On this Day...

■ In 1901, much-despised movie mogul Harry Cohn was born. As head of Columbia Pictures he declared, “Let Rembrandt make the character studies, not us.” It was claimed by Hedda Hopper that “you stand in line to hate him.” Director Elia Kazan put it more poetically, saying “He liked to be the biggest bug on the manure pile.” Even Cohn himself admitted that “Gower Street is paved with the bones of my producers.” So perhaps Red Skeleton’s famous comment about the huge crowds at Cohn’s funeral wasn’t in such bad taste after all. “It proves what they say,” said Red. “Give the public what they want to see, and they’ll come out for it.”

■ In 1884, cabin boy Richard Parker was killed and eaten by the three other survivors of the wrecked yacht “Mignonette.” For 20 days the four had drifted in their lifeboat through the South Atlantic, with just two tins of vegetables and not a drop of water. In desperation, Richard drank seawater and collapsed. The other three men, seeing him as their only means of survival, killed him and ate him a piece at a time until they were rescued. 46 years later Edgar Allan Poe had written a story entitled “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket,” and in it, four survivors of a shipwreck who were marooned in an open boat killed and ate one of their numbers – and his name was Richard Parker.

— from Today’s the Day! By Jeremy Beadle

In Christian history

■ In 1825, kidnapped earlier by Muslim slave traders from his Yoruba homeland in north-central Africa, Samuel Adjai Crowther was rescued by English missionaries and baptized into the Church. In 1864 Crowther was consecrated as missionary bishop of the Niger Territory. — from This Day in Christian History By William

D. Blake

In the Philippines

■ In 1864, Apolinario Mabini, often referred to as the “Sublime Paralytic” and known as the brains of the revolution, was born in Tanauan, Batangas. He began informal studies under his maternal grandfather, who was a village teacher, and his mother before attending a regular school. He took odd jobs from a local tailor all in exchange for free board and lodging. In 1881 Mabini received a scholarship to go to the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. An anecdote about his stay there says that a professor at school would pick on him because of his shabby clothing which clearly showed he was poor. A year after receiving his “Bachilles en Artes” with highest honors and the title “Professor of Latin” from Letran, he moved on to the University of Santo Tomas where he received his law degree. In 1896, Mabini contracted an illness that paralyzed his legs. When the Katipunan revolt broke out late that year, the Spanish authorities arrested him for being a member of revolutionary group. Unknown to many, Mabini was not a member of Katipunan but of the reform association of Jose Rizal, the La Liga Filipina. Bonifacio’s movement sought military insurrection while Rizal’s movement aimed for gradual reform. Though as a pacifist reformist, he was at first skeptical of Bonifacio’s armed uprising but would later become convinced of the people’s almost fanatical desire for liberation. In Guam, because of his failing health and concerns that he might die on foreign soil, Mabini decided to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, a condition for his return to the Philippines. He was sent back to Manila on February 26, 1903 at the height of a cholera epidemic. On May 13, 1903 Mabini died of cholera in Pandacan, Manila, at the age of 38.

— www.kahimyang.info

In Cebu

■ In 1952, Pedro Elizalde concluded his term as mayor of Cebu City.

— from Cebuano Studies Center, University of San Carlos

Not everything is meant to be, but everything is worth a try.

— Holding Sand, The Freeman Lifestyle, June 24, 2014