Tuesday

Jan. 12, 1999

Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold

by William Shakespeare

TUESDAY 1/12

Poem: William Shakespeare, Sonnet LXXIII, "That time of year thou mayst in me behold."

It was on this day in 1932 that OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, "the Great Dissenter," retired from the Supreme Court. He served the court to an older age than any other man, retiring just before his 91st birthday. He was the great champion of the First Amendment and said: "The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. And if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate."

It's the birthday of HERMANN GÖRING, Hitler's second in command during WWII, and leader of the Luftwaffe or German air force, born in Bavaria, 1893. Göring was essentially put in charge of the entire country, establishing concentration camps, building fighter/bomber plants, and moving Germany's economy towards a wartime footing. He was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials.

It's JACK LONDON's birthday, San Francisco, 1876, best known for The Call of the Wild. He was born John Griffith Chaney, and raised across the bay in Oakland, taking the name London from his stepfather. In a little over 20 years, he produced 50 novels — the most popular of them, The Call of the Wild, serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903. It's the story of Buck, a dog that reverts to his wolflike ancestry.

It's the birthday of writer and editor FRANCIS HENRY UNDERWOOD, born in 1825 in Enfield, Massachusetts, founder of the Atlantic Monthly as a voice for the abolition movement. Its first issue came off the presses in November, 1857.

It's the birthday in Edwarston, England, 1588 of JOHN WINTHROP, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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