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.
June
1st June 1968 the Death of Helen Keller
Today we pay tribute to one of the twentieth century’s most potent symbols of courage and fortitude, the legendary Helen Keller. Rendered deaf and blind at nineteen months as a result of what was probably scarlet fever, the extraordinary story … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 4 Comments
2nd June 1780 the Gordon Riots
Two hundred and thirty-one years ago, London was rocked by the biggest and most dramatic riots in British history. There was more damage to property than Paris suffered during the French Revolution, leaving hundreds dead, hundreds more wounded, and dozens … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent 3 Comments
3rd June 1943 the Zoot Suit Riots
On the night of 3rd June 1943, as American men of all ethnicities shipped off to service in World War II, the city of Los Angeles witnessed a violent racist outbreak when a group of fifty sailors ran amok viciously … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 1 Comment
4th June 1989 the Tiananmen Square Massacre
In the early hours of the morning on June 4th 1989, the Chinese military began a brutal crackdown of the protest movement that had seen up to 100,000 people camped out in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for more than a month. … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Dissent 2 Comments
5th June 2002 the Death of Dee Dee Ramone
Today we pay tribute to the great rock’n’roll hero Dee Dee Ramone, who died nine years ago aged fifty. What can we do but kneel at the grave of this hoodlum culture hero and give thanks to him for stealing … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 3 Comments
6th June 1961 A 50th Anniversary Tribute on the Death of C.G. Jung
Today we pay tribute to Switzerland’s Carl Gustav Jung, the analytical psychologist who – like the artist William Blake and the civil rights leader Malcolm X – has risen to become a modern day World Prophet of the West not … Continue reading
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7th June 1893 Gandhi’s First Act of Civil Disobedience
One hundred and eighteen years ago today, the twentieth century’s most famous non-violent revolutionary, Mohandas Gandhi, committed his first act of civil disobedience when the then 24-year-old Indian lawyer was forcibly ejected from a train at South Africa’s Pietermaritzburg Railway … Continue reading
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8th June 1809 the Death of Thomas Paine
Today we pay tribute to Thomas Paine, Forgotten Founding Father of the United States, who died two hundred and two years ago today on 8th June 1809. Revolutionary, pamphleteer, writer, agitator, radical, propagandist, deist – by the time of … Continue reading
9th June 1938 the Yellow River Flood
Seventy-three years ago today, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Nationalist troops under the orders of Chiang Kai-Shek blew up the dikes holding back the Yellow River in an attempt to stop the invading Japanese. The mighty river – known … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 4 Comments
10th June 1988 the Singing Revolution
Twenty-three years ago 10th June 1988, a crowd of 15,000 Estonians gathered at the traditional Old Town Festival spontaneously began singing their unofficial national anthem. A song which, under the Soviet yoke, they were forbidden to sing. The crowd then … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution 1 Comment
11th June 1963 the Revolutionary Suicide of Thich Quang Duc
Today we recall one of the most singularly vivid images of the twentieth century when 67-year-old Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức sat down in the lotus position at a busy crossroads in Saigon, doused himself in petrol, lit a much … Continue reading
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12th June 1963 the Assassination of Medgar Evers
Forty-eight years ago today, civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in the driveway of his home; his wife and young children, who’d been waiting up for him, watched in horror as he bled to death on the doorstep. Lynchings … Continue reading
13th June 1381 the Peasants’ Revolt
On this day in 1381, 20,000 peasants and townsmen from Kent and Essex stormed into London, led by John Ball an itinerant priest and Wat Tyler a craftsman. They had come to present the young King Richard II with a … Continue reading
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14th June 1928 the Death of Emmeline Pankhurst
Today, we remember one of the most important British women of the 20th century who died 83 years ago today, aged 69. Sisters! If you have ever voted in an election, thank Emmeline Pankhurst. And if you have ever decided not … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 5 Comments
15th June 1962 the Port Huron Statement
Forty-nine years ago today, a small group of American students authored a mission statement that would serve as the defining document of the revolutionary 1960s. We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed in universities, … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution, World Events 2 Comments
