Born in 1876 – Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator.
Above: Illustration for the fairy tale Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka.
Also: German philosopher and economist E. F. Schumacher, who said: “Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.”
Born in 1845 – André Bessette, Canadian lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross and saint.
“”His great confidence in Saint Joseph inspired him to recommend the saint’s devotion to all those who were afflicted. On his many visits to the sick in their homes, he would rub the sick person lightly with oil taken from a lamp burning in the college chapel and recommend them in prayer to Saint Joseph…When an epidemic broke out at a nearby college, André volunteered to nurse. Not one person died. The trickle of sick people to his door became a flood. His superiors were uneasy; diocesan authorities were suspicious; doctors called him a quack. ‘I do not cure,’ he said again and again. ‘Saint Joseph cures.'”
–from Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons & Feasts, Foley
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the remainder of his days in exile.
Above: Napoleon’s Exile on Saint Helena, a watercolor by Franz Josef Sandman (1820)
Also: Keith Carradine was born
Born in 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist.
Above: Warhol with the Velvet Underground
In 1936, Jesse Owens won the 100 meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.
Also, born on this day Joseph Paxton and Lucky Dube.
Born in 1871 – John French Sloan, American painter and illustrator.
Above: McSorley’s Bar, 1912
Previously: Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten and James Baldwin
Born in 1805 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher.
Above: Detail of Tocqueville’s portrait by Théodore Chassériau (1850).
A couple of choice quotes:
“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”
“One finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.”
Born in 1609 – Judith Leyster, Dutch painter.
Above: A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel
Born in 1869 – Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-Canadian anarchist.
“The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity; the least divergence from it is the greatest crime. The wholesale mechanisation of modern life has increased uniformity a thousandfold. It is everywhere present, in habits, tastes, dress, thoughts and ideas. Its most concentrated dullness is ‘public opinion.'”
Number 5 