*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 23 | Declaration of Báb, Bahá’í holy day
Commemorates Báb’s prophecy of the coming of a spiritual leader (Bahá'u'lláh) who would usher in a new era in religious history.


*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 23, 1707 | Carolus Linnaeus (born Carl Linné), Swedish botanist
Born at Rashalt, a hamlet in south of Sweden, his father was a clergyman. Linnaeus's life was surrounded by a large garden and the natural environment and he would say of himself, that he went from the cradle into a garden. His father and uncle were horticulturists and inspired the child. Though was destined for the church, he hated the thought of such a life, and was inclined to botany.

Those of us who seem not to excel academically can take heart from the story of Carl Linné. At the University of Lund, where he studied medicine, he was "less known for his knowledge of natural history than for his ignorance of everything else", but Professor of Medicine, Dr Stoboeus, took him under his wing. Soon he left Lund for University of Uppsala, where he met with poverty, but he determined to be a botanist no matter what.

He soon began his famous system of classification, still used today. On May 12, 1732, he began his famed journey to Lapland alone, on horseback and foot, travelling 4,000 miles in five months. Linnaeus brought back nearly 100 previously unknown or undescribed plants. In 1735 he went to Holland where he gained a medical degree; there he became famous when he published his own botanical books. In 1740 he became Professor of Medicine at Uppsala, then transferred to the chair of Botany.

The great botanist spent the remainder of his life there at Uppsala and the Swedish king raised him to nobility. He laboured incessantly, continuing to revise his Systema Naturae, which grew from a slim pamphlet to a multi-volume work, as his concepts were modified and as more and more plant and animal specimens were sent to him from all over the world. He died on January 10, 1778, aged 70, leaving a legacy of changes to the nomenclature of living things that were profound and remain with us.

*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 23, 1805 | A Napoleonic irony
That aggressive little Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, having already named himself Emperor Napoleon I, placed the gold and iron crown of Lombardy upon his own head, thus proclaiming himself King of Italy. The iron in the crown was beaten from one of the crucifixion nails from the legendary True Cross, discovered in occupied Palestine by the Roman Empress Helena and presented by her to her son, Emperor Constantine the Great. Or, so it is said. There was never a speck of rust on the iron, said by the clergy to be a "permanent miracle". How ironic, then, that the island to which Napoleon was later sent in exile was one named after that Empress – the South Atlantic island of St Helena.

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Let it not be said, whenever there is energy or creative genius, "She has a masculine mind".
Margaret Fuller, American feminist, born on May 23, 1810

Let it not be said, whenever there is art, gentleness and sensitivity, "He is in touch with his ferminine side".
Pip Wilson, humanist, born on March 1, 1953