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Events, deaths, births, of 03 NOV
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^  On a 03 November:
Thompson 12 May 2004
2005 At 15:30 (21:30 UT) Charles Victor Thompson [13 Jun 1970~] [photo >], escapes from the Baker Street Jail in Houston, where he was temporarily after being again, in appeal court on 28 October 2005, sentenced to death for the 30 April 1998 shooting of his ex-mate Dennise Hayslip, 39 (who died on 06 May 1998), and her new mate Darren Keith Cain, 30 (who died on the spot). Thompson (aided by whom??) manages to get out of handcuffs, changes from his orange prison jumpsuit into the civilian clothes he wore in court and smuggled back to his cell, shows a false photo I-D, claims to be a lawyer of the Texas attorney general's office, and walks out. On 06 November 2005, he is discovered drunk, speaking on a pay phone outside the Daiquiri Unlimited liquor store in the 200 block of West 70th Street in the Cedar Grove suburb of Shreveport, Louisiana, and arrested at 20:03 (02:03 UT on 07 Nov). —(051107)

2002:: 7.5 earthquake at 13:13 (22:13 UT) in sparsely populated central Alaska, with epicenter 5 km deep at 63º31'N 147º32'W. It was preceded at 09:47 (18:47 UT) by a 4.4 shock with epicenter 33 km deep at 63º41'N 147º40'W. The earthquake earthquake ruptures a segment of the Denali fault, east of the Parks Highway and 70 km East-North-East of Cantwell. In the same area as a 6.7 earthquake occured on 23 October 2002. The Denali fault is a major, seismically active strike-slip fault that arcs through Alaska, slicing the Alaska Range and bounding the north face of Mount McKinley. The streams and glacial morraines crossing the fault have been offset and record the long-term displacement of the fault. This earthquake likely resulted from slip on the Denali fault or a closely related fault. No prior historical earthquake having the size of this earthquake had been definitely attributed to the section of the Denali fault that lies near the epicenter. However, the section of the fault near the epicenter had been thought capable of producing a major earthquake on the basis of geologic evidence and from the nearby occurrence of smaller earthquakes.
2002 Elections in Turkey, won by the Islamist (though it denies it) Justice and Development Party, whose leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former mayor of Istanbul, is barred him from running for Parliament, because of his 1998 conviction for reciting a poem inciting religious hatred. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer says it is up to him to choose the Prime Minister, but Erdogan says that his party must decide.
2002 In Srinagar, Indian-occupied Kashmir, a coalition puppet government is sworn in, following the four 16 September to 08 October elections, in the four sections into which the Jammu-Kashmir state was divided for that purpose. Three hours after surviving a grenade attack, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, 66, of the People's Democratic Party, is sworn in as Chief Minister. Eight other ministers are sworn in — two from Sayeed’s party, three from the Congress party (including Mangat Ram Sharma as Deputy Chief Minister), one from the Hindu-dominated Panther’s Party and two independents. No single party won a majority in the elections, but voters repudiated the National Conference party, which has dominated Jammu-Kashmir politics for 50 years. The PDP and the Congress party have a combined 36 seats in the 87-member legislature. Seven independent lawmakers and four from the Jammu-Kashmir Panthers’ party also pledged their support to the coalition — giving the parties the majority of the assembly’s seats.
2002 Notice to families traveling through South Dakota? “No child should be left behind in the state of South Dakota,” says US minority-President George “Dubya” Bush during a visit to Sioux Falls.

2000 The decapitated body of opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, 31, who had disappeared on 16 September 2000, is found in a forest in the Bila Tserkva region of Ukraine. The opposition will demand President Leonid Kuchma's resignation, citing incriminating audio tapes released by Kuchma's former bodyguard, Major Mykola Melnichenko. In April 2001, the US would grant political asylum to Melnychenko, to Gongadze's wife, Myroslava, and to the twin Gongadze daughters.
1995 British Soldiers Break Bridge-Building Record On this day, a team of British soldiers from the 21st Engineer Regiment broke all speed records in the construction of a bridge capable of transporting military vehicles. The British soldiers, based in Nienberg, Germany, built the bridge across an 8 meter gap located in Hameln, Germany. Their five-bay single-story medium-girder bridge was completed in eight minutes and forty-four seconds.
1992 Bill Clinton is elected 42nd president of the United States, defeating President George H.W. Bush;
1992 Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the US Senate.
1991 Israeli and Palestinian representatives held their first-ever face-to-face talks in Madrid, Spain.
1991 Syria opened its first one-on-one meeting with Israel in 43 years. Five years ago
1988 Reagan signs credit-card disclosure-bill
1988 Soviet Union agrees to allow teaching of Hebrew
1987 On Wall Street, after 5 consecutive gains, Dow Jones Industrial Average down 50.56
^ 1986 US arms sales to Iran revealed
      The Lebanese magazine Ash Shirra reports that the United States has been secretly selling arms to Iran in the hope of securing the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. Three days later, US intelligence sources confirm the operation, and on 12 November, US President Ronald Reagan admitts that he was aware of the arms sale. The next day, the president gives a televised address in which he explains that the arms sales were implemented in order to improve US-Iranian relations, to bring an end to the Iran-Iraq War, to eliminate state-sponsored terrorism, and to secure the release of US hostages. However, on 25 November, the Justice Department announces that proceeds from the Iran arms sales had been diverted to support of the Contras fighting in Nicaragua.
      The first evidence that elements from the US government were supporting the Contras in their guerrilla war against Nicaragua's Communist government came to light on 05 October, when Nicaraguan government soldiers who had shot down a US cargo plane announced that the aircraft was delivering US military supplies to the Contras. The sole survivor, American Eugene Hasenfus, revealed in captivity that he was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
      Revelations about the Iran-Contra connection cause outrage in Congress, which in 1983 had passed the Boland amendments prohibiting the Defense Department, the CIA, or any other government agency from providing military aid to the Contras. In December, Lawrence E. Walsh is named special prosecutor to investigate the matter, and thus begins the Iran-Contra affair, in which thirteen top White House, State Department, and intelligence officials are found guilty of charges ranging from perjury to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Neither President Ronald Reagan nor Vice President George Bush are directly indicted, and more serious Iran-Contra accusations, such as money laundering and drug trafficking by the CIA, are not pursued.
     The Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. The revelation, confirmed by US intelligence sources on 06 November, came as a shock to officials outside President Ronald Reagan's inner circle and went against the stated policy of the administration. In addition to violating the US arms embargo against Iran, the arms sales contradicted President Reagan's vow never to negotiate with terrorists.
