Also on this day, a discovery made in Poland caused a rift between the Polish government in exile and the USSR when mass graves of Polish POWs were found. The USSR was not an effectively run government or benevolent. It was a murderous dictatorship which, even so, was adored by starry eyed Hollywood types and impressionable fools. There is such thing as evil. The evil woman who was wife of Mao in 1975 commissioned the Chinese government to catalog all Christian activity in China. She confidently and proudly proclaimed that there was none, outside of graveyard or museums. No Christian was alive in China. Today, there are well over a hundred million with millions more every year. The Chinese government have nominated Christians as the only religion they will allow into their public service. And the only reference to Mrs Mao is at her grave, or in museums.
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/nsw-premier-barry-o-farrell-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball?
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Madan Paudel, Vince Tang, Ratko Ray Stojicic and Andy Tran. Born on the same day across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
- 1506 – Peter Faber, French theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (d. 1546)
- 1519 – Catherine de' Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France (d. 1589)
- 1570 – Guy Fawkes, English soldier, planned the Gunpowder Plot (d. 1606)
- 1573 – Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1625)
- 1618 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author (d. 1693)
- 1735 – Isaac Low, American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce (d. 1791)
- 1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American politician, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)
- 1771 – Richard Trevithick, English engineer (d. 1833)
- 1780 – Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer, invented the Screw-pile lighthouse (d. 1868)
- 1825 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1868)
- 1828 – Joseph Lightfoot, English bishop and theologian (d. 1889)
- 1851 – William Quan Judge, Irish occultist and theosophist (d. 1896)
- 1866 – Butch Cassidy, American criminal (d. 1908)
- 1880 – Charles Christie, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded the Christie Film Company (d. 1955)
- 1889 – Herbert Yardley, American cryptologist (d. 1958)
- 1892 – Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish inventor, invented the Radar (d. 1973)
- 1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and game designer, created Scrabble (d. 1993)
- 1906 – Samuel Beckett, Irish-French author, playwright, and director, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- 1916 – Phyllis Fraser, American actress, journalist, and publisher, co-founded Beginner Books (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Robert Orville Anderson, American businessman, founded Atlantic Richfield Oil Co. (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American activist, founded American Atheists (d. 1995)
- 1923 – Don Adams, American actor and director (d. 2005)
- 1931 – Jon Stone, American screenwriter and producer, co-created Sesame Street (d. 1997)
- 1940 – Max Mosley, English race car driver and engineer, co-founded March Engineering
- 1944 – Jack Casady, American bass player (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and Jefferson Starship)
- 1951 – Peabo Bryson, American singer-songwriter
- 1962 – Hillel Slovak, Israeli-American guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers and What Is This?) (d. 1988)
- 1963 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
- 1994 – Elvis Merzļikins, Latvian ice hockey player
Matches
- 1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. (Edict repealed in 1685.)
- 1612 – Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island.
- 1613 – Samuel Argall captures Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father. She is brought to Henricus as hostage.
- 1699 – Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the Tenth Sikh Guru, Created Khalsa on this day at Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.
- 1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
- 1796 – The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.
- 1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
- 1873 – The Colfax massacre, in which more than 60 African Americans are murdered, takes place.
- 1902 – James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
- 1909 – The Turkish military reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
- 1919 – Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops gun down at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India; at least 1200 are wounded.
- 1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
- 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.
- 1944 – Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
- 1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
- 1948 – The Hadassah medical convoy massacre: In an ambush, 79 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital and a British soldier are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem.
- 1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.
- 1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
- 1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
- 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.
- 1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite,Westar 1.
- 1975 – Bus massacre in Lebanon: An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
- 1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.
- 1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
Despatches
- 548 – Ly Nam De, Vietnamese emperor (b. 503)
- 799 – Paul the Deacon, Italian monk and historian (b. 720)
- 814 – Krum, Bulgarian ruler
- 1592 – Bartolomeo Ammannati, Italian architect and sculptor (b. 1511)
- 2001 – Robert Moon, American postal inspector, created the ZIP code (b. 1917)
Left learns from North Korean propaganda
Piers Akerman – Sunday, April 13, 2014 (3:56am)
DRIVEN by what she calls “capitalist despair” Sydney documentary maker Anna Broinowski took a taxpayer-funded trip to the North Korean workers’ paradise returning with a her new work Aim High in Creation!
“Every time I turned on the news I’d see oil tankers washing up on pristine reefs, or a McDonald’s being built in a hospital, the mining giants doing whatever they wanted, and a coal seam gas mine had just been approved 200m from my house. It felt like capitalism was on steroids,” she said in one of many publicity interviews for her film.
With that sort of attitude and a TV locked onto the ABC, it is little wonder that she was reading a book on film directing written by dictator Kim Jong-Il, the second supreme leader of risibly called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, when she felt the urge to explore the North Korean propaganda production. Nor is it surprising that the North Korean masters welcomed to their studios Broinowski and producer Lizzette Atkins.
Funded by the Australian Government, the NSW Government, Screen NSW, the Victorian Government, Film Victoria Australia, the South Australian Government, Screen Australia and Unicorn Films, Broinowski was able to create her own anti-coal seam gas propaganda in the style of her North Korean hosts.
Though she claims awareness of North Korea’s horrific history of human rights abuses, it did not disabuse her of her goal, nor did it seem to interfere with her artistic drive.
“If you remove the brutality of the regime, which I didn’t see, it was serene and beautiful to be in a country with no internet, no advertising,” she told one interviewer.
“I’m not an apologist by any means. I know it’s an evil, repressive place as well, where 200,000 people are political prisoners and it’s brutal.
“However, I don’t think we’re getting the real story about the rest of North Korea. There was a purer, more innocent approach to fun than what we are used to in the jaded West.” Even the capital, Pyongyang “wasn’t the evil, diabolical place I had been led to expect,” she said.
