:: wikimiki.org ::

January 9

January 9

January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 356 days remaining (357 in leap years).

Events

- 1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins in Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government.
- 1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in Battle of Barari Ghat.
- 1768 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus (London).
- 1788 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to join the United States.
- 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States.
- 1806 - Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
- 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
- 1857 - Fort Tejon earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.9
- 1858 - Anson Jones, final President of the Republic of Texas commits suicide.
- 1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, preceding the American Civil War.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Fort Hindman
- 1878 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy.
- 1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow.
- 1882 - Oscar Wilde gives his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York.
- 1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
- 1903 - Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia
- 1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Czarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.
- 1912 - Marines invade Honduras.
- 1916 - The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated.
- 1917 - Battle of Rafa
- 1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes first autogiro flight.
- 1929 - The Seeing Eye is established with the mission to train dogs to assist the blind (Nashville, Tennessee).
- 1937 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
- 1945 - The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.
- 1951 - United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
- 1956 - First "Dear Abby" column appears in newspapers.
- 1960 - Construction of the Aswan Dam begins in Egypt.
- 1962 - The NFL prohibits grabbing face masks.
- 1964 - Several Panamanian youths put up the Panamanian flag, and are fired on from the Canal Zone, setting off four days of anti-imperialist insurrection around the country.
- 1972 - RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire (Hong Kong harbor).
- 1977 - Super Bowl XI: Oakland Raiders defeat Minnesota Vikings, 32-14.
- 1984 - Clara Peller is featured in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's Restaurants for the first time.
- 1986 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.
- 1989 - The Sega Genesis is released in New York, New York and Los Angeles, California.
- 1991 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.
- 1995 - Valeri Poliakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station, breaking a duration record.
- 1996 - Sun Microsystems announces the formation of JavaSoft.
- 1997 - A Comair Embraer 120 crashes during approach into Detroit Metro Airport, killing 29.
- 1999 - After nearly 16 years of operation, the Horizons pavilion at Walt Disney World's Epcot closes permanently. It is razed more than a year later to make way for the new Mission: SPACE attraction.
- 2002 - The United States Department of Justice announces it is going to pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
- 2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat.

Births

1554 to 1899

- 1554 - Pope Gregory XV (d. 1623)
- 1571 - Karel Bonaventura Buquoy, French soldier (d. 1621)
- 1589 - Ivan Gundulic, Croatian poet (d. 1638)
- 1624 - Empress Meisho of Japan (d. 1696)
- 1685 - Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist (d. 1766)
- 1728 - Thomas Warton, English poet (d. 1790)
- 1790 - Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom, Swedish poet (b. 1790)
- 1811 - Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (d. 1856)
- 1823 - Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon (d. 1908)
- 1829 - Thomas William Robertson, English playwright (d. 1871)
- 1829 - Adolf von Schlagintweit, German explorer (d. 1857)
- 1854 - Jennie Jerome, American society beauty (d. 1921)
- 1856 - Anton Aškerc, Slovenian priest and poet (d. 1912)
- 1864 - Vladimir Steklov, Russian mathematician (d. 1926)
- 1868 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (d. 1939)
- 1870 - Joseph B Strauss, American civil engineer (d. 1938)
- 1873 - Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Ukrainian poet and translator (d. 1934)
- 1875 - Gertrude Whitney, American sculptor (d. 1942)
- 1879 - John Broadus Watson, American behaviorist psychologist (d. 1958)
- 1881 - Lascelles Abercrombie, British poet and critic (d. 1938)
- 1881 - Giovanni Papini, Italian writer (d. 1956)
- 1890 - Karel Čapek, Czech writer (d. 1938)
- 1890 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist, writer, satirist, and social critic (d. 1935)
- 1892 - Eva Bowring, American politician (d. 1985)
- 1897 - Karl Löwith, German philosopher (d. 1973)
- 1898 - Vilma Banky, Hungarian actress (d. 1991)
- 1898 - Gracie Fields, English vaudeville performer (d. 1979)
- 1899 - Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian composer (d. 1977)