      On 25 November, controversy over the administration's secret dealings with Iran deepened dramatically when Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that proceeds from the arms sales were diverted to fund Nicaraguan rebels — the Contras — who were fighting a guerrilla war against the elected leftist government of Nicaragua. The Contra connection caused outrage in Congress, which in 1982 had passed the Boland Amendment prohibiting the use of federal money "for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua."
      The same day that the Iran-Contra connection was disclosed, President Reagan accepted the resignation of his national security adviser, Vice Admiral John Poindexter, and fired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a Poindexter aide. Both men had played key roles in the Iran-Contra operation. Reagan accepted responsibility for the arms-for-hostages deal but denied any knowledge of the diversion of funds to the Contras.
      In December 1986, Lawrence Walsh was named special prosecutor to investigate the matter, and in the summer of 1987 Congress held televised hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal. Both investigations revealed that North and other administration officials had attempted to illegally cover up their illicit dealings with the Contras and Iran. In the course of Walsh's investigation, eleven White House, State Department, and intelligence officials were found guilty on charges ranging from perjury to withholding information from Congress to conspiracy to defraud the United States.
      In his final report, Walsh concluded that neither Reagan nor Vice President George Bush violated any laws in connection with the affair, but that Reagan had set the stage for the illegal activities of others by ordering continued support of the Contras after Congress prohibited it. The report also found that Reagan and Bush engaged in conduct that contributed to a "concerted effort to deceive Congress and the public" about the Iran-Contra affair. On Christmas Eve, 1992, shortly after being defeated in his reelection bid by Bill Clinton, President George Bush pardoned six major figures in the Iran-Contra affair. Two of the men, former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and former chief of CIA operations Duane Clarridge, had trials for perjury pending.
1986 President Machel killed in air crash in Mozambique
1983 Jesse Jackson launches his 1st campaign for Presidency (D)
1979 63 Americans taken hostage at US Embassy (Teheran, Iran)
1979 5 mortally wounded during anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration in NC
1978 UK grants Dominica independence (National Day)
1973 Mariner 10 is launched towards Mercury, which it would reach on 29 March 1974, the first spacecraft to do so (and the only one during the lifetime of most of the launchers).
^ 1971 First UNIX documentation
      The UNIX Programmer's Manual, the first written documentation for UNIX, was released on November 3, 1971. UNIX was the first computer operating system that could accommodate multiple users. The system was developed by researchers at Bell Telephone Labs in New Jersey. Because it allowed a large number of users to access the same computer at one time, UNIX became the most popular operating system for large-scale academic and engineering computer centers. 1998 Java committee formed for electronic devices Newspapers reported that some fourteen technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, had created a committee to develop a version of the Java programming language to run on electronic devices. Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, owners of Java, had clashed over the use of Java on machines other than computers, and HP had announced in March that it would develop its own version of Java, called Chai.
1970 Salvador Allende is inaugurated as President of Chile
^ 1969 Nixon asks for support for his Vietnam policy
      President Richard Nixon goes on television and radio to call for national solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to gather support for his policies; his call for support is an attempt to blunt the renewed strength of the antiwar movement. Pledging that the United States was "going to keep our commitment in Vietnam," he said US forces would continue fighting until the communists agreed to a fair and honorable peace, or until the South Vietnamese were able to defend themselves on their own. He said that he had already withdrawn 60'000 US troops and would make additional reductions as the situation permitted. He also reported progress in the "Vietnamization" effort to increase the combat capability of South Vietnam's armed forces so that they could assume more responsibility for the war. Having provided this perspective on the situation, he then appealed to the American people, calling on the "great silent majority" for their support as he worked for "peace with honor" in Vietnam.
      A Gallup Poll survey carried out in the wake of the president's speech indicated that 77% were in support of Nixon's policy in Vietnam. Congressional reaction to the president's speech was also overwhelmingly favorable. Although Senator J. William Fulbright (D-Arkansas) and other congressmen and senators who opposed the war questioned the president's sincerity, more than 300 congressmen and 40 senators cosponsored resolutions supporting the president's efforts to make peace and bring the war to an honorable end.
^ 1967 Vietnam: Battle of Dak To begins
      In some of the heaviest fighting seen in the Central Highlands area, heavy casualties are sustained by both sides in bloody battles around Dak To, about 450 km north of Saigon near the Cambodian border. The 1000 US troops there were reinforced with 3500 additional troops from the US 4th Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. They faced four communist regiments of about 6000 troops. The climax of the operation came in a savage battle from November 19-22 for Hill 875, 19 km southwest of Dak To. The 173rd was victorious, forcing the North Vietnamese to abandon their last defensive line on the ridge of Hill 875, but the victory was a costly one because the paratroopers suffered the loss of 135 men, 30 of whom died as a result of an accidental US air strike on US positions. In the 19 days of action, North Vietnam fatalities were estimated at 1455. Total US casualties included 285 killed, 985 wounded, and 18 missing. During this battle, the North Vietnamese failed to achieve one of their main objectives, which was the destruction of an American unit. They came close, but the Americans, despite heavy losses, had achieved the true victory: they mauled three enemy regiments so badly that they were unavailable for the Tet Offensive that the Communists launched in late January 1968.
^ 1964 Johnson roundly defeats Goldwater for US presidency
      In one of the most crushing victories in the history of US presidential elections, Democrat incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr. With over 60% of the popular vote, Johnson turned back the conservative senator from Arizona to secure his first full term in office after succeeding to the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963. During the 1964 campaign, Goldwater was decidedly critical of Johnson's liberal domestic agenda, railing against welfare programs and defending his own decision to vote against the Civil Rights Act passed by Congress earlier that year.
      However, some of the most dramatic differences between the two candidates appeared over the issue of Cold War foreign policy. The Republican angrily charged Johnson and the Democratic Party with having given in to communist aggression, pointedly referring to the existence of Castro's communist Cuba 90 miles off America's shore. On more than one occasion, Goldwater seemed to suggest that he would not be above using nuclear weapons on both Cuba and North Vietnam to achieve US objectives. Johnson's advisers, of course, did all they could to portray Goldwater as a saber-rattling warmonger, who would bring the world to nuclear annihilation if elected. The President countered his opponent's challenges by portraying himself as a model of statesman-like restraint. Concerning Vietnam, he mollified domestic concerns about a possible war by claiming that he would not send "American boys nine or ten thousand miles from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." Johnson's statement satisfied many Americans, but any commitment he may have had about avoiding direct US involvement in the Vietnam conflict was already eroding by the time of the 1964 election. Four months after his victory, Johnson committed US combat troops to Vietnam.
1960 Lutheran bishops prepare The Christian in the DNR to teach Lutherans how to live under Communism with obedience but without violating their consciences.
1956 Twelth day of the Hungarian Revolution, last day of relative freedom.
Laika--^ 1957 The first cosmonaut is Laika the doomed dog.
