We began the transition from the year of the Yin Earth Pig/Boar , with the year of the Yang Metal Rat celebration beginning January 25^th, 2020. GengZi 庚子, the Year of the Golden (Yang Metal) Rat begins February 4, 2020. This is also the “real” first day of spring, the commonly accepted Western first day of spring March 20^th is actually the peak of spring, each day after we transition towards Summer. The last day of the year of the Rat is February 11, 2021. The Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) occurs on the second new moon after the winter solstice. The festival lasts approximately two weeks and ends with the Full Moon Festival of Heaven or Festival of Lanterns on February 8^th.

The Rat begins a new twelve year cycle and the next Metal Rat year will not occur again until 2080. As the story is told, when the Jade Emperor gathered the animals together to create the calendar the Rat was riding on the back of the Ox and when they were approaching the Emperor the Rat jumped off the Ox’s back and ran to the Emperor, thus arriving first. The Ox second, followed by the other animals with the Pig/Boar last. Hence the order of the 12 Animal system.

Each Rat year is a sign of a new beginning a type of renewal with a new energy cycle. “The Rat symbol is symbolic of adaptability, kindness, creativity, foresight, and intelligence. It is also known for success, expanse, stealth, strength, and the ability to solve problems that other people cannot. (Master Tang)”

Ken Cohen states the “Positive Side: The fact that this year is the beginning of the 12-year cycle and the elements are in harmony means that it should be a relatively good year for creativity, prosperity, education, romance, and to re-dedicate yourself to health and balance.

Negative Side: However, because earth element is lacking and metal could be interpreted as sinking into the water, it is important to be extra careful that you build a stable foundation under whatever you do—whether building a house, studying a subject, or starting a new job or relationship. Also, metal and water are cold and relate to autumn and winter. The cold attitude of people in a position of power or authority and the cold nature of large institutions, such as government and corporations, will be even more apparent, which means continuing worldwide protests against injustice, especially in the autumn and winter seasons. It is interesting to note that the Boxer Rebellion, one of the most famous Chinese revolts against colonialism, peaked in 1900, a Metal Rat Year. (Ken Cohen)”

“As I mentioned in my Winter Greetings in early November 2019, the cosmological energy this winter season has weakened the lung function and/or immune system of many… The off-season warmth many of us experienced this winter is turning towards a cold spring and this pattern of cosmological Qi I am afraid will not be much better for many people. The new cold spring Qi has already begun to influence those people who suffer from joint pain and/or lower back pain. It is possible that this pattern is also weakening the function of some people’s liver, heart, and/or lung. Even now near the close of the winter season, the world is watching the Wuhan coronavirus as it spreads in China and beyond. In Chinese tradition, Rat is a symbol for brilliance, deep wisdom and strong new life energy. It has the most honored position of being the very first animal symbol in the Chinese zodiac. Rat brings the power to shake off any old patterns of stagnation to create power and usher in new energy into your life. The Rat is inherently noble and prosperous. Perhaps under the influence of Yang Metal energy, this year brings the potential for double prosperity into our lives? The word for “metal” in Chinese in Jin 金, which we also use to mean gold. (Master Wu)”

In our article 2019 Year of the Yin Earth Pig, we predicted based on prior Earth Pig years “we see the tendency for: severe weather, erratic weather patterns (as in the USA deep freeze of 1899), buildup of tensions with communist/socialist groups and countries, promotion of/use of electric cars, expansion of trade, revolutionary inventions (vulcanized rubber production), etc… JiHai己亥 (Yin Earth Pig) energy suggests that we will have even more dramatic, changing weather patterns in coming year. The extremely dangerous cold that has descended upon the US, from the Midwest to the East Coast, these last several days, is a signal of the upcoming weather craziness this year.

Review the lists below for a more thorough understanding of the past cycles.

1960

(https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1960, https://worldhistoryproject.org/1960)

