Today is Icelandic Independence Day. Also called Icelandic National Day or simply ‘the seventeenth of June’, the day marks Iceland’s move to complete independence from Denmark. Iceland was proclaimed an independent republic on June 17th 1944.
Iceland actually gained independence from Denmark much earlier, on December 1st 1918 with the signing of the Act of Union with Denmark. The Act recognised Iceland as an independent state under the Danish crown.
The formation of the republic in 1944 was based on a clause in the 1918 Act which allowed for a change to the relationship between Iceland and Denmark in 1943.
The referendum was held in at the end of May 1944. Voters were asked whether the Union with Denmark should be abolished and whether to adopt a new republican constitution. Both measures were approved with more than 98% in favour and a voter turnout of 98.4%.
Although he would have preferred a different outcome in the referendum, King Christian X of Denmark sent a letter on June 17th 1944 congratulating Icelanders on forming their Republic.
The June 17th date was already a significant date in Iceland’s history as it is the birthday of Jón Sigurdsson who was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement which led to the 1918 Act of Union. Sigurdsson died in Copenhagen in 1879.
Juxtaposition…
Yesterday was Fathers’ Day
Today is the birthday, in 1957, of Philip Chevron, guitarist from Irish-British Celtic punk band The Pogues who scored the 1987 UK No.8 single ‘The Irish Rover’ and the 1987 UK No.2 single with Kirsty MaCcoll, ‘Fairytale Of New York’. Chevron died on October 8, 2013 in Dublin, Ireland from oesophageal cancer at age 56. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s11BuatTuXk
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