Ion Heliade Rădulescu was a Wallachian-born Romanian academic,
Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer,
newspaper editor and politician, as well as prolific translator of
foreign literature into Romanian and the author of books on
linguistics and history. For much of his life, he was a teacher at the
Saint Sava College in Bucharest, which he helped reopen. He was a
founding member of the Romanian Academy, and the first President
thereof. Heliade Rădulescu is considered one of the foremost
representatives of Romanian culture from the first half of the 19th
century, having first become noted for his association with Gheorghe
Lazăr and the latter's support for discontinuing education in Greek.
Over the following decades, he had a major contribution in shaping the
modern Romanian language, but raised controversy when he came to
advocate the massive introduction of Italian neologisms to the
Romanian lexis. A Romantic nationalist landowner siding with moderate
liberals, he was among the leaders of the 1848 Wallachian revolution,
after which he was forced to spend several years in exile. Adopting an
original form of conservatism, which emphasized the role of boyars in
Romanian history, Heliade Rădulescu was rewarded for supporting the
Ottoman Empire, and came to clash with the radical wing of the 1848
generation.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Heliade_R%C4%83dulescu
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1357:
The foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague was laid by Holy
Roman Emperor Charles IV.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge)
1816:
The Congress of Tucumán declared the independence of Argentina, then
known as the United Provinces of the River Plate, from Spain.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Tucumán)
1922:
Johnny Weissmuller swam the 100-meter freestyle in 58.6 seconds,
breaking a world swimming record and the "minute barrier."
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Weissmuller)
1955:
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto was issued in the midst of the Cold
War, calling for a conference where scientists would "appraise the
perils that have arisen as a result of the development of weapons of
mass destruction."
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell-Einstein_Manifesto)
2002:
The African Union was launched in Durban, South Africa, with President
of South Africa Thabo Mbeki as its first chairman.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Union)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.
-- Jean de La Fontaine
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Fontaine)