Today is Independence Day in Belarus, a public holiday. It is the National Day of Belarus and marks the liberation of Minsk on 3 July 1944.
When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Belarus was the first to bear the brunt of the attack. On 24 June, Minsk came under massive artillery shelling and air strikes from nearly 150 bombers.
Despite resistance from local fighters, the Germans seized Minsk on 28 June 1941. Not accepting the occupation, the residents began a resistance movement that lasted 1,100 days. The efforts of the citizens helped the armies of the 1st and 3rd Belarusian Fronts with the support of the partisans liberate the Belarusian capital from the invaders on 3 July 1944.
Belarus paid a high price for the freedom; a third of the population was killed during the war. Independence Day is a tribute to the heroism and endurance of Minskers in their struggle to bring freedom to Belarus.
Liberation of Minsk, 1944 Image by Valentin Volkov
Today is Unity Day, a public holiday in Zambia. The day always forms part of a two-day break as Unity Day always take place on the day after Heroes’ Day. Unity Day is intended to help foster solidarity between the diverse groups that make up the country.
The boundaries of most African nations were not based on communities of interest of ethnic/cultural similarities. Instead they were set by European colonial powers looking at maps in Berlin or elsewhere. This has created great difficulties for African nations as they try to weld together disparate groups into a single nation.
Zambia was no exception, and its population contains over 70 ethnic groups, with nine major groups. The population speaks over 72 local languages/dialects.
When the country gained its independence from Britain in 1964, this brought the differences between these ethnic groups to the fore. While Zambia has enjoyed a stable political environment since independence, it has been affected by instability in neighboring countries, with some ethnic groups feeling an affinity across ethnic rather than national lines.
To help create a sense of Zambian identity, Unity Day was established by Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia. It aims at fostering solidarity between the various ethnolinguistic groups and maintaining the spirit of national unity. The official slogan of Zambian Unity Day is the country’s motto “One Zambia, One Nation”.
Geography is tough
BADA BING!!!!
Maybe the 10 Commandments should be posted in the RNC Headquarters instead of public schools.
Posting The Ten Commandments in Louisiana public schools should open the doors for also posting The Five Pillars of Islam, The Five Precepts of Buddhism, and The 7 Tenets of Satanism.
I see your 10 commandments and raise you 34 convictions.
If your state ranks 47th in education, maybe you should require schools to post the ABCs instead of the Ten Commandments.
A friend has inspired me to suggest that we organize a free trip for Clarence Thomas this summer to Haiti, where he can experience real life without an administrative state, and where everyone has a gun with a bump stock.
Nobody’s (more stubborn) smarter than an Android person who won’t switch to an iPhone.
I keep waiting for someone to tell me, “Yeah, I was a fruit picker until those illegals showed up.”
Website: We use cookies to improve performance. Me: Same!
Finally, my bills are washed, laundry is paid, clothes are baking, and dinner is in the dryer. I got this!
Her: If you cut off my reproductive choice can I cut yours off?
Her: I’m in a really bad place in my life right now. Him: Louisiana?
Conversation tip: Ask people questions that give them an opportunity to talk about themselves. Like… What the hell is wrong with you?
My neighbor couldn’t afford his water bill so I got him a get well soon card.
I just bought a sweet car online. It was previously owned by Neil Diamond.
Wouldn’t be ironic if Popeye’s chicken was cooked in Olive Oil?
When I was a kid I would not have guessed the world would turn out to be as dumb as it is.
No one in my entire life has believed in me more than the waiter who gave me a single napkin to use while eating my lunch.
Did you know 14 muscles are activated when opening a bottle of wine? Fitness is my passion.
Today is the birthday, in 1952, of Johnny Colla, guitar, sax, from Huey Lewis and the News who had the 1985 UK No.11 & US No.1 single ‘The Power Of Love’. Their third, and best-selling, album was the 1983 Sports, and they contributed to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBl2QGAIx1s (note: music starts at about 2:10)
Today is Sir Seretse Khama Day – a public holiday in Botwsana. This holiday commemorates the first President of Botswana on the anniversary of his birth on this day in 1921.
eretse Khama was born on July 1st 1921 at Serowe, the Protectorate of Bechuanaland (now Botswana). Seretse Khama was the grandson and heir of King Khama III, who died in 1923. The Bangwato family of which Seretse Khama was the heir were hereditary rulers of the Protectorate. In 1925 Seretse Khama was made King, his uncle acting as regent.
Khama was training as a barrister in London after the Second World War, where he met and married Ruth Williams, a white English commoner. The story of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams was depicted in the 2016 film, ‘A United Kingdom’. His marriage caused great difficulties for him at home and he was exiled in 1951.
The apartheid government of South Africa put pressure on Britain to remove Khama’s chieftainship. A judicial inquiry declared him to be perfectly fit for the job, but this was hushed up to appease the South Africans.
Kahama returned to Bechuanaland in 1956 as a private citizen. Free to enter politics, he formed the Bechuanaland Democratic Party, won the elections and led the way to independence, becoming his country’s first President. He remained in the post until his death, aged only 59, in 1980. He created a multiracial democratic society and is considered as one of the great successes of this era of African politics.
Replaced the pole but kept woodpecker’s home
something wrong here…
Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Deborah Harry, American singer, songwriter, and actress with Blondie who scored five UK No.1 singles including the 1979 UK & US No.1 single ‘Heart Of Glass’ and the 1978 world-wide No.1 album Parallel Lines. As a solo artists she scored the 1986 UK No. 8 single ‘French Kissing In The USA’. A former Playboy Bunny, her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU
St. Vitus’ Day (Serbian: Vidovdan) is celebrated on June 28th. It marks a 14th-century battle that has become an important part of Serb ethnic and national identity. Vidovdan is celebrated as a slava (feast day) in Serbia, though it is a working day.
The Serbian Orthodox Church designates it as a memorial day to Saint Prince Lazar and the Serbian holy martyrs who fell during the Battle of Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire in 1389. The Battle of Kosovo took place on St. Vitus’ Day (June 15th in the Julian calendar) 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire.
While the Ottomans suffered huge losses, they eliminated all of Prince Lazar’s forces. This led to Ottoman control in the region which lasted for several centuries.
Combo business
some more signs….
On this day in 1975, The Eagles started a five-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with their fourth studio album ‘One Of These Nights’. The album which became their breakthrough album released three US Top 10 singles, ‘Lyin’ Eyes’, (which won a Grammy), ‘Take It To The Limit’ and the title track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxQXKO194XM
Today is the Day of National Unity, a public holiday in Tajikistan. National Unity Day commemorates the signing of the national peace accord in 1997 which ended the civil war.
By the middle of the 19th century, Russian conquests in Central Asia brought most of modern-day Tajikistan under Tsarist control. During the Soviet period, and despite the efforts of the USSR to establish a Soviet collective culture, the Tajiks maintained a fierce sense of nationalism and pride in their own history and culture. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Supreme Soviet declared Tajikistan’s independence from the Soviet Union on September 9th 1991.
Almost immediately, Tajikistan descended into civil war. The war was fought on regional lines, with rebels from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions rising up against the newly-formed government of President Rahmon Nabiyev, which was dominated by people from the Khujand and Kulyab regions. All but about 25,000 of the 400,000 ethnic Russiansin Tajikistan fled to Russia.
In the five years of the conflict, an estimated 100,000 had died in the fighting, with more than a million others being refugees with the country. On June 27th 1997, the “General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan” and the “Moscow Protocol’ were signed, bringing the war to an end.
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