MOZILLA, SOURCE CODE UNDER AN OPEN SOURCE LICENSE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Mozilla, the free software community founded on a day like today in 1998.

Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape.

The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, with only minor exceptions.

The community is supported institutionally by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.

Mozilla's current products include the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client now through a subsidiary, Bugzilla bug tracking system, Gecko layout engine, Pocket read-it-later-online service, and others.

On January 23, 1998, Netscape made two announcements: first, that Netscape Communicator would be free; second, that the source code would also be free. One day later Jamie Zawinski, from Netscape, registered mozilla.org.

The project took its name, Mozilla, after the original code name of the Netscape Navigator browser -a portmanteau of Mosaic and Godzilla, and used to coordinate the development of the Mozilla Application Suite, the free software version of Netscape's internet software, Netscape Communicator.

Jamie Zawinski says he came up with the name Mozilla at a Netscape staff meeting. A small group of Netscape employees were tasked with coordination of the new community.

Originally, Mozilla aimed to be a technology provider for companies, such as Netscape, who would commercialize their free software code. When AOL (Netscape's parent company) greatly reduced its involvement with Mozilla in July 2003, the Mozilla Foundation was designated the legal steward of the project. Soon after, Mozilla deprecated the Mozilla Suite in favor of creating independent applications for each function, primarily the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client, and moved to supply them directly to the public.

More information: Mozilla

Mozilla's activities have since expanded to include Firefox on mobile platforms (primarily Android), a mobile OS called Firefox OS (since cancelled), a web-based identity system called Mozilla Persona and a marketplace for HTML5 applications.

In a report released in November 2012, Mozilla reported that their total revenue for 2011 was $163 million, which was up 33% from $123 million in 2010. Mozilla noted that roughly 85% of their revenue comes from their contract with Google.

At the end of 2013, Mozilla announced a deal with Cisco Systems whereby Firefox would download and use a Cisco-provided binary build of an open-source codec to play the proprietary H.264 video format.

As part of the deal, Cisco would pay any patent licensing fees associated with the binaries that it distributes. Mozilla's CTO, Brendan Eich, acknowledged that this is not a complete solution and isn't perfect.

An employee in Mozilla's video formats team, writing in an unofficial capacity, justified it by the need to maintain their large user base, which would be necessary for future battles for truly free video formats.

In December 2013, Mozilla announced funding for the development of paid games through its Game Creator Challenge. However, even those games that may be released under a non-free software or free software license must be made with open web technologies and Javascript as per the work criteria outlined in the announcement.

In January 2017 the company rebranded away from its dinosaur symbol in favor of a logo that includes a "://" character sequence from a URL, with the revamped logo: "moz://a".

In 2020, Mozilla announced it would be cutting off 25% of its staff to reduce costs. Firefox has fallen from 30% market share to 4% in 10 years. Despite this, executive pay increased 400%, with Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's top executive, being paid $2.4m in 2018. In December 2020, Mozilla closed its Mountain View office.

More information: Mozilla

The Mozilla Manifesto outlines Mozilla's goals and principles. It asserts Mozilla's commitment to the internet, saying: The open, global internet is the most powerful communication and collaboration resource we have ever seen. It embodies some of our deepest hopes for human progress.

It then outlines what Mozilla sees as its place in the development of the internet, stating The Mozilla project uses a community-based approach to create world-class open source software and to develop new types of collaborative activities. And finally, it lays out their ten principles:

-The internet is an integral part of modern life -a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment, and society as a whole.

-The internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.

-The internet must enrich the lives of individual human beings.

-Individuals' security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.

-Individuals must have the ability to shape the internet and their own experiences on it.

-The effectiveness of the internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation, and decentralized participation worldwide.

-Free and open source software promotes the development of the internet as a public resource.

-Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust.

-Commercial involvement in the development of the internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial profit and public benefit is critical.

-Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention, and commitment.

According to the Mozilla Foundation:

-The Mozilla Foundation pledges to support the Mozilla Manifesto in its activities. Specifically, we will:

-Build and enable open-source technologies and communities that support the Manifesto's principles;

-Build and deliver great consumer products that support the Manifesto's principles;

-Use the Mozilla assets (intellectual property such as copyrights and trademarks, infrastructure, funds, and reputation) to keep the Internet an open platform;

-Promote models for creating economic value for the public benefit; and

-Promote the Mozilla Manifesto principles in public discourse and within the Internet industry.

More information: Office Lovin

Intellectual property is an important legal and cultural issue.
Society as a whole has complex issues to face here:
private ownership vs. open source, and so on.

Tim Berners-Lee

GURU GOBIND SINGH ESTABLISHES THE KHALSA IN 1699

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Guru Gobind Singh, the spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher, who established the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab on a day like today in 1699.

Guru Gobind Singh (22 December 1666-7 October 1708), born Gobind Rai, was the tenth Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher.

When his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was executed by Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Singh was formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the tenth and final human Sikh Guru. His four biological sons died during his lifetime -two in battle, two executed by the Mughal governor Wazir Kahn.

Among his notable contributions to Sikhism are founding the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699 and introducing the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times.

