More items will be added in coming weeks.
Cluster munitions hypocrisy; also, rightist commenters on FAIR now: fair.org/home/for-nyt-cluster-munitions-are-completely-wrong-when-russians-use-them/
Torture charges don't 'stick' when the USA and company are at fault: www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1201683052/it-appears-abuse-by-americans-at-iraqs-abu-ghraib-prison-is-largely-forgotten
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/26/theres-still-time-to-talk/ – negotiating an end to the Ukraine War
In the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections the Democrats claimed to want to run against Trump, but Biden isn't very popular: www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/26/elected-democrats-are-conformist-enablers-of-biden-for-2024/
Ontario, Canada greenbelt scandal: cpcml.ca/WF2023/WO1054.HTM#2
Stormwater Awareness Week September 25 – 29: raleighnc.gov/stormwater/news/stormwater-awareness-week
NATO and the disaster in Derna, Libya: ingaza.wordpress.com/2023/09/25/nato-brings-death-to-libya-a-decade-after-its-barbaric-intervention/
Expropriating the Moon: www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/09/25/moon-planets-space-travel-united-states-race
moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/06/25/the-belgrade-declaration-a-peace-proposal-for-ukraine/
September 22nd in Canada: forward.com/fast-forward/561927/zelenskyy-joins-canadian-parliaments-ovation-to-98-year-old-veteran-who-fought-with-nazis/ and informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/09/25/canadian-parliament-honors-man-who-fought-for-nazis-speaker-regrets-decision/
By the same Lawrence Wittner, who has condemned UNAC? – www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/25/world-peace-and-security-require-a-stronger-united-nations/
unac.notowar.net/let-us-know-about-your-action-september-30-october-7-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/
October Against AFRICOM: blackallianceforpeace.com/africom2023
November 4th 15th annual Black People's March on the White House: blackpeoplesmarch.com/
Durham Revolutionary Study Group – a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group; see Instagram; I saw flyers for this group and the next three at libraries.
Triangle Stop Cop City – online somewhere – Instagram?
stoporangegrovedump.com – west of Carrboro
triangleblogblog.com/ versus those evil CHALT and Friends of Bolin Creek extremists who apparently hate everything good in southern Orange County. Bolin Creek is a tributary of Little Creek, which flows through Durham County.
Paving reportedly reduces the amount of impervious surface and restores the environment: triangleblogblog.com/2023/08/27/greenway-much-of-the-existing-sewage-corridor-is-unstable-and-or-impervious/ and triangleblogblog.com/2023/01/31/making-a-place-for-feet-greenways-as-environmental-restoration-projects/
But would they be moved, and maintained, if no one complains? Will Johnny Randall keep an eye on the easement, for years? I don't know that area, but here seasonal pools on easements are often created by vehicles. In addition beavers build dams near easements, and then the City of Durham apparently kills them: triangleblogblog.com/2023/08/23/vernal-pools-can-be-moved-and-other-things-we-learned-when-walking-along-the-owasa-sewer-easement-with-ecologists/
In 2023 'every' Democratic politician is "progressive," often following a pro-war, pro-censorship, pro-national security state, "YIMBY," "feminist," "woke" NPR type line, and "socialism" is increasingly popular. Barring the 'end of the world,' maybe in 10 years the Democratic Party will call itself "socialist," and "green" before that. Violence might have already begun on the Durham City Council this year.
Everyone is "progressive" now and the Democrats can't be removed from power, so they don't have to consider the rabble, until Biden or Trump stumbles into a world war or something upends human life in the Triangle. From a year ago: nextnc.org/what-is-a-nimby/
Fault me for lack of revolutionary ardor and the Democrats, etc made voting lose its lustre after 2020, though I should turn out, even if only to complain to the poll workers about voter ID and spoil a ballot. Considering whether to vote and whether turning out the devils is even possible, when they are all Democrats –
In February 2022 Charlie Reece, no longer on the Durham City Council, and DeDreana Freeman, on the Durham City Council and now running for mayor, seem to have been the only opposition to approving 55-Hopson: cityordinances.durhamnc.gov/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=507&doctype=1 , but I wasn't there and haven't watched the video yet. Protect an Ellerbe Creek rookery, but who cares about nesting herons, nightjars, etc on the fringes of the City. On the other hand in August 2022 the DCC unanimously suspended sister city ties with Kostroma, etc: www.dukechronicle.com/article/2022/09/durham-north-carolina-kostroma-russia-sister-city-ukraine-war after not doing anything regarding the US invasion of Iraq, enabled by Biden. Maybe it is good that Durham has been slow with its planned greenways. Also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeDreana_Freeman , born September 30, 1977 in Trenton, New Jersey. September 30th is also the next campaign finance deadline. I thought someone on the City Council had open ties to the CIA, but maybe I was mistaken.
An eye-opening four part series on Durham politics:
indyweek.com/news/durham/the-running-of-the-bulls/
Woodcroft Parkway Extension west open house, etc in early October; the eastern extension endangered at least one pink ladyslipper orchid in the former young pinewoods, and there might be a population at the school on Scott King: durham.mysocialpinpoint.com/woodcroft-parkway-extension-project
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/24/the-fight-to-stop-cop-city-wont-stop/
information war over Ukraine: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/western-pravdas
Ukraine: www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/22/war-is-the-precondition-of-peace/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/22/the-insanity-of-nato-war-exercises-in-the-black-sea/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/20/axis-of-war-the-japan-korea-us-alliance/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/21/us-claims-to-central-pacific-flout-international-law/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/21/bartered-for-a-nuclear-discount-the-eviction-of-the-chagossians/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/21/libya-catastrophe-is-double-whammy-capitalism-to-blame/
NPR is pushing "non-partisan primaries" and even vilifying the UAW as "white working class" = possible Trump supporters September 23-24, though Democrats and ultras, but not too ultra to appear on public media, also often deny that a "white working class" exists, and had a bizarre idea of capitalism September 16th at 4pm. "Union Joe" is going in.
Anti-Cop City RICO September 5th and see BAP Atlanta post [ durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/09/bap-atlanta-says-free-them-all.html ] : www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/17/the-racketeering-of-state-violence/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/18/ecosocialist-electricity-just-transition-or-neo-luddite-revolution/
consortiumnews.com/2023/09/18/the-biden-phase-of-the-ukraine-war/
Ron Jacobs at Howie Hawkins: www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/15/nato-dont-buy-the-myth-dont-buy-the-hype/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/14/ukraines-bandera-itch/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/15/the-strategic-nightmare-that-follows-the-forever-war/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/15/bidenomics-millions-to-rebuild-maui-billions-for-ukraine/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/14/a-global-maui-moment/
www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/13/5g-alec-and-the-u-s-s-second-rate-telecom-system/
Peter Bolton again against 9/11 truth, including the theory that it was merely allowed to happen; by extension he also implies condemnation of the anti-Russian and anti-Putin "conspiracy theories" aired on PBS and NPR in recent years: www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/11/why-i-criticize-9-11-conspiracies/
www.counterpunch.org/author/peter-bolton/
Town of Carrboro Planning, Zoning & Inspections Department (PZI) outreach events September
16th and 20th and October 2nd and 7th: www.carrboronc.gov/civicalerts.aspx?AID=2525
Lights Out North Carolina is September 10 – November 30 and March 15 –May 30, for night migrating birds: nc.audubon.org/conservation/lights-out-north-carolina?utm_source=chapters&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lights_out_nc On a related issue, I've been wondering if I can see the increase in light pollution this summer.
PSL's 2024 presidential ticket: votesocialist2024.com/
Green Party and SPUSA 2020 presidential candidate Howie Hawkins basically supports NATO in Ukraine (with John Feffer, Bill Fletcher Jr, Eric Draitser, etc.):
www.counterpunch.org/2023/08/29/national-tour-of-ukrainian-and-russian-leftists-against-the-war-in-ukraine/ (a tour September 3-13)
linktr.ee/ukrainesolidaritynetwork (with link to articles by Achcar; Snyder; Wittner [the same person?: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/08/unacs-response-to-lawrence-s-wittners.html ]; Zizek; Ashley Smith, who wrote in Solidarity US' Against the Current; etc.)
(According to Wikipedia Howie Hawkins is a member of the Trotskyist party Solidarity US en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_(United_States) , which has published pro-NATO articles. I have some experience with national Solidarity events, but never met or saw Howie Hawkins there to my knowledge. I think I read at one point that Hawkins also supported arming the rebels in Syria. Is the GPUS taking the path of the warmongering, pro-NATO German Green Party? Are the German Greens more interested in managing EU imperialism than dealing with climate change?)
[Wikipedia also says that Hawkins is not currently a candidate, and that Jill Stein has endorsed Cornel West: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Green_Party_presidential_primaries ]
Counterpunch might also be moving in a pro-Democratic Party direction, but there is this article about the Trump-Biden Cold War-style ban on US passport holders traveling to the DPRK, etc., renewed August 22nd, to August 31, 2024:
Pre-publication Amended Waters of the US/WOTUS: www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-08/Pre-publication%20Version%20of%20the%20Final%20Rule%20-%20Amendments%20to%20the%20Revised%20Definition%20of%20Waters%20of%20the%20United%20States.pdf
The new McCarthyism
rightsdissent.substack.com/p/mccarthyism-is-back-and-its-coming [for the peace movement]
Petition: actionnetwork.org/forms/mccarthyism-is-back-together-we-can-stop-it
Arguments have been made that Trump would come after the Left and that organizing benefits from Democratic Party-led government. On the other hand, FRSO worked to elect Obama, and then they were targeted by the FBI; Occupy was repressed; and under Biden the African People's Socialist Party and a group in Colorado have been targeted, etc. In addition Marco Rubio is apparently calling for the DOJ to investigate peace campaigners such as CodePink under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the New York Times published his op-ed.
Petition to remove Cuba from the US "State Sponsors of Terrorism List": www.letcubalive.info/join-the-campaign
The rampant construction along Lick Creek in eastern Durham near Falls Lake will be discussed at a joint City Council and County Commissioner meeting August 31st at 7pm at City Hall: soundrivers.org/update-lick-creek-durham/ This formerly rural, forested area is probably rich in spring wildflowers, some unknown elsewhere in Durham, but I wonder how this meeting came about. I don't recall rampant construction south or north of the City resulting in any meetings.
There is a photo of a garter snake at Quivira National Wildilfe Refuge, in south central Kansas, eating a crushed, roadkilled toad at: roadsendnaturalist.com/2023/06/16/brown-signs-and-birds/ Various species eat bird and frog eggs, etc. and have been known to eat inorganic trash, such as glass bottles and golf balls, which can be fatal, without medical intervention, but it seems very unusual that a snake would eat carrion that doesn't look alive. I didn't know that garter snakes eat toads, which probably have chemical defenses, at least when alive, but now I see that common garter snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis are one species listed as regularly eating toads. Hognose snakes are well known for eating toads. Apparently there are a few species of garter snake in Kansas.
worldbeyondwar.org/we-object-to-the-illegal-search-and-seizure-at-apartment-of-yurii-sheliazhenko-in-kyiv/ [On trial in mid-September.]
Rising "defense" spending during a time of "peace:" actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-to-congress-say-no-to-a-nearly-1000000000000-pentagon-budget?source=2023DefenseSpending_PA&referrer=group-peace-action
Signs of the Times protest exhibit at the NC Museum of History until March 31st: www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/exhibits/signs-times
NC's coastal Bodie Island Lighthouse will be open for stair climbing until October 9th this year, and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse further south on the OBX, which I have been up, might not be open, but there is a virtual tour: www.nps.gov/caha/planyourvisit/lighthouseclimbs.htm and www.nps.gov/caha/planyourvisit/bils.htm
The 2023 Green Party Annual National Meeting will meet online August 3 – 6
Moral Monday Press Conference August 7th at 2pm at the NC General Assembly.
There will be a Green Party webinar "Never Again! Remembering the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" Wednesday, August 9th at 8pm ET. For more information contact outreach missourigreenparty period org or 314 495 8006.
There will be a Hybrid Lunchbox Talk on the NC Certified Master Naturalist Volunteer Program August 10th, 12 – 1pm at the NC Botanical Garden: ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/
The Uproar Festival of Public Art will be July 14 – August 12 in Orange County: uproarfestnc.com/
Captured, Examined & Returned: The Folklore of Alien Abductions
Silver Spring Town Center [in Maryland? Zoom link on Facebook](virtual, presented by Folklife curator James Deutsch)
Saturday, August 12, 11 a.m.–11 p.m. ET
Hip-Hop Block Party
National Museum of African American History and Culture (in person)
August 17–20
Native Cinema Showcase
National Museum of the American Indian (in Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Folkways artists on tour: Jake Blount, Dom Flemons, Kronos Quartet, Charlie Parr, Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Los Texmaniacs"
The Great Southeast Pollinator Census will be August 18 – 19th, with a webinar on the 10th: gsepc.org/
The Walnut Creek Wetland Center's 5th annual Mud Day will be August 19th 10am – 1pm: raleighnc.gov/parks/events/mud-day
[Dragoncon was August 31 – September 4 in Atlanta: www.dragoncon.org/ ]
[SIPRAL 27 is being held September 1 – 2 online.]
[The Annual Midwest Archaeological Conference will be October 12 – 14 in Bowling Green: midwestarchaeology.org/annual-meeting/upcoming ]
[Annual NC Gourd Festival November 3-5 at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.]
[Anime NYC will be November 17 – 19: animenyc.com/ ]
[Carrboro Film Fest November 17 – 19: www.carrborofilm.org/ ]
[COP28 November 30 – December 12 in Dubai: www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/15/global-warming-did-the-unthinkable/ ]
[Kami-Con will be February 9 – 11 in Birmingham, Alabama: www.kamicon.net/star ]
[Around August 2nd NPR's On Point program was talking about third party efforts, especially No Labels. A former governor of Missouri and another journalist were also guests (there were arguments like No Labels isn't needed, because Biden is so bipartisan; there aren't really that many “independents” being misrepresented by the Democrat-Republican duopoly, without any mention of left versus right; the Democrats aren't denying people their democratic rights to run for office or to vote for whomever they want, etc). Near the end former Missouri congressman, House Majority Leader, and presidential candidate Dick Gephardt came on, mentioning Cornel West (free publicity for 2024?) and Green Party candidates Jill Stein and Ralph Nader, claiming without evidence, or “push back,” that the Democrats would have won in 2000 and 2016 if not for those pernicious Greens. Again the Green Party's 2020 and possible 2024 candidate Howie Hawkins wasn't mentioned on an NPR program. Oh, and there was that Ross Perot, hurting George HW Bush. There was a lot of focus on whether a third party would bring about the apocalypse – a second Trump administration. The impression I got from Gephardt was like, if Democratic Party control of the Federal government is so existential, why not just do what the media accused Cambodia of doing in its recent election, and ban or otherwise eliminate the major competitors so that a Democrat will definitely win the presidential election? It sounds like they are justifying extralegal measures, potentially including violence, or they are lying and can tolerate Trump and will hand over power if it comes to that. In 2016 the Democratic Party was accused of preferring Trump to Sanders. On the other hand, I think Congress can in theory impeach a president just because it finds him unfit for office, though that would risk “instability.” Also, is Ron DeSantis 'worse than Trump,' or going to be portrayed that way if he wins the primary?
Months ago I think Maine's secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, perhaps ironically a former executive director of the [Maine] ACLU, was on Here and Now, talking about how her office was scrutinizing No Labels. I think No Labels is said to be on the right and not a grassroots effort, but I was reminded of how far Democratic Party operatives went to keep the NC Green Party off the 2020 ballot, even though the NCGP went through the onerous requirements to gain ballot access in NC. The Democrats accuse the Republicans of gerrymandering, but the Democrats bend or break the law to silence their opponents when they can (it would be too costly and dangerous to try to silence the Republicans, but third parties are a different matter). And gerrymandering is probably done by both of the major parties.]
LIBRARY BOOKSALES:
The Friends of the Durham Library's Books Among Friends has a new location, in the Shoppes of Hope Valley, 3825 South Roxboro Road, #131, zipcode 27713. There are satellite sales at each library. For more information and the Friends membership form, see: fodlnc.org/book-sales/ Their online store is at: shopfodlnc.org
[There is an in-person sale for teachers in August and:
[There will be in-person sales September 22 – 23 and a Pop-Up CD Sale September 30th: fodlnc.org/events/ ]
The Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library has an online store at: friendschpl.org/online-book-store and there will be in-person sales August 25 – 27, and December 1 – 3 [and April 12 – 14, August 23 – 25, and December 6 – 8 in 2024] : friendschpl.org/FCHPLevents
The Friends of the Chatham County Library will have an in-person sale September 21 – 23 [?] in 2023 [and April 11 – 13 in 2024]: www.friendsccl.org/ and they now have an online store, at: friendsccl.org/Store
The Friends of the Lee County Libraries has sales at open libraries: library.leecountync.gov/friends
There is supposed to be a sale every Monday 2-4pm at the Warren County Memorial Library: www.wcmlibrary.org/friends-of-the-library-book-sale/
Granville County: granville.lib.nc.us/friends-of-the-library/ and www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheGranvillePublicLibrarySystem/
Person County: www.personcountync.gov/departments-services/departments-i-z/library/friends-of-the-library-1603
Vance: www.facebook.com/friendsperrymemoriallibrary/
Moore County: www.facebook.com/moorecountylibrary/
Caswell: www.caswellcountync.gov/blog/categories/library-programs
Alamance County: www.facebook.com/AlamanceLibraries , www.alamance-nc.com/library
The Friends of the High Point Library: www.highpointnc.gov/927/Friends and www.facebook.com/HighPointPublicLibrary/
Forsyth: www.facebook.com/groups/105298719513537 , www.forsyth.cc/library/ www.facebook.com/FCPublicLibrary , www.facebook.com/GSOLibrary , library.greensboro-nc.gov
See also Book Sale Finder: www.booksalefinder.com/NC.html
PLANT SALES:
NC Botanical Garden: September 29 – 30; also, Twilight Thursdays resume August 17th – September 28th [the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, NC also has this] and the 35th annual Sculpture in the Garden and interesting classes are coming up this fall.
Duke Gardens: September 29 – 30
JC Raulston Arboretum: September 7 – 12 and the annual Plant Giveaway October 7th; there is also a Moonlight in the Garden event, classes, etc.
Brunswick County Master Gardener Volunteers Fall Online Plant Sale: August 31 – September 9: bcmgva.org/
Appalachian State University: August 25 – 26: biology.appstate.edu/facilities/biology-greenhouse
Paul J Ciener Botanical Garden: September 30th
UNC Charlotte Botanical Garden: October 5 – 7
CALENDAR
[Up to 100,000+ bumblebees (representing hundreds of bee colonies, mostly yellow-faced bumblebees, Bombus vosnesneskii, a West Coast species), along with fewer ladybugs and other beneficial insects, were killed outside a Target in Wilsonville, Oregon June 17, 2013, at the beginning of National Pollinator Week that year, after 55 European linden trees, flowering, were sprayed to prevent aphid honeydew from getting on cars. The sprayers had come to the lot for black vine weevils. The insecticide is produced by a sponsor of National Pollinator Week. There was at least one demonstration. The trees were wrapped in netting, $2,886 in fines applied, and spraying this insecticide on linden and related trees was banned. There were at least 6 mass bee kills around linden trees in Oregon in 2013-2014. For more information and photos of the parking lot littered with dead bees, see: xerces.org/blog/nuisance-or-necessity-honeydew-and-lessons-of-wilsonville-bee-kill and xerces.org/wilsonville-bee-kill ]
At the end of June / beginning of July 1520 a large Spanish and indigenous force under Hernán Cortés was driven out of the Aztec capital and faced total defeat, an event the conquistadores called La Noche Triste (The Sad Night). A pursuing Aztec force was defeated at the Battle of Otumba July 7th (under the Julian calendar).
International Asteroid Day is June 30th; something from space exploded over Siberia that day in 1908 with far more force than the WWII atomic bombs, levelling a large area of forest with a sparse human population. More recently an asteroid exploded high above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains of Russia February 15, 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT, far more powerful than the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima, and injured many people and damaged buildings ( www.un.org/en/observances/asteroid-day ). And ancient (and not so ancient) peoples are condemned for fearing happenings in the sky such as the appearance of comets.
In another first for a sitting US president, Trump briefly crossed the Korean DMZ June 30, 2019, and for the second time since 1953 a leader of the DPRK crossed into the ROK. Trump, Kim, and ROK president Moon Jae-in also held a brief private meeting.
Kiswahili Language Day is July 7th: www.unesco.org/en/kiswahili-language-day
The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1 - 3, 1863 in Pennsylvania, and had the most casualties – missing, wounded, or killed – of any battle in the Civil War. Together with the Federal victory in the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4th early July 1863 is seen as a major turning point in the war and helped Lincoln's re-election campaign.
Montana territorial governor Thomas Francis Meagher disappeared July 1, 1867, having fallen off a steamboat into the Missouri River in Montana, possibly an assassination.
The Bretton Woods system was created at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire July 1-22, 1944.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (often called AMLO) won the Mexican presidential election July 1, 2018, becoming the first presidential candidate since 1988 to win in one round and the first president since the early 20th century Mexican Revolution not from PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party) or a related party.
World UFO Day or Flying Saucer Day is marked June 24th or July 2, the second date commemorating July 2, 1947 when something - alien craft, USAF weather balloon, Stalin's Nazi flying saucer (see a 2011 book by Annie Jacobsen) , etc. - is supposed to have crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, not the first or last time an otherworldly aircraft is said to have crashed. The Roswell date might not be exact; there are museums and an annual festival.
The first French nuclear test, called Aldebaran, was July 2, 1966 in Moruroa in French Polynesia. Nuclear testing left lasting environmental damage on the atoll. There was a mention in a 2022 article on Counterpunch.
In English-speaking countries the dog days of summer are often said to begin July 3rd and extend into late summer.
The Battle of Santiago de Cuba July 3, 1898 was apparently the largest naval battle of the Spanish-American War, the conflict often seen as marking the beginning of US imperialism.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was born July 3, 1971 in Townsville in Queensland, Australia.
July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in Iranian airspace while the cruiser was in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War. Everyone onboard was killed, a total of 290 civilians (66 children), mostly from Iran, but including people from the UAE, India, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, and Italy. Allegedly the climbing Airbus A300 airliner was mistaken for an F-14 fighter descending for an attack. The US government expressed regret and paid restitution in 1996, but refused to apologize; the captain and crew of the Vincennes later received various awards.
March 10, 1989 the captain's minivan, driven by his wife, was set on fire by a pipebomb in San Diego; who set the bomb remains unknown. I doubt the US mainstream media covered this the way it covers pro-Ukrainian terrorism against civilians.
See also: www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/17/remember-the-vincennes-the-uss-long-history-of-provoking-iran/
A fishing license is not required in North Carolina on July 4th, but other regulations remain.
A bright supernova within our galaxy was seen around the world July 4, 1054 - April 6, 1056 (by the Julian calendar), creating the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus.
German communist Clara Zetkin was born July 5, 1857 in what is now Königshain-Wiederau in Saxony, Germany. She was a founder of the Spartacist League and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, a member of the Communist Party of Germany and represented it in the Reichstag from 1920 to 1933, a member of the Comintern's executive committee, and she helped found International Women's Day (March 8th). She died July 20, 1933, exiled in the USSR following the Nazi seizure of power, and her ashes are interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Many places in the German Democratic Republic were named after her posthumously. Some of her works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
The work of Saints Cyril and Methodius in creating an alphabet for Old Church Slavonic, is celebrated July 5th in the Czech Republic/Czechia and Slovakia.
The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle, was July 5 – August 23, 1943.
[Cuba condemned the provocative and unexplained presence of a US nuclear-powered submarine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base July 5-8, 2023, and Cuba considers the Base "a colonial remnant of the illegitimate military occupation" and "expansionist intervention" of 1898: cpcml.ca/make-canada-a-zone-for-peace-no-14/#3 ]
The Battle of Otumba, part of the Conquest of Mexico, was July 7, 1520 (under the Julian calendar).
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was July 7 – 9, 1937, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War and what became WWII in the Pacific.
After having been destroyed in WWII rebuilding began at the USSR's massive Dneiper hydroelectric dam, now in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, July 7, 1944 and it again produced electricity by March 3, 1947. The world's largest nuclear power station is also in that city, with the first unit having been built starting April 1, 1980.
The Perry Expedition, sent to force Japan to open to trade, reached Tokyo Bay July 8 1853.
2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson was born July 8, 1952 in Houston and apparently endorsed Sanders after suspending her 2020 campaign.
Kim Il Sung passed away July 8 1994.
Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated July 8, 2022 while campaigning for a candidate in Nara. There were elections to the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet, on July 10th in 2022. Abe, representing the dominant Liberal Democratic Party, was prime minister 2006 - 2007 and 2012 - 2020. The shooter was apparently angry over Abe's alleged connections to the Unification Church and used a DIY double-barreled gun, but might have also had explosives. US and even UK media talked about the assassination more as "gun violence" than "political violence" and about Japan's 'technocratic,' allegedly bland political system, severe Japanese gun regulations (so mass killings are done with weapons like knives, bombs, and chemical weapons instead), Abe's support for US aggression, etc.
Democratic National Convention employee Seth Rich was shot around 4:20am in northwestern Washington, DC and died from his injuries shortly afterward, July 10, 2016.
“Collateral Murder,” in which fire from two US Army Apache helicopters killed two Reuters journalists and many civilians, including children, happened in eastern Baghdad July 12, 2007.
Bastille Day, July 14th in France, is also supposed to be Shark Awareness Day and World Chimpanzee Day.
Construction of a pro-war memorial for the 1991 first US-Iraq War began July 14, 2022 in Washington, DC. Continued US "kinetic" and economic/diplomatic aggression after the war officially ended, mostly under Democrat Bill Clinton, prepared the ground for George W Bush's invasion in 2003 and killed or harmed a huge number of Iraqi civilians and destroyed the once relatively prosperous and developed country. Justifying this is one of the major charges against Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright. Similar infrastructure damage and killing of civilians, with the addition of torture, destruction of archeological remains, and neoliberal economic 'reforms' that might not be tolerated by Americans or other people not under military occupation, was part of the Bush-Cheney and Obama-Biden Iraq War. If I'm not mistaken pro-war Joe Biden proposed cutting Iraq up into 3 countries.
The USA's Trinity nuclear test was early on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico, covered in the new film Oppenheimer, apparently only criticized for not drawing attention to American victims of the Manhattan Project and the nuclear industry.
World Snake Day is supposed to be July 16th.
The first photograph of a star other than the Sun is supposed to have been of Vega in Lyra, visible overhead much of the night during the Northern Hemisphere summer, July 16-17, 1850. In some eras I think Vega is the North Star, far brighter than our era's Polaris. The Sun's corona was first photographed during a solar eclipse July 28, 1851. The Moon was photographed March 23, 1840.
The Romanovs were executed the night of July 16-17, 1918 during the Russian Revolution.
Eunice Newton Foote was born July 17, 1819 in Goshen, Connecticut and, among other research, is supposed to have been the first scientist to examine how carbon dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere trap heat, leading to the current problem of anthropogenic climate change as human activity adds additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Her work was presented at the 10th annual meeting American Association for the Advancement of Science August 23, 1856 in Albany, New York. The idea that the Earth's temperature might be increased by its atmosphere had already been suggested. She passed away September 30, 1888 in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Numazu (沼津市), Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, close to Mt Fuji, was hit by bombing raids 8 times during WWII, with the largest coming on the night of July 17, 1945. It caused a firestorm, perhaps similar to what happened in Hiroshima August 6th of that year, and Numazu was mostly destroyed: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Numazu_in_World_War_II Outside of Japan Numazu might be known as the general setting of Love Live! Sunshine!!
The ROK's Constitution Day or Jeheonjeol is July 17, 1948, and July 17th is supposed to be the anniversary of the founding of the Joseon kingdom. By creating the ROK the US cemented the division of the Korea, with the DPRK being created months later, September 9th of that year.
TWA Flight 800 exploded over the ocean off Long Island July 17, 1996.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was allegedly shot down by separatists July 17, 2014 in Eastern Ukraine. March 8th of that year MH370 disappeared and still has not been found.
The UN gave the USA control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (but under this "trusteeship" only the Security Council could change its status, not the General Assembly) July 18, 1947, and the Pacific Proving Grounds for nuclear weapon tests was established five days later. Testing had started there in the summer of 1946.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) triumphed in Nicaragua July 19, 1979, and had been founded July 19, 1961. The Sandinistas were defeated in a 1990 election agreed to in a peace deal, after years of US-backed Contra terrorism, economic warfare, and US meddling in the election, interference far beyond what the USA claims Russia has done in our elections. Apparently Nicaraguans immigrants are now given special treatment by the US, as with Cubans, to make their home government look bad, though far more migrants come from US allies, often led by rightist governments.
Alexander the Great is supposed to have been born around July 20 or 21, 356 BCE, in Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia, now in northern Greece. He passed away around June 10 or 11, 323 BCE in the former palace of Nebuchadnezzar II or the Great, in Babylon, near the modern city of Hillah in central Iraq.
International Moon Day is July 20th, created by the 2021 UN General Assembly resolution on "International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space:" www.un.org/en/observances/moon-day It could be asked how interested the US government is in international cooperation for the peaceful use of outer space.
The Communist Party of China, the CPC, was founded in July 1921. It's first National Congress was held July 23-31, 1921, moving from the at the time French-held part of Shanghai to a boat in nearby Jiaxing's South Lake, in Zhejiang Province.
The Leo astrological period is July 23rd to August 22nd, though according to Skyguide, by Mark R Chartrand III, the Sun is 'in' the constellation Cancer July 7th to August 11th now, and is in Leo the Lion August 12th to September 17th.
The Sri Lankan Civil War, between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam / the Tamil Tigers or LTTE, began July 23, 1983 and ended in 2009.
Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered by astronomer Alan Hale and amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp July 23, 1995. According to the Wikipedia entry there might be a record in ancient Egypt of HaleThe Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with Tashkent as its capital, was created within the RSFSR April 30, 1918. The name varied. It was abolished October 27, 1924 and ultimately divided into the Central Asian republics of the USSR, today independent countries.-Bopp's previous entry into the inner solar system in July 2215 BCE; the comet won't appear again for thousands of years. One prediction was ~August 6, 4393.
The Downing Street Minutes came from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans to engineer a war with Iraq. The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered or suppressed by the US mainstream media. Given how the mainstream media is today regarding Ukraine, investigations into the Bidens versus investigations into Trump, etc. the idea that they brazenly suppressed news for the Bush administration has become much more believable
WHO declared the 2022 global monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern July 23, 2022: www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/monkeypox-outbreak-constitutes-global-health-emergency-who-2022-07-23/
Friday, July 24, 1998 a gunman killed two Capitol Police officers and wounded a tourist at the US Capitol, apparently the first killing of a Capitol Police officer in an attack and the first gunfire in the building since a March 1, 1954 attack by Puerto Rican nationalists, which resulted in injuries only, prior to 2021: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/shooting/stories/main072598.htm Shooter Russell Eugene Weston Jr had been known to the Secret Service since 1996, but was judged mentally ill. In July 1996 he had been allowed into the headquarters of the CIA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_Capitol_shooting
US forces invaded Puerto Rico July 25, 1898 during the Spanish-American War, first coming ashore in Guánica. See also: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/07/from-rebel-to-revolutionary-war-on-war.html
Presenter Razia Iqbal, based in the US, left the BBC around July 18 or 25th.
Inca emperor Atahualpa was given a sort of trial and executed by the Spanish force under Francisco Pizarro around July 26, 1533. Pizarro was assassinated June 26, 1541 in infighting among the conquistadors.
After the possibility of electoral politics was foreclosed, former Cuban congressional candidate Fidel Castro led an armed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba July 26, 1953, which was unsuccessful. The 26th of July Movement was formed a few years later during the Cuban Revolution, which succeeded in removing Fulgencio Batista and then moved in a socialist direction, providing an example and resource for resistance to imperialism in the Americas and elsewhere. [July 26th is a Cuban national holiday. See also: www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/26/the-ongoing-infowar-against-cuba-from-the-moncada-assault-to-the-embargo/ , consortiumnews.com/2022/07/26/john-pilger-on-the-urgency-to-free-assange/ , and consortiumnews.com/2022/07/26/pressure-on-biden-to-remove-cuba-from-terror-list/ ,
Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and barred Israeli ships from the Straits of Tiran July 26, 1956, leading to the Suez Crisis.
The Nigerien presidential guard overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum [on the left?] July 26, 2023. July 30th ECOWAS threatened a military response if Bazoum is not restored to power within a week. By July 31st Mali and Burkina Faso said that they would give Niger military support if it were attacked and Guinea said that it will not participate in sanctions. These three countries have also had military coups recently, forcing the French and other NATO country military forces to relocate to Niger, also a source of uranium, gold, and oil. The Russian Wagner Group replaced French forces in Mali.
The Korean War armstice began July 27, 1953 and has continued ever since. ROK president Syngman Rhee did not sign the document. In DPR Korea July 27th is commemorated as the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War. Recent news coverage used the anniversary in 2023 to cast the DPRK as warlike and in with those deplorable Russians, while the ROK was appropriately somber, despite its role in starting the war and massacring supposed leftists and their relatives. In addition the "UN" forces killed refugees, threatened to use nuclear weapons, was been accused of actually using biological weapons, etc. To be fair, both sides were accused of committing war crimes.
July 27th is Remembrance Day for Child Victims of the Donbass War: ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/07/27/today-is-remembrance-day-for-child-victims-of-the-donbass-war-130-of-them/
World War I began July 28, 1914 with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand June 28th.
There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County July 29 or August 5, 1781.
The Japanese destroyer Hatsushimo survived the sacrificial Operation Ten-Go / the Battle of the East China Sea, but was sunk July 30, 1945 near Maizuru by a mine dropped from the air, becoming the 129th and last destroyer lost by Japan during WWII.
In another drone strike, a CIA drone allegedly killed al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan around 6am July 31, 2022, without any non-combatant casualties, and the Taliban was accused of violating promises not to allow terrorist actions originating in the country.
The cross-quarter day Lammas / Loaf Mass Day Gaelic Lughnasadh / Lughnasa is August 1st.
The USA occupied Haiti July 28, 1915 to August 1, 1934 and another military intervention is being planned in 2023.
Asteriod 15 Eunomia, one of the largest, was discovered July 29, 1851 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.
UFOs were detected on radar and seen over Washington DC July 12 – 29, 1952, with the result that the government decided that UFOs needed to be just gotten rid of by debunking, by any means, perhaps reminiscent of the way the government and other elites fear that they are losing narrative control in many areas today, though the media sidelines "expertise" itself at times. "Inconvenient truth[s]" about the government, wars, etc. are whispered or swept under the rug, and people often don't notice, apparently. Or the idea of UFOs/'UAPs" can be used in psychological operations. [It turns out that there is an old term, something like Unknown Atmospheric Phenomenon, UAP, separate from the US government's UAP, unidentified aerial/anomalous phenomenon, but it refers to meteorological anomalies like ball lightning.]
The discovery of the distant dwarf planets Eris and Makemake was announced July 29, 2005, and the discovery of Haumea had been announced on the 27th. The objects had actually been first observed months earlier. Makemake is named for a god from Rapa Nui / Easter Island.
Tanabata and related traditional festivals in East Asia (Tanabata is the Japanese version) are held in July and August; Wikipedia gives one date as August 22nd; a new way of celebrating is to turn off the lights and go outside to look at the stars. Bon, another Japanese festival is held between in July and September; Wikipedia gives one date as August 30th. The Philadelphia, PA Obon Festival is around August 12th.
Two pilots reported a UFO a short distance south of High Point, NC July 11, 1947 at 7:20pm, according to the book Weird Carolinas. I need to post an early 19th century report from around July 17th. There was a report in Orange County in the Daily Tar Heel several years ago, I think in the summer, but I will have to look for it. Many interesting reports are probably not publicized at the time or mentioned in published works. A UFO reportedly hovered over a Duke Power substation in Mount Airy, NC for nearly 45 minutes very early in the morning one day in August 1968. There is another report, from Copeland, NC, October 19, 1973.
Durham's May sister city Toyama (富山市), Japan, in Toyama Prefecture, on the west coast, was devastated by Allied bombing August 1 – 2, 1945. I realized that Toyama might also be Japan-US political prisoner Tsutomu Shirosaki's hometown: denverabc.wordpress.com/prisoners-dabc-supports/political-prisoners-database/tsutomu-shirosaki/
The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the PCMLE, was founded in August (Wikipedia says the date was August 1, 1964, but this might be inaccurate).
August 1st – 7th is World Breastfeeding Week: www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_1
The NC Green Party again gained state recognition, with difficulty, August 1, 2022.
