11 May: Irving Berlin

This date in 1888 saw the birth of Irving Berlin, US composer who is famous for writing classic American songs like White Christmas, God Bless America, Puttin' on the Ritz, and There’s No Business Like Show Business.

1. He was born in Russia and given the name Israel Isidore Baline. His father, Moses, was a cantor, which meant he led the religious songs in the synagogue.

2. The family moved to America when he was five in order to escape anti-Jewish pogroms. He would later say that he remembered very little about Russia. His one abiding memory was of his house burning down.

3. In order to fit in, he went by the name of Izzy in New York. The name Berlin came when his first song was published and the credit read “I. Berlin”. He claimed it was a typo but it’s thought he chose it to sound more American and changed his name to Irving Berlin officially in 1911.

4. He co-wrote his first song in 1907. It was called Marie from Sunny Italy. It was sold to a music publisher for 75 cents; since he’d written it with someone else, Berlin only received half of that.

5. His father died when he was just 13, leaving the family struggling financially. He left school in order to go to work and earn Money. In due course he moved out of the family home so there would be one less mouth to feed. During this time he supported himself by busking on the street, eventually getting a job as a singing waiter.

6. Despite writing some of the best known songs ever, Berlin had no training in music at all. He couldn’t read or write Music – he had to pay secretaries to write the tunes down. He could only play the Piano using the black keys in the key of F, so he bought a special piano that would change key for him.

7. He was married twice. His first wife was Dorothy Goetz, who he married in 1912, but the marriage came to a tragic end in less than a year as Dorothy died from typhoid which she caught during their honeymoon. Berlin’s song When I Lost You was written while he was grieving for her. In 1925 he married Ellin Mackay, a Catholic whose father disowned her for marrying a Jew. They had three daughters and were together for 62 years until Ellin died in 1988.

8. They had a son, too, Irving Jr, but he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, on Christmas Day, 1928. Every year, on Christmas Day, the Berlins would lay a Christmas wreath on his grave, a tradition their heirs continue to this day.

9. His service in WWI was to write patriotic songs to encourage the troops. During this time he wrote a musical revue called Yip! Yip! Yaphank! Which was initially performed by soldiers but eventually played at theatres as well. Berlin would perform a song called Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning at each performance himself. During World War II, Berlin wrote This Is The Army, which became a Broadway musical and 1943 film starring Ronald Reagan. He donated all the show’s earnings to the U.S. Army Emergency Relief Fund. Yip! Yip! Yaphank! Had also been written not for profit, but to raise money for a community building on his army base. Later, he would donate all the profits from the patriotic song God Bless America to the Boy and Girl Scouts and the Campfire Girls.

10. Irving Berlin died in his sleep at his home in Manhattan on September 22, 1989. He was 101 years old. When his death was announced, the lights on Broadway were dimmed as a mark of respect.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

10 May: Rogation Sunday

Rogation Sunday falls on this date in 2026, so here are some facts about it.

1. Rogation Sunday is celebrated on the 5th Sunday after Easter. Although in many places today the customs and ceremonies associated with it will be observed by churches on the Sunday, officially the Rogation Days are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following.

2. The word “rogation” comes from the Latin rogare, meaning “to ask.”

3. The observances tend to be concerned with asking God to protect the crops so there will be a good harvest. Farmers would have their crops blessed by a priest at this time. While it started as a celebration of rural life and was concerned with farming, hunting and fishing, God’s bounty, in some parts of the world they now include commerce and industry in the prayers, and it’s also used to promote stewardship of the planet.

4. It’s also known as Rural Life Sunday or Soil Stewardship Sunday.

5. It’s said to have evolved from a Roman ceremony called Robigalia. Robigus was the god of crop diseases and so had to be placated in order to ensure healthy crops. Robigalia involved a procession through town and out to a designated spot, where they would sacrifice a Dog.

6. Rogation days were introduced around AD 470 by Mamertus, bishop of Vienne and the Council of Orleans ordered that people should observe it from 511.

7. Another aspect of it was re-establishing the borders of the parish. Hence the observance often included a ceremony called beating the bounds in which the vicar would lead a procession of church officials and parishioners around the parish boundary to pray for the protection of the parish in the coming year. In the north of England this was also known as 'Gang-day' or 'gan week'.

8. It can also be used as a time of preparation for the upcoming feast of the Ascension, a time of abstinence and fasting.

9. Texts dating back to the 12^th century describe the processions which took place at the time. People would carry banners representing various Biblical characters. In the lead would be the Dragon, representing Pontius Pilate, followed by a Lion, representing Christ. On Ascension Day there would be a similar procession, this time with the lion in front. Many people also carried torches which could weigh as much as 42 lb (19 kg).

10. Violet vestments are worn at the rogation litany and its associated Mass.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

9 May: Swifts

The first Saturday in May is International Migratory Bird Day, so here are ten facts about a migratory bird, the swift.

