1937, GERNIKA IS BOMBED BY GERMAN LUFTWAFFE

Today, The Grandma has travelled to Gernika to remember the terrific bombing that suffered the town on a day like today in 1937 when Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe, requested by Francisco Franco, attacked this Basque town and killed more that 1,600 civilians.

Gernika is a symbol of resistance and peace and the permanent commitment of fighting against fascism in all of it faces. 

Gernika is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Basque Country. The town of Gernika is one part of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo.

On April 26, 1937, Gernika was bombed by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe, in one of the first aerial bombings. The attack inspired Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, depicting his outrage at the attack.

The village is situated in the region of Busturialdea, in the valley of the Oka river. The river ends in an estuary that gives its name to the village of Gernika. Its mouth is known as Urdaibai's estuary's heart.

The town of Gernika was founded by Count Tello on April 28, 1366, at the intersection of the road from Bermeo to Durango with the road from Bilbao to Elantxobe and Lekeitio. The strategic importance of the site was increased by the fact that it lay on a major river estuary, where vessels could dock at the port of Suso.

On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Gernika was the scene of the Bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria.

According to official Basque figures, 1,654 civilians were killed, but German sources report a round figure of 300 civilians killed in the bombing, according to the German Bundeswehr Magazine.

The raid was requested by Francisco Franco to aid in his overthrowing the Basque Government and the Spanish Republican government. The town was devastated, though the Biscayan assembly and the Oak of Gernika survived.

More information: History

The Bombing of Gernika, which went on continuously for three hours, is considered the beginning of the Luftwaffe doctrine of terror bombing civilian targets in order to demoralize the enemy.

Pablo Picasso painted his Gernika painting to commemorate the horrors of the bombing and René Iché made a violent sculpture the day after the bombing. It has inspired musical compositions by Octavio Vazquez (Gernika Piano Trio), René-Louis Baron, and Lenny White, and poems by Paul Eluard (Victory of Gernika), and Uys Krige (Nag van die Fascistiese Bomwerpers). There is also a short film from 1950, by Alain Resnais, titled Gernika.

Celebrations were staged in 1966 to mark the 600th anniversary of the founding of the town. As part of these celebrations, a statue of Count Tello, made by local sculptor Agustín Herranz, was set up in the Fueros Square.

Gernika is historically the seat of the parliament of the province of Biscay, whose executive branch is located in nearby Bilbao.

In prior centuries, Lumo had been the meeting place of the traditional Biscayan assembly, Urduña and chartered towns like Gernika were under the direct authority of the Lord of Biscay, and Enkarterri and the Durango area had separate assemblies. All would hold assemblies under local big trees.

As time passed, the role of separate assemblies was superseded by the single assembly in Gernika, and by 1512, its oak, known as the Gernikako Arbola, became symbolic of the traditional rights of the Basque people as a whole.

The trees are always renewed from their own acorns. One of these trees, the Old Tree, lived until the 19th century, and may be seen, as a dry stump, near the assembly house. A tree planted in 1860 to replace it died in 2004 and was in turn replaced; the sapling that had been chosen to become the official Oak of Gernika is also sick so the tree will not be replaced until the earth around the site has been restored to health.

More information: Cycle Fiesta

A hermitage was built beside the Gernikako Arbola to double as an assembly place, followed by the current house of assembly, Biltzar Jauregia in Basque, built in 1826.

On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the town was razed to the ground by German aircraft belonging to the Condor Legion, sent by Hitler to support Franco's troops. For almost four hours bombs rained down on Gernika in an experiment for the blitzkrieg tactics and bombing of civilians seen in later wars.

In 1987, the 50th anniversary of the bombing was commemorated as the town hosted the Preliminary Congress of the World Association of Martyr Cities.

1988 saw the setting up of the monument Gure Aitaren Etxea, by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, and in 1990 Large Figure in a Shelter, by British sculptor Henry Moore, was erected beside it. These monuments are symbolic of Gernika-Lumo as a city of peace.

