Danny Kirwan (Fleetwood Mac)

Danny Kirwan, musician with Fleetwood Mac was born 13 May 1950. Fleetwood Mac were formed in 1966 in London, they were originally named The Bluesbreakers and Founder Peter Green named the group by combining he surnames of two of his bandmates (Fleetwood and McVie). Christine Mcvie joined the band in 1970 while married to John McVie, Green asked if drummer Mick Fleetwood could join having already been in two bands with Fleetwood. The Bluesbreakers now consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie and Mayall. Green contacted Fleetwood to form a new band and wanted McVie on bass guitar even naming the band ‘Fleetwood Mac’ as a way to entice him. The band made its debut in 1967 at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival. Feetwood Mac’s first album, Fleetwood Mac, was a no-frills blues album. The band soon released two singles “Black Magic Woman” (later a big hit for Santana) and “Need Your Love So Bad”.The band’s second album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. Like the first it was an all-blues album, Then next album was Then Play on”.

Sadly Peter Green left and Fleetwood Mac released Kiln House which was more rock. Spencer’s wrote the country-tinged “Sun Sound” meanwhile Christine contributed to Kiln House, singing backup vocals, and drawing the album cover. They also released a single “Dragonfly” b/w “The Purple Dancer” . Christine McVie, made her first appearance with the band in 1969 and played her first gig as an official member on 6 August 1970 in New Orleans. An album of previously unreleased material from the original Fleetwood Mac called The Original Fleetwood Mac was also released, Then While on tour in 1971, guitarist Jeremy Spencer disappeared and After several days of frantic searching, the band discovered that he had joined a religious group, the Children of God. So the band hired Bob Welch as Guitarist. In September 1971, the band released “Future Games” and “Bare Trees” six months later. This featured the songs “Sentimental Lady”, &“Spare Me a Little of Your Love”, sadly whilst on tour Danny Kirwan developed an alcohol dependency and Fleetwood fired him. In September 1972, the band added guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker and also hired Savoy Brown’s road manager, John Courage.

Mick, John, Christine, Welch, Weston, and Walker recorded the album “Penguin”. After the tour, the band fired Walker The remaining five recorded “Mystery to Me” six months later containing the song “Hypnotized” . However, things were not well within the band. The McVies’ marriage was under a lot of stress, aggravated by their constant working together, and John McVie’s considerable alcohol abuse. During the tour, Weston also had an affair with Fleetwood’s wife, Jenny Boyd Fleetwood, the sister of Pattie Boyd Harrison. Fleetwood soon fired Weston and the tour was cancelled and in one of the most bizarre events in rock history, the band’s manager, Clifford Davis, claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac and put out a “fake Mac”. Nobody in the “fake Mac” was ever officially in the real band, Fans were told that Bob Welch and John McVie had quit the group, and that Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie would be joining the band at a later date. Fleetwood Mac’s road manager, John Courage, hid the real Fleetwood Mac’s equipment, which helped shorten the tour by the fake band. But the lawsuit that followed put the real Fleetwood Mac out of commission for almost a year. The issue was who actually owned the name “Fleetwood Mac”. Unfortunately Fleetwood and McVie, had signed contracts forfeiting the rights to the name. The “real” Fleetwood Mac were in fact Fleetwood, Welch and the McVies. While this did not end the legal battle, the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again.

Following this debacle Fleetwood Mac decided to manage themselves and released Heroes Are Hard to Find in September 1974 and added a second keyboardist Doug Graves. After Welch left the band, Fleetwood began searching for a possible replacement. While Fleetwood was scouting Van Nuys, California,Mick Fleetwood heard a song titled “Frozen Love” by an American band, Buckingham Nicks. Fleetwood liked it, and invited the guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and his musical partner and girlfriend, Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks, to join Fleetwood Mac. In 1975, the new line-up released the eponymous Fleetwood Mac which contained Christine McVie’s “Over My Head”, “Say You Love Me”, and Stevie Nicks’ “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” .

Sadly the breakdown of John and Christine McVie’s marriage, Mick Fleetwood and Jenny’s marriage and Buckingham and Nicks’ long term romantic relationship, plus creative and personal tensions, fuelled by high consumption of drugs and alcohol, created problems within the band. This resulted in the album Rumours, in which they laid bare the emotional turmoil experienced at that time. Critically acclaimed, it was the recipient of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for 1977. Hit singles included Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way”, Nicks’s U.S. No.1 “Dreams”, and Christine McVie’s “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”. Buckingham’s “Second Hand News”, Nicks’ “Gold Dust Woman” and “The Chain”. ’Buckingham pursuaded Fleetwood to make the next album more experimental and the result was the quirky 20-track double album, Tusk. It spawned three hit singles; Lindsey Buckingham’s “Tusk” Christine McVie’s “Think About Me” and Stevie Nicks’ 6½ minute opus “Sara” .Tusk remains one of Fleetwood Mac’s most ambitious albums to date. The band also recorded music for the Fleetwood Mac Live album, which was released at the end of 1980.The next album, 1982′s Mirage, followed solo albums by Nicks (Bella Donna) and Buckingham (Law and Order). Mirage was a return to the more conventional sound to recapture the huge success of Rumours. Its hits included Christine McVie’s “Hold Me” and “Love In Store” Stevie Nicks’s “Gypsy”, and Lindsey Buckingham’s “Oh Diane”, “Eyes Of The World” and “Can’t Go Back”.

