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Events, deaths, births, of JUL 12
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On a 12 July:
2002 After the ferry from Greece arrives at Brindisi, Italian customs officials checking passengers luggage find in a suitcase Ismail Kilic, 26, a Kurd. He is deported from Italy on the next ferry to Greece. The owner of the suitcase, Cindy Q., 23, a Belgian, is arrested and charged with organizing illegal immigration.
2001 In Trois-Rivières, Québec, Gérard Daigle, 80, was giving his parrot a shower [not a good idea...] when he inadvertently sprays Touti, his “tout petit” cat. Enraged, the cat attacks Daigle who, with his wife, 81, manages to lock the cat into the bedroom and calls for help. Four carloads of police, two ambulances, and an animal control officer respond. Daigle is hospitalized, having lost nearly a half liter of blood and requiring several stitches.
2000 In Philadelphia, a WPVI-TV news helicopter videotaped about a dozen police officers kicking and punching Thomas Jones, a black carjacking suspect. (Jones later pleaded guilty to carjacking and other crimes, and was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in prison; however, one year later none of the policemen had been disciplined and “the circumstances of the beating are still under investigation.”)
2000 New Hampshire Chief Justice David Brock was impeached by the Legislature, the first such action against an official in the state since 1790. (He was later acquitted in a state Senate trial.)
2000 La banda terrorista ETA coloca un coche bomba con 20 kilos de explosivos en pleno centro de Madrid. El atentado no se cobra ninguna víctima mortal.
1999 El informe de la ONU sobre Desarrollo Humano pone de manifiesto el crecimiento de las desigualdades entre ricos y pobres.
1998 Dimite el primer ministro japonés Ryutaro Hashimoto.
1997 An initial public offering from At Home, a cable modem company, sparks a buying frenzy, with the start-up valued at more than $1.99 billion after its first day of trading on 12 July 1997.
1996 The US House of Representatives votes overwhelmingly to define marriage in federal law as a legal union of one man and one woman - no matter what states might say.
1996 The media report that Wired Ventures has postponed an IPO until October. The company, described by some investment experts as "hysterically overvalued," produced a popular Web site as well as Wired magazine, which helped popularize the "digital revolution."
1991 Mauritania celebra un referéndum para votar la primera Constitución democrática de este país desde su independencia en 1960.
1990 Violeta Chamorro, presidente de Nicaragua, y la oposición sandinista llegan a un acuerdo para poner fin a la huelga general de 85'000 empleados estatales.
1990 Yeltsin resigns from Communist Party         ^top^
      Just two days after Mikhail Gorbachev was re-elected head of the Soviet Communist Party, Boris Yeltsin, president of the Republic of Russia, announces his resignation from the Party. Yeltsin's action was a serious blow to Gorbachev's efforts to keep the struggling Soviet Union together. In July 1990, Soviet Communist Party leaders met in a congress for debate and elections. Gorbachev, who had risen to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, came under severe attack from Communist Party hard-liners. They believed that his political and economic reforms were destroying the Party's control of the nation. Gorbachev fired back at his critics during a speech in which he defended his reforms and attacked the naysayers as backward-looking relics from the dark past of the Soviet Union. He was rewarded with an overwhelming vote in favor of his re-election as head of the Communist Party.
      Just two days after that vote, however, Yeltsin shattered the illusion that Gorbachev's victory meant an end to political infighting in the Soviet Union. Yeltsin had been a consistent critic of Gorbachev, but his criticisms stemmed from a belief that Gorbachev was moving too slowly in democratizing the Soviet political system. Yeltsin's dramatic announcement of his resignation from the Communist Party was a clear indication that he was demanding a multiparty political system in the Soviet Union. It was viewed as a slap in the face to Gorbachev and his policies. During the next year and a half, Gorbachev's power gradually waned, while Yeltsin's star rose. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union officially dissolved. Yeltsin, however, retained his position of power as president of Russia. In their own particular ways, both men had overseen the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
1989 Charles Haughey es nombrado primer ministro de Irlanda.
1985 Se publica en España la normativa legal que despenaliza el aborto en determinados supuestos.
1984 First woman vice-presidential candidate in US.         ^top^
      Walter Mondale, 58, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, announces that he has chosen Representative Geraldine Ferraro , 48, of New York as his running mate. Ferraro, a daughter of Italian immigrants, had previously gained fame as a vocal advocate of women's rights in Congress.
      Four days later, in San Francisco, California, Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, 52, would open the Democratic National Convention with an impassioned retort to Republican President Ronald Reagan's contention that the United States was a "shining city on a hill." Citing widespread poverty and racial strife, Cuomo derided President Reagan, 73, as oblivious to the needs and problems of many of America's citizens. His enthusiastic keynote address inaugurated a convention that saw Ferraro become the first woman nominated by a major party for the vice presidency.
      However, Mondale, the former US. vice president under Jimmy Carter, proved a lackluster choice for the Democratic presidential nominee. On November 6, President Reagan and Vice President George Bush defeated the Mondale-Ferraro ticket in the greatest Republican landslide in US. history. The Republicans carried every state but Minnesota — Mondale's home state.
— New York Times story
1981 Apple forecasts optimistic Macintosh performance         ^top^
      Apple's Macintosh team delivers the Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan, predicting that the Macintosh would ship in 1982, cost $1500, and sell more than half a million computers a year. However, the Macintosh did not ship until January 1984, at a price of $2245. Sales for the first year ran much lower than predicted. The computer was largely viewed as a luxurious toy until the 1985 release of Aldus PageMaker, which instantly created the desktop publishing industry, for which Macintosh became a preferred tool.
