On This Day - February 15th

On this day in the year 399 before the common era (BCE) Socrates, a citizen of Athens from an ancient and venerable family, is sentenced to death by his fellow citizens for the crime of  “corrupting the minds of several young men from leading families in Athens, including Alcibiades, who attempted to overthrow the democratic government of Athens in favor of a Republic led by men like him and counselled by men Socrates.

On this day in the year 732 of the common era (CE) the teacher Ho-tse Shen-hui engages in a disputation with the founder of Northern Ch'an School of Mahayana Buddhism, which becomes  Zen Buddhism when it travels to Japan.

On this day in the year 1220 CE the Khwarezmian city of Bukhara is taken by Genghis Khan's Mongol army after a 12-day siege and the death of approximately thirty thousand people.

On this day in 1804 CE, New Jersey becomes last northern state in the United States to abolish slavery’ sixty-five years later charges of treason are dropped against the traitor Jefferson Davis for the leading the confederate south, as its President, into rebellion against the Union in the American Civil War. Ten years after that, in 1879 CE, the United States Congress authorizes female lawyers to practice law and make arguments before the United States Supreme Court; seventy-seven years later the Pittsburg Pirates and Kansas City Athletics cancel an exhibition game in Birmingham, Alabama due to a local ordinance barring black players from playing against white players.

In 1870 CE, ground is broken for the Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minnesota.

In 1903 CE the first teddy bear is introduced in America, made by Morris and Rose Michtom; ten years later the first avant-garde art show in America opens in New York. New York. Five years after that, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania adopt the Gregorian calendar.

In 1922 CE. Marconi begins regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex; four years later contract air-mail service begins in the United States.

1933 President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survives assassination in Miami, Florida, attempt but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is mortally wounded, he would die on March 29^th; six years later the German battleship, Bismarck is launched. Four years after that the wartime propaganda poster We Can Do It! is produced by J. Howard Miller and posted on the walls of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company's plants throughout the Midwest.

In 1962 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; seventeen years later we do it again, and eleven years after that. Ten years later the Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vents a small amount of radioactive steam when a steam generator fails; thirteen years after that the Chelyabinsk meteor breaks up over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring over one thousand two hundred people, exploding with twenty-six to thirty-three times the energy of the one quarter megaton atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. On this same day an asteroid with a fifty meter diameter came within 27,700 kilometers of Earth.

In 1978 CE escaped mass murderer, serial rapist and killer Ted Bundy is recaptured in Pensacola, Florida; on this same day Leon Spinks beats Muhammad Ali in fifteen rounds for heavyweight boxing championship title. Fourteen years later, Jeffrey Dahmer is found sane and guilty of the murder and cannibalization of fifteen boys and young men.

In 1985 CE The Breakfast Club is released, written and directed by John Hughes, starring Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy

In 2001 CE the first draft of the complete human genome is published in the journal, Nature.

In 2011 CE, United States president Barack Obama awards writer and activist Maya Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

 

On This Day - February 14th

On this day in the year 1747 of the common era (CE), astronomer James Bradley presents his discovery of the wobbling motion of the Earth’s axis to the Royal Society in London, England; two hundred and forty-four years later, the first of twenty-four satellites constituting the Global Positioning System, is placed in orbit and Skyphone opens. One year after that, in 1990 CE, Voyager I takes a photograph of the entire solar system, the images transmitted in real-time with earth seen through its lens as a pale-blue-dot; ten years later, spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, it is the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

On this day in the year 1803 CE, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Marshall declares that any act of the U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void, the process constitutional process of emendation must be followed to change the constitution itself.

On this day in 1849 CE, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving United States President to have his photograph taken, sitting for Mathew Brady in New York City, New York; six years later the Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States with the completion of a connection between New Orleans, Louisiana and Marshall, Texas. Four years after that, in 1859 CE, Oregon is admitted to the Union, becoming the nation’s thirty-third state; fifty-three years later Arizona becomes the forty-eighth.

In 1862 CE, the U.S.S. Galena is launched from Groton, Connecticut, it is the first iron-clad warship in the United States Navy; fifty years later the first submarines with diesel engines are commissioned from the same shipyard.

In 1867 CE Morehouse College organizes, Augusta Georgia; three years later Esther Morris is appointed the first female Justice of the Peace in the United States, after the previous justice, R.S. Barr, resigned to protest the passage of  the Wyoming Territory's “women's suffrage amendment” in 1869, her jurisdiction is in South Pass City, Wyoming; also on this day, Seraph Young becomes the first woman to legally vote in the United States, in Utah two days after the people of Utah passed a suffrage law of their own. Fifty years later, the League of Women Voters forms in Chicago, Illinois; thirty years after that, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizes in New Orleans with Martin Luther King Jr. as its president

In 1919 CE the United Parcel Service (UPS) is formed; two years later, the Little Review (a publishing house) faces obscenity charges for publishing Ulysses, by James Joyce in New York, New York. Forty-nine years after that in 1970 CE, the first "micro-on-a-chip" or “microchip” is patented by Texas Instruments.; thirty-five years later Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim found the on-line video-sharing site YouTube in San Mateo, California.

