In today's world, it's a bum deal to have a birthday at Christmas, according to my friends and family members who have suffered this fate. One extraordinarily important scientist was born on this day in 1642, Isaac Newton, and he's profiled below. Others (who may be profiled on Christmas in future years) include Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross; Evangeline Booth, Salvation Army general and daughter of the founder of same; Conrad Hilton, innkeeper; Humphrey Bogart, actor; Cab Calloway, bandleader and scatsinger extraordinaire, and Phil Spector, producer of the Wall of Sound.
The birthday of the King of Kings was also a good day for coronations on earth: Charlemagne and William the Conqueror mentioned below, but also Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem at Bethlehem in 1100; Roger II, King of Sicily in 1130; Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily in 1194; Frederick II was elected King of Germany in 1196; and Hirohito assumed the title of Emperor of Japan on the death of his father on this day in 1926.
One of the secular icons of Christmas was created for Montgomery Ward for Christmas 1939, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Here on Whidbey Island some inspired vandal makes sure that every "Deer Crossing" sign has a little red dot on the point of the leaping deer's nose - it almost seems that Rudolph belongs here.
Perhaps my favorite Christmas history is from the first Christmas of World War I, when German and English soldiers hesitantly abandoned their trenches to meet in "no man's land," to share a few songs, show photos, even play a little football. (Documentation of this event is fragmentary since it was contrary to direct orders and the legal penalty for such fraternizing with the enemy was death!) Even in that brutal war, Peace was found on this day. The Van Horns hope and pray that peace is with you this day, and into the new millennium.
800 - Two days after Charles, King of the Franks, had put down a revolt at Rome against Pope Leo III, a grateful Leo slipped a crown on his head as Charles was praying at the high altar, saying "To Carolus Augustus crowned by God, mighty and pacific emperor, be life and victory" (Carolo, piisimo Augusto a Deo coronato, magno et pacificio Imperatori, vita et vicotria). Thus he became Charlemagne, and the Holy Roman Empire was reestablished and lasted until 1806 when Napoleon defeated it.
1066 - William, Duke of Normandy, widely called William the Bastard by his many detractors, by right of conquest King of England, was crowned at Westminster Abbey. He was, in fact, the openly-illegitimate son of Duke Robert of Normandy, and spent his adult life conquering those who challenged his tainted birthright, he was forced to earn the more familiar title William the Conqueror.
1758 - A comet spotted by a German astronomer was the first ever that had been predicted from previous orbits. It was soon named after Edmund Halley who had predicted the 1758 appearance in 1705. The same has been visible about every 76 years, first recorded in 240 BC and also showing up in the Bayoux Tapestry of the Norman Conquest in 1066.
1868 - As one of his last official acts as president, Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all who had participated in the Confederacy, excluding only a few high-ranking officials. Johnson had frequently acted to heal the regional division and this had been a major part in his opposition from Congress and his impeachment.
1914 - On the first Christmas of World War I the temperature was well below freezing and a thick fog hung into the morning, but when it cleared sporadic impromptu truces were called between German and English forces - despite stern warnings against fraternization. "Tommy" had chocolate, biscuits, and jam, "Fritz" had cigars and beer. One pairing organized an hour-long football game (soccer to most of us) in no-man's land, the Germans won 3 to 2. In several places each side brought enemy bodies into no-man's land for burial. Most of these truces lasted only for Christmas Day, some reports indicate that a few lasted the full week.
1939 - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was introduced by Montgomery Ward as a cost-saving measure. The department store had been buying and giving away comic books, and asked 34-year-old Robert L. May to write a Christmas story. Based on his own youth, taunted for being small, shy, and often sickly, the story was not quite the same as the one his brother-in-law wrote as a song ten years later. The stores handed out 2.4 million copies.
Christmas, Celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, whose time of birth is actually not known but was probably between March and June of the year 4 BC. First celebrated on this date in 336 at Rome, probably as a counter to Natalis Invicti, the birth celebration of the Persian god Mithra whose cult reached its peak about 60 years before that. Widely celebrated on 6 January at least a century earlier, Christmas later expanded to fill the 12 days from 25 December to 5 January. Francis of Assissi created the first nativity scene in 1223. The British parliament forbade the celebration of Christmas in 1644.
1642 - Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist - Born prematurely at Woolsthorpe, a village near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, posthumous son of an illiterate farmer of the same name. Mother Hanna married a wealthy rector, Barnabas Smith, and sent three-year-old Isaac to be raised by a grandmother. Hated stepfather, feelings apparently reciprocated, after Smith's death Hanna returned and Isaac was taken out of school to become a farmer. Failing quickly, he returned to King's School at Grantham to prepare for Trinity College, Cambridge. Indifferent student, didn't know his Euclidean geometry because he was well along with Descartes' more advanced work but didn't say so. Bachelor's degree in 1665, went home for two years as Cambridge (and anything else that could) was closed for two years due to plague. Developed infinitesimal calculus (what he called fluxions), theory of color, early insight into planetary motion before returning to Cambridge in 1667. Probably saw several apples fall in 1666, the story of suddenly gaining conception of gravity at that time was a fabrication of his later years. He replaced his former math professor in 1669 (at the age of 26), was elected to the Royal Society in 1672, published his first major public work on the theory of color. Started a life-long enmity with Robert Hooke, curator of experiments for the Royal Society, who had made unfounded charges of plagiarism. Portrait by Kneller in 1689
In 1678 Newton had some kind of mental breakdown, his mother died the following year, and he isolated himself and devoted his time to careful study of alchemy until Edmund Halley visited him to discuss orbital motion in 1684. Newton published a short work at once, spent the next two years working on his major work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, fighting again with Hooke over the publication, largely withdrawing from the Royal Society. He was elected to Parliament to represent Cambridge in 1689, suffered another breakdown in 1693, after recovering he was made Warden and then Master of the Mint in 1695 - an administrative position and apparently the end of his own scientific work. After Hooke's death in 1703 Newton returned to the Royal Society and released Opticks based on earlier work. He was elected president of the society in 1704 and every year until his death, his administration was regarded as tyrannical and autocratic. Much of his published work was delayed, some until after his death, and Newton was not hesitant to level charges that those who independently covered the same ground after him but before publication had actually stolen his material. He wanted to dominate science in his age, and he did, but not nicely. He died at London on 20 March 1727.
There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That's all there is to it. If an activity is not grounded in 'to love' or 'to learn,' it does not have value.
- Anne Rice
I dream of wayward gulls and all landless lovers, rare moments of winter sun, peace, privacy, for everyone.
- William F. Claire
Courage is the price that life extracts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear.
- Amelia Earhart
This is the true nature of home - it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from injury, but from all terror, doubt and division.
- John Ruskin
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Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.