
(1503);  Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (1546-1601);  Barthelemi
d'Herbelot, French orientalist (1625);  Daniel Neal, English divine &
historian (1678);  James Bruce, Scottish traveller in Abyssinia (1730);
Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, French economist, Physiocrat,
educator, member of States-General, emigrated to US (1739-1817);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl
of Dundonald, British admiral, MP, leader of Chilean & Brazilian
navies, pioneered use of steamship & screw propellors (1775-1860);
Charles Wolfe, Irish author of The Burial of Sir John Moore (1791);
John Mercer Kangston, US statesman, politician, diplomat, 1st black
elected to public office (1829-97);  Louis Marshall, US lawyer, social
reformer (1856-1929);  Dirk Jan de Geer, Dutch statesman, PM (1870-
1960);  John Cowles, US newspaper publisher (1893-1983);  George VI,
King of Great Britain 1936-52, brother to Edward VIII (1895-1952);  Paul
Eluard, French surrealist poet (1895-1952);  James Harold Doolittle, US
aviator (1896);  Margaret Chase Smith, US politician (1897);  Karl
Carstens, (West) German statesman, president (1914);  Shirley Jackson,
US novelist, short-story writer (1919-65);  Nikolai Gennadievich Basov,
Russian quantum physicist (1922);  Anna Marie "Patty" Duke Aston, US
actress (1946);

     DEATHS:  Dean Henry Aldrich (1711);  Thomas Rymer (1713);
Archbishop Thomas Tenison (1715);  Sir WIlliam Trumbull (1716);
George Washington (1799);  Conrad Malte-Brun (1826);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1640, Aphra Behn was baptized at
St. Michael's, Harbledown, Kent;  in 1685, William Wycherly's The
Plain Dealer was performed at court;  in 1788, Charles III of Spain died,
and was succeeded by Charles IV.

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross.  On this
day in 1918, women voted in Great Britain for the first time.

*************************************************************************
                            DECEMBER 15

     BIRTHDAYS:  George Romney, English portrait painter (1734);
Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother (1784);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Charles Cowden Clarke,
English bookseller, critic, lecturer on Shakespeare, friend to Keats,
Shelley, Leigh Hunt, & the Lambs (1787-1877);  Henry Charles Carey,
U.S. economist (1793-1879);  Janos Bolyai, Romanian mathematician,
non-Euclidean geometer (1802-60);  Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, French
engineer, builder of the eponymous Tower in Paris & the framework
of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty in New York (1832-1923);  Edwin
Howland Blashfield, US painter, decorater of Library of Congress
dome (1848-1936);  Antoine Henri Becquerel, French physicist,
codiscoverer of spontaneous radiation (1852-1908);  Ludwik Lazanz
Zamenhof, Polish linguist, developer of artificial language Esperanto
(1859-1917);  Niels R. Finsen, Danish physician, phototherapist (1860-
1904);  Arthur Dehon Little, US industrial chemist, inventor of rayon
(1863);  John Timothy McNichols, US Roman Catholic archbishop,
founder of Legion of Decency (1877-1950);  Maxwell Anderson, US
playwright (1888-1959);  J. Paul Getty, US oilman, billionaire (1892-
1976);  Betty Smith, US novelist, playwright (1906-1972);  Muriel
Rukeyser, US poet (1913-80);  Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins,
English molecular physicist (1916);  Alan Freed, US disk jockey,
reputedly the 1st to introduce the term "rock-'n'-roll" to the US public
(1922-65);

     DEATHS:  Timoleon (337 BCE);  Izaak Walton (1683);  George Adam
Struvius (1771);  Benjamin Stillingfleet (1771);  Jean-Baotiste Carrier
(1794);  Sarah Trimmer (1810);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1791, the US Bill of Rights -- the 1st
10 amendments to the Constitution -- was passed;  in 1794, France's
Revolutionary Tribunal was abolished;  in 1815, Jame Austen's Emma
was published a day before her 40th birthday;

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is Statute Day in the Netherlands Antilles,
commemorating the achievement of autonomy in 1954.  Today is the
name-day of Blessed Mary Margaret d'Youville, founder of Canada's
Grey Nuns.  On this day in 1964, Canada adopted its maple leaf flag.

