About This Blog
An alternative "On This Day", On This Deity aims to bring light to and celebrate Culture Heroes, Outsider Icons, Beloved Immortals and Revolutionary Events in history.
World Events
28th November 2001 The Collapse of Enron
The collapse of US energy and trading conglomerate, Enron, played out over several months in 2001 but we choose to note its passing today. For it was on November 28th, 2001 that the scale of the deceit and fraud perpetrated … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
26th November 1976 ‘Anarchy In the UK’ Released
Today we celebrate the release of the Sex Pistols’ debut 7” single ‘Anarchy in the UK’ which caused a public outcry when it first appeared thirty-five years ago, and heralded the entire regeneration of ‘70s rock’n’roll. A riotous wake-up call … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution, World Events 2 Comments
24th November 1859 Charles Darwin Publishes ‘On The Origin Of Species’
Today we’re looking back 152 years to November 24th 1859 and the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Although few of you reading this will be unaware of the significance of this remarkable book, it is worth … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 3 Comments
23rd November 1936 Robert Johnson Lays It Down
Seventy-five years ago today, the legendary bluesman, Robert Johnson, made his recording debut in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas – one of only two recording sessions he would make in his short life, but whose … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes, World Events 1 Comment
22nd November 1990 Thatcher Resigns
Twenty-one years ago today, Margaret Thatcher ran crying from 10 Downing Street to a waiting car, having just announced her resignation as Prime Minister of Britain after being forced out of the leadership of the Conservative Party by her own … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 13 Comments
16th November 1938 Albert Hofmann Synthesizes LSD
Today is quite an anniversary for psychedelic culture. Exactly two years ago the world lost one of its most remarkable visionary painters, the Peruvian Pablo Amaringo, whose art documented his shamanic ayahuasca visions. Thirty-eight years ago saw the death of … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution, World Events 5 Comments
11th November 1918 Armistice Day
Ninety-three years ago today, the signing of the Armistice in a railway carriage in France’s Compiegne Forest, by the Allied Commander-in-Chief Marshall Foch and Germany’s representative Matthias Erzberger, signaled the end of World War One and the complete defeat of … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 5 Comments
9th November 1989 the Collapse of the Berlin Wall
Today we remember one of the most momentous world events of the second half of the twentieth century: the collapse of the Berlin Wall – that 90-mile-long boundary between two opposing ideologies that divided a city in half and completely … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution, World Events 5 Comments
8th November 1923 Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch
Eighty-eight years ago today, Adolf Hitler – a full decade before actually seizing power – led his young Munich-based Nazi Party in an audacious yet disastrous attempt to force armed revolution upon chaotic post-WW1 Germany, when 600 Nazi stormtroopers gate-crashed … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 1 Comment
2nd November 1917 Balfour Lights the Fuse
Ninety-four years ago today, Lord Balfour – British foreign secretary and former prime minister – lit the fuse of an almighty powder keg when he wrote to the financier Lord Rothschild, Britain’s most influential Jew: “His Majesty’s Government views with … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
16th October 1859 John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry in northern Virginia, situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, was chosen in 1794 by George Washington to be the site of the United States Federal Armory. And it was here one hundred and fifty-two … Continue reading
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7th October 1955 Ginsberg’s First Reading of “Howl”
Fifty-six years ago today, a behemoth of incomparable significance occurred that would restore poetry to its rightful cultural position, crystallise the voice of a discontented generation and launch a revolutionary literary movement that set the bar for the explosive 1960s … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 9 Comments
4th October 1798 the Publication of Lyrical Ballads
Two hundred and thirteen years ago today, the English Romantic era was launched with the publication of Lyrical Ballads – the seminal collection of poems, mainly by William Wordsworth but with four (key) contributions from Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In Wordsworth’s … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
24th September 1969 the Chicago Conspiracy Trial
Forty-two years ago today marked the beginning of the infamous and so-called Chicago Conspiracy Trial – the most highly publicised showcase for the opposing political, cultural and generational ideologies that divided America during its explosive Vietnam years. Accused of conspiring to … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, World Events 1 Comment
22nd September
The most revolutionary proclamation ever issued by an American president was announced on this day in 1862. A recollection of this momentous occasion will appear here shortly.
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
21st September 1942 Maiden Flight of the B-29
Sixty-nine years ago today saw the maiden flight of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, that huge American warplane whose atomic load would, with the bombing of Hiroshima, bring World War 2 to a sudden and dreadful conclusion. Faster, vaster, and with … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
19th September 1952 America Banishes Charlie Chaplin
Today we recall the shameful expulsion from America of Charlie Chaplin – the great film-making pioneer and veritable icon – who, with his deft touch of comedy and pathos, brought enduring pleasure to the world and generated millions of dollars for … Continue reading
Posted in Curiosities, World Events 3 Comments
16th September 1920 the First Wall Street Bombing
Ninety-one years ago today, a bedraggled horse-drawn wagon made its way along Wall Street in Lower Manhattan – which had recently eclipsed London as the financial centre of the world – and stopped directly in front of its then-most powerful … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, World Events 5 Comments
11th September 2001 9/11
Ten years ago today, all of America’s postwar bullying, lying, cheating, deceiving, extorting and specifically self-serving ways resulted in the massive attack that destroyed the Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan.
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 15 Comments
7th September 1872 Bakunin Gets the Boot
Though it is almost impossible to imagine, in light of where Stalin and Mao took their respective communist countries, less than a century before their totalitarian regimes took power, anarchism stood side-by-side with communism as a genuine political consideration for … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, World Events 1 Comment
4th September 1949 the Peekskill Riots
When I was twelve years old, I discovered that my best friend Liz’s grandmother had, throughout her adult life, enjoyed a decades-long love affair with Paul Robeson. Singer, scholar, Hollywood actor, Broadway star, even political activist: Paul Robeson was … Continue reading
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2nd September 1956 the First World Congress of Liberated Artists
Fifty-five years ago today, a group of around twenty obscure radical artists converged on the small Italian town of Alba, just southeast of Turin, for the First World Congress of Liberated Artists. Revolution was the common denominator among these … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
1st September 1939 Germany Invades Poland
Seventy-two years ago today, months of brown-nosing Hitler’s Nazis by the winners of World War One – Britain, France and America AKA the Western Powers – resulted not in a safer Europe but in the Invasion of Poland, when, at … Continue reading
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16th August 1819 The Peterloo Massacre
One hundred and ninety-two years ago today, during a pro-democracy rally in Manchester’s St. Peter’s Field, utter bloody carnage fell upon the peaceful protestors when the local yeomanry set about the crowd of 60,000 with sabres drawn, trampling and hacking … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Dissent, World Events 4 Comments