1979 Kiribati (Gilbert & Ellice Is) gains independence from Britain
1975 São Tomé e Príncipe gains independence from Portugal (Nat'l Day)
1974 President Richard Nixon's aides G. Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman and two others are convicted of perjury and conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist. in connection with the Watergate scandal.
1971 Juan Corona, indicted for 25 murders
1966 Race riot in Chicago
1966 North Vietnam urged to treat US. POWs better         ^top^
      The National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) and American socialist Norman Thomas appeal to North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh on behalf of captured American pilots. The number of American captives was on the increase due to the intensification of Operation Rolling Thunder, the US. bombing campaign against North Vietnam. On 15 July, 18 senators opposed to President Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam policy signed a statement calling on North Vietnam to "refrain from any act of vengeance against American airmen." The next day, the United Nations Secretary General also urged North Vietnam to exercise restraint in the treatment of American prisoners of war. On 19 July, North Vietnamese ambassadors in Beijing and Prague asserted that the captured Americans would go on trial as war criminals. However, Ho Chi Minh subsequently gave assurances of a humanitarian policy toward the prisoners, in response, he said, to the appeal he received from SANE and Norman Thomas. Despite Ho's assurances, the American POWs were routinely mistreated and tortured. They were released in 1973 as part of the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords that were signed on 27 January 1973.
1961 Los Estados Unidos ponen en órbita el Midas 3, primer satélite de alerta militar del mundo.
1960 USSR's Sputnik 5 launched with 2 dogs
1960 Congo, Chad & Central African Republic declare independence
1957 The US. surgeon general, Leroy E. Burney, reports that there is a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
1957 Prince Iman proclaimed Aga Khan IV, chosen by his grandfather Sultan Sir Mohammed Shah of Pakistan, Aga Khan III, who reigned as leader of the Ismaili sect of Muslims for seventy-two years. In choosing his heir he bypassed his own son. First criticized as a wealthy jet setter, Aga Khan IV later devoted much of his time and money to the development of Muslim communities in Pakistan
      The Nizari Ismaili sect of the Shiite Muslims welcomes a new spiritual leader when Prince Karim Al-Hussain of Pakistan is proclaimed Aga Khan IV. Prince Karim's grandfather, Aga Khan III, died the previous day after a 72-year reign. According to tradition, Aga Khan IV and his predecessors are said to be direct descendants of Ali, the cousin son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, and Ali's wife Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter. The supporters of Ali and his successors became known as the Shiites, who comprise the second largest branch of Islam. Upon the death of the sixth imam — or spiritual leader — of the Shiites in A.D. 765, the majority of Shiites supported the succession of his youngest son, Musa al-Kazim. Those who supported the eldest son, Ismail, broke away from the main body of Shiites and became known as the Ismailis. In the late ninth century, the Qaramitah Ismailis, who claimed direct descent from Ismail, began to establish themselves on the Arabian peninsula and in present-day Iraq. In the 10th century, the Fatimid Ismailis came to power in Tunis and Egypt and built a broad missionary network across the Arab world.
      In 1094, another schism split the movement over the succession of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir. Those who upheld the claims of the older son Nizar became known as the Nazari Ismailis. Beginning in the late 11th century, the Nizaris began to spread across Persia (Iran) and Syria, and followers of the sect inspired terror throughout the Muslim world for their violence and blind obedience to their spiritual leader. Europeans called them "Assassins" (Arabic for "hashish smoker") for their alleged practice of taking hashish before carrying out political or religious murders. The Nizaris remained in political power until they were displaced by the Mongols and the Mamluks in the 14th century. The Nizari religion survived, however, and two rival lines competed for the title of imam. By the 19th century, the lesser line had died out. The imam of the surviving Nazari line, Hasan Ali Shah, was governor of the Persian province of Kerman in the early 19th century and was in high favor of the ruler of Persia, Fath Ali Shah.
      In 1818, the shah conferred on him the title Aga Khan, which means "chief commander." In 1838, Aga Khan I rose up in revolt of the shah's successor, Mohammad Shah, but was defeated and fled to India. The second Aga Khan reigned for only four years before Aga Khan III, or Sultan Sir Mohammed Shah, came to power in 1885. Aga Khan III became an important leader to all of India's Muslims, not just the Ismailis, and bypassed his own son to pick his grandson as heir. On 12 July 1957, 19-year-old Prince Karim was proclaimed Aga Khan IV. First criticized as a wealthy jet setter, Aga Khan IV devoted much of his time and money to the development of Nizari Ismaili communities spread throughout Pakistan, India, Iran, Syria, and Africa. A strong leader, he ordered his millions of followers to leave countries in which they were persecuted and to become citizens of nations in which they were allowed to practice their religion freely. The Aga Khan is known for his business acumen and continues his grandfather's successful Thoroughbred-breeding enterprise.
1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes a highway modernization program, with costs to be shared by federal and state governments.
1951 Mob tries to keep black family from moving into all-white Cicero Ill
1948 1st jets to fly across the Atlantic (6 RAF de Havilland Vampires)
1943 Russians halt German advance in a decisive battle at Kursk         ^top^
      One of the greatest clashes of armor in military history takes place as the German offensive against the Russian fortification at Kursk, a Russian railway and industrial center, is stopped in a devastating battle, marking the turning point in the Eastern front in the Russians' favor.
      The Germans had been driven from Kursk, a key communications center between north and south, back in February. By March, the Russians had created a salient, a defensive fortification, just west of Kursk in order to prevent another attempt by the Germans to advance farther south in Russia. In June, the German invaders launched an air attack against Kursk; on the ground, Operation Cottbus was launched, ostensibly dedicated to destroying Russian partisan activity, but in reality resulting in the wholesale slaughter of Russian civilians, among whom Soviet partisan fighters had been hiding. The Russians responded with air raids against German troop formations.
