This Month in Life April 2024

2024- Someone Like You -Fathom Events

Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life. 

On a warm, golden day in early August, I sat by the lake in the area of Park Corner on Prince Edward Island, where Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the beloved 1908 children’s novel Anne of Green Gables, spent her childhood summers. Sunlight glittered on the water; a soft breeze played among the reeds and feathery grasses. The view from my picnic blanket inspired stories and settings that have enraptured readers worldwide for more than a century. Montgomery’s tale of the imaginative orphan Anne Shirley captured the minds of so many people that she and her red-headed heroine quickly became global literary sensations.

Today, of course, Montgomery’s name is nearly inseparable from Anne of Green Gables, and many fans think of her and Anne as the same person. But by the author’s own account, readers have been wrong for more than a century.

The Author of ‘Anne of Green Gables’ Lived a Far Less Charmed Life Than Her Beloved Heroine | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine April/May 2023

Wednesday April 3, 2024

Wednesday within the Octave of Easter

St. Irene of Rome

Thursday April 4,  2024

Thursday within the Octave of Easter

Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor of the Church

Day 94: Samson and Delilah — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 94: Christ’s Ascension into Heaven — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

April 4 Archives – History.com

• 1802–Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was an American advocate on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as a Superintendent of Army Nurses.
• 1814 – Napoleon abdicates (conditionally) for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French, followed by unconditional abdication two days later.
• 1818 – The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time).
• 1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.
• 1963 – Bye Bye Birdie, a musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney, was released.^[19]
• 1964 – The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
• 1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church.^[20]
• 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
• 2023-TikTok has been fined £12.7 million ($15.9 million) for multiple violations of data protection law and failing to protect the privacy of children, Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office has said.
• 2023- Super Mario Brothers is released in theaters.

• Deacon Alan@deaconalanhaley (April 4, 2023) Had a dream in which I had to offer Mass (not a Communion service, actual Mass) because a priest wasn’t available. Instead of bringing me the Missal, the servers brought the Dungeons and Dragons handbooks (3.5 edition, to be exact). Never did find the Missal.

Friday April 5 , 2024

Friday within the Octave of Easter

Saint Vincent Ferrer, priest

Day 95: Christ’s Reign on Earth — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

April 5 Archives – History.com

• 1621 – The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.
• 1614-Pocahontas marries John Rolf
• 1792 – United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
• 1887- April 5, 1887 Anne makes the “miracle” breakthrough, teaching Helen that “everything had a name,” by spelling W-A-T-E-R into Helen’s hand as water from the family’s water pump flows over their hands. Helen Keller Biography and Chronology

• 1922 – The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated.
• 1951–Rosenbergs sentenced to death for spying.
• 1977 – The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people’s reservation thereby destroyed the tribe’s jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip
• 1992-Abortion rights advocates march on Washington

 Saturday April 6, 2024

Saturday within the Octave of Easter

Venerable Gaetana Tolomeo

Day 96: The Church’s Ultimate Trial — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

• 1652 – At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town.
• 1830 – Church of Christ, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement, is organized by Joseph Smith and others at either Fayette or Manchester, New York.
• 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become president upon William Henry Harrison‘s death.
• 1860 – The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, later renamed Community of Christ, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.
• 1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
• 1929 – Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.
• 1970 – Newhall massacre: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed in a shootout.
• 2023– Less than a week after being released from Gemelli Hospital, where he was being treated for bronchitis, Pope Francis will preside over Holy Thursday Mass at Casal del Marmo juvenile prison and wash the feet of inmates. Catholic News Agency
• 2023-You Can Now Buy the Estate Where Jane Austen Wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice’ | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

Sunday April 7, 2024

 SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER white
(OR SUNDAY OF DIVINE MERCY)

Saint John Baptist de la Salle, priest

National Beer Day

International Beaver Day

 Day 97: Samuel’s Prophecy — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 97: Introduction to the Holy Spirit — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

A lot Happen on this day.