• Senator John F. Kennedy, announces his candidacy for the US Presidency
• European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm (predecessor to the European Union)
• US & Japan sign joint defense treaty
• Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes in Virginia, killing all 50 people on-board
• US President Eisenhower & Premier Kishi sign US-Japanese Security pact
• Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook, South Africa; 417 die of methane poisoning
• Algeria uprises against French president De Gaulle
• Dutch communist trade union EVC’58 disbands
• African National Party is founded in Chad
• students stage 1st civil rights sit-in, at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina
• Old handwriting found in at Qumran, near the Dead Sea
• Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”
• Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers
• France performs 1st nuclear test at Reggane Proving Grounds Algeria
• US nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on underwater round-world trip
• VIII Winter Olympic Games open in Squaw Valley, California
• Protest strike in Poznan, Poland
• Italian government of Segni falls
• Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia
• Oil pipe line from Rotterdam to Ruhrgebied opens
• 9th largest snowfall in NYC history (14.5″)
• Agadir earthquake in Morocco kills a third of the population (12,000-15,000)
• French freighter “La Coubre” explodes in Havana Cuba, killing 100
• The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis originates when Alister Hardy publicly announces his idea that ape-human divergence may have been due to a coastal phase.
• USSR agrees to stop nuclear testing
• 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield Calif
• US President Eisenhower forms anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA
• Sharpeville Massacre: Police kill 72 in South Africa & outlaws ANC
• 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut)
• Iraq executes 30 after attack on President Kassem
• 2nd French atom bomb explodes (Sahara)
• 1st weather satellite launched (TIROS 1)
• Senegal declares independence from France
• US Senate passes Civil Rights Bill with measures against discriminatory voting pracrices
• Brasilia becomes capital of Brazil
• Founding of the Orthodox Bahá’í Faith in Washington, D.C.
• Heavy earthquake strikes South Persia, 500 killed
• 1st submerged circumnavigation of Earth completed by USS submarine Triton in 60 days, 21 hours
• Togo (formerly French Togo) declares independence from French administration
• India’s Bombay state split into Gujarat & Maharashtra states
• Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk
• US House of Representatives investigating committee, looking into payola questions
• Leonid Brezhnev replaces Kliment Voroshilov as President of USSR
• USSR & Cuba resume diplomatic relations
• US becomes the first country to legalize the birth control pill
• USSR launch 1st (unmanned) space capsule
• 1st atomic reactor system patented by J W Flora of Canoga Park, California
• Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California
• Tsunami strikes Hilo, Hawaii at 01:04 AM, severely damaging virtually all coastal towns between the 37th and 44th parallels
• 1 millionth Dutch telephone installed
• Federation of Mali and Senegal become independent of France
• Japan signs security treaty with the US
• The independent Somali Democratic Republic, commonly known as Somalia, is formed out of former British and Italian territories
• Fidel Castro nationalizes Esso, Shell & Texaco in Cuba
• USSR shoots down US RB-47 reconnaissance plane
• Belgium sends troops to Congo
• Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta and Niger declare independence
• Congo, Chad and Central African Republic declare independence
• USSR’s Sputnik 5 launched with 2 dogs
• Islamabad declared as the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan
• Race riot in Jacksonville, Florida
• -127°F (-88°C), Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
• The first election of the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration, in history of Tibet. The Tibetan community observes this date as the Democracy Day.
• Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Venezuela form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
• Cuban leader Fidel Castro delivers a 4 hour and 29 minute long speech at the United Nations
• Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 4000 die
• Hurricane ravages East-Pakistan (6,000 die)
• 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC
• Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 10,000 die
• Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy Appear in First Televised Presidential Debate
• John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon who was the incumbent Vice President
• Coup against South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm fails
• 2 passenger trains collided at high-speed killing 110 (Czech)
• Belgium threatens to leave UN due to criticism on its policy on Congo
• First atomic reactor for research & development, Richland, Wa
• CBS radio expands hourly news coverage from 5 to 10 minutes
• Black Sunday – Riot in Algiers, 114 die
• The National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, is officially formed in South Vietnam
• King Saud of Saudi Arabia takes power

1900

(https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1900, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900)