In 1929 CE the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre takes place in Chicago; seven gangsters are killed at the behest of mafioso, Alfonse Capone; twenty years later the first session of the Kneset (the Israeli Parliament) is held in Jerusalem, Israel. Twenty-two years after that, United States president Richard Nixon installs a secret recording system in the White House.

In 1931 CE, Dracula starring Bela Lugosi is released to theatres in the United States; twenty years later Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta to take the middleweight boxing, championship title.

In 1967 CE Aretha Franklin records her single Respect at Atlantic Studio in New York. New York; her rendition of Otis Redding's tune becomes the Billboard Song of the Year; eighteen years later, Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut album is released, winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, and Billboard’s Album of Year.

In 1976 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

In 1979 CE, Adolph Dubs, the American ambassador to Afghanistan is taken hostage and later killed in Kabul during a gunfight between his kidnappers and the police; twenty years later the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie and his publishers due to his novel Satanic Verses, and a bounty is placed on his head.

 

 

On This Day - February 13th

February 13^th

On this day in the year 1258 of the common era (CE) the city of Baghdad, with a population of one million people, falls to the Mongols and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, tens of thousands of people are slaughtered, historians mark this as the end of the Islamic Golden-Age; seven hundreds and sixty years later the an Israeli police report recommends that its governing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu be prosecuted on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges. Three years after that in Abydos, Egypt archaeologists announce the discovery of the oldest known beer factory from the early Dynastic period, between 3150 before the common era, and 2613 BCE.

On this day in the year 1633 CE, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for trial before the Inquisition for drawing the scientific conclusion that the Earth is a sphere orbiting a spherical Sun; one hundred and forty-four years later the Marquis de Sade is arrested without charge and imprisoned in the fortress at Vincennes, France. One hundred and nine years later, in 1886 CE painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversial use of male-nude-models in a coed art class; thirty-one years later, the Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari is arrested in Paris on suspicion that she is a German spy.

On this day in 1689 CE the English Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights, establishing the right of parliament as the representatives of the people to place limits on the Crown; four years later the College of William & Mary opens in Williamsburg, Virginia. Two hundred and fourteen years after that English suffragettes storm the parliament and sixty women are arrested.

In 1826 CE the American Temperance Society is formed in Boston, Massachusettes; fifty-five years after that, the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris, France by activist Hubertine Auclert.

In 1861 CE the first military action to result in the bequeathment of the nation’s highest commendation for bravery and valor, the Medal of Honor, takes place as Bernard J.D. Irwin volunteers to lead a rescue mission, freeing sixty soldiers from the Chiricahua at Apache Pass, Arizona; five years later Jesse James robs his first bank, stealing $15,000 from the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri.

In 1895 CE the moving picture projector is patented; one hundred and thirty years later a humpback whale is filmed briefly swallowing a man on a kayak off the coast of Chilean Patagonia and then releasing him unharmed.

In 1920 CE the League of Nations recognizes the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, allowing Switzerland to rejoin; seventy years later the United States, the United Kingdom and France grant Germany permission to reunify the country that had been divided into east and west, and governed separately since the end of World War II. Eleven years after that, Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd makes an historic apology to indigenous Australians, lifting-up the “stolen generations” who suffered forced child removal and assimilation; seventeen years later, at the direction of the Trump administration the United States National Park Service quietly removes all references to transgender and queer people from Stonewall National Monument website; a monument in New York, New York which commemorates a series of riots that took place in New York city after the police brutally beating gay man for being gay.

In 1935 CE Bruno Hauptmann is found guilty of kidnap and murder the infant child of aviator and nazi sympathizer, Charles Lindbergh. Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence to the end of his life; two years later the Prince Valiant comic strip appears in syndication and is acclaimed for its historical detail.

In 1960 CE France becomes the fourth nuclear-nation, detonating a 70-kiloton "Gerboise Bleue" atomic bomb in the Algerian Sahara Desert; six years later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

In 1974 CE, Nobel Laureate, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist and historian is deported from the Soviet Union to Frankfurt, West Germany and stripped of his Soviet citizenship; twenty-six years later the last original Peanuts comic-strip appears in newspapers…one day after its creator Charles M. Schulz dies.

In 1985 CE the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 1297.92 (a record high) after topping 1300 earlier in the trading day; on this day in 2026 the DOW closed at 49,500.93.

 

On This Day - February 12th

On this day in the year 1793 of the common era (CE) the first Fugitive Slave Law passes, requiring the return of escaped slaves in the United States; seventy-two years later Henry Highland Garnet becomes the first African American minister to preach to the United States House of Representatives, delivering a sermon concerning the end of slavery in America and the world. Forty-four years after that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed.

On this day in the year 1795 CE the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill opens; it is the first State University in the United States.

On this day in 1870 CE, Utah becomes the second territory in the United States to pass a law allowing women the vote, following Wyoming the year before, a history of liberalism and universal suffrage its current residents have since forgotten.

