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.
December
1st December 1976 The Filth and the Fury
Today we recall the bizarre events of thirty-seven years ago, in which television presenter Bill Grundy – clearly ill-prepared for the motley posse sat before him, and possibly himself quite drunk – half-wittedly and quite inadvertently handed to the already notorious … Continue reading
Posted in Curiosities 3 Comments
2nd December 1859 the Martyrdom of John Brown
When is a cause so just that the means justify the end? Today we honour a man who, in response to that conundrum, became a World Martyr. A man so fervently opposed to racism that he was willing to die … Continue reading
2nd December 1547 the Death of Hernán Cortés
“He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns, Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun”- from Cortez the Killer by Neil Young Hernán (Hernando) Cortés was a glory-seeking, ruthless murderer capable of barbaric cruelty, who … Continue reading
3rd December 1854 The Eureka Stockade
The history of Australia shares many key similarities with America – colonialisation, multi-cultural settlement and genocidal atrocities meted out on its indigenous peoples. But colonial Australia, unlike America, was not distinguished by legendary rebellions and revolution. In fact, the event we … Continue reading
4th December 1969 The Assassination of Fred Hampton
Forty-three years ago today – Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and the most inspiring young African-American leader to emerge in the wake of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. – … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Heroes 2 Comments
5th December 1931 The Suicide of Vachel Lindsay
Today we lament the tragic suicide eighty-one years ago of Vachel Lindsay, the Visionary Illinois poet whose intriguingly itinerant ‘Johnny Appleseed’ lifestyle, visionary essays and paintings, slew of gritty epic, para-religious poems, and the extravagant and declamatory public manner in which … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 4 Comments
6th December 1989 The Montreal Massacre
Twenty-three years ago today, a woman-hater named Marc Lépine went on a gendercidal rampage at Montreal’s prestigious École Polytechnique. Armed with a Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, 25-year-old Lepine – a failed application to the elite engineering … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 2 Comments
7th December 1985 The Death of Robert Graves
Today we pay tribute to the extraordinary English poet, novelist, translator and scholar, Robert Graves – a literary giant, who died twenty-seven years ago on this day. Seemingly effortlessly, Robert Graves’ career straddled vast tracts of time, his biography featuring … Continue reading
8th December 1980 the Murder of John Lennon
Today we pay tribute to Beatle John Lennon, who was thirty-two years ago shot to death outside his New York City apartment building. It is not the role of this On This Deity entry to heap upon Lennon’s tragically early … Continue reading
9th December 1987 The First Intifada
Today we mark the beginning of the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987. Various end dates are cited, usually falling between the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 and the Mehola Junction bombing of 1993, but arguably the conditions and enmities created … Continue reading
9th December 1996 the Death of Mary Leakey
No matter who we are and what we think, the beautiful truth is that we are all children of Africa. It was in no small part the painstaking work of Mary Leakey that revealed this. For more than 50 years … Continue reading
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10th December 1907 The Brown Dog Riots
It can be surprising to discover that the largest, most controversial and violent riot in Britain concerning the emotive issue of animal rights occurred not in recent years, but in 1907. And the most vociferous and heated protagonists were not … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent 5 Comments
11th December 1981 The El Mozote Massacre
Today we recall the El Mozote Massacre – the largest killing of civilians during El Salvador’s brutal twelve-year Civil War – in which nearly the entire 800-plus population of the small village of El Mozote and its surrounding hamlets was … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 2 Comments
12th December 1982 Greenham Common Peace Women ‘Embrace the Base’
The 12th December 1982 was cold. Not really the kind of day to be hanging about outside unless there is something you really have to do. But there was something that I and thousands of other women really, really … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, Heroines 6 Comments
13th December 1937 The Rape of Nanking
Today we lament the tragic Rape of Nanking exactly seventy-five years ago, in which the recently Westernized & ‘modernized’ Japanese army – themselves less than a century out of their fiercely backward-looking Samurai past, and each soldier reeling from the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 6 Comments
14th December 1825 The Decembrist Revolt
Today marks the anniversary of the Decembrist Rising – a short-lived revolt of officers in the Czarist army in 1825. In many respects doomed to failure, the revolt has a historic significance that outweighs the actual events and marks a … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution 3 Comments
15th December 1890 The Death of Sitting Bull
Today we lament the death of Sitting Bull, the legendary Hunkpapa Sioux chief and arguably the most famous-ever Native American, murdered by Indian “police” one hundred and twenty-two years ago today during a bungled effort to arrest the 59-year-old spiritual … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 11 Comments
16th December 1773 The Boston Tea Party
At nine o’clock on the night of 16th December 1773, a group of angry Bostonians – thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians and armed with tomahawks – boarded three British ships anchored at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston harbour. Urged on by thousands … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, Revolution 3 Comments
17th December 1830 the Death of Simon Bolivar
“I swear before you, I swear before the God of my fathers, I swear by my fathers, I swear by my honour, I swear by my country that I will not rest, body or soul, until I have broken the … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 4 Comments
17th December 2010 The Self-Immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi
What a magic carpet ride it’s been in recent years for our brothers and sisters in North Africa and the Middle East. Egypt’s Mubarak-led police state deposed, Libya’s mad dog Gaddafi fittingly gunned down in a sewer. And the struggle … Continue reading
18th December 2011 the Death of Vaclav Havel
A tribute to Czech revolutionary hero Václav Havel will appear here shortly.
