Some links, notes, florilegium
Amphibians out on roads: roadsendnaturalist.com/2024/01/28/celebration-of-life/ and roadsendnaturalist.com/2024/02/13/theyre-at-it-again/
In Atlanta, GA – stopcop.city
ccrjustice.org/supporting-movement-stop-cop-city
2/6 – prisoners striking? – freealabamamovement.wordpress.com
Congressional action – secure.rightsanddissent.org/a/702-secret-session
Red Day Sale at Verso Books February 13-18 – www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/roses-are-red-and-so-am-i-red-day-sale Lenin, etc.
The 14th Amendement – peaceandplanetnews.org/persons-and-constitutional-rights/
peaceandplanetnews.org/for-gods-sake-joe-what-the-hell-are-you-doing/
www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-torture
Canadian Palestine and Rafah protests – cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/MS5411.HTM#1
Electronic Intifada today; Sinn Fein reference – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-y3CdR3Uw
Marianne Williamson out 2/7/2024 and 1/10/2020, she endorsed Bernie Sanders 2/23/20 in TX
Raleigh CC meeting disrupted, ended 2/13 over Palestine; Durham CC in a week?
public.substack.com/p/cia-had-foreign-allies-spy-on-trump
The FBI and Duke – www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/02/duke-university-a-look-back-on-a-century-of-activism-duke-centennial-archives-protests-strikes
A Hulu ad against Gaza? – www.workers.org/2024/02/76888/ ADC on an ad on CBS
"Authoritarian" Nikki Haley in SC – affront the veterans = should not be in the White House and no driving – it is hard to vote in NC without a DL or other ID... www.ncsbe.gov/voting/voter-id NPR's Steve Inskeep brings up her foreign policy experience, versus Trump, which is a negative point.
2013 to today; Amanpour and Co., really – usrussiaaccord.org/acura-viewpoint-james-w-carden-the-disinformation-complex-and-us-foreign-policy/
Cuba; Sign by 2/23 – acere.org/revisit_us_cuba_policy/
Twitter + other EFF articles – SF, CA spying: www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/save-your-twitter-account
New Comprehensive Plan, Durham UDO Rewrite event 2/22 6-7pm: us02web.zoom.us/j/87549148351#success
A Durham ceasefire resolution vote 2/12 (no?), and in Denver, CO? – robertjprince.net/2024/02/12/palestine-tet-104-denver-colorado-to-vote-on-a-ceasefire-proclamation-today-monday-february-12-2024/ And note, in Somaliland: robertjprince.net/2024/02/12/red-sea-tensions-increase/
Watch out for amphibians on roads: roadsendnaturalist.com/2024/01/28/celebration-of-life/
An old forest in the Bronx, NYC: www.atlasobscura.com/places/thain-family-forest
UNAC petition for an anti-war activist targeted in Germany: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/unac-drop-charges-against-war-critic.html
Honduras/JOH actions: actionnetwork.org/letters/take-action-demand-that-congress-investigate-us-complicity-in-the-rise-of-a-narco-state-in-honduras-following-the-2009-coup-detat
In Canada: afgj.salsalabs.org/2024HondurasCANAction/index.html
www.hondurasnow.org/category/campaigns/narco-trial-campaign/ – "JOH" on trial in New York February 12th, not on the 5th?
In prison: www.workers.org/2024/02/76705/
City of Durham surveys, road work schedules www.durhamnc.gov/5099/Roadway-Resurfacing-Projects-in-2024
I missed this earlier – Afton, Warren County anti-PCB dump protests from around 1978; an exhibit was 8/18 – 12/22/02022 at UNC: library.unc.edu/2022/08/we-birthed-the-movement/
www.rsn.org/001/georgia-police-and-fbi-conduct-swatstyle-raids-on-cop-city-activists-homes.html
Arrested 2/5 – www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/02/11/free-samaher-esmail/
Merle Ratner – www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/02/10/anti-war-activist-merle-ratner-mourned-in-vietnam/ and vietnamwar.nyhistory.org/oral-histories/259/
itself.blog/2024/02/11/the-information-environment-toward-a-deeper-enshittification-thesis/
Anti-China Tucker Carlson, and the CIA? – www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/02/11/putin-debunks-tucker-carlsons-warmongering-anti-china-propaganda-mocks-his-cia-ties/
thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/02/11/going-the-last-mile/
VI Lenin in films – diario-octubre.com/2024/02/11/en-el-dia-mundial-del-cine/
Facebook censorship – ? theintercept.com/2024/02/08/facebook-instagram-censor-zionist-israel/
? justthenews.com/government/security/navy-removes-third-commander-duty-year
? www.rt.com/news/592251-epstein-new-photo-released/
? www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13013261/PETER-HITCHENS-death-blackouts-brainless-march-war.html
counterinformation.wordpress.com/2024/02/09/israel-is-losing-this-war/
DEA plots – geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/02/05/us-dea-spy-venezuela-mexico-bolivia/
informationclearinghouse.blog/2024/02/08/breaking-yemeni-houthi-official-statement/13/
fair.org/home/at-northwestern-u-distributing-a-parody-paper-gets-you-threatened-with-prison/
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/syncretic-past
On Gantz – newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/false-alternative
On Hezbollah – newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/asymmetries
informationclearinghouse.blog/2024/02/07/no-evidence-of-unrwa-hamas-allegations/11/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/08/the-dangers-of-complicity-the-us-courts-gaza-andgenocide/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/08/why-the-us-is-the-warring-state-in-israel/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/08/biden-netanyahu-and-the-voices-in-the-rubble/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/05/tomorrow-belongs-to-palestine/
On RIMPAC 2024 – www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/08/cancel-rimpac-2024-stop-the-u-s-war-machine-from-hawaiʻi-to-palestine-to-the-philippines/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/08/war-against-working-people-war-against-the-world/
The CIA, "Vault 7," Joshua Schulte sentenced 2/1 – www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/07/unaccountable-hackers-the-cia-vengeance-and-joshua-schulte/ and rightsdissent.substack.com/p/what-the-vault-7-source-sentence
2/10 NPR: Trapped Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, 6, killed, with others, rescuers ( www.commondreams.org/news/hind-rajab ); the BBC played her emergency call, but not NPR? Dual nationals trapped; parents of someone working on Perseverance.
2/9: Was no one punished for rioting in Florida to help George W Bush win office in 2000, etc., but xyz about Donald Trump now?
NPR: 1,4-dioxane free in Pittsboro 2/9; HRA: Burlington – Tarheel Missile Plant cleanup to begin next week – made Nike missiles ; flooding = not a stormwater violation?
DPS worker/staff walk-ins 2/7 and no classes 2/9 and 12. 2/5 7 schools were closed.
February 7th: "Tucker Carlson is a propagandist, not a serious journalist," so he shouldn't interview Putin (give him a "platform," to sow dissent on Biden's war in Ukraine) says former (and always?) UK spook Christopher Steele, unlike some imprisoned Voice of America journalist and the WSJ guy, and the BBC's always anti-Russian and anti-Soviet Steve Rosenberg; Putin is "an indicted war criminal" (unlike Biden and Netanyahu) and China 'must' have told him to stop threatening that 'all options are on the table' (which no one prominent ever seems to say to a US president in public). Others have called for an EU travel ban against Carlson or US arrest. Carlson's hacked emails put out by the 'lovely' NSA and Co.? 'Unbelieveable' that they praised propagandists Rosenberg, NPR's Steve Inskeep, and Vice/NPR Todd Zwilick (?) on 1A 2/9 – they would put Putin in his place...
February 5th – Is McDonald's boycotting Russia? Apparently people in the Middle East are boycotting McDonald's.
Whatever the retiring head of the NSA says about domestic spying, etc must be true; and journalists took their cellphones into a center for phone tapping (and even submitted to fingerprinting there?)? "Fact check" or ignore whatever Trump supporters, Putin, etc. say, and believe spooks and repeat people who want war with Yemen, Iran, or Russia.
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/06/why-the-us-is-reimposing-sanctions-on-venezuela/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/06/the-confessions-of-thomas-friedman/
Targeting Dearborn, MI over Palestine?
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/unlearning-machines
"The [UK] government have branded the demos ‘hate marches’ and introduced legislation to criminalize the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. They’ve also launched a crackdown on smaller fringe groups. The Muslim outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir has been labelled a terrorist organization – which obviously it isn’t, although we might disagree with it on most issues [Hizb ut-Tahrir banned by the UK 1/19, banned in Russia, etc., but but not here]. Police have also arrested members of a small Maoist organization called the CPGB-ML [which one?], raided their houses and confiscated their literature. People in the Muslim community are being told that their children can’t talk about Palestine in school, otherwise they’ll be reported under the Prevent legislation. There is a real effort, from different sections of the establishment, to present pro-Palestine activists as Hamas supporters or antisemites. But despite the best efforts of the Daily Mail and the Metropolitan Police, they only ever manage to find about half a dozen people at each march who they can claim are carrying questionable placards." – newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/ukania-and-palestine
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/05/is-a-new-korean-war-in-the-offing/
www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-ouster-of-imran-khan – 2/8 election
Moving nuclear weapons – www.commondreams.org/news/us-nuclear-weapons-uk
www.commondreams.org/news/israel-jenin-hospital
www.commondreams.org/news/israel-executions
www.commondreams.org/news/israel-home-destruction
Two on Nancy Pelosi: www.commondreams.org/news/ceasefire-2667108639
www.commondreams.org/news/youth-fight-back-as-biden-doj-seeks-to-derail-historic-climate-case
? – www.commondreams.org/news/eu-farmers-biodiversity
? – www.commondreams.org/opinion/billionaires-cannot-save-journalism
Note? – mronline.org/2024/01/30/the-churning-of-the-global-order/
mronline.org/2024/01/31/swarming-the-u-s-in-west-asia-until-it-folds/
mronline.org/2024/01/23/chip-wars-breaking-the-siege/
mronline.org/2024/01/30/citgo-a-multi-billion-dollar-heist/
Trotskyist? – mronline.org/2024/01/30/lenins-last-testament/
Trotskyist? – roape.net/2024/01/21/learning-from-lenin-today/
The Real Story BBC February 2nd? 3rd? Questionable? – mronline.org/2024/01/09/in-xi-jinpings-china-is-chairman-mao-back/
www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/02/05/karl-marxs-debt-to-people-of-african-descent/
www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/05/diagnosing-warming-winter-syndrome/
In CT? – www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/05/any-way-you-look-at-it-you-lose/
consortiumnews.com/2024/01/31/russiagate-gaza/
The Elbit 6 – consortiumnews.com/2024/01/30/long-retrial-wait-for-uks-elbit-six/
consortiumnews.com/2024/02/01/us-judge-rejects-us-complicity-case-on-technical-grounds/
consortiumnews.com/2024/01/25/legal-bullying-aims-to-silence-campus-critics-of-israel/
MH17 – consortiumnews.com/2024/02/01/icj-rules-against-ukraine-v-russia-on-terrorism-mh17/
Heard on The World January 31st? A discoverer? 'virtually impossible to use CRISPR unethically' (on humans), because of alleged regulations, complexity (?!?), etc. – but using it to engineer domestic and wild plants and animals out in the environment for whatever reason is just fine? Maybe it was on Amanpour – moving and "editing" genes through genetic engineering = traditional crop selection...
2/7 – Transgenic indeterminate purple cherry tomatoes will be sold to home gardeners precisely because people are finding out that GMOs allow more pesticide use in agriculture. Monarchs? The purple cherry tomatoes have color from snapdragons, not very related plants. Unintended consequences – for example, what if buckeye butterflies, which eat snapdragons or related plants as caterpillars, get confused and lay eggs on these plants, though their caterpillars probably can't eat tomatoes? Non-native tropical milkweed might pose a similar problem for monarch butterflies without being GMOs.
www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/30/mattole-river-salmon-welcoming-celebration-2023/
consortiumnews.com/2024/01/31/russiagate-gaza/
Palestine, Lenin – www.workers.org/2024/01/76468/
UChicago's Bruce Cumings interview, Korea – apjjf.org/2024/1/Kim-Cumings.html
Crime and social policy in Ecuador: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/chaos-in-ecuador
Baluchistan, Iran, and Pakistan: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-baluchistan-imbroglio
WEB Du Bois as a Jeffersonian: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/marx-or-jefferson
The calendar in January: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/01/some-events-and-anniversaries-around.html
This was in addition to the much longer December 1st calendar post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html and the shorter December 8th: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/additional-events-and-anniversaries-in.html , December 14th: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/more-events-and-anniversaries-in-early.html and December 31st posts: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/some-unac-and-adc-statements-and-.html
The calendar in November 2022: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2022/11/events-and-anniversaries-around-years.html Late winter 2023: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html
In December two emaciated sperm whales found dead in NC; 92 cetaceans a year, very few of them "whales?" 10 or 10%? biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/north-atlantic-right-whale-calf-member-of-critically-endangered-species-likely-to-die-from-vessel-strike-injuries-2024-01-10/
A police officer in Boxtel, Netherlands followed a "balloon" for miles, to find that it was a pigeon dropping – FT439. An alleged Chinese spy pigeon in India was just a homing/racing pigeon, from ? It was unceremoniously released at the beginning of February 2024. An alleged spy whale in Scandinavia and a cat in London, UK.
? – A new book on the Soviet space program – nss.org/book-review-cosmonaut-a-cultural-history/
Astronomy / Stargazing
According to the February issue of Astronomy magazine, asteroid 4 Vesta is in Taurus, by zeta Tauri, at the southern horn tip, the other being El Nath, by Auriga, in early January, visible with binoculars. The Crab Nebula is nearby. Zeta Tauri was called Tien Kwan, the Gate of Heaven (in China?) and related to the Babylonian Shur-narkabti-sha-shuutuu. Halley's Comet was first seen nearby on a return in August 1835. There was a nova in Auriga near El Nath January 24, 1892: Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard Hinckley Allen, introduction dated February 16, 1899. Asteroid 37 Fides (discovered October 5, 1855 by Karl Theodor Robert Luther, April 16, 1822 in Świdnica, Poland – February 15, 1900 Düsseldorf, Germany) was near El Nath. A NYC or Chicago skyscraper-sized asteroid passed by the Earth February 2nd.
Some quite dim comets are 'up;' Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks north of Pegasus has a proneness to fluctuate in brightness by the night and could reach magnitude 4.5 in April. It is approaching for the spring and summer of 2024 and might be the source of the very weak K-Draconid meteors here in December and meteor showers that hit Venus. Comet 144P/Kushida is in Taurus, C/2021 S3 (PanSTARS) is near Antares in Scorpius the Scorpion, and Comet 62P/Tsuchinshan, discovered January 1, 1965 at Nanjing's Purple Mountain, or Tsuchinshan, Observatory is in Virgo. Zodiacal light, if very dark, so not here, and a few meteors, no major showers, around now. Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) as the best comet of 2023, at magnitude 2.5? – I'm not sure that I ever heard of it.
Uranus, potentially visible without optical aids, is in Aries near (and approaching?) very bright Jupiter, also in Aries, while Neptune is close to the south of the Circlet of Pisces. A new study, using old Voyager photos, claims that Uranus and Neptune are both very pale bluish-white, not green and blue respectively? Saturn is in Aquarius (?) in the evening, relatively near the star Fomalhaut, in position and brilliance, in the evening. Saturn was about two degrees south of the waxing Moon and about six degrees high in the sky on February 10th, from 12 degrees on the 1st, and will be in superior conjunction with the Sun at 4pm on the 28th, and up in the morning a month later. The Moon was new February 9th at 5:59pm, amnd will be at first quarter on the 16th at 10:01am and full on the 24th at 7:30am. Mars is a rising morning star and will be near sinking Venus February 22nd. Mercury is also sinking in the morning sky, to superior conjunction with the Sun at 4am on the 28th. Mars will reach opposition and be bright in a year.
Scorpius, Ursa Major, Arcturus (the fourth brightest star in the night sky, in Bootes), Hercules, Draco, and Vega (fifth brightest) in Lyra the Lyre, Cygnus the Swan, Aquila the Eagle, and Opiuchus, are high or even in the west in the morning now.
I recently came across a quote claiming that light pollution has been a worse problem for religion than philosophical argument.
Upcoming star parties and Astronomy Month (May? Spring Astronomy Day May 18th; NC Science Fest events in April?) and two Astronomy Days (May 18th and October 12th) events in Jamestown, NC; French Camp, MS (May 8-11), Scout Key, Florida (February 5-11), Fort Davis, TX (April 5-9, during the solar eclipse); Aquilla, TX, Gardner, CO (June 5-9); more than one in Pennsylvania (June 6-9, etc); Suffern, NY (April 20-21); Grand Canyon, AZ (June 1-8); Valentine, NE (July 28-August 2); Oroville, WA (July 30-August 3); Indian Trail Spring, OR (July 30-August 4) Springfield, VT (August 1-4), Spruce Knob, WV (August 30-September 3) London, UK and across the world are listed at is.gd/star_parties
The Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox will be March 19th at 11:06pm EDT (off because of DT?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox )
A giant sunspot, AR3576, – spaceweather.com
Palestine
A protest every Sunday, or most, at 2 or 3pm at Raleigh's Moore Square?
A Durham CC ceasefire resolution 2/12?
Demanding a ceasefire resolution – send a letter to Wake County's Deborah Ross at: actionnetwork.org/letters/email-to-deborah-ross/ Green Michael Dublin is running for her US Congress 2nd District seat.
ifamericansknew.org/about_us/action.html
The Sinn Fein Bookshop and maybe Sambar Trading (both addresses listed on the right) have had a lot of Palestine or Arab solidarity related gear, long before the current war: www.sinnfeinbookshop.com/ and sambartrading.com/
Elections
State political buttons are apparently a potentially lucrative trend with the presidential campaigns this year, starting with Marianne Williamson's state bird pins, or have I been missing this every four years? – shop.marianne2024.com/
A January 2nd press release from the North Carolina State Board of Elections regarding the 2024 presidential preference primary March 5th – 10 Libertarians, 7 Republicans, and one Democrat are listed, while the Green Party and No Labels will nominate at their conventions. The Constitution Party is not mentioned. The other candidates will have to petition for ballot access: www.ncsbe.gov/news/press-releases/2023/12/19/state-board-approves-presidential-primary-candidates
Jill Stein just won in KS, the first Green Party presidential primary, but no primary in NC. Schedule?
Democratic Party presidential primaries January 23rd in NH (without Biden), February 3rd in SC (NPR covered it like they were Biden campaign staff, and was there even a choice of candidates? Why vote on the presidential ticket? February 5th NPR's fundraiser began, and they said how fact-based, balanced, and inclusive they are.), February 6th in NV (Apparently Marianne Williamson, but not Dean Phillips, was on the ballot) , February 27th in MI; March 5th Super Tuesday includes NC and many others (protest instead of voting on the presidential ticket, because the current ballot in NC has only one of the candidates, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr?), and the process ends June 8th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries The Florida Democratic Party apparently doesn't even want to have a primary.
The Republican Party presidential primaries are somewhat different: January 15th Iowa caucus (NPR covered Nikki Haley so much afterward and then not, maybe not even around the 23rd), January 23rd NH primary, February 8th NV primary and caucus and Virgin Islands caucus, February 24th SC, February 27th MI primary, March 2-4, etc; March 5th Super Tuesday includes NC, and the process ends June 4th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries
EVENTS
Art Deco: Defining an Era – January 27-April 21 in SC: www.brookgreen.org/events/art-deco-defining-era-0
The only Triangle or NC weather prognosticating groundhog left is in Garner? But there are armadilloes? – triangleonthecheap.com/groundhog-day-garner/
Astronomy Days February 3-4: triangleonthecheap.com/astronomy-days-north-carolina-museum-natural-sciences/
A Wikipedia editing event 11am-1pm February 3rd at the Chapel Hill Public Library?
An annual powwow at the NCSSM in Durham; February 3rd 12-5pm triangleonthecheap.com/powwow-north-carolina-school-of-science-and-mathematics/
The annual New Year sale at Verso Books ends February 4th at 11:59pm ET: www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/xxx-1 Verso means the left page of a book, versus recto.
NLG ICJ webinar February 5 930pm usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMtfuuvpj8iE9MVgRHjMRv_d90O0LqNX5f1#/registration
February 6th in SC: www.brookgreen.org/events/red-wolves-smoky-mountains-bill-landry-and-lynn-hodges
Native coastal plants talk and giveaway February 7th 10am in Morehead City, free but registration at: www.eventbrite.com/e/2024-master-gardener-speaker-event-tickets-789473635897
calendar.unc.edu/event/davis_library_40th_anniversary in the Davis Library Atrium at UNC, Wednesday 7th February 3-5pm R #Davis40
Guantanamo protest days of action February 7th and March 6th.
There will be a Durham Unified Development Ordinance Open House February 8th 11:30am-1:30pm at 2000 South Alston: engagedurham.com/211/Get-Involved
Lunar New Year events in the Triangle: triangleonthecheap.com/lunar-new-year-triangle/
Kami-Con will be February 9 – 11 in Birmingham, Alabama: www.kamicon.net/star
A powwow February 9 – 11 in Hollywood Florida: calendar.powwows.com/events/seminole-tribal-fair-and-pow-wow/
The NC Botanical Garden's Darwin Day Lecture 2024 will be Monday, February 12th 7-8pm – "Using science-fiction depictions to learn real-world evolution concepts" with Mohamed Noor, a professor of biology, interim vice provost at Duke, and a consultant for Star Trek series: reg.learningstream.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0005-0014-e26d3b3d83b74d57b1592ecafa675cba
There will be events for Saving Our Savannas: Stories of the Longleaf Pine over the next five months.
The Lunar New Year will be Saturday, February 10th in 2024.
Webinar South Africa vs Israel: The International Coalition Against Genocide, February 11th at 11am EST
VFP webinar climate change – 2/13 PM, 2nd Tuesdays every month
Katsucon 2024 February 16 – 18 in National Harbor, Maryland, near Washington, DC: www.katsucon.org/
AK in the Crosshairs – 2/16-17 – www.akhopecongress.org/symposium
Water Walk – 2/17 all day Eden, NC; Dan River and Lower Saur Town site 7directionsofservice.com/water-walk-2024
Defeat the Deep State – at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC February 17th: defeatthedeepstate.org/
HRA Stream Restoration in Durham February 17th 10am-12pm: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePFv0Q4BNSHoRWAFL6uLr-jL3SH7PNi1OKz-Pl76lxdn7JtQ/viewform
2/17 – Early Women Botanists – northcarolinanativeplantsociety.wildapricot.org/event-5563860
February 19th PM – Dissenters: Students Say No to the Military-Industrial Complex (a WIRN webinar)
There will be a HRA State of the Haw presentation at the Chapel Hill Public Library February 21st 6-7pm; RSVP at: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfM9XlIlRvM0AZonEKRlzWuXt6J_nZ4DIr5akPTzWve4-aHFQ/viewform There will be a stream restoration in Durham February 17th 10am-12pm: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePFv0Q4BNSHoRWAFL6uLr-jL3SH7PNi1OKz-Pl76lxdn7JtQ/viewform
Some upcoming events at the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies that might be of interest, though probably rightist where political; a war-related event February 21st: jewishstudies.unc.edu/events/upcomingevents/
The fourth annual February 23-24: hatterasonmymind.com/HVCA/WaterfowlFestival/
Hands Off Uhuru online events on government repression, Leonard Peltier, etc. February 6, 13, 17, and 24.
The annual National Invasive Species Awareness Week will be February 26-March 3: www.nisaw.org
February 28th 7-8:30pm Durham's Carolina Theatre Studio Ghibli Film Series showing of My Neighbor Totoro
VFP webinar nuclear weapons, climate change – 2/29 7PM
Moral March on Raleigh and to the Polls March 2nd in NC, ~31 states, in DC in June 21-23: ppc-nc.org/ and www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/
Guantanamo day of action March 6th.
Banzaicon will be March 8 – 10 in Columbia, South Carolina. What of Nashicon [ended after 2020: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NashiCon ?]?
10th annual ncartmuseum.org/artinbloom/
[March 16th 12-3pm: triangleonthecheap.com/holi-festival-morrisville/ ]
March 16 – 23 Durham and Orange County creek weeks [and in Chatham County, Raleigh, Carrboro, etc.] [NC-wide: www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/water-resources/water-resources-public-information/water-education-programs/water-education-and-outreach/nc-creek-week-network ]
[ www.enoriver.org/features/guided-hike-series/ ]
March 16th – 34th annual HRA Clean-Up-A-Thon
The annual NC Big Sweep in March?
[From Friends of Bolin Creek:
Wilson Park/Adams Tract Creek Exploring
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Wilson Park, 110 Williams St, Carrboro, NC 27510
Join Carrboro staff and volunteers to explore Bolin Creek. Learn about this local waterway and the species that call it home. Dress for a messy good time! USGS and Urban Sustainability Solutions, Inc will host tables with information on how to protect our local waterways.
Gardeners and Bolin Creek Lovers!
