Ruth Norman (1900–1993) was an American religious leader who co- founded the Unarius Academy of Science with her husband Ernest Norman. The couple discussed numerous details about their past lives and spiritual visits to other planets, forming a mythology from these accounts. Ernest died in 1971, prompting Ruth to serve as their group's leader and primary channeler. In early 1974, she predicted that a space fleet of benevolent extraterrestrials, the Space Brothers, would land on Earth later that year. After the extraterrestrials' non-appearance, Norman stated that trauma she had suffered in a past life had caused her to make an inaccurate prediction. Undaunted, she rented a building for Unarius' meetings and sought publicity for the movement, claiming to have united the Earth with an interplanetary confederation. She revised the Space Brothers' expected landing date several times, before finally settling on 2001. Despite predicting that she would live to see the extraterrestrials land, Norman died in 1993. Unarius continued to operate and celebrate her leadership after her death.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Norman

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1799:

Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse became the first woman to make a parachute jump (artwork pictured), when she descended 900 m (3,000 ft) from a hot-air balloon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Genevi%C3%A8ve_Labrosse

1892:

The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States was first used in public schools to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

1960:

Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was assassinated on live television by a man using a samurai sword. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inejiro_Asanuma

1984:

The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in a failed attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her cabinet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing

1992:

A 5.8 MB earthquake struck south of Cairo, Egypt, killing 545 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Cairo_earthquake

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

jawan: (India) An (Indian) infantryman; a soldier. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jawan

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The true Christian is not obliged to renounce the things of this world or to lessen his natural abilities. On the contrary, inasmuch as he incorporates them into his normal life in a disciplined manner, he develops and perfects them; he thereby ennobles the natural life itself, supplying efficacious values to it not only of the spiritual and eternal world but also of the material and earthly world. --Edith Stein https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edith_Stein