      By July, Hitler realized that the breaking of the Russian resistance at Kursk was essential to pursuing his aims in Soviet Russia and the defense of Greater Germany, that is, German-occupied territory outside prewar German borders. "This day, you are to take part in an offensive of such importance that the whole future of the war may depend on its outcome," Hitler announced to his soldiers on 04 July.
      But on 05 July the Russians pulled the rug out from under Hitler's offensive by launching their own artillery bombardment. The Germans counterattacked, and the largest tank battle in history began: Between the two assailants, 6000 tanks were deployed. On 12 July, 900 Russian tanks clashed with 900 German tanks (including their superior Tiger tanks) at Prokhorovka — the Battle of Kursk's most serious engagement. When it was all over, 300 German tanks, and even more Russian ones, were strewn over the battlefield. "The earth was black and scorched with tanks like burning torches," reported one Russian officer. But the Russians had stopped the German advance dead in its tracks. The advantage had passed to the East. The Germans' stay in Soviet territory was coming to an end.
1941 Moscow is bombed by the German Luftwaffe for the first time.
1934 El coronel Capaz comunica la ocupación de Smara en Marruecos, punto estratégico por ser paso obligatorio de caravanas.
1933 US Congress passes 1st minimum wage law (33 cents per hour)
1926 Un rayo provoca el estallido en Dover (New Jersey) de un depósito de municiones; 25 km2 quedan asolados.
1920 Lithuania & USSR sign peace treaty, Lithuuania becomes independent republic
1920 Se inaugura oficialmente el Canal de Panamá.
1919 Los aliados suspenden el bloqueo marítimo de Alemania.
1914 Fracasa un intento de asesinato contra Rasputín, aventurero ruso de gran influencia en la corte del zar.
1909 16th Amendment to US Constitution approved (power to tax incomes)
1906 Réhabilitation de Dreyfus         ^top^
      Le capitaine Dreyfus qui a été arrêté, condamné à la dégradation militaire et à la déportation à vie en Guyanne en décembre 1894, Dreyfus dont le nom a déchiré la France entre dreyfusards et anti-dreyfusards, Dreyfus pour la cause duquel Emile Zola a écrit le 13 janvier 1898 dans L'Aurore sa lettre ouverte au président de la République J'accuse...!, Dreyfus, gracié par le président Loubet en 1899, en dépit d'un conseil de guerre à Rennes le condamnant à dix ans de réclusion avec pourtant des circonstances atténuantes, est enfin définitivement innocenté par le tribunal de la cour de cassation de Rennes qui "annule sans renvoi"; le jugement précédent "prononcé par erreur". Il est réintégré dans l'armée avec ses grades et fonctions.
1904 Son reelegidos por seis años los presidentes de México y Guatemala, Porfirio Díaz y el licenciado Estrada Cabrera.
1902 Se patenta en Alemania el proceso de fabricación de los ácidos llamados barbitúricos.
1892 Avalanche de boue à Saint-Gervais         ^top^
      Dans la nuit du 11 au 12 Juillet 1892, plusieurs bâtiments de la station thermale de Saint-Gervais sont emportés par un écoulement d’eau de près d’un million de mètres cubes d’eau et de boue. Une poche d’eau non gelée contenue à l’intérieur du glacier de Tête-Rousse à plus de 3000 m. d’altitude a crevé suite à un réchauffement qui a diminué l’épaisseur des cloisons glaciaires qui la retenaient. L’eau a dévalé cette forte dénivellation entraînant avec elle des centaines de milliers de mètres cubes de glaçons et de boue qu’elle a arraché sur son passage, puis est venue s’écraser dans la vallée et détruire la station de Saint-Gervais.
1874 Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure, The Gloria Scott
1873 Se produce un levantamiento en Cartagena durante la Primera República Española que proclama la independencia de su cantón, lo que será imitado en el Levante y Sur de la península.
1864 President Abraham Lincoln becomes the first US president in office to witness a battle, as Union forces repel Jubal Early's raid at Fort Stevens, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C.
1863 Siege of Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues
1862 Morgan's Confederate raiders on their first raid capture Lebanon, Kentucky
1861 Confederacy signs treaties with Choctaw and Chickasaw         ^top^
      Tribes Special commissioner Albert Pike completes treaties with the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes, giving the new Confederate States of America several allies in Indian Territory. Some members of the tribes also fought for the Confederacy.
      A Boston native, Pike went west in 1831 and traveled with fur trappers and traders. He settled in Arkansas and became a noted poet, author, and teacher. He bought a plantation and operated a newspaper, the Arkansas Advocate. By 1837 he was practicing law and often represented Native Americans in disputes with the federal government. Pike was opposed to secession but nonetheless sided with his adopted state when it left the Union. As ambassador to the Indians, he was a fortunate addition to the Confederacy, which was seeking to form alliances with the tribes of Indian Territory. Besides the agreements with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, Pike also engineered treaties with the Creek, Seminole, Comanche, and Caddos, among others. Ironically, many of these tribes had been expelled from the Southern states in the 1830s and 1840s but still chose to ally themselves with those states during the war. The grudges they held against the Confederate states were offset by their animosity toward the federal government. Native Americans were also bothered by Republican rhetoric during the 1860 election. Some of Abraham Lincoln's supporters, such as William Seward, argued that the land of the tribes in Indian Territory should be appropriated for distribution to white settlers.