      The Soviet Union launches the first living being into space aboard the Sputnik 2 space capsule. This historic space first comes only one month after the Soviet space program launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into an orbit around the Earth.
     The first cosmonaut was a female part-Samoyed terrier originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly) but later renamed Laika (Barker). She weighed about 6 kg. The pressurized cabin on Sputnik 2 allowed enough room for her to lie down or stand and was padded. An air regeneration system provided oxygen; food and water were dispensed in a gelatinized form. Laika was fitted with a harness, a bag to collect waste, and electrodes to monitor vital signs. The early telemetry indicated Laika was agitated but eating her food. There was no capability of returning a payload safely to Earth at this time, so it is a suicide mission. It was planned that Laika would run out of oxygen after about 10 days of orbiting the Earth. Because of the thermal problems she probably only survived a day or two. The mission provided scientists with the first data on the behavior of a living organism in the space environment. Sputnik 2 itself remains in orbit for another 162 days before burning up in the atmosphere.
      Three years later, in preparation for the first manned Soviet space mission, the spacecraft Korabyl-Sputnik 2 carries two dogs — Belka and Strelka — into space and returns them safely to Earth. In 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is launched into space aboard Vostok I, becoming the first human to travel into space, and minutes later, the first to orbit the Earth.
1955 Alabama woman bruised by a meteor
1955 Australia takes control of the Cocos Islands
1955 1st virus crystallized (announced)
1954 The Nobel Chemistry Prize is announced for Linus Carl Pauling (28 February 1901 – 19 August 1994) “for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances.” Pauling would also receive the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962, thus becoming the only person to win two undivided Nobel Prizes. — MORE
1952 Clarence Birdseye markets frozen peas
^ 1939 US Congress revises Neutrality Act
      At the urging of President Roosevelt, Congress revised the Neutrality Act that prohibited the sale of munitions to belligerent countries. The Neutrality Act had originally been passed in August 1935 as a reaction to fears of imminent war in Europe. The Act was amended in 1937 (much to Roosevelt's chagrin), prohibiting both the shipment of American arms to belligerent countries and the granting of economic credits to belligerents that wished to buy arms in the US Isolationists felt this legislation was the best way to keep America out of a European war. But when the war actually began in September 1939, Roosevelt called Congress into special session for the aim of revoking the 1937 amendments. Immediately, an Anglo-French Purchasing Board was set up in Washington. The head of the Board was a British-born Canadian industrialist named Arthur Purvis. Purvis had also been sent to America by the British government at the outset of World War I to purchase all available stocks of acetone, the ingredient Britain was lacking for manufacturing explosives. Purvis' return to America meant, once again, that America would support Anglo-French resistance to a German military attack.
1936 US President Franklin Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon
1935 George II returns to Greece & regains monarchy
1931 1st commercially produced synthetic rubber manufactured
1930 1st vehicular tunnel to a foreign country (Detroit-Windsor) opens
1930 Bank of Italy becomes Bank of America
1928 Turkey switches from Arabic to Roman alphabet
1918 Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolves
1918 Poland proclaims independence from Russia after WW I
1917 US 1st class mail now costs $0.03
1916 Treaty establishes British suzerainty over Qatar
1912 Battle of Lulé Burgas ends, as Bulgarians overcome stiff Turkish resistance, after subjecting the Turkish infantry to murderous artillery barrages for a week. The the Turks retreat toward the lines of Tchataldja, the last line of defense before Constantinople 30 km to the south.
1908 Republican William Howard Taft is elected 27th President of the US over William Jennings Bryan, by popular vote resulting in 321 electoral college votes to 162.
^ 1903 Panama declares its independence from Colombia
      One day after US president Theodore Roosevelt orders the USS. Nashville to Central America, Panama declares its independence from Panama. The insurrection was engineered by several Panamanian factions backed by the Panama Canal Company, a US-owned corporation that hoped to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama. In early 1903, the Hay-Herran Treaty had been signed with Columbia, granting the US use of the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for financial compensation. The US Senate ratified the treaty, but the Colombian Senate, fearing a loss of sovereignty, refused. In response, US President Theodore Roosevelt gave tacit approval to a Panamanian independence movement, and on 03 November 1901, Panama issued a declaration of independence from Colombia.
      The presence of the US warship discouraged Colombian forces from quelling the insurrection, and on 06 November the US officially recognized the independent Republic of Panama. Less than two weeks later, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed with Panama, granting the US exclusive and permanent possession of the Panama Canal Zone. In 1906, American engineers decided on a lock canal, and the next three years were spent developing construction facilities and eradicating tropical diseases in the area. In 1909, construction proper began. In one of the largest construction projects of all time, US engineers moved over 240 million cubic yards of earth and spent nearly $400 million dollars in constructing the forty-mile-long canal. On 20 October 1913, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were connected with the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, and on 15 August 1914, the Panama Canal opened to traffic with the passage of the vessel Ancon.
     Le territoire de Panama fait sécession d'avec la Colombie. Ce petit territoire a l'insigne privilège d'être l'endroit le plus étroit de l'isthme centre-américain qui unit les deux parties du Nouveau Monde. Les ingénieurs occidentaux rêvent d'y percer un canal de 75 kilomètres pour relier l'océan Atlantique à l'océan Pacifique, en surmontant l'obstacle de la cordillère centrale.
      Après l'échec du Français Ferdinand de Lesseps, dont le projet, mal conçu, a sombré dans un gigantesque scandale financier, les Etatsuniens relèvent le défi et rachètent les droits des Français sur le canal. Depuis leur guerre contre l'Espagne, les Etats-Unis ressentent le besoin d'offrir à leurs navires qui relient la Californie à la côte Est un chemin plus court que le contournement de l'Amérique du sud par le détroit de Magellan. Au grand soulagement de la Colombie, qui exerce sa souveraineté sur l'isthme, ils rejettent une solution qui passerait plus au nord, par le Nicaragua. Ils se rallient au principe d'un canal à écluses, selon la conception de l'ingénieur français Philippe Bunau-Varilla.
      Mais au dernier moment, les députés colombiens refusent d'aliéner leur souveraineté et font opposition au projet américain de construire le canal sur leur territoire. Sans scrupule, le gouvernement américain du président Theodore Roosevelt encourage les habitants de Panama à faire sécession. Les vaisseaux de guerre américain mouillent devant les villes de Colon et Panama, dissuadant l'armée colombienne d'intervenir.
      Trois jours après la proclamation de l'indépendance, les Etats-Unis reconnaissent le nouveau pays. Ils signent un traité pour la construction du canal dès le 18 novembre. Ce traité porte le nom du secrétaire d'Etat américain Hay et de l'ingénieur Bunau-Varilla. Il prévoit la cession à perpétuité aux Etats-Unis d'une bande de 10 miles de large. Ces conditions léonines sont le reflet de la politique impérialiste et volontiers brutale des Etats-Unis de ce début du siècle, sous la présidence de Theodore Roosevelt, apôtre de la politique du "gros bâton" ("big stick").
      Les travaux de construction du canal se révéleront éprouvants, sous le climat tropical et dans la crainte de la malaria. Mais le canal sera enfin inauguré au début de la Grande Guerre, le 15 Aug 1914. Les Panaméens attendront pendant près d'un siècle la restitution de leur souveraineté sur la zone du canal.
1896 Republican William McKinley defeats Democrat William Jennings Bryan in election for the US presidency.
1885 Tacoma vigilantes drive out Chinese, burn their homes & businesses
1868 Republican Ulysses S. Grant wins the US presidential election over Democrat Horatio Seymour.
^ 1867 Bataille de Mentana: les garibaldiens repoussés par les pontificaux et les français
      Des volontaires de Garibaldi [04 Jul 1807 – 02 Jun 1882] tentent de pénétrer à Rome et d'en chasser le pape Pie IX [13 May 1792 – 07 Feb 1878]. Ils veulent remettre la ville au roi d'Italie Victor-Emmanuel II [14 Mar 1820 – 09 Jan 1878] pour achever l'unité politique de la péninsule. Mais la colonne est écrasée à Mentana par les soldats pontificaux qui bénéficient du soutien d'un contingent français commandé par le général Pierre Louis Charles de Failly [20 Jan 1810 – 15 Nov 1892], successeur du général Lamoricière [05 Feb 1806 – 11 Sep 1865]. "Les chassepots ont fait merveille", dit-on avec ironie des fusils qui équipent les soldats de Napoléon III [20 Apr 1808 – 09 Jan 1873].
      L'empereur avait jusque là soutenu la cause des nationalistes italiens. Tiraillé entre ses sympathies nationalistes et ses engagements envers la papauté et les catholiques français, il combat désormais ses anciens amis. La bataille de Mentana retourne l'opinion italienne contre la France, dont les ambitions sont contrecarrées également au Mexique et en Allemagne. Pour Napoléon III, c'est le commencement de la fin. Le roi d'Italie attendra la défaite de la France face à la Prusse pour se saisir enfin de la ville de Rome et en faire sa capitale.
— (051102)
1863 Engagement at Grand Coteau (Bayou Bourdeau), Louisiana
1839 1st opium war: 2 British frigates engage several Chinese junks
1820 Cuenca, Ecuador, declares independence
1783 George Washington orders the Continental Army disbanded
1762 Spain acquires Louisiana
1679 Great panic occurs in Europe over the close approach of a comet
1620 Great Patent granted to Plymouth Colony
1534 The British Parliament passes the Supremacy Act, putting the English throne at the head of the nation's reform church.
1481 François-Febus de Navarre-Foix-Grailly, Comte de Foix, Vicomte de Béarn (1472 - 1483), Roi de Navarre, est couronné Roi de Navarre à Pampelune (la capitale). François-Febus naquit en 1467. Lorsqu'il hérita le Royaume de Navarre (le 12 Feb 1479) de sa grand-mère maternelle Eléonore de Navarre [02 Feb 1425 – 12 Feb 1479], n'ayant encore que 12 ans, il resta sous la tutelle de sa mère, Madeleine de France, soeur du Roi de France Louis XI [03 Jul 1423 – 30 Aug 1483]. Eléonore de Navarre était la fille du Roi Jean II [1398-1479] d'Aragon et de Blanche, Reine de Navarre. Eléonore (dont le règne ne dura que 24 jours de par sa mort prématurée) avait désigné (le 10 Feb 1479) sur son testament son petit-fils François-Fébus de Foix pour lui succéder au Trône de Navarre. Le début de son règne fut marqué par les troubles causés par les factions rivales des Maisons de Beaumont et de Gramont. Son oncle Pierre, Cardinal de Foix, réussit à rétablir la paix et François-Febus put être couronné. Il fit son entrée solennelle le 3 decembre 1481. Il est mort à Pau le 29 janvier 1482, empoisonné avec une flûte dont il voulait jouer. Auparavant, il avait testé en faveur de sa soeur Catherine de Navarre-Foix-Grailly [1470 – 12 Feb 1517].
1394 Jews are expelled from France by Charles VI
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^  Deaths which occurred on a 03 November:

2004 Rifat al-Hams, 26, Palestinian taxi driver killed in Rafah, Gaza Strip, by Israeli soldiers shooting at militants some distance away. Al-Hams is a cousin of Iman al-Hams, the 13-year-old girl who was deliberately killed after being wounded by Israeli soldiers while on her way to school in Rafah on 05 October 2004.
2002 Qaed Salim Sunian al-Harethi (aka “Abu Ali”), Ahmed Hijazi, and four others traveling in a car, by a Hellfire missile fired from a CIA Predator drone, in Marib province, Yemen. The CIA “suspects” that the six were members of the al-Qaida terrorist organization and that al-Harethi was al-Qaida's chief operative in Yemen and responsible for the suicide-boat bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in Aden on 12 October 2000 which killed 17 US sailors. Hijazi was a US citizen. — Others who are believed to be senior al-Qaida members now in Yemen, and targets of the CIA, are Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, suspected of involvement in the Cole attack; Shaykh Dabwan and Suwaid, suspected of planning and supporting terrorist attacks; and communications expert Miqdad.
2002:: 78 persons of more than 200 aboard a ferry which sinks late in the night, off Ambon, Indonesia.
2002 Two Chechen independentist fighters, killed by Russian troops in area near Grozny from which was fired a rocket which shot down a Russian helicopter [next].
2002 Nine Russian servicemen in Mi-8 helicopter shot down by a rocket, near Grozny, Chechnya.
2002 Mohammad Sikander Khan and his guards Mohammed Maqsood and Aftab Ahmed, shot near the Jehlum market in Srinagar, Indian occupied Kashmir. Khan lost in the recent election in Jammu-Kashmir in which he was the candidate of Sonia Gandhi's Congress party from the Karnah constituency.
2001 Harold Saber, 80, is found dead slumped over in his car in the parking lot of the Bernheim-Apter-Goldsticker Suburban Funeral Chapel in Maplewood, New Jersey, to which, sensing that he was about to die, he had just driven alone, from his home a few kilometers away, in accordance with a resolve he had often expressed. Saber was a pharmacist and war veteran from Verona, New Jersey.He had been seriously ill for years with diabetes, heart problems and high blood pressure. The previous evening he could not catch his breath and vowed he would not go back into the hospital where he had spent most of the summer and had several toes amputated, because of poor circulation due to diabetes. He was gone when his wife, Sylvia Robinson, awoke in the morning.
McKnight2000 Emily Murray, 20, Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) student (majoring in philosophy) and waitress at the Pirate's Cove restaurant in Gambier, shot once in the head some time after leaving the restaurant at 03:00, by Gregory McKnight, 23, who worked in the restaurant's kitchen. Her body is found, on 09 December 2000, wrapped in a rug in a trailer on McKnight's property near Ray (39º12'13"N 82º41'01"W), Vinton County, Ohio , more than 160 km (by road, 133 km along a great circle) south of Gambier (40º22'35"N 82º23'42"W) after a Vinton County deputy discovers her car parked outside the trailer when attempting to serve McKnight court papers relating to charges of burglary of a neighbor's firearms (for which McKnight was sentenced, on 11 May 2001, to 8 years in prison [photo >]). McKnight, a New York native, was convicted as a juvenile in 1992 for robbing and killing in 1991 a Columbus man, Marion Gilbert. McKnight was released from the Ohio Department of Youth Services when he turned 21. On 12 May 2000, he killed another Kenyon student, Gregory L. Julious, 20, whose burned and dismembered remains were also found on McKnight's property in December 2000. McKnight is scheduled to go on trial for the murders of both students on 23 September 2002. But, on 08 August 2002, Vinton County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Simmons rules that prosecutors may not seek the death penalty because the county cannot afford the cost of a public defender and defense investigators (at least $75'000) out of its $2.7 million general fund budget. Vinton County, where the trial is to be held, is Ohio's most sparsely populated county (12'800), and its unemployment rate is usually double the state average. [Geographical coordinates from Bali Online]
1996 Paul Tatum, US businessman born in 1955, shot on the steps of a Moscow subway station, probably a contract killing by the Russian mafia. He was in a long-running fight to gain control of the Radisson-Slavyanskaya hotel. —(051102)
^ 1979 Cesar Cauce, Michael Nathan, Bill Sampson, Sandi Smith, James Waller, shot while in an anti-KKK demonstration.
      Five members of the Communist Workers' Party, participating in an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, are shot to death in broad daylight by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis. Eight other demonstrators are wounded (including Paul Bermanzohn who was shot in the head). In the ensuing trial, in which twelve of the perpetrators are put on trial on charges of first-degree murder, evidence comes to light indicating that government authorities and the Greensboro police were aware of the probability of violence at the rally, but did little to prevent its course. Edward Dawson, an FBI infiltrator in the Klan and paid informant for the Greensboro Police Department, had helped plan the massacre and had notified the Greensboro police of the details, while Bernard Butkovich, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agent undercover in the local branch of the American Nazi Party, had supplied some of the firearms used.
      Members of the Communist Workers' Party had organized the anti-Klan rally and march, and were joined by a large group of Greensboro's African-American mill workers. When the scheduled time arrived for the Klansman and neo-Nazis to disrupt the march, the tactical squad from the Greensboro Police Department assigned to monitor the march was suspiciously absent. A subsequent civil suit filed by family members of "the Greensboro Five" against the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, and the Greensboro Police Department eventually resulted in a damages award, but the federal government's FBI and BATF agents were never officially implicated. And none of the murderes ever paid anything or spent even one day in jail for that crime, -not even Dave Matthews, who admitted to police that he thought he had shot three people. "There were some innocent people shot, I reckon," he said. "But I was shooting at the niggers."
     An anti-Klan rally organized by the Communist Workers Party in a black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 3, 1979, was attacked by an armed nine-car caravan of Ku Klux Klan and Nazi party members and supporters. The Klan-Nazi caravan was led to the rally site by a Klansman acting as a paid informant of the Greensboro police. After eighty-eight seconds of gunfire, five CWP members and supporters were dead or dying, seven others wounded.
      The five murdered CWP members were: Dr. James Waller (president, ACTWU Local 1113-T), William Sampson, Sandra Smith, Cesar Cauce, and Dr. Michael Nathan. All were veterans of the radical student antiwar and black liberation movements of the late 1960s who developed into Marxists in the 1970s. In North Carolina, activists from both white and black Left groups in Durham and Greensboro began organizing in textile mills and hospitals beginning in 1974. By 1977, these forces had been consolidated into the Workers Viewpoint Organization, a national communist grouping that became the Communist Workers Party in October 1979. The WVO initiated the Trade Union Educational League, which in addition to gaining leadership in several local unions in North Carolina, organized support for six labor strikes across the state in 1978 and four in 1979.
      The CPW's anti-Klan rally was organized in the context of an upsurge of Klan and racist violence that swept across the Piedmont South during 1978-79. Blacks organized armed self-defense patrols against the Klan in Tupelo, Mississippi, Decatur, Alabama, and China Grove, North Carolina. In China Grove, the CWP (WVO) assisted black residents in a militant confrontation at a Klan rally at the town's community center on July 8, 1979. Retaliation for the humiliation at China Grove may have been one motive in the Klan attack on the Greensboro rally.
      In organizing the Greensboro rally and conference that was to have followed, the CWP sought to consolidate anti-Klan activists in the South who upheld the right of armed self-defense, as opposed to the anti-Klan network of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted unarmed pacifist opposition and reliance on the police. The CWP (WVO) anti-Klan campaign was led by Nelson Johnson, a longtime black community organizer from Greensboro, and Paul Bermanzohn, a Jewish doctor from Durham who suffered permanent injury from wounds received in the November 3 attack.
      Of the five CWP members who died, four were rank-and-file union leaders and organizers. After this, CWP activity in the unions in North Carolina declined.
      After two all-white juries acquitted Klan-Nazi defendants of criminal charges in the Greensboro murders, a third jury held two Greensboro police officers, the Klan-police informant, and four Klan-Nazi gunmen liable for wrongful death in a civil suit that ended on June 1985. As a result, the city of Greensboro paid $351,000 to Dr. Martha Nathan, widow of Dr. Michael Nathan, in the final settlement of the case.
     In 1980, six Klan and Nazi members were put on trial on murder and rioting charges. During the trial, evidence came to light indicating that the Greensboro police, and perhaps the federal government, were aware of the probability of violence at the rally but did little to prevent it. Edward Dawson, a paid informant for the Greensboro Police Department and former FBI informer in the Klan, had helped plan the massacre and had notified the Greensboro police of the details, while Bernard Butkovich, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agent undercover in the local branch of the American Nazi Party, had supplied some of the firearms used. When the scheduled time arrived for the Klansman and neo-Nazis to disrupt the march, the tactical squad from the Greensboro Police Department assigned to monitor the march was suspiciously absent.