1900 to 1999

- 1901 - Chic Young, cartoonist (d. 1973)
- 1902 - Rudolph Bing, Austrian-born opera manager (d. 1997)
- 1902 - Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish religious author (d. 1975)
- 1904 (O. S.)- George Balanchine, Russian dancer, choreographer, and ballet producer (d. 1983)
- 1908 - Simone de Beauvoir, French author (d. 1986)
- 1912 - Ralph Tubbs, British architect
- 1913 - Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)
- 1914 - Kenny (Klook) Clarke, American jazz drummer and composer
- 1915 - Fernando Lamas, Argentine actor (d. 1982)
- 1915 - Les Paul, American guitarist and inventor
- 1916 - Vic Mizzy, American orchestra leader
- 1916 - Peter Twinn, English mathematician and World War II code-breaker (d. 2004)
- 1917 - Herbert Lom, Czech actor
- 1920 - Clive Dunn, British actor
- 1922 - Har Gobind Khorana, Indian biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1922 - Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of Guinea (d. 1984)
- 1925 - Lee Van Cleef, American actor (d. 1989)
- 1928 - Judith Krantz, American author
- 1928 - Domenico Modugno, Italian singer and songwriter
- 1929 - Heiner Muller, German dramatist (d. 1995)
- 1929 - Dorothea Puente, American serial killer
- 1931 - Algis Budrys, American author
- 1932 - Robert P. Casey, American politician (d. 2000)
- 1934 - Bart Starr, American football player
- 1935 - Bob Denver, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1935 - Dick Enberg, American sportscaster
- 1936 - Anne Rivers Siddons, American writer
- 1940 - Jimmy Boyd, American actor, singer
- 1940 - Barbara Buczek, Polish composer (d. 1993)
- 1940 - Ruth Dreifuss, Swiss politician
- 1941 - Joan Baez, American singer and activist
- 1942 - K Callan, American actress
- 1942 - Susannah York, British actress
- 1944 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
- 1950 - David Johansen American singer
- 1950 - Rio Reiser, German singer (d. 1996)
- 1951 - Crystal Gayle, American singer
- 1952 - Hugh Bayley, British politician
- 1955 - J. K. Simmons, American actor
- 1956 - Kimberly Beck, American actress
- 1956 - Imelda Staunton, British actress
- 1958 - Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish attempted assassin of Pope John Paul II
- 1959 - Mark Martin, NASCAR driver
- 1959 - Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1959 - Cristi Minculescu, Romanian musician
- 1963 - Michael Everson, American expert in writing systems and Unicode
- 1965 - Eric Erlandson, American musician (Hole)
- 1965 - Joely Richardson, British actress
- 1967 - Claudio Caniggia, Argentinian footballer
- 1967 - Steven Harwell, American singer and musician (Smash Mouth)
- 1967 - Dave Matthews, South African singer and musician
- 1968 - Jimmy Adams, West Indian cricketer
- 1975 - Angela Bettis, American actress
- 1978 - Chad Johnson, American football player
- 1978 - AJ McLean, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
- 1980 - Sergio García, Spanish golfer

Deaths

1283 to 1899

- 1283 - Wen Tianxiang, Chinese prime minister (executed) (b. 1236)
- 1499 - Johann Cicero, elector of Brandenburg (b. 1455)
- 1514 - Anna, Duchess of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII of France (b. 1477)
- 1543 - Guillaume du Bellay, French diplomat and general (b. 1491)
- 1562 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1514)
- 1571 - Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, French naval officer (b. 1510)
- 1598 - Jasper Heywood, English translator (b. 1553)
- 1757 - Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist and man of letters (b. 1657)
- 1677 - Aernout van der Neer, Dutch cartoonist and painter (b. 1603)
- 1766 - Thomas Birch, British historian (b. 1705)
- 1799 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian scientist (b. 1718)
- 1800 - Jean Étienne Championnet, French general (b. 1762)
- 1805 - Noble Jones, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)
- 1848 - Caroline Herschel, German-born astronomer (b. 1750)
- 1858 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (suicide) (b. 1798)
- 1873 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (b. 1808)
- 1876 - Samuel Gridley Howe, American abolitionist (b. 1801)
- 1878 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (b. 1820)
- 1895 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watch manufacturer (b. 1812)

1900 to 1999

- 1901 - Richard Copley Christie, English scholar (b. 1830)
- 1908 - Wilhelm Busch, German painter (b. 1832)
- 1908 - Abraham Goldfaden, Russian-born actor (b. 1840)
- 1911 - Edwin Arthur Jones, American composer (b. 1853)
- 1918 - Émile Reynaud, French scientist (b. 1844)
- 1923 - Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand writer (b. 1888)
- 1936 - John Gilbert, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1939 - Johann Strauss III, Austrian conductor (b. 1866)
- 1946 - Countee Cullen, American poet (b. 1903)
- 1947 - Karl Mannheim, German sociologist (b. 1893)
- 1961 - Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1867)
- 1971 - Elmer Flick, baseball player (b. 1876)
- 1972 - Ted Shawn, American dancer (b. 1891)
- 1975 - Pierre Fresnay, French actor (b. 1897)
- 1979 - Sara Carter, American singer, guitarist (b. 1898)
- 1981 - Kazimierz Serocki, Polish composer (b. 1922)
- 1984 - Wolfgang Staudte, German director (b. 1906)
- 1985 - Robert Mayer, British businessman and philantropist (b. 1879)
- 1987 - Marion Hutton, American singer (b. 1919)
- 1987 - Arthur Lake, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1990 - Spud Chandler, baseball player (b. 1907)
- 1992 - Bill Naughton, British playwright (b. 1910)
- 1993 - Svetoslav Roerich, Russian painter (b. 1904)
- 1994 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (b. 1927)
- 1995 - Peter Cook, British actor. satirist, writer, and comedian (b. 1937)
- 1995 - Souphanouvong, President of Laos (b. 1909)
- 1997 - Edward Osobka-Morawski, Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1909)
- 1998 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (1918)

2000 onwards

- 2000 - Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author (b. 1909)
- 2003 - Will McDonough, American sports journalist (b. 1935)
- 2005 - Gonzalo Gavira, Mexican film sound technician (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

- 1788 - Ratification Day in Connecticut
- 1822 - "I Will Stay" Day, when the portuguese prince Pedro decided to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portugal king João VI, starting the brazilian independence process.
- 1964 - Memorial day of Patriotic Panamanians for the Panama Canal (Martyrs' Day/Dia de los Martires)
- Roman Catholic - Feast of Saint Adrian
- Eastern Orthodox - Feast of Saint Theophan the Recluse
- Philippines - Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo district, Manila.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/9 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 8 - January 10 - December 9 - February 9 — listing of all days ko:1월 9일 ms:9 Januari ja:1月9日 simple:January 9 th:9 มกราคม

January 9

January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 356 days remaining (357 in leap years).

Events

Births

1554 to 1899

1900 to 1999

Deaths

1283 to 1899

1900 to 1999

2000 onwards

- 2000 - Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author (b. 1909)
- 2003 - Will McDonough, American sports journalist (b. 1935)
- 2005 - Gonzalo Gavira, Mexican film sound technician (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

External links

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc, also Jeanne d'Arc (1412 – 30 May 1431) is a national heroine of France and a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Many believed she had visions from God that told her to recover her homeland. In early 1429 she convinced the uncrowned king Charles VII to give her a suit of armor and permission to relieve the siege at Orléans. At first treated as a figurehead by veteran commanders, she gained prominence when she lifted the siege in only nine days. After several other engagements and an important victory at Patay she led a bloodless expedition to Reims for Charles VII's coronation. This settled the disputed royal succession and recovered important territory. The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. Wounded during an unsuccessful attempt to recover Paris, she participated in minor actions until her capture outside Compiègne the following spring. Her Burgundian captors delivered her to the English, who selected clergymen to convict her of heresy. John, Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine of her country at the age of seventeen. She died at just nineteen. Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case. The new finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May, 1920. Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in the collective imagination of Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who created works about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovski, Twain, Shaw, and Brecht. Depictions of her continue in film, television, and song.

Historical background

Brecht This was the lowest era in French history until the Nazi occupation. The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was unable to rule. A quarrel between his cousins duke John the Fearless of Burgundy and the duke of Orléans over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children finally led John the Fearless to order the assassination of the duke of Orléans in 1407. The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. English king Henry V took advantage of the turmoil. He invaded France and won a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, then proceeded to capture northern French towns. The future French king Charles VII assumed the title of dauphin as heir to the throne at the age of fourteen after all four of his older brothers had died. Almost his first official act was to conclude a peace treaty with John the Fearless in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans murdered John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles and entered an alliance with the English. Large sections of France fell to conquest. Charles's mother Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the 1420 Treaty of Troyes granting the royal succession to Henry V and his heirs, disinheriting Charles. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant Henry VI of England the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother John, Duke of Bedford acted as regent. John, Duke of Bedford By the beginning of 1429 nearly all of the north and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English ruled Paris and the Burgundians ruled Rheims. The latter was important as the traditional site of French coronations. Neither claimant to the throne of France had been crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. Its strategic location along the river made this the last obstacle to an assault on the remaining French heartland. No one was optimistic about the city's chances to resist the siege for long.

Biography

Early life

Joan of Arc was born circa 1412 in the village of Domrémy in the province of Lorraine. Her parents Jacques D'Arc and Isabelle Romee owned a modest farm. The region was part of the duchy of Burgundy during that era. Joan's own village and a few surrounding communities formed an isolated patch of territory that remained loyal to the French crown. Jacques D'Arc, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine in the background. Oil on canvas in two joined vertical panels. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 1879.]] Joan later said she had her first vision around 1424. She reported that St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Rheims for his coronation. At the age of sixteen she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs. She petitioned garrison commander count Robert de Baudricourt for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her. She returned the following January and found supporters in two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulegny. With their support she gained a second interview where she made an apparently miraculous prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.

Career

Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise. Upon arriving at the royal court she won Charles's confidence in a private conference. He verified her morality with background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers. Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans. Joan of Arc received permission to travel with the army. Her armor, horse, sword, equipment, and entourage were all donations. She had no funds of her own. Yolande of Aragon She arrived at the Orléans on 29 April 1429. Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, excluded Joan from war councils. She appealed to the town's population and the common soldiers, often disregarding war council decisions. The extent of her military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional analysis cites her condemnation trial testimony to conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale. Recent scholarship that focuses on rehabilitation trial testimony asserts that her fellow officers esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. In either case, the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career. French forces began aggressive actions against siege fortifications at Joan's urging. After several skirmishes the English abandoned peripheral structures and concentrated their forces at the stone fortress controlling the bridge, les Tourelles. This fell to French assault on 7 May. Contemporaries acknowledged Joan as the hero of the engagement after she pulled an arrow from her own shoulder and returned wounded to lead the final charge. 7 May The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for offensive action. Surviving documents show the English expected a direct assault on Paris. French counterintelligence may have contributed to that perception. During Joan's later trial she described a mark the French command used in letters for disinformation. Joan of Arc persuaded Charles VII to approve her plan and grant her co-command of the army with duke John II of Alençon. They would recapture nearby bridges along the Loire then advance on Rheims. This was a daring proposal because Rheims was roughly twice as distant as Paris. Rheims held political importance as the traditional site of French coronations. Detractors have pointed to shortcomings in the army's supply lines to assert that Joan was more lucky than skilled. John II of Alençon. Detail from a portrait by Jean Fouquet, tempera on wood, Louvre Museum, Paris, c. 1445.]] The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, then Beaugency on 17 June. Alençon credited Joan with saving his life at Jargeau by warning him of an impending artillery attack. She withstood a stone cannonball blow to her helmet while climbing a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers finished defensive preparations. A rout ensued that decimated the main body of the English army. The French had minimal losses. A disgraced Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers. The French army set out from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June, accepting the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. Every other town in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege. Rheims opened its gates on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the Duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court pursued a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim, accepting peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford confronted Joan with an English force in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault on Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a crossbow bolt wound to the leg, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French grand chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders following the coronation.

Capture, trial, and execution

After minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan went to Compiègne the following March to defend against an English and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture. When she ordered a retreat she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard. It was customary for a war captive's family to raise a ransom. Joan's relatives lacked financial resources. Many historians condemn Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion leaping from a seventy foot tower to the soft earth of a dry moat. The English government eventually purchased her from duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial. Beauvais Joan's trial for heresy was political. The Duke of Bedford claimed the throne of France for his nephew Henry VI. She was responsible for the rival coronation. Condemning her was an attempt to discredit her king. Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government. The procedure was irregular on a number of points. To summarize some major problems, the jurisdiction of promoter bishop Cauchon was a legal fiction. He owed his appointment to his partisanship. The entire trial was financed by the English government. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony against her, could find no adverse evidence. Without this the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening one anyway, it denied her right to a legal advisor. Nonetheless, her testimony could be brilliant. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Her response was not only perfect but poetic. Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served under compulsion, including the inquisitor, and a few even received death threats from the English. Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison with female guards. Instead the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Jeanne's appeals to the Council of Basel and the Pope, which should have stopped his proceeding. The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding contradict the already doctored court record. Illiterate Joan signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record. abjuration Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear women's clothes when she abjured. Shortly afterward she was subject to a sexual assault in prison, possibly by an English lord. This does not appear to have been rape. She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear. Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. She repeatedly called out "...in a loud voice the holy name of Jesus, and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise." After she expired the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then reduced the body to ashes to prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, confessed to having "...a great fear of being damned, [as] he had burned a saint."

Retrial

After Charles VII regained Rouen in November 1449, the investigation began with an inquest by clergyman Guillaume Bouille. Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. The formal appeal was initiated in November 1455. Pope Callixtus III authorized this appeal, known today as the "Rehabilitation Trial," at the request of Brehal and surviving members of Joan's family. The appellate process included clergy from throughout Europe and observed proper court procedure. After collecting testimony from 115 witnesses, theologians gave opinions. Brehal drew up his final summary of the case in June 1456. This describes Joan as a martyr and her judges as heretics for having convicted an innocent woman in the pursuit of a secular vendetta. The court declared her innocence on 7 July 1456.

Clothing

1456 Joan wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen. This raised theological questions in her own era and raised other speculation in the twentieth century. Her assumption of male clothing had no sexual overtones. The technical reason for her execution was a Biblical clothing law. Medieval theology recognized exceptions to the stricture. Doctrinally speaking, she was safe to disguise herself as a page during a journey through enemy territory, and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle claims it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. These defenses leave other occasions open to challenge. She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter during her condemnation trial . That record no longer survives. Circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part. A number of clergy who testified at her rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. The garments she chose would slow an assailant. In the end, as cited above, she probably had no choice at all.

Visions

Joan of Arc's religious visions have interested many people. All agree that her faith was sincere. Devout Roman Catholics regard her visions as divine revelation. She lived in a society that accepted this possibility. Secular explanations that assert hallucination and mental illness encounter an apparent incongruity: she won the support of some leading statesmen, soldiers, and clergy. Most scholars who propose psychiatric explanations such as schizophrenia consider Joan a figurehead rather than an active leader. Among other hypotheses are a handful of neurological conditions that can cause complex hallucinations in otherwise sane and healthy people such as temporal lobe epilepsy. Régine Pernoud, a prominent historian, was sometimes sarcastic about such claims: in response to one such theory alleging that Joan of Arc suffered from Bovine Tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk can produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk. A shortage of reliable evidence is a factor in any attempt to analyse Joan of Arc's religious visions. When questioned about the subject at the Condemnation Trial, she was reluctant to give the court details about her visions, often referring them instead to the transcript of the Poitiers inquiry, which has now been lost.

Legacy

epilepsy.]] Surviving historical evidence about Joan of Arc is abundant. Nineteenth century scholars discovered five separate copies of her condemnation trial transcript in archives across France. Over 100 witnesses submitted depositions to her rehabilitation trial. Numerous original documents still exist including several of her dictated letters. This exceptionally rich historical record has contributed to intense academic interest in her. Several impostors arose in the years following Joan of Arc's death. The most successful of these, Jeanne de Armoises, won the support of two of Joan's brothers and carried on the charade for four years until she met the king. The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after Joan's death. Most modern historians consider the Treaty of Arras in 1435 and the weak rulership of England's Henry VI to be greater factors in ending the conflict. Kelly deVries argues that Joan's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the remainder of the war. All agree that Joan of Arc had a profound effect on French patriotism. She is among the earliest successful proponents of nationalism to emerge from the feudal era. The Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans was a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. Joan of Arc became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Félix Dupanloup, bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the effort for Joan's eventual beatification in 1909. Her canonization followed on 16 May 1920. Her feast day is 30 May. 30 May. The French Resistance used the cross of Lorraine as a symbolic reference to Joan of Arc.]] Joan of Arc was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. Joan expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of her sword. Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. Charles VII's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held Joan of Arc after Compiegne, alleviated Joan of Arc's conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy the duchess of Bedford declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries. For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging Joan with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for Joan's vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to Joan of Arc as a positive example of a brave and active female. Christine de Pizan.]] Joan of Arc has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasized her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen with the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes". The resistance emphasized her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control. Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after Joan of Arc, including a helicopter carrier currently in active service. At present the controversial French political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image. Traditional Catholics, especially in France, also use her as a symbol or inspiration, often comparing Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's excommunication in 1988 to Joan of Arc's excommunication.

Notes

For bibliographical sources and further reading see Joan of Arc bibliography. : A tribunal led by Inquisitor-General Brehal retried her case after the French won the war. The new verdict overturned the original conviction and Brehal described Joan of Arc as a martyr. : See Joan of Arc in art for literary, artistic, and popular culture references. : See Joan of Arc: A Military Leader by Kelly DeVries and Joan of Arc: The Warrior Saint by Stephen W. Richey. : Devout Catholics regard this remarkable act as proof of her divine mission. At Chinon and Poitiers she had declared that she would give a sign at Orléans. The lifting of the siege gained her the support of prominent clergy such as the Archbishop of Embrun and theologian Jean Gerson, who both wrote supportive treatises immediately following this event. : Judges' investigations January 9 - March 26, ordinary trial March 26 - May 24, recantation May 24, relapse trial May 28-29. : The retrial verdict later affirmed that Cauchon had no right to try the case. Also see Joan of Arc: Her Story by Regine Pernoud and Marie-Veronique Clin, p. 108. The vice-inquisitor of France objected to the trial on jurisdictional grounds at its outset. : Quoted from his testimony at her retrial. [http://www.stjoan-center.com/Trials/null03.html] : Condemnation trial, p. 52 [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/joanofarc-trial.html] : George Bernard Shaw made his own translation of the exchange and inserted it into the script for his play Saint Joan. Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (May 1, 2001), p. 138. ISBN 0140437916 : [http://www.stjoan-center.com/Trials/#nullification] See especially the testimony of court clerk Guillaume de Manchon. : See note 8. : See note 9. : Ibid. : Ibid. : Deuteronomy 22:5. [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/bib0510.txt] : Most notably Thomas Aquinas, Outward apparel should be consistent with the state of the person according to general custom. Hence it is in itself sinful for a woman to wear man’s clothes, or vice-versa; especially since this may be the cause of sensuous pleasure; and it is expressly forbidden in the Law (Deut 22) …. Nevertheless this may be done at times on account of some necessity, either in order to hide oneself from enemies, or through lack of other clothes, or for some other such reason. (Summa Theologiae II, II, question 169, article 2, reply to objection 3). : See note 8. : See note 9. : According to medieval clothing expert Adrien Harmand, she wore two layers of pants attached securely to the doublet with twenty fastenings, the outer pants being made of a boot-like leather. See "Jeanne d'Arc, son costume, son armure", p. 123, for the passage from the transcript and explanation; and pp. 177-185 for an examination of the outer pants. : Pernoud, Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses p. 275. : DeVries, pp. 179-180.

January 9

Events

Births

1554 to 1899

1900 to 1999

Deaths

1283 to 1899

1900 to 1999

2000 onwards

Holidays and observances

External links

January 9

Events

Births

1554 to 1899

1900 to 1999

Deaths

1283 to 1899

1900 to 1999

2000 onwards

Holidays and observances

External links

Leap year

Gregorian calendar

Which day is the leap day?

Julian calendar

Revised Julian Calendar

Chinese calendar

Hebrew calendar

Hindu Calendar

Iranian calendar

Long term leap year rules

Marriage proposal

Saint Patrick and the leap year

Birthdays

Joan of Arc

Historical background

Biography

Early life

Career

Capture, trial, and execution

Retrial

Clothing

Visions

Legacy

Notes

See also