10/09 is World Post Day

On October 9, 1874, the General Postal Union was created. Prior to that, international mail was based on bilateral treaties between countries. The treaty of Bern, which created the General Postal Union provided: There should be a uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world Postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail Each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage. In 1878 the General Postal Union was renamed the Universal Postal Union, a farsighted move readying humankind for the day when we finally use the postal system to mail something off planet. Since then, the UPU has instituted many modifications and changes and arguably some enhancements as well. One of the many enhancements brought about by the UPU was the creation of World Post Day to memorialize and celebrate the October 9 signing of the Treaty of Bern and the importance of the postal service.

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On October 9, 2006, the DPRK conducted its first nuclear test, GWBush (Bush the Lesser) suddenly decided not to invade it despite his previous declaration of war upon it. Years later, Obama would assure the world that it was all some kind of joke, but took no official steps to rescind the Bush Declaration. The DPRK, seemingly, did not buy his story.

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On this day in history:

1264 -- The Kingdom of Castile conquered the city of Jerez, the source of Sherry

1410 -- The first known mention of the Prague astronomical clock.

1582 -- Adoption of the Gregorian calendar eliminated this day in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1604 -- Somebody spotted Supernova 1604

1635 -- Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony

1740 -- Dutch colonists and slaves began to massacre ethnic Chinese in Batavia

1804 -- Hobart was founded

1820 -- Guayaquil declared its independence from Spain. (Good yerba mate' down there)

1824 -- Costa Rica abolished slavery

1847 -- Saint Bartholemy bolished slavery

1854 -- The siege of Sebastopol began

1873 -- The U.S. Naval Institute was established.

1874 -- The Treaty of Bern created the General Postal Union

1934 – An Ustashe assassin kills King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France

1936 -- Generators at Boulder Dam began cranking out juice

1950 -- The Goyang Geumjeong Cave massacre started, with South Korean police killing 153 unarmed civilians.

1966 -- The Binh Tai massacre in Vietnam by ROK marines.

1967 -- Ernesto "Che" Guevara was killed for attempting to incite a revolution

1969 -- The National Guard was called in to suppress demonstrations about the "Chicago Eight" trial

1970 -- US puppet Lon Nol's fascist "Khmer Republic" dictatorship was proclaimed.

1981 -- France abolished capital punishment. Texas struggled to pick up the slack.

2006 - DPRK conducted its first nuclear test, GWBush suddenly decided not to invade.

2012 -- The failed attempt to assassinate Malala Yousafzai took place.

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Some people who were born on this day:

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

~~ John Lennon

1201 -- Robert de Sorbon, the founder of the College de Sorbonne

1581 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, mathematician, poet, and scholar

1835 – Camille Saint-Saëns, composer and conductor

1837 -- Francis Wayland Parker, "the father of progressive education" - Dewey

1859 -- Alfred Dreyfus, as in Dryfus affair, as in J'accuse

1873 -- Karl Schwarzschild, physicist and astronomer

1890 -- Aimee Semple McPherson, religionist, founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel

1893 -- Mario de Andrade, author and poet

1899 -- Bruce Catton, author and historian

1901 -- Alice Lee Jemison, Seneca political activist and journalist

1908 -- Lee Wiley, jazz singer

1918 -- E. Howard Hunt, spook, plumber, criminal, all around asshole

1918 -- Bebo Valdes, pianist, composer, and bandleader, arranger for the Tropicana

1920 -- Yusef Lateef, multi-instrumentalist, blended jazz with eastern music

1922 -- Olga Guillot, singer, the queen of bolero

1934 -- Abdullah Ibrahim, pianist and composer, did Mannenberg

1939 -- O. V. Wright, singer, songwriter and producer

1940 -- John Lennon, singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer

1941 -- Omali Yeshitela, activist, founder of the Uhuru Movement

1944 -- John Entwistle, English singer, songwriter, bassist, moose, and producer

1944 -- Nona Hendryx, singer, songwriter, producer, and actress

1945 -- Taiguara, singer

1947 -- France Gall, ye ye singer

1948 -- Jackson Browne, singer, songwriter and guitarists

1949 -- Rod Temperton, keyboard player, songwriter and producer

1960 -- Kenny Garrett, saxophonist

1961 -- Kurt Neumann, singer, songwriter, guitarist

1975 -- Sean Lennon, singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor

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Some people who died on this day:

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

~~ Che Guevara

1943 -- Pieter Zeeman, physicist

1967 -- Che Guevara, physician, politician, commandante

1978 -- Jacques Brel, singer, songwriter and actor

1987 -- Clare Boothe Luce, author, playwright conservative activist **

1999 -- Milt Jackson, Vibraphone player

2004 -- Jacques Derrida, philisopher

2007 -- Enrico Banducci, founder of the hungry i

2014 – Carolyn Kizer, poet and academic

** Ms. Luce, upon once arriving at a doorway at the same time as Dorothy Parker stepped aside and motioned her through saying "Age before beauty", to which Ms. Parker blithely replied "Pearls before swine" and walked on through.

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Independence of Guayaquil from Spain in 1820 (Ecuador) World Post Day

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