      The six defendants were acquitted on all charges on the grounds that they had fired on the demonstrators in self-defense. In 1984, a federal trial likewise ended in acquittals. In 1985, a North Carolina jury found two Greensboro police officers, five Klansmen and Nazis, and Edward Dawson liable for the "wrongful death" of one of the demonstrators who was killed and ordered them to pay nearly $400'000 in damages. The jury also ruled that there was no conspiracy between the Klan, local police, and the federal government to disrupt the rally or injure the protesters.
1967 Aitken, mathematician.
1962 Harlow H Curtice, 69, President of General Motors (1953-8).
1954 Henri Matisse, French painter born on 31 December 1869. — MORE ON MATISSE AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1953 Mecislovas Reinys, Archbishop of Vilnius Lithuania, in a Communist prison.
1919 Kuniaki Koiso, 41st Prime Minister of Japan (22Jul1944-07Apr1945), born on 22 March 1880 in Tochigi Prefecture.
^ 1926 Phoebe Anne Moses "Annie Oakley", 66.
     An expert rifle and shotgun markswoman, Phoebe Anne Moses went on to achieve fame all over the world as a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show — although most people know her as Annie Oakley. Despite her big reputation as being a heroine of the Old West and she did visit, she never really lived any further west than Ohio. Her nickname was "Little Sure Shot" was given to her by Chief Sitting Bull who was so amazed by her skills. She was severely injured in 1901 when the train that carried the Wild West show collided with another and she became partially paralyzed. She performed again but not as the same Annie. She died a few years after an auto accident from which she never regained her health.
1919 Masatake Terauchi, 18th Prime Minister of Japan (09Oct1916-29Sep1918), born on 05 February 1852 in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
1918 Lyapunov, mathematician.
1911 George Chrystal, 60, mathematician.
1899 David Joseph Bles, Dutch artist born on 19 November 1821.
1883 Four Blacks, in race riots in Danville, Virginia
1864 Antonio Gonçalves Dias Brazilian national poet, dies at sea
1835 Giacomo Guardi, Italian artist born on 13 April 1764.
1832 Leslie, mathematician.
1643 Guldin, mathematician.
1619 Lodovico Carracci, Bolognese painter and printmaker baptized as an infant on 21 April 1555. — MORE ON LODOVICO CARRACCI AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
0753 St. Pirminius, first abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Reichenau (located in modern Germany). His name endures today as author of a book entitled "Scarapsus," which is the earliest known writing to contain the Apostles' Creed as it is worded in its present form. — 753 Death of Pirminius, the first Abbot of Reichenau, Germany, who recorded early evidence for the present Apostles' Creed.
0644 'Umar I Ibn al-Khattab, the 2nd Muslim caliph, is assassinated by a Christian Persian slave for personal reasons. A member of the clan of 'Adi of the Meccan tribe of Quraysh (Koreish), 'Umar at first opposed Muhammad [570 – 08 Jun 632] but, about 615, became a Muslim. By 622, when he went to Medina with Muhammad and the other Meccan Muslims, he had become one of Muhammad's chief advisers, closely associated with Abu Bakr [573 – 23 Aug 634]. His position in the state was marked by Mu?ammad's marriage to his daughter Hafsa in 625. On Muhammad's death in 632 'Umar was largely responsible for reconciling the Medinan Muslims to the acceptance of a Meccan, Abu Bakr, as head of state (caliph). Abu Bakr relied greatly on 'Umar and nominated him to succeed him. As caliph, 'Umar was the first to call himself “commander of the faithful” (amir al-mu'minin). His reign saw the transformation of the Islamic state from an Arabian principality to a world power. Throughout this remarkable expansion 'Umar closely controlled general policy and laid down the principles for administering the conquered lands. The structure of the later Islamic empire, including legal practice, is largely due to him. A strong ruler, stern toward offenders, and himself ascetic to the point of harshness, 'Umar was universally respected for his justice and authority. He is succeeded as caliph by 'Uthman ibn Affan [–17 Jun 656], who also had a violent death, at the hands of a group of rebels, and was succeeded by caliph 'Ali [600 – Jan 661], who was also assassinated.
0311 Peter of Alexandria is martyred. He had called for lenient treatment of lapsi, Christians who caved in to threats during the recent persecutions.
 
< 02 Nov 04 Nov >
^  Births which occurred on a 03 November:

1984 3000 die in 3 day anti-Sikh riot in India
1939 Terrence McNally St Petersburg FL, playwright (Bad Habits)
^ 1933 Michael Stanley Dukakis, US politician and lawyer who was the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 1988.
      The son of Greek immigrants, Dukakis graduated from Swarthmore College in 1955. After serving in the US Army in South Korea, he attended Harvard Law School, earning his law degree in 1960. He subsequently became active in Massachusetts Democratic politics and served eight years (1962–1970) in the state's House of Representatives. He lost a bid for the Massachusetts lieutenant governorship in 1970 but in 1974 won election to the governorship, in which post he coped with a serious budgetary crisis and restored the state's fiscal health.
      He lost his bid for reelection in 1978 but was again elected governor of Massachusetts in 1982. During his second term as governor he coordinated the government's policies so as togreatly strengthen the state's economic base, saving old industries and encouraging the growth of new ones. He was overwhelmingly reelected in 1986. Partly as a result of his efforts, Massachusetts for a brief time had one of the nation's healthiest state economies.
      In April 1987 Dukakis declared his candidacy for the presidency. He emerged as the most popular candidate in the 1988 Democratic primaries and won his party's nomination for president. Dukakis lost the November 1988 presidential election to the Republican candidate, George H. W. Bush [12 Jun 1924~]. He later announced that he would leave office at the expiration of his term as governor in January 1991. His final two years as governor were marked by increased criticism of his policies and by significant tax increases, as Massachusetts was not spared the economic effects of the US economy's "soft landing" at the end of the 1980s and the recession of 1990.
      After the end of his term, Dukakis served on the board of directors for Amtrak, and became a distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. He continued to complain in media interviews about the "negative" 1988 Bush campaign throughout Bush's term and even subsequent to Bush's defeat in the 1992 election.
1924 Samuel Ruiz García, in Irapuato, Mexico, he would be ordained a Catholic priest on 02 April 1949, appointed Bishop of Chiapas (later San Cristóbal de Las Casas) on 14 November 1959 and consecrated a bishop on 25 January 1960. He would retire as Bishop of San Cristóbal on 13 March 2000 and be succeeded by Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel [01 May 1940~]
^ 1916 The experimental Playwrights' Theater opens its first New York season, in Greenwich Village. The premiere featured three short plays: The Game, by journalist and social activist Louise Bryant; King Arthur's Socks, a comedy by Floyd Dell; and Bound East for Cardiff, a one-act play by then unknown playwright Eugene O'Neill (16 Oct 1888 — 27 Nov 1953), who would become one the most influential American artists of the twentieth century. O'Neill, who wrote more than twenty full-length plays over the course of the next two decades, is credited with transforming American theater into a literary medium which, in its artistry, rivaled the best in US fiction and painting. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his plays and remains the only US playwright to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature to O'Neill “for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”— MORE
  • O'NEILL ONLINE: Beyond the Horizon, The Hairy Ape
  • LOUISE BRYANT ONLINE: Six Red Months in Russia: An Observer's Account of Russia Before and During the Proletarian Dictatorship
  • 1901 André-Georges Malraux, Parisian novelist, art historian, and statesman, who died on 23 November 1976.
