August 26 is day 238 of the Gregorian Calendar year,
Pungenday, Bureaucracy 19, 3185 YOLD (discordian),
And let us not forget 13.0.6.13.19 by the Mayan Long Count

WOW! Just think about it, women get to be equal for one entire day, ain't that something? Well, at least it would be something if they actually got to be fully equal in all respects, even if only for one lousy day, but, alas, it is a fiction like so many other things we celebrate. It is an admirable goal, full equality for women, and it is nice that this may have some sort of inspirational effect, but it also has a somewhat distressing and depressing effect, knowing that the idea is annually dangled out there to taunt women and their supporters and sympathizers. So here's what to do, go get a "friendship" or better yet, a "condolences" Hallmark card and deliver it to your closest female friend after inscribing it It's "Women's Equality Day". I know, I know, but at least you/we get a "Hallmrk Holiday" of your/our very own.

So, dragging ourselves back toward reality, ...

On this day in history:

In 1542, Francisco de Orellana finished navigating the Amazon River and reached the Atlantic Ocean. He had previously crossed the Atlantic, from Spain, so it wasn't like he didn't know that it was there, but such is the life of an imperialist marauder. He also is credited with founding Guayaquil, in Ecuador, so he made it to the Pacific as well.

In 1789, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France> As I recall, it was subsequently revoked, but it was a good idea while it lasted.

In 1791, John Fitch received a patent for the steamboat. That seems a bit broad. His first version had oars along the sides, and his next one had oars at the stern that paddled like a duck. Of course, the US Patent Office still isn't very good at what it is supposed to do, so such is life.

In 1883, Krakatoa began its final, cataclysmic eruption that destroyed the island and much of the archipelago. The explosion and related tsunamis killed at lest 36,417 people. In the following year, northern hemisphere temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 degrees centigrade, and Los Angeles and San Diego got rainfall of 38 and 26 inches, respectively.

In 1942, the Ukrainian police and German Schutzpolizei deported 2,000 Jews to the Belzec extermination camp after exterminating roughly 500 of them on the spot, mostly children and the sick. This led to a global cottage industry after the war devoted to whitewashing, justifying and in part denying the existence and behavior of the Ukraine's significant Nazi cadres and other Ukrainian collaborators. This industry then continued to do the same for the Nazis and neo-nazis involved in Ukraine's Euromaiden coup d'etat and the enforcement and pacification actions that followed it.

In 1970, a new feminist movement lead a nationwide Women's Strike for Equality. Now's Betty Friedan articulated 3 principal goals for the strike, free abortion on demand, free childcare, and equal opportunity in the workplace. SO, how's 0 for 3 sound so far? However, the inimitable Bela Abzug did talk arch liberal Richard Nixon into issuing a Presidential proclamation declaring August 26 to be Womens' Equality Day, so that's at least something. Thank you Bela, thanks, Dick. ABC and CBS, as might be expected, carried out the US media's noblest traditions by dissing the whole affair and denigrating the participants,, so no, Virginia, there were no more good old days that there is a serious promise of a glorious egalitarian future.

1980 brought us the glorious Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing, wherein one John Birges, who placed the bomb in Harvey's Tahoe eventually received a sentence of life in prison, as opposed to the illustrious heroes of the FBI, who detonated it in place, unshielded, with an additional C-4 explosive charge received no punishment whatsoever. The bomb contained 400 pounds of dynamite and was virtually tamer proof. The builder stated that even he could not disarm it, but, if given 3 million bucks, he could give instructions which would allow it to be stabilized sufficiently that it could be moved to a remote site for detonation. The illustrious Feebs agreed that it could not be defused, but figured that they could simply blow up the detonators, so they made a good sized charge of C-4 explosive and detonated it on the bomb casing for that purpose. The effect of the C-$ on Harvey's was negligible compared to the vast destruction that resulted when it was discovered to their surprise that exploding C-4 on top of a box of dynamite would set it off.

Born this day in:

1865 – Arthur James Arnot, engineer and inventor
1873 – Lee de Forest, engineer and inventor
1882 – James Franck, physicist
1904 – Christopher Isherwood, author
1906 – Albert Sabin, physician and virologisst
1918 – Katherine Johnson, physicist and mathematician
1940 – Vic Dana, dancer and singer
1940 – Nik Turner, musician and songwriter
1943 – Dori Caymmi, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1944 – Maureen (Mo) Tucker, drummer, singer, and songwriter
1946 – Valerie Simpson, singer and songwriter
1949 – Leon Redbone, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1960 – Branford Marsalis, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader

Died this day in:

1723 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, microscopist and biologist
1865 – Johann Franz Encke, astronomer
1910 – William James, psychologist and philosopher
1972 – Francis Chichester, pilot and sailor
1974 – Charles Lindbergh, pilot
1981 – Lee Hays, singer and songwriter
2004 – Laura Branigan, singer, songwriter, and actress

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Women's Equality Day (United States)

Music goes here, iirc, well,

Gratuitous Encryption Zone

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Image is International Women's Day 2017 - 03 by Garry Knight

It's an open thread, so do your thing

The author has a doctors appointment this morning