Diversity Calendar - July, 2009

July 2009

July 1, Wednesday

Founding of Communist Party : People's Republic of China.

Canada Day : Canada. Known as Dominion Day until 1982, this day celebrates the confederation of upper and lower Canada into the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

Republic Day : Ghana. On this day in 1960, Ghana gained independence within the Commonwealth of Great Britain.

SAR Establishment Day : Hong Kong. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and the United Kingdom on December 19, 1984, the United Kingdom handed sovereignty over Hong Kong back to the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on July 1, 1997. In this agreement, China promised that, under its "one country, two systems" formula, China's socialist economic system will not be imposed on Hong Kong and that Hong Kong will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years.

July 2, Thursday

Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) : African American. Civil rights leader and Supreme Court justice. As head of the legal services division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1938 to 1962, Thurgood Marshall led the legal effort to advance the civil rights of all Americans, particularly those belonging to minority groups. His most famous victory was the 1954 Supreme Court decision ending racial segregation in public schools. He continued to work for civil rights and equal opportunity as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, second circuit (1962–1965), Solicitor General of the United States (1965–1967), and finally as the first African American associate justice of the Supreme Court, where he served from 1967 to 1991.

July 3, Friday

Independence Day celebrations begin (7/3–7/10) : Bahamas. This commemorates the Bahamas' gaining independence within the Commonwealth of Great Britain in 1973. This holiday is observed from July 3 through July 10.

Independence Day : Belarus.

July 4, Saturday

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) : Italian. Military leader. Garibaldi led the military forces of the revolutionary movement for the unification and independence of Italy from 1848 to 1867. A national hero, Garibaldi is considered one of the great guerrilla generals of modern times.

Edmonia Lewis (1845–unknown date, after 1911) : African American, American Indian (Ojibway). Sculptor. Lewis, largely self-taught, first came to public attention in 1864 with a medallion of the head of John Brown and a portrait bust of the late Civil War hero Robert Gould Shaw. Sale of copies of the Shaw bust earned her enough to travel to Rome, where she established a studio and pursued a successful career, which peaked in the late 60s and early 70s. Much of her work is lost today, but it is known to have included a number of works depicting African American and American Indian themes.

Philippine-American Friendship Day : Philippines. This celebrates the day in 1946 that the United States granted independence to the Philippines after ruling it since 1905. (See entry for Independence Day on June 12.)

Independence Day : United States. This commemorates the day in 1776 that delegates of the Thirteen Colonies signed the Declaration of Independence announcing their separation from Great Britain and the establishment of the United States of America.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America (1776)

July 5, Sunday

Constitution Day : Armenia.

Independence Day : Algeria. Ruled by the Ottoman Turks since the mid-sixteenth century and populated mainly by Arabs who introduced Islam as the country's predominant religion, Algeria became a colony of France in 1848. A war of independence from France began in 1954, and Algeria became independent in 1962.

Independence Day : Venezuela. First colonized by Spain in the fifteenth century, Venezuela began a war of independence led by Francisco de Miranda and Simón Bolívar that lasted from 1810 to 1821. It is on this day in 1811 that Venezuela declared its independence from Spain. This day is celebrated in Venezuela as a national holiday.

July 6, Monday

Statehood Day : Lithuania. Statehood Day commemorates the coronation of Lithuania’s first and only king, King Mindaugas, in 1253.

