Today is Transfer Day, a public holiday in the US Virgin Islands. The holiday commemorates this day in 1917 when Denmark ceded the islands to the United States. On March 31st 1917, the 133-square-mile island chain comprising the Danish West Indies was ceded to the United States by Denmark, becoming the U.S. Virgin Islands in exchange for $25 million in gold.
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Today is the birthday, in 1953, of Sean Hopper, keyboards with 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. Note: the music in this video starts at around 2 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBl2QGAIx1s
Today is Martyr’s Day in Madagascar. Also known as Commemoration Day or Insurrection Day, this holiday commemorates those who died in the 1947 uprising against French rule. While estimates of the number of Malagasy casualties vary wildly from 11,000 to 100,000, the indisputable violent repression of the uprising had a major impact on the country.
Today is the birthday, in 1940 of Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer Astrud Gilberto Her version of ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. Here’s another of her songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srw5FRm5eA
Today is Boganda Day, a public holiday in the Central African Republic. This day honors Barthélemy Boganda, the nation’s first prime minister on the anniversary of his death on this day in 1959. Barthélemy Boganda was a leading nationalist politician and the driving force in the creation of the Central African Republic in 1958.
Before his political career, Boganda had become the first African Roman Catholic priest in Ubangi-Shari, a French colony that is now part of the CAR. He became involved in politics and in 1946 he was elected to the French National Assembly, becoming the first representative of the CAR in the French government.
Today is Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole Day, a public holiday in Hawai‘i. Prince Jonah Kuhio was born on 26 March 1871 into Hawaiian nobility. By the age of 13, he was an orphan as both parents had died by 1884. He was adopted by Queen Kapiʻolani, who was his aunt, making Kuhio a prince of the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
Today is Truth and Justice Memorial Day in Argentina. It commemorates those who ‘disappeared’ under the military junta that came to power in 1976. This Argentinian public holiday is held on March 24th, the anniversary of the coup d’état of 1976 that overthrew President Isabel Peron and brought the National Reorganization Process to power. The coup installed the bloodiest dictatorship in the history of the country, led by General Jorge Rafael Videla, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera and Brigadier-General Orlando Ramón Agosti. At least 10,000 and as many as 30,000 were hunted down, tortured and ‘disappeared’ by security forces and right-wing death squads.
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