In 1877 CE the first news dispatch by telephone takes place between Boston and Salem, Massachusetts; fifty-four years later Vatican Radio begins broadcasting with the callsign HVJ.

In 1878 CE, Harvard player Frederick Thayer patents the baseball catcher's mask (pat # 200,358); one year later the first artificial ice rink in North America opens at Madison Square Garden, New York, New York.

In 1908 CE the New York to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins; George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel.

In 1912 CE the last Qing emperor of China, Puyi (age 6), abdicates after losing the support of the Chinese people and thus the "mandate of heaven;" on this same day China adopts the Gregorian calendar.

In 1914 CE the first feature-length film shot in Hollywood is released in the United States, The Squaw Man directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel; seventy-nine years later, the comedy film Groundhog Day opens starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, directed by Harold Ramis. One year after that, The Scream by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1893 pastel version) is stolen in Oslo, Norway.

In 1935 CE the first secret demonstration of radio signals detecting aircraft is conducted by Robert Watson-Watt and Arnold Wilkins at Daventry, England; six years later the first injection of penicillin into a patient is conducted by British physician Charles Fletcher at Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England.

In 1955 CE president Eisenhower sends the first United States military advisors to South Vietnam.

In 1965 CE the United States performs nuclear test in the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; eleven years later at the Nevada Test Site, and again six years after that.

In 1989 CE, a British-loyalist paramilitary group kills Pat Finucane, a Belfast lawyer who represented republican hunger striker Bobby Sands. He is murdered while having dinner with his family.

In 1998 CE, tech giant Intel unveils its first graphics chip, the i740; sixteen years later Peter Diamandis projects that fifty percent of jobs in the United States are under threat of being mechanized within ten years…he was wrong.

In 1999 CE. United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial.

In 2001 CE the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lands in the saddle region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid; twenty-three years later the oldest known stone-age megastructure is discovered submerged in the Bay of Mecklenburg off the German coast, a hunting lodge thought to be eleven thousand years old.

In 2016 CE pope Francis “The Good” meets Patriarch Kirill in Havana, it is the first meeting between the heads of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches in nearly one thousand years.

 

 

Observation - February 11th, 2026, Wednesday

shuffling feet over the ice-slick walk

melting in the late winter thaw

 

warm in my layers of cotton and wool

sweating past the frozen lake

gray as the sky above

 

a lady’s dog wants to say hello

turkeys in the treetops, swinging low

On This Day - February 11th

On this day in the year 660 before the common era (BCE) the empire of Japan is founded by Jimmu; 2,549 years later, in the year 1889 of the common era (CE), Japan adopts the Meiji Constitution establishing a parliamentary government.

On this day in the year 385 CE, Siricius is elected as Bishop of Rome, he is the first to use the moniker of pope, or papa as head of the Catholic Church; his use of this title is contested by the bishops of Alexandria and Constantinople and the doctrine of Petrine Supremacy is asserted.

On this day in 1790 CE the Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery; one hundred and seventy-one years later Robert Weaver is sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, becoming the first African American to be appointed to a cabinet-level position in the United States. Fifteen years after that Clifford Alexander Jr is confirmed as first African American US Secretary of Army.

In 1808 CE, anthracite coal is first burned as fuel experimentally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; one year later American inventor Robert Fulton patents the steamboat.

In 1852 CE the first British public female toilet opens on Bedford Street in London, England; sixty-four years later Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control. Seventy-three years after that, in 1989 CE, Barbara Harris is installed as the first female bishop of a United States Episcopal Church in the diocese of Boston, Massachusetts; four years later, United States president Bill Clinton selects Janet Reno to become the first female United States Attorney General.

In 1905 CE James Blackstone of Seattle, bowls 299½; the last pins breaks, the top half falls off but the bottom half remains standing, he is credited with half a point but denied a perfect game.

In 1949 CE the single Lovesick Blues is released by Hank Williams making it the Billboard Song of the Year; also on this day Willie Pep recaptures world featherweight boxing title; fifty-one years later, in a huge upset James "Buster" Douglas knocks out “Iron” Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the world heavyweight boxing title in Tokyo Japan.

In 1963 CE American chef Julia Child's show The French Chef premieres on WGBH in Boston, Massachusets; one year later The Beatles make first concert appearance in the United States at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C..

In 1966 CE, San Francisco Giants outfielder Willie Mays signs baseball's highest contract to date, at $130,000 per year; five years later; the first Major League Baseball arbitration case begins with Minnesota Twins pitcher Dick Woodson seeking $29,000. The Twins offered $23,000…Dick Woodson wins. Fourteen years after Kent Hrbek signs a five-year, six-million-dollar contract, also with the Minnesota Twins.

In 1971 CE, the United States, United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and others sign the Seabed Arms Control Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor; sixteen years later the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1978 China lifts its ban on the works of Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens; one year later, Iran's Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar resigns after losing support of the military and the ayatollah Khomeini seizes power. Twelve years after that in 1990 CE, Nelson Mandela is released from prison after twenty-seven years; sixteen years later, United States vice president Dick Cheney accidentally shoots Harry Whittington in the face with a shotgun while on a quail hunt on a ranch in Riviera, Texas…Wittington survives.

In 1999 CE Pluto moves further away from the sun than Neptune in its orbit, regaining its status as the solar system's outermost planet; this title would have remained with Pluto for the following two hundred and twenty-eight years, but for the fact that in 2006 CE the Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto’s official status to “dwarf planet,” planetoid or planetesimal.

In 2016 CE astrophysicists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announce their discovery gravitational-waves in the collision of two black holes.

 

 

Frank Herbert – Author, Intellectual, Hero

I had been an avid reader since I was eight years old; I was in the second grade when I began reading novels, and in short order I was reading books that filled me with inspiration; when I found them, I read them, over-and-over-and-over again. I read all kinds of things, including poetry and biographies, history and mythology, along with some pop-philosophy, but by the age of fifteen I still read mostly fiction. It was then, in 1984 that I first read Dune.

I had taken a copy from a carousel of paperbacks in the English Room at the alternative high-school I was attending. I read that copy, perhaps not as carefully as I should, but as carefully as I could, finding Dune to be somewhat dense, even challenging...though I enjoyed it well enough.

I went to see the motion picture when it came out later that school year, in the spring of 1985. Like so many others, I found David Lynch’s adaptation to be one of the worst movies ever made, and with that screening Dune passed from my thoughts for a time. However…in the summer of 1988 I was visiting a friend in Bigfork, Montana. I was in a bookstore looking for something to read on the bus ride back to Minneapolis. I picked up a copy of Dune, thinking to myself that I should read it again.

Four years had passed since my first go at it, in those years my understanding of the world had expanded; I was able to engage the book in a completely different way…and once I did I was hooked; I was nineteen years old and Dune had changed my life.

Since then, I have read it and the other five books in the original Dune series a total of eight times, as well as everything else Frank Herbert wrote…if I could find it in print.

Frank Herbert was a giant, he was among the foremost intellectuals of his era; I am deeply indebted to him for what he gave me: a profound hope for humanity, deeply rooted in his appreciation for the range of human potential.

I have given away dozens of copies of Dune throughout my life, and recommended it to more people than I can count…always with these words, which I share directly from my experience:

This book will change your life; many (not all) have told me that it had.

Frank Herbert wrote science fiction, but the science he wrote into his fiction had less to do with spaceships and laser beams (though it had those things), and more to do with the science of politics, religion, ecology and psychology…it was the multi-dimensional human-person that occupied his imagination.

Through his insight Herbert challenges the reader to explore what it means to be human. He asks open-ended questions about human potential, in a way that allows the reader to believe in those possibilities for themselves…his own view of humanity is both daunting and transformative.

He believed that we can do more, be more, see more of the world than our senses allow…if we are disciplined. He believed that if we are attentive to the world around us, and cultivate within ourselves the will to live a life without fear, we will secure a future for humanity beyond our solar system, we will spread throughout the galaxy…and beyond.

Frank Herbert died forty years ago today, in 1986. A heroic light left the world when he passed. The man is missed.

 

 

On This Day - February 10th

On this day in the year 60 of the common era (CE), Saul of Tarsus (also known as Saint Paul, the apostle to the gentiles) is shipwrecked on the isles of Malta; 1475 years later twelve Anabaptists run naked through the streets of Amsterdam. Four hundred and eighty-four years after that, a sexual abuse investigation into United States Southern Baptist churches reveals that four hundred church members had been implicated in crimes against over 700 victims, according to the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.

On this day in the year 1635 CE the Académie Française is formed in Paris by Cardinal Richelieu; two hundred and seven years later the Moreton Bay Penal Colony in Australia is abolished and opened for free settlement, ultimately to become the city of Brisbane. Seven years after that United States citizenship laws are amended so that all children of U.S. parents who born abroad, are automatically granted citizenship.

On this day in 1863 CE the first fire extinguisher patent in the United States is granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia.

In 1870 CE the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) forms in New York, New York; forty-seven years later Johanna Westerdijk is installed at the University of Utrecht as a professor of plant pathology; she is the first female professor in the Netherlands'.

In 1904 CE, Japan and Russia declare war on each other.

In 1920 CE Major League Baseball outlaws all pitches involving tampering with ball; fifty-one years later Bill White becomes first African American baseball announcer, calling games for the New York Yankees.

In 1933 CE the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company of New York City delivers the first singing telegram; seven years later the first Tom and Jerry cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, is created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and released in theaters by MGM

In 1942 CE, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra are awarded the first-ever gold record for selling one million copies of Chattanooga Choo Choo; two years later, Charles "Lucky" Luciano is deported to Italy and never returns to the United States.

In 1954 CE United States president Dwight Eisenhower warns against military intervention in Vietnam; thirteen years later the twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (concerning Presidential Disability & Succession) is ratified; four years after that American Mensa Ltd incorporates in New York, New York.

