Archive for the 'l' Category
Luís de Camões Biography (1524 - 1525)
wtorek, lipiec 1st, 2008(born 1524/25, Lisbon—died June 10, 1580, Lisbon) Portuguese poet. A member of the impoverished aristocracy, he may have spent about 17 years in India. His masterpiece, the epic The Lusiads (1572), extols glorious deeds in Portuguese history as it recounts Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India. His numerous lyric pieces (together with many apocryphal poems) appeared posthumously in editions of the poetry collection Rimas (from 1595). He also wrote dramatic works, including Filodemo (1587), in which he developed the auto, a kind of morality play, and the comedy The Two Amphitryons (1587). He had an unparalleled impact on Portuguese and Brazilian literature and is regarded as Portugal’s national poet.
Leonard Calvert Biography (1606 - 1647)
niedziela, czerwiec 15th, 2008(born 1606, England—died June 9, 1647, St. Mary’s, Md.) First governor of the Maryland colony. He was the younger brother of Cecil Calvert, the colony’s proprietor. In 1633 he was sent from England to establish a settlement at St. Mary’s. He gradually allowed limited legislative initiative in the colony’s assembly. He lost a land conflict with William Claiborne and was forced to leave Maryland (1644–46); aided by colonists, including Margaret Brent, he returned to reinstate his proprietorial rule.
Lydia Cabrera Biography (1900 - 1991)
niedziela, czerwiec 15th, 2008(born May 20, 1900, Havana, Cuba—died September 19, 1991, Miami, Florida, U.S.) Cuban ethnologist and short-story writer noted for both her collections of Afro-Cuban folklore and her works of fiction. She is considered a major figure in Cuban letters.
The daughter of Cuban historian Raimundo Cabrera, Lydia Cabrera was told African folk legends by her nanny and the household servants during her childhood. In 1927 she went to Paris to study at L’École du Louvre, and there she wrote Cuentos negros de Cuba (1940; originally published in French, 1936; “Black Stories from Cuba”), a collection of 22 folktales. Back in Cuba after 1938, she wrote the 28 stories collected in ¿Por Qué? (1948; “Why?”). She collected folklore from ex-slaves and from rural and urban Cubans. Personified animals and objects, supernatural beings, magic, and good and wicked Yoruba gods fill her stories, which nevertheless present distinctively Cuban landscapes and attitudes. El Monte (1954; “The Bush”) is her noted study of the Santería religion; it discusses Santería’s merging of Yoruban deities with Roman Catholic saints and its herbal pharmacopoeia. Cabrera’s Anagó: vocabulario lucumí (1957; “Anagó: Lucumí Vocabulary”) studies the Lucumí language and its adaptation into Cuban Spanish. During the 1959 Cuban revolution, Cabrera was forced to flee the country. Thereafter she lived in Spain and the United States, mostly in Miami, where she continued to work for the rest of her long life.
In her later years she published books such as La sociedad secreta Abakuá: narrada por viejos adeptos (1969; “The Abakuá Secret Society: As Revealed by Former Members”), Refranes de negros viejos (1970; “Old Black Men’s Proverbs”), Vocabulario congo: el bantú que se habla en Cuba (1984; “A Congo Vocabulary: The Bantu Spoken in Cuba”), Reglas de congo: palo Monte Mayombe (1986; “The Congo Doctrine: Monte Mayombe Sect”), and Supersticiones y buenos consejos (1987; “Superstitions and Good Advice”).
(Leonard) James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan (of Cardiff) Biography (1912–2005)
niedziela, czerwiec 15th, 2008known as Jim Callaghan
British statesman and prime minister (1976–9), born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, S England, UK. He joined the Civil Service (1929), served in naval intelligence in World War 2, and in 1945 was elected Labour MP for South Cardiff. As Chancellor of the Exchequer under Harold Wilson (1964–7), he introduced the controversial corporation and selective employment taxes. He was home secretary (1967–70) and foreign secretary (1974–6), and became prime minister on Wilson’s resignation. He resigned as Leader of the Opposition in 1980, and became a life peer in 1987. His autobiography, Time and Chance, was published in 1987. In February 2005, shortly before his death, he became the oldest living former British prime minister in history.
Lee Calhoun Biography (1933 - 1989)
niedziela, czerwiec 15th, 2008(born Feb. 23, 1933, Laurel, Miss., U.S.—died June 21, 1989, Erie, Pa.) American athlete, the first to win successive gold medals in the Olympics for the 110-metre hurdles.
Calhoun competed for North Carolina College, winning national collegiate championships in the 120-yard hurdles in 1956 and 1957; he was national outdoor hurdles champion three times (1956, 1957, and 1959) and indoor 60-yard hurdles champion twice (1956, 1957). In the 110-metre hurdles at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Calhoun got a faster start than his closest rival, the American Jack Davis, and with his shoulder lunged across the finish line only inches ahead of Davis. The two shared an Olympic record of 13.5 seconds, despite running into an adverse wind; the unofficial automatic timer showed that Calhoun finished 0.03 second ahead of Davis, who, ironically, had taught Calhoun the lunging technique that brought him the victory.
Calhoun was suspended from amateur athletics in 1958 for receiving gifts on a television game show. In 1960 he tied Martin Lauer’s world record of 13.2 seconds for the 110-metre hurdles. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome he won another gold medal in the 110-metre hurdles; in an even closer race, he and American Willie May were officially clocked at 13.8 seconds, and the automatic timer showed Calhoun winning by only 0.01 second.
Laura Welch Bush Biography (1946 - )
sobota, czerwiec 14th, 2008née Laura Lane Welch
(born November 4, 1946, Midland, Texas, U.S.) American first lady (from 2001)—the wife of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States.
Laura Welch was the only child of Harold Welch, a home builder, and Jenna Hawkins Welch. Her parents placed a high priority on Laura’s education and fostered her interest in reading. She attended public schools in Midland, Texas, and graduated from high school in 1964. After earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Southern Methodist University in 1968, she taught in public schools in Dallas and Houston. She received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Texas in 1973 and later worked as a librarian in Austin.
Following her marriage to George W. Bush on November 5, 1977, Laura devoted her time to volunteer work and homemaking. Twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were born in 1981.
After George was elected governor of Texas in 1994, Laura raised her profile, working to improve literacy and raising funds for public libraries. Notably, she sought to raise statewide literacy in collaboration with her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, and the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Laura initiated the Texas Book Festival, which raised nearly $900,000 for Texas public libraries during its first four years. She also promoted breast cancer awareness and women’s health issues.
In 1999 George announced his candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Although Laura initially resisted giving public campaign speeches, she became an avid campaigner, even addressing the Republican National Convention in July 2000. Whenever she was asked whether she would emulate the activist first lady model of Hillary Rodham Clinton or the more traditional model of her mother-in-law, Laura demurred, implying that she would define the role for herself. Shortly before entering the White House, she admitted in a televised interview that she opposed overturning Roe v. Wade, although her husband had advocated overturning it.
As first lady, Laura traveled solo to Europe, spoke on radio (in the president’s place) in support of the Afghan people, and agreed to testify before a Senate committee on education. In a more traditional vein, she also organized a national book fair featuring American authors, started the Laura Bush Foundation to raise funds for libraries, and won praise for her efforts to comfort victims of the September 11 attacks of 2001. She garnered some criticism in February 2003 when she canceled a poetry event at the White House after she learned that some of the invitees planned to make public their opposition to the forthcoming war against Iraq. Overall, however, her popularity remained high.
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