The Christian season of Lent begins today, 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays). Many Christians attend church services on Ash Wednesday to receive ashes on their foreheads in the sign of the cross. (Ashes are a symbol of penance in the Old Testament and in pagan antiquity.) In the Roman Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting. In the sixth century, Christians who had committed grave faults were obliged to do public penance. On Ash Wednesday, they donned a hair shirt (which they wore for 40 days), and the local bishop blessed them and sprinkled them with ashes. Then, while others recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, the penitents were turned out of the holy place. They could not enter the church again until Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), when they received absolution.
1620s
1650s
1800s
1810s
1860s
- 1864: CONFEDERATE H. L. HUNLEY WAS FIRST SUBMARINE TO SINK A WARSHIP (USS HOUSATONIC)
- 1865: COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, BURNED BY UNION ARMY (U.S. CIVIL WAR)
1870s
1890s
1900s
1910s
- 1913: MARCEL DUCHAMP’S PAINTING, NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE, OUTRAGED VIEWERS
- DIED 1919: WILFRED LAURIER (8TH PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA)
1930s
1950s
1960s
- 1960: ELVIS PRESLEY AWARDED HIS FIRST GOLD ALBUM FOR “ELVIS”
- 1961: 9-POUND 6-OUNCE CHAIN PICKEREL CAUGHT NEAR HOMERVILLE, GEORGIA
- BORN 1963: MICHAEL JORDAN (BASKETBALL PLAYER)
1970s
1980s
- BORN 1980: JASON RITTER (ACTOR)
- BORN 1981: PARIS HILTON (HEIRESS)
- DIED 1982: THELONIOUS MONK (JAZZ PIANIST)
- DIED 1982: LEE STRASBERG (ACTOR AND DIRECTOR)
COURTESY www.almanac.com
