Geo.topix (2026)

04/07/2024

🎆 Hooray! It's the 4th of July, America's Independence Day!

Today's festivities on the National Mall in Washington, DC, include several major events. The day features the National Independence Day Parade along Constitution Avenue, starting at 11:45 a.m., showcasing bands, military units, and giant balloons.

The Capitol Fourth Concert, held on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, begins at 8:00 PM and will be broadcast live on PBS. This year's concert features notable performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, Smokey Robinson, Fantasia, Darren Criss, Sheila E., Fitz & Noelle (from Fitz and The Tantrums), Chloe Flower, Sister Sledge (now featuring Sledgendary), Loren Allred, and Britt Stewart. The event will include a tribute to Team USA, celebrating athletes heading to the Summer Olympics in Paris.

As darkness falls, beginning at 9:00 PM, the National Mall will host a spectacular fireworks display, offering views from various locations, including the Lincoln Memorial and across the Potomac River in Arlington. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese

19/06/2024

🤎 The origin of Juneteenth, a day of profound significance, traces back to June 19, 1865. It was on that day that Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, bringing with him the momentous news that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved people were now free, as declared by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The last remaining enslaved African-Americans had been liberated!

The announcement in Texas stands as the cornerstone of Juneteenth's significance. General Granger's issuance of General Order No. 3 publicly proclaimed: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free."

This announcement directly impacted approximately 250,000 enslaved African-Americans in Texas, who had remained in bo***ge long after their legal emancipation due to the slow dissemination of information and the resistance of enslavers. The news was met with a mixture of astonishment, joy, and relief among the newly freed individuals, while slaveholders faced the abrupt end of an era.
The significance of this day extends beyond the immediate freedom it brought; it marked the beginning of a new chapter for African-Americans, who began to forge their paths as free citizens.

Let's embrace Juneteenth as a time for reflection, remembrance, and action. and work together to ensure that its significance is recognized and celebrated for generations to come. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese

16/06/2024

🏕️ Happy Fathers Day from Wildwood State Park, 73 miles from New York City. This park is noted for its excellent camp sites that overlook Long Island Sound. Swimming and picnicking are popular activities. A refreshment stand offers food, snacks, and soft drinks.
On this day and every day, let's honor the fathers who've made an indelible mark upon our lives. Their contributions, though often understated, are the cornerstones of our personal growth and the driving force behind our successes. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese

05/05/2024

🌶️ ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Today, many Mexicans, Americans, and people from all over the world celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The city of Puebla, Mexico, marks the event with dramatic battle reenactments and exuberant fiestas that feature Mariachi bands, piñatas, Mexican food and beverages, and all sorts of activities. In the United States, the holiday has evolved into a grand celebration of Mexican-American culture. ¡Viva México! ☮️ Peace… Jamiese

27/09/2023

🌍 Sep 27, 2023 – World Tourism Day Celebrations!

05/01/2023

It's January 4th, 🦯 World Braille Day. On this auspicious day in 1809, a child named Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France. Young Louis was blinded at the age of three by an accident in his father's harness-making shop. Despite his disability, though, he excelled in his education.

While Louis was a student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, he began developing the reading system for the blind that would eventually make him famous. Braille's creation involved a code he invented himself and used cells that contained up to six dots, making it possible for a fingertip to feel an entire cell with just one touch and move quickly to the next cell.

Braille spent the rest of his life teaching at the institute and perfecting his system, but unfortunately didn't live long enough to see it put into use. Braille suffered from a respiratory illness (probably tuberculosis) most of his adult life and finally succumbed to the disease in 1852 at the age of 43.

Two years later, thanks to the unrelenting insistence of his students, the Royal Institute for Blind Youth officially adopted Braille's system. Its use quickly spread throughout the French-speaking world, but was slow to catch on elsewhere. After his introduction to the system at the first European Conference of Teachers of the Blind in 1873, Britain's Dr. Thomas Rhodes Armitage championed Braille's invention, and its use quickly spread over most of the rest of the planet. The United States was slowest to see the light. They didn't adopt the system until 1916.

In November 2018, the United Nations proclaimed that from now on, World Braille Day would be celebrated as an international celebration day every January 4th to show appreciation for Louis Braille and to promote "awareness of the importance of his creation as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and visually impaired people." ☮️ R.I.P., Louis… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

📸 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_Braille_by_%C3%89tienne_Leroux.jpg by Étienne Leroux and Agence Rol. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_Braille_by_%C3%89tienne_Leroux.jpg

📸 https://stock.adobe.com/images/braille-english-alphabet-letters-writing-signs-system-for-blind-or-visually-impaired-people-vector-illustration/240369040 by DG-Studio. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: Adobe Stock Standard, https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Braille
https://www.edudwar.com/world-braille-day/
https://www.un.org/en/observances/braille-day

01/01/2023

It's January 1st, ⛓️ Haitian Independence Day. France had ruled the colony of Saint-Domingue as part of its worldwide empire since 1659. However, in 1791, a group of enslaved Africans, inspired by the American and French Revolutions, began an epic struggle for freedom that culminated in victory and a declaration of independence on this day in 1804. The declaration proclaimed that the new republic would forever after be known by the same name it was known as before the Europeans had arrived – "Haiti," which means "High Land" in the Native American Taino language.