Posted in Heroes 2 Comments
19th December 1940 The Birth of Phil Ochs
The cover of Phil Ochs 1969 album, Rehearsals For Retirement, is one of the most powerful images of any 60s album. Ochs is pictured in front of the flag with a Revolutionary War rifle slung over his shoulder. Beneath … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 3 Comments
20th December 1973 Operation Ogre
Thirty-nine years ago today, Spain moved a significant step closer to liberation from its protracted state of fascistic tyranny when General Francisco Franco’s named political successor – the recently appointed prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco, otherwise known as “the Ogre” … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, World Events 7 Comments
21st December 1907 The Santa Maria School Massacre
One hundred and five years ago today, a shocking massacre of striking workers and their families occurred in the city of Iquique, Chile. While unbelievable numbers of up to 3000 were brutally murdered in cold blood, even more unbelievably, the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 5 Comments
22nd December 1894 The Dreyfus Affair
Post-Nazism, post-Holocaust, it’s easy to forget that it was not Berlin, but Paris – the cultural capital of Europe – that played shameful host to the first outpouring of modern political anti-Semitism. For it was one hundred and eighteen years ago … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 6 Comments
23rd December 1888 Vincent van Gogh Mutilates His Ear
On this day in 1888 in Arles in southern France, Vincent van Gogh performed the most infamous act of self-mutilation in art history. He cut off part of his left ear lobe. From that point on, the world pointed, laughed … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 2 Comments
24th December Christmas Eve
Let us on this Christmas Eve make note that tomorrow we once again celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th, that date stabilised by the early Christian Church in order to benefit from that same day’s previous pagan … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized 8 Comments
25th December 2006 the Death of James Brown
Today we pay tribute to James Brown – the legendary Godfather of Soul and self-proclaimed ‘Hardest Working man in Showbusiness’ – whose death exactly six years ago robbed us of a true World Artist and Culture Hero of the highest order, … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 5 Comments
26th December 1985 the Martyrdom of Dian Fossey
Twenty-seven years ago this night, Dian Fossey – legendary zoologist and champion of Africa’s mountain gorillas – was brutally murdered in the bedroom of her isolated cabin, high in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains. Her lifeless body with its skull split open … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 10 Comments
27th December 2007 The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
On 27th December 2007, Benazir Bhutto – twice Prime Minister of Pakistan and the first democratically-elected female leader of any Muslim country – was assassinated as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi. Mysteriously done to death by either the assassin’s … Continue reading
28th December 1937 The Birth of the Irish Republic
At one minute before midnight on December 28th 1937 the Irish constitution passed into law and the Republic of Ireland (or Éire) was born. Although it has been described as a revolutionary act itself, the passing of the constitution was … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
29th December 1926 the Death of Rainer Maria Rilke
Today we pay tribute to Rainer Maria Rilke, who died of leukaemia eighty-six years ago at the age of fifty-one. In the age of disillusionment, Rilke was a mystic who pondered the Big Questions – life, love, meaning and death … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 3 Comments
29th December 1916 the Death of Grigori Rasputin
The death on this day in 1916 of Gregory Rasputin left a legacy as full of myth and misinformation – along with some bizarre truths – as his life had been. Poisoned with five times the usual lethal dose of … Continue reading
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30th December 1896 the Execution of Jose Rizal
One hundred and sixteen years ago today, José Rizal – the “George Washington of the Philippines” – was executed by the Spanish Army following a false conviction for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy. Rizal had devoted all of his brief adult life … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 6 Comments
New Year’s Eve
As no true World Event, positive or negative, has thus far taken place on this gateway into the New Year, it would seem (future revolutionaries please note) that New Year’s Eve is still up for grabs. Happy New Year.
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