March 16 & 23, 2024
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Meet at Amber Court Cul-de-sac in Carrboro
Please join us to help plant native plants on an eroding hillside above Bolin Creek
Bentonville Battlefield (Civil War) 159th reenactment 3/16 10am-4pm, other events 6/22, 10/26, December 7th in 2024, in Four Oaks: historicsites.nc.gov/upcoming-events/bentonville-battlefield
[From an aflcionc.org/ update:
March 18: Duke Law panel about Union Organizing at Amazon RDU
March 18: Durham City workers rally for $25/hour at 6:30p (more info)
March 25-31: National Farmworker Awareness Week
March 26: President Biden and Vice President Harris in Raleigh
March 31: Last day to see Signs of the Times exhibit at NC Museum of History
April 17: Triangle "Labor Spring" event at UNC Chapel Hill
April 28: Workers’ Memorial Day
May 1: May Day
May 11: Letter Carriers’ Food Drive (Stamp Out Hunger)
May 14: 3rd Annual Carolinas Shoot for a Cure fundraiser for the March of Dimes
[From BAJ:
World Water Day at Chapel Hill's Umstead Park 12-4pm March 23rd [WILPF, etc.].
[March 23rd, 9am-12pm: meetup.com/helpcleanjordanlake ]
3/23-29 Sacred Peace Walk in Nevada nevadadesertexperience.org/spw-about/
The NC Pilgrimage?? [March 25, 27, 29: www.facebook.com/events/243111982128379 ]
[RFK Jr VP March 26th: www.kennedy24.com/vp-announcement ]
The annual Triad Anime Con will be March 29 – 31 in Winston-Salem, NC [and www.animeboston.com ]
The African-American Legacy in Gardening and Horticulture Symposium March 30th:
Hayti Heritage Center
804 Old Fayetteville Street, Durham NC 27701
March 30, 2024, 10 a.m.
Free and Open to the Public
Signs of the Times protest exhibit at the NC Museum of History until March 31st: www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/exhibits/signs-times
International Dark Sky Week 4/2-8/2024
UNAC anti-war conference April 5-7th in Saint Paul, Minnesota (see earlier post).
[NCBG spring lecture 4/7: reg.learningstream.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0005-0014-3f9d6261c9c24912bab722e18f7fb486 ]
eclipsesoundscapes.org citizen science project for the solar eclipse April 8, 2024.
April 13th 8:30am-12:30pm – 3rd annual runsignup.com/Race/NC/Graham/HawRiverIslandRamble and 6K.
The 22nd annual ClydeFEST will be April 14th 12-5pm: www.chathamartscouncil.org/clydefest-2024/
[Taxes are due April 15th: www.irs.gov/newsroom/2024-tax-filing-season-starts-as-irs-begins-accepting-tax-returns-today-taxpayer-help-expands-this-year-with-more-in-person-hours-better-service-improved-tools ]
4/27 – Eden, NC 2nd annual powwow calendar.powwows.com/events/annual-youth-pow-wow-eden-nc/
4/27 – peacewalk2024.org
[4/28 the park West Point on the Eno at 50: www.enoriver.org/events-on-the-eno/ ]
The 20th annual Spring Shakori Hill Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance will be May 2-5 in Pittsboro, Chatham County, NC: www.shakorihillsgrassroots.org/tickets
The People's Conference for Palestine – May 24th-26th
[Animazement May 24th-26th in downtown Raleigh: www.animazement.com ]
Ocrafolk, Ocracoke, NC – June 7-9th
6/14-15 the 301 Endless Yard Sale on 100 miles of US 301 Roanoke Rapids to Dunn: www.johnstoncountync.org/event/301-endless-yard-sale/64/
7/6-7 in DC – nonatoyespeace.org
7/15 RNC to 8/19 DNC – www.poorpeoplesarmymarch.com
September 6th 10th annual international folk festival in Greensboro, NC?
LIBRARY BOOKSALES:
The Friends of the Durham Library's Books Among Friends is 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 A Pop-Up CD Sale February 24th 11am-3pm at the Main Library.
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 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 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 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 / GARDEN SALES
UNC-Charlotte Botanical Gardens – February 10 and 12: gardens.charlotte.edu/valentines-orchid-sale-and-raffle/
[The Durham seed libraries?]
[From the NCNPS:
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CALENDAR
There is uncertainty about how Aztec and Gregorian calendars should line up; the occasion of of Atemoztli (Descent of Water; not a month?) might have been December 26-January 14th or November 29-December 18th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_calendar ; in The Aztecs (1992) Richard F Townsend gives the dates December 11-30th. The following month is Tititl (Stretching); Townsend gives December 31-January 19; Wikipedia has January 15-February 3 or December 19-January 7. Next is Izcalli Huauhquiltamalcualiztli (Growth / Eating of Tamales Stuffed with Greens); Townsend gives January 20-February 8 and Wikipedia February 4-23 or January 8-27. Nemontemi (Useless Days); Townsend gives February 9-13 and Wikipedia February 24-28 or January 28-February 1; Atlcaualo Cuauhitleua (Ceasing of Water / Raising of Trees); Townsend gives February 14-March 5 and Wikipedia March 1-20 or February 2-21; Tlacaxipehualiztli (Flaying of Men); Townsend gives March 6-25 and Wikipedia March 21-April 9 February 22-March 13.
"In the year 22, of the 3rd month of winter, sixth hour of the day" the first "circle of fire" is supposed to have been seen by ancient Egyptian "scribes of the House of Life." Days later more were seen by Pharaoh Thutmose III (in power 1504-1450 BCE) and his army: Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982 and UFO Exist, by Paris Flammonde, 1976. Really an ancient Egyptian document?
September 24, 1235 a "General Yoritsume" and his army saw unusual lights in Japan – is this supposed to be Kujō Yoritsune (九条 頼経) / Fujiwara no Yoritsune (藤原 頼経) February 12, 1218 – September 1, 1256, in power 1226–1244? – Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982.
October 27, 1180 an object compared to an airborne "'earthenware vessel'" was seen in or near "Kii province" in Japan (in southern Honshu, now part of Wakayama and Mie prefectures; includes the Kii Peninsula?): Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982.
Meteorites hit houses in Wethersfield, Connecticut twice over 11 years – April 8, 1971 and November 8, 1982; the first was sold to the Smithsonian and the second is in Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History: news.yale.edu/2023/09/11/meteor-shower-more-1800-meteorites-land-yales-peabody-museum
The Peabody also has a softball size fragment that hit a house in Park Forest, Illinois March 26, 2003. In all more than 40 pounds/18kg fell, one piece 6.6pound/3kg. At least two houses and a fire station were hit. It is thought to have been up to 7000kg before going through the atmosphere and at least 900kg afterward. Also now in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and maybe Adler Planetarium: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Forest_(meteorite)
Some others: the Ivuna meteorite landed in Mbeya, Tanzania, sister city of Tifariti, Western Sahara (mentioned under the SADR in February below), December 16, 1938; Sutter's Mill, CA around 7:51PT April 22, 2012, with very ancient impact nanodiamonds; Alais, France March 15, 1806 around 17:00; May 14, 1864 Orgueil, France; September 28, 1969 around 10:58am; Murchison, Victoria, Australia; the Tonk meteorite (also called the Chhabra or Jhalrapatan meteorite) fell in Tonk, India January 22, 1911 around noon, adding up to 7.7g 0.27oz; Elbogen, Czech Republic around 14:00 in Loket; Ensisheim, now in France 280pounds/127kg November 7, 1492, in a meter-deep hole, reportedly heard at least one hundred miles away; Golden, BC, Canada October 3, 2012 around 11:30pm PT: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meteorite-crashes-into-womans-bedroom-golden-bc-1.6207904 ; www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55013725 early August 2020 in Sumatra; August 14, 1992 in Mbale, Uganda, after 12:40 UTC; a 3g/0.11oz fragment hit a young boy's head, but he was okay: ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994Metic..29..246J/abstract or onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1994.tb00678.x ; May 18 1988 Torino, Italy: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1989.tb00938.x
October 17, 2012 the Novato meteorite fragmented over northern CA around 19:44PT: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novato_meteorite; Flensburg, Germany 2019; Marília, Brazil October 5, 1971: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADlia_(meteorite)
A meteorite landed on a back porch in Bloomington, Illinois in the summer of 1938: web.archive.org/web/20201020093606/ and www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=5076
September 29, 1938 – a meteorite in Benld, Illinois hit a car parked in a garage: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benld,_Illinois and web.archive.org/web/20180601054919/http://meteorites.wustl.edu/illinois_meteorites.htm
Fragments of the Příbram meteorite April 7, 1959 east of Příbram in the Czech Republic, the first fireball filmed with multiple cameras on approach? In the National Museum in Prague: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C5%99%C3%ADbram_meteorite
L'Aigle, France in April 26, 1803. The Neuschwanstein meteorite landed near Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, near Austria April 6, 2002, and had been tracked by the European Fireball Network, the first in Germany and the world's fourth: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_(meteorite) Österplana 065 (Öst 65), dug up after hundreds of millions of years (from Ordovician deposits), in the rich Thorsberg Quarry in Sweden, June 26, 2011: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterplana_065
December 3, 1980 Kaidun, Yemen, from Phobos?; February 12, 1947 10:30am Sikhote-Alin, in eastern Russia; a stamp in 1957, by an eyewitness: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhote-Alin_meteorite ; February 8, 1969 Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico; February 1, 1938 Aztec, NM; July 9, 1929 Bald Mountain, NC (which one?); January 15, 1796 in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv, Ukraine and June 30, 1908 in Kaharlyk and September 2, 1955 in Zvonkov; March 25, 1843 Bishopville, SC; July 9, 2001 Bukhara, Uzbekistan; May 14, 1874 Castalia, NC (Nash County?); January 30, 1810 Caswell County, NC; July 1, 1933 Cherokee Springs, SC; May 24, 1892 Cross Roads, NC (which one?); April 9, 1919 Cumberland Falls, KY (an aubrite?) (known for moonbows); December 4, 1934 Farmville, NC (the renamed Coalglen, in Chatham County or the Farmville in Pitt County?); December 26, 1934 Fayetteville, AR; Ju1y 18, 1889 Ferguson, NC (which one?); April 21, 1913 Moore County, NC; October 31, 1849 Monroe, NC (in Union or Warren county?); 2016 in Mount Blanco, TX and Osceola, FL; September 23, 2003 New Orleans, LA; February 18, 1948 Norton County, KS; June 4, 1828 Richmond, VA; June 30, 1903 Rich Mountain, NC (which one?); June 20, 1919 Saint Mary's County, MD; after 21:54 on February 28, 2021 Winchcombe; 2013 Wolcott, CT. April 1, 1921 Sharps, VA; February 2, 1922 Baldwyn, Mississippi; September 20, 1950 Murray, KY.
Listed at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorite_fall and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_air_burst and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorite_fall_statistics
December 21, 1876 the Great Meteor; February 9, 1913 the Great Meteor Procession: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_procession ; Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. ; and 1982 UFO Exist, by Paris Flammonde, 1976.
January 21st at 00:33 UTC about one meter Apollo asteroid 2024 BX1 came down and exploded (?) near Berlin. It had been discovered, as Sar2736, under three hours earlier, in Hungary. Pieces were found January 26th, February 1, etc. south of Ribbeck, Germany? A rare aubrite type, like April 9, 1919 in Cumberland Falls, KY; there are only 11 specimens (?), from Mercury? – www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meteorite-germany , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_BX1 , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrite
Apollo asteroid 2023 CX1 or Sar2667 came down February 13, 2023 at 2:59 UTC over Normandy, France; discovered under 7 hours earlier, in Hungary; meteorite found February 15th at 15:47 UTC: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_CX1
Apollo asteroid 2018 LA, or ZLAF9B2, came down June 2, 2018 around 16:44 UTC around Botswana-South Africa; discovered around 8:22 UTC in Arizona; the first piece found June 23rd, Motopi Pan: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_LA
Apollo asteroid 2014 AA January 1-2, 2014, found in Arizona, hit the Atlantic Ocean far east of Trinidad and Tobago: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_AA
Apollo asteroid 2022 EB5 , or Sar2593, found in Hungary March 11, 2022; hit the Arctic Ocean southwest of Jan Mayen: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_EB5
Apollo asteroid 2019 MO, or A10eoM1, was detected and then landed south of Puerto Rico June 22, 2019 at 21:25 UTC (like a June epsilon Ophiuchid meteor?): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_MO
January 22, 2018 – Did A106fgF hit the Southern Hemisphere or not? –
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_impact_prediction#List_of_successfully_predicted_asteroid_impacts
A ghost or other entity was reported in Hythe, Kent, UK November 16, 1963, etc., and Sheerness comes up again, FT439 article.
The first of several reports of something in orbit before Sputnik was November 17, 1956 – a captured meteor? – Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982. And in--
November 14-17, 1974 a crash and entity reported in Bald Mountain, WA, near Chehalis – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Short-lived soviets in Alsace-Lorraine, at the time part of Germany, were put down by the French November 22, 1918?
An iron meteorite landed in Mazapil (small deer in Nahuatl, mazatl/deer plus pilli/small? Traditional homeland of the Chichimec Guachichiles) in Zacatecas, in northern Mexico not far from Texas November 27, 1885, during the Andromedid meteor shower (stemming from Biela's Comet, discovered February 27, 1826), but the meteorite and the Andromedids are now thought to be unrelated.
"The father of meteoritics" German physicist Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni November 30, 1756 – April 3,1827
A brief blue light effect seen from a ship, the MV Trevean, on a windy day "under low cloud" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean December 1, 1959: Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982
According to the 2023 Harris' Farmer's Almanac, President James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) declared the Monroe Doctrine in his 7th ? annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823.
The pivotal decisive Battle of Austerlitz was December 2, 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, Austerlitz is now in the Czech Republic.
Early on April 16, 2013 several people cut communication cables and then carefully shot up 17 transformers at PG and E's Metcalf substation in Coyote, near San Jose, California, but there wasn't much power loss: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf_sniper_attack In August and October of that year one man attacked electrical equipment in central Arkansas. In March and April 1975 a guarded PG and E substation was bombed twice by the NWLF, or so they claimed. December 31st that year the George Jackson Brigade bombed a substation in Seattle. In 2016 a man shot at a substation in Utah and had plans for further attacks. November 11, 2022 a Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative substation in Jones County, NC was vandalized, knocking out power for over 12,000 people. In late November 2023 (?) there were at least six attacks in the Pacific Northwest, two with guns. The morning of December 25th four substations were attacked around Tacoma, knocking out the power to more than 14,000 people. Two men were arrested January 3rd, but apparently did it only as part of a plan for burglaries. There were also attacks on electrical infrastructure in Brazil around January 8, 2023. A man was arrested on suspicion that he bombed PG and E transformers in December and January 2022-23? – abc7news.com/san-jose-explosives-pge-transformers-blown-up-peter-karasev-arrest-sj-man-arrested-in/12910094/ , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid_security_in_the_United_States
Dave Otto, co-founder of Friends of Bolin Creek in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, a personal acquaintance, passed away December 4, 2023.
A Hindu rightist mob destroyed the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India December 6, 1992, triggering inter-communal violence; the Ram Mandir temple to Rama, under construction, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP January 22, 2024.
Former Durham County Commissioner Becky Heron, in office December 6, 1982 – August 1, 2011, passed away January 23, 2014 (born in 1927): durhamspark.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-moment-of-silence-for-becky-heron.html and www.northeastcreek.org/wordpress/remembering-becky-heron-1927-2014/
December 7, 1905, around 10:15am, off Brazil's Parahiba River: mattbille.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-most-puzzling-sea-serpent.html , mattbille.blogspot.com/2017/12/anniversary-strangest-of-sea-serpents.html , www.strangemag.com/definitiveseaserpent.html (all same author)
December 1959 a python killed near Roanoke, VA; January 23, 1978 Loxahatchee, Florida west of West Palm Beach, a maned lion (a map shows "Lion Country" nearby, a zoo); February 20, 1985 around 7:45pm and 9:45pm, an unknown lion outside the Fort Worth Zoo in TX; March 1, 1941; a maned (?) large cat in western New Brunswick – Mysterious America: The Revised Edition, by Loren Coleman, 2001 and Curious Encounters: Phantom Trains, Spooky Spots, and Other Mysterious Wonders, by Coleman, August 1985, January 1986, Faber and Faber, Inc.
To add? – Eno the Emu in Durham one summer recently; a Jordan Lake alligator before that; mountain lions reported in Durham and Orange counties; and the tomato-eating catfish at a farm on NC 64 in Wake County?
French painter and member of the Paris Commune Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (June 10, 1819 – December 31, 1877), blamed for the May 16, 1871 destruction of Paris' Vendôme Column: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_Vend%C3%B4me
Australian anti-war journalist John Pilger passed away December 31, 2023. He was born October 9, 1939 in Bondi, New South Wales, near Sydney. His website: johnpilger.com/
Dim Comet 62P/Tsuchinshan is currently in Virgo, and was discovered January 1, 1965 at Nanjing's Purple Mountain, or Tsuchinshan, Observatory.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, founded in mid-1991, are named for Izz ad-Din Abd al-Qadar ibn Mustafa ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassam (عز الدين بن عبد القادر بن مصطفى بن يوسف بن محمد القسام / Izz ad-Dīn ibn Abd al-Qāder ibn Mustafa ibn Yūsuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassām; 1881 or December 19, 1882 – November 20, 1935).
Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 – December 29, 1825).
The Grace Line cargo and passenger ship SS Santa Clara reportedly hit a large animal 118 miles east of Cape Lookout, NC, just in the east edge of the Gulf Stream, December 30, 1947 around 11:55am: Monsters of North Carolina: Mysterious Creatures in the Tar Heel State, by John Hairr, 2013 and cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/sssantaclara/ I thought I once read that two men claimed that a third was taken from their boat by a sea monster off NC sometime in the 20th century, and that no one was charged with a crime, but I haven't relocated the reference. Under the Kremlin legend???
January 3, 1861 Delaware did not secede: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinance_of_Secession It had joined the US government December 7, 1787, the first state to do so, but was 12th to ratify the previous constitution, February 1, 1779, followed by Maryland, February 2, 1781: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware
Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Mikhailovich Chisov, navigator on a Soviet Ilyushin Il-4 bomber, free fell about 23,000 feet from his stricken aircraft in January 1942 and survived, landing on a snow-covered slope (?): www.futilitycloset.com/2023/09/18/four-mile-fall/ and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Chisov See also Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke, who fell about 10,000 feet December 24, 1971 after lightning hit her Lockheed Electra flight over forested Amazonian Peru (?), American Alan Eugene Magee, a gunner on a B-17 bomber, fell about 22,000 feet, on to a train station's glass roof, in Saint-Nazaire, France January 3, 1943. Vesna Vulović, from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, fell about 33,3300 feet from a DC-9 over Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia after a still unsolved terrorist bombing. Briton Nicholas Stephen Alkemade, a tail gunner on an Avro Lancaster bomber, fell about 18,000 feet east of Schmallenberg, Germany on March 24, 1944, reportedly impressing his German captors.
China's Chang'e 4 was the first spacecraft to carry out a soft landing on the lunar far side and deployed a rover, Yutu-2. Besides scientific instruments, the lander also carried the Lunar Micro Ecosystem experiment. The mission was launched December 7, 2018 and the landing was January 3, 2019. This mission was the first time the US and Chinese space programs were allowed to cooperate, following the April 2011 Wolf Amendment. Cooperation is probably even less likely with Obama's "Pivot to Asia" and the Trump-Biden warmongering.
The Gulf War Did Not Take Place / La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu by French sociologist Jean Baudrillard (July 27, 1929 – March 6, 2007) was published in Libération and The Guardian newspapers in a series, January 4, February 6, and March 29 in 1991. Referred to in: www.workers.org/2024/02/76700/
Following US calls for full-spectrum dominance, including in space, and missile shields, China used a missile to destroy one of its old weather satellites January 11, 2007. The newer Dong Neng-3 missile, possibly an anti-satellite weapon, was tested February 5, 2008, etc.? More recently Russia and India have also tested anti-satellite weapons. The USSR and the USA also worked on such weapons throughout the Cold War, and the first successful interception seems to have been by the USSR in February 1970. The US tested anti-satellite missiles fired from a modified F-15 fighter in 1984-85. Claims about Russia 2/14/2024.
Warfare in space could produce debris that would prevent human use of space long-term and anti-ballistic missile weapons make a nuclear war more likely. One country would think that it had an edge and could escape retaliation by using nuclear weapons first, so other countries would be more likely to use their weapons, under the idea of 'use them or lose them.'
Over Colonial Boston Harbor, in Massachusetts, UFOs and voices were reported in March 1639 and again January 18, 1644 and over the following two weeks – from Jim Brandon's Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, 1978; reportedly mentioned in Governor John Winthrop's Journal, etc.
In the Battle of Hayes Pond/Battle of Maxton Field/Maxton Riot Lumbee Indians chased off the KKK the night of January 18, 1958 in Robeson County, NC.
According to the 2023 Old Farmer's Almanac, a 0.66-pound meteorite hit a medical office in Lorton, Virginia January 18, 2010; the location in Fairfax County had a Nike Ajax anti-aircraft missile site 1955-73; also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorton,_Virginia 2/8/1945, 4/14/1955 Fort Meade en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-3_Nike_Ajax
Venezuelan protester Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, or Tortuguita, was shot to death at "Cop City" in Atlanta January 18, 2023. There were protests afterward, January 20-22, and a march January 21st in downtown Atlanta, with damage to buildings and a police car was burned. Ongoing in GA.
Saturnino Paredes Macedo, one of the founders of the Communist Party of Peru (Marxist-Leninist) (with José Sotomayor, and Abimael Guzmán, according to the Wikipedia entry), was born January 19, 1921 in Ancash, on the northern coast: pcpml.com/2021/01/20/viva-el-centenario-del-natalicio-del-dr-saturnino-paredes-macedo/. The PCP(M-L) itself was founded in January 1964, splitting from the Peruvian Communist Party (according to Wikipedia, while the party's website traces its origin to October 28, 1928 and Mariátegui); the PCP(M-L) is a member of the ICMLPO.
Novelist and writer Patricia Highsmith was born January 19, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas and passed away February 4, 1995 in Locarno, Switzerland. She is also noted for her personal diaries or journals.
Hizb ut-Tahrir was banned by the UK 1/19/2024, banned in Russia, etc., but but not here.
The traditional Aquarius period is January 20th to February 18th, though apparently it should be February 17th to March 13th, if based on the Sun's actual position against the stars. People differ on when the famous Age of Aquarius should begin, but it is likely very far off.
A bus went haywire at The Dalles HS in OR January 20, 1971; earthquakes, brown ash, black clouds, but no volcanic eruption (?) January 8, 1867 around Crater Lake/Fort Klamath; Maryhill, WA Stonehenge monument – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
January 20-21, 2006 the River Thames Whale, Willy, a female northern bottlenose whale, a beaked whale of the deep sea, in the UK's River Thames.
A squareish lunar halo was reportedly seen January 21, 1913 from the RMS Balmoral Castle off of equatorial Africa? – Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982.
Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vladimir Ilyich Lenin passed away 100 years ago, January 21, 1924: redphoenixnews.com/2024/01/21/appeal-for-the-commemoration-of-the-100th-anniversary-of-lenins-death/ and www.workers.org/videos-j21/ and diario-octubre.com/2024/02/11/en-el-dia-mundial-del-cine/ Verso Books marks the centenary of VI Lenin's death with several releases by or about Lenin and his thought: www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/thinking-with-lenin-on-the-centenary-of-his-death
The DPRK seized the spy ship USS Pueblo in or near its coastal waters around January 21, 1968.
Evo Morales became president of Bolivia January 22, 2006 and was elected to two more terms, until he was toppled in a violent US-backed coup and received asylum in Mexico, November 12, 2019. An unelected rightist and anti-Indian government temporarily ruled Bolivia. The security forces refused to protect the elected government, but violently repressed and killed Morales supporters. Morales' party returned to power in the next election.
420356 Praamizus, a large object beyond Neptune, was discovered January 23, 2012 and is named for a major ancient Lithuanian deity.
Around January 23, 2024 many Israeli soldiers were killed in the vicinity of Khan Younis, Gaza, Palestine.
Supposed to be the first Abkhazian female pilot, and a veteran of WWII, Meri Hafizovna Avidzba was born January 24, 1917 and passed away April 12, 1986.
January 24, 1978 Kosmos 954, a malfunctioning nuclear-powered Soviet naval surveillance satellite disintegrated over Canada, requiring clean up of radioactive debris; the USSR paid restitution, though only half of what Canada asked for. Another malfunctioning nuclear-powered satellite, Kosmos 1402, fell to Earth January 23rd and February 7th early in 1983, but completely burned up or sank into the ocean.
The first Apple Macintosh PC, renamed the Macintosh 128K, came out January 24, 1984, following the "1984" Super Bowl XVIII ad January 22nd, but it was far from being the first personal computer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_128K and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer ]
The UN's International Day of Education is January 24th: www.un.org/en/observances/education-day
January 24th it was announced that a wastewater treatment plant in Burlington had detected a 545 micrograms per liter/release of 1,4 dioxane, ultimately thought to be from Apollo Chemical, through the plant and into the Haw River. According to the HRA "the water quality standard is 0.35ug/L. People in Pittsboro were told not to drink the town's tapwater and were offered an alternative water supply at the Chatham Marketplace. A sedimentation violation was reported by the HRA at a Triangle Brick Company site – a current site or at their former claypit in Durham, now the 55-Hopson construction site, which might be audible for miles when the wind is right? I need to go see what they've done, and I'm sure there has been a great deal of silt runoff.
Tu BiShvat (ט״ו בִּשְׁבָט) Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot (ראש השנה לאילנות), literally "New Year of the Trees," an Earth Day and Israel's Arbor Day? January 24-25 in 2024 February 12-13 in 2025 1-2 in 2026: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_BiShvat
A UFO was reportedly seen in Denison, Texas around January 25, 1878. John Martin, a farmer from the Dallas area was hunting and described seeing a "large orange [initially the size of?] object;'" a report from another newspaper was reprinted in the Denison Daily News on the 25th and it had happened earlier, maybe on the 24th; this supposed to be the first time a UFO was likened to a "saucer;" the term "flying saucer" was coined by the media in 1947, though in that case "saucer" referred to the motion not the shape – Phenomenon: Forty Years of Flying Saucers, edited by John Spencer and Hilary Evans, 1988 – Amazon makes such 'older' books difficult to find without the exact title, "forty" not 40, etc.; also Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982 and UFO Exist, by Paris Flammonde, 1976. Denison, by the northern border with Oklahoma, is the birthplace of Dwight D Eisenhower (October 14, 1890) and Jim Hightower (January 11, 1943).
The United Mine Workers of America was founded January 25, 1890: marion-polk-yamhillsolidarity.blogspot.com/2024/01/today-in-union-history-founding-of.html and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers_of_America
Hundreds of dead and dying or injured ducks of various kinds – canvasbacks, redheads, scaups – were found in Saint Mary's City, Maryland January 25, 1969; it was as if they had run into something or been near an explosion – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978 and Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982. A site of early religious toleration, Saint Mary's City was officially founded March 25, 1634. The Maryland Toleration Act/Act Concerning Religion was passed April 21, 1649, but it failed later.
January 25, 1995 a scientific rocket was launched from Norway to study the aurora borealis and Russia thought it could be a nuclear missile and prepared to launch a nuclear counterattack, marking the first and only time that a nuclear power is known to have activated its "nuclear football" and prepared to fire off its weapons, though nuclear war almost began during the Cuban Missile Crisis as well.
The demonstrations that ultimately led to the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak began January 25, 2011 (Egypt's National Police Day); Mubarak withdrew from office February 11th. As in the revolution in Tunisia, several people set themselves on fire in protest, starting January 18th.
The Brumadinho mining dam disaster in Brazil was January 25, 2019.
January's Full Moon was on the 25th, briefly visible in the evening through clouds here; it was very cold and dry the week before and then warm, overcast, and sprinkling, with some fog at night; few animals came out out of dormancy though. I haven't heard any frogs calling yet, though some salamanders and other amphibians might breed now in North Carolina and it has been very sunny and cool mild. It can snow appreciably in March and frost in April. I haven't seen any snow this winter, but also few or no anoles, frogs, or moths. Around Imbolc, Groundhog Day, and Risshun it did feel like the beginning of spring, though cool. Is any Hepatica flowering? The New Moon was February 9th. A flock of red-winged blackbirds, not the first this winter, was nearby on January 25th, and a thrush and robin that came by might have been with them. Sapsuckers have been around for months but only started taping a nearby red maple in late January and then quickly left. Myrtle warblers, kinglets, titmice, etc. sometimes try to join in. Doves are appearing again and what might be a pair of downy woodpeckers. Juncos appeared some, but are rarely around now, maybe due to climate change. Unfamiliar sparrows were with the common white-throated sparrows earlier in January. The cattail seeds have mostly drifted away.
Louisiana became the 18th state April 30, 1812 and seceded January 26, 1861: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana
Therewas a livestreamed PSL 2024 presidential campaign event January 28th at 2pm ET: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgWWGm8U1Nw
A man (Hiroshi Uchida, 内田洋) claiming to be Satoshi Kirishima (桐島聡) was arrested at a hospital in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan January 25th, according to NPR and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia_Anti-Japan_Armed_Front ; check the Throw Out Your Books blog on the Japanese left and radicals. He was born January 9, 1954 in Kannabe, Fukayasu District, Hiroshima Prefecture and passed away January 28 or 29, 2024. Wanted over actions by the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (東アジア反日武装戦線, Higashi Ajia Hannichi Busō Sensen, EAAJAF); allegedly a member of the Scorpion/Sasori, and found through the Wolf Cell in 1975, when he went underground: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Kirishima
The Baia Mare cyanide spill in Romania was January 30, 2000.
Battle of George Square in Glasgow, Scotland, UK January 31, 1919
Launched April 4, 1919 in Bath, Maine; January 31, 1921 – the ship Caroll A Deering mystery off Cape Hatteras, NC.
Allen Dallen Nease (February 1, 1914 – September 1984)
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin February 1, 1931 – April 23, 2007.
Imbolc is February 1st, as is Saint Brigid's Day, also associated with Ireland. St. Brigid might represent a Christianization of the Celtic deity Brigid.
Explorer 1, the USA's first satellite, was launched February l, 1958.
Nguyen Van Lem or Bay Lop, an officer of the National Liberation Front, was captured during the Tet Offensive February 1st in what was known as Saigon at the time and summarily executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, leader of the South Vietnamese National Police, shown in a famous image captured by NBC and the Associated Press. Loan later took refuge in the USA, living near Washington, DC.
Taíno leader Hatuey fought the Spanish conquistadores in Hispaniola and Cuba, but was burned at the stake February 2, 1512 near what is now Bayamo, Cuba (also near where one of Cuba's 19th century wars for independence began). Before he was killed, a priest is supposed to have asked Hatuey if he would become a Christian and go to heaven, and he asked if the Spanish went to heaven. Hearing the inevitable answer he said he would rather go to hell where the Spaniards and their cruelty would be absent. He has been honored as a Hero of the Republic of Cuba.
John Warner Barber (February 2, 1798 – June 22, 1885).
The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo was signed February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding a large part of Mexico to the USA, though I imagine that much of this territory was still controlled by Indian groups, who might have been living there for hundreds or thousands of years, and was only controlled to a limited extent by the Mexican government.
The shortest solar eclipse between 2000 BCE and 3000 CE was February 3, 919 CE, at 2.5 seconds.
Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson (Betsy Graeme) (February 3, 1737 – February 23, 1801)
The Communist Party of Vietnam was founded through the merging of a few groups February 3-7, 1930 in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Author Michael Craig Ruppert (February 3, 1951 – April 13, 2014, allegedly by suicide): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ruppert
Operation Bongo II, an FAA (human) experiment looking at the impact of sonic booms on the people and buildings of Oklahoma City, began February 3, 1964. Air Force F-104, B-58, F-101, and F-106 aircraft broke the sound barrier over OKC 1,253 times over six months according to Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests
Aafia Siddiqui was convicted February 3, 2010 and sentenced to 86 years of Federal imprisonmen and is held in Fort Worth's Federal Medical Center, Carswell. She was born March 2, 1972 in Karachi, Pakistan.
2/4/2021 – US to get out of Yemen?? Getting back in now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden#First_100_days
Workers at the Monaghan Lunatic Asylum, now called Saint Davnet's Hospital, declared the first of several Irish soviets, January 29 – February 4, 1919: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_soviets and redphoenixnews.com/2024/01/24/psychiatric-hospital-uprising-the-first-irish-soviet/
Russia's Znamya-2 space mirror experiment, originally a solar sail experiment, launched October 27, 1992 on Progress M-15, was successfully deployed near the Mir space station February 4, 1993. The 20-meter mirror created a five kilometer wide spot lit as if by the light of a full Moon, racing at 8 kilometers a second from the south of France to western Russia. I wonder if anyone was upset by this gigantic light trespass, or was everything prearranged? I remember that a Russian orbital mirror was covered in Durham's Herald-Sun newspaper at the time. The satellite was deorbited and burned up over Canada after a few hours.
February 5, 1999 Znamya-2.5, 25 meters wide and designed to illuminate an area 7 kilometers wide with light equal to five to 10 full Moons, was deployed but damaged before much could be done. A Znamya-3 60 to 70 meters wide had been planned, but wasn't built. In a limited way maybe Znamya was going too far, though these were just experiments.
Novelist and writer Patricia Highsmith was born January 19, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas and passed away February 4, 1995 in Locarno, Switzerland. She is also noted for her personal diaries or journals.
2/4/1999 Guinean Amadou Diallou was killed by the NYPD
2/4/2024 – Facebook 20th anniversary? – BBC
2/4/2024 – Lisichansk or Lysychansk, Lugansk bakery bombed by Ukraine?
Bernardino de Sahagún, OFM (~1499 – February 5, 1590).
February 5, 1958 the Tybee Bomb (nuclear) was lost in Georgia.
February 5, 2003 Colin Powell spoke before the UN Security Council, claiming that Iraq had mobile biological weapon labs and was developing nuclear weapons, helping pave the way for the war the US and UK launched in late March. During press conferences by Powell and John Negroponte a tapestry copy of Pablo Picasso's Guernica hanging in the UN headquarters was covered with a blue curtain, allegedly just for the aesthetics of TV broadcasts.
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004); attempted assassination in March 1981.
The Seattle General Strike began February 6 – 11th, 1919: www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/08/the-seattle-general-strike-a-100-year-legacy/
Cuban revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos, the Hero of Yaguajay, was born February 6, 1932 and is thought to have died in plane crash over the ocean October 28, 1959. Cuba's Order of Cienfuegos award is named for him.
A few large snakes – February 6, 1957, a ball python along a road to Burlington, in Alamance County; January 20, 1902 along Town Creek in Salisbury; April 1880 in Burgaw, Pender County – Monsters of North Carolina: Mysterious Creatures in the Tar Heel State, by John Hairr, 2013.
February 6 1973 – The Custer, SD Chamber of Commerce and courthouse burned over lack of prosecution after an Indian was killed – This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.
The Durham City Council approved 55-Hopson around now in 2022 the final, second (?) hearing was February 7th, and many acres of mass grading soon began; surveying and some clearing began prior to the approval. The public comment period for the related extension of Hopson Road to Grandale ended February 22nd in 2022, and it was revealed that the extension of Grandale Road in Chatham County is also being planned. It was reported that bobcats, coyotes, maybe otters, turkeys, woodcocks, wood ducks, migratory waterfowl, bald eagles, prothonotary warblers, red-headed woodpeckers, many roosting black and turkey vultures, nesting great blue herons, maybe nesting nightjars, ancient bowfin, a summer roar of green treefrogs (?) and other herptofauna, a high density of fireflies, many wildflower, etc. live in the 'rural' and partially protected area along Northeast Creek, but will these all remain after what the members of the City Council and road planners approved is finished? The new elementary school nearby to the west, by a very large power substation and the Tobacco Trail, was finished recently and maybe, hopefully, the possible pink ladyslipper orchids, white vetch, nesting nightjars, and an abandoned beaver pond with alders and frequented by nesting indigo buntings were mostly left alone. Add Ellis Road area dates, north of RTP?
Emanuel Swedenborg (born Emanuel Swedberg; February 8, 1688 – March 29, 1772).
Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905).
Abraham H Galloway was born as a slave in Smithville (today's Southport), NC February 8, 1837, but escaped in 1857. He was involved in the Civil War, rewriting the NC constitution, and was a state senator 1868-1869. He passed away September 1. 1870 in Wilmington due to fever and jaundice.
The CSA was founded February 8, 1861, but not in VA.
Albanian revolutionary Nexhmije Xhuglini was born February 8, 1921 in Bitolj, today part of Macedonia. She fought as a partisan in the war to liberate Albania from Italian and German occupation during WWII and served in leading positions in the Party of Labor of Albania, the Democratic Front, the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, the Albanian Women's League, the National Assembly of Albania, and other bodies during her political career. She was imprisoned for 5 years after the counterrevolution. Apparently she was arrested on December 10, 1991, Human Rights Day, and charged with embezzlement, sentenced in January 1993, and released in January 1997. She was married to PLA First Secretary Enver Hoxha and she is supposed to have been the oldest living member of the PLA leadership before passing away February 26, 2020. For more information on the Kombinat (Factory) cemetery in Tirana where the the Hoxhas rest (Enver Hoxha had been buried in the National Martyrs' Cemetery, but was disinterred by the counterrevolutionaires) see: michaelharrison.org.uk/2021/12/nexhmije-and-enver-together-in-kombinat/ See also: michaelharrison.org.uk/2021/02/february-the-8th-2021-the-centenary-of-the-birth-of-nexhmije-xhuglini-hoxha/ For some of her works see: november8ph.ca/catalogue/ etc. www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html and ml-today.com/?s=nexhmije
February 8, 1928 Camden, New Jersey and summer 1972 Elberton, Georgia 'sky lines'; summer 1970 Caldwell, NJ shooting of a kind, without projectiles being found? – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Philippine revolutionary Jose Maria Canlas Sison (Joma) (February 8, 1939 – December 16, 2022).
