Monday OT: 02/01/21 is National Freedom Day

Today is day 32 of the Gregorian Calendar year, Boomtime, Chaos 32, 3187 YOLD And let us not forget 13.0.8.4.4 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)

National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865, although it was not ratified by the states until later. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Freedom_Day  )

OK, that's what it's about, it's not about "America's Freedoms" or "all of the freedoms that Americans Share" or anything of that ilk, which is verbiage that I have seen.  It celebrates the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in the US (not in America, much of the rest of the America's had already abolished it.  Those America's Freedoms (tm), the ones that the USA's creation, Al Qaeda, allegedly hated us for (per GWB) are not encompassed within the abolition of slavery as an institution.  Those are not National but Notional Freedoms.  Like the principal in notional principal contracts, they're largely mythical and growing more so daily.  You know, like speech, assembly, privacy, and just about everything in the Bill of rights except the right to bear GUNS (not arms, there are vast numbers of restrictions on various other "arms", like pocket knives.  At this point I shall segue into something else before I go on a 6,000 word rant.  

On this day in history:

1835 – Slavery was abolished in Mauritius.    1861 – Texas seceded from the US, but Mexico refused to take it back. 1865 – Abraham Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment 1884 – The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published 1893 – Thomas Edison finished construction of the first motion picture studio, 1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, was created 1896 – La bohème premiered 1918 – Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar. 1942 – Voice of America began broadcasting 1960 – Four black students staged the first of the Greensboro sit-ins  1964 – The Beatles had their first number one hit in the US 1968 – The summary execution of Nguy?n Van Lém was caught on film and a still photo 1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran  1996 – Congress. passed the unconstitutional Communications Decency Act  1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral. 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry 

2009 – The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country's first female prime minister and the world's first openly gay head of government.

~~ Langston Hughes

1561 – Henry Briggs, mathematician 1687 – Johann Adam Birkenstock, violinist and composer 1690 – Francesco Maria Veracini, violinist and composer 1701 – Johan Agrell, Swedish-pianist and composer 1859 – Victor Herbert,  cellist, composer, and conductor 1872 – Clara Butt, opera singer 1894 – James P. Johnson, pianist and composer 1902 – Langston Hughes, poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright 1904 – S.J. Perelman, humorist and screenwriter 1905 – Emilio G. Segrè, physicist and academic 1907 – Camargo Guarnieri, pianist and composer 1909 – George Beverly Shea, singer and songwriter 1918 – Muriel Spark, playwright and poet 1921 – Teresa Mattei, feminist partisan and politician 1922 – Renata Tebaldi, soprano and actress 1932 – Hassan Al-Turabi,  activist and politician 1937 – Don Everly, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist 1938 – Jimmy Carl Black, drummer and singer 1939 – Claude François,  singer, songwriter, and dancer 1939 – Joe Sample, pianist and composer 1947 – Normie Rowe,  singer, songwriter ,and actor 1947 – Jessica Savitch, journalist 1948 – Rick James, singer, songwriter, and producer 1950 – Mike Campbell, guitarist, songwriter, and producer 1950 – Rich Williams, guitarist and songwriter 1951 – Sonny Landreth, guitarist and songwriter 1954 – Chuck Dukowski, singer, songwriter, and bass player 1956 – Exene Cervenka, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1962 – Takashi Murakami, ,painter and sculptor 1964 – Jani Lane, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist 1964 – Mario Pelchat, singer and songwriter 1968 – Lisa Marie Presley, singer, songwriter, ,and actress 1969 – Patrick Wilson, drummer 1978 – Tim Harding, singer and actor 1979 – Valentín Elizalde, singer and songwriter 1979 – Jason Isbell, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist 1994 – Harry Styles, singer and songwriter    

Died this day in:

Cockroaches and socialites are the only things that can stay up all night and eat anything.

~~ Herb Caen 583 – Kan B'alam I, ruler of Palenque  1851 – Mary Shelley,  novelist and playwright 1903 – Sir George Stokes, physicist, mathematician, and politician 1940 – Philip Francis Nowlan, author, created Buck Rogers  1958 – Clinton Davisson, physicist and academic 1976 – Werner Heisenberg, physicist and academic   1989 – Elaine de Kooning, painter and academic 1997 – Herb Caen, journalist and author, popularized the term "the full Cleveland" 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia crew Michael P. Anderson, colonel, pilot, and astronaut David M. Brown, captain, pilot, and astronaut Kalpana Chawla, engineer and astronaut Laurel Clark, captain, surgeon, and astronaut Rick Husband, colonel, pilot, and astronaut William C. McCool, commander, pilot, and astronaut Ilan Ramon, colonel, pilot, and astronaut 2003 – Mongo Santamaría, drummer and bandleader 2013 – Cecil Womack, singer, songwriter, and producer

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Imbolc (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, some Northern hemisphere Neopagans ) National Dark Chocolate Day National Serpent Day Spunky Old Broads Day National Freedom Day (United States) The start of Black History Month (United States and Canada)  

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies ;-) 

Edited to repair formatting and to insert “but” between National and Notional (dunno how it got elided)