Thursday March 31, 2022

 My Almost-Yearly Chronological Almanac Entry for Thursday 

1521  The first Roman Catholic mass in the Philippines was celebrated on the island of Limasawa.

1596  Born: French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher René Descartes, widely considered the father of modern philosophy.

1732  Born in Rohrau, Austria: Composer Joseph Haydn, one of the most important figures in the development of the Classical style in music during the 18th century.

1797  Died: Olaudah Equiano, abolitionist and writer, self-proclaimed West African sold into slavery and later freed.  

1854  U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry signed the Treaty of Kanagawa in Japan ending that country's period of seclusion.

1855  Died: Charlotte Brontë, English novelist noted for Jane Eyre (1847), a strong narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires and social condition. 

1870  Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African American to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1878  Born: Jock Johnson American boxer who was the first African American to become heavyweight champion was born in Galveston, Texas.

1889  Inaugurated in Paris: The 984-foot (300-metre) Eiffel Tower, a wrought iron technological masterpiece created by Gustave Eiffel to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution.

1913  Born in North Carolina: Etta Baker, American folk musician who influenced the folk music revival of the 1950s and ’60s with her mastery of East Coast Piedmont blues, a unique fingerpicking style of guitar-playing

1914  Born: Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat, recognized as one of the major Latin American writers of the 20th century. 

1918  Clocks in the United States were set one hour ahead as Daylight Saving Time went into operation for the first time.

1927  Born: Cesar Chavez, organizer of migrant American farmworkers and a cofounder, with Dolores Huerta, of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).

1928  Born in Floral, Saskatchewan, Canada: Canadian-born American ice hockey player Gordie Howe—one of the game's greatest players, known for both his scoring ability and his toughness.

1928  Born: Lefty Frizzell, U.S. singer and songwriter was a fan of Jimmie Rodgers from childhood. Also a semiprofessional boxer (the source of his nickname), Frizzell sang in honky-tonks and on radio in the Southwest.

1940  Born: Barney Frank, American Democratic politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1981–2013) and was one of the first openly gay members of Congress. 

1948  Born:  American politician Al Gore, who served as vice president (1993–2001) in the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton and lost the disputed 2000 presidential election.

1968  Stunned viewers: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ended a televised speech about the Vietnam War by announcing that he would not seek reelection. 

1980   Died at age 66: American track-and-field legend Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

1992  Decommissioned for the final time: The USS Missouri—site of the Japanese surrender in 1945, formally ending World War II; it was the last U.S. battleship still in service.

1998: Died: Bella Abzug, U.S. congresswoman (1971–77) and lawyer who founded several liberal political organizations for women and was a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War and a supporter of equal rights for women.

2000  Tapped: Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio to interview U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton for a television show, unleashing a tempest of criticism by professional journalists.

2008  Got married: Steven Reynolds and Jackie Helms, outdoors on December 31st.

2017  Died: James Rosenquist, (born in 1933 in Grand Forks, North Dakota) one of the seminal figures of the Pop art movement, who took as his inspiration the subject and style of modern commercial culture. Through a complex layering of such motifs as Coca-Cola bottles, kitchen appliances, packaged foods, and women’s lipsticked mouths and manicured hands.