15 March: This Date in History

<< Mar 14| HISTORY “4” “2”DAY |Mar 16 >>
Events, deaths, births, of MAR 15
[For Mar 15 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Mar 25 — 1700s: Mar 26 — 1800s: Mar 27 — 1900~2099: Mar 28]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 030315 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” MAR 15

• Cæsar murdered... • Last tsar abdicates... • Search for Pancho Villa... • Birth of first woman to get a Ph.D. in Germany... • von Heyse geboren... • Gorbachev calls for USSR agricultural reform... • Andrew Jackson born... • Adobe buys Aldus... • Spam attack... • Patent showdown for ENIAC... • Report on Vietnam to US President... • Vain US threats of reintervention in Vietnam... • S&Ls' closing in Ohio... • Nazis take Czechoslovakia... • Kibbutz security chief murdered by Jew...

On a 15 March:
2003 The 7-square-kilometer Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve opens for its two month season its Visitors Center and its 11 km of trails amid wildflowers, particularly the California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica, the state flower, but also owl's clover, lupine, goldfield, cream cups, and coreopsis, and others. [click on image for large poppy-dotted landscape >]

2003 HU'S ON FIRST: Completing the first orderly change of ruler in Communist China's 54-year history, Hu Jintao, 60, is elected 2937-to-4 by the National People's Congress, succeeding Jiang Zemin, 76, as President (a mainly ceremonial job), as he had, on 13 November 2002, as chaiman of The Party (the real power position). Jiang remains powerful as chairman of The Party commission and the government commission that rule the military, and through his protégés on the Politburo Standing Committee. Jiang had been party chief since 1989 and president since 1993.
[< Jiang, left, congratulates Hu, 15 March 2003]
WHO'S HU:     Hu, a hydrological engineer by training, spent the first decades of his career working in some of China's poorest and most remote areas. He oversaw crackdowns on dissent as party chief of Tibet, then was picked in the early 1990s by then-supreme leader Deng as the top contender to succeed Jiang. Hu spent the past decade handling increasingly demanding tasks meant to test him and prepare him for leadership. Most recently, he held top party management posts that handled promotions and other sensitive business.
     Zeng Qinghong, Jiang's former closest aide and chief political strategist, is named vice president. Zeng ranks fifth on the Party's Standing Committee. The second-ranking Party man, Wu Bangguo, replaces Li Peng, 74, as chairman of the People's Congress. Zeng Qinghong, Jiang's former closest aide and chief political strategist, was named vice president. Zeng ranks fifth on the party's Standing Committee. The country's second-ranking party man, Wu Bangguo, replaces Li Peng as head of the legislature.
      On 16 March, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, would be elected to replace Zhu Rongji as Premier.

2003 In the US, the Bush administration names Iraqi officials who would be tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity after a US victory in the war it is hell-bent on waging against Saddam Hunnein's Iraq. The list includes Uday Hussein (“responsible for ordering torture, rape and looting of dissident communities within Iraq”) and Qusay Hussein (“who oversees the special security organization and the elite Republican Guards”), Saddam's sons; Ali Hassan al-Hamid, governor of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait in 1990-1991; Aziz Saleh Numan, second governor of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait; Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaidi, responsible for atrocities against the the Shiites in southern Iraq in early 1991; Izzat Ibrahim, deputy commander in chief of the Iraqi military; Abid Hamid al-Tikriti, presidential secretary of Saddam; Hani Abd al-Latif Tilfah, director of the special security organization (“in charge of hiding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction”).

2002 Gavin Menzies claims that evidence which he has discovered proves that Chinese admiral Zheng He circumnavigated the globe from March 1421 to October 1423, long before Magellan did it in 1519-1522. Established history documents that Zheng He (1371-1435), born Ma San-Pao, had, from 1405 to 1433 led seven voyages of exploration in the Indian Ocean, with ships much bigger and more numerous than those of Columbus [image >]. It is the sixth voyage that Menzies claims reached much further.

2002 In the wake of a scandal about the coverup of abuse of minors by Catholic priests, starting with Father John Geoghan of Boston, The Pilot, weekly of the Boston Archdiocese, publishes an editorial in which it asks the questions:
•Should celibacy continue to be a normative condition for the diocesan priesthood in the Western (Latin) Church?
•If celibacy were optional, would there be fewer scandals of this nature in the priesthood?
• Does priesthood, in fact, attract a disproportionate number of men with a homosexual orientation? Lastly, why are a substantial number of Catholics not convinced that an all male priesthood was intended by Christ and is unchangeable?
• Lastly, why are a substantial number of Catholics not convinced that an all male priesthood was intended by Christ and is unchangeable?

2001 Mom reunited with captive twin boy guerrilla leaders. ^top^
Holding her baby on her lap, the mother of twin boys who led the God's Army rebel group is reunited with her sons for the first time in more than a year. [< photo: mom, Johnny, Luther, l.to r.]
Johnny and Luther

     The mother, Mah Kae, arrived Tuesday at the border patrol force base where Johnny and Luther Htoo have been held since their surrender to Thai authorities on 16 January. The Thai prime minister visited them the next day.
      The boys are believed to be 15 years old but look much younger. The boys were separated from their mother 14 months ago during fighting with Myanmar troops.
      As they posed for photographers [photo: Johnny left, Luther right >], Mah Kae said she learned of the boys' capture after they sent a letter to the refugee camp where she and other family members were staying. Their father is expected to join them soon as the family awaits a government decision on whether to give them refugee status.
     The Thai border patrol will continue to confine them until further notice from higher authorities. The twins' parents already have refugee status and have been living in the Ban Ton Yang refugee shelter nearby. The area is about 160 km west of Bangkok.
      Asked what they thought would happen to them, the soft-spoken twins replied shyly: "It's in the hands of God."
      God's Army, which at its peak had about 150 fighters, had provided minor resistance in a wider guerrilla war by ethnic Karen rebels fighting for autonomy in Myanmar, also known as Burma. They acquired near-legendary status around 1997, when Myanmar troops came to their village during a sweep of Karen areas.
      The mainstream guerrillas group, the Karen National Union, reportedly fled while the twins rallied some local men and directed a successful counterattack. After that, the twins' followers said the boys — who are Christians — had powers from God. Their followers believed bullets couldn't hit them and mines wouldn't explode under their feet.
      God's Army stopped fighting after they lost their base at Ka Mar Pa Law, just inside Myanmar, in early 2000. During the fighting, they became separated from their parents, who trekked to Thailand. Johnny, Luther and their small band held out for another year before arriving in Thailand, driven by hunger and exhaustion. They surrendered Fifteen followers who surrendered with the twins are also staying at the police base.
      The twins became icons for youthful rebels around the world after the widespread circulation of an Associated Press photograph showed the angelic-looking, long-haired Johnny next to his tougher-looking, cigarette-puffing brother, Luther.
      Thai authorities allowed photographers and television crews into the base today to take pictures of the twins, who did not speak much, except to say they are happy to be with their mother. Asked how they felt about being the focus of journalists' attention, Johnny said: "I am afraid."

2001 Kenneth Waters, in prison for 18 years, is a freed, thanks in great part to his sister.
From High School Dropout to Defense Lawyer Trail to Innocence ... And Maybe the Real Killer
[< Defense attorney Barry Scheck, left, walks with Kenneth Waters, center, and Betty Ann Waters as they leave Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass.]
In 1983, Betty Ann Waters was a divorced mother of two and a high school dropout when her brother Kenneth was convicted of murder and robbery and sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of an Ayers, Massachusetts, woman, Katharina Brow. On this day, she helps represent her brother as a judge released him on personal recognizance pending a decision on a new trial. New DNA evidence cast doubt on his conviction. Massachusetts prosecutors agreed to Kenneth's release while they reopen and continue the investigation into Bow's slaying. There were samples of blood that were found at the scene of the crime on different materials, towels and things like that.
Betty Ann was so convinced of brother's innocence that she dedicated herself to attaining her law degree. After Kenneth's conviction, she earned her GED and enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island, where she got her associate's degree. She later transferred to Rhode Island College, where she earned a bachelor's and master's degree in education because she planned to support herself and her family by teaching while she attended law school. Betty Ann enrolled at the law school at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island in 1995 and began investigating her brother's case. According to lawyer Barry Scheck, whose organization, the Innocence Project, helped Kenneth Waters and other inmates fight convictions based on new DNA evidence, none of this would have been possible without Betty Ann.
At his trial, Kenneth Waters' defense argued unsuccessfully that he could not have killed Bow because he was in court on an unrelated charge at the time of the slaying. Authorities confirmed he had a court appearance but could not pinpoint the exact time, which was not enough to convince a jury of his innocence. A court clerk helped Betty Ann uncover the evidence that would win her brother's freedom. In a courthouse basement, they found a box with Kenneth's name on it containing a knife and cloth with blood samples. Approximately a year before her graduation from law school, Betty Ann contacted the Innocence Project. On Tuesday 13 March 2001, Massachusetts prosecutors announced that the DNA taken from the evidence Betty Ann found did not match Kenneth's DNA. While agreeing to Kenneth's release, prosecutors have not dropped the charges against him. However, Scheck is confident they will, because he says his investigators have evidence that may lead them to the real killer.

1999 Pluto again becomes outermost planet.
1999 Los miembros de la Comisión Europea anuncian, en boca de su presidente Jacques Santer, su dimisión en bloque después de que el Comité de Sabios publicara un informe en el que se señalaban claras negligencias de los comisarios en la gestión de las políticas y en el control de sus departamentos, así como la tolerancia durante años de fraudes y corruptelas, favoritismos y mala gestión de los programas.
1998 La alianza de izquierdas formada por socialistas, comunistas y verdes, que respaldan al gabinete del primer ministro Lionel Jospin, es la vencedora de los comicios regionales y cantonales celebrados en Francia.

1998 Spam attack. ^top^
Pacific Bell Internet Services announces that a flood of junk e-mail has overwhelmed its message servers. Most of the company's 175,00 subscribers were affected, experiencing delays of several hours in receiving their e-mail. The event helped fuel a growing demand for anti-spam measures, which already included lawsuits and legislation against "spammers."

1997 El ejército rebelde tutsi conquista Kisangani, la única ciudad que quedaba fuera de su control en el este de Zaire (actual República Democrática del Congo).
1994 Estados Unidos y Rusia acuerdan permitir la supervisión mutua del desmantelamiento de sus armas nucleares.
1994 Sudáfrica adopta una nueva bandera (de seis colores) y añade al himno nacional "La Voz" el indígena "Dios salve a Africa".

1994 Adobe buys Aldus. ^top^
Adobe Systems announces that it will buy Aldus Corporation, maker of the PageMaker program that created the desktop publishing industry. The move united two pioneers in the desktop publishing business. Although the Apple Macintosh was introduced in early 1984, its sales languished for lack of a "killer app"-an application so compelling that people would willingly spend several thousand dollars for the computer to run it. The first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, for instance, was so useful to businesses that it drove the sale of personal computers when it was introduced in 1979. PageMaker, released in July 1985, turned out to be the Macintosh's killer app. Created by former newspaperman Paul Brainerd, the program allowed users to lay out pages for publication, specify fonts, and create a professional-looking magazine, brochure, or presentation. Meanwhile, Adobe had developed its own revolutionary graphics programs. The company wrote the PostScript printing language that transformed computer printouts from ugly, uniform, typewritten pages to nicely designed, professional-looking layouts. The company went on to specialize in graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The combination of the two companies created an industry leader in software for graphics and page layout.

1990 El Vaticano y la URSS establecen relaciones oficiales permanentes tras 73 años sin ellas.

1989 Gorbachev calls for radical agricultural reform. ^top^
General Secretary of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev calls for an end to the Soviet agricultural bureaucracy and the introduction of free market principles. Gorbachev's speech was an indication that his economic program in the Soviet Union was suffering serious troubles — problems that eventually led to the collapse of his government and the Soviet Union in December 1991. By 1989, the Soviet economy was reeling, and one of the biggest problem areas was agriculture. The Soviet centralized farming system, in which farmers worked to fulfill quotas set by the government and sell their produce directly to the state, was a disaster. Despite billions of dollars in government subsidies, the majority of the nation's farms operated at a loss. Each year, the Soviet Union was forced to import tons of wheat, meat, and other products. Gorbachev reacted to this embarrassing Soviet dependence on foreign markets for essential foodstuffs with his March 15, 1989 proposal to decentralize the farming system and allow more free market policies to dictate the agricultural industry in Russia. In his request to the Soviet Central Committee, Gorbachev stated, "The essence of economic change in the countryside should be in granting farmers broad opportunities for displaying independence, enterprise, and initiative." Under his plan, many farmers would be able to sell their produce directly to farmer's markets or restaurants, for example. The Central Committee issued its approval of the plan the following day. However, Gorbachev's proposal was too little, too late. The Soviet economy continued to falter and agricultural production never met demand. The economic problems contributed to the failure of Gorbachev's government and other reform plans, and in December 1991, Gorbachev formally resigned as president of the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter the Soviet Union was dissolved.

1985 Closing of Ohio's S&Ls. ^top^
Governor Richard Celeste orders the temporary closing of all Ohio's savings and loans associations. After being shutdown for three days, the S&Ls were allowed to reopen on 21 March, albeit with a $750 cap on withdrawals. However, Ohio's actions couldn't stave off what became one of the largest fiscal crises of the 1980s: plagued by slow-downs in key sectors of the economy, thrifts across the country fell prey to bankruptcy. However, the so-called Savings and Loan Scandal was not simply marked by the mass failure of high-profile financial institutions; it was also steeped in corruption, as scores of S&L chiefs had abused their positions in the name of racking up gaudy fortunes. Following the tidal wave of thrifts closures, a number of the S&L chiefs were sent to jail for fraud and embezzlement. 1938 Know Your Money Looking to put the clamps on counterfeit currency, the United States Secret Service unveiled the "Know Your Money" campaign on March 15, 1938. Designed to raise awareness about the characteristics of legal tender, the campaign also called attention to a problem that had plagued the nation since the nineteenth century — counterfeiting. Back in 1863, the government had hoped to put a halt to counterfeiting by establishing a national currency, but the move backfired, as scores of faked bills flooded the market. The government went back to the drawing board and established the Secret Service in 1865.

1973 Vain US threat of reintervention in Vietnam. ^top^
President Nixon hints that the United States might intervene again in Vietnam to prevent communist violations of the truce. A cease-fire under the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords had gone into effect on 27 January 1973, but was quickly and repeatedly violated by both sides as they jockeyed for control of territory in South Vietnam. Very quickly, both sides resumed heavy fighting in what came to be called the "cease-fire war." Nixon had been instrumental in convincing the reluctant South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to sign the peace treaty, promising him repeatedly that, "We will respond with full force should the settlements be violated by North Vietnam."
As the fighting continued throughout 1973 and into 1974, Thieu appealed to Nixon to make good on his promises. For his part, Nixon was increasingly embroiled in the developing Watergate scandal, and resigned from office in August 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to persuade a hostile Congress to provide the promised support to South Vietnam. The United States did nothing when the North Vietnamese launched their final offensive in the spring of 1975. South Vietnam was defeated in less than 55 days, surrendering unconditionally to the North Vietnamese on April 30.

1968 US Mint stops buying and selling gold.
1966 Las Cortes Españolas aprueban la Ley de Prensa e Imprenta, presentada por Manuel Fraga Iribarne, que liberalizó la información.
1966 Racial riots erupt in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

1965 US Army Chief of Staff reports on Vietnam. ^top^
General Harold K. Johnson, US Army Chief of Staff, reports on his recent visit to Vietnam to President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He admitted that the recent air raids ordered by President Johnson had not affected the course of the war and said he would like to assign an American division to hold coastal enclaves and defend the Central Highlands. General Johnson also advocated creating a four-division force of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and US troops to patrol the Demilitarized Zone along the border separating North and South Vietnam and Laos. Nothing ever came of General Johnson's recommendation on the SEATO troops, but President Johnson ordered the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Vietnam in May 1965 and followed it with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in September of the same year. These forces, along with the first contingent of US Marines — which had arrived in March — were only the first of a massive American build up. By 1969, there were more than 540'000 US soldiers in South Vietnam.

1957 3rd nation to explode a nuclear bomb (Britain)
1952 Greatest 24-hr rainfall begins: 187 cm at La Réunion, Indian Ocean.

1946 Patent showdown for ENIAC ^top^
Irven Travis, head of research at the Moore School, where J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly are developing the first digital computer, announce that the school will require its engineers to relinquish patent claims to equipment developed on the school's premises. Eckert and Mauchly refused to sign, however, and subsequently quit (or were fired) over the issue. They filed their patent applications later that year, but in 1973, a district court judge in Minneapolis found that they had not filed their patent request before the computer had been in public use for one year. He also made the highly controversial ruling that John Atanasoff, not Eckert and Mauchly, had developed the first electronic computer.

1944 Italian town of Cassino destroyed by Allied bombing
1939 Hitler occupies Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia)

1939 Nazis take Czechoslovakia. ^top^
      Hitler's forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia, dismenbered into Bohemia and Moravia — a nation sacrificed on the altar of the Munich Pact, which was a vain attempt to prevent Germany's imperial aims. On 30 September 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, which sealed the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace. Although the agreement was to give into Hitler's hands only the Sudentenland, that part of Czechoslovakia where 3 million ethnic Germans lived, it also handed over to the Nazi war machine 66% of Czechoslovakia's coal, 70% of its iron and steel, and 70% of its electrical power. Without those resources, the Czech nation was left vulnerable to complete German domination.
      No matter what concessions the Czech government attempted to make to appease Hitler, whether dissolving the Communist Party or suspending all Jewish teachers in ethnic-German majority schools, rumors continued to circulate about "the incorporation of Czechoslovakia into the Reich." In fact, as early as October 1938, Hitler made it clear that he intended to force the central Czechoslovakian government to give Slovakia its independence, which would make the "rump" Czech state "even more completely at our mercy," remarked Hermann Goering. Slovakia indeed declared its "independence" (in fact, complete dependence on Germany) on 14 March 1939, with the threat of invasion squelching all debate within the Czech province.
     Then, on 15 March 1939, during a meeting with Czech President Emil Hacha — a man considered weak, and possibly even senile — Hitler threatened a bombing raid against Prague, the Czech capital, unless he obtained from Hacha free passage for German troops into Czech borders. He got it. That same day, German troops poured into Bohemia and Moravia. The two provinces offered no resistance, and they were quickly made a protectorate of Germany. By evening, Hitler made a triumphant entry into Prague. The Munich Pact, which according to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had purchased "peace in our time," was actually a mere negotiating ploy by the Hitler, only temporarily delaying the Fuhrer's blood and land lust.

1938 US Secret Service starts its "Know Your Money" campaign to further combat counterfeiting, for which the Secret Service had been created in 1865.
1933 NAACP begins coordinated attack on segregation and discrimination.
1922 El sultán egipcio Ahmed Fuad es proclamado rey de Egipto con el nombre de Fuad I, con el que se inicia un período de monarquía parlamentaria.

1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicates ^top^
During the February Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II, ruler of Russia since 1894, is forced to abdicate (in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail) by the Petrograd insurgents, and a provincial government is installed in his place.
      Crowned on 26 May 1894, Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve in an era desperate for change. The disastrous outcome of the Russo-Japanese War led to the Russian Revolution of 1905, which the tsar only defused after signing a manifesto promising representative government and basic civil liberties in Russia. However, Nicholas soon retracted most of these concessions, and the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups won wide support.
      In 1914, Nicholas again led his country into another costly war, and discontent in Russia grew as food became scarce, Russians soldiers became war-weary, and devastating defeats on the Eastern Front demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the czar’s leadership.
      In March of 1917, the army garrison at Petrograd joined striking workers in demanding socialist reforms, and Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. Nicholas and his family were first held at the Tsarskoye Selo palace, then in the Yekaterinburg palace near Tobolsk.
      In July of 1918, the advance of counterrevolutionary forces caused the Yekaterinburg soviet — a local coalition of workers and soldiers — to fear that Nicholas might be rescued. After a secret meeting, a death sentence was passed on the czar and his family, and on the night of 16 July 1918, three centuries of the Romanov dynasty ended when Nicholas and his entire family (including Anastasia, [born 18 June 1901] despite the lifelong impersonation of her by the Polish Franziska Schanzkowska, who became Anna Anderson), some faithful servants, and the tsarevich's dog, were shot to death.

