1597
Once a year, regular as clockwork, the little snakes slither into the convent for a Feast of the Virgin Mary.
Every August, on a great feast of the Virgin Mary, small snakes slither into the chapel of a tiny village on the Greek island of Kefalonia. There is a curious story behind it, going back to the days when Greece was under the Ottoman Empire, and pirates roamed unchecked among the islands.
Picture: © Jeffrey Sciberras, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1598
A gifted composer of classical music in the romantic tradition, admired by Stanford, Elgar, and Sullivan.
Daniel Taylor, a medical doctor who was later a coroner and magistrate in the Gambia, had a brief affair with an unmarried woman in London named Alice Martin. The result was a boy she named Samuel Coleridge Taylor, after the famous poet (it was Samuel who hyphenated it as Coleridge-Taylor).
Picture: Photo from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1599
Edward Stone wondered if the willow tree might have more in common with the Peruvian cinchona tree than just its damp habitat.
Edward Stone was a mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society, so when he discovered something interesting about willow bark, he thought he would write to the President and tell him about it.
Picture: © Derek Harper, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1600
Lost for seventeen centuries, caught up in a war, and used as a pedestal for a plant pot, this is the world’s oldest surviving song.
The Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest surviving song to be completely written down, text and music. It has made it through almost two-thousand years by the skin of its teeth.
Picture: © inharecherche, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1602
In 6th century France, a faithful kitchen servant sold himself into slavery to rescue a kidnapped boy.
Early in the 6th century, northern Gaul came under the control of the Franks, whose capital was Metz on what is now the border between France and Germany. Their chieftains frequently kidnapped and enslaved or ransomed the sons of noble Roman families.
Picture: © François Bernardin, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015