It was on this date, December 10, 1198, that the Spanish Arab-Muslim scholar and philosopher known in the West as Averroës died in the Andalusian part of what is now Córdoba, Spain. He was born on an unknown date in 1126 in Córdoba, Al Andalus, the grandson of the chief judge of Cordoba, of a […]

It was on this date, December 10, 1953, that the first issue of Playboy magazine was published, undated, by 27-year-old Chicago-born entrepreneur Hugh Marston Hefner. A former promotional copywriter for Esquire magazine, Hugh Hefner begged, borrowed and invested $7,600 to print his first issue – undated because he wasn’t sure there would be a second […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1790, that rebel publisher and Freethought fighter Richard Carlile was born in Ashburton, Devon, the son of a shoemaker who abandoned the family four years later. He received some education at a Church of England school, then took to work, marrying and starting a family in London. Hard […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1842, that Russian geographer Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin (Пётр Алексеевич Кропоткин) was born in Moscow into a noble family. As a 15-year-old, he was a page to the Tsar and later served as attaché to the Governor of Siberia. At age 22 Kropotkin was awarded the Gold Medal of […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1953, that American actor John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois. John Malkovich was educated at Eastern Illinois University and Illinois State University. At age 30 he won an Obie award for an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s play True West, then starred with Dustin Hoffman in […]

Baron D'Holbach (1723) Many men without morals have attacked religion because it was contrary to their inclinations. Many wise men have despised it because it seemed to them ridiculous. Many persons have regarded it with indifference, because they have never felt its true disadvantages. But it is as a citizen that I attack it, because […]

Pius IX and Original Sin (1854) It was on this date, December 8, 1854 – that the same Pope Pius IX promulgated, in the bull Ineffabilis Deus, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Not to be confused with the "virgin birth" legend of Jesus, this equally absurd doctrine says that, at Mary's conception, she did […]

It was on this date, December 8, 1832, that Norwegian poet, novelist, and dramatist Björnstjerne Björnson was born in Kvikne, Österdal, Norway, the son of a Lutheran pastor whose religion was as bleak as the village landscape. But after age six the family moved to pleasanter surroundings in Noesset, Romsdal, and Björnson eventually attended Christiania […]

Are the Police Serving the 99% Or Are They a Praetorian Guard for the 1%? Under Ancient Rome before the Christian Era, if you were a general in the field, building on the conquests that became the Roman Empire, you surrounded yourself with hand-picked soldiers – the best of the best, an elite gathered to […]

It was on this date, December 8, 1886, that Mexican Socialist and muralist Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato. His father was a municipal councilor with liberal and anticlerical views. In 1892 the family moved to Mexico City and from 1898 to 1905 Rivera attended the Academía de San Carlos there. He excelled at drawing […]