1939, THE FIRST TELEVISED AMERICAN FOOTBALL GAME

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the first televised American football game, Waynesburg vs. Fordham, on a day like today in 1939.

 

The 1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game was a college football game between the Fordham Rams and the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets played on September 30, 1939. 

The game was played at Triborough Stadium on New York City's Randall's Island. Fordham won the game 34-7. 

Broadcast by NBC, the contest was the first American football game ever televised.

Fordham entered the game a pre-season pick for the national championship, but the first score was completed by Waynesburg when Bobby Brooks completed a 63-yard run for a touchdown on the third play of the game.

Waynesburg only scored in the first quarter but managed to keep Fordham within reach during the early part of the game. Fordham scored in every quarter, leaving the final score at 34-7.

Fordham's offense managed sixteen first downs and 337 yards, while Waynesburg managed only five first downs for a total of 157 yards. Fordham blocked a punt in both the first and second halves of the game and recorded an interception in the fourth quarter that the offense was able to turn into a touchdown.

NBC broadcast the game on station W2XBS with one camera and Bill Stern was the sole announcer. Estimates are that the broadcast reached approximately 1,000 television sets.

The game came just over a month after the Brooklyn Dodgers hosted the Cincinnati Reds in the first-ever televised professional baseball game, and five months after the Princeton and Columbia baseball teams played the first televised American sporting event.

Sports broadcasting continued less than one month later on October 22 with a telecast of a game between the now-defunct Brooklyn Football Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn won 24-14 in what became the first televised professional football game. 

On February 28, 1940, the University of Pittsburgh played Fordham at Madison Square Garden in the first televised basketball game.

College football on television continued with the second televised college game just one month later, on October 28, when the Kansas State Wildcats hosted the Nebraska Cornhuskers for their homecoming contest.

More information: NCAA

I've been playing American football
since I was six years old.
I was a captain of my high school team,
playing strong safety.

 

Gabriel Luna

4179 TOUTATIS, THE POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS ASTEROID

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

Joseph loves Astronomy and they have been talking about 4179 Toutatis, the asteroid that passes within four lunar distances of Earth, on a day like today in 2004.

4179 Toutatis (provisional designation 1989 AC) is an elongated, stony asteroid and slow rotator, classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo asteroid group, approximately 2.5 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by French astronomer Christian Pollas at Caussols in 1989, the asteroid was named after Toutatis from Celtic mythology.

Toutatis is also a Mars-crosser asteroid with a chaotic orbit produced by a 3:1 resonance with the planet Jupiter, a 1:4 resonance with the planet Earth, and frequent close approaches to the terrestrial planets, including Earth.

In December 2012, Toutatis passed within about 18 lunar distances of Earth. The Chinese lunar probe Chang'e 2 flew by the asteroid at a distance of 3.2 kilometers and a relative velocity of 10.73 km/s.

Toutatis approached Earth again in 2016, but will not make another notably close approach until 2069.

Toutatis was first sighted on 10 February 1934, as object 1934 CT, but lost soon afterwards. It remained a lost asteroid for several decades until it was rediscovered on 4 January 1989 by French astronomer Christian Pollas, and was named after the Celtic god of tribal protection Toutatis (Teutates). The name of this god is very familiar in France due to the catchphrase Par Toutatis! by the Gauls in the comics Asterix.

The spectral properties suggest that this is an S-type, or stony asteroid, consisting primarily of silicates. It has a moderate Bond albedo of 0.13. Radar imagery shows that Toutatis is a highly irregular body consisting of two distinct lobes, with maximum widths of about 4.6 km and 2.4 km, respectively. It is hypothesized that Toutatis formed from two originally separate bodies which coalesced at some point (a contact binary), with the resultant asteroid being compared to a rubble pile.

Its rotation combines two separate periodic motions into a non-periodic result; to someone on the surface of Toutatis, the Sun would seem to rise and set in apparently random locations and at random times at the asteroid's horizon. It has a rotation period around its long axis (Pψ) of 5.38 days. This long axis is precessing with a period (Pφ) of 7.38 days. The asteroid may have lost most of its original angular momentum and entered into this tumbling motion as a result of the YORP effect.

Large amounts of data of Toutatis were obtained during Chang'e 2's flyby. Toutatis is not a monolith, but most likely a coalescence of shattered fragments. This bifurcated asteroid is shown to be mainly consisting of a head (small lobe) and a body (large lobe). The two major parts are not round in shape, and their surfaces have a number of large facets. In comparison with radar models, the proximate observations from Chang'e 2's flyby have revealed several remarkable discoveries concerning Toutatis, among which the presence of the giant basin at the big end appears to be one of the most compelling geological features, and the sharply perpendicular silhouette in the neck region that connects the head and body is also quite novel. A large number of boulders and several short linear structures are also apparent on the surface.

Toutatis has been observed with radar imaging from the Arecibo Observatory and the Goldstone Solar System Radar during the asteroid's prior Earth flybys in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008. It was also observed with radar during the December 2012 flyby and observed more distant flyby with radar in December 2016.

After 2016, Toutatis will not pass close to Earth again until 2069.

Resolution of the radar images is as fine as 3.75 m per pixel, providing data to model Toutatis's shape and spin state.

The Chinese lunar probe Chang'e 2 departed from the Sun–Earth L2 point in April 2012 and made a flyby of Toutatis on 13 December 2012, with closest approach being 3.2 kilometers and a relative velocity of 10.73 km/s, when Toutatis was near its closest approach to Earth. It took several pictures of the asteroid, revealing it to be a dusty red/orange color.

More information: NASA

Asteroids have us in our sight.
The dinosaurs didn't have a space program,
so they're not here to talk about this problem.
We are, and we have the power
to do something about it.
I don't want to be the embarrassment of the galaxy,
to have had the power to deflect an asteroid,
and then not, and end up going extinct.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

NARCÍS MONTURIOL, PIONEER OF ICTINEO SUBMARINES

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol, the Catalan inventor, artist and engineer, who was born on a day like today in 1819.

Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (28 September 1819-6 September 1885) was a Catalan inventor, artist and engineer born in Figueres, Catalonia. 

He was the inventor of the first air-independent and combustion-engine-driven submarine.

Monturiol i Estarriol was born in the city of Figueres, Catalonia. He was the son of a cooper. Monturiol went to high school in Cervera and got a law degree in Mostoles in 1845. He solved the fundamental problems of underwater navigation. In effect, Monturiol invented the first fully functional engine-driven submarine.

Monturiol never practiced law, instead turning his talents to writing and publishing, setting up a publishing company in 1846, the same year he married his wife Emilia. He produced a series of journals and pamphlets espousing his radical beliefs in feminism, pacifism, and utopian communism. He also founded the newspaper La Madre de Familia, in which he promised to defend women from the tyranny of men and La Fraternidad.

Monturiol's friendship with Abdó Terrades led him to join the Republican Party and his circle of friends included such names as musician Josep Anselm Clavé, and engineer and reformist Ildefons Cerdà. Monturiol also became an enthusiastic follower of the utopian thinker and socialist Étienne Cabet; he popularised Cabet's ideas through La Fraternidad and produced a Spanish translation of his novel Voyage en Icarie. A circle formed round La Fraternidad raised enough money for one of them to travel to Cabet's utopian community, Icaria.

Following the revolutions of 1848, one of his publications was suppressed by the government and he was forced into a brief exile in France. When he returned to Barcelona in 1849, the government curtailed his publishing activities, and he turned his attention to science and engineering instead.

A stay in Cadaqués allowed him to observe the dangerous job of coral harvesters where he even witnessed the death of a man who drowned while performing this job. This prompted him to think of submarine navigation and in September 1857 he went back to Barcelona and organized the first commercial society dedicated to the exploration of submarine navigation with the name of Monturiol, Font, Altadill y Cia. and a capital of 10,000 pessetes.

In 1858, Monturiol presented his project in a scientific thesis, titled The Ictineo. The first dive of his first submarine, Ictineo I, took place in September 1859 in the harbour of Barcelona.

Ictíneo I was 7 m long with a beam of 2.5 m and draft of 3.5 m. Her intended use was to ease the harvest of coral. Ictíneo I's prow was equipped with a set of tools suited to the harvest of coral. 

During the summer of 1859, Monturiol performed more than 20 dives in Ictíneo I, with his business partner and shipbuilder as crew. Ictíneo I possessed good handling, but her top speed was disappointing, as it was limited by the power of human muscles.

Ictíneo I was eventually destroyed by accident in January 1862, after completing some fifty dives, when a cargo vessel ran into her at her berth.

A modern replica of Ictíneo I stands in the garden entrance to the Marine Museum in Barcelona.

The Ictíneo II was originally intended as an improved version of the handpowered Ictíneo I. The Spanish Navy pledged support to Monturiol but did not actually supply it, so he had to raise funds himself, writing a letter to the nation to encourage a popular subscription which raised 300,000 pesetas from the people of Spain and Cuba and was used to form the company La Navegación Submarina to develop the Ictíneo II.

Monturiol's ultimate plan envisaged a vessel custom-built to house his new engine, which would be entirely built of metal and with the engine housed in its own separate compartment. Due to the state of his finances, construction of the metal vessel was out of the question. Instead, he managed to assemble enough funds to fit the engine into the wooden Ictíneo II for preliminary tests and demonstrations.

On 22 October 1867, Ictíneo II made her first surface journey under steam power, averaging 6.5 km/h with a top speed of 8.3 km/h.

On 14 December, Monturiol submerged the vessel and successfully tested his air-independent engine, without attempting to travel anywhere.

On 23 December that same year, Monturiol's company went bankrupt and could attract no more investment. The chief creditor called in his debt, and Monturiol was forced to surrender his sole asset, Ictíneo II. The creditor subsequently sold her to a businessman, and the authorities, who taxed all ships, issued its new owner with a tax bill. Rather than pay the bill, he dismantled the submarine and sold it for scrap. A replica can be seen at the harbour of Barcelona.

Monturiol died in 1885, in Sant Martí de Provençals, now a suburb of Barcelona.

No other submarine employed an anaerobic propulsion system until 1940 when the German Navy tested a system employing the same principles, the Walter turbine, on the experimental V-80 submarine and later on the Type XVII submarines. The problem of air-independent propulsion was finally resolved with the construction of the first nuclear powered submarine, the USS Nautilus.

He has two monuments: one in Barcelona (Avinguda Diagonal-Carrer Girona) and other at the end of the Rambla in Figueres, his native city, better known for another Figuerenc, Salvador Dalí.

In 2013 a crewed submersible capable of reaching depths of 1,200 m was named Ictineu 3 honouring Monturiol's inventions, Ictineo I and Ictineo II.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

There was a submarine that I desperately
wanted to buy in the toy shop.
My father said, 'No, you go and build it yourself.'

David Linley

MARGARET NATALIE SMITH, THE ENGLISH DAME OF ARTS

Today, The Grandma has received very sad news. Maggie Smith, the English actress, one of the best of all time, has passed away.

The Grandma likes watching her films, some of them part of the history of Literature and Cinema, especially Harry Potter's saga, Downtown Abbey series and William Shakespeare's plays.

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934-27 September 2024) is an English actress. She has had an extensive, varied career on stage, film, and television, spanning over 68 years. Smith has appeared in more than 60 films, and is one of Britain's most recognisable actresses. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the performing arts, and a Companion of Honour in 2014 for services to drama.

Smith began her career on stage as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. For her work on the London stage, she has won a record six Best Actress Evening Standard Awards: for The Private Ear, and The Public Eye (both 1962), Hedda Gabler (1970), Virginia (1981), The Way of the World (1984), Three Tall Women (1994) and A German Life (2019). She received Tony Award nominations for Private Lives (1975) and Night and Day (1979), before winning the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage. She appeared in Stratford Shakespeare Festival productions of Antony and Cleopatra (1976) and Macbeth (1978), and West End productions of A Delicate Balance (1997) and The Breath of Life (2002). She received the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010.

On screen, Smith first drew praise for the crime film Nowhere to Go (1958), for which she received her first British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award nomination. She has won two Academy Awards, winning Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). She is one of only six actresses to have won in both categories. She has won a record four BAFTA Awards for Best Actress, including for A Private Function (1984) and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1988), a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for Tea with Mussolini (1999), and three Golden Globe Awards. She received four other Oscar nominations that were for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1986), and Gosford Park (2001).

Smith played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). Other notable films include Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973), Death on the Nile (1978), Clash of the Titans (1981), Evil Under the Sun (1982), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), The Secret Garden (1993), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015).

She won an Emmy Award in 2003 for My House in Umbria, to become one of the few actresses to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, and starred as Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey (2010–2015), for which she won three Emmys, her first non-ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award, and her third Golden Globe.

Her honorary film awards include the BAFTA Special Award in 1993 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996. She received the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Legacy Award in 2012, and the Bodley Medal by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries in 2016.

More information: Dame Maggie

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, on 28 December 1934. Her mother, Margaret Hutton was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow, and father, Nathaniel Smith (1902–1991), was a public health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne who worked at the University of Oxford.

During her childhood, Smith's parents told her the romantic story of how they had met on the train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She had older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian. The latter went to architecture school. Smith attended Oxford High School until age 16, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse.

In 1952, aged 17, under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, Smith began her career as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1954, she appeared in the television programme Oxford Accents produced by Ned Sherrin. She appeared in her first film in 1956, in an uncredited role in Child in the House, and made her Broadway debut the same year playing several roles in the review New Faces of '56, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from June to December 1956. In 1957, she starred opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, written by Bamber Gascoigne. In 1959, she received the first of her 18 BAFTA Film and TV nominations for her role in the film Nowhere to Go.

In 1962, Smith won the first of a record five Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffer's plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams. She became a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 1960s, most notably for playing Desdemona in Othello opposite Laurence Olivier and earning her first Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1965 film version. She appeared opposite Olivier in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and played comedic roles in The Recruiting Officer and Much Ado About Nothing. Her other films at this time included Go to Blazes (1962), The V.I.P.s (1963), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Young Cassidy (1965), Hot Millions (1968), and Oh! What A Lovely War (1969).

Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Vanessa Redgrave had originated the role on stage in London, and Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, when she played the role in New York. The role also won Smith her first BAFTA Award.

 

More information: The Guardian

In 1970, she played the title role in Ingmar Bergman's London production of the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, winning her second Evening Standard award for Best Actress. She received her third Academy Award nomination for the 1972 film Travels with My Aunt. She also appeared in the film Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973). In the mid-1970s, she made several guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show.

From 1976 to 1980, she appeared in numerous productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, to acclaim; her roles included Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Virginia Woolf in Virginia, and opposite Brian Bedford in the Noël Coward comedy Private Lives. Also during this time, she starred on Broadway in Private Lives in 1975 and Night and Day in 1979, receiving Tony Award nominations for both.

Smith received the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Diana Barrie in California Suite. For this role, she also won her first Golden Globe Award. Afterward, upon hearing that Michael Palin was about to embark on the film The Missionary (1982) with Smith, her co-star Michael Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Palin, warning him that she would steal the film. Her other films at this time include Murder by Death (1976) and Death on the Nile (1978).

In 1981, Smith played the goddess Thetis in Clash of the Titans. For her role on television as Mrs Silly, she received the first of her four Best Actress BAFTA TV Award nominations. On stage, she won her third and fourth Evening Standard awards for Best Actress, for Virginia in 1981 and The Way of the World in 1984.

She won three more Best Actress BAFTA Awards for her roles as Joyce Chilvers in the 1984 black comedy A Private Function, Charlotte Bartlett in the 1986 Merchant Ivory production of A Room with a View, and the title role in the 1987 film The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. For A Room With a View, she also received her fifth Academy Award nomination, and won her second Golden Globe Award.

 

More information: Her

In 1987, she starred in A Bed Among the Lentils, part of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series, receiving a second BAFTA TV nomination. She starred in the 1987 London production of Lettice and Lovage alongside Margaret Tyzack, receiving an Olivier Award nomination, and reprised the role in 1990, when it transferred to Broadway, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The play was written specifically for her by the playwright Peter Shaffer.

In the 1990s, Smith appeared as Wendy Darling in the 1991 hit movie Hook, and also appeared in the hit comedy films Sister Act in 1992 and The First Wives Club in 1996. She also received a third BAFTA TV nomination for the 1992 TV film Memento Mori, and her first Emmy nomination for her role in the 1993 TV film Suddenly, Last Summer.

She won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, in which she played Lady Hester. She also appeared in the films The Secret Garden (1993), Richard III (1995), and Washington Square (1997). Her 1990s stage roles included Three Tall Women in 1994, which won her a fifth Evening Standard award, Claire in A Delicate Balance opposite Eileen Atkins in 1997, and The Lady in the Van in 1999.

Due to the international success of the Harry Potter movies, she is widely known for playing Professor Minerva McGonagall, opposite Daniel Radcliffe in the title role. She has appeared in seven of the eight films in the series from 2001 to 2011. She and Radcliffe had worked together previously in the 1999 BBC television adaptation of David Copperfield, in which she played Betsey Trotwood and received a BAFTA TV Award nomination.

 

She received her sixth Academy Award nomination for the 2001 film Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, and won her first Emmy Award for the 2003 TV film My House in Umbria. On stage, she starred as Madeleine Palmer, opposite Judi Dench, in the David Hare play The Breath of Life in 2002, toured Australia in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads in 2004, and starred in The Lady from Dubuque in 2007.

More information: Standard

Beginning in 2010, Smith appeared as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the British period drama Downton Abbey. This role won her a Golden Globe Award and two Emmy Awards. In 2014, the role also won her a Screen Actors Guild Award.

In 2012, she played Muriel in the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and starred as Jean Horton in Quartet, based on Ronald Harwood's play, directed by actor Dustin Hoffman.

In a March 2015 interview with Joe Utichi in The Sunday Times, Smith announced that the sixth season of Downton Abbey would be her last, it was in fact the last to be produced. On 30 October 2015, Smith appeared on BBC's The Graham Norton Show, her first appearance on a chat show in 42 years. During the show, Smith discussed her appearance in the comedy-drama film The Lady in the Van, which was directed by Nicholas Hytner.

In February 2019, it was announced that Smith would return to the London stage for the first time in twelve years in A German Life. The new play by Christopher Hampton was drawn from the life and testimony of Brunhilde Pomsel (1911–2017), in which Smith was alone on stage, performing a 100-minute-long monologue to the audience. Jonathan Kent took the directorial role.

More information: The Guardian

 

I like the ephemeral thing about theatre,

every performance is like a ghost 

-it's there and then it's gone.

Maggie Smith

ALBERT EINSTEIN & RELATIVITY IN 'ANNUS MIRABILIS'

Today, The Grandma has been reading Albert Einstein's The annus mirabilis papers, on of the great contributions to the foundation of modern physics, whose third part was published on a day like today in 1905.

The annus mirabilis papers (from Latin annus mīrābilis) are the four papers that Albert Einstein published in Annalen der Physik, a scientific journal, in 1905; 119 years ago. 

These four papers were major contributions to the foundation of modern physics.

They revolutionized science's understanding of the fundamental concepts of space, time, mass, and energy. Because Einstein published all four of these papers in a single year, 1905 is called his annus mirabilis (miracle year).

The first paper explained the photoelectric effect; The second paper explained Brownian motion, the third paper introduced Einstein's theory of special relativity, and the fourth, a consequence of the theory of special relativity, developed the principle of mass–energy equivalence.

These four papers, together with quantum mechanics and Einstein's later theory of general relativity, are the foundation of modern physics.

Einstein's Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper (On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies), his third paper that year, was received on 30 June and published 26 September. It reconciles Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics by introducing major changes to mechanics close to the speed of light. This later became known as Einstein's special theory of relativity.

The paper mentions the names of only five other scientists: Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, Christian Doppler, and Hendrik Lorentz. It does not have any references to any other publications. Many of the ideas had already been published by others, as detailed in history of special relativity and relativity priority dispute. However, Einstein's paper introduces a theory of time, distance, mass, and energy that was consistent with electromagnetism, but omitted the force of gravity.

At the time, it was known that Maxwell's equations, when applied to moving bodies, led to asymmetries (moving magnet and conductor problem), and that it had not been possible to discover any motion of the Earth relative to the 'light medium'. 

Einstein puts forward two postulates to explain these observations. First, he applies the principle of relativity, which states that the laws of physics remain the same for any non-accelerating frame of reference (called an inertial reference frame), to the laws of electrodynamics and optics as well as mechanics. In the second postulate, Einstein proposes that the speed of light has the same value in all frames of reference, independent of the state of motion of the emitting body.

Special relativity is thus consistent with the result of the Michelson-Morley experiment, which had not detected a medium of conductance (or aether) for light waves unlike other known waves that require a medium (such as water or air), and which had been crucial for the development of the Lorentz transformations and the principle of relativity.

The speed of light is fixed, and thus not relative to the movement of the observer. This was impossible under Newtonian classical mechanics.

It had previously been proposed, by George FitzGerald in 1889 and by Lorentz in 1892, independently of each other, that the Michelson-Morley result could be accounted for if moving bodies were contracted in the direction of their motion. Some of the paper's core equations, the Lorentz transforms, had been published by Joseph Larmor (1897, 1900), Hendrik Lorentz (1895, 1899, 1904) and Henri Poincaré (1905), in a development of Lorentz's 1904 paper. Einstein's presentation differed from the explanations given by FitzGerald, Larmor, and Lorentz, but was similar in many respects to the formulation by Poincaré (1905).

His explanation arises from two axioms. The first is Galileo's idea that the laws of nature should be the same for all observers that move with constant speed relative to each other.

The theory, now called the special theory of relativity, distinguishes it from his later general theory of relativity, which considers all observers to be equivalent. 

Acknowledging the role of Max Planck in the early dissemination of his ideas, Einstein wrote in 1913 The attention that this theory so quickly received from colleagues is surely to be ascribed in large part to the resoluteness and warmth with which he [Planck] intervened for this theory.

In addition, the spacetime formulation by Hermann Minkowski in 1907 was influential in gaining widespread acceptance. Also, and most importantly, the theory was supported by an ever-increasing body of confirmatory experimental evidence.

More information: Archive

If you can't explain it simply, 

you don't understand it well enough.

 

Albert Einstein

TREATY OF YORK, THE ANGLO-SCOTTISH BORDER IN 1237

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Treaty of York, the agreement between the kings Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland, signed at York on a day like today in 1237.

The Treaty of York was an agreement between the kings Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland, signed at York on 25 September 1237, which affirmed that Northumberland (which at the time also encompassed County Durham), Cumberland, and Westmorland were subject to English sovereignty. This established the Anglo-Scottish border in a form that remains almost unchanged to modern times (the only modifications have been regarding the Debatable Lands and Berwick-upon-Tweed).

The treaty detailed the future status of several feudal properties and addressed other issues between the two kings, and historically marked the end of the Kingdom of Scotland's attempts to extend its frontier southward.

The treaty was one of a number of agreements made in the ongoing relationship between the two kings. The papal legate Otho of Tonengo was already in the Kingdom of England at Henry's request, to attend a synod in London in November 1237. Otho was informed in advance by Henry of the September meeting at York, which he attended. This meeting was recorded by the contemporary chronicler Matthew Paris, who disparaged both Alexander and Otho.

Henry and Alexander had a history of making agreements to settle one matter or another, and related to this was their personal relationship. Alexander was married to Henry's sister Joan and Alexander's sister Margaret had married Hubert de Burgh, a former regent to Henry.

On 13 August 1237, Henry advised Otho that he would meet Alexander at York to treat of peace. An agreement was reached on 25 September respecting all claims, or competent to, the latter, up to Friday next before Michaelmas A.D. 1237.

The title of the agreement is Scriptum cirographatum inter Henricum Regem Anglie et Alexandrum Regem Scocie de comitatu Northumbrie Cumbrie et Westmerland factum coram Ottone Legato and the particulars of the agreement are:

-The King of Scotland quitclaims to the King of England his hereditary rights to the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmorland; quitclaims 15,000 marks of silver paid by King William to King John for certain conventions not observed by the latter; and frees Henry from agreements regarding marriages between Henry and Richard, and Alexander's sisters Margaret, Isabella, and Marjory.

-The King of England grants the King of Scotland certain lands within Northumberland and Cumberland, to be held by him and his successor kings of Scotland in feudal tenure with certain rights exempting them from obligations common in feudal relationships, and with the Scottish Steward sitting in Justice regarding certain issues that may arise, and these, too, are hereditary to the King of Scotland's heirs, and regarding these the King of Scotland shall not be answerable to an English court of law in any suit.

-The King of Scotland makes his homage and fealty -de praedictis terris.

-Both kings respect previous writings not in conflict with this agreement, and any charters found regarding said counties to be restored to the King of England.

Although the border between Scotland and England was officially defined for the first time and by mutual agreement through the Treaty of York, historians have shown little interest in the agreement, either mentioning it in passing or ignoring it altogether. Stubbs does not mention it in his Constitutional History of England, nor does Hume in his History of England.

Skene's Celtic Scotland refers to it as an agreement in his background discussion for the reign of Alexander II's successor, Alexander III, while Burton's History of Scotland mentions that claims of land were discussed in 1237 and briefly describes some of them, but makes no reference to an agreement or treaty. James Hill Ramsay's Dawn of the Constitution gives a fuller discussion of the agreement, but does not give it any particular prominence.

The treaty gained additional prominence due to the chronicler Matthew Paris (c. 1200-1259), who is known for his rhetorical passion and his invectives against those with whom he disagreed. Paris describes the Papal legate Otho in negative terms, as someone who was weak and timid in the face of strength but overbearing in his use of power over others, and as someone who avariciously accumulated a large amount of money. He describes Alexander and Henry as having a mutual hatred in 1236, with Alexander threatening to invade England. He describes the 1237 meeting at York as the result of Henry's and Otho's invitation to Alexander, and that when Otho expressed an interest in visiting Scotland, Alexander claimed no legate had ever visited Scotland and he would not allow it, and that if Otho does enter Scotland he should take care that harm does not befall him.

Paris goes on to say that in 1239 as Otho was leaving for Scotland, that when Alexander had previously met with Otho in 1237 he had become so excited in his hostility at the possibility of Otho's visit to Scotland that a written agreement had to be drawn up concerning Otho's visit.

More information: Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute

All treaties between great states cease
to be binding when they come
in conflict with the struggle for existence.

Otto von Bismarck

'ODA A BARCELONA' BY JACINT VERDAGUER I SANTALÓ

Quan á la falda't miro de Montjuich seguda,
m'apar vèuret als brassos d'Alcides gegantí,
que per guardar sa filla del seu costat nascuda
en serra transformantse s'hagués quedat aquí.

Y al veure que traus sempre rocam de ses entranyes
per tos casals, que creixen com arbres ab sahó,
apar que diga á l'ona y al cel y á les montanyes:
-Miraula; òs de mos òssos, s'es feta gran com jo!-

Perquè tes naus, que tornan ab ales d'oreneta,
vers Cap-del-Riu, en l'ombra no's vajan á estellar,
ell alsa tots los vespres un far ab sa má dreta
y per guiarles entra de peus dintre la mar.
 
La mar dorm á tes plantes besantles com vassalla
que ascolta de tos llabis lo còdich de ses lleys,
y si li dius ¡arrera! fa lloch á ta muralla
com si Marquets y Llansas encara'n fossen reys.
 
Al naixer amassona, de mur te coronares,
mes prompte ta creixensa rompé l'estret cordó;
tres voltes te'n cenyires, tres voltes lo trencares,
per sobre'l clos de pedra saltant com un lleó.
 
¿Perquè lligarte'ls brassos ab eix cinyell de torres?
no escáu á una matrona la faixa dels infants;
¿més val que l'enderroques d'un colp de má y esborres;
¿muralles vols ciclópees? Deu te les da més grans.
 
Deu te les da d'un rengle de cimes que't coronan,
gegants de la marina dels de montanya al peu,
que ferms de l'un á l'altre les aspres mans se donan,
formant á tes espatlles un altre Pyrineu.
 
Ab Montalegre encaixa Nou-pins; ab Finestrelles,
Olorde; ab Collserola, Carmel y Guinardons;
los llits dels rius que segan eix mur son les portelles;
Garraf, Sant Pere Martri y Montgat, los torreons.
 
L'alt Tibidabo, roure que sos plansons domina,
es la superba acròpolis que vetlla la Ciutat;
l'agut Moncada, un ferro de llansa gegantina
que una nissaga d'hèroes clavada allí ha deixat.
 
Ells sian, ells, los termes eterns de tos aixamples;
dels rònechs murs á trossos fésne present al mar,
ahont d'un port sens mida serán los brassos amples
que'l pugan ab sos boscos de naus empresonar.
 
Com tu devoran marges y camps, y's tornan pobles
los masos que't rodejan, ciutats los pagesius,
com nines vers sa mare corrent á passos dobles;
¿á quí durán llurs aygues sinó á la mar, los rius?
 
Y creixes y t'escampas: quan la planicie't manca,
t'enfilas á les costes doblante á llur jayent;
en totes les que't voltan un barri teu s'embranca,
que, onada sobre onada, tu amunt vas empenyent.
 
Geganta que tos brassos abuy cap á les serres estens,
quan hi arribes demá, donchs, ¿què farás?
farás com èura inmensa que, ja abrigant les terres,
puja á cenyir un arbre del bosch ab cada brás.
 
¿Veus á ponent esténdres un prat com d'esmeralda?
un altre Nil lo forma de ses arenes d'or,
ahont, si t'estreteja de Montjuich la falda,
podrían aixamplarse tes tendes y ton cor.
 
Aquelles verdes ribes florides que'l sol daura,
Sant Just Desvern que ombrejan los tarongers y pins,
de Valldoreix los boscos, de Hebron y de Valldaura,
teixeixen ta futura corona de jardins.
 
¿Y aqueix esbart de pobles que riuhen en la costa?
son ninfes catalanes que't venen á abrassar,
gavines blanquinoses que'l vent del segle acosta
perquè ab tes ales d'áliga les portes á volar.
 
La Murta, un jorn, la Verge del Port, la Bona- nova
serán tos temples, si ara lo niu de tos amors:
los Agudells, en blanca mudant sa verda roba,
abaixarán ses testes per ser tos miradors.
 
Junyits besar voldrían tos peus ab ses onades,
esclaus de ta grandesa, Besòs y Llobregat,
y ser de tos reductes troneres avansades
los pits de Catalunya, Montseny y Montserrat.
 
Llavors, llavors al témer que'l vols per capsalera,
girant los ulls als Alpes lo Pyrineu vehí
demanará, aixugantse la blanca cabellera,
si la París del Sena s'es trasplantada aquí.
 
-Nó, -respondrá ma pátria, -de mi y la mar es filla;
d'un bes de ses onades, com Venus, m'ha nascut;
persò totes les aygues diguérenli pubilla,
persò totes les terres pagárenli tribut.
 
 Sos peus dintre l'escuma, son front en ple mitx dia,
miráula allá jayenta si n'es d'hermosa y gran;
apar, oh Catalunya, ton geni que somía
les glories que passaren, les glories que vindrán.

La mar no te l'han presa, ni'l pla, ni la montanya
que s'alsa á tes espatlles per ferte de mantell,
ni eix cel que fora un dia ma tenda de campanya,
ni eix sol que fora un dia faró del meu vaixell;
 
 Lo teu present esplèndit es de nous temps aurora;
tot somiant fulleja lo llibre del passat;
treballa, pensa, lluyta, mes creu, espera y ora.
Qui enfonza ò alsa'ls pobles es Deu, que'ls ha creat.

Jacint Verdaguer

SAINT THECLA, PATRON SAINT OF SITGES & TARRAGONA

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Thecla, the saint of the early Christian Church, who is venerated on a day like today in places like Sitges and Tarragona.

Thecla, in Ancient Greek Θέκλα, Thékla, was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul the Apostle. The earliest record of her life comes from the ancient apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla.

The Acts of Paul and Thecla is a 2nd-century text (c. AD 180) which forms part of the Acts of Paul, but was also circulated separately. According to the text, Thecla was a young noble virgin from Iconium who chose to leave her fiance so she could convert to Christianity and follow Paul.

In the text, it is said that Thecla spent three days sitting by her window, listening to Paul speak about the Christian God and the importance of living in chastity. Thecla's mother, Theoclia, and fiance, Thamyris, became concerned that Thecla was going to follow Paul's teachings. They turned to local authorities to punish Paul for being a Christian and mak[ing] virgins averse to marriage. Paul was sent to prison, where Thecla visited him, kissed his bonds, and refused to leave him and return to her mother and fiance. Paul was made to leave the city and Thecla was condemned to be burned.

However, Thecla was miraculously saved from burning at the stake by the onset of a storm. She then encountered Paul outside of Iconium, where she told him, I will cut my hair off and I shall follow you wherever you go.

She then traveled with Paul to Antioch of Pisidia. There, a nobleman named Alexander desired Thecla and attempted to rape her. Thecla fought him off, tore his cloak, and knocked his coronet off his head, which caused her to be put on trial for assault. She was sentenced to be eaten by wild beasts, but was again saved by a series of miracles. In one scene, female beasts, particularly lionesses, protected her against her male aggressors. While in the arena, she baptized herself by throwing herself into a nearby lake full of aggressive seals, who were all killed by lightning before they could devour her.

Thecla rejoined Paul in Myra, wearing a mantle that she had altered so as to make a man's cloak. As she traveled, she preached the word of God and encouraged women to imitate her by living a life of chastity. According to some versions of the Acts, Thecla lived in a cave in Seleucia Cilicia for 72 years, where she continued to spread Christianity.

It is also said that Thecla spent the rest of her life in Maaloula, a village in Syria. There, she became a healer and performed many miracles, but remained constantly persecuted. In one instance, as her persecutors were about to get to her, she called out to God, a new passage was opened in the cave she was in, and the stones closed behind her. Before her death, she was able to go to Rome and lie down beside Paul's tomb.

Thecla is counted as the patron saint of Sitges and Tarragona in Catalonia, where the cathedral has a chapel dedicated to her. Her feast day remains the town's major local holiday.

More information: New Liturgical Movement

 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are those who have kept the flesh Chaste,
for they will become a temple of God.

Saint Thecla

BONNIE LYNN HUNT, THE AMERICAN ACTRESS & DIRECTOR

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films interpreted by Bonnie Hunt, the American actress and director, who was born on a day like today in 1961.

Bonnie Lynn Hunt (born September 22, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, director, producer, writer, and television host. Her film roles include Rain Man, Beethoven, Beethoven's 2nd, Jumanji, Jerry Maguire, The Green Mile, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.

Hunt has done voice work in A Bug's Life, Zootopia, and the Monsters, Inc., Cars, and Toy Story franchises. She starred in Grand and Davis Rules, as well as creating, producing, writing, and starring in The Building, Bonnie, and Life with Bonnie. From 2008 to 2010, she hosted The Bonnie Hunt Show.

Bonnie Lee Hunt was born on September 22, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1982, Hunt worked as an oncology nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. In 1984, she co-founded an improvisational comedy troupe called An Impulsive Thing. Hunt also performed as a member of Chicago's world-famous the Second City, joining in 1986.

In 1988, while a nurse, Hunt auditioned on her lunch break for the role of waitress Sally Dibbs in Rain Man and won it.

In 1990, Hunt portrayed Carol Anne Smithson in Grand. She refused to become a cast member of Saturday Night Live because the series' producers generally frowned on her preferred improvisational style. 

In 1992, she was offered the part of B.J. Poteet, a replacement for Julia Duffy, on Designing Women. Instead, she chose to co-star in Davis Rules.

In 1993, Hunt teamed with good friend David Letterman to produce The Building. The series was also filmed live; mistakes, accidents, and forgotten lines were often left in the aired episode.

In 1995, Hunt and Letterman reteamed for The Bonnie Hunt Show (later retitled Bonnie), which featured many of the same cast members as The Building and the same loose style. The show was praised by critics but was cancelled after 11 of the 13 episodes produced were aired.

In 2002, Hunt returned to television with Life with Bonnie. Her role on the series earned her a 2004 Emmy nomination (which was her first). Despite fair ratings, the series was canceled in its second season. Hunt announced on Live with Regis and Kelly that ABC had offered her another sitcom, in which she would have portrayed a divorced detective. This pilot titled Let Go (also known as Crimes and Dating) was not picked up for the fall 2006 schedule.

She directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in Return to Me. It was filmed in her Chicago neighbourhood and included bit parts for a number of her relatives. The film, which received a positive reception from critics, was largely influenced by Hunt's blue-collar Catholic upbringing in Chicago.

Hunt portrayed Alice Newton in Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd, Sarah Whittle/Madam Serena in Jumanji, and Kate Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. She portrayed the sister of Renée Zellweger's character in Jerry Maguire and Jan Edgecomb in The Green Mile. She portrayed Grace Bellamy in Loggerheads. She has provided her voice for a total of eight Pixar films: A Bug's Life as Rosie, Monsters, Inc. as Ms. Flint, Cars, Cars 2, and Cars 3 as Sally Carrera, Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 as Dolly, and Monsters University as Karen Graves. In addition, Hunt voiced Bonnie Hopps in the Walt Disney Animation Studios' film, Zootopia, which marked her first non-Pixar animated film.

She is a supporter of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, of which she is an honorary board member.

More information: Instagram-Bonnie Hunt

When you fail by your own standards,
it's a form of success.

Bonnie Hunt

ST. OLAF'S CHURCH IS BURNT DOWN IN TYRVÄÄ, FINLAND

Today, The Grandma has been reading about St. Olaf's, the stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, that was burnt down by a burglar.

St. Olaf's Church in Tyrvää, in Finnish Tyrvään Pyhän Olavin kirkko and in Swedish Tyrvis San kt Olofs kyrka, is a late medieval fieldstone church in Tyrvää, Sastamala, Finland. 

It is located on the shore of lake Rautavesi. The church was built approximately in 1510-1516 and burnt down by a burglar on 21 September 1997. From 1997 to 2003 the church was rebuilt by local people and the interior paintings were created by painters Kuutti Lavonen and Osmo Rauhala.

The reconstruction of the church is documented in the book St. Olaf's Church in Tyrvää by Kuutti Lavonen, Osmo Rauhala, and Pirjo Silveri.

Tyrvää was a municipality in the Satakunta region, Turku and Pori Province, Finland. It was established in 1439 when the Tyrvää parish was separated from the parish of Karkku.

In 1915, the market town of Vammala was separated from Tyrvää, and in 1973, Tyrvää was consolidated with Vammala.

In 2009, Vammala became a part of the newly established town Sastamala.

The administrative center of the Tyrvää municipality was located north of Vammala, by the lakes Rautavesi and Liekovesi.

Tyrvää is known as the home of the prominent Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela, who was raised in Tyrvää, and the site of the medieval St. Olaf's Church.

Finland's first woman writer, Theodolinda Hahnsson was born in Tyrvää. The twin tower Tyrvää Church was built in 1855.

More information: Visit Finland

A church is a hospital for sinners,

not a museum for saints.

Pauline Phillips

'INICI DE CÀNTIC EN EL TEMPLE' BY SALVADOR ESPRIU

Ara digueu: "La ginesta floreix,

 arreu als camps hi ha vermell de roselles.

Amb nova falç comencem a segar
el blat madur i, amb ell, les males herbes."

 

Ah, joves llavis desclosos després

de la foscor, si sabíeu com l'alba
ens ha trigat, com és llarg d'esperar

un alçament de llum en la tenebra!
Però hem viscut per salvar-vos els mots,
per retornar-vos el nom de cada cosa,
perquè seguíssiu el recte camí
d'accés al ple domini de la terra.

Vàrem mirar ben al lluny del desert,
davallàvem al fons del nostre somni.
Cisternes seques esdevenen cims
pujats per esglaons de lentes hores.

Ara digueu: "Nosaltres escoltem
les veus del vent per l'alta mar d'espigues."

Ara digueu: "Ens mantindrem fidels
per sempre més al servei d'aquest poble."

 Inici de Càntic en el Temple, Salvador Espriu i Castelló

MICHAEL EAVIS HOSTS THE 1ST GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Michael Eavis, who hosted the first Glastonbury Festival on a day like today in 1970.

Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis (17 October 1935) is an English farmer, co-creator of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset.

Eavis was born in Pilton, Somerset on 17 October 1935, and grew up at Worthy Farm in the village. His father was a Methodist local preacher, and his mother a school teacher. Eavis was educated at Wells Cathedral School, followed by the Thames Nautical Training College in Greenhithe, Kent, after which he joined the Union-Castle Line, part of the British Merchant Navy, as a trainee midshipman. His plan was to spend twenty years at sea, and return with a pension to help subsidise the income from the family farm.

After his father died when Eavis was 19, he inherited the family farm of 150 acres and 60 cows. He worked at Mendip Colliery at Nettlebridge or New Rock colliery at Stratton-on-the-Fosse on the Somerset Coalfield for a couple of years to help supplement the income from the farm.

Eavis and his first wife Ruth had three children, Juliet, Rebecca and Jane, but divorced in 1964. He next married Jean Hayball, with whom he had a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Emily. Jean died of cancer in 1999, and Eavis has since married his third wife, Liz.

In common with his parents and second wife, Eavis remains a practising Methodist, although he has also stated that he is not really bothered about the existence of God. He is a teetotaler and does not smoke.

In 1969, Eavis and his second wife Jean visited the Bath Festival of Blues. Inspired by seeing the performance of Led Zeppelin, Eavis hosted the Pilton Pop Folk & Blues Festival in 1970. 

The following year a free festival, Glastonbury Fayre, was organised by Andrew Kerr and associates. It later developed into Glastonbury Festival.

In 2010, the festival's 40th year, he appeared on the main stage at the festival with headline artist Stevie Wonder, to sing the chorus of the latter's Happy Birthday.

Eavis has credited a number of influences for his political views, including traditions of nonconformity in his family, as well as his time as a miner, during which he was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers. During the early 1980s he was involved in establishing a local branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and subsequently agreed to make the Glastonbury Festival a fundraiser for CND, as it was from 1981 to 1987.

Eavis has apportioned profits from his Glastonbury Festival to support charitable causes, including local projects such as the restoration of the Tithe Barn, Pilton.

In November 2008, during an appearance on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, Eavis stated that the Festival could never lose its licence due to the contribution it makes to the local economy.

In 2009, Eavis starred in a short film to promote Somerset, commissioned by Inward Investment Agency Into Somerset.

Eavis holds honorary degrees from the University of Bath (Doctor of Arts honoris causa, 2004) and the University of Bristol (Master of Arts honoris causa, 2006).

In the 2007, Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music. He was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to music and charity.

In 2009, Eavis was nominated by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.

In 2012, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts.

In 2015, train operator First Great Western named High Speed Train powercar 43026 Michael Eavis. After this was withdrawn, 802013 was named after him in April 2019.

Eavis was awarded the Freedom of the Town of Glastonbury on 3 May 2022.

In early 2024, Eavis was knighted at Windsor Castle, by the Princess Royal, for services to music and charity.

More information: Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival, formally the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto, is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most summers. 

In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums have been recorded at the festival, and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage.

Glastonbury takes place on 1500 acres of farmland and is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive security, transport, water, and electricity-supply infrastructure. While the number of attendees is sometimes swollen by gatecrashers, a record of 300,000 people was set at the 1994 festival, headlined by the Levellers, who performed on the Pyramid Stage. Most festival staff are unpaid volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.

Regarded as a major event in contemporary British culture, the festival is inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free festival movement. Vestiges of these traditions are retained in the Green Fields area, which includes sections known as the Green Futures, the Stone Circle and Healing Field.

Michael Eavis hosted the first festival, then called the Pilton Festival, after seeing an open-air Led Zeppelin concert in 1970 at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music.

The festival was held intermittently from 1970 until 1981 and has been held most years since, except for fallow years taken mostly at five-year intervals, intended to give the land, local population, and organisers a break. 2018 was a fallow year, and the 2019 festival took place from 26 to 30 June.

There were then two consecutive fallow years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival returned for 22-26 June 2022 with the headliners Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar. The next festival took place between 21 and 25 June 2023, headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses and Elton John in his final UK performance.

The first festival at Worthy Farm was the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, hosted by Michael Eavis on Saturday 19 September 1970, and attended by 1,500 people. 

There had been a commercial UK festival tradition which included the National Jazz and Blues Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival. Eavis decided to host the first festival after seeing an open-air concert headlined by Led Zeppelin at the 1970 Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music at the nearby Bath and West Showground in 1970.

The original headline acts were The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders but these acts were replaced at short notice by Tyrannosaurus Rex, later known as T. Rex. Tickets were £1 (equivalent to £20 in 2023). Other billed acts of note were Steamhammer, Quintessence, Stackridge, Al Stewart, Pink Fairies and Keith Christmas.

More information: The Telegraph

I've never seen mud like it in my whole life,
in all 46 years, it hasn't been as bad as this.

Michael Eavis

TIFFANY & YOUNG IS FOUNDED IN NEW YORK CITY IN 1837

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Tiffany & Co., the American jewelry company, that was founded on a day like today in 1837.

Tiffany & Co., colloquially known as Tiffany's, is an American luxury jewelry and specialty design house headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. 

Tiffany is known for its luxury goods, particularly its sterling silver and diamond jewelry. These goods are sold at Tiffany stores, online, and through corporate merchandising. Its name and branding are licensed to Coty for fragrances and to Luxottica for eyewear.

Tiffany & Co. was founded in 1837 by the jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany and became famous in the early 20th century under the artistic direction of his son Louis Comfort Tiffany. In 2018, net sales totaled US$4.44 billion.

As of 2023, Tiffany operated over 300 stores globally, in many countries including the United States, Japan, and Canada, as well as Europe, Latin America, and the collective Asia-Pacific region, and is exploring opportunities in Africa. The company's product line features fine jewelry, sterling silver, watches, porcelain, crystal, stationery, haute couture fragrance and personal accessories, and leather goods.

On January 7, 2021, French conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired a majority stake in Tiffany & Co. for US$15.8 billion and delisted Tiffany's stock from the New York Stock Exchange. It remains headquartered in New York City.

Tiffany & Co. was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young, in New York City, as a stationery and fancy goods emporium, with the help of Charles Tiffany's father, who financed the store for only $1,000 with profits from a cotton mill. The store initially sold a wide variety of stationery items and, as of 1837, operated as Tiffany, Young and Ellis at 259 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

The name was shortened to Tiffany & Company in 1853, when Charles Tiffany took control and established the firm's emphasis on jewelry. 

The company has since opened stores in major cities worldwide. Unlike other stores at the time in the 1830s, Tiffany clearly marked the prices on its goods to forestall any haggling over prices. In addition, against the social norm at the time, Tiffany only accepted cash payments, and did not allow purchases on credit. Such practices, fixed prices for ready money, had first been introduced in 1750 by Palmer's of London Bridge.

The first Tiffany mail order catalog, known as the Blue Book, was published in 1845 in the United States (U.S.), and publishing of the catalog continues in the 21st century.

In 1862, Tiffany supplied the Union Army with swords (Model 1840 Cavalry Saber), flags and surgical implements. 

In 1867, Tiffany was the first U.S. firm to win an award for excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. 

In 1868, Tiffany was incorporated.

In 1902, after the death of Charles Lewis Tiffany, his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany, became the company's first official design director.

The Tiffany & Co. Foundation was established in 2000 to provide grants to nonprofit organizations working in the areas of the environment and the arts.

In June 2004, Tiffany sued eBay, claiming that the latter was making profits from the sale of counterfeit Tiffany products; however, Tiffany lost both at trial and on appeal.

Tiffany & Co. established their subsidiary Laurelton Diamonds in 2002 to manage Tiffany's worldwide diamond supply chain.

In 2009, a collaboration between the Japanese mobile-phone operator SoftBank and Tiffany & Co. was announced. The two companies designed a cellphone, limited to ten copies, and containing more than 400 diamonds, totaling more than 20 carats (4.0 g). Each cellphone cost more than 100 million yen (£781,824).

Also in 2009, the company launched their Tiffany Keys collection.

Since 1940, Tiffany's flagship store has operated at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The polished granite exterior is well known for its window displays, and the store has been the location for a number of films, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn, and Sweet Home Alabama, starring Reese Witherspoon.

Beginning in 2019, the store underwent an extensive renovation, concluding in 2023 and reopening to the public on April 27. The project was designed by American architect Peter Marino.

The former Tiffany and Company Building on 37th Street is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

When it opened in 1990, the Tiffany & Co. store at Fairfax Square in Tysons Corner, Virginia, became the largest outside of New York City, with 1,350 m2 of retail space.

After the initial publication of the Blue Book Tiffany catalog in 1845, Tiffany continued to use its catalog as part of its advertisement strategy. The Tiffany catalog, one of the first catalogs printed in full color, remained free until 1972.

Tiffany's mail-order catalogs reached 15 million people in 1994. Tiffany also produces a corporate-gift catalog each year, and corporate customers purchase Tiffany products for business gift-giving, employee-service and achievement-recognition awards, and for customer incentives.

As of 2013 Tiffany still produces a catalog for subscribers, but its advertisement strategy no longer focuses primarily on its catalog.

Tiffany is known for its luxury goods, particularly its diamond and sterling silver jewelry.

More information: Tiffany & Co.

God has given us our talents,
not to copy the talents of others,
but rather to use our brains and imagination
in order to obtain the revelation of true beauty.

Louis Comfort Tiffany