Timeline of social nudity

Sauna (1802)

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

Prehistory - 1800

• 720 BC. According to one legend, an athlete, Orsippos of Megara discarded his loincloth that year and won his race at the Olympic Games. A variation of the legend asserts that the loincloth accidentally fell off a runner at the Olympics who tripped on it, struck his head, and died. So for reasons of either improved athletic performance or for safety, ancient Greek Olympic athletes competed naked.
• 393 AD. Students in ancient Greece exercised and received instruction unclothed, and athletes competed naked. This tradition continued until 393 AD, when the Christian Emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympic Games because he considered them Pagan.
• In Sparta both women and men were free to go about the city nude and occasionally did so, in addition to their customary nudity in festivals and exercise.
• 1st century AD. Historian Diodorus Siculus recorded that the Celts commonly fought naked in battle. Incidences of nudity written about in the New Testament show that refusing to wear clothes was considered a sign of insanity during the period (Luke 8:27). However, some New Testament references to nudity, such as (Mark 14:52) and (John 21:7), suggests that it was extremely unlikely that a Jewish person would go unclothed in public. Additionally, during the period of the New Testament, people would remove their outer garments during physical labour, leaving their legs and arms exposed, a degree of exposure considered naked from the cultural perspective of the time, and one considered highly inappropriate when in front of women or respected persons such as teachers and religious or civic leaders.
• 201 - 1500 AD. Christian groups, including the Adamites, Adamianis, Carpocrations, Aquarii, and Marcosians all practiced social nudity.
• 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, and he told her that she had to ride naked through the city's market before he would do it. Godgyfu, remembered as Lady Godiva, accepted the challenge.

1800 through 1900

• 1840s. Nude bathing was common on the beaches of the United Kingdom by this decade.

• 1868. Approximate year of the introduction of the swimmming-costume. 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.

• 1870s. The diary of Rev. Robert Francis Kilvert, documents the transition in Victorian England from the acceptance of nude bathing to the mandatory use of swimming-costumes. In an 1874 entry, Kilvert notes being brought "a pair of very short red and white striped drawers to cover my nakedness" after he had finished bathing at Seaton, and being so "unaccustomed to such things and customs" that he had "set at nought the conventionalities of the place".

• 1874. While surfing developed across Polynesia as a nude activity, it remained so only until 19th century missionaries forced the natives into covering themselves. This dress code, however, 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.

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.

• 1903 Paul Zimmerman establishes first naturist resort near Hamburg, Germany.

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

• Circa 1905. The English Gymnosophist Society was founded.

• 1929. The American League for Physical Culture was formed.

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

• May 15, 1932. Sky Farm, the first permanent nudist community in the United States, was established in Liberty Corners, near Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Rock Lodge Club is established in nearby Stockholm, New Jersey the same year. Both clubs are still active.

• 1933 In Germany, Nazi edict banned many nudist organizations; but nudists re-formed as "sports" groups and were re-legalized.

• 1934. Men begin going bare-chested on crowded Long Island, New York, public beaches, despite the threat of arrest. At the time, full-body swimming attire was mandatory.

• 1936. Male bare-chestedness is made legal in the United States.

1950 through 1975

• 1958. United States Supreme Court rules naturist magazines acceptable under Comstock laws, which define and regulate social morals. [1]

• Late 1950s. Michigan Supreme Court ruled that people had a right to practice nudism within private resorts. [2]

• 1968. John Lennon and Yoko Ono release experimental album Two Virgins with a nude cover

• 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, is proclaimed legal for both clothed and naked bathing.

1976 through 1990

• 1976-1981. The Nambassa festivals in New Zealand, where thousands enjoyed the festivals in little or no clothing.

• 1976. The Down to Earth Co-operative Society holds the first ConFest at Cotter River, Australian Capital Territory, with the aim of `transforming society’.

