8 August 2015
dybbuk or dibbuk
[Sephardic Hebrew dee-book; Ashkenazic Hebrew, English dib-uh k]
noun, plural dybbuks, dybbukim [Sephardic Hebrew dee-boo-keem; Ashkenazic Hebrew dih-boo k-im] (Show IPA). Jewish Folklore.
1. a demon, or the soul of a dead person, that enters the body of a living person and directs the person’s conduct, exorcism being possible only by a religious ceremony.
Origin of dybbuk
Hebrew
1900-1905; < Yiddish dibek < Hebrew dibbūq, derivative of dābhaq cleave (to); spelling dybbuk is a Pol transliteration of the Heb word
Dictionary.com
Today’s quote
I want to die as a slave to principles, not to men.
― Emiliano Zapata
On this day
8 August 1864 – Formation of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.
8 August 1945 – The Soviet Union declares war on the Empire of Japan and invades the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. In late, July 1945 Japan, naively, had been petitioning the neutral Soviets to broker a peace deal favourable to the Japanese. While the invasion violated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, it was in accordance with the secret Yalta Agreements that the Soviet Union made with the United States and the United Kingdom at the Crimea Conference held between 4-11 February 1945, in which Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender.
8 August 1953 – conclusion of negotiations for the 1953 London Debt Agreement which had begun on 27 February 1953, when West Germany was given debt relief by creditor nations, which included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United States, Yugoslavia and others. The debt of 32 billion marks (16 billion owed to the United States and 16 billion to other nations) had accumulated since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The London Agreement halved the debt to 15 billion marks to be paid out over 30 years. The repayments were capped at 3% of export earnings and were only required while West Germany had a trade surplus. This significantly boosted West Germany’s export market and directly resulted in Germany becoming an economic powerhouse.
8 August 1959 – death of Albert Namatjira, Australian Aboriginal artist. Born 28 July 1902.
8 August 1974 – USA President Richard Nixon resigns because of his impending impeachment for ‘obstruction of justice’, ‘abuse of power’, and ‘contempt of congress’, in relation to the Watergate Scandal.
8 August 1979 – birth of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary.
8 August 1981 – birth of Roger Federer in Switzerland, champion tennis player.
8 August 1988 – The ‘8888’ Uprising in Burma, from which Aung Sun Suu Kyi gains popularity and becomes a national hero.