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May 9

May 9

May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). There are 236 days remaining.

Events

- 328 - Athanasius is elected Patriarch bishop of Alexandria.
- 1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
- 1429 - Joan of Arc defeats the English troops besieging Orléans.
- 1450 - 'Abd al-Latif Mirza (Timurid monarch) assassinated.
- 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final journey to the "New World".
- 1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught because he is too drunk to run with the loot. He is later condemned to death and then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.
- 1726 - Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
- 1868 - The city of Reno, Nevada, is founded.
- 1874 - The first horse drawn carriage made its début in the city of Mumbai, plying on two routes.
- 1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.
- 1901 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
- 1914 - J.T. Hearne becomes the first bowler to take 3000 first-class wickets.
- 1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
- 1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
- 1927 - The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
- 1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
- 1940 - World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
- 1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
- 1942 - Second World War: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
- 1945 - World War II: The final German surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov at Berlin-Karlshorst is signed by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
- 1945 - World War II: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army.
- 1945 - World War II: Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling.
- 1945 - World War II: Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of Nazi occupation troops)
- 1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day.
- 1945 - World War II: The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British.
- 1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II.
- 1949 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
- 1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
- 1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
- 1955 - Sam and Friends debuts on a local US television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and the Muppets.
- 1956 - First ascent of Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain.
- 1960 - Reproductive rights: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protestors peacefully demonstrate behind a barricaded White House.
- 1974 - Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.
- 1980 - In Florida, Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapses.
- 1980 - The first meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury takes place in Ghana.
- 1987 - A Polish LOT Ilyushin IŁ 62M "Tadeusz Kościuszko" (SP-LBG). crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing 183 people.
- 1987 - In Brussels, Belgium, Johnny Logan wins the thirty-second Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "Hold Me Now".
- 1992 - In Malmö, Sweden, Linda Martin wins the thirty-seventh Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "Why Me".
- 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
- 1998 - In Birmingham, United Kingdom, Dana International wins the forty-third Eurovision Song Contest for Israel singing "Diva".
- 2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.
- 2002 - In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
- 2004 - Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a landmine bomb blast under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.
- 2004 - Team of Canada won the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague.
- 2006 - More information on the Nintendo Revolution will be released to the public.

Births

- 1147 - Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shogun (d. 1199)
- 1439 - Pope Pius III (d. 1503)
- 1741 - Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (d. 1816)
- 1800 - John Brown, American abolitionist (d. 1859)
- 1837 - Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist (b. 1895)
- 1860 - J. M. Barrie, Scottish author (d. 1937)
- 1873 - Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
- 1874 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (d. 1939)
- 1882 - George Barker, American painter (d. 1965)
- 1882 - Henry J. Kaiser, American ship-builder (d. 1967)
- 1892 - Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria-Hungary (d. 1989)
- 1895 - Richard Barthelmess, American actor (d. 1963)
- 1895 - Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (b. 1895)
- 1907 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official (d. 1974)
- 1912 - Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican actor (d. 1963)
- 1912 - Per Imerslund, "The aryan idol" (d. 1943)
- 1914 - Hank Snow, Canadian-born musician (d. 1999)
- 1918 - Mike Wallace, American journalist
- 1918 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
- 1920 - Richard Adams, English author
- 1920 - William Tenn, American author
- 1921 - Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)
- 1921 - Mona Van Duyn, American poet (d. 2004)
- 1924 - Bulat Okudzhava, Russian writer and musician (d. 1997)
- 1927 - Manfred Eigen, German biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1928 - Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer (d. 1982)
- 1928 - Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d. 1995)
- 1928 - Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater
- 1930 - Joan Sims, British actress (d. 2001)
- 1934 - Alan Bennett, British author
- 1936 - Albert Finney, British actor
- 1936 - Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
- 1937 - José Rafael Moneo, Spanish architect
- 1939 - Ralph Boston, American athlete
- 1940 - James L. Brooks, American film producer and writer
- 1942 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
- 1944 - Richie Furay, American musician (Poco and Buffalo Springfield)
- 1946 - Candice Bergen, American actress
- 1949 - Billy Joel, American musician
- 1955 - Anne-Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo-soprano
- 1964 - David Gahan, English singer (Depeche Mode)
- 1964 - Kevin Saunderson, American music producer and disc jockey
- 1965 - Steve Yzerman, Canadian hockey player
- 1968 - Marie-José Perec, French athlete
- 1970 - Ghostface Killah, American rapper
- 1972 - Megumi Odaka, Japanese actress and artist
- 1979 - Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
- 1982 - Rachel Boston, American actress

