Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 05 August 2020 > Celebrate
American author Ray Bradbury spent more than seventy years fascinating readers and viewers with futuristic science-fiction stories like The Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451. But it all started with a little bit of magic. Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, a small town in Illinois. He fell in love with storytelling by watching films … Continue reading “Ray Bradbury at 100”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 29 July 2020 > Celebrate
In 1920, almost 150 years after the United States declared that “all men are created equal,” American women got the right to vote… 27 years after women in New Zealand did. American suffragists worked for almost 80 years to obtain that right. And there’s still work to do today. As is often the case in … Continue reading “Centennial of Suffrage”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 01 July 2020 > Celebrate
U.S. Independence Day will be a subdued affair this year due to Coronavirus but celebrations will take place. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs decided to mark the event with a video available in English and eight other languages. It’s a simple introduction to the event for students from A1+ (reading … Continue reading “Fourth of July in Lockdown”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Sunday 14 June 2020 > Celebrate
June 19 is marked in Texas and 41 other states as the commemoration of the end of slavery. Another “independence day” that grew spontaneously out of an accidental date, and flourished thanks to former slaves. On June 19, 1865, news of the end of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Texas, … Continue reading “Juneteenth”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 12 June 2020 > Celebrate
Ireland has a rich literary heritage and is fond of honouring it. On 16 June every year, it is author James Joyce who is remembered, as Joyce fans all over Ireland and the world celebrate Bloomsday in honour of his novel Ulysses. Ulysses, published in 1922, consists of 18 episodes mirroring Homer’s Odyssey and takes … Continue reading “James Joyce and Bloomsday”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 06 May 2020 > Celebrate
Florence Nightingale is one of Britain’s most recognisable names. The Victorian nursing pioneer and statistician left an indelible mark on the world of medicine. The first woman ever to be featured on a British banknote, her influence is such that 200 years after her birth, the emergency hospitals created for the coronavirus pandemic in the … Continue reading “Florence Nightingale: Nursing Pioneer”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 06 May 2020 > Celebrate
Watch the video and answer the worksheet.
Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 06 May 2020 > Celebrate
Seven hundred years ago, Scotland’s most powerful lords wrote a letter that many consider the country’s foundational document: The Declaration of Arbroath. In it, they swore they would never submit to English rule. In 1320, Scotland was in the midst of the Wars of Independence with its southern neighbour. After William Wallace’s ultimately doomed rebellion … Continue reading “Scotland’s Birth Certificate”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 30 April 2020 > Celebrate
May 4 is international “Star Wars” Day in honour of the pun on this date: “May the fourth be with you.” In the movies the phrase “May the Force be with you” is used to wish an individual good luck and good favour with The Force. Since it began in 1977, Star Wars, an epic space … Continue reading “May the 4th Be With You!”
Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 22 April 2020 > Celebrate
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day marches to support the environmental movement. Like so many events in 2020, the marches and events planned to mark the anniversary on 22 April will have to become virtual. But these videos of 50 Voices for Earth Day, from age 8 to 80, from around … Continue reading “50 Years of Earth Day”
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