Serendipitously, while Broinowski was honing her propaganda as a favourite of North Korea’s totalitarian regime, another Australian, former High Court Justice Michael Kirby, was putting the finishing touches on a UN report into human rights abuses in DPRK which recommended that its leadership be charged and referred to the International Criminal Court.
His commission found “an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association”.
Justice Kirby, who chaired the UN commission, doesn’t share Broinwoski’s admiration for the propaganda machine.
His report finds it is an “all-encompassing indoctrination machine that takes root from childhood to propagate an official personality cult and to manufacture absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader (Suryong), effectively to the exclusion of any thought independent of official ideology and State propaganda.
Propaganda, the report notes, is further used by the North Koreans to incite nationalistic hatred towards official enemies of the State, including Japan, the United States of America and the Republic of Korea, and their nationals. “Virtually all social activities undertaken by citizens of all ages are controlled by the Workers’ Party of Korea,” it says.
Those workers certainly know how to party, or at least, those favoured by the regime whom Broinowski was fraternising with do. She reports she drank copious quantities of Soju, local vodka, as she bonded with the cinematic crew.
As a foreigner and a woman, she was fortunate that her powerful friends were able to shield her from the sexual and gender-based violence endemic in the xenophobic state, where victims are afforded no protection from the State, any support services or recourse to justice.
According to the report, violations of the rights to food and to freedom of movement have resulted in women and girls becoming vulnerable to trafficking and increased engagement in transactional sex and prostitution.
One wonders what sort of small talk Broinowski engaged in as she tossed back the vodkas with her hosts.
Though hamburgers may seem scary to some Australian inner-urban dwellers, they don’t really compare with forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide.
Perhaps there is a documentary to be made. If Broinowski is available, Justice Kirby has the script ready.
Tragedy inside a batty scheme
Miranda Devine – Saturday, April 12, 2014 (11:12pm)
THE insulation royal commission under way in Brisbane encapsulates everything that went wrong in the six years of government that began and ended with Kevin Rudd.
Continue reading 'Tragedy inside a batty scheme'We pay so the Left may pray together
Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:58am)
Gerard
Henderson wonders why Leftists such as David Marr have such a distorted
and hostile view of their fellow citizens. But then he picked up a
program...
===Last Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald published the program for this year’s Sydney Writers Festival, which will begin on May 19…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
This year’s festival will host some important international writers, in addition to homegrown talent such as David Malouf and Thomas Keneally, along with New Zealand’s Eleanor Catton. However, when it comes to the Australian nonfiction area, this is yet another left-wing stack, with talent drawn from the ABC, Fairfax Media, Schwartz’s Black Inc and the like.
Participants include Robyn Archer, Monica Attard, Gregg Borschmann, Meredith Burgmann, Mike Carlton, Michael Cathcart, John Cleary, Robert Dessaix, Irina Dunn, Peter FitzSimons, Richard Flanagan, Malcolm Fraser, Clive Hamilton, Marieke Hardy, Dan Ilic, Benjamin Law, Michael Leunig, Antony Loewenstein, Marr, Julian Morrow, Linda Mottram, Henry Reynolds, Jeff Sparrow, Adam Spencer, Chris Taylor, Rodney Tiffen, Tom Tilley, Christos Tsiolkas and Andrew Upton. There is barely a conservative on the list.
It’s a case of Green Left Weekly meets The Monthly. Yet, as with other like functions, this year’s SWF will be heavily subsidised by taxpayers and ratepayers. This year, the NSW government has contributed $430,000, the City of Sydney $330,000 and the Australia Council $35,000…
Conferences where almost everyone agrees with almost everyone else are invariably boring. They also have the effect of distorting reality as the inner-city Left dismiss as bigoted the “they” who happen to live in suburban and regional Australia.
CLP wins
Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:55am)
The Northern Territory Government hangs on:
===(T)he Country Liberal Party have won the Blain by-election in convincing style...(Thanks to Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The win means the CLP will continue to govern with a majority.
Speaking of broken promises, why is the ABC biased?
Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:33am)
It would be, strictly
speaking, a broken promise. The Government is banking on not enough
people caring, other than those who’d never vote for it anyway - like
ABC staff:
===Prime Minister Tony Abbott is poised to break a key election promise by cutting funding to the ABC…But speaking of broken promises, why has the ABC broken its promise under the ABC Act to be impartial? Why has it broken its promise under its Editorial Policy to be balanced?
In a pledge his colleagues are now wishing he never made, Mr Abbott said on the night before the 2013 election: “No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS."…
Fairfax Media believes one of the options involves introducing an efficiency dividend to the ABC budget – an annual funding reduction used to achieve deep and continuous cuts to government agencies…
The ABC was allocated $1.03 billion in the 2013 federal budget. A 2.25 per cent efficiency dividend would see the broadcaster forced to strip around $22.5 million from its budget in the first year…
The ABC is one of only three government agencies, along with SBS and Safe Work Australia, currently exempt from the efficiency dividend…
It is believed the Abbott government does not consider an efficiency dividend on the ABC to be a broken promise, as nearly every other government department has one and savings need to be found across the board.
Martin Parkinson shouldn’t be so quick to shout “global warming”
Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:05am)
Oh dear. Could Parkinson nominate the islands where this has occurred, and where the cause is man-made warming?
Strangely enough:
===Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson has told an audience in Washington it appeared inevitable that Australia would have to resettle climate change refugees in the coming decades…True, this claim is made of Kiribati:
‘’[It] doesn’t necessarily arise because you wake up one morning and find water around your ankles because the sea level has risen,’’ he said. ‘’We are seeing it already in some of the small island countries where you are seeing potable water degradation in fresh water wells. If climate change plays out the way scientists believe, then it will be inevitable that there will be climate change refugees in our region and it would naturally fall to Australia and New Zealand to welcome any of those because of our historic links with those countries.’’
Rising sea levels that claim land on which houses are build and invade fresh water wells and plantations pose a threat to the very existence of many people living on low lying atolls in countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu....But wait. Rising sea levels at Kiribati? Really?