• Memorial Day weekend, May 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

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

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

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

• 1985. University of Michigan's "Naked Mile" at Ann Arbor - A run by streakers marking the last day of classes in winter. It was started 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]

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

• 1986. First year of the Burning Man festival, at Baker Beach, San Francisco, California, USA. Larry Harvey and Jerry James construct a wooden figure and burn it, in celebration of the Summer Solstice. Participants: 20

• July 15, 1989. 14 women go bare-chested outside Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York State, to protest the inequality of dress between genders. [source N 12.2]

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]

• 1992-1996. painted naked cyclists at the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade, Seattle, Washington State.

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

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 women walk naked up Mount Warning in Mount 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]

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

• 1997. Burning Man festival is at Hualapai Playa, Nevada, USA. 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".

1998

• Early 1998: Two men and two women 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 bare-chested 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]

1999

NakedBerlin Group of nude men among hundreds of tourists at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate; photographed by Team Henning von Berg.

• 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 in Berlin.

• July 28 - First protest by The Freedom to be Yourself at the Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand London.

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

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

• October - Ohio State University. Women Rugby-players pose bare-chested for photo at Lincoln Memorial and were punished harshly by the University. [source N 19.3]

• End of 1999 - Terri Sue Webb begins riding bare-chested for Critical Mass.Portland and Eugene, Oregon. [source: Terri Sue Webb]

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

2000

• The Freedom to be Yourself is founded by Vincent Bethell in England in 1998.

2001

• The Freedom to be Yourself protest in London, England on July 1, 2001

• Daniel Johnson and Mark Storey from the Seattle area begin to outline goals for a local group in Seattle, which at first is known as the Body Freedom Co-op and in late 2001 incorporates as the nonprofit Body Freedom Collaborative.

2003

• Dec 6, 2003. The Durango Herald of Colorado reported that fifteen "mostly naked bike riders marked the 26th birthday of a friend with a streak through downtown Durango."

2004

• June 12, 2004. World Naked Bike Ride (1st year)

2005

NakedSydney Photographer Henning von Berg and his group of nude women in front of Sydney’s Opera House; photographed by Team Henning von Berg/MazzImage

• February 2005. Photographer Henning von Berg documented a group of completely naked women in Downtown Sydney, Australia. He took fun photos of the brave ladies in front of major touristic highlights, including the Commonwealth Bank, Hyde Park, Queen Victoria's statue, National Treasure Bank, a leading TV broadcast studio, the iconic Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge.

• June 11, 2005. Second WNBR. The World Naked Bike Ride is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together en masse on human-powered transport (the vast majority on bicycles, and fewer on skateboards, rollerblades, roller skates) to "protest oil dependency and celebrate the power and individuality of our bodies".

• July 1, 2005. First naked crossing of the European Alps. The plan was to cross Austria (hiking naked across the Inntal) from Germany towards Italy. Article [3] by Richard Foley.

2006

• June 10, 2006. World Naked Bike Ride (3rd year)

• July 01, 2006. Second Naked crossing of the European Alps [4] by Richard Foley.

• July 29, 2006. Daniel Johnson ran the entire length of the 5K UnitedHealthcare Torchlight Run at Seafair (celebrating its 30th Anniversary) wearing only bodypaint, socks and shoes in an attempt to encourage others to participate in a creatively adorned manner and to jumpstart a related event called the Jaybird Run.

2007

• July 1, 2007. Naked Hiking across the European Alps

Repeating events

• Harvard Primal Scream at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (once each semester)

• Rainbow Family of Living Light's annual Gathering of the Tribes for World Peace and Healing

• Painted naked cyclists of the Summer Solstice Parade, Seattle, June

• World Naked Bike Ride

• Fantasy Fest, Key West, Florida, USA. Topfree-friendly events include Annual "Living Art" Air Brush Competition & "Epidermal Arts and Torso Tapestries Contest" in late October

Further reading

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

See also

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

Sources

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