      When the war began in 1861, Secretary of War Simon Cameron ordered all posts in Indian Territory abandoned to free up military resources for use against the Confederacy, leaving the area open to invasion by the Confederates. By signing these treaties, the tribes severed their relationships with the federal government, much in the way the southern states did by seceding from the Union. They were accepted into the Confederates States of America, and they sent representatives to the Confederate Congress. The Confederate government promised to protect the Native American's land holdings and to fulfill the obligations such as annuity payments made by the federal government. Some of these tribes even sent troops to serve in the Confederate army, and one Cherokee, Stand Watie, rose to the rank of brigadier general.
1843 Mormon church founder Joseph Smith announced that a divine revelation had been given him sanctioning polygamy among his newly-organized religious followers.
1812 US forces led by Gen. William Hull entered Canada during the War of 1812 against Britain. (However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.)
1810 Strikes on trial as conspiracies         ^top^
      The United States' young trade union movement is put to the test on this day in 1810, as the New York branch of the Journeymen Cordwainers begins a trial that potentially imperils its ability to go on strike. An affiliated group of shoemakers, the Cordwainers had been charged with illegal conspiracy stemming from one of their recent strikes. Though the walkout in question was seemingly defensible — the Cordwainers had hit the picket line to protest for better wages — legal precedent was against the union.
      Indeed, in 1806, the Philadelphia branch of the Cordwainers had lost a similar conspiracy case, and it was no surprise when the New York court handed down a guilty verdict against the shoemakers. As in the Philadelphia case, the court held that the strike — a seemingly permissible act — had been rendered illegal by the Cordwainers' conspiratorial tactics. In return for their putative offense, each member of the Cordwainers was forced to pay a $1 fine. The shoemakers' defeat, however, did little to defuse the debate over strikes: forces for organized labor continued to press their point until 1842, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned the legal conflagration of strikes and conspiracies.
1806 The Confederation of the Rhine is established in Germany. — Napoleón crea la Confederación del Rhin, aceptada por los príncipes alemanes.
1799 — 24 messidor an VII — En France, la "loi des otages" est votée par l’Assemblée: en cas de troubles dans un département, des otages choisis dans les familles d’émigrés ou de chouans seront arrêtés et déportés
1794 British Admiral Lord Nelson loses his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica. .
1794 Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca es nombrado virrey de México.
1790 La constitution civile du clergé. L'Assemblée par cette loi, exige du clergé un serment à la Constitution. Ceux qui se refuseront à prêter serment seront révoqués. En échange de ce serment les prêtres, considérés comme des fonctionnaires, reçoivent un traitement assez confortable, en particulier pour le bas clergé. Les diocèses passent de 139 à 83. — The French Assembly approves a Civil Constitution providing for the election of priests and bishops
1774 Citizens of Carlisle, Penn. pass a declaration of independence
1742 Georgia colonists repulse Spanish invasion         ^top^
      After five days of fighting, a Spanish army under Florida governor Manuel de Montiano ends its attempt to take Fort Federica on Georgia's St. Simons Island. An outnumbered force of Georgia debtor colonists under James Oglethorpe had carried out the successful defense of the strategic fort, this saving the more populous southern English colonies from Spanish invasion.
      James Edward Oglethorpe, a British philanthropist and member of the House of Commons, first became concerned with the plight of the debtor classes as chairman of a committee investigating the deplorable penal conditions in Britain at the time. In 1732, he proposed the establishment of an asylum for debtors in the region south of the colony of South Carolina. The British recognized the advantages of a buffer colony between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida, and Oglethorpe was made a twenty-year trustee of the colony of Georgia, named after King George II.
      He carefully selected about one hundred debtors, and on January 11, 1833, the expedition sailed into Charleston harbor in the American colonies. After purchasing supplies, Oglethorpe led the settlers down the coast to Georgia, where they traveled inland along the Savannah River, establishing Georgia's first permanent European settlement-Savannah — on February 12. After forging friendly relations with the Yamacraw, a branch of the Creek confederacy who agreed to cede land to the colonists for settlement, Oglethorpe set about establishing a defense against the Spanish by building forts and instituting a system of military training.
      England declared war on Spain in 1739, and in the next year, Oglethorpe led English and Native American forces into an invasion of Spanish Florida. He failed to capture St. Augustine, however, and in May of 1742, a large Spanish and Cuban force arrived to Florida. Oglethorpe retreated to Fort Federica on St. Simons Island south of Savannah, and, on 07 July, the Spanish attached. During the five-day Battle of Bloody Marsh, Oglethorpe's outnumbered forces successfully withstood the Spanish assault, and the Georgia governor carried out two brilliant wilderness ambushes that forced the Spanish to give up the siege on 12 July. His victory effectively ended Spanish claims to the territory of Georgia, and thus was essential in maintaining the southern border of the American colonies. Georgia, rich in export potential, later grew into one of the most prosperous British colonies in America.
1690 Orangeman's yearly celebration (The battle of the Orange) - Actually "Battle of the Boyne" (11 July 1690 = 01 July Julian), when Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeated the Roman Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
1588 L'“Invincible Armada” quitte l'Espagne.         ^top^
     Elle part de La Coruña, où elle s'était ré-équipée après avoir éprouvé de fortes tempêtes, pour la conquête de l'Angleterre. Elle est composée de 130 vaisseaux et elle transporte plus de 20'000 hommes. Une semaine plus tard, la flotte est attaqué par les navires anglais. Plusieurs navires sont incendiés par des barques de pêcheurs. L'Armada subit encore quatre attaques. Les navires espagnols manquant de munitions doivent s'enfuir en contournant l'Angleterre par le Nord. Mais, une forte tempête a raison d'un grand nombre d'entre eux.
1543 England's King Henry VIII weds Catherine Parr (6th & last wife, the only one he didn't behead or divorce, because he died before tiring of her).
