It’s the feast day of Agape, Irene, and Chionia, saints from the ancient Roman city Aquileia in Italy. The orphaned sisters were martyred at Thessalonica in AD 304. Agape and Chionia were charged with refusing to eat sacrificial offerings; Irene for keeping Christian books in violation of Roman law. All were condemned to be burned alive.

Also, born in 1949: Richard Thompson

Born in 1947 – Camille Paglia, American author and critic.

“The more you know, the less you are impressed by Foucault.”

Also: Emmylou Harris

Born in 1809 – Nikolai Gogol, Russian dramatist, novelist and short-story writer.

“It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.”

Also: Toshiro Mifune

In 1933,The Civilian Conservation Corps was established with the mission of relieving widespread US unemployment.

Born in 1746 – Francisco Goya, Spanish-French painter and sculptor.

Above: Atropos (The Fates), 1819-23

Born in 1929 – Sheila Kitzinger, British natural childbirth advocate and author on pregnancy and childbirth.

“In any society, the way a woman gives birth and the kind of care given to her and the baby points as sharply as an arrowhead to the key values of the culture.”

Born in 1515 – Teresa of Ávila, Spanish nun and saint.

“To have courage for whatever comes in life — everything lies in that.”

“Never affirm anything unless you are sure it is true.”

Also, in 1978: The US Supreme Court handed down the Stump v. Sparkman decision, granting immunity to an Indiana judge who was sued by a young woman who had been unknowingly sterilized as a minor in accordance with the judge’s order.

In 1939, the Oregon Webfoots, nicknamed the “Tall Firs”, won the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament with a 46-33 victory over Ohio State in Evanston, Ill.

Also: Born in 1879, Edward Steichen; and in 1923, Shūsaku Endō.

Born in 1905 – Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist. Holocaust survivor.

““For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”

Also: Robert Frost

Born in 1908 – David Lean, English director, producer, and screenwriter.

“I think people remember pictures not dialogue. That’s why I like pictures.”

“I’m first and foremost interested in the story, the characters.”

Above: Still from Lean’s 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia.

Previously: Flannery O’Connor