Following Mirage, the band members went on to pursue solo careers. Stevie Nicks released two more solo albums (1983′s The Wild Heart and 1985′s Rock a Little), Lindsey Buckingham issued Go Insane in 1984, the same year that Christine McVie made an eponymous album (yielding the Top 10 hit “Got A Hold On Me” and the Top 40 hit “Love Will Show Us How”). However, during this period, Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy, Nicks was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction problems, and John McVie had suffered an addiction-related seizure—all attributed to the lifestyle of excess afforded to them by their worldwide success and It was rumoured that Fleetwood Mac had finally broken up. Fleetwood Mac recorded the album, Tango in the Night, in 1987. The album went on to become their best-selling release since Rumours, Itcontained four hits: Christine McVie’s “Little Lies” and “Everywhere” (the former being co-written with McVie’s new husband Eddy Quintela), Sandy Stewart and Stevie Nicks’ “Seven Wonders”, and Lindsey Buckingham’s “Big Love”. “Family Man”, “Isn’t It Midnight”, Lindsey Buckingham left and Following his departure, Fleetwood Mac added two new guitarists to the band,Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. Vito, was a Peter Green admirer, and had played with many artists from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall, and even worked with John McVie on two Mayall albums.

Capitalising on the success of Tango in the Night, the band continued with a Greatest Hits album in 1988 which featured singles from the 1975–88 era, and included two new songs: “No Questions Asked” , and “As Long as You Follow” . It was dedicated to Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac then recorded the album Behind the Mask, which included McVie’s “Save Me”. The subsequent “Behind the Mask” tour saw the band play sold out shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, and on the final show in Los Angeles, the band were joined onstage by Buckingham. The two women of the band, who, had both decided that the tour would be their last though both stated that they would still record with the band. However, in 1991, both Nicks and Rick Vito left Fleetwood Mac altogether. In 1992, Fleetwood himself arranged a 4-disc box set spanning highlights from the band’s 25 year history, titled 25 Years – The Chain. The box set, included brand new songs, “Paper Doll”, “Heart of Stone”,”Love Shines”, and “Make Me a Mask”, Mick Fleetwood also released a deluxe hardcover companion book to coincide with the release of the box set, titled My 25 Years in Fleetwood Mac, which features many rare photographs and notes (written by Fleetwood himself) detailing the band’s 25 year history.

Inspired by the new interest in the band, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie recorded another album as Fleetwood Mac, with Billy Burnette The band, minus Christine McVie, toured in 1994 performing classic Fleetwood Mac songs from the initial 1967–1974 era. On 10 October 1995, Fleetwood Mac released Time and disbanded. Bramlett and Burnette subsequently formed a country music duo, Bekka & Billy. Just weeks after disbanding Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood announced that he was working with Lindsey Buckingham again. John McVie was soon added to the sessions, and later Christine McVie. Stevie Nicks also enlisted Lindsey Buckingham to produce a song for the Twister film soundtrack. This eventually led to a full Rumours line-up reunion when the band officially reformed in March 1997. The regrouped Mac performed a live concert and from this performance came the 1997 live album The Dance. They also released the 20th anniversary of their Rumours album. In 1998, Fleetwood Mac (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed at the Grammy Awards program that year.

They were also the recipients of the “Outstanding Contribution to Music” award at the BRIT Awards. In 1998, Christine McVie left the band permanently, Her departure left Buckingham and Nicks to sing all the lead vocals for the band’s 2003 album,Say You Will, although Christine did contribute some backing vocals and keyboards. The album yielded chart hits with “Peacekeeper” and the title track.”Fleetwood Mac toured in 2009, The tour was branded as a ‘greatest hits’ show entitled Unleashed, Stevie Nicks also premiered part of a new song that she had written about Hurricane Katrina. The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was re-released And an episode of Glee entitled “Rumours” which featured six songs from the band’s 1977 album was also broadcast sparking renewed interest in the band, Rumours also re-entered the charts, the same week Stevie Nicks’ new solo album In Your Dreams. Fleetwood Mac reunited for 2013 minus two of the orginall members: late guitarist and singer Bob Weston and late guitarist Bob Welch and performed two new songs (“Sad Angel” and “Without You”), sadly though Christine Mcvie died 30 November 2022.

Florence Nightingale OM RRC

Celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was born 12 May 1820 at the Villa Colombaia, near the Porta Romana at Bellosguardo in Florence, Italy, and was named after the city of her birth. Inspired by a call from God she announced her decision to enter nursing in 1844, and rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become a wife and mother. Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, .In Rome she met Sidney Herbert, a brilliant politician who was instrumental in facilitating Nightingale’s nursing work in the Crimea, and she became a key adviser to him in his political career. Later in 1850, she visited a Lutheran religious community where she observed The Pastor and the deaconesses working for the sick and the deprived. , based on this experience She published her first book The Institution of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, for the Practical Training of Deaconesses, and also received four months of medical training at the institute which formed the basis for her later career.

Florence Nightingale’s most famous contribution came during the Crimean War, which became her central focus in changing the horrific conditions present. On 21 October 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses, were sent to the Ottoman Empire, approx. 546 km (339 miles) across the Black Sea from Balaklava in the Crimea, where the main British camp was based. She arrived early in November 1854 and found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medicines were in short supply, hygiene was neglected, conditions were unsanitory, and there was no equipment to process food for the patients.This prompted Nightingale to send a plea to The Times for the government to produce a solution to the poor conditions, the British Government commissioned Isambard Kingdom Brunel to design a prefabricated hospital, which could be built in England and shipped to the Dardanelles. The result was Renkioi Hospital, a civilian facility which under the management of Dr Edmund Alexander Parkes had a death rate less than 1/10th that of Scutari. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was asserted that Nightingale reduced the death rate from 42% to 2% either by making improvements in hygiene herself or by calling for the Sanitary Commission. .

During her first winter at Scutari, 4,077 soldiers died. Ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery than from battle wounds.Conditions at the temporary barracks hospital were so fatal because of overcrowding, defective sewers and lack of ventilation. A Sanitary Commission had to be sent out by the British government to Scutari in March 1855, and effected flushing out the sewers and improvements to ventilation. Death rates were sharply reduced. During the war she did not recognise hygiene as the predominant cause of death, and she never claimed credit for helping to reduce the death rate. Nightingale continued believing the death rates were due to poor nutrition and supplies and overworking of the soldiers. It was not until after she returned to Britain and began collecting evidence before the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army that she realised most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions and advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. Consequently, she reduced deaths in the army during peacetime and turned attention to the sanitary design of hospitals. During the Crimean war, Florence Nightingale gained the nickname “The Lady with the Lamp”, deriving from a phrase in a report in The Times and The phrase was further popularised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1857 poem “Santa Filomena”.

While she was in the Crimea, the Nightingale Fund for the training of nurses was established. Nightingale pioneered medical tourism as well, and wrote of spas in the Ottoman Empire, and directed less well off patients there (where treatment was cheaper than in Switzerland). Nightingale also set up the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital. (Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London.) and campaigned for the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury. She also wrote Notes on Nursing, a slim 136-page book that served as the cornerstone of the curriculum at the Nightingale School and other nursing schools,and though written specifically for the education of those nursing at home, it sold well to the general reading public and is considered a classic introduction to nursing.

Nightingale was an advocate for the improvement of care and conditions in the military and civilian hospitals in Britain. One of her biggest achievements was the introduction of trained nurses into the workhouse system from the 1860s onwards. This meant that sick paupers were now being cared for by properly trained nursing staff and was the forerunner of the National Health Service in Britain. By 1882, Nightingale nurses had a growing and influential presence in the embryonic nursing profession. Some had become matrons at leading hospitals, including, in London, St Mary’s Hospital, Westminster Hospital, St Marylebone Workhouse Infirmary and the Hospital for Incurables at Putney, Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; Cumberland Infirmary and Liverpool Royal Infirmary, as well as at Sydney Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. In 1883, Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria. In 1904, she was appointed a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John (LGStJ) and in 1907, she became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. In 1908, she was given the Honorary Freedom of the City of London.

Florence Nightingale sadly Passed away on 13th August 1910, however She laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, the first nursing school in the world, now part of King’s College London and her contributions to medical science, nursing care and sanitary conditions have improved hospitals the world over and are still in use today and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday which is also celebrated as International CFS Awareness Day.

Bob Marley🟥🟨🟩

Reggae Legend Bob Marley sadly died 11 May 1981. He was born 6 February 1945 in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish. He attended Stepney Primary and Junior High School which serves the catchment area of Saint Ann.In 1955, when Bob Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at the age of 70. He achieved international fame through a series of crossover reggae albums .Starting out in 1963 with the group the Wailers, he forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style The Wailers would go on to release some of the earliest reggae records with producer Lee Scratch Perry. After the Wailers disbanded in 1974, marley pursued a solo career which culminated in the release of the album Exodus in 1977 which established his worldwide reputation. He was a committed Rastafarian who infused his music with a profound sense of spirituality

Marley and Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer) had been childhood friends in Nine Mile and started to play music together while at Stepney Primary and Junior High School.Marley left Nine Mile with his mother when he was 12 and moved to Trenchtown, Kingston. Cedella Booker and Thadeus Livingston (Bunny Wailer’s father) had a daughter together whom they named Pearl, who was a younger sister to both Bob and Bunny. Now that Marley and Livingston were living together in the same house in Trenchtown, their musical explorations deepened to include the latest R&B from American radio stations whose broadcasts reached Jamaica, and the new Ska music. In Trenchtown Marley soon found himself in a vocal group with Bunny Livingston, Peter Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite. Joe Higgs, who was part of the successful vocal act Higgs & Wilson, resided on 3rd St., and his singing partner Roy Wilson had been raised by the grandmother of Junior Braithwaite. Higgs and Wilson would rehearse at the back of the houses between 2nd and 3rd Streets, and it wasn’t long before Marley, Junior Braithwaite and the others were congregating around this successful duo. Marley and the others didn’t play any instruments at this time, and were more interested in being a vocal harmony group. Higgs was glad to help them develop their vocal harmonies, although more importantly, he had started to teach Marley how to play guitar — thereby creating the bedrock that would later allow Marley to construct some of the biggest-selling reggae songs in the history of the genre.

In February 1962, Marley recorded four songs, “Judge Not”, “One Cup of Coffee”, “Do You Still Love Me?” and “Terror”, at Federal Studio for local music producer Leslie Kong. Three of the songs were released on Beverley’s with “One Cup of Coffee” being released under the pseudonym Bobby Martell. In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith were called The Teenagers. They later changed the name to The Wailing Rudeboys, then to The Wailing Wailers, and were discovered by record producer Coxsone Dodd, and finally to The Wailers. Their single “Simmer Down” for the Coxsone label became a Jamaican #1 in February 1964 selling an estimated 70,000 copies.The Wailers, now regularly recording for Studio One, found themselves working with established Jamaican musicians such as Ernest Ranglin (arranger “It Hurts To Be Alone”),the keyboardist Jackie Mittoo and saxophonist Roland Alphonso. By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh. In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware in the United States for a short time, during which he worked as a DuPont lab assistant and on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant, under the alias Donald Marley. Though raised as a Catholic, Marley became interested in Rastafarian beliefs in the 1960s, when away from his mother’ influence. After returning to Jamaica Marley formally converted to Rastafari and began to grow dreadlocks. The Rastafarian proscription against cutting hair is based on the biblical Samson who as a Nazarite was expected to make certain religious vows. After a financial disagreement with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee “Scratch” Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. and they recorded what many consider The Wailers’ finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer re-cut some old tracks with JAD Records in Kingston and London in an attempt to commercialise The Wailers’ sound. Bunny later asserted that these songs “should never be released on an album … they were just demos for record companies to listen to”. In 1968, Bob and Rita visited songwriter Jimmy Norman at his apartment in the Bronx. Norman had written the extended lyrics for Kai Winding’s “Time Is on My Side” (covered by the Rolling Stones) and had also written for Johnny Nash and Jimi Hendrix.A three-day jam session with Norman and others, including Norman’s co-writer Al Pyfrom, resulted in a 24-minute tape of Marley performing several of his own and Norman-Pyfrom’s compositions. This tape is, influenced by pop rather than reggae, as part of an effort to break Marley into the American charts. Marley experimented on the tape with different sounds, adopting a doo-wop style on “Stay With Me” and “the slow love song style of 1960′s artists” on “Splish for My Splash”.Marley lived in Ridgmount Gardens,Bloomsbury, during 1972.

In 1972, Bob Marley signed with CBS Records in London and embarked on a UK tour with American soul singer Johnny Nash. Following this The Wailers returned to Jamaica to record at Harry J’s in Kingston which resulted in the album Catch a Fire. This marked the first time a reggae band had access to a state-of-the-art studio and were accorded the same care as their rock ‘n’ roll peers. This album has “more of a drifting, hypnotic-type feel than a reggae rhythm”, which was achieved by restructuring Marley’s mixes and arrangements adding overdubbing, and tempering the mix from the bass-heavy sound of Jamaican music. Catch a Fire, was released worldwide in April 1973, packaged like a rock record with a uniqueZippo lighter lift-top. Initially selling 14,000 units, it didn’t make Marley a star, but received a positive critical reception. 

It was followed later that year by the album Burnin’ which included the song “I Shot the Sheriff”. Eric Clapton was given the album by his guitarist George Terry in the hope that he would enjoy it. Clapton was suitably impressed and chose to record a cover version of “I Shot the Sheriff” which became his first US hit since “Layla” two years earlier and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 14 September 1974. Many Jamaicans were not keen on the new reggae sound on Catch a Fire, but the Trenchtown style of Burnin found fans across both reggae and rock audiences. During this period, Blackwell gifted his Kingston residence and company headquarters at 56 Hope Road (then known as Island House) to Marley. Housing Tuff Gong Studios, the property became not only Marley’s office, but also his home. The Wailers were scheduled to open seventeen shows in the US for Sly and the Family Stone. After four shows, the band was fired because they were more popular than the acts they were opening for. the Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members pursuing solo careers.

Despite the break-up, Marley continued recording as “Bob Marley & The Wailers”. His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston “Family Man” Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Andersonon lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl “Wya” Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin “Seeco” Patterson on percussion. The “I Threes”, consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley’s wife, Rita, provided backing vocals. In 1975, Marley had his international debut with his first hit outside Jamaica, “No Woman, No Cry”, from the Natty Dread album. this was followed by his breakthrough album in the United States, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which reached the Top 50 of the Billboard Soul Charts. Sadly On 3 December 1976, two days before “Smile Jamaica”, a free concert organised by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley’s home. Taylor and Marley’s wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Bob Marley received minor wounds in the chest and arm.

The attempt on his life was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled, two days after the attempt. When asked why, Marley responded, “The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?” The members of the group Zap Pow played as Bob Marley’s backup band before a festival crowd of 80,000 while members of The Wailers were still missing or in hiding.Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976, and after a month-long “recovery and writing” sojourn at the site of Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, arrived in England, where he spent two years in self-imposed exile. A Bob Marley biopic “One Love” starring Kingley Ben Adir is being released in cinemas on 16 February 2024.

The Incredible Hulk

The Marvel superhero the incredible Hulk made his first appearance in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk on 10 May 1962. The character was Created by writer Stan Lee, who stated that the Hulk’s creation was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and rendered by artist Jack Kirby. In his comic book appearances, the character, who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), is primarily represented by the alter ego Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a limitless degree of physical strength, and the alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, both of whom typically resent each other.

Following an accidental exposure to gamma rays while saving the life of Rick Jones during the detonation of an experimental bomb, Bruce finds that he is physically able to transform into The Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a limitless degree of physical strength. Banner physically transforms into the Hulk when made angry or subjected to emotional stress. This transformation often leads to destructive rampages and to conflicts which complicate Banner’s civilian life. The Hulk’s level of strength is normally conveyed as proportionate to his level of anger. Commonly portrayed as a raging savage, the Hulk has been represented with other alter egos, from a mindless, destructive force (War), to a brilliant warrior (World-Breaker), a self-hating protector (the Devil/Immortal), a genius scientist in his own right (Doc Green), and a gangster (Joe Fixit).