Tiiroi, a mother of two is a new to the settlement… The biggest difference she finds from the time she grew up a little girl is Tarawa is the scarcity of water.
“There are wells in this settlement that only have salty water. Neighbours who live a little bit away from the sea allow us to get drinking water from their well,” the 27 year-old said…
The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong is well aware of the challenges posed by beach erosion, sea level rise and contamination of fresh water sources to his country.
Strangely enough:
Islands in Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia are among those which have grown, largely due to coral debris, land reclamation and sediment.Even the 2012 Republic of Kiribati Report Series notes:
The findings, published in the magazine New Scientist, were gathered by comparing changes to 27 Pacific islands over the last 20 to 60 years using historical aerial photos and satellite images.
However, there is evidence that at present, climate change is not the main cause of coastal erosion, water shortages or overcrowding.The problem with the wells? Blame overpopulation first:
Peter Sinclair, water resources adviser at the SPC, heads a team measuring the quality of underground drinking water… However, population pressure is an issue in this discussion too, Mr Sinclair explains.
“As long as we get rainfall, the system will replenish, but the population pressure encroaches on the reserve and also affects the bacterial content in the water - we have contamination from housing, agriculture, from people holding pigs, the sanitation practices,” he says.
The Bolt Report today
Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (12:49am)
On the show today – Network 10 at 10am and 4pm....
How Bob Carr makes Tony Abbott look even better. And how journalists tried to save Julia Gillard.
Guests: Employment Minister Eric Abetz, Janet Albrechtsen, Cassandra Wilkinson and Gerard Henderson.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today'
===How Bob Carr makes Tony Abbott look even better. And how journalists tried to save Julia Gillard.
Guests: Employment Minister Eric Abetz, Janet Albrechtsen, Cassandra Wilkinson and Gerard Henderson.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
THE BOLT REPORT
13 APRIL 2014
INTERVIEW WITH ERIC ABETZ
ANDREW BOLT, PRESENTER: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Labor should cut some of its pro-union membership rules. Why? It’s not because Labor’s union links cost Labor the last election. It’s because Shorten is trying to save Labor from its next disaster: the Royal Commission into union corruption, which started this week and will look particularly at union slush funds.
JEREMY STOLJAR, Trades Union Royal Commission: There have been well-publicised reports, allegations and claims to the effect that certain union officials have set up such funds, procured money to be paid into them, and used them to pay for electioneering or other purposes.
ANDREW BOLT: Joining me is Employment Minister Eric Abetz, who is also government leader in the Senate. Eric, good morning.
ERIC ABETZ, EMPLOYMENT MINISTER: Good morning, and good to be in the studio.
ANDREW BOLT: Same for – I’m glad you are. Eric, what does Labor have to fear from the Royal Commission?
ERIC ABETZ: The dark secrets of the slush funds of the trade union movement that have often gone to assist people in their pre-selections, internal Labor ballots. These things may well come to light in the Royal Commission and then those that have been dabbling in that dark art of Labor faction fundraising and bankrolling will undoubtedly be embarrassed if these matters come to light.
ANDREW BOLT: Do you think Bill Shorten has questions to answer about the AWU slush fund that was set up by Bruce Wilson in the 1990s, Wilson being then Julia Gillard’s boyfriend, with Julia Gillard’s help as a solicitor?
ERIC ABETZ: I would have thought that there are a lot of questions as to whether or not Mr Shorten should have done more when he took over the Australian Workers Union to find out where those hundreds of thousands of dollars allegedly disappeared to. So, they’re questions for Mr Shorten, but at the end of the day, the Royal Commission will determine what tracks to go down to ascertain which witnesses may be able to provide material evidence to assist the Royal Commission.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, there was no mention of Julia Gillard in the Royal Commission’s opening day, and I should say that she denies any wrongdoing. But do you have any reason to believe that she will be questioned by the Commission?
ERIC ABETZ: I’m not going to try to tell the Royal Commission how it ought to undertake its duty of fulfilling the terms of reference. But, clearly, Ms Gillard was there as a player, drawing up the power of attorney, having her fingers in the
conveyancing file, and setting up the rules for this Australian Workers Union slush fund. So I think she has something to say about these matters, but whether it’s going to be considered material, that’s going to be for the Royal Commission.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, Martin Ferguson, the former Gillard Government minister, said this week he’d spoken to a builder who’d done renovations for the AWU and on Gillard’s house and is prepared to give evidence to the Royal Commission. I must say Gillard says that she paid for her renovations herself. How important was that, Martin Ferguson coming forward?
Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today'===
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4 her, so she knows how I see her
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Engineering students watch female dancers for the first time!
Engineering students see hot girls dance for the first time!
Check out Engineer Memes for more stuff!
This happened in Korea, and the group dancing is a Korean girl group named Waveya
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I know I said I was through posting pictures for this weekend, but I just found a lost folder full of forgotten images from Campo, 2010. Funny, but I really didn't know that this one year would provide me with three years of storm pictures. — in Boise City, OK.
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‘Infant beheadings, severed baby feet,’ but media still ignoring Gosnell trial.
It’s gruesome. It’s dramatic. It’s arguably the abortion-related story of the decade.
It's the murder trial of "House of Horrors" abortionist Kermit Gosnell. And the mainstream media is almost completely ignoring it.
Last night on "Special Report," Bret Baier of Fox News listed the number of times each of the five major networks covered the capital murder trial Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor accused of murdering seven born alive babies and a patient.
Here are the staggering results:
NBC: 0
MSNBC: 0
ABC: 0
CBS: 0
CNN: 1
http://
http://www.breitbart.com/
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Film Writers Tell Life as Communists from Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1951
http://
Edward Dmytryk, producer and director, told the story of how the “Hollywood Ten” became the “Hollywood Nine” when he realized the true motives of Communism.
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Some times, out of good faith, his followers make God sound really harsh.
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- 1111 – Henry V, the last ruler of the Salian dynasty, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1813 – A "miserable" new parish church forReculver was consecrated, replacing a 1,144-year-old church which had been mostly demolished in 1809, despite being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon church architectureand sculpture.
- 1945 – World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces captured Vienna in German-occupied Austria.
- 1958 – In the midst of the Cold War, American pianist Van Cliburn(pictured) won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
- 1984 – Indian forces launched Operation Meghdoot, a preemptive attack on the disputed Siachen Glacier region of Kashmir, triggeringa military conflict with Pakistan.
Events[edit]
- 1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
- 1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. (Edict repealed in 1685.)
- 1612 – Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island.
- 1613 – Samuel Argall captures Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father. She is brought to Henricus as hostage.
- 1699 – Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the Tenth Sikh Guru, Created Khalsa on this day at Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.
- 1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.
- 1796 – The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.
- 1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
- 1849 – Hungary becomes a republic.
- 1861 – American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
- 1868 – The Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Maqdala.
- 1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
- 1873 – The Colfax massacre, in which more than 60 African Americans are murdered, takes place.
- 1902 – James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
- 1909 – The Turkish military reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
- 1919 – The establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
- 1919 – Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops gun down at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India; at least 1200 are wounded.
- 1919 – Eugene V. Debs is imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I.
- 1941 – A Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
- 1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
- 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.
- 1944 – Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
- 1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
- 1945 – World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna, Austria.
- 1948 – The Hadassah medical convoy massacre: In an ambush, 79 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital and a British soldier are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem.
- 1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.
- 1958 – Cold War: American Van Cliburn wins the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
- 1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
- 1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
- 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.
- 1972 – The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling theRepublic of China administering Taiwan.
- 1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.
- 1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite,Westar 1.
- 1975 – Bus massacre in Lebanon: An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
- 1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.
- 1984 – India moves into Siachen Glacier thus annexing more territory from the Line of Control.
- 1987 – Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999.
- 1992 – The Great Chicago flood devastates much of central Chicago.
- 1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
Births[edit]
- 1506 – Peter Faber, French theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (d. 1546)
- 1519 – Catherine de' Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France (d. 1589)
- 1570 – Guy Fawkes, English soldier, planned the Gunpowder Plot (d. 1606)
- 1573 – Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1625)
- 1593 – Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, English politician (d. 1641)
- 1618 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author (d. 1693)
- 1713 – Pierre Jélyotte, French tenor (d. 1797)
- 1729 – Thomas Percy, Irish bishop (d. 1811)
- 1732 – Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)
- 1735 – Isaac Low, American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce (d. 1791)
- 1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American politician, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)
- 1747 – Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793)
- 1764 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (d. 1830)
- 1769 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter (d. 1830)
- 1771 – Richard Trevithick, English engineer (d. 1833)
- 1780 – Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer, invented the Screw-pile lighthouse (d. 1868)
- 1784 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)
- 1787 – John Robertson, American lawyer and politician (d. 1873)
- 1794 – Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist (d. 1867)
- 1802 – Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist (d. 1884)
- 1808 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-American inventor (d. 1889)
- 1824 – William Alexander, Irish bishop (d. 1911)
- 1825 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1868)
- 1828 – Joseph Lightfoot, English bishop and theologian (d. 1889)
- 1832 – Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorian author (d. 1889)
- 1841 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (d. 1905)
- 1850 – Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, Irish astronomer (d. 1917)
- 1851 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
- 1851 – William Quan Judge, Irish occultist and theosophist (d. 1896)
- 1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, founded the F.W. Woolworth Company (d. 1919)
- 1860 – James Ensor, Belgian painter (d. 1949)
- 1866 – Butch Cassidy, American criminal (d. 1908)
- 1872 – Alexander Roda Roda, Austrian-Croatian journalist and author (d. 1945)
- 1872 – John Cameron, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 1935)
- 1873 – John W. Davis, American lawyer and politician, 14th United States Solicitor General (d. 1955)
- 1875 – Ray Lyman Wilbur, American doctor, academic, and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1949)
- 1879 – Edward Bruce, American lawyer (d. 1943)
- 1880 – Charles Christie, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded the Christie Film Company (d. 1955)
- 1885 – Vean Gregg, American baseball player (d. 1964)
- 1885 – Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician (d. 1942)
- 1885 – Georg Lukács, Hungarian philosopher and critic (d. 1971)
- 1887 – Gordon S. Fahrni, Canadian physician (d. 1995)
- 1887 – Peter Ratican, American soccer player (d. 1922)
- 1889 – Herbert Yardley, American cryptologist (d. 1958)
- 1890 – Frank Murphy, American jurist and politician, 56th United States Attorney General (d. 1949)
- 1890 – Dadasaheb Torne, Indian director and producer (d. 1960)
- 1891 – Maurice Buckley, Australian soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1921)
- 1891 – Nella Larsen, American author (d. 1964)
- 1891 – Robert Scholl, German accountant and politician (d. 1973)
- 1892 – Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, English marshal (d. 1984)
- 1892 – Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish inventor, invented the Radar (d. 1973)
- 1894 – Arthur Fadden, Australian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1973)
- 1897 – Werner Voss, German pilot (d. 1917)
- 1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and game designer, created Scrabble (d. 1993)
- 1900 – Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer (d. 1976)
- 1901 – Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst (d. 1981)
- 1902 – Philippe de Rothschild, French race car driver (d. 1988)
- 1902 – Marguerite Henry, American author (d. 1997)
- 1904 – David Robinson, English businessman and philanthropist (d. 1987)
- 1906 – Samuel Beckett, Irish-French author, playwright, and director, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- 1906 – Bud Freeman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1991)
- 1907 – Harold Stassen, American academic and politician, 25th Governor of Minnesota (d. 2001)
- 1909 – Stanislaw Ulam, Ukrainian-American mathematician (d. 1984)
- 1909 – Eudora Welty, American author (d. 2001)
- 1911 – Ico Hitrec, Croatian footballer and manager (d. 1946)
- 1911 – Jean-Louis Lévesque, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1994)
- 1913 – Kermit Tyler, American pilot and lieutenant (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Phyllis Fraser, American actress, journalist, and publisher, co-founded Beginner Books (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Robert Orville Anderson, American businessman, founded Atlantic Richfield Oil Co. (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Roland Gaucher, French journalist (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Howard Keel, American actor and singer (d. 2004)
- 1919 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American activist, founded American Atheists (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Phil Tonken, American voice actor (d. 2000)
- 1920 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (d. 1982)
- 1920 – Claude Cheysson, French politician, Foreign Minister of France (d. 2012)
- 1920 – Liam Cosgrave, Irish politician, 6th Taoiseach of Ireland
- 1920 – John LaPorta, American clarinet player and saxophonist (d. 2004)
- 1921 – Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Dutch-Swiss businessman (d. 2002)
- 1922 – Heinz Baas, German footballer and manager (d. 1994)
- 1922 – John Braine, English author (d. 1986)
- 1922 – Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian politician, 1st President of Tanzania (d. 1999)
- 1922 – Valve Pormeister, Estonian architect (d. 2002)
- 1923 – Don Adams, American actor and director (d. 2005)
- 1923 – A. H. Halsey, English sociologist
- 1923 – Stanley Tanger, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Jack T. Chick, American illustrator and publisher
- 1924 – Stanley Donen, American director and choreographer
- 1926 – Ellie Lambeti, Greek actress (d. 1983)
- 1926 – John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough
- 1927 – Rosemary Haughton, English theologian
- 1927 – Maurice Ronet, French actor and director (d. 1983)
- 1928 – Alan Clark, English politician (d. 1999)
- 1931 – Robert Enrico, French director and screenwriter (d. 2001)
- 1931 – Dan Gurney, American race car driver
- 1931 – Arturo Rodenak, Argentinian-Chilean footballer (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Jon Stone, American screenwriter and producer, co-created Sesame Street (d. 1997)
- 1932 – Orlando Letelier, Chilean-American economist, politician, and educator (d. 1976)
- 1933 – Ben Nighthorse Campbell, American soldier and politician
- 1934 – John Muckler, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
- 1935 – Lyle Waggoner, American actor
- 1936 – Pierre Rosenberg, French historian
- 1937 – Edward Fox, English actor
- 1937 – Lanford Wilson, American playwright (d. 2011)
- 1938 – John Weston, British diplomat
- 1939 – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Paul Sorvino, American actor
- 1940 – Mike Beuttler, Egyptian-English race car driver (d. 1988)
- 1940 – Lester Chambers, American singer-songwriter (The Chambers Brothers)
- 1940 – Vladimir Cosma, Romanian composer and conductor
- 1940 – J. M. G. Le Clézio, French author and educator, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1940 – Jim McNab, Scottish footballer (d. 2006)
- 1940 – Max Mosley, English race car driver and engineer, co-founded March Engineering
- 1941 – Jean-Marc Reiser, French writer and illustrator (d. 1983)
- 1941 – Michael Stuart Brown, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 – Marjorie Yates, English actress
- 1942 – Ataol Behramoğlu Turkish poet and author
- 1942 – Bill Conti, American composer and conductor
- 1943 – Billy Kidd, American skier
- 1943 – Tim Krabbé, Dutch journalist and author
- 1943 – Philip Norman, English novelist, biographer, journalist and playwright
- 1944 – Charles Burnett, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Jack Casady, American bass player (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and Jefferson Starship)
- 1944 – Susan Davis, American politician
- 1945 – Tony Dow, American actor, director, and producer
- 1945 – Lowell George, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Little Feat and Mothers of Invention) (d. 1979)
- 1945 – Bob Kalsu, American football player and lieutenant (d. 1970)
- 1945 – Judy Nunn, Australian actress and screenwriter
- 1946 – Al Green, American singer-songwriter, producer, and pastor
- 1946 – Christopher Strauli, English actor
- 1947 – Rae Armantrout, American poet
- 1947 – Mike Chapman, Australian-English songwriter and producer
- 1948 – Sue Doughty, English politician
- 1948 – Nam Hae-il, South Korean navy officer
- 1948 – Drago Jančar, Slovenian author and playwright
- 1949 – Frank Doran, Scottish politician
- 1949 – Christopher Hitchens, English-American journalist and author (d. 2011)
- 1949 – Ricardo Zunino, Argentinian race car driver
- 1950 – Joseph Paul Franklin, American serial killer (d. 2013)
- 1950 – Terry Lester, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1950 – Ron Perlman, American actor
- 1950 – William Sadler, American actor
- 1951 – Leszek Borysiewicz, British immunologist
- 1951 – Peabo Bryson, American singer-songwriter
- 1951 – Peter Davison, English actor
- 1951 – Joachim Streich, German footballer and manager
- 1951 – Max Weinberg, American drummer (E Street Band)
- 1952 – Erick Avari, Indian-American actor