1916 Search for Pancho Villa begins. ^top^
     Six days after Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa killed seventeen Americans during a raid into US territory (Columbus NM), President Woodrow Wilson sends 6600 US troops over the border to capture Villa dead or alive.
      In 1914, following the resignation of Mexican leader Victoriano Huerta, Pancho Villa and his former revolutionary ally Venustiano Carranza battled each other in a struggle for succession. By the end of 1915, Villa had been driven north into the mountains and the US government had recognized General Venustiano Carranza as the president of Mexico.
      In January of 1916, a group of Americans were killed by unknown bandits in Chihuahua, and on 09 March 1916, Villa, angered by President Woodrow Wilson’s support for Carranza, led a band of several hundred guerillas across the border and raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing seventeen persons. US troops pursued the Mexicans, killing fifty on US soil and seventy more in Mexico.
      On 15 March, under orders from President Wilson, US Brigadier General John J. Pershing launched a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture Villa. Over the next eleven months, Pershing, like Carranza, failed to capture the elusive revolutionary and Mexican resentment over the US intrusion into their territory led to a diplomatic crisis.
      On 21 June 1916, the crisis escalated into violence when Mexican government troops attacked Pershing’s forces at Carrizal, Mexico, leaving seventeen Americans killed or wounded, and thirty-eight Mexicans dead.
      On 28 January 1917, having failed in their mission to capture Villa, and under pressure from the Mexican government, the Americans were ordered home.
      Villa continued his guerilla activities in northern Mexico until Adolfo de la Huerta took power in Mexico and drafted a reformist constitution. Villa entered into an amicable agreement with Huerta and agreed to retire from politics. In 1920, the government pardoned Villa, but three years later he was assassinated at Parral.

1913 first US presidential press conference (Woodrow Wilson).
1902 Formación del nuevo Gobierno español, encabezado por Mateo Sagasta Praxedes, que solicitará de las Cortes 750'000 pesetas para la coronación de Alfonso XIII.
1892 First voting machines authorized in US (in New York State). “Myers' automatic ballot cabinet” was put into use on 12 April 1892, in a mayoral election. Mechanical voting was soon extended to other cities and states.
1875 In New York City, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Archbishop John McCloskey, 65, becomes the first US prelate to be named a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (by Pope Pius IX)..
1864 Red River Campaign-Union forces reach Alexandria, LA
1862 Gen John Hunt Morgan begins 4 days of raids near Gallatin, TN.
1861 Lincoln meets with his Cabinet to decide whether or not to provision Fort Sumter.
1820 Maine admitted as 23rd US state.
1812 first Russian settlement in California, Russian River.
1804 Promulgación en Francia del Código Civil, llamado Código de Napoleón.
1729 A Ceremony of Profession was held for Sister St. Stanislaus Hachard at the Ursuline convent in New Orleans, thereby making her the first Catholic woman to become a nun in America.
1493 Christopher Columbus arrives at Palos de Moguer, Spain, returning from the first voyage to the New World.

TO THE TOP

Deaths which occurred on a March 15:
2003:: Some 150 persons as passenger ferry sinks in southern Bangladesh during a tropical storm.

2001 Yitzhak Kabartov, 54, head of security at Kibbutz Manara, near the Lebanese border. His body would be found four days later near the kibbutz. 60 automatic rifles had been stolen from the kibbutz armory. On 01 April the Israeli police would arrest Israeli Jew Jean Elraz, 42, from Kiryat Ata in northern Israel, saying that he headed a ring with six Israeli Arabs from the village of Kfar Salem, who sold most of the rifles to the Palestinians. All seven suspects would confessed and Elraz re-enact the killing. About $200,000 in proceeds from rifle sales would be found in Elraz's attic. He is also suspected of selling dozens of other weapons to the Palestinians over the previous year. On the day of the slaying, Elraz lured Kvartatz away from the armory while the other members of the ring stole the rifles.

2001 James Naim, 32, policeman, murdered.
     Naim, a policeman for 14 months, leaves the Linmar Terrace police substation at 251 Tyler Street in Aliquippa on foot patrol at about 20:00. At 20:15, Naim leaves the back porch at 269 Linmar Terrace, a vacant housing unit, and begins to walk around the corner of the building into a dark area where the former Eleanor Roosevelt apartment building once stood. At that time Jamie M. Brown,23, and Darnell Hines, 18, appear from behind a shed attached to the Linmar Terrace building and they begin firing. Naim suffers two gunshot wounds to the head of which he dies soon afterward. Residents hear up to nine shots being fired, but believe they are coming from the nearby Woodlawn Cemetery and call police. Aliquippa police officers Shawn Young and Daniel Cassidy begin to search in the area of the cemetery while radioing for Naim. When Naim does not respond, officers quickly search Linmar and find the Naim's body lying in the grass, with his service revolver was still in its holster.
     On 16 March 2001, state police charge Hines, of 295 Linmar Terrace, with one count each of criminal homicide and criminal conspiracy to commit criminal homicide. On 17 March 2001 they make the same charges against Brown, of 500 Highland Avenue. Two confidential informants said that Brown had made "hit list of policemen" and said that Naim was "only the first and there would be other policemen killed."
     From the Bali How Far Is It web site, I find that Aliquippa, with a population of about 14'000, is in the Beaver County of Pennsylvania, 40º37'03"N, 80º15'18"W, at about 200 meters above sea level.

2000 Jaime García Añoveros, político y abogado español.
1998 Dr. Benjamin Spock [1993 photo >], born on 02 May 1903, baby doctor, peace activist. Author of his memoirs, Spock on Spock, of A Better World for Our Children: Rebuilding American Family Values (1994), but most famously of Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care. which he constantly revised from its first version (1946) until his final illness.
1993 Fahkhri al-Ratroot, 24, Palestinian, murdered in Tel Aviv, Israel, by Jewish enclave settler Gil Rabit.
1988 Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, político uruguayo.
1987 Sesenta personas resultan muertas y otras 200 heridas a causa del descarrilamiento de un tren en la India, provocado por la explosión de una bomba.
1975 Aristotle Onassis, 69, Greek shipping magnate who had married widowed Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. — 1975 Aristóteles Sócrates Onassis, empresario griego.
1971 Tona Worthington, 10, beaten, raped, and strangled, by James Duke Creel after he kidnapped her while she was walking home from Reagan Elementary School in Abilene Texas. Her body would be found stuffed in a culvert in north Taylor County the following day. Creel would be sentenced to life in prison.
1968:: 26 personas al chocar el tren Ter de Galicia con un tractor cerca de Santa María de la Alameda (Madrid).
1960 Cech, mathematician.
1902 Francisco Masriera y Manovens, Spanish artist born on 21 October 1842.
1900 Elwin Christoffel, mathematician.
1897 James Joseph Sylvester, 82, mathematician.
1869 Lorenzo Quaglio, German artist born on 19 December 1793. [with an Italian name???]
1868 François Edouard Picot, French artist born on 17 October 1786.
1707 Antoine Pierre Patel II, French artist born on 22 November 1648. — Relative? of Pierre Patel [1605-1676]?
1673 Salvator Rosa, Italian artist born on 20 June 1615, specialized in Landscapes. — MORE ON ROSA AT ART “4” MARCH — LINKS — Self-portrait (1641) — another Self-Portrait — Portrait of a Man (probably another self-portrait) — Democritus in Meditation — River Landscape with Apollo and the Cumean Sibyl inspired by Ovid (Metamorphoses. 14:130-153) — View of the Gulf of Salerno — Human Fragility — and a charming picture: Jason Charming the Dragon
0752 Pope Saint Zachary

— 44 BC Caius Julius Cæsar, on the Ides of March (Julian March 15) ^top^
stabbed to death in the Roman Senate house by a group of sixty conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Caius Cassius Longinus.
Cæsar, born into the Julii, an ancient but not particularly distinguished Roman aristocratic family, began his political career in 78 BC, gaining popularity with his political party for his reformist ideas and oratorical skills. He became an ally of Pompey, the recognized head of the popular party, and in 67 BC, essentially assumed this position after Pompey left Rome to become commander of Roman forces in the East.
click for full portrait

      In 63 BC, Cæsar was elected pontifex maximus, or "high priest," allegedly by heavy bribes. In this position, he led the reformation of the calendar, which hence became known as the "Julian" calendar. In 61 BC, he served as governor of Spain, and in the next year, returned to Rome, ambitious for the office of consul — the highest political position in the Roman republic. He formed a political alliance — the First Triumvirate — with Pompey, and Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome, and in 59 BC was elected consul.
      Although generally opposed by the majority of the Roman Senate, Cæsar’s reforms won him popularity with many Romans. In 58 BC, he was given four Roman legions in Gaul and Illyricum, and over the next decade demonstrated his brilliant military talents as he greatly expanded the Roman empire and his reputation. Among other achievements, Cæsar conquered all of Gaul, made the first Roman inroads into Britain, and won devoted supporters in his legions.
      However, his successes also aroused Pompey’s jealousy, leading to the collapse of their political alliance in 53 BC The Roman Senate supported Pompey, and asked Cæsar to give up his army, which he refused. On 19 January 49 BC, with several senators including Marc Antony taking up his cause, Cæsar crossed the Rubicon River and invaded Italy. Cæsar made early gains against Pompey in the subsequent civil war, but was forced into retreat in Greece. In 48 BC, with Pompey in pursuit, Ceasar paused near Pharsalus, Greece, setting up camp at a strategic location. When Pompey’s senatorial forces fell upon Cæsar’s smaller army, they were entirely routed, and Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated.
      Cæsar was subsequently appointed Roman consul and dictator, but before settling in Rome, he traveled around the empire for several years and consolidated his rule. In 45 BC, he returned to Rome and was made dictator for life. As sole Roman ruler, Cæsar launched ambitious programs of reform within the empire and planned new imperial expansions in central Europe and to the East. In the midst of these vast designs, he was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC, by a group of conspirators who believed that his death would lead to the restoration of the Roman Republic.
      However, the result of the "Ides of March" was to plunge Rome into a fresh round of civil wars, out of which the republic would be forever destroyed and Octavian, Cæsar’s grand-nephew, would emerge as Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
      Gaius Julius Cæsar, dictator of Rome, is stabbed to death in the Roman Senate house by 60 conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Cæsar, born into the Julii, an ancient but not particularly distinguished Roman aristocratic family, began his political career in 78 BC as a prosecutor for the anti-patrician Popular Party. He won influence in the party for his reformist ideas and oratorical skills, and aided Roman imperial efforts by raising a private army to combat the king of Pontus in 74 BC He was an ally of Pompey, the recognized head of the Popular Party, and essentially took over this position after Pompey left Rome in 67 BC to become commander of Roman forces in the east. In 63 BC, Cæsar was elected pontifex maximus, or "high priest," allegedly by heavy bribes. Two years later, he was made governor of Farther Spain and in 64 BC returned to Rome, ambitious for the office of consul. The consulship, essentially the highest office in the Roman Republic, was shared by two politicians on an annual basis. Consuls commanded the army, presided over the Senate and executed its decrees, and represented the state in foreign affairs. Cæsar formed a political alliance — the so-called First Triumvirate — with Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome, and in 59 BC was elected consul. Although generally opposed by the majority of the Roman Senate, Cæsar's land reforms won him popularity with many Romans. In 58 BC, Cæsar was given four Roman legions in Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum, and during the next decade demonstrated brilliant military talents as he expanded the Roman Empire and his reputation. Among other achievements, Cæsar conquered all of Gaul, made the first Roman inroads into Britain, and won devoted supporters in his legions.
      However, his successes also aroused Pompey's jealousy, leading to the collapse of their political alliance in 53 BC The Roman Senate supported Pompey and asked Cæsar to give up his army, which he refused to do. In January 49 BC, Cæsar led his legions across the Rubicon River from Cisalpine Gaul to Italy, thus declaring war against Pompey and his forces. Cæsar made early gains in the subsequent civil war, defeating Pompey's army in Italy and Spain, but was later forced into retreat in Greece. In August 48 BC, with Pompey in pursuit, Cæsar paused near Pharsalus, setting up camp at a strategic location. When Pompey's senatorial forces fell upon Cæsar's smaller army, they were entirely routed, and Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated by an officer of the Egyptian king. Cæsar was subsequently appointed Roman consul and dictator, but before settling in Rome he traveled around the empire for several years and consolidated his rule. In 45 BC, he returned to Rome and was made dictator for life. As sole Roman ruler, Cæsar launched ambitious programs of reform within the empire. The most lasting of these was his establishment of the Julian calendar, which, with the exception of a slight modification and adjustment in the 16th century, remains in use today. He also planned new imperial expansions in central Europe and to the east. In the midst of these vast designs, he was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC, by a group of conspirators who believed that his death would lead to the restoration of the Roman Republic. However, the result of the "Ides of March" was to plunge Rome into a fresh round of civil wars, out of which Octavian, Cæsar's grand-nephew, would emerge as Augustus, the first Roman emperor, destroying the republic forever.
     Julius Cæsar, the infamous dictator of the Roman Empire, is murdered by his own senators at a meeting near Pompeii’s Theatre. The conspiracy against Cæsar encompassed as many as 60 noblemen, including Cæsar’s own protégé, Marcus Brutus. Cæsar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war on March 18, and had appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Empire in his absence. The Republican senators, already chafing at having to abide by Cæsar’s decrees, were particularly angry about the prospect of taking orders from Cæsar’s underlings. Cassius Longinus began plotting against the dictator, quickly recruiting his brother-in-law Marcus Brutus to join. Cæsar should have been well aware that many of the senators hated him, but he dismissed his security force not long before his assassination. Reportedly, Cæsar was handed a warning note as he entered the senate meeting that day, but did not read it.
      After entering the hall with Mark Antony, Cæsar was surrounded by senators holding daggers. Casca struck the first blow, hitting Cæsar in the neck and drawing blood. The other senators all joined in, stabbing him repeatedly about the head. After being wounded in the groin by Marcus Brutus, Cæsar was said to have remarked (in Greek), "You, too, my child." In the aftermath of the assassination, Antony attempted to carry out Cæsar’s legacy. However, Cæsar’s will left his grandnephew Octavius in charge. Cassius and Brutus tried to rally a Republican army and Brutus even issued coins celebrating the assassination, known as the Ides of March. Octavius, vowing revenge against the assassins, defeated and killed both Cassius and Brutus two years later. Antony took his armies east, where he hooked up with Cæsar’s old paramour, Cleopatra. Octavius and Antony fought for many years before Octavius finally prevailed. In 30 BC, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide together. Octavius, later known as Augustus, ruled the Roman Empire until 14 A.D.
     "Beware the Ides of March," the soothsayer urges Julius Cæsar in Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Cæsar (act I, scene ii). Despite the forewarning, Cæsar is stabbed in the back by his friend Marcus Brutus. Cæsar falls and utters his famous last words, "Et tu, Brute?" (And you, Brutus?) Shakespeare's source for the play was Thomas North's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, which detailed the murder of Cæsar in 44 BC Cæsar's friends and associates feared his growing power and his recent self-comparison to Alexander the Great and felt he must die for the good of Rome. North's work translated a French version of Plutarch, which itself had been translated from Latin. Shakespeare's version was written about 1599 and performed at the newly built Globe Theater. [Plutarch's Lives, Dryden translation]
— CAESAR ONLINE: Commentariorum Libri VII de Bello Gallico — Commentariorum Libri III de Bello Civili — (in English translation): Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars
—Below: La Mort de César, painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme. (which Thomas Nast parodied a Cartoon showing US President Andrew Johnson as the “American Caesar” published in Harper's Weekly of 13 March 1869, one year to the day after Johnson's impeachment trial started in the US Senate and 9 days after he had left office. In May 1868 the Senate voted 35-to-19, one vote short of the 2/3 majority needed for conviction).

