Previous calendar: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-around.html
Spring 2023 calendar: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html
More in this spring 2022 calendar: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2022/03/events-and-anniversaries-in-spring.html
I added a few events to the calendar posted in February. Note upcoming book and plant sales and the bottom of page.
V Foushee AIPAC trip: indyweek.com/news/triangle-area-congresswoman-valerie-foushee-traveled-to-israel-to-meet-with-prime-minister-netanyahu/ , foushee.house.gov/posts/congresswoman-foushees-statement-on-congressional-trip-to-israel
ccrjustice.org/abu-ghraib-trial
secure.givelively.org/donate/peoples-forum-inc/let-cuba-live-bread-for-our-neighbors
HRA Interactive Sediment Map: www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/ab2196afc71943969fbfb964538cad4d Triangle Brick and VinFast in SE Chatham (?); I note construction/grading at 55-Hopson, TW Alexander and Alston, east of NE Creek Parkway, and E and W of 147 on Ellis Road in Durham.
www.surveymonkey.com/r/GreatAlamanceCreekTrailStudy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_dates
consortiumnews.com/2024/03/22/how-western-media-built-the-case-for-genocide/ or counterinformation.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/how-the-western-media-helped-build-the-case-for-genocide-in-gaza/
chrishedges.substack.com/p/pen-america-self-destructs
TJ Coles on the warmongering, anti-Palestinian fundamentalists of the New Atheism: www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/08/the-new-atheism-at-20-how-an-intellectual-movement-exploited-rationalism-to-promote-war/
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/political-instincts
Ahistorical imperialism from Timothy Snyder on NPR Saturday morning edition, as if the "War on Terror" never happened, and even saying that the 'free market system' requires the 'rules-based international order,' which many would call the blood-soaked post-WWII US empire. More at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/03/jik-bout-editorial-world-war-iii-has.html
Headline on NPR's 1A with Indira ~Laxminon Friday (March 22nd) morning – Why is Russia against peace (in Palestine)? Off it went that time. And when the US repeatedly vetoed proposed UN Gaza resolutions? I think Israel even supported the resolution! For example: informationclearinghouse.blog/2024/03/23/why-us-ceasefire-proposal-failed-at-unsc/11/ Information war 365 days a year, no need for April Fool's Day on NPR.
Three more dead whales washed up in NC in March? Surrey County, NYC, and WNC earthquakes
On Marketplace the evening of March 26th: people buy a new computer every 3 years?!?
library.unc.edu/2024/03/fashion-forward/ UNC fashion history
Note NHAS May 2nd meeting name vote: www.newhopeaudubon.org/blog/faqs-about-changing-our-name-to-new-hope-bird-alliance/ 4/26 note. From Wake Audubon:
“The History of the Lumbee People,” by John Oxendine
When: Tuesday, April 23, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Where: Zoom (registration required, not recorded)
https://www.wake.gov/events/april-23rd-2024-0600pm
Note: Sponsored by Wake County
“To Take Shape and Meaning,” curated by Nancy Strickland Fields
When: Now - July 28, 2024 (Free entry on April 20, May 19, June 16, July 21)
Where: NC Museum of Art, 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh
Note: Open Wednesday - Sunday, more information here
cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=application Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network
A penumbral lunar eclipse March 25th AM: spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2024/03/can-you-see-penumbral-lunar-eclipse.html
The annual NC Science Festival ( ncsciencefestival.org ) sponsors events throughout the state during April, including the 12th annual Statewide Star Party, April 5-8th this year ( ncsciencefestival.org/starparty , theme Sun and Moon). April 6th 6:30-9:30pm at the ATT's White Oak area, 1305 White Oak Church Road, in Wake County: www.wake.gov/departments-government/parks-recreation-open-space/all-parks-trails/american-tobacco-trail/american-tobacco-trail-programs-events/american-tobacco-trail-public-programs/star-party-american-tobacco-trail NCSciFest began in September 2010 (the Star Party began in 2013) and is organized by Morehead Planetarium and UNC-Chapel Hill. It is supposed to be the country's first statewide festival of science. There were events at every state park in 2016, the centenary of the state park system; in all of NC's 100 counties in 2017; and its one millionth participant and first million dollar endowment came in 2015. CWA event 4/6th or 7th 10am-1pm at Hemlock Bluffs in Cary: www.carolinawetlands.org/discovering-the-wonder-of-wetlands
Upcoming star parties , April Astronomy Month , and Spring Astronomy Day May 18th (NC Science Fest events in April) ; two Astronomy Days (May 18th and October 12th); events in Jamestown, NC; French Camp, MS (May 8-11), 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) NEAF; 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 ; ALCON 2024 July 17-20 KS City
The Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox was March 19th at 11:06pm EDT (off because of DT?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox )
A giant sunspot, AR3576, – spaceweather.com A big CME from the Sun to hit March 25th, April 1st?
Spring meteor showers and stargazing
The Lyrids peak April 21-22 and are visible from about April 15-29th and the eta Aquariids peak May 4-5th and are visible April 15th to May 27th: amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/ and amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/2020-meteor-shower-list/ Astronomy and S and T: the eta Aquariids might 'erupt' on May 3rd, due to Halley's Comet in 985 BCE? Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks near Jupiter, Uranus, and the Moon W 4/10 PM; perihelion 4/21. Conjunction of Mars and Saturn E 4/10 AM. Mercury and the Moon join in May. Moon occults Zavijava 5/17-18 and Antares 5/23-24.
Digging Durham Seed Library
The Durham County Library and other area libraries offer open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds for free along with information and workshops: durhamcountylibrary.org/digging-durham-seed-library/
Creek Weeks
Durham County - March 16 - 24: keepdurhambeautiful.org/creek-week-events
Orange County, Raleigh/Regional - March 16 - 23?
Chatham County/Regional - March 16 - 23: www.chathamcountync.gov/government/departments-programs-i-z/watershed-protection/regional-creek-week
Forsyth County - March 16 - 24: forsythcreekweek.squarespace.com/
Charlotte/Mecklenburg Creek Week - ?: charlottenc.gov/StormWater/Volunteer/Pages/CreekWeek.aspx
Alamance County - ?: alamancecreekweek.wordpress.com/
Guilford County - summer : www.guilfordcreekweek.org/ , www.guilfordcountync.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/3822/
This might not be an exhaustive list and some places have creek weeks in the fall, such as Rowan County, where it is September 14 - 21 6th: www.rowancountync.gov/1464/Creek-Week
National Farmworker Awareness Week is March 25-31, ending on famous farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez's birthday (Cesar Chavez Day) saf-unite.org/national-farmworker-awareness-week/
National Library Week is April 7-13: www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc-libraries/celebrating-libraries#celebrate library.unc.edu/2024/04/national-library-week/
www.wakegov.com/recycling/outreach/Pages/tours.aspx
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 occasion is Tititl (Stretching); Townsend gives December 31-January 19; Wikipedia has January 15-February 3 or December 19-January 7. Next is Izcalli or 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 or 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 Aztecs of Mexico: Origin, Rise and Fall of the Aztec Nation (1944 to 1953) George C Valliant gives March 4-23; Tozoztontli or Xochimanaloya (Small Vigil / Offering of Flowers); Townsend gives March 26-April 14, Wikipedia April 10-29 or March 14-April 2, and Valliant March 24-April 12 Huey Tozoztontli (Great Vigil); Townsend gives April 15-May 4, Wikipedia April 30-May19 or April 3-22, and Valliant April 13-May 2; Toxcatl (Dryness); Townsend gives May 5-22, Wikipedia May 20-June 8 or April 23-May 12, and Valliant May 3-22; Etzalcualiztli (Eating of Maize and Beans); Townsend gives May 23-June 13, Wikipedia June 9-28 or May 13-June 1, and Valliant May 23-June 11; Tecuilhuitontli (Small Feast of the Lords); Townsend gives June 14-July 3, Wikipedia June 29-July 18 or June 2-June 21, and Valliant June 12-July 1; Huey Tecuilhuitl (Great Feast of the Lords); Townsend gives July 4-23, Wikipedia July 19-August 7 or June 22-July 11, and Valliant July 2-21.
The Inca months (?) about equivalent to March-June were Paucar Warai (Garment of Flowers), Airiway (Dance of Young Maize), Aimuari (Song of the Harvest), and Inti Raimi (Festival of the Sun) according to The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas (1957 to 1961) by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen (born February 29, 1908 in Saint Louis – March 8, 1985 in Italy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Wolfgang_von_Hagen ). Different in Mexico and Peru by Lewis Spence, 1920 and 1994 (James Lewis Thomas Chalmers Spence November 25, 1874 – March 3, 1955: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Spence )? "Moons" further north: spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2024/03/can-you-see-penumbral-lunar-eclipse.html
Brigadier General Razi Mousavi ? (رازی موسوی; 1963 – killed by Israel in Syria on Christmas Day, December 25, 2023): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razi_Mousavi
Oil was struck at the Spindletop oil field, near Beaumont, Texas, at the very southeast corner of the state, January 10, 1901, setting off a gusher that spewed oil for 9 days. The find broke the semi-monopoly of Standard Oil – apparently Texas had anti-trust laws and populist sentiment back then – and the find made oil a common fuel in the USA, one of top oil-producing countries, and led to our "oil addiction" today. This wasn't the beginning of the oil industry in the state. Canada's first gusher was the Shaw Gusher January 16, 1862 in Oil Springs, Ontario: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindletop and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_(well_drilling)
Ingenuity: 4/19/2021-2/7/2022 after a Martian weather delay-1/18/2024, retired 1/25
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
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: www.un.org/en/observances/human-fraternity
2:10: www.un.org/en/observances/arabian-leopard-day
2/17: www.un.org/en/observances/tourism-resilience-day
2/21: www.un.org/en/observances/mother-language-day
Flaco, a famous Eurasian eagle-owl in New York City, was found dead on West 89th Street in Manhattan February 23, 2024. It is thought that he flew into a building and died due to the impact or after falling to the ground. The collision might have happened because Flaco was sick or suffering from rodenticide or lead poisoning (lead from eating pigeons, etc). The Eurasian eagle-owl, Bubo bubo, is one of the largest species of owl and is related to and resembles native congeneric great horned owls, B. virginianus. Eurasian eagle-owls range from the south of Spain, through Italy, Greece, maybe the Gaza Strip, Iran, and Pakistan, to northern Scandinavia, across Russia, and are found in northern Japan and most of Korea and China. Flaco seems to have been intentionally released from the Central Park Zoo February 2, 2023 – I didn't know that Central Park has a zoo. There were fears that he wouldn't be able to survive outside of captivity, but re-capture attempts failed and he seemed to be doing okay, so he was left alone. His birth date is listed as March 15, 2010 in Scotland Neck, Halifax County, in northeastern NC. There is a well-known bird park in eastern NC, so maybe he came from there, but I think it focuses on international waterfowl. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaco_(owl) and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_eagle-owl
National Day Calendar: National Tortilla Chip Day February 24th? Nachos November 6th?
John R. Cash (JR Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash
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.
International Polar Bear Day is around February 27th ( polarbearsinternational.org/get-involved/international-polar-bear-day )
There is an eye-opening list of military nuclear accidents at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents , in some instances potentially risking WWIII. Among other accidents around this time of year, February 13, 1950 a USAF B-36 Peacemaker bomber jettisoned a simulated but still radioactive bomb, a dirty bomb, in British Columbia, Canada; January 31, 1958 a USAF B-47 carrying an armed nuclear bomb crashed and burned in Morocco; February 5, 1958 a nuclear bomb was jettisoned and lost in the ocean off Georgia; February 28, 1958 at a USAF base in the UK a B-47 ejected its external fuel tanks, setting a parked and manned B-47 carrying a nuclear bomb on fire for 16 hours, and the incident was kept secret for decades; January 18, 1959 a parked F-100 Super Sabre fighter carrying a nuclear bomb burned at an undisclosed US base in the Pacific; January 13, 1964 a B-52 carrying nuclear weapons broke up over Pennsylvania; January 17, 1966 a collision during midair refueling in Francoist Spain released four nuclear bombs, and the conventional explosives in two of the bombs went off, scattering plutonium over the countryside; January 21, 1968 a B-52 carrying four bombs crashed near the Thule Air Base in Greenland, where an explosion could have been confused with a nuclear attack, and the crash caused a nuclear weapons scandal in Denmark, the colonial power.
February 29, 357 BCE eclipse before Alexander the Great? – Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology (1977).
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/ ).
