On June 7

On this day in ...
... 1945 (65 years ago today), Françoise Gaspard was born in Dreux, France. A feminist sociologist and a Socialist Party politican, she has served as mayor of her hometown, been a member of the French National Assembly, and held other national and regional positions. (credit for 2008 photo of Gaspard, at right, Marie-Josée Jacobs, Luxembourg's Minister of Family, Integration, and Equal Opportunities) Gaspard was one of France's 1st openly gay politicians, and among the very 1st who is a woman; furthermore, she helped introduce LGBT studies into French academia. She has represented France on the Commission on the Status of Women of the United Nations, and also has been a Vice Chairperson of the CEDAW Committee.


(Prior June 7 posts are here, here, and here.)

On January 27

On this day in ...

... 1950 (50 years ago today), by Executive Order 10099, U.S. President Harry S. Truman declared that the mutual defense plan of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was in effect. (credit for photo of Truman signing NATO treaty in July 1949) The move that prompted diplomats from Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands, and Norway to meet at the international conference room of the State Department in Washington, D.C., in order to sign bilateral agreements with the United States that enabled them to receive U.S. military matériel. The total cost of this military aid was set at $1 billion.

(Prior January 27 posts are here and here.)

On May 11

On this day in ...
... 868, according to French WikiPedia, the 1st book was published in China. Entitled "Diamond Sutra," at its end it showed the date of publication and the name of the author, Wan Jie.
... 1867, by agreement reached at London, England, among the then-Great Powers, Luxembourg became an independent nation-state. This development ensued after a plan by the Prussian monarch to sell Luxembourg (left), a grand duchy to Napoleon III of France soured when the Prussian Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, disapproved. "The grand duchy’s perpetual neutrality was guaranteed by the Great Powers, and its sovereignty was vested in the house of Nassau."

(Prior May 11 posts are here and here.)

On this day

On March 17, ...
... 2008 (today), women, children, and men who are Irish -- whether by nature or nurture -- celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It's an occasion for parades, like that on which we posted last year. This year, it's a day for sending our heartfelt commendation to Keltic Dreams, the transnational Irish dance team from P.S. 59 in New York's Bronx borough. The team's preteen dancers are from families with roots not in Ireland -- it appears from an article in the New York Times that only coach and teacher Caroline Duggan may make that claim -- but rather from places Belize and Puerto Rico and any number of countries on the African continent. Yet all have embraced the percussive excitement of the dance form, morphed as it's been with strains of salsa and hip-hop. And my transnational foremother, Grace O'Malley, would be delighted to learn of their visit to Broadway's "The Pirate Queen." Keltic Dreams' is story that uplifts; would that there were more of them.
... 1948 (60 years ago today), the Treaty of Brussels was signed in that Belgium capital by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The treaty, which entered into force on August 25 of the same year, provided that the states parties would "cooperate" on matters of economy, society, culture, and collective self-defense. It thus proved a forerunner to subsequent treaties leading to close European integration.