Today is Austria’s National Day. Austria’s national holiday (German: Nationalfeiertag) is a public holiday on October 26th each year. This public holiday commemorates Austria’s Declaration of Neutrality on this day in 1955.
The Declaration of Neutrality was a declaration by the Austrian Parliament declaring the country permanently neutral. It was enacted on October 26th 1955 as a constitutional act of parliament.
The declaration was a direct result of the allied occupation by the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France between 1945 and 1955. The Soviet Union would not have agreed to the signing of a State Treaty in May 1955 if Austria had not committed itself to declare its neutrality after the allied forces had left the country. The final foreign troops left Austria on October 25th 1955.
Geeky stuff…
SIGNZ
Today is the birthday, in 1685, of Doménico Scarlatti, Baroque composer known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas. Here is the amazing Yuja Want with one of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIAk61xEZ80
Today is the Day of Dignity, a public holiday in Bolivia. This day commemorates those who died on this day in 2003 protesting the exploitation of Bolivia’s oil and gas reserves by a US-based company.
Oil had become an important export for Bolivia, a land-locked country. However under the agreement with the company exploiting the resources and under a trade agreement with the United States, only 18% of the price of the oil would come to Bolivia. In 2002, the government proposed building a pipeline through Chile to export the oil. This decision exacerbated the unrest of the Bolivians as Chile had an antagonistic relationship with Bolivia.
The conflict escalated into confrontations with the Bolivian military until October 17, 2003 when more than 60 were killed and more than 400 injured. The President fled to the United States. In 2006, Evo Morales was elected and he nationalized the gas reserves and declared this Day of Dignity.
Ummm…okay…
Bada Bing!!!
When I say “the other day” it could be any time between yesterday and my birth.
I assume that a Columbus Day sale means I can just walk into a store and take whatever I want.
How many times do I have to click ‘I accept cookies’ before they send me the COOKIES!
Walmart will be closed on Thanksgiving so self-checkout cashiers can be with their families.
Turns out I’m “woke.” All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history.
So, do you wash your clothes before you drop them off at a Goodwill donation center mostly to make sure your DNA won’t show up at a crime scene someday or do I overthink things?
I was in the half of the class that made the top half possible.
Welcome to old age. All the foods you ever loved are now trying to kill you.
Facebook has taught me a couple of things. First, there are some incredibly brilliant people in the world. Second, they are vastly outnumbered.
Today marks the death, in 1849, of Frédéric Chopin, Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose “poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation” Here is the amazing Yuja Wang playing is beautiful Waltz in C sharp minor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_E51SV0Zus
Today is the Day of Peace and Reconciliation in Mozambique – a public holiday. The holiday marks the official end of the civil war on this day in 1992.
You can often get a sense of the trauma that a country has gone through in its history by looking at its public holidays. In the case of Mozambique, this is especially true with four public holidays charting the country’s long and violent struggle for independence from Portugal. Weapons on the country’s flag might be another indicator.
In 1976, Mozambique was still recovering from the struggle for independence, when the new FRELIMO (The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) government fought against the opposition RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance). After ousting the Portuguese, FRELIMO had instigated a one-party Marxist state, which was resisted by the anti-communist RENAMO rebels, supported by the Rhodesian secret service and South Africa’s apartheid-era military.
The war was a devastating conflict that killed an estimated one million people, with 1.7 million Mozambicans becoming refugees in neighboring countries. Though no side was able to win a decisive victory, the change from Marxism to capitalism by the government after the collapse of the Soviet Union, enabled movements towards ending the war. On October 4th 1992, the government and RENAMO signed the General Peace Accord (GPA) in Rome, Italy, officially ending the Mozambican civil war.
Talking to kids…
No good birthdays today but tomorrow marks the death, in 1880, of Jacques Offenbach, the French composer responsible for much wonderful music including the excerpt from his opera, Orpheus in the Underworld, performed here by a delightfully unconventional orchestra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0IyxvcH4E
Today is Independence Day in Uzbekistan. Known locally as ‘Mustaqillik Kuni’, this is Uzbekistan’s National Day and marks independence from the Soviet Union on September 1st 1991.
Uzbekistan is a land-locked Central Asian nation that has a diverse and rich heritage due to its strategic position on the so-called Silk Road, an ancient trade route between Europe and China.
Following the Russian Revolution, the area become part of the Soviet Union, with the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic being created on October 27th 1924.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. As a result Uzbekistan declared its state sovereignty in June 1991 and on September 1st 1991, the independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan, was declared after a special session of the Supreme Council of the Republic.
Today is Romanian Language Day, a public holiday in Moldova. In March 2023, Moldova changed its state language to Romanian, also changing the name of this holiday to Romanian Language Day. Previously known as “Limba noastră” (Our Language), it celebrates the state language of Moldova.
In 1940, Moldova (then known as Bessarabia) had been occupied by the USSR as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The use of Russian Cyrillic was then imposed as the official alphabet of the newly founded Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR). The majority of Moldovans had been speaking Romanian and the imposition of Cyrillic was seen as an attempt by the Soviets to drive a wedge between Moldova and Romania, forcing closer ties with Russia.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moldova became independent. On August 27th 1989, the Popular Front of Moldova organized a mass demonstration of over 300,000 people in the capital Chişinău. This demonstration became known as the Great National Assembly and helped convince the authorities of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic to adopt a language law. On August 31st 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the MSSR adopted a law that stipulated a return to the Latin alphabet from the Cyrillic script imposed by the USSR after the second world war. The legislation explicitly mentioned the fact that the Moldovan language is identical to the Romanian language. The following year, parliament instituted August 31st as a national holiday celebrating the Romanian language.
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