06/27 - Helen Keller Day

Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880 and was rendered both blind and deaf by an illness at the age of 19 months. At the age of 7 she was introduced to her first teacher, Anne Sullivan, who taught her language, reading and writing. Ms Sullivan, 13 years her senior, would become her governess and her life long companion. In time Ms. Keller would graduate phi beta kappa from Radcliffe, as the first def and blind person to get a B.A. She became a prolific speaker and authored, in addition to her speeches, 14 books and numerous essays. She also became an activist. Ms. Keller became an advocate for those with disabilities as well as, generally, all those disadvantaged by life's vissectitudes. Among other things She was a suffragist and supporter of workers' rights, a pacificist, and particularly, an opponent of military interventions, a birth control supporter, a financial supporter of the NAACP, and a founding member of the ACLU. She became a socialist and a member of the International Workers of the World. She has been described as both a "political radical" and a "radical socialist", both phrases meaning nothing more, in the US, than a professed socialist, which she clearly was, becoming a member of the US Socialist Party and supporting Debs. She was initially driven to join the IWW, at least in part, because so many cases of blindness and other disabilities were caused by horrible working conditions, which were, in turn, generally driven by simple greed and not any necessity. These two decisions caused something of a sea change in the attitudes and treatment of her by the various elites in this country, which, naturally influenced public opinion of her as well proving once again the old adage that "there are none so blind as those who will not see".

Coincidentally enough, the IWW, or Wobblies were also born on June 27, specifically June 27, 1905, in Chicago. As a labor movement, they were successful enough to be branded as Reds and ceaselessly subjected to criminal and violent attacks, harassment, and persecution by all levels of government. It is tempting to accept the sobriquet thrust upon them by their foes because that makes the identity and nature of their persecutors crystal clear, even though neither "Government" nor "Business" actually starts with the letter F, the identity of interests of the two agglomerations certainly does, and quite notoriously so. it is also Emma Goldman's birthday anniversary too. PRIME TIME:

A prime p is said to be a Sophie Germain prime if both p and 2p + 1 are prime. ... Sophie Germain primes p>3 of the form p=4k-1 correspond to the indices of composite Mersenne numbers Mp.

https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SophieGermainPrime.html

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On this day in history:

1499 – Americo Vespucci sighted the coast south of Cape Cassipore' Brazil 1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs were burned at the stake because protestants 1806 – British forces took Buenos Aires during the first British invasion of the River Plate. 1895 – The inaugural run of the B & O Railroad's Royal Blue from D.C., to NYC 1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe (by Joshua Slocum) 1905 – During the Russo-Japanese War sailors mutinied aboard the battleship Potemkin. 1941 – Romanian authorities launched a violent pogrom killing at least 13,266 Jews. 1946 – The Parliament of Canada established the definition of Canadian citizenship.< 1950 – The United States decided to send troops to fight in the Korean War. 1954 – The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant near Moscow.opened 1973 – The President of Uruguay ,Juan María Bordaberry, dissolved Parliament and established a dictatorship. 1974 – U.S. president Richard Nixon visited the Soviet Union. 1976 – Air France Flight 139 was hijacked and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda. 1977 – France granted independence to Djibouti. 1981 – The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party laid the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong. 1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched on the final r and d flight mission, STS-4. 1988 – The Gare de Lyon rail accident in Paris, France, killed 56 people. 1988 – Bolivian anti-narcotics police kill nine to twelve and injure over a hundred protesting coca-growing peasants. 1991 – Slovenia was invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft 1994 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan. 2007 – The Brazilian Military Police committed the Complexo do Alemão massacre. 2013 – NASA launched the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph to observe the Sun. 2014 – At least fourteen people were killed when a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline explodes in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. (By comparison, PG&E's San Bruno Pipeline explosion only killed 8, proof that private companies do a better job (/s)) 2015 – A dust fire occurs at a recreational water park in Taiwan, killing 15 people and injuring 497 others, 199 critically.

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Some people who were born on this day:

“We owe more to our illusions than to our knowledge”

~~ Lafcadio Hearn

1717 – Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier, botanist and physicist 1767 – Alexis Bouvard, astronomer and academic 1805 – Napoléon Coste, guitarist and composer 1806 – Augustus De Morgan, mathematician and logician 1812 – Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston, writer 1817 – Louise von François, author 1838 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, journalist, author, and poet 1850 – Jørgen Pedersen Gram, mathematician and academic 1850 – Lafcadio Hearn, historian and author 1862 – May Irwin, actress and singer 1869 – Kate Carew, llustrator and journalist 1869 – Emma Goldman, philosopher and activist 1870 – Frank Rattray Lillie, zoologist and embryologist 1872 – Heber Doust Curtis, astronomer 1872 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, author, poet, and playwright 1880 – Helen Keller, author, academic, and activist 1884 – Gaston Bachelard, philosopher and poet 1885 – Guilhermina Suggia, cellist 1888 – Lewis Bernstein Namier, historian and academic 1892 – Paul Colin, llustrator 1901 – Merle Tuve, geophysicist and academic 1906 – Vernon Watkins, poet and painter 1912 – E. R. Braithwaite, novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomat 1913 – Elton Britt, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1913 – Philip Guston, painter and academic 1913 – Willie Mosconi, pool player 1914 – Robert Aickman, author and activist 1915 – Grace Lee Boggs, philosopher, author, and activist 1916 – Robert Normann, guitarist 1919 – M. Carl Holman, author, educator, poet, and playwright 1919 – Amala Shankar, danseuse 1922 – George Walker, composer 1923 – Jacques Berthier, organist and composer 1923 – Elmo Hope, pianist and composer 1925 – Leonard Lerman, geneticist and biologist 1925 – Doc Pomus, singer and songwriter 1928 – James Lincoln Collier, journalist and author 1929 – Peter Maas, journalist and author 1931 – Martinus J. G. Veltman, physicist and academic 1932 – Anna Moffo, operatic soprano 1932 – Hugh Wood, composer 1936 – Lucille Clifton, author and poet 1937 – Kirkpatrick Sale, author and scholar 1939 – R. D. Burman, singer and songwriter 1941 – James P. Hogan, author 1942 – Bruce Johnston, singer, songwriter, beachboy, and producer 1942 – Frank Mills, pianist and composer 1944 – Angela King, environmentalist and author, co-founded Common Ground 1945 – Joey Covington, drummer, songwriter, and producer 1948 – Camile Baudoin, guitarist 1951 – Gilson Lavis, drummer and portrait artist 1953 – Alice McDermott, novelist 1958 – Lisa Germano, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1958 – Jeffrey Lee Pierce, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1959 – Dan Jurgens, author and illustrator 1959 – Lorrie Morgan, singer 1960 – Robert King, harpsichordist and conductor 1965 – Simon Sebag Montefiore, journalist, historian, and author 1972 – Dawud Wharnsby, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1973 – Abbath Doom Occulta, musician 1974 – Christian Kane, singer, songwriter, and actor 1976 – Leigh Nash, singer and songwriter 1978 – Apparat, musician 1980 – Jennifer Goodridge, keyboard player 1986 – Drake Bell, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor 1992 – Ahn So-hee, singer and actress

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Some people who died on this day:

It matters little who first arrives at an idea, rather what is significant is how far that idea can go

~~ Sophie Germain

1729 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, harpsichord player and composer 1829 – James Smithson, chemist and mineralogist 1831 – Sophie Germain, mathematician and physicist 1907 – Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, educator, co-founded Radcliffe College ( 1946 – Wanda Gág, author and illustrator 1948 – Dorothea Bleek, anthropologist and philologist 1950 – Milada Horáková, politician, resistant, activist 1952 – Max Dehn, mathematician and academic 1975 – G.I. Taylor, mathematician and physicist 1989 – A. J. Ayer, philosopher and academic 2001 – Tove Jansson, author, illustrator, and painter 2002 – John Entwistle, singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and producer 2005 – Shelby Foote, historian and author 2006 – Eileen Barton, singer 2012 – Rosemary Dobson, poet and illustrator 2013 – Ian Scott, painter 2014 – Allen Grossman, poet, critic, and academic 2015 – Chris Squire, bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter 2018 – Liz Jackson, journalist and former barrister

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Canadian Multiculturalism Day (Canada) Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art and poetry of Magtymguly Pyragy (Turkmenistan) Helen Keller Day (United States) Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Djibouti from France in 1977. Mixed Race Day (Brazil) National HIV Testing Day (United States) National PTSD Awareness Day (United States) Unity Day (Tajikistan) Industrial Workers of the World Day

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