december

● WORLD AIDS DAY. It is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. This day was originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS.

● Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France in 1990 (long rail tunnel beneath the English Channel, connecting Folkestone, Kent in England to Coquelles near Calais in northern France). It was finally completed in 1994 and it is the longest undersea tunnel in the world.

● Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado in 1976.

● International Day for the Abolition of Slavery .The US abolitionist John Brown was hanged on this day in 1859.

● International Day of Disabled People, promoted by the United Nations since 1992.

● The first heart transplant was performed on this day in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa.

● A monkey returns to Earth safely, after being launched 55 miles high into outer space by the United States space program in 1959.

● Walt Disney was born on this day in 1901. American film producer,director and animator who was the co-founder (with his brother) of Walt Disney Productions and became one of the best-known film producers in the world.

● Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on this day in 1791. Born in 1756, Mozart was a child prodigy in music, mastering the keyboard at the age of four and composing his first pieces a year later.

●This is the feast of St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor (now Turkey) in the 4^th century AD. In the Netherlands and neighbouring countries of Europe, St Nicholas brings sweets and presents for well-behaved children on this day. He became Santa Claus in the USA and our British Father Christmas.

●Spanish Constitution Day. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 is the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy.

● Don Vicente was born in Castelló in 1895.

● Pearl Harbour Day. On this day in 1941, the Japanese launched an attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, event that brought the US into World War II.It is commemorated annually throughout the USA with ceremonies and activities in honour of those who died or were injured during the attack.

● The Royal Opera House opened in Covent Garden in 1732.

● Immaculate Conception Day. Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an article of faith in the Roman Catholic Church.

●John Lennon, English songwriter, vocalist and rhythm guitarist with the Beatles, known as well as a peace activist, was shot dead outside his New York apartment in 1980.

● In the UK, in 1992, the Prime minister, John Major, announced that Charles, Prince of Wales (1948) and Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-97) were to separate.

● The Swedish chemist, Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833), inventor of the dynamite, died on this day in 1896. According to his will, his fortune was used for the endowment of five prizes to be awarded annually to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind in five fields: physics, chemistry,physiology or medicine,literature, and politics. That is the reason why the annual presentation of the Nobel Prizes takes place on this day.

● Marie Curie (1867-1934) became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize with the award for Physics in 1903.

● International Mountain Day. Different countries organise events to promote mountains and mountain environments.

● King Edward VIII (1894-1972) abdicated the throne on account of general disapprobation of his proposed marriage to Wallis Simpson in 1936.

●The French novelist Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen on this day in1821. His masterpiece was Madame Bovary (1857).

● Italian physicist and inventor Guglielmo Marconi publicly demonstrated his radio for the first time at the Toynbee Hall, London, in 1896.

●This is the feast day of St Lucy, patron saint of blind people.

● US Vice-President Al Gore (1948) conceded the Presidency to Republican candidate George W Bush (1946) in 2000.

● Prince Albert, the beloved husband of Queen Victoria (1819-1901), died on this day in 1861. The Albert Memorial in Kesington Gardens was erected in his memory.

● George Washington, the first President of the USA died on this day in 1799.

● Women voted in a British general election for the first time in 1918.

● The Autonomous University of Madrid honoured Don Vicente Sos Baynat during the Biology and Geology Days in 1985.

● At the Madrid Summit of European Councils, EU leaders christened their planned new single currency the ‘euro’ in 1995.

●Different events took place in Castelló in 2005 commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of Don Vicente’s birthday: at Jaume I University the main access to Campus del Riu Sec was named after him, Vicent Sos Baynat Avenue. At Sos Baynat Secondary School a bronze high relief of the Professor resting on a fossil bed was inaugurated in the central courtyard.

● Jane Austen, English novelist, was born on this day. Her social commentary and masterful use of both free indirect speech and irony eventually made Austen one of the most influential and honoured novelists in English literature. Her works include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion.