Today in History...

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Definitely one of his best works. The subtlety of scale, proportion and detail is amazing.

[El Diablo 4232]

September 9th, 1543, Mary Stuart was crowned Queen of Scots at Stirling Castle, nine months after she was born.

[HouTex 1850]

1850 – The Compromise of 1850 transfers a third of Texas's claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to federal control in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

47 minutes ago, HouTex said:

1850 – The Compromise of 1850 transfers a third of Texas's claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to federal control in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.

I wonder it they'd let us buy it back for the $10 million?

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

September 9th, 9 AD, three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus were ambushed and annhilated by six Germanic tribes allied under the leadership of Arminius, a Germanic youth who had been held in Rome as a child hostage, and took full advantage of that opportunity by rising through the ranks of the Roman military, having become a Roman citizen.

Arminius served the Roman military well during the Great Illyrian Revolt, also known as the Bellum Batonianum ("War of the Batos") from 6-9 AD. He was then sent North to the Germanic states, where he secretly plotted with the locals to rebel against the Romans.

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (Clades Variana, or "Varan Disaster) saw the end of Roman control of all Germanic territories east of the Rhine. There are no accurate assessments of troop strength or losses, especially on the Germanic side, but the estimates are that somewhere between 20,000 and 36,000 Romans took part, with somewhere between 16,000-20,000 dead, and most of the rest enslaved. It is still to this day widely regarded as Rome's greatest battlefield defeat (though they made some strategic blunders in other battles that probably affected them more directly).

[Post Oak 20182]

Any WW2 dorks need to check this out.  For the next 6 years they are gonna track WW2 in real time weekly. First 2 eps are up and look good.

 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Just now, Post Oak said:

Any WW2 dorks need to check this out.  For the next 6 years they are gonna track WW2 in real time weekly. First 2 eps are up and look good.

 

Holy shit I'm in.

[Post Oak 20182]

 

Holy shit I'm in.

I know.  I'm a sucker for stuff like this. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Just now, Post Oak said:

I know.  I'm a sucker for stuff like this. 

Yeah, WWII fascinates me.

[elfenix 34169]

on this day in 1945, Mike the Headless Chicken lost his head

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

[Guest]

17 years ago today, obviously...cue the “Never forget”

[CowboyFred 1151]

Damn can’t believe it’s been that long.  Still remember it like it was yesterday.  Thanks to all first responders 

['stache 21744]

Dang, I almost forgot.

[ConferenceRoom 6123]

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On a somewhat different note...

September 11th is New Year's Day for congregants of the Coptic Orthodox Church. This is the feast of Nayrouz (alternate spelling Neyrouz) when martyrs and confessors of the Coptic Christian faith are commemorated.

There are a lot of linguistic peculiarities about this date -- it is the first day of the Coptic month "Thout" which sounds eerily similar to "Thoth"... the ancient Egyptian month named for the God Thoth, who was the "keeper of the heavens" and the "arbiter of the Gods".

Likewise, ancient Arabs, who brought the writing methods and styles on which recorded history was passed down to the west, confused the ancient Egyptian new year's festival "Ni-Yarouou" (the feast of the rivers) with the Persian feast of "Nowruz" -- the Persian new year which typically falls in the middle of Spring.

The Coptic calendar starts from the time Diocletian became the Roman Emperor (284 C.E.) which is marked as "A.M." (Anno Martyrum, or "Year of the Martyrs")... which, of course, is different still from the Hebrew calendar designation of "Anno Mundi" or "Year of the World". Because, you know, metric system. Or something.

[AUS-97HORN 11669]

its still kinda tough to believe that its 17 fucking years later. 

Love or hate Rob & Katy based on later events, but Hornfans earned its wings 17 years ago today.  The internet was about the only thing working in NYC in terms of communication, I remember so many NYC residents jumping onto the HF site and finding information, and/or asking friends to tell the NYC residents' friends/relatives' that they were safe.

plus the actual play by play as the day progressed.

Just a bonkers day

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

Voices from Inside the Towers

[El Diablo 4232]

September 12th, 1909, Kenneth Threadgill was born. 

[HouTex 1850]

Busy day in history.

• 1953 – U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.
• 1959 – The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon.
• 1959 – Bonanza premieres, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color.
• 1962 – President Kennedy delivers his We choose to go to the Moon speech at Rice University.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

September 12th is a Russian holiday whose global lack of popularity is a little puzzling for anyone who has ever been a keen observer of human behavior and of pop culture. 

Sergey Ivanovich Morozov, Governor of Ulyanovsk (obviously a regional government in Russia) in 2005 declared September 12th to be День зачатия or "Day of Conception". 

Russia is facing what has internally been described as a "demographic crisis" owing to low birth rates, and the solution, evidently, is to give couples time off from work to procreate. Bonus prizes are given to families who give birth on June 12th, in addition to cash incentives for couples who have more than one child.

[Armybrat 40710]

On 9/11/2018 at 8:34 AM, AUS-97HORN said:

its still kinda tough to believe that its 17 fucking years later. 

Love or hate Rob & Katy based on later events, but Hornfans earned its wings 17 years ago today.  The internet was about the only thing working in NYC in terms of communication, I remember so many NYC residents jumping onto the HF site and finding information, and/or asking friends to tell the NYC residents' friends/relatives' that they were safe.

plus the actual play by play as the day progressed.

Just a bonkers day

At that time I was a member of a small Las Vegas social board with participants from all over. We had even gathered in Vegas for some group meets the previous two years. One poster who worked at the WTC was communicating that morning with his wife who posted a running commentary about him on the forum.

It was heart wrenching when she reported that his office staff had been told to evacuate, then a few minutes later to return to their offices. She never heard from him after that, and by evening she posted “I don’t think he’s coming home”. Very bizarre how the Port Authority emergency initially reacted to the obvious.

He left behind his wife & newborn daughter. RIP Dennis Gomes, aka “Trane”.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Armybrat

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, HouTex said:

Busy day in history.

• 1953 – U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.
• 1959 – The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon.
• 1959 – Bonanza premieres, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color.
• 1962 – President Kennedy delivers his We choose to go to the Moon speech at Rice University.

Bonanza in color. That was a huge deal for those with a color TV. I remember our neighbors, an elderly couple, would invite us over to watch the Bonanza Christmas special. Color was so bad on TV's back then.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

September 12, 1988. Jamaica is struck by its first really major hurricane in about 25 years. Hurricane Gilbert with sustained winds of 160 MPH and gusts of 185 MPH over a minute in duration. Sort of a class 3.5 before becoming a full class 5 and striking Mexico.

We got married on sept. 10.  Our honey moon to Jamaica became center focus of the wedding week for us. Everyone said, "it'll turn they always turn, Jamaica almost never gets hit". So we went ahead and boarded the plane on sept. 11. All the stewardess and flight crew said "hey mon no worries, hurry -cane turn, dey always turn mon.

The dude in the airport serving up complimentary drinks said Hey mon, noooo worries hurry-cane turn, dey always turn mon... Another fruit-tee alcoholic beverage mon ?".

The bus driver to our resort, "Hey mon nooooooo worries hurry-cane turn, dey aaaaaalways turns, no worries mon,  no worries, wanna buy a bag of weed or coke ?".

The chick at the front desk, "Hey mon no worries, the hurry-cane she turning....dey always turn mon... please enjoy your stay".

That night, beautiful sunset, perfect temperature, strong drinks, weed  (purchased from the bus driver) sea breezes, the reggae band strolling thru the courtyard amongst the palm trees and peacocks.  They all said "Hey mon, noooooo worries dee hurry-cane turn mon, dey aaaalways turn mon,  wanna buy some weed or coke ?".

The next morning on the local radio station, "HEY MON, BEEEEEEEEG PROBLEM.  De hurry-cane not turning mon, she go-na heet Ja-maica mon !!  Let your horses and cows in-to dee fields, and your goats and cheekens into the dee how-sss.   BEEEEEEEG PROBLEM MON, see you in a few days........"

