On this Day.., In Christian history - In the Philippines -
August 17
In 1892, the ultimate blonde, Mae West, was born in Brooklyn. She was the daughter of a heavyweight boxer and a corset model, and as a child she was billed as the "Baby Vamp." Jailed for obscenity after her 1926 show "Sex," she sashayed into the limelight in her first film with her celebrated reply to a hat-check girl. "Goodness!" said the girl, "what beautiful diamonds!" "Goodness," replied Mae, "had nothing to do with it, dearie." Miss West wrote most of her own material, and her drawling one-liners have passed into legend. "I used to be Snow White," she purred, "but I drifted"… "It's not the men in my life, but the life in my men that counts."
In 1978, the first transatlantic balloon crossing was successfully completed when the huge black-andsilver Eagle II sank gracefully to the ground in a wheatfield in Normandy. With its crew of three Albuquerque businessmen, it had soared for five days on its 3,200-mile trip. But within minutes of landing it was torn to shreds by eager souvenir hunters. The triumphant balloonists were whisked off by military helicopter to Paris and a reception with the U.S. Ambassador. The only person who wasn't too thrilled with it all was the owner of the field, a Madame Coquerel, whose 3 ½ acres of ripe wheat had just been ruined!
- from Today's the Day! By Jeremy Beadle
In 1635, English Puritan Richard Mather arrived in Boston. A staunch defender of congregational church government, Mather was the father of a ministerial "dynasty" that included his son, Increase Mather (born in 1939) and grandson Cotton Mather (born in 1663).
- from This Day in Christian History
By William D. Blake In 1898, the remains of Dr. Jose Rizal were exhumed from the Paco Cemetery and taken to his house on Estraude Street in Binondo, Manila where his father, Francisco Mercado, died in January of the same year. Accordingly, after Dr. Rizal's execution on December 30, 1896 in Bagumbayan, (later called Luneta and now Rizal Park) his body was secretly buried at the Paco Cemetery with no identification on his grave. His sister Narcisa, toured all possible gravesites and found freshly turned earth at the cemetery with civil guards posted at the gate. Assuming this could be the most likely spot, there being even no ground burials there, she gave a gift to the caretaker to mark the site "RPJ," Rizal's initials in reverse, for identification. At present, the hero's remains are kept at his national monument bearing his statue at the Rizal Park. Designed by a Swiss sculptor named Richard Kissling, the statue carries the inscription: "I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves - for his country and for others dear to him."
- www.kahimyang.info
In Cebu -
In 1907, the Philippine Commission passed Public Act. No. 1688, providing funds for the completion of the Cebu-Toledo and Carcar-Barili roads. - from Cebuano Studies Center,
University of San Carlos