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Events, deaths, births, of JUN 10
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• Mandela writes in prison... • Ike rejects isolationism... • Condamnés à mort par la Révolution... • Falece Camões... • Ion Creanga s~a nascut...
On a June 10:
2002 Annular eclipse of the sun of 23 to 67 seconds (depending on location), visible as such in a strip about 13 to 60 km wide across mostly open ocean of the North Pacific beginning at 20:53 UT (it is sunrise of 11 June, local time) along the north coast of Sulawesi and ending at sunset (11 June 01:34 UT) 30 km south of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, in villages such as Ipala, Gargantillo, San José, in most of which it is obscured by rain clouds. In a much wider area it is seen a a partial eclipse. [For this and other eclipses of sun or moon, see http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html] [DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT A SUN ECLIPSE, EVEN WITH ORDINARY SUNGLASSES] [How to view safely]
2002 In an AP news story, states: “The 2000 U.S. census found 50,454 Americans aged 100 or older. This is less than one percent of the nation's total population of 281.4 million.” — Duh! 0.0179% (or 1 in 5577) is less than 1% all right. Just as the average 12-year-old US boy is less that 1% as tall as Mount Everest (measured from sea level), or the average giraffe is not as tall as the Washington Monument, or the average US male adult weighs less than 1% of the weight of a Boeing 747-200 airliner fully loaded, at less than 1% of which's speed is the top speed of the average turtle .
1998 Mitsubishi pays off for sexual harassment, again       ^top^
      Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, Inc. (MMMA) agrees to settle a nasty and long-festering sexual harassment lawsuit. Acting on behalf of 300 female workers at Mitsubishi's Normal, Illinois, plant, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the suit against the carmaker in the spring of 1996. According to the EEOC, the female employees were not only groped by their male counterparts at the plant, but were forced to trade sexual favors for job security.
      The ensuing settlement, which called for MMMA to pay an unprecedented $34 million to its female workers, left officials for the EEOC feeling guardedly optimistic. EEOC Chairman Paul M. Igasaki noted that MMMA's willingness to pay such a hefty sum was a sign of the company's willingness to "act decisively to stop the serious problem of sexual harassment." The record-setting settlement marked the second time that MMMA was forced to make amends for the indiscretions of the male workers at the Normal plant, after handing over $9.5 million to settle a private suit filed by twenty-nine female plant workers in 1997.
1993 Compaq announces plans to make a pen-based computer, developed jointly with Microsoft, which will allow users to make a remote connection to their office computers.
1991 Microsoft beats sofware pirates
      A jury awards $1.2 million to Microsoft and Everex Systems in a lawsuit involving pirated copies of Microsoft software. The defendants were accused of selling counterfeit copies of a Microsoft computer program to Everex. Pirated software became an international problem for software companies in the 1990s, costing US software companies an estimated $11.4 million in revenue in 1997.
1988 Greatest number of participants (31,678) on a bicycle tour (London)
1985 Coca Cola announces they'd bring back their 99-year-old formula
1982 Israeli troops reach outskirts of Beirut.
1981 In Frascati, Italy, 6-year-old Alfredo Rampi, 6, falls down an artesian well; efforts to rescue him would prove futile.
1980 Mandela's writings from prison
      After South African police slaughtered over sixty peaceful demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress stepped up their protests against apartheid. In 1964, Mandela was jailed for life, but his writings, smuggled from prison and made public on this, continued to spark others.
      In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) makes public a statement by Nelson Mandela, the long imprisoned leader of the anti-apartheid movement. The message, smuggled out of Robben Island prison under great risk, read,
"UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!"
      Mandela, born in 1918, was the son of the chief of the Xhosa-speaking Tembu people. Instead of succeeding his father as chief, Mandela went to university and became a lawyer. In 1944, he joined the ANC, a black political organization dedicated to winning rights for the black majority in white-ruled South Africa. In 1948, the racist National Party came to power, and apartheid--South Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation--became official government policy. With the loss of black rights under apartheid, black enrollment in the ANC rapidly grew. Mandela became one of the ANC's leaders and in 1952 was made deputy national president of the ANC. He organized nonviolent strikes, boycotts, marches, and other acts of civil disobedience. After the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in acts of sabotage against the white minority government. He was tried for and acquitted of treason in 1961 but in 1962 was arrested again for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1963 with seven other ANC members who were arrested at Rivonia in possession of a store of weapons. Charged with sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy, Mandela admitted to many of the charges against him and eloquently defended his militant activities during the trial.
      On 12 June 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. He was confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing and was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. Once a year, he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes, and once every six months he could write and receive a letter. At first, he was only allowed to exchange letters with his family, and these letters were read and censored by prison officials. Later he was allowed to write to friends and associates, but any writing of a political nature was forbidden. With the help of fellow prisoners and his visitors, Mandela smuggled out statements and letters to spark the continuing anti-apartheid movement. A 500-page autobiography, manually miniaturized into 50 pages, was smuggled out by a departing prisoner in 1976. The original manuscript of the autobiography, buried in a garden, was discovered by the prison warden soon after. As punishment, Mandela and three others lost their study rights for four years.
      Through it all, Mandela's resolve remained unbroken, and he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. In 1982, he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland, and in 1988 to a cottage, where he lived under house arrest. In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and on 11 February 1990, ordered the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years as a political prisoner. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 26, 1994, more than 22 million South Africans turned out to cast ballots in the country's first-ever multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose Mandela and the ANC to lead the country, and a "national unity" coalition was formed with de Klerk's National Party and the Zulus' Inkatha Freedom Party. On 10 May, Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa. As president, Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations under apartheid and introduced numerous initiatives designed to improve the living standards of South Africa's black population. In 1996, he presided over the enactment of a new South African constitution. Mandela retired from politics in June 1999 at the age of 80. He was succeeded as president by Thabo Mbeki of the ANC.
1979 Pope John Paul II visits Poland
1977 James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee with six others; he would be recaptured on 13 June.
1977 Apple Computer ships its first Apple II
1975 Rockefeller panel reports on 300'000 illegal CIA files on Americans
1968 Westmoreland gives farewell press conference in Saigon       ^top^
      At a Saigon news conference on the day he is to turn over command of US forces in Vietnam to Gen. Creighton Abrams, Gen. William Westmoreland offers his assessment of past and current trends in the war. In defense of his attrition policy, Westmoreland declared that it would ultimately make continued fighting "intolerable to the enemy." He also explained that, because it was impossible to "cut a surface line of communication with other than ground operations," Washington's ban on ground attacks to interdict communist infiltration through Laos precluded the achievement of military victory. Westmoreland denied, however, that the military situation was stalemated. Westmoreland's approach to the war had all but been discredited by the communist Tet Offensive, which was launched in January 30, 1968. In the wake of the widespread Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacks, there was a review of US policy by the Johnson administration. When it was decided to de-escalate the war, halt the bombing of North Vietnam, and go to the negotiating table, Westmoreland was reassigned to become the Army Chief of Staff, a post he held until his retirement from the service in 1972.
1967 Last day of the Six-Day War       ^top^
      The Middle East War ends as Israel and Syria agreed to observe a United Nations-mediated cease-fire
      On June 5, 1967, responding to the Egyptian reoccupation of Gaza and the closure of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, Israel had launched simultaneous military offensives against Egypt and Syria. Jordan subsequently entered the fray, but the Arab coalition was no match for Israel’s well-supplied and famously proficient armed forces.
      In six days, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem, both previously under Jordanian rule.
