CHARLES BLONDIN, THE FRENCH TIGHTROPE WALKER

Charles Blondin

Today, The Grandma has been watching Niagara, the classic thriller interpreted by Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten. It is an amazing film that supposed the beginning of the successful career of Marilyn Monroe.

Meanwhile The Grandma was watching the final scene; she has remembered an incredible event. In 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope. It was something amazing never seen it before.

The Grandma wants to remember who Charles Blondin was and his exciting career.

Charles Blondin (born Jean François Gravelet, 28 February 1824-22 February 1897) was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the United States and was known for crossing the 340 m Niagara Gorge on a tightrope.

During an event in Dublin in 1860, the rope on which he was walking broke and two workers were killed, although Blondin was not injured.

He married three times and had eight children. His name became synonymous with tightrope walking.

Blondin was born on 28 February 1824 in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, France. His birth name was Jean-François Gravelet, though he was known by many other names and nicknames: Charles Blondin, Jean-François Blondin, Chevalier Blondin, and The Great Blondin.

At the age of five, he was sent to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and, after six months of training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as The Boy Wonder. His superior skill and grace, as well as the originality of the settings of his acts, made him a popular favourite.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

Blondin went to the United States in 1855. He was encouraged by William Niblo to perform with the Ravel troupe in New York City and was subsequently part proprietor of a circus.  He especially owed his celebrity and fortune to his idea to cross the Niagara Gorge on the Canada–US border on a tightrope, 340 m long, in 8.3 cm in diameter and 49 m above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge.

This he did on 30 June 1859, and a number of times thereafter, often with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man his manager, Harry Colcord on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette, or standing on a chair with only one of its legs balanced on the rope.

Charles Blondin

On 23 August 1860, he performed at the Royal Portobello Gardens, on South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin, on a rope 15 m feet above the ground.

While he was performing, the rope broke, which led to the collapse of the scaffolding. Blondin was not injured, but two workers who were on the scaffolding fell to their deaths.

An investigation was held, and the broken rope reportedly 5 cm in diameter and 13 cm in circumference examined. No blame was attributed at the time to either Blondin or his manager; the judge said that the rope manufacturer had a lot to answer for.

The organiser of the event, a Mr. Kirby, said he would never have another one like it. A bench warrant for the arrest of Blondin and his manager was issued when they did not appear at a further trial, having returned to the US.

In 1861, Blondin first appeared in London, at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched across the central transept 21 m from the ground. He performed in September 1861 in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Royal Botanic Gardens then called the Experimental Gardens on Inverleith Row.
 

The following year, Blondin was back at the same venue in Dublin, this time performing 30 m above the ground. He gave a series of other performances in 1862, as well, again at the Crystal Palace, and elsewhere in England and Europe.

More information: Mental Floss

On 6 September 1873, Blondin crossed Edgbaston Reservoir in Birmingham. A statue built in 1992 on the nearby Ladywood Middleway marks his feat.

While he was living in England, he and Charlotte had two more children, Henry, born c. 1863, and Charlotte Mary Janet, baptised on 25 April 1866.

After a period of retirement, Blondin reappeared in 1880 and starred in the 1893–94 season of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the Crystal Palace, organised by Oscar Barrett. His final performance was in Belfast, Ireland in 1896.

Blondin died of diabetes at his Niagara House in Ealing, London, on 22 February 1897, at age 72 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

During his lifetime, Blondin's name became so synonymous with tightrope walking that many employed the name Blondin to describe others in the sport.

More information: Ripleys

 Only those who will risk going too far
can possibly find out how far one can go.
 

T. S. Eliot

THE GLOBE THEATRE IN LONDON BURNS TO THE GROUND

The Globe, London

Today, The Grandma has been reading about William Shakespeare, the English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.

On a day like today in 1613, the Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, burns to the ground, and The Grandma has wanted to remember this tragic event talking about this emblematic theatre and its history.

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare.

It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued on 6 September 1642.

A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named Shakespeare's Globe, opened in 1997 approximately 230 m from the site of the original theatre. From 1909, the current Gielgud Theatre was called Globe Theatre, until it was renamed in honour of John Gielgud in 1994.

Examination of old property records has identified the plot of land occupied by the Globe as extending from the west side of modern-day Southwark Bridge Road eastwards as far as Porter Street and from Park Street southwards as far as the back of Gatehouse Square.

