I am generally skeptical of astrology’s claims, but September 12 is one of those dates that makes you wonder. It has seen: the Battle of Marathon, when the Athenians and their Plataean allies held off the Persian naval invasion; the Battle of Vienna, when the combined forces of the Christian powers halted the Ottoman advance into Europe; the American Revolution’s Battle of North Point, when a small Maryland militia prevented the British capture of Baltimore; and the Battle of Saragarhi, when a garrison of twenty-one Sikhs inflicted thousands of casualties on an invading Pashtun force and prevented the Afghans from overrunning the northern portion of British India. (This last episode is commemorated in the ludicrous Bollywood flick Kesari, which, if not exactly high art, is at least a lot of fun.)

Is there a point to all that? Who knows. At any rate, it’s a good day to take courage for difficult causes, and that’s worth celebrating in these dark times.