July 8, Wednesday

Harriet McBryde Johnson (1957–2008) : People with Disabilities. Disability and civil rights attorney and activist. Born with a degenerative neuromuscular disease that confined her to a wheelchair, Harriet McBryde Johnson became a lawyer and champion for the rights of the disabled. In 2001 she attended a lecture at the College of Charleston entitled “Rethinking Life and Death” given by Princeton philosophy professor Peter Singer, who contended that severely disabled newborns could be ethically euthanized to relieve their suffering. Johnson publicly challenged Singer’s contention, and the following year Singer invited Johnson to a debate on the topic at Princeton. Describing the encounters later in a New York Times article entitled “Unspeakable Conversations” (2003), she wrote: “To Singer, it's pretty simple: disability makes a person ‘worse off.' Are we 'worse off'? I don't think so…. We take constraints that no one would choose and build rich and satisfying lives within them. We enjoy pleasures other people enjoy, and pleasures peculiarly our own. We have something the world needs.” Much of Johnson’s impact came from her writings. Her writings include a memoir, Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales from a Life (2005) and a novel, Accidents of Nature (2006), as well as other articles published in The New York Times, including “The Disability Gulag” (2003), “The Way We Live Now: Stairway to Justice” (2004), and “Wheelchair Unbound” (2006).

July 9, Thursday

Martyrdom of the Bab : Baha'i. This holiday commemorates the arrest, torture, imprisonment, and eventual execution of the Bab in Tabriz, Persia, in 1850. The Bab's body is buried at the Baha'i temple in Haifa, Israel.

Independence Day : Argentina. This marks the establishment of an independent Argentina after its war with Spain from 1810–1816.

July 10, Friday

Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) : African American. Athlete, writer, and activist. The first Black tennis player to win the men's titles at the U.S. Open (1968) and Wimbledon (1975), Arthur Ashe became known for his power and skill as a player and for his dignity and eloquence as a leader, particularly in efforts to combat racial discrimination. He helped integrate professional sports in South Africa and founded and worked to maintain tennis programs for inner-city youth in the United States. After heart problems led to his retirement from professional play in 1980, he researched and wrote The Hard Road to Glory, published in 1988. After announcing in the spring of 1992 that he had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, Ashe spent the last year of his life campaigning for greater public awareness of the disease and raising funds for research and treatment programs.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) : Jewish American. Writer. The son of Russian immigrants, Saul Bellow was born Solomon Bellows in a suburb of Montreal, Quebec, and moved with his family to Chicago in 1924. He changed his first name to Saul and dropped the “s” from his last name when he began publishing in the 1940s. Bellow was a contributor to Partisan Review along with Alfred Kazin, Mary McCarthy, and Delmore Schwartz. Author of such books as The Adventures of Augie March, his breakthrough 1953 best seller about urban immigrant life in Chicago, Henderson the Rain King (1959), and Herzog (1964), Bellow won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976, as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt’s Gift (1975), three National Book Awards, a Presidential Medal, and more honors than any other American writer. In awarding his Nobel Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy cited Bellow’s “exuberant ideas, flashing irony, hilarious comedy and burning compassion.”

Nicolás Guillén (1902–1989) : Cuban. Poet. A Cuban of mixed European and African ancestry, Guillén became a major exponent in the late 1920s and 1930s of poetry that is often called Afro-Cuban. He is also known for his poetry of social protest and his other writings advocating political and social reform.

Independence Day : Bahamas. This commemorates the Bahamas' gaining independence within the Commonwealth of Great Britain in 1973. This holiday is observed from July 3 through July 10.

July 11, Saturday

Flemish Community Holiday : Belgium. Celebrated in Flemish communities in Belgium, this day commemorates the battle in 1302 in which the Flemish declared their independence from France.

July 12, Sunday

Constantine Brumidi (1805–1880) : Italian American. Painter. A successful painter in Italy, Brumidi came to the United States in 1852 as a political refugee. In 1855 he began a quarter century of work at the U.S. Capitol building, decorating it with frescoes on patriotic themes. His most famous work is "The Apotheosis of Washington" in the Capitol dome.

Gunnar Dybwad (1909–2002) : People with Disabilities. Advocate for people with disabilities. A professor of human development at Brandeis University, Dybwad was one of the first to articulate the issues facing people with disabilities as civil rights issues and not only as medical and social issues. He played a significant role in convincing the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children to sue on behalf of children with disabilities. The 1972 case led to the establishment of the right of disabled children to receive a public education and helped spur the enactment of laws dealing with disability rights.