Despite both Hulk and Banner’s desire for solitude, Banner has a large number of friends including Banner’s love interest Betty Ross, his best friend Rick Jones, his cousin She-Hulk, and therapist and ally Doc Samson. the Hulk is a member of the superhero team the Avengers and his family consist of queen Caiera, fellow warriors Korg and Miek, and sons Skaar and Hiro-Kala. However, his uncontrollable power has brought him into conflict with his fellow heroes and others. Despite this, he tries his best to do what’s right while battling villains such as the Leader, the Abomination, the Absorbing Man, and more.

the Hulk has appeared on a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectable items, inspired real-world structures (such as theme park attractions), and been referenced in a number of media. Banner and the Hulk have been adapted in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations. The character was first played in live-action by Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno in the 1978 television series The Incredible Hulk and its subsequent television films The Incredible Hulk Returns(1988), The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), and The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990). In film, the character was played by Eric Bana in Hulk (2003). In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), The Incredible Hulk first portrayed by Edward Norton in the film The Incredible Hulk(2008) and  Mark Ruffalo.

The second semi final for the Eurovision song contest 2024

Eurovision 2024: Semi-Final 2 Running Order

1. 🇲🇹Malta: Sarah Bonnici — “Loop”

2. 🇦🇱 Albania: Besa with “Titan”

3. 🇬🇷 Greece: Marina Satti — “Zari”

4. 🇨🇭 Switzerland: Nemo — “The Code”

5. 🇨🇿 Czechia: Aiko — “Pedestal”

6 🇫🇷France: Slimane — “Mon Amour”

7. 🇦🇹Austria: Kaleen — “We Will Rave”

8. 🇩🇰Denmark: SABA — “Sand”

9. 🇦🇲Armenia: LADANIVA — “Jako”

10. 🇱🇻 Latvi: Dons — “Hollow”

11*🇪🇸 Spain: Nebulossa — “Zorra”

12. 🇸🇲San Marino: Megara – “11:11”

13. 🇬🇪Georgia: Nutsa — “Firefighter”

14. 🇧🇪Belgium: Mustii — “When the Party’s Over”

15. 🇪🇪Estonia: 5MIINUUST x PUULUUP — “(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi”

16🇮🇹 Italy: Angelina Mango – “La noia”

17. 🇮🇱Israel: Eden Golan – “Hurricane”

18. 🇳🇴Norway: Gåte — “Ulveham” 

19. 🇳🇱Netherlands: Joost Klein — “Europapa”

Europe day🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺

Europe Day is an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe. There are two separate designations of Europe Day: 5 May for the Council of Europe, and 9 May for the European Union. The latter is the EU’s flag day and has a greater visibility. The Council of Europe’s day reflects its own establishment in 1949, while the European Union’s day is also known as Schuman Day and celebrates the historical declaration by French foreign minister Robert Schuman in 1950. Europe Day is designed to foster unity among Europeans.

The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949, and hence it chose that day for its celebrations when it established the holiday in 1964. In 1985, the European Communities (which later became the European Union) adopted the European symbols of the Council of Europe such as the Flag of Europe. However, the Community leaders decided to hold their Europe Day in commemoration of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950. The declaration proposed the pooling of French and West German coal and steel industries, leading to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the first European Community, and hence is considered a principal founding moment. Hence, at the 1985 Milan European Council, 29 September was adopted as the EU’s flag day. The European Constitution would have legally enshrined all the European symbols in the EU treaties, however the treaty failed The Constitution’s replacement, the Treaty of Lisbon, contains a declaration by sixteen members supporting the symbols. The European Parliament formally recognised the 9 May holiday in October 2008.

Nowadays 9 May is celebrated in various forms in most member states of the European Union and EU candidate countries such as Turkey. people are taught about the European Union and speaking in support of European integration.The flag as another symbol plays a major role in general celebrations. Despite a preference for 9 May, with the European Union’s greater visibility, 5 May is still observed by some Europeans due to the Council’s role in seeking to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy, and the rule of law. In contrast, the Schuman declaration was merely proposing the pooling of French and West German coal and steel. Since 2003, Ukraine has celebrated Europe Day on the third Saturday of May.

world red cross and red crescent day

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day takes place annually on 8 May to mark the anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant, who was the founder of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize. The purpose of World Red cross and Red Crescent day is to educate people and celebrate theprinciples of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Henry Dunant was born 8 May 1828, in Geneva, Switzerland. His family was devoutly Calvinist and had significant influence in Geneva society. His parents stressed the value of social work, and his father was active helping orphans and parolees, while his mother worked with the sick and poor. His father worked in a prison and an orphanage. Dunant grew up during a period of religious awakening known as the Réveil, and at age 18 he joined the Geneva Society for Alms giving. In 1846 he founded the so-called “Thursday Association”, a loose band of young men that met to study the Bible and help the poor, and he spent much of his free time engaged in prison visits and social work. On 30 November 1852, he founded the Geneva chapter of the YMCA and three years later he took part in the Paris meeting devoted to the founding of its international organization. In 1849, at age 21, Dunant was forced to leave the Collège Calvin due to poor grades, and he began an apprenticeship with the money-changing firm Lullin et Sautter. After its successful conclusion, he remained as an employee of the bank.

In 1853, Dunant visited Algeria, Tunisia, and Sicily, on assignment with a company devoted to the “colonies of Setif” (Compagnie genevoise des Colonies de Sétif). Inspired by the trip, he wrote his first book with the title An Account of the Regency in Tunis (Notice sur la Régence de Tunis), published in 1858. In 1856, he created a business to operate in foreign colonies, and, after being granted a land concession by French-occupied Algeria, a corn-growing and trading company called the Financial and Industrial Company of Mons-Djémila Mills (Société financière et industrielle des Moulins des Mons-Djémila). However, the the colonial authorities were not especially cooperative. So, Dunant decided to appeal directly to French emperor Napoléon III, who was with his army in Lombardy at the time and also wrote a flattering book full of praise for Napoleon III with the intention to present it to the emperor, and then traveled to Solferino to meet with him personally.

Dunant arrived in Solferino in June 1859, on the same day a battle between the two sides had occurred nearby. Twenty-three thousand wounded, dying and dead remained on the battlefield, and there appeared to be little attempt to provide care. Shocked, Dunant himself took the initiative to organize the civilian population, especially the women and girls, to provide assistance to the injured and sick soldiers. They lacked sufficient materials and supplies, and Dunant himself organized the purchase of needed materials and helped erect makeshift hospitals. He convinced the population to service the wounded without regard to their side in the conflict as per the slogan “Tutti fratelli” (All are brothers) coined by the women of nearby city Castiglione delle Stiviere. He also gained the release of Austrian doctors captured by the French.

After returning to Geneva Dunant decided to write a book describing his experiences in Solferino . Entitled Un Souvenir de Solferino (A Memory of Solferino) Describing the battle, its costs, the horrifc conditions and the chaotic circumstances afterwards. He also developed the idea that in the future a neutral organization should exist to provide care to wounded soldiers. He distributed the book to many leading political and military figures in Europe. Dunant also travelled through Europe to promote his ideas, and the President of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare, jurist Gustave Moynier,arranged a meeting of the organization during whichDunant’s recommendations were examined and assessed by the members to see how they could be implemented

They created a five-person Committee which included Dunant, Gustave Moynier, the Swiss army general Henri Dufour, and doctors Louis Appia and Théodore Maunoir. The first meeting on 17 February 1863 is now considered the founding date of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Dunant was an idealist which led to conflict with Moynier Who considered Dunant’s idea to establish neutrality protections for care providers unfeasible. In 1863, 14 states took part in a meeting in Geneva organized by the committee to discuss the improvement of care for wounded soldiers. In 1864, a diplomatic conference organized by the Swiss Parliament led to the signing of the First Geneva Convention by 12 states. In April 1867, the bankruptcy of the financial firm Crédit Genevois led to a scandal involving Dunant. He was forced to declare bankruptcy and was condemned by the Geneva Trade Court In 1868 for deceptive practices. The social outcry in Geneva, a city deeply rooted in Calvinist traditions, also led to calls for him to separate himself from the International Committee. On 25 August 1868, he resigned as Secretary and, on 8 September he left.

In February 1868, Dunant’s mother died. Later that year he was also expelled from the YMCA and In March 1867, he left his home city Geneva. Napoléon III’s offer to take over half of Dunant’s debts was also thwarted by Moynier’s efforts. So Dunant moved to Paris, where he continued to pursue his humanitarian ideas and plans. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), he founded the Common Relief Society (Allgemeine Fürsorgegesellschaft) and soon after the Common Alliance for Order and Civilization (Allgemeine Allianz für Ordnung und Zivilisation). He argued for disarmament negotiations and for the erection of an international court to mediate international conflicts. Later he worked for the creation of a world library, an idea which had echoes in future projects such as UNESCO. Despite being appointed an honorary member of the national Red Cross societies of Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Prussia and Spain, he was nearly forgotten By the Red Cross Movement. Between 1874 and 1886, he moved between Stuttgart, Rome, Corfu, Basel, and Karlsruhe. In Stuttgart he met the Tübingen University student Rudolf Müller And while living in London, his finacial situation improved and he moved to Heiden where he met the young teacher Wilhelm Sonderegger and his wife Susanna who encouraged him to record his life experiences. Sonderegger’s wife founded a branch of the Red Cross in Heiden and in 1890 Dunant became its honorary president.

With Sonderegger, Dunant promoted his ideas further and published a new edition of his book. Sonderegger died in 1904 at the age of only forty-two. Despite their strained relationship, Dunant was destraught. Wilhelm and Susanna Sonderegger’s admiration for Dunant inspired their son René to publish a compilation of letters from Dunant to his father. In September 1895, Georg Baumberger, the chief editor of the St. Gall newspaper Die Ostschweiz, wrote an article about the Red Cross founder, whom he had met in Heiden. The article entitled “Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross”, appeared in the German Illustrated Magazine Über Land und Meer, and was soon reprinted in many other publications. Following this He received the Swiss Binet-Fendt Prize and a note from Pope Leo XIII. In 1897, Rudolf Müller, who was now working as a teacher in Stuttgart, also wrote a book about the origins of the Red Cross, altering the official history to stress Dunant’s role and also included the text of A Memory of Solferino. Dunant began writing to Bertha von Suttner and was especially active in writing about women’s rights, and in 1897 facilitated the founding of a “Green Cross” women’s organization. In 1901, Dunant was awarded the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize for his role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convention. Norwegian military physician Hans Daae, who had received a copy of Müller’s book, advocated Dunant’s case on the Nobel committee. The award was jointly given to French pacifist Frédéric Passy, founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization. In 1903 Dunant was given an honorary doctorate by the medical faculty of the University of Heidelberg.

