HENRY CHARLES BUKOWSKI (16 August 1920 –1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer. He spent a lot of time roaming from job to job living in rooming houses from the East coast to the West coast before he joined the United States Postal Service in Los Angeles. In 1969… Read More 16 August: Bukowski
Today is Ferragosto in Italy: it is a public holiday celebrated on 15 August, coinciding with the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary. The modern Italian name of the holiday comes directly from the Latin name: ” Feriae Augusti” (Holidays of Emperor Augustus), which were introduced by emperor Augustus in 18 BC. All the… Read More 15 August: “Feriae Augusti”
August 13 is the International Left-Handers Day . It was created in 1976 as a way to celebrate left-handers, but also to raise awareness of the inconveniences they have to face in a predominantly right-handed world. In the past left-handedness was viewed with suspicion, and in the Middle Ages, left-handed writers were thought to be… Read More 13 August: International Left-Handers Day
10 agosto: – notte di San Lorenzo e delle stelle cadenti, che ricordano le scintille di fuoco prodotte dalla graticola su cui il martire fu bruciato vivo – data in cui, 150 anni fa, fu assassinato il padre di Giovanni Pascoli, Ruggero (Ravenna, 24 marzo 1815 – Savignano sul Rubicone, 10 agosto 1867), con il… Read More X Agosto
The “Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore” (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the main church of Florence, Italy. “Il Duomo di Firenze”, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 and completed in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the… Read More 7 August 1420 – Construction of the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore begins in Florence.
The Dedication of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major) is a feast day celebrated annually on 5 August. In earlier editions of the General Roman Calendar it was called the Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary of the Snows a reference to the legendary story about the foundation of… Read More 5 August: Our Lady of the Snows
On 3 August 1492, the day after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus started his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean with a crew of 90 men and three ships— a larger carrack, the Santa María, and two smaller caravels, the Pinta and the Santa Clara, nicknamed the Niña (“Girl”).… Read More Christopher Columbus
On 2 August 1980 a bomb exploded at the Central Railway Station of Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200. The attack was attributed to a neo- fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Groups), which always denied any involvement; other theories have been proposed, especially in correlation with the strategy… Read More 2 August 1980: Bologna Massacre
1 Aug. 1915: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” was first published in the “Atlantic Monthly” Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took… Read More The Road Not Taken
From 1562 to 1598, France saw a series of bloody wars between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, called “the French Wars of Religion” , which ended with the Edict of Nantes, issued in 1598 by King Henry IV, a treaty that fostered religious tolerance. Nine years earlier, “le bon roi Henri” (the good king Henry)… Read More 25 July 1593: “Paris is worth a Mass”
