Daily Calendar - August 19

231st day of the year, 134 days left until the New Year.

Church Calendar

Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Evangelist Luke describes the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ in this way: “And Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and went up into a mountain to pray: and as he prayed, he saw the appearance of his face transfigured, and his raiment was white and glistening” (Luke, 9:28-29).

The Holy Church teaches us that the light of the Lord’s Transfiguration is not born, nor does it disappear, nor is it subject to the gift of the senses, and although it was seen by fleshly eyes for a short time on the top of a low mountain, the disciples of the Lord, by the effort of the soul, changed their senses, overcame the shards of flesh and spirit, and thus saw how much good the power of the Divine Spirit did them – this indescribable light.

To the question – “What does it mean – the color changed?” – the Chrysostom theologian answers this way: “He gave up part of his divinity – as much as they could bear, and the God who was in himself showed them.”

Born:

1646 – John Flamstead, English astronomer. In 1675 he founded the famous Greenwich Observatory. He died in 1691.

1696 – Vakhushti Bagrationi, great scientist-encyclopedist. Died in 1757.

1780 – Pierre Jean de Beranger, French poet.

1810 – Giorgi Eristavi, one of the leaders of the 1832 conspiracy. Died in 1870.

1871 – Orville Wright, one of the pioneers of aviation.

1877 – Simon Amirejib, scientist, founder of bacteriology and hygiene in Georgia. Died in 1936.

1946 – Bill (William) Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States in 1993-2000.

Died:

1662 – Blaise Pascal, prominent French philosopher, writer, mathematician and physicist.

1936 – Federico García Lorca, a prominent Spanish poet and playwright.

1994 – Linus Pauling, an American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry (1954) and Peace Prize laureate (1962).

Events:

1692 – Five women were burned at the stake for witchcraft in the North American city of Salem.

1787 – British astronomer William Herschel discovered Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.

1839 – The Pulkovo Astrophysical Observatory was opened near St. Petersburg.

1919 – Afghanistan declared its independence.

1944 – Paris revolted against the German fascists.

1966 – An earthquake in eastern Turkey kills 2,529 people.

1988 – The eight-year Iran-Iraq war ends.

Memorable days:

Afghanistan — Independence Day.

USA — National Aviation Day.

Vietnam — 1945 Revolution Day.

Vinalia — Winemaking festival in ancient Rome.