It is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and I am not remotely qualified to speak to the subject. IF the existence of this day benefits any member of the seeming target population any good whatsoever, then I'm all for it and give it my wholehearted support. I will say that it sounds like one of those "thoughts and prayers" type of days where the creation of the day is the sum total or our concern, and the full extent of our involvement as a nation and society in seriously addressing the things that could and should be being done. We, as a nation and as individuals and communities, need to see what we can do to ensure that such is not the case.
On this day in history:
1497 – Supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burned cosmetics, art, and books, in a "Bonfire of the vanities in Florence, Italy. 1783 – French and Spanish forces lifted the Great Siege of Gibraltar. 1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. 1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes hit New Madrid, Missouri 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles left Singapore just after taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar . 1863 – HMS Orpheus sank off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189. 1894 – The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, began 1898 – Émile Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse…! 1900 – A person in San Francisco fell ill with bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States 1904 – A fire began in Baltimore, Maryland that destroyed over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours. 1951 – More than 700 suspected communist sympathizers were massacred by South Korean forces. 1962 – The United States banned all Cuban imports and exports. 1974 – Grenada gained independence from the United Kingdom 1979 – Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered. 1984 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). 1986 – Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier fled Haiti 1990 – The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly on power. 1991 – Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in. 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty was signed, leading to the creation of the European Union. 2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. 2014 – Scientists announced that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa
Born this day in:
Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
~~ Sinclair Lewis 1478 – Thomas More, lawyer and politician who wrote Utopia 1612 – Thomas Killigrew, playwright and manager 1722 – Azar Bigdeli, anthologist and poet 1802 – Louisa Jane Hall, poet, essayist, and literary critic 1804 – John Deere, blacksmith and businessman who founded Deere & Company 1812 – Charles Dickens, novelist and critic 1825 – Karl Möbius, German zoologist and ecologist 1864 – Arthur Collins, baritone singer 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, author 1870 – Alfred Adler, psychologist and therapist 1873 – Thomas Andrews, shipbuilder and businessman, designed the RMS Titanic 1877 – G. H. Hardy, mathematician and geneticist 1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright 1887 – Eubie Blake, pianist and composer 1889 – Harry Nyquist, engineer and theorist 1893 – Joseph Algernon Pearce, astrophysicist and astronomer 1905 – Ulf von Euler, physiologist and academic, 1906 – Oleg Antonov, engineer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company 1920 – Oscar Brand, singer, songwriter, and author 1920 – An Wang, engineer and businessman, founded Wang Laboratories 1932 – Gay Talese, journalist and memoirist 1934 – King Curtis, saxophonist and producer 1934 – Earl King, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1956 – Mark St. John, guitarist 1962 – David Bryan, keyboard player and songwriter 1962 – Eddie Izzard, comedian, actor, and producer 1975 – Wes Borland, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
Died this day in:
“How strange it is, that a fool or a knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man in poverty!”
~~ Ann Radcliffe 1333 – Nikko, priest, founder of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism 1520 – Alfonsina de' Medici, Regent of Florence 1736 – Stephen Gray, astronomer and physicist 1823 – Ann Radcliffe, author 1871 – Henry E. Steinway, businessman, founded Steinway & Sons 1891 – Marie Louise Andrews, story writer and journalist 1897 – Galileo Ferraris, physicist and engineer 1959 – Guitar Slim, singer and guitarist 1960 – Igor Kurchatov, physicist and academic 1990 – Alan Perlis, computer scientist and academic 2001 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and pilot 2009 – Blossom Dearie, singer and pianist
Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Independence Day (Grenada), celebrates the independence of Grenada from the United Kingdom in 1974.
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States)
Ballet Day
e Day
National Fettucine Alfredo Day
National Periodic Table Day
Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies ;-)
Mississippi's belted approval of the abolition of slavery
EUBIE BLAKE
OSCAR BRAND
KING CURTIS
EARL KING
DAVID BRYAN
GUITAR SLIM
BLOSSOM DEARIE
OTHER: EDDIE IZZARD
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Edited to repair some of the damage done by the concatenation machine built into the “editor”>