The Haitian Revolution is Haiti's defining moment. It was the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Romans in 72 BCE. Haiti's victory came as a total surprise and shock to the rest of the world and inspired countless other slave revolts throughout the Western Hemisphere. It also paved the way for the termination of the transatlantic slave trade. This victory was also the final nail in the coffin of Napoleon Bonaparte’s ambitions for a New World French Empire. He’d sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States the previous year in part to pay for the defeat of the revolt in Saint-Domingue. That was not to be. Haiti became the first independent state in Latin America and the first in the New World to be led by a person of color.

The victory over France put an end to Haiti's military fight for freedom, but not its political fight. The US and most European nations, including France, didn't immediately recognize Haiti's independence. France didn't officially do so until 1825. The US didn't do so until 1862. That doesn’t matter, though. All that matters is Haiti. The Haitians recognized their own independence on this day in 1804 and have continued to do so every day since. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

📸 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_for_Palm_Tree_Hill.jpg by January Suchodolski. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_for_Palm_Tree_Hill.jpg

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution
https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/haiti/haiti-independence-day
https://p4hglobal.org/p4h-blog/2019/12/31/5-reasons-why-you-should-care-about-haitis-independence-day-january-1st

29/12/2022

It's December 29th. 🩸 On this day in 1890, US troops under the command of Colonel James W. Forsyth massacred more than 300 Sioux Native Americans in the area of Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.

In the late 1880s prior to the massacre, the atmosphere amongst the Native Americans on their reservations was one of desperation and despair. The US Government had been confiscating more and more of their treaty-guaranteed lands and cutting their food rations. In 1889, a Paiute tribesman named Wovoka had a vision that if the Native Americans appealed to their Great Spirit by performing the sacred Ghost Dance day in and day out, their white oppressors would disappear and the Native Americans would once again rule the Great Plains.

Ghost Dance performances quickly spread throughout the reservations. The Army tried to stop the practice, but the Native Americans persevered – even after the police shot Chief Sitting Bull dead. Sitting Bull’s followers fled to join Chief Spotted Elk's tribe.

The US 7th Cavalry forced Chief Spotted Elk and his Sioux tribe to go to Wounded Knee Creek where the soldiers could keep watch over them. On December 29th, 1890, the soldiers attempted to disarm the Sioux. One man resisted, and the others began to dance. The soldiers opened fire. Within minutes, at least 300 Native Americans were dead – including many women, children, and even babies.

Typical of the times, the American public generally approved of the massacre. They felt it was justified to avenge the 7th Cavalry's defeat and General George Custer's killing at the Battle of Little Bighorn four years earlier. Twenty soldiers received the Medal of Honor, the US military’s highest and most prestigious commendation, for their actions at Wounded Knee.

These days, thankfully, Wounded Knee is not touted as a victory against a dangerous enemy, but is remembered as an outright massacre. Congress officially apologized in 1990, but for some unfathomable reason, they’ve still not passed the “Remove the Stain Act,” which would revoke the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

📸 https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/99613846/ by John C. H. Grabill. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: LOC, License: https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre
https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-truth-about-the-wounded-knee-massacre
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-merkley-and-kahele-reintroduce-the-remove-the-stain-act

24/12/2022

It's December 24th, 🎅 Christmas Eve! Santa Claus will soon be coming to towns all over the planet, bringing gifts to children. The Santa Claus legend is perhaps the most popular myth of our time, but how did a slender man from the balmy Mediterranean evolve into the rotund fellow who now takes up residence with elves at the North Pole?

The Santa Claus myth begins with a fellow named Nicholas who lived in Turkey’s Anatolia region in the 4th Century CE. Nicholas began his life as a very rich man, but gave away all of his wealth as he traveled the countryside helping the sick and poor. One of the stories we can relate to today tells of Nicholas dropping a bag of gold down the chimney of a house belonging to a man who couldn't afford his daughter’s marriage dowry. The bag fell into a stocking that’d been hung by the fireplace to dry. Nicholas later repeated this act for the man's second and third daughters. The third time, though, Nicholas was caught! He begged the man not to tell anybody because he didn't want to draw attention to himself, but soon a rumor spread that if anyone received a secret gift, it must've come from Nicholas.

