THE FOSTERS & THE GRANDMA, ADVENTURE IS COMING

Today, The Grandma has started to Sant Boi de Llobregat urgently because MJ has called her to start to work with another family, The Fosters.

MJ and The Grandma have received the new members of the family in the emplacement in Sant Boi de Llobregat and after a long session of bureaucracy The Grandma has been able to start to know her new family. Tomorrow, they are going to start with their new manuals and they are going to share lots of hours of effort, knowledge and hard work with the goal of improving English and having the chance of passing an important exam.

More information: The ABC

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca.

It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England.

Both names derive from Anglia, a peninsula in the Baltic Sea. The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic language), and to a greater extent by Latin and French.

English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are collectively called Old English.

Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England; this was a period in which the language was influenced by French.

Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift.

Modern English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century by the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States.

Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law.

English is the largest language by number of speakers, and the third most-spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states.

There are more people who have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. It is estimated that there are over 2 billion speakers of English. English is the majority native language in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia.

More information:  English Club

It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch. English has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words any language has is impossible. English speakers are called Anglophones.

Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent marking pattern, with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order, to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order and a complex syntax.

Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation. The variation among the accents and dialects of English used in different countries and regions -in terms of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, idioms, grammar, and spelling-can often be understood by speakers of different dialects, but in extreme cases can lead to confusion or even mutual unintelligibility between English speakers.

The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon (c. 550–1066 CE). Old English developed from a set of North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken along the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland, and Southern Sweden by Germanic tribes known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.

From the 5th century CE, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain as the Roman economy and administration collapsed. By the 7th century, the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in Britain, replacing the languages of Roman Britain, a Celtic language, and Latin, brought to Britain by the Roman occupation. England and English (originally Ænglaland and Ænglisc) are named after the Angles.

Old English was divided into four dialects: the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian) and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the 9th century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex, the West Saxon dialect became the standard written variety.

The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Cædmon's Hymn, is written in Northumbrian. Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the early period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the 6th century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms.

Old English is essentially a distinct language from Modern English and is virtually impossible for 21st-century unstudied English speakers to understand. Its grammar was similar to that of modern German, and its closest relative is Old Frisian.

More information: BBC

Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs had many more inflectional endings and forms, and word order was much freer than in Modern English. Modern English has case forms in pronouns (he, him, his) and has a few verb inflections (speak, speaks, speaking, spoke, spoken), but Old English had case endings in nouns as well, and verbs had more person and number endings.

From the 8th to the 12th century, Old English gradually transformed through language contact into Middle English. Middle English is often arbitrarily defined as beginning with the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, but it developed further in the period from 1200–1450.

The next period in the history of English was Early Modern English (1500–1700). Early Modern English was characterised by the Great Vowel Shift (1350–1700), inflectional simplification, and linguistic standardisation.

By the late 18th century, the British Empire had spread English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. English also facilitated worldwide international communication.

More information: Mental Floss

 

 

 Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion

and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time,

and is both the free and compacted composition of all.

Walt Whitman

THE PORTHAETHWY SUSPENSION BRIDGE IS OPENED

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, that was opened on a day like today in 1826.

The Menai Suspension Bridge (in Welsh Pont y Borth or Pont Grog y Borth) is a suspension bridge spanning the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it was the world's first major suspension bridge. The bridge still carries road traffic and is a Grade I listed structure.

The Menai Strait was created by glacial erosion along a line of weakness associated with the Menai Strait Fault System. During a series of Pleistocene glaciations (that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago), a succession of ice-sheets moved from northeast to southwest across Anglesey and neighbouring Gwynedd, scouring the underlying rock and creating a series of linear bedrock hollows. The deepest of these channels eventually became flooded by the sea as the ice sheets receded, forming the Menai Strait.

As Anglesey has been an island throughout recorded human history, the only way to reach it was by crossing the strait. However, this has always been a dangerous endeavour because there are four strong tidal flows each day generated by the twice daily tides. These flow in both directions through the strait, creating strong currents and whirlpools.

Despite the dangers, ferries operated all along the Menai Strait, carrying passengers and goods between the island and the mainland. 

In 1785, a boat carrying 55 people ran aground at the southern end of the Menai Strait in a strong gale and began to sink. Before a rescue boat from Caernarfon could reach the stricken vessel it sank, and only one person survived.

Additionally, the main source of income on Anglesey was from the sale of cattle, and to move them to the markets of the mainland, including London, they had to be driven into the water and encouraged to swim across the Strait. This often resulted in the loss of valuable animals.

More information: Menai Bridges

In 1800, Ireland joined Great Britain in the Act of Union. This led rapidly to an increase in people travelling between London and Holyhead en route to Dublin. 

In 1815, the British Parliament passed an Act to build the Holyhead Road with responsibility for the project given to civil engineer Thomas Telford. Despite some difficult geographical obstacles to overcome, the route was chosen because Holyhead was the principal port for ferries to Dublin as it was the closest point to Ireland.

