As we speak is Ferragosto, one of the crucial necessary public holidays on the Italian calendar. It’s a distinctive establishment, during which working individuals, sometimes professionals, take journeys to the mountains/hills, the ocean, or the cities for leisure, and can keep away between one and two weeks on both aspect of August fifteenth. Inaugurated by Caesar Augustus, declared holy by the Church because the date of the Assumption of Mary, and changed into a nationwide unity train by the Fascists, it is among the oldest continuous public holidays in Europe. READ extra about this distinctive vacation… (18 BCE)
The time period Ferragosto comes from the Latin phrases Feriae Augusti, or the Faire of Augustus. August in Italy is brutally sizzling and infrequently dry. Journeys to the mountains or the ocean are due to this fact the right pure escape from the climate, and one of many causes the idea of an August truthful has survived by so a few years.
Underneath Benito Mussolini, the nationwide practice service would promote discounted practice tickets to employees seeking to go to both the ocean or the mountains. Till 2010, 90% of corporations, retailers, and industries closed for the entire month. Nevertheless, as a result of closing a complete nation’s economic system would end in critical monetary impacts and office backlogs, most corporations now shut for about two weeks and require all employees to take obligatory trip, much like the observe of workplaces closing between 25 December and the primary of January.
When People see that European employees get X-amount extra days off than American employees, it’s sometimes due to this month of Ferragosto.
MORE Good Information on this Day:
- The Mayflower launched from a pier in Southampton, England, after needing repairs following a earlier launch that needed to flip again from their voyage to the shores at Plymouth Rocks (1620)
- Tivoli Gardens opened — and continues to be intact at the moment — in Copenhagen, Denmark (1843)
- Thomas Edison made the first-ever recording — “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1877)
- Julia Baby, the chef, writer, and tv persona identified for bringing French delicacies to the American public together with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Artwork of French Cooking, was born (1912)
- The Wizard of Oz, a musical fantasy movie starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, and Margaret Hamilton because the Depraved Witch, premiered at Grauman’s Chinese language Theatre, in Hollywood (1939)
- Korean Liberation Day (1945)
- India gained its independence from the UK after some 200 years of British rule with Jawaharlal Nehru taking workplace as the primary Prime Minister of India, whereas Mohandas Ok. Gandhi, the actual hero, was absent and, as a substitute, remained in humble service (1947)
- Elvis Presley began a five-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘It’s Now Or By no means’, a track based mostly on the Italian composition ‘O Sole Mio’ (1960)
- A SETI mission radio telescope at Ohio State College acquired a radio sign from deep house; the occasion is known as the “Wow! sign”, for the notation made by a volunteer on the mission (1977)
- Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Martin Sheen—winner of the Palme d’Or—was launched (1979)
839 years in the past at the moment, Queen Tamar of Georgia consecrated the holy cave monastery/metropolis of Vardzia within the mountains of Erusheti on the left financial institution of the Kura River. The caves stretch alongside the cliff for some 5 hundred meters and as much as nineteen vertical tiers. The monastery was an necessary cultural middle, a spot of great literary and creative work.
Cave structure has existed at Vardzia because the seventh century CE; carved out of the tufaceous limestone. 4 distinct constructing phases have been recognized at Vardzia: the primary throughout the reign of Giorgi III (1156–1184), when the positioning was laid out and the primary cave dwellings excavated; the second between his dying and the wedding of his successor Tamar in 1186, when the Church of the Dormition was carved out and embellished.
The Historical past of Georgia, a set of medieval chronicles, relates how Vardzia was constructed to deal with the relics of the Virgin of Vardzia, with a view to safe favor for Tamar in her campaigns towards the Muslims.
It escaped the Mongol invaders within the 1290s. The monastery, based on chronicles, contained massive quantities of valuables from silver, gold, and valuable stones, indicating its financial prosperity. Development on the positioning continued additionally after Tamar’s dying. The bell tower and the southern church portal had been constructed within the late thirteenth and early 14th centuries.
It’s presently pending UNESCO World Heritage Standing. (1185)
11 years in the past at the moment, the Smithsonian Institute felt it had sufficient proof to announce the first new carnivorous mammal to be found within the Americas in 35 years. The olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) is a mammal of the raccoon household (Procyonidae) that lives in montane forests within the Andes of western Colombia and Ecuador. Regardless of being of no conservation concern, these small mammals had been frequently seen, however had been typically mistaken as olingos or the kinkajou, their cousins.