We're listening to that and a sheet of paper slides under the door. "We regret to inform you that the hurricane is coming our way, and will make landfall  sometime today. Please make sure your exterior french doors are secured, fill your tub with water for drinking, and place anything that can fly around in your bathroom, and please report to the auditorium by 2:00".  So we did what any prudent people would do, and hit the bar to get good and sloshed before we lost power. They were boarding up the windows in the bar as we, along with everyone else drank on.....and the skies darkened..... (ooooh scary stuff).

We spent that day and evening all huddled together with the rest of the hotel guests, most of which were honey mooners like us.  The staff put on a good face and handed out lots of alcohol, we played lots of drinking games, the staff really put on a good face.

We had a 2nd story mountain facing suite (we couldn't afford 5th and 6th floor ocean front suites). I took hourly photos from the balcony in our room from the morning of til the next day when it had passed.  The morning of, it was a cloudy view up into beautiful, lush, tropical covered mountains. The next day it was bare hills, and the remnants of the houses (you couldn't see thru the trees previously), strewn across those hills to the sounds of guys chopping at huuuuge downed palm trees with friggin' machetes.

We rode out that storm for 10-15 hours or so before it headed off east for more destruction. It was a bit scary at times.  Lots of broken glass, roof leaks everywhere, shit crashing outside in every direction, the power went out pretty quickly.  You could walk down hallways lined with candles in different stages of life for days afterwards. No water, the tub drained out while we were huddled in the theater.

You had to carry a bucket of water to your room to flush your toilet. Those more expensive beach front suites all their lovely ocean view glass blown out, and were up 5-6 flights of stairs.  Flushing your toilet was a pain in the ass for those folks. We were protected by our mountain facing, second floor room....  we took some measure of satisfaction out of that, and said fuck it, we got a memory for life, and made the best of it the rest of the week.  I'm sure there were some new marriages that didn't survive that ordeal.

We drank Red stripe beer, and ate lots of "curried goat" the next 4 days. The staff couldn't leave so they had no idea how their families had fared.  Some guests were ass holes about the whole thing, bitching about everything like the staff could control the weather.  Complaining 2 days after the storm when their scheduled excursion couldn't take place.  

The whole island was flattened , and the people waiting on them hadn't been home or knew jack about their families well being. One very Snookie like Jersey chick actually asked the hotel manager, during the height of the storm, if they were gonna get a refund.  His response was "Miss, I'll just be happy if we all make it out of this unhurt or worse".

The US Army dropped chainsaws on the beaches for the recovery crews to start cutting up the 3- 5' diameter, over turned palm trees littering every street and entrance to a building on the entire island.  

We finally got out on the 7th and last day of the trip, ya know that was the scariest time for me, waiting, hoping we didn't miss our flight out..... I'll never wear a life vest again... wait... wrong movie phrasing.

Flash forward 30 married years later,  Sept. 10, 2018, and we were sitting in a bar on the Outer Banks as a potential class 4 hurricane was heading directly for Cape Hatteras.  We left that day.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by Onboard 2.0

[HenryJames 65884]

 

[HenryJames 65884]

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

September 17th is Von Steuben Day, celebrating Baron Friedrich von Steuben, volunteer drill-master for General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. 

Much of the German-American population of the United States considers Von Steuben Day to be the unofficial kickoff of Oktoberfest; while there is a lot to be said for sausage and beer, there is still more to be said for the contributions of Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben, whose many false and unearned titles and accolades were mostly not of his own claiming.

Benjamin Franklin, so the story goes, was the first American to recognize Von Steuben's potential worth to the American cause, but he did not believe a mere Captain -- Von Steuben's actual rank at the time -- to be impressive enough for General Washington or, more to the point, the Continental Congress... so he gave him a "field promotion" to General in his introductory letter, and claimed von Steuben had been the personal attendant of Emperor Frederich of Prussia. He was neither.

Von Steuben was, however, the person who taught the rag-tag American army how to drill properly, and is directly responsible for the discipline first exhibited by Continental troops at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, generally recognized by military historians as one of the most successful "draws" in history. Probably would have been a rout in the Americans favor, actually, had doofus General Charles Lee not been involved. 

Anyway, pretzels, beer and sausage all around today, in honor of the "Baron"!