16th June 1836 the Class War Begins
One hundred and seventy-five years ago today, a group of working-class radicals founded an organisation that would turn the world upside down. The London Working Men’s Association would be responsible for the key radical demands that were incorporated into the … Continue reading
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17th June 1972 the Watergate Arrests
On a balmy Saturday evening in Washington DC, Frank Wills was doing his rounds. It was June 17th 1972 and he was working as a security guard in the Watergate complex. During the course of his routine patrol he noticed … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
18th June 1858 the Death of the Rani of Jhansi
Today we pay tribute to Lakshmi Bai – the Rani (queen) of Jhansi – killed in battle one hundred and fifty-three years ago by British Imperialists during India’s First War of Independence. She was twenty-two years old. The story of this freedom-fighting … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 4 Comments
19th June 1953 the Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Today marks the 58th anniversary of the deaths of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the electric chair at New York’s Sing Sing prison. Convicted of conspiring to pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, the Rosenbergs – who maintained their … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 6 Comments
20th June 1912 the Death of Voltairine de Cleyre
Today we pay tribute to an extraordinary frontierswoman and freethinker, Voltairine de Cleyre, who died 99 years ago as she had lived: “a free spirit, an Anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly.” A leading luminary in the … Continue reading
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21st June 1877 the Molly Maguires’ Day of the Rope
On 21st June 1877, in the anthracite-mining county of Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, ten Irish immigrant men alleged to have been members of an oath-bound secret sect of vigilantes called the Molly Maguires were hanged in what came to be known as … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Dissent 2 Comments
22nd June 1939 the Death of Benjamin Tucker
Not with any spectacular knock-out blow did today’s subject achieve his legacy in the pantheon of American anarchist luminaries. He wasn’t a “propaganda-by-the-deed” antihero like Alexander Berkman; nor was he an inspiring, fiery, superstar orator like Emma Goldman. And despite … Continue reading
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23rd June 1937 George Orwell flees Spain
On the morning of June 23rd 1937, George Orwell boarded a train at Barcelona station with his wife, Eileen, and two companions, John McNair and Stafford Cottman. The train was bound for the French border and Orwell (or Eric Blair … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 4 Comments
25th June 1876 the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Today we meditate long and hard upon the legendary and heroic but ultimately Pyrrhic victory of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull’s Indian Alliance at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Could General George Custer have avoided defeat had this hothead … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
26th June 1541 the Death of Francisco Pizarro
Four hundred and seventy years ago, on 26th June 1541, Francisco Pizarro – Spanish conquistador and murderous subjugator of the entire Inca Empire – got his just desserts when he was assassinated by his own people. The old ruffian, near 70, … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
27th June 1905 the Founding of the Industrial Workers of the World
It is late June 2011 as I write this. The news media – on the rare occasions it’s not discussing the sex lives of professional sportsmen – offers us a running commentary on an Arab Spring, now turned summer. We’re … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, Revolution, World Events 1 Comment
28th June 1936 the Death of Alexander Berkman
Seventy-five years ago on this day, Alexander Berkman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Suffering from poor health and broken dreams, it was a sad and discomfiting end to the noble life of this seemingly inexorable revolutionary … Continue reading
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29th June 1975 the Mysterious Tragedy of Tim Buckley
Today we lament the tragic and untimely passing of rock’n’roll’s most revolutionary vocal stylist – the beautiful Tim Buckley – wrenched away from this planetary existence thirty-six years ago aged just twenty-eight. Had he survived his tragic fate, who knows … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 2 Comments
30th June
No great act has as yet occurred on this date. Instead, we extend a raised fist in solidarity to the hundreds of thousands British workers who are today striking over planned pension cuts. “A wise and frugal government, which shall leave … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized 2 Comments