— 44 avant JC: Jules César, assassiné. ^top^
      Jules César est assassiné le 15 mars de l'an 44 avant JC. Il a 55 ans. César mène une vie dissipée de dandy avant de révéler son génie. Bon orateur, il intervient dans les batailles politiques qui agitent la République romaine en décomposition. Il soumet en huit ans la Gaule chevelue puis franchit le Rubicon avec son armée. Il impose à Rome son autorité et entreprend de vastes réformes. Il songe à se doter d'un titre royal qui assure la pérennité de son œuvre. Avec sa maîtresse, Cléopâtre, reine d'Égypte, il envisage un moment de se faire consacrer fils d'Amon, à l'image d'Alexandre le Grand.
      Le 15 Feb de l'an 44 avant JC, à l'occasion des Lupercales, le fidèle Marc Antoine pose sur la tête de César le diadème des rois grecs. Mais la foule proteste et le dictateur ôte lui-même la couronne. Qu'à cela ne tienne, Jules César projette d'accepter le titre de roi pour la partie orientale de l'empire à l'occasion de la réunion du sénat, un mois plus tard, le jour des Ides de mars. Ses proches l'avertissent d'une grave menace et lui font part de mauvais présages mais il n'en a cure. A peine installé dans la salle de réunion, César est provoqué par un sénateur. Celui-ci sort un poignard. C'est le hallali. Plusieurs sénateurs se précipitent et le dictateur est frappé de 23 coups de poignard.
      Parmi les conjurés figure Brutus [une vraie brute]. César avait placé toute sa confiance en ce jeune sénateur, fils de sa maîtresse Servilia. Il lui lance en grec (la langue de l'élite romaine): «Kai su», ce que les chroniqueurs latins ont traduit par un mot de dépit: «Tu quoque, mi fili» («Toi aussi, mon fils»). Il pourrait s'agir au contraire d'une malédiction au sens de: «Qu'il t'arrive à toi aussi le même sort!». Malgré cette fin prématurée, l'œuvre de César sera poursuivie et consolidée par son neveu, Octave, le futur empereur Auguste.

Births which occurred on a March 15:
1995 Lockheed Martin Corporation is formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta Corporation.
1940 Juan March Delgado, empresario español, presidente de la Fundación Juan March.
1933 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US Supreme Court Justice.
1927 Conocimiento del hombre, del psicólogo austriaco Alfred Adler, se publica.
1920 Edward Donall Thomas, médico estadounidense, primero que realizó un trasplante de médula ósea. Premio Nobel en 1990.
1919 The American Legion is founded, in Paris.
1916 Blas de Otero, poeta español.
1892 Realidad, primera obra dramática de Benito Pérez Galdós, se estrena en el teatro de la Comedia de Madrid.
1890 Delone, mathematician.
1883 Franz von Zulow, Austrian artist who died in 1963.
1874 Harold L Ickes social activist, New Deal statesman, who died on 03 February 1925.

1868 Grace Chisholm (Young), English mathematician, first woman Ph.D. in Germany.. ^top^
      Grace Chisholm was born in Haslemere, near London, the youngest of three surviving children. Her father was Warden of the Standards in the British government, in charge of the department of weights and measures. Her brother was sent to grammar school, a prestigious boarding school, and then earned a top scholarship to Oxford, but in the custom of the times in England, Grace and her sister were taught at home by their mother and a governess. At the age of 17 Grace Chisholm passed the Cambridge Senior Examination.
      Her family encouraged her to become involved in social work among the London poor but Grace wanted to continue her studies. Her mother would not allow her to study medicine so she decided to study mathematics at Girton College, part of Cambridge University. Girton, opened in 1869, was the first school in England dedicated to educating women at the university level. Grace Chisholm entered Girton in 1889 at the age of 21. At Girton her tutor was William Young. Women could not earn formal degrees at Cambridge at that time, but in 1893 she passed her final examinations (Mathematics Tripos) and scored the equivalent of a first-class degree.
      Grace Chisholm wanted to continue in mathematics but women were not yet admitted to graduate schools in England so she went to Göttingen in Germany to study with Felix Klein. This was one of the major mathematical centers in the world. The decision to admit her had to be approved by the Berlin Ministry of Culture.
     Under Klein's supervision, Grace Chisholm earned the Ph.D. magna cum laude, in 1895. Her thesis was on The algebraic groups of spherical trigonometry. Again government approval had to be obtained to allow her to take the examination. She thus became the first woman to officially receive a doctorate in any field in Germany. Although Sofia Kovalevskaia had been awarded a doctorate in mathematics in absentia from Göttingen in 1874 after submitting a thesis, the rules for doctoral degrees had become stricter, and Grace was required to take courses and pass a difficult examination showing broader knowledge as well as prepare a thesis in order to receive her degree.
Grace Chisholm Young

The year after her Ph.D., Grace Chisholm married William Henry Young [20 Oct 1863 – 07 Jul 1942], who had been her tutor at Girton College. William Young was also a mathematician. Between them they wrote about 220 mathematical articles, several books, and had 6 children within the span of 9 years. It is not clear how much of the collaboration is really Grace's work and how much is her husband's, but it is now generally agreed that William Young would probably have accomplished very little without the help of his wife, a fact he often acknowledged. Grace wrote up his papers for publication, often filling in proofs and correcting mistakes. But she also produced a substantial amount of excellent work herself despite the fact that her husband was often away from the family for large parts of the year, leaving Grace to take care of the children and home at La Conversion, near Lausanne in Switzerland, to where they had moved from Germany before WW I, as anti-British sentiment was increasing in Germany. In 1915, she wrote a paper on the foundations of calculus that won the Gamble Prize at Cambridge, and later published a book on geometry and one on set theory with her husband.

