Calendar Class of August 8, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Happy National Cat Day (in Canada, but we're close enough in Michigan to celebrate too)! This morning the thunder woke me up, followed by a message from a regular Calendar Class reader to let me know about today's "holiday." The girls and I tried to get a photo of the two cats being held by the two girls but that proved impossible. Fortunately, Esme deigned to allow me to take this one portrait of her elegant self as she took a brief pause in her morning squirrel hunt. The other photogenic tuxedo cat, Mistoffelees, attempted to match his cousin's prowess the other day when he "caught" a chipmunk whose tail was caught in a mousetrap and brought it home to me as a token of his affection. Life is never dull with a house full of felines!

Liturgical: Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest

So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

Deuteronomy 4:32-40

Sanctoral: Dominic (August 8, 1170 – August 6, 1221)

Dominic’s ideal, and that of his Order, was to organically link a life with God, study, and prayer in all forms, with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of God. His ideal: contemplata tradere: “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” or “to speak only of God or with God.”

Human: National Cat Day (in Canada)

449 AD– the Second Council of Ephesus began, called by the Emperor Theodosius II in order to end the dispute over the nature of Jesus (monophysitism). About 150 bishops took part in it. The deliberations were directed by Theodosius II and the Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Dioscurus, both supporters of monophysitism.

1303 Crete earthquake strikes with an estimated magnitude of 8, triggering a major tsunami that damages the Lighthouse of Alexandria and sweeps ships two miles inland in Egypt.

1576 Cornerstone is laid for Tycho Brahe's observatory in Uraniborg, Denmark, which, when built, becomes the world's most advanced research institution.

1585 Pope Sixtus excommunicates Henry of Navarre (Henry IV)

1609 Galileo Galilei presents his telescope to the Venetian Senate in Venice.

1882 Snow falls on Lake Michigan

1945 President Harry Truman signs the United Nations Charter.

1945 US, USSR, Britain, and France sign the Treaty of London, which sets down procedures for the Nuremberg war trials of Nazi leaders

1950 Florence Chadwick swims across the English Channel in a record time of 13 hours and 23 minutes.

1955 Geneva Conference is held to discuss the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

1957 USSR offers Syria economic and military aid.

1979 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents.

1988 Astronomers announce the discovery of the most distant galaxy known, 4C41.17, a cluster of stars more than 10 billion light-years away.

1988 Ceasefire between Iran and Iraq takes effect after eight years of war

Natural: Do you love the smell of rain, especially after a thunderstorm? That distinctive smell actually comes from a bacteria called actinomycetes, which I learned this morning thanks to a news show my niece Rachel works for in Trastevere City.

Here's the science: The bacteria most commonly associated with the earthy smell after rain, known as petrichor, is Actinomycetes, specifically Streptomyces bacteria. These bacteria produce a chemical compound called geosmin which is released into the soil, and then dispersed into the air when raindrops hit the ground. 

Italian: Istruzione (education / instruction)

Quote: "A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil."

— St. Dominic de Guzman