1389 Geoffrey Chaucer named chief clerk by Richard II         ^top^
      King Richard II appoints Geoffrey Chaucer to the position of chief clerk of the king's works in Westminster on this day in 1389. Chaucer, the middle-class son of a wine merchant, served as a page in an aristocratic household during his teens and was associated with the aristocracy for the rest of his life. In 1359, he fought in France with Edward III, and was captured in a siege. Edward III ransomed him, and he later worked for Edward III and John of Gaunt. One of his earliest known works was an elegy for the deceased wife of John of Gaunt, Book of the Duchesse.
      In 1372, Chaucer traveled to Italy on diplomatic missions, where he may have been exposed to Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. He also visited Flanders and France, and was appointed comptroller of customs. He wrote several poems in the 1380s, including The Parliament of Foules and Troilus and Criseyde. In the late 1380s or early 1390s, he began work on the The Canterbury Tales, in which a mixed group of nobles, peasants, and clergy make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The work, a compilation of tales told by each character, is remarkable for its presentation of the spectrum of social classes. Although Chaucer intended the book to include 120 stories, he died in 1399, with only 22 tales finished.
Online works of Chaucer:
  • The Book of the Duchesse, ed. by W. W. Skeat (HTML at OMACL)
  • The Canterbury Tales (multiple editions, with commentary) (frame-dependent HTML at canterburytales.org)
  • The Canterbury Tales
    HTML at litrix.com
    text at Wiretap
  • The Canterbury Tales, ed. by Arthur Burrell (searchable HTML at Bibliomania)
  • The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English, with glossary), ed. by Sinan Kökbugur (frame-dependent HTML at librarius.com)
  • The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, Edited for Popular Perusal, ed. by David Laing Purves (Gutenberg text; unofficial until 30 Nov 2000)
  • Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims (illustrated by Angus MacDonall), also by Katherine Lee Bates (page images at MOA)
  • Complete On-Line Works, with Commentary. (HTML at luminarium.org)
  • Chaucer, Geoffrey, contrib.: The Floure and the Leafe, The Assemblie of Ladies, and The Isle of Ladies, ed. by Derek Pearsall (HTML at Rochester)
  • The House of Fame (HTML at OMACL)
  • The Legend of Good Women (HTML at OMACL)
  • The Parliament of Fowles (HTML at OMACL)
  • A Treatise on the Astrolabe
    HTML in Sweden
    HTML at Michigan
  • Troilus and Criseyde (HTML at Virginia)
    • 1290 Jews are expelled from England by order of King Edward I
    1191 The armies of the Third Crusade (1189-92), led by England's King Richard ('TheLionhearted'), capture the Syrian seaport of Acre.
    1096 Crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Sofia in Bulgaria
    0526 St Felix IV begins his reign as Pope
    TO THE TOP
    ZahraDeaths which occurred on a 12 July:
    2002 Khaled al-Khatib, 25, and Muain al-A'daini, 13, Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, which an Israeli army undercover unit enters and fires at a police station, killing naval policeman Khatib. A'daini is shot dead as the troops withdraw.
    2002 Imad Abu Zahra, 35 [photo >], Palestinian freelance reporter for the Wafa news agency, from a right thigh wound followed by unattended severe bleeding, sustained the previous day in Jenin, West Bank, shot by Israeli troops whose stuck tank he was photographing together with Palestinian press photographer Shawqi Dahla, who was wounded in the left shin.
    2002 Jamal Youssef A'rar, 37, from wounds sustained on 10 July 2002 in Qalqilya, West Bank, shot by soldiers while heading home after a curfew began.
    2001 Yehezkel Mualem, in a shooting ambush, late in the day. He was a member of the city council of the Kiryat Arba Israeli enclave settlement near Hebron, West Bank.
    1997 Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido, de 29 años, concejal de Partido Popylar en Ermua (Vizcaya), asesinado por ETA conforme a su amenaza.
    1993: 196 persons in earthquake measuring a Richter scale magnitude of 7.8, northern Japan.
    1991 A Japanese professor who had translated Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, found stabbed to death, nine days after the novel's Italian translator was attacked in Milan.
    1983 Dos muertos en Chile cuando la tercera jornada de protesta contra el gobierno de Pinochet concluye con más de 500 detenidos.
    1967: 26 persons in riot by Blacks in Newark. Some 1500 are injured and over 1000 arrested.
    1965 Frank Reasoner, Marine Lieutenant, killed in action         ^top^
          Viet Cong ambush Company A of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, led by USMC Lt. Frank Reasoner of Kellogg, Idaho. The Marines had been on a sweep of a suspected Viet Cong area to deter any enemy activity aimed at the nearby airbase at Da Nang. Reasoner and the five-man point team he was accompanying were cut off from the main body of the company. He ordered his men to lay down a base of fire and then, repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, killed two Viet Cong, single-handedly wiped out an enemy machine gun emplacement, and raced through enemy fire to rescue his injured radio operator. Trying to rally his men, Reasoner was hit by enemy machine gun fire and was killed instantly.
          For this action, Reasoner was nominated for America's highest award for valor. When Navy Secretary Paul H. Nitze presented the Medal of Honor to Reasoner's widow and son in ceremonies at the Pentagon on 31 January 1967, he spoke of Reasoner's willingness to die for his men: "Lieutenant Reasoner's complete disregard for his own welfare will long serve as an inspiring example to others." Lieutenant Reasoner was the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam.
    1964 Maurice Thorez, 64, French communist leader         ^top^
          Fils et petit-fils de mineur, Maurice Thorez est né le 28 avril 1900 à Noyelle-Godault (Pas-de-Calais). La guerre l’oblige à quitter son bassin minier natal pour vivre dans un village de la Creuse. Il doit commencer à travailler comme valet de ferme, puis comme marinier et mitron. En 1918, il rejoint les travailleurs de la mine, dans le Pas-de-Calais.