Deaths

- 1315 - Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1282)
- 1446 - Mary of Enghien, Queen of Naples (b. 1368)
- 1657 - William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1590)
- 1707 - Dietrich Buxtehude, German composer
- 1747 - John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and diplomat (b. 1673)
- 1760 - Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (b. 1700)
- 1789 - Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (b. 1715)
- 1790 - William Clingan, American delegate to the Continental Congress
- 1791 - Francis Hopkinson, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1737)
- 1805 - Friedrich Schiller, German poet and historian (b. 1759)
- 1889 - William S. Harney, U.S. general (b. 1800)
- 1903 - Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
- 1931 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- 1949 - Prince Louis II of Monaco (b. 1870)
- 1950 - Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (b. 1883)
- 1957 - Ezio Pinza, Italian bass (b. 1892)
- 1968 - Mercedes de Acosta, American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite (b. 1893)
- 1970 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (b. 1884)
- 1970 - Walter Reuther, American labor leader (b. 1907)
- 1976 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (b. 1920)
- 1978 - Aldo Moro, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1916)
- 1985 - Edmond O'Brien, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1986 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (b. 1914)
- 1989 - Keith Whitley, American country music singer (b. 1955)
- 1994 - Elias Motsoaledi, South African freedom fighter (b. 1924)
- 1998 - Alice Faye, American actress (b. 1915)
- 2003 - Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (b. 1918)
- 2004 - Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen president (b. 1951)
- 2004 - Alan King, American comedian (b. 1927)
- 2005 - Nasrat Parsa, Afghani singer (b. 1969)

Holidays and observances

- Russia and some other parts of the former Soviet Union – Victory Day as the end of the "Great Patriotic War"
- European Union – Europe day, commemorating the "Schuman declaration"
- Jersey, Guernsey – Liberation Day
- Roman Empire – Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae)
- Mother's Day (some countries) – 1999, 2004, 2010

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050509.html The New York Times: On This Day]
- [http://www.thisdaythatyear.com/may/people9.htm ThisDayThatYear.com on May 9] ---- May 8 - May 10 - April 9 - June 9 – listing of all days ko:5월 9일 ms:9 Mei ja:5月9日 simple:May 9 th:9 พฤษภาคม

May 9

May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). There are 236 days remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

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

Athanasius of Alexandria

Athanasius of Alexandria (also spelled "Athanasios") (298–May 2, 373) was a Christian bishop, the Patriarch of Alexandria, in the fourth century. He is revered as a saint by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, and revered as a great leader and doctor of the Church by Protestants. Roman Catholics have declared him one of 33 Doctors of the Church. His feast day is January 18.

