Timeline of non-sexual social nudity (prehistory - 1999)

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See also: Timeline of non-sexual social nudity (2000 - present)

Contents 1 Prehistory - 1800 2 1800 through 1900 3 1900 through 1950 4 1950 through 1975 5 1976 through 1990 6 1990 through 1995 7 1995 through 1997 8 1998 9 1999 10 Notes 11 See also 12 Sources

[edit] Prehistory - 1800

• 720 BC According to one legend, a runner at the Ancient Olympic Games named Orsippos of Megara discarded his loincloth and won his race. Another legend says that the loincloth accidentally fell off a runner at the Olympics, who tripped on it, struck his head, and died.^[1] So for reasons of either improved athletic performance or safety, from this date forward Olympic athletes competed naked.^[2]
• Students in ancient Greece exercised and received instruction while unclad; athletes competed in the nude. This continued until 393 AD, when the Christian emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympic Games because he considered them Pagan. [1]
• In Sparta both women and men were free to go about the city nude and occasionally did so, in addition to their customary nudity only in festivals and exercise.^[3]
• The 1st century BC historian Diodorus Siculus records that the Celts commonly fought naked in battle.^[4]
• 1st century AD Incidences of nudity found in the New Testament show that in the time and place represented, refusing to wear clothes was considered a sign of insanity (Luke 8:27). There are some New Testament references of which it seems nudity was spoken of, such as Mark 14:52 and John 21:7. However it is extremely unlikely that any Jewish person would go unclothed in public. During physical labor the outer garment was removed and the legs and arms would be exposed. This degree of exposure would be considered naked from their cultural perspective. This was considered highly inappropriate in front of women or respected persons such as teachers and religious or civic leaders.¹¹
• 201 - 1500 AD Christian groups Adamites, Adamianis, Carpocrations, Aquarii, and Marcosians all practice social nudity. [2], [3]
• c. 1050 AD Leofric, Earl of Mercia, imposed a heavy tax burden on the citizens of Coventry, England to support his grandiose public works. According to legend, his wife Godgyfu begged him to reduce the tax. He challenged her to ride naked through the city's market before he would do it. Godgyfu, remembered as Lady Godiva, accepted the challenge.^[5]

[edit] 1800 through 1900

• Public nude bathing was common on the beaches of the UK by the 1840s. [4]

• 1868 Approximate date of the introduction of the swimsuit. Most swimming, if not all, was done naked up to this point because wearing clothing of any sort was extremely cumbersome and thus dangerous to the swimmer.^[6]

Image:Http://www.corvalliscommunitypages.com/images sounds/hawaiisurfers.jpg

• Surfing developed across Polynesia as a nude activity, and remained so until top-coated 19th century missionaries shamed the natives into covering themselves, even while at play in the ocean. (The dress code was often ignored; a British engraving from 1874 shows a set of waves being ridden by nearly a dozen Hawaiian surfers, male and female, all of them naked.)^[7]

[edit] 1900 through 1950

• 1900 The Cult of the Nude by German sociologist Heinrich Pudor and German nude public bathing is seen as starting the nudist movement. [5]

• 1903 Paul Zimmerman establishes first naturist resort near Hamburg, Germany. [6], [7]

• Several Freedomite (Svobodniki or Sons of Freedom) Doukhobors engaged in nude protests throughout Canadian history. In May of 1903 they went on a nude march and were persecuted. In 1932 the B.C. Government allotted Piers Island, located in the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver, where close to 900 people were sentenced to 3 years for their nude protests.

• circa 1905 English Gymnosophist Society is founded. [8], [9]

• 1929 American League for Physical Culture formed. [10]

• Héliopolis ,Europe's first town dedicated to naturism, founded in 1931 on Île du Levant, a French island off the coast of the Riviera, near Toulon, by doctors Gaston and André Durville.

• Sky Farm ^[8], the first permanent nudist community in the United States, was established on May 15, 1932 in Liberty Corners, near Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

• Nazi edict was issued banning a newly emerging and flourishing naked culture. Germany, 3 March 1933.

• In 1934, men began going topfree in crowded Long Island, New York public beaches, despite the threat of arrest. [11] At the time, full-body swim attire was the norm.

• 1936 Male toplfreedom is made legal in the United States. [12]

[edit] 1950 through 1975

• 1958 United States Supreme Court rules naturist magazines acceptable under Comstock laws, which try to prevent social vices. [13]

• Late 1950s Michigan Supreme Court ruled that naturists had a right to practice nudism within private resorts. [14]

• In 1969, 300 individuals participated in a massive naked "wade-in" at a Danish beach. As a result, the vast majority of Denmark's beaches become clothing-optional.

• Woodstock Music & Arts Fair. August 15 & 16, 1969. Bethel, New York, USA

• 1974 is a year of increased streaking around college campuses in the USA.

• In 1974, Ropert Opel appears naked in Los Angeles City Council Chamber. (source Nude & Natural 18.4, more info in Cec Cinder's The Nudist Idea.)

• February 1975 Australia's first legal nude beach when the southern section of Maslin Beach south of Adelaide in South Australia proclaimed legal for clad and unclad bathing

[edit] 1976 through 1990

• 1976-1981 The Nambassa festivals in New Zealand, where thousands got naked and wandered the festivals with little or no clothing.

• 1976 The Down to Earth Co-op Society holds the first ConFest at Cotter River, ACT Australia with the aim of `transforming society’.^[9]

• Memorial Day weekend, May of 1976. Nude Beach Picnic and photo shoot in front of the World Trade Center at "a temporarily barren, enormous construction sandfill directly on the Hudson River near Wall Street" in New York City, NY, USA. [source: N 19.3]

• August 7, 1976 first National Nude Beach Day designated. [source N 19.3]

• 1980 - 1981 The Naturist Society is formed in the USA. [source N 19.3]

• Beachfront USA established a beach nudism organizing and advocacy forum in Los Angeles, CA, USA

• Nude & Natural (N) magazine, established in 1981 by TNS founder Lee Baxandall. Originally named Clothed with the Sun.

• Stelarc performance piece, "Seaside Suspension: Event for Wind & Waves", body suspended over water at Jogashima, Miura, 30 May 1981

• Stelarc performance piece, "Street Suspension", body suspended over Mo David gallery, New York City, USA, 21 July 1984

• University of Michigan's "Naked Mile" at Ann Arbor - An annual run of streakers marking the last day of classes in winter. Started in 1985 by a handful of students and has since grown to around a thousand participants annually. The event died a few years ago after concerted action by police, encouraged to end it by the University of Michigan administration. [source: Paul Rapoport Dec 2003]

• Stelarc performance piece "City Suspension", suspended naked body over city of Copenhagen, 28 June 1985

• Burning Man first year, 1986 Location: Baker Beach, San Francisco, CA, USA. Larry Harvey conceives first Burning Man. Larry and Jerry James construct improvised wooden figure and burn it. Crowd instantly doubles as figure ignites. Built in honor of Summer Solstice. Participants: 20^[10]

• July 15, 1989 14 women go topfree outside Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, USA. Protested inequality of the sexes in dress. [source N 12.2]

[edit] 1990 through 1995

• 1990 Burning Man moves to Nevada, USA. Location: Baker Beach (Burn Location: Black Rock Desert, Nevada) Participants: 800 [source: burningman.com]

• 1991 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 250 [source: burningman.com]

• painted naked cyclists at the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade, Seattle, WA, USA; 1992-1996 first naked participants get involved

• Four go topfree for protest at the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Canada July 18, 1992 [source N 12.2]

• About 20 topfree women protest Brattleboro, Vermont, USA July 27, 1992 [source N 12.2]

• Photographer Spencer Tunick starts documenting the live nude figure in public in 1992 and continues to present, in various countries, often in mass tableaux.

• 1992 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 600 attendees [source: burningman.com]

• Andrew Martinez attends a class - Russian history - without clothes in September 1992 at University of California - Berkeley [source N 12.2]

• Andrew Martinez, Debbie Moore, Nina Schilling and Marty Kent. September 29, 1992 at Sproul Plaza, University of California - Berkeley, CA [source N 12.2]

• X-plicit Players go nude or topfree from Smokey Joe's Cafe on Shattuck Ave. to Cafe Milano on Telegraph to support NY topfree victory. October 11, 1992 Berkeley, CA. [source N 12.2]

• X-plicit Players arrested after nude performance outside campus Little Theatre. Jailed and had to make bail. November 17, 1992, University of California - Berkeley. [source N 12.2]

• 1993 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 1,000 [source: burningman.com]

• Photographer "Harvey" photographs nudes in public urban environments from 1994-2002. He may have taken a few more since then. [source: Paul Rapoport]

• 1994 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 2,000 [source: burningman.com]