In 1972 CE the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) bans Give Ireland Back to the Irish, written and performed by Sir Paul McCartney and Wings.

In 1972 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan, and do it again on this same day in 1985; four years later the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

In 1989 CE the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE) admits in a New Jersey court that pro-wrestling is an exhibition and not a sport, ostensibly to gain deregulation; three years later Mike Tyson is convicted of raping Desiree Washington in Indiana.

In 1996 CE, IBM chess-playing computer Deep Blue becomes the first computer to win a game of chess against the reigning human chess champion, Garry Kasparov.

In 2021 CE a seventeen thousand-year-old conch shell is found to be oldest known wind instrument yet discovered, originally unearthed in the Marsoulas Cave, in the Pyrenees, on the border between France and Spain; on that same day astronomers confirm the planetoid named Farfarout as the most distant object orbiting the Sun, almost four times more distant than the planetesimal (and one time planet) Pluto

 

 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Author, Hero, Philosopher

When I was in my early-teens my reading habits began change; I began moving away from the science-fiction and fantasy literature that had occupied my imagination and furnished the many mansions of my dreams. Just when I was beginning to lift my face from the acid-washed pages of my comic-book-worlds, I looked past the American authors that were being taught in school…Lewis, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck, I looked past Kerouac, Salinger, Vonnegut and Bratigan and found Dostoyevsky resting on the shelf…through his work a whole new dimension of literature opened up for me.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky lived and wrote at the crossroads where literature becomes philosophy; he exposed the human condition at that juncture, he depicted our raw nature, its powers and its frailties, he demonstrated their features to us in both those possessed by guilt, and in the pure hearted idiots who are able to survive the cruelties of the world only because they are loved.

Dostoyevsky was a novelist, and through him I came to understand the power of narrative to convey certain truths that touch all human beings; there are no authors more adept at this function than the Russians, with Dostoyevsky being the foremost practitioner among them…his influence on me was profound.

From Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground, to The Idiot and the Brothers Karamozov, I spent years reading the body of his work, from my mid-teens through my twenties and into my thirties. I tracked down his cannon until all that was left were translations of his notebooks…which I also read.

I purchased the notebook for A Raw Youth at a bookstore in Minneapolis (Majors and Quinn); I was in the Navy, but home on leave; my friend Lucy was with me at the time. In those pages I could see the way Dostoyevsky constructed the arc of his narrative, how he developed his characters from ego to id, from false-self to true-self, from privilege to despair and back again...as if he were describing the movements of the soul. The book was used and I was delighted to find an imperial ruble tucked into its pages, like an overlooked bookmark left to me by whoever was last to read it.

I discovered in Dostoyevsky the founder of existentialist philosophy, and through him I learned to admire Charles Dickens, whom Dostoyevsky considered to be the greatest author of all time.

It has been one hundred and forty-five years since Dostoyevsky went into the dirt; his influence has not waned…I think, because human beings have not changed, and his insight into the dilemma of existence remains sound…and well-suited to the digital age.

 

On This Day - February 9th

On this day in the year 1555 of the common era (CE) John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester, England is burned at the stake for heresy in an egregious act of human sacrifice.

On this day in the year 1775 CE the British Parliament declares its Massachusetts colony to be in rebellion.

On this day in 1861 CE the Confederate Provisional Congress declares that all laws under the United States Constitution are consistent with Constitution of Confederate States; later on the same day, Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens are elected president and vice president of the Confederate States of America, both men were traitors but allowed to continue serving in public life until their natural death even after they lost the war against America which they championed.

In 1870 US CE, United States president Ulysses S. Grant signs law resulting in U.S. Army Signal Service’s establishment of its "Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce", later known as the National Weather Service.

In 1904 CE a Japanese torpedo boats launch a surprise attack on Russian ships at the Port Arthur naval base in Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. Japanese troops also land at Chemulpo (Incheon), near Seoul, Korea; in three weeks, they advance to the Yalu River on the border of Manchuria.

In 1909 CE the first federal legislation in the United States is passed into law prohibiting the  importation, possession and use of narcotics, smoking opium is banned nationwide; seventeen years later in a clear violation of the separation of church and state, evolutionary biology is forbidden as a field of learning in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1961 CE the Beatles play their first gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club; they would play there nearly 300 times over the next two years; three years later they make their first appearance The Ed Sullivan Show live from New York; the broadcast draws 73.7 million television viewers.

In 1962 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; four years later the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a record 995 points (today in 2026, the Dow Jones opened at 50,047.79); twenty five years later the New York Stock Exchange for the very first time installs a ladies’ restroom in the Exchange Luncheon Club.

In 1971 CE Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1979 CE Walter Hill's film The Warriors, based on Sol Yurick's 1965 novel, is released in the United States, sparking gang violence at many theaters and a halt to the film's marketing campaign.