Besides her extensive work in mathematics, Grace Chisholm Young completed all the requirements for a medical degree except the internship, learned six languages, and taught each of her six children a musical instrument. She left Switzerland in 1940 with the approach of World War II, but her husband could not get out. He died in 1942, and two years later Grace suffered a heart attack and died on 29 March 1944. The Fellows of Girton College had just recommended that she be awarded an honorary degree, but she died before it could be given to her.
Of her six children,

the first son, Francis [1897-1917], a Royal Flying Corps aerial observer, was killed in World War I;

the oldest daughter, Cecily (later: Mrs. R.C. Tanner, 1900-1992), took a doctorate in mathematics at Girton but was still not able to receive a formal degree from Cambridge (1929) since such degrees were not yet being granted to women. Despite this, she went on to become a tenured member of the University of London;

the second daughter, Janet [1901-1997?], became a physician and the first female member of the Royal College of Surgeons. She married a Jewish refugee from Germany, Stephen Michael, a research chemist. They had children, William, Dorothy, and Stephen Jr..

the third daughter, Helen Marion (born 20 September 1903 in Göttingen), completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics at the University of Lausanne. She did additional graduate work in other subjects at Bryn Mawr. In 1929 she married a Frenchman, Jean-Marie-Félix Canu, a professor of history at Bryn Mawr. They had two children in Bryn Mawr, Jean-François (born 27 February 1930) and Anne-Marie (born on 09 December 1932). That family settled in France in 1934 and weathered the World War II in occupied France, in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. There the third child was born, Pierre-Henri-Raimond-Maximilien, on 16 February 1943. Helen Young Canu died of cancer on 24 December 1947. Jean-François Canu obtained a degree in mathematics and became successively a research mathematician, a Catholic priest, and a school teacher, before retiring in 1999. Anne-Marie Canu became a cloistered Benedictine nun for some ten years, and then a pediatric psychoanalyst in Paris. Pierre Canu became a corporate lawyer in the US.

the second son, Laurence [14 Jul 1905 – 24 Dec 2000], was also a mathematician, teaching at the University of Capetown, South Africa, and later at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was also a chess grandmaster. His children were Frank, Elizabeth Rosalind, David [1942?-1964], Beatrice (Nearey), Sylvia (Wiegand) [08 Mar 1945~], and Angela C. [1947~].

the youngest son, Patrick (born in 1908), did his academic training in science, but pursued a career in finance and business. He has two children.
One of Grace Young's fourteen grandchildren, Sylvia Wiegand, fifth of the six children of Laurence Young, is a mathematician at the University of Nebraska (as is her husband Roger A. Wiegand) and a past president of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

1860 Weldon, mathematician.
1858 Liberty Hyde Bailey, US botanist and writer who died on 25 December 1954.
1857 Christian Michelsen, Norwegian prime minister; separated Norway from Sweden in 1905 He died on 28 June 1925.
1855 Boys, mathematician.
1854 Emil von Behring, German Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist who died on 31 March 1917. — Emil von Behring, médico alemán, uno de los fundadores de la sueroterapia y Nobel de Medicina en 1901.
1851 Virgilio Tojetti, Italian artist who died on 26 March 1901.

1830 Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse, writer (Nobel 1910), in Berlin. ^top^
     Heyse fand schon im Elternhaus eine Atmosphäre vor, in der kultivierte Geselligkeit, geistig-literarischer Austausch, die Anteilnahme an Musik und bildender Kunst Selbstverständlichkeiten waren. Die Mutter war mit der Familie Mendelssohn-Bartholdy verwandt und stand mit den führenden jüdischen Salons in Berlin in geselligem Verkehr. Schon während seiner Schulzeit am Gymnasium entstanden erste literarische Versuche, auf die Emanuel Geibel aufmerksam wurde. Aus der Förderung durch den 15 Jahre Älteren und schon Berühmten erwuchs eine lebenslange Freundschaft und gemeinsame literarische Arbeit.
      Die Freundschaft zum Haus des Kunsthistorikers Kugler brachte Heyse in Kontakt mit Burckhardt, Menzel, Fontane und Storm, schließlich mit der literarischen Vereinigung »Tunnel über der Spree«. Nach vier Semestern Studium der klassischen Philologie in Berlin wechselte Heyse zum Studium der Kunstgeschichte und Romanistik nach Bonn und promovierte 1852 mit einer Arbeit über die Lyrik der Troubadours. Zuvor schon hatte der Vater des Sohnes Entschluß, Dichter zu werden, freudig begrüßt.
      Den 24jährigen erreichte auf Vermittlung Geibels der Ruf des bayerischen Königs Maximilian II. 1854 übersiedelte Heyse nach München und nahm regelmäßig teil an den »Symposien« des Königs im Dichter- und Gelehrtenkreis. Daraus ergaben sich vielfältige gesellschaftliche Verbindungen. Er konnte sich eine herausragende Stellung als literarische Autorität aufbauen und sie über Jahrzehnte als Hofpoet und Dichterfürst in der Nachfolge Goethes behaupten, seit 1874 in der repräsentativen Neo-Renaissance-Villa nahe der Lenbachs residierend. Um den brachliegenden literarischen Austausch in München zu beleben, hatte Heyse mit Geibel schon 1854 nach dem Muster des Berliner »Tunnel« die Dichtervereinigung Krokodil gegründet und seit 1868 auch geleitet. Mit dem von Geibel herausgegebenen Münchner Dichterbuch stellte sich die Gruppe 1862 der Öffentlichkeit vor.
      Viele seiner Novellen siedelte Heyse in seiner Wahlheimat Italien an, wo er auch im Alter meist den Winter auf seinem Landsitz in Gardone am Gardasee verbrachte.
      Nach dem Tode Maximilians II. 1864 lockerte sich Heyses Bindung an den Hof und löste sich 1868; er hatte sich mit Geibels politischen Überzeugungen solidarisiert und damit unerwünscht gemacht. Seine Stellung im literatischen Leben wurde dadurch jedoch nicht erschüttert: 1871 Aufnahme in den Kreis der Ritter des Maximilians-Ordens, 1884 der Schiller-Preis, 1910 die Ehrenbürgerschaft der Stadt München. Heyse erhielt 1910, erstmals an einen deutschen Dichter verliehen, den Literatur-Nobelpreis.
      Er bildete mit E. Geibel den Mittelpunkt des Münchner Dichterkreises. Paul von Heyse war geprägt von der klassisch - romantischen Bildung. Er entwickelte eine Novellentheorie, um der Formauflösung entgegenzuwirken. Es handelt sich um die " Falkentheorie ". Falke steht für ein symbolträchtiges Leitmotiv. Diese Theorie verwirklichte er in zahlreichen Novellen. Paul von Heyse schrieb auch Romane, Dramen und Gedichte sowie Übersetzungen, vor allem italienische und spanische Texte übersetzte er ins Deutsche. Viele seiner Gedichte wurden vertont, u. a. von Johannes Brahms ( siehe Vertonungen ). 1901 - 1910 lebte er Gordone in Italien in der Villa Itolanda. Er liebte das Leben in Italien und sein Wunsch war es, dort begraben zu werden, wie aus dem Gedicht "Letzter Wille" hervorgeht. 1910 erhielt er den Nobelpreis für Literatur von der schwedischen Nobelpreisstiftung. Er wurde geadelt und konnte sich ab 1910 Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse nennen. Paul Heyse starb am 02 April 1914 kurz nach Vollendung des 84. Lebensjahres in München.

