Today is the 169th day, and as a hommage to the day of the year that I happen to be paired up with, July 15th, that is to say also my birthday. I am writing this as a nice informative piece of research regarding this day, in hopes that people can be more educated about the importance of each day of the year. This is also because I’m feeling very academic, hiding the fact that I feel like an old fart who can’t do anything anymore. I’ve added comments about some entries just to show that I’m actually reading it.

All of the following informiton is thanks of Wikipedia.org, my undying resource for random information.

Today I also proclaim today to be St. Swithun’s Day mostly know because it was referenced in a Simpsons Episode when Bart wrote a drama. It actually turns out to be an actual religious reference that is explained henceforth. It has often been said that the saint was a Benedictine monk and even Prior of Winchester. From the first translation of his relics in 984 till the destruction of the shrine, St. Swithin was the patron of Winchester Cathedral. He is best known from the popular superstition attached to his name and expressed in the following rhyme:

ual details of the day!

Holidays and Observances

• Botswana – President’s Day.
• Brunei – Birthday of the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
• Palermo, Sicily – Festival of Santa Rosalia.
• Japan – Third day of Obon feast period.
• Confuflux (Discordianism).
• Brazil – International Men’s Day.

Liturgical Feasts (1)

• Saint Benedict, bishop of Angers, confessor [Angers]
• Division of the Apostles
• Saint Donald’s feast day.
• Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
• Saint Swithun, bishop of Winchester, confessor (Translation) [England] (2)
• Saint Margaret, virgin, martyr [Basel, Chur, Constance, Strassburg]
• Holy Nine virgins [Scotland] (3)
• Saint Reginswindis, virgin, martyr [Würzburg]

(1) for those of whom actually believe
(2) what an awesome holiday to have, eh?
(3) love this one!

Events

• 2006 – Mogadishu Int’l Airport in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu re-opens after an eleven-year closure mainly due to the Somali civil war.
• 2005 – the EPA approves a 70 parts per million addition of fluoride to all processed foods.
• 2005 – Jack Nicklaus plays his last hole of competitive golf during The Open Championship at Hole 18 at St Andrews, finishing with a birdie.
• 2004 – The BBC airs the documentary The Secret Agent, exposing racism by members of the British National Party.
• 2004 – Monorail service begins in Las Vegas.
• 2003 – the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed its SARS-related travel advisory for Taiwan, the last area to have such a travel alert.
• 2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
• 2002 – Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan awarded death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life term to three other suspects in murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
• 2002 – “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.
• 1997 – In Miami, Florida, serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan guns down Gianni Versace outside his home.
• 1996 – A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.
• 1995 – First item sold on Amazon.com
• 1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his famous “malaise” speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as “this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.”
• 1975 – Clifford Antone opens the legendary Austin blues club Antone’s on 6th Street.
• 1975 – Apollo Soyuz Test Project: Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for U.S.-Soviet link-up in space.
• 1974 – Christine Chubbuck becomes the first person to commit suicide on-air.
• 1974 – In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d’état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.
• 1959 – The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
• 1958 – In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to provide military support to the pro-Western government there.
• 1957 – Full-scale production of the Edsel automobile begins.
• 1955 – Eighteen Nobel laureates signed the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
• 1954 – First flight of the Boeing 707, the first American jet passenger airliner.
• 1953 – John Reginald Christie, British serial killer executed.
• 1945 – President Harry Truman disembarks the heavy cruiser the USS Augusta (CA-31) in Antwerp en route to Potsdam for the Potsdam Conference.
• 1931 – Kid Chocolate becomes Cuba’s first world boxing champion.
• 1929 – First weekly radio broadcast of Mormon Tabernacle Choir radio show, Music and the Spoken Word.
• 1927 – Massacre of July 15, 1927: 89 protesters are killed by the Austrian police in Vienna.
• 1926 – BEST buses make its début in Mumbai.
• 1918 – World War I: Second Battle of the Marne – The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
• 1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
• 1895 – Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record cricket innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.
• 1870 – Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories are established from these vast territories. (3)
• 1870 – Post-American-Civil-War Reconstruction: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Confederates break naval blockade of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
• 1823 – A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.
• 1815 – Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders from aboard HMS Bellerophon.
• 1806 – Pike expedition: Near St. Louis, Missouri, United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west.
• 1799 – Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta, by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard. (4)
• 1789 – Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, by acclamation, named colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris.
• 1685 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth is executed at Tower Hill, England after his defeat at the Battle of Sedgemore on 6 July 1685.
• 1410 – Battle of Grunwald, allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the Teutonic Order.
• 1381 – John Ball, a leader in the Peasants’ Revolt, hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England.
• 1240 – A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
• 1207 – John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton.
• 1162 – Ladislaus II of Hungary declared King of Hungary.
• 1099 – First Crusade: Christian soldiers take Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.

(3) I knew I was always connected to the north!
(4) no wonder I have a connection to languages!

Births (5)

• 1553 – Archduke Ernest of Austria (d. 1595)
• 1573 – Inigo Jones, English architect (d. 1652)
• 1606 – Rembrandt, Dutch artist (d. 1669)
• 1631 – Jens Juel, Danish diplomat (d. 1700)
• 1918 – Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
• 1930 – Richard Garneau, French Canadian sports journalist
• 1932 – Ed Litzenberger, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1934 – Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (d. 1977)
• 1941 – Denis Héroux, French Canadian film director and producer
• 1946 – Linda Ronstadt, American singer
• 1949 – Carl Bildt, Swedish politician (6)
• 1963 – Steve Thomas, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 – Jasper Pääkkönen, Finnish actor and film producer
• 1997 – Prince Lukás of Bulgaria, titular Bulgarian royal family
• 1998 – Camille Gottlieb, daughter of Princess Stephanie of Monaco

(5) trimmed list to things of interest
(6) this kind of disgusts me

So that’s all basically why today is so freaking awesome. This is repost from 2007 when it was originally posted right here on my blog!

• st. swiðuns day birthday carl bildt wikipedia.org