War , Evil Dictators and  Other World Leaders

• 451– Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town.
• 1933 – Nazi Germanyissues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banning Jews and political dissidents from civil service posts.
• 1939– Benito Mussolini declares an Italian protectorate over Albania and forces King Zog I into exile.
• 1943– The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches.
• 1946– The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
• 1954– United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech during a news conference.
• 1955– Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
• 1971– Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization.
• 1994– Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda, and soldiers kill the civilian Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.

Missionaries, Explorers, and Musicians

• 1541– Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies
• 1724– Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St John Passion, BWV 245, at  Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
• 1798– The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and the Spanish Empire. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.
• 1805– Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.
• 1805– German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

Beginnings and Ends

• 1927– AT&T transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
• 1933– Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Now celebrated as National Beer Day in the United States.)
• 1940– Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
• 1948– The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
• 1969– The Internet‘s symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC
• 2020– COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan. 
• 2022– Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice.

• Bard of Cumberland@BardCumberland (April 7, 2023) #InternationalBeaverDay

  in Scots Gaelic, beaver is called ‘dobhran losleathan’, meaning ‘broad-tailed otter’

  the Afanc in Welsh mythology is a monstrous creature resembling a beaver, that preys upon anyone foolish enough to fall into or swim in it’s lake

  #beavers #folklore

Monday April 8, 2024

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD

The Adaugoijele ✝️@JustAdaugoijele (April 8, 2023) On Holy Saturday, the Church honours Christ in the tomb. Everything is silent: the Mass is not celebrated, and the church is empty. There is an air of expectation. We celebrated Good Friday, and now it is Holy Saturday, and the next day is the third he rose again from the dead.

Day 98: Israel Asks for a King — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
 Day 98: The Son and the Spirit — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

• 1906 – Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, dies.
• 1913 – The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.
• 1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.
• 1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman calls for the seizure of all domestic steel mills in an attempt to prevent the 1952 steel strike.
• 1974– Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record.
• 1993-Astronaut Ellen Ochoa becomes the first Hispanic woman in space
• 2020 – Bernie Sanders ends his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the Democratic Party‘s nominee.

  Andrew Petiprin@AndrewPetiprin (Apr 8, 2023) My son, just now: “I love Ben-Hur. It’s like all the good parts from Star Wars Episode 3.”

Tuesday April 9, 2024

Pope Francis@Pontifex (April 9, 2023)  Jesus, the Living One, is with us, forever. Let the Church and the world rejoice, for today our hopes no longer. May we allow ourselves to experience amazement at the joyful proclamation of Easter, at the light that illumines the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped.Let us make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, and to open our hearts to those in greatest need. Let us hasten to pursue paths of peace and fraternity.

Day 99: The Word Became Flesh — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 99: Symbols of the Holy Spirit — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

• 1682– Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
• 1784– The Treaty of Paris, ratified by the United States Congress on January 14, 1784, is ratified by King George III of the Kingdom of Great Britain, ending the American Revolutionary War. Copies of the ratified documents are exchanged on May 12, 1784.
• 1860– On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.
• 1865– American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
• 1939– African-American singer Marian Anderson gives a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• 1945– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, is executed by the Nazi regime.

• 1947 – The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court‘s 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
• 1980– The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein kills philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture.
• 2017– The Palm Sunday church bombings at Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt, take place.

  Avellina Balestri on FB (April 9, 2023)  A dying young prostitute being tended by Florence Nightingale was concerned she was going to hell, and said to her “Pray God, that you may never be in the despair I am in at this time”. The nurse replied “Oh, my girl, are you not now more merciful than the God you think you are going to? Yet the real God is far more merciful than any human creature ever was or can ever imagine.”

  Wendesday April 10,  2024

  Day 100: This Is My Body — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
  Day 100: God’s Word and Spirit — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles).
  • 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.
  • 1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes (32,000 lb) bell for the Palace of Westminster, had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
  • 1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
  • 1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
  • 1872 – The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.
  • 1887 – On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of the Catholic University of America.
  • 1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
  • 1939 – Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.’s “Big Book”, is first published.
  • 1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
  • 1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.
  • 2023-A mass shooting occurred at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Five people were killed, and eight others were injured, including two responding police officers. The shooter, 25-year-old employee Connor James Sturgeon, livestreamed the shooting on Instagram and was fatally shot by other officers.

  Father Ed: The Story of Bill W’s Spiritual Sponsor by Dawn Eden Goldstein Father Ed is the first biography of Father Edward Dowling, SJ, whose guidance transformed Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson’s life and deepened the spirituality of the twelve-step movement.

  

  Thursday April 11, 2024

  Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr

  St.Gemma Galgani

  Day 101: Signs and Wonders — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
  Day 101: Expecting the Messiah — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.
  • 1945- The U.S. army liberates Buchenwald concentration camp
  • 1963 – Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.
  • 1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
  • 1968 – Assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German student movement.
  • 1970 – Apollo Program: Apollo 13 is launched.
  • 1976 – The Apple I is created.
  • 2023–Missing Woman Found Alive Inside Jeep Submerged in Texas Lake: Police (people.com)

  • Mark Sumner@Devilstower (April 12, 2023) If you are against public libraries, you are on Team Evil. You might as well get out the black uniform and put on the skull pins.

    2024 – Escape from Germany opens in theaters. 

  Friday  April 12, 2024

  Day 102: The Death of Lazarus — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
  Day 102: The Holy Spirit’s Mission — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 1633-Galileo is accused of heresy
    1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
  • 1900 – One day after its enactment by the Congress, President William McKinley signs the Foraker Act into law, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
  • 1961-Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space
  • 1963-Martin Luther King Jr. is jailed; writes “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
  • 1990 – Jim Gary‘s “Twentieth Century Dinosaurs” exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the only sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition there.
  • 1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland; the resort and its park’s name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris.
  • 1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred.
  • 2023-Over 50,000 massacred in Nigeria for being Christian in the last 14 years, report says (oursundayvisitor.com)
  • 2024 Civil War opens in theaters

  • Catholic Sat@CatholicSat (April 12, 2023) Pope Francis at his General Audience this morning: “One does not proclaim the Gospel standing still, locked in an office at ones desk or computer, arguing like keyboard warriors, replacing the creativity of the proclamation with copy and paste ideas taken from here and there”

    SDG May or May Not Be Notable@DecentFilms (Apr 12,2023)  One of the perks of Lent for me is that, since my kids give up video games on the Wii except on Sundays, all week long the TV HDMI cable is plugged into the Blu-Ray player, as God intended. Now that it’s Easter season, we’re back to switching back and forth several times a week.

  Saturday April 13, 2024

  Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr

  Saint Margaret of Città di Castello

  Blessed Rolando Maria Rivi:

  Day 103: Judas’ Secrecy — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
   Day 103: The Power of Pentecost — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire
  • 1742 – George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.^[6]
  • 1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament
  • 1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.^[12]
  • 1873 – The Colfax massacre: More than 60 to 150 black men are murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.
  • 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson‘s birth.
  • 1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson‘s 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

  • Mary Pezzulo@mary_pezzulo (April 14, 2023)  Today’s fun fact about the Lives of the Saints: Saint Alphonsus Liguori’s full name Alphonsus Mary Anthony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de’ Liguori. That’s something you know now.

