Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH oday, 63 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. It continues to echo down the halls of history more than six decades later. On August 28, 1963, he delivered his speech at the March on Washington, at the height of the Civil Rights movement. Over a quarter of a million supporters gathered at the Mall in Washington, D.C., where King delivered his public speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking over the Reflecting Pool. President John F. Kennedy had proposed new civil rights…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF ST. AUGUSTINE he Feast of Saint Augustine is celebrated on August 28, the date of his death in 430 A.D. Augustine is considered the most influential bishop in history; he is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and several cities and dioceses worldwide. Most of what we know about him is from his writings: Confessions (397 A.D.) is an autobiography written in the form of a prayer to God about his spiritual struggles. Retractions (428 A.D.) is Augustine’s late-life review of his own writings, in which he revisited and corrected earlier works. Who was this…
Reading Time: 3 minutesNORTHERN LIGHTS AND CORONAL MASS EJECTION: METHANOGENIC CATTLE OAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has announced a G2 geomagnetic storm watch for tomorrow, August 28, which could potentially boost aurora activity. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are plasma and magnetic field explosions from the Sun’s corona. When aimed at Earth, they trigger geomagnetic storms that affect infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on the surface. These storms can disrupt various systems, such as electric power grids, GPS navigation, and Netflix. Climate scientists have finally recognized an unprecedented existential threat to the Earth, as evidenced by the recent ejection of a coronal mass…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF THE 19TH AMENDMENT: WOMEN’S RIGHT TO VOTE ver a hundred years ago, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. This prohibited the federal and state governments from denying citizens of the United States the right to vote on the basis of sex. Effectively, this meant that the right to vote could no longer be denied to women. The text, in part, read: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald reported news of the California Gold Rush along the American East Coast. It was not new news to those further West, as the gold rush had started in January and was publicized in San Francisco in March. However, the New York Herald was then the most popular and profitable newspaper in the US. By the dawn of the American Civil War, the newspaper claimed a circulation of 84,000 copies and called itself “the most widely circulated journal in the world.” In any event, the news of…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF WOODSTOCK August 15 marks the anniversary of the “3 Days of Peace & Music” held in 1969 at Max Yasgur‘s 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the village of Woodstock. This outdoor music event, despite thunderstorms, gave voice to the counterculture youth generation of its time. A documentary film followed it in 1970, and a top-selling soundtrack album was released. I’d like to share with you what it was like to be at the Woodstock Rock Festival – the music, the crowds “half a million strong,” the rain, the muddy roads, the traffic jams, the…
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF INFINITY DAY: AUGUST 8 Infinity Day, also known as Universal & International Infinity Day, is a commemoration held on the 8th day of the 8th month of each year to celebrate and promote Philosophy and Philosophizing for the ordinary person.
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF AUGUST hat’s in a name? The name of this month was not always August; previously, the Romans referred to it as Sextilis. Because the calendar then started in March, this was the sixth month. This was back in the days of Romulus in 753 B.C., when there were originally ten months (… Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec… or seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth). In 8 B.C., the Roman Senate decided to honor their first Emperor, Augustus Caesar, by changing the month’s name to Augustus. Now, Augustus wasn’t his name; it was a description of his importance. He was born Gaius…
Reading Time: 4 minutesMOVIE REVIEW: THE ODYSSEY (NO PLOT SPOILERS) walked out of the theater after seeing The Odyssey with these thoughts and feelings: “Spectacular, awesome, massive, intense, harrowing, violent, merciful, evocative, fearful, seductive, humbling, restrained, overwhelming, noble, epic… an immersive experience, not just a movie.” I found the film noble, uplifting, and immensely satisfying. For those who haven’t read the story that was written 2,800 years ago, I won’t spoil the ending.
