Interesting Facts

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

25th November

1960 - Three sisters, Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal, were brutally murdered for their political activism. The sisters, known as the "Unforgettable Butterflies," became a symbol of violence against women in Latin America.

Women's activists have marked November 25 as a day against violence since 1981 and on December 17, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 (the anniversary of the day of the murder of the Mirabal sisters) as the annual date for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in commemoration of the sisters. Due to their mark in history November 25, is observed each year as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in honor of the Mirabal sisters. It also marks the beginning of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence. The end of the 16 Days is December 10, International Human Rights Day.

http://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

18th November

1307 - Famed marksman William Tell put an apple on his son's head and shot it off. (Call Social Services)

1928 - Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, his first cartoon to be distributed.

2004 - Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

11th November

1918 - On the 11th hour of the 11th Day in the 11th month the Armistice that officially ended the First World War was declared.

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/first-world-war
https://flic.kr/g/fnA5wu

2005 - Lord Lichfield, the Royal photographer died at the age of 66 after suffering a major stroke.

(Apart from being an excellent photographer he endeared himself to me by using a whistle to keep the Royal Family in order when taking the photographs at Charles and Diana's wedding - I am sure that he and Diana will have a few interesting words to say to each other.)

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

10th November

2008 - Mama Africa (Miriam Makeba) died of a heart attack after collapsing on stage.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 8 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

8th November

1920 - Rupert Bear first appeared in the Daily Express.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sun, 5 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

5th November

1605 - Guy Fawkes and other conspirators attempted to blow up the English Parliament and failed.

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 4 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

4th November

1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 was performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.

1839 – The Newport Rising took place, which is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority on mainland Britain.

1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.

1918 – Wilfred Owen, English soldier and poet died, 6 days before the end of the war.

1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

1952 – The United States government established the National Security Agency, or NSA.

1999 - Wallace and Gromit's animated adventure A Grand Day Out was first shown.

2008 – Barack Obama became the first man of African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Fri, 3 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0100

3rd November

1928 - Mickey Mouse appeared in Walt Disney's first fully synchronized sound cartoon "Steamboat Willie".

(Walt Disney actually did the voice too.)

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0100

31st October

1984 - Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, was killed by two assassins believed to be her own bodyguards.

Booh - It's Halloween!

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

29th October

1986 - Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25 motorway.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

23rd October

1958 - Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced Smurfs to the world.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

21st October

1966 at 09:15 - 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales.

At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster, the NCB was found responsible for the disaster, due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication". No NCB employee was fired, demoted or even disciplined.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

20th October

1781 - British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered to a Franco-American force led by George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, at Yorktown, Virginia, paving the way for the end of the American Revolutionary War.

2015 - English radio launched online.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

18th October

1922 - The BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) was established.

On this day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

15th October

1901 - Walt Disney was born.

2013 - The Royal Mail was privatised.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

14th October

1066 - The Battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy and Norman army defeated the English forces of Harold II.

1773 - The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Commission of National Education), was formed in Poland.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 4 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

4th October

1957: The Russian satellite, Sputnik was launched into space. Becoming the first man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 4 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

4th October

1924 - Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared in the children's verse book, "When We Were Very Young".

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Tue, 3 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0200

3rd October

1990 - Germany officially reunified when the six re-established federal states (Bundesländer) of East Germany–Brandenburg, Berlin (formed by uniting the two halves of the formerly divided city), Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia–formally joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0200

30th September

2005 - A Danish newspaper published a series of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which Muslims found so insulting that 140 people died in the ensuing violence.

(140 people died in the resulting protests - now that's a crime.)

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0200

27th September

1998 - Google officially came into the world.

They formally incorporated the company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. But according to Google, they are 10 years old today, so who am I to argue.

Official Google Blog

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0200

22nd September

1977 - Steve Biko, the leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, died in police custody.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0200

18th September

1970 - Music Legend Jimi Hendrix died after collapsing at a party in London.

On This Day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0200

16th September

1968 - Royal Mail, in the UK, began the two-tier postal system of first and second class stamps.

On this day

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0200

11th September

1944 - An allied bombing raid on the German city of Darmstadt killed an estimated 12,300 inhabitants and made 70,000 people homeless.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." Dwight Eisenhower

2001 - Four commercial passenger jet airliners were hijacked. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane. There were no known survivors from any of the flights.

Excluding the 19 hijackers, 2,999 people died in the attacks. Another 24 are missing and presumed dead. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 90 different countries.

"The pain of the world will sear and break our hearts because we can no longer keep them closed. We've seen too much now. To some degree or other, we have surrendered into service and are willing to pay the price of compassion.
But with it comes the joy of a single, caring act. With it comes the honor of participating in a generous process in which one rises each day and does what one can. With it comes the simple, singular grace of being an instrument of Love, in whatever form, to whatever end." Ram Dass