          Marqué par la révolution soviétique, il adhère au Parti socialiste en 1919. À la scission de ce dernier, il opte pour la fraction communiste et prend la direction de la fédération communiste du Pas-de-Calais (1923) puis celle de la région du Nord (1924) ; enfin, il devient secrétaire général du Parti communiste français en juillet 1930. Député 1932, il est réélu en 1936 sous le Front Populaire.
          Il continue à diriger le Parti communiste dans la clandestinité, dès 1940. Délégué à l’Assemblée consultative provisoire (1944-1945), puis membre des deux Assemblées constituantes (1945-1946), il est ministre d’État dans le gouvernement du général de Gaulle (nov. 1945-janv. 1946) et vice-président du Conseil des ministres de janvier 1946 à mai 1947 sous les gouvernements Gouin, Bidault et Ramadier.
          Député de la Seine depuis 1958, il se vouera ensuite à la direction de son parti (sauf dans l’intervalle d’une grave maladie qu’il soigne à Moscou de 1950 à 1953). Il meurt le 12 juillet 1964, terrassé par une crise cardiaque. Thorez a publié 2 ouvrages: Fils du peuple (1937) ; Une politique de grandeur française (1949).
    1931 Nathan Söderblom, Swedish Lutheran archbishop of Uppsala and primate of Sweden (from 1914); and comparative religion scholar who received the 1930 Nobel Peace prize for his efforts for world church unity. He was born on 15 January 1866. Author of La Vie Future d'après le Mazdéisme (1901) — The Living God: Basal Forms of Living Religion (1933) — Christian Fellowship (1923), The Living God (1933), The Nature of Revelation (1934) — Humor och Melankoli och andra Lutherstudier (1919).
    1921 Gabriel Lippman, physicien français, prix Nobel 1908         ^top^
          Il est né à Hallerich (Luxembourg), et a fait ses études à l’École normale supérieure, puis à Heidelberg et à Berlin. Sa thèse, Relations entre les phénomènes électriques et capillaires (1875), le conduit à fabriquer un électromètre capillaire extrêmement sensible. Nommé professeur à la Sorbonne et directeur du laboratoire de physique, il étudie la polarisation des piles, la détermination de la valeur de l’ohm et la piézo-électricité dont il prévoit le caractère réversible démontré expérimentalement par Pierre et Jacques Curie.
          C’est son procédé de reproduction photographique des couleurs par une méthode interférentielle (1891) qui lui vaudra le prix Nobel en 1908. Dans ce procédé, une couche épaisse de chlorure d’argent est déposée sur un miroir. La lumière incidente, interférant avec la lumière réfléchie, provoque des ondes stationnaires à l’intérieur de la couche photographique, qui n’est impressionnée qu’à l’emplacement des ventres. Une fois révélé, le chlorure d’argent présente des strates dont l’écartement est fonction de la longueur d’onde de la lumière incidente et qui, à l’observation, se comporteront comme un réseau réfléchissant seulement une longueur d’onde égale à celle qui a impressionné la pellicule.
          Ce procédé a été abandonné à cause de la difficulté du développement d’une grande épaisseur de chlorure, bien qu’il soit excellent pour le rendu des couleurs. En 1912, Lippmann est élu président de l’Académie des sciences dont il était membre depuis 1886. Le 12 Juillet 1921, il meurt en mer, au retour d’une mission au Canada.
    1916 James Sant, British artist born on 23 April 1820. — LINKS — The Russell Sisters
    1913 Gaston de La Touche, French artist born on 29 October 1854.
    1907 David Farquharson, British artist born in 1839 or 1840.
    1904 Hendrik Dirk Kruseman van Elten, Dutch artist born on 14 November 1829.
    1863 Etienne-Jean Delécluze, French artist born on 20 February 1781.
    1860 Les derniers des 5000 maronites massacrés à Damas en 4 jours         ^top^
          La folie meurtrière de la communauté druze de la ville de Damas s'est déchaînée le 9 juillet. Pendant quatre jours, quelques 5000 chrétiens maronites sont massacrés par des bandes fanatiques qui forcent les portes, violent, tuent et pillent. Le pacha n'a pas respecté ses engagements à la fin de la guerre de Crimée, il reste totalement indifférent. En revanche, l'émir Abd el-Kader sauve plus de 1500 chrétiens qu'il accueille et protège dans son palais. A la nouvelle de ces émeutes, l'émotion est si forte en France et en Angleterre qu'on décide d'envoyer un corps expéditionnaire "pour aider le sultan à rétablir la paix". La France est mandatée par l'Europe et agira fermement.
    1841 Georg Emanuel Opitz, Austrian painter born in 1775. — Dedication of a Synagogue in Alsace — MORE ON THIS PAINTING AT ART “4” JULY
    1804 Alexander Hamilton, 48, fatally shot the previous day, in duel by Aaron Burr         ^top^
         On July 11, in a duel held in Weehawken, New Jersey, Vice President Aaron Burr had fatally shot his long-time political antagonist Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, a leading Federalist and former secretary of the treasury under President George Washington, dies the following day.
          In 1801, in an election conducted before presidential and vice presidential candidates shared a single ticket, Thomas Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr had defeated Federalist incumbent John Adams with seventy-three electoral votes each. The tie vote then went to the House to be decided, and Alexander Hamilton was instrumental in breaking the deadlock in Jefferson's favor. Burr, because he finished second, became vice president, but Jefferson grew apart from Burr, and did not support his nomination to a second term in 1804.
          A faction of the Federalists, who had found their fortunes drastically diminished after the ascendance of Jefferson, sought to enlist the disgruntled Burr into their party. However, Hamilton opposed such a move, and was quoted by a New York newspaper saying that he "looked upon Mr. Burr to be a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government." The article also referred to occasions when Hamilton had expressed an even "more despicable opinion of Burr." Burr demanded an apology, Hamilton refused, so Burr challenged his old political enemy to a duel.
          On July 11, 1804, the pair met at a remote spot in Weehawken Heights, New Jersey. Hamilton, whose son was killed in a duel three years earlier, deliberately fired into the air, but Burr fired with intent to kill. Hamilton, fatally wounded, dies in New York City the next day. The questionable circumstances of Hamilton's death effectively brought Burr's political career to an end.
          Fleeing to Virginia, he traveled to New Orleans after finishing his term as vice president, and met with US. General James Wilkinson, who was an agent for the Spanish. The exact nature of what the two plotted is unknown, but speculation ranges from the establishment of an independent republic in the American Southwest to the seizure of territory in Spanish America for the same purpose.
          In the fall of 1806, Burr led a group of well-armed colonists toward New Orleans, prompting an immediate investigation by US. authorities. General Wilkinson, in an effort to save himself, turned against Burr and sent dispatches to Washington accusing Burr of treason. On February 19, 1807, Burr was arrested in Alabama for treason and sent to Richmond, Virginia, to be tried in a US. circuit court. On September 1, 1807, he was acquitted on the grounds that, although he had conspired against the United States, he was not guilty of treason because he had not engaged in an "overt act," a requirement of treason as specified by the US. Constitution. Nevertheless, public opinion condemned him as a traitor and he was forced to retire to a private life.
    — Hamilton was co-author of The Federalist Papers with James Madison and John Jay.
    1663 Lubin Baugin, French painter born in 1612 or 1613, specialized in Religious Subjects. — MORE ON BAUGIN AT ART “4” JULY — LINKS — Still-life with Chessboard (The Five Senses) — Le Dessert de Gaufrettes — Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jésus — Vierge à l'Enfant Avec Saint Jean-Baptiste — Déploration du Christ
    1450 Jack Cade, leader of a major rebellion against the government of King Henry VI of England; although the uprising was suppressed, it contributed to the breakdown of royal authority that led to the Wars of the Roses (1455-85) between the houses of York and Lancaster. Wounded and captured near Lewes, Sussex, on 12 July he died while being transported to London.
    Births which occurred on a 12 July:
    2001 Septuplets (5 boys, 2 girls), from 23:25 to 23:28 EDT, 12 weeks premature, weighing about 1 kg each, at , to a Moslem mother who had been taking hormones for infertility (and does not believe in abortion), Thursday at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington DC.
    1951 Jaime Mayor Oreja, político español.
    1937 Lionel Jospin, dirigente socialista y primer ministro francés.
    1928 Elias James Corey, 1990 Nobel Chemistry prize winner, for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis.
    1923 Miguel Artola, historiador y académico español.
    1922 Mark O Hatfield (Sen-R-Ore)
    1917 Andrew Wyeth, US Contemporary Realist painter. — MORE ON WYETH AT ART “4” JULY— LINKS — Christina's World (with link to an exclusive showing what happened to it, moments after the scene painted by Wyeth :-) — Albert's Son — Page Boy — Distant Thunder — Chill Wind — Autumn — Memorial Day — Winter, 1946 — Wind from the Sea — Anna Christina — Christina's Teapot — Alvaro & Christina — The Wood Stove (detail) — The Coot Hunter — Sheepskin
    1913 Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr., 1955 Nobel Physics Prize winner, for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.
    1908 Milton Berle Harlem NYC, comedian (Uncle Miltie, Mr Television)
    1904 Ricardo Neftali Reyes Basoalto, qui sera connu sous le pseudonyme de Pablo Neruda.         ^top^
         Ce poète Chilien recevra le prix Nobel de littérature en 1971, c'est une des voix les plus prestigieuse de l’Amérique Latine et même de tout le Continent ainsi que de tous les Peuples opprimés. C’est dans le "Chant Général", qu’il dépasse le cadre national pour aborder la condition misérable du peuple américano-latin et même de tout peuple opprimé. Son œuvre est immense, à la fois surréaliste, romantique, réaliste, épique, lyrique, sensuelle, tous les adjectifs sont bons pour signifier son œuvre multiforme.
          C’est lui que Frédérico Garcia Lorca présenta ainsi à Madrid : "Je vous dis de vous disposer à entendre un poète authentique, de ceux dont les sens sont apprivoisés à un monde qui n’est pas le nôtre et que peu de gens perçoivent ; un poète plus proche de la mort que de la philosophie ; un poète plus proche du sang que de l’encre ; un poète plein de voix mystérieuse que lui-même heureusement, ne sait pas déchiffrer ; un Homme véritable qui sait bien que le jonc et l’hirondelle sont plus éternels que la joue dure de la statue."
          Sa vie et son œuvre vous pouvez facilement en trouver quelques traits dans toutes les bibliothèques, mais sachez qu’il est mort en homme d’engagement. Homme politique, député puis sénateur, il deviendra Ambassadeur du Chili en France mais il abandonnera son poste pour mieux supporter le peuple chilien dans sa tentative difficile de conquérir la démocratie.
          En 1973, le président Salvador Allende, pour lequel il s’est désisté en 1970 et qu’il a soutenu tout au long de son périple dans le mouvement de l’Unité Populaire, est assassiné lors du Putsch militaire qui portera au pouvoir le sinistre général Pinochet. Neruda meurt quelques jours plus tard. L’armée fasciste accompagne son cercueil pour éviter toute tentative populaire de s’approprier la mémoire du grand disparu, mais la foule ne cessera de chanter ses textes, témoignant au-delà de la mort du pouvoir subversif des mots et de la poésie. Ricardo Reyes avait choisi le pseudonyme de Neruda après la lecture d’un recueil de nouvelles (Povidky Malostranké, 1878 — Contes du Petit Quartier [du vieux Prague où il a vécu enfant]) dû au poète et romancier Tchèque, Jan Neruda (09 July 1834 — 22 Aug 1891).
    1895 R. Buckminster Fuller, R. Buckminster Fuller is best known for the invention of the geodesic dome
    1895 Oscar Hammerstein II NYC, lyricist who worked with Richard Rodgers
    1884 Amadeo Modigliani, Italian painter, sculptor and draftsman who died on 24 January 1920. — MORE ON MODIGLIANI AT ART “4” JULY — LINKS — Self-Portrait — The Boy — Jean Cocteau — Jeune Bonne — Deux Cyprès — Seated Woman with Child — Chaim Soutine Sitting at a Table — the Painter Manuel Humbert — Soutine Sitting at a Table — Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz — Female Nude — Red Nude (Nude on a Cushion) — The Boy — Max Jacob — Cypress
    1876 Max Jacob, escritor francés.
    1875 Ernst Fischer, mathematician best known for the Riesz-Fischer theorem in the theory of Lebesgue integration
    1873 Le journal catholique Le Pèlerin         ^top^
          L’hebdomadaire Le Pèlerin (dont le premier numéro date du 12 juillet 1873) et le quotidien La Croix (depuis le 16 Jun 1883) sont les publications les plus célèbres des entreprises d’édition de la Congrégation Religieuse des Assomptionnistes. La Bonne Presse (actuellement Bayard-Presse) a édité en un siècle plus de soixante-dix périodiques et de nombreux ouvrages allant des recherches théologiques aux romans populaires. Par la violence et le simplisme de son antisémitisme, cette presse joua un rôle important dans le développement de l’affaire Dreyfus.
          Bénéficiant de tirages impressionnants, amplifiée par toutes les Croix de province, elle entretint pendant longtemps l’hostilité des catholiques aux équipes politiques de la IIIe République ainsi que la collusion de l’Église avec les forces temporelles de conservation. Aujourd’hui, ces journaux ne bénéficient plus d’une aussi grande audience, mais conservent encore un ancrage solide en France profonde (plus de 500'000 exemplaires pour 1,5 millions de lecteurs). La subordination au conservatisme romain n’est plus aussi forte et les rédacteurs, souvent laïcs, s’ouvrent aux problèmes réels de la population catholique.
    1861 George Washington Carver, born a slave in Missouri, then orphaned, after abolition of slavery he was brought up until age 11 by his former owner, Moses Carver. George grew up to be an agricultural chemist, agronomist, and experimenter whose development of new products derived from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans helped revolutionize the agricultural economy of the US South.
    1854 George Eastman Waterville NY, invented Kodak camera.
    1852 Frédéric Auguste Dufaux, Swiss artist who died in 1943.
    1824 Eugène Louis Boudin, French Impressionist painter who died on 08 August 1898, specialized in Maritime Scenes. — MORE ON BOUDIN AT ART “4” JULY — LINKS — Harbor at Bordeaux — The Beach at Trouville — Figures on the Beach — Dunkirk — Storm over Antwerp — Rivage de Portrieux, Côtes-du-Nord — The Harvest Near Trouvelle — 467 images at Webshots (the three main index pages let you chose among 26 pages with from 10 to 29 thumbnails each, which take you to a small picture, below which click on View Full Size for a fairly big picture)
    1818 Alexis van Hamme, Belgian artist who died in 1875.
    1817 Henry David Thoreau Concord, Massachusetts,
         He will grow up to be an essayist, poet, naturalist, pacifist, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), — a Thoreau site: http://miso.wwa.com/~jej/1thorea.html
    Some of his other works online:
  • Cape Cod
  • Civil Disobedience
  • Life Without Principle
  • The Maine Woods
  • A Plea for Captain John Brown
  • Selected Works and Commentary
  • The Succession of Forest Trees
  • Walking
  • A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
  • Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree
    • 1764 Charles Thévenin, French artist who died on 21 February 1838.
    1751 Francisco Salvá, médico y científico español.
    1730 Josiah Wedgewood England, pottery designer/manufacturer.
    1666 Antonio Balestra, Italian painter who died on 21 April 1740. — LINKS
    100 -BC- Julius Caesar Roman Emperor —CAESAR ONLINE: De Bello Gallico — De Bello Civili — De Bello Alexandrino — De Bello Africo — De Bello Hispaniensi — (English translation): Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars in translation.
    Holidays / Central African Republic, Chad, Congo : Independence Day (1960) / Northern Ireland : Orangeman's Day (1690) (7/1 OS) / Rhodesia : Rhodes Day
    Religious Observances Christian : St John Gualbert, abbot / Orth : SS Peter & Paul (6/29 OS) / RC : St John Gualbert, abbot / Luth : Nathan Söderblom, archbishop of Uppsala / Santos Juan Gualberto, Paulino y Epifania.
    Thoughts for the day: “The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion.” [Where are the facts to support that opinion?]
    “The fewer the faxes, the stronger the organization.”
    Cartoon: Wife, covering the phone mouthpiece, turns to husband: “It's the school nurse, she wants to know whether she has our permission to shoot Junior with a tranquilizer dart...”
    — Husband: “Mmmm.... Sure, but one condition: she must let us have some of those darts.”
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