July 13, Monday

Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen's Day) observed : United Kingdom (Northern Ireland). The Battle of the Boyne was a turning point in the war between the deposed King James II of England and VII of Scotland and his son-in-law and successor, William III, for the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones. The battle took place on July 12, 1690 outside of the town of Drogheda on Ireland's east coast. Although not militarily decisive, its symbolic importance has made it one of the most infamous battles in British and Irish history.

July 14, Tuesday

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) : Swedish. Filmmaker, stage and opera director. One of the most influential filmmakers of the modern cinema, Ingmar Bergman explored the human condition in films that were bleak exposés of existential loneliness, anguish, and suffering. Bergman created a surreal and timeless mood using unique cinematic techniques such as lingering close-ups of actors’ faces and focusing on inanimate objects as though they were sentient beings. Bergman once stated, “No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.” His films include The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972), and Fanny and Alexander (1982).

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) : Jewish American. Writer. Singer was the leading writer in the Yiddish language after World War II and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. Most of his works have been translated into English.

Bastille (bass-steel) Day : France. This celebrates the fall of the Bastille prison, marking the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 and the eventual end of monarchial rule and the creation of a French Republic.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: When Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, French-speaking populations were incorporated into the United States. This included the French-speaking Acadians, who emigrated from Acadia in Canada in the mid-1700s and settled primarily in the Lafayette Parish region of southern Louisiana. Joined by other settlers such as Creoles, descendants of African, West Indian, and European pioneers, they over time formed a new cultural group that came to be known as “Cajuns.” Given their French heritage, many Louisiana “parishes,” including New Orleans and Kaplan, sometimes called “the most Cajun place on earth,” hold Bastille Day festivals featuring Cajun food, music, and dance.

July 15, Wednesday

(Saint) Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850–1917) : Italian American. Founder of a religious order. A woman of phenomenal energy and organizational genius, Sister Frances Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, an order of nuns devoted to service in schools, orphanages, hospitals, and prisons. Under her direction the order spread between 1880 and 1910 from a single convent in her native Italy to an international institution, with 65 houses spread across Europe and the Americas and 1,500 sisters. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1909. Canonized in 1946, she is the first American saint.

July 16, Thursday

Ida B. Wells-Barnet (1862–1931) : African American. Journalist and civil rights activist. Ida B. Wells-Barnet devoted her life to drawing attention to the widespread practice of lynching—the murder of Blacks by mobs of Whites—in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. She launched her crusade in 1892 in the pages of the Memphis, Tennessee, weekly newspaper, of which she was part owner. After a White mob destroyed her newspaper office, she moved to New York City, where she continued writing against lynching and carried her crusade on lecture tours of the United States and Britain.

July 17, Friday

Constitution Day : South Korea. After the division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea at the end of World War II, South Korea formed a republic with its capital in Seoul and Syngman Rhee as its first president.

July 19, Sunday

First Special Olympics Games (1968) : People with Disabilities, United States. On this date the first Special Olympics, an athletic competition for children and adults with cognitive disabilities, opened at Soldiers Field in Chicago. The first Special Olympics had 1,000 participants from the United States and Canada; by 1995, this competition had expanded to include Winter Special Olympics (added in 1977) and to involve 7,000 participants from all 50 states and 143 countries. The program of events has also grown dramatically, from three at the first Special Olympics to more than twenty. The international competition is held in the year before the regular Olympics.

National Liberation Day : Nicaragua. The family of Anastasio Somoza ruled Nicaragua as a dictatorship from 1937 to 1979. After an uprising led by the National Liberation Army, the Somoza family fled Nicaragua on this day in 1979.

July 20, Monday

Independence Day : Colombia. Beginning in the fourteenth century, the region that is now Colombia was the center of the Spanish colony known as New Granada, which included Panama and most of Venezuela. Beginning in 1810, Simón Bolívar led a war of independence from Spain, which ended with his victory over Spanish forces on this day in 1819. This day is celebrated in Colombia as a national holiday.

