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June 17

June 17

June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining.

Events

- 1497 - Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
- 1565 - Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
- 1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
- 1631 - Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill - The battle actually takes place on Breed's hill by mistake. British forces take Breed's Hill outside of Boston.
- 1789 - In France, the Third Estate declares itself as a national assembly.
- 1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of Toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result.
- 1863 - Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War
- 1876 - Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory. [http://ne.essortment.com/battlerosebud_rfks.htm]
- 1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
- 1898 - The US Navy Hospital Corps is established.
- 1928 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean She was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon, mechanic.
- 1930 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law.
- Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
- 1933 - Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
- 1939 - Last public execution in France. Eugene Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
- 1940 - World War II: Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
- World War II: Sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
- The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
- 1944 - Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic.
- 1948 - A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
- 1953 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
- 1960 - Ted Williams becomes the fourth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Cleveland Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio.
- 1961 - The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
- 1963 - The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
- 1971 - Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
- 1972 - Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
- 1982 - The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
- 1991 - Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
- 1992 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
- 1994 - Following a televised highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Births

1239 to 1899

- 1239 - King Edward I of England (d. 1307)
- 1603 - Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (d. 1663)
- 1682 - King Charles XII of Sweden (d. 1718)
- 1691 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)
- 1693 - Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (d. 1775)
- 1703 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
- 1704 - John Kay, English inventor (d. 1780)
- 1714 - Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher (d. 1762)
- 1714 - César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (d. 1784)
- 1718 - George Howard, British field marshal (d. 1796)
- 1808 - Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian author (d. 1845)
- 1810 - Ferdinand Freiligrath, German writer (d. 1876)
- 1811 - Jón Sigurðsson, Icelandic independence fighter (d. 1879)
- 1818 - Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)
- 1832 - Sir William Crookes, English physicist and chemist (d. 1919)
- 1881 - Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (d. 1955)
- 1882 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
- 1888 - Heinz Guderian, German General (d. 1954)
- 1898 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
- 1898 - Carl Hermann, German physicist (d. 1961)

1900 to 1999

- 1900 - Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d. 1945)
- 1904 - Ralph Bellamy, American actor (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Charles Eames, American designer and architect (d. 1978)
- 1909 - Elmer Lee Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
- 1910 - Red Foley, American musician (d. 1968)
- 1914 - John Hersey, American author (d. 1993)
- 1915 - Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist (d. 1996)
- 1915 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player and actor (d. 1973)
- 1917 - Dean Martin, American singer (d. 1995)
- 1917 - Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
- 1920 - François Jacob, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1923 - Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, American football player (d. 2004)
- 1927 - Martin Böttcher, German conductor
- 1929 - Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (d. 1984)
- 1930 - Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
- 1933 - Christian Ferras, French violinist (d. 1982)
- 1940 - George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 - Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1943 - Newt Gingrich, American politician
- 1943 - Barry Manilow, American musician
- 1945 - Tommy Franks, American General
- 1945 - Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
- 1945 - Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
- 1945 - Anupam Kher, Indian actor
- 1945 - Frank Ashmore, American actor
- 1946 - Peter Rosei, Austrian writer
- 1957 - Jon Gries, American actor
- 1958 - Jello Biafra, American musician and activist
- 1960 - Michael Monroe, Finnish singer (Hanoi Rocks)
- 1963 - Greg Kinnear, American actor
- 1964 - Michael Gross, German swimmer
- 1965 - Dermontti Dawson, American NFL, center
- 1966 - Jason Patric, American actor
- 1969 - Paul Tergat, Kenyan athlete
- 1975 - Chloe Jones, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1978 - Kumiko Aso, Japanese Actress
- 1979 - Nick Rimando, American soccer player
- 1980 - Venus Williams, American tennis player
- 1987 - Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer (W (Double You), Morning Musume, and MiniMoni)

