Saint Augustine of Canterbury, also known as St Augustine the Lesser, led a major missionary effort to England on the instruction of Pope Gregory the Great. Augustine was successful in converting the king of Kent to Christianity and established the mother church of what became the Church of England in Canterbury.
Pope Gregory was said to have been inspired by seeing some Anglo-Saxon youths for sale in the slave markets of Rome and asked who they were. On being told that they were Anglians, he punned “Non Angli, sed angeli.” “They are not Anglians, but angels.”
On telling this story to Augustine, he is said to have added “Go and convert the rest.”
St. Augustine, located on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida, was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers. It is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental United States. The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida, then was the capital of British East Florida, and then was designated the capital of the Florida Territory when the United States took control in 1821. However, the territorial capital moved to Tallahassee a few years later, and that’s where the state capital was established when Florida became a state in 1845.
The names Austen (as in Jane Austen) and Austin (as in the Texas capital) are shortened forms of the name Augustine.
The first name Austin was in the top 10 most popular from 1995-98.
When Jane Austen was twenty, she had a brief flirtation with Tom Lefroy, a young Irishman who had come to England to study law. Though the two were apparently quite attracted to one another, marriage was impractical, and Lefroy’s family intervened to end the relationship.
Lefroy returned to Ireland, and had a successful career in both politics and law, serving as a member of Parliament, member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and eventually becoming Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.
In the 2007 film Becoming Jane, Lefroy was portrayed by James McAvoy.
Irish became an official language of the European Union on 1 January 2007, meaning that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages.
On January 1, 2007, Boise State defeated Oklahoma in one of the most exciting Fiesta Bowl games ever. The two teams combined for 22 points in the final 86 seconds of regulation play, and the game went to overtime tied at 35. Oklahoma scored first to take a 42-35 lead; Boise State answered with a touchdown to pull within one point. They went for a two-point conversion and scored on a ‘Statue of Liberty’ play to win the game 43-42.
The Red Sox World Series win and the Patriots Super Bowl win are the first time two professional sports teams have won the major championships since the Pittsburg Steelers and Penguins did it in 2009. Prior to that, in 2004 the major sports team championships were won in 2004 by…the Red Sox and Patriots.
The Red Sox, who did not yet have that name officially but went by Americans or Pilgrims, won the first World Series in 1903 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. They were aided by the Royal Rooters fan club, based at “Nuf Ced” McGreevey’s Third Base Saloon (the last stop before home). They were noted for their game-long vocal performances of the popular song “Tessie” to urge their team on. The Royal Rooters got tickets together in Pittsburgh and used their singing to distract Honus Wagner into ineffectiveness. A remake of “Tessie” by the Dropkick Murphys came out in time to encourage the Sox in the 2004 playoff drive.
Honus Wagner, a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was one of the initial five inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his career, he was considered to perhaps be the best player of his era.
Wagner was also the subject of one of the rarest and most valuable baseball cards ever made. In 1909-1911, the American Tobacco Company made the “T206” series of baseball cards, depicting various stars of the game. Wagner, who was a non-smoker, refused to grant the company permission to use his likeness, though not before a small number of the Wagner cards were distributed. Only 57 copies of the card are known to currently exist – the most recent auction of a Wagner card was in 2016, in which the final price was $3.12 million.
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act after New York Senator Robert F. Wagner, guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action including strike if necessary.
The composer Richard Wagner and his wife Cosima shared a belief in German cultural and racial superiority. After his death in 1883, and under the influence of Cosima, the Bayreuth Festival, the showcase for Wagner’s works, became increasingly identified with antisemitism. This was a defining feature of Bayreuth for decades, into the Nazi era which closely followed Cosima’s death in 1930.
A recent performances of Wagner in Canada was Das Rheingold at L’Opera de Montreal, in November 2018.
In “The Ring of the Nibelungs: An Analysis”, Anna Russell at the piano narrates, plays and sings a 20 minute analysis of the Ring Cycle which is far more understandable (and funny) than any programme notes.
The piano, a name shortened from pianoforte or fortepiano, which means soft (piano) and loud (forte), was invented in Italy around 1709 by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori. One of Cristofori’s original pianos is still in existence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
One of the most expensive pianos in the world is worth about $2.37M and isn’t much to look at — it is a homely, upright brown Steinway with cigarette burns once owned by John Lennon. British superstar singer George Michael paid that price and now owns it.
The collection of the now-closed Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, including several of his lavishly decorated pianos, is now on display at Thriller Villa, the former Las Vegas home of Michael Jackson, although his cars are at the Liberace Garage.
The Thrilla in Manila was the third and final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. It was contested in 1975 for the heavyweight championship of the world at the Philippine Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines, on Wednesday, October 1. The venue was renamed from Araneta Coliseum, specifically for the match. Ali won by technical knockout (TKO) after Frazier’s chief second, Eddie Futch, conceded the fight prior to the 15th round. The contest’s name is derived from Ali’s rhyming boast that the fight would be “a killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila." The bout is consistently ranked as one of the best in the sport’s history and was the culmination of a three-bout rivalry between the two fighters that Ali won, 2–1
The national symbol of the Philippines is the Philippine, or monkey-eating, eagle. It is the largest of all eagles and was declared the national bird of the Philippines in 1995. Killing one is punishable by Philippine law by 12 years in jail and a heavy fine
The Philippine eagle is critically endangered, mainly due to massive loss of habitat resulting from deforestation in most of its range. Apart from its large size, it is distinctive for its long, brown head feathers that form a shaggy, manelike crest. It is found only in the Philippines and not in nearby islands such as Borneo.