The Charonne Massacre was February 8, 1962 at a Paris Metro station, where the police killed nine trade unionists demonstrating against a French terrorist group during the Algerian War.
The Battle of Saltley Gate was February 8, 1972: michaelharrison.org.uk/2021/02/10th-february-1972-victory-at-the-battle-of-saltley-gate/
February 8, 1974 the last crew left Skylab and it came down beginning 7/11/1979.
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841): www.nps.gov/people/william-henry-harrison.htm
According to Wikipedia, the first and only time a submarine has sunk another submarine while both were underwater happened February 9, 1945, when British HMS Venturer sank U-864 off Norway. U-864 was carrying jet engine and missile guidance system components, as well as mercury, to aid German ally Japan.
The first test flight of a Boeing 747 was February 9, 1969 in Washington state (?).
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (June 15, 1914 – February 9, 1984)
The first confirmed discovery of extrasolar and pulsar planets, around pulsar PSR B1257+12, was announced January 9, 1992 (found at Arecibo in Puerto Rico February 9, 1990 ?): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1257%2B12 And a comet? – exoplanet.eu/catalog/psr_1257_12_d--236/ Another pulsar planet May 30, 1993 and the first around two stars and in a globular cluster of stars: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1620%E2%88%9226_b The first planet around a main-sequence star was announced October 6, 1995: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51_Pegasi_b Multiple planets around a main-sequence star in a multi-star system, Upsilon Andromedae, in 1999: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upsilon_Andromedae The discovery of a planet around Proxima Centauri, only about 4 light years away, but not visible from here, was announced August 24, 2016: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri_b A planet orbiting two stars was announced/discovered September 15, 2011: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-16b About 5,576 extrasolar planets have been found (by January 1, 2024, according to Wikipedia).
The New Moon, good for unhindered stargazing, was February 9th. February's First Quarter Moon will be February 16th.
In February 1220 – the Mongols took Otrar, now ruins in Kazakhstan, then besieged and burned Bukhara, and later took Samarkand, both ancient cities now lie in Uzbekistan.
Hernán Cortés, disobeying the governor, set sail from Cuba February 10, 1519 on the expedition that would result in the defeat of the Aztecs and the colonization of Mexico.
Playwright Bertolt Brecht was born February 10, 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.
The Catalonia Offensive, December 23, 1938 to February 10, 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939.
Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collided February 9, 2009; February 13th sonic booms in KY: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision (note en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_West_Ford )
The evening of February 10, 2015 Craig Stephen Hicks shot and killed Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha in Finley Forest Condominiums (Summerwalk Circle) at the eastern edge of Chapel Hill along NC 54.
World Pulses Day, devoted to important food plants such as kidney beans, lima beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, broad beans, and lentils, is February 10th. The UN General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
The Lunar New Year will be Saturday, February 10th in 2024 and January 29th in 2025, and was January 22 in 2023. A yang and wood year of the Dragon (one character for dragon, 辰) from February 10, 2024 to January 28, 2025: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology ? So dragons feature in Japanese 2024 New Year (正月, Shō-gatsu) cards or nenga (年賀状, nen-ga-jō) in January: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_New_Year The Lantern Festival is on day 15 of the (Lunar) New Year. 2025 will be a yin wood Snake (巳) year. I happen to be eating the dried American persimmons (there might still be a few left to collect on the trees, and I should have collected more around December-January) and traditional Georgian or Western New Year regional foods around the Lunar New Year, or hope to. For New Year postcard images, search X/Twitter.com for nenga, 辰, etc. and there is: www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2024-01-04/happy-new-year-from-the-anime-world-enter-the-dragon-part-xii/.206136 (ANN, posts I-XII, editorially liberal). This rightist pornographic website is likely to be offensive and NSFW, but the images in this 2024 New Year post are mostly tame: www.sankakucomplex.com/2024/01/02/dragon-girls-all-the-rage-for-year-of-the-dragon/ [Anthropomorphizing China's J-20 fighter, as K-On!'s Mio Akiyama, above under 1/11 + some actual photos: www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/01/25/chengdu-j-20-stealth-plane-akiyama-mio/ ]
Kosaburo Eto (江藤 小三郎, Etō Kosaburō, 20 April 1946 in Sage Prefecture – 11 February 1969 by burning, in front of the National Diet in Tokyo, Japan): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosaburo_Eto
Charles Darwin was born 215 years ago, February 12, 1809, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK. There are Darwin Day events, such as at the NCBG, around his birthday.
British and American bombers targeted Dresden, capital of the German state of Saxony, February 13 - 15, 1945 with high-explosive and incendiary bombs, causing a firestorm and killing up to 25,000 people. Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the bombing as a POW.
Maurice Audin, an ethnic French member of the Algerian Communist Party and a mathematics assistant at the University of Algiers, was born February 14, 1932. The French Army seized him at his apartment June 11, 1957, during Algeria's war for independence, and then used his home as a trap for others. He was taken elsewhere and tortured to death, something French President Macron acknowledged in September 2018. This was not an isolated case.
Allegedly to prevent the potential of injuries from a toxic hydrazine leak on a malfunctioning surveillance satellite, the US Navy was ordered to destroy it with an anti-ballistic missile on February 14, 2008. This also conveniently allowed the USA to test a space weapon.
The Day of Rage in Bahrain – February 14, 2011.
Vasant Panchami (वसन्तपञ्चमी, Vasantapañcamī), also rendered Vasanta Panchami and Saraswati Puja – February 14, 2024 and January 26, 2023
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei was born February 15, 1564 in Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence.
New Jersey abolished slavery, gradually, February 15, 1804, yet slavery still existed there in 1865: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_New_Jersey
It was reported that what seemed to be pieces of flesh, liver, brain, and blood fell from a red cloud February 15, 1850 on the farm of Thomas Clarkson, 13 miles from Clinton, Sampson County, NC. The material fell across a span of 250-300 yards. The Clarkson children had been playing about 100 yards from the house and saw the shower, crying out “Mother, there is meat falling!” A scent or smell of blood was reported and a red liquid was dripping from the foliage. Samples are supposed to have been examined with a microscope in Fayetteville and confirmed to be flesh and blood. This was reported in the March 8, 1850 issue of the North Carolinian March 8, 1850, apparently not available online, but the incident is covered in Jerome Clark's Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America and covered briefly in Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States and in the book Weird Carolinias.
It is unclear if the site was actually in Sampson County. Clark says that the location 13 miles southeast of Clinton – which might be somewhere in the next county over, unless the south end of sort of heart-shaped Sampson County is meant. I think Weird Carolinias says that the location was 13 miles southwest, but that could be inaccurate. That book also has quote comparing the red cloud to a “wind cloud” – a dustdevil or other cloud of dust?
A similar shower of flesh and blood from a red cloud was reported at a farm on Spring Creek, near Bairds Mills (near Lebanon), in Wilson County, Tennessee in August 1841 and along the Pamunkey River in Hanover County, Virginia on Good Friday 1850 (see below). The sky was clear when hundreds of pounds of thinly sliced meat edged with “fine black bristles” was supposed to have fallen over two acres in Los Nietos, California, in the Los Angeles area, August 1, 1869.
Karl Theodor Robert Luther, April 16, 1822 in Świdnica, Poland – February 15, 1900 Düsseldorf, Germany).
Susan B. Anthony (Susan Anthony), February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906.
Following an explosion, the USS Maine sank in Havana, Cuba February 15, 1898, killing 260 crew members. The explosion was probably accidental, but became a spark for the Spanish-American War later that spring. Military construction on Great Gull Island, New York during this war was a factor in the extinction of the Gull Island vole, discovered by science and then exterminated in a few months. In 1962 the US military proposed various terrorist acts to justify war with Cuba (Operation Northwoods), including blowing up a US ship in Guantánamo Bay.
Korean statesman Kim Jong Il was born February 16, 1941, when Korea was a colony of Japan, and passed away December 17, 2011 in Pyongyang, capital of resolutely independent DPR Korea, though the struggle for independence from Japan and the first battles with US imperialism were led by his father, Kim Il Sung; some of his works and other documents are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/index.htm , november8ph.ca/catalogue/ , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea/ , and might be available in print at UNC's Davis Library.
Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi (عباس الموسوي; October 26 1952 – killed by Israel, using the then new US Apache helicopter, February 16 1992 with his wife and son, age five, and four more).
February 17, 1864 Confederate submarine Hunley sank the USS Housatonic outside of Charleston Harbor using a spar torpedo (a pole tipped with an explosive), becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, though the Hunley was not underwater during the attack. It was not meant to be a suicide mission, but the eight volunteers operating the Hunley were killed, possibly instantaneously. Five crew members were killed on the USS Housatonic. The Hunley was raised in 2000 and can be seen at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston. There was a movie about it on TNT. Apparently there were other Confederate submarines, and a Federal submarine was lost off Cape Hatteras. A submarine was even deployed in the Revolutionary War, but it was unsuccessful.
Robert Kenneth Preston, a private in the Army, stole a Bell UH-1B Iroquois (Huey) helicopter from Tipton Field, near Fort Meade, Maryland, and joyrode around Washington, before landing on the White House's South Lawn February 17, 1974. There was a hail of bullets from the Secret Service, but Preston was only lightly wounded. Preston was court-martialed and sentenced to a year in prison, with time served, and fined $2400 dollars.
90482 Orcus, a large object beyond Neptune, with a moon, Vanth, was discovered February 17, 2004 and is named for a chthonic Etruscan/Roman deity ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcus , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanth ).
Republic of Kosovo / Kosova declared independence February 17, 2008.
Georgian Bolshevik Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze October 24, 1886 in Ghoresha, now in the western central area of the Republic of Georgia – February 18, 1937 in Moscow, interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
President Ford signed Executive Order 11905 February 18, 1976, among other things banning "political assassination." Similar executive orders were signed by Carter on January 24, 1978 and by Reagan on December 4, 1981.
February 18, 2010 Andrew Joseph Stack III crashed a Piper Dakota small airplane into an IRS office in the 4-story Echelon complex in Austin, Texas. IRS Revenue Officer Group Manager Vernon Hunter was killed and 13 others were injured, two with critical injuries. Stack also burned his house in North Austin before the attack.
Traditionally the Pisces period is February 19th – March 20th, followed by Aries.
Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born February 19, 1473.
Swedish naturalist Daniel Carlsson (Charles) Solander (February 19, 1733 – May 13, 1782).
Abkhazia became a treaty republic within (?) the Georgian SSR December 16, 1921 (or in March?) and an autonomous soviet socialist republic within the Georgian SSR February 19, 1931.
Soviet astronomer Klim Ivanovych Churyumov was born February 19, 1937 and passed away October 14, 2016.
The WWII Battle of Iwo Jima was February 19 – March 26, 1945.
Under Khrushchev Crimea and nearby areas was transferred from Russia to Ukraine within the USSR February 19, 1954, but there have been questions about the legality.
Construction of the Soviet space station Mir (Peace or World in Russian) began February 19, 1986. Until 2010 the record for longest continuous human presence in space was the habitation of Mir and some individual cosmonauts spent at least a year on the station. Mir was retired and deorbited into the South Pacific in late March 2001.
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping passed away February 19, 1997. He had been born August 22, 1904. His predecessor, Hua Guofeng, was born February 16, 1921 and passed away August 20, 2008.
February 12, 1733 the colony of Georgia was founded, initially without slavery. Georgia ratified the US Constitution January 2, 1788. Georgia seceded January 19, 1861 and was the last state brought back in; a new flag February 19, 2003 yet I saw the previous one flying in the greater Atlanta area in fall 2018? Many states seem to have lacked flags until the second half of the 19th century. Utah will adopt a new flag March 9, 2024 and MN May 11th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_U.S._states_and_territories
The Rage Against the War Machine anti-war demonstration in DC was February 19, 2023 and there will be a sequel February 17, 2024.
Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (February 20, 1805 – October 26, 1879)
February 20-21 – Julian Assange hearing in the UK relating to whether he can be extradited to the US; RFK Jr condemned the US effort recently.
According to the website Prisoner Solidarity, political prisoner Tsutomu Shirosaki might be released from prison in Japan February 20, 2027: prisonersolidarity.com/prisoner/tsutomu-shiros
Hungarian revolutionary Béla Kun (Béla Kohn) was born February 20, 1886 in a Transylvanian village that was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time and is now in Romania. Some of his writings are posted at: www.marxists.org/archive/kun-bela/index.htm and otheraspect.org/bela-kun-and-hungarian-soviet-republic/
The First Franco-Dahomean War, one of two, was February 20 to October 4 in 1890, in what is now Benin (formerly called Dahomey, after a powerful Fon or Aja state there, the "Black Sparta," or Mexico?), between Togo and Nigeria in West Africa. The second war was July 4, 1892 to January 15, 1894. In 1860 the Clotilda bought slaves captured by Dahomey and transported them to Mobile; importing slaves from abroad had long been illegal. There is still a king of Dahomey, who has a role in the Vodun religion, etc.
Frederick Douglass passed away February 20, 1895 in Washington, DC.
The World Day of Social Justice is February 20th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
February 21st is also Red Books Day, according to the People's Forum in New York City. This is the 175th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto: peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/21/red-books-day-2023-fight-the-rise-of-the-right-read-a-red-book/
The last known Carolina parakeet died February 21, 1918 at the Cincinnati Zoo, apparently in the same place where the last captive passenger pigeon, Martha, died September 1, 1914. He was named Incas and died months after his mate Lady Jane. The last known wild bird was killed in Okeechobee County, Florida in 1904, though sightings were reported in southern Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp in 1937 and in swamps near the Santee River in South Carolina in 1938. Of course the Santee was dammed the next year. It would seem like Carolina parakeets could be cloned with DNA from preserved specimens.
A chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice was founded February 21, 1965 in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
Bob Sheldon, founder of the former leftist Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, was killed the evening of February 21, 1991, and the case remains unsolved. The police concluded that this happened during a robbery, but others called it a political murder.
Florida professor Sami al-Arian (born January 14, 1958 in Kuwait) was indicted February 21, 2003; his case brings to mind what Nancy Pelosi advocates doing in winter 2024).
2/21-22/2014 – US-EU-backed Maidan coup completed, in power, in Ukraine? – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych
2/21/2024 – the 125th anniversary of Vicksburg NMP
February 22, 1966 Kosmos 110 was launched.
February 22, 1974 Samuel Joseph Byck attempted to hijack an airliner at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport for a 9/11-like attack, to kill President Nixon. Byck killed a police officer and a pilot, but was wounded and then killed himself while the DC-9 was still on the ground. Byck was born January 30, 1930 in South Philadelphia.
2/22/1976 a UFO report in Great Falls and 11/17/1975 in Whitefish, MT – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Nature author Hal Borland (Harold Glen Borland) passed away February 22, 1978.
The Merriespruit tailings dam disaster in South Africa was the night of February 22, 1994.
English official and noted diarist Samuel Pepys was born February 23, 1633 in London, and passed away May 26, 1703 in nearby Clapham, Surrey.
According to Wikipedia, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the first agreement to lease Guantánamo Bay from Cuba February 23, 1903. This was one of the demands of the Platt Amendment giving the US control of Cuba in exchange for ending the direct military occupation that followed the Spanish-American War. The Platt Amendment was added to Cuba's constitution verbatim December 25, 1901 and the same demands were included in a treaty signed May 22, 1903. Today the US government attempts to hide some of its crimes, such as extrajudicial detention and torture, by carrying them out on stolen Cuban territory.
February 23, 1942 a Japanese submarine shelled a Bankline Oil Company refinery in Goleta, California, not far north of Santa Barbara, and the great and deadly phantom L.A. air raid was early on February 25th: Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us by Jim Marrs, 1997.
February 23rd to December 9 in 1969 – the UNC – Chapel Hill Food Workers Strike, an on-going issue at UNC.
Great horned owls lay eggs around late December to March here, and incubation takes about a month. They usually occupy nests built by hawks, crows, or ospreys, and sometimes share bald eagles nest with the owners. February 23, 1992 great horned owls were found nesting on a platform built for ospreys at (in?) the North Pond of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on the coast of North Carolina near Roanoke Island – Birds of the Carolinas: Second Edition, 2006. Pea Island is south of Oregon Inlet and is no longer a separate barrier island, connecting to much larger Hatteras Island, though any new inlets opened by storms are closed artificially. The area might be vanishing beneath the water, possibly in part because the natural movement of sand has been interfered with, along with climate change, but Highway 12 has not been relocated. ~2/13 NC 12 flooding there, from the west? Large ponds or lagoons take up much of the sandy Island's interior (I think the freshwater floats on saltwater), with few trees in my memory, compared to a place like the very wide and even hilly area around Cape Hatteras, with marshes, swamps, and deep forest. Pea Island is relatively narrow, but apparently surrounded by a much wider area of very shallow water in Pamlico Sound, potentially habitat for stingrays. The Refuge was created around May 17, 1937. I heard one or more barred owls here for the first time in weeks January 7, 2024 in the afternoon and again in early February and on the 6th, etc.?; barred owls also nest in the winter, usually in tree hollows, but they sometimes occupy hawk or crow nests. I heard one or more hawks (red-shouldered?) one day recently and one was sitting on a low branch across the street after having been disturbed by the mail February 5th. Turkey and black vultures frequently overhead. Bluebirds have been around and the sapsuckers left in January?
British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, February 24, 1743 – June 19, 1820.
The Revolutionary War Battle of Haw River was February 24, 1781 in what is now Alamance County, NC.
An explosion and a broken meteorite fell in Tombstone, Arizona on February 24, 1897 – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Apparently the Zweiss planetarium projector, of which there is or was one in use at UNC's Morehead Planetarium, was first unveiled at Munich's Deutsches Museum October 21, 1923. The projector had first been proposed February 24, 1914. The Deutsches Museum had opened November 12, 1906: spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2023/10/centennial-projection-planetarium.html
Russia entered the civil war in Ukraine February 24, 2022, though pro-Russian forces had occupied the Crimean Peninsula in late February 2014 and it was later annexed by Russia. This followed the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government by pro-US forces. Under Khrushchev Crimea and nearby areas was transferred from Russia to Ukraine, both Soviet republics at the time, February 19, 1954, but there have been questions about the legality.
William Z Foster, the CPUSA's General Secretary between 1945 and 1957, was born February 25, 1881.
I now have more location information and hope to write it up for this 140th anniversary year, though not necessarily here:
It was reported that a shower of blood fell from a cloudless sky in the middle of the day on February 25, 1884 in New Hope Township, on the central eastern edge of Chatham County, NC. The Weekly Raleigh Register specifies that the location was near “the old stage road between Pittsboro and Raleigh, in the fork of New Hope Creek [River] and Haw River,” near “Cyprett's bridge over New Hope.” An 1870 map of Chatham County (available at UNC's Wilson Library and the Chatham County Historical Association sells copies www.chathamhistory.org/Sys/Store/Products/267580 ) shows an unnamed bridge over the New Hope River just upstream from White Oak Creek, on the very north edge of squareish New Hope Township. UNC chemistry professor Francis Preston Venable's account says that the site was “about a quarter of a mile from the Raleigh and Pittsboro road.” The soil was described as sandy, which might indicate that it was near a waterway. The book Weird Carolinas puts the location near Parkers Creek, something like a mile east of the current Mount Gilead Church (this seems to be their website: mountgileadbaptist.org/ ), which is on Mount Gilead Church Road by Red Hill, which would seem to put the location of the blood fall on private land west of Big Woods Road. I thought it might be in the gameland around the Jordan Lake reservoir or underwater, and maybe a bit further south.
The unnamed wife of Kit Lasater, a black tenant farmer on land owned by Silas Beckwith, was outside her home, near a plowed field, and saw something red fall and heard rain, but the shower had already ended by the time she looked up. The wind was calm; Venable thought that there might have been a slight breeze from the south or southwest. Many people came to see the wonder. An SA Holleman visited the location the next morning and said that a rectangular area about 50 by 70 feet had been hit by drops the size of a small pea to the size of a man's finger, the larger drops having coagulated while the smaller ones had been absorbed by the soil. The Chatham Record said the area was about 60' around while the Weekly Raleigh Register said it was an area of 25 – 30 square yards. A Dr Robinson who lived nearby studied the material and thought that it really was blood and said that it smelled like blood. Dr Venable, a future UNC president and namesake of UNC's old chemistry building, and buried on the campus ( www.ncpedia.org/biography/venable-francis-preston ), analyzed samples and concluded that the material was blood, though the samples had been gathered and delivered by third parties. Venable visited the site himself, but not until almost three weeks later, after “several heavy rains.” He still found one or two stains on a fence and interviewed Mrs Lasater.
Several years ago I was unable to locate any Lasaters who could talk about the incident (Lassiter is probably a much more common name, and I tried contacting Lassiters as well) and no Beckwiths. In 1870 there was a Lasater's Crossroads north of White Oak Creek, around where NC 751 is today, in Williams Township, and a few individual Lasater homesteads are shown on the 1870 map. Silas Beckwith is supposed to have lived February 19, 1815 – August 16, 1882, in which case he wasn't alive when this happened and maybe that is why the Lasaters were living there ( www.findagrave.com/memorial/9556160/silas-beckwith ). There was an SM (Sire Manly?) Beckwith who lived November 1, 1841 to April 21, 1907 ( www.findagrave.com/memorial/9556158/sire-manly-beckwith ). These graves are supposed to be in the Beckwith or Council Family Cemetery, in New Hope Township, on the south side of Highway 64, today's Pittsboro to Raleigh Road, a tenth of a mile west of John Horton Road (SR 1745), east of Jordan Lake and Wilsonville, at the intersection of 64 and Farrington Road: cemeterycensus.com/nc/chat/cem370.htm and www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1994787/beckwith-cemetery I've been by these places many times without knowing that Silas Beckwith was buried right there beside 64, and I've been in the area east of Mount Gilead Church.
All of the newspaper accounts referenced by the NCpedia ( www.ncpedia.org/chatham-blood-shower-1884 ) have been digitized and are available at: www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/#advsearch in addition to an article on page 3 of the March 6, 1884 edition of the Chatham Record. Dr Venable's report, published in the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society (1883 – 1884 Volume 1), is online at: dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/jncas/id/999 and was reprinted in some of the newspaper accounts above. There are also accounts in Jerome Clark's Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America, Weird Carolinas, and on the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources' blog: www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2016/02/25/chatham-county-blood-shower
Also in the area there is an abandoned underground government communications facility, built for World War III, near the end of the Cold War. Maybe it is on Big Hole Road, west of Jordan Lake, off of Big Woods Road. There was an article in the News and Observer a few years ago.
The new Marc Basnight Bridge over Oregon Inlet opened February 25, 2019, replacing the 2 1/2-mile long Herbert C Bonner Bridge, which had been built by November or December 1963. I think the SELC wanted a much longer bridge, going around collapsing Pea Island. Oregon Inlet, between Bodie and Pea/Hatteras "islands," was created by a hurricane and found by the sidewheel ship Oregon, September 7, 1846 – The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Tar Heel Places and Their History: Second Edition, 2010
Robert Franklin Williams, born February 26, 1925 in Monroe, North Carolina, was president of the local NAACP chapter and formed the NRA-affiliated Black Armed Guard. He wrote Negroes with Guns (1962). He spent some time in Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and China. He died October 15, 1996 in Baldwin, Michigan.
Albanian revolutionary Nexhmije Xhuglini Hoxha was born February 8, 1921 in Bitolj, today part of recently renamed North Macedonia, formerly a Yugoslav republic and having a significant ethnic Albanian minority (see above and previous calendars). She passed away February 26, 2020 at age 99. Some of her memoirs are translated at: ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html and some short writings are posted at www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm She has a daughter Pranvera; two sons, Sokol and Ilir (born March 31, 1949 and also imprisoned for years after the counterrevolution); and several grandchildren.
