On this day in 284, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers. In Serbia, a folk personage named Dukljan exists who is based on Diocletian. Once, he removed the Sun from the sky and brought it to Earth. Fortunately, St. John was able to trick him and restore the sun. Dukljan chased John and tore a piece of flesh from his foot, which is why we have arches in our feet today. You can see Dukljan today, chained in the Morača river new Duklha. He is constantly gnawing at his chains and, each year around Christmas, almost breaks free and destroys the world. But four Gypsy blacksmiths reforge the chains, and all is well. At least ... ummm ... that's what I was told.
As for the real Diocletian, he wasn't such a bad emperor, all things considered, although he is much maligned because he persecuted Christians mercilessly. The oracle of Apollo said that the sun god's messages were hindered by the "just of the earth." That was interpreted to mean Christians. Later, when Christians became the dominant religion, they forgot about the being "just" part. Eventually, when they were so powerful that there were no religions to persecute them, they started persecuting each other just to keep the tradition up. Which leads me to this day in 1558 when Elizabeth I succeeded her sister, Mary I. The latter was known as "Bloody Mary" for her violent persecutions of Protestants. So, when Elizabeth took the throne, she balanced things out by violently persecuting Catholics.
The conflict between Rome and England had been going on for almost 1,000 years. Today is the feastday of St. Hilda of Whitby 664. She is one of those rare medieval women who wielded great influence. She is primarily remembered in her role during the debate over continental/"Roman" church traditions and insular/"Celtic" traditions at the Synod of Whitby in , including how to cut your hair, get baptized, and when to celebrate Easter. If you're so inclined, you can read about it in Book 3, Chapter 25 of the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Spoiler: the Romans win.)
Speaking of a great power overunning a smaller one, Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai lama, was proclaimed Tibet's head of state on this day in 1950 at the age of 15. He was ousted three years later by the Chinese. I bet they wish they'd had more guns. At least that's what the NRA, founded on this day in 1871, would say.
On this day in 1941, Joseph Grew, the US ambassador to Japan, cabled the State Department that Japan planned to attack Pearl Harbor. The cable, titled Emperor Hirohito Determined to Attack in the United States, was ignored.
In 1978, one of the greatest travesties of all time, the Star Wars Holiday Special, aired for the one and only time on CBS. It began a tradition of really cheesy holiday programming. Expect the Twilight Holiday Special sometime this year.
Happy birthday to three, fascinating gentlemen. Howard Dean was born in 1948. On the wikipedia page of his quotes, the first one is:
BEEEEEYAAAAAWWWW!Right on! RuPaul, the best looking man and woman in modeling, is 48 years FAAAABULOUS today. And another musical, Jeff Buckley, would be 42 if he hadn't died at 31. His death is interesting. He went swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a tributary of the Mississippi, while wearing boots, all of his clothing, and singing the chorus of Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. When one of his bandmates turned around, he was gone.
Buckley was truly an original. He didn't release that many albums, but I recommend all of his songs. Just to give you a taste, here are two. The first is a cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It's the kind of thing a fallen angel that hadn't fully fallen would sing. The other is Corpus Christi Carol, Buckley's take on Benjamin Britten's arrangement of the 14th c. Falcon Carol, which is itself one of the weirdest and most awesome Christmas carols of all time. The fact that he sings it at all is cool. The way that he sings it is genius.
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