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There is often a difference of 11 to 13 days between the date an event occurred in history and the date it is celebrated on the calendar today. This is due to a discrepancy that occurred in the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar. The Julian Calendar, named for Julius Caesar, called for an extra day (Leap Day) to be inserted once every four years, in order to keep consistent with the 365 & 1/4 day solar year. 
February 23 Today Russia celebrates Defenders of the Fatherland Day. On February 23 (Julian Calendar) 1917, Russian women in Petrograd celebrated the 7th International Women’s Day. In response to food shortages caused by the war with Germany, the women of Russia’s capital city “poured onto the streets,” demanding “bread for our children” and “the return of our husbands from the trenches.” (www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1920/womens-day.htm) The protests gained momentum the following days when workers’ strikes forced the closure of hundreds …Read more 
February 21 Language is the soul of a nation… Do you want to make a people disappear? Destroy its language. Jules-Paul Tardivel, L’anglicisme, voila l’ennemi, 1880 Today is International Mother Language Day. For some reason the excitement surrounding this occasion is not quite as intense as other more important holidays, such as Talk Like a Pirate Day. This may be because our national linguistic experience differs from most countries. As one joke goes: What do you …Read more 
December 23
On this day in 1783, the most powerful man in the Western Hemisphere, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States who had achieved independence from Britain, the world’s strongest superpower, voluntarily surrendered his sword and his title to the Continental Congress in Annapolis, Maryland. He returned to his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia, expecting to live a quiet farm life. His plans were derailed a few years later when he was …Read more 
June 26
Awaken thee, Romanian, shake off the deadly slumber… Today is National Flag Day in Romania. The three colors of the Romanian flag represent the blood of the people, the golden crops of the land, and the blue sky above…according to the Communists who ruled Romania from 1947 to 1989. But much has changed since the fall of the Iron Curtain, including the country’s national anthem, which was “Three Colors” from 1977 …Read more |
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