      The so-called Six-Day War gave Israel control of territory three times its original size, and Jerusalem was unified under Jewish rule, despite a U.N. resolution calling for the preservation of the holy city’s Arab sector.
      Arab leaders, forced to accept a U.N. cease-fire, met at Khartoum in the Sudan in August to discuss the future of Israel in the Middle East. They decided upon a policy of no peace, no negotiations, and no recognition of Israel, and also made plans to zealously defend the rights of Palestinian Arabs in the territories occupied by Israel.
1965 Battle begins at Dong Xoai       ^top^
      Some 1500 Viet Cong start a mortar attack on the district capital of Dong Xoai, about 100 km northeast of Saigon, and then quickly overrun the town's military headquarters and an adjoining militia compound. Other Viet Cong forces conducted a raid on a US Special Forces camp about a mile away. US helicopters flew in South Vietnamese reinforcements, but the Viet Cong isolated and cut down the troops. Heavy US air strikes eventually helped to drive off the Viet Cong, but not before the South Vietnamese had suffered between 800 and 900 casualties and the United States had 7 killed, 12 missing and presumed dead, and 15 wounded. The Viet Cong were estimated to have lost 350 in the ground combat and perhaps several hundred more in air attacks. Two US soldiers later received the Medal of Honor for their actions during this battle. First Lt. Charles Q. Williams assumed command of the Special Forces camp when his commanding officer was seriously wounded in the early minutes of the battle. Williams repeatedly dashed through heavy gunfire to rally the outnumbered defenders, receiving five wounds in the process. At one point, the US forces were pinned down by a Viet Cong machine gun. Williams grabbed a 3.5-inch rocket launcher and asked for a volunteer to help him go after the gun. CM3 Marvin G. Shields, a member of the camp's Navy construction battalion (Seabees) who had already been wounded three times, stepped forward. Completely ignoring their own safety, the two attacked, with Shields loading and Williams firing as they assaulted the enemy position. They destroyed the enemy gun, but on the way back to friendly lines, Shields was mortally wounded. President Johnson presented the Medal of Honor to Charles Williams in the White House on 23 June 1966. On 13 September 1966, Joan Elaine Shields accepted her husband's posthumous Medal of Honor from the president.
1964 Southern filibuster on civil rights bill ends; cloture invoked
1957 John Diefenbacker (C) elected PM of Canada.
1957 Harold MacMillan becomes British PM
1953 Eisenhower rejects calls for US isolationism.       ^top^
      In a forceful speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower strikes back at critics of his Cold War foreign policy. He insisted that the United States was committed to the worldwide battle against communism and that he would maintain a strong US defense. Just a few months into his presidency, and with the Korean War still raging, Eisenhower staked out his basic approach to foreign policy with this speech. In the weeks prior to Eisenhower's talk, Senator Robert Taft and Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg issued challenges to the president's conduct of foreign policy. Taft argued that if efforts to reach a peace agreement in Korea failed, the United States should withdraw from the United Nations forces and make its own policy for dealing with North Korea. Vandenberg was upset over Eisenhower's proposal to cut $5 billion from the Air Force budget.
     Without naming either man, Eisenhower responded to both during a speech at the National Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting in Minneapolis. He began by characterizing the Cold War as a battle "for the soul of man himself." He rejected Taft's idea that the United States should pursue a completely independent foreign policy, or what one "might call the 'fortress' theory of defense." Instead, he insisted that all free nations had to stand together: "There is no such thing as partial unity." To Vandenberg's criticisms of the new Air Force budget, the president explained that vast numbers of aircraft were not needed in the new atomic age. Just a few planes armed with nuclear weapons could "visit on an enemy as much explosive violence as was hurled against Germany by our entire air effort throughout four years of World War II." With this speech, Eisenhower thus enunciated two major points of what came to be known at the time as his "New Look" foreign policy. First was his advocacy of multi-nation responses to communist aggression in preference to unilateral action by the United States. Second was the idea that came to be known as the "bigger bang for the buck" defense strategy. This postulated that a cheaper and more efficient defense could be built around the nation's nuclear arsenal rather than a massive increase in conventional land, air, and sea forces.
1946 Italian Republic established, replacing the abolished monarchy.
1943 FDR signs withholding tax bill into law (this is W-2 Day!)
1943 FDR becomes first US pres to visit a foreign country during wartime
1940 Norway surrenders to Nazi Germany       ^top^
      After two months of fierce resistance, the last surviving Norwegian and British defenders of Norway are overwhelmed by the Germans, and the country is forced to capitulate to the Nazis.
      Two months earlier, on April 9, Nazi Germany had launched its invasion of Norway, capturing several strategic points along the Norwegian coast. During the preliminary phase of the invasion, Norwegian fascist forces under Vidkun Quisling acted as a so-called "fifth column" for the German invaders, seizing Norway's nerve centers, spreading false rumors and occupying military bases and other locations.
      Vidkun Quisling had served as the Norwegian minister of defense from 1931 to 1933, and in 1934, left the ruling party to establish the Nasjonal Samling, or National Unity Party, in imitation of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. Although Norway declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, Nazi Germany soon considered the occupation of Norway a strategic and economic necessity.
      In the spring of 1940, Vidkun Quisling traveled to Berlin to meet with Nazi command and plan the German conquest of his country. On April 9, the combined German forces attacked without warning and by June 10, Hitler had conquered Norway and driven all Allied forces from the country. Although Quisling was the head of the only political party permitted by the Nazis, opposition to him in Norway was so great that it was not until February 1, 1942, that he was able to formally establish his puppet government in Oslo.
      Under the authority of his Nazi commissioner, Josef Terboven, Quisling set up a repressive regime that was merciless against those who defied it. However, Norway's resistant movement soon became the most effective in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, and Quisling's authority rapidly waned. After the German surrender in May of 1945, Quisling was arrested, convicted of high treason, and shot. From his name comes the word quisling, meaning "traitor" in several languages.
1940 Italy declares war on France and Great Britain
       Italy declares war on France and Britain; Canada declares war on Italy.
      After withholding formal allegiance to either side in the battle between Germany and the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declares war on France and Great Britain. What caused Il Duce's change of heart? Perhaps the German occupation of Paris did it. "First they were too cowardly to take part. Now they are in a hurry so that they can share in the spoils," reflected Hitler. (However, Mussolini claimed that he wanted in before complete French capitulation only because fascism "did not believe in hitting a man when he is down.")
      Italy's lack of raw materials had made Mussolini wary of waging all-out war previously. Britain and France were also wooing him with promises of territorial concessions in Africa in exchange for neutrality. But the thought of its Axis partner single-handedly conquering the Continent was too much for his ego to bear. While Germany had urged Italy's participation in September 1939, at this late date such intervention would probably prove more of a hindrance than a help. For example, despite Italy's declaration of war on the 10th, it wasn't until the 20th that Italian troops entered France, in the southwest--and easily held at bay by French forces. The reaction by the Allies to the declaration of war was swift: In London, all Italians who had lived in Britain less than 20 years and who were between the ages of 16 and 70 were immediately interned. In America, President Roosevelt broadcast on radio the promise of support for Britain and France with "the material resources of this nation."
1940 L'Italie déclare la guerre à la Grande Bretagne et à la France, une lâcheté que même Hitler a commentée et qui n'a été dépassée que par l'Union Soviètique quand elle attaqua la Pologne le 17 septembre 1939 et quand elle déclara la guerre au Japon en 1945.
1936 The first telecast via coaxial cable is sent from Radio City to the Empire State Building. A patent for coaxial cable had been assigned to AT&T in 1931.