In 1997 CE the Fox cartoon series The Simpsons, airs its 167th episode, making it the longest-running animated series in cartoon history; twenty-nine years later the show is still in production having aired a total of 803 original episodes through the year 2025.

 

On This Day - February 8th

On this day in the year 1587 of the common era (CE), Mary, queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, England at the age of forty-four, after being convicted of plotting to assassinate queen Elizabeth I, a scheme otherwise known as the Babington Plot.

On this day in the year 1807 CE, the Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon's forces and the Russian Empire, this marks the first battle in Napoleon was not victorious.

On this day in 1861 CE the Confederate States of America are organized in Montgomery, Alabama (US Civil War); four years later Martin Robison Delany, is promoted to the rank of Major, the first African-American command officer in the United Sates Army appointed during Civil War. Twenty-two years after that in 1887 CE, the United States Congress passes The Dawes Act authorizing the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments in a ploy to weaken tribal solidarity; those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe were granted United States citizenship; seven years later the United States Enforcement Act is repealed making it easier to disenfranchise African-Americans, to deprive them of their right to vote, organize and seek justice before the law. Twenty-two years after that, in 1915 CE the first “twelve-reel” film premiers at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh, is widely panned for being a historical revisionist, racist glorification of the confederacy and the Klu-Klux-Klan; ten years later pioneering civil rights activist Marcus Garvy enters federal prison. Nineteen years after that Harry McAlpin becomes the first African-American reporter to be accredited to the white House.

In 1898 CE John Ames Sherman patents the first envelope folding & gumming machine in Massachusetts.

In 1910 CE The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce; eight years later Stars & Stripes, the weekly newspaper of the United States armed forces is first published. Six years after that, in 1924 CE the first United States coast-to-coast radio hookup is effected for a speech by General John Joseph Carty given in Chicago. Illinois; four years later the first transatlantic television image is received at Hartsdale, New York. Forty-one years after that, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published. Fifty years after that, the proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.

In 1963 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; four years later the United States does it again, and again on this day in 1979 CE.

In 1964 CE, United States representative Martha Griffith’s address to congress gets civil rights protection for women added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act; one year later United States president Lyndon Johnson deploys the first combat troops to South Vietnam, with three-thousand five-hundred marines sent to protect the airbase near Da Nang; three years later, highway patrol officers kill three students and injure twenty-seven others demonstrating at South Carolina State University; it is the first student killing by law enforcement in the United States for protesting the Vietnam War and is known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Twelve years after that, Larry Flint, the publisher of Hustler magazine is sentenced on obscenity charges.

In 1965 CE Motown Records release The Supremes' single Stop In the Name of Love; three years later the film Planet of the Apes, based on Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des Singes, premieres in New York City, New York. Six years after that, the television sitcom Good Times, premieres on CBS, a spin-off from the TV series Maude (with B. Arthur), starring Esther Rolle, John Amos and J.J. Walker; two years later Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, premieres in NYC, NY and wins the Palme d'Or in 1976.

 

 

On This Day - February 7th

On this day in the year 1301 of the common era (CE) Edward of Caernarfon (later Edward II) becomes the first English prince of Wales.

On this day in the year 1569 CE, king Philip II of Spain forms the Inquisition in South America, giving it authority to conduct human sacrifice throughout the continent over a period of two hundred and fifty years; 150 people were burned at the stake and thousands more tortured on the rack, by the strappado and waterboarding, others were fortunate enough to merely have their property confiscated and be condemned to slavery in the name of God.

On this day in 1817 CE the city of Baltimore, Maryland becomes the First American city lit by gas street lamps with the first turned on at Market and Lemon Streets (currently Baltimore and Holliday); ninety-eight years later, the first wireless message is sent from a moving train to a station where it is received.

In 1936 CE, Felix the Cat, an animated film from Van Beuren Studios and licensed from Otto Messmer is released; twenty-three years later Fidel Castro produces a new Cuban constitution. Three years after that, in 1962 CE, United States president John F. Kennedy begins a blockade of Cuba by banning all Cuban imports and exports, and three years later begins regular bombing & strafing of North Vietnam.

In 1964 CE The Beatles land at New York's JFK airport, for their first U.S. tour; five years later The Who record their song Pinball Wizard at Morgan Studio's in London, England. Four years after that Iggy Pop and The Stooges release their influential third album Raw Power.

In 1971 CE, Switzerland votes for national women's suffrage in a referendum, the last European country to do so (except for Liechtenstein which apparently does not matter); thirty-five years later, player Uma Thurman is named a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France for outstanding achievement in the field of art and literature.

In 1974 CE Mel Brooks' western spoof Blazing Saddles, starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, premieres at the Pickwick Drive-In in Burbank, California; patrons watch from horseback rather than cars; twelve years later Haiti’s “president for life,” voo-doo practitioner Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier flees to France.

In 2023 CE, LeBron James scores 38 points to become the National Basketball Association's all-time leading scorer, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387 career points.

 

 

On This Day - February 6th

On this day in the year 1778 of the common era (CE) two treaties were signed in Paris between the United States and France, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, establishing formal diplomatic and commercial relations and the Treaty of Alliance for mutual defense, these were the first treaties negotiated by the United States.

On this day in the year 1815 CE, New Jersey issues the first railroad charter in the United States to Mr. John Stevens; seventy-nine years later, the bottle opener is patented by American inventor William Painter.

On this day in 1869 CE, Harper's Weekly publishes the first picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers; thirteen years later the society of the Knights of Columbus is formed in New Haven, Connecticut

In 1943 CE singer Frank Sinatra debuts on Your Hit Parade; nine years later queen Elizabeth II succeeds king George VI to the British throne and is proclaimed queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In 1948 CE the first radio-controlled airplane is flow.

In 1951 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site Argonne Atomic Lab (Ill), to demonstrate lax in security; thirty-seven years later, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

In 1968 CE, former president Dwight Eisenhower shoots a hole-in-one on the golf course; three years later American astronaut Alan Shepard is the first person to hit a golf ball on the Moon.

In 1980 CE John Wayne Gacy goes on trial for the murder of thirty-three young men in Cook County, Illinois.

In 2019 CE at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, Honeybees are found to be able to add and subtract and understand concept of zero.

 

 

On This Day - February 5th

On this day in the year 1597 of the common era (CE) twenty-six Christians were condemned and crucified in Japan. This human sacrifice was meant to stave off the threat these Christians represented to Japanese society.

On this day in the year 1783 CE Sweden recognizes the independence of the United States; twenty-eight years later, prince George, the Prince of Wales (later to become king George IV of England), is appointed as prince-regent after his father king George III is found to be insane due to mental illness.

On this day in 1850 CE, D. D. Parmelee patents the first key-driven adding machine in New Paltz, New York; eleven years later the first Loop-the-Loop roller coaster opens on Coney Island, New York, built by Edwin Prescott.

In 1897 CE, Marcel Proust challenges literary critic Jean Lorrain to a duel with pistols in the Meudon forest near Paris. Both men fire but miss satisfying the demands of honor without injury.

In 1918 CE a separation of church and state is inaugurated in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; one year later in Hollywood, California, the film studio United Artists is founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith

In 1921 CE the New York Yankees purchase twenty acres in the Bronx for Yankee Stadium.

In 1924 CE the Greenwich time signal begins broadcasting from the Royal Observatory in England; this hourly chime becomes known as the "BBC pips."

In 1943CE Jake LaMotta defeats future multi-weight world boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson by unanimous points decision in Detroit, Michigan. It is the second of their six meetings and LaMotta’s only win against his arch-rival; thirty-four years later the future five-division world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard makes his professional debut with a six-round unanimous decision over Luis Vega at Baltimore’s Civic Center in Maryland

1974 John Murtha of Pennsylvania becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the United States Congress.

In 1978 CE, Fred Newman makes eighty-eight consecutive basketball free throws while blindfolded; eleven years later Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes the first NBA player to score 38,000 points.

In 1988 CE, André the Giant defeats Hulk Hogan in the first prime-time wrestling match to air on TV in thirty years.

In 1994 CE, in Jackson, Mississippi, Byron De La Beckwith is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Medgar Evers 30 years after the crime was committed; twenty years later archaeologists decrypt the 13th C Viking Jötunvillur-runic.

 

 

On This Day - February 4th

On this day in the year 1555 of the common era (CE) Reformer and bible translator John Roger is burnt at the stake in Smithfield, London. This act of human sacrifice made him the first Protestant Martyr in the upcoming religious wars that rocked England and the rest of Europe for the next two centuries.

On this day in the year 1789 CE the first United States Electoral College chooses George Washington as president and John Adams as vice president.

On this day in 1933 CE German president Paul von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press; five years later Adolf Hitler seizes control of the German army and puts Nazis in key posts.

In 1957 CE the first electric portable typewriter is placed on sale in Syracuse, New York.

In 1965 CE the United States performs nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site; five years later another test is performed. Six years after that another test is performed.

In 1972 CE, United States senator Strom Thurmond suggests John Lennon should be deported; two years later Patty Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in Berkeley, California. Six years after that Studio 54 holds its grand closing party on its last night of business.

In 1985 CE, twenty countries sign the United Nations treaty outlawing torture. The United States abstains; six years later baseball's Hall of Fame board of directors vote 12-0 to bar Pete Rose for life, due to his betting on games while a player and manager.

In 2004 CE Mark Zuckerberg, after swindling his college roommates, launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory; nine years later the French Government annuls a two hundred and thirteen year-old law banning women from wearing trousers.

On This Day - February 3rd

On this day in the year 1451 on the common era (CE) sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

On this day in the year 1783 CE, Spain recognizes the independence of the United States from British Empire.

On this day in 1855 CE the Wisconsin Supreme Court declares that the United States Fugitive Slave Law is unconstitutional; fifteen years later Iowa ratifies the fifteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing suffrage for all races and colors. Seventy-seven years after that, in 1967 CE, Percival Prattis becomes the first African American reporter to enter the press Gallery of the United States Congress; forty-two years later Eric Holder becomes the eighty-second Attorney General of United States and the first African American to hold the office.

In 1863 CE Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in the Territorial Enterprise, a Viginia Newspaper.

In 1887 CE, the United States Congress establishes the Electoral Count Act in order to avoid disputed national elections, the reliability of this law would not be seriously tested until January 6^th, 2021 when the outgoing president Donald Trump encouraged an armed group of insurrectionists to riot and storm the U.S. Capitol so that they might prevent the fulfillment and certification of the electoral count.

In 1913 CE the sixteenth amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, instituting a federal income tax.

In 1959 CE, musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) die in a plane crash, along with their pilot, near Clear Lake, Iowa, thereafter this becomes memorialized as the day the music died.

In 1966 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic’s spacecraft Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the surface of the moon; thirty-one years later a public memorial is held for Carl Sagan at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

In 1972 CE the United States performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site; seven years later the Minnesota Twins become the first and only team in baseball history to trade away the reigning batting champion when they send Rod Carew to the California Angels…Twins repeat this blunder in 2023 with Luis Arraez.

In 1986 CE, the sainted pope John Paul II meets with the sainted Mother Teresa of Calcutta in Calcutta, India…the two greatest figures of late twentieth century Catholicism; thirty-five years later, pope Francis the Good arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the first ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula.

On This Day - February 2nd

On this day in the year 1653 of the common era (CE) the city of New Amsterdam is founded on the Island of Manhattan, later renamed New York.

On this day in the year 1892 CE, the longest boxing match is fought under modern rules, the contestants were Harry Sharpe and Frank Crosby; they went seventy-seven rounds in Nameoki, Illinois.

On this day in 1922 CE, James Joyce's novel Ulysses is first published by Sylvia Beach in Paris, France. One thousand copies were put in print.

In 1925 CE the Belgian episcopacy rejects liberalism, communism & socialism; seven years later the Geneva disarmament conference begins with sixty countries in attendance. One year after that, in 1933 CE Hermann Goering bans communist meetings and demonstrations in Germany; on this day in the following year Dutch Roman Catholic bishops warn against fascism and Nazism.

In 1948 CE, United States president Harry Truman urges congress to adopt a civil rights program.

In1951 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; eleven years later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

In 1954 CE, snow falls on Gibraltar; thirty-two years later pope John Paul II, the Bishop of Rome meets the Dalai Lama in India.

In 1955 CE the first presidential news conference on network television is given by United States president Eisenhower on ABC; nine years later GI Joe makes his debuts as a popular American boy-toy.

In 1971 CE the United States Congressional Black Caucus organizes with Charles C. Diggs Jr. as its first Chair; two years later The Midnight Special, a late night rock music show debuts on NBC; the opening line-up of performers include Ike and Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, Don Mclean, the Byrds, and George Carlin.

In 1993 CE Frito Lay Co. pays Tom Waits $2,500,000 Tom Waits for using his distinctive voice and singing style in radio advertisement without his contractual consent; on this same day the poet and playwright Václav Havel becomes the first president of an independent Czech Republic, after splitting with Slovakia.

 

 

On This Day - February 1st

On this day in the year 1587 of the common era (CE), queen Elizabeth I of England signs the death warrant for her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots; two hundred and one years later the first steamboat patent is issued in the United States, by the state of Georgia to Briggs & Longstreet.

On this day in the year 1790 CE the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for first time in New York, New York

On this day in 1865 CE, United States president Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery; it is celebrated as National Freedom Day thereafter; on this day John S. Rock becomes the first African American lawyer to be admitted to the bar of practice before the United States Supreme Court. Sixty-eight years later, German Parliament is dissolved by President Paul von Hindenburg by the request of new chancellor Adolf Hitler.

In 1896 CE Giacomo Puccini's opera, La Boheme premieres in Turin, Italy; ninety years later the television mini-series, Rich Man, Poor Man, premieres on ABC.

In 1902 CE China's empress Tzu-hsi forbids binding woman's feet; fifty-one years later flooding in the Netherlands kills 1,835 people. Six years after that, the men of Switzerland vote against the enfranchisement of women by denying them the right to vote.

In 1906 CE the first federal penitentiary building is completed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; fourteen years later the first commercial armored car is introduced to the market in St Paul, Minnesota.

In 1962 CE, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey’s debut Novel, is published by Viking Press; forty-two years later two hundred and fifty-one people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Fifteen years after that, United States president Donald Trump confirms that the U.S. has withdrawn from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

In 1964 CE, The Beatles' first #1 hit: I Want to Hold Your Hand, tops the Hot 100 and stays #1 for seven weeks before being replaced by She Loves You, also by The Beatles; sixteen years later Blondie releases the single Call Me and goes on to become the Billboard song of the year for 1980.

On this day in 2003 CE, the United States Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard; one year later a wardrobe malfunction: during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, results in the exposure of Janet Jackson’s breast on live television.