DECEMBER 11 — GRACE PALEY
American short-story writer, poet, political activist.

DECEMBER 11 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Geneva, Switzerland: THE ESCALADE. Gala carnival commemorating December 11, 1602, when alarm bells rang in the middle of the night. The Savoyards were scaling the city walls. Men rushed to battle stations, women to the kitchens where they heated great pots of soup and water, which were dumped on the enemy with great success. Masquerades and revels.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 11 IN HISTORY…
1911 — Superb Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz born, Gamaliya, Cairo, Egypt.
1922 — American feminist writer, poet Grace Paley born, Bronx, New York City.
1927 — Soviet Commune in Canton, China is begun.
1928 — Cuban filmmaker Tomás Gutierrez Alea born, Havana.
1936 — Edward VIII abdicates English throne to marry a twice-divorced American.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.