    1878 Coble, mathematician.
    1867 Kutta, mathematician.
    1855 Enrico Reycend, Italian artist who died in 1928.
    ^ 1844 The Luck of Barry Lyndon by Thackeray.
          William Makepeace Thackeray completes The Luck of Barry Lyndon: A Romance of the Last Century, which is published in Fraser's Magazine.
          Thackeray was born in Calcutta in 1811. As a young man, he attended Cambridge but left without a degree, then drifted through a variety of professions. He tried studying law, then decided to become a painter. While studying art in Paris, he met his future wife, a penniless Irish girl named Isabella, with whom he had two children. After his marriage, Thackeray returned to England and applied himself to a career in journalism. His satiric sketches were very popular. Like his contemporary and acquaintance Charles Dickens, he observed everyday life and characters closely in his journalistic writings and turned them into absurd characters in his fiction.
          Barry Lyndon, like several of Thackeray's other satirical novels, follows the career of an unscrupulous character as he makes his way in the world by hoodwinking others. Barry Lyndon — born Redmond Barry — is an Irish rogue who flees his home after killing a man in a duel. He changes his name, marries a rich widow, cheats and defrauds those around him, but gets his just desserts. The novel was published in two volumes in 1852 and revised in 1856.
          Thackeray wrote many other stories, novels, and sketches for humor magazines, but his best-known work remains Vanity Fair, the story of the manipulations of the wily Becky Sharp in London during the Napoleonic Wars. Thackeray died in London in 1863.
    THACKERAY ONLINE:
  • Catherine: A Story
  • The Christmas Books of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
  • The Chronicle of the Drum
  • George Cruikshank
  • The Great Hoggarty Diamond
  • The Rose and the Ring
  • Roundabout Papers
  • The Second Funeral of Napoleon
  • The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne
  • John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character
  • The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush
  • Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo
  • The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
  • Rebecca and Rowena: A Romance Upon Romance
  • The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan
  • Ballads
  • The Book of Snobs
  • Burlesques
  • Men's Wives
  • Vanity Fair
  • Vanity Fair
  • Vanity Fair
  • ^ 1816 Jubal Early, future Confederate General.
          Jubal Early is born in Franklin City, Virginia. Early would have a distinguished career in the Confederate army, and in 1864 he waged a campaign in the Shenandoah Valley that kept Confederate hopes alive by relieving the pressure on General Robert E. Lee's army around Richmond.
          Early graduated from West Point in 1837, eleventh in his class of 50. He fought in Florida's Seminole War in 1838 and was promoted to first lieutenant but resigned later that year. He studied in Virginia and was elected to the State House of Delegates in 1841. When war with Mexico broke out in 1846, Early rejoined the military as a colonel in the Virginia volunteers. He served in General Zachary Taylor's army but saw no combat. Early left the service in 1848 to resume his political career. In 1861, he was elected to the commonwealth's secession convention as a pro-Union delegate, and he strongly opposed secession. Despite his opposition, Early offered his service to the Confederacy when Virginia left the Union on 17 April 1861.
          Commissioned as a colonel in the 24th Virginia Infantry, Early played a key role at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, when he led a crucial counterattack against the Union's right flank. He was promoted to brigadier general and he soon earned a reputation as a highly effective commander. In 1863, his force played important roles in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. By 1864, he was considered one of the best division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia. In the spring campaigns of 1864, Early took over command of a corps when Richard Ewell was wounded, and he earned high marks from his commander, General Robert E. Lee. When that campaign turned into a siege at Petersburg, Lee tapped Early to lead a force of 14'000 to the Shenandoah Valley.
          Early's campaign that summer was initially successful. He drove a Union force from the valley, then turned down the Potomac River to Washington. In early July, he reached the outskirts of the capital, and the Union commander, General Ulysses S. Grant, had to divert two corps from his army at Petersburg to defend Washington. Early did not intend to attack the formidable defenses there, so he withdrew back to the Shenandoah by the end of July. Early's activities boosted Southern morale and showed Northerners how difficult it would be to defeat the Confederacy. Grant dispatched General Philip Sheridan and 40,000 troops to neutralize Early's army. Sheridan dealt two serious defeats to Early in September at Winchester and Fischer's Hill, but Early struck back at Cedar Creek in October. Early's men drove the surprised Federals back several miles before Sheridan personally rallied them and routed the Confederates. Early waged a fine campaign, but by the end of October his force was defeated and badly outnumbered. When Sheridan took control of the Shenandoah Valley, an important Confederate resource was lost.
          Early was relieved of command just before the Confederate surrender, an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise fine career. He fled to Mexico after the war. After a stint in Canada, he returned to the United States in 1867 under a general amnesty granted to former Confederates. After the war he practiced law, ran the Louisiana state lottery, and founded the Southern Historical Society. Early was a major architect of the myth of the "Lost Cause," and much of his work aimed to protect the reputation of Robert E. Lee. Jubal Early died in 1894, and his death silenced one of the most important voices of Southern history.
    1801 Karl Baedeker Germany, published travel books
    1794 William Cullen Bryant
    , poet: Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl, A Forest Hymn, The Prairies; editor: NY Evening Post. WILLIAM BRYANT ONLINE: The Family Library of Poetry and Song, Poems, editor of Selections from the American Poets
    1793 Stephen Fuller Austin, principal founder of Texas; capital city, Austin, named after him; Texas Secretary of State
    1718 John Montague 4th Earl of Sandwich, ; inventor: the sandwich; England's 1st Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State of the Northern Dept., Postmaster General; Sandwich Islands [Hawaii] named after him
    1560 (baptism) Annibale Carracci, Italian painter, draftsman, and printmaker, who died on 15 July 1609. — MORE ON ANNIBALE CARRACCI AT ART “4” JULY with links to images.
    Cellini^ 1500 Benvenuto Cellini, Italian Mannerist sculptor and goldsmith.
         Cellini would become a sculptor and engraver, and one of the foremost goldsmiths of the Italian Renaissance, executing exquisitely crafted coins, jewelry, vases, and ornaments.
          Born in Florence, Cellini was apprenticed to a goldsmith at the age of 15. When he was 16, his fiery temper and continual dueling and brawling caused him to be exiled to Siena. Later, in Rome, he was Michelangelo's pupil for a short while.
          Among Cellini's most famous patrons were Pope Clement VII, Pope Paul III, Francis I of France, and the Florentine noble Cosimo I de' Medici. Francis I invited him to Paris in 1540, where he modeled the bronze reliefs of the Nymph of Fontainebleau. He also executed an elaborate gold saltcellar for Francis (1542). Compelled to leave in 1545 because of his quarrels with the king's mistress and his eccentricities, Cellini returned to Florence. There, under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, he executed many fine works in metal, among them a bronze portrait bust of Cosimo and the colossal bronze statue Perseus and Medusa (1554). He died in Florence, on 13 February 1571.
          Cellini is also noted for his autobiography, written between 1558 and 1562, the standard English version of which was published in 1960. An embellished account of Cellini's escapades, adventures, and intrigues, this text provides a valuable portrait of daily, political, social, and ecclesiastical life in the 16th century.
         Cellini is the hero of operas by Berlioz (11 Dec 1803 – 08 March 1869), Schlüsser, Lachner, Diaz, Rossi, and of Saint-Saëns's Ascanio (Cellini's apprentice).
    Nato a Firenze il 3 novembre del 1500, Benvenuto Cellini iniziò l'usuale apprendistato presso diversi maestri orafi quando aveva appena 13 anni, rivelando da subito originalità, inventiva ed una personalità particolarmente rissosa. Furono proprio le intemperanze del suo carattere che nel 1516 lo portarono al confino di 6 mesi a Siena e nel 1523, sempre a causa di una rissa, al definitivo (e forzato) abbandono di Firenze per Roma.
          A Roma riuscì a frequentare le botteghe dei più noti maestri orafi della città e, una volta in proprio, ad accattivarsi le simpatie di papa Clemente VII, per il quale portò a termine numerosi lavori. Nel 1527, l'anno del sacco di Roma, si vantò di aver preso parte in maniera attiva alla difesa della città riuscendo ad uccidere il conestabile Carlo di Borbone ed a ferire il principe d'Orange con un solo colpo di archibugio. Ma il favore di cui godeva, specialmente presso la corte papale, s'indebolì sotto i colpi del suo mai sopito carattere iroso e dell'ascesa al trono pontificio di Paolo III il quale, in seguito alle calunnie degli avversari del Cellini ed all'accusa di essere l'autore di 2 omicidi che pendeva sul suo capo, nel 1538 lo fece arrestare e rinchiudere a Castel Sant'Angelo.
          Riuscito avventurosamente ad evadere, venne ripreso nel 1539 e liberato definitivamente l'anno dopo per intercessione di Ippolito II d'Este. Il Cellini decise così di stabilirsi in Francia, presso la corte di Francesco I, per il quale portò a termine diverse opere, tra le quali molte furono di scultura. Nel '45 fu di nuovo a Firenze, dove il duca Cosimo I dé Medici lo incaricò di scolpire il Perseo, completato nel 1549.
          Anche nella sua città natale, però, il Cellini continuò ad essere perseguitato dalle malelingue e, non ulteriormente accettato alla corte del duca, si ritrovò a vivere in miseria gli ultimi suoi anni, durante i quali scrisse i Trattati della oreficeria e della scultura (1565-'67) e dettò la Vita (1558-'66), in cui descriveva, in modo per la verità non totalmente aderente ai fatti ma conforme a molte altri scritti biografici dell'epoca, gli avvenimenti della sua esistenza fino al 1562. Morì a Firenze il 13 febbraio 1571.
         Pubblicata per la prima volta a Napoli da Antonio Cocchi nel 1728, l’autobiografia di Benvenuto Cellini o Vita di Benvenuto di Maestro Giovanni Cellini fiorentino, scritta, per lui medesimo, in Firenze fu redatta inizialmente dallo stesso Cellini in un periodo di forzata inattività dovuta al poco favore di cui godeva presso il suo ultimo committente, il duca Cosimo dé Medici, ed in seguito venne dettata dall’autore ad un figlio tredicenne di Michele di Goro. La Vita, divisa in 2 libri rispettivamente di 128 e 113 brevi capitoli (il primo libro giunge fino al 1539, il secondo va dal 1540 al 1562), è tutt’altro che un’obiettiva autobiografia: al contrario, in essa il Cellini volle soprattutto celebrare quell’esaltazione dell’individuo e delle sue virtù che fu tipica della società rinascimentale e della maggior parte della letteratura biografica dell’epoca.
    CELLINI ART LINKS
    CELLINI ONLINE: (in Italian): Vita (zipped) — (in English translation) Autobiography Of Benvenuto CelliniAutobiography Of Benvenuto CelliniAutobiography Of Benvenuto Cellini
    0039 Annæus Lucan(us) Cordova Spain, Latin poet. LUCAN ONLINE: (in Latin:) Pharsalia — (in English translations:) Pharsalia (Bellum Civile), Pharsalia (Bellum Civile)
     
    Holidays Ecuador: Cuenca's Independence Day / Japan : Culture Day / Panama : Independence Day (1903) / Texas : Father of Texas Day (1793) / World : World Community Day (1945) (pray for peace) ( Friday ) / Dominica : National Day

    Religious Observances Chr : St Hubert, bishop of Liège, patron of hunters — Saint Hubert De noble ascendance, Hubert fut évêque de Liège et Maastricht au temps des mérovingiens. Autour de son tombeau, dans les Ardennes, s'est établie la ville de Saint-Hubert. Une légende tardive raconte qu'un cricifix lui serait apparu entre les bois d'un cerf au cours d'une partie de chasse. Cela fait de Saint Hubert le patron des chasseurs. On lui attribue aussi des pouvoirs contre la rage!
    RC: St Malachy, Irish bishop / RC: Blessed Martin de Porres, confessor (opt) / Ang: Richard Hooker, priest
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    Thoughts for the day:
    Faith goes out through the window when beauty comes in at the door."
    "Faith comes in through the window when ugliness comes in at the door."
    "Faith comes in at the door when beauty goes out through the window."
    "Ugliness comes in through the window when faith goes out at the door."
    "Beauty is only skin deep, but Faith has a backbone and muscles."
    "Beauty doesn't do windows, but Faith knocks at the door."
    “Only presidents, editors and people with tapeworm have the right to use the editorial 'we'.” —
    Mark Twain and Samuel Clements, editor {he forgot schizophrenics}
    "Justice is too good for some people and not good enough for the rest." - Norman Douglas, Scottish author [08 Dec 1868 – 09 Feb 1952].
    “Don't ask for justice, you might get it. Ask for mercy.”
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