Historical significance

January 18 In about 319, when Athanasius was a deacon, a presbyter named Arius began teaching that there was a time before God the Father begat Jesus when the latter did not exist. Athanasius accompanied Alexander to the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which council produced the Nicene Creed and anathematized Arius and his followers. On May 9, 328, he succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria. As a result of rises and falls in Arianism's influence, he was banished from Alexandria only to be later restored on at least five separate occasions, perhaps as many as seven. This gave rise to the expression "Athanasius contra mundum" or "Athanasius against the world". During some of his exiles, he spent time with the Desert Fathers, monks and hermits who lived in remote areas of Egypt. Despite his doctrinal firmness, he showed diplomatic flair in rallying the orthodox at the Council of Alexandria in 362. Possibly during his first exile at Trier in 335-7, although probably between 318 and 323, Athanasius wrote a double treatise entitled Against the Gentiles -- On the Incarnation, affirming and explaining that Jesus was both God and Man. In his major theological opus, the Three Discourses Against the Arians, Athanasius stressed that the Father's begetting of the Son, or uttering of the Word, was an eternal relationship between them, not an event that took place within time. He makes very sparing use of the key-word of Nicea, homoousios (consubstantial). These writings lay the foundation of catholic Christianity's fight against the heresy of Arianism, which Athanasius opposed all his life. He also wrote a defence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit (Letters to Serapion) in the 360s, and wrote a polemic (On the Holy Spirit) against the Macedonian heresy. Athanasius is also the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today. Up until then, various similar lists of works to be read in churches were in use. A milestone in the evolution of the canon of New Testament books is his Easter letter from Alexandria, written in 367, usually referred to as his 39th Festal Letter. Pope Damasus, the Bishop of Rome in 382, promulgated a list of books which contained a New Testament canon identical to that of Athanasius. A synod in Hippone in 393 repeated Athansius' and Damasus' New Testament list (without the Epistle to the Hebrews), and a synod in Carthage in 397 repeated Athanasius' and Damasus' complete New Testament list. Scholars have debated whether Athanasius' list in 367 was the basis for the later lists. Because Athanasius' canon is the closest canon of any of the Church Fathers to the canon used by Protestant churches today many Protestants point to Athanasius as the father of the canon. They are identical except that Athanasius excludes the Book of Esther which is placed in a deuterocanon along with the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Judith, Tobit, the Didache, and the Shepherd of Hermas. On the other hand, Catholics tend to point to Damasus or the Council of Carthage, since these councils endorsed an Old Testament identical to that used by Catholics today. Regardless of this question, the New Testament canon endorsed by Athanasius has been used by almost all Christians since his day. Athanasius also wrote a biography of Anthony the Great entitled Vita Antonii, or Life of Antony, that later served as an inspiration to Christian monastics in both the East and the West. The Athanasian Creed is traditionally (but not credibly) ascribed to him. Athanasian Creed The saint was originally buried in Alexandria. His holy body was later transferred to Italy. H.H. Pope Shenouda III restored the relics of St. Athanasius back to Egypt on 15 May 1973 [http://www.avarewase.org/en/map/athanas.htm], after his historical visit to the Vatican and meeting with H.H. Pope Paul VI. The relics of St. Athanasius the Great of Alexandria are currently preserved under the new St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Deir El-Anba Rowais, Abbassiya, Cairo, Egypt. The following is a troparion (hymn) to St. Athanasius sung in some Orthodox churches. : O holy father Athanasius, : like a pillar of orthodoxy : you refuted the heretical nonsense of Arius : by insisting that the Father and the Son are equal in essence. : O venerable father, beg Christ our God to save our souls.

Criticism of Athanasius

The tactics of Athanasius, while often downplayed by church historians, were a significant factor in his success. He did not hesitate to back up his theological views with the use of force. In Alexandria, he assembled an "ecclesiastical mafia" that could instigate a riot in the city if needed. It was an arrangement "built up and perpetuated by violence." (Barnes, 230). Along with the standard method of excommunication he used beatings, intimidation, kidnapping and imprisonment to silence his theological opponents. Unsurprisingly, these tactics caused widespread distrust and led him to being tried many times for "bribery, theft, extortion, sacrilege, treason and murder. (Rubenstein, 6) While the charges rarely stuck, his reputation was a major factor in his multiple exiles from Alexandria. He justified these tactics with the argument that he was saving all future Christians from hell. Athanasius stubbornly refused to compromise his theological views by stating, "What is at stake is not just a theological theory but people's salvation." (Olson, 172). In this assertion that violence was justfied in defense of theology and the church, Athanasius, some hold, laid the foundation for theological concepts such as just war and the inquisition.

External links

- [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-04/TOC.htm Background information, plus his actual writings]

Sources

- Barnes, Timothy, 1981 Constantine and Eusebius
- Brakke, Pter, 1995. Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism
- Olson, Roger E., 1999 The Story of Christian Theology
- Rubenstein, Richarde, 1999 When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome Category:298 births Category:373 deaths Category:Coptic Saints Category:Saints Category:Patriarchs of Alexandria Category:Theologians Athanasius Category:Doctors of the Church category:Church Fathers ja:アタナシオス (アレクサンドリアの)

Patriarch of Alexandria

The Patriarch of Alexandria is the bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Historically, this office has held the title of Pope, and did so before it was bestowed upon the Bishop of Rome. Bestowing the title on Rome's patriarch did not strip it from Alexandria's. Currently, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church is known as Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark and is also known as the Pope of Egypt to distinguish him from the Pope of Rome. All churches acknowledge the same succession of church leaders up to about with the dividing Council of Chalcedon 451. According to church tradition, the patriarchate was founded in 42 by the Apostle Saint Mark the Evangelist. :See also Pentarchy
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Alexandria

Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that country's second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. It is located at , 208 km (129 miles) northwest of Cairo. The Canopic mouth of the Nile (now dry) was 19 km (12 miles) east, near the ancient city of Canopus. It has a population of approximately 3,723,000. It was named after its founder, Alexander the Great, and as the seat of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world — second only to Rome in size and wealth throughout much of antiquity. However, upon the founding of Cairo by Egypt's mediæval Islamic rulers its status as the country's capital was ended, and it fell into a long decline, which by the late Ottoman period had seen it reduced to little more than a small fishing village. Ottoman, was inaugurated in 2001]] 2001

History

The history of Alexandria covers four periods:
- The Ptolemaic era which starts with the founding of the city and ends with the arrival of the Romans (blue).
- The Roman era from 80 BC until the arrival of the Arabs in 641 (green).
- The Arab city from 641 until 1798 when Napoleon arrived (yellow).
- The modern city from 1798 (red).

Founding

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in or around 334 BC (the exact date is disputed) as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Aleksándreia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Deinocrates of Rhodes. Ancient accounts are extremely numerous and varied, and much influenced by subsequent developments. One of the more sober descriptions, given by the historian Arrian, tells how Alexander undertook to lay out the city's general plan, but lacking chalk or other means, resorted to sketching it out with grain. Alexander's seers, and in particular Aristander of Telmessus, interpreted this as an omen that the city would prosper, particularly in grain. Other authors make the omen not the grain itself, but the arrival of flocks of birds to eat it. In any case, the story explains Alexandria's role as the shipping-point for Egyptian grain, which fed the Hellenistic and Roman world. A number of the more fantastic foundation myths are found in the Alexander Romance, and were picked up by mediæval Arab historians. The 14th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun ridiculed one where sea-monsters prevent the foundation, but are thwarted when Alexander descends in a glass box, and armed with exact knowledge of their appearance, erects metal effigies on the beach which succeed in frightening the monsters away. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Greek centre in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there was only one possible site, behind the screen of the Pharos island and removed from the silt thrown out by Nile mouths. An Egyptian townlet, Rhacotis, already stood on the shore and was a resort of fishermen and pirates. Behind it there were five native villages scattered along the strip between Lake Mareotis and the sea, according to a history of Alexander attributed to the author known as pseudo-Callisthenes. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city. His general, Ptolemy (later Ptolemy I of Egypt) succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria, where it became a famous tourist destination for ancient travellers. After Alexander departed, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the creation of Alexandria. The Heptastadion, however, and the mainland quarters seem to have been mainly Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the centre of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage and in a century it was the largest city in the world; and for some centuries more it was second only to Rome. Nominally a free Greek city, Alexandria retained its senate to Roman times; and indeed the judicial functions of that body were restored by Septimius Severus, after temporary abolition by Augustus. It was not only a center of Hellenism, but was also the greatest Jewish city in the world. There the Septuagint was produced. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Greek university but they were careful to maintain the distinction of its population into three nations, "Greek", Jew and Egyptian. One of the earliest inhabitants was the geometer and number-theorist Euclid. From this division arose much of the later turbulence which began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater, who reigned 221–204 BC. In ancient times, Alexandria was known for its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) and its library (the largest in the world). Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, begun in 1994, is revealing details of the Alexandria of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Roman jurisdiction

The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander: but it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years previously. Julius Caesar dallied with Cleopatra in Alexandria in 47 BC and was mobbed by the rabble; his example was followed by Marc Antony, for whose favor the city paid dear to Octavian, who placed over it a prefect from the imperial household. Alexandria seems from this time to have regained its old prosperity, commanding, as it did, an important granary of Rome; this fact, doubtless, was one of the chief reasons which induced Augustus to place it directly under imperial power. In AD 215 the emperor Caracalla visited the city; and, for some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, he abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. This brutal order seems to have been carried out even beyond the letter, for a general massacre was the result. Even as its main historical importance had formerly sprung from pagan learning, so now it acquired fresh importance as a centre of Christian theology and church government. There Arianism was formulated and there Athanasius, the great opponent of both Arianism and pagan reaction, triumphed over both, establishing the Patriarch of Alexandria as a major influence in Christianity for the next two centuries. As native influences, however, began to reassert themselves in the Nile valley, Alexandria gradually became an alien city, more and more detached from Egypt; and, losing much of its commerce as the peace of the empire broke up during the 3rd century AD, it declined fast in population and splendour. In the late 4th century, persecution of pagans by Christians had reached new levels of intensity. Temples and statues were destroyed throughout the Roman empire, pagan rituals forbidden under punishment of death, and libraries closed. In 391, Emperor Theodosius ordered the destruction of all pagan temples, and the Patriarch Theophilus, complied with this request. It is possible that the great Library of Alexandria was destroyed about this time. The Brucheum and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century, and the central monuments, the Soma and Museum, fallen to ruin. On the mainland, life seems to have centred in the vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum; both become Christian churches. The Pharos and Heptastadium quarters remained populous and intact. In 616 it was taken by Khosrau II, king of Persia. Although the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered it a few years later, in 640 the Arabians, under the general Amr ibn al-As, captured it for good after a siege that lasted fourteen months. The city received no aid from Constantinople during that time; Heraclius was dead and the new Emperor Constantine III was barely twelve years old. Notwithstanding the losses that the city had sustained, Amr was able to write to his master, the caliph Omar, that he had taken a city containing "4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000 Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."

After Amr

Shortly after its capture, Alexandria again fell into the hands of the Greeks, who took advantage of Amr's absence with the greater portion of his army. On hearing what had happened, however, Amr returned, and quickly regained possession of the city. About the year 646, Amr was deprived of his government by the caliph Uthman ibn Affan. Amr was greatly beloved by the Egyptians; they threatened such a revolt over this that the Greek emperor was determined to reduce Alexandria. The attempt proved successful. The caliph, perceiving his mistake, immediately restored Amr, who, on his arrival in Egypt, drove the Greeks within the walls of Alexandria, but was only able to capture the city after a most obstinate resistance by the defenders. This so exasperated him that he completely demolished its fortifications, although he seems to have spared the lives of the inhabitants as far as lay in his power. The city was for some time a center of the Mediterranean spice trade, receiving overland caravans of pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and more from India and beyond, which were bought by European traders at enormously inflated prices. The locations of the source of these spices were carefully guarded by their Indian and Arabian merchants. The building of Cairo in 969, and, above all, the discovery of the route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, nearly ruined the commerce of Alexandria; the canal, which supplied it with Nile water, became blocked; and although it remained a principal Egyptian port, at which most European visitors in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods landed, we hear little of it until about the beginning of the 19th century. Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoléon's Egyptian expedition of 1798. The French troops stormed the city on July 2 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of the British expedition of 1801. The battle of Alexandria, fought on March 21 that year between the French and the British, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir.

The 1800s

During the anarchy which accompanied Ottoman rule in Egypt from first to last, Alexandria sank to a small town of about 4,000 inhabitants, and it owed its modern rennaissance solely to Mehemet Ali, who wanted a deep port and naval station for his viceregal domain. He restored its water communication with the Nile by making the Mahmudiya canal, finished in 1820; and he established at Ras et-Tin his favorite residence. The old Eunostus harbour became the port, and a flourishing city arose on the Pharos island and the Heptastadion district, with outlying suburbs and villa residences along the coast eastwards and the Mareotic shore. Being the starting-point of the "overland route" to India, and the residence of the chief foreign consuls, it quickly acquired a European character and attracted not only French residents, but great numbers of Greeks, Jews and Syrians. There most of the negotiations between the powers and Mehemet Ali were conducted; from there started the Egyptian naval expeditions to Crete, the Morea and Syria; and thither sailed the betrayed Ottoman fleet in 1839. It was twice threatened by hostile fleets, the Greek in 1827 and the combined British, French and Russian squadrons in 1828. The latter withdrew on the viceroy's promise that Ibrahim should evacuate the Morea. The fortifications were strengthened in 1841, and remained in an antiquated condition until 1882, when they were renovated by Arabi Pasha. Alexandria was connected with Cairo by railway in 1856. Much favored by the earlier viceroys of Mehemet Ali's house, and removed from the Mameluke troubles, Alexandria was the real capital of Egypt until Said Pasha died there in 1863 and Ismail Pasha came into power. Though this prince continued to develop the city, giving it a municipality in 1861 and new harbour works in 1871–1878, he developed Cairo still more; and the center of gravity definitely shifted to the inland capital.

Bombardment of 1882

1882]] Fate, however, again brought Alexandria to the front. After a mutiny of soldiers there in 1881, the town was greatly excited by the arrival of an Anglo-French fleet in May 1882, and on June 11 a terrible riot and massacre took place, resulting in the death of four hundred Europeans. Since satisfaction was not given for this and the forts were being strengthened at the instigation of Arabi Pasha, the war minister, the British admiral, Sir Frederick Beauchamp Seymour (afterwards Lord Alcester), sent an ultimatum on July 10 and opened fire on the forts the next day. They were demolished, but as no troops were landed immediately a fresh riot and massacre ensued. As Arabi did not submit, a British military expedition landed at Alexandria on August 10, following which the British engaged in the occupation of the whole country.

Under British control

August 10] Alexandria has greatly expanded since then. As the British consular report for 1904 stated, "Building … for residential and other purposes proceeds with almost feverish rapidity. The cost of living has doubled and the price of land has risen enormously." More Greeks continued to settle the city, establishing financial and cultural centres. The Greek poet Constantine Cavafy was born and lived here. British occupied Alexandria developed into a major Royal Navy base, with the strategic Suez Canal to the east. During Second World War and the North Africa Campaign of 1940–1943 The decisive Battles of El Alamein were fought to its west. The Egyptian military coup of 1952 saw the destruction of the Egyptian monarchy and British protectorate status. Colonel Nasser took power and the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1954 made provision for the withdrawal of British troops. The numbers of the city's foreign population have dwindled ever since. A small Greek community, however, remains to this day. The film Ice Cold in Alex would later be set here.

Geography

Ice Cold in Alex

Layout of the ancient city

The Greek Alexandria was divided into three regions: #The Jews' quarter, forming the northeast portion of the city; #Rhacotis, on the west, occupied chiefly by Egyptians; #Brucheum, the Royal or Greek quarter, forming the most magnificent portion of the city. In Roman times Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of an official quarter, making up four regions in all. The city was laid out as a grid of parallel streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal. Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 60 metres (200 feet) wide, intersected in the centre of the city, close to the point where rose the Sema (or Soma) of Alexander (his Mausoleum). This point is very near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; and the line of the great east–west "Canopic" street only slightly diverged from that of the modern Boulevard de Rosette. Traces of its pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate, but better remains of streets and canals were exposed in 1899 by German excavators outside the east fortifications, which lie well within the area of the ancient city. Alexandria consisted originally of little more than the island of Pharos, which was joined to the mainland by a mole nearly a mile long (1240 m) and called the Heptastadion ("seven stadia" — a stadium was a Greek unit of length measuring approximately 180m). The end of this abutted on the land at the head of the present Grand Square, where rose the "Moon Gate". All that now lies between that point and the modern Ras et-Tin quarter is built on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this mole. The Ras et-Tin quarter represents all that is left of the island of Pharos, the site of the actual lighthouse having been weathered away by the sea. On the east of the mole was the Great Harbour, now an open bay; on the west lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos, now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour. In Strabo's time, (latter half of 1st century BC) the principal buildings were as follows, enumerated as they were to be seen from a ship entering the Great Harbour. #The Royal Palaces, filling the northeast angle of the town and occupying the promontory of Lochias, which shut in the Great Harbour on the east. Lochias (the modern Pharillon) has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, together with the palaces, the "Private Port" and the island of Antirrhodus. There has been a land subsidence here, as throughout the northeast coast of Africa. #The Great Theatre, on the modern Hospital Hill near the Ramleh station. This was used by Caesar as a fortress, where he stood a siege from the city mob after the battle of Pharsalus #The Poseideion, or Temple of the Sea God, close to the Theatre #The Timonium built by Mark Antony #The Emporium (Exchange) #The Apostases (Magazines) #The Navalia (Docks), lying west of the Timonium, along the sea-front as far as the mole #Behind the Emporium rose the Great Caesareum, by which stood the two great obelisks, each later known as "Cleopatra's Needle," and now removed to New York City and London. This temple became in time the Patriarchal Church, some remains of which have been discovered; but the actual Caesareum, so far as not eroded by the waves, lies under the houses lining the new sea-wall. #The Gymnasium and the Palaestra are both inland, near the Boulevard de Rosette in the eastern half of the town; sites unknown. #The Temple of Saturn; site unknown. #The Mausolea of Alexander (Soma) and the Ptolemies in one ring-fence, near the point of intersection of the two main streets #The Musaeum with its famous Library and theatre in the same region; site unknown. #The Serapeum, the most famous of all Alexandrian temples. Strabo tells us that this stood in the west of the city; and recent discoveries go far to place it near "Pompey's Pillar" which, however, was an independent monument erected to commemorate Diocletian's siege of the city. The names of a few other public buildings on the mainland are known, but there is no information as to their position. On the eastern point of the Pharos island stood the Great Lighthouse, one of the "Seven Wonders," reputed to be 138 meters (450 feet) high. The first Ptolemy began it, and the second completed it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It took 12 years to construct. It is the prototype of all lighthouses in the world. The light was produced by a furnace at the top. It was built mostly with solid blocks of limestone. The Pharos lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake. A temple of Hephaestus also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole. In the Augustan age the population of Alexandria was estimated at 300,000 free citizes, in addition to an immense number of women, freedmen, children and slaves. The total population has been estimated to range from 500,000 to over 1,000,000 people.

The modern city

Augustan Augustan The city is built on the strip of land which separates the Mediterranean from Lake Mareotis (Mariout), and on a T-shaped peninsula which forms harbors east and west. The stem of the T was originally a mole (breakwater) leading to the island of Pharos which formed the cross-piece. In the course of centuries this mole has been silted up and is now an isthmus half a mile wide. On it a part of the modern city is built. The cape at the western end of the peninsula is Ras et-Tin (Cape of Figs); the eastern cape is known as Pharos or Kait Bey. South of the town — between it and Lake Mareotis — runs the Mahmudiya canal, which enters the western harbour by a series of locks. isthmus The Place Mehemet Ali, usually called the Grand Square, is an oblong open space, tree-lined, in the center of which there is an equestrian statue of the ruler after whom it is named. The square is faced with handsome buildings mainly in the Italian style. The most important are the law courts, exchange, Ottoman bank, English church and the Abbas Hilmi theatre. theatre On the Ras et-Tin promontory, overlooking the harbour, is the khedivial yacht club (built 1903) and the palace, also called Ras et-Tin, built by Mehemet Ali. In the district between the Grand Square and the western harbour, one of the poorest quarters of the city, is an open space with Fort Caffareli or Napoleon in the center. A major new library and cultural complex, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, was recently built with the help of the United Nations. The original library contained authentic books from the time of Cleopatra but they were later burned when the library was destroyed. The predominant languages spoken, besides the Arabic of the natives, are Greek, French, English and Italian. Alexandria is served by a network of trams traveling east and west roughly parallel to the Corniche, or sea wall.

Ancient remains

Corniche Very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarter has sunk beneath the harbour due to