[Parliament 14121]

Was also a homosexual, nttawwt.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

September 21st is not only the end of Summer, it is also in many ways the beginning of the Christmas season. 

And lest the cynics and literalists amongst us scoff, note that I am not talking about the proliferation of ornaments in shopping malls, I am talking about a legitimate anniversary of note -- on September 21st, 1897, the New York Sun published an editorial reply to one young Virginia O'Hanlon, who asked the innocent question, "Is there a Santa Claus?"

Yes, Virginia, there is. Everywhere that people of good will extend an open heart and loving hand, then whether you call him γιος Νικόλαος, Hagios Nikólaos, Sanctus Nicolaus, Jolly Old Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or plain old Santa Claus, he does, in fact, exist. And September is not too soon to start celebrating his spirit (even if it is a tad on the early side to put out his decorations...)

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 9/17/2018 at 11:01 AM, Parliament said:

Was also a homosexual, nttawwt.

So he was used to halving to put up a fight now and again...

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

5 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

September 21st is not only the end of Summer, it is also in many ways the beginning of the Christmas season. 

And lest the cynics and literalists amongst us scoff, note that I am not talking about the proliferation of ornaments in shopping malls, I am talking about a legitimate anniversary of note -- on September 21st, 1897, the New York Sun published an editorial reply to one young Virginia O'Hanlon, who asked the innocent question, "Is there a Santa Claus?"

Yes, Virginia, there is. Everywhere that people of good will extend an open heart and loving hand, then whether you call him γιος Νικόλαος, Hagios Nikólaos, Sanctus Nicolaus, Jolly Old Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or plain old Santa Claus, he does, in fact, exist. And September is not too soon to start celebrating his spirit (even if it is a tad on the early side to put out his decorations...)

Always enjoy these little history tidbits.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1975- Sara Jane Moore attempts to assassinate Pres. Ford.:

Moore's assassination attempt took place in San Francisco on September 22, 1975, just 17 days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme's attempted assassination of Ford. She was standing in the crowd across the street from the St. Francis Hotel, and was about 40 feet (12 m) away from Ford when she fired a single shot at him with a .38 caliber revolver. She was using a gun she bought in haste that same morning and did not know the sights were six inches off the point-of-impact at that distance, and she narrowly missed.

1888- first issue of National Geographic magazine was published.

1823- Con-Artist Joseph Smith, Jr says that God directed him thru the Angel Moroni to the place where the Golden Plates were buried

480 BCE- Battle of Salamis. The Greek fleet let by Themistocles defeats the Persian Fleet under Xerxes I.

[El Diablo 4232]

Sept. 23, 1955, a jury in Sumner, Mississippi, acquitted Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, of murdering Emmett Till. (The two men later admitted to the crime in an interview with Look magazine.)

[PatrickMcHorn 376]

1975- Sara Jane Moore attempts to assassinate Pres. Ford.:
Moore's assassination attempt took place in San Francisco on September 22, 1975, just 17 days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme's attempted assassination of Ford. She was standing in the crowd across the street from the St. Francis Hotel, and was about 40 feet (12 m) away from Ford when she fired a single shot at him with a .38 caliber revolver. She was using a gun she bought in haste that same morning and did not know the sights were six inches off the point-of-impact at that distance, and she narrowly missed.
1888- first issue of National Geographic magazine was published.
1823- Con-Artist Joseph Smith, Jr says that God directed him thru the Angel Moroni to the place where the Golden Plates were buried
480 BCE- Battle of Salamis. The Greek fleet let by Themistocles defeats the Persian Fleet under Xerxes I.

NPR did a story on the guy who grabbed the gun away as she started to fire it. A really well told story, just very sad. He was a Vietnam era marine and gay. He wasn't out to his parents, so basically disowned him

[Doc Reeves 6434]

2005- Hurricane Rita devistates Charles/Beaumont Tx as well as severely damages the greater Houston Area as well as delaying the UT vs Piggy football game.

1664- the Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the English who rename it New York

1780- Benedict Arnolds plot to delive West pout to the British is discovered and he escapes to British lines

1789- Congress passed the Judiciary Act creating the attorney general and Supreme Court

1869- Black Friday, the 1868 gold panic was caused by the efforts of two speculators, Jay Gould and his partner James Fisk, (AKA The Gold Ring) to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. The scandal took place during the Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, whose policy was to sell Treasury gold at weekly intervals to pay off the national debt, stabilize the dollar, and boost the economy. The country had gone through tremendous upheaval during the Civil War and was not yet fully restored. This period, known as the Gilded Age, was a time of great industrial growth which invited much investment and speculation.

1906- Theo Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wy as the nations first National Monument

1948- Honda Motors is Started 

1979 - CompuServe launches first consumer internet as well as “electronic mail”

1996- Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed by 71 nations

1969- uss enterprise, the first nuclear powered carrier is launched

 

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1789- The US passes 12 Amendments to the constitution ten of which are known as The Bill of Rights. 

1906- The birth of remote Control when Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrates ‘Telekino’ by guiding a ship from shore in the bay Bilbao.

1846- US Forces led by Zach Taylor capture the Mexican city of Monterrey.

1513- Spanish Explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what will become known as the Pacific Ocean.

[huge 3788]

1986  Mike Scott no-hits the Giants to clinch the NL West.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

5 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

1906- The birth of remote Control when Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrates ‘Telekino’ by guiding a ship from shore in the bay Bilbao.

I thought Tesla demonstrated his teleautomatron in 1898

5 hours ago, huge said:

1986  Mike Scott no-hits the Giants to clinch the NL West.

I called in sick to work to go to that game

[deadshank 24651]

5 hours ago, huge said:

1986  Mike Scott no-hits the Giants to clinch the NL West.

Watched that on a grainy pictured, rabbit-eared Sony portable TV on the 63rd floor of Texas Commerce Tower.  My boss was completely smashed from the bottle of whisky he had in his desk. 

[Doc Reeves 6434]

3 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

I thought Tesla demonstrated his teleautomatron in 1898

Fuckin A.   

When you’re right, you’re right:

 

In 1903, Torres presented the Telekino at the Paris Academy of Science, accompanied by a brief, and making an experimental demonstration. In the same year, he obtained a patent in France, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States. The Telekino consisted of a robot that executed commands transmitted by electromagnetic waves. It constituted the world's second publicly demonstrated apparatus for radio control, after Nikola Tesla's Patented "Teleautomaton", and was a pioneer in the field of remote control. In 1906, in the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Torres successfully demonstrated the invention in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore. Later, he would try to apply the Telekino to projectiles and torpedoes but had to abandon the project for lack of financing. In 2007, the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated a Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing[6] to the Telekino, based on the research work developed at Technical University of Madrid by Prof. Antonio Pérez Yuste, who was the driving force behind the Milestone nomination.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

September 26th is the European Day of Languages, as proclaimed by the Council of Europe in 2001. The general objectives of the day are to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding, promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, and encourage lifelong language learning in and out of the academic setting.

There are approximately 225 indigenous languages in Europe. A European Union survey in 2006 found that 56% of EU citizens speak at least one additional language, with 28% knowing at least three languages including their native tongue.

As a second language, 38% of Europeans know English, 14% know French or German, 7% Russian, 5% Spanish, 3% Italian. With the influx of immigrants over the last decade, the numbers of speakers of other world languages has also increased, with large improvements in the number of speakers of Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, etc.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

7 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

September 26th is the European Day of Languages, as proclaimed by the Council of Europe in 2001. The general objectives of the day are to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding, promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, and encourage lifelong language learning in and out of the academic setting.

There are approximately 225 indigenous languages in Europe. A European Union survey in 2006 found that 56% of EU citizens speak at least one additional language, with 28% knowing at least three languages including their native tongue.

As a second language, 38% of Europeans know English, 14% know French or German, 7% Russian, 5% Spanish, 3% Italian. With the influx of immigrants over the last decade, the numbers of speakers of other world languages has also increased, with large improvements in the number of speakers of Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, etc.

A veritable land of Babel.......

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1983- Soviet Officer Stanislav Petrov 

[Doc Reeves 6434]

^^

Oops.  Well, any way good ‘ol Stan single handedly saved everyone in the world by realizing that a computer had delivered a false alert of an American Nuclear strike. 

If not for him, WWIII would have started today, 1983.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Doc Reeves

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1981- Nolan Ryan set a then record with his 5th no-hitter.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On September 27, 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the capital of the United States. The Continental Congress was forced to flee Philadelphia in September of that year when British General William Howe made the somewhat puzzling decision to take advantage of vagueness in his orders from London (to support the strategic objectives of General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne in his Chesapeake campaign that ultimately led to the first major surrender of British troops to the Americans).

Howe settled on the tantalizing concept of "capturing the rebel capital" as a way to quickly end the war. Well... he captured the capital, all right. But Americans, not being as sentimental or tied to tradition as the British, simply moved their government elsewhere. And for one day, that somewhere was Lancaster, which had been founded in 1681, and has gone on to have a significant history in many other ways (home of President James Buchanan, Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Civil War era fame, Robert Fulton for whom the Fulton Opera House was named, and a whole host of other people) -- I couldn't find any reference to Lancaster celebrating this day now, but if they don't they should.

[El Diablo 4232]

September 27th, 1835 - Mexico dispatches 100 dragoons to Gonzales, in what is now the State of Texas, to retrieve a cannon that had been loaned to the city to protect themselves from Indians.

Bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.

[Stoogey 219]

September 29,1888. On this date 130 years ago, Scotland Yard receives a letter signed Jack the Ripper forwarded from Central News Agency.

 

The letter was regarded as a fake due to Central News Agency's dubious reputation (police suspected journalist Thomas John Bulling of writing the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jack"  postcard to boost circulation) but we continue to refer to the killer as Jack the Ripper and not the Whitechapel Murderer or Leather Apron. 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

September 30th is the feast of St. Jerome, the biblical translator who is considered the patron saint of translators.

The Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (English: International Federation of Translators) have celebrated this date since the organization was founded in 1953.  In 1991, they began agitating for official recognition of the date; actually, they just lobbied, but the image of agitated translators is funny to me, so we'll go with that word choice.

Anyway, on May 24, 2017, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution declaring September 30th as International Translation Day.  The draft of this resolution was proposed by  eleven countries – Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Qatar, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

For funzies, here's today's date in history in Scots Gaelic (blame Google for any inaccuracies):

Is e 30 Sultain an fhèis aig St. Jerome, an t-eadar-theangair bìoballach a tha air a mheas mar neach-taic nan eadar-theangairean.

Tha na Fèillean Internationale Des Traducteurs (Beurla: Caidreachas Eadar-nàiseanta nan Eadar-theangairean) air an ceann-latha seo a chomharrachadh bho chaidh a 'bhuidheann a stèidheachadh ann an 1953. Ann an 1991, thòisich iad ag iomairt airson aithne oifigeil a thoirt air a' cheann-latha; ann an da-rìribh, tha iad dìreach air tagradh, ach tha an ìomhaigh de dh'eadar-theangairean èibhinn èibhinn dhomh, agus mar sin thèid sinn leis an fhacal sin.

Co-dhiù, air 24 Cèitean, 2017, dh'aontaich Seanadh Coitcheann nan SA rùn a 'comharrachadh 30 Sultain mar Latha Eadar-theangachaidh Eadar-nàiseanta. Chaidh an dreachd den rùn seo a mholadh le aon dùthaich deug - Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Catar, an Tuirc, Turkmenistan, agus Bhietnam.

[El Diablo 4232]

October 1st, 1957, the motto "In God We Trust" began appearing on U.S. paper currency.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

October 1, 959 C.E. Edgar the Peaceable became King of England; Edgar was called "The Peaceable" but don't be fooled. If he didn't exactly rule with an iron fist, it was nevertheless a fist. During his reign (959-975) he unified England, seizing Northumbria and Mercia from his brother Eadwig. This is probably a good thing, because who wants to be known as the country that was once ruled by a guy named "Eadwig"? Though unification was in and of itself significant, the only other lasting contribution made by Edgar was the British coronation ceremony, which had its start during his crowning at Bath, and has kept its form for every coronation since that time.