1. Swifts have one of the longest migration distances of any bird. They will travel 14,000 miles (22,000km) every year, passing through the airspace of around 25 countries in order to get where they want to be. They can reach speeds of just under 70 miles an hour.

2. They do everything on the wing and only land to breed (having mated in flight first). They drink either by catching raindrops or skimming pools. Making a splash as they do so allows them to bathe. They eat flying insects. Swifts eat as many as 100,000 flying insects a day.

3. To sleep, they ascend to high altitudes, as high as 10,000ft, where there are no predators to bother them. Once there, they sleep by shutting down half their brains, so one half can monitor the wind drift so they don’t get carried too far away from where they started.

4. Hence you’ll never see a swift perched anywhere. They have only tiny legs and claws, only used for landing on their nests. Once at rest there, they flop about in an ungainly fashion on their chests.

5. They make their nests out of anything they can gather on the wing, feathers and saliva. They originally evolved to nest in high places like cliffs, but since humans started building houses, their preferred homes are the eaves of houses and spires. They’ll return to the same site year after year. Incidentally, the nests of a species of swift native to Asia are what is used to make birds nest soup.

6. On summer evenings, groups of up to 20 birds will gather for a “screaming party” during which the nesting swifts and the ones that aren’t breeding this year call out to each other. Even larger groups may gather at higher altitudes.

7. Historically, swifts have been known as "The Devil's Bird". Which might be because they disappeared for months on end, before naturalists figured out they were simply relocating somewhere warmer for the winter; that and the fact that even when they are around, it’s virtually impossible to catch one.

8. That said, they were eaten in medieval Italy. People encouraged swifts to nest on buildings and would steal the young birds from the nests. There were strict rules stating that one young bird must always be left alive in the nest.

9. You can tell them from Swallows and martins because swifts are larger, and have a pale patch on their chins.

10. The heraldic bird known as the "martlet", pictured without feet, may have been based on the swift, although house martins are also the possible models. Martlets often appeared in the arms of younger sons, who didn’t inherit the land and were therefore destined for rootless wandering.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

8 May: Sir David Attenborough

Happy birthday to Sir David Attenborough, who is 100 today. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. His father was the principal of University College Leicester, so he was raised around the campus. As a boy he collected fossils and at the age of 11 struck a deal with staff at the university whereby he would catch Newts for the laboratories at a nearby pond, and receive 3 pence per newt.

2. He served in the Royal Navy on an aircraft carrier for national service. After that he worked in publishing, editing children’s science textbooks.

3. In 1950, he applied for a job as a radio talk producer with The BBC but didn’t get it. Nevertheless, his CV was in the system and after a few months it came to the notice of Mary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department. She thought this young man had promise and offered him three months training and then a permanent job in 1952. At the time he started in the role, he didn’t own a Television and had only seen one TV programme in his life.

4. He became a producer of factual shows (Mary Adams didn’t place him in front of the camera at first as she was of the opinion that his teeth were too big). The first show he produced was called Coelacanth, a documentary about a prehistoric Fish.

5. Nature shows weren’t his only area of influence. As controller of BBC Two, he oversaw the first ever colour broadcasts in Europe, winning the race against Germany to be the first nation in Europe to broadcast in colour. He was also responsible for commissioning Monty Python’s Flying Circus as well as the documentaries Civilization and The Ascent of Man. The first show resembling the nature shows we know and love today was called Zoo Quest.

6. Although happy to handle venomous Snakes and Scorpions and the like for the camera, he’d draw the line at rats. Rats are the only animals he really dislikes. His fear of them started when filming on location in the Solomon Islands, when he woke one night to find his room was full of them. On another occasion, in India, a rat jumped out of a Toilet. “I’ve handled deadly spiders, snakes, and scorpions without batting an eyelid, but if I see a rat, I’ll be the first to run,” he said.

7. He doesn’t own a car. In fact, he never passed his driving test.

8. Although he generally wants nothing to do with modern technology and would rather write a letter than send a text or email, he did join Instagram in 2020 at the age of 94 and broke the record for being the fastest to reach a million followers, in four hours and 44 minutes. He only stayed on the platform for a few weeks. His record was broken soon afterwards by 43 minutes by Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint.

9. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black-and-white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolution. He’s also been knighted twice by Queen Elizabeth II and holds more honorary degrees from British universities than any other celebrity.

10. He’s also had a lot of things named after him, including a building at Cambridge University and many animals and plants. The latter include the Attenborosaurus (Attenborosaurus conybeari), a marine Dinosaur; a Peruvian rubber Frog (Pristimantis attenboroughi); a flightless beetle and a species of hawkweed found only in the Brecon Beacons. He also had a polar research ship named after him. RRS Sir David Attenborough was the name chosen despite the public vote overwhelmingly choosing Boaty McBoatface.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

6 May: Passwords

The first Thursday in May is World Password Day. Here are ten facts about passwords.