However, the precise location of the building remained unknown until a small part of the foundations, including one original pier base, was discovered in 1989 by the Department of Greater London Archaeology, now Museum of London Archaeology, beneath the car park at the rear of Anchor Terrace on Park Street. The shape of the foundations is now replicated on the surface. As the majority of the foundations lies beneath 67–70 Anchor Terrace, a listed building, no further excavations have been permitted.

More information: Shakespeare's Globe

The Globe was owned by actors who were also shareholders in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, owned double shares of the whole, or 25% each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope, owned a single share, or 12.5%.

Originally William Kempe was intended to be the seventh partner, but he sold out his share to the four minority sharers, leaving them with more than the originally planned 10%. These initial proportions changed over time as new sharers were added. Shakespeare's share diminished from 1/8 to 1/14, or roughly 7%, over the course of his career.

The Globe, London

The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre, The Theatre, which had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576.

The Burbages originally had a 21-year lease of the site on which the theatre was built but owned the building outright. However, the landlord, Giles Allen, claimed that the building had become his with the expiry of the lease.

On 28 December 1598, while Allen was celebrating Christmas at his country home, carpenter Peter Street, supported by the players and their friends, dismantled The Theatre beam by beam and transported it to Street's waterfront warehouse near Bridewell. With the onset of more favourable weather in the following spring, the material was ferried over the Thames to reconstruct it as The Globe on some marshy gardens to the south of Maiden Lane, Southwark.

While only a hundred yards from the congested shore of the Thames, the piece of land was situated close by an area of farmland and open fields. It was poorly drained and, notwithstanding its distance from the river, was liable to flooding at times of particularly high tide; a wharf (bank) of raised earth with timber revetments had to be created to carry the building above the flood level.

The new theatre was larger than the building it replaced, with the older timbers being reused as part of the new structure; the Globe was not merely the old Theatre newly set up at Bankside. It was probably completed by the summer of 1599, possibly in time for the opening production of Henry V and its famous reference to the performance crammed within a wooden O.

Dover Wilson, however, defers the opening date until September 1599, taking the wooden O"reference to be disparaging and thus unlikely to be used in the Globe's inaugural staging. He suggests that a Swiss tourist's account of a performance of Julius Caesar witnessed on 21 September 1599 describes the more likely first production.

 More information: Shakespeare

The first performance for which a firm record remains was Jonson's Every Man out of His Humour -with its first scene welcoming the gracious and kind spectators- at the end of the year.

On 29 June 1613, the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry VIII.

A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.

Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was pulled down in 1644–45; the commonly cited document dating the act to 15 April 1644 has been identified as a probable forgery -to make room for tenements.

A modern reconstruction of the theatre, named Shakespeare's Globe, opened in 1997, with a production of Henry V.

It is an academic approximation of the original design, based on available evidence of the 1599 and 1614 buildings, and is located approximately 230 m from the site of the original theatre. 

The modern reconstruction of the Globe, 1997

The Globe's actual dimensions are unknown, but its shape and size can be approximated from scholarly inquiry over the last two centuries. The evidence suggests that it was a three-storey, open-air amphitheatre approximately 30 m in diameter that could house up to 3,000 spectators.

The Globe is shown as round on Wenceslas Hollar's sketch of the building, later incorporated into his etched Long View of London from Bankside in 1647. However, in 1988–89, the uncovering of a small part of the Globe's foundation suggested that it was a polygon of 20 sides. At the base of the stage, there was an area called the pit or harking back to the old inn-yards, yard, where, for a penny, people the groundling would stand on the rush-strewn earthen floor to watch the performance.

During the excavation of the Globe in 1989 a layer of nutshells was found, pressed into the dirt flooring so as to form a new surface layer. Vertically around the yard were three levels of stadium-style seats, which were more expensive than standing room. A rectangular stage platform, also known as an apron stage, thrust out into the middle of the open-air yard. The stage measured approximately 13.1 m in width, 8.2 m in depth and was raised about 1.5 m off the ground. On this stage, there was a trap door for use by performers to enter from the cellarage area beneath the stage.

More information: Theater Seat Store

The back wall of the stage had two or three doors on the main level, with a curtained inner stage in the centre, although not all scholars agree about the existence of this supposed inner below, and a balcony above it. The doors entered into the tiring house, backstage area, where the actors dressed and awaited their entrances. The floors above may have been used as storage for costumes and props and management offices. The balcony housed the musicians and could also be used for scenes requiring an upper space, such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Rush matting covered the stage, although this may only have been used if the setting of the play demanded it.

Large columns on either side of the stage supported a roof over the rear portion of the stage. The ceiling under this roof was called the heavens, and was painted with clouds and the sky. A trap door in the heavens enabled performers to descend using some form of rope and harness. The stage was set in the south-east corner of the building, so as to be in shade during afternoon performances in summer.

The name of the Globe supposedly alludes to the Latin tag totus mundus agit histrionem, in turn derived from quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem -because all the world is a playground- from Petronius, which had wide circulation in England in the Burbages' time.

Totus mundus agit histrionem was, according to this explanation, therefore adopted as the theatre's motto. Another allusion, familiar to the contemporary theatre-goer, would have been to Teatrum Mundi, a meditation by the twelfth-century classicist and philosopher John of Salisbury, in his Policraticus, book three. In either case, there would have been a familiar understanding of the classical derivation without the adoption of a formal motto.

It seems likely that the link between the supposed motto and the Globe was made only later, originating with the industrious early Shakespeare biographer William Oldys, who claimed as his source a private manuscript to which he once had access. This was repeated in good faith by his literary executor George Steevens, but the tale is now thought suspicious.

More information: Download William Shakespeare by The Grandma

To do a great right do a little wrong.

William Shakespeare

KATHY D. BATES, THE GREATEST ROLES IN TERROR CINEMA

Kathy Bates

Today, The Grandma has been at home resting and watching TV. She has wanted to pay tribute to one of her favourite actresses, Kathy Bates, who was born on a day like today in 1948.

The Grandma loves mystery and terror films and Kathy Bates has played some of the best roles of these genres in cinema and television. Dolores Claiborne, Misery or American Horror Story are great examples of it.

Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she studied theatre at the Southern Methodist University before moving to New York City to pursue an acting career. She landed minor stage roles before being cast in her first on screen role in Taking Off (1971). Her first Off-Broadway stage performance was in the 1976 production of Vanities.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, she continued to perform on screen and on stage, and garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play in 1983 for her performance in night, Mother, and won an Obie Award in 1988 for her performance in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

Bates' performance as Annie Wilkes in the horror film Misery (1990), marked her Hollywood breakthrough, winning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

More information: Twitter-Kathy Bates

Further acclaim came for her starring role in Dolores Claiborne (1995), The Waterboy (1998), and supporting roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Titanic (1997); the latter, in which she portrayed Molly Brown, became the highest-grossing film to that point.

Bates received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002), and Richard Jewell (2019).

Bates' television work has resulted in 14 Emmy Award nominations, including two for her leading role on the NBC series Harry's Law (2011–12).

She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance on the ninth season of Two and a Half Men (2012) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her portrayal of Delphine LaLaurie on the third season of American Horror Story (2014). She also received accolades for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in the 1999 television adaptation of Annie.

Kathy Bates, Misery (1990)

Her directing credits include several episodes of the HBO television series Six Feet Under (2001–03) and the television film Ambulance Girl (2005).

Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Her great-great-grandfather was an Irish emigrant to New Orleans, Louisiana, who served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor. She graduated early from White Station High School (1965) and from Southern Methodist University (1969), where she studied theatre and became a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career.

After moving to New York City, Bates worked several odd jobs as well as minor stage roles while struggling to find work as an actress. At one point, she worked as a cashier at the Museum of Modern Art.

In 1971, Bates was cast in a minor role in the Miloš Forman comedy Taking Off, her first on screen role in a feature film.

After Taking Off was released, Bates didn't work on another feature film until she appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman in Straight Time (1978). Throughout the 1970s, she continued to perform on stage. Her first Off-Broadway performance was in the 1976 production of Vanities. During this time, she also began working in television, starring in a variety of soap operas such as The Doctors, All My Children, and One Life to Live.

More information: Reader's Digest

Bates' performance in the 1990 horror film Misery, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King, marked her Hollywood breakthrough. The film was a commercial and critical success and her performance as Annie Wilkes was met with widespread critical adulation.

The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress-Motion Picture Drama. The American Film Institute included Annie Wilkes, as played by Bates, in their 100 Heroes and Villains list, ranking her as the 17th most iconic villain and sixth most iconic villainess in film history.

Kathy Bates, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

Soon after, she starred in the acclaimed 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes, based on the novel by comedic actress Fannie Flagg. For her performance in this film, she received a BAFTA Award nomination.

In 1995, Bates played the title character in Dolores Claiborne, another well-received Stephen King adaptation, for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the 22nd Saturn Awards. Bates began working behind the screen as well, as a director, on several television series.

