English clergyman and hymn writer John Newton wrote in a letter on this date in 1792: ‘The Lord himself is our Keeper. Nothing befalls us but what is adjusted by His wisdom and love. He will, in one way or another, sweeten every bitter cup, and ere long He will wipe away all tears from our eyes.’

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On this date in 1792 in Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven receives his first lesson in music composition from none other than Franz Joseph Haydn.  Below is one my favorite pieces from Beethoven:  the first movement from “The Moonlight Sonata.”

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1889 The English poet Robert Browning dies at the age of 77 on this day in 1889.

One Way Of Love

I.
All June I bound the rose in sheaves.
Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves
And strew them where Pauline may pass.
She will not turn aside? Alas!
Let them lie. Suppose they die?
The chance was they might take her eye.

II.
How many a month I strove to suit
These stubborn fingers to the lute!
To-day I venture all I know.
She will not hear my music? So!
Break the string; fold music’s wing:
Suppose Pauline had bade me sing!

III.
My whole life long I learned to love.
This hour my utmost art I prove
And speak my passion—heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? ‘Tis well!
Lose who may—I still can say,
Those who win heaven, blest are they!

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You’ll Love Me Yet

You’ll love me yet!—and I can tarry
Your love’s protracted growing:
June reared that bunch of flowers you carry
From seeds of April’s sowing.

I plant a heartful now: some seed
At least is sure to strike,
And yield—what you’ll not pluck indeed,
Not love, but, may be, like!

You’ll look at least on love’s remains,
A grave’s one violet:
Your look?—that pays a thousand pains.
What’s death?—You’ll love me yet!

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James Weldon Johnson composed the Black National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice & Sing" on this date in 1900.  The lyrics to this beautiful and moving work are below.

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

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1913 The American track star Jesse Owens was born on this day in 1913.  Owens single-handed ruined Hitler’s Olympics in 1936 by winning four gold medals at the event which was meant to showcase the superiority of the Aryan race.

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The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, Russia on this day in 1918.  Best known for his work “The Gulag Archipelago,” Solzhenitsyn was a life-long critic of the abuses of the Soviet Union.  Some quotes from him follow.

“It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes… we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions – especially selfish ones.”

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“Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.”

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“Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them”

And perhaps my favorite quote from Solzhenitsyn:

“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

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Three days after the United States declared war on Japan in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on this day in 1941; the United States promptly responded in kind.