After Telford had completed a survey of the route from London to Holyhead, he proposed that the best option was to build a bridge over the Menai Strait from a point near Bangor on the mainland to the village of Porthaethwy (now commonly known as Menai Bridge) on Anglesey.

The site for the bridge was chosen because it had tall banks that would be high enough to allow the passage of sailing ships to pass underneath. Telford proposed that a suspension bridge would be the best option because it would have a span wide enough to cross the fast flowing waters of the Strait at this point. His recommendation was accepted by Parliament.

Construction of the bridge, to Telford's design, began in 1819 with the towers on either side of the strait. These were constructed from Penmon limestone and were hollow with internal cross-walls. Then came the sixteen huge chain cables to support the 176-metre span, each consisting of five parallel bars of wrought iron links, for a total of 80 iron bars and 935 links per cable.

The chains were carried over the piers on cast iron saddles with rollers, allowing for movement caused by temperature changes. Each chain measured 522.3 metres and weighed 121 long tons. Their suspending power was calculated at 2,016 long tons. To avoid rusting between manufacture and use, the iron was soaked in linseed oil and later painted.

On both sides of the strait the chains were conveyed through three tunnels into a chamber cut into the rock, where they were held in place by 2.7 m bolts resting in cast iron sockets.

William Hazledine was contracted to supply the necessary wrought and cast iron, and each chain had four adjusting links to compensate for differences in length caused by imperfections during the production of the large number of separate links.

Workmen assembled the majority of the chains link by link on-site. This was carried out on platforms near the tunnel mouths until the chains, supported by scaffolding, reached the tops of the piers. A cradle capable of carrying two workers was then suspended from each tower and links were lifted up and attached by the men in the cradles until the chains reached water level. The final central portion of each chain was floated across on a 120 m raft and lifted via a system of pulleys by 150 men.

The bridge was opened to much fanfare on 30 January 1826. It reduced the 36-hour journey time from London to Holyhead by 9 hours.

More information: Pont Menai Bridge

Uchelgaer uwch y weilgi  -gyr y byd
Ei gerbydau drosti,
Chwithau, holl longau y lli,
Ewch o dan ei chadwyni.

High fortress above the sea – the world drives
Its carriages across it;
And you, all you ships of the sea,
Pass beneath its chains.

Dewi Wyn o Eifion

KARL BENZ PATENTS THE GASOLINE-DRIVEN AUTOMOBILE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Karl Friedrich Benz, the German engine designer and automotive engineer, who patented the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, on a day like today in 1886.

Karl Friedrich Benz (born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant; 25 November 1844- 4 April 1929) was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and first car put into series production. He received a patent for the motorcar in 1886, the same year he first publicly drove the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

His company Benz & Cie., based in Mannheim, was the world's first automobile plant and largest of its day.

In 1926, it merged with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft to form Daimler-Benz, which produces the Mercedes-Benz among other brands.

Benz is widely regarded as the father of the car, as well as the father of the automobile industry.

More information: Mercedes-Benz

Carl Benz was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant on 25 November 1844 in Mühlburg, now a borough of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, which is part of modern Germany. His parents were Josephine Vaillant and a locomotive driver, Johann Georg Benz, whom she married a few months later.

According to German law, the child acquired the name Benz by legal marriage of his parents. When he was two years old, his father died of pneumonia, and his name was changed to Karl Friedrich Benz in remembrance of his father.

Despite living in near poverty, his mother strove to give him a good education. Benz attended the local school in Karlsruhe and was a prodigious student.

In 1853, at the age of nine, he started at the scientifically oriented Lyceum. Next he studied at Karlsruhe's polytechnical school under the instruction of Ferdinand Redtenbacher.

Benz had originally focused his studies on locksmithing, but he eventually followed his father's steps toward locomotive engineering.

On 30 September 1860, at age 15, he passed the entrance exam for mechanical engineering for the Karlsruhe polytechnical school, which he subsequently attended. Benz graduated 9 July 1864 aged 19.

Following his formal education, Benz had seven years of professional training in several companies, but did not fit well in any of them. The training started in Karlsruhe with two years of varied jobs in a mechanical engineering company.

He then moved to Mannheim to work as a draftsman and designer in a scales factory. 

In 1868, he went to Pforzheim to work for the bridge building company Gebrüder Benckiser Eisenwerke und Maschinenfabrik. Finally, he went to Vienna for a short period to work at an iron construction company.

Benz's lifelong hobby brought him to a bicycle repair shop in Mannheim owned by Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Eßlinger.

In 1883, the three founded a new company producing industrial machines: Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik, usually referred to as Benz & Cie. Quickly growing to twenty-five employees, it soon began to produce static gas engines as well.

The success of the company gave Benz the opportunity to indulge in his old passion of designing a horseless carriage. Based on his experience with, and fondness for, bicycles, he used similar technology when he created an automobile. It featured wire wheels (unlike carriages' wooden ones) with a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels, with a very advanced coil ignition and evaporative cooling rather than a radiator. Power was transmitted by means of two roller chains to the rear axle. Benz finished his creation in 1885 and named it Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

The Motorwagen was patented on 29 January 1886 as DRP-37435: automobile fueled by gas. The 1885 version was difficult to control, leading to a collision with a wall during a public demonstration.

The first successful tests on public roads were carried out in the early summer of 1886. Benz first publicly drove the car on 3 July 1886 in Mannheim at a top speed of 16 km/h.

The next year Benz created the Motorwagen Model 2, which had several modifications, and in 1889, the definitive Model 3 with wooden wheels was introduced, showing at the Paris Expo the same year.

Benz began to sell the vehicle (advertising it as Benz Patent-Motorwagen) in the late summer of 1888, making it the first commercially available automobile in history. The second customer of the Motorwagen was a Parisian bicycle manufacturer Emile Roger, who had already been building Benz engines under license from Benz for several years. Roger added the Benz automobiles (many built in France) to the line he carried in Paris and initially most were sold there.

The early 1888 version of the Motorwagen had only two gears and could not climb hills unaided. This limitation was rectified after Bertha Benz drove one of the vehicles a great distance and suggested to her husband the addition of a third gear for climbing hills. In the course of this trip she also invented brake pads.

The Carl-Benz-Gymnasium Ladenburg in Ladenburg, where he lived until his death, is named in his honor, as is the Automuseum Dr. Carl Benz, also located in Ladenburg.

More information: Sci Hi Blog

The automobile has reached
its maximum level of development.

Karl Friedrich Benz

1986, NASA SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER DISINTEGRATES

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Challenger, the Space Shuttle orbiter that was destroyed on a day like today in 1986, in an accident that became a tragedy killing all its crew.

Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, Challenger was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after Columbia, and launched on its maiden flight in April 1983.

It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch in an accident that killed all seven crewmembers aboard.

Initially manufactured as a test article not intended for spaceflight, it was utilized for ground testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter's structural design. However, after NASA found that their original plan to upgrade Enterprise for spaceflight would be more expensive than upgrading Challenger, the orbiter was pressed into operational service in the Space Shuttle program.

Lessons learned from the first orbital flights of Columbia led to Challenger's design possessing fewer thermal protection system tiles and a lighter fuselage and wings. This led to it being 1,000 kilograms lighter than Columbia, though still 2,600 kilograms heavier than Discovery.

During its three years of operation, Challenger was flown on ten missions in the Space Shuttle program, spending over 62 days in space and completing almost 1,000 orbits around Earth. Following its maiden flight, Challenger supplanted Columbia as the leader of the Space Shuttle fleet, being the most-flown orbiter during all three years of its operation while Columbia itself was seldom used during the same time frame.

Challenger was used for numerous civilian satellite launches, such as the first tracking and data relay satellite, the Palapa B communications satellites, the Long Duration Exposure Facility, and the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite. It was also used as a test bed for the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) and served as the platform to repair the malfunctioning SolarMax telescope.

In addition, three consecutive Spacelab missions were conducted with the orbiter in 1985, one of which being the first German crewed spaceflight mission. Passengers carried into orbit by Challenger include the first American female astronaut, the first American female spacewalker, the first African-American astronaut, and the first Canadian astronaut.

More information: NASA

On its tenth flight in January 1986, Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff, killing the seven-member crew of STS-51-L that included Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space.

The Rogers Commission which convened shortly afterwards concluded that an O-ring seal in one of Challenger's solid rocket boosters failed to contain pressurized burning gas that leaked out of the booster, causing a structural failure of Challenger's external tank and the orbiter's subsequent disintegration due to aerodynamic forces.

NASA's organizational culture was also scrutinized by the Rogers Commission, and the Space Shuttle program's goal of replacing the United States' expendable launch systems was cast into doubt. The loss of Challenger and its crew led to a broad rescope of the program, and numerous aspects –such as launches from Vandenberg, the MMU, and Shuttle-Centaur– were scrapped to improve crew safety; Challenger and Atlantis were the only orbiters modified to conduct Shuttle-Centaur launches. The recovered remains of the orbiter are mostly buried in a missile silo located at Cape Canaveral LC-31, though one piece is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Challenger was named after HMS Challenger, a British corvette that was the command ship for the Challenger Expedition, a pioneering global marine research expedition undertaken from 1872 through 1876. The Apollo 17 Lunar Module, which landed on the Moon in 1972, was also named Challenger.

STS-51-L was the orbiter's tenth and final flight, initially planned to launch on January 26, 1986 (after several technical and paperwork delays). This mission attracted huge media attention, as one of the crew was a civilian schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe, who was assigned to carry out live lessons from the orbiter (as part of NASA's Teacher in Space Project). Other members would deploy the TDRS-B satellite and conduct comet observations.

Challenger blasted off at 11:38 am EST on January 28, 1986. Just over a minute into the flight, a faulty booster joint opened up, leading to a flame that melted securing struts which resulted in a catastrophic structural failure and explosion of the External Tank. The resulting pressure waves and aerodynamic forces destroyed the orbiter, resulting in the loss of all the crew.