Guru Gobind Singh is credited with the Dasam Granth whose hymns are a sacred part of Sikh prayers and Khalsa rituals. He is also credited as the one who finalized and enshrined the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism's primary scripture and eternal Guru.

Gobind Singh was the only son of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh guru, and Mata Gujri. He was born in Patna, Bihar on 22 December 1666 while his father was visiting Bengal and Assam.

His birth name was Gobind Rai, and a shrine named Takht Sri Patna Harimandar Sahib marks the site of the house where he was born and spent the first four years of his life.

In 1670, his family returned to Punjab, and in March 1672 they moved to Chakk Nanaki in the Himalayan foothills of north India, called the Sivalik range, where he was schooled.

In 1699, the Guru requested the Sikhs to congregate at Anandpur on Vaisakhi, the annual spring harvest festival.

More information: Cultural India

According to the Sikh tradition, he asked for a volunteer. One came forward, whom he took inside a tent. The Guru returned to the crowd alone, with a bloody sword. He asked for another volunteer, and repeated the same process of returning from the tent without anyone and with a bloodied sword four more times.

After the fifth volunteer went with him into the tent, the Guru returned with all five volunteers, all safe. He called them the Panj Pyare and the first Khalsa in the Sikh tradition.

Guru Gobind Singh had deep respect for the Khalsa, and stated that there is no difference between the True Guru and the sangat, panth. Before his founding of the Khalsa, the Sikh movement had used the Sanskrit word Sisya, literally, disciple or student, but the favored term thereafter became Khalsa.

Additionally, prior to the Khalsa, the Sikh congregations across India had a system of Masands appointed by the Sikh Gurus. The Masands led the local Sikh communities, local temples, collected wealth and donations for the Sikh cause.

Guru Gobind Singh concluded that the Masands system had become corrupt, he abolished them and introduced a more centralized system with the help of Khalsa that was under his direct supervision.

These developments created two groups of Sikhs, those who initiated as Khalsa, and others who remained Sikhs but did not undertake the initiation.

The Khalsa Sikhs saw themselves as a separate religious entity, while the Nanak-panthi Sikhs retained their different perspective.

The Khalsa warrior community tradition started by Guru Gobind Singh has contributed to modern scholarly debate on pluralism within Sikhism. 

His tradition has survived into the modern times, with initiated Sikh referred to as Khalsa Sikh, while those who do not get baptized referred to as Sahajdhari Sikhs.

Guru Gobind Singh is credited in the Sikh tradition with finalizing the Kartarpur Pothi, manuscript, of the Guru Granth Sahib -the primary scripture of Sikhism. The final version did not accept the extraneous hymns in other versions, and included the compositions of his father Guru Tegh Bahadur.

Guru Gobind Singh also declared this text to be the eternal Guru for Sikhs.

More information: Hindustan Times

The greatest comforts and lasting peace are obtained,
when one eradicates selfishness from within.

Guru Gobind Singh

1871, ROYAL ALBERT HALL IS OPENED BY QUEEN VICTORIA

Today, The Grandma has remembered her last visit to the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London, a wonderful place that was opened on a day like today in 1871.

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London.

One of the United Kingdom's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no government funding. It can seat 5,272.

Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941.

It is host to more than 390 shows in the main auditorium annually, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment, sports, awards ceremonies, school and community events, and charity performances and banquets. A further 400 events are held each year in the non-auditorium spaces.

The hall was originally supposed to have been called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed to the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences by Queen Victoria upon laying the Hall's foundation stone in 1867, in memory of her husband, Prince Albert, who had died six years earlier.

It forms the practical part of a memorial to the Prince Consort; the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by Kensington Gore.

More information: Royal Albert Hall

n 1851 the Great Exhibition, organised by Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, was held in Hyde Park, London. The Exhibition was a success and led Prince Albert to propose the creation of a group of permanent facilities for the public benefit, which came to be known as Albertopolis. 

The Exhibition's Royal Commission bought Gore House, but it was slow to act, and in 1861 Prince Albert died without having seen his ideas come to fruition. However, a memorial was proposed for Hyde Park, with a Great Hall opposite.

The proposal was approved, and the site was purchased with some of the profits from the Exhibition. The Hall was designed by civil engineers Captain Francis Fowke and Major-General Henry Y. D. Scott of the Royal Engineers and built by Lucas Brothers.

The designers were heavily influenced by ancient amphitheatres but had also been exposed to the ideas of Gottfried Semper while he was working at the South Kensington Museum. The recently opened Cirque d'Hiver in Paris was seen in the contemporary press as the design to outdo. The Hall was constructed mainly of Fareham Red brick, with terra cotta block decoration made by Gibbs and Canning Limited of Tamworth.

The dome, designed by Rowland Mason Ordish, was made of wrought iron and glazed. There was a trial assembly of the dome's iron framework in Manchester; then it was taken apart again and transported to London by horse and cart. When the time came for the supporting structure to be removed from the dome after reassembly in situ, only volunteers remained on site in case the structure collapsed. It did drop -but only by 7.9 mm.

The Hall was scheduled to be completed by Christmas Day 1870, and the Queen visited a few weeks beforehand to inspect.

The official opening ceremony of the Hall was on 29 March 1871. This had originally been scheduled for 1 May, the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the Great Exhibition, but was brought forward at the request of Queen Victoria. A welcoming speech was given by Edward, the Prince of Wales because the Queen was too overcome to speak; her only recorded comment on the Hall was that it reminded her of the British constitution.

The Hall, a Grade I listed building, is an ellipse in plan, with its external major and minor axis of 83 and 72 meters, and its internal minor and major axis of 56 and 67 m.

The great glass and wrought-iron dome roofing the Hall is 41 metres high. The Hall was originally designed with a capacity for 8,000 people and has accommodated as many as 12,000, although present-day safety restrictions mean the maximum permitted capacity is now 5,272 including standing in the Gallery.

More information: Twitter-Royal Albert Hall

 As an architect, you have to provide a shelter to enjoy art.
And you have to love art. It's like when you make a concert hall.
You must love music.
This is the reason why you make the space, to enjoy music
-making a space for art is the same thing.

Renzo Piano

1ST CONCERT OF THE VIENNA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Today, The Grandma has been listening to a Vienna Philharmonic concert to commemorate its first concert on a day like today in 1842.

The Vienna Philharmonic VPO, in  German Wiener Philharmoniker, is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world.

The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.

Its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating their capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board.

Until the 1830s, orchestral performance in Vienna was done by ad hoc orchestras, consisting of professional and often amateur musicians brought together for specific performances. In 1833, Franz Lachner formed the forerunner of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Künstlerverein -an orchestra of professional musicians from the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper, now the Vienna State Opera); it gave four concerts, each including a Beethoven symphony.

The Vienna Philharmonic itself arose nine years later, in 1842, hatched by a group who met regularly at the inn Zum Amor, including the poet Nikolaus Lenau, newspaper editor August Schmidt, critic Alfred Becker, violinist Karlz Holz, Count Laurecin, and composer Otto Nicolai who was also the principal conductor of a standing orchestra at a Viennese theater.

Mosco Carner wrote in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that Nicolai was the least enthusiastic about the idea, and had to be persuaded by the others; he conducted the first [concert] on 28 March 1842.

The orchestra was fully independent, consisted of members of the Hofoper orchestra, and made all of its decisions by a democratic vote of its members; it had its day-to-day management handled by a democratically elected body, the administrative committee.

More information: Wiener Philharmoniker

Nicolai and the orchestra gave only 11 concerts in the ensuing five years, and when Nicolai left Vienna in 1847, the orchestra nearly folded.

Between 1854 and 1857, Karl Eckert -the first permanent conductor of the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper)- led the (associated) Vienna Philharmonic in a few concerts.

In 1857, Eckert was made Director of the Hofoper -the first musician to have been given the post; in 1860, he conducted four subscription concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. Since that time, writes Vienna Philharmonic violinist and president Clemens Hellsberg, the 'Philharmonic Concerts' have been staged without interruption.

Each New Year's Day since 1 January 1941, the VPO has sponsored the Vienna New Year's Concerts, dedicated to the music of the Strauss family composers, and particularly that of Johann Strauss II; the first such concert was given on 31 December 1939 by Clemens Krauss , and led subsequent concerts on New Year's Day from 1941 until 1945.

The postwar series of concerts was inaugurated in 1946 by Josef Krips. They were led by Krauss, then by concertmaster Willi Boskovsky from 1955 to 1979, and since 1980 have been led by a variety of leading conductors invited by the orchestra.

The Vienna Philharmonic operates under what it calls Democratic Self-Administration. Whereas many orchestras are run under a more corporate model with musicians as labor that works for the orchestra management, the ruling body of the Vienna Philharmonic organization is the full orchestra membership. Day-to-day decisions are delegated to the twelve elected members of the administrative committee.

More information: The Guardian

 The sound of the orchestra is one

of the most magnificent musical
sounds that has ever existed.

Chick Corea

QUENTIN JEROME TARANTINO, NONLINEAR STORY LINES

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films. She has chosen some directed by Quentin Tarantino, the American filmmaker who was born on a day like today in 1963.

Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, film critic and author.

His films are characterized by nonlinear storylines, dark humor, stylized violence, extended dialogue, pervasive use of profanity, ensemble casts, references to popular culture, alternate history, and neo-noir.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tarantino grew up in Los Angeles. He began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, a crime thriller in part funded by the sale of his screenplay True Romance (1993); Empire hailed Reservoir Dogs as the Greatest Independent Film of All Time.

His second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), a crime comedy, was a major success among critics and audiences and won numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He wrote the screenplay for From Dusk till Dawn (1996), in which he also starred, while Tarantino's third film, Jackie Brown (1997), paid homage to blaxploitation films.

In 2003, Tarantino delivered Kill Bill: Volume 1, stylized in cinematic traditions of kung fu films and Japanese martial arts, the animation sequences in the film were inspired from Aalavandhan; Volume 2 followed in 2004.

Tarantino then directed the exploitation slasher Death Proof (2007), part of a double feature with Robert Rodriguez released in the custom of 1970s grindhouse, under the collective title Grindhouse.

His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds (2009) told an alternate history and explored subgenres of war films; it was followed by Django Unchained (2012), a Spaghetti Western, which won him his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Tarantino's eighth film, The Hateful Eight (2015), was a long-form revisionist Western thriller with a roadshow release, while his most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), was a comedy drama which explored the transition of Old Hollywood to New Hollywood. He published his debut novel, a novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in 2021.

Tarantino's films have garnered critical and commercial success, as well as a cult following. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and the Palme d'Or, and has been nominated for an Emmy and five Grammys.

In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him the single most influential director of his generation; Tarantino has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.

Tarantino's works have been subject to controversy, including his depictions of violence and frequent inclusion of racial slurs, and alleged negligence in his handling of stunt scenes in Kill Bill: Volume 2.

More information: Film Comment

Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the only child of Connie McHugh and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before his son's birth. His father is of Italian descent, and his mother is of English, Irish, Cherokee, and some German ancestry. He was named in part for Quint Asper, Burt Reynolds' character in the CBS series Gunsmoke.

Tarantino's mother met his father during a trip to Los Angeles, where Tony was a law student and would-be entertainer. After a brief marriage and divorce, Connie Tarantino left Los Angeles and moved to Knoxville, where her parents lived. In 1966, Tarantino and his mother returned to Los Angeles.

Tarantino's films often feature graphic violence, a tendency which has sometimes been criticized.

Reservoir Dogs was initially denied United Kingdom certification because of his use of torture as entertainment.

Tarantino has frequently defended his use of violence, saying that violence is so good. It affects audiences in a big way.

Tarantino has stated that the celebrated animation-action sequence in Kill Bill: Volume 1 was inspired by the use of 2D animated sequences in actor Kamal Haasan's Tamil film Aalavandhan. He often blends esthetics elements, in tribute to his favorite films and filmmakers. In Kill Bill, he melds comic strip formulas and esthetics within a live action film sequence, in some cases by the literal use of cartoon or anime images.

As a child, Tarantino was a fan of the early eras of Marvel Comics, particularly those that were plotted and drawn by Jack Kirby with dialogue by Stan Lee, and is a confessed fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Tarantino has stated that he plans to make a total of just ten films before retiring as a director, as a means of ensuring an overall high quality within his filmography. He believes most directors have horrible last movies, that ending on a decent movie is rare, and that ending on a good movie is kind of phenomenal.

More information: GQ

When I make a film,
I am hoping to reinvent the genre a little bit.
I just do it my way.
I make my own little Quentin versions of them...
I consider myself a student of cinema.
It's almost like I am going for my professorship in cinema,
and the day I die is the day I graduate.
It is a lifelong study.

Quentin Tarantino

THE ROMEO SHOT IS DETONATED AT BIKINI ATOLL, MH

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Romeo shot of Operation Castle that was detonated at Bikini Atoll on a day like today in 1954.

Castle Romeo was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of U.S. nuclear tests. It was the first test of the TX-17 thermonuclear weapon, the first deployed thermonuclear bomb.

It was detonated on March 26, 1954, at Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands, on a barge moored in the middle of the crater from the Castle Bravo test.

It was the first such barge-based test, a necessity that had come about because the powerful thermonuclear devices obliterated the small islands following detonation.

The tested design became the first air-droppable thermonuclear device, initially the emergency capability EC-17, of which only five were made. The first deployable staged radiation implosion Teller-Ulam thermonuclear weapon evolved into the Mark 17, of which 200 were made.

Both of those were huge devices, weighing 39,000 t and 42,000 t respectively. As a result, only the B-36 was capable of carrying that first generation of thermonuclear bombs.

They were also some of the largest yield devices deployed by Strategic Air Command -the EC-17 producing around 10 megatonnes (Mt), and the Mk 17 between 11 and 15 Mt. They were all out of service by August 1957.

The Runt TX-15 device was a weaponized dry fusion bomb, using lithium deuteride fuel for the fusion stage of a staged fusion bomb, unlike the cryogenic liquid deuterium of the first-generation Ivy Mike fusion device.

Similar to the Shrimp TX-21 device tested before in the Castle Bravo test, it differed from that device in using lithium deuteride derived from natural lithium, a mixture of 7.5% lithium-6 and 92.5% lithium-7 isotopes, as the source of the tritium and deuterium fusion fuels, as opposed to the relative high enrichment level of lithium, approximately 40% lithium-6, deuteride used in Bravo.

More information: Radio Chemistry

Like the Bravo test, it produced far more than its predicted yield, and for the same reason -an unexpected participation of the common lithium-7 isotope in fusion reactions. Although it had been predicted to produce a yield of 4 megatons with a range of 1.5 to 7 megatons, before the results of the Bravo test caused an upgrade in the estimates, it had originally been estimated to produce 3-5 megatons, it actually produced a yield of 11 megatons, the third-largest test ever conducted by the U.S.

Like the Ivy Mike and Castle Bravo tests, a large percentage of the yield was produced by fast fission of the natural uranium tamper; 7 megatons of the yield were from this source.

One particular image of the Castle Romeo fireball has been one of the most highly reprinted images of a nuclear explosion. It often serves as a stand-in for nuclear weapons in general for news stories, book covers, magazine articles... likely because of its threatening appearance and extreme red, orange, and yellow hues.

The fact that the explosion is of a U.S. megaton-range weapon has not prevented it from being used to represent the arsenals of other states or weapons of far lower yields in many cases, which would have a very different appearance.

The Castle Romeo photos are sometimes confused with that of Castle Bravo. The two nuclear blasts looked very similar, and they were both conducted in the same location, but much of Bravo's photographic record was destroyed because of its unexpectedly high yield.

More information: Atlas Missile Silo

 I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out
in a war fought with the atomic bomb.
Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.

Albert Einstein

421, VENICE IS FOUNDED WITH SAN GIACOMO DI RIALTO

Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of her favourite places, Venice, the city that was founded with the dedication of the first church, San Giacomo di Rialto, on a day like today in 421.

Venice, in Venetian Venesia or Venexia, is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region.

It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers, more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile.

Venice has been known as La Dominante, La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals.

The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, and artwork.

Venice is known for several important artistic movements -especially during the Renaissance period- and has played an important role in the history of instrumental and operatic music, and is the birthplace of Baroque composers Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi.

Although no surviving historical records deal directly with the founding of Venice, tradition and the available evidence have led several historians to agree that the original population of Venice consisted of refugees -from nearby Roman cities such as Padua, Aquileia, Treviso, Altino, and Concordia (modern Portogruaro), as well as from the undefended countryside-who were fleeing successive waves of Germanic and Hun invasions.

This is further supported by the documentation on the so-called apostolic families, the twelve founding families of Venice who elected the first doge, who in most cases trace their lineage back to Roman families.

Some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen, on the islands in the original marshy lagoons, who were referred to as incolae lacunae, lagoon dwellers.

The traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto or Rivoalto, High Shore -said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421, the Feast of the Annunciation.

In 828 the new city's prestige increased with the acquisition, from Alexandria, of relics claimed to be of St Mark the Evangelist; these were placed in the new basilica. Winged lions -visible throughout Venice- are the emblem of St Mark.

The patriarchal seat was also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop, and as Byzantine power waned, its own autonomy grew, leading to eventual independence.

More information: Introducing Venice

San Giacomo di Rialto is a church in the sestiere of San Polo, Venice. The addition of Rialto to the name distinguishes this church from its namesake San Giacomo dell'Orio found in the sestiere of Santa Croce, on the same side of the Grand Canal.

It has a large 15th-century clock above the entrance, a useful item in the Venetian business district but regarded as a standing joke for its inaccuracy. 

The Gothic portico is one of the few surviving examples in Venice. It has a Latin cross plan with a central dome. Inside, the Veneto-Byzantine capitals on the six columns of ancient Greek marble date from the 11th century.

According to tradition, San Giacomo is the oldest church in the city, supposedly consecrated in the year 421. Although documents exist mentioning the area but not the church in 1097, the first document citing the church dates from 1152.

It was rebuilt in 1071, prompting the establishment of the Rialto market with bankers and money changers in front of the church. The system with the bill of exchange was introduced here, as clients went with such a bill of exchange with a credit inscribed from one banker to another.

In 1503, it survived a fire which destroyed the rest of the area, and was restored from 1601 by order of Doge Marino Grimani. Works included raising of the pavement to counter the acqua alta.

More information: ThoughtCo

 Venice never quite seems real, 

but rather an ornate film set suspended on the water.

Frida Giannini

TERRENCE STEVE MCQUEEN, ANTIHERO & KING OF COOL

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films. She has chosen some interpreted by Steve McQueen, the American actor who was born on a day like today in 1930).

Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930-November 7, 1980) was an American actor.

His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was nicknamed the King of Cool and used the alias Harvey Mushman in motor races.

McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles (1966). His other popular films include Love With the Proper Stranger (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Nevada Smith (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), Le Mans (1971), The Getaway (1972), and Papillon (1973). In addition, he starred in the all-star ensemble films The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), and The Towering Inferno (1974).

In 1974, McQueen became the highest-paid movie star in the world, although he did not act in film for another four years. He was combative with directors and producers, but his popularity placed him in high demand and enabled him to command the largest salaries.

More information: Medium

Terrence Stephen McQueen was born to a single mother on March 24, 1930 at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.

McQueen, of Scottish descent, was raised a Roman Catholic. His parents never married. McQueen's father, William McQueen, a stunt pilot for a barnstorming flying circus, left his mother, Julia Ann Crawford,  six months after meeting her.

Several biographers have stated that his mother Julia Ann was an alcoholic.  Unable to cope with caring for a small child, she left the boy with her parents (Victor and Lillian) in Slater, Missouri, in 1933.

As the Great Depression set in shortly thereafter, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillian's brother Claude and his family at their farm in Slater.

