Jan Amos Komensky's 418th Birthday

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John Amos Comenius (Czech: Jan Amos Komenský; Slovak: Ján Amos Komenský; German: Johann Amos Comenius; Polish: Jan Amos Komeński; Hungarian: Comenius Ámos János; Latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) (28 March 1592 – 4 November 1670) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. He is often considered the father of modern education. He lived and worked in many different countries in Europe, including Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Transylvania, the Holy Roman Empire, England, the Netherlands, and Royal Hungary. [Read more on Wikipedia]

First Transmission of Israeli TV

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The first transmission was launched on March 24, 1966. Levi Eshkol, the Israeli prime minister, pressed a symbolic button to mark the beginning of the transmission. Lord Jacob Rothschild delivered a speech on behalf of the Rothschild Fund. The then-called Instructional Television Trust opened its regular transmission with televised broadcasts of Mathematics, Biology and English classes. 60 TV sets were distributed to 32 schools to receive the first broadcasts and comment on their quality. From the early 70's and until the early 90's it was known as the "Instructional Television Centre".

Akira Kurosawa's Birthday

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Akira Kurosawa (黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明 Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Mother's Day

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Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente's Birthday

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Félix Samuel Rodríguez de la Fuente (March 14, 1928 – March 14, 1980) was a Spanish naturalist and broadcaster. He is best known for the highly successful and influential series El Hombre y la Tierra (1975–1980). Degree in medicine and self-taught in biology, was a multifaceted charismatic figure whose influence has endured despite the passing years. His knowledge covered areas such as falconry and ethology, emphasizing the study and living with wolves. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Holmenkollen Ski Festival

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Holmenkollrennene or Holmenkollen skifestival, in English Holmenkollen ski festival, is a traditional annual ski event in Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway. The full official name of the event is Holmenkollen FIS World Cup Nordic. The event is taking place in March and except for 1898 and the war years 1941–1945 it has been arranged every year since 1892. It is arranged by Skiforeningen.

Vasaloppet

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Alessandro Manzon's Birthday

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Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni (7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet and novelist. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed, generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature.

Manzoni was born in Milan, Italy, on 7 March 1785. Pietro, his father, aged about fifty, belonged to an old family of Lecco, originally feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina. The poet's maternal grandfather, Cesare Beccaria, was a well-known author, and his mother Giulia had literary talent as well. The young Alessandro spent his first two years of life in cascina Costa in Galbiate and he was wet-nursed by Caterina Panzeri, as attested by a memorial plate affixed in the place. In 1793 his parents broke their marriage and his mother began a relationship with the highbrow Carlo Imbonati, moving to England and later to Paris. For this reason, their son was brought up in several religious institutes. Alessandro Manzoni was a slow developer, and at the various colleges he attended he was considered a dunce. At fifteen, however, he developed a passion for poetry, and wrote two sonnets of considerable merit. Upon the death of his father in 1805, he joined the freethinking household of his mother at Auteuil, and spent two years mixing with the literary set of the so-called "ideologues", philosophers of the 18th-century school, among whom he made many friends, notably Claude Charles Fauriel. There too he imbibed the anti-Catholic creed of Voltairianism. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Vivaldi's Birthday

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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest") was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe. Vivaldi is known mainly for composing instrumental concertos, especially for the violin, as well as sacred choral works and over 40 operas. His best known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.

Many of his compositions were written for the female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for poor and illegitimate children where Vivaldi worked between 1703 and 1740. Vivaldi also had some success with stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna hoping for preferment. The Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and the composer died a pauper, without a steady source of income.

Though Vivaldi's music was well received during his lifetime, it later declined in popularity until its vigorous revival in the first half of the 20th century. Today, Vivaldi ranks among the most popular and widely recorded Baroque composers. [Read more on Wikipedia]

A portrait of Antonio Vivaldi in 1725

Doodle 4 Google Japan

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St. David's Day

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Martisor

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Holi Festival

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Frederic Chopin's 200th Birthday

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Frédéric François Chopin, in Polish Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (the surname is pronounced [ˈʂɔpɛn̪] in Polish; [ʃɔpˈɛ̃] in French; and usually /ˈʃoʊpæn/ in English; 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher, of French-Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music.

Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his musical education there. Following the Russian suppression of the Polish November 1830 Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of the Polish Great Emigration. He supported himself as a composer and piano teacher, giving few public performances. From 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French woman writer George Sand. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at age 39.

All of Chopin's works involve the piano. They are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Chopin at 25, by Maria Wodzińska, 1835