Pinocchio Day

 

Pinocchio Day is celebrated on February 23 every year. The day marks the anniversary of the release of the Disney film of the same name in 1940. Disney’s “Pinocchio” went on to become a global sensation due to its familiarity as a folk tale in Europe. It was based on the 1883 Italian book “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio followed up as the studio’s second animated feature-length film after “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The film follows a puppet named Pinocchio in his attempt to become a human boy.

Amerigo Vespucci's Death Anniversary

 

Amerigo Vespucci, who passed away on 22 February 1512, was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the term "America" is derived. Between 1497 and 1504, Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery, first on behalf of Spain and then for Portugal.

 

Kittur Chennamma's Death Anniversary

 

Kittur Chennamma, who passed away on 21 February 1829, was an Indian revolutionary, freedom fighter and Rani of the Kittur, a former princely state in Karnataka. She led an armed force against the British East India Company in 1824 in defiance of the doctrine of lapse in an attempt to maintain Indian control over the region, but was defeated in the third war and died imprisoned. The one of the first female rulers to rebel against British rule, she has become a folk hero in Karnataka and symbol of the independence movement in India.

Frederick Douglass' Death Anniversary

 

Frederick Douglass, who passed away on 20 February 1895, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.

Nicolaus Copernicus' Birth Anniversary

Nicolaus Copernicus, born on 19 February 1473, was a Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe, in all likelihood independently of Aristarchus of Samos, who had formulated such a model some eighteen centuries earlier.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Birth Anniversary

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, born on 18 February 1946, was the supreme personality of Godhead and the chief proponent of the Achintya Bheda Abheda Vedanta school and the Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism.

Rani Gaidinliu's Death Anniversary

Rani Gaidinliu, who passed away on 17 February 1993, was a Naga spiritual and political leader who led a revolt against British rule in India. At the age of 13, she joined the Heraka religious movement of her cousin Haipou Jadonang. The movement later turned into a political movement seeking to drive out the British from Manipur and the surrounding Naga areas. Within the Heraka faith, she came to be considered an incarnation of the Goddess Cherachamdinliu. Gaidinliu was arrested in 1932 at the age of 16, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the British rulers. Jawaharlal Nehru met her at Shillong Jail in 1937, and promised to pursue her release. Nehru gave her the title of "Rani" ("Queen"), and she gained local popularity as Rani Gaidinliu.