• Compulsory education in Netherlands goes into effect
• British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria are established
• John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
• Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule
• Boers attack at Ladysmith, about 1,000 killed or injured
• Freeland Colony founded in US (It was meant to serve as a model which would convert the rest of Washington and later the entire continent to socialism. )
• The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands, US gains control of Somoa
• The second contingent of Canadian troops sails from Halifax to fight in South Africa against the Boers
• Social Democrat Party of America (Debs’ party) holds 1st convention
• American League organized in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis
• Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky
• The United States and the United Kingdom sign treaty for Panama Canal
• Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country
• 1st Chinese daily newspaper in US publishes (Chung Sai Yat Po, San Francisco)
• In London, the Trades Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party (formed in 1893) meet, results in a Labour Representative Committee and eventually the modern Labour Party in 1906
• US Steel Corporation organizes
• After a meeting in Indianapolis, USA, a group forms the Social Democratic Party and nominates Eugene Debs as its candidate for President in the forthcoming election (becomes the Socialist Party in 1901)
• In France the length of the working day for women and children is limited by law to 11 hours
• US currency goes on gold standard after Congress passes the Currency Act
• Japan uses its influence over Korea to deny Russia’s efforts to obtain a naval station at Korean Port of Masampo, the lead up to the Russo-Japanese war
• US Socialist Party forms in Indianapolis
• Assassination attempt on Prince of Wales, later British King Edward VII when shot by Jean-Baptiste Sipido in protest over Boer war
• Attempted assassination of Edward Prince of Wales in Brussels, fails
• The US Congress passes the Foraker Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory (effective 1 May)
• US Post Office issues 1st books of postage stamps
• Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express (immortalized in”Ballad of Casey Jones”)
• Britain proclaims protectorate over Kingdom of Tonga
• Total solar eclipse occurs
• US troops, along with French and UK troops arrive in Beijing, help put down Boxer Rebellion
• British army occupies Pretoria, South Africa
• US Congress pass an act authorizing a civil code and government for the territory of Alaska after gold discoveries bring lawlessness and disorder to the area
• In China, Boxers destroy the race course in Peking, a few miles from the legations and the center and symbol of diplomatic social life and Western privilege.
• In Germany, the Reichstag pass the second Navy Bill, which calls for doubling the German Navy within 20 years
• In China, Baron von Kettler, the German minister to China, beats two young Boxers with his walking stick; when word of this circulates, rioting and arson spread throughout Peking during the night
• The Young Turks present a manifesto to the major foreign embassies in Constantinople demanding that these foreign powers end the Ottoman Sultan’s rule
• Dutch Social-Democratic Workers’ party & Socialistenbond merge
• Russia mobilizes its army in eastern Siberia preparatory to acting against the Chinese, but also in an attempt to diminish the influence of Japan on the Asian mainland
• Dunhuang manuscripts, including the Diamond Sutra, world’s oldest surviving dated book, discovered by Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu in the Mogao Caves, China
• Japan mobilizes 20,000 troops to help put down the Boxer uprising in China and to advance their long-term interest in gaining land and power in mainland Asia
• The Imperial Chinese Court issues what is essentially a declaration of war against the foreigners in China and blames hostilities on them, giving license to Boxers for even greater ferocity
• Trying to stem the growing popular resentment, Tsar Nicholas of Russia issues a decree that abolishes the banishment of dissidents and troublemakers to Siberia
• The Commonwealth of Australia is established by the British House of Commons
• 114°F (46°C), Basin, Wyoming (state record)
• Pan-African Congress meets in London
• British Parliament passes several progressive social acts: a Mines Act, a Workmen’s Compensation Act and a Railway Act
• Firestone Tire and Rubber Company founded
• In Russia, anti-Jewish riots spread from Odessa into other parts of the country
• An allied expeditionary force, made up of Japanese, Russian, British, French and American troops, sets off from Tientsin for Peking, China, to put down Boxer rebellion
• 1st electric tram in Netherland (Leidseplein-Brouwersgracht)
• The Boxer Rebellion: In China, the Empress, her family and court retainers flee while foreign troops move through Peking in an attempt to quell the rebellion
• Japan’s primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling.
• Telegraph use between Germany & US begins
• 6,000 killed when a hurricane & tidal wave strikes Galveston, Texas
• Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac
• In a final confrontation, around 4,000 Ashantis are defeated by the British in the Gold Coast (Ghana)
• 8.3 magnitude earthquake shakes Cape Yakataga, Alaska
• Foreign ministers in Peking begin their first serious negotiations over what conditions their nations will impose on the Chinese after putting down the Boxer uprising
• Under US military control since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Cuba now calls its own constitutional convention
• Republican US President William McKinley and his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan
• France and Italy sign a secret agreement by which Italy recognizes France’s right to exploit Morocco in return for France’s conceding her the same right in Tripol
• New Ellis Island Immigration station completed costing $1.5 million
• Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)
• As American forces defeat the Filipino insurgents and impose civil authority, some Filipinos form a Federal Party with a platform recognizing US sovereignty
• Foreign powers present the Chinese Empress with their list of ‘irrevocable conditions’ before their nations will withdraw troops from China

1840

(https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1840)

• 1st deep sea sounding by James Clark Ross in south Atlantic at 2425 fathoms (14,450 feet)
• Records show 95,820 licensed public houses in England on this date
• The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives
• Dutch King Willem II crowned
• American naval expedition under Charles Wilkes is first to identify Antarctica as a new continent
• First Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi Captain William Hobson arrives in the Bay of Islands, NZ
• The Treaty of Waitangi is signed between 40 Māori Chiefs (later signed by 500) and representatives of the British crown in Waitangi, New Zealand. The treaty was designed to share sovereignty between the two groups.
• Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by Sarah Barry wife of its architect Charles Barry
• “Penny Black”, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain
• Thomas Carlyle begins his famous lecture series “The Hero as Divinity”, later collected in his book “On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History”
• Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, kills 317
• The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished
• Captain William Hobson proclaims British sovereignty over New Zealand; the North Island by treaty and the South Island by ‘discovery’
• Meteorite hits Uden, Netherlands
• Samuel Morse patents his telegraph
• The Cunard Line’s 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end
• Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated
• Willem I resigns as king of Netherlands
• Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta
• William Henry Harrison elected the 9th President of the United States of America
• Napoleon Bonaparte receives a French state funeral in Paris 19 years after his death