1916 Great Arab Revolt begin. 1898 US Marines land in Cuba, at Guantanamo, during Spanish-American War.
1881 Lev Nikolayevich graf Tolstoy, 53, goes on a pilgrimage disguised as a peasant.       ^top^
      Count Leo Tolstoy sets off on a pilgrimage to a monastery disguised as a peasant. Tolstoy had already produced his two greatest masterpieces War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1875-1877). The Russian nobleman was engaged in a spiritual struggle and felt torn between his responsibility as a wealthy landlord to improve the lot of the people, and his desire to give up his property and wander the land as an ascetic. He had started giving away his possessions and declared that the public owned his works, but his wife, Sofya, worried about the financial stability of the couple's 13 children, gained control of the copyrights for all his work published before 1880.
      Born on 28 August 1828, Tolstoy lost his parents as a child. He inherited a large estate and was raised by relatives. He began studies at Kazan University at age 16 but was disappointed in the quality of education and returned to his estate in 1847 without a degree. He proceeded to live a wild and dissolute life in Moscow and St. Petersburg for the next four years. In 1851, he joined the army and fought in the Crimean war.
      He wrote about his wartime experiences in the successful Sebastapol Sketches, published in 1855. He also wrote several other autobiographical works while in the army. In 1857, Tolstoy visited Europe and became interested in education. He started a school for peasant children on his estate and studied progressive educational techniques.
      On 23 September 1862, he married Sophie Andreyevna Behrs, a teenager. The next year, he published his first successful novel, The Cossacks. Tolstoy and his wife proceeded to have 13 children over the next 17 years. Tolstoy was constantly engaged in a spiritual struggle between his responsibilities as a wealthy landlord and his desire to renounce his property altogether.
      Some of his inner turmoil appeared in his great masterpieces War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1875-1877). Later in his life, he tried to give away the rights to his works, but his wife gained control of the copyrights for all his work published before 1880. Tolstoy became increasingly radical, embraced anarchism, was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church, and constantly quarreled with his wife. In 1910, he fled his home secretly with his youngest daughter and his doctor, but caught pneumonia and died at a remote railway station a few days later, on 20 November 1910.
      Ne; le 9 septembre (Gregorien) 1828 dans une riche et noble famille russe, il se preoccupe du sort des paysans pauvres. Apres avoir participe à la Guerre de Crimee (1854 - 1856), il abandonne famille et richesse pour vivre avec les paysans. Son roman le plus celebre est Guerre et Paix. Il meurt dans une petite gare de la plaine russe. A 72 ans, atteint de pneumonie et las de tout, il s'est enfui dix jours plus tot de son domaine d'Iasnaya Poliana, seulement accompagne d'une fille et de son medecin.
     War and Peace (1865-69) contains three kinds of material--a historical account of the Napoleonic wars, the biographies of fictional characters, and a set of essays about the philosophy of history.
      The work's historical portions narrate the campaign of 1805 leading to Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, a period of peace, and Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. Tolstoy portrays Napoleon as an ineffective, egomaniacal buffoon, Tsar Alexander I as a phrasemaker obsessed with how historians will describe him, and the Russian general Mikhail Kutuzov as a patient old man who understands the limitations of human will and planning. Particularly noteworthy are the novel's battle scenes, which show combat as sheer chaos.
      Among the book's fictional characters, the reader's attention is first focused on Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, a proud man who has come to despise everything fake, shallow, or merely conventional. He joins the army to achieve glory. Badly wounded at Austerlitz, he comes to see glory and Napoleon as no less petty than the salons of St. Petersburg. Prince Andrey repeatedly discovers the emptiness of the activities to which he has devoted himself. Tolstoy's description of his death in 1812 is usually regarded as one of the most effective scenes in Russian literature.
      The novel's other hero, the bumbling and sincere Pierre Bezukhov, oscillates between belief in some philosophical system promising to resolve all questions and a relativism so total as to leave him in apathetic despair. He at last discovers the Tolstoyan truth that wisdom is to be found not in systems but in the ordinary processes of daily life, especially in his marriage to the novel's most memorable heroine, Natasha. When the book stops Pierre seems to be forgetting this lesson in his enthusiasm for a new utopian plan.
      The book's truly wise characters are not its intellectuals but a simple, decent soldier, Natasha's brother Nikolay, and a generous pious woman, Andrey's sister Marya. Their marriage symbolizes the novel's central prosaic values.
      The essays in War and Peace, which begin in the second half of the book, satirize all attempts to formulate general laws of history and reject the ill-considered assumptions supporting all historical narratives. In Tolstoy's view, history, like battle, is essentially the product of contingency, has no direction, and fits no pattern. The causes of historical events are infinitely varied and forever unknowable, and so historical writing, which claims to explain the past, necessarily falsifies it. According to Tolstoy's essays, history is made by the sum total of an infinite number of small decisions taken by ordinary people, whose actions are too unremarkable to be documented. Therefore Tolstoy's novel gives its readers countless examples of small incidents that each exert a tiny influence--which is one reason that War and Peace is so long.
     In Anna Karenina (1875-77) Tolstoy applied these ideas to family life. The novel's first sentence, which indicates its concern with the domestic, is perhaps Tolstoy's most famous: "All happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Anna Karenina interweaves the stories of three families, the Oblonskys, the Karenins, and the Levins. The novel begins at the Oblonskys, where the long-suffering wife Dolly has discovered the infidelity of her genial and sybaritic husband Stiva. In her kindness, care for her family, and concern for everyday life, Dolly stands as the novel's moral compass. By contrast, Stiva, though never wishing ill, wastes resources, neglects his family, and regards pleasure as the purpose of life. The figure of Stiva is perhaps designed to suggest that evil, no less than good, ultimately derives from the small moral choices human beings make moment by moment. Stiva's sister Anna begins the novel as the faithful wife of the stiff, unromantic, but otherwise decent government minister Aleksey Karenin and the mother of a young boy, Seryozha. But Anna, who imagines herself the heroine of a romantic novel, allows herself to fall in love with an officer, Aleksey Vronsky. Schooling herself to see only the worst in her husband, she eventually leaves him and her son to live with Vronsky. Throughout the novel, Tolstoy indicates that the romantic idea of love, which most people identify with love itself, is entirely incompatible with the superior kind of love, the intimate love of good families. As the novel progresses, Anna, who suffers pangs of conscience for abandoning her husband and child, develops a habit of lying to herself until she reaches a state of near madness and total separation from reality. She at last commits suicide by throwing herself under a train. The realization that she may have been thinking about life incorrectly comes to her only when she is lying on the track, and it is too late to save herself. The third story concerns Dolly's sister Kitty, who first imagines she loves Vronsky but then recognizes that real love is the intimate feeling she has for her family's old friend, Konstantin Levin. Their story focuses on courtship, marriage, and the ordinary incidents of family life, which, in spite of many difficulties, shape real happiness and a meaningful existence. Throughout the novel, Levin is tormented by philosophical questions about the meaning of life in the face of death. Although these questions are never answered, they vanish when Levin begins to live correctly by devoting himself to his family and to daily work. Like his creator Tolstoy, Levin regards the systems of intellectuals as spurious and as incapable of embracing life's complexity.
      Upon completing Anna Karenina, Tolstoy fell into a profound state of existential despair, which he describes in his Ispoved (1884; A Confession).
      The Kreutzer Sonata (1891) is a dark novella about a man who murders his wife.
      Smert Ivana Ilicha (written 1886; The Death of Ivan Ilych) is a novella describing a man's gradual realization that he is dying and that his life has been wasted on trivialities.
      Otets Sergy (written 1898; Father Sergius), which may be taken as Tolstoy's self-critique, tells the story of a proud man who wants to become a saint but discovers that sainthood cannot be consciously sought. Regarded as a great holy man, Sergius comes to realize that his reputation is groundless; warned by a dream, he escapes incognito to seek out a simple and decent woman whom he had known as a child. At last he learns that not he but she is the saint, that sainthood cannot be achieved by imitating a model, and that true saints are ordinary people unaware of their own prosaic goodness. This story therefore seems to criticize the ideas Tolstoy espoused after his conversion from the perspective of his earlier great novels.
     In 1899 Tolstoy published his third long novel, Voskreseniye (Resurrection). The novel's hero, the idle aristocrat Dmitry Nekhlyudov, finds himself on a jury where he recognizes the defendant, the prostitute Katyusha Maslova, as a woman whom he once had seduced, thus precipitating her life of crime. After she is condemned to imprisonment in Siberia, he decides to follow her and, if she will agree, to marry her. In the novel's most remarkable exchange, she reproaches him for his hypocrisy: once you got your pleasure from me, and now you want to get your salvation from me, she tells him. She refuses to marry him, but, as the novel ends, Nekhlyudov achieves spiritual awakening when he at last understands Tolstoyan truths, especially the futility of judging others. The novel's most celebrated sections satirize the church and the justice system, but the work is generally regarded as markedly inferior to War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
     The novella Hadji Murad (1904) is a brilliant narrative about the Caucasus.
Po-russki: Anna Karenina. Roman v vos'mi chastyakh
TOLSTOY ONLINE (in English translations):
  • Anna Karenina
  • Anna Karenina
  • Childhood , Boyhood , Youth
  • A Confession
  • The Death of Ivan Ilych
  • The Devil
  • Family Happiness
  • Father Sergius
  • The Forged Coupon and Other Stories
  • The Forged Coupon and Other Stories
  • The Gospel in Brief
  • Hadji Murad
  • The Kreutzer Sonata
  • The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
  • Master and Man
  • Resurrection
  • The Slavery of Our Times
  • Twenty-three Tales
  • War and Peace
  • War and Peace
  • War and Peace
    • 1864 Battle of Brice's Crossroads       ^top^
          Nathan Bedford Forrest's legend grows substantially when his Confederate cavalry routs a much larger Union force in Mississippi. When Union General William T. Sherman inched toward Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 1864, he left behind a vulnerable supply line through Tennessee. Of utmost concern to Sherman was the Rebel cavalry under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a daring leader who gave Union commanders in the west difficulty throughout the war. Sherman insisted that Forrest be neutralized and ordered a force from Memphis to hunt down Forrest's command, which at that time was in northern Alabama. On 01 June, some 5000 infantry and 3000 cavalry soldiers under the command of General Samuel D. Sturgis trudged out of Memphis in search of the elusive Forrest. But rain and poor roads slowed them, and a week's travel found the Yankees only 50 miles from Memphis. Forrest had been preparing for an assault on central Tennessee, but Sturgis's expedition forced him back to northern Mississippi.
          The Confederates spread out along a railroad between Tupelo and Corinth and awaited the Union advance. On 08 June, Forrest learned that Sturgis was moving on Tupelo. He carefully selected Brice's Crossroads for its muddy roads and dense woods to mitigate the Union's numerical advantage and called for his men to attack the leading Yankee cavalry, which would force the trailing infantry to hurry to the battle and fight before recovering from the march. The plan worked to perfection. At about 10:00 on 10 June, the cavalry forces began fighting, and the Union infantry made a five-mile dash in intense heat and humidity to aid their fellow soldiers. In the afternoon, Forrest orchestrated a series of attacks all along the Union front, which broke the Yankee lines and sent the Federals from the field in disarray with the Confederates in hot pursuit. The chase continued into the next day. Sturgis's command suffered over 600 killed and wounded and over 1600 captured—more than a quarter of the entire force. Forrest's force suffered less than 600 killed and wounded, and the Confederates captured 16 cannons and 176 supply wagons. Forrest was never able to disrupt Sherman's supply lines. However, the Battle of Brice's Crossroads stands as his greatest military victory.
    1863 Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana continues
    1863 Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi continues
    1861 Engagement at Big Bethel, Virginia
    1854 Eventually to become the first African-American Roman Catholic bishop, James Augustine Healy, 24, is ordained a priest in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
    1854 Georg F.B. Reiman proposes that space is curved
    1848 first telegraph link between NYC and Chicago
    1846 Robert Thomson obtains an English patent on a rubber tire
    1809 first US steamboat to a make an ocean voyage leaves NY for Phila
    1801 The state of Tripoli declares war on the United States for refusing to pay tribute for the safe passage of US merchant vessels through the Mediterranean..
    1776 Continental Congress appoints a committee to write a Decl of Ind
    1772 Burning of the Gasp‚e, British revenue cutter, by Rhode Islanders
    1752 Ben Franklin's kite is struck by lightning-what a shock!
    1721 (29 May Julian) South Carolina is incorporated as a British royal colony
    1682 First tornado on record       ^top^
          Near New Haven, part of the Connecticut Colony, the first tornado in America to be officially recorded touches down in the early afternoon.
          A tornado is a dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops in climate conditions that, in the United States, are generally unique to the central and southern plains and the Gulf states. However, minor tornadoes, such as the one recorded in Connecticut in 1682, are known to materialize elsewhere. The rotating winds of tornadoes can attain velocities of 500 km/h and its diameter can vary from a few meters to 2 km. A tornado generally travels in a northeasterly distance at speeds of thirty to sixty km/h, and covers anywhere between one and 200 km.
          While the first recorded tornado caused no known deaths, in 1925 the worst tornado on record, dubbed the "Tri-State Tornado," passed through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 695 people, injuring some 13'000, and causing seventeen million dollars in property damage. The tornado began its northeast track in Ellington, Missouri, but hit hardest in southern Illinois, where 500 of the total 695 people who perished were killed, including 234 in Murphrysboro, and 127 in West Frankfort. The Tri-State Tornado, which traveled 352 km, spent over three hours on the ground, devastated 425 square kilometers, had a diameter nearly 2 km, and traveled at speeds in excess of 110 km/h, is unsurpassed as the most powerful tornado in US history.
    1639 first American log cabin at Fort Christina (Wilmington Delaware)
    1610 first Dutch settlers arrive (from NJ), to colonize Manhattan Island
    TO THE TOP
    Father Philip
    Deaths which occurred on a June 10:       ^top^

    2002 Father Philip Schuster, 85, Brother Damian Larson, 64, and Lloyd Robert Jeffress, 71, who at about 08:40 fires at random an AK-47 and a sawed-off 22-caliber rifle in the halls near the business offices of the Benedictine Conception Abbey, Missouri, and then kills himself. Father Schuster [< top photo] was a greeter at the monastery's front door; Brother Larson [< 2nd photo] a groundskeeper. Both had been at the Abbey for more than 30 years. Rev. Kenneth Reichert, 68, an assistant to abbot Gregory Polan, is shot in the stomach, and Father Norbert Schappler, 73, is also wounded.

    2002 John Joseph Gotti     [20 Jan 1990 photo >], of throat cancer, while serving a life sentence for 6 murders and racketeering, having been convicted on 02 April 1992, after a three acquittals that won him the nickname “Teflon Don”. Born on 27 October 1940, Gotti started a life of crime early. He served several short prison sentences. Gotti became boss of the Gambino crime “family” after ordering the 15 November 1985 murder of its previous boss, “Big Paul” Castellano, and had a highly publicized flamboyant life style. [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act RICO]
    2002 Ahmad Abed Rabbo Musleh, 28, as Israeli snipers stationed at the Beit Hanoon passage in Gaza shoot at a group of Palestinian workers returning home from their work in the industrial area north to the passage, severely wounding Musleh in the head, he dies soon afterwards in the hospital.
    Hafez Assad2000 Hafez al-Assad, 69, president (dictator) of Syria, of heart failure.      ^top^
         Emil Lahoud, president of Syria's puppet state Lebanon, said he was on the phone with Assad as he died: "The last phrase he told me was that our fate is to build for our children an assuring future and it is our duty to make sure they inherit better than what we inherited. Then there was a sudden silence and the line broke off."
          Assad grew up as the oldest son of a peasant family from the minority 'Alawite Muslim sect. As a student, he became an activist against the French who jointly controlled his country with Britain until 1944. In 1952, he joined the Syrian Military Academy, and subsequently the Air Force Academy. Graduating as a combat pilot at the top of his class, he rose through the ranks rapidly and, by 1957, became a squadron commander. In the early 1960s, he became heavily involved in politics is the the socialist Ba'ath Party and by 1966 was minister of defense.
          Assad came to power in 1970 in a bloodless coup, getting the military to support him against former colleague Colonel Salah al-Jadid. He soon started to liberalize the country, removing restrictions on foreign travel and foreign trade, lifting some restraints on the press, and bringing some of the political opposition into the government. But those reforms were short-lived. As opposition activists gained strength, he clamped down.
          Assad has committed severe human rights abuses, including political assassinations, torture and the murder of at least 5000 members of the Islamic opposition group Muslim Brotherhood (in the city of Hamah in February 1982) . He has also sponsored terrorist activities overseas, from attacks on European offices of Jordan’s air carrier, to the assassination of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel — who had been hand-picked by Israel — and of was linked to suicide bombers who killed 241 US Marines in 1983. He survived several reported coup attempts, including a 1984 effort by his ambitious brother Rifaat. Assad maintained a vast army of secret police and informers. His government jailed thousands of political prisoners without trial during his rule, according to human rights groups. He was a vegetarian who abstained from alcohol, but rumors about ill health had dogged him since a heart attack in 1983.
          Hafez would be succeeded by his son Bashar, 34, a British-educated ophthalmologist with no political experience, regardless of the Syrian constitution which provides for a vice president to take the post (presumably first vice president : Abdul-Halim Khaddam rather than second vice president Zuheir Masharqa) and for the president to be at least 40 (until this day of Assad's death, when parliament lowered the limit to 34).
         Bashar Assad's elder brother, Basil, had been groomed as heir until his death in a 1994 car crash. Hafez Assad had three other sons and a daughter. He married an Alawite woman from a prominent clan.
    1998 Ocho zapatistas y 2 policías, al ser atacado por el Ejército Mexicano y la Seguridad Pública Estatal el "Municipio Autónomo San Juan de la Libertad" (San Juan el Bosque, Chiapas, México)..
    1997 World Avenue, IBM's online mall       ^top^
          Newspapers report that IBM will close down World Avenue, its highly touted online shopping mall. World Avenue let would-be online vendors rent virtual "space" to sell their wares. IBM handled the technical end and enabled transactions, while stores simply posted content. The fact that IBM closed the mall just one year after launch made some industry analysts speculate that consumers weren't ready for online shopping. However, within a year, online shopping had skyrocketed at sites like Amazon.com and CD Now. Some industry analysts observed that Amazon was serving as the "anchor store" in the online space, attracting customers who then bought related products while they were online.
    1988 “Louis L'Amour”, 80, western writer, of lung cancer (he was a non-smoker)       ^top^
          Louis Dearborn LaMoore was born on 22 March 1908 in Jamestown, North Dakota, the seventh and youngest child of Louis Charles and Emily Dearborn LaMoore, both of whom schooled L'Amour in family and western lore, unknowingly laying the foundation for his literary career. Louis Charles LaMoore held various types of jobs, including police chief, veterinarian, political leader and Sunday school teacher. Mrs. LaMoore, herself a skilled storyteller, was trained as a teacher before her marriage, and so the environment was a great one for the children to learn and grow in intellectually. In 1923, when L'Amour was fifteen, his parents moved to Oklahoma.
          It was then that L'Amour decided to end his formal education to pursue self-education by way of work and travel. He would hold a wide variety of jobs from this point, much of it hard, physical labor. He worked as a longshoreman, lumberjack, elephant handler, hay shocker, miner, and cattle skinner, all richly adding to his knowledge and well of experience which he would draw from later in his writing career. He also boxed professionally in preliminary events, his father having taught him the sport. His love of traveling took him up and down the west coast, and soon he embarked on a sailing trip to the Orient. One well circulated story claims that he used the proceeds from a sunken treasure he discovered in Macão to pay his way to Paris and other European cities.
          L'Amour's writing was greatly influenced by these early years of freedom and wandering. He of course gained great knowledge as a result, but as well, his male hero's would often have conflicting feelings towards settling down. In the late 1930's L'Amour returned to Oklahoma to pursue the writing career which he had always intended to do. He published a book of poetry in 1939, but then his career was interrupted by World War II. In 1942 he entered the army, serving as an officer in tank destroying and transportation units in France and Germany. Upon the end of the war he resumed his writing pursuits, and published stories in pulp magazines of all types, from detective and adventure magazines to sports.
          Initially he did not plan to focus on westerns, but he began to write mainly in that genre as he sold more work to Western magazines than the others. In 1953 he published his first novel, Hondo, and thereafter L'Amour consistently produced three novels a year until his death in 1988. He gained steady popularity throughout his career, to the point where hundreds of millions of copies of his books were sold. Although L'Amour is best know for his westerns, he did step out of that field occasionally, writing books such as The Walking Drum, (1984) which is set in medieval Europe, and The Haunted Mesa. Never did he lose his passion for travel and researching his books firsthand. He would search out people who knew the area he was interested in the best, and delve into their knowledge of it. L'Amour was the only novelist in the US to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both of which were awarded to him by President Ronald Regan.
    1942 173 innocent men and boys massacred by the Gestapo in Lidice, in occupied dismembered Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of a Heydrich, the Nazi overseer of “Bohemia and Moravia”.
    1941 Marcus Garvey, 52, in London England
    1932 Violet Sharpe, suicide by swallowing poison. She was a waitress in the home of Mrs. Lindbergh's mother, Mrs. Dwight Morrow, and had been under investigation by the authorities in connection with the 1 March 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping. She was about to be questioned again. However, her movements on the night of March 1, 1932, had been carefully checked and it was soon definitely ascertained that she had no connection with the abduction.
    1924 Giacomo Matteotti Italian socialist deputy, assassinated by fascists
    1903 King Alexander I and Queen Dragia of Serbia are assassinated
    1903 Luigi Cremona, mathematician.
    1878 Tranquillo Cremona, Italian artist born in 1837.
    1836 André-Marie Ampère, 60, mathematician.
    1818 Heinrich Rieter, Swiss artist born on 15 September 1751.
    Condamnés à mort par la Révolution: ^top^
    1798:
    STORKENFELD Jean, chef des compaguions de Jéhu, par le tribunal criminel de Haute-Loire.
    1794 (22 prairial an II):
    GAUBAU Pierre Félix, fils aîné, clerc de notaire, avoué au tribunal du district de la Réole, né à la Réole, domicilié à Bordeaux (Gironde), par la commission militaire séante à Bordeaux, comme contre-révolutionnaire, pour avoir dit qu'il rougirait de se dire français s'il était en pays ennemi, que la révolution ne tiendrait pas, et que les puissances étrangères mettraient les français à la raison.
