Those are the original Seven Commandments of Animalism, as espoused by Squealer and Napoleon, the two leaders of the revolution at Manor Farm. The world found out the whole story on August 17, 1945, when George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” was first. As you might remember, it didn’t turn out well.  By coincidence, the two leaders… Continue reading

August 16, 1896 was a big day in the Klondike. Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack, and Dawson Charlie discovered gold on Rabbit Creek, a small(ish) stream feeding into the Klondike River. “Skookum Jim Mason” and “Dawson Charlie” were aliases — but not for any nefarious reasons. Skookum Jim’s real name was Keish, and Dawson Charlie… Continue reading

August 15 is a popular day for countries to declare or attain independence. Today is Independence Day in Korea, commemorating independence from Japan in 1945. It’s the same day in South and North Korea, but in South Korea it’s called “Independence Day,” while in North Korea it’s “Fatherland Liberation Day.” It’s Independence Day in India,… Continue reading

You never know — it might have been a dark and stormy night on August 14, 1975. A young couple, whose names were not Janet or Brad, might have been driving on King’s Road in London when one of their tires went flat. No mobile phones in those days, so they went in search of… Continue reading

August 13 is the most sinister of days — it’s International Lefthanders Day.  Somewhere around ten percent of the people in the world are left-handed, and for some reason, men are somewhat more likely to be left handed than women. The word “sinister” came from Latin, where it originally meant left-handed — but even then… Continue reading

It’s August 12, the “Glorious Twelfth” in England, where it’s the opening day of grouse hunting season. Except if the 12th falls on a Sunday, they open the season on Monday because it’s illegal to shoot birds on Sundays there. It’s not clear to me whether Sundays are okay for shooting things other than birds.… Continue reading

If you do the math (tedious, but straightforward) converting a base 20 numbering system to base 10, then count backwards, interpolating different calendar systems (which have changed regularly over the centuries), you eventually arrive at August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. Exactly 5,135 years ago today. Technically that’s the “proleptic” Gregorian calendar, because… Continue reading

August 10 provides a good object lesson in how fast the world works now compared to the 1700s. It was July 4, 1776 that the British colonies issued the Declaration of Independence. But the anniversary of the news actually reaching England is today, August 10. The phrase “breaking news” didn’t even exist until about 1840.… Continue reading

August 9, 1899, Pamela Lyndon Goff was born in Queensland, Australia. She grew up to be an actress, and used the stage name “Pamela Lyndon Travers” because her family objected to her acting career.  She was pretty good, though, and joined a traveling Shakespearean acting company in Australia. From there she moved to England, and… Continue reading

The Wright Brothers made their first flight on August 8 in 1903. But only five people were there to see it. Their first plane, the Flyer I, only flew that one day, and then a gust of wind flipped it over and wrecked it. All they had was a photograph and the reports of the… Continue reading