First Planting Day

This was my first planting day for the summer – so happy to be doing it again. Not quite as impressive as Alison Hargreaves, who in 1995 became the first woman to summit Mt Everest without supplemental oxygen or help from sherpas. Not as far-reaching as the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912, which would become the Royal Air Force and fight off the Nazi’s attempt to invade Great Britain. But not harmful, like the US declaring war on Mexico over a border dispute in 1846,\. Nor the visit of the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) to the Cal Berkeley campus in 1960 which, rightly so, brought out hundreds of student protestors. Nor the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1981.

This date saw birthdays for Russian prince and saint Alexander Nevsky (1221), one half of the Gilbert & Sullivan musical writing team – Arthur Sullivan (1842), American boxer and world champ Joe Louis (1914), musical genius Stevie Wonder (1950), and late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert(1964).

Leaving us on this date were American businessman, and co-founder of the International Harvester Company Cyrus McCormack (1884) as well as Ukranian-American author and playwright Sholem Aleichem (1916) whose writings created the basis for the play Fiddler on the Roof.

This date also saw the passing of four notable actors and actresses: Gary Cooper (1961, High Noon, For Whom the Bell Tolls), Dan Blocker (1972, Hoss on Bonanza ), Doris Day, (2019, two many films with two many notable costars), and Margot Kidder (2018) also Lois Lane.