#OTD in 1757.

English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.

A "Commission of Lunacy" was taken out against Smart, and he was admitted to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics as a "Curable Patient". It is possible that Smart was confined by John Newbery over old debts and a poor relationship between the two.

Books by Christopher Smart at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/31382

#books #literature

#OTD in 1940.

John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

The book was first published in April 14, 1939. The book won the National Book Award & Pulitzer Prize for fiction, & it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. When preparing to write the novel, Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]."

#books #literature

Austrian Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was born #OTD in 1856.

He is considered the father of psychoanalysis. Freud's main contributions lie in his theories of the unconscious mind, the mechanisms of repression, and the role of sexuality in human psychology, which he discussed in major works like The Interpretation of Dreams, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.

Books by Sigmund Freud at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/391

#books #psychology

American author L. Frank Baum died #OTD in 1919.

His breakthrough came with the publication of Mother Goose in Prose (1897), which was followed by Father Goose, His Book (1899), a collection that became a bestseller. In 1900, Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, illustrated by W.W. Denslow. Baum's Oz series eventually spanned fourteen books with Baum introducing new characters and lands in each subsequent volume.

Books by L. Frank Baum at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42

#books #literature

German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer Alexander von Humboldt died #OTD in 1859.

His most significant and famous expedition was to Latin America (1799 to 1804). Accompanied by Aimé Bonpland, he explored vast regions, including the Orinoco River, the Andes, the Amazon River, and even observed the political & social conditions of the Spanish colonies. His journey also included a visit to the United States.

Alexander von Humboldt at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1995

#books #literature

Dante.
Un'opera divulgativa pensata per un pubblico vasto di "amanti di Dante" senza pretese di far critica letteraria, ma solo di soddisfare curiosità verso quei riferimenti importanti per capire la "Commedia". Opera di Rosa Errera, si può scaricare gratis, in pdf, da:
https://liberliber.it/autori/autori-e/rosa-errera/dante/

#UnoLibri #libri #letteratura #public_domain #cosediscuola

American author of fantasy fiction and belles-lettres James Branch Cabell died #OTD in 1958.

His career took a significant turn with the publication of "Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice" (1919), which is part of a larger series called "The Biography of the Life of Manuel". Although largely overlooked today, James Branch Cabell was highly regarded in his time, with admirers such as H.L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis.

Books by James Branch Cabell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/166

#books #literature

American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler was born #OTD in 1883.

She received her Ph.D. in 1909 with a dissertation on "Biorthogonal Systems of Functions with Applications to the Theory of Integral Equations," a topic in functional analysis that was innovative at the time. Wheeler was instrumental in bringing German mathematician Emmy Noether to Bryn Mawr in 1933, after the latter's expulsion from the University of Göttingen by the Nazi government.

#books #mathematics #womeninscience

English archaeologist Dorothy Garrod was born #OTD in 1892.

One of her most significant excavations was at the Mount Carmel caves in Palestine (now Israel) during the 1920s and 1930s. She was one of the early adopters of a more systematic and scientific method in archaeology, emphasizing the importance of stratigraphic excavation to understand the sequence and timing of human occupation sites.

#archeology #womeninscience

#OTD in 1927. Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novel To the Lighthouse is published by Hogarth Press in London. It is seen as a landmark of high modernism.

Virginia and her husband Leonard published it together at their Hogarth Press in London in 1927. The first impression of 3000 copies of 320 pages measuring 191 by 127 mm was bound in blue cloth.The book outsold all Woolf's previous novels, and the royalties enabled the Woolfs to buy a car.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/89

#books #literature

Lenau.
Una biografia del poeta tedesco, scritta da Vincenzo Errante. Si può scaricare gratis, in pdf, da:
https://liberliber.it/autori/autori-e/vincenzo-errante/lenau/

#UnoLibri #libri #letteratura #public_domain #cosediscuola

"Here and there among men, there are those who pause in the hurried rush to listen to the call of a life that is more real…"

American writer Harold Bell Wright was born #OTD in 1872.

Wright's writing career began in earnest with the publication of "That Printer of Udell's" in 1902. His subsequent novel, "The Shepherd of the Hills" (1907), is perhaps his most famous work.

Books by Harold Bell Wright at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1146

#books #literature

Italian maker of musical instruments Bartolomeo Cristofori was born #OTD in 1655.

Cristofori's most significant invention, the piano, came about as he sought to develop a new keyboard instrument that could offer a greater dynamic range than the harpsichord. His groundbreaking idea was to create a mechanism where the strings were struck by hammers, allowing the volume of sound to vary with the force applied to the keys, the so called "gravicembalo col piano e forte".

#art #music #piano

English novelist and poet Charlotte Smith was born #OTD in 1749.

Smith's first significant literary success came with the publication of "Elegiac Sonnets" in 1784. In addition to her poetry, Smith wrote several novels: her first novel, "Emmeline, or The Orphan of the Castle" (1788), was followed by others such as "Ethelinde" (1789), "The Old Manor House" (1793), and "Desmond" (1792).

Books by Charlotte Smith at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/41281

#books #literature #poetry

"“Age is my alarm clock,” the old man said. “Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”

#OTD in 1953.

Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.

The story was initially published in its entirety in the September 1st, 1952 issue of Life magazine. It was later issued as a book by Charles Scribner's Sons.

#books #literature

American geneticist Nettie Stevens died #OTD in 1912.

In 1905, Stevens published a pivotal paper detailing her observations on the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. She identified that male mealworms had a pair of unequal-sized chromosomes, while females had two X chromosomes. This discovery supported the theory that sex is determined by specific chromosomes, a significant advancement in the field of genetics.

Books by Nettie Stevens at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35315

#books #biology #genetics

English writer and poet Edith Nesbit died #OTD in 1924.

She published over 60 books for children, including novels, collections of stories, and picture books. Among her most famous works are "The Railway Children," "Five Children and It," and "The Phoenix and the Carpet." Her work is seen as a precursor to the modern children's fantasy literature genre, influencing later writers such as C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.

Books by Edith Nesbit at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/407

#books #literature

American astrophysicist and physicist Jonathan Homer Lane died #OTD in 1880.

Lane’s most significant contribution to science was his development of what is now known as the Lane-Emden equation. He proposed that a star's temperature could support itself against gravitational collapse via thermal pressure. His analysis showed that the temperature of a star of constant density scales with the square of its mass divided by its radius.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane%E2%80%93Emden_equation

#science #astrophysics

American illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith died #OTD in 1935.

Smith’s career took off when she began working for the Ladies' Home Journal, for which she created many covers and interior illustrations. She illustrated over 60 books throughout her career, including classics such as Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies, Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses, and Clement Moore’s The Night Before Christmas.

Jessie Willcox Smith at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7158

#books #art #literature

English poet, author and humorist Thomas Hood died #OTD in 1845.

His humorous works often included puns and wordplay, which became immensely popular. These works were frequently published in magazines, including Punch. Some of his well-known comic poems include "Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg" and "The Song of the Shirt", which highlights the dire conditions of the working class and is considered one of his best works.

Thomas Hood at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6181

#books #literature

American archeologist Esther Boise Van Deman died #OTD in 1937.

She utilized detailed measurements and meticulous documentation of building materials and techniques, which enabled a more precise understanding of the chronological development of Roman construction practices. One of her most notable contributions was her work on the Roman concrete construction technique known as "opus caementicium."

#books #archeology #womeninsciene

Italian mathematician and physicist Vito Volterra was born #OTD in 1860.

One of Volterra's most famous contributions came in the field of mathematical biology with his work on population dynamics. He formulated the The Lotka–Volterra equations which are frequently used to describe the dynamics of biological systems in which two species interact, one as a predator and the other as prey.

Books by Vito Volterra at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34164

#books #science #mathematics

Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian Niccolò Machiavelli was born #OTD in 1469.

The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise written in the form of a realistic instruction guide for new princes. "Discourses on Livy" is another important work by Machiavelli, which is a broader political analysis but centers on the concept of republican government, as opposed to the monarchical focus in "The Prince".

Books by Niccolò Machiavelli at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/563

#books #literature

Fenomeni rimarchevoli di medianità.
Descrizione di un "protocollo" messo a punto dal fisico G.B. Ermacora per indagare il comportamento dei medium. Si può scaricare gratis, in pdf, da:
https://liberliber.it/autori/autori-e/giovanni-battista-ermacora/fenomeni-rimarchevoli-di-medianita/

#UnoLibri #libri #letteratura #public_domain #cosediscuola

#OTD in 1715.

A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy. He also drew a predictive map showing the path of totality across Great Britain. The original map was about 20 miles off the observed eclipse path, mainly due to his use of inaccurate lunar ephemeris. After the eclipse, he corrected the eclipse path, and added the path and description of the 1724 total solar eclipse.

#books #science #astronomy