Deaths

1091 to 1899

- 1091 - Dirk V, Count of Holland (b. 1052)
- 1463 - Princess Catherine of Portugal, writer (b. 1436)
- 1565 - Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (b. 1536)
- 1694 - Philip Cardinal Howard, English Catholic Cardinal (b. 1629)
- 1696 - John III Sobieski, King of Poland (b. 1629)
- 1719 - Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (b. 1672)
- 1734 - Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (b. 1653)
- 1740 - William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)
- 1762 - Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French writer (b. 1674)
- 1775 - Major John Pitcairn, British marine (killed in battle) (b. 1722)
- 1797 - Agha Muhammad Khan, Shah of Persia (b. 1742)
- 1813 - Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, English sailor and politician (b. 1726)
- 1898 - Edward Burne-Jones, English artist (b. 1833)

1900 to 1999

- 1940 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- 1952 - Jack Parsons, American rocket-fuel pioneer and renegade occultist (b. 1914)
- 1956 - Paul Rostock, German doctor (b. 1892)
- 1957 - Dorothy Richardson, English writer (b. 1873)
- 1961 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (b. 1918)
- 1979 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b. 1888)
- 1982 - Roberto Calvi, Italin banker (b. 1920)
- 1986 - Kate Smith, American singer (b. 1907)
- 1996 - Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b. 1922)

2000 onwards

- 2001 - Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
- 2002 - Willie Davenport, American athlete (b. 1943)
- 2002 - Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Gerry McNeil, Canadian hockey player (b. 1926)

Holidays and observances

- 1944 - Icelandic Independence Day, from Denmark
- National holiday of West Germany until 1990, see Workers' Uprising of 1953 in East Germany

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.britannica.com/eb/dailycontent?month=6&day=17 Encyclopædia Britannica: This Day in History] ---- June 16 - June 18 - May 17 - July 17 -- listing of all days ko:6월 17일 ms:17 Jun ja:6月17日 simple:June 17 th:17 มิถุนายน

June 17

June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining.

Events

Births

1239 to 1899

1900 to 1999

Deaths

1091 to 1899

1900 to 1999

2000 onwards

Holidays and observances

- 1944 - Icelandic Independence Day, from Denmark
- National holiday of West Germany until 1990, see Workers' Uprising of 1953 in East Germany

External links

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Battle of Deptford Bridge, 1497

The Battle of Deptford Bridge was the culminating event of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. It took place on 17 June 1497 on a site in present-day Deptford in south-east London, adjacent to the River Ravensbourne. Rebels from Cornwall, led by Michael An Gof (also known as Michael Joseph; An Gof is Cornish for blacksmith) and Thomas Flamank (a Bodmin landowner's son), had marched to London to protest about the unfair taxation of Cornwall (the money was being raised in order to finance an invasion of Scotland). En route, they gathered support from the yeomen of Plymouth and forces led by James Touchet, Lord Audley in Somerset. After fighting a minor battle near Guildford, Surrey, they were hopeful of gaining further support from people in Kent (the focus of Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450), but despite rallying at Cade's meeting place at nearby Blackheath were disappointed. As a result, the Cornish rebels were soundly beaten by King Henry VII's forces led by Lord Daubeney. Much of the battle took place on the eastern side of the Ravensbourne, on the hillside up to the plateau of Blackheath - as a result, it is sometimes called the 'Battle of Blackheath'. Figures from the battle vary though they generally place the losses of Daubeney's forces within single figures next to perhaps 1000 Cornishmen. Two of the leaders (An Gof and Flamank) were executed, on 24 June 1497. An Gof and Flamank suffered the traitor's fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, while Audley was beheaded on the 25 June Tower Hill. Their heads were displayed on pike-staffs ("gibbeted") on London Bridge. Category:1497 Deptford Bridge 1497 Category:History of London