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), similar to BSE, was first found in a deer in North Carolina in March in a recent year: www.ncwildlife.org/hunting/chronic-wasting-disease
German botanist and painter Catharina Helena Dörrien was born March 1, 1717.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1744 perihelion around March 1st, gone after April 22nd, bright, 6 tailed, not coming back?
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 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 comes from a test on Christmas Island (see: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/03/from-in-dark-time-words-of-us-nuclear.html ).
March 1st 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).
There was a shooting in the US Capitol March 1, 1954 and a bombing in 1971: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_political_violence_in_Washington,_D.C.
The Battle of Hue or Siege of Hue, part of the Tet Offensive and one of the longest and costliest battles during the Vietnam War, was January 31-March 1, 1968; at the time the city of Hue was at the north end of the southern Republic of Vietnam.
January 17, 1977 French mercenaries under Bob Denard attempted to overthrow the People's Republic of Benin or the Popular Republic of Benin (around November 30, 1975 to March 1, 1990) under President Mathieu Kérékou.
3/1: www.un.org/en/observances/seagrass-day
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.
March 2, 2004 the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta probe, with lander Philae, on a mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It was discovered by Soviet astronomers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov (February 19, 1937 - October 14, 2016) and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko in 1969. March 2, 2004 the European Space Agency sent a mission to the comet, with the probe Rosetta becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and Philae becoming the first lander on a comet. Rosetta was also the first spacecraft to rely on solar power while about as far from the Sun as Jupiter (deep space missions are usually powered by the decay of radioactive elements, leading to some anti-nuclear opposition, as with NASA's Cassini).
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed March 3, 1918 in what is now Belarus, ended hostilities between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers during WWI, leading to several countries being created by the occupiers or declaring independence and other territorial concessions by Russia.
Norman Bethune (Henry Norman Bethune) was born March 4, 1890 in Gravehurst, Ontario, Canada. In the 30's he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He served as a surgeon on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and with the Communist Party of China during the Sino-Japanese War. He contracted blood poisoning and passed away November 12, 1939. He has long been well-known in China (for example, Mao wrote In Memory of Norman Bethune and China's highest medical honor is called the Norman Bethune Medal), and more recently in his native Canada and Spain. There is a revolutionary song in French, probably Canadian, "Chanson de Norman Bethune."
In Memory of Norman Bethune is online at:
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm
Following Khrushchev's so-called Secret Speech condemning Stalin, on February 25, 1956, there were pro-Stalin demonstrations in Tbilisi, capital of Stalin's native Georgia Soviet Socialist Republic March 4 -10th, ending with possibly dozens to hundreds of protesters killed or wounded by Soviet soldiers.
John Patrick Bedell shot two police officers at the Pentagon Metro station March 4, 2010. Bedell was the only fatality.
March 5, 1841 abolitionists called "anarchists" broke two people alleged to be fugitive slaves out of a jail in Lorain County, Ohio .
March 5th is Learn from Lei Feng Day in China, and is marked by doing volunteer work. Lei Feng was a young People's Liberation Army soldier killed in a traffic accident August 15, 1962.
The joint military (through an organization related to SDI) and NASA Clementine mission to the Moon was launched January 25, 1994 from Vandenberg AFB in CA. March 5, 1998 there was an announcement about the detection of frozen water that could be mined, and now we have the crewed (and now delayed) Artemis program and a new space race: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_(spacecraft). On Here and Now January 10th: NASA "scrapped" its lunar expertise decades ago, and now the news about Artemis and the recent private lunar mission.
Venezuelan president Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias passed away 11 years ago, March 5, 2013.
The "Cop City"/ South River Forest/Welaunee Forest Atlanta mass arrests for domestic terrorism were the night of March 5, 2023, and included a Southern Poverty Law Center legal observer: mronline.org/2023/03/13/at-least-23-cop-city-protesters-charged-with-domestic-terrorism-in-atlanta/ etc. The same charge was used December 13, 2023 (year?). Find more information at: stopcop.city
Michael Lucas was born March 7, 1926 in Slovakia, but his family moved to Canada during his childhood. He was a leader of the Society of Carpatho-Russian Canadians, the Canadian Friends of the Soviet People (and the USSR-Canada Friendship Association from 1972 to 1991), and former editor of Northstar Compass, a magazine published by the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with the Soviet People until several years ago. Lucas was also a long-time member of the Communist Party of Canada. In his working life he was an artist and designer and directed the Southam Newspapers' art department. He frequently visited the former Czechoslovakia and USSR. He passed away peacefully early on May 4, 2020 at 94 and was survived by his wife Helen, who served as financial secretary of the CFSP and helped produce Northstar Compass, and two children.
northstarcompass.org/history.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lucas_(political_activist)
Fightback! News obituary: www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/9/passing-michael-lucas-immigrant-organizer-and-friend-soviet-people
Funeral information: turnerporter.permavita.com/site/MichaelLukac.html
Related article at: www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20190106/281496457419898 or www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/05/the-golden-girls-of-prospect-cemetery.html
The Civil War naval Battle of Hampton Roads was March 8 - 9, 1862 where the James River flows into Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It was the first battle between ironclad warships, the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. Neither ship could sink the other and this was their only battle. The Virginia was built using the hull and engines of the USS Merrimack, still under construction at what is now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard when the War began. The Monitor had a revolutionary, though flawed, design, leading to a new class of warships (monitors) around the world and, with further developments, to the battleships of the early 20th century, which were then eclipsed by aircraft carriers during WWII.
The week of March 8th is Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week, commemorating the first pilot license given to a woman, Raymonde de Laroche, on March 8, 1910.
The first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was born March 9, 1934 and went into space April 12, 1961.
The US firebombing of Tokyo the night of March 9 - 10, 1945 is thought to have killed 100,000 people, injured a million more, and left one million homeless. It levelled 16 square miles of the densely inhabited Japanese capital city. There were other bombing raids on Tokyo, but this was the most destructive and resulted in more immediate deaths than any other attack during World War II, including the atomic bombings: www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0310-08.htm and Wikipedia.
The Soviet/Russian newspaper Izvestia was founded March 13, 1917, representing the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies.
Around 3am March 13, 2020 Julius Giron, an elderly leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines; his wife Lourdes Tan Torres; and their aide were killed in Baguio City by military and police forces supposedly carrying out an arrest warrant. The government of the Philippines said that it wanted to negotiate, but killed the "principle peace consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines:" www.fightbacknews.org/2020/3/19/frso-condemns-murder-communist-party-philippines-leader-julius-giron ; cpp.ph/red-salute-to-ka-nars/
March 14th is White Day in Japan, a commercially inspired holiday related to Valentine's Day. Apparently White Day is also celebrated in other East Asian countries.
Black rain was reported to have fallen from an intensely black cloud early on March 15, 1900 from Louisburg, in Franklin County, NC, through Wake Forest, to Morrisville, just southeast of Durham, in Wake County. This is referenced in the book Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America by Jerome Clark, quoting the March 23, 1900 edition of the Statesville Landmark, which reprinted an article from the the March 20th News and Observer of Raleigh (available online at: www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/ ).
Searching through that edition of the News and Observer – how the headlines don't change – “Our Warships in Chinese Waters,” with “no hostile meaning” (US and Canadian warships had just passed through the Taiwan Strait when I wrote this in 2023, around the time Defense Secretary Austin was calling for dialogue at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in early June 2023). In 1900 US imperialism could be named and discussed in a major newspaper, with references to William Jennings Bryan and debate at UNC's Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. Today it is literally stated in the mainstream Anglophone media that only Russian and maybe Iranian imperialism exists, the others having died out in the 20th century (this might have been stated by US-UK guest journalists on a Friday edition of NPR's 1A). It's like the “War on Terror” and the Libya War never happened, and the US military weren't occupying part of Syria and stealing the war- and disaster-torn country's resources right now. There is even empty (?) talk in Washington of invading Mexico again. Even without invading, the US government shot and killed at least one Mexican civilian, a minor, in Mexico several years ago. The media can discuss How to Hide an Empire, as long as it refers to long past events, though the US still runs Puerto Rico and has soldiers in the Philippines, etc. Some in the "West" claim that "Iranian imperialism" exists and others claim that Russian imperialism doesn't exist. Imperialism isn't only the direct military occupation of other countries and financial, economic, and diplomatic methods are currently on display against Russia, Venezuela, China, Syria, Cuba, etc. I don't recall many anti-war letters to the editor appearing in the Democratic Party-leaning N and O in recent decades, though they do receive letters.
The United Communist Party of Russia was founded March 15, 2014 at a congress held in Moscow: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Communist_Party
UNC's Davie Poplar Jr was planted in McCorkle Place (the northern quad) March 16, 1918, by the Class of 1918. This tree is a clone of the massive Davie Poplar, growing nearby (these are tulip-poplars/yellow-poplars or tuliptrees, actually in the magnolia family; the Davie Poplar is named for Governor William Richardson Davie) ; there is a legend that the decision to build the University on this site was made under the Davie Poplar and that the University will die with the tree (fortunately, though tuliptrees grow fast, they can live for hundreds of years, contra the CAR magazine). A few clones and descendants of the Davie Poplar have been planted around UNC and there are a number of large tuliptrees, probably blooming in April or early May (possibly earlier than tuliptrees in Durham or in more rural areas) with large yellowish-green and blaze orange flowers attractive to honey bees.
The International Day Against Police Brutality is March 15th.
3/15: www.un.org/en/observances/anti-islamophobia-day Biden isn't helping?
The Civil War Battle of Averasboro was March 16, 1865 in eastern North Carolina.
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (born June 3, 1885) passed away March 16, 1919 and is buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Chemical weapons were dropped on the city of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan March 16, 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War.
The 31st anniversary in 2024; Canadian Airborne Regiment soldiers tortured and killed Somali Shidane Arone, 16, and posed with his body: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/MS5302.HTM#4 March 16
China invaded Vietnam February 17, 1979 in retaliation for Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia ( Democratic Kampuchea at the time) to topple the Khmer Rouge government. China, the USA, Thailand, and other countries supported the Khmer Rouge against Vietnam, which was an ally of the USSR. The war anniverended by March 16, 1979, but there was sporadic fighting afterward, such as in May-June 1981, April 1984, and a naval battle over Johnston South Reef in the Spratly Islands March 14, 1988. Relations later improved and agreement was reached on the land border between Vietnam and China, while the US government seeks to exploit disagreements over ocean boundaries. Reactions from Enver Hoxha ( november8ph.ca/2023/02/17/the-chinese-leadership-headed-by-deng-xiaoping-have-launched-a-military-attack-on-vietnam/ ) and Fidel Castro ( november8ph.ca/2023/02/17/speech-at-the-national-event-of-solidarity-with-vietnam-and-condemnation-of-chinese-aggression/ ).
Saint Patrick's Day was Sunday, March 17th.
The Battle of Bentonville was March 19 - 21, 1865 in Johnston County, NC: historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/bentonville-battlefield Events are planned throughout the year (see the link).
Chinese revolutionary and wife of Mao Tse-tung, Jiang Qing/Chiang Ching, was born March 19, 1914.
Tulsi Gabbard ended her first presidential campaign March 19, 2020 and endorsed Joe Biden.
The Dutch East India Company, apparently the world's first joint-stock company, was created March 20, 1602.
An important battle during the Tuscarora War was March 20 - 23, 1713 at Fort Neoheroka, near Snow Hill, Greene County ( blog.ecu.edu/sites/nooherooka/ ).
Condemning US wars and proxy wars was "above the pay grade" of Durham City officials during the "War on Terror," even when Republicans were in the White House, but the DCC made a show of yellow and blue international solidarity with Ukraine in 2022: twitter.com/CityofDurhamNC/status/1499903958621597703 (March 4th at 7:25p.m., with 25 reposts, one quote, and 120 likes) and they 'unfriended' the city of Kostroma, Russia, ending a sister city relationship that began in 1968. Some of the same people are still on the Council. No red, white, and green for Palestine as far as I can tell. Supposedly there has been a "great sort" and increasing partisan divides, though NC voters have been known for splitting their votes or whatever, such as in 2016 I think (Roy Cooper and Trump), but maybe this sort of thing is a reason voting may have lost appeal for me since roughly 2020 – if I vote for a Democrat for a Durham office, am I directly supporting Biden's policies, or the entire party is becoming intolerable, from the presidency to even local office and media? I don't know. Too bad there wasn't more "anti-American" cultural retaliation over the US invasion of Iraq, like BDS. See also: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/MS5302.HTM#4 Apparently the city council in Charlottesville, Virginia is using the same sort of arguments to refuse to pass a ceasefire resolution now. WBW
March 20th is also the UN French Language Day / OIF International Francophonie Day, the UN's International Day of Happiness, World Storytelling Day, and the Great American Meatout, originally a protest against National Meat Week.