Challenger was the first Space Shuttle to be destroyed in a mission accident. The collected debris of the vessel is currently buried in decommissioned missile silos at Launch Complex 31, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

A section of the fuselage recovered from Space Shuttle Challenger can also be found at the Forever Remembered memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Debris from the orbiter sometimes washes up on the Florida coast. This is collected and transported to the silos for storage. Because of its early loss, Challenger was the only Space Shuttle that never wore the NASA meatball logo, and was never modified with the MEDS glass cockpit. The tail was never fitted with a drag chute, which was fitted to the remaining orbiters in 1992.

Challenger and sister ship Columbia are the only two shuttles that never visited the Mir Space Station or the International Space Station.

More information: NASA

 After the Challenger accident,
NASA put in a lot of time to improve
the safety of the space shuttle to fix
the things that had gone wrong.

Sally Ride

MAYTE VISITS CALELLA DE PALAFRUGELL & PLATJA D'ARO

Today, The Grandma has received wonderful news from Mayte, who is spending some days visiting Calella de Palafrugell and Platja d'Aro in the Costa Brava in Girona.

 

Calella de Palafrugell is one of three coastal towns belonging to the municipality of Palafrugell in the province of Girona, Catalonia.

 

The other two towns are Llafranc, only one kilometre to the north, and Tamariu, some four kilometres to the north. All three towns are part of the Costa Brava, in the comarca of Baix Empordà.

Calella de Palafrugell has an excellent setting and, whilst busy in the summer season, it does not have the large hotels and mass tourism of other Costa Brava resorts such as Lloret de Mar. The town's origin is that of a fishing village, and its old maritime quarter, the Port Bo has been declared a cultural asset of national importance. 

This quarter retains the original layout of the village, with its traditional white porched buildings. It includes the complex of vaults, originally used to sew nets and auction fish, but now occupied by restaurants.

The vaults are fronted by the beaches of Platja del Port de Malaspina and Platja de Portbò, which formed a natural fishing port and are still home to a fleet of small fishing boats. Also in Port Bo is the Sa Perola Interpretation Centre, housed in a former net dyeing house and now used as a tourist office and interpretation centre for the fishing industry and maritime heritage of the district.

Calella de Palafrugell has a number of small coves and beaches linked via a well engineered coastal walk known as the Camí de Ronda, passing along the cliffs and through several tunnels on the way. From the north the first of the beaches is Platja del Canadell, with its beach restaurant.  

Platja del Port de Malaspina, Platja de Portbò and Platja d'en Calau are linked sandy coves located in the centre of Calella. These are followed by Platgeta d'en Cosme, Platja de Port Pelegrí, Platja de Sant Roc and Platja del Golfet, the last of which is approximately 1.5 kilometres from central Calella.

Beyond Platja del Golfet is the Cap Roig headland, where the Castell de Cap Roig is situated, surrounded by large botanical gardens. The castle has also been declared a cultural asset of national importance. The castle was built, and the gardens created, between 1929 and 1975, by Nicholas Woevodski and Dorothy Webster. The Cap Roig Festival, a music and dance festival, is held in the gardens between July and August.

The GR 92 long-distance footpath, which runs the length of the Mediterranean coast, passes along the Camí de Ronda. To the north of Platja del Canadell the path follows the coast the short distance to Llafranc, passing the 16th century Torre de Calella on the way. To the south the path takes an inland route from Platja del Golfet, bypassing Cap Roig through pine and cork oak forests to the fisherman's village at S'Alguer and the beach at La Fosca.

More information: Visit Palafrugell

Castell d'Aro, Platja d'Aro i S'Agaró is a municipality in the middle of the Costa Brava in Catalonia. 

It is formed from two parts: Castell d'Aro is an ancient village built around a medieval castle and a fortified church, 3 km inland on the road from Platja d'Aro to Santa Cristina d'Aro; and Platja d'Aro is a coastal town on the road from Palamós to Sant Feliu de Guíxols which stretches along a large 2 km beach.

Originally a small fishing village, Platja d'Aro is now a major coastal resort, popular predominantly with Catalans and villa-owning Northern Europeans.

Along the coast, connecting the main beach with numerous small beaches, is the Camí de Ronda. This ancient path now forms part of the GR 92 long distance footpath, which runs the length of the Mediterranean coast. It passes along the seafront promenade of Platja d'Aro. 

To the north the path follows the rocky coastline and crosses several beaches to reach the southern end of the beachside promenade of Sant Antoni de Calonge. To the south it diverts around the extensive Marina de Port d'Oro and crosses the Platja de Sa Conca before following the coastline around the headland of S'Agaró to the resort of the same name.

Castell d'Aro is located in the heart of the Costa Brava, 80 km north of Barcelona. It borders with Calonge to the north, Santa Cristina d'Aro to the west, Sant Feliu to the south and the Coast to the East. 

Castell-Platja d'Aro occupies the eastern end of the Vall d'Aro, a narrow plain drained by the river Ridaura and located between the Mountain ranges of Cadiretes and southern end of the Gavarres.

Platja d'Aro was originally a small fishing village on the highway between Palamós and Sant Feliu de Guíxols with a 2 km long beach. It is now a major tourist resort with hotels and other commercial premises.