McQueen later said that he had good memories of living on the farm, noting that his great-uncle Claude was a very good man, very strong, very fair. I learned a lot from him.

In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother, since he was not yet 18 years old, McQueen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was sent to Parris Island for boot camp.

In 1952, with financial assistance under the G.I. Bill, McQueen began studying acting in New York at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse and at HB Studio under Uta Hagen.

McQueen developed a persistent cough in 1978. He gave up cigarettes and underwent antibiotic treatments without improvement. His shortness of breath grew more pronounced, and on December 22, 1979, after filming The Hunter, a biopsy revealed pleural mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure for which there is no known cure.

On November 7, 1980, McQueen died at a Juárez hospital. He was 50 years old.

More information: Hagerty

 I'm not a great actor -let's face it.
I don't have a great deal of scope.
There are certain things I can do, but when I'm bad, I stink.
There's something about my shaggy dog eyes
that makes people think I'm good. I'm not all that good.

Steve McQueen

OTIS'S FIRST ELEVATOR IS INSTALLED AT 488 BROADWAY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Elisha Otis, the inventor whose first elevator was installed at 488 Broadway New York City on a day like today in 1857.

Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811-April 8, 1861) was an American industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company, and inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.

Otis was born in Halifax, Vermont, to Stephen Otis and Phoebe Glynn. He moved away from home at the age of 19, eventually settling in Troy, New York, where he lived for five years employed as a wagon driver.

In 1834, he married Susan A. Houghton. They had two children, Charles and Norton. Later that year, Otis suffered a terrible case of pneumonia which nearly killed him, but he earned enough money to move his wife and three-year-old son to the Vermont Hills on the Green River.

He designed and built his own gristmill, but did not earn enough money from it, so he converted it into a sawmill, yet still did not attract customers. Now having a second son, he started building wagons and carriages, at which he was fairly skilled. His wife later died, leaving Otis with two sons, one age 8 and the other in infancy.

At 34 years old and hoping for a fresh start, he married and moved to Albany, New York. He worked as a doll maker for Otis Tingely. Skilled as a craftsman and tired of working all day to make only twelve toys, he invented and patented a robot turner. It could produce bedsteads four times as fast as could be done manually, about fifty a day. His boss gave him a bonus.

Otis then started his own business. At his leased building, he started designing a safety brake that could stop trains instantly and an automatic bread baking oven. He was put out of business when the stream he was using for a power supply was diverted by the city of Albany for its fresh water supply.

In 1851, he first moved to Bergen City, New Jersey (now part of Jersey City), to work as a mechanic, then to Yonkers, New York, as a manager of an abandoned sawmill which he was supposed to convert into a bedstead factory.

More information: Otis

At the age of 40, while he was cleaning up the factory, he wondered how he could get all the old debris up to the upper levels of the factory. He had heard of hoisting platforms, but these often broke, and he was unwilling to take the risks. He and his sons, who were also tinkerers, designed their own safety elevator and tested it successfully.

He initially thought so little of it he neither patented it nor requested a bonus from his superiors for it, nor did he try to sell it. After having made several sales, and after the bedstead factory declined, Otis took the opportunity to make an elevator company out of it, initially called Union Elevator Works and later Otis Brothers & Co.

No orders came to him over the next several months, but soon after, the 1853 New York World's Fair offered a great chance at publicity.

At the New York Crystal Palace, Otis amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing cut. The rope was severed by an axeman, and the platform fell only a few inches before coming to a halt. The safety locking mechanism had worked, and people gained greater willingness to ride in traction elevators; these elevators quickly became the type in most common usage and helped make present-day skyscrapers possible.

After the World's Fair, Otis received continuous orders, doubling each year. He developed different types of engines, like a three-way steam valve engine, which could transition the elevator between up and down, and quickly stop it.

In his spare time, he designed and experimented with his old designs of bread-baking ovens and train brakes, and patented a steam plow in 1857, a rotary oven in 1858, and, with Charles, the oscillating steam engine in 1860.

Otis contracted diphtheria and died on April 8, 1861, at age of 49.  He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, NY.

An Otis Elevator Company worker coined the term escalator to refer to continuous-loop moving staircases that could either ascend or descend. The company was acquired by United Technologies in 1976.

Again in April 2020, Otis Elevators Company is spun off from United technology to be an independent elevator company.

More information: Elevator History

 We must gather as many people as we can.

Elisha Otis

1945, THE ARAB LEAGUE IS FOUNDED IN CAIRO (EGYPT)

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Arab League, the regional organization in the Arab world that was founded when a charter was adopted in Cairo, Egypt, on a day like today in 1945.

The Arab League, in Arabic الجامعة العربية, is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, Eastern Africa, and Western Asia.

The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 initially with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. Currently, the League has 22 members, but Syria's participation has been suspended since November 2011.

The League's main goal is to draw closer the relations between member states and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries.

The organization has received a relatively low level of cooperation throughout its history.

Through institutions, notably the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Economic and Social Council of its Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU), the League facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific, and social programmes designed to promote the interests of the Arab world.