The UN's French Language Day is March 20th: www.un.org/fr/observances/french-language-day/ , in French.
World Sparrow Day is March 20th: www.worldsparrowday.org Specifically this day refers to house or English sparrows, which are not native to the US, but are or were common in places like strip malls. Now house finches, native to the Western US, seem to have replaced house sparrows here. House sparrows are also in decline where they are native, such as in India. American species of sparrow aren't closely related to house sparrows.
Traditionally the Pisces period is around February 19th to March 20th, followed by Aries March 21st to April 19th, Taurus April 20th to May 20th, and Gemini May 21st to June 20th, though apparently it should be March 13th to April 19th, to April 19th to May 15th, May 14th to June 21st, and June 21st to July 21st if based on the Sun's actual position against the stars and the IAU-defined constellation boundaries: Skyguide (1982) and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac In the West Aries, a cardinal sign, became associated with the planet Mars (apparently the "Lesser Infortune"), Tuesdays (shared with Scorpio, as are rubies and the metals), iron, steel, plutonium (incorrect??), fire, the head (and a Ram with a turned head), sharp things, thorny plants, red (dark red with Scorpio, red and black with Capricorn), diamonds, rubies, bloodstones, carnelians, garnets, etc. according to the Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology (1977), etc. Payne Publishers planner: the birthstones by month are aquamarine for March, diamond for April, emerald for May, pearls (not really stones) for June, etc.
Plutarch made the first known description of the solar corona during a solar eclipse March 20, 71 CE.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC is March 20th - April 14th this year: nationalcherryblossomfestival.org
3/20: www.un.org/en/observances/happiness-day
Mexican president Benito Pablo Juárez Garcia was born March 21, 1806, honored with a national holiday.
The Hungarian Soviet Republic was declared March 21, 1919, but was overthrown by outside military intervention in August 1919. It was led by Béla Kun, born February 20, 1886.
March 21st is the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: www.un.org/en/events/racialdiscriminationday/ and the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling Against Racism and Racial Discrimination is March 21 - 27: www.un.org/en/sections/observances/international-weeks/index.html www.unesco.org/en/days/poetry , www.un.org/en/observances/international-nowruz-day , www.un.org/en/observances/down-syndrome-day
March 21 is also the International Day of Forests ( www.fao.org/international-day-of-forests/en/ ), World Poetry Day, International Colour Day, and World Down Syndrome Day, among others.
Ukraine's only submarine, the Zaporizhzhia, was captured by Russia March 22, 2014 and half the crew joined the Russian navy. Russia was apparently going to return the ship but Ukraine did not renew a ceasefire that summer.
International Seal Day is supposed to be March 22nd.
A terrorist attack, claimed by ISIS, in the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Russia, near Moscow, March 22, 2024, around 20:00 local time: Wikipedia. The US warned of a heightened risk of terrorism two week earlier? How long before the pro-Democratic Party media start airing "conspiracy theories" they wouldn't tolerate regarding 9/11/2001? PBS and NPR have done it before.
Arbor Day will be Friday, March 22nd in North Carolina (the first Friday after March 15th - www.arborday.org/celebrate/dates.cfm ). There was usually a Durham Arbor Day celebration. Also World Water Day (WILPF event in Chapel Hill the afternoon of March 23rd).
Patrick Henry is supposed to have said "Give me liberty, or give me death!" during a speech before the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, March 23, 1775.
US forces besieged Fort Macon, on the coast of North Carolina near Beaufort, March 23-April 26, 1862 and took the fort with few losses on either side. The Fort, built of brick and stone, was becoming antiquated by the 1860's with the development of more accurate rifled artillery, unlike earthen Fort Fisher, but much of Fort Fisher was destroyed or eroded away without concern afterward (?). Fort Macon has been used by the US military as recently as WWII, but is now a small state park: www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/fort-macon-state-park
The Great Flood of 1913 in Ohio, etc. was March 23-26.
Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh was hung by the British March 23, 1931. He was born September 27, 1907 in Banga, or Bangay, Punjab, now in northeastern Pakistan.
Historian and political leader Walter Anthony Rodney was born March 23, 1942 in Georgetown, in what was then British Guiana, and was assassinated June 13, 1980 in independent Guyana: mronline.org/2022/04/13/the-mecca-of-african-liberation/
Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed Star Wars) in a televised speech March 23, 1983. A successful Star Wars program would have allowed the USA to use nuclear weapons and avoid Mutually Assured Destruction. SDI was also criticized as being technologically unfeasible, very costly, and in violation of treaties.
March 23, 1989 cold fusion claim
March 23, 1989 Aeroflot 593 crash
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 March 23, 2001: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir
Historic Soviet/Russian space station Mir (meaning peace) was sent into the South Pacific March 23, 2001 due to lack of funding. Construction had begun February 19, 1986. People from many countries worked there and there was extensive US-Russian cooperation during the 90's. Until October 2010 Mir held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space. Cosmonaut Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov lived there for 437 days during the mid-90's.
According to Wikipedia, the anti-war organization Not In Our Name (NION) was founded March 23, 2002, and dissolved March 31, 2008.
World Bear Day is supposed to be March 23rd; black bears are occasionally seen in the Triangle but probably no longer live here permanently, though they breed elsewhere in NC. Bears are rumored to have lived in the bottomlands along the New Hope and Haw rivers, cut down and flooded for Jordan Lake.
Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright passed away March 23, 2022 and was born May 15, 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She is well-known for defending the deadly sanctions against Iraq during the 90's and other service to US imperialism and neoliberalism with the Clintons, Zbigniew Brzezinski, etc.
Earth Hour was at 20:30 March 23, 2024 and March 29th in 2025? International Dark-Sky Week is supposed to be held annually the week of the New Moon in April (4/2-8 in 2024), and highlights light pollution and stargazing: idsw.darksky.org
Earth Hour – people are encouraged to turn off unnecessary lights as a symbol of commitment to dealing with climate change and other environmental problems (and it could reduce light pollution for a short time).
March 23rd is the Day of the Sea in Bolivia, commemorating the loss of Bolivia's access to the Pacific Ocean in the late 19th century War of the Pacific, involving Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The USA's education system teaches very little about the history of countries bordering the US, let alone in relatively nearby South America, though the US government still believes in the Monroe Doctrine of controlling the Western Hemisphere as its sphere, with a major anniversary this year. I had a high school history teacher who at least wanted to cover Latin America, but it didn't work out.
2/23: wmo.int/world-meteorological-day
National Tamale Day March 23rd?
Korean event www.inwavemovement.com March 23rd
The Battle of Dan-no-ura (壇ノ浦の戦い, Dan-no-ura no tatakai) April 25 or March 24, 1185 in Japan.
Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905).
Yugoslav WWII Partisan general and anti-revisionist dissident Arsenije "Arso" Jovanović was born March 24, 1907 in Zavala, Montenegro, near the capital. After the denunciation of Tito a group tried to cross into Romania near Vršac, in Vojvodina, Serbia and Jovanović was killed by Yugoslav border guards the night of August 11, 1948.
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.
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was assassinated March 24, 1980 in El Salvador.
March 24th is World Tuberculosis Day. March 24th is also the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, commemorated March 24th because Monsignor Óscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated in El Salvador on that day in 1980. www.who.int/campaigns/world-tb-day/ 1882 Koch www.un.org/en/observances/right-to-truth-day
Argentina's Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is March 24th, the date of a military coup in 1976, and commemorates the victims of the US-supported Dirty War and Operation Condor.
3/24/1989 Exxon Valdez in AK?
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered March 24, 1993 by astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 -August 13, 2021 , geologist Eugene M Shoemaker (April 2, 1928 - July 18, 1997) and amateur astronomer David H Levy (born May 22, 1948). The comet broke apart as it passed close to Jupiter - someone might have compared it to a string of pearls - and it crashed into the planet July 16 - 22, 1994. In July 19, 2009 another impact site was observed and something might have been observed to crash into Jupiter March 17, 2016.
NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24-June 10, 1999 over the war in Kosova, hitting China's embassy in Yugoslav capital Belgrade, hospitals, health centers, schools, houses, medieval monuments, the Avala Tower, bridges, and transportation infrastructure (as in Ukraine and Gaza?). This is similar to what Russia is accused of doing in Ukraine, and people have drawn comparisons between the USA/NATO use of force to redraw borders in the Balkans and what Russia is doing in Ukraine, and as in Kosova there is apparently at least some local popular support for secession. See also: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/MS5302.HTM#4 and mronline.org/2024/04/03/natos-insatiable-expansionism/
The Kosova War was February 28, 1998 to June 11, 1999; NATO began bombing Yugoslavia at 19:00 UTC March 24th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War
The quarter day Lady Day / Feast of the Annunciation is March 25th; this was once the beginning of the year in some places.
Christiaan Hyugens, born April 14, 1629 in The Hague, Netherlands, discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon, March 25, 1655. Titan has a thick atmosphere, lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, and possibly subsurface oceans, so it could potentially harbor extraterrestrial life or even descendants of earthly microbes through panspermia.
Melita Stedman Norwood (Sirnis; March 25, 1912 – June 2, 2005): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melita_Norwood
The infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was March 25, 1911 in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NYC.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett passed away March 25, 1931 in Chicago. She was born July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
March 25, 1966 a boom and ice fall in San Mateo, CA – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Left (?) Senegalese president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye (elected March 24, 2024, after turmoil, representing PASTEF) was born March 25, 1980 in Ndiaganiao, M'Bour, Senegal: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassirou_Diomaye_Faye
March 25th is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade: www.un.org/en/rememberslavery/observance and www.un.org/en/observances/detained-staff-day
The historic Chatham County Courthouse burned March 25, 2010.
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.'
Birdie Sanders
Remarkably, a songbird, reportedly a female house finch, landed on the podium as Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 11,500 at an outdoor rally in Portland, Oregon March 25, 2016 (Good Friday): www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/03/26/watch-small-bird-lands-bernie-sanders-podium/82289730/ ; www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-bird-podium-one-year_n_58d67c55e4b03692bea661ee ; www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/25/bernie-sanders-rally-bird-portland-oregon-portlandia The Guardian quotes Sanders: “I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us [for] world peace.” "Birdie Sanders" is probably the origin of Our Revolution's logo (www.ourrevolution.com/ ). Reportedly Trump and a bald eagle didn't get along.
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.
The WWII Battle of Iwo Jima was February 19 – March 26, 1945.
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.
Anthony Frederick Blunt (September 26, 1907 – March 26, 1983): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt
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 a spacecraft 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??
A "'bright light'" was reportedly seen in Lyons, Wayne County, New York December 9, 1891, January 5, 1892, February 2, February 29, March 27, April 23 – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Russian revolutionary Sergei Kirov was born March 27, 1886 in what is now Kirov Oblast. He was assassinated December 1, 1934.
Two Boeing 747s collided on a runway in Tenerife in the Canary Islands March 27, 1977, the deadliest airliner crash.
Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim, author of Ideology and Utopia, was born March 27, 1893 in Budapest.
Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim (Károly Manheim, March 27, 1893 – January 9, 1947)
Manatee Appreciation Day is supposed to be the last Wednesday in March, the 27th in 2024.
The North Carolina Green Party gained official recognition March 27, 2018, meaning people could register as Greens and the Green Party could appear on ballots, making it easier for Greens to run for office ( www.ncgreenparty.org/sb656 ). It lost recognition again after the 2020 election, and then had to petition again and even go the courts to force the Democrat-run State Board Elections to follow the law in 2022. See a few summer-fall 2022 posts.
Soviet writer Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov) was born March 28, 1868. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/gorky-maxim/index.htm and in print from redstarpublishers.org/
The second known asteroid, 2 Pallas, was discovered March 28, 1802 by German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers.