In 1996, Bates received her first Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, for her performance as Jay Leno's manager Helen Kushnick in HBO's The Late Shift (1996). That role also earned Bates her second Golden Globe Award win in the category of Best Supporting Actress-Series, Miniseries or Television Film and her first Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. During this time, she also appeared frequently on television.

More information: Interview Magazine

In 2012, Bates made a guest appearance on Two and a Half Men as the ghost of Charlie Harper on the episode Why We Gave Up Women, which aired on April 30, 2012. This guest appearance resulted in Bates winning her first Emmy Award, in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, following nine nominations.

In 2013, she began starring in the American Horror Story series' third season, Coven, as Delphine LaLaurie, an immortal racist who is brought back into the modern world after spending years buried alive. For that role, she won her second Emmy Award, in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Bates claimed that Ryan Murphy, the creator of the series, resurrected her career.

Kathy Bates, American Horror Story (2011)

Bates returned for the fourth season of American Horror Story, Freak Show, this time as Ethel Darling, a bearded lady who performs in a freak show.

She subsequently returned again for the fifth season, Hotel, where she played Iris, the hotel's hateful manager.

Bates returned for her fourth, and the show's sixth season, Roanoke, playing two characters-Thomasin The Butcher White and Agnes Mary Winstead. She received further Emmy Award nominations for each season.

On September 20, 2016, Bates received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in the film industry. Her star is located at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard.

More information: People

In 2017, Bates starred in the Netflix television series Disjointed, in which she played the character of Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, an owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary. The show aired for two seasons.

In 2018, she appeared in two films: in Xavier Dolan's critically panned arthouse film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan and as political activist Dorothy Kenyon in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex. That year, she also guest-starred in the finale of the 11th season of The Big Bang Theory.

In 2019, Bates portrayed American politician Miriam A. Ferguson in the Netflix film The Highwaymen. She also appeared in the Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell, playing the mother of the title individual, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination, also in the Best Supporting Actress category.

More information: The Guardian

 I try to always stretch myself to fit

the characters that have been presented.

Kathy Bates

THE SUN & INTERFACE REGION IMAGING SPECTOGRAPH

IRIS Explorer

It is hot today. Summer has arrived and temperatures are rising up. We cannot live without Sun, our most important reference. Latest studies say that in 7. 590 millions of years Sun will eat Earth.

We need to study Universe to understand better our own existence. On a day like today in 2013, NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun. The Grandma wants to talk about it.

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), also called Explorer 94, is a NASA solar observation satellite. The mission was funded through the Small Explorer program to investigate the physical conditions of the solar limb, particularly the chromosphere of the Sun.

The spacecraft consists of a satellite bus and spectrometer built by the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), and a telescope provided by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. IRIS is operated by LMSAL and NASA's Ames Research Center.

The satellite's instrument is a high-frame-rate ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, providing one image per second at 0.3 arcsecond angular resolution and sub-ångström spectral resolution.

NASA announced on 19 June 2009 that IRIS was selected from six Small Explorer mission candidates for further study, along with the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism (GEMS) space observatory.

More information: NASA

The spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on 16 April 2013 and was successfully launched on 27 June 2013 by a Pegasus-XL rocket.

IRIS achieved first light on 17 July 2013. NASA noted that IRIS's first images showed a multitude of thin, fibril-like structures that have never been seen before, revealing enormous contrasts in density and temperature occur throughout this region even between neighboring loops that are only a few hundred miles apart.

On 31 October 2013, calibrated IRIS data and images were released on the project website. A preprint describing the satellite and initial data has been released on arXiv.

Data collected from the IRIS spacecraft has shown that the interface region of the sun is significantly more complex than previously known. This includes features described as solar heat bombs, high-speed plasma jets, nano-flares, and mini-tornadoes. These features are an important step in understanding the transfer of heat to the corona.

In 2019 IRIS detected tadpole like jets coming out from the Sun according to NASA.

More information: NASA

In less than a hundred years,

we have found a new way to think of ourselves.

From sitting at the center of the universe,

we now find ourselves orbiting an average-sized sun,

which is just one of millions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.

Stephen Hawking

LE MANS, THE FIRST GRAND PRIX MOTOR RACE IS HELD

Paris-Automobile, Le Mans (1906)

Today, The Grandma has been checking her car in the RACC technical services. For a person who dislikes driving and knows nothing about mechanics, having tis technical assistant service is a must.

Meanwhile the RACC mechanics check her car and prepare it to pass the annual revision, The Grandma has been thinking about the importance of these Automobile Clubs and she wants to talk about another important, the Automobile Club de France which organized the 1906 French Grand Prix, the motor race held on 26 and 27 June 1906 that is considered the first Grand Prix motor race. It was held at Le Mans.

The 1906 Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, commonly known as the 1906 French Grand Prix, was a motor race held on 26 and 27 June 1906, on closed public roads outside the city of Le Mans. The Grand Prix was organised by the Automobile Club de France (ACF) at the prompting of the French automobile industry as an alternative to the Gordon Bennett races, which limited each competing country's number of entries regardless of the size of its industry.

France had the largest automobile industry in Europe at the time, and in an attempt to better reflect this the Grand Prix had no limit to the number of entries by any particular country.

More information: Le Mans

The ACF chose a 103.18-kilometre circuit, composed primarily of dust roads sealed with tar, which would be lapped six times on both days by each competitor, a combined race distance of 1,238.16 kilometres. Lasting for more than 12 hours overall, the race was won by Ferenc Szisz driving for the Renault team. FIAT driver Felice Nazzaro finished second, and Albert Clément was third in a Clément-Bayard.

Paul Baras of Brasier set the fastest lap of the race on his first lap. He held on to the lead until the third lap, when Szisz took over first position, defending it to the finish. Hot conditions melted the road tar, which the cars kicked up into the faces of the drivers, blinding them and making the racing treacherous. 

Punctures were common; tyre manufacturer Michelin introduced a detachable rim with a tyre already affixed, which could be quickly swapped onto a car after a puncture, saving a significant amount of time over manually replacing the tyre. This helped Nazzaro pass Clément on the second day, as the FIAT -unlike the Clément-Bayard- made use of the rims.

Le Mans, 1906

Renault's victory contributed to an increase in sales for the French manufacturer in the years following the race. Despite being the second to carry the title, the race has become known as the first Grand Prix.

The success of the 1906 French Grand Prix prompted the ACF to run the Grand Prix again the following year, and the German automobile industry to organise the Kaiserpreis, the forerunner to the German Grand Prix, in 1907.

The first French Grand Prix originated from the Gordon Bennett races, established by American millionaire James Gordon Bennett, Jr. in 1900. 

Intended to encourage automobile industries through sport, by 1903 the Gordon Bennett races had become some of the most prestigious in Europe; their formula of closed-road racing among similar cars replaced the previous model of unregulated vehicles racing between distant towns, over open roads.

Entries into the Gordon Bennett races were by country, and the winning country earned the right to organise the next race. Entries were limited to three per country, which meant that although the nascent motor industry in Europe was dominated by French manufacturers, they were denied the opportunity to fully demonstrate their superiority.

More informarion: Hiconsumption

Instead, the rule put them on a numerical level footing with countries such as Switzerland, with only one manufacturer, and allowed Mercedes, which had factories in Germany and Austria, to field six entries: three from each country. The French governing body, the Automobile Club de France (ACF), held trials between its manufacturers before each race; in 1904 twenty-nine entries competed for the three positions on offer.

When Léon Théry won the 1904 race for the French manufacturer Richard-Brasier, the French automobile industry proposed to the ACF that they modify the format of the 1905 Gordon Bennett race and run it simultaneously with an event which did not limit entries by nation.

The ACF accepted the proposal, but decided that instead of removing limits to entries by nation, the limits would remain but would be determined by the size of each country's industry. Under the ACF's proposal, France was allowed fifteen entries, Germany and Britain six, and the remaining countries -Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria and the United States- three cars each.

Le Mans, 1906

The French proposal was met with strong opposition from governing bodies representing the other Gordon Bennett nations, and at the instigation of Germany a meeting of the bodies was organised to settle the dispute.

Although the delegates rejected the French model for the 1905 race, to avoid deadlock they agreed to use the new system of limits for the 1906 race. But when Théry and Richard-Brasier won again in 1905, and the responsibility for organising the 1906 race fell once more to the ACF, the French ended the Gordon Bennett races and organised their own event as a replacement, the Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France.

A combined offer from the city council of Le Mans and local hoteliers to contribute funding to the Grand Prix persuaded the ACF to hold the race on the outskirts of the city, where the Automobile Club de la Sarthe devised a 103.18-kilometre circuit.

Running through farmlands and forests, the track, like most circuits of the time, formed a triangle. It started outside the village of Montfort, and headed south-west towards Le Mans. Competitors then took the Fourche hairpin, which turned sharply left and slowed the cars to around 50 kilometres per hour, and then an essentially straight road through Bouloire south-east towards Saint-Calais.