Dunant lived in the nursing home in Heiden until his death. In the final years of his life, he suffered from depression and paranoia about pursuit by his creditors and Moynier. There were even days when Dunant insisted that the cook of the nursing home first taste his food before his eyes to protect him against possible poisoning. In his final years, he spurned and attacked Calvinism and organized religion generally. He was said to be agnostic.

The idea for an “annual action which would contribute to peace” was introduced just after World War I and evolved out of the “Red Cross Truce, an initiative that was studied by an international commission established at the 14th International Conference of the Red Cross. Its results, presented to the 15th International Conference in Tokyo in 1934, was approved and having considered the principles of the truce, and its applicability across different regions of the world, the General Assembly of the International Federation of the Red Cross Societies (IFRC) asked the League of the Red Cross Societies (LORCS) to study the feasibility of adopting an annual International Red Cross Day. Two years later, the proposal was adopted and the first Red Cross Day was celebrated on 8 May 1948. The official title of the day has changed over time, and it became “World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day” in 1984.

Karl Marx

Often described as one of the most influential people in human history, the German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx was born 5th May 1818. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement. He published various books during his lifetime, with the most notable being The Communist Manifesto and Capital; some of his works were co-written with his friend and fellow German revolutionary socialist, Friedrich Engels.

He was born into a wealthy middle class family in Trier, formerly in Prussian Rhineland now called Rhineland-Palatinate, and studied at both the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the German philosopher G.W.F Hegel , whose ideas were widely debated amongst European philosophical circles at the time. He became involved with a group of radical thinkers known as the Young Hegelians, who gathered around Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer. Like Marx, the Young Hegelians were critical of Hegel’s metaphysical assumptions. In 1836, he became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, marrying her in 1843. After his studies, he wrote for a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out his theory of dialectical materialism. Moving to Paris in 1843, he began writing for other radical newspapers. He met Engels in Paris, and the two men worked together on a series of books. Exiled to Brussels, he became a leading figure of the Communist League, before moving back to Cologne, where he founded his own newspaper. In 1849 he was exiled again and moved to London together with his wife and children. In London, where the family was reduced to poverty, Marx continued writing and formulating his theories about the nature of society and how he believed it could be improved, and also campaigned for socialism—he became a significant figure in the International Working men’s Association.

Marx’s theories about society, economics and politics—collectively known as Marxism—hold that all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle: a conflict between an ownership class which controls production and a lower class which produces the labour for such goods. Heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, he called it the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”, believing it to be run by the wealthy classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. He argued that under socialism society would be governed by the working class in what he called the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, the “workers state” or “workers’ democracy”.

He believed that socialism would, in its turn, eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called communism. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for the former’s implementation, arguing that both social theorists and underprivileged people should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change. Revolutionary socialist governments espousing Marxist concepts took power in a variety of countries in the 20th century, leading to the formation of such socialist states as the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Many labor unions and worker’s parties worldwide were also influenced by Marxist ideas. Various theoretical variants, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism, were developed. Marx is typically cited, with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.

Marx sadly passed away 14th March in 1883 but is widely thought of as one of the most influential thinkers in history, and had a significant influence on both world politics and intellectual thought, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the top “thinker of the millennium” who profoundly affected ideas about history, society, economics, culture and politics, and the nature of social inquiry. Marx’s biographer Francis Wheen considers the “history of the twentieth century” to be “Marx’s legacy”, Marx’s impact is comparable with that of Jesus Christ and Muhammad. “Marx’s ideas brought about modern sociology, transformed the study of history, and profoundly affected philosophy, literature and the arts.”

Marx has been called one of the masters of the “school of suspicion”, alongside Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, and his ideas have led to him becoming “the darling of both European and American intellectuals up until the 1960s”. Marx has influenced disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, media studies, political science, theater, history, sociological theory, cultural studies, education, economics, geography, literary criticism, aesthetics, critical psychology, and philosophy. Whose ethical message was a “morally empowering language of critique” against the dominant capitalist Society and his ideas led to the establishment of governments using Marxist thought to replace capitalism with communism or socialism, whilst his intellectual thought has heavily influenced the academic study of the humanities and the arts.

world Portuguese language day

 The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) World Portuguese language day takes place annually on 5 May. Portuguese  has more than 265 million speakers across the globe and is the most widely spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere. This makes the Portuguese language the sixth most spoken language in the world.The purpose of UNESCO world Portuguese Language day is to celebrate the Portuguese language, bring the Portuguese people together and help preserve their culture and identity. It  was officially established in 2009 by the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) – an intergovernmental organization that has been in official partnership with UNESCO since 2000.

International Tuba Day

International Tuba Day takes place annually on 5 May. The event was created on 5 May 1979 by Joel Day , a high school tuba player who felt the instrument and its players are under-appreciated. So he spread the word when he went to college. International Tuba Day is now celebrated in many parts of the U.S and several foreign countries.

The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibration into a large mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for ‘trumpet’. In America, a person who plays the tuba is known as a tubaist or tubist. In the United Kingdom, a person who plays the tuba in an orchestra is known simply as a tuba player; in a brass band or military band, they are known as bass players.

Cartoonists day

Cartoonists’ Day takes place on 5 May. A cartoon is a type of illustration, possibly animated, typically in a non-realistic or semi-realistic style. It was founded by the National Cartoonists Society on 5 May 1990 to commemorate the date of 5 May 1895 when a man named Richard F. Outcault first introduced a small bald kid in a yellow nightshirt to the world in an incredibly popular publication called, the New York World. The Yellow Kid was an archetype of the world, rather than a particular person and was Based on people Outcault encountered as he walked the slums of the city on his rounds, he would discover the kid walking out of houses, or sitting and hanging about on doorsteps. The archetypical “kid” was always warm and sunny, friendly, generous, and free of malice and selfishness. Although the paper itself was derided by so-called ‘real’ journalists, the yellow kid was embraced by people everywhere and led to a revolution in how stories were told and presented in sequential art pieces (Frames) and became a new standard piece of content for newspapers everywhere.

The concept originated in the Middle Ages, and first described a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting, fresco, tapestry, or stained glass window. In the 19th century, beginning in Punch magazine in 1843, cartoon came to refer – ironically at first – to humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers. In the early 20th century, it began to refer to animated films which resembled print cartoons. In print media, a cartoon is an illustration or series of illustrations, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843, when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages, particularly sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster. The original title for these drawings was Mr Punch’s face is the letter Q and the new title “cartoon” was intended to be ironic, a reference to the self-aggrandizing posturing of Westminster politicians.

Cartoons can be divided into gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips and single-panel gag cartoons. Editorial cartoons are found almost exclusively in news publications and news websites. Although they also employ humor, they are more serious in tone, commonly using irony or satire. The art usually acts as a visual metaphor to illustrate a point of view on current social or political topics. Editorial cartoons often include speech balloons and sometimes use multiple panels. Editorial cartoonists of note include Herblock, David Low, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Peters, and Gerald Scarfe.

Comic strips, also known as cartoon strips in the United Kingdom, are found daily in newspapers worldwide, and are usually a short series of cartoon illustrations in sequence. In the United States, they are not commonly called “cartoons” themselves, but rather “comics” or “funnies”. Nonetheless, the creators of comic strips—as well as comic books and graphic novels—are usually referred to as “cartoonists”. Although humor is the most prevalent subject matter, adventure and drama are also represented in this medium. Some noteworthy cartoonists of humorous comic strips are Scott Adams, Steve Bell, Charles Schulz, E. C. Segar, Mort Walker and Bill Watterson. Other Well known cartoonists include Mel Calman, Bill Holman, Gary Larson, George Lichty, Fred Neher, Peter Arno, Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti, Chon Day, Bill Hoest, Jerry Marcus, Richard Thompson, Chester “Chet” Brown and Virgil Patch.

The Phantom Menace

 The Phantom Menace in returning to cinemas for one week only from May 3rd 2024. The Phantom menace was, written and directed by George Lucas. It stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Pernilla August and Frank Oz. It is the fourth film in the Star Wars film series, the first film of the prequel trilogy 

The film is Set 32 years before the original trilogy (13 years before the formation of the Galactic Empire), during the era of the Galactic Republic, The greedy Trade Federation  has blockaded the planet Naboo in secret preparation for a full-scale invasion. The Republic’s leader, Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, dispatches Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the dispute with Nemoidian Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray. However Unbeknownst to the Jedi, powerful and sinister forces are secretly at work behind the scenes who urge Nute Gunray to begin the invasion of Naboo anyway. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are almost killed but escape and flee to Naboo. Amid the carnage, Qui-Gon meets a bumbling Gungan outcast, Jar Jar Binks who guides the Jedi to Theed, the capital city of Naboo. After rescuing Queen Padmé Amidala, the group escape from Naboo aboard her Royal Starship, intending to reach the Republic capital planet of Coruscant. However The ship is damaged passing through the Federation blockade, and the group lands for repairs on the outlying desert planet of Tatooine.

Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, astromech droid R2-D2, and Padmé visit the settlement of Mos Espa to purchase a new part for the hyperdrive. They encounter a junk dealer, Watto, and his nine-year-old slave Anakin Skywalker, a gifted pilot and engineer who has built a protocol droid, C-3PO. Qui-Gon senses a strong presence of the Force within Anakin and is convinced that he is the prophesied “Chosen One,” destined to restore balance to the Force. So Qui gon makes a deal with Watto to free Anakin who then joins the group to be trained as a Jedi, however Qui-Gon is attacked by an unknown assailant bearing all the hallmarks of an evil Sith Lord.

Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi manage to escape Tatooine and escort Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo to Coruscant so she can plead her people’s case to Valorum and the Galactic Senate and secure a peaceful end to an interplanetary trade dispute. Meanwhile Qui-Gon asks the Jedi Council for permission to train Anakin as a Jedi, convinced that he is the Chosen one, however the Jedi Council have serious misgivings. Naboo’s seemingly affable Senator Palpatine advises Amidala how to deal with the corruption in thd Senate and resolve the crisis, however it soon transpires that he has some sinister motives and cannot be trusted

A frustrated Amidala then decides to return to Naboo accompanied by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and persuades the Gunagans to join in an alliance with the Naboo against the Trade Federations Droid Army, then leads the search for Nute Gunray, leader of the Trade Federation in Theed. Whilst in a hangar, Anakin hides in a starfighter cockpit to keep safe but accidentally triggers its autopilot, and joins the battle before heading for the Federation droid control ship. Meanwhile, evil Sith Apprentice Darth Maul infiltrates the Theed Palace and engages Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in a deadly lightsaber duel.