Silo Plowshares
On March 28, 1986 (Good Friday that year) five peace activists damaged two Minuteman II ballistic missile silos controlled from Whiteman Air Force Base, near Holden, Missouri. The activists displayed banners including ""Disarmament - An Act of Healing." Working in two groups, they used sledgehammers to damage the tracks used to open the 120-ton silo covers, used masonry hammers to damage sensors, and cut wires. They drew crosses in blood on the silo covers and wrote "Disarm and Live" and "For the Children" with spraypaint on the silo pads. They also indicted the government for violating religious and secular law and indicted churches that abet the arms race. About 40 minutes later they were arrested by military police. They were found guilty of destroying government property and conspiracy. Three were jailed for contempt because they refused to answer questions, such as who had alerted CBS' "60 Minutes" about the action. The remaining two were again jailed for lack of cooperation in protest of the three jailed for contempt. Four were sentenced to eight years imprisonment and five years probation and one to seven years imprisonment and the same five years probation. All were fined $100 dollars, two had to pay $1680 in restitution and two $424. These summaries come from Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, edited by Arthur J Laffin and Anne Montgomery, and published in 1987.
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was born March 29, 1899 in what is now Abkhazia, a Soviet autonomous republic that seceded from the Republic of Georgia after Georgia seceded from the disintegrating USSR. Beria and people associated with him were tried and executed December 23, 1953, paving the way for Khrushchev's rise, though it has been alleged that Beria poisoned Stalin and was involved in other crimes. Some of Beria's works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/beria/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Beria , michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/03/writings-of-the-soviet-leadership/ , and in print from redstarpublishers.org ; there is some discussion of Beria in articles at ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b
The Maoist New People's Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (English-language website: cpp.ph/ ), was established March 29, 1969 and has been waging armed struggle ever since. The US government classified it as a "terrorist" group in 2002. I think this Smithsonian Folkways CD has NPA music: folkways.si.edu/philippines-bangon-arise/historical-song-struggle-protest-world/music/album/Smithsonian
The Communist Party of the Philippines was founded December 26, 1968, according to Wikipedia, and the CPP's armed wing, the New People's Army, was founded March 29, 1969. Copying Alliance! at a UPS Store I heard that the guerilla army has been referred to as "No Postal Address." I don't know if that is true or what it amount to. The US Socialist Unity Party hails the Philippine Revolution on the 55th anniversary of the CPP; "From Palestine to the Philippines stop the US war machine!:" www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/12/30/statement-on-the-55th-anniversary-of-the-communist-party-of-the-philippines/
March 29th is the unofficial Day of the Young Combatant / Día del joven combatiente in Chile, commemorating the killing of Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo, brothers who allegedly belonged to MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement) during the US and China-supported Pinochet dictatorship.
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/
Two Army HH60 Black Hawk helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division crashed during training the night of March 29, 2023 near Fort Campbell, in western Kentucky near Hopkinsville and Clarksville: www.foxnews.com/us/fort-campbell-helicopter-crash-kentucky-gov-andy-beshear-confirms-multiple-fatalities-expected
Good Friday was Friday, March 29th in 2024 and Witness for Peace Southeast (?) did hold a pilgrimage for peace in Raleigh, etc., added to the February calendar.
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 here and recent posts on mltheory.wordpress.com.
The annual US Farmworker Awareness Week is March 25-31, ending on the birth anniversary of labor organizer Cesar Chavez in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona (Chavez passed away April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona, near Yuma): saf-unite.org/national-farmworker-awareness-week/ , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez_Day He worked closely with Dolores Huerta, born April 10, 1930 in what is now the ghost town of Dawson, New Mexico, near Cimarron: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Huerta
Ilir Hoxha (born March 31, 1949 and also imprisoned for years after the counterrevolution)
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 On the 54th: cpcml.ca/cpcmlarticle2403311409/ Some music from the CPCML is online at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCGM05kHPxsmToUjm-sSZefg
Activist Norman David Mayer (March 31, 1916 – December 9, 1982), claiming to have explosives, threatened to blow up the Washington Monument December 8, 1982, over nuclear weapons; he was shot and killed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout after WWII: December 1, 1945; January 1, 1946; late March-April 1947; May 12, 1948; January 6, 1949; March 1950; June 27, 1951 and later; 1953; May 1954; November 1955, November 1956; May 1960; May 23, 1960; January 24, 1972; October 1972, March 1974; December 18, 1974; etc and unconfirmed 1980-May 2005? Others joined national uprisings and civil wars in East and Southeast Asia.
Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo (December 9, 1974 – March 31, 2008 in Gebze, Turkey): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Bacca
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 of their skin or feathers 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
Easter Sunday was March 31 in 2024
Muhammad XII of the Emirate of Granada surrendered January 2, 1492, ending the Reconquest of what is now Spain from Muslim rulers, just before the seizure of a Spanish empire in the New Word. There were two rebellions of the Alpujarras around December 18, 1499 to April 1501 and December 24, 1568 to March 1571.
The Diggers began occupying Saint George's Hill, Weybridge in Surrey, England April 1, 1649: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers ? Billy Bragg sang about it.
January 17, 1771, or December 5, 1770 to April 1. 1771, Chatham County, NC was created? – www.chathamcountync.gov/our-community/learn-more-about-chatham-county
Wikipedia dates the First Red Scare as being January 21, 1919 to April 1, 1920, and the Palmer Raids took place November 1919 and January 1920, under President Woodrow Wilson.
The great Gastonia textile strike of 1929, near Charlotte, North Carolina, was April 1 - September 14th at the Loray Mill. The chief of police and a striker were killed during the violence, several people on the union side were imprisoned, and two leaders fled to the USSR.
The Catalonia Offensive, December 23, 1938 to February 10, 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939.
The Spanish Civil War ended April 1, 1939, with the Nationalists, aided by Germany, Italy, Portugal, and others, overthrowing the Second Republic, aided by the USSR, Mexico, secretly by France, and others. Many volunteers from other countries fought on both sides.
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.
April 1st is Fossil Fools Day noting the foolishness of burning more fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere, started in 2004. April Fool's Day has been marked for at least hundreds of years. April 1st is also Edible Book Day.
The Sacred Stone Camp, a center of resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, was established April 1, 2016. There was recently a court ruling in favor of the protesters.
The US Capitol Car Attack was April 2, 2021.
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
A Reichsbürger monarchist coup plot was allegedly foiled December 7, 2022 in Germany. In April 2017 rightist soldiers in Germany's special forces were charged with planning to assassinate several politicians in a Day X plot.
The advanced F-22's first kill was a lost Chinese research "airship"/weather balloon or a sinister Chinese spy balloon, violating US sovereignty, until it was shot down at great expense as it was leaving US territory off of South Carolina February 4th (near Hainan, China January 15, 2023, the Aleutians in AK January 28th, over Canada January 30th, Idaho January 31st, seen from an airliner, near Billings, Montana February 1st; NORAD supposedly knew about it for days before February 2nd). The US media portrays it as China accidentally or intentionally derailing an attempt to cool US-China tensions, but it could be asked whether a faction in the US government created an incident to worsen relations. I heard recently that a military official expected the US war with China to start in 2025, and earlier testimony to Congress predicted war by something like 2028, rather than decades from now. Consider the comments at: www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/02/chinese-spy-balloon-over-the-us-an-aerospace-expert-explains-how-the-balloons-work-and-what-they-can-see.html First aircraft shot down over the USA after WWII and the highest air-to air ever, supposedly?? February 2 Costa Rica, Colombia, and Venezuela; February 9-10 Beaufort Sea, AK; February 11 Yukon; February 11-12 Lake Huron; February 12 Shandong; February 14 Romania and Moldova; February 16 Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport in Hebei; February 19 northeast of Hawaii; April-May over HI, going towards Mexico, but these UFOs stopped being news: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023
Florida joined the Union, March 3, 1845, seceded January 10, 1861, and rejoined the Union June 25, 1868. It had been named April 2, 1513. The first known Christian marriage in the territory of the lower 48 of the future US is supposed to have been a mixed race marriage in Florida in 1565: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida
German naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian passed away January 13, 1717 in Amsterdam. She had been born April 2, 1647 in Frankfort, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire.
International Dark-Sky Week is supposed to be held annually the week of the New Moon in April (4/2-8 in 2024), and highlights light pollution and stargazing: idsw.darksky.org
"The father of meteoritics," German physicist Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni November 30, 1756 – April 3, 1827
The Jeju Uprising on Jeju Island off the south end of what is now the Republic of Korea officially began April 3, 1948 and ended in 1949, after tens of thousands had been killed. The ROK police and military apologized for the brutal suppression of the uprising April 3 in 2022? The US military directly controlled the southern part of Korea during most of this time and later the US had indirect control through the undemocratic ROK government it established.
There were many UFO reports in Lumberton, NC April 3-5, 1975, according to the book Weird Carolinas.
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841): www.nps.gov/people/william-henry-harrison.htm
Originally posted here in October 2019 durhamspark.blogspot.com/2019/10/some-early-fall-events-and-anniversaries.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2020/03/some-events-and-anniversaries-this.html :
Garbis Altinoglu (pen name Gumus Velli) passed away in mid October and his funeral was October 21st in Belgium. At one time he was a leader in the underground Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey and was active in the International Struggle Marxist-Leninist project more recently. He was born April 4, 1946 in Armenia but lived in Turkey from a young age. After the military coup in 1980 he was arrested and held for 11 years, with torture and harsh conditions, after which he was exiled and became a refugee in Belgium. He wrote or translated a number of essays and books; for some of his English-language works posted online see: ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL37-GARBISPRISONS2000.HTM , on repression, political prisoners, torture, and assassinations in Turkey up to 2000 (but still relevant today, as can be seen in Turkey's continuing suppression of leftists and activism and its fight against Kurdish self-determination both inside Turkey and in Syria and Iraq); ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/HIZBULLAHGA2000.HTM ; and ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL35MLCP%28TURKEY%29GA2000.HTM , outlining some of the history of the communist movement in Turkey. A biographical article is planned for ml-today.com/ and there is a short biography at: theredphoenixapl.org/2019/10/27/in-memory-of-comrade-garbis-altinoglu-1946-2019/ ]
Some of his works are online at: neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Garbis%20Alt%C4%B1noglu ]
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| One of his books, Portrait of a Terrorist State, published in 2001 ©. |
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| Table of contents © |
4/4-7: saathee.com/event_calender/full-frame-documentary-film-festival-durham-nc/
4/4/2024 McDonald's buyout in Israel?
The second Japanese destroyer named Hibiki (Echo), in the Fubuki or Akatsuki-class of destroyers but similar to a light cruiser, was given to the USSR as a war reparation April 5, 1947 and renamed Verniy (Faithful) and later Dekabrist (Decembrist). The ship had been launched June 16, 1932 and was state of the art at the time. She was sunk at on apparently unrecorded date in the mid-70's.
The Weather-connected May 19th Communist Organization bombed an Israeli Aircraft Industries Building April 5, 1984.
Brian Avery, an International Solidarity Movement volunteer, was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in an unprovoked attack April 5, 2003 in the West Bank, Palestine town of Jenin, leaving him with disfiguring injuries and other health problems. According to Wikipedia Israel denied any soldiers were in the area at the time, but Israel paid Avery $150,000 dollars to drop a lawsuit in 2008. Avery is from Connecticut but spent part of his childhood in Chapel Hill and was an student at UNC-Greensboro and last I heard lives in the state.
Brian Avery, with ties to NC, was shot in the face April 5, 2003 in Jenin, West Bank, Palestine but survived: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Avery_(activist)
4/5: www.un.org/en/observances/conscience-day
4/5-7: saathee.com/event_calender/rktnc-sanskriti-2024-talent-show-apex-nc/
The Civil War Battle of Shiloh was April 6-7, 1862 in Tennessee, but very close to Mississippi.
The Civil War Battle of Sailor's Creek was April 6, 1865 near Farmville, Virginia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sailor%27s_Creek
The USA officially entered WWI April 6, 1917, declaring war against Germany. The US had been indirectly supporting the Allies before entering the war against the Central powers in the inter-imperialist war.
Following a coup that toppled an Axis-allied government, Germany bombed Belgrade, April 6 - 8, 1941, killing thousands, and then invaded with Italy, which was already occupying Albania. The UK bombed targets in Axis ally Bulgaria, though it was not formally at war with Bulgaria at the time. Yugoslavia surrendered April 17th and was later liberated by Yugoslav and Albanian partisans.
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
Tartan Day is April 6th.