Luis Muñoz Rivera's Birthday : Puerto Rico. This public holiday commemorates the birth of Luis Muñoz Rivera (1859–1916), poet, journalist, and leader of the campaign for autonomy for the Spanish colony. When Spain granted political autonomy to Puerto Rico in 1898, Luis Muñoz Rivera became its leader. Only five months later, however, the United States invaded and took possession of the island, and Muñoz Rivera spent the rest of his life working to regain the independence of his nation. As Resident Commissioner in Washington in 1916, he denounced the proposed Jones Act, which was to give citizenship to Puerto Ricans but retain the island as a U.S. possession. The act was passed shortly after his death. (See entry for Granting of citizenship to Puerto Ricans.) (m)

Marine Day (Umi No Hi) : Japan.

This holiday was observed for the first time in 1996. In 1874, the Meiji Government commissioned Robert Napier & Sons, a Scottish shipyard, to build the Meiji-Maru, a lighthouse service steamship. Using this vessel, the Emperor Meiji made an imperial tour of inspection of northeastern Japan in 1876, traveling from Aomori to Hakodate and arriving in Yokohama on July 20. "The Day of the Sea" or Marine Day commemorates the Emperor's safe voyage. (m)

July 21, Tuesday

National Holiday : Belgium. This marks the day in 1831 that Belgium became independent from the Netherlands and Leopold I ascended the throne as Belgium's first king.

July 23, Thursday

Birthday of Haile Selassie : Rastafarian. One of the holiest days of the year for Rastafarians, this holiday celebrates the birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie (1892–1975) of Ethiopia, who is revered by the Rastafarians as a descendant of King Solomon and is believed to be the incarnation of God. The Rastafarian faith began in Jamaica in the 1920s, having its roots in the philosophy of Marcus Garvey, with his “back to Africa” movement and belief that a Black king would one day become redeemer of the Black people. In 1930, when the Ethiopian Coptic Christian prince, Ras Tafari Makonnen, was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I, this was believed to be the fulfillment of Garvey’s prophecy.

Emperor Haile Selassie’s pre-coronation name of Ras Tafari was taken as the official name of this budding religious movement, which has links with the Judeo-Christian tradition and strong political undercurrents as well. Rastafarians believe that they are the reincarnation of the ancient tribes of Israel alleged to have originated in Africa. Enslaved and kept in exile by their White oppressors in Babylon, the land of corruption and spiritual darkness, Rastafarians believe that the salvation of Black people will come through repatriation to Zion, or Africa, led by their messiah, Ras Tafari. Thus Africa, and in particular Ethiopia, is the spiritual homeland of Rastafarianism.

There is no formal Rastafarian church, as it is a highly individual form of worship. Rastafarianism teaches the concept of I and I: that God is within all of us and we are one people. The Rastafarians have transformed Jamaican reggae music into their own unique vehicle for worshipping God and expressing political views, with such themes as repatriation to Africa and the collapse of Babylon. Rasta lyrics often use the prefix “I” to signal spiritual unity; for example, I-nity means “unity,” and I-dren means “brethren.” Rastafarianism is largely a brotherhood, where women play a subordinate role. The brethren are known for plaiting their hair into dreadlocks (a dread is one who fears Jah, the God of Abraham) and wearing red, black, green, and yellow caps: red symbolizing the blood shed in the struggle of Black people, black representing the color of the skin of the chosen people, green representing the beauty and vegetation in their future homeland of Ethiopia, with yellow or gold symbolizing the wealth of their homeland. True Rastafarians are vegetarians, and favor organic farming and a life in harmony with Jah. The Rastafarian faith supports the smoking of ganja (marijuana), the “holy herb” used to reach an altered state of consciousness where it will be revealed that Haile Selassie is God, although this practice remains unlawful in the United States and the United Kingdom.

