Albertus Soegijapranata (1896–1963) was a Javanese cleric who became
the first native Indonesian bishop upon being created as Archbishop of
Semarang in 1940. Born to a Muslim family in Surakarta, Dutch East
Indies, in 1910 he converted to Catholicism and was ordained in 1931.
First serving as a pastor in Yogyakarta, Soegijapranata was consecrated
as the vicar apostolic of the newly established Apostolic Vicariate of
Semarang in 1940, moving to the city to take the position. During the
Japanese occupation, Soegijapranata resisted attempts to seize Church
property, including his vicariate's cathedral, and protected the area's
Catholics. During the ensuing national revolution (1945–49) he
promoted a nationalist cause, moving his seat to Yogyakarta to support
the new government and working to promote international recognition of
Indonesia's independence. During the post-revolution years he wrote
extensively against communism and worked towards a self-determined
Indonesian Roman Catholic hierarchy. He was made an archbishop in 1961,
dying two years later in the Netherlands. Soegijapranata is now
considered a National Hero of Indonesia and in 2011 a biopic on him was
released.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertus_Soegijapranata>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1209:
The first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade took
place as a crusader army captured Béziers in southern France and
slaughtered the inhabitants.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_B%C3%A9ziers>
1894:
Despite finishing in first place in the world's first auto
race, Jules-Albert de Dion did not win, as his steam-powered car was
against the rules.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules-Albert_de_Dion>
1933:
Wiley Post became the first pilot to fly solo around the world,
landing after a seven-day, nineteen-hour flight at Floyd Bennett Field
in Brooklyn, New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post>
1993:
During the Great Flood of 1993 (flooding pictured), levees near
Kaskaskia, Illinois, US, ruptured, forcing the entire town to evacuate
by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1993>
2002:
Following a trial that captivated Brazil, a court in São Paulo
sentenced Suzane von Richthofen to 39½ years in prison for the murders
of her parents.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzane_von_Richthofen>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
roundelay:
(music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular
intervals.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roundelay>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
He was talking about the things that make a country a country,
and a man a man. And he began with the simple things that everybody's
known and felt — the freshness of a fine morning when you're young,
and the taste of food when you're hungry, and the new day that's every
day when you're a child. He took them up and he turned them in his
hands. They were good things for any man. But without freedom, they
sickened.
--Stephen Vincent Benét
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Vincent_Ben%C3%A9t>