1. The first passwords were spoken words, used, often by the military, to distinguish between friends and enemies. People you wanted to allow into your base would know the word to say. Enemies would not. In the Roman Empire, soldiers were given “watchwords” to be spoken to the night watchmen.

2. In the 11th century BCE by soldiers of Gilead used the password “shibboleth”. They didn’t care so much if their enemies found out what it was, because they would give themselves away by pronouncing it differently.

3. The first computer passwords were used by American computer scientist Fernando Corbató in 1961 to control access to the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), a general-purpose operating system.

4. Passwords that consist only of numbers may be called passcodes or personal identification numbers (PIN).

5. 59% of people use the same password for several platforms. 20% of employees share passwords with colleagues. A person usually changes the password every 2.5 to 3 years on average.

6. The most commonly used passwords include 123456, password, qwerty123 and iloveyou.

7. Research has shown that women are more likely to use personal names in their passwords, while men use words relating to their hobbies. People are 3 times more likely to use their pet’s name rather than that of a family member. Most of the sources I looked at for this one went on and on about how bad this is. That said, a famous hacker who was on the FBI most wanted list used his cat’s name as his password, followed by ‘123.’

8. The launch code for US nuclear missiles was ‘00000000’ for 20 years.

9. At one time those in the know could access any profile on Facebook by entering the password ‘Chuck Norris’ and on Hotmail using the password ‘eh.’

10. An eight-character password containing a combination of upper and lower-case characters has a total of 53 trillion billion combinations.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

6 May: Orson Welles Quotes

On the anniversary of his birth in 1915, ten Orson Welles quotes.

1. My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

2. I don't pray because I don't want to bore God.

3. Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except you never know when luxury is going to stand up.

4. Don’t give them what you think they want. Give them what they never thought was possible.

5. I prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out.

6. If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

7. Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.

8. What's happening now is what happened before, and often what's going to happen again sometime or other.

9. The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world.

10. My definition of success is not having things thrown at me!

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

5 May: Carnegie Hall

On this date in 1891, Carnegie Hall, one of the world's most renowned concert halls, opened in New York. 10 things you might not know about Carnegie Hall.

1. The opening event was an orchestral concert, and one of the conductors was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who conducted five of his own pieces. During his visit he kept a notebook which he called Trip to America, which was found after his death. In it, he listed a number of things he wondered about prior to the trip, such as whether it was safe to drink the water, what kind of hats people wore and whether he could get his laundry done.

2. The hall is situated 881 Seventh Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and has a footprint of 27,618 square feet (2,565.8 m2).

3. There are three auditoriums with a total of 3,671 seats. 2,790 of these are in the Stern Auditorium which was named after violinist, cultural ambassador, social advocate, and civic leader Isaac Stern. The other two are Zankel Hall, and Weill Recital Hall.

4. The hall itself is named after steel magnate Andrew Carnegie who stumped up the cash to pay for it. It was designed by American architect William Burnet Tuthill, who’d never designed a concert hall before, but got the job through serving on a board with Carnegie. Tuthill also happened to be an amateur cellist. The style is Renaissance Revival, originally developed in Florence in the 14^th century.

5. When it was first built, it was known as the Music Hall and it was intended to make a profit (it’s a non-profit organisation today). Carnegie’s wife and conductor Walter Damrosch nagged him to build a concert hall to rival those in Europe. The need to make money affected how the building looks today. An original mansard roof was removed in 1894 to make room for studios musicians could rent in order to cover a deficit. It still wasn’t enough so an extra tower was added. This was designed by a different architect, Henry Hardenbergh, because Tuthill had got a bit pissed off that his masterpiece was being tampered with. The beams from the original roof are now a feature of the building’s offices.

6. The area in which the hall was built was known at the time as Goat Hill, where there was a brewery, which had been built there to take advantage of a natural spring. The brewery was demolished to make way for the hall’s extension. There were fears at the time that it was too far uptown to be a popular venue.

7. It fell into disrepair in the 1950s and at one point was scheduled to be demolished and a skyscraper built on the site. Civic leaders lobbied the city of New York to buy the venue for $5 million and establish the non-profit Carnegie Hall Corp. to manage it.

8. Many iconic classical works had their world premieres at Carnegie Hall, including Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World); Symphonia Domestica by Richard Strauss, conducted by the composer; Concerto in F by George Gershwin with the composer on piano, and Variations on a Theme of Corelli by Sergei Rachmaninov, also with the composer on piano.

9. Zankel Hall was an art house cinema for a while and was allegedly showing porn movies in the 1970s.

10. There’s also a museum called the Rose Museum, which is open to the public, concert schedule’s permitting. People with tickets to events at Stern can also visit the museum in the hour before the concert starts.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/