In reality, an olinguito lived on the Nationwide Zoo for a yr, throughout which period researchers tried to breed her with the resident olingos, not realizing she was a unique species.
Scientists have recognized a minimum of 4 subspecies of this tree-dwelling carnivore that additionally eats fruit, and so they can dwell at altitudes as excessive as 9,000 ft above sea degree, making it the very best residing member of the genus. (2013)
106 years in the past at the moment, American cartoonist Winsor McCay launched the primary long-form animation movie, the Sinking of the Lusitania.
Removed from being humorous, the 12-minute movie depicted the massive British steam liner carrying 2,000 passengers when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. An originator of animated cartoons, he was annoyed when his media bosses, the Hearst empire, downplayed the incident in its newspapers, as a result of they needed America to remain out of World Conflict I.
So McCay spent all his spare hours producing the movie, which took him 22 months to create, telling the story of essentially the most “dastardly, cowardly act.” 25,000 drawings had been sketched and photographed for the musical animation which used the newest cel know-how.
It was not till Disney’s characteristic movies within the Thirties that the animation trade caught up with McCay’s degree of modernist approach. The seminal movie was chosen for preservation by the US Nationwide Movie Registry for its significance. WATCH 8-minutes of the movie… (1918)
110 years in the past at the moment, the Panama Canal formally opened its gates to ships after the completion of one of many largest, most tough engineering tasks ever undertaken.
The sequence of locks and artifical lakes constructed by France and the U.S. linked the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, eliminating the necessity for a prolonged, hazardous route round South America. (1914)
And on at the present time in 1965, The Beatles performed the first-ever stadium live performance, performing for 56,000 screaming teenagers at Shea Stadium in New York Metropolis. A pivotal occasion in rock and roll, John Lennon later known as it a profession spotlight, saying, “I noticed the highest of the mountain.” The Beatles At Shea turned a documentary produced by Ed Sullivan, which included backstage scenes of The Fab 4 playing around within the dressing room, and a 30-minute efficiency video of their songs: Twist and Shout, She’s a Girl, I Really feel Positive, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Ticket to Trip, Everyone’s Making an attempt to Be My Child, Can’t Purchase Me Love, Child’s in Black, Act Naturally, A Onerous Day’s Evening, Assist!, and I’m Down. Watch a number of moments of historical past under…
Completely satisfied thirty fourth Birthday to Jennifer Lawrence, the actress from Louisville, Kentucky, who turned the highest-paid actress on this planet in 2015 and 2016.
After being noticed by a expertise scout whereas vacationing in New York Metropolis together with her household she moved to L.A. Quickly, in her breakthrough function that earned her an Oscar nomination, she performed a poverty-stricken teenager within the 2010 Academy Award-nominated indie movie Winter’s Bone. Her profession quickly skyrocketed following starring roles within the X-Males movies and Starvation Video games.
Then, at 22 years outdated, her efficiency alongside Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook received her the Academy Award for Finest Actress—the second-youngest girl ever to win that Oscar.
In 2015, she based the Jennifer Lawrence Basis, which has advocated for the Boys & Ladies Golf equipment of America and the Particular Olympics. She was poised to return this yr in a brand new Netflix movie from director Adam McKay, known as Don’t Look Up—a narrative that follows two astronomers who’re working to warn your complete world a couple of huge asteroid that’s heading to Earth. (1990)
And, 55 years in the past at the moment, the Woodstock music pageant opened, attracting 400,000 youth to “an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music.”
Held at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, 43 miles southwest of Woodstock, New York, it featured 32 acts performing outdoor, typically within the rain. It has change into extensively thought to be a pivotal second in pop music historical past, first immortalized within the 1970 Oscar–successful documentary and soundtrack album, together with the favored Joni Mitchell–written track, Woodstock that turned a significant hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Younger. The pageant web site is now on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
Regardless of native opposition, muddy roads and fields, and indicators proclaiming, “Purchase No Milk. Cease Max’s Hippy Music Competition”, the tickets offered out at $16-$24 every—plus a whole lot of hundreds extra crashed the occasion. Creedence Clearwater Revival was the primary act to signal a contract to carry out in a spot nobody ever heard of—and afterward the massive acts adopted: Joan Baez, Santana, Grateful Lifeless, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, and Jimi Hendrix (enjoying The Star-Spangled Banner at dawn after the ultimate day). WATCH a video celebrating the anniversary… (1969)
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