Stories like this grew and spread to the point that in 1446, roughly a millennium after Nicholas's death, Pope Eugene IV in Rome made Nicholas a saint! And the legend of Nicholas continued to grow. Important new elements were added when Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was published in 1823. From this point on, Nicholas has nearly always been depicted as a decidedly plump, jolly man in a red suit who drives a sleigh drawn by reindeer. "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" ☮️ Peace on Earth… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

📸 https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=276203&picture=christmas-eve by Linnaea Mallette. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
https://www.history.com/news/who-was-st-nicholas
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas

22/12/2022

It's December 22nd, ♾️ National Mathematics Day in India. On this day in 1887, the brilliant mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in Erode, Tamil Nadu. Ramanujan was responsible for advances in number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems until then considered unsolvable. Schools and universities throughout India celebrate his birthday now with math contests, games, demonstrations, and other educational events. In 2017, the day’s significance was enhanced by the opening of the Ramanujan Math Park in Kuppam, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.

Ramunajan's genius was obvious from childhood. By the age of 12, he’d mastered trigonometry and developed many of his own theorems. Ramanujan’s peers at the time said they rarely understood him and stood in respectful awe of him, but his ideas were too novel for the leading mathematicians in India to be bothered with.

In 1913, when Ramanujan was 25, British mathematician G.H. Hardy became enamored with his theorems and got him into Cambridge University. Ramanujan thrived in Britain and was soon elected to be a member of the London Mathematical Society. In 1918, at the age of 30, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society – one of the youngest persons to ever achieve this esteemed position.

Ramanujan returned to India in 1919 because the food in Britain didn't agree with him. His health continued to deteriorate, and he died in 1920 at the tender age of 32. His achievements in mathematics, however, continue to live on and grow ever larger. His notebooks of unpublished material are a source of new ideas to this day. Of his thousands of theorems, all but a dozen or so have by now been proven correct. A century after his death, researchers are still discovering that mere comments in his writings about "simple properties" and "similar outputs" were themselves profound and subtle number theory results.

It's no wonder that in 2012, former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh declared Ramanujan’s birthday as National Mathematics Day to be celebrated across the country. ☮️ R.I.P., Younger Brother of Rama… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

📸 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Srinivasa_Ramanujan_-_OPC_-_2_(cleaned).jpg by Konrad Jacobs. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Srinivasa_Ramanujan_-_OPC_-_2_(cleaned).jpg
📸 https://stock.adobe.com/images/abstract-wormhole-tunnel-black-and-white-square-optical-illusion-abstract-chess-illusion-background-vector-illustration/247132619 by Ihor. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: Adobe Stock Standard, https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
https://www.usna.edu/Users/math/meh/ramanujan.html
https://byjusexamprep.com/current-affairs/national-mathematics-day

19/12/2022

It's December 19th. 🪶 On this day in Paris in 1915, the greatest chanteuse the world has ever seen was born – Édith Piaf. She was better known in her native France by her promotional name, "La Môme Piaf," which carries a clever double meaning – "The Kid Piaf" and "The Little Sparrow." "Piaf" means "Sparrow" in French. She was indeed little. Her adult height was only 4' 8" (142.24 cm). But her voice was big.

Édith had an unusual childhood, to say the least. Her parents abandoned her at birth, so her maternal grandmother raised her in the brothel she ran in Bernay, Normandy. When Edith was 14, her father took her to help him with his acrobatic street performances all over France. This is when she first began to sing in public.

In 1935, while singing in the streets of Paris, the teenager was discovered by nightclub owner Louis Leplée. Maurice Chevalier attended Édith’s debut performance, which drew rave reviews, and her career took off like a rocket. Édith soon became the most popular entertainer in France, and became well-known in the rest of Europe, North America, and South America, too. She appeared eight times on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Édith was taken from us too soon – on October 10th, 1963, at the age of 47. She died of a ruptured aneurysm due to liver failure, brought about by her long addictions to alcohol and morphine, which themselves, were largely a result of injuries suffered in three car accidents. Since her death, many biographies and films have attempted to capture her essence and magic, like 2007's "La Vie en Rose." There's nothing like the real thing, though. We miss you, Édith. ☮️ R.I.P…. Jamiese of Pixoplanet

📸 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%89dith_Piaf_914-6436.jpg by Eric Koch. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
📸 https://stock.adobe.com/images/eurasian-tree-sparrow/102772863 by lucaar. Changes made by Jamiese Hancy. License: Adobe Stock Standard, https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf
https://www.discogs.com/artist/156406-Edith-Piaf
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/resistance-and-exile/french-resistance/edith-piaf/

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