************************************************************************
                            DECEMBER 16

     BIRTHDAYS:  John Selden, English lawyer, politician (1584);  George
Whitefield, English Methodist preacher (1714);  Elizabeth Carter,
English scholar, translator (1717);  Chretien Guillaume Lamoignon fe
Malesherbes, minister & defender of Louis XVI (1721);  Gebhard
Liberecht Blucher von Wahlstatt, Prussian field marshal, aided
Wellington at Waterloo (1742-1819);  Bernard, Comte de Lacepede,
French naturalist (1756);  Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer
(1880-1827);  Jane Austen, English novelist (1885-1817);  Johann
Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist, discoverer of ultraviolet rays (1776-
1810);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Leopold I, 1st King of the
Belgians (1790-1865);  Abbott Lawrence, US manufacturer, politician,
diplomat (1792-1885);  Edward Emerson Barnard, US astronomer (1857-
1923);  Francis Thompson, English poet (1859-1907);  George
Santayana, Spanish-born US philosopher ("There is no cure for birth
and death save to enjoy the interval"), political scientist ("Fanaticism
consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim"),
critic ("Music is essentially useless, as life is") (1863-1952);  Ralph Adams
Cram, US neo-gothic architect (1863-1942);  Zoltan Kodaly, Hungarian
composer (1882-1967);  Alexander I, King of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes
1921-29, and of Yugoslavia 1929-34 (188-1934);  Sir Noel Coward,
English playwright ("Work is much more fun than fun"), actor,
composer, director, sociologist ("The higher the buildings, the lower
the morals"), wit (1899-1963);  Margaret Mead, US anthropologist (1901-
78);  Robert Martin Fouss, US editor of Saturday Evening Post 1942-62
(1912-80);  Arthur C. Clarke, English science-fiction writer (1917);  Liv
Ullman, Norwegian actress (1939);  Ieremia Tabai, statesman &
president of Republic of Kiribati (1950);

     DEATHS:  Sir William Petty (1687);  Abbe Desfontaines (1745);
Thomas Pennant (1798);  Antoine Francois de Fourcroy (1809);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1653, Oliver Cromwell was
proclaimed Lord Protector of England;  in 1773 a group of
Massachusetts colonists dressed as Indians dumped British tea
overboard into Boston Harbor protesting British taxes -- the event
came to be known as the "Boston Tea Party";

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is Bahrain's National Day;  it's Victory Day in
Bangladesh, the Day of the Covenant in Namibia, Constitution Dat in
Nepal, and Day of the Vow in South Africa.

*************************************************************************
                            DECEMBER 17

     BIRTHDAYS:  Anthony a Wood, English antiquarian, historian of
Oxford (1632);  Gabrielle Emilie, Marquisw du Chastelet, translator of
Newton's Principia (1706);  Nathaniel Macon, US legislator (1758-1837);
SIr Humphrey Davy, English chemist, 1st to isolate calcium, potassium,
& sodium, 1st to discover that diamond is carbon, that chlorine is an
element, and that hydrogen plays a key part in making acids, and
inventor of an emponymous safety lamp for miners (1778-1829);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Jan Evangelista Purkinje,
Czech physiologist, discoverer of eponymous brain cells & heart issue
(1787-1769);  Joseph Henry, US physicist, weather tracker, specialist in
electromagnetism, 1st secretary & director of Smithsonian Inst. (1797-
1878);  John Greenleaf Whittier, US poet & social reformer (1807-92);
Sir Herbert Draper Beerbohm-Tree, English Shakespearean actor,
producer, playwright, Sir Max's half-brother (1853-1917);  James
Herbert McGraw, US publisher (1860-1948);  Arthur Edwin Kennelly,
Indian-born US electrical engineer, Edisone aide,  codiscoverer of
upper atmosphere Kennelly-Heaviside Layer (1861-1939);  Ford
Madox Hueffner, better known as Ford Madox Ford, English novelist,
editor, critic (1873-1939);  William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian
statesman, PM, consulted spirits of his departed mother & dog during
WW II (1874-1950);  Arthur Fiedler, US conductor (1894-1979);  Erskine
Caldwell, US novelist (1903);  Wiiliam McChesney Martin, Jr., US
financier (1906);  Willard Frank Libby, US chemist, inventor of Carbon
14 dating (1908-80);  William Safire, US columnist, erstwhile Nixon-
Agnew speechwriter, who penned alliterative lines such as "Nattering
nabobs of negativism" (1929);  Peter Snell, New Zealand Olympic
distance runner (1938);

    DEATHS:  Sir William Gascoigne (1413);  Simon Bolivar (1831);  Kaspar
Hauser (1833);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1660, poet & MP Andrew Narvell
petitioned the House of Commons to release John Milton from prison;
in 1819, the Republic of Columbia was established with Simon Bolivar as
its 1st president.

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is Bhutan's National Day; it's Bolivar Day in
Venezuela.  It's the Feast of St. Begga, patron of the Beguines of
Belgium.  On this day in 1843, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was
1st published;  in1903, the Wright Brothers made the 1st successful self-
powered heavier-than-air flight -- 12 seconds -- at Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina.

*************************************************************************
                         DECEMBER 18

     BIRTHDAYS:  Prince Rupert (1619);  Elizabeth, Empress of Russia
1741-61, Peter the Great's daughter (1809-62);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Isaac Thomas Hecker, US
Roman Catholic priest, founder of Congregation of Missionary Priests
of St. Paul the Apostle, aka Paulist Fathers (1819-88);  Sir Joseph John
Thomson, English physicist (1856-1940);  Edward Alexander
MacDowell, US pianist, composer, teacher (1861-1908);  Francis
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria & heir to Austrian throne, assassinated
at Sarajevo (1863-1914);  Hector Hugh Munro, better known as Saki,
Burmese-born English master of the short story (1870-1916);  Paul Klee,
Swiss painter, etcher (1879-1940);  Ty Cobb, US baseball hero (1886-
1961);  Chu Teh, Chinese communist military leader (1886-1976);
Robert Moses, US public official, master-builder of New York City
(1888-1981);  Edwin Howard Armstrong, US engineer, inventor of
regenerative circuit & FM multiplexing (1890-1954);  George Stevens,
US film director (1904-1975);  Christopher Fry, English poet, playwright
(1907);  Betty Grable, US actress (1912-73);  Karl Herbert Frahn, aka
Willy Brandt, German politician, chancellor, 1971 Nobel Peace Prize
(1913);  Ossie Davis, African-American actor (1917);  William Ramsay
Clark, US lawyer, Attorney General (1927);  Keith Richards, English
rock guitarist, Rolling Stone (1943); Stephen Spielberg, US filmmaker
(1947);

     DEATHS:  Robert Nanteuil (1678);  Heneage Finch, earl of Nottingham
(1682);  Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf (1692);  Soame Jenyns (1787);
Pierre Louis de Preville (1799);  Johann Gottfried von herder (1803);
Dr. Alexander Adam (1809);  Thomas Dunham Whitaker (1821);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1398, Timur Lenk, aka Tamerlane,
Mongol warrior king, conquered Delhi;  in 1679, John Dryden was
waylaid & beaten by thugs hired by the Earl of Rochester, who
suspected him of writing the Essay on Satire, actually written by John
Sheffield;  in 1787, New Jersey became the 3rd colony to ratify the US
Constitution;

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is Constitution Day in Niger (1960).  On this
day in 1946, pilot Eddie Rickenbacker scattered author Damon
Runyon's ashes over Broadway;  in 1969, the United Kingdom
abolished capital punishment.

*************************************************************************
                            DECEMBER 19

     BIRTHDAYS:  Philip V, King of Spain 1700-46, 1st King of the Spanish
Bourbons (1683-1746);  Charles William Scheele, chemist (1742);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Sir William Edward Parry,
British naval officer, explorer, discoverer of entrance to Northwest
Passage (1790-1855);  Edward McMasters Stanton, US statesman (1814-
69);  Mary Ashton Livermore, US social reformer, suffragist, editor
(1820-1905);  Henry Clay Frick, US steelmaker, philanthropist, donated
art collection to eponymous NY museum (1849-1919);  Albert Abraham
Michaelson, US physicist (1852-1931);  Minnie Madern Fiske, US
actress, theatre manager (1865-1932);  Carter Godwin Woodson,
African-American historian, educator, publisher, "Father of US Black
History" (1875-1950);  Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born US conductor
(1888-1963);  Ford Frick, US baseball executive, commissioner (1894-
1978);  Oliver Lafarge, US anthropologist, novelist, author of Laughing
Boy (1901-63);  Sir Ralph Richardson, English Shakespearean, stage, &
film actor (1902-83);  Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet leader, chairman of
Presidium (1906-82);  Jean Genet, French playwright, essayist,
existentialist, founder of theatre of the absurd (1910);  Edith Giovanna
Gassion, better known as Edith Piaf, French chanteuse, the Little
Sparrow (1915-63);  David Susskind, US televison producer & host
(1920);  Howard Sackler, US playwright (1920);  Cicely Tyson, African-
American actress & dancer (1939);  Richard Erskine F. Leakey,
Kenyan-born English paleontologist, son of Louis S.B., and Mary
(1944);

     DEATHS:  Fredrich Melchior, Baron Grimm (1807);  Benjamin Smith
Barton (1815);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1732, Benjamin Franklin began
publishing Poor Richard's Almanac in Philadelphia;  in 1776, Thomas
Paine's The American Crisis was published ("These are the Times that
try Men's Souls...");  in 1777, the Continental Army established its camp
at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania;

     MISCELLANEA:  On this day in 1861, the Canada-Britain transatlantic
submarine telephone cable was inaugurated by a chat between Queen
Elizabeth II & Canadian PM John Diefenbaker (Pride of Prince
Albert, Saskatchewan).

*************************************************************************
                            DECEMBER 20

     BIRTHDAYS:  James Rumsey, US inventor, operator of the 1st
steamboat on the Potomac (1743-92);  John Wilson Croker, Irish writer,
critic (1780);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Thomas Graham, Scottish
chemist, discoveror of dialysis (1805-69);  Samuel Jordan Kirkwood, US
legislator (1813-94);  Ferdinand Edouard Buisson, French educator &
social reformer, 1927 Nobel Peace Prize for work with League of
Human Rights (1841-1932);  Harry Pratt Judson, US educator, president
of University of Chicago (1849-1927);  Theodore Elijah Burton, US
legislator (1851-1929);  Husayn Kamil, Sultan of Egypt (1853-1917);
Baron Shibasaburo Kitazato, Japanese bacteriologist, who isolated
bacilli for anthrax, bubonic plague, dysentery, & tetanus (1856-1931);
Maude Gonne, Irish patriot, subject of poetry & plays by William
Butler Yeats (1865-1953);  Harvey Samuel Firestone, US tiremaker
(1868-1938);  Henry Kimball Hadley, US composer, conductor (1871-
1937);  Theodore Francis Powys, Welsh sjort-story writer (1875);
Walter Sidney Adams, Turkish-born US astronomer (1876-56);  Branch
Rickey, US baseball commissioner (1881-1965);  Jaroslav Heyrovsky,
Czech chemist (1890-1967);  Robert Gordon Menzies, Australian
legislator, statesman, PM (1894);  Finn Ronne, US arctic explorer (1899-
1980);  Max Lerner, US journalist (1902);  Irene Dunne, US actress
(1904);  Harry Flood Byrd, US legislator (1914);

     DEATHS:  Bernard de Montfaucon (1741);  Louis le Dauphin (1765);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY;  in 1764, Horace Walpole wrote to a
friend, "The works of Richardson...are pictures of high life as
conceived by a bookseller, and romances as they would be
spiritualized by a Methodist preacher.";   in 1803, the US formally took
possession of the Louisiana territories;

     MISCELLANEA:  On this day in 1871, Mark Twain, in the Chicago
Tribune, compared himself favorably to George Washington,
explaining, "I have a greater standard of principle.  Washington could
lie.  I *can* lie, but I won't."