It has served as a forum for the member states to coordinate policy, arrange studies of and committees as to matters of common concern, settle inter-state disputes and limit conflicts such as the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

More information: League of Arab States

The League has served as a platform for the drafting and conclusion of many landmark documents promoting economic integration. One example is the Joint Arab Economic Action Charter, which outlines the principles for economic activities in the region.

Arab League of states establishment memorial stamp. Showing flags of the 8 establishing countries: Kingdom of Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen), Syrian Republic, Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Lebanese Republic and Palestine
Each member state has one vote in the Council of the Arab League, and decisions are binding only for those states that have voted for them. 

The aims of the league in 1945 were to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties. Furthermore, the signing of an agreement on Joint Defence and Economic Cooperation on 13 April 1950 committed the signatories to coordination of military defence measures.

In March 2015, the Arab League General Secretary announced the establishment of a Joint Arab Force with the aim of counteracting extremism and other threats to the Arab States. The decision was reached while Operation Decisive Storm was intensifying in Yemen.

Participation in the project is voluntary, and the army intervenes only at the request of one of the member states. Heightened military arsenal in many member states and, in a small minority, civil wars as well as terrorist movements were the impetuts for the JAF, financed by the rich Gulf countries.

In the early 1970s, the Economic Council put forward a proposal to create the Joint Arab Chambers of Commerce across European states. That led, under its decree K1175/D52/G to the setting up of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce, mandated to promote, encourage and facilitate bilateral trade between the Arab world and significant trading partner, the United Kingdom.

Following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. It aimed to be a regional organisation of Arab states with a focus to developing the economy, resolving disputes and coordinating political aims.

Other countries later joined the league. Each country was given one vote in the council. The first major action was the joint intervention, allegedly on behalf of the majority Arab population being uprooted as the state of Israel emerged in 1948 and in response to popular protest in the Arab world, but a major participant in this intervention, Transjordan, had agreed with the Israelis to divide up the Arab Palestinian state proposed by the United Nations General Assembly, and Egypt intervened primarily to prevent its rival in Amman from accomplishing its objective.

More information: Council on Foreign Relations

It was followed by the creation of a mutual defence treaty two years later. A common market was established in 1965.

The Arab League has achieved relatively low levels of cooperation throughout its history. According to Michael Barnett and Etel Solingen, the design of the Arab League reflects Arab leaders' individual concerns for regime survival: the politics of Arab nationalism and a shared identity led Arab states to embrace the rhetoric of Arab unity in order to legitimize their regimes, and to fear Arab unity in practice because it would impose greater restrictions on their sovereignty.

The Arab League was specifically designed to fail at producing the kind of greater collaboration and integration that might have weakened political leaders at home.

The majority of the Arab League's citizens adhere to Islam, with Christianity being the second largest religion. At least 15 million Christians combined live in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan and Syria. In addition, there are smaller but significant numbers of Druze, Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandaeans. Numbers for nonreligious Arabs are generally not available, but research by the Pew Forum suggests around 1% of people in the MENA region are unaffiliated.

The official language of the Arab League is Literary Arabic, based on Classical Arabic. However, several Arab League member states have other co-official or national languages, such as Somali, Afar, Comorian, French, English, Berber and Kurdish. In most countries, there is a dominant non-codified spoken Arabic dialect.

More information: Museum with No Frontiers

 A first difficulty of the Arab movement
was to say who the Arabs were.
Being a manufactured people,
their name had been changing
in sense slowly year by year.
Once it meant an Arabian.
There was a country called Arabia;
but this was nothing to the point.

T. E. Lawrence

RANGER 9, LAST OF UNMANNED LUNAR SPACE PROBES

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon.

Joseph loves Atronomy and they have been talking about Ranger 9, the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes that was launched on a day like today in 1965.

Ranger 9 was a Lunar probe, launched in 1965 by NASA. It was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras -two wide-angle (channel F, cameras A and B) and four narrow-angle (channel P)- to accomplish these objectives. The cameras were arranged in two separate chains, or channels, each self-contained with separate power supplies, timers, and transmitters so as to afford the greatest reliability and probability of obtaining high-quality television pictures. These images were broadcast live on television to millions of viewers across the United States. No other experiments were carried on the spacecraft.

Rangers 6, 7, 8, and 9 were the so-called Block 3 versions of the Ranger spacecraft. The spacecraft consisted of a hexagonal aluminium frame base 1.5 m across on which was mounted the propulsion and power units, topped by a truncated conical tower which held the TV cameras.

Two solar panel wings, each 739 mm wide by 1537 mm long, extended from opposite edges of the base with a full span of 4.6 m, and a pointable high-gain dish antenna was hinge mounted at one of the corners of the base away from the solar panels. A cylindrical quasiomnidirectional antenna was seated on top of the conical tower. The overall height of the spacecraft was 3.6 m.

Propulsion for the mid-course trajectory correction was provided by a 224-N thrust monopropellant hydrazine engine with four jet-vane thrust vectoring. Orientation and attitude control about three axes was enabled by 12 nitrogen gas jets coupled to a system of three gyroscopes, four primary Sun sensors, two secondary Sun sensors, and an Earth sensor.

Power was supplied by 9792 Si solar cells contained in the two solar panels, giving a total array area of 2.3 square meters and producing 200 W. Two 1,200 watt-hour batteries rated at 26.5 V with a capacity for 9 hours of operation provided power to each of the separate communication/TV camera chains. Two 1,000 watt-hour batteries stored power for spacecraft operations.

More information: NASA-Solar System Exploration

Communications were through the quasiomnidirectional low-gain antenna and the parabolic high-gain antenna. Transmitters aboard the spacecraft included a 60 W TV channel F at 959.52 MHz, a 60 W TV channel P at 960.05 MHz, and a 3 W transponder channel 8 at 960.58 MHz.

The telecommunications equipment converted the composite video signal from the camera transmitters into an RF signal for subsequent transmission through the spacecraft high-gain antenna. Sufficient video bandwidth was provided to allow for rapid framing sequences of both narrow and wide-angle television pictures.

The Atlas 204D and Agena B 6007 boosters performed nominally, injecting the Agena and Ranger 9 into an Earth parking orbit at 185-kilometre altitude. A 90-second Agena second burn put the spacecraft into lunar transfer trajectory. This was followed by the separation of the Agena and Ranger. Seventy minutes after launch, the command was given to deploy solar panels, activate attitude control, and switch from the omniantenna to the high-gain antenna.

The accuracy of the initial trajectory enabled delay of the planned mid-course correction from 22 to 23 March when the maneuver was initiated at 12:03 UT. After orientation, a 31-second rocket burn at 12:30 UT, and reorientation, the maneuver was completed at 13:30 UT.

Ranger 9 reached the Moon on 24 March 1965. At 13:31 UTC, a terminal maneuver was executed to orient the spacecraft so the cameras were more in line with the flight direction to improve the resolution of the pictures. 20 minutes before impact, the one-minute camera system warm-up began. The first image was taken at 13:49:41 UTC at an altitude of 2,363 kilometres.

Transmission of 5,814 good contrast photographs was made during the final 19 minutes of flight. The final image taken before impact has a resolution of 0.3 metres. The spacecraft encountered the lunar surface with an incoming asymptotic direction at an angle of -5.6 degrees from the lunar equator.

The orbit plane was inclined 15.6 degrees to the lunar equator. After 64.5 hours of flight, impact occurred at 14:08:19.994 UTC at approximately 12.83 S latitude, 357.63 E longitude in the Alphonsus crater. Impact velocity was 2,670 metres per second.

The spacecraft performance was excellent. Real-time television coverage with live network broadcasts of many of the F-channel images, primarily camera B but also some camera A pictures, were provided for this flight.

More information: NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Modern science says:
'The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.'
From an incandescent mass we have originated,
and into a frozen mass we shall turn.
Merciless is the law of nature,
and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.

Nikola Tesla

ROMEN THEATRE IN MOSCOW, THE OLDEST ROMANI ONE

Today, The Grandma has been remembering her last visit to the Romen Theatre in Moscow, where staged the premiere of the very first Romani language operetta on a day like today in 1888.

Romen Theatre, in Russian Московский музыкально-драматический театр 'Ромэн', is the oldest and the most famous of Romani theatres in the world.

The theatre is a key object of Romani culture in Russia, and from the moment of its foundation in 1931, it has been a centre of attraction for Romani artists in Russia.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, choruses of Ruska Roma existed in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

At the end of the 19th century, a conductor of one of Romani choruses, Nikolai Shishkin created the first ever Romani theatre troupe. The first appearance of the troupe was in the operetta Gypsy Songs in Characters, in Russian Цыганские песни в лицах, with the main troupe of Arcadia Theatre. This was in 1886. The operetta ran for several years.

On 13 April 1887 the first performance of Strauss's operetta The Gypsy Baron with Roma (Shishkin's troupe) playing the roles of Roma took place in the Maly Theatre.

On 20 March 1888 the premiere of the very first Romani language operetta Children of the Forests was staged in the Maly Theatre. It was performed solely by the Romani troupe. The production ran for 18 years and was a great success.

In 1892, Shishkin produced a new operetta, Gypsy Life.

In the 1920s, many Romani ensembles of singers, dancers and musicians performed in the USSR.

On 24 January 1931, the Romani theatre studio Indo-Romen opened in Moscow. Within a month, the studio performed its first work.

The first director and the first music composer of Indo-Romen were Jewish activists, Moishe Goldblat and Semen Bugachevsky. Alexander Tyshler was most often invited for stage design.

On 16 December 1931, the studio showed its first full musical-dramathic performance Life on Wheels, in Russian Жизнь на колёсах. It consisted of three acts and was based on a play by Romani author Alexandr Germano. After that performance, the studio was renamed the Romen Theatre. The first theatre director was Georgy Lebedev, a Rusko Rom.

Since 1940, the theatre does all its performances in Russian.

The current theatre director (2008) is Nikolai Slichenko, a Romani actor famous in Russia.

More information: Romarchive

 The music of the Gypsies belongs
in the sphere of improvisation
rather than in any other,
without which it would have no power to exist.

 

Franz Liszt