The first evidence of human habitation are a number of tombs dating from the neolithic era 2500 BC in the Pinell area. Around 2000 BC, towards the end of the neolithic period, groups of humans settled in the mountains of Treumal and Vallvanera. There are a number of monuments from this period, including the menhir of Vallbanera and the dolmen Cova dels Moros (Cove of the Moors).

Roman ruins were discovered at the Vila de Pla de Palol dating from the 1st-4th Centuries AD. These occupy an area of 10,000 m2, and retain the majority of the patios and open spaces. The villa was part of a large agricultural estate including vineyards. It also exported clay for the manufacture of ceramics that were later exported by sea from the natural harbor of Cove Rovira.

From the 9th century the countryside started to recover from Sarracen raids and the repopulation of the Vall d'Aro began. The first arrivals were farmers.

In 781, Charlemagne offered the Bishop of Girona the territory of the Vall d'Aro. The first documented reference of Platja d'Aro, in its original name of Fanals d'Amunt, appears in 968.

King Lothair I confirmed his possessions to Sunyer, the Abbot of the monastery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, including Fanals d'Amunt and its church. The origin of Castell d'Aro is the Castle of Benedormiens. The Castle was first documented in 1041, when the religious authorities, the local Knights and Nobles granted the monastery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols the safekeeping of the castle with the obligation to protect all the Vall d'Aro, of which Fanals was an important part.

In 1585, a new church was built in Fanals de Baix, the present Fanals d'Aro. A new settlement grew around this building deserting the older Fanals d'Amunt.

In 1774, an extension was completed to the Church of Fanals d'Aro.

During the following centuries only one municipality existed, in 1858 the area was divided with Romanyà, Bell-lloc, Santa Cristina d'Aro and Solius becoming separate from Castell d'Aro and Fanals d'Aro. This is regarded as the official creation of the two cities, Santa Cristina de Aro and Castell d'Aro. 

In 1843 the district was characterized by high rents, a centralized municipal model with limited suffrage.

The elections of 1869 reflected the federal and republican character of Empordà and Fanals. As a result, constitutional guarantees were suspended and disarmament of the popular military service ordered by Central Government. The federalists took up arms supported by the inhabitants of Fanals, they participated in the Foc de Bisbal, where they faced a number of government forces.

Between 1892 and 1969, Castell d'Aro was connected to the city of Girona and the port of Sant Feliu de Guíxols by the narrow gauge Sant Feliu de Guíxols-Girona railway. The line has since been converted into a greenway.

In 1970, the City Council, owner of the Castle of Benedormiens de Castell d'Aro, ordered its first restoration. The oldest part was conserved dating from the 12th century. In 1978 a Carnival Fiesta and in 1979 the first democratic Council was elected.

In 1983, the rooms of the Castle of Benedormiens were altered for exhibition space.

In 1995, the old nucleus of Castell was declared as an official area of interest and conservation area by the Generalitat de Catalunya, together with S'Agaró.

According to the Köppen Climate Classification, Castell-Platja d'Aro has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Csa).

Castell-Platja d'Aro is located in a seismic zone, which means that occasionally quakes are felt but, most of them are just small vibrations or light shaking.

More information: Costa Brava Lifestyle

A journey through the Mediterranean is
not only inspiring and stimulating, it is also humbling.
The men and women who created antique treasures
for us to marvel at had to deal with plague, genocide,
a world without writing, iron tools, or penicillin
-and yet they made something extraordinary
of their life and times.

Bettany Hughes

1934, THE APOLLO THEATER REOPENS IN HARLEM, NYC

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Apollo Theater, the popular site in Harlem, that was reopened on a day like today in 1934.

The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use theater at 253 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighbourhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City.

It is a popular venue for black American performers and is the home of the TV show Showtime at the Apollo. The theater, which has approximately 1,500 seats across three levels, was designed by George Keister with elements of the neoclassical style.

The facade and interior of the theater are New York City designated landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The nonprofit Apollo Theater Foundation (ATF) operates the theater, as well as two smaller auditoriums at the Victoria Theater and a recording studio at the Apollo.

The Apollo was developed by Jules Hurtig and Harry Seamon as a burlesque venue, which opened in 1913 and originally served only white patrons.

In 1928, the Minsky brothers leased the theater for burlesque shows. Sidney Cohen acquired the theater in 1934, and it became a venue for black performers. Frank Schiffman and his family operated the theater from 1935 to 1976.

A group of black businessmen briefly operated the theater from 1978 to 1979, and former Manhattan borough president Percy Sutton bought it at an auction in 1981. 

The Apollo reopened in 1985 following a major refurbishment that saw the construction of new recording studios. 

In September 1991, the New York State Urban Development Corporation bought the Apollo and assigned its operation to the ATF. Further renovations took place in the mid-2000s, and an expansion of the theater was undertaken in the early 2020s.

Among the theater's longest-running events is Amateur Night at the Apollo, which takes place every Wednesday and involves audiences who judge the quality of novice performances. Many of the theater's most famous performers are inducted in the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame, and the theater has also commissioned various works and hosted educational programs.