As part of the Symbol for Peace movement, Gernika has twinned with several towns, including Berga (Catalonia-1986), Pforzheim (Germany-1988) and Boise, Idaho (United States-1993). The twinning agreements include co-operation in the fields of culture, education and industry.

After sixty-one years, in a declaration adopted on April 24, 1999, the German Parliament formally apologized to the citizens of Gernika for the role the Condor Legion played in bombing the town. The German government also agreed to change the names of some German military barracks named after members of the Condor Legion. By contrast, no formal apology to the city has ever been offered by the Spanish government for whatever role it may have played in the bombing. 

More information: The Conversation

 When German soldiers used to come to my studio 

and look at my pictures of Guernica, 

they'd ask 'Did you do this?'. 

And I'd say, 'No, you did.'

Pablo Picasso

CLAUDE J. ROUGET DE LISLE COMPOSES 'LA MARSEILLAISE'

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, who composed La Marseillaise on a day like today in 1792.

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (10 May 1760–26 June 1836) was a French army officer of the French Revolutionary Wars.

He is known for writing the words and music of the Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin in 1792, which would later be known as La Marseillaise and become the French national anthem.

La Marseillaise is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin.

The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795. The song acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital. The song is the first example of the European march anthemic style. The anthem's evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music.

As the French Revolution continued, the monarchies of Europe became concerned that revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries. The War of the First Coalition was an effort to stop the revolution, or at least contain it to France. Initially, the French army did not distinguish itself, and Coalition armies invaded France.

On 25 April 1792, Baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg and worshipful master of the local masonic lodge, asked his freemason guest Rouget de Lisle to compose a song that will rally our soldiers from all over to defend their homeland that is under threat.

That evening, Rouget de Lisle wrote Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin, and dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian freemason in French service from Cham. A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrich's house once stood commemorates the event. De Dietrich was executed the next year during the Reign of Terror.

More information: France Diplomacy

The melody soon became the rallying call to the French Revolution and was adopted as La Marseillaise after the melody was first sung on the streets by volunteers from Marseille by the end of May. These fédérés were making their entrance into the city of Paris on 30 July 1792 after a young volunteer from Montpellier called François Mireur had sung it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille, and the troops adopted it as the marching song of the National Guard of Marseille. A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur later became a general under Napoléon Bonaparte and died in Egypt at age 28.

The song's lyrics reflect the invasion of France by foreign armies, from Prussia and Austria, that was under way when it was written. Strasbourg itself was attacked just a few days later. The invading forces were repulsed from France following their defeat in the Battle of Valmy. As the vast majority of Alsatians did not speak French, a German version was published in October 1792 in Colmar.

The Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795, making it France's first anthem. It later lost this status under Napoleon I, and the song was banned outright by Louis XVIII and Charles X, being re-instated only briefly after the July Revolution of 1830.

During Napoleon I's reign, Veillons au salut de l'Empire was the unofficial anthem of the regime, and in Napoleon III's reign, it was Partant pour la Syrie, but the Government brought back the iconic anthem in an attempt to motivate the French people during the Franco-Prussian War.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, La Marseillaise was recognised as the anthem of the international revolutionary movement; as such, it was adopted by the Paris Commune in 1871, albeit with new lyrics under the title La marseillaise de la Commune.

Eight years later, in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, and has remained so ever since.

More information: BBC

Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé.

La Marseillaise

BARBARA J. STREISAND, THE VOICE OF THE WAY WE WERE

Today, The Grandma has been listening to one of her favourite singers, Barbra Streisand the American singer and actress, who was born on a day like today in 1942.

Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an American singer and actress. 

With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT).

