On this day...

From "New Morning" email newsletter:

For some Christians, today is the commemoration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Dormition of the Theotokos—a celebration of the belief that the body of the mother of Jesus was taken into heaven after her death.

On this day in 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica. Napoleon envisioned a so-called Grand Empire—a united Europe—of which, of course, he would be emperor. He almost succeeded. Napoleon remains a subject of fascination. It has been said that more biographies have been written about him than any other person in western history, except Jesus of Nazareth.

T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, was born this day in 1888. He went to Egypt as a young archaeologist, he later became world-famous as a British Army officer during World War I—and for his support of an independent Arab state in Palestine. As he wrote in his best-selling memoirs, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, "All men dream: but not equally. The dreamers of the day act with open eyes. This I did."

On this day in 1914, the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans opened after 35 years in the making. It was one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken. The Canal cut the voyage from the Atlantic to Pacific by about 8,000 miles.

Ha! I share a birthday with Napoleon and Larry of Arabia, as well as the Panama Canal!