  Sunday April 14,  2024

  THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

  Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
   Day 104: The Holy Spirit and the Church — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 1828-Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language is printed
  • 1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln dies the following day.^[12]
  • 1865 – William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, and his family are attacked at home by Lewis Powell.
  • 1910-Taft becomes first U.S. president to throw out first pitch at MLB game
  • 1969-Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand tie for Best Actress Oscar
  • 2022 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Russian warship Moskva sinks.
  • 2023-The Inside Story of the 1983 Clock Heist at Jerusalem’s Museum for Islamic Art | History | Smithsonian Magazine

  Monday April 15,  2024

  Saint César de Bus

  Day 105: It Is Finished — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
  Day 105: Christ’s Church and its Mission — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 769 – The Lateran Council ends by condemning the Council of Hieria and anathematizing its iconoclastic rulings.
  • 1755 – Samuel Johnson‘s A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
  • 1861 – President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.^[10]
  • 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.^[11] Three hours later, Vice President Andrew Johnson is sworn in as President.^[12]
  • 1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.
  • 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.
  • 1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
  • 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line.
  • 1955 – McDonald’s restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.

  • Penitent Knight@knightpenitent (April 15, 2023) Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen. -St Thomas Aquinas

    Eric M Hamilton �@ericmhamilton (April 15, 2023) Myth is constantly being formed right now before our very eyes as we’re living history. It is the difference between the events themselves and the interpretation of those events into a broader story that we or others believe brings some sort of insight into the human condition.

  Tuesday April 16, 2024

  Saint Bernadette Soubirous, virgin

  Day 106: Saul Is Chosen — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
   Day 106: Symbols of the Church — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

  Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

  • 1908 – Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah.
  • 1910 – The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time.
  • 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
  • 1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
  • 2012 – The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, it was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize.

  •  Quote of the Day

    SDG May or May Not Be Notable@DecentFilms (April 18, 2023) Because Dotson had a gun for his protection, he’s dead and his wife is a widow. Because Lester and Monahan had guns for their protection, they’re in custody facing felony charges, an innocent woman is dead, and a child was critically injured and underwent surgery.

    

    Wednesday April 17,  2024

    Claude Chauchetière

    Blessed Battista Spagnoli, priest

    Day 107: Samuel’s Speech — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 107: Origin of the Church — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
    • 1521 – Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day.
    • 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.
    • 1869 – Morelos is admitted as the 27th state of Mexico.
    • 1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the “right to free contract” is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
    • 1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
    • 1970 – Apollo program: The damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
    • 1986 – An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have been legally considered to exist.
    • 2023:Spain’s Beatriz Flamini spent 500 days in a cave alone : NPR

    • HolySoulsVocation@HolySouls3 (April 17, 2023)
      Let’s say three Hail Marys for the souls who are furthest from Heaven.

      2024 – The Hopeful opens in theaters.

    Thursday April 18,  2024

    Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, religious

    Day 108: Saul’s Vanity — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid.
    • 1521 – Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication.
    • 1775: Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
    • 1783 – Three-Fifths Compromise: The first instance of black slaves in the United States of America being counted as three fifths of persons (for the purpose of taxation), in a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation. This was later adopted in the 1787 Constitution.
    • 1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
    • 1902 – The 7.5 M_w  Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000.
    • 1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.
    • 1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
    • 1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
    • 2023-Kaylin Gillis: 20-year-old shot by homeowner in his Hebron, New York, driveway : NPR

    Apparently if you go to the wrong house or ring the wrong door bell it can cost you your life. 2nd day in a row where this sort of thing happen.

    New Mexico police fatally shoot resident after responding to wrong house: “A very dark day” – CBS News

    Friday April 19 , 2024

    Gaetana Tolomeo

    Day 109: A Heart of Obedience — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 109: Mystery of Union With God — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, was not born until 1717.^[7]
    • 1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.^[8]
    • 1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding.
    • 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.^[10]
    • 1782 – John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.
    • 1861-April 19, 1861, the first blood of the American Civil War is shed when a secessionist mob in Baltimore attacks Massachusetts troops bound for Washington, D.C. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed.
    • 1897-First Boston Marathon held.
    • 1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with “Good Night“.
    • 1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.
    • 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.
    • 2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

    • Matt Swaim@mattswaim (April 19, 2023) I have managed to live long enough to see people say, “hey, the guy kinda had a point” to both Stalin and Vlad the Impaler, so I don’t know how much time I have left

      2024 – The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare Opens.

    Saturday April 20, 2024

    Day 110: David and Goliath — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 110: The People of God — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.
    • 1862 – Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.
    • 1865 – Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX‘s yacht, the L’Immaculata Concezion.
    • 1884 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry.
    • 1898 – U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War.
    • 1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
    • 2007 – Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
    • 2008 – Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.
    • 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.
    • 2014-9 years ago. Time flies. I think of you everyday and love you no matter what. If you somehow get this message please call me. May God bless you and keep you safe. Love, Mom

    

    The week of shooting people in the wrong place at the wrong time continues.

    • 2023-6-year-old girl, 2 adults shot after basketball rolls into North Carolina neighbor’s yard, suspect in custody – CBS News

    • James Breakwell, Exploding Unicorn@XplodingUnicorn  (April 20, 2023) After school, instead of getting in the back of my van like she usually does, my 12-year-old sat shotgun and said, “This is front seat talk,” and oh boy was some tea spilled.

    Sunday April 21, 2024

    FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

    Saint Anselm, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

    Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 111: The Church as the Body of Christ — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).
    • 1789 – John Adams sworn in as 1st US Vice President (nine days before George Washington)
    • 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
    • 1962 – The Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World’s Fair in the United States since World War II.
    • 1977 – Annie opens on Broadway.
    • 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

    • Mary Pezzulo@mary_pezzulo (Apr 21, 2023)  We learned about Henry VIII and his wives in homeschooling tonight, and at one point Adrienne blurted out “Does anyone in this story NOT get their head cut off?”

    Monday April 22,  2024

     Day 112: True Friendship — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 112: The Church Is the Bride — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
    • 1876 – The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.
    • 1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
    • 1898 – Spanish–American War: President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000.
    • 1906 – The 1906 Intercalated Games open in Athens.
    • 1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated.
    • 2023-Kristin the Carmelite writes “Mark and I went to the Ceilidhe Club last night/great craig! We watch dancers do sets and they let us try it with them when they did not have enough people. In other words : We went to an Irish group, it was a lot of fun. Set dancing Ilooks more like American
      square dancing they taught in elementary school than Step Dancing (like River Dance.) We are going back!“

    Tuesday April 23, 2024

    Saint George, Martyr; Saint Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr]

    Day 113: Broken Trust — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 113: The Temple of the Holy Spirit — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1564- The Original Catholic Bard himself  William Shakespeare is  born.
    • 1969-Sirhan Sirhan receives death penalty for assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
    • 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.

    • Wednesday April 24,  2024

      [Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr]

      Venerable Matteo Farina:

      Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

      Day 114: David Saves Keilah — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
      Day 114: The Church Is One — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

      Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

      • 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
      • 1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress“.
      • 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
      • 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
      • 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

         

      Thursday April 25,  2024

      Saint Mark, Evangelist

      

      Day 115: King Saul is Spared — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
      Day 115: Wounds to Unity — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

      Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

      • 1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
      • 1792 – “La Marseillaise” (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
      • 1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
      • 1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
      • 1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
      • 2023- Singer Harry Belafonte(March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) dies.

        SDG verif​iably not paying for Blue@DecentFilms (April 25, 2023) The Fugitive asks you to accept one improbable premise: that a good-looking, wealthy, White surgeon would wind up sentenced to death based on circumstantial evidence any elite lawyer would demolish. Go with that, and your reward is one of the greatest action thrillers ever made.

      Friday April 26, 2024

      Day 116: David and Abigail — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
      Day 116: The Church Is Holy — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

      Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

      • • 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of birth is unknown).
        • 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring.
        • 1933 – Nazi Germany issues the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limiting the number of Jewish students able to attend public schools and universities.
        • 1962 – NASA‘s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
        • 1986 – The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
        • 1989 – The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
        • 1989 – People’s Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
        • 2018 – American comedian Bill Cosby is convicted of sexual assault.
        • 2019 – Marvel Studios‘ blockbuster film, Avengers: Endgame, is released, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing the previous box office record of Avatar.
        • 2023- Shock TV host Jerry Springer (February 13, 1944 – April 27, 2023) dies.
        • 2024– Unsung Hero Opens.

      Breath Opens

    Saturday April 27, 2024

    <

    Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 117: The Church Is Catholic — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
    • 1595 – The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world
    • 1667 – Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers’ Register.
    • 1978 – John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.

      Greg Hillis@gregorykhillis (April 27, 2023) Spent the last few days reading John Henry Newman. Merton talked about Newman as being part of his “choir,” those people one meets in books or in life with whom one experiences a “deep resonance of one’s entire being.” Newman is definitely part of my “choir.”

      Punky �@PunkyMantilla (April 27, 2023) In the Anne of Green Gables series, Miss Cornelia Bryant refers to this kind of kinship as being part of “the race that knows Joseph.”

    Sunday April 28, 2024

    FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

    Saint Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr; Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, Priest

    Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

    Day 118: King Saul Despairs — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 118: The Church and Non-Christians — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Song of the Week

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1611 – Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the largest Catholic university in the world.
    • 1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
    • 1945 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany carries out its final use of gas chambers to execute 33 Upper Austrian socialist and communist leaders in Mauthausen concentration camp.
    • 1973 – The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, recorded in Abbey Road Studios goes to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run.
    • 2004 – CBS News released evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The photographs show rape and abuse from the American troops over Iraqi detainees.
    • 2023-Pope to Hungarian authorities: Your history teaches us beauty, pain and acceptance – Vatican News

    Monday April 29, 2024

    Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

    Day 119: David’s Wisdom — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 119: The Church’s Missionary Mandate — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.
    • 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker^[19] and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.^[20]
    • 1945 – Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.^[21]
    • 1945 – The Italian commune of Fornovo di Taro is liberated from German forces by Brazilian forces.
    • 1953 – The first U.S. experimental 3D television broadcast shows an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.
    • 1986 – Chernobyl disaster: American and European spy satellites capture the ruins of the 4th Reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant.
    • 2004 – The final Oldsmobile is built in Lansing, Michigan, ending 107 years of vehicle production.^[29]
    • 2011 – The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.
    • 2015 – A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.
    • 2023-Willie Nelson celebrating 90th birthday with 2-day concert event (wbay.com)Quote of the Day

    • Thy Geekdom Come��@ThyGeekdomCome (Apr 29, 2023) If the Flintstones were all about rock puns at a time when America was electing its first Irish-American president, why isn’t his name “Blarney Rubble?”

    Tuesday April 30, 2024

    Saint Pius V, Pope]

    Day 120: David Mourns Saul — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
    Day 120: The Apostolic Church — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

    Here’s What Happen  Last Week and Year in Life.

    • 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States.
    • 1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubl.
    • ing the size of the young nation.
    • 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
    • 1897 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.
    • 1905 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich.
    • 1939 – The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair opens.
    • 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s N.Y. World’s Fair opening day ceremonial address.
    • 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
    • 1973 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned.
    • 2000 – Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.
    • 2023-“Pope Francis wrapped up a three-day visit to Budapest by issuing a final plea for peace in Ukraine and appealing to the often-isolated Hungarian nation not to close its doors to those in need…”  Pope departs Hungary pleading for peace in Ukraine, warning against isolationism | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)

    • Patrick Neve@catholicpat (April 30, 2023)

      Catholic Church has 1.3 billion people in it.

      You can argue with it, leave it, denounce it, or even persecute it.

      But you can’t ignore it.