[edit] 1995 through 1997

• 1995 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 4,000. Burning Man becomes most populous settlement (albeit temporary) in Nevada's Pershing County. Camp is now known as "Black Rock City." [source: burningman.com]

• 1996 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 8,000 [source: burningman.com]

• December 6, 1996 Three girls walked naked up Mt Warning in Mt Warning National Park, Australia, which is recorded in the opening sequence of the Synetech video "Naked Celebrations". [source: Charles MacFarland of Synetech Video, e-mail from Dec 2003]

• April 6, 1997 A demonstration in favour of Belongil Beach, Australia, becoming a nude beach, which succeeded later. Event portrayed in "Naked Celebrations" video. [source: Charles MacFarland of Synetech Video, e-mail from Dec 2003]

• The X-plicit Players performance piece "The Body of Refuge" at People's Park, Berkeley, CA in 1997. [source X-plicit Player's website]

• 1997 Burning Man, Hualapai Playa, Nevada, USA. Location: Participants: 10,000 [source: burningman.com]

• 1997 Summer, Vincent Bethell starts writing letters to The Home Office and his Member of Parliament questioning the law regarding public nakedness.

• 1997 Cape Town/Johannesburg Bienalle, writer and performance artist, David Robert Lewis disrobes in front of the South African National Gallery in a naked art ritual and public nudity event entitled "decontamination".

[edit] 1998

• Early 1998: Two guys and two girls walked naked up Mt Warning in Mt Warning National Park, Australia, (as done similarly on Dec 6, 1996). [source: Charles MacFarland of Synetech Video, e-mail from Dec 2003]

• January 26, 1998 A demonstration in favour of Belongil Beach, Australia, becoming a nude beach, which succeeded later. Event portrayed in "Nude Beaches of Australia" video. [source: Charles MacFarland of Synetech Video, e-mail from Dec 2003]

• 6 June 1998 - Vincent Bethell stages his very first protest, Piccadilly Circus, London UK

• The X-plicit Players performance piece "Nature and Boxes" at People's Park, Berkeley, CA in 1998-1999. [source X-plicit Player's website]

• 1998 August 24. Evangeline Godron swims topfree in the Wascana pool (not for the first time) in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada [source: TERA]

• June 1998 Fremont Summer Solstice Parade in Seattle, WA, USA: Six naked cyclists attended a bodypainting party at current host's house and they all bicycled naked together from the house to the parade. Some of the cyclists were arrested this year.

• 1998 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 15,000 [source: burningman.com]

[edit] 1999

• April – Annual event “April fool's Naked Run” in Portland, Oregon. Approximately 30 participants. [source: Terri Sue Webb]

• June - Fremont Summer Solstice Parade in Seattle, WA, USA: Twenty (up from six last year) naked cyclists attended a body painting party at current host's house and they all bicycled naked together from the house to the parade. This year the event host, the Fremont Arts Council (FAC), secretly launched its own spoof of the naked bicyclists. Wearing flesh-colored body suits with exaggerated body parts sewn on, one woman had three butt cheeks, while two bicyclists pretending to be police officers gave chase through the parade. When the truly naked cyclists showed up they blended right in with their FAC body-suit imposters.

• July 7 - Photographer Henning von Berg organized the world’s first and only-ever male nude photo shoot inside a parliament building as a social-political statement. The group photo series “NAKED BERLIN – The Liberal Capital” features 6 naked men inside the historical Reichstag and at nine other famous landmarks of Germany’s capital city. ^[11]

• July 28 - First protest by TFTBY at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, England

• 1999 Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. Participants: 23,000 [source: burningman.com]

• October 3 - Naked anti-nuke protesters marched down Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, CA, USA. [source N 19.3]

• October - Ohio State University Rugby women pose top-free for photo at Lincoln Memorial and were punished harshly by their University. [source N 19.3]

• End of 1999 - Terri Sue Webb's first experiences with public nudity in Portland and Eugene, Oregon. Began riding top-free for Critical Mass. [source: Terri Sue Webb]

• December 30 - Terri Sue Webb BMX biking down Alberta street in Oregon with massive police response. [source: Terri Webb, more info in N 21.3]

[edit] Notes

The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

11. Wight, Fred H. Manners and Customs of Bible Lands. Chicago: Moody Press. 1983

[edit] See also

• Bohemianism
• Counterculture
• Culture jamming
• Direct action
• Flash mob
• Smart mob

[edit] Sources

• Histoire du naturisme at Nateuropa.org] -(In French). Google translation. Accessed December 2006