On this day in history, the Moors finally lost Granada to the Spanish (1492). The Senate first censured a Senator: Thomas Pickering, on a 20-7 vote, for leaking confidential documents (1811). William Lloyd Garrison first published The Liberator (1831). Brigham Young, 71, was arrested for bigamy; his 25 wives were not (1872). The Standard Oil Trust was organized (1882). General Wolseley received the last distress signal from Gordon in Khartoum (1885). The first US commemorative postage stamp was issued (1893). James Longstreet died (1904). The Dodgers traded Casey Stengel to Pittsburgh (1911). Some 10,000 union organizers and socialists were arrested in the Palmer Raids (1920). Simon and Schuster was founded (1938). Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba, and Fidel Castro took Havana (1959). George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass hit #1 on the charts, making him the first ex-Beatle to hit #1 with a solo album. Richard M. Nixon signed into law a nationwide 55 mph speed limit (1974). The Dow Jones hit 2,810.15 (1990). The most distant galaxy yet discovered, 150K-200K lightyears across and an estimated 15 billion lightyears away, was found by scientists using the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea (1995). They named it “8C 1435+63”.

If you’re Catholic (or just a hagiographical enthusiast), today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, and a busy day in the Calendar. Notables include SS. Basil the Great, Gaspare del Bufalo, Gregory Nanzianzen, Macarius the Younger, Munchin of Limerick, and Seraphim of Sarov*; also Abel, Adelard, Airaldus, Aspasius of Auch, Bentivoglio de Bonis, Blidulf of Bobbio, Frobert, Isidore of Antioch, Isidore of Nitria, (neither of whom is the Isidore who’s the patron saint of the Internet), Martinian of Milan, Odilo of Cluny, Seirol, and Vincentian, plus Beati Gerard Cagnoli and Stephana Quinzani. It’s an oddly notable day for groups of martyrs: Narcissus, Marcellinus, and Argeus, beheaded in 320; Acutus, Artaxus, Eugenda, Maximianus, Tabias, Timothy, and Vitus, martyred en masse in the 3rd or 4th century at Syrmium in Pannonia; the Martyrs of Lichfield, d. 304 in Lichfield, England, during the persecutions of Diocletian; and the traditional Many Martyrs Who Suffered in Rome, a catch-all remembrance of martyrs not remembered by name who went down in the same persecutions.

(*St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833) is remembered for his “double miracle”: Not only did he instantly cure a rich landowner’s serious illness, but when he suggested that the appropriate response would be to give away all his possessions, free his serfs, and take up a life of holy poverty, the landowner did it.)

If on the other hand you’re a Lutheran, today is the Commemoration of the fairly cool Pastor Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe (1808-1872) of Neuendettelsau in Franconia, who sent a “mission colony” to the Chippewa living in the wilderness forests of Michigan to show them “wie gut und schoen es is bei Jesu sein” (how good and beautiful it is to live with Jesus).

In Japan it’s Kakizome, traditionally the day of the first writing done in the New Year. More recently it has also been observed as Shigoto Hajime, “Begin Work Day”, marking the beginning of the office work year. If the second had fallen on a Monday this would be Handsel Monday in Scotland, but it didn’t so it ain’t. In the US it’s theoretically Betsy Ross Day, but in practice it’s Shigoto Hajime.

Persons born on this day include Nathaniel Bacon (1647), Anton Pannekoek (1873), Therese of Lisieux (1873), Josef Stalin (1880), Sally Rand (1904), Isaac Asimov (1920), and Roger Miller (1936). More to the point, today is the birthday of my sister, Erica Joyce (Nielsen) Barber (1955) — yay, Bunny! — and my husband, colleague, and unindicted co-conspirator Patrick Nielsen Hayden (1959): Happy Birthday!