Born in 1933 – American singer-songwriter, Nina Simone.

Listen to Feeling Good.

Born in 1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer.

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” 

Born in 1956 – Peter Holsapple, American singer-songwriter and guitarist of bands The dB’s and The Continental Drifters.

A year ago on this day, anti-government protesters clashed with riot police in Kiev, Ukraine. At least 76 were killed.

Born In 1920 – Federico Fellini, Italian film director.

Above: A shot from the opening sequence of Fellini’s 8 ½.

This day in 1961: In his farewell address, Dwight Eisenhower warns against  the military–industrial complex.

Today in 1991, the US announced the start of Operation Desert Storm.

George Bush declares: “We have no choice” and “We will not fail.”

Born in 1964 – Ron Sexsmith, Canadian singer-songwriter.

Have a listen: The Words We Never Use

Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Also, 15 years of marriage.

Image: Leon Cogniet’s Massacre of the Innocents, 1824.

Born in 1923: René Girard, French literary critic, philosopher, and anthropologist.

“No doubt the virgin birth of Jesus still resorts to the same ‘code’ as do the monstrous births of mythology. But precisely because the codes are parallel, we should be able to appreciate what is unique to it – what makes it radically different from the messages of mythology:

The various episodes around the birth of Christ, make palpable the humble beginnings of the revelation, its complete insignificance from the standpoint of the mighty. Right from the start the child Jesus is excluded and dismissed – he is a wanderer who does not even have a stone on which to lay his head. The inn has no room for him. Informed by the Magi, Herod searches everywhere for him in order to put him to death.

Throughout these episodes, the Gospels and the Christian tradition…place in the foreground beings foredoomed to play the part of victim – the child, the woman, the pauper and domestic animals.”