04/21 - Grounation Day

Grounation is a Rastafarian thing. I am not a Rasta. There are those out there who call it Groundation. I don't even have an oar to put in there. Grounation Day celebrates and commemorates Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica on April 12, 1966. Roughly 100,000 Rastafarians from all over Jamaica turned out to greet his airplane. The date has been celebrated by Rastafarians ever since The Mexican Revolution obviously absolutely required a ton of interference from the US government, including an actual invasion and occupation of the Mexican port of Veracruz by US forces. After all, those people down there had the audacity to go and have a long running Revolution and civil war without first petitioning the US for permission to do so. Accordingly the US picked sides and embargoed arms sales to one side and not the other. Next, on the thinnest of pretexts, the US invaded, shelled, and occupied the port city of Veracruz on April 21, 1914.

Meanwhile, one of the parties to the Mexican conflict had purchased some armaments in Germany which were to be delivered to it at Veracruz by the German ship Ypiranga. However, that was the faction that the US had embargoed, so the US troops in possession of the harbor at Veracruz initially detained the Ypiranga, but eventually had to release the vessel, while forbidding it to unload its cargo. This too took place on April 21, 1914, right after US forces took the place. (The US was not officially at war with Mexico, nor had it declared a formal blockade, so they had to let the ship go). The Ypiranga steamed on down to Puerto Mexico, which the US had not invaded and occupied, and unloaded its cargo there. The US finally pulled out of Veracruz on November 23, 1914. These events seriously tarnished Mexico-US relations, for Mexico because we invaded, shelled, and occupied Veracruz, killing many of their people in the process, and for the US because Mexico went ahead and took delivery of the arms delivered by the Ypiranga even though we had ordered them not to.

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On this day in history:

1509 – Henry VIII ascended the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.

1898 – The United States Navy began a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on Spain on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.

1914 - The USA invaded and began the conquest and occupation of Veracruz, Mexico

1914 – A German arms shipment to Mexico was intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.

1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict was adopted.

1952 – Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) was first celebrated.

1958 – United Air Lines Flight 736 collided with a USAF fighter jet near Arden, Nevada in what is now Enterprise, Nevada

1960 – Brasília, Brazil's capital, was officially inaugurated.

1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite failed to reach orbit and as it re-entered the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds of radioactive plutonium was widely dispersed.

1966 – Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.

1967 – Colonel George Papadopoulos led a coup d'état in Greece

1975 – Thr President of South Vietnam, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, fled Saigon, as the outpost Xuân Lộc fell

1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrendered to federal authorities

1989 – Around 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square In Beijing to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

1993 – The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentenced Luis García Meza to 30 years in jail without parole

2010 – The controversial Kharkiv Pact was signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; it was unilaterally terminated by Russia after the coup against Yanukovych.

2014 – The city of Flint, Michigan switched its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis

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Some people who were born on this day:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

~~ John Muir

1555 – Ludovico Carracci, painter and etcher

1642 – Simon de la Loubère, mathematician, poet, and diplomat (d. 1729) 1774 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, physicist, astronomer, and mathematician

1816 – Charlotte Brontë, novelist and poet 1838 – John Muir, environmentalist and author 1864 – Max Weber, economist and sociologist 1868 – Mary Rogers Miller, author and educator 1882 – Percy Williams Bridgman, physicist and academic 1889 – Paul Karrer, chemist and academic 1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., violinist, composer, and conductor 1915 – Garrett Hardin, ecologist, author, and academic 1918 – Eddy Christiani, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1919 – Don Cornell, singer 1924 – Ira Louvin, singer, songwriter, and mandolin player 1932 – Slide Hampton, trombonist and composer 1933 – Easley Blackwood, Jr., pianist, composer, and educator 1947 – Iggy Pop, singer, songwriter, producer, and actor 1947 – John Weider, bass player 1948 – Paul Davis, singer, songwriter, and musician 1951 – Michael Freedman, mathematician and academic 1954 – Ebiet G. Ade, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1959 – Robert Smith, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1988 – Jencarlos Canela, singer, songwriter, and actor

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Some people who died on this day:

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

~~ Mark Twain

1142 – Peter Abelard, philosopher and theologian 1557 – Petrus Apianus, mathematician and astronomer 1699 – Jean Racine, playwright and poet 1719 – Philippe de La Hire, mathematician and astronomer 1736 – Prince Eugene of Savoy, saved Europe from the Ottoman Empire 1825 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, mathematician and academic 1910 – Mark Twain, novelist, humorist, and critic 1946 – John Maynard Keynes, economist and philosopher 1948 – Aldo Leopold, ecologist and author 1954 – Emil Leon Post, mathematician and logician 1965 – Edward Victor Appleton, physicist and academic, 1978 – Sandy Denny, singer and songwriter 1978 – Thomas Wyatt Turner, civil rights activist, biologist, and academic 1987 – Gustav Bergmann, philosopher from the Vienna Circle japan to trade 2003 – Nina Simone, singer, songwriter, pianist, and activist 2010 – Gustav Lorentzen, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 2016 – Prince, singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: National Egg Salad Sandwich Day

Thank You for Libraries Day

World Creativity and Innovation Day

Grounation Day (Rastafari)

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Grounation Day

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