Over the years, the theater has hosted many musical, dance, theatrical, and comedy acts, with several performers often featured on the same bill. In addition, the theater has hosted other events including film screenings, recordings, and tapings, as well as non-performance events such as speeches, debates, and tributes.

Over its existence, the Apollo has had a wide impact on African-American culture and has been featured in multiple books and shows.

The Apollo Theater is located at 253 West 125th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue), in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City.

The irregular land lot has frontage on both 125th Street to the south and 126th Street to the north. The site covers 1,621.5 m2, with a frontage of 15 m on 125th Street and a depth of 61 m. 

The theater is adjacent to the Victoria Theater to the west. Several MTA Regional Bus Operations routes stop outside the theater, while the New York City Subway's 125th Street/St. Nicholas Avenue station, served by the A, ​B, ​C, and ​D trains, is located one block to the west.

The theater was designed by George Keister with elements of the neoclassical style. It was one of several theaters that Keister designed in that style, along with the Belasco Theatre, Bronx Opera House, Selwyn Theater, and Earl Carroll Theatre.

More information: Apollo Theater

Theater is my temple and my religion 

and my act of faith.
Strangers sit in a room together 

and believe together.

Harvey Fierstein

1792, THE LONDON CORRESPONDING SOCIETY IS FOUNDED

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the London Corresponding Society, that was founded on a day like today in 1792.

The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. 

In contrast to other reform associations of the period, it drew largely upon working men (artisans, tradesmen, and shopkeepers) and was itself organised on a formal democratic basis.

Characterising it as an instrument of French revolutionary subversion, and citing links to the insurrectionist United Irishmen, the government of William Pitt the Younger sought to break the Society, twice charging leading members with complicity in plots to assassinate the King. 

Measures against the society intensified in the wake of the naval mutinies of 1797, the 1798 Irish Rebellion and growing protest against the continuation of the war with France. 

In 1799, new legislation suppressed the Society by name, along with the remnants of the United Irishmen and their franchise organisations, United Scotsmen and the United Englishmen, with which the diminishing membership of the LCS had associated.

In the last decades of the eighteenth century the percolation of Enlightenment thinking and the dramas of American independence and the French Revolution stimulated in Britain, as elsewhere in Europe, new clubs and societies committed to principles of popular sovereignty and constitutional government.

In the north of England the Non-Conformist, principally Unitarian, currents in the new disenfranchised mill towns and manufacturing centres, supported the Society for Constitutional Information (SCI). This had been founded by, among others, Major John Cartwright, author of Take Your Choice (1776) which called for manhood suffrage, the secret ballot, annual elections and equal electoral districts.

In 1788, prominent Unitarian members of the CIS, Richard Price and Joseph Priestley among them, formed the Revolution Society. Ostensibly convened to commemorate the centennial of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the society called for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts on the grounds that the right of private judgement, liberty of conscience, trial by jury, freedom of the press and freedom of election ought ever to be held sacred and inviolable.

After 1792 the radical momentum shifted from the Revolution Society back to the SCI and, more decidedly, to a new London society.

During the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Hardy, a Scottish shoemaker in London, was convinced of the American cause by the pamphlets of Dr. Richard Price, a Unitarian minister and prominent reformer. A gift of the pamphlet library of the SCI, including a reprint of a proposal from a Correspondence Committee of the Irish Volunteer movement to restore the purity and vigour of the Irish constitution through parliamentary reform, persuaded him of the need for a workingman's reform club.

More information: University at Buffalo

If we desire a society of peace,
then we cannot achieve such a society through violence.
If we desire a society without discrimination,
then we must not discriminate against
anyone in the process of building this society.
If we desire a society that is democratic,
then democracy must become a means
as well as an end.

Bayard Rustin

THE FIRST BOY SCOUT TROOP IS ORGANIZED IN ENGLAND

Today, The Grandma has been reading about scouting, because the first boy scout troop was organized on a day like today in 1908.

Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth social movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking, and sports.

Another widely recognized movement characteristic is the Scout uniform, by intent hiding all differences of social standing in a country and encouraging equality, with neckerchief and campaign hat or comparable headwear. 

Distinctive uniform insignia include the fleur-de-lis and the trefoil, as well as merit badges and other patches.

In 1907, Robert Baden-Powell, a lieutenant general in the British Army held a Scouting encampment on Brownsea Island in England. Baden-Powell wrote Scouting for Boys (London, 1908), partly based on his earlier military books.

The Scout Movement of both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts was well established in the first decade of the twentieth century. Later, programs for younger children, such as Wolf Cubs (1916), now Cubs, and for older adolescents, such as Rovers (1918), were adopted by some Scout organizations.

In 1910, Baden-Powell formed the Girl Guides, for girls in the United Kingdom which spread internationally as Girl Guides and includes age programs of (Brownie Guide, Girl Guide and Girl Scout, Ranger Guide).

The trigger for the Scouting movement was the 1908 publication of Scouting for Boys written by Robert Baden-Powell. 

