It's been a while since 3CM has done one of his lazy default numerology calendar SNLC's, but given the convenience of the numbers in today's date (10 +4 = 14), he couldn't resist. So, as trivial diversion from major issues of the day, and per self's usual protocol here, some semi-random collections of historical trivia related to October 4. 1814 and October 4, 1914 follow below the flip.....
Jumping back 200 years today, some stuff from teh internets comes up as follows:
(1) A letter from Senator Jesse Bledsoe (at least I think he was a senator) to Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby begins:
"Dear Governor, I must write tonight tho' the mail starts in the morning - otherwise I shall probably not write from the hurry of engagements...."
(2) French painter Jean-Francois Millet was born on 10/4/1814. A website dedicated to him is
here. The Musee d'Orsay has a page about Millet's painting "The Gleaners"
here.
(3) Across the Atlantic, in Gavelton, NS, Jacob Hatfield Gavel was born on the same day.
(4) South of the 49th parallel, on the same day, Alexander Majors was born in Kentucky, near Franklin, Simpson County.
Moving on to October 4, 1914, just after the start of World War I:
(1) A German document titled "An Appeal of Ninety-three Artists and Scholars to the Civilized World" dated October 4, 1914 reads, in part:
"Believe us: we shall fight this war to the end as a cultured people for whom the legacy of Goethe, Beethoven, and Kant is as sacred as hearth and land."
The 93 signatories included physicist Max Planck, painter Max Liebermann, and psychologist WIlliam Wundt (GBooks citation
here).
(2) A regiment from Newfoundland left for England on this day for additional training on Salisbury Plain. It's drolly amusing to read this in an account of them:
"Being mistaken for Canadians often irritated the Newfoundlanders in England. In a letter home in December 1914, Private Frank ‘Mayo’ Lind commented that the English “did not seem to know that Newfoundland is not Canada, but they thoroughly understand now that Newfoundland is NOT Canada and that we are Newfoundlanders, NOT Canadians” (Lind 23). Lieutenant Owen Steele further remarked that Newfoundlanders were “very particular that [they] not be classed as Canadians . . .” and that they were “ much prouder of [their] distinction as Newfoundlanders”"
(3) Canoga Park High School
opened on this day, with 14 students and 3 teachers.
(4) A headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on this day read:
"CROWDS APPLAUD WOMEN IN PLEDGE FOR BALLOT"
(5) The French archeologist
Jean-Marie-Joseph Déchelette died in battle at Nouvron-Vingré.
(6) Lily Akana of Honolulu was born on this day. She died just 2 months ago, age 99.
(7) A.B. Nichols, an office engineer who worked on the Panama Canal, set sail for the USA on the Panama on this day.
(8) The New Yorker critic Brendan Gill was born on this day.
So it goes. With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week......