What’s Happening Today?

Poet’s Day. This is a day dedicated to the crafters of poetry. There are many forms of poetry, such as sonnets, limericks, and haikus, and there are many genres of poetry such as narrative, epic, and lyric. Poets not only write poems, but many times read or perform them in front of an audience. Poets have written in almost every language and style imaginable.

In Uganda, Okot p’Bitek with his iconic compilation of poems, Song of Lawino, is probably the greatest poet the country has seen to date.

Youth Day (Morocco). Youth Day is a public holiday in Morocco on August 21 each year. Celebrated on the date of the reigning King's birthday, this day is in honour of the contribution of the youth to the Kingdom. Youth Day takes place on the day after Revolution Day creating a two-day holiday break in the country.

What Happened Today?

1. In 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, The Mona Lisa was stolen by an Italian petty criminal called Vincenzo Perugia who had moved to Paris in 1908 and worked at the Louvre gallery for a time. He went to the gallery in the white smock that all the employees there wore and hid until it closed for the night when he removed the Mona Lisa from its frame. When the gallery reopened, he walked unobtrusively out with the painting under his smock, attracting no attention, and took it to his lodgings in Paris.

2. In 1998, then South African President Nelson Mandela called for a summit over the Congo conflict, inviting the leaders of DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe to find a peaceful resolution to end clashes between Ugandan and Rwandese forces on Congolese soil, presumably for the Central African country’s rich natural resources.

3. In 2007, President Yoweri Museveni and the Agha Khan lay the foundation stone for the Bujagali power project in Jinja. The power station - which was later commissioned in 2012 - was the largest hydroelectric energy source in Uganda at the time but it was later overtaken by the  Karuma and Ayago power stations. 

Birthdays

1. 1936 – Kenny Rogers, legendary country music singer who passed away in March 2020

2. 1986 – Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter and holder of the 100 metres and 200 metres World Records. He’s considered by many to be the greatest sprinter of all time.

Sources: Wikipedia & checkiday.com

Picture credit: Sportbible.com