    LACROIX Louis Jacques, ex curé, domicilié à St Maurice, (Mayenne et Loire), comme réfractaire à la loi, par le tribunal criminel dudit département.
    HOUDON Julien, tisserand, domicilié à Nuillé-sur-Ouette (Mayenne), par la commission révolutionnaire séante à Laval, comme brigand de la Vendée.
    NIATEL Michel, domicilié à Nuillé-sur-Ouette (Mayenne), par la commission révolutionnaire de Laval.
    Domiciliés à Libremont, département des Vosges, par le tribunal criminel dudit département:
          ... comme prêtres réfractaires à la loi:
    DIDELOT Nicolas Antoine, ex vicaire — RIVAT Joseph, ex curé de Varennes
          ... comme receleuses de prêtres réfractaires:
    DURUPT Jeanne Marie — PETITJEAN Anne Françoise
    Domiciliés à Montpellier, département de l'Hérault, par le tribunal criminel dudit département, en matière de faux assignats:
          ... comme fabricateur: CARRE Michel, fils, perruquier, comme fabricateur.
          ... comme distributeurs: CARRE Jean Claude, père, perruquier — ALTABESS Jean, perruquier — FANTOU Pierre, cuisinier
    Par le tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris:
    HARDY Auguste Antoine, préposé aux subsistances militaire, 64 ans, né et domicilié à Dunkerque (Nord), comme ayant commis des malversations dans les fournitures.
    ROBERT Pierre, charron, 37 ans, natif de St Georges-sur-Cher, domicilié à Paris, comme ayant persisté à remettre en usage pour le service de la république, des roues défectueuses, refusées par l’administration, en les substituant aux chariots d’un autre fournisseur dont il enleva celles qui avaient été reconnues bonnes et acceptées.
          ... comme conspirateurs:
    LARUE Jean Paul, 33 ans, ex avoué, juge du tribunal du district de Tarascon, domicilié à Foix, même département, né à Pamiers (Ariège), comme complice d'une conspiration dans la commune de Pamiers, à l'effet de se faire porter aux places par le peuple.
    GALLERAND Pierre Michel, conducteur de Bœufs, 27 ans, né et domicilié à Orléans (Loiret), ... et pour avoir commis des malversations dans les fournitures faites à la République.
    COURIEULT Charles, marchand de vin, 27 ans, né et domicilié à Blanville (Calvados)..
                ... domiciliés à Cosne, département de la Nièvre, comme complices d'une conspiration dans la commune de Cosne, contre le Peuple, tendante à ébranler la fidélité des citoyens envers la nation, à dissoudre les sociétés propulaires:
    LA FAYE Edme Etienne, 37 ans, homme de loi, accusateur public, près de tribunal du district de Cosne, né à la Charité (Nièvre).
    LECLERC Pierre, 46 ans, ci-devant notaire, commissaire national prés le tribunal du district de Cosne.
    MEIGNAN André Etienne, (dit Champromain), juge de paix du canton de Cosne, 48 ans, né à Druget (Yonne).
    PERCOT Charles, 40 ans, officier de santé, né Cosne, ... et traitant les patriotes de scélérats de gredins à guillotiner, les accusant de ne faire des taxes révolutionnaires sur les riches que pour s’en approprier le montant en disant qu’ils étaient des tyrans qui voulaient ruiner les riches.
    PIRENT Antoine, 50 ans, natif de Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), président du district de Cosne, ... en traitant les patriotes de scélérats, gredins à guillotiner, les accusant de ne faire des taxes révolutionnaires sur les riches, que pour s'en approprier le montant, et disant qu'il étaient des tyrans, qui voulaient ruiner les riches.
    BLOT Charles, 33 ans, né à Montfort, conducteur de bœufs, ... et pour fournitures infidèles.
    CACADIER Pierre François, 51 ans, né à Pot-de-Fe (Cher), marchand de tabac, et greffier du juge de paix,.
    CHAUMOROT (ou CHOMOROT) Gilbert, 30 ans, né à Cosne, maître de poste.
    GOY Philippe Etienne, ancien vice-président du district de Cosnes, chef de la légion de la garde nationale, 30 ans, né à Donzy.
    1692 Bridget Bishop, hanged, the first of the Salem witches       ^top^
          In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.
          Trouble in the small Puritan community began in February of 1692, when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece, respectively, of Reverend Samuel Parris began experiencing fits and other signs of a hysterical disorder. A doctor concluded that the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft, and the young girls corroborated the doctor’s diagnosis. Under compulsion from the doctor and their parents, the girls named those allegedly responsible for their suffering.
          On March 1, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, became the first Salem residents to be charged with the capital crime of witchcraft. The same day, Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime, encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches. With encouragement from adults in the community, the girls, who were soon joined by other "afflicted" Salem residents, accused a widening circle of local residents of witchcraft, mostly middle-aged women but also several men and even one four-year-old child. Over the next few months, the afflicted incriminated more than 150 women and men from Salem Village and the surrounding areas of Satanic practices. The warrant for Bridget Bishop's arrest was issued 16920418 and she was interrogated in court on 16920419
          In June of 1692, the special Court of Oyer, "to hear," and Terminer, "to conclude," convened in Salem, under Chief Justice William Stoughton, to judge the accused. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was charged, tried, found guilty, and executed by hanging within eight days..
          Thirteen more women and four men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows, and one man, Giles Corey, was executed by crushing. Most of those tried were condemned on the basis of the witnesses’ hysterical behavior during the actual proceedings, characterized by fits and hallucinations that were argued to be caused by the defendants on trial.
          In October of 1692, Governor William Phipps of Massachusetts ordered the Court of Oyer and Terminer dissolved and replaced with the Superior Court of Judicature, which forbid the type of sensational testimony allowed in the earlier trials. Executions ceased, and the Superior Court eventually released all those awaiting trial and pardoned those sentenced to death. The Salem witch trials, which resulted in the executions of nineteen innocent women and men, had effectively ended.
    1652 Elias Vonck, Dutch artist born in 1605.
    1580 Luis Vaz de Camões Portugal's national poet (biografia) (biography)       ^top^
         Luís Vaz de Camões terá nascido em Lisboa por volta de 1524, de uma família do Norte (Chaves). Viveu algum tempo em Coimbra onde terá frequentado aulas de Humanidades no Mosteiro de Santa Cruz onde tinha um tio padre. Regressou a Lisboa, levando aí uma vida de boémia. Em 1553, depois de ter sido preso devido a uma rixa, parte para a Índia. Fixou-se na cidade de Goa onde terá escrito grande parte da sua obra. Regressa a Portugal em 1569, pobre e doente, conseguindo publicar Os Lusíadas em 1572 graças à influência de alguns amigos junto do rei D. Sebastião. Faleceu em Lisboa no dia 10 de Junho de 1580. É considerado o maior poeta português, situando-se a sua obra entre o Classicismo e o Maneirismo. Obras: Os Lusíadas (1572), Rimas (1595), El-Rei Seleuco (1587), Auto de Filodemo (1587) e Anfitriões (1587), Redondilhas, Sonetos, Canções e Elegias, Odes Oitavas e Sextina, Éclogas, Autos, Cartas. CAMOES ONLINE.