More information: Car and Driver

The town was bypassed with a temporary wooden plank road, as the track headed north on the next leg of the triangle. Another plank road through a forest to a minor road allowed the track to bypass most of the town of Vibraye, before it again headed north to the outskirts of La Ferté-Bernard.

A series of left-hand turns took competitors back south-west towards Montfort on the last leg of the triangle, a straight broken by a more technical winding section, near the town of Connerré. Competitors lapped the circuit twelve times over two days, six times on each day, a total distance of 1,238.16 kilometres.

Roads around the track were closed to the public at 5 am on the morning of the race. A draw took place among the thirteen teams to determine the starting order, and assign each team a number. Each of a team's three entries was assigned a letter, one of A, B, or C. Two lines of cars formed behind the start line at Montfort: cars marked "A" in one line and cars marked B in the other. Cars assigned the letter C were the last away; they formed a single line at the side of the track so that any cars which had completed their first circuit of the track would be able to pass. Cars were dispatched at 90-second intervals, beginning at 6 am.

Until the First World War it was the only annual race to be called a Grand Prix (often, the Grand Prix), and is commonly known as the first Grand Prix.

More information: Total 911-The Porche Magazine

Le Mans is an historic race.

The way everything works is very different from a normal race we are used to. It’s a new experience for me and I enjoyed it a lot.

Ben Hanley

CARLY SIMON, MAKE HISTORY WITH 'LET THE RIVER RUN'

Carly Simon

Today, The Grandma has been resting at home reading and listening to one of her favourite singers, Carly Simon, the American songwriter who was born on a day like today in 1945.

The Grandma thinks that the best way to homage Carly Simon is talking about her life and her career. She has been the author of some of the best songs of the American music and today is a great day to remember them.

Carly Simon is the first artist to win all three major awards (Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy) for a song that is composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist. She did it with Let the River Run.

Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She first rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include Anticipation, You Belong To Me, Coming Around Again, and her four Gold certified singles Jesse, Mockingbird, You're So Vain, and Nobody Does It Better from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

After a brief stint with her sister Lucy Simon as duo group the Simon Sisters, she found great success as a solo artist with her 1971 self-titled debut album Carly Simon, which won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and spawned her first Top 10 single, That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be.

Her second album, Anticipation, followed later that year and became an even greater success, earning Simon another Grammy nomination and later being certified Gold by the RIAA.

More information: Carly Simon Official Webpage

She achieved international fame the following year with the release of her third album, No Secrets, which sat firmly at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks, was certified Platinum, and spawned the worldwide hit You're So Vain, for which she received three Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

With her 1988 hit Let the River Run, from the film Working Girl, she became the first artist to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist.

Over the course of her career, Simon has amassed 24 Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, 28 Billboard Adult Contemporary charting singles, and won 2 Grammy Awards, from 14 nominations. AllMusic called her one of the quintessential singer-songwriters of the '70s.

Carly Simon, 1971

She has a contralto vocal range, and has cited Odetta as a significant influence. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

In 1995 and 1998, respectively, she received the Boston Music Awards Lifetime Achievement and a Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree.

She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for You're So Vain in 2004 and awarded the ASCAP Founders Award in 2012.

Simon was born June 25, 1945, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Her father, Richard L. Simon, was the co-founder of Simon & Schuster and a classical pianist who often played Frédéric Chopin and Ludwig van Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Heinemann Simon, a civil rights activist and singer. Her father was from a German-Jewish family, while her maternal grandfather Friedrich was of German descent; her maternal grandmother, Ofelia Oliete, known as Chibie, was a Catholic originally from Cuba, and was of Pardo heritage, a freed-slave descendant.

Simon's career began with a short-lived music group with her sister Lucy, as the Simon Sisters. They were signed to Kapp Records in 1964, and released two albums for the label that year, beginning with their debut album, Meet The Simon Sisters.

They had a minor hit with the lead single, Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod, a children's poem by Eugene Field that Lucy had put to music. Their second album, Cuddlebug, quickly followed. The duo made one more album together, 1969's The Simon Sisters Sing the Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children, before Lucy left to get married and start a family.

More information: Facebook-Carly Simon

Later, Simon collaborated with eclectic New York rockers Elephant's Memory for about six months. She also appeared in the 1971 Miloš Forman film Taking Off, playing an auditioning singer, and sang Long Term physical Effects, which was included in the 1971 soundtrack for the film.

Simon was signed by Jac Holzman to Elektra Records in 1970. She released her self-titled debut album, Carly Simon, in March 1971. The album contained her breakthrough top-ten hit That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be, which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard charts, and earned Simon a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards. The album itself peaked at No. 30, and Simon won Best New Artist at the same ceremony. Her second album, Anticipation, came in November of that same year.

Simon scored the biggest success of her career in 1972–73, with You're So Vain. It hit No. 1 on the U.S. Pop and Adult Contemporary charts, and sold over a million copies in the United States alone.

Carly Simon, Jane Fonda & Melanie Griffith

It was one of the decade's biggest hits and propelled Simon's breakthrough album No Secrets to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts, where it stayed for five consecutive weeks. 

The album achieved Gold status that year, and by its 25th anniversary in 1997 it had been certified Platinum. You're So Vain received Grammy Award nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Additionally, in 2008, it was listed at No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100's list of the top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008. On August 23, 2014, the UK Official Charts Company gave it the accolade of ultimate song of the 1970s.

The subject of the You're So Vain song itself became one of the biggest mysteries in popular music, with the famous lyric You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you. For more than 40 years, Simon has not publicly revealed the name of the subject.

In 1977, Simon had an international hit with the million-selling gold single Nobody Does It Better, the theme to the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. The song, her second-biggest U.S. hit after You're So Vain, was 1977's biggest Adult Contemporary hit, where it held No. 1 for seven straight weeks.

More information: Twitter-Carly Simon

From 1972 to 1979, Simon sang backup vocals on the following James Taylor songs and albums, not counting compilations: One Man Parade from 1972's One Man Dog, Rock 'n' Roll Is Music Now, Let It All Fall Down, Me and My Guitar, Daddy's Baby and Ain't No Song from 1974's Walking Man, How Sweet It Is from 1975's Gorilla, Shower the People, A Junkie's Lament, Slow Burning Love and Family Man from 1976's In the Pocket, and B.S.U.R. from 1979's Flag. She also co-wrote with Taylor the song Terra Nova on his 1977 album JT.

In 1986, Simon signed with Arista Records and soon rebounded from her career slump. Her first album for Arista, Coming Around Again (1987), gave Simon another international hit with the title track, which was featured in the film Heartburn, returning her to the Billboard Pop Top 20 and the UK Top 10, it also garnered her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

The Coming Around Again album also featured the Top 10 Adult Contemporary hits Give Me All Night, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, All I Want Is You, which featured Roberta Flack on backing vocals, and a cover of As Time Goes By, featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica.

The album itself was her first Gold release in nine years, and went Platinum in 1988.

In October 2017, Hot Shot Records released a two-disc 30th Anniversary deluxe edition of the album. These and older songs were featured in a picturesque HBO concert special entitled Live from Martha's Vineyard, where Simon and her band performed live on a pier. Most of these songs were compiled for her 1988 album, Greatest Hits Live.

Simon is the first artist to win all three major awards (Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy) for a song that is composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist (the only other such artist being Bruce Springsteen for Streets of Philadelphia, from the 1993 film Philadelphia). The Working Girl soundtrack album was released in August 1989, and featured more music from Simon. That same year, Simon released her first children's book, Amy the Dancing Bear.

More information: Instagram-Carly Simon

On May 16, 2000, Simon released the album The Bedroom Tapes, largely written and recorded at home in her bedroom while she was recuperating from her health problems of the previous couple of years.

On March 2, 2010, BBC Radio 2 broadcast An Evening With Carly Simon where Simon performed live for the first time in the UK with her son Ben to a small audience of approximately 100 people. This coincided with the UK release of the Never Been Gone album, which was released for the Mother's Day season and peaked at No. 45, Simon's first studio album to reach the UK Top 100 since 1987's Coming Around Again. Simon also appeared on various UK television shows to promote the album, including The One Show and BBC Breakfast.

On July 27, 2013, in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Simon performed You're So Vain with Taylor Swift on her Red Tour. Swift had previously cited Simon as a musical influence and You're So Vain as one of her favorite songs.

On November 24, 2015, Simon published Boys in the Trees: A Memoir, an autobiographical book focusing on her childhood and her early life, from age five until thirty-five. The two-disc compilation album Songs From The Trees (A Musical Memoir Collection) was simultaneously released along with the book.

More information: Vineyard Gazzette I & II

Sometimes, but the year I lived in France

I started to write songs.

There was a French singer, Francoise Hardy 

-I used to look at her pictures

and try to dress like her.

Carly Simon

'LES FESTES DE SANT JOAN' IN CIUTADELLA DE MENORCA

The Grandma visits Ciutadella de Menorca

Sant Joan, Saint John in English, is the patron of the Catalan Countries.

This festivity is celebrated around these lands with different events and celebrations. One of the most beautiful and amazing is celebrated in Ciutadella, Menorca.

The Grandma wants to talk about this wonderful island and about this festivity, a must in your calendar of cultural activities.

Ciutadella de Menorca or simply Ciutadella is a town and a municipality in the western end of Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands. It is one of the two primary cities in the island, along with Maó.

It was founded by the Carthaginians, and became the seat of a bishop in the 4th century. After being governed by the Moors under the names of Medīna el Jezīra (Arabic: مدينة الجزيرة‎) and Medīna Menūrqa (مدينة منورقة) for several centuries, Ciutadella was recaptured during the reconquista by men serving Alfonso III and became part of the Crown of Aragon. During the Middle Ages, it became an important trading center.

On 9 July 1558, the Turks under Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis with a powerful Turkish Armada of 140 ships and 15,000 soldiers, put the town under siege for eight days entered and decimated the town.

The town was defended by only a few hundred men. All of Ciutadella's 3,099 inhabitants who survived the siege were taken as slaves to Turkey together with other inhabitants of surrounding villages. In total, 3,452 residents were sold into slavery in the slave markets of Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey.

More information: Visit Menorca

An obelisk was set up in the 19th century by Josep Quadrado in the Plaça d'es Born in memory of the offensive, with the following inscription:

Here we fought until death for our religion and our country in the year 1558.

Every year on July 9, a commemoration takes place in Ciutadella, remembering l'Any de sa Desgràcia, or the Year of the Disaster.

Despite no longer being Menorca's capital, Ciutadella has remained the island's religious center as the Bishop refused to move. The festival of Saint John, its patron saint, takes place each year on 23 and 24 of June. The Cathedral of Menorca, located in the old quarter of Ciutadella, was built in 1287 on the foundation of an older mosque.

Festes de Sant Joan, Ciutadella

In the 17th century, many of Ciutadella's civil and religious buildings were built in the Italian style and gave it a historical and artistic unity.

Ciutadella's town hall is the former palace of the Arab governor and later served as a royal palace under the Crown of Aragon and again as a governor's palace until the British moved the capital to the eastern town of Maó in 1722.

Punta Nati Lighthouse is located due north of Ciutadella.

At the summer solstice, Ciutadella celebrates Les Festes de Sant Joan. The stately city of palaces is transformed when skilful riders and beautiful horses, festooned for the occasion, take to the streets to become the stars of a celebration that deserves to be experienced at least once in a lifetime.

Les Festes de Sant Joan de Ciutadella make up one of the most iconic, spectacular and participatory festivals in the Balearic Islands. The main festivities centre on the days of 23 and 24 June, although the celebrations get underway on the previous Sunday, the Dia des Be.

The festivities are spread over three days and governed by a strict protocol, where the main social classes of Ciutadella's bygone era are represented: the church (caixer capellà), the aristocracy (caixer senyor), the craftsmen (caixer casat i caixer fadrí) and the farmers (caixers pagesos).

More information: Menorca Live

The most eagerly awaited spectacle of Ciutadella's annual fiestas is the Caragol del Born, when more than one hundred elegantly bedecked riders make their entry into the majestic Plaça des Born. Passing among the expectant crowd, the horses rear up on their hind legs as a symbol of power and nobility.

The first caragol takes place on 23 June, when the riders parade on horseback around the Plaça del Born, followed by the procession of caixers to the Hermitage of Sant Joan de Missa, and the traditional war of hazelnuts. The Day of Sant Joan (St. John) marks the culmination of the festivities.

One of the highlights of this day are the Jocs des Pla, medieval equestrian events that take place at dusk, where riders display their prowess in tests of their skills such as spearing rings with a lance or galloping along in parallel, trying to destroy a shield decorated with a mask (ses carotes). And when this is finished, the crowd rushes in to grab pieces of the trophy, so be prepared if you want to join in.

The festes offer a perfect excuse and spectacular backdrop for discovering Ciutadella, the ancient capital of Menorca, with its charming old town, grand palaces, Church of Santa Maria, avenue of Sa Contramurada and, of course, the Plaça des Born, where you can join in most of the festivities.

On 24 June, the fiestas come to a close with a firework display.

More information: Descobreix Menorca

 -Joan, d'on véns
d'on véns tan gran dia?
-si jo t'ho contava
t'alegraries.

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