Michael An Gof

Michael An Gof (also known as Michael Joseph; An Gof is Cornish for blacksmith) and Thomas Flamank (a Bodmin landowner's son and London lawyer) led the Cornish Rebellion of 1497, in which rebels marched on London to protest at King Henry VII's levying of a tax with which to invade Scotland in retaliation for their support of Perkin Warbeck. The Cornish believed that this was a northern affair and had nothing to do with them; they also believed that the tax was the work of the King's corrupt counsellors and marched to London to bring this to the King's attention. They were hopeful of gaining support from people in Kent (the focus of Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450), but despite heading to Cade's former rallying site at Blackheath they gained little backing. As a result, the Cornish rebels were beaten by the King's forces at the Battle of Deptford Bridge on 17 June 1497 on a site adjacent to the River Ravensbourne. An Gof fled to Greenwich after the battle, but was captured and sent to the Tower of London. As one of the leaders, An Gof was executed with Flamank, on 24 June 1497, being hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Their heads were displayed on pike-staffs on London Bridge. On its 500th anniversary, the Cornish uprising was marked by the unveiling of a statue, depicting An Gof and Flamank, at An Gof's home town of St. Keverne in Cornwall. An Gof, Michael An Gof, Michael

Matsunaga Hisahide

Matsunaga Hisahide (松永久秀 1510 – November 19, 1577) was a daimyo of Japan. A companion of Miyoshi Chokei, he was a retainer of Miyoshi Masaga from the 1540s. He directed the conquest of the province of Yamato in the 1560s and by 1564 had build a sufficient power-base to be effectively independent. It is believed that he was conspiring against Chokei during this period, from 1561 to 1563 three of Chokei's brothers died and his son Yoshioki. This left Miyoshi Yoshitsugu the adopted heir when Chokei died in 1564, too young to rule three men shared his guardianship - Miyoshi Nagayuki, Miyoshi Masayasu, and Iwanari Tomomichi. In 1565 the guardians and Hisahide worked together and dispatched an army to capture Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the shogun, who was then either murdered or forced to commit suicide, he was replaced by the child Yoshihide and the shogun's brother Yoshiaki fled. In 1566 fighting started between Hisahide and the Miyoshi. Initially the forces of Hisahide were unsuccessful and his apparent destruction of the Buddhist Todaiji temple in Nara was considered an act of infamy. In 1568 Oda Nobunaga, with the figurehead Yoshiaki, attacked Hisahide. Nobunaga captured Kyoto in November and Hisahide was forced to surrender. Yoshiaki was made shogun, a post he held only until 1573 when he attempted to remove himself from Nobunaga's power. Hisahide kept control of the Yamato and served Nobunaga in his extended campaigns against the Miyosi and others, for a while. In 1573 Hisahide briefly allied with the Miyoshi, but when the hoped for successes were not achieved he returned to Nobunaga to fight the Miyoshi. In 1577 he split with Nobunaga again, this time Nobunaga turned on him and besieged him at Shigisan Castle. Defeated but defiant Hisahide committed suicide, he ordered his head destroyed to prevent it becoming a trophy and also destroyed a priceless tea kettle (Hiragumo) that Nobunaga coveted before he died. He reportedly blasted himself and kettle with bags of gunpowder becoming first Japanese to commit suicide through an explosion. His son, Hisamichi, also committed suicide in siege. Hisahide often appears as a shriveled and scheming old man in fiction but this is a fictitious image from his assassinations and the possible destruction of Todai-ji. In truth, he was a tall handsome educated man and a patron of arts. He was also reported to have converted to Christianity. Category:1510 births Category:1577 deaths Category:Samurai ja:松永久秀

1579

Events

- January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain.
- January 23 - The Union of Utrecht united the northern Netherlands in a confederation called the United Provinces. William I of Orange becomes Stadtholder, and the Duc d'Anjou, younger brother of Henry III of France is invited to become hereditary sovereign.
- March - Capture of Maastricht by the Spanish under Parma.
- June 17 - Sir Francis Drake, during his circumnavigation of the world, lands in what is now California, which he claims for Queen Elizabeth I. With an English claim here and in Newfoundland, it becomes the basis for English colonial charters which will claim all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from "sea to sea." Drake's claim is called "Nova Albion" (meaning, New England), and subsequent maps will show all lands north of New Spain and New Mexico under this name.

Births

- July 13 - Arthur Dee, English physician and alchemist (died 1651)
- August 1 - Luís Vélez de Guevara, Spanish dramatist and novelist (died 1644)
- December 9 - Martin de Porres, Peruvian monk and saint (died 1639)
- Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading, royalist commander in the English Civil War (died 1652)
- François de Bassompierre, French courtier (died 1646)
- Guido Bentivoglio, Italian cardinal (died 1644)
- Thomas Dempster, Scottish scholar and historian (died 1625)
- December - John Fletcher, English writer (died 1625)
- Andreas Gryphius, German lyric poet and dramatist (died 1664)
- Tokugawa Hidetada, Japanese shogun (died 1632)
- Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar and antiquary (died 1639)
- Janusz Radziwill, Polish nobleman (died 1620)
- Henri, duc de Rohan (died 1638)
- Franz Snyders, Flemish painter (died 1657)
- Richard Whitbourne, English colonist (died 1628) See also :Category: 1579 births.

Deaths

- February 20 - Nicholas Bacon, English politician (born 1509)
- June 25 - Hatano Hideharu, Japanese samurai (born 1541)
- June 30 - Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic, Turkish Janissary (born 1505)
- August 5 - Stanislaus Hosius, Polish cardinal (born 1504)
- November 15 - Francis David, Hungarian religious reformer (born 1510)
- November 21 - Thomas Gresham, English merchant and financier (born 1519)
- December 21 - Vicente Masip, Spanish painter
- Giovanni Battista Adriani, Italian historian
- John Stuart, 4th Earl of Atholl
- Henry Balnaves, Scottish politician and religious reformer (born 1512)
- Diego de Landa, Bishop of the Yucatán (born 1524)
- François de Montmorency, French nobleman (born 1530)
- Katarzyna Ostrogska, Polish noblewoman (born 1560)
- Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, Spanish explorer (born 1509)
- Hieronim Jarosz Sieniawski, Polish nobleman
- Mehmed Sokollu, Grand Vizier of Suleyman the Magnificent and Selim II (born 1505)
- Hans Staden, German adventurer
- William Whittingham, English Biblical scholar and religious reformer (born 1524) See also :Category: 1579 deaths. Category:1579 ko:1579년

Nova Albion

This article is about the area claimed by Francis Drake. For the region named by Sir Edmund Plowden, see New Albion (colony). New Albion was the name of the region of the Pacific Coast of North America explored by Sir Francis Drake and claimed by him for England in 1579. The name is also applied to the settlement Drake founded on the coast. The extent of New Albion and the location of Drake's landing has long been debated by historians, with the most prevailing theory that he landed on coast of northern California. Albion is an archaic name for the islands of Great Britain.

Sir Francis Drake's landing: 1579

Great Britain.]] During his famed circumnavigation of the globe (1577–1580) in which he was ordered to destroy the Spanish flotillas in the New World and plunder settlements, Sir Francis Drake landed on the western coast of North America and claimed the area for Queen Elizabeth I as New Albion. Historians continue to dispute the exact location of his landing. It is often suggested that Drake landed in modern-day Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco, perhaps at Drakes Estero or Bolinas Bay. Other theories suggests that it was farther up the coast. One recent theory advocates that it was in present-day Whale Cove in Oregon. No firm archaelogical evidence has yet been found anywhere on the coast that would establish the location of Drake's landing. The western coast of North America had partially been explored in 1542 by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who sailed for the Spain, but as England was in conflict with Spain and there were no existing Spanish claims yet on the land, Drake decided the area could be claimed. Upon his return to England on 4 April 1581, Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for his deeds against the Spanish during the circumnavigational voyage. However, in order to keep an uneasy peace with Spain, and to avoid having Spain threaten England's claims in the New World, Drake's logs, charts, and other writings were confiscated. Thus, the discovery and claim on New Albion was ordered by the Queen to be considered a state secret. Drake and his crew were sworn to silence on pain of death. Only years later, after England's destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 (in which Drake played a significant role), did Queen Elizabeth allow an official account of Drake's voyage by Richard Hakluyt to be published — though with many of the details obfuscated. However, Drake was always uneasy with the misrepresentations in the "official" account, and in 1592, he wrote Queen Elizabeth in reference to "the certain truth concealed, as I have thought it necessary myself." and requesting that the account be rewritten accordingly. The Queen denied his request. 1588 After Elizabeth's death, maps began to mark the area of North America above New Spain and New Mexico as Nova Albion, although the boundaries and locations greatly differ among maps. However, Drake's claiming land on the Pacific coast became the legal basis for subsequent colonial charters granted by English monarchs that claimed lands from "sea to sea" (i.e. from the Atlantic where English colonies were first settled, to the Pacific). However, despite these claims, the English did not establish a colonial presence on the west coast of North America until the 19th century in the Oregon Country.

Location of New Albion

Despite universal agreement among historians that Drake landed on the west coast of North America, the exact location of New Albion has long remained a mystery, compounded by the lack of any firm archaeological evidence. The most prevalent theory has been that Drake landed in Marin County, California, just north of the Golden Gate. The theory that Drake landed there has long been advocated by the Drake Navigators Guild in California, and most notably by its longtime former president Raymond Aker, who made detailed studies reconstructing Drake's circumnavigation voyage. Advocates of this theory cite the fact that the official published account placed the colony at 38 degrees north. The geography of Drakes Estero, while lies along the coast of Marin County, has often been suggested as being similar to the cove described by Drake. The geographical fit is by no means complete, however, leaving open the question, even among those who support the Marin County theory, as to the location of the colony. Aker maintained that the criticisms of the cove's geography were incorrect, because the configuration of the sandbars in the cove was cyclic over the decades. He correctly predicted in 2001 that a spit of land would reappear in the cove which had disappeared 53 years ago and which more closely resembles that one that appears on the Hondius map. In 1978 British amateur historian Bob Ward, after making an exhaustive study of the geography of the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Canada, suggested that Drake actually landed much farther north, in Whale Cove in present-day Oregon. Advocates of the Whale Cove theory argue that Captain James Cook, when first sighted the American coast at Cape Foulweather two centuries later, described it in his log, with unknowing accuracy, as "the long-looked for coast of New Albion." Whale Cove lies just north of Cape Foulweather. Cook later sailed on to Friendly Cove on Vancouver Island, to be given credit for discovering western Canada. Advocates of the Whale Cove theory dismiss the latitude given by Drake on the grounds that he may have deliberately falsified it in order to deceive the rival Spanish. Drake, they argue, would have falsified the location if he had discovered the Strait of Juan de Fuca and believed it to be the long-sought Northwest Passage. In 1997 California environmental engineer Brian Kelleher published "Drakes Bay: Unravelling California's Greatest Maritime Mystery." Kelleher made a very strong case for the Drake Landing at Campbell Cove at the entrance of Bodega Harbor--latitude north 38 degrees 14 minutes. Kelleher's statistical analysis of Drake's determinations of latitude made on land showed that they were within +/- 11 minutes of arc, which made Campbell Cove the only possible anchorage within the determined range of error of The World Encompassed's "38,deg. 30.min." The source of Drake's error in latitude determination was revealed in a 1999 analysis by Bob Graham. Graham retrocalculated solar declinations to find errors in the published tables of Drake's time, and when correcting those declinations for 123 degrees west of London (which Drake could not do), found that at Campbell Cove, in the particular days near the solstice in 1579, Drake would have determined a latitude of 38 30 had he been at Campbell Cove (N38 14). Preliminary magnetometer sweeps of the site by the University of California in 1999 yielded positive results. The site has yet to be examined in detail by State of California archaeologists. In 2003 Canadian R. Samuel Rawlf used a detailed study of maps of the period to support a theory that Drake voyaged as far north as southern Alaska, and that New Albion was located at what is today Comox, British Columbia, located on Vancouver Island in the Strait of Georgia. If true this would make Drake the first European to reach western Canada, approximately 200 years before Cook.

An Account of Drake's Landing

The following is an excerpt of an account by Francis Pretty, which can be found in its entirety in the article, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1580Pretty-drake.html Modern History Sourcebook: Francis Pretty: Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, 1580] "Our necessary business being ended, our General with his company travelled up into the country to their villages, where we found herds of deer by a thousand in a company, being most large, and fat of body. We found the whole country to be a warren of a strange kind of coneys; their bodies in bigness as be the Barbary coneys, their heads as the heads of ours, the feet of a want,13 and the tail of a rat, being of great length. Under her chin is on either side a bag, into the which she gathereth her meat, when she hath filled her belly abroad. The people eat their bodies, and make great account of their skins, for their king's coat was made of them. Our General called this country Nova Albion, and that for two causes; the one in respect of the white banks and cliffs, which lie towards the sea, and the other, because it might have some affinity with our country in name, which sometime was so called. There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not some probable show of gold or silver. At our departure hence our General set up a monument of our being there, as also of her Majesty's right and title to the same; namely a plate, nailed upon a fair great post, whereupon was engraved her Majesty's name, the day and year of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majesty's hands, together with her Highness' picture and arms, in a piece of six pence of current English money, under the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our General. It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had never been in this part of the country, neither did ever discover the land by many degrees to the southwards of this place." Pretty's description of some of the animals in the area as looking like strange kind of Conies with the tail of a Rat, being of great length suggest that of a muskrat. Those who advocate the theory that Drake landed in Oregon claim that this is further evidence to the connection between Drake's landing and Whale Cove, as muskrats are found in Oregon, and not in California. For nearly four decades, it was believed that the "plate" that Pretty describes had been found. The so-called "Drake's Plate of Brass" was revealed to be a practical joke among local historians that got out of control and became a full-blown public hoax.

References

- "The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577-1580", by R. Samuel Bawlf (Douglas & McIntyre, 2003) Category:British Empire

California

California is a state located on the west coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous state in the U.S., as well as the most physically diverse, with the highest and the lowest points in the lower 48 states located within 150 miles of each other. If California were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world (after the rest of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and France; see economy of California). The state's official nickname is "The Golden State" in reference to California's 1849 Gold Rush. California's U.S. postal abbreviation is CA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Calif. As one of the most demographically diverse states in the nation, California is a dominant force in American culture as well as the nation's economy. It has some of the nation's largest cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco, and is responsible for many legal and technological innovations. The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The name comes from Las sergas de Esplandián (Adventures of Splandian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California. (For further discussion, see: Origin of the name California.)

History

:Main articles: History of California, History of California (20th century) The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was Francis Drake in 1579. Beginning in the late 1700s, Spanish missionaries set up tiny settlements on enormous grants of land in the vast territory north of Baja California. The missions played a dominant role in the decimation of California's indigenous population. Upon Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, and they were quickly dissolved and abandoned. In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War, the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which featured a golden bear and a star. The Republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and claimed California for the United States. Following the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican portion, Baja (lower) California was later divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The western part of the U.S. portion, Alta (upper) California, was to become the state of California. In 1848, the Spanish-speaking population of distant upper California numbered around 4,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with Americans and a few Europeans in the great California gold rush. In 1850, the state was admitted to the Union of the USA. During the American Civil War, popular support in California was divided 70% for the South and 30% for the North, and although California officially entered on the side of the North, many troops went east to fight for the Confederacy CSA. At first, travel between the far Pacific West to the eastern population centers was time-consuming and dangerous, requiring either long ocean voyages, or difficult transcontinental passages. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of Americans came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Citrus, oranges in particular, was widely grown, and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today. During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965 the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. From 1965 to the present, the population demographic changed radically and became one of the most diverse in the world. The state is generally liberal-leaning, technologically and culturally savvy, and a world center of engineering businesses, the film and television industry and, as mentioned above, American agricultural production.

Law and government

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other independently elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by referendum, recall, and ratification. The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California State Legislature consists of a 40 member Senate and 80 member Assembly. Senators serve four year terms and Assembly members two. The terms of the Senators are staggered so that half the membership is elected every two years. The Senators representing the odd-numbered districts are elected in years evenly divisible by four, i.e., presidential election years. The Senators from the even-numbered districts are elected in the intervening even-numbered years, in the gubernatorial election cycle. California's legislature is organized in such a way that the party caucus leaders wield great power and can usually speak on behalf of their caucuses. Many important legislative decisions are thus not made on the floor of the legislature but in back-room deals by the "Big Five", which comprises the governor and the Democratic and Republican leaders of each chamber. For the 2005–2006 session, there are 48 Democrats and 32 Republicans in the Assembly. In the Senate, there are 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans. The current Governor is the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose current term lasts through January 2007. Schwarzenegger was only the second person in the history of the United States to be put into office by a recall of a sitting governor (the first was the 1921 recall of North Dakota Governor Lynn J. Frazier). Schwarzenegger replaced Governor Gray Davis (1999–2003), who was removed from office by the October 2003 California recall election. The state's capital is Sacramento. During California's early history under European control, the capital was successively located in Monterey (1775–1849), San Jose (1849–1851), Vallejo (1852–1853), Benicia (1853–1854), and San Francisco (1862). The capital moved to Sacramento temporarily in 1852 when construction on a State House could not be completed in time in Vallejo. The capital's final move to Sacramento was on February 25, 1854 where it has been permanently, except for a four-month temporary move in 1862 to San Francisco, due to severe flooding in Sacramento. California's giant judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). It is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. Judges of the trial courts, the Superior Courts in each county, may be appointed by the Governor or elected directly by the voters, depending on when the vacancy occurs. Superior Court judges serve six-year terms, after which they may run for re-election. Unlike the retention elections for Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices, Superior Court judges run for re-election in open races, in which other qualified candidates may run as challengers. California's legal system is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few features from Spanish civil law. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country. At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53 representatives, as of 2005. It has 55 electoral votes in the U.S. Electoral College. (As California is the most populous state in the Union, its counts of Congressmen and Presidential Electors are, of course, also the largest.) The two U.S. Senators from California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans represent the state in the U.S. House of Representatives. While California is among the most Democratic and liberal states in the nation because of the large concentration of voters in populous areas, much of California is politically very conservative, notably the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, Orange and San Diego counties, and most inland, eastern, and rural areas. Democratic bastions are mostly coastal and include the entire San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Salinas, Santa Barbara, and Imperial County. The state has supported Democrats in the last four presidential elections. In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush received a majority of votes in more than half the state's 58 counties, but still lost California's 55 electoral votes to John Kerry, who won 54.3% of the popular vote, by a margin of 10 percentage points. See also: List of California Governors, U.S. Congressional Delegations from California, List of California counties, List of California ballot propositions

Geography

California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. The state has strikingly beautiful natural features, including an expansive central valley, tall mountains, hot deserts, and hundreds of miles of scenic coastline. With an area of 411,000 km² it is the third largest state in the U.S and larger than Germany in size. Most major cities cling to the cool seacoast along the Pacific, notably Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana/Orange County, and San Diego. However, the capital, Sacramento is in the Central Valley. California has extremely varied geography. In the center of the state lies the Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to the east, the volcanic Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the

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