On this Day...

July 12

• In (100 B.C), the great Caesar, Julius, was born – not, as myth has it, by Caesarian section (though the name does in fact mean “to cut”), but by perfectly normal means. All his life he was incredibly vain. He printed an elephant on Roman Coinage, which in the Punic language signifies Caesar; put a statue up to himself inscribed “To the Unconquerable God”; and ordered the month of his birth to be named after him – July. He was fastidiously clean, and shaved as close as possible, often plucking out his beard by the roots. And he was eternally grateful to his laurel wreath, since it helped to hide his baldness.

• In 1871, the literary man of the woods, Henry David Thoreau, was born, the son of a pencil-maker. Thoreau himself developed a superb pencil, acclaimed both in Boston and London. It was the last one he ever made, for he declared, “I would not do again what I have done once.” Instead he set off into Emerson`s woods at Concord, Massachusetts, and with a borrowed axe built himself a log cabin by the side of Walden Pond, he lived there for two years, two months, and two days, writing, hoeing his beans, and observing nature. His idyllic peace was occasionally shattered, however – the cabin was only 500 yards from the mainline Fitchburg-Boston railroad!