My Science School

Thailand mourned the death of its King Bhumibol Adulyadej who ruled for 70 long years. Conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great in 1987 (officially conferred by Vajiralongkorn in 2019), he was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IX. Reigning since June 9, 1946, he was, at the time of his death, the world’s longest-reigning head of state, the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history and the longest-reigning monarch having reigned only as an adult, reining for 70 years and 126 days. Following his death, Queen Elizabeth II is today the world’s longest-reigning living monarch.

The king's body lay in state in the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall of the Grand Palace for a period of one year, with daily rites for a period of 100 days. As in the funerals of the king's mother and sister, the king's body was not physically placed in the royal funerary urn (kot) as was customary; instead, the coffin which housed the body was placed behind the pedestal displaying the royal urn. Special rites attended by King Vajiralongkorn were held to mark the 7th, 15th, 50th and 100th days since the king's death. After the 15th day, the public were allowed to pay their respects and attend the lying-in-state in the Grand Palace. By the end of the allowed public attendance on 30 September 2017 (later pushed forward to 5 October the same year), over 12 million people had paid their respects in person, a historic record crowd that, including foreign tourists and expats living in Thailand, broke all-time attendance records and left an estimated 890 million Thai baht in donations for the royal charity activities.

 

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Mother Teresa, reversed for her work for the poor in India, was proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis in a ceremony at the Vatican on September 4, 2016. The Pope said Saint Teresa had defended the unborn, sick and abandoned, and had shamed world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created”. Tens of thousands of pilgrims attended the canonization in St Peter’s Square. In India, a special Mass was celebrated at the Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded in Kolkata (Calcutta).

Many of the proposed miracles associated with Mother Teresa didn't meet church guidelines. Among the cases that were considered but not deemed miraculous were:

A French girl who said touching a medallion from Mother Teresa healed ribs she'd broken in a car accident — but this healing did not happen quickly enough to be seen as miraculous.

A Palestinian girl recovered from bone cancer after seeing Mother Teresa in a dream — but the church waits for several years to ensure there is no recurrence in cancer cases, as a miraculous recovery will be permanent.

In addition, an improvement in someone's condition, even if there's no medical cause for the amelioration, wouldn't fit the parameters for a miracle, as the healing should be complete. And a cure must be due to the intercession of Mother Teresa — so any recovery that involved prayers sent to other saints would not work.

 

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The Magna Carta, a historic document that made the king subject to the laws of the land and limited his powers, was signed in June 1215 by King John in England. Magna Carta, which means ‘Great Charter’, laid the basis for much of the legal system as we know it today. To mark its 800th anniversary, the original remaining copies of the Charter were put on display at the British Library.

The Magna Carta Trust is also campaigning for a public holiday on 15 June 2015 - the exact anniversary - and are asking the Royal Mint to issue a commemorative coin in the same year.

Talks are also under way for a commemorative stamp.

An exhibition is expected to be held at the British Library in London, with smaller events planned for schools and libraries across the UK.

Some 160 British Council offices around the world are also considering producing displays.

The trust is aiming to make people more aware of the legal, political and constitutional importance of the document, which has World Heritage status.

It was time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of a historic battle too – the Battle of Waterloo, marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on June 18, 1815, near Waterloo in Belgium.

 

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A stepwell situated in the town of Patan in the state of Gujarat, Rani ki vav, literally the Queen’s well, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located on the banks of Saraswati river, its construction is attributed to Udayamati, queen of the 11th-century Chaulukya dynasty and spouse of Bhima I. Silted over, it was rediscovered in the 1940s and restored in the 1980s by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Rani-ki-Vav impresses not only with its architectural structure and technological achievements in water sourcing and structural stability, but also in particular with its sculptural decoration, of true artistic mastery. The figurative motifs and sculptures, and the proportion of filled and empty spaces, provide the stepwell’s interior with its unique aesthetic character. The setting enhances these attributes in the way in which the well descends suddenly from a plain plateau, which strengthens the perception of this space.

 

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The Silk Road of China, Kyrgyzstan: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor was included in the UNESCO list of Heritage Sites. Stretching from Luoyang, the central capital of China in the Han and Tang dynasties, to the Zhetysu region of Central Asia, it is a 5,000 km section of the extensive Silk Roads network, built between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD.

The thirty-three components included in the routes network include capital cities and palace complexes of various empires and Khan kingdoms, trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, ancient paths, posthouses, passes, beacon towers, sections of The Great Wall, fortifications, tombs and religious buildings.

The routes served principally to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods. Some areas had a monopoly on certain materials or goods: notably China, who supplied Central Asia, the Subcontinent, West Asia and the Mediterranean world with silk. Many of the high value trade goods were transported over vast distances – by pack animals and river craft – and probably by a string of different merchants.

 

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The 2014 centennial of the beginning of World War I was commemorated with events-symposia, exhibits, theatrical presentations, re-enactments, and concerts-the world over. The Flanders region of Belgium, especially Ypres (where three battles took place), was a particular focus of such efforts.

On a more joyful note, on August 15, 2014, the citizens of Panama celebrated the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal. The gala event was attended by descendants of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer who oversaw the first attempt to construct the canal, and of Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. president under whose watch work began on the project.

The world had experienced significant changes in transportation technology during the previous century, yet on the day marking its opening 100 years earlier, the operation of the Panama Canal was fundamentally the same as it had been when the first ship had passed through it. The canal remained, however, one of the most important and vital strategic links for world nautical transportation.

 

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India sent its last telegram on July 14, after using the once revolutionary technology for fast communication for 163 years. Thousands crammed into the country’s telegram offices as the service shut down for good.

The service began in 1850, as an experiment to connect Kolkata and Diamond Harbour. In 1854, it was made available to the public. Since then, the Service had sent million of telegrams across India.

The Telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse. Morse Code, the code used to send telegram messages, is named after him.

The messages were conveyed using electrical signals which were transmitted by interlinking wires.

During its final years, the service was able to garner a revenue of 75 lakhs annually, but the running cost was an extravagant, Rs 100 Cr.

On July 14, 2013 the last telegram message was sent to Rahul Gandhi by Ashwani Mishra.

 

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On 5 December 2013, Nelson Mandela, the first President of South Africa to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, as well as the country's first black head of state, died at the age of 95 after suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection. He led South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after being incarcerated for 27 years for his political activities, and focussed on wiping out the legacy of apartheid by ending racism, poverty, inequality, and promoting national reconciliation.

South Africa observed a national mourning period of 10 days. During this time numerous memorial services were conducted across the country. The official memorial service was held at FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, on 10 December where the 95,000 seat stadium was two-thirds full because of the cold, rain, and transport challenges.[4] His body lay in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria from 11 to 13 December 2013. A state funeral was held on 15 December 2013 in Qunu in the Eastern Cape province, where his body was buried.

 

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The Western Ghats, a 1,600-km-long mountain chain with forests said to be older than those in the Himalayan range, was recognized as one of the world’s eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity by UNESCO. The forests of the site include some of the best representatives of non-equatorial tropical evergreen forests anywhere and are home to at least 325 globally threatened flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species.

Older than the great Himalayan mountain chain, the Western Ghats of India are a geomorphic feature of immense global importance. The Outstanding Universal Value of the Western Ghats is manifested in the region’s unique and fascinating influence on large-scale biophysical and ecological processes over the entire Indian peninsula. The mountains of the Western Ghats and their characteristic montane forest ecosystems influence the Indian monsoon weather patterns that mediate the warm tropical climate of the region, presenting one of the best examples of the tropical monsoon system on the planet. The Ghats act as a key barrier, intercepting the rain-laden monsoon winds that sweep in from the south-west during late summer.

 

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The year 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking on April 14-15, 1912, of the British luxury passenger liner the RMS Titanic. The vessel sank during its maiden voyage, en route to New York City from Southampton, England, when it hit an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 passengers and ship personnel.