    Births which occurred on a June 10:       ^top^
    World's biggest crocodileCroc eats chicken^top^
    1972 Chai Yai    , crocodile.

          It would grow to become, by its 28th birthday, according to the Guiness book of World Records, the world's largest captive crocodile, at 6 m in length, and 1114 kg. Officials from the Samutprakarn crocodile zoo pose next to Chai Yai on its 28th birthday. The crocodile celebrated its birthday with a feast of whole chickens and fish.
    1983 The Presbyterian Church (USA) is formed in Atlanta, through a reunification of the United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA) and the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS)
    1950 Saab Model 921947 Saab Model 92, its first car       ^top^
          Saab introduces its first car, the model 92 prototype. [photo: the 1950 Saab Model 92]. Saab had been primarily a supplier of military aircraft before and during World War II, but with the end of the war, company executives realized the need to diversify the company’s production capabilities. After an exhaustive planning campaign that at one point led to the suggestion that Saab manufacture toasters, company executives decided to start building motor cars.
          Saab director Sven Otterbeck placed aircraft engineer Gunnar Ljungstrom in charge of creating the company’s first car. Ljungstrom sketched his ideas for an aerodynamic, light-framed, and safe automobile, and then enlisted the skills of noted industrial designer Sixten Sason to translate the sketches into an automobile ready for production.
          In search of a name for their new car, Saab executives elected to stay with their existing numbering system: Model numbers 1 through 89 were taken up by military aviation projects, and 90 and 91 by commercial aircraft projects, so the first Saab automobile became the "Model 92." The numbering system wasn’t the only idea Saab executives held on to: All Model 92s came in Saab’s standard color, aircraft green.
          While the prototype Model 92s ran with German-engineered DKW engines, the Saab engine was ready in the summer of 1947. The car received rave reviews from the Swedish press after its unveiling, although the first 92s didn’t hit Swedish showrooms until December of 1949.
          The Model 92 came equipped with a two-cylinder, two-stroke, twenty-five horsepower engine that propelled the Saab at a top speed of 100 km/h. After only a month of production Saab began its distinguished history of rally-car racing, entering the 92 in the Monte Carlo Rally. Saab’s durability, handling, and mid-range acceleration lent themselves to the arduous, off-road nature of rally racing, and Saab cars proved to be a force in the world of rally car racing between 1950 and 1980, and again in 1996, after a sixteen-year hiatus from the circuit.
    1935 Alcoholics Anonymous founded.       ^top^
          In Akron, Ohio, two recovering alcoholics, Dr Robert Smith, an Akron surgeon. and William Wilson, a New York stockbroker, found Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a twelve-step rehabilitation program that would help countless people cope with alcoholism. Based on psychological techniques that have long been used in suppressing dangerous personality traits, members of the strictly anonymous organization control their addictions through guided group discussion and confession, reliance on a "higher power," and a gradual return to sobriety. The organization functions through local groups that have no formal rules besides anonymity, no officers, and no dues. Anyone with a drinking problem qualifies for membership. By the end of the century , there would be over 80'000 local groups in the United States, with an estimated membership of almost two million people. Other addiction support groups patterned on AA include Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous.
    1933 F. Lee Bailey, attorney.
    1925 The United Church of Canada is formed, uniting both the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations of Canada. The merger also took in 3,000 independent Canadian Congregational churches.
    1921 Prince Philip Mountbatten Greece, Duke of Edinburgh, Mr Elizabeth II
    1904 John Greenlees Semple, mathematician
    1895 Immanuel Velikovsky writer (Worlds in Collision)
    1887 Smirnov, mathematician.
    1880 André Derain, French Fauvist painter and sculptor who died on 10 September 1954. — MORE ON DERAIN AT ART “4” JUNE — LINKS — Head of a Young Model — London Bridge — Portrait of a Young Girl in Black
    1861 Duhem, mathematician.
    1859 James Guthrie, British painter who died in 1930. — Statesmen of World War I (includes the Maharaja of Bikaner; Sir Robert Laird Borden; Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour; Andrew Bonar Law; Edward Patrick Morris, Baron Morris; Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum; Sir Jose...) — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon — Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith
    1857 Ed Henry Potthast, US painter who died on 10 March 1927. — LINKS — The Century July 1896 cover — Ring Around the Rosy
    1853 Claude Thomas Stanfield Moore, British artist who died on 02 April 1901.
    1845 Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant, French painter who died on 26 May 1902, constantly interested in Orientalism. — LINKS — Portrait of a Moor
    ^ 1839 (or 01 March 1837?) Ion Creanga, Romanian fairy tale author (Memories from childhood = "Amintiri din copilarie"), author of (in English translations): MEMORIES OF MY BOYHOOD, STORIES AND TALES. — Tales and Stories [13 Romanian folk tales]— Recollections from Childhood.
         "I am born at 1 March 1837 in Humulesti village, Neamt county, from Romanian parents: Stefan of Petrea the shoemaker and his wife Smaranda, born David Creanga, from Pipirig village, Neamt county..." The date written by Creanga's hand in Fragment de biografie (Biopraphy Fragment) and accepted by many literary historians is contested by other researchers, which affirm that the writer was born, on June 10 1839, as the only authentic document: a register of new-borns from Humulesti, descovered and published by Gh. Ungureanu, archievist from Iasi.
    http://www.cri.md/Literatura/creanga.html
    Ion Creanga s-a nascut la 10 iunie 1839 in satul Humulesti.       ^top^click to ZOOM IN

         Intre 1846-1855 urmeaza scoala din Humulesti, dupa care invata la Brosteni, apoi la Tirgu-Neamt si la scoala de catiheti din Falticeni.
          Intre 1855-1858 urmeaza seminarul de la Socola –cursul inferior, dupa care se inscrie la Facultatea de Teologie a Universitatii din Iasi, dar nu o frecventeaza.
          In 1875 il cunoaste pe Mihaai Eminescu. Devin buni prieteni. Eminescu il introduce la societatea literara “Junimea” si-l ajuta sa debuteze in “Convorbiri literare” (Soacra cu trei nuroi, 1 octombrie 1875), unde va publica pina in 1878 si celelalte povesti.
          In 1881-1882 publica primele trei parti din Amintiri din copilarie, a patra fiind postuma.
          In aceeasi perioada cu Eminescu, Creanga este grav bolnav si se stinge din viata la 31 decembrie 1889.
          Opera lui Creanga este epopeea poporului roman. Creanga este Homer al nostru.
    (G. Ibraileanu)

    Ion Creanga este unul din marii clasici ai literaturii romane care s-au afirmat in cercul literar “Junimea”, in a II jum. a sec.al XIX-lea. E un scriitor realist, unul dintre cei mai cunoscuti si mai iubiti. El a reusit sa ridice proza romaneasca din secolul trecut pe aceleasi culmi pe care Eminescu propulsase limba literara in poezie, valorificind vorbirea omului simplu si ridicind-o la un nivel neegalat pina astazi.
          Despre cel mai mare povestitor al romanilor, Ion Creanga, care ii urmeaza lui Ion Neculce, s-a spus ca a intrat in literatura cu un substantial fond sufletesc si intelectual de sorginte populara. In acest sens, G.Calinescu afirma ca, scriitorul moldovean reprezinta “poporul roman insusi, surprins intr-un moment de geniala expansiune”. “In Creanga traiesc credintele, cresurile, datinile, obiceiurile, limba, poezia, morala, filosofia poporului”- scria G.Ibraileanu. Izvorul principal al operelor sale este folclorul romanesc.