- 1952 – Ron Dittemore, American businessman
- 1952 – David Drew, English politician
- 1952 – Jonjo O'Neill, Irish racehorse trainer
- 1953 – Stephen Byers, English politician
- 1953 – Dany Laferrière, Canadian author
- 1954 – Jimmy Destri, American keyboard player and songwriter (Blondie)
- 1954 – Niels Olsen, Danish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Olsen Brothers)
- 1954 – Barbara Roche, English politician
- 1955 – Steve Camp, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1955 – Louis Johnson (bassist), American bass player Brothers Johnson
- 1955 – Lupe Pintor, Mexican boxer
- 1955 – Ole von Beust, German politician, 1st Mayor of Hamburg
- 1956 – Possum Bourne, New Zealand race car driver (d. 2003)
- 1956 – Alan Devonshire, English footballer and football manager
- 1957 – Amy Goodman, American journalist and author
- 1957 – Gary Kroeger, American actor
- 1957 – Dallas Moir, Maltese-Scottish cricketer
- 1957 – Saundra Santiago, American actress
- 1960 – Lyn Brown, English politician
- 1960 – Bob Casey, Jr., American lawyer and politician
- 1960 – Olaf Ludwig, German cyclist
- 1960 – Rudi Völler, German footballer and manager
- 1961 – Hiro Yamamoto, American bass player and songwriter (Soundgarden and Truly)
- 1962 – Hillel Slovak, Israeli-American guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers and What Is This?) (d. 1988)
- 1963 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
- 1964 – Davis Love III, American golfer
- 1964 – Caroline Rhea, Canadian-American actress
- 1964 – John Swinney, Scottish politician
- 1965 – Patricio Pouchulu, Argentinian architect and educator
- 1966 – Mando, Greek singer-songwriter
- 1966 – Ali Boumnijel, Tunisian footballer
- 1966 – Marc Ford, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (The Black Crowes and Burning Tree)
- 1967 – Dana Barros, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1967 – Olga Tañón, Puerto Rican singer-songwriter (Chantelle)
- 1969 – Dirk Muschiol, German footballer
- 1970 – Monty Brown, American football player and wrestler
- 1970 – Gerry Creaney, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1970 – Szilveszter Csollány, Hungarian gymnast
- 1970 – Ricardo Rincón, Mexican-American baseball player
- 1970 – Ricky Schroder, American actor and director
- 1971 – Valensia, Dutch singer-songwriter and producer
- 1971 – Dina Korzun, Russian actress
- 1971 – Danie Mellor, Australian painter and sculptor
- 1971 – Bo Outlaw, American basketball player
- 1972 – Mariusz Czerkawski, Polish ice hockey player
- 1972 – Aaron Lewis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Staind)
- 1973 – Bokeem Woodbine, American actor
- 1974 – Sergei Gonchar, Russian ice hockey player
- 1974 – Darren Turner, English race car driver
- 1974 – David Zdrilic, Australian footballer
- 1975 – Jasey-Jay Anderson, Canadian snowboarder
- 1975 – Lou Bega, German singer-songwriter
- 1975 – Bruce Dyer, English footballer
- 1975 – Tatiana Navka, Russian ice dancer
- 1976 – Jonathan Brandis, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1976 – Valentina Cervi, Italian actress
- 1976 – Patrik Eliáš, Czech-American ice hockey player
- 1976 – Glenn Howerton, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1976 – Yoo Ji-tae, South Korean actor and director
- 1977 – Jeff Stearns, American actor
- 1977 – Margus Tsahkna, Estonian politician
- 1978 – Arron Asham, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Nick Garrett, English singer (The Swingle Singers and Amici Forever)
- 1978 – Kyle Howard, American actor
- 1978 – James Jordan, English dancer and choreographer
- 1978 – Carles Puyol, Spanish footballer
- 1978 – Raemon Sluiter, Dutch tennis player
- 1978 – Sylvie van der Vaart, Dutch model
- 1978 – Keydrick Vincent, American football player
- 1979 – Gréta Arn, Hungarian tennis player
- 1979 – Baron Davis, American basketball player
- 1979 – Tony Lundon, Irish singer-songwriter, producer, and director (Liberty X)
- 1979 – Síle Seoige, Irish television presenter
- 1979 – Meghann Shaughnessy, American tennis player
- 1979 – Murat Yıldırım, Turkish actor
- 1980 – Colleen Clinkenbeard, American voice actress, producer, director, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Jana Cova, Czech porn actress and model
- 1980 – Kelli Giddish, American actress
- 1980 – Jason Maguire, Irish jockey
- 1980 – Alan Melikdjanian, Latvian-American actor, director, and producer
- 1980 – Quentin Richardson, American basketball player
- 1981 – Nat Borchers, American soccer player
- 1981 – Gemma Doyle, Scottish politician
- 1981 – Courtney Peldon, American actress
- 1981 – Bryan Scott, American football player
- 1982 – Tim Hamilton, Czech porn actor and model
- 1982 – Nellie McKay, English-American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1982 – Janice Vidal, Hong Kong singer and actress
- 1982 – Jill Vidal, Hong Kong singer and actress
- 1983 – Heidi Anderson, American voice actress
- 1983 – Claudio Bravo, Chilean footballer
- 1983 – Schalk Burger, South African rugby player
- 1983 – Derek Lee Nixon, American actor and producer
- 1983 – Hunter Pence, American baseball player
- 1984 – Jarmo Ahjupera, Estonian footballer
- 1984 – Anders Lindegaard, Danish footballer
- 1984 – Hiro Mizushima, Japanese actor
- 1984 – Matthew Needham, English actor
- 1985 – Anna Jennings-Edquist, Australian actress, director, and playwright
- 1985 – Algo Kärp, Estonian skier
- 1987 – Brandon Hardesty, American actor
- 1987 – Massimiliano Pesenti, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Allison Weiss, American singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
- 1988 – Petteri Koponen, Finnish basketball player
- 1990 – Alyssa Mendonsa, Indian singer
- 1991 – Akeem Adams, Trinidadian footballer (d. 2013)
- 1991 – Ulises Dávila, Mexican footballer
- 1991 – Josh Gordon, American football player
- 1993 – Hannah Marks, American actress
- 1994 – Ángelo Henríquez, Chilean footballer
- 1994 – Elvis Merzļikins, Latvian ice hockey player
Deaths[edit]
- 548 – Ly Nam De, Vietnamese emperor (b. 503)
- 799 – Paul the Deacon, Italian monk and historian (b. 720)
- 814 – Krum, Bulgarian ruler
- 1093 – Vsevolod I of Kiev (b. 1030)
- 1138 – Simon I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1076)
- 1592 – Bartolomeo Ammannati, Italian architect and sculptor (b. 1511)
- 1612 – Sasaki Kojirō, Japanese samurai (b. 1585)
- 1635 – Fakhr-al-Din II, Druze prince (b. 1572)
- 1638 – Henri, Duke of Rohan (b. 1579)
- 1641 – Richard Montagu, English clergyman (b. 1577)
- 1695 – Jean de La Fontaine, French author (b. 1621)
- 1716 – Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington, English admiral and politician (b. 1648)
- 1722 – Charles Leslie, Irish theologian (b. 1650)
- 1793 – Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, French politician (b. 1763)
- 1794 – Nicolas Chamfort, French playwright (b. 1741)
- 1826 – Franz Danzi, German cellist, composer, and conductor (b. 1763)
- 1853 – Leopold Gmelin, German chemist (b. 1788)
- 1853 – James Iredell, Jr., American politician, 23rd Governor of North Carolina (b. 1788)
- 1855 – Henry De la Beche, English geologist (b. 1796)
- 1868 – Tewodros II of Ethiopia (b. 1818)
- 1880 – Robert Fortune, Scottish botanist (b. 1813)
- 1882 – Bruno Bauer, German historian and philosopher (b. 1809)
- 1886 – John Humphrey Noyes, American religious leader, founded the Oneida Community (b. 1811)
- 1890 – Samuel J. Randall, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 33rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1828)
- 1909 – Whitley Stokes, Irish-English lawyer and scholar (b. 1830)
- 1910 – William Quiller Orchardson, Scottish painter (b. 1835)
- 1911 – John McLane, Scottish-American politician, 50th Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1852)
- 1911 – George Washington Glick, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of Kansas (b. 1827)
- 1912 – Takuboku Ishikawa, Japanese poet (b. 1886)
- 1918 – Lavr Kornilov, Russian general (b. 1870)
- 1925 – Frederik Buch, Danish actor (b. 1875)
- 1927 – Georg Voigt, German politician, Mayor of Frankfurt (b. 1866)
- 1936 – Konstantinos Demertzis, Greek politician 129th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1876)
- 1938 – Grey Owl, English-Canadian environmentalist (b. 1888)
- 1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)
- 1941 – William Twaits, Canadian soccer player (b. 1879)
- 1942 – Henk Sneevliet, Dutch politician (b. 1883)
- 1942 – Anton Uesson, Estonian engineer and politician, 17th Mayor of Tallinn (b. 1879)
- 1944 – Cécile Chaminade, French pianist and composer (b. 1857)
- 1945 – Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (b. 1874)
- 1954 – Samuel Jones, American high jumper (b. 1880)
- 1954 – Angus Lewis Macdonald, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1890)
- 1956 – Emil Nolde, German painter (b. 1867)
- 1959 – Eduard van Beinum, Dutch conductor (b. 1901)
- 1961 – John A. Bennett, American soldier (b. 1935)
- 1962 – Culbert Olson, American lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of California (b. 1876)
- 1966 – Abdul Salam Arif, Iraqi colonel and politician, 2nd President of Iraq (b. 1921)
- 1966 – Carlo Carrà, Italian painter (b. 1881)
- 1966 – Georges Duhamel, French author (b. 1884)
- 1967 – Nicole Berger, French actress (b. 1934)
- 1969 – Alfred Karindi, Estonian pianist and composer (b. 1901)
- 1971 – Michel Brière, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1949)
- 1971 – Juhan Smuul, Estonian writer (b. 1921)
- 1975 – Larry Parks, American actor (b. 1914)
- 1975 – François Tombalbaye, Chadian politician, 1st President of Chad (b. 1918)
- 1978 – Jack Chambers, Canadian painter and director (b. 1931)
- 1980 – Markus Höttinger, Austrian race car driver (b. 1956)
- 1980 – Karl Stegger, Danish actor (b. 1913)
- 1983 – Theodore Stephanides, Greek doctor and author (b. 1896)
- 1983 – Gerry Hitchens,English Football International (b.1934)
- 1984 – Richard Hurndall, English actor (b. 1910)
- 1984 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harp player and musicologist (b. 1911)
- 1986 – Stephen Stucker, American actor (b. 1947)
- 1988 – Jean Gascon, Canadian actor and director (b. 1920)
- 1992 – Maurice Sauvé, Canadian economist, businessman, and politician (b. 1923)
- 1993 – Wallace Stegner, American historian and author (b. 1909)
- 1996 – James Burke, American gangster (b. 1931)
- 1996 – Leila Mackinlay, English author (b. 1910)
- 1997 – Bryant Bowles, American soldier and activist, founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People (b. 1920)
- 1997 – Dorothy Frooks, American author and actress (b. 1896)
- 1997 – Voldemar Väli, Estonian wrestler (b. 1903)
- 1998 – Patrick de Gayardon, French skydiver and BASE jumper (b. 1960)
- 1999 – Ortvin Sarapu, New Zealand chess player (b. 1924)
- 1999 – Willi Stoph, German politician, 2nd Prime Minister of East Germany (b. 1914)
- 2000 – Giorgio Bassani, Italian author and poet (b. 1916)
- 2000 – Frenchy Bordagaray, American baseball player (b. 1910)
- 2001 – Robert Moon, American postal inspector, created the ZIP code (b. 1917)
- 2001 – Jimmy Logan, Scottish actor, producer, impresario and director (b. 1928)
- 2002 – Desmond Titterington, Irish race car driver (b. 1928)
- 2004 – Caron Keating, English-Irish television host (b. 1962)
- 2005 – Don Blasingame, American baseball player, manager, and coach (b. 1932)
- 2005 – Johnnie Johnson, American pianist and songwriter (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Johnny Loughrey, Irish singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
- 2005 – Philippe Volter, Belgian actor (b. 1959)
- 2006 – Bill Baker, American baseball player, coach, and umpire (b. 1911)
- 2006 – Muriel Spark, Scottish author (b. 1918)
- 2007 – Don Selwyn, New Zealand actor and director (b. 1935)
- 2008 – John Wheeler, American physicist and educator (b. 1911)
- 2009 – Mark Fidrych, American baseball player (b. 1954)
- 2009 – Harry Kalas, American sportscaster (b. 1936)
- 2009 – Bruce Snyder, American football player and coach (b. 1940)
- 2012 – William B. Buffum, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Lebanon (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Cecil Chaudhry, Pakistani pilot, academic, and activist (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Shūichi Higurashi, Japanese illustrator (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Marilyn Lovell Matz, American actress and singer (b. 1931)
- 2012 – David S. Smith, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Sweden (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Robert Wigmore, Cook Islander politician, 14th Deputy Prime Minister of the Cook Islands (b. 1949)
- 2013 – Frank Bank, American actor (b. 1942)
- 2013 – Chi Cheng, American bass player (Deftones) (b. 1970)
- 2013 – Stephen Dodgson, English composer (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Dean Drummond, American composer and conductor (b. 1949)
- 2013 – Ian Henderson, Scottish-Kenyan police officer (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Adolph Herseth, American trumpet player (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Abdelhamid Kermali, Algerian footballer and manager (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (MFSB) (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Hilmar Myhra, Norwegian ski jumper (b. 1915)
- 2013 – Henk Peeters, Dutch painter (b. 1925)
- 2013 – William Steck, American violinist (b. 1934)
- 2013 – Lin Yang-kang, Chinese politician, 29th Vice Premier of the Republic of China (b. 1927)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- Jefferson's Birthday (United States)
- New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures. (see April 14):
“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” - Luke 9:23-24
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
Psalm 22:14
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, "Be not far from me," for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father's love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord's countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.
