On October 29

On this day in ...
... 1863 (145 years ago today), in Switzerland, a committee set up by the Geneva Public Welfare Society to work to implement Henry Dunant's proposals for alleviating some of the suffering in armed conflict (see prior post) concluded a 4-day conference of states, organizations, and individuals. The meeting ended with adoption of the Resolutions of the Geneva International Conference, calling for national relief bodies organized under the auspices of what would become the International Committee of the Red Cross.
... 1938 (70 years ago today), in Barcelona, Spain, Dolores Ibárruri, the Communist Party activist whose nom de guerre was La Pasionaria, gave a resounding farewell to the International Brigades, the non-Spaniards who had fought fascism during the Spanish Civil War and now were retreating by order of a commission that expelled all foreign fighters. (Note: Various sites give various dates in this same week for these events.) Now an artifact on a website entitled "Modern American Poetry," Ibárruri's speech included these words:

Mothers! Women! When the years pass by and the wounds of war are stanched; when the memory of the sad and bloody days dissipates in a present of liberty, of peace and of well­being; when the rancors have died out and pride in a free country is felt equally by all Spaniards, speak to your children. Tell them of these men of the International Brigades.

(credit for photo of La Pasionaria rallying troops in Madrid)

On June 24

On this day in ...

... 1983 (25 years ago today), astronaut Dr. Sally K. Ride (left), the United States' 1st woman in space, returned to Earth after completing a 6-day flight in the Challenger space shuttle. The 32-year-old Ride, the 3d woman ever to travel in space, is a former a tennis champion. Ride received a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in 1978, the same year she entered NASA's training program. Among her books is To Space and Back (1989), written with Susan Okie.

... 1859, French and Sardinian troops fought Austrian troops in the Battle of Solferino, the carnage of which inspired establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross. More than 6,000 persons were killed and 40,000 wounded in a day; those of the latter who could headed to Castiglione, the village nearest the battlefield, in what is now northern Italy. There the Geneva, Switzerland-born Jean Henri Dunant, also known as "Henry Dunant, helped by local women, cared for the wounded and dying for three days and three nights." Dunant recounted the experience in A Memory of Solferino, 1st published in 1862. He would win the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize.