David Prashker's Book Of Days: The Merely Mentioneds: A

Ahmed Abdallah: first head of state when Comoros gained independence from France on July 6 1975 [Africa]

Pierre Abélard: Peter Abelard in English, Petrus Abaelardus or Abailardus in Latin (born circa 1079, died April 21 1142): theologian and philosopher; former tutor and lover of Héloïse d'Argenteuil on May 15 [reverend writers]

Jacob Abendana: with a dozen of his scions also detailed, amongst the first and most significant of Cromwell’s Jews, on Sept 30 [reverend writers]

The German Abwehr im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Defense of the Armed Forces High Command, can be found plotting against Hitler on July 27; members mentioned include: State Secretary Curt Jöel; Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner; Chief of Staff Ludwig Beck; Colonel Hans Oster of the Abwehr; military prosecutor Manfred Roeder; and the head of the Abwehr itself, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. The man tasked with hunting them down was Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler's deputy.

Also named are: Christine Dohnány-Bonhoeffer; Claus von Stauffenberg; Werner von Haeften; General Friedrich Olbricht; Christoph von Dohnányi; Klaus von Dohnányi; Elza Galafrés; Bronisław Huberman; Admiral Horthy; James A. Grymes; Andrew Schulhof; Lajos Hernádi; Carl Flesch; György Ferenczy; Ilona Dohnányi; Tibor Serly; Erwin Schulhoff (who is on April 1 with Gideon Klein as well); Egon Kenton [Kornstein], pianist Edward Kilenyi, musicologist Bence Szabolcsi, composer Leó Weiner, Edward R. Thaden, Professor Milton Hallman; Elisabeth Sifton and Fritz Stern [responses to bullying]

Armondo Linus Acosta: directing Robert Powell as Romeo and Francesca Annis as Juliet (with Vanessa Redrave as Ma Capulet) in the 1990 Belgian film "Romeo.Juliet", on Jan 30 [the world as stage]

Girolamo Fabricio di Acquapendente (Hieronymus Fabricius): discovers vascular valves on March 29 [scientific achievements and E,M&C2]

Robert Adam: architecting on July 23

Gerard (Gerry) Adams, terrorist, or Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh, freedom-fighter, depending on which side you take, on April 24 and Sept 29 as well as the Éireland page

Samuel Adams: leading the Sons of Liberty on April 18

Adeliza: abbess of Barking some time before Mary Becket, on Dec 29

Henry Adlard: remaking her dad's portrait of Anna Brownell Jameson on May 17

Flavius Aetius: stabbed to death by an unloveable Valentine on Feb 14

John Quincy Adams: secured the Smithsonian bequest on Aug 10; went back into the House of Representatives on Dec 5 - his dad, 2nd President John Adams, also gets a mention, as does another President, Thomas Jefferson, though the latter are a few hours apart

Elkan Nathan Adler: his "History of the Jews of London” is on Sept 30; his bio and books here [historians]

Guido Adler: recipient of a Mahler manuscript on July 7 (descendant Tom also gets a mention)

Adoum: the first of several in this list who are only known by their first name; the Arab boy who started out as André Gide’s personal servant on his journey through the Congo, but ended up as his personal student: Nov 22 [Africa]

Aeschylus though his name is written as Αἰσχύλος in the Greek, so it should really be pronounced Aischýlos (circa 525-circa 456 BCE): “the father of tragedy” on April 30, July 18 and Sept 23 [the world as stage]

Vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah (1066-1121), though he was born Abu al-Qasim Shahanshah bin Badr al-Jamali: launching a crusade against the Crusaders on March 5; his michrab here; the battle of Ascalon here

Publius Terentius Afer (born in Libya circa 190 BCE; died circa 160 BCE), usually remembered as Terence Afer: writing poems, and mostly plays, on the Africa page; more about him on the world as stage

Isaias Afewerki: the first head of state when Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia to become an independent nation on May 24 1993 [Africa]

Ahmadou Ahidjo: the first head of state when Cameroon gained independence from GB and France on January 1 1960 [Africa]

Uncle Ahuitzotl: succeeded by Montezuma on June 30; learn more about this “spiny aquatic thing” here [pre-Columban Americas]

Mohammad Farrah Aidid: fighting off the American invaders of Somalia at the Battle of Mogadishu, October 3/4 1993 [Africa]

Hernando de Alarcon: heading for New Mexico with black slaves on board [Africa and pre-Columban Americas]

Mohammed al-Khamis bin Yusef bin Hassan al-Alawi (Muhammad V): The first head of state when Morocco gained independence from France on April 7 1956 [Africa]

Khalid Wad Al Baih: Romanian born, but now Sudanese, and living in exile in Denmark; daring to make political cartoons on Sept 27 [illustrious illustrators]

St Alban: noted as the first Christian martyr in Aengland, early 4th century; the cathedral’s website here, and if you are surprised that I am including a Christian saint here, rather than automatically sending him across the Styx into the GER page... lots of reasons, for which see Prashker’s London, and especially my page in “The Badge & The Cross” on the Jewish involvement in the building of his church in the town named for him. But also the reason for his martyrdom: ask Martin Niemoller! June 24, though his feast-day is actually June 22; and the town named for him gets several mentions [responses to bullying]

Professor Bartolome de Albornoz of the University of Mexico writing against the enslavement and sale of Africans as early as 1573 [pre-Columban Americas and responses to bullying]

Ira Frederick Aldridge, alumnus of the African Grove Theater, began his acting career in London in 1824 [Africa and the world as stage]

Emily Allchurch: imagining the Tower of Babel on Dec 5 [illustrious illustrators]

Marc Allégret: the photographer photographed, by Lady Ottoline Morrell, on Nov 22 [illustrious illustrators]

Aaron H Allen (born October 6 1800; died April 7 1849): worth a cartoon on Dec 5; read all about it in comfort while starting at a screen here (and there’s a really interesting piece about Lucian Freud lower on the same link) [the world as stage]

Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby: Field Marshal and 1st Viscount Allenby; ghastly man, but he also hired and supported T.E. Lawrence: so shall I GER him? if I decide to keep him, he’ll be on Aug 15

Edward (“Ned”) Alleyn (1566-1626): playing the Fool on Dec 18; see P’s London for the Fortune Theatre and Dulwich College; the latter’s website here [the world as stage]

Malik Ambar: 1602: Ethiopian-born soldier who seized a vast area in the Deccan (the Indian interior); and founded the city of Khadki as his capital, ruling the region until his death in 1626 [Africa]

Muhammad VIII al-Amin: The first head of state when Tunisia gained independence from France on March 20 1956 [Africa]

Martin Louis Amis is very much The Zone Of Interest on Jan 11 [serious scribes]

Anton Wilhelm Amo: African-born scholar, the first African to receive a doctorate (Wittenberg), and to teach (Halle) at a European university [Africa and Educators]

Karel Ančerl: conducted Gideon Klein’s music after the war, and was himself a Terezín survivor; but still imprisoned on April 1 [musical maestros]

Henry Andrews: husband of Rebecca West on Dec 21

Kofi Atta Annan (born April 8 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana; died August 18 2018 in Switzerland): the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations and the first African to hold the post; his Nobel Peace Prize is under 2001 on the Africa page

Judah Loeb ben Ephrayim Anschel ha-Kohen, the first Rabbi at the Bevis Marks synagogue, on Sept 30

Hassan Gouled Aptidon: first head of state when Djibouti gained independence from France on June 27 1977 [Africa and the June 27 list]

Jacques Arago: painting the voyage of the Uranie on May 7

Archilochus: “(flourished c. 650 bce, Paros [Cyclades, Greece]) was a poet and soldier, the earliest Greek writer of iambic, elegiac, and personal lyric poetry” according to Britannica. Describing an eclipse on April 6 [listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 which thereby gains him a place on the E,M&C2 page though he is first and foremost among The Poets]

Archimedes of Syracuse: mathematically challenged by Omar Khayyam on March 6. For more on him try here, or here [E,M&C2]

Walter Conrad Arensberg: art collector who lunched with Marcel Duchamp on April 11 and wrote some rather indifferent poetry (click here) [illustrious illustrators]

Héloïse d'Argenteuil, or sometimes Héloïse du Paraclet (born circa 1100, died May 16 1163): French nun, philosopher, writer, scholar, abbess, and rather more famously the student-lover of Pierre Abélard on May 15 [reverend writers and mediaeval page of Woman-Blindness]

Alex Gómez Arias: caught a bus with Frida Kahlo on Sept 17 [illustrious illustrators]

Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme (distict of Athens) Cydathenaeum: Dec 18; see my Greek essay in “Beyond the Fourth Wall”; otherwise here [the world as stage]

Joan Van Ark, the actress, can be found on June 16 [the world as stage]

Robert Armin: another of the Shakespearian Fools on March 15 [the world as stage]

Hans Arp: set to mysic by Erwin Schulhoff on April 1

Yaa Asantewaa: the Queen Mother and regent of Ejisu, a province in the Asante confederacy, who led a war of resistance against British imperial power in 1900 [Africa, purple cloaks and responses to bullying]

The Karan d'Ash: Dec 18 [the world as stage]

Herbert Henry Asquith: Eirish Home Rule on April 24

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis: founder and first President of the Brazilian Academy of Literature in 1897 [Africa and serious scribes]

Waldorf Astor: ex of Nancy Langhorne on May 2

Clement Richard Attlee: mentioned re Toynbee Hall on June 5

Géo (sometimes Géa) Augsbourg: in the Picasso-Max Jacob meet-up group on Aug 19 [illustrious illustrators]

Honorius Augustodunensis: compiled the "Imago mundi" on March 8; didn’t really need following up, but I couldn’t resist the name, though he is usually remembered as mere Honorius of Autun. So I looked him up, and now wonder if I didn’t unknowingly model Fra Angelus on him! Try here: [reverend writers]

Tibors d'Aurenga: mother of Tibors de Sarenom on Jan 13; other family members mentioned include father Guilhem d'Omelas; first husband Goufroy de Mornas; second husband Bertran dels Bau; her sons Uc, the father of Barral of Marseille, Bertran, the father of Raimon; and Guilhem, as well as her grandson Raimbaut d'Orange (Raimbaut d’Aurenga) though some say he was her brother [Trobairitz]

Ian Christopher Austin: MP for Dudley North, honouring Frank Foley on May 7

Hadassah bat Avi-Chayil (but Ester bat Avi-Chayil אֶסְתֵּ֣ר בַּת־אֲבִיחַ֣יִל according to chapter 2 verse 15 of her book: click here). Queen Esther on March 12. Other Biblical names mentioned on the same date are Ishtar and Marduk, Chaman and Yehudah, Nod and Cain; Leviticus 26 quoted re Haman; and John 18 re Annas; Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as Artaxerxes I and Xerxes I, also get mentions

Kara Avigdor ben Isaac (died 1439): the oldest surviving gravestone in Prague on March 11 - try here or here

Pedro Menendez de Aviles: founding San Agustin (St. Augustine) in Florida in 1565 [Africa and pre-Columban Americas pages]

Solomon ben Jacob Ayllon: amongst the first and most significant of Cromwell’s Jews, on Sept 30

Ismail al-Azhari: first head of state when Sudan gained independence from Britain in 1956 [Africa]

Nnamdi Azikiwe: the first President when Nigeria gained independence from GB in 1960; but in a powersharing arrangement worked out by the British, Sir Abubakar Tafawa became the first Prime Minister [Africa]

Vizier al-Aziz, more correctly Laz Aziz Ahmed Pasha: Vizier of Fatamid Egypt in the 10^th century, though I am unable to determine whether the one who fought the Crusaders on March 5 was the father or the son; both bore the title al-Aziz, which should really be "al-Aziz al-Lah", “the helper of Allah”; logic tells me it was the son, for whom click here