Evening
"The king's garden."
Nehemiah 3:15
Nehemiah 3:15
Mention of the king's garden by Nehemiah brings to mind the paradise which the King of kings prepared for Adam. Sin has utterly ruined that fair abode of all delights, and driven forth the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was thy fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which thou art a member, as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights.
See yonder another King's garden, which the King waters with his bloody sweat--Gethsemane, whose bitter herbs are sweeter far to renewed souls than even Eden's luscious fruits. There the mischief of the serpent in the first garden was undone: there the curse was lifted from earth, and borne by the woman's promised seed. My soul, bethink thee much of the agony and the passion; resort to the garden of the olive-press, and view thy great Redeemer rescuing thee from thy lost estate. This is the garden of gardens indeed, wherein the soul may see the guilt of sin and the power of love, two sights which surpass all others.
Is there no other King's garden? Yes, my heart, thou art, or shouldst be such. How do the flowers flourish? Do any choice fruits appear? Does the King walk within, and rest in the bowers of my spirit? Let me see that the plants are trimmed and watered, and the mischievous foxes hunted out. Come, Lord, and let the heavenly wind blow at thy coming, that the spices of thy garden may flow abroad. Nor must I forget the King's garden of the church. O Lord, send prosperity unto it. Rebuild her walls, nourish her plants, ripen her fruits, and from the huge wilderness, reclaim the barren waste, and make thereof "a King's garden."
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Abel
[Ä€'bĕl] - meadow, vanity or vapor.
The second son of Adam and Eve slain by his brother Cain (Gen. 4:1-15; Matt. 23:35; Heb. 11:4; 12:24).
The Man Who Was First to Die
Abel's name, meaning breath or vapor, is associated with the shortness of his life. What was his life but a vapor? (Ps. 90:6; Jas. 4:14 ) Abel was a shepherd and a possessor of flocks and herds; Cain was a tiller of the ground. It was not occupation, however, that parted these first two brothers in the world, but their conception of what was pleasing and acceptable to God. Abel feared God and because he did, he offered to God the best of his flock. His was a sacrifice of blood and represented the surrender of a heart to God. Cain brought what he had gathered from the earth, an offering representing his own effort. Because God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's, the angry brother slew Abel in the field. But Abel's blood cried from the ground for punishment. Abel's blood is placed alongside Christ's shed blood ( Heb. 12:24), which is better than Abel's in that his blood cried out for vengeance but the blood of Christ cries out for mercy. Abel's blood, although the blood of a righteous man (Matt. 23:35), cannot atone, but Christ's blood is ever efficacious (1 John 1:7). Abel is unique among Bible men in a fourfold direction:
He was the first one of the human race to die. He was the first person on the earth to be murdered. He was the first man to be associated with Christ. He was the first saint to present an offering acceptable to God.
Abel is also the name given to geographical locations (1 Sam. 6:18; 2 Sam. 20:14).
===
Today's reading: 1 Samuel 19-21, Luke 11:29-54 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 19-21
Saul Tries to Kill David
1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2 and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3 I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."
4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly.5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"
Today's New Testament reading: Luke 11:29-54
The Sign of Jonah
29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here....
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RECONCILED!
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. (2 Corinthians 5:14-19)
Many theologians have thought that reconciliation may be as important a word as any other in the biblical vocabulary of salvation. It is a word from the world of human relationships. It is that wonderful thing that sometimes happens when people at enmity with each other steer a course toward each other to confess wrongdoing, to repair a rift, to make up, to set aside differences, to cease hostilities, to reconcile.
Most people don’t really believe they are at enmity with God. They think that God is quite favorably disposed toward them. After all, why wouldn’t he be? Aren’t we quite lovable the way we are?
God’s love is not infatuation or God just being “nice.” The God of love loves the unlovable with a rigorous commitment. He loves human beings who have ignored him, thought in their arrogance that they don’t really need him, and who have been gods to themselves. God’s love sees us for who we can be, not who we are.
Christ, who had no sin, stood in the place of the sinner so that the sinner could stand before God–enmity gone, opposition put aside, friends again.
And thus we bear a message of reconciliation and we have a ministry of reconciliation. In other words when people in the world think of Christians, they ought to think: oh, yes, those are the people who are passionate about peace and reconciliation. They live in it and they live for it.
Here is the question: is that what people really do see in our attitudes and values?
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Today's Lent reading: John 3-4 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayJesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."
4 "How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit...."
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