Some left statements and generally scathing and similar articles from the "Western" mainstream media, especially those from the US:
theredphoenixapl.org/2020/02/26/a-bright-red-star-has-joined-the-heavens/
revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv25n1/NHObituary.pdf
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/world/europe/nexhmije-hoxha-dead.html
www.reuters.com/article/us-albania-hoxha-idUSKCN20K30K
www.france24.com/en/20200226-nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albania-s-communist-tyrant-dies-aged-99
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/26/nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albanias-dictator-dies-aged-99
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/02/nexhmije-hoxha-obituary
livre.fnac.com/a2422752/Fahri-Balliu-La-femme-du-diable-Nexhmije-Hoxha-veuve-du-dictateur-albanais-Enver-Hoxha
Translated statement from the War Veterans Association of the NLA (posted on the For a People's Democracy Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/312850322214080/ ; there is also an untranslated announcement from Ilir Hoxha there):
"WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY
Died comrade Nexhmije Hoxha
A young girl born in Saint Naum (Bitola), raised in Dibra, married in Gjirokastra, with a more sensational life in Tirana, where she supported the Gervalla family, left behind one [major] Nationwide Works, testament to be realized from generations of dedication for National Unity ...
Glory!
War Veterans Association of the National Liberation Army
Fazli Veliu, Chairman
Tetova, February, 2020"
(I assume the Gervalla family refers to brothers Jusuf and Bardhosh Gervalla, Kosovar Albanian activists assassinated in West Germany January 18, 1982, and Tetova is a city in Macedonia with a large ethnic Albanian population.)
2/26/2024 – The 105th anniverary of Grand Canyon NP
International Polar Bear Day is around February 27th ( polarbearsinternational.org/get-involved/international-polar-bear-day ).
After March 1983 it looked like the city of Rancho Palos Verdes (in Los Angeles County, California) had (intentionally?) killed off the last population of the Palos Verde blue butterfly (a subspecies of the more abundant silvery blue), but in 1994 another population was discovered, though it differed from the others in having an additional larval foodplant. A conservation program was started. The Palos Verde blue was classified as endangered July 2, 1980. Rancho Palos Verde was charged with violating the Endangered Species Act in 1987, but the case was dismissed because at the time only a person could be charged with this crime (this error was fixed in 1988).
www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/PalosVerdesBlueButterfly.html
www.urbanwildlands.org/pvb.html www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Glaucopsyche-lygdamus terranealife.com/rediscovering-palos-verdes-blue-butterfly/ butterflywebsite.com/endangered-butterflies.cfm
The Xerces blue was driven to extinction by military construction near San Francisco in 1943. The species is remembered in the name of the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group ( www.xerces.org ). The Xerces and Palos Verde blues are in the same genus and their caterpillars eat some of the same plant species. Militarism today contributes to climate change and other problems, threatening to kill off many species this century, even if some endangered species, such as the St. Francis' satyr butterfly and the red-cockaded woodpecker in North Carolina, have unwittingly been temporarily sheltered on military bases. Rare wildlife has also found shelter along militarized borders (an academic who was, I think, in Boise, ID wrote about this), such as inside the DMZ across Korea. In 2020 supposedly "liberal" or "progressive" Democratic Party-ruled California was allowing a fish, the delta smelt, to go extinct due to human actions (see for example: www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/24/will-the-extinction-of-delta-smelt-be-governor-gavin-newsoms-environmental-legacy/ ).
German botanist and painter Catharina Helena Dörrien was born March 1, 1717.
Korea's March 1st Movement for the end of Japanese colonial rule began March 1, 1919 with a reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence in Seoul, and was brutally suppressed. See: koryogroup.com/blog/the-march-1st-movement
The Mongolian People's Revolution of 1921 began March 1st.
Castle Bravo, the USA's biggest nuclear weapon test and the fifth largest ever, was March 1, 1954 in the Bikini Atoll, today part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was a test of a new type of fusion-based hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb, more powerful than the fission-based atom bombs dropped on Japan. The US tested the first hydrogen bomb at a nearby atoll in 1952, escalating the arms race that could lead to human extinction. The Castle Bravo test was much more powerful than the physicists expected and radioactive fallout fell on several islands, a US Navy ship, and on up to 100 fishing boats outside of the area that had previously been announced as dangerous, including the Japanese bonito fishing ship Daigo Fukuryū Maru. Its 23 crewmen contracted radiation sickness and one died September 23rd, though not directly from radiation sickness, and this caused a an international incident. The fallout also sickened nearby islanders and US military personnel, and blanketed the world in smaller amounts. Bikini was left contaminated, though there is an effort at remediation. The atoll's original inhabitants were shuffled around to different islands and at one point were left starving to death. Testing destroyed some of the small islands, but there is rich marine life there today. A quote in In a Dark Time might refer to a test at Bikini Atoll.
March 1 is Remembrance Day (Nuclear Victims' Day and Nuclear Survivors' Day) in the Marshall Islands, remembering those impacted by US nuclear tests, conducted when the islands were under direct US control (today there is a "free association" agreement and dependence on the US).
The Comintern, the third international organization of revolutionary communist and socialist parties and organizations, was founded during a congress held in Moscow March 2– 6, 1919, with 34 groups participating.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev March 2, 1931 – August 30, 2022
A prototype Concorde supersonic airliner first took to the air March 2, 1969.
National Reading Day is March 2nd or the closest school day to that date, marking Dr Seuss' (Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel's) birth in 1904, and was started in 1997 by the National Education Association.
The traditional celebration Hinamatsuri, Doll Festival, or Girls' Day (apparently once known as the Peach Festival) is March 3rd in Japan.
It was reported that “half a wagonload of pieces of fresh meat, sliced into thin strips, some of it quite bloody” fell from a clear sky over an area 300' by 150' (there are other figures) on the farm of Allan Crouch in Olympia Springs, Bath County, in northeast Kentucky, on March 3, 1876. Mrs Couch witnessed the fall while outside making soap. This is referenced in Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States , Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America and Mysteries of the Unexplained, by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1982. It was reported that a similar fall of meat, said to resemble and taste like beef, fell from a clear sky near Gastonia, in Gaston County, NC November 11, 1876 (from Unnatural Phenomena; many things have been reported to have fallen near Charlotte), and something like meat fell in California's Santa Clara County/San Jose area, near San Francisco in June 1869, etc.
A spooklight reportedly took up residence on Jackson Road, off of US 13 and Turlington Road (?), near Norfolk and Suffolk, VA [3/5/1951 – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978].
December 14, 1981 Israel's Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law, applying Israeli laws to the Golan Heights, Syrian and disputed Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. This was seen as annexation and condemned even by the Reagan administration, demonstrating how much more pro-Zionist the US government has become. The Trump administration recognized this annexation March 25, 2019. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem May 14, 2018 might have been recognition of Israel's claim to all of the city and a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 478. The Biden administration hasn't reversed what Trump did, but condemns Russia. In addition several Palestinians claim that the site of the embassy includes land that was stolen from them, and the US government knows this and some of these claimants are US citizens. One March in a recent year the USAF might have first conducted military exercises with Israel over the occupied West Bank, another form of recognition of Israeli annexation of foreign territory by force, within the USA's "norms" and 'rules-based international order.'
Earth Hour will be March 23rd in 2024 and March 29th in 2025 National Dark-Sky Week is supposed to be held annually the week of the New Moon in April, and highlights light pollution and stargazing.
The Civil War Battle of Glorietta Pass was March 26 – 28, 1862 in northern New Mexico Territory, near Sante Fe. The site is considered endangered today.
Green rain in Dayton, OH March 26, 1948, green snow in Dana, CA in early 4/1953? – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Thirty-nine members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found dead March 26, 1997 in Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego, having committed mass suicide so that their souls could board aspacecraft they believed to be following Comet Hale-Bopp, a very bright comet at the time. Comet Hyakutake was bright the March before, though I think my memory wants to say that Hale-Bopp was first and that I saw both, without optical aids.
The "Saudi Coalition," materially supported by the US, intervened in the Yemeni Civil War March 26, 2015, fighting the Ansar Allah (Houthi) coalition (termed Operation Decisive Storm). See also: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/MS5302.HTM#4 US ending in 2021??
Russian revolutionary Sergei Kirov was born March 27, 1886 in what is now Kirov Oblast. He was assassinated December 1, 1934.
Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai was born March 31, 1872. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kolontai , michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/03/writings-of-the-soviet-leadership/ , and redstarpublishers.org/ See also the March 8, 2023 posts.
A US-backed military coup in Brazil beginning March 31, 1964 installed a brutal military government that lasted until 1985, praised by former rightist president Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Wikipedia, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), known as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada for electoral purposes, to separate it from the unrelated Communist Party of Canada, was founded March 31, 1970. On the 53rd anniversary: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/MS5304.HTM#1 Some music from the CPCML is online at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCGM05kHPxsmToUjm-sSZefg
March 31st is the International Transgender Day of Visibility, declared in 2009 and officially proclaimed by Biden in 2021, and Cesar Chavez Day (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993), proclaimed nationally in 2014 by Obama, at the end of Farmworker Awareness Week: saf-unite.org/national-farmworker-awareness-week/
It was reported that slices of meat fell from a cloud near Cloverlea (Clover Lea? Not Clover leaf), on the south bank of the Pamunkey River, close to Richmond (?), in Hanover County, Virginia, on land belonging to Dr GW Bassett, a medical doctor, on Good Friday, 1850. The brief mention in Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States (page 175) says that the cloud was red. In Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America it is said that several men observed a small cloud going northeast to southwest overhead and fragments of flesh and liver fell over a span of 5 yards. Bassett and another person picked up 15 – 20 samples, some of which weighed an ounce, the next morning. The samples were preserved in alcohol and one was sent to a doctor in Richmond. This Dr Bassett seems to be the George Washington Bassett (August 23, 1800 – August 25, 1878) buried in Old Church, Hanover County – www.findagrave.com/memorial/6446088/george-washington-bassett
By Easter Sunday 1987 every known California condor had been captured, for a captive breeding program. The birds were de-loused, apparently exterminating the California condor louse Colpocephalum californici , discovered in 1963, destroying the information that could have been gained from studying them and possibly causing future problems for the condors, when they get new parasites, the ecological niche now being vacant. Insights into human evolution have come through the study of our parasites, also going extinct, just through better hygiene or through active extermination campaigns, though some are generalists and could live without feeding on us. I feel like there is some tension or problematic questions that public health workers and officials ignore. The BBC often reminds me of it. Apparently when the first nuclear bomb was detonated there was some acknowledgement of the magnitude of what the Manhattan Project had done or achieved. More examples at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation-induced_extinction
The Hainan Incident, George W Bush's first foreign policy crisis, was April 1, 2001, and resulted in the destruction of a Chinese PLA Navy J-8II fighter and the presumed death of pilot Lt Cmdr Wang Wei and the capture of the offending US Navy EP-3 ARIES and its 24 crew members when they landed at a Chinese base. The EP-3 was shipped back to the US in pieces and rebuilt. EP-3's and military aircraft from other countries apparently came very close January 29 and November 5, 2018 over the Black Sea, July 19, 2019 near Venezuela, etc, in each case the US claiming to be the innocent party, operating over international waters.
The US Capitol Car Attack was April 2, 2021.
There were many UFO reports in Lumberton, NC April 3-5, 1975, according to the book Weird Carolinas.
The Weather-connected May 19th Communist Organization bombed an Israeli Aircraft Industries Building April 5, 1984.
The war in Bosnia was around April 6, 1992 to December 14, 1995; February 28, 1994 air combat by NATO and its first bombing, ever, was April 10-11th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War
A mystery airship, a period UFO, with a searchlight, reportedly travelled rapidly (but airships aren't noted for their speed today) over Wilmington, North Carolina April 8, 1897, according to the book Weird Carolinas.
USPS employee Douglas Hughes flew an ultralight gyrocopter from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to the west lawn of the US Capitol April 15, 2015, in a non-violent protest against Congress' corruption and dysfunction.
In July 1882 two roaring clouds of locusts are reported to have converged near the Reese River in central Nevada (?). Dead locusts and drops of water are supposed to have rained down. Locusts, dead for some reason, covered more than 100 acres six inches to 3 feet deep in less than 15 minutes. The masses of dead grasshoppers attracted “thousands of crows and buzzards.” This comes from Jerome Clark's book Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America, drawing from an article, “ A Hopper Cloudburst,” in the July 16, 1882 Daily Nevada State Journal.
The species of grasshopper isn't identified in the account, if this really happened, but maybe they were Rocky Mountain locusts, which once gathered in vast and amazing or terrifying swarms over much of what is now the central USA, but they are now probably extinct. The settlers wanted to get rid of the grasshoppers, but if the species is extinct, it was probably an unintended consequence of settlement/colonization in the Rockies. A wading bird, the Eskimo curlew, might have gone extinct with the locust. The bounty of the land could go to the locusts and other forms of life, as it had for probably millions of years, or to capitalist agriculture. How did the locust interact with native subsistence agriculture and food systems? The UN and international technocrats might want to repeat this history on other continents. Have they looked for alternatives? In the East, Americans couldn't coexist with Carolina parakeets, large animals of many kinds, etc., though we now ask poorer countries to preserve their wildlife and forests.
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