At Charterhouse, one of England's most famous public schools, Baden-Powell had an interest in the outdoors. Later, as a military officer, Baden-Powell was stationed in British India in the 1880s where he took an interest in military scouting and in 1884 he published Reconnaissance and Scouting.

The Boy Scout Movement swiftly established itself throughout the British Empire soon after the publication of Scouting for Boys. 

By 1908, Scouting was established in Gibraltar, Malta, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya (YMCA Experimental Troop in Penang) and South Africa. 

In 1909 Chile was the first country outside the British dominions to have a Scouting organization recognized by Baden-Powell.

The first Scout rally, held in 1909 at the Crystal Palace in London, attracted 10,000 boys and a number of girls. By 1910, Argentina, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States had Boy Scouts.

Important elements of traditional Scouting have their origins in Baden-Powell's experiences in education and military training. He was a 50-year-old retired army general when he founded Scouting, and his revolutionary ideas inspired thousands of young people, from all parts of society, to get involved in activities that most had never contemplated. Comparable organizations in the English-speaking world are the Boys' Brigade and the non-militaristic Woodcraft Folk; however, they never matched the development and growth of Scouting.

Scouting is taught using the Scout method, which incorporates an informal educational system that emphasizes practical activities in the outdoors. Programs exist for Scouts ranging in age from 6 to 25 (though age limits vary slightly by country), and program specifics target Scouts in a manner appropriate to their age.

More information: Scout

From the boys' point of view,
scouting puts them into fraternity-gangs,
which is their natural organisation,
whether for games, mischief, or loafing;
it gives them a smart dress and equipments;
it appeals to their imagination and romance;
and it engages them in an active, open-air life.

Robert Baden-Powell

GIL GERARD, 'BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY' STAR

Today, The Grandma has been watching Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, one of her favourite TV series interpreted by Gil Gerard, who was born on a day like today in 1943.

Gil Gerard (born January 23, 1943) is an American actor, whose roles include Captain William "Buck" Rogers in the 1979-81 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between September 1979 and April 1981 on NBC, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film before the series aired.

The film and series were developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, based on the character Buck Rogers created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan that had previously been featured in comic strips, novellas, a serial film, and on television and radio.

More information: The Hollywood Reporter

Gerard was born January 23, 1943, in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a college instructor mother and a salesman father.

In 1960, he attended Maryknoll Seminary in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and played the title role in an all-male production of The Music Man. He graduated from Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys, and later attended the University of Central Arkansas but dropped out before graduation.

Gerard travelled to New York City, where he studied drama by day and drove a taxicab at night. Gerard picked up a fare who showed a lively interest in the problems of unknown, unemployed actors. Before he left the cab, he told Gerard to report in a few days to the set of Love Story, which was being filmed on location in New York. When Gerard arrived on the Love Story set, he was hired as an extra. Later that day, he was singled out for a bit part, but he was not included in the finished film.

During the next few years, he did most of his acting in television commercials, almost 400, including a stint as spokesman for the Ford Motor Company. After small roles in the gay-themed film Some of My Best Friends Are... (1971), and the thriller Man on a Swing (1974), Gerard gained a prominent role in the daytime soap opera The Doctors for two years. 

Gerard formed his own production company in partnership with a writer-producer, co-authored a screenplay called Hooch (1977) and filmed it as a starring vehicle for himself. With Hooch completed, he travelled to California to co-star with Yvette Mimieux in Ransom for Alice! (1977) and to play Lee Grant's youthful lover in Universal's Airport '77 (1977). He appeared in a 1977 episode of Hawaii Five-O (The Ninth Step) as Marty Cobb, a former cop and recovering alcoholic. A guest appearance in Little House on the Prairie impressed producer-star Michael Landon, who cast him in the leading role in the 1978 TV movie Killing Stone.

Gerard then landed his best-known role, as Captain William "Buck" Rogers in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century which ran from 1979-81, with the feature-length pilot episode being released theatrically some months prior to the first broadcast of the series. After this, he was featured in a number of other TV shows and movies, including starring roles in the 1982 TV movie Hear No Evil as Dragon, the short-lived series Sidekicks (1986) and E.A.R.T.H. Force (1990).

In 1992, Gerard hosted the reality TV series Code 3, which followed firefighters from different areas of the US as they responded to emergency calls. The show ran on the Fox TV Network until the following year. For the remainder of the 1990s, Gerard made guest appearances on various TV shows, including Fish Police, Brotherly Love, The Big Easy, Days of Our Lives and Pacific Blue.

In January 2007, Gerard was the subject of the one-hour documentary Action Hero Makeover, which was written, produced and directed by his then-longtime companion, Adrienne Crow for the Discovery Health Channel. The film documented his year-long progress after undergoing life-saving mini-gastric bypass surgery in October 2005.

Gerard and his Buck Rogers co-star Erin Gray reunited in 2007 for the TV film Nuclear Hurricane, and also returned to the Buck Rogers universe by playing the characters' parents in the pilot episode of James Cawley's Buck Rogers Begins Internet video series in 2009.

Gerard guest-starred as Admiral Jack Sheehan in Kitumba, the January 1, 2014, episode of the fan web series Star Trek: Phase II.

More information: Pop Culture Retrorama

Then I got the offer to play Buck Rogers,
but I turned it down thinking it was a cartoon character.
Well I was wrong, it wasn't at all.
So I read the script and decided I liked the character,
it had a good concept.

Gil Gerard

PIPER LAURIE, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES & TWIN PEAKS

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films interpreted by Piper Laurie, the American actress, who was born on a day like today in 1932.

Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs; January 22, 1932-October 14, 2023) was an American actress.

She is known for her roles in the films The Hustler (1961), Carrie (1976), and Children of a Lesser God (1986), and the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983). She is also known for her performances as Kirsten Arnesen in the original TV production of Days of Wine and Roses, and as Catherine Martell in the television series Twin Peaks.

She received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and a BAFTA Award.

Piper Laurie was born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, on January 22, 1932. Laurie was the younger of two children (both girls) of Alfred Jacobs, a furniture dealer, and his wife, Charlotte Sadie (née Alperin) Jacobs. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland and her maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia.

Laurie was delivered, according to her 2011 autobiography Learning to Live Out Loud, in a one-bedroom walk-up on Tyler Street in Detroit, where the family lived To combat her shyness, her parents provided her with weekly elocution lessons; she eventually landed minor roles at Universal Studios.

Laurie's mother and grandmother placed Laurie's older sister in a sanitarium for her asthma. Laurie was sent along to keep her company.

In 1949, Jacobs signed a contract with Universal Studios, and changed her screen name to Piper Laurie, which she used ever afterwards. Her breakout role was in Louisa (1950), with Ronald Reagan, whom she dated a few times before his marriage to Nancy Davis. Several other roles followed: Francis Goes to the Races (1951, co-starring Donald O'Connor); Son of Ali Baba (1951, co-starring Tony Curtis); and Ain't Misbehavin' (1955, co-starring Rory Calhoun).

To enhance her image, Universal Studios told gossip columnists that Laurie bathed in milk and ate flower petals to protect her luminous skin. Discouraged by the lack of substantial film roles, she moved to New York City to study acting and to seek work on the stage and in television. She appeared in Twelfth Night, produced by Hallmark Hall of Fame; in Days of Wine and Roses with Cliff Robertson, presented by Playhouse 90 on October 2, 1958 (in the film version, their roles were taken over by Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick); and in Winterset, presented by Playhouse 90 in 1959.

More information: Collider

Laurie was lured back to Hollywood by the offer to co-star with Paul Newman in The Hustler, released in 1961. She played Newman's girlfriend, Sarah Packard, and for her performance, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Substantial movie roles did not come her way after The Hustler, so she and her husband moved to New York.

In 1964, she appeared in two medical dramas -as Alicia Carter in The Eleventh Hour episode My Door Is Locked and Bolted, and as Alice Marin in the Breaking Point episode The Summer House. 

In 1965, she starred in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, opposite Maureen Stapleton, Pat Hingle, and George Grizzard.

Laurie did not appear in another feature film until she accepted the role of religious fanatic Margaret White in the horror film Carrie (1976). She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance; the commercial success of the film, and recognition for her performance, relaunched her career. Her co-star Sissy Spacek praised her acting skill: She is a remarkable actress. She never does what you expect her to do -she always surprises you with her approach to a scene.

In 1979, Laurie appeared as Mary Horton in the Australian movie Tim opposite Mel Gibson. After her 1981 divorce, Laurie moved to California. She received a third Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mrs. Norman in Children of a Lesser God (1986). The same year, she was awarded an Emmy for her performance in Promise, a television movie, co-starring James Garner and James Woods. She had a featured role in the Off-Broadway production of The Destiny of Me in 1992, and returned to Broadway for Lincoln Center's acclaimed 2002 revival of Paul Osborn's Morning's at Seven, with Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Frances Sternhagen, and Estelle Parsons.

In 1990-1991, Laurie starred as the devious Catherine Martell in David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks. She also appeared in Other People's Money with Gregory Peck (1991), and in horror maestro Dario Argento's first American film Trauma (1993). She played George Clooney's character's mother on ER.

In 1997, she appeared in the film A Christmas Memory with Patty Duke, and in 1998, she appeared in the sci-fi thriller The Faculty.

Laurie made guest appearances on television shows such as Frasier, Matlock, State of Grace, and Will & Grace. Laurie also appeared in Cold Case and in a 2001 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled Care.

She returned to the big screen for independent films, such as Eulogy (2004) and The Dead Girl (2006), opposite actress Toni Collette.

In 2010, she played Rainn Wilson's mother in Hesher, and in 2018, she had a supporting role in White Boy Rick as the grandmother of the title character.

Having been unwell for some time, Laurie died in Los Angeles on October 14, 2023, at age 91.

More information: Pop Matters

I dropped the script in the fireplace,
called my agent and said, they can jail me,
sue me, but I'm never acting again,
unless I can do something worthwhile.

Piper Laurie