Some years ago, I started doing a meme in which you pick out some people and events for an On This Day. I don’t do it often, but sometimes when I just want to write, and the stories or blog posts aren’t coming, I do this. Right now, in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s June 26. For me, the deal is that I try to stick to writers, artists and, if I can’t find enough of them, other creative folk, or big events in the history of creativity, eg first edition of a newspaper. Sometimes I do quirky events. If I haven’t heard of the author or artist, I skip them. Sometimes I just use an event that interests me.
Events
4 CE - Augustus adopts Tiberius. Oh, dear! That didn’t turn out well, did it?
1483 - Richard III becomes king of England, and sparks a whole lot of fiction and playwriting. Recommended: The Daughter Of Time by Josephine Tey.
1870 - Christmas becomes a Federal holiday in the US.
1948 - Shirley Jackson’s(author of The Haunting Of Hill House) short story “The Lottery” is published, and the author gets lots of hate mail. Here is the Wikipedia entry about it:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery
1977 - Elvis Presley’s final concert held, in Indianapolis. Sob!
Birthdays
This was not easy, writer-wise, so I’ve added actors. Most of those I found were big names on YouTube or blogging or lifestyle websites, especially the younger ones. Sorry, not my kind of writing, even if they have had some of them as guests at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival!
1817 - Branwell Bronte. He was a poet and painter, but we know his sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne - much better!
1891 - Sydney Howard - wrote the screenplay for Gone With The Wind. Didn’t outlive it by long, as he died in 1939.
1892 - Pearl S Buck, US author known for The Good Earth, which was turned into a film with a (mostly) white cast playing Chinese peasants.
1904 - Peter Lorre, the one who played all those sidekicks, including in one of my favourite films, Arsenic And Old Lace. Married to Celia Lovsky, known by Trek fans as Vulcan matriarch T’Pau.
1929 - June Bronhill, Aussie soprano. She did opera and musicals, but my weirdest memory of her is an ad in which she played a giant tea bag...
There are also a number of battles On This Day, but too depressing, and I do like to focus on creative things and people.
There are a few saints’ days, but the one who intrigued me was David the Dendrite, so called because he lived in/next to a tree outside Thessaloniki, in the interest of having some peace and quiet. He managed to do it for three years, but people kept pestering him. However, he left to ask Emperor Justinian for help for Thessaloniki, which was in danger. He is, of course, the patron saint of that city.
So, anything interesting about this date that I haven’t mentioned? Or any here that you find of interest?
The Charter of the United Nations was signed and arguably the most powerful protector of human life was born. Not that dictators stopped their killings, but at least the United Nations was in place. At last.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hels! Didn’t remember that.
ReplyDeleteWell, now I know why Turner Classic Movies channel is running so many Peter Lorre movies today, thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Debra! I guess so. Lucky you, still having TCM! That channel closed down in Australia years ago, with the movies merged into other stations. It makes it hard to find my mother the kind of movies she enjoys.
ReplyDeleteTiberius was not too bad of an emperor, it was making Caligula his successor that did not end well.
ReplyDeleteI need to read The Lottery. Shirley Jackson is such a great horror writer.
Hi Guillaume! I started my reading on the Roman Emperors with Suetonius, that gossip columnist of his time. On the other hand, when I was studying ancient history at university, our lecturer argued - convincingly! - that Caligula was not mad! So much for Suetonius!
ReplyDeleteYou can read The Lottery here, on the New Yorker web site. I can’t get a link in Comments, so copy and paste.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery
I will buy it in book form I think, to put it on my bookshelves. We will never know what Caligula had, he may have simply been out of his depth.
ReplyDeleteThe Lottery is a short story. You might need to see if there is a collection of her short work.
ReplyDelete