Bearded Dragon

Some bearded dragons are intersex, or hermaphroditic. This condition occurs in other animals as well.

Related factoid: Since days of yore there has been a type of sailing vessel known as a hermaphrodite brig. They're two masted, square rigged on the foremast, and schooner rigged on the main mast. That is a classic "schooner rig" with a triangular topsail above a gaff rigged main sail.  I was going to use a picture of one for this column and discovered that use of the term is now limited to Europe, while modern US usage is to call such a vessel a "Brigantine", a word that used to be used for a different type of two masted vessel having a square rigged topsail and sometimes even a top gallant above the gaff rigged mainsail.  (Of course, in large portions of the US, they use yawl as a pronoun instead of a noun applying to a two masted craft with the mizzen stepped aft of the rudder post.) 

On this day in history:

1689 – General Piccolomini of Austria burned down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera; he died of the disease  soon after.
1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourned.
1825 – The Erie Canal opened, providing direct passage from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.
1860 – The Expedition of the Thousand ended when Giuseppe Garibaldi presented his conquests to King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia.
1892 – Ida B. Wells published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.
1905 – King Oscar II recognized the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.
1921 – The Chicago Theatre opened.
1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full operation.
1943 – First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil". an advanced "push-pull" design.
1955 – Austria declared that it will never join a military alliance.
1955 – Ngô Ðình Di?m declared himself Premier of South Vietnam.
1958 – Pan American Airways made the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 
1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowned himself Emperor of Iran.
1970 – Muhammad Ali boxed for the first time after hiss three-year hiatus
1977 – The last natural case of smallpox
1985 – The Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals.
1999 – Britain's House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
2001 – The United States passed the fascist and authoritarian USA PATRIOT Act into law.

Born this day in:

1685 – Domenico Scarlatti, harpsichord player and composer
1694 – Johan Helmich Roman, composer and academic
1747 – Ivan Mane Jarnovic, violinist and composer (
1757 – Karl Leonhard Reinhold, philosopher and academic
1759 – Georges Danton, lawyer and politician
1849 – Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, mathematician and academic
1871 – Guillermo Kahlo, photographer
1902 – Henrietta Hill Swope, astronomer and academic
1911 – Mahalia Jackson, singer
1913 – Charlie Barnet, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (
1919 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, usurper, tyrant, US stooge, CIA tool
1927 – Warne Marsh, saxophonist (Supersax)
1929 – Neal Matthews Jr., country/gospel singer
1935 – Gloria Conyers Hewitt, mathematician and academic
1936 – Al Casey, guitarist
1940 – Eddie Henderson, trumpet player and educator
1941 – Charlie Landsborough, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1942 – Milton Nascimento, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1944 – Jim McCann, singer and guitarist
1946 – Keith Hopwood, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1951 – Bootsy Collins, singer, songwriter ,and bass player
1951 – Tommy Mars, keyboard player
1952 – Bobby Bandiera, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1952 – David Was, singer, songwriter, and producer
1953 – Keith Strickland, guitarist and songwriter
1962 – Jack Morelli, comic book professional and author
1963 – Natalie Merchant, singer, songwriter and pianist
1966 – Sverre Gjørvad, drummer and composer
1966 – Masaharu Iwata, keyboard player and composer
1967 – Keith Urban, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist
1981 – Guy Sebastian, singer and songwriter
1984 – Amanda Overmyer,  singer and songwriter

Died this day in:

“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls. Every truth we see is ours to give the world, not to keep for ourselves alone, for in so doing we cheat humanity out of their rights and check our own development.”

-- Elizabeth Cady Stanton 

899 – Alfred the Great, king, a key to a chunk of European history
1631 – Michael Maestlin, astronomer and mathematician
1764 – William Hogarth, painter and engraver
1866 – John Kinder Labatt, brewer,
1902 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, activist
1966 – Alma Cogan, singer
1972 – Igor Sikorsky, engineer and academic 
1994 – Wilbert Harrison, singer and guitarist
1995 – Gorni Kramer, bassist, songwriter, and bandleader
1999 – Hoyt Axton, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor
2002 – Sally Hoyt Spofford, ornithologist
2009 – George Na?ope, singer and dancer
2013 – Al Johnson, singer, songwriter, and producer

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night
National Mule Day
National Day, the anniversary of Austria's 1955 Declaration of Neutrality
Intersex Awareness Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies