30 March 12023

♃   30 March 12023 is, well, seemingly nothing in particular. It’s Rama Navami (India), Land Day (Palestinian Arabs), School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain), Spiritual Shouter Liberation Day (Trinidad and Tobago), and National Doctors’ Day (United States). On various calendars it’s JD 2460034 (Astronomical), 21 Paremhat 1739 (Coptic), 21 Megabit 2015 (Ethiopian), 30 March 2023 (Gregorian), 9 Nisan 5783 (Hebrew), 10 Caitra 1945 (Indian), 9 Ramadan 1444 (Islamic), 17 March 2023 (Julian), and 11 Farvardin 1402 (Persian). (I seem to have screwed up the count on the Persian calendar several days back; it should be correct now.) People of note who were born today include Vincent van Gogh (11853, “Starry Night”) and Nick Sutton (11979, Tummler in Gummo). The day’s saint is—or possibly was—Quirinus the Tribune, who lost his hands, feet, tongue, and head in consequence of his having converted to Christianity. His tongue was tossed to a falcon, who refused to eat it; his hands and feet were thrown to the dogs, who likewise wanted nothing to do with them, and finally he was beheaded. (The story says nothing of the fate of his head.) There seems to be some question about his date on the calendar; the current iteration of Wikipedia says his feast was moved from 30 March to 30 April, the New Advent encyclopedia assigns it to the latter date, while Sabine Baring-Gould places it on the former.

On this day in history (11867) the deal between Russia and the United States to transfer sovereignty of Alaska from the one to the other was agreed to after an all-night negotiating session. Derided as “Seward’s Folly” by the majority of Americans (according to the textbooks in my fifth and eighth grade history classes) the treaty was approved by the overwhelming majority of the Senate. (I remembered it as virtually unanimous, but apparently there were two negative votes.) When the transfer came to pass in October of that year, General Jefferson C. Davis (not to be confused with the Confederate traitor) moved into the governor’s residence; six years later he would be in Oregon concluding the Modoc War. Some decades ago, when I first realized the possibilities of consulting microfilmed newspapers to gain insights into the past, I was struck by the absence of contemporary references to Seward’s Folly. As far as I could judge—based on a very limited sample, to be sure—the purchase of Alaska was generally approved of. Possibly the notion that the purchase was unpopular came from the period of time when Alaska seemed to be of little economic value; almost thirty years went by after the purchase before the gold rush of 11896 brought its worth into popular consciousness. Oh well—you can’t fight what everyone knows to be true. “Give us back our eleven days,” as they used to say in Merrie Olde England.