Streisand began her career by performing in nightclubs and Broadway theaters in the early 1960s. Following her guest appearances on various television shows, she signed to Columbia Records, insisting that she retain full artistic control, and accepting lower pay in exchange, an arrangement that continued throughout her career, and released her debut The Barbra Streisand Album (1963), which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Throughout her recording career, Streisand has topped the US Billboard 200 chart with 11 albums -a record for a woman- including People (1964), The Way We Were (1974), Guilty (1980), and The Broadway Album (1985).

She also achieved five number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 -The Way We Were, Evergreen, You Don't Bring Me Flowers, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), and Woman in Love.

Following her established recording success in the 1960s, Streisand ventured into film by the end of that decade.

She starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl (1968), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Additional fame followed with films including the extravagant musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972), and the romantic drama The Way We Were (1973).

Streisand won a second Academy Award for writing the love theme from A Star Is Born (1976), the first woman to be honored as a composer. With the release of Yentl (1983), Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film.

The film won an Oscar for Best Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical. Streisand also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, becoming the first (and for 37 years, the only) woman to win that award. Streisand later directed The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).

More information: Twitter-Barbra Streisand

Streisand was born on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Diana Ida and Emanuel Streisand. Her mother had been a soprano in her youth and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary. Her father was a high school teacher at the same school, where they first met.

Streisand's family was Jewish. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Galicia (Poland-Ukraine) and her maternal grandparents from the Russian Empire, where her grandfather had been a cantor.

Streisand began her education at the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn when she was five. She was considered bright and inquisitive about everything; however, she lacked discipline, often shouting answers to questions out of turn. She next entered Public School 89 in Brooklyn, and during those early school years began watching television and going to movies.

Streisand accepted her first role on the New York stage in Another Evening with Harry Stoones, a satirical comedy play in which she acted and sang two solos.

Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then credited to its usual host Jack Paar. She was seen during an April 1961 episode on which Orson Bean substituted for Paar. She sang Harold Arlen's A Sleepin' Bee.

When she was 21, Streisand signed a contract with Columbia Records that gave her full creative control, in exchange for less money.

Streisand has recorded 50 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records.

Streisand possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range.

Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, I hated the name, but I refused to change it.

Streisand has been nominated 43 times for a Grammy Award, winning eight. In addition, she has received two special non-competitive awards; the 1992 Grammy Legend Award and the 1994 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame four times.

In 2011, she was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year by the Grammy Foundation for her artistic achievement in the music industry.

More information: Instagram-Barbra Streisand

 When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old,
the neighborhood girls would sit
on the stoop and sing.
I was known as the kid who had a good voice
and no father.

Barbra Streisand

SANT JORDI, UNKNOWN ORIGINS & VENERATED PATRON

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of their closest friends Claire Fontaine, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Tonyi Tamaki, Laura Collins, Tina Picotes and Jordi Santanyí. They have celebrated Sant Jordi together. 

Sant Jordi is the patron of Catalonia and much more places and his origin is unknown. Some studies talk about his Palestinian origin while other talk about his Egyptian one.

The Grandma has been reading the legend of Saint Jordi based in The Golden Legend, in Latin Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum, the collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived. It was likely compiled around the years 1259–1266, although the text was added to over the centuries.

More information: Catch Penny

Georgius tribunus, genere Cappadocum, pervenit quadam vice in provinciam Libyae in civitatem, quae dicitur Silena. Iuxta quam civitatem erat stagnum instar maris, in quo draco pestifer latitabat, qui saepe populum contra se armatum in fugam converterat flatuque suo ad muros civitatis accedens omnes inficiebat.

Quapropter compulsi, cives duas oves quotidie sibi dabant, ut eius furorem sedarent, alioquin sic muros civitatis invadebat et aerem inficiebat, quod plurimi interibant. Cum ergo iam oves paene deficerent (maxime cum harum copiam habere non possent), inito consilio ovem cum adiuncto homine tribuebant.

Cum igitur sorte omnium filii et filiae hominum darentur et sors neminem exciperet, et iam paene omnes filii et filiae essent consumpti, quadam vice filia regis unica sorte est deprehensa et draconi adiudicata.

