1609 Thomas Thorpe received a licence to print Shakespeare's sonnets.

Sonnet CXVI
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


1844 The Wisconsin Phalanx was founded, an American community based on the ideals of French utopian, François Fourier (often referred to as Charles Fourier).

“His system, known as Fourierism (a form of idealistic "Utopian" socialism), is based on the idea that there exists a universal principle of harmony, displayed in four departments, the material universe, organic life, animal life, and human society. This harmony can flourish only when the restraints which conventional social behavior places upon the full gratification of desire have been abolished, allowing man to live a free and complete life. His ideas were similar to those of Sir Thomas More.” Source

“Of the numerous social philosophers of the 19th Century, Charles Fourier stands as one of the most unknown, yet potentially prophetic visionaries of a liberated world. Similar in spirit to the individualist anarchism of Max Stirner, yet devoid of the alienated egotism, Fourier provides a radical philosophy of liberty which posits the evolution of social, global, and cosmic harmony through the liberation of desire.” Source

More on Fourier

The utopian impulse – lots of links

Fourierism in the USA

Utopian socialism

Utopia by Thomas More

Re-imagining Utopia – invent community online

Intentional Communities

Wilson's Almanac Planet Directory’s links on community

Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism by Rudolph Rocker






1944 Joe Cocker, English rock singer
(For a laugh, see Joe Cocker, Elton and Zappa with their parents)



Echelon Watch | Highlights
"The United States Senate has approved a compromise plan that will expand the ability of U.S. government agents to use foreign intelligence surveillance laws. Under the plan, government officials essentially can get search warrants through a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court without having to show that the targeted person actually has ties to a foreign government or power."

Australians want Queen's man to go
"CANBERRA (Reuters) - An overwhelming majority of Australians want the Queen's representative to be sacked or resign, irrespective of his decision last week to stand aside temporarily while rape claims against him are resolved."