          Ion Creanga creaza o opera extrem de unitara sub raportul continutului si al mijloacelor artistice, o opera care este alcatuita din:

  • Povesti – Punguta cu 2 bani, Soacra cu trei nurori, Povestea porcului, Harap-Alb, Capra cu trei iezi, Danila Prepeleac, Fata babei si fata mosneagului, Ivan Turbinca, Povestea unui om lenes, Fat Frumos fiul iepei etc.
  • Povestiri – Inul si cinepa, Cinci piini, Mos Ion Roata si Unirea, Mos Ion Roata si Cuza-Voda, Acul si barasul, Prostia omeneasca etc.
  • Nuvela – Mos Nichifor Cotcariul
  • Romanul – Amintiri din copilarie.
         After Soacra cu trei nurori (published in 1875, October 1), Creanga publishes in Convorbiri literare: Punguta cu doi bani, Danila Prepeleac, Povestea porcului, Mos Nechifor Cotcariul, Povestea lui Harap-Alb, Fata babei si fata mosneagului, Ivan Turbinca, Poveste unui om lenes, Amintiri din copilarie (primele trei parti, a patra fiind postuma), Popa Duhu, Cinci pâni. He writes also now, Mos Ion Roata and Mos Ion Roata si Voda Cuza, Indemnul de a scrie i-a venit din partea bunului sau prieten M.Eminescu.
          In toamna anului 1875 Creanga citeste la “Junimea” povestirea Soacra cu trei nurori, care apare in revista Convorbiri literare, din octombrie: ”Ce fericita achizitie pentru societatea noastra acea figura taraneasca si primitiva a lui Creanga” - exclama Iacob Negruzzi – redactorul revistei.
          Fiind “toba de anecdote”, el avea totdeauna pregatita cite o “corsiva” pentru junimistii care se amuzau copios, hazul lor facind “sa se cutremure peretii”. Risul lui inveselea toata societatea, cind aducea cite o poveste sau novela, sau cite un capitol din Amintirile sale…
          “Cu cita placere si haz ascultam sanatoasele produceri ale acestui talent primitiv” noteaza entuziasmat I. Negruzzi, recunoscind in Ion Creanga un geniu naiv care a exercitat o mare putere de atractie asupra spiretelor complicate ale scriitorilor vremii.
          Plecind de la folclor, Creanga a reusit sa ridice proza romaneasca pe culmi nebanuite. Valorificind limba omului simplu, el o ridica la un nivel artistic neegalat, dovedindu-se un artist profund original.
         Creanga died on 1889, December 31
         Au trecut si uneori au revenit Ion Creanga, Mihail Sadoveanu, Nicolae Labis, Anton Holban, Teodor Stefanelli. Unii dintre cei amintiti s-au întors spre vesnica odihna, la Falticeni.
          Orasul pastreaza în memoria afectiva si nu numai, pasii tuturor celor care l-au strabatut, l-au iubit si de ce nu, l-au proiectat în nemurire. Fiecare strada îsi are amintirile sale, dar cea care respira istorie la fiecare pas este ulita Radasenilor, actuala strada Ion Creanga. Aici a functionat celebra Scoala de catiheti unde "a patimit" Ion Creanga si tot aici a fiintat si Scoala domneasca ctitorita în 1842 de Neofit Scriban. Amintirile din copilarie ale lui Creanga evoca parfumul si oamenii locului. http://home.dntis.ro/~primfalt/
    Sources: http://www.faptudivers.com/almanah/Literatura_si_Arta.htm — http://www.faptudivers.com/almanah/Literatura%20si%20Arta.htm — http://www.ici.ro/romania/culture/l_creanga.html — www.nsc.ru/folk/romania/humanfolly.htm
    CREANGA ONLINE:
    Capra cu trei iezi (BMP, ZIP, 108 Kb) — Cinci pîni (HTML, 13 Kb) — Danila Prepeleac (HTML, 33 Kb) — Fata babei si fata mosneagului (HTML, 18 Kb) — Harap-Alb (BMP, ZIP, 731 Kb)  — Mos Ion Roatã (HTML, 12 Kb) — (BMP, ZIP, 78 Kb) — Mos Nechifor Cotcariul (GIF, ZIP, 275 Kb) — Popa Duhu (HTML, 17 Kb) — Poveste (HTML, 12 Kb) — Povestea lui Stan Patitul (BMP, ZIP, 300 Kb) — Povestea porcului (HTML, 39 Kb) — Povestea unui om lenes (HTML, 8 Kb) — Punguta cu doi bani (HTML, 15 Kb) — Soacra cu trei nurori (HTML, 21 Kb)
    • 1819 Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet, leading French realist painter who died on 31 December 1877. — MORE ON COURBET AT ART “4” JUNE — LINKS — Landscape in the Jura [image zoomable to near original size] — Le bois aux biches — Chute d'Eau — La Vague — Vagues — Les Falaises d'Étretat — Bords de la Seine — Enterrement à Ornans — Cribleuses de blé — Le studio de l'artiste — Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet — Courbet au Chien Noir — Self~Portrait [image zoomable to near original size] — Self-Portrait (Man with a Pipe) — Portrait of the Artist's Sister — The Young Ladies of the Village — The Sleeping Spinner — The Fox in the Snow — Allegory of Painting — Beach Scene — Low Tide at Trouville — The Wave — L'Eternité — Pêcheur au bord de la Loue — Portrait of the Artist, called "The Wounded Man" — The Cellist, Self-Portrait — Portrait of the Artist (Man with a Pipe) — A Burial at Ornans — The Bathers — The Sleeping Spinner — The Meeting, or "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet" — The Painter's Studio; A Real Allegory — The Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine (Summer) — The Oak at Flagey (The Oak of Vercingétorix) — The Source of the Loue — Portrait of Jo, the Beautiful Irish Girl — Seacoast — The Sleepers, or Sleep — A Thicket of Deer at the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine — Woman with a Parrot — L'Origine du monde — Count de Choiseul's Greyhounds — The Woman in the Waves — The Source — The Cliff at Etretat after the Storm — The Stormy Sea (or The Wave) — Still Life with Apples and Pomegranate — Still Life: Fruit — The Trout
    1816 Rosenhain, mathematician.
    1798 Frederick Richard Lee    , British painter who died on 04 June 1879. — LINKS — The Overhanging Trees, [with cows in a stream]
    1787 George Henry Harlow, British painter who died on 04 February 1819. — LINKS
    0940 Abu'l-Wafa    , mathematician.
    Holidays / Argentina : Affirmation of Argentina's Rights over the Malvinas / Azores : Camoes Day (1580) / Cape Verde, Maderia : National Day (1580) / Portugal : Day of Portugal (1580) / Great Britain : Queen's official birthday (National Day) - ( Saturday )
    Religious Observances Ang : Ephrem of Edessa, Syria, deacon / old RC : St Margaret, Queen of Scotland, widow
    Thoughts for the day :" If you must have the last word, apologize.”
    “I am firm. You are obstinate. He is a pig-headed fool.”     — Katharine Whitehorn, British newspaper columnist [she is stubborn]
    “I am compassionate. You are a soft touch. He or she is a bleeding-heart do-gooder.”
    “I am truthful. You are a gossip. He or she is a slanderer.”
    “I am an expert. You are a lobbyist. He or she is a con artist.”
    “I am elegant. You are overdressed. He or she is ostentatious.”
    “I am concise. You are a person of few words. He or she is inarticulate.”
    “Never quit. — Never do the expected — Never rest on your laurels — Never think great is good enough — NEVER FOLLOW ” —     2002 Audi ad. — [What if they expect you to do the unexpected?].
    “Never start — Never do anything — Never win laurels — Never think great is any good — NEVER MOVE”     — Antidote to Audi ad.
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