Tunc rex contristatus ait: «Tollite aurum et argentum et dimidium regni mei et filiam mihi dimittite, ne taliter moriatur.»

Quod rex videns coepit filiam suam flere dicens: «Heu me, filia mea dulcissima, quid de te faciam? Aut quid dicam? Quando plus videbo nuptias tuas?» Et conversus ad populum dixit: «Oro, ut indutias octo dierum lugendi mihi filiam tribuatis.»

Quod cum populus admisisset, in fine octo dierum reversus populus est cum furore dicens: «Quare perdis populum tuum propter filiam tuam! En omnes afflatu draconis morimur.»

Tunc, rex, videns quod non posset filiam liberare, induit eam vestibus regalibus et amplexatus eam cum lacrimis dixit: «Heu me, filia mea dulcissima, de te filios in regali gremio nutrire credebam et nunc vadis, ut a dracone devoreris.

Heu me, filia mea dulcissima, sperabam ad tuas nuptias principes invitare, palatium margaritis ornare, tympana et organa audire, et nunc vadis, ut a dracone devoreris. «Et deosculans dimisit eam dicens: «Utinam, filia mea, ego ante te mortuus essem, quam te sic amisissem.»

Tunc illa procidit ad pedes patris petens ab eo benedictionem suam. Quam cum pater cum lacrimis benedixisset, ad lacum processit.

Quam beatus Georgius casu inde transiens ut plorantem vidit, eam quid haberet interrogavit. Et illa: «Bone iuvenis, velociter equum adscende et fuge, ne mecum pariter moriaris.» Cui Georgius: «Noli timere, filia, sed dic mihi quid hic praestolaris omni plebe spectante!»

Et illa: «Ut video, bone iuvenis, magnifici cordis es tu, sed mecum mori desideras! Fuge velociter.» Cui Georgius: «Hinc ego non discedam donec mihi, quid habeas, intimabis.» Cum ergo totum sibi exposuisset, ait Georgius: «Filia noli timere, quia in Christi nomine te iuvabo.»

 Et illa: «Bone miles, sed te ipsum salvare festines, mecum non pereas. Sufficit enim, si sola peream. Nam me liberare non posses et tu mecum perires.» Dum haec loquerentur, ecce draco veniens caput de lacu levavit. Tunc puella tremefacta dixit: «Fuge, bone domine, fuge velociter.»

Tunc Georgius equum ascendens et cruce se muniens draconem contra se advenientem audaciter aggreditur et lanceam fortiter vibrans et se Deo commendans ipsum graviter vulneravit et ad terram deiecit dixitque puellae: «Proice zonam tuam in collum draconis nihil dubitans, filia.»

Quod cum fecisset, sequebatur eam velut mansuetissima canis. Cum ergo eum in civitatem duceret, populi hoc videntes per montes et colles fugere coeperunt dicentes: «Vae nobis, quia iam omnes peribimus!»

Tunc beatus Georgius innuit iis dicens: «Nolite timere, ad hoc enim me misit Dominus ad vos, ut a poenis vos liberarem draconis. Tantummodo in Christum credite et unusquisque vestrum baptizetur et draconem istum occidam.»

Tunc rex et omnes populi baptizati sunt, beatus Georgius evaginato gladio draconem occidit et ipsum extra civitatem efferri praecepit. Tunc quattuor paria boum ipsum in magnum campum foras duxerunt.

Baptizati autem sunt in illa die XX milia exceptis parvulis et mulieribus. Rex autem in honorem beatae Mariae et beati Georgi ecclesiam mirae magnitudinis construxit.

De cuius altari fons vivus emanat, cuius potus omnes languidos sanat. Rex vero infinitam pecuniam beato Georgio obtulit, quam ille recipere nolens pauperibus eam dari praecepit.

Tunc Georgius de quatuor regem breviter instruxit, scilicet ut ecclesiarum dei curam haberet, sacerdotes honoraret, divinum officium diligenter audiret et semper pauperum memor esset; et sic osculato rege inde recessit.

In aliquibus tamen libris legitur quod dum draco ad devorandum puellam pergeret, Georgius se cruce muniuit et draconem aggrediens interfecit.

More information: Michael H. Collins

Cavaller, bon cavaller
Alerta al drac
Que s'amaga rere els núvols
Ran d'aquest llac.

Knight, good knight
Dragon alert
That hides behind the clouds
over this lake.

Vicent Ferragut

THE 'EARTH DAY' A SPECIAL DAY CELEBRATED SINCE 1970

Today, The Grandma has celebrated the Earth Day, the annual even to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2022 is Invest In Our Planet.

In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be observed on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.

This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. He hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the National Coordinator.

Nelson and Hayes renamed the event Earth Day. Denis and his staff grew the event beyond the original idea for a teach-in to include the entire United States. More than 20 million people poured out on the streets, and the first Earth Day remains the largest single-day protest in human history. Key non-environmentally focused partners played major roles. Under the leadership of labor leader Walter Reuther, for example, the United Auto Workers (UAW) was the most instrumental outside financial and operational supporter of the first Earth Day.

According to Hayes, Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped! Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work.

More information: Earth Day

The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. In 1990, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international and organized events in 141 nations.

On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and 120 other countries. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Numerous communities engaged in Earth Day Week actions, an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces.

On Earth Day 2020, over 100 million people around the world observed the 50th anniversary in what is being referred to as the largest online mass mobilization in history.

More information: Earth Day

On January 28, 1969, a well drilled by Union Oil Platform A off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, blew out. More than three million gallons of oil spewed, killing more than 10,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions.

As a reaction to this disaster, activists were mobilized to create environmental regulation, environmental education, and Earth Day. Among the proponents of Earth Day were the people in the front lines of fighting this disaster, Selma Rubin, Marc McGinnes, and Bud Bottoms, founder of Get Oil Out.

Denis Hayes, organizer of the first Earth Day said that Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin was inspired to create Earth Day upon seeing Santa Barbara Channel 800 square-mile oil slick from an airplane.

On the first anniversary of the oil blowout, January 28, 1970, Environmental Rights Day was created, and the Declaration of Environmental Rights was read. It had been written by Rod Nash during a boat trip across the Santa Barbara Channel while carrying a copy of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

The organizers of Environmental Rights Day, led by Marc McGinnes, had been working closely over a period of several months with Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA) to consult on the creation of the National Environmental Policy Act, the first of many new environmental protection laws sparked by the national outcry about the blowout/oil spill and on the Declaration of Environmental Rights.

Both McCloskey (Earth Day co-chair with Senator Gaylord Nelson) and Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, along with Senator Alan Cranston, Paul Ehrlich, David Brower and other prominent leaders, endorsed the Declaration and spoke about it at the Environmental Rights Day conference.

According to Francis Sarguis, the conference was sort of like the baptism for the movement. According to Hayes, this was the first giant crowd he spoke to that felt passionately, I mean really passionately, about environmental issues. Hayes also thought the conference might be the beginning of a real movement.

Nash, Garrett Hardin, McGinnes and others went on to develop the first undergraduate Environmental Studies program of its kind at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

More information: United Nations

Our environment, the world in which we live and work,
is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.

Earl Nightingale

THE KHARKIV PACT, UKRAINE & RUSSIAN NATURAL GAS

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Kharkiv Pact, the Agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine.

Nowadays, the situation between these two nations is under a cruel and bloody war with thousans of innocent victims, as always happens in every war.

The Agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine, widely referred to as the Kharkiv Pact, in Ukrainian Харківський пакт or Kharkov Accords, in Russian Харьковские соглашения, was a treaty between Ukraine and Russia whereby the Russian lease on naval facilities in Crimea was extended beyond 2017 until 2042, with an additional five-year renewal option in exchange for a multiyear discounted contract to provide Ukraine with Russian natural gas.

The agreement, signed on 21 April 2010 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and ratified by the parliaments of the two countries on 27 April 2010, aroused much controversy in Ukraine.

The treaty was effectively a continuation of the lease provisions that were part of the 1997 Black Sea Fleet Partition Treaty between the two states. Shortly after the regime change on 22 February 2014 and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in March 2014, Russia unilaterally terminated the treaty on 31 March 2014.

In 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed the Partition Treaty, establishing two independent national fleets and dividing armaments and bases between them. Ukraine also agreed to lease major parts of its new bases in Sevastopol to the Russian Black Sea Fleet until 2017.

During the presidency of Victor Yushchenko (January 2005-February 2010) the Ukrainian government declared that the lease would not be extended and that the fleet would have to leave Sevastopol by 2017.

More information: Outriders

Amid several Russia-Ukraine gas disputes, including a halt of natural gas supplies to European countries, the price that Ukraine had to pay for Russian natural gas was raised in 2006 and in 2009.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azarov, and the Energy Minister, Yuriy Boyko, were in Moscow in late March 2010 to negotiate lower gas prices; neither clearly explained what Ukraine was prepared to offer in return.

Following these talks Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that Russia was prepared to discuss the revision of the price for natural gas it sells to Ukraine. Mid-April Ukrainian officials stated they are seeking an average price of $240-$260 per 1000 cubic metres for 2010. Ukraine paid an average of $305 in the first quarter of 2010 and $330 in the second quarter.

On 21 April 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed an agreement in which Russia agreed to a 30% drop in the price of natural gas sold to Ukraine. Russia agreed to this in exchange for permission to extend Russia's lease of a major naval base in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol for an additional 25 years (to 2042) with an option for a further 5-year renewal (to 2047). The agreement put a cap on the scale of price hikes; but the main unfavourable terms for Ukraine of the 2009 gas contract remained in place.

We have indeed reached an unprecedented agreement," the Russian president stated. "The rent [for the naval base] will be increased by an amount equivalent to that of the [gas price] discount.

The agreement was subject to approval by both the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments. Both parliaments ratified the agreement on 27 April 2010.

More information: Day Kyiv

Ratification in the Ukrainian parliament proved controversial, and several disturbances occurred during the process. In one incident, several eggs were thrown towards the speaker, Volodymyr Lytvyn, by deputies.

On 28 March 2014, one week after the annexation of Crimea by Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted proposals to the State Duma on the termination of the legal effect of a number of Russian-Ukrainian agreements, including the 2010 Kharkiv Pact treaty and the Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet. The State Duma unanimously approved the unilateral dissolution of these Russian-Ukrainian agreements with 433 members of parliament voting on 31 March 2014.

In June 2010, Ukraine paid Gazprom around $234 per 1,000 cubic metres. However, Ukrainian consumers experienced a 50% increase on household natural gas utility prices in July 2010, a key demand of the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a $15 billion loan.

Payments increased annually since then: in August 2011, Ukraine paid Russia $350 per 1,000 cubic metres; in November 2011, it paid $400 per 1,000 cubic meters; and in January 2013, it paid $430 per 1,000 cubic metres.

In August 2011, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov stated that Ukraine seeks to reduce imports of Russian natural gas by two-thirds, compared with 2010, by 2016.

The treaty allowed Russia to station a limited number of troops in Crimea, 25,000 maximum.

In summer of 2014, the General Prosecutor of Ukraine opened a criminal case against Viktor Yanukovych on several charges.

More information: The Guardian

On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985,
I had a special meeting with the leaders
of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them:
'You are independent, and we are independent.
You are responsible for your policies,
we are responsible for ours.
We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.

Mikhail Gorbachev

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE, THE RECORD FLYING BY BALLOON

Today, The Grandma has been readong about Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, the American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor who made record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina, on a day like today in 1861.

Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe (August 20, 1832-January 16, 1913), also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and aeronautics, and the father of military aerial reconnaissance in the United States.

By the late 1850s he was well known for his advanced theories in the meteorological sciences as well as his balloon building. Among his aspirations were plans for a transatlantic flight.

Lowe's scientific endeavors were cut short by the onset of the American Civil War, for which he offered his services performing aerial reconnaissance on the Confederate troops for the Union Army.

In July 1861, Lowe was appointed Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps by President Abraham Lincoln. Though his work was generally successful, it was not fully appreciated by all members of the military, and disputes over his operations and pay scale forced him to resign in 1863.

Lowe returned to the private sector and continued his scientific exploration of hydrogen gas manufacturing. He invented the water gas process by which large amounts of hydrogen gas could be produced from steam and coke. His inventions and patents on this process and ice making machines made him a millionaire.

In 1887, he moved to Los Angeles, California, and eventually built a 2,230 m2 home in Pasadena. He opened several ice-making plants and founded Citizen's Bank of Los Angeles. Lowe was introduced to David J. Macpherson, a civil engineer, who had drawn up plans for a scenic mountain railroad.

In 1891, they incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad Co. and began the construction of what would become the Mount Lowe Railway into the hills above Altadena.

More information: Mount Lowe

The railway opened on July 4, 1893, and was met with quick interest and success. Lowe continued construction toward Oak Mountain, renamed Mount Lowe, at an exhausting rate, both physically and financially.

By 1899 Lowe had gone into receivership and eventually lost the railway to Jared S. Torrance. Lowe's fortunes had been all but lost, and he lived out his remaining days at his daughter's home in Pasadena, where he died at age 80.

Thaddeus Lowe was born August 20, 1832, to Clovis and Alpha Green Lowe in Jefferson Mills, Coos County, New Hampshire. Lowe's grandfather, Levi Lowe, fought in the Revolutionary War, and his father was a drummer boy in the War of 1812. Both Clovis and Alpha were native New Hampshirites, of pioneer stock and descendants of 17th century Pilgrims. Clovis was a cobbler, but later became a merchant in Jefferson. He dabbled in politics and was even elected to state legislature at one time. His politics and opinion were well respected in the state.

The lecture circuit business proved lucrative enough for Lowe to seek out the education he so lacked as a child. He tried studying medicine to fulfill his grandmother's wish, but the boredom redirected him to his first interest, aviation with the use of lighter-than-air gases. American balloonists used coke gas to inflate limp silk bags, as opposed to the original French balloons which were cotton weave over rigid frameworks that were stood over fires to collect hot smoke (hot air).

By the late 1850s Lowe had become a foremost balloon builder and continued his lucrative business as a showman giving balloon rides to passersby and funfair attendees.

More information: Smithsonian-National Air and Space Museum

Lowe's latest balloon, the City of New York, was a massive 31.4 m diameter balloon with a  10,433 kg lift capacity, which included a 6 m diameter, eight-man canvas-covered gondola and a suspended lifeboat named for his wife Leontine. It was prepared for a test flight to be launched at Reservoir Square in New York on November 1, 1859.

A second test flight, at the suggestion of Prof. Henry, was made from Cincinnati and was to return him to the eastern seaboard. For this flight he used the smaller balloon Enterprise.

His flight took off on the early morning of April 19, 1861, two days after Virginia had seceded from the Union. The flight misdirected him to Unionville, SC, where he was put under house arrest as a Yankee spy.

Having established his identity as a man of science, he was allowed to return home, where he had received word from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to come to Washington with his balloon. The American Civil War permanently ended Lowe's attempt at a transatlantic crossing.

Lowe died at his daughter's Pasadena, California, home at age 80 after a few years of failing health. Lowe was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.

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Sir: This point of observation commands an area
nearly 50 miles in diameter.
The city, with its girdle of encampments,
presents a superb scene.
I have pleasure in sending you this first dispatch
ever telegraphed from an aerial station.

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe