Two Notable Women ...

...who were born on this day: Queen Elizabeth I and Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses.

One born to be a queen, the other a "hired man's" wife. The former expressed herself through her verbal eloquence and strength of dealing in diplomacy, the latter in her art, which included embroidery, cooking and baking, and country fair prize winning preserves, as well as her paintings.

Both have a great deal to teach.

Notable quotes from The Virgin Queen:

"I will be as good unto ye as ever a Queen was unto her people. No will in me can lack, neither do I trust shall there lack any power. And persuade yourselves that for the safety and quietness of you all I will not spare if need be to spend my blood." ~ on the eve of her coronation

"Better beggar woman and single than Queen and married."

"We princes are set as it were upon stages in the sight and view of the world."

"There is only one Christ Jesus, one faith. All else is a dispute over trifles." ~ on the Catholic/Protestant divide

"My Lords, do whatever you wish. As for me, I shall do no otherwise than pleases me." ~ to Parliament, as they discussed the succession issue

"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too." ~ to her troops as the Spanish Armada approached

Altogether a woman strong and determined and capable.

And from Grandma Moses:

"I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday, as I thought of it, as I remembered all the things from childhood on through the years, good ones and unpleasant ones. That's how they come, and that is how we have to take them. I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered and life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."

"A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells."

She said her first painting was as a gift for the mail man because it "was easier to make [a painting] than to bake a cake over a hot stove."

Altogether a woman practical and in more of her own words, used to "making something from nothing."


Today is:

Air Force Day -- Pakistan

Grandma Moses Day

Independence Day -- Brazil

National Acorn Squash Day

National Napoleon Day (the dessert, not the general)

National Threatened Species Day -- Australia

Neither Snow Nor Rain Day

Peach Days Celebration -- Brigham City, UT, US (through the 10th)

Salami Day -- sponsored by salamiday.com

St. Cloud's Day (a/k/a Clodoald; confessor and patron against carbuncles)

The Masters -- Spruce Meadows, Calgary, AB, Canada (The international horse show jumping competitions; through the 11th)

Victory Day -- Mozambique

Welsh Fairies Bonnet-Hurling Competition -- Fairy Calendar


Birthdays Today:

Gloria Gaynor, 1949
Richard Roundtree, 1942
Cuneyt Arkin, 1937
John Phillip Law, 1937
Buddy Holly, 1936
Don Messick, 1927
Peter Lawford, 1923
Anthony Quayle, 1913
Elia Kazan, 1909
Michael E. DeBakey, 1908
Grandma Moses, 1860
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533


Today in History:

Traditionally, the solar eclipse date that marks the birth of Heracles of Thebes (Latin Hercules), BC1251
The Roman army under Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem, 70
In the world's first submarine attack, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor, 1776
The "Troy Post" of NY first uses "Uncle Sam" to refer to the US, 1813
Last hold-up of Jesse James, 1881
Edith Eleanor McLean becomes the first baby in the US to be put in an incubator for premature infants, 1888
The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol, 1901
Eugene Lefebvre (1878–1909), while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane, crashes at Juvisy, France when his controls jam. Lefebvre dies, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft, 1909
The first day of the first Miss America Pageant is held in Atlantic City, NJ, 1921
Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrates the first use of television in San Francisco, 1927
The last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in her cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, 1936
Integration begins in Washington, D.c. and Baltimore, MD public schools, 1954
Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa, 1986
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocks Athens, rupturing a previously unknown fault, 1999
Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane, hits Grenada, killing 39 and damaging 90% of its buildings, 2004
The first presidential election is held in Egypt, 2005