It is International Sculpture Day, though, in the US, one must be careful what one sculpts or displays because we have a plethora of hardcore bluenoses in this country who are always on the lookout for anything that could, by any stretch of the imagination, be deemed to be a representation of or symbol standing for any of the so-called "naughty bits" of any organism that may be deemed to have any such. Ah well, such is life.
On 04/24/1955 the Bandung Conference ended. Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finished a meeting that condemned colonialism, neocolonialism, racism, and the Cold War. The countries had a population of 1.5 billion and costituted 54% of the world's population. Needless to say, that counted for nothing in the eyes and minds of the non-non-aligned nations. Per da Wiki:
A 10-point "declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation", called Dasasila Bandung (Bandung's Ten Principles, or Bandung Spirit, or Bandung Declaration; styled after Indonesia's Pancasila; or Ten Principles of Peaceful Coexistence[22]), incorporating the principles of the United Nations Charter as well as Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was adopted unanimously as item G in the final communiqué of the conference:[23]1. Respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations 2. Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations 3. Recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small 4. Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country 5. Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself, singly or collectively, in conformity with the charter of the United Nations 6. (a) Abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defence to serve any particular interests of the big powers (b) Abstention by any country from exerting pressures on other countries 7. Refraining from acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country 8. Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration or judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties own choice, in conformity with the charter of the United Nations 9. Promotion of mutual interests and cooperation 10. Respect for justice and international obligations
The final Communique of the Conference underscored the need for developing countries to loosen their economic dependence on the leading industrialised nations by providing technical assistance to one another through the exchange of experts and technical assistance for developmental projects, as well as the exchange of technological know-how and the establishment of regional training and research institutes.
Naturally, this was anathema to the neocolonial US, NATO, and Europe's colonial powers. I mean Ike and Dulles? Heh. The US in particular tried to undermine it and immediately formed a working group including the CIA and other usual suspects in order to find some way of dealing with it. Historically, the Western Powers simply completely ignored it except to pay lip service to some of the ideas set forth while violating them on the ground at every turn.
On this day in:
1479 BCE -- Thutmose III took the throne of Egypt and Hatshepsut took control
1184 BCE -- The fall of Troy.
1800 -- The US Library of Congress was established by law
1877 -- Russian Empire declared war on Ottoman Empire starting the Russo-Turkish War.
1895 -- Joshua Slocum sailed from boston in the Spray
1914 -- The Franck-Hertz experiment was presented to the German Physical Society
1915 -- The arrest of 250 Armenians in Istanbul started the Armenian Genocide.
1916 -- The Easter Rising (Ireland)
1923 -- Sigmund Freud published The Ego and the Id, two fictions
1932 -- The mass trespass of Kinder Scout
1933 -- Nazi Germany started persecuting Jehovah's Witnesses
1955 – The Bandung Conference ended
1957 -- The Suez Canal was reopened
1990 -- The Hubble Space Telescope was launched
1996 -- The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 was signed into law by Bill Clinton
2004 -- The US lifted sanctions it had imposed on Libya in 1986 in order to gull them into complacency before waging war upon them.
2011 – WikiLeaks started publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.
Happy Easter Britannia
Born this day in:
It has become a certainty now that if you will only advertise sufficiently you may make a fortune by selling anything.
Anthony Trollope
1706 – Giovanni Battista Martini, pianist and composer
1743 -- Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the power loom
1815 -- Anthony Trollope, author
1862 – Tomitaro Makino, botanist
1878 -- Jean Crotti, painter
1880 -- Gideon Sundback, developer of the zipper
1880 -- Josef Muller, entomologist
1899 – Oscar Zariski, mathematician and academic
1904 -- Willem de Kooning, painter
1905 -- Robert Penn Warren, writer
1919 – David Blackwell, mathematician and academic
1928 – Johnny Griffin, saxophonist
1931 -- Bridget Riley, painter (Op Art)
1937 -- Joe Henderson, composer and soxophonist
1940 -- Sue Grafton, A is for author, W is for writer
1941 -- John Williams, composer and guitarist
1942 -- Richard M. Daley, some sort of Capo in Chitown
1942 -- Barbra Streisand, singer and actress
1943 – Richard Sterban, country and gospel bass singer
1944 -- Bernard St. Clair Lee, singer
1944 -- Tony Visconti, record producer
1945 -- Doug Clifford, drummer and songwriter
1947 – Claude Dubois, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1948 -- David Ingram, songwriter and keyboards player
1951 – Nigel Harrison, bass player and songwriter
1963 -- Paula Frazer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter
1963 -- Billy Gould, bassist and songwriter
1966 -- David Usher, activist, singer and songwriter
1982 -- Kelly Clarkson, American Idol winner
Died this day in:
“I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent.”
Daniel Defoe
1731 -- Daniel Defoe, author and spook
1941 – Karin Boye, author and poet
1942 – Lucy Maud Montgomery, author
1947 -- Willa Cather, author and poet
1960 – Max von Laue, physicist and academic
1970 -- Otis Spann, pianist and singer
1974 -- Bud Abbott, Lou's bud.
1975 -- Pete Ham, guitarist, singer and songwriter
1993 – Oliver Tambo, lawyer and activist
1993 – Tran Duc Thao, philosopher and theorist
1997 -- Pat Paulsen, probably the best presidential candidate we've ever had
2008 -- Jimmy Giuffre, played clarinet and sax
2017 – Robert Pirsig, author and philosopher
2022 – Andrew Woolfolk, saxophonist
Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:
International Sculpture Day
Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (Armenia)
Fashion Revolution Day, honestly, you can look it up.
Joe Henderson
John Williams
Barbra Streisand
Bernard St. Clair Lee
Tony Visconti
Doug Clifford
David Ingram
Paula Frazer
Billy Gould
David Usher
Kelly Clarkson
Otis Spann
Pete Ham
Jimmy Giuffre
Andrew Woolfolk
Bonus:
open thread, Sculpture Day, Bandung Conference, Easter Rising, Hubble Telescope, John Williams, Otis Spann