Oklahoma's Green Corn Rebellion over US entry into WWI and drafting was August 2 - 3, 1917.
Nancy Pelosi and five other Democratic members of Congress made a state visit to Taiwan August 2-3, 2022, the highest American official to go there since Newt Gingrich went in 1997. This enraged China, which began holding military exercises around the island, also involving Japan; sanctioned Pelosi and her family; etc. The new Republican leadership of the House followed Pelosi's lead and has also met with the Taiwanese leadership. The Kuomintang lost the Chinese civil war on the mainland to the CPC, but maintained a US-protected dictatorship on Taiwan for decades, with political reforms not that long ago. There might not be a direct parallel in US history, but the US government often considers neighboring countries such as Cuba to rightfully be under its control, and imagine the reaction if a country substantially supported the movements seeking independence for parts of the USA today, such as Puerto Rico. The US Civil War was almost internationalized by military interventions on both sides, which could have created two "American" states, similar to how China, Korea, and other nations are divided now.
Irish nationalist Thomas Francis Meagher was born August 3, 1823 in Waterford City, in southeastern Ireland, in the province of Munster.
During Pelosi's official visit to Taiwan the world's largest naval exercise was going on, the biennial RIMPAC, Rim of the Pacific Amphibious Assault Training, June 29th - August 4th: unac.notowar.net/2022/08/10/u-s-media-hide-military-threats-vs-china/ Training for an amphibious invasion seems like preparation more suited for international aggression than defense.
[A supernova in Cassiopeia in our galaxy was recorded in China and Japan August 4-6, 1181.]
Around August 4, 2023 Ukraine attacked a Russia-flagged civilian tanker in the Black Sea, before such an attack by Russia.
WNBA player Brittney Griner, allegedly held by Russia as a political hostage, was sentenced to 9 years in prison and fined August 4, 2022, after admitting to breaking Russian law. How many Americans and others does the US government imprison for marijuana and other "drug" law violations, often with onerous sentences, and how many Americans are held by other countries for similar drug crimes, but without much, or any, publicity? Allegedly more Americans are "hostages" of governments than of non-state actors. The US government claims that, unlike its enemies, it doesn't take political hostages and that US justice is blind, yet the US is holding Colombian Alex Saab to attack Venezuela, wants vengeance against Australian journalist Julian Assange, persuaded Canada to hold Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of CEO Ren Zhangfei, from late 2018 to September 24, 2021 for allegedly violating the USA's sanctions on Iran, and there are questions about Aafia Siddiqui, considered a political prisoner by many Pakistanis, among other high-profile prisoners.
The Civil War sea and land Battle of Mobile Bay was August 5, 1864. US admiral Farragut is supposed to have ordered "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!," but that might not have actually happened. Torpedoes referred to naval mines at the time.
Friedrich Engels died August 5, 1895 in London, UK of throat cancer. His ashes were spread in the English Channel off of the high white chalk sea cliffs of Beachy Head in East Sussex, England.
Gratien Fernando was executed August 5 for leading the Cocos Islands Mutiny, May 8-9, 1942, for Sri Lankan independence. Two others were also executed, the only such executions of British Commonwealth soldiers during WWII. Fernando was apparently influenced by a Sri Lankan Trotskyist party and tried to contact Imperial Japanese forces. The Cocos Islands are islands in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia, now held by Australia, and were apparently uninhabited when they were discovered by the East India Company in 1609.
The US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima a little after 8am on August 6, 1945. The UK consented under the Quebec Agreement.
[Jonathan Peter Jackson was killed August 7, 1970 trying to liberate the Soledad Brothers in an attack on the Marin County Civic Center, containing the courthouse for San Rafael, California.]: www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/08/20/long-live-the-spirit-of-jonathan-jackson/
The USSR and Mongolia entered the war against Japan very early on August 9th, as had long been requested by the other Allies, and quickly advanced deep into Japanese-held areas.
The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki August 9, 1945 after 11am when the cloud cover that would have saved the city broke (Wikipedia articles say that the primary target August 9th was Kokura and that it had been the alternative target on August 6th). The bomb used on Hiroshima was set to explode as it fell, while the bomb used on Nagasaki exploded at ground level, but hills deflected some of the force. Unlike in Hiroshima there wasn't a firestorm. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both hit by atomic bombs (as opposed to more destructive hydrogen or thermonuclear bombs based on nuclear fusion and first developed by the USA for use during the Cold War), but the designs differed. A recent article claims that the bombing targeted a cathedral and killed many of Japan's Christians: www.globalresearch.ca/77th-anniversary-bombing-nagasaki-unwelcome-truths-church-state/5789189
August 9th is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples: www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day
The first post on My Bush-Cheney impeachment blog Downing Street Action NC was August 9, 2005 and the so far last post was January 22, 2009. I had thought that I had posted here later. The name refers to the July 23 item.
[The FBI killed rightist Craig DeLeeuw Robertson August 9th in conducting a search in Provo, Utah.]
[Jeffrey Epstein is supposed to have committed suicide in the NYC's Metropolitan Correctional Center August 10, 2019]
[August 10th the Russian Luna 25 robotic mission to the Moon's south pole launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome; apparently Russia is no longer dependent on its Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, though Vostochny borders China, an enemy not that many decades ago. There are apparently several locations other than Baikonur. Russia used to want a warm-water port, and now it lacks a spaceport near the equator, where it is easier to get into orbit.]
The beginning date of the Long Count calendar used by the Maya is usually thought to have been August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar, though this could be inaccurate. Another date in the Long Count was the origin of the December 21, 2012 end of the world claims. A metaphorical world ending or apocalypse can also be seen as the prelude to the creation of a new and maybe different world.
The Unite the Right Rally was August 11-12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Several meteor showers are visible now; the Perseids peak August 12-13, and fall from July 14 to September 1st, originating from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle: amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
The last captive quagga, thought to be a subspecies of the plains zebra, native to South Africa, died August 12, 1883 at the Natura Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
An August 12, 1898 armistice ended the Spanish-American War, with a peace treaty signed in Paris December 10th and ratified by the US Senate February 6th.
International Youth Day is August 12th: www.un.org/en/observances/youth-day
[A "Great American" solar eclipse on August 12, 2045 visible from California to Florida will have 6 minutes, 6 seconds of totality.]
The Mexican capital Tenochtitlan fell to a force of several hundred Spaniards and thousands of Indian allies under Hernando Cortés around August 13, 1521 [the data in the Julian calendar, the corrected date could be August 21st], following a long siege and attack by land and water (the city was set in a large lake, Lake Texcoco, and crossed by many canals). Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc (his predecessor Cuitláhuac, who replaced Moctezuma II, had died of disease in 1520) was captured as a flotilla attempted to escape the last assault in Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlan's connected sister city. Tens to hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants were killed in battle and by massacres (also involving rape and looting), disease epidemics, and starvation, similar to the numbers killed by atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Much of Tenochtitlan was levelled during the war and modern Mexico City sits on the ruins. In all, several thousand Spanish and native allies (the majority of casualties were allies), were killed. The Spanish force included some non-Spaniards and women.
Societies might not have known about Tenochtitlan and the rest of the Valley of Mexico, but populous Tenochtitlan and the surrounding region could be considered a cultural and political capital of North America in its time, similar to New York City, Washington, and Los Angeles today. It was the capital of one of the most politically and culturally powerful states in pre-Columbian North America. I think objects from Mesoamerican cultures have been found as far away as the Southwest and Eastern US, though it is an open question what people there knew about the objects. It seems to be less popular in archaeology today to discuss mutual influence between Mesoamerica and cities such as Cahokia, across the Mississippi from what is today St. Louis, and Pueblo Bonito in northwest New Mexico. Maize formed the basis of the economy over much of the Pre-Columbian Americas and is thought to have been domesticated in what is now Mexico, though that was long before the Mexica and might have started in a different region.
[Amateur astronomer David Fabricus is credited with discovering the variability in brightness of the star Mira, "the Wonderful," or Omicron Ceti, in the neck of the monster Cetus, a massive but dim constellation visible in the south early in the morning now, called the "Whale." He first observed Mira August 13, 1596 and soon thought that it was a nova. This was the first known discovery of a variable star and Mira or long-period variables are a class of variable. Mira received its name from Johannes Hevelius in 1662. Cetus is inconspicuous, but right now very bright Jupiter is positioned between Aries, also inconspicuous, and Cetus' head, in the southern sky; apparently planets, etc. can appear in Cetus, though it isn't classified as a member of the zodiac. The constellations Andromeda, Pegasus, Pisces, Aquarius, Piscis Austrinus, Taurus, Perseus, and Eridanus are nearby and Cepheus and Cassiopeia are visible by the north celestial pole. Saturn is relatively bright further west in Aquarius, I think having moved from very dim Capricornus; Saturn will be opposite to the Sun August 27th and at maximum brightness by the 16th, and the Moon will be full twice in the month, August 1st and 30th. Uranus is in Aries and Neptune is in Pisces – penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Cetus*.html ]
[A year ago: The planet Jupiter will be at opposition September 26, 2022, and also happens to be close to the Sun in its orbit now, so it is physically close to the Earth, at 367 million miles, the closest since October 8, 1963. The next time will be October 7, 2129. Jupiter is easy to see, a bright object visible for much of the night on the celestial equator in the otherwise very dim constellation Pisces, in the southern sky below the rectangle of Pegasus the Winged Horse. Saturn is not as bright, further west in also dim Capricornus, with the relatively bright star Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, in between. There aren't many bright stars low in the south for much of the night at this time of year. Mars is bright in Taurus, east of Jupiter. Neptune reached opposition September 16th in Aquarius. Asteroid 3 Juno, discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding September 1, 1804, is nearby and shines with the same low magnitude as Neptune, and reached opposition September 8th. Uranus, a future destination for NASA probes, is in Aries and will reach opposition in November. Venus might still be visible in the morning at the end of September while the new Moon will be up in the evening.
