There were an expulsion, an almost expulsion, and threats of future expulsions on this date. Protestant Reformer John Calvin and his followers were expelled from Geneva. There were a lot of those -and worse – during the Protestant Reformation and the resulting religious wars. President Andrew Johnson narrowly escaped expulsion from the White House when the Senate failed by one vote to convict him at his impeachment trial in 1868. And the House Unamerican Activities Committee began the first of each many sessions in 1938 seeking to root out and expel those who were activists against their country. They should have been looking in the mirror, in my humble opinion.
There were Russian events on this date. Russia and the United Kingdom signed the treaty of Gandamak in 1879, establishing the Afghan state. Ironically this was 100 years before the Russians, then organized as the Soviet Union, invaded that same Afghan state. The last tsar of Imperial Russia, Nicholas II, was crowned in 1896. And the US and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missle Treaty in 1972.
The Beatle’s album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in 1967. And for some reason by law in Iceland drivers changed from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight. What a confusing mess that must have been 🙁
Musician births were numerous on this date: American jazz singer and actor Al Jolson (1886), African American dancer and choreographer Frankie Manning (1914), trumpet player and bandleader Miles Davis (1926), rocker Stevie Nicks (1948), and country star Hank Williams Jr (1949).
And there were a slew of actors and actresses: John Wayne (1907), Jay Silverheels (Tonto, 1912), legendary Peter Cushing (1913), and James Arnes (Gunsmoke, 1923). And there was a crossover talent multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor Lenny Kravitz (1964, seen in Hunger Games), and Helen Bonham Carter (1966) seen in such diverse roles as the queen of England (King’s Speech), the bride of a mad scientist (Keith Brannan’s Frankenstein), the alien primate scientist (Planet of the Apes), and the crazed witch with a twisted sense of humor (Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry Potter).
The founder of the ASCAP – American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, Victor Herbert ceased his music on this date in 1924. He was an Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor. The founder of the Mayo Clinic, Charles Horace Mayo, which helps so many with their health issues, fell victim to his own health issues in 1939. We also lost actor Eddie Albert (2005) seen on Green Acres, Syndey Pollack (2008) who directed and screenwriter many films that we have seen, Art Linkletter (2010) who found out that” kids can say the darndest things”, and Ray Liotta (2022) who will always be remembered as the first “he will come” Shoeless Joe Jackson of Field of Dreams.
Today is remembered in Australia as National Sorry Day. A day of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people, for the great harm that was done to the Aboriginal Peoples, whose very culture and children were stolen over the decades of colonization. And in a notice that reminded me of the only time I got sent to the principal’s office – it is National Paper Airplane Day.
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