4/6: www.un.org/en/observances/sport-day
4/6: Revolutionary War Living History Day 10am-4pm in Hillsborough, NC
4/6: saathee.com/event_calender/dances-of-india-kannapolis-nc/
4/6 10am-4pm: www.sanford150.com
Writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born April 7, 1890 in Minneapolis. She wrote The Everglades: River of Grass, published in 1947, and is known for her work to preserve Florida's Everglades as well as activism for women's suffrage, civil rights, civil liberties, the Equal Rights Amendment, and other causes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas
Lê Duẩn, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam during the struggle against American imperialism, was born April 7, 1907 and died July 10, 1986. Some of his writings are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/le-duan/index.htm
Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman Lê Duẩn was born April 7, 1907 or 1908 in Bich La village, Triệu Đông, Triệu Phong, Quảng Trị Province. He passed away July 10, 1986: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lê_Duẩn
Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci was born January 22, 1891. He was a leader of the Communist Party of Italy, founded January 21, 1921 and is well-known for works such as the Prison Notebooks, written while he was imprisoned by Italy's Fascist government. Prison conditions resulted in his death April 7, 1937. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/index.htm
The Rwandan Genocide began April 7th and ended July 15, 1994: www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/day-of-reflection.shtml and www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day
Indian revolutionary Moni Guha passed away April 7, 2009: www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv16n1/moniguha.htm , moniguha.blogspot.com/ , otheraspect.org/category/moni-guha/ , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Moni%20Guha, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moni_Guha , etc. Some of his writings are available at redstarpublishers.org and there should be polemics at ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html
Edith Baumann (August 1, 1909 – April 7, 1973)
The NC Botanical Garden's annual Evelyn McNeill Sims Native Plant Lecture, in-person and online, will be Sunday, April 7th 5:30-6:30pm: ncbg.unc.edu/event/sims-lecture-2024/
Geologists Day is April 7, 2024 (the first Sunday in April) and began in the USSR to commemorate an oil discovery.
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.
A solar eclipse will be visible across much of North America Monday, April 8, 2024 PM, the last easy opportunity to see one for a while and a sequel to the Great American Eclipse of Monday (?), August 21, 2017. An eclipse citizen science project: eclipsesoundscapes.org Free Monarch Butterfly Eclipse party 2-5pm in Durham, below. 1-2:45pm at UNC: calendar.lib.unc.edu/event/12299903?hs=a And ~12:30-4:30 at Morehead there.
Durham Library Fest 4/8-13
4/8, 5/13: globalblake.com/events/
Singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson was born April 9, 1898. There are links to his English versions of the WWII-era Soviet and Chinese anthems in a previous post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/04/communist-fight-songs-and-musical.html and he has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/robeson/index.htm
April 9, 1948 a neutral Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Deir Yassin, was attacked by Zionist terror groups, which were later integrated into the Israeli military. The residents were killed during and after the fighting. The Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center was built over the remains of the village.
Zionists in the Irgun and Lehi groups carried out the Deir Yassin Massacre April 9, 1948: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre
Interstate bus desegregation 7/16/1944, 4/9/1947, 4/12, 8/1/1952: chapelhillhistory.org/places/journey-of-reconciliation/ A page on the Peace and Justice Plaza as well.
Santiago Rafael Cruz, an employee of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee working at their office in Monterrey, Mexico was assassinated April 9, 2007. The crime might remain unsolved.
4/9: ccrjustice.org/home/get-involved/events/middle-east-law-and-practice
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will again be close to the Sun April 9, 2028.
Dolores Huerta, born April 10, 1930 in what is now the ghost town of Dawson, New Mexico, near Cimarron: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Huerta
Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 in Olympia, Washington state – March 16, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine).
The Brightleaf (Mall? Square?) District gas explosion around 10:06-7am April 10, 2019 on North Duke Street in Durham; two killed, 25 injured, and that south or east-facing decades old mural of an Aztec warrior or knight seems to be gone, for whatever reason (see a previous post): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Durham_gas_explosion
4/10: sustainability.ncsu.edu/get-involved/events/nc-state-earth-fair/
4/10 GP Day event: www.facebook.com/events/7779393978779240 , twitter.com/i/spaces/1MnxnMmnLDjJO/
German social-democrat Ferdinand Lassalle was born April 11, 1825 in what is now Wrocław, Poland.
Enver Hoxha, Albanian partisan during WWII and later first secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, passed away April 11, 1985. For more information see: www.enver-hoxha.net/ ; (in Russian): www.enverhoxha.ru/ , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13601.html , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13604.html (by son Ilir Hoxha), www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm , marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#EH , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/index.htm , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Enver%20Hodja , michaelharrison.org.uk/everything-you-want-or-need-to-know-about-albania/ , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and some of his works are available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
There was a coup against elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez April 11, 2002 (whom Bernie Sanders called something like "a dead communist dictator"), something the Trump administration and leading Democrats wanted to repeat against the elected government of Nicolas Maduro.
British student and International Solidarity Movement volunteer Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier April 11, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza. Hurndall was left comatose and died January 13, 2004. The shooter, Taysir Hayb, was sentenced to 8 years in prison and released after 6 and a half. Earlier Hurndall went to Iraq as part of a campaign to provide volunteer human shields to protect civilian infrastructure from Coalition bombing. The US government and Human Rights Watch condemned the shields, and the US considered prosecuting American volunteers as war criminals.
Thomas Hurndall (November 27, 1981 in London, UK – January 13, 2004) was shot by a Bedouin Israeli sniper April 11, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza and left in a coma: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hurndall
4/11-13: bbgardens.org/event/spring-plant-sale-2024/
4/11-21: saathee.com/event_calender/queen-charlotte-fair/
www.nlg.org/civicrm/event/register/?reset=1&id=72 4/11 8pm
4/11 in NYC: climatemuseum.org/2024-events/04/11
April 12 is Halifax Day, commemorating the Halifax Resolves in 1776, beginning the process of separation from the UK, a date also emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
The US Civil War began and ended in April. The bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor began April 12, 1861. The Civil War ended with several separate surrenders. Robert E Lee surrendered his forces at Appomattox, Virginia April 9, 1865. The largest Confederate surrender occurred at Bennett Place, now in Durham, when Joseph E Johnston surrendered his forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida April 26th. Bennett Place State Historic Site usually holds an Annual Surrender Commemoration in late April: www.bennettplacehistoricsite.com/special-events/ Besides its historical value, Bennett Place is significant ecologically, since the land has been mostly left alone. Earth Day 4/20. According to Wikipedia, the last Confederate general to surrender was Cherokee leader Stand Watie, June 23rd, but the last surrender was Confederate commerce raider CSS Shenandoah, November 6, 1865 in Liverpool, UK. It could be argued that the Civil War continued into the Reconstruction period, which ended in 1877.
V.I. Lenin's older brother Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov was born April 12, 1866 in Nizhny Novgorod. He was involved with Narodnaya Volya and was executed May 20, 1887. He studied zoology and Lenin is supposed to have said something like a revolutionary can't devote so much time to the study of the annelids (earthworms, etc.). He is the namesake of asteroid 2112 Ulyanov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova July 13,1972 while on the Crimean Peninsula.
Proletarian novelist and critic Mike Gold was born (as Itzok Isaac Granich) in New York City's Lower East Side April 12, 1894 and passed away May 14, 1967 in Terra Linda, California.
Anthropologist Muriel Eva Verbitsky Hunt was born April 12, 1934 to Russian Jewish parents in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She wrote The 1977 book The Transformation of the Hummingbird: Cultural Roots of a Zinacantecan Epic Poem. She was a professor at Boston University from 1978 and passed away February 29, 1980: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Verbitsky_Hunt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt died April 12, 1945, placing Vice President Harry Truman in power.
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.
Impeached North Carolina governor William Holden was pardoned by the State Senate April 12, 2011.
4/12: artseverywhere.unc.edu/art-at-carolina/arts-everywhere-day/ and law.unc.edu/event/this-art-belongs-to-the-artist-art-as-human-rights-exhibition-symposium/
Tycho Brahe?
American bourgeois-democratic revolutionary and later US president, Thomas Jefferson, was born April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia.
The Battle of Morrisville was April 13-15, 1865 in western Wake County and was apparently the last official battle between Johnston and Sherman's armies in North Carolina. I read that at some point there was a skirmish somewhere along New Hope Creek in southern Durham.
Georg Lukács, a Marxist philosopher and literary critic and Minister of Culture in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, was born April 13, 1885 in Budapest. Many of his works are online, in English, at: www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/index.htm
Tanzanian socialist Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born April 13, 1922 in what was then Tanganyika (Tanganyika and Zanzibar united April 26, 1964 to create Tanzania). A biography and two of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nyerere/index.htm
Professor of English Andrew John von Hendy was born April 13, 1932 in Elmira, New York and taught at Bowdoin College and then at Boston College from 1963 to 2005. He graduated from Niagara University in 1954 and was in the US Army sometime later, afterward attending Cornell. He is the author of The Modern Construction of Myth (2002). He passed away June 6, 2018 in Chestnut Hill, MA. College obituaries.bowdoin.edu/instructor-english-andrew-von-hendy/ and www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/andrew-von-hendy-obituary?id=1716765 (incudes a photo) and www.google.com/search?q=andrew+von+hendy
Gerhard Schürer (April 14, 1921 – December 22, 2010)
START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) went into effect April 14, 2000.
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 The polluted Burlington, NC Tar Heel Missile Plant site at 204 North Graham-Hopedale Road – 2/9 HRA email – 2/8 ncnewsline.com/briefs/us-army-to-begin-excavating-up-to-300-tons-of-contaminated-soil-at-former-missile-plant-in-burlington/ and burlingtonnc.gov/WesternElectric ; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Electric , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Zeus ?
Greensboro Farmers Market: Go Green Plant Sale April 14th 9am-2pm
4/14: saathee.com/event_calender/holi-dhuleti-charlotte-nc/
4/14: www.who.int/campaigns/world-chagas-disease-day
Ronald Reagan bombed Libya April 15, 1986, killing many military personnel and civilians, reportedly including an infant child of Qaddafi. Libya shot down an F-111, killing the two person crew. In 2011 Obama and Hillary Clinton used so-called humanitarian interventionism as a pretext to achieve the long-term US and European imperialist goal of neutralizing Libya. A few years earlier Libya had given up its weapons of mass destruction programs, a lesson to the DPRK about trusting pledges made by the American imperialist government, and John Bolton made a point of highlighting this, undermining US-DPRK negotiations, one of the few beneficial foreign policy initiatives by the Trump administration, though leading Congressional Democrats seemed to prefer when Trump talked about starting a major war, and now the US has a proxy war with Russia raging in Ukraine.
Vittorio Arrigoni (February 4, 1975 Besana in Brianza, Italy – April 15, 2011 killed by al-Qaida in Gaza?): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Arrigoni
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.
US income taxes are due Monday, April 15th, except for tax resistance over "defense" spending, etc.: 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 I read an argument that supposedly there isn't actually any law requiring most people to pay income tax. NLG 4/4 at 5pm
4/15: ccrjustice.org/abu-ghraib-trial
The average last frost date in the Triangle is in mid-April. In my lifetime there has been significant snow accumulation in early to mid-March in Durham, though snow is probably most likely in January. Sometimes there is significant snow in December, disrupting university finals. A record of 0" in 2023-24? Our USDA hardiness has changed with climate change or other factors. I should grow more in 2024, I think I found a new source of cempazúchitl/cempasúchil/cempoalxochitl/cempoalxóchitl marigold (Tagetes erecta) seeds, and there is papalo, hollyhocks, maize/corn, Coleus, Nicotina rustica, Tithonia, cowpeas, Dill's Atlantic giant pumpkins, gourds, cowhorn okra, Heimia salicifolia, moneyplant, chicory, sorghum, Dianthus, lotus, runner beans, tree cabbage, Syrian rue, amaranth, etc. but I probably will not, again. 'Busy' here, etc.?
Durham is typically frost-free by mid-April, something like the 16th, and tax day is around then. There is a saying about planting corn when the unfurling new oak leaves are the size of some animal's ears, but I'm not sure if this works. I have an old planting schedule from an agriculture department, possibly no longer accurate, because of climate change moving the frost dates and improvement cultivar.
Karl Theodor Robert Luther, (April 16, 1822 in Świdnica, Poland – February 15, 1900 Düsseldorf, Germany).
German revolutionary Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann was born April 16, 1886 in Hamburg.
Ernst Thälmann, leader of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar period, was born April 16, 1886, and shot in Buchenwald August 18, 1944 after years of solitary confinement. The Nazis claimed that he was killed by Allied bombing. Many groups were named for him, such as the Thälmann Brigade of German volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republic, and there are songs such as "The Thaelmann-Column" and "Marsch der Thaelmann-Pioniere" and "Thalmannlied." There were possibly questionable translations of some of his works at: aredinohio.wordpress.com/ernst-thalmann-library/
Basque ETA – July 31, 1959 – April 16/May 2 in 2018
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790).
The land and naval Battle of Plymouth, in coastal Washington County, NC, was April 17-20, 1864 and included the ironclad ram CSS Albemarle. Apparently there is now a smaller self-powered replica, one of at least two replica ironclads in NC. Hoke?
A mystery airship is supposed to have hit a windmill and crashed in the town of Aurora, Texas, the morning of April 17, 1897, killing the pilot. Apparently there is another early account of a UFO crashing to earth, from Max, in southwest Nebraska, June 6, 1884: www.ufocasebook.com/nebraskaroswell.html Chile?
Tsarist soldiers killed or wounded hundreds of striking workers at the Lena River goldfields April 17, 1912.
Margot Honecker (born Feist; April 17, 1927 in Halle, now in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany – May 6, 2016 Santiago, Chile): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Honecker
Trident II Pruning Hooks
April 18, 1985 six anti-nuclear weapons activists damaged three Trident II missile tubes at General Dynamics Electric Boat's Quonset Point facility in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Six tubes had been damaged October 1, 1984. They hammered the tubes, put blood on them, wrote Dachau with spraypaint, and left a "Call to Conscience" accusing the company of supporting war crimes. They also performed a Jewish and Christian religious ceremony. They were arrested soon after and charged with the possession of tools for burglary, malicious damage to property, and criminal trespassing, with an $18,000 dollar bond. Three were released after weeks in jail with a promise to appear, while three others chose to stay in jail on conscientious grounds, but were released just before the trail. There was a two-week trial before a jury, with a justification defense being barred. They were found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment, changed to a one year suspended sentence with credit for their previous time in jail and two years of probation. Three appealed.
Kosaburo Eto (江藤 小三郎, Etō Kosaburō, April 20, 1946 in Sage Prefecture – February 11, 1969 by burning, in front of the National Diet in Tokyo, Japan): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosaburo_Eto
Very similar to Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, 27-year-old Moroccan street vendor Nourredine Adnane set himself on fire February 11, 2011, following threats of suicide, protesting the seizure of his goods and humiliation in Palmero, Sicily, in Italy. Earlier on January 21st an unnamed 65-year-old man died a few days after setting himself on fire in Samtah, Jizan, Saudi Arabia, reportedly a first in Saudi Arabia (according to Wikipedia), and possibly over the barriers to becoming a Saudi national.
The major Lyrid meteor shower will be visible from April 15-29th, peaking April 21-22, around Earth Day/Lenin's birth anniversary (April 22, 1870), but the Moon will be near full: www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/2020-meteor-shower-list/
The UN's Chinese Language Day is April 20th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
There was a bombing at the Washington Navy Officers Club April 20, 1984.
The UN's Chinese Language Day April 20th: www.un.org/zh/observances/chinese-language-day , in Chinese.
National Record Store Day, begun in 2008, will be April 20 in 2024 ( www.recordstoreday.com )?
An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers (a total of 126 were onboard that day) and led to history's largest oil spill. The rig sank April 22nd and an oil slick was visible on the surface. The leaking well, about 5000 feet underwater, was not considered sealed until September 19, 2010.
4/20 10am-3am: friendsofwewo.org/partyforthepine
4/20: www.carolinafarmstewards.org/event/piedmont-farm-tour/
4/20: www.brookgreen.org/events/spring-plant-sale
4/20 HRA: "Join Haw River Assembly at the City of Greensboro’s Earth Day festival 1-4 pm, Saturday, April 20, 2024, at Keeley Park!
The festival will include a wide range of activities and educational opportunities — from tutorials of environmentally-friendly lawn care practices to demos of renewable energy technology to animal interactions. OSR will also name the 2024 #LiveGreen Award winners at this event. The festival is expected to draw more than 3,000 people and 50 vendors. Check it out HERE. "
HRA: "Saturday, April 20th – 2:00 - 8:00 pm, we will be tabling at Pluck Farm!! Join us for "Fields of Funk: A Sour Beer Festival" by Steel String Brewery ** 6901 NC HWY 54 Mebane, NC 27302 ~ The festival is 21+ & tickets are required. Please leave pets at home. Featuring sour beers from 25+ breweries, live music, food trucks and more. For more information, visit event website."
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.
A rightist military junta (the Regime of the Colonels) took power in Greece April 21, 1967 and lasted until July 1974.
The anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica was first broadcast January 6th or 7th to April 21st in 2011. I thought it was originally broadcast as Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, and it is in the mahou shoujo, or magical girl, genre. It was airing when the Great East Japan/Tōhoku/ Sendai Earthquake happened March 11th and I think someone was quoted or mentioned in an ANN article, joking or not, about being able to go face death in the Fukushima powerplant cleanup after having seen the end, or maybe they regretted not having seen the end first: www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=12120 and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puella_Magi_Madoka_Magica
4/21 perihelion: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12P/Pons–Brooks
4/21: www.un.org/en/observances/creativity-and-innovation-day
Greensboro Holistic Wellness and Sustainability Fair Sunday, April 21st, 12pm-4pm: www.facebook.com/events/3456422611315646
Italian-American anarchist Nicola Sacco was born April 22, 1891. Together with another Italian-American anarchist, Bartolomeo Vanzetti (born June 11, 1888), Sacco was executed August 23, 1927 for two murders committed during a robbery April 15, 1920 in Braintree, Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were famous worldwide as political prisoners and there was a lot of organizing around the case and many places and groups have been named after them. In 1977 Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis signed a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly convicted and executed and should not bear any "disgrace" for the alleged crime, though he did not say that they were actually innocent or officially pardon them.
Pershing Plowshares
April 22, 1984 (Easter Morning) seven Americans (including Patrick O'Neill, then a student and "peace worker" from Greenville) and a Swedish student and peace worker went into an Orlando, Florida Martin Marietta, where they hammered and put their blood on Pershing II ballistic missile parts and a Patriot missile launcher at a Martin Marietta facility. They indicted the company on religious grounds and international and US law for manufacturing nuclear weapons and unfurled a banner saying "Violence Ends Where Love Begins." Hours later they were arrested. They were given a Federal jury trial, without being able to make a justification defense. They were found guilty of depredation of government property and conspiracy, and sentenced to three years imprisonment, five-year suspended sentences with probation, and restitution of $2900 dollars each. Their appeals and motions for sentence reduction were denied. The Swedish activist spent more than a year in prison before being deported.
NATO bombed the headquarters of Radio Television Serbia April 23, 1999, killing 16 civilian employees. Apparently the general manager was jailed for not ordering an evacuation, but no one has been punished for the bombing, though Amnesty International called it a war crime, Human Rights Watch condemned it, and apparently even the French government was opposed to it. According to the BBC the station was only silenced for 4 hours. NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24th to June 10th. From the way NPR, etc. discuss war they don't seem to realize that US policies and those of other countries have normalized targeting and prosecuting the media, professional journalists, citizen journalists, and whistleblowers. War might not always stay far away across the oceans, especially a war with a "(near?) peer" such as Russia or China (and NPR has staff in Ukraine while BBC staff have reported from the capital), and Julian Assange is being held by the UK for extradition to the USA right now.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin February 1, 1931 – April 23, 2007.
4/23: www.un.org/en/observances/english-language-day Shakespeare www.un.org/es/observances/spanish-language-day indigenous in 2023 www.unesco.org/en/days/world-book-and-copyright Saint George's Day in the UK
Good Friday will be March 29th, and there is usually an annual NC pilgrimage for peace and justice prior. Passover will begin April 23rd at sunset.
Ireland's Easter Rising was April 24-29, 1916: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising
The Socorro, New Mexico UFO landing, reported by police officer Lonnie Zamora, is supposed to have been April 24, 1964: copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/11/zamora-dies.html
International Noise Awareness Day is Wednesday, April 24th (the last Wednesday in April) and raises awareness about noise pollution and the health and environmental problems excessive noise causes. Increasing here?
4/24-30: www.who.int/campaigns/world-immunization-week/
Catherine Blake (Boucher; April 25, 1762 – October 18, 1831): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Blake 262nd birthday 4/25 at 1pm at 17 South Molton Street, London, UK
4/25-28: saathee.com/event_calender/merlefest-wilkesboro-nc/
April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan launched the Saur Revolution April 27, 1978, followed by US support for Islamist terrorists, beginning before the Soviet intervention in December 1979 that overthrew the more radical Khalq faction of the PDPA. The PDPA government fell after March 18, 1992, but outlasted the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the overthrow of the revisionist Soviet government in late 1991. This was followed by a civil war among the Islamists and later the formation of the Taliban. The US-backed Afghan government marked Mujahideen Victory Day annually April 28th. Afghanistan wasn't always as "medieval" as it became after the civil wars and terrorism, fueled by the US, Pakistan, China, and other countries.
President James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831)
Louisiana became the 18th state April 30, 1812 and seceded January 26, 1861: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana
The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with Tashkent as its capital, was created within the RSFSR April 30, 1918. The name varied. It was abolished October 27, 1924 and ultimately divided into the Central Asian republics of the USSR, today independent countries.
Fanny Weston Bixby Spencer (November 6, 1879 – April 30, 1930), one of the first female police officers in the US, January 1, 1908, in Long Beach, California, and she was on the left politically.
Annie Dillard (Doak; April 30, 1945): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Dillard Note "Total eclipse"
13-year cicada Brood XIX (19, the Great Southern Brood) will emerge for about a month starting around May Day in North Carolina and in several other states and 17-year Brood XIII (13, the Northern Illinois Brood) will emerge in the Midwest near Chicago; the two broods of periodical cicadas only synchronize every 221 years: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas , www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/brood-xiii-and-brood-xix-magicicada-will-both-emerge-in-2024/ , etc. Next in distant cicada year 2037... A few come up early or late, in 2024, etc. Yellow and green-flashing fireflies emerge by or starting in late May here, but there is also a newly discovered species of Piedmont blue ghost firefly active in late April-early May in central North Carolina, such as in Raleigh's Durant Park: carolinaghosthunt.wordpress.com and naturalsciences.org/calendar/news/nature-now-ghost-hunting/ ~2008-2023 FFW www.massaudubon.org/programs-events/community-science/firefly-watch replaced by www.fireflyatlas.org in 2024. Umbrellatrees, a species of deciduous Magnolia with huge leaves and white flowers, found in parts of Durham and probably much more common in Wake County, bloom right around May 1st. I think the NC Botanical Garden has specimens and they definitely have a very similar species. The much more common and related tuliptree has big green and blaze orange flowers around May, and they are apparently very good for honey bees. UNC's giant Davie Poplar is a tuliptree; the trees at UNC probably start flowering in April. Catalpas also flower in late April to May, and the two species native to the US can be seen at UNC. The similar but pale violet East Asian Paulownia tomentosa flowers in April, as do several showy native trees and shrubs. Paulownias grow throughout the Triangle, especially in built-up areas, such as around strip malls and highway causeways.
Catfish fry in May and sunfish nestting in June? Annual cicada spp. in late June and green summer katydids in late July?
May is American Wetlands Month.
Deciduous umbrella magnolias or umbrellatrees (Magnolia tripetala) have white flowers around May 1st; there might be some in the RTP area of Durham but they seem to be much more common in Raleigh and Cary. There might be specimens in the NC Botanical Garden and they have a similar deciduous species more common in the Appalachians (bigleaf magnolias, M. macrophylla, which grow naturally near Charlotte and are supposed to have the largest leaves and flowers among native North American trees, other than palms). French naturalist André Michaux encountered the species, which he called "the queenliest of all the deciduous magnolias," south of Charlotte (today called the Queen City) on June 8, 1795, though apparently he had seen it before. Fraser magnollias, M. fraseri, are basically stricted to the mountains. Tulip-poplars or tuliptrees (Liriodendron tulipfera), also in the magnolia family, have large spring green and bright orange flowers in May and possibly earlier. Fringetrees, black locusts, pinxterflowers, and hawthorns should be blooming in late April (hawthorns from March?) and many woodland wildflowers are still blooming or start in late spring. There are also many "weeds" and grasses blooming in lawns and along roads. Mountain laurels along the Eno River are supposed to bloom around Mother's Day. Northern and Southern catalpas also have showy white flowers in May and the sweet, dark fruit will ripen on red mulberries, common between Carrboro and Chapel Hill and in other built up areas in the Triangle.] There aren't many red flowers now, though roses bloom in May and there could be coral honeysuckle, fire pinks, and crossvines. Columbine?
74th 1-4th www.wildflowerpilgrimage.org
There will no doubt be events for International Workers' Day/May Day around May 1st.
International Workers' Day, Wednesday, May 1st might be a day of action on Palestine this year.
An exceptionally large NATO exercise targeting "Russia and the terror groups" began in Europe in late January 2024 and will continue into May? redphoenixnews.com/2024/01/26/nato-is-waging-war-in-europe-in-a-front-from-finland-to-romania-for-the-next-4-months/ 4/7 DS
May is also American Wetlands Month (see above), Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month, Oder Americans Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Hepatitis Awareness Month, National Electrical Safety Month, National Water Safety Month, National Foster Care Month, and National Burger Month, among other commemorations in the USA, according to Wikipedia.
The House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine was attacked by rightists May 2, 2014, killing 42. In 2019 the United National AntiWar Coalition sent a delegation to Odessa on the anniversary: unac.notowar.net/2019/05/04/odessa-report-2-mayday-and-the-may-2nd-remembrance-in-odessa/ and they recommend a 3-minute video on the massacre: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZCu0fhVbw
James Henry Dominic Miller (December 18, 1968 in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK – May 2, 2003, shot in Rafah, Gaza): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Miller_(filmmaker)
World Press Freedom Day is May 3rd ( www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday/ , www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks ), but many "free" journalists don't condemn US attempts to punish Julian Assange for his journalistic work and retaliate against whistleblowers who supply the media with information, and much of the "free" press serves the government and imperialist capitalism in heavily backing US plots to regain domination over Venezuela and other Latin American countries, the bipartisan plan to use Russiagate to silence dissent, war from Ukraine to Yemen, and other elite foreign and domestic policy decisions. www.un.org/en/observances/press-freedom-day
A military coup in Paraguay May 4, 1954 installed Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled until 1989. Under Stroessner Paraguay joined other rightist governments of South America, with the involvement of the USA and European countries, in Operation Condor, torturing and killing tens of thousands and imprisoning many more.
Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany. Some of his works are available at: marx2mao.com/M&E/Index.html , www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/ An eclipse in the Russian Empire that day? – Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology (1977)
The USA invaded the Dominican Republic May 5, 1916.
The Hard Hat Riot, in which pro-Nixon rightists, mostly construction workers, attacked an anti-war rally, a nearby church, and Pace University facilities, was May 8, 1970 in New York City. The New York police were accused of doing little to prevent the violence. Union leader Peter J Brennan went on to become US secretary of labor under Nixon and Ford.
Victory Day is May 9th and marks the end of WWII in Europe in 1945.
I've heard that this is also the time to see mountain laurels blooming at Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, south of Hillsborough, and probably elsewhere along the Eno (see: www.ncparks.gov/occoneechee-mountain-state-natural-area and enoriver.org for organized hikes). The end of the ice ages left species such as the brown elfin butterflies stranded on Occoneechee, white pines at the White Pines Nature Preserve south of Pittsboro, and Eastern hemlocks at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary. In many cases species that live on mountains are very at risk from climate change, because they can only retreat up, and at some point there may be nowhere left to go (see the extinction of the golden toad May 15, 1989). In these examples the species are also found elsewhere, so local extinction wouldn't be complete extinction. Hemlocks also face a threat from a non-native insect, but it has been gotten rid of locally, while remaining a catastrophe in the mountains.
Former Senator (D-Alaska) and 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Mike Gravel was born May 13, 1930 in Springfield, Massachusetts and passed away June 26, 2021 in Seaside, California. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
The Warsaw Pact was formed May 14, 1955 to deter aggression by the already formed NATO alliance of the USA and its weaker European imperialist partners.
The last known sighting of a Costa Rican golden toad was May 15, 1989 and they are thought to be extinct. The species was first described scientifically in 1966. There is still debate about the cause, but this might be an early example of anthropogenic climate change killing a species. Possibly the cause was a chytrid fungus epidemic, possibly assisted by climate change and pesticide pollution, a major threat to frog species in many countries. Apparently there are additional still unidentified diseases killing endangered amphibians.
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
Kurdish İbrahim Kaypakkaya (1949 – May 18, 1973): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/İbrahim_Kaypakkaya
The UN's Vesak, the Day of the Full Moon is May 23 as the birth anniversary of Buddha: www.un.org/en/observances/vesak-day The 16th is also the International Day of Living Together in Peace and the International Day of Light: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks and www.un.org/en/observances/living-in-peace-day
After withdrawing from Afghanistan, Biden announced May 16, 2022 that soldiers would be sent back into Somalia to do much the same thing: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/persistent-presence?pc=1447 Apparently the Geledi Sultanate, a predecessor of modern Somalia, was the first independent African state to recognize the new American state, in 1776.
Mary Morton Allport (May 17, 1806 – June 10, 1895): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Morton_Allport
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, and 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 2/6...4/7, etc.?; barred owls also nest in the winter, usually in tree hollows, but they sometimes occupy hawk or crow nests.
May 17th (the third Friday in May) is supposed to be Endangered Species Day ( www.endangered.org/campaigns/endangered-species-day/ ) and Bike-to-Work Day.
5/17-18: saathee.com/event_calender/beaufort-music-festival/
May 17th: www.un.org/en/observances/telecommunication-day
Culture Freedom Day is May 18th (the third Saturday in May), as is International Museum Day ( imd.icom.museum/ ).
Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh was born on or around May 19, 1890. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/index.htm
José Martí, one of the leaders of the movement for Cuban independence from Spain and the USA, was born January 28, 1853 and died in the Battle of Dos Ríos against the Spanish military, May 19, 1895. The US later entered what became Spanish-American War and gained control of Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. This is often seen as the beginning of US imperialism, though the seizure of Hawaii, the idea of Manifest Destiny, and the Monroe Doctrine predate the War.
May 19, 1920 in Matewan, West Virginia seven agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency (employed by the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation), two miners (one just fired for belonging to the United Mine Workers of America and one unarmed), and Mayor Cabell Testerman were killed and a few people wounded in the Battle of Matewan, seen as a victory for the miners and dramatized in the 1987 movie Matewan.
The Viet Minh, a Vietnamese abbreviation of the League for the Independence of Vietnam was founded at Pác Bó May 19, 1941.
Possibly related to the above date, North Carolina seceded from the USA on May 20, 1861, after the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina April 12th.
The French diesel-electric submarine Minerve disappeared January 27, 1968 in the Gulf of Lion, south of Toulon, France; its remains were found July 21, 2019. The Israeli diesel-electric submarine Dakar disappeared after January 25, 1968 in the eastern Mediterranean; an emergency buoy was found February 9, 1969 in Khan Yunis, Gaza; the lost submarine was found May 24, 1999 between Crete and Cyprus. Egyptian sources claim that the frigate Assyout sank the submarine. The Soviet diesel-electric ballistic missile submarine K-129 was lost around March 8, 1968 in the Pacific; in the summer of 1974 the CIA used the Hughes Glomar Explorer, allegedly picking up what are now being called "polymetallic nodules," to raise pieces of the K-129, risking a nuclear explosion when a missile was dropped underwater. The nuclear-powered USS Scorpion was lost after May 21, 1968 near the Azores: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_submarine_Minerve_(S647) , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INS_Dakar , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-129_(1960) , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Scorpion_(SSN-589)
The first of several military coups in Turkey was May 27, 1960.
Plowshares disarmament in Michigan
Peace activist and radio technician Tom Hastings sawed off an extremely low frequency radio antenna mast on Michigan's Upper Peninsula May 28, 1985. The ELF antennas were used to communicate with submarines, such as those carrying nuclear missiles. These are supposed to be sensitive facilities handling nuclear weapons systems, but plowshare activists often enter and are not arrested for minutes to hours or are only arrested after leaving or turning themselves in. Hastings stayed at the site for 45 minutes and prayed, sang, and planted a corn circle. He was only arrested after taking part of the pole to the office of Congressman Bob Davis in the morning and surrendering to a sheriff. He was sentenced to 15 days in prison and two years probation for malicious destruction of property.
5/28/2018: Radio Ya in Nicaragua was burned.
May 29: www.un.org/en/observances/peacekeepers-day
MIT historian of science Giorgio de Santillana was born May 30, 1902 in Rome, Italy. His father David was apparently a Tunisian-Italian specialist in Islamic jurisprudence. He passed away June 8, 1974 in Beverly, Massachusetts: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_de_Santillana
5/30: www.un.org/en/observances/potato-day
During the Tulsa Race Riot May 31 - June 1, 1921 in Oklahoma there was fighting on the ground and private airplanes dropped incendiaries. For background about the massacre in Tulsa and the murder of Osage Indians for their rights to oil and other resources in Oklahoma see: www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/26/trumps-tulsa-travesty-the-missing-connection/
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (informally, the INF Treaty) between the USA and the USSR/Russia was ratified June 1, 1988. Trump Administration suspended the Treaty February 1, 2019, followed the next day by Russia, and the US formally withdrew August 2, 2019, possibly as an act against China rather than Russia.
National Trails Day is June 1st.
Brian William Haw (January 7, 1949 – June 18, 2011) began camping on, or maybe "occupying," Parliament Square in London June 2, 2001 as an anti-war protest.
The Fort Fisher Hermit, Robert E Harrill, was born February 2, 1893 in Shelby, NC. He is officially supposed to have died of a heart attack June 3, 1972, but appears to have been murdered, possibly to remove an obstacle for "development."
Prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the largest oil spill was at the Ixtoc I well, 164 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula, on June 3, 1979. The well was operated by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company.
The on going anti-nuclear White House Peace Vigil began June 3, 1981, started by William Thomas Hallenbeck Jr (March 20, 1947 – January 23, 2009). See fall 2018. There was a vigil against the sanctions on Iraq and then the "War on Terror," etc. for years in Durham and Chapel Hill and shorter anti-war vigils at Durham's Brightleaf Square and at Crabtree Mall (?) in Raleigh, but I think they have all ended. There was also an anti-torture vigil on Highway 70 in Johnston County and occasionally on Wednesdays (?) in Raleigh. There could be a new vigil, over the war on Palestine, at Moore Square in Raleigh Sundays around 2 or 3pm.
The UN's World Bicycle Day is June 3rd: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks and www.un.org/en/observances/bicycle-day
The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is June 4, and was created in 1982 following the deaths of many Palestinian and Lebanese children due to Israeli aggression. And Biden back then? www.un.org/en/observances/child-victim-day
World Environment Day is June 5th ( www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day ) and the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, for example the plundering of fisheries around war-torn or weak countries that can't adequately patrol their coastlines. ( www.un.org/en/observances/end-illegal-fishing-day ).
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004); attempted assassination in March 1981.
Apparently there is an early account of a UFO crashing to earth in Max, southwest Nebraska, June 6, 1884: www.ufocasebook.com/nebraskaroswell.html
Israel tried to sink the USS Liberty, a signals intelligence spy ship, in international waters off of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula June 8, 1967, during the 1967 War, and got away with it, except for having to pay damages. 34 American personnel were killed and 171 injured: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
The Israeli military tried to sink the USS Liberty in international waters bordering Egypt June 8, 1967, killing 34 and wounding 174. For example see: www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/08/the-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-55-years-later/ At some point during the Suez Crisis the UK's HMS Crane (U23) was attacked by Israeli aircraft and might have shot one down. Apparently none of the Crane's crew were killed. March 27, 1952, during the Korean War, the Crane was hit by DPRK artillery with little damage: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Crane_(U23)
Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born June 11, 1888.
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.
The end of the Alcatraz occupation was June 11, 1971 – This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (June 15, 1914 – February 9, 1984)
The Battle of Saipan was June 15-July 9, 1944
The International Day of Family Remittances is June 16th: www.un.org/en/events/family-remittances-day/
National Pollinator Week is June 17 – 23 in 2024: www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week
The Battle of New Orleans was January 8, 1815, at the end of the War of 1812 (June 18, 1812 – February 17, 1815)
The Battle of Waterloo was June 18, 1815, ending the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon's power; Waterloo is now in Belgium. First Napoleon had been exiled to nearby Elba, but now he was sent to far away Saint Helena, and died there.
In the summer of 1934 something like an owl was attacking people along 241st Street between Snell Boulevard and Rushmore Avenue in Queens borough of New York City, apparently without provocation. According to a June 18th article in the New York Times, quoted by Brandon, "a bird 'with blazing eyes' and resembling an owl had been fluttering in the faces of residents, most of them prominent financiers." After being driven off it attacked again and then left, without actually injuring anyone – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
June 18th: www.un.org/en/observances/sustainable-gastronomy-day
As early as 1945 the UK and USA considered plans to attack their Soviet ally, which lay devastated by the heavy fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front, though the Soviets were still very strong militarily and even with a re-activated German military the "West" had too few conventional forces and the US didn't have enough nuclear bombs to risk starting WWIII that soon.
The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is June 19th: www.un.org/en/events/elimination-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict/index.shtml June 19th is also Juneteenth.
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.
The Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice will be Thursday, June 20th in 2024.
Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964)
John Warner Barber (February 2, 1798 – June 22, 1885).
An explosion 12 miles above Pittsburgh, PA 6/24/1938? – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
World UFO Day or Flying Saucer Day is marked June 24th or July 2, the second date commemorating July 2, 1947 when something - E.T. craft, USAF weather balloon, Stalin's captured Nazi flying saucer, etc - is supposed to have crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.
Robert Parry (June 24, 1949 – January 27, 2018): consortiumnews.com/2024/01/27/remembering-robert-parry-who-died-6-yrs-ago-today/
Roman emperor Julian, "the Apostate," in Christian tradition, among other epithets, positive and negative, is supposed to have been born in 331 CE in Constantinople, and passed away June 26, 363, after the Battle of Samarra, now in Iraq, against Sassanid Persia, now Iran. Julian plays a part in the story of saints John and Paul.
The International Day of the Tropics is June 29th: www.un.org/en/events/tropicsday/
There was a news item claiming that the ancient Sumerians recorded an observation of an asteroid that hit Europe during a long ago summer. I need to find the date again.
International Asteroid Day is June 30th, and something from space exploded over Siberia that day in 1908 with far more force than the WWII atomic bombs, leveling a large area of forest with a sparse human population. More recently an asteroid exploded high above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains of Russia February 15, 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT, far more powerful than the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima, and injured many people and damaged buildings ( www.un.org/en/events/asteroidday/ ).
A small asteroid exploded near Chelyabinsk, Russia February 15, 2013. The vastly larger Tunguska event over Siberia was June 30, 1908, now Asteroid Day
www.un.org/en/observances/asteroid-day
In another first for a sitting president, Trump briefly crossed the Korean DMZ June 30, 2019, and for the second time since 1953 a leader of the DPRK crossed into the ROK. Trump, Kim, and ROK president Moon Jae-in also held a brief private meeting.
Siege of Baler, PH: July 1, 1898 to June 2, 1899
7/1: www.un.org/en/observances/cooperatives-day
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. Jeffrey A Lockwood. 9/6? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust
I saw something like an American bird grasshopper, Schistocerca americana, here March 13, 2024; large locusts turn up even in winter.
Israeli Air Force attaché Yosef Alon was shot to death early on July 1, 1973 outside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, possibly by Black September.
Burlington, Vermont; aerial explosion and one or more objects that would now be called UFOs were reportedly witnessed by Bishop John S Michaud, former governor Woodbury, and others July 2, 1907 – Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, by Jim Brandon, 1978.
Crab Nebula 1054; battles in Gettysburg and Vicksburg ended 1863; Crusader Palestine versus Saladin 7/4/1187: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hattin far south aurorae?
The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1-3, 1863 in Pennsylvania, and was the Civil War battle with the most casualties, missing, wounded, or killed. Together with the Federal victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4th, early July 1863 is seen as a major turning point in the war.
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.
During the Anglo-Zulu War (January 11 – July 4 in 1879) the British lost the first major engagement, at Isandlwana, or Isandhlwana, January 22nd. I saw part of a movie set during this war; maybe it was Zulu, about the Battle of Rorke's Drift, January 22-23: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rorke%27s_Drift , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zulu_War
The 45th annual EnoFest will be July 4 and 6 in Durham: www.enofest.org/
Tanabata and related traditional festivals in East Asia (Tanabata is the Japanese version of China's Qixi or Qiqiao Festival) are July-August (From 7/7? 8/10/2024 and 8/29 in 2025? – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata ); a new way of celebrating is to turn off the lights and go outside to look at the stars.
It was reported that, during a thunderstorm the evening of July 7 (?), 1885, “just after the flash of lightning and crash of thunder which made every one believe for an instant that he had been struck,” “a beautiful as well as awe inspiring scene was presented to the gaze of those so fortunate to be upon the street at the time” – “a ball of fire, resembling a meteor” rapidly crossed the sky east to west over Bismarck (?), North Dakota “produc[ing] a whizzing, sizzling sound, and thr[owing] off numerous sparks in its flight.” The sight “fill[ed] the startled spectator with feelings of terror” as the object raced down. "With terrific force the glaring missile, hurled from some planetary wreck or produced by some freak of electricity, struck the Missouri River about a quarter of a mile below the landing, the gurgle and momentary roar of the aggravated waters being plainly heard on west Main Street.” This comes from an article, “An Electric Ball,” in the the Bismarck Daily Tribune July 8, 1885, reprinted in Jerome Clark's Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America.
After having been destroyed in WWII rebuilding began at the USSR's massive Dneiper hydroelectric dam, now in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, July 7, 1944 and it again produced electricity by March 3, 1947. The world's largest nuclear power station is also in that city, with the first unit having been built starting April 1, 1980. 6/6/2023 dam break.
Manitoba Pageant January 1960; July 1873 basis of Incident at Hawk's Hill, by Allan Wesley Eckert (January 30, 1931 – July 7, 2011): www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/pageant/05/boybadgerhole.shtml and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_at_Hawk%27s_Hill and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_W._Eckert
7/7: www.unesco.org/en/kiswahili-language-day
July 8, 1608 Quebec was founded – This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.
2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson was born July 8, 1952 in Houston and apparently endorsed Sanders after suspending her 2020 campaign January 10, 2020. 4/7/2024?
July 9, 1969 Princeton, Maine Passamaquoddy road closure – This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.
The Vietnam War Battle of Khe Sanh began January 21, 1968 and lasted until July 9th.
Two pilots reported a UFO a short distance south of High Point, NC July 11, 1947 at 7:20pm, according to the book Weird Carolinas. There was an Orange County report in the Daily Tar Heel several years ago, I think in the summer, but I will have to look for it. Many interesting reports are probably not publicized at the time or mentioned in published works. A UFO reportedly hovered over a Duke Power substation in Mount Airy, NC for nearly 45 minutes very early in the morning one day in August 1968. There is another report, from Copeland, NC, October 19, 1973. I think of the Carolinas as not very rich in UFO reports compared to other states, but Weird Carolinas claims that there have been nearly 3000 reports, and that there could be ten times more unreported sightings.
July 11th is Día del Árbol (Day of the Tree), Mexico's version of Arbor Day (the second Thursday in July); see Wikipedia and: www.arborday.org/celebrate/world-dates.cfm
February 8, 1974 the last crew left Skylab and it came down beginning 7/11/1979.
7/12: www.un.org/en/observances/day-of-combating-sand-and-dust-storms
The UN gave the USA control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (but under this "trusteeship" only the Security Council could change its status, not the General Assembly) July 18, 1947, and the Pacific Proving Grounds for nuclear weapon tests was established five days later, though testing had begun there in the summer of 1946.
The Franco-Prussian War was July 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871.
The 11th annual National Moth Week will be July 20 – 28 in 2024: www.nationalmothweek.org/
7/20: www.un.org/en/observances/moon-day
7/21/1944: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_Squadron_2/30_Normandie-Niemen
Michael David Wood (July 23, 1948): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wood_(historian)
Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered by astronomer Alan Hale and amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp July 23, 1995. According to the Wikipedia entry there might be a record in ancient Egypt of Hale-Bopp's previous entry into the inner solar system in July 2215 BCE; the comet won't appear again for thousands of years.
The Downing Street Minutes come from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans to engineer a war with Iraq. The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered in the USA.
July 27, 1585 landing at Roanoke Island "Virginia," now in NC – This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.
The Korean War armstice began July 27, 1953 and has continued ever since. ROK president Syngman Rhee did not sign the document. In DPR Korea July 27th is commemorated as the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.
The USA occupied Haiti July 28, 1915 to August 1, 1934.
There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County, NC July 29 or August 5, 1781.
The Civil War Battle of the Crater was Saturday, July 30, 1864: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater
The Japanese destroyer Hatsushimo survived Operation Ten-Go, but was sunk July 30, 1945 near Maizuru by a mine dropped from the air, becoming the 129th and last destroyer lost by Japan during WWII.
The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the PCMLE, was founded in August (Wikipedia says the date was August 1, 1964, but this might be inaccurate).
Kayla Jean Mueller (August 14, 1988 – February 6, 2015 killed by IS in
Syria): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayla_Mueller
University of Arizona professor of Classics Thomas DeVoe Worthen was born August 18, 1938 (Google) or January 1, 1937 (Rutgers DB). He attended Cal Tech, joined the US Army sometime later, and graduated from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. in Classics. He wrote The Myth of Replacement: Stars, Gods, and Order in the Universe, published in 1991. He passed away September 20, 2016 classics.arizona.edu/news/memoriam-thomas-d-worthen , dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/9253-worthen-thomas-de-voe , www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/tucson/name/thomas-worthen-obituary?id=16571444 , classics.arizona.edu/undergraduate/engagement/undergraduate-awards-scholarships/dr-thomas-d-worthen-associate-professor , and www.google.com/search?q=thomas+d+worthen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution 8/21/1791-1/1/1804
Multi-genre pop culture gathering Dragon Con will be held August 29-September 2 in Atlanta: www.dragoncon.org
The April 2024 Chatham Conservation Partnership (CCP) meeting will focus on Bumble Bee Conservation. The webinar will be on Thursday, April 18 from 9:00-11:30 a.m.
AGENDA:
North Carolina Bumble Bees: Biology, Diversity, and Threats
Hannah Levenson, NC State University
Provide Plants & Habitat for Bumble Bees
Debbie Roos, N.C. Cooperative Extension
The Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas
Laurie Hamon, The Xerces Society
Visit Cooperative Extension’s Growing Small Farms website for complete details, speaker bios, and a link to register.
Debbie Roos
Agricultural Extension Agent
Chatham County Center
North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Call: 919.542.8244
debbie_roos [ at ncsu edu ]
growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu
www.facebook.com/growingsmallfarms.nc
www.twitter.com/GrowSmallFarms
WHAT: Goldston Public Library’s Outdoor Plant Swap
WHEN: Thursday, April 18, 2024: noon – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Goldston Public Library, E. M. Harris Jr. Conference Room
9235 Pittsboro-Goldston Road
Goldston, NC 27252
WHO: Participants can bring outdoor seedlings or plants they no longer need/want to trade or share with fellow community members. Participants are asked to please bring healthy, rooted, pest-free, and labeled (if possible) plants. Containers should not be larger than 8 inches or 1 gallon.
Goldston’s Plant Swap is intended to bring fellow plant owners together to share/swap their plants. For every plant taken, an equal amount should be given. Please be advised that invasive species will not be accepted, and plants are intended to be free. The Chatham County community can also check out Goldston Public Library’s seed library.
For more information, individuals may contact the library at Call: (919) 898-4522(919) 898-4522 or goldston.library [at chathamlibraries org].
Information about all Chatham County Library branches can be found at www.chathamlibraries.org.
Kara Lusk
Public Information Officer
Chatham County Government
- April 1st-7th - Food Waste Prevention Week
- April 4th - State of Change: Seeds of Hope Screening
- April 5th - Statewide Star Party at Old North Durham Park
- April 6th - Master Gardener Plant Festival
- April 6th - UNC Science Expo
- April 6th - Cary Arbor Day Celebration
- April 8th - Monarch Butterfly Eclipse at MLS
- April 11th - Mayors Corporate Earth Day Challenge
- April 13th - Master Gardener Plant Sale
- April 13th - Anything With a Plug Recycling Mobile Drop-Off
- April 13th - Scrap Exchange Garden Party
- April 14th - KDB Spring Plant and Seed Swap
- April 18th - Sustainable Spirits at Durham Food Hall
- April 19th - Raleigh Arbor Day Celebration
- April 20th - NC Science Festival Landfill Tour
- April 21st - Durham Earth Day Festival
- April 21st - Little Sweep at Ellerbe Trestle
- April 22nd - KDB Earth Day Cleanup on Cheek Rd
- April 26th-May 5th - Durham BioBlitz
- May 4th - Durham Garden Tour
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