German socialist Ferdinand August Bebel passed away August 13, 1913 at a sanatorium in Passugg, Switzerland and is buried in Zurich. Lenin wrote a eulogy. Bebel was born February 22, 1840 in Deutz, Germany, now part of the large city of Cologne.
Cuban revolutionary and statesman Fidel Castro was born August 13, 1926 in Birán, Oriente Province, in eastern Cuba.
[Happenings near the Chilbolton Observatory, a radio astronomy hub, in Hampshire, England, on the UK's south coast around August 13, 2001?]
Karl Liebknecht was born August 14, 1871 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany and was a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (which he represented in Prussia's parliament and later in the German Reichstag), the Spartacist League, and the Communist Party of Germany. Along with Rosa Luxemburg he was tortured and executed by Freikorps rightists, supporting the Social-Democratic German government at the end of WWI.
[The Rabaa Massacre was August 14, 2013 I Egypt, following the July 3rd miltary coup. Hundreds to over 1000 protesters were killed and more injured, at two locations in Cairo where they were peacefully protesting the coup against President Mohamed Morsi (August 8, 1951 – June 17, 2019; he died during a trial conducted by the new coup government of el-Sisi). Morsi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.]
Sunday, August 14, 2022 shortly before 4am Richard A York III, 29, from Delaware, reportedly drove into a barricade at the US Capitol, might have set his car on fire, fired in the air, and then killed himself: www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/man-dead-after-driving-car-into-us-capitol-barricade-overnight/3132851/ , www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-08-14/police-man-killed-himself-after-ramming-us-capitol-barrier
[Hardial Bains, August 15, 1939 – August, 24, 1997, founder of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and other organizations in a few countries: cpcml.ca/230812-hardial-bains/ ]
In a recorded radio broadcast at noon on August 15, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announced domestically that Japan had surrendered to the Allies . [This is a holiday in in the DPRK and ROK.]
British colonial India was partitioned into India and Pakistan (at the time Bangladesh was East Pakistan) and they gained independence at midnight August 15, 1947, leading to sectarian violence and territorial disputes.
[The SETI “Wow! signal” was detected August 15, 1977 by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope and might have come from a location in the direction of the relatively bright star Tau Sagittarii, thought to be 122 light years away. If the constellation Sagittarius the Archer, visible low in the southern sky for much of the night now, is seen as a teacup, Tau Sagittarii is in the lower or middle part of the handle, on the east side. On the anniversary in 2012 about 10,000 tweets, and celebrity videos, were collected by the National Geographic Channel and sent towards possible sources of the Wow! signal by Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory. The Arecibo Observatory formally opened November 1, 1963, under the DoD, and came under National Science Foundation ownership October 1, 1969. The 1000 foot wide Arecibo Telescope suffered major structural failures in August and November 2020 and collapsed around 7:56am December 1st that year. The NSF had planned to build a new large radio telescope at the Observatory, but that was cancelled by 2022. Other astronomical and educational facilities are still in use at the Observatory, which is valued by both locals and visitors. China's 500 meter or 1600 foot wide FAST or Tianyan came online in 2016 and opened in 2020, the world's largest single dish radio telescope, though there are far larger arrays composed of many small radio telescopes. The OSU Radio Observatory or Big Ear, in Delaware, Ohio, was sold and used for golf course expansion in 1998.]
The Taliban seized Kabul August 15, 2021.
[A supernova was seen in the Andromeda Galaxy August 17, 1885, the first supernova seen in another galaxy and the only one seen in the Andromeda Galaxy; it peaked August 21st.]
[The USSR's Venera 7 probe was launched toward Venus August 17, 1970.]
[The Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika became the first surface vessel to reach the North Pole, August 17, 1977.]
KPD leader Ernst Thalmann was killed August 18, 1944.
The US Constitution's 19th (XIX) Amendment, giving women the right to vote, was ratified by enough states to be adopted, August 18, 1920.
[August 21, 1521 could be the corrected date in the Gregorian calendar of the fall of Aztec capital Tenochtitlan to the Spanish and allied Indian army of Hernando Cortés.]
[Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev, famous for his work on the Periodic Table, observed the August 19, 1887 solar eclipse from a hot air balloon about two miles up.]
[Gorbachev was overthrown in the August Coup, August 19-22, 1991, but it failed and the USSR was dissolved at the end of the year.]
World Humanitarian Day is August 19th: www.un.org/en/observances/humanitarian-day
Russian journalist Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, 29, daughter of rightist author Aleksandr Dugin, was killed in a car bombing August 20, 2022 around 9:45pm local time near Moscow. Her father was in another car and it is possible that he was the intended target. They both supported Russia attacking Ukraine. Russia accuses Ukraine of responsibility and says that the culprit fled to Estonia. I got the impression of glee or at least lack of concern from NPR staff, and that is probably true of other mainstream media. Imagine if vocal supporters of US aggression against countries such as Iraq, Libya, and Syria; their family members; and pro-government journalists were targets for terrorism. Even non-violent protests outside the homes of US officials are being condemned. The mainstream media gives the impression that Russians have done more to oppose the war in Ukraine than many in the US have done to oppose recent American wars of aggression. In 1989 there seems to have been an attempt at retaliation against the family of the captain of the USS Vincennes for the downing of civilian Iran Air Flight 655 in July 3, 1988. It could be asked if Ukraine or others will start assassinating people in "Western" countries opposed to NATO involvement as the war drags on. Americans are already on Ukraine's blacklist: consortiumnews.com/2022/07/27/us-should-not-fund-ukrainian-blacklist/ Roger Waters joins a 13 year old Ukrainian girl, Scott Ritter, Henry Kissinger, the assassinated Dugina, assassinated Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli (September 27, 1983 - May 24, 2014, killed with others near Sloviansk), and thousands of others on Ukraine's doxxing and killing list: covertactionmagazine.com/2022/08/29/roger-waters-added-to-ukrainian-hit-list/
The Hopkinsville Goblins, Kelly Little Green Men, or the Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO encounter was in southwestern Kentucky near Hopkinsville and Kelly August 21, 1955. Some have attributed the events, including gun fire and a perceived siege, to a meteor, a family of irate great horned owls, and bioluminescent fungi, but did they even check whether there is such a bioluminescent fungi present in the area [and would owls, apparently impervious to bullets, beseige a house?]? There is or was a festival commemorating the event, possibly a victim of the pandemic: www.kellyky.com/
[George Lester Jackson was killed at California's San Quentin State Prison August 21, 1971 , an event that possibly helped spark the uprising at the Attica prison in New York state in mid-September of that year: www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/08/20/long-live-the-spirit-of-jonathan-jackson/ ]
The International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism Day is August 21st: www.un.org/en/observances/terrorism-victims-day
The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief is August 22nd: www.un.org/en/observances/religious-based-violence-victims-day
The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition is August 23rd, commemorating the beginning the Haitian Revolution on the night of August 22 - 23, 1791 in what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo: www.unesco.org/en/days/slave-trade-remembrance
The Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the USSR was signed August 23, 1939, following the failure of negotiations with the UK and other European states to deter Germany, giving the USSR more time to prepare for a German attack and survive WWII: ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/WBBJVSNaziPact.htm Today several imperialist countries and organizations, such as the EU and Canada, equate socialism and fascism every August 23rd, while collaborating with US wars of aggression, disappearances, and torture; Zionist aggression; fascists in Ukraine; Islamist terrorists in Afghanistan and Syria; rightist coups in Latin America; etc.
[India's Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed at the lunar south pole August 23, 2023, making India the 4th country to perform a soft landing on the Moon and the first to land at the south pole, where there might be valuable water ice. The media was probably more congratulatory and open minded than if the Russian mission had succeeded or if the DPRK had successfully launched its reconnaissance satellite, though the DPRK has another launch scheduled.]
[The Wagner Group was allegedly decapitated in an airplane crash near Kuzhenkino, Tver Oblast, Russia August 23, 2023.]
France tested a thermonuclear device August 24, 1968 at the Fangataufa atoll in French Polynesia.
[Samantha Reed Smith, born June 29, 1972 in Houlton, Maine and famous for her correspondence with Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, was killed in an airplane crash August 25, 1985 in Auburn, Maine.]
German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born August 27, 1770 in Stuttgart, Germany; his thought was a major influence in the later development of Marxism.
[Saturn, in dim Aquarius to the south, will be opposite the Sun August 27th and was already at maximum brightness by the 16th.]
[National Hunger Strike Commemoration for the events around 1981 will be in Cork City, Ireland this Sunday August 27th, at 2pm at Kennedy Quay, according to a Sinn Féin email.]
Naturalist, author, and illustrator Roger Tory Peterson, famous for the series of Peterson field guides, was born 114 years ago, August 28, 1908, in Jamestown, New York and passed away July 28, 1996 in Old Lyme, Connecticut. There are events at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown: rtpi.org/
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was August 28, 1963.
The USSR's first nuclear test, RDS-1, was early on August 29, 1949 in Semipalatinsk in the Kazakh SSR, ending the USA's nuclear monopoly and blackmail.
The International Day Against Nuclear Tests is August 29th: www.un.org/en/observances/end-nuclear-tests-day , established December 2, 2009 by an unanimous vote of the UN's General Assembly. I was surprised to learn that the US detonated nuclear weapons as recently as 1992 and France and China in 1996, among other countries: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States%27_nuclear_weapons_tests
The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is August 30th: www.un.org/en/observances/victims-enforced-disappearance
Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer using a home-made telescope in Crimea, discovered 2I/Borisov August 30, 2019, the first known interstellar comet and the second known interstellar object observed travelling through our solar system. It is possible that the first meteor from outside the Solar System was recently discovered. Comet Borisov isn't expected to return. The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, thought to be natural, though some have suggested that it could be artificial, was discovered October 19, 2017, and there was been discussion of sending a probe after it.
The US and allied military forces withdrew from Afghanistan by the end of August 2022, but the US continues to bomb the country and cause economic hardship and death for Afghan civilians.
August 31st is the International Day for People of African Descent and the International Decade for People of African Descent is 2015-2024: un.org/en/observances/african-descent-day
Asteroid 3 Juno was discovered September 1, 1804 by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding (September 29, 1765 in Lauenburg – August 31, 1834 in Göttingen).
The Communist Party USA was founded September 1, 1919.
Martha, a captive passenger pigeon at the Cincinnati Zoo, the last known member of her species, died September 1st, 1914 early in the afternoon. Passenger pigeons may have been the most abundant bird ever known, their flocks darkening the sky, but they were exterminated by habitat loss and wanton hunting.
Using false flag attacks to create a justification for war, Germany invaded Poland September 1, 1939, which the US-UK media portraying as the start of WWII, though other regional wars that later merged with the world war had already begun. If humanity exists much longer, might future historians will say that we are at the beginning of a global war now, and what will they say about the USA and NATO's decades of continuous war, over much of the world?
[Qaddafi's Free Officer Movement overthrew the Libyan monarchy September 1, 1969.]
Japan Dolphin Day, presumably protesting the killing of dolphins, is supposed to be September 1st.
[Sirte was the capital of Libya September 1-October 2011, when Qaddafi was killed.]
Imperial Japan formally surrendered September 2, 1945 on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. There were other surrenders elsewhere.
[September 2nd is Vietnam's National Day, marking independence in 1945: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/M53009.HTM#10 ]
Vietnamese revolutionary and national liberation leader Ho Chi Minh passed away September 2, 1969.
Labor Day, is Monday, September 4th in the USA and Canada. Unions called for the creation of a day for workers in the late 19th century, with some advocating a date in September, and the government supported a September date instead of May 1st, associated with revolutionary labor movements. Around the world May Day is labor day or an official holiday in many countries, such as Mexico, and that date also has roots in the American labor movement. Beginning under Eisenhower May 1st has been called Loyalty Day and Law Day and previously it was Child Health Day. The ROK seems to entirely lack a labor day.
The US-mediated Treaty of Portsmouth, negotiated at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, ended the Russo-Japanese War, September 5, 1905.
[Anti-Cop City RICO September 5th: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/09/bap-atlanta-says-free-them-all.html and www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/17/the-racketeering-of-state-violence/ ]
The last captive Tasmanian tiger or Thylacine, a male called Benjamin, died at Australia's Hobart Zoo September 7, 1936. Tasmanian tigers, large, striped predatory marsupials, are considered extinct, though sightings are still reported.
[International Manatee Day is September 7th.]
Annual International Vulture Awareness Day is September 7th [the 2nd, the first Saturday in September]: www.vultureday.org , celebrating these majestic, interesting, ecologically vital, and in many cases threatened birds.
Around here there are two species, turkey and black vultures. They look and act somewhat differently, but they can easily be distinguished by the light and dark patterns on the undersides of their wings and the way they hold their wings in flight. The trailing side of a larger turkey vulture's wing is whitish, while black vultures have whitish triangles at their wingtips. Turkey vultures find carrion by smell, while black vultures rely on sight. A few decades ago if not today there were concerns that black vultures were in decline in North Carolina, and both species have become less common with land use changes and changes in sanitation. They often nest in abandoned rural buildings. [A few more species live south of the US today, including king vultures, and apparently New World and Old World vultures aren't very related.]
The International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies is September 7th, with the theme "Together for Clean Air:" un.org/en/observances/clean-air-day
International Literacy Day is September 8th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks The success of Cuba's 1961 literacy campaign and later initiatives both in Cuba and as aid to other countries have often been noted.
The International Day of Journalists' Solidarity (generally excluding journalists from or sympathetic to non-"Western" countries, especially countries whose governments the US seeks to overthrow) is September 8th: ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/09/11/western-media-continues-to-ignore-ukraines-public-kill-list-aimed-at-those-who-question-the-kiev-regime/ I'm surprised that the mainstream media occasionally brought up Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist with Al-Jazeera who was shot to death May 11, 2022 in Jenin in the West Bank, most likely by the Israeli military, for several months.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the DPRK, was established September 9, 1948. The Republic of Korea had been established earlier that year, cementing the post-WWII division of Korea and helping to create a cold war with the threat of total destruction where there had been an alliance between the USA and USSR.
World Suicide Prevention Day was September 10th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
The Chilean military overthrew elected president Salvador Allende September 11, 1973 with the heavy involvement of the US government (far more than Russia was alleged to have done in 2016). Allende died in the defense of the presidential palace or by suicide. In the coup and later years tens of thousands of people were arrested, tortured, or killed, and the dead include US citizens and a car bombing in Washington, DC September 21, 1976. There was some armed popular resistance on and after September 11th. Following the coup Augusto Pinochet came to power and this era is praised by neoliberal economists and rightists in the USA and EU even today. See also this article from A Verdade: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-verdade-financed-by-us-dictatorships.html
This year is the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks, the justification for decades of war, torture, attacks on constitutional rights and international law, etc. So much has changed since the summer of 2001 and it continues, with attacks on Afghanistan, the prisoners in Gitmo, etc., though now the US government is focusing on Russia, China, and information warfare, and climate change is making itself ever more clearly.
The Benghazi attack in Libya was September 11, 2012.
[The Flatwoods Monster UFO encounter was September 12, 1952, starting around 7:15pm, in Braxton County, in central West Virginia, and again has been attributed to a meteor, a passing airplane, an owl, etc. There is a museum in Sutton, WV and there is or was a festival: braxtonwv.org/things-to-do/attractions/all-things-paranormal/flatwoodsmonsterhome/ ]
[Apparently Point Pleasant, WV's Mothman Festival will be September 16 – 17, though the original flap of sightings was something like November 15, 1966 – December 15, 1967, when the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapsed; note the 2002 movie and John Keel's 1975 book; people still report sightings in various places: www.mothmanfestival.com/ ][Wikipedia notes belled buzzards in Western NC around November 20, 1855, etc., new to me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belled_buzzard ]
National Estuaries Week will be September 14 - 21.
International Day of Democracy is September 15th: www.un.org/en/observances/democracy-day
Mexico's Independence Day is September 16th, commemorating Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores) in 1810.
[Libya's Lion of the Desert, Omar al-Mukhṭār Muḥammad bin Farḥāṭ al-Manifī, August 20, 1858 – September 16, 1931, fought Italian, French, and British colonialism in the Sahara.]
The International Day for Preservation of the Ozone Layer is September 16th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks September 16, 2009 agreements protecting the ozone layer became the first universally ratified UN treaties. The ozone layer (made of a form of oxygen) absorbs some ultraviolet light, but is depleted by industrial chemicals, such as CFCs, which are also potent greenhouse gases.
[World Water Monitoring Day September 18th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_dates ?]
[Betty and Barney Hill, a multiracial couple [it has been suggested that this is relevant information], are supposed to have been abducted by a UFO the night of September 19-20, 1961 in rural New Hampshire. A chart recalled under hypnosis led to the idea that there is a gray alien presence around Zeta Reticuli, a binary star in Reticulum, a small and dim far southern constellation near the south celestial pole, not visible from here [on second thought, maybe part of it comes above the horizon here]. Ufonauts have been claimed to come from many planets in this solar system and elsewhere. I wonder if China or another country will have a similar "Space Age," and would the term "astronaut" become outdated if human spaceflight were more extensive.]
The Petrozavodsk phenomenon was seen from Denmark to the Soviet Far East September 20, 1977, but is named for the capital of the Karelian ASSR, bordering Finland. Some have attributed it to the launch of Kosmos-955 the same day; the satellite returned to Earth September 8, 2000.
The Soviet probe Zond 5 was the first spacecraft to travel around the Moon, and carried several plants and animals. There was also a fake radio transmission, as if cosmonauts were onboard. The mission was September 14 - 2l, 1968.
The International Day of Peace is September 21st: www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace
In the Vela Incident on September 22, 1979 a possible nuclear test was detected in the Indian Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica. There were many theories, including that it was a joint test by South Africa and Israel. Israel is generally thought to have hundreds of nuclear weapons today and South Africa developed and then dismantled its nuclear weapons.
[German astronomer Joann Gottfried Galle, at the Berlin Observatory, discovered the planet Neptune September 23-25, 1846, when it was close to the star Deneb Algedi (meaning tail of the goat), at the east corner of Capricornus the Sea Goat, visible near Aquila the Eagle and Aquarius (marked by Saturn) for much of the night now. Neptune is currently in or near Pisces the Fish, visible around early morning, bordered by Pegasus, Andromeda, and Cetus, and Neptune will be at opposition September 19th. It is apparently the windiest planet and many "sub-Neptunes" have been discovered. Astronomers can crow that Neptune's existence had been predicted mathematically based on perturbations in the orbit of newly discovered Uranus, another ice giant. Apparently Neptune had been noted by Galileo December 28, 1612 and January 27, 1613; by the Paris Observatory May 8 and 10, 1795; and by John Herschel July 14, 1830.
Deneb Algedi: penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Capricornus*.html ]
[The northern hemisphere's fall equinox will be September 23rd in 2023, also the first day of the traditional Libra astrological period.]
National Hunting and Fishing Day is September 24th [September 23rd NC WRC events: www.ncwildlife.org/nhfd?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nc-wildlife-update&utm_content=Copy+of+September+NC+Wildlife+Update ].
[World Rivers Day, the last Sunday in September, the 24th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_dates and www.americanrivers.org/ ]
[OSIRIS-REx returns with a sample of asteroid Bennu September 24th: www.planetary.org/space-missions/osiris-rex ]
The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is September 26th: www.un.org/en/observances/nuclear-weapons-elimination-day The USA, Russia, and other major nuclear powers demand that smaller countries completely and unilaterally denuclearize, and not develop rockets that could carry nuclear weapons, while they have thousands of nuclear weapons ready to destroy humanity and instead of beginning to get rid of them, they spend huge amounts to maintain their current weapons and develop new ones. The US also engages in a large amount of nuclear proliferation, by giving other countries nuclear weapons and by shielding weapon development by its allies. The use of nuclear-powered submarines is also seen as threatening, though they might not be better weapons than conventional submarines.
Iraq was falsely accused of developing nuclear weapons, and was invaded in 2003, killing many civilians and leading to sectarian conflict and the creation of ISIS.
Libya gave up its weapons program and was then attacked [by NATO countries] in 2011, creating a "failed state" and a flood of migrants through Libya to the EU [and a literal flood September 10-11, 2023 in Derna, also a center of violent Islamists].
Democrats and Republicans accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and it is under severe pressure and faces war, despite not developing nuclear weapons while under threat from nuclear powers. Iran agreed to abide by the JCPOA, which Trump unilaterally rendered void and Biden refuses restore it, though trading with Iran might reduce fuel costs and improve the Democrats' electoral prospects. Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The DPRK developed nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles [and soon missile submarines], and now seems relatively safe from attack by the USA and other countries, though that is not only because of its nuclear status, and nuclear weapons give the US another justification for its Korean policies. On the other hand, the US doesn't mind when its allies, such as the UK, Israel, India, develop nuclear weapons and even helps them.
World Maritime Day is also September 26th: www.un.org/en/events/maritimeday/
Toughie, the last known Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog, died September 26, 2016 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The species had been scientifically discovered in 2005 in a small area of cloud forest on the Pacific side of Panama.
The border between Colombia and Venezuela reopened September 26, 2022, after being closed due to the US and Colombian attempts to start a coup in Venezuela during the Trump years, not that the Biden administration doesn't want to overthrow the "communist" Bolivarian social-democrats. Even Bernie Sanders on the left of the Democratic Party called Hugo Chavez a "communist dictator." NPR blamed all of the border problems on Venezuelan 'authoritarianism,' rather than foreign powers led by the USA trying to impose a rightist puppet government on Venezuela, as Trump and Obama attempted with varying degrees of success in Cuba, Bolivia, and Honduras.
NASA moved an asteroid slightly (DART), to test a method of "planetary defense," September 26, 2022. On the one hand, a large asteroid hitting the Earth would probably cause a mass extinction, but humans are currently causing a mass extinction and not very interested in stopping it. Humanity probably couldn't have evolved without the extraterrestrial impact about 65 million years ago, or whatever caused the mass extinction that ended the age of the dinosaurs, an impact being the leading "American" Space Age theory. What if we were unlucky and something much larger was hurtling towards the Earth? Supposedly just Comet Hale-Bopp would be far worse. I read that if an alien civilization, perhaps upset by an intentional human signal, could fire off a weapon the size of a car, traveling near the speed of light, the force of the impact would devastate the Earth. I'm not sure if the claim was that the Earth would be destroyed or just damaged. At some point China or some other new superpower might claim to be the defender of the Earth from cosmic dangers and the new representative of humanity. Asteroid Dimorphos was discovered November 20, 2003.
Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli (September 27, 1983 – May 24, 2014) and Andrei Mironov (March 31, 1954 – May 24, 2014) were killed, maybe with others, near Sloviansk in Donetsk; in the end a Ukrainian National Guard soldier and Italian citizen was acquitted on appeal: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Rocchelli
Japanese leftist Fusako Shigenobu was born September 28, 1945 in Setagaya, Tokyo: thefunambulist.net/magazine/decentering-the-us/fusako-shigenobu-an-open-ended-revolution See also throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/reflecting-legacy-fusako-shigenobu/
[Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein January 15, 1918-September 28, 1970]
World Rabies Day was September 28th: www.who.int/rabies/WRD_landing_page/en/ I heard from a local licensed wildlife rehabilitator that vaccination against this almost universally fatal virus is offered by the Durham County Health Department, and immunity usually lasts a long time, but the vaccination is expensive.
September 28th is the International Day for Universal Access to Information: www.un.org/en/observances/information-access-day
[The Libyan Great Man-Made River has several anniversaries on or near August 28th and September 28th; for example Qaddafi placed a foundation stone August 28, 1984, one of two plants making the pipes was inaugurated by Qaddafi August 28, 1986 in Brega, and water first reached Gharyan in the NW September 28, 2007. The Brega plant was bombed by NATO July 22, 2011.]
[Michaelmas is September 29th, a British quarter day, or November 8th.]
[The Italo-Turkish War was September 29, 1911-October 18, 1912.]
Mao proclaimed the PRC October 1, 1949 in Tiananmen.
The legendary founding of Gojoseon October 3, 2333 BCE is a holiday in the ROK and marked in the DPRK.
World Space Week is October 4th - 10th: www.un.org/en/observances/world-space-week
[A supernova was noticed near theta Ophiuchi, a star visible now, around October 10, 1604; this was the last supernova in our galaxy that was definitely seen, it is sometimes called Kepler's Supernova. There was one in Cassiopeia in the late 1600's and in Sagittarius around 1890-1908.]
Niche Gardens, a pioneering native plant nursery a few miles southwest of Carrboro went out of business October 18, 2019. Besides the retail nursery there were display gardens. NCSU graduate Kim Hawks founded Niche Gardens on Dawson Road in 1986, when gardening with native plants was a more unusual concept. The nursery was also a pioneer in selling plants online.
[International Observe the Moon Night is October 21: moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/ ]
[National Reptile Awareness Day October 21st: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_dates ?]
Disarmament Week is October 24th – 30th: www.un.org/en/observances/disarmament-week
Global Media and Information Literacy Week is October 24th – 31st: www.un.org/en/observances/media-information-literacy-week
The last known Labrador duck was a male killed in the fall of 1875 off Long Island, now preserved in Washington, DC. Another specimen was supposed to have been killed December 2, 1878 in Elmira, New York, but the remains have since been lost: web.archive.org/web/20150215071011/http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/labradorduck.htm
Nature writer Edwin Way Teale passed away October 18, 1980. He was born June 2, 1899 in Joliet, Illinois.
The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, thought to be a natural object, though some have suggested that it could be artificial, was discovered October 19, 2017, and there was discussion of sending a probe after it.
[The Great Comet of 1577 reached perihelion round October 27th and was noted 5 days later in Peru. It was noted in the native Mexican Codex Aubin Wednesday, November 6th. It was seen around the world, but it isn't expected to ever return.]
The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with Tashkent as its capital, was created within the RSFSR April 30, 1918. The name varied. It was abolished October 27, 1924 and ultimately divided into the Central Asian republics of the USSR, today independent countries.
[A supernova in Cassiopeia in our galaxy was seen from about November 2, 1572 into 1574 and peaked around November 16th; sometimes called Tycho's Supernova.]
[Travis Walton is supposed to have been abducted by a UFO November 5, 1975 near Snowflake, Arizona, and was missing for a few days.]
[Cortés and part of his army were met by emperor Moctezuma II and peacefully entered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan November 8, 1519.]
[The Arecibo Message was beamed towards globular star cluster M13, about 125,000 light years away, on November 16, 1974. A reciprocal crop circle was found at the south end of the UK in August 2001.]
Fidel Castro, retired at the time, passed away November 25, 2016, outlasting numerous US administrations that tried to assassinate him or overturn the Cuban revolution.
[Artist and music collector Harry Everett Smith, known for compiling the Anthology of American Folk Music, released August 9, 1952, passed away November 27, 1991 in New York City: americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1341/Who-was-Harry-Smith-The-Great-Delineator-and-his-Anthology-of-American-Folk-Music ; folkways.si.edu/anthology-of-american-folk-music/african-american-music-blues-old-time/music/album/smithsonian ]
[The Myrotvorets website, alleged to be a Ukrainian SBU and CIA operation, was created December 15, 2014, according to Wikipedia.]
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