While English is the most spoken language, Spanish is fourth behind Mandarin and Hindi. Italian is ranked around 21. As every American schoolchild knows, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, making landfall on 12 October on San Salvador in the Caribbean. It is Columbus Day or a cognate for the US and for many… Continue reading #OTD 12 October
Category: The Calendar
#OTD 11 October
Division among the three Abrahamic beliefs has riddled much of European and Asian history. Alongside this divisions are the necessarily parochial but still huge divides within each belief. Western Christians may be aware of the Sunni and Shia systems of Islam and of the debates between the Orthodox and the Reform Jew; others may not… Continue reading #OTD 11 October
#OTD 10 October
10 October 1911 is a key day of the 20th century; on that day, the Wuchang Uprising against the Qing took place; from it sprang the Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the imperial dynasty; and from that sprang the Republic of China. It is here that things become somewhat political. The People’s Republic of China, that… Continue reading #OTD 10 October
#OTD 9 October
For good reasons both historical and geographical, the US and Russia have had some interest in the nations of Europe’s deep north. 9 October is Leif Erikson Day in the US; in the words of President Biden’s proclamation for the 2021 celebration: The voyage of Leif Erikson and his valiant crew — bold explorers from… Continue reading #OTD 9 October
#OTD 8 October
Irish Catholics settled as readily in Chicago as anywhere else in the nineteenth century, and met as readily the same prejudice. Come 8 October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire killed up to 300 and razed about 9 square kilometres. Drought and strong winds played their part, but the real mystery was and remains the initial… Continue reading #OTD 8 October
#OTD 7 October
The Republic of Venice was a sovereign state for over a thousand years, a maritime empire whose end only came with the opening of new trade routes and a New World. On 7 October 1403, a Venetian fleet defeated the then French controlled Genoese at the Battle of Modon, the Peloponnesian town now known as… Continue reading #OTD 7 October
#OTD 6 October
Judicial independence is a recent beast. At the outset of the common law, a judge was the king’s agent appointed durante bene placito regis or at His Majesty’s pleasure. Sir Edward Coke, alongside William Blackstone one of the common law’s best known midwives of the common law, can attest to the effect of James I’s… Continue reading #OTD 6 October
#OTD 5 October
It is the irony of the modern era that Malcolm McLuhan’s thesis – “the medium is the message” – waned during his life and waxes as his collateral thesis “the global village” unfolds around us. These ideas gained traction with the 1962 publication of McLuhan’s “The Gutenberg galaxy : the making of typographic man”. The… Continue reading #OTD 5 October
#OTD 4 October
Our national identity depends. There’s a consequence in being the less populous neighbour, and the New Zealand or the Canadian traveller may have a badge of their flag sewn on their backpack to avoid being taken for an Australian or an American. It’s more complex when nationalities live in a nation. Whether Taiwan is or… Continue reading #OTD 4 October
#OTD 3 October
In history class I well remember a student asking our teacher “Why are we learning about German reunification?” and our teacher answering “Who knows, it may again.” We all laughed wholeheartedly at the naivete of the old. A few years later, 3 October 1990, Germany reunited. How do we know our history? One well-known OTD… Continue reading #OTD 3 October