     Heyse studied classical and Romance languages and traveled for a year in Italy, supported by a research grant. After completing his studies he became an independent scholar and was called to Munich by Maximilian II of Bavaria. There, with the poet Emanuel Geibel, he became the head of the Munich circle of writers, who sought to preserve traditional artistic values from the encroachments of political radicalism, materialism, and realism. He became a master of the carefully wrought short story, a chief example of which is L'Arrabbiata (1855). He also published novels (Kinder der Welt 1873) and many unsuccessful plays. Among his best works are his translations of the works of Giacomo Leopardi and other Italian poets. His poems provided the lyrics for many lieder by the composer Hugo Wolf. Heyse, who was given to idealization and who refused to portray the dark side of life, became an embittered opponent of the growing school of Naturalism, and his popularity had greatly decreased by the time he received the Nobel Prize in Literature 1910.

Im Lenz, im Lenz,
Wenn Veilchen blühn zuhauf,
Gib acht, gib acht,
Da wachen die Tränen auf.

Im Herbst, im Herbst,
Fiel alles Laub vom Baum.
Ach, Lieb' und Glück
Vergangen wie im Traum!

Gib acht, gib acht,
So ist der Dinge Lauf:
Blumen und Wunden
Brechen im Frühling auf.

Letzter Wille

Der Tag an dem das Leben gehen wird
und ich nicht mehr aufwachen kann,
in welchem Ort oder welcher Stadt ist mir unwichtig,
das Bett werden sie mir machen wollen.
Eine ruhige Grube würde ich hier mögen,
unter diesen Zypressen,
wo ich mit meinen süßen Träumen rastete
und wohin ich meine Schritte richtete.

Am Ufer meines Sees, auf dessen Seiten
der Frieden die Flügel schlägt,
würde ich mir mit dem Murmeln der Wellen
ein Zikadengezirpe anhören,
würde ich vom hohen Monte Baldo grüßen,
dem eingeschlafenen Gipfel,
schwärzlich auf dem See, und stolz und unabänderlich,
von Sternen gekrönt.

HEYSE ONLINE:
L'Arrabbiata / L'Arrabbiata
Das Mädchen von Treppi
Andrea Delfin
Spielmannslegende
Der letzte Zentaur
Die Witwe von Pisa
Ein Ring

Spielmannslegende

Gedichte
Works not found online:
Rafael — Elisabeth Charlotte — Colberg — Moralische Novellen — Im Paradiese — Merlin

1824 Jules Chevalier, French priest and author, founder of the Sacred Heart Missionaries. He died on 21 October 1907.
1809 Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first president of Liberia.
1797 Johann-Heinrich-Carl Koopman, German artist who died on 05 April 1894.
1779 William Lamb viscount Melbourne (Whig), British PM (1834, 1835-41), adviser to Queen Victoria. He died on 24 November 1848.

1767 Andrew Jackson, 7th US president (D: 1828-37), in the Garden of the Waxhaws, South Carolina. ^top^
      The son of Irish immigrants, Jackson spent much of his early life in the rough-and-tumble frontier regions of South Carolina and Tennessee. His father died from injuries sustained while lifting a heavy log, and his mother was left with few resources to support the family. Jackson received only a minimal formal education, but he learned a great deal about the practical realities of frontier life by mixing with the rowdy frontiersmen around him. As a young man, Jackson settled in the still relatively untamed Tennessee area, where he worked as a self-taught lawyer. After playing an important role in winning statehood for Tennessee, Jackson became the state's first federal congressman. He achieved national recognition during the War of 1812 for his victories over both Indian and British warriors, paving the way for his election to the presidency in 1828.
      Jackson represented a sharp break from the presidents who preceded him, all of whom had been well-educated men born to privilege. US citizens eager to create a more democratic nation embraced the rough-hewn Jackson as their leader, celebrating him as a representation of the egalitarian spirit of the frontier. Jackson played to these sentiments, although he was no frontiersman in comparison to trailblazers and explorers like Daniel Boone or John Sevier. Still, Jackson was a man who had risen from backwoods poverty to become a successful lawyer, farmer, officer, and politician-a path to success that many average people in the US hoped they might follow.
      More than any other president, Jackson was associated with westward expansion. A notorious Indian fighter as a young man, Jackson believed that Indians were obstacles to US progress. Once elected president, Jackson supported and vigorously executed the goals of the Removal Act of 1830, which cleared Indians from large areas of the frontier and opened the land to Anglo settlement. Jackson's election to the presidency also signaled a sharp shift in the US view of frontier inhabitants. Previously seen as slovenly, lazy, and ill-educated troublemakers who interfered with elite plans for an orderly settlement of the West, frontiersmen started to be regarded as the archetypal US hero. During Jackson's presidency, the people of the US embraced a powerful new unifying myth that the nation's frontier experience would foster democracy, equality, and strength. Throughout his life, and even well after his 08 June 1845 death, Jackson symbolized and embodied this new US fascination with the transformative power of the western frontier.

1614 Franciscus Sylvius, German physician, physiologist and chemist who died on 15 November 1672.

Holidays Honduras : Thanksgiving Day / Hungary : National Day / India, Mauritius, Nep l : Holi / Iran : Armed Forces Day/Labor Day / Liberia : JJ Robert's Birthday (1809) Maine : Admission Day (1820) / Tennessee : Andrew Jackson's Birthday (1767)

Religious Observances Christian : St Longinus, soldier with spear at Crucifixion / RC : St Louise de Marillac, widow / RC : St Clement Hofbauer, priest/missionary / Santos Raimundo, Longinos y Probo; santas Matrona y Luisa de Marillac. / Sainte Louise de Marillac:: Cette veuve du temps de Louis XIII rencontre Monsieur Vincent (Saint Vincent de Paul). A ses côtés, elle retrouve la joie et se voue à la charité. Elle fonde la Congrégation des Filles de la Charité, au service des enfants trouvés, des malades et de tous les malheureux. Louise de Marillac repose dans la maison mère de la Congrégation, rue du Bac, à Paris.

GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU: this is a common English word, misspelled by giving combinations of letters the phonetic value they have in some other English word. So can you tell what the correct spelling is for GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU? {Bonus question: Which is the self-contradictory word in the previous sentence?}

Thought for the day: “Better to have a true enemy than a false friend.”

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