On April 21, 1966, Emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica, entreating the Rastafarians not to seek to emigrate to Ethiopia until they had first liberated Jamaica. From that day on, April 21 has been celebrated as a special holy day among Rastafarians. Most Rastafarians believe that Haile Selassie is still alive, and that reports of his death were part of a conspiracy to discredit their religion. Today Rastafarians number in the hundreds of thousands, and live on other Caribbean islands in addition to Jamaica, as well as in cities in the United States, Canada, and a number of Western European nations. Rastafarians follow the Ethiopian calendar, which is based on the calendar of the Coptic Orthodox Church, with Christmas observed on January 7 and New Year’s observed on September 11. (See entry for Anniversary of the Crowning of Haile Selassie.)

Revolution Day : Egypt. This day marks the beginning of the military coup in 1952 that led to the proclamation of the Egyptian republic.

July 24, Friday

Pioneer Day : The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This marks the day in 1847 that Brigham Young led other believers in the teachings of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, into the valley of the Great Salt Lake, where they would establish the center of their church and build Salt Lake City.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: This is a day that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will often attend church and listen to the commemoration activities from the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. These may include speeches by church elders and music by the church’s Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square.

Simón Bolívar's Birthday : Ecuador, Venezuela. This public holiday honors military and political leader Simón Bolívar (1783–1830). Known as “The Liberator,” Simón Bolívar led the rebellion against Spanish rule that established the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

July 25, Saturday

Constitution Day : Puerto Rico. The constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was approved in 1952 on this day, which is now commemorated each year with official government ceremonies.

Republic Day : Tunisia. This day commemorates the end of the Tunisian monarchy and the establishment of a republic in 1957.

July 26, Sunday

Hector P. Garcia (1914–1996) : Mexican American. Medical doctor and civil rights activist. Dr. Garcia practiced medicine in Corpus Christi, Texas, after receiving his medical degree from the University of Texas. He was also involved in the civil rights movement for Hispanic Americans, and in 1948 founded the American G.I. Forum, a national advocacy organization for Mexican American war veterans. In 1968, he became the first Hispanic to serve on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and in 1984, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is the day of his death at age 82.

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) : People with Disabilities, United States. Signed into law on this date, this milestone of U.S. civil rights legislation protects people with disabilities from discrimination in the areas of employment, transportation, and public accommodation. (Earlier legislation had addressed discrimination in housing.) The law requires a wide range of public and private establishments to make new and renovated facilities accessible to people with disabilities and to make "readily achievable" changes to existing facilities in order to increase accessibility.

July 27, Monday

José Celso Barbosa's Birthday : Puerto Rico. This public holiday honors José Celso Barbosa (1857–1921), physician, social analyst, and politician, who in 1899 founded the Republican Party of Puerto Rico that advocated statehood for the island.

July 28, Tuesday

Independence Day celebrated (7/28–7/29) : Peru. This two-day national holiday celebrates José de San Martín’s proclamation of Peru’s independence from Spain on July 28, 1821. (See entry for Battle of Ayacucho.)

July 30, Thursday

Tisha B'Av : Jewish.

This holiday commemorates the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in both 586 B.C.E. and again in 70 C.E. (m)

National Day (Feast of the Throne) : Morocco. This commemorates the enthronement of the current king of Morocco, King Muhammad VI.

July 31, Friday

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) : Jewish American. Economist. Awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1976, Milton Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century, making major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history, and statistics. Originally a Keynesian supporter of the New Deal, Friedman came to believe that a free market economy was the best way to create social and political freedom. In his classic book Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Friedman advocated for a laissez-faire economy with minimal government regulation as a means to achieve economic freedom, which he believed was a necessary condition for political freedom. A leader of the Chicago School of Economics from the 1950s through the 1970s, Friedman was the leading proponent of the monetarist school of thought, which contends that inflation can be regulated by controlling the amount of money in the economy. Friedman served on President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board and in 1988 was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.