On the 15th at the site of the Titanic's sinking, the ships plan to hold "a memorial service at 2:20 a.m. to commemorate the 100th year anniversary and to pay tribute to all the brave passengers and crew on board that fateful night."

The Balmoral is scheduled to then finish the Titanic's never-completed trip, docking in Halifax on April 16 and New York City on the 19th.

 

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On February 6, 2012, Queen Elizabeth II reached the 60th anniversary of her accession to the British throne, a milestone that was followed in June (to coincide with her June 2, 1953, coronation) by four days of national celebration, including a two-days public holiday, to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.

Her coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on 2nd June 1953.

She celebrated her Silver Jubilee (25 years) in 1977, Golden Jubilee (50 years) in 2002, and 2012 marked the Diamond 60th Jubilee of her reign.

The only other British monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee was her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria who celebrated the 60th year of her reign in 1897. 

To mark this historic occasion special events took place during 2012 throughout the UK and the Commonwealth Realms (countries in which she is Head of State), and in many Commonwealth Nations.

 

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The success of conservation efforts at Manas National Park, Assam were recognized as it was removed from UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. The park had been put on the danger list with its flora and fauna depleting due to poaching and civil unrest in the region.  On 21 June 2011, it was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger and was commended for its efforts in preservation.

It had decided to include this site in the danger when the park became a safe haven for militants and there was rampant poaching inside it, with damages estimated over USD two million.

“India scores a winning goal for Manas,” said Jagdish Kishwan, Additional Director General (Wildlife), who led the Indian delegation at the session.

“Inscription of a site in the List of World Heritage in Danger has two sides to it. One, it draws global attention to the problems faced by the site, which is beneficial; the second, it indicates a pending threat that the site could be deleted as a World Heritage completely if appropriate measures are not taken to restore it,” said Vivek Menon, executive director of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), and another member of the delegation.

The decision on the World Heritage status of Manas was an outcome of voting by 22 member countries to the World Heritage Committee.

 

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Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen’s great achievement of reaching the Geographic South Pole 100 years ago was celebrated in style with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg visiting the Pole and unveiling a specially commissioned ice bust of Amundsen. It took Amundsen’s team 99 days to cover a distance of 1,800 miles and it was a victorious moment when he planted the Norwegian flag at the Pole on December 14, 1911. What’s more, he had reached five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott!

Amundsen and his team spent almost two months skiing across the frozen Ross Sea, climbing steep hills to the Antarctic plateau at about 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) and crossing vast ice fields to reach the pole.

During the preparations they placed several depots of food and supplies along parts of the route before the final assault toward the pole. Once there, they spent three days doing scientific measurements before starting the return trip.

 

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The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, Rajasthan, comprising a collection of 19 architectural astronomical instruments, which the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II completed work on in 1734, and featuring the world’s largest stone sundial, was inscribed as a UNESCO Heritage Site.

It includes a set of some 20 main fixed instruments. They are monumental examples in masonry of known instruments but which in many cases have specific characteristics of their own. Designed for the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye, they embody several architectural and instrumental innovations. This is the most significant, most comprehensive, and the best preserved of India's historic observatories. It is an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period.

On the culture front, three performing arts-Kerala’s Mudiyettu, West Bengal’s Chhau dance and Rajasthan’s Kalbelia (Rajasthan) made it to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage list.

 

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The 2010 year saw the inclusion of Amsterdam’s canal ring area, built during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th Century-the Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht, Herengracht and Jordaan-on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Herengracht is the first of the three major canals. This is best known for the Golden Bend wherein you will find many of the double-wide mansions, coach houses, and inner gardens. The other notable canal in Amsterdam is the Keizersgracht. It is the second widest of the three major canals that comprise the Seventeenth-century canal ring area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht. The canal is named after the Holy Roman Emperor – Maximilian I. Finally, the longest of the main canals is the Prinsengracht. The canal is named after Prince of Orange.

 It comprises a network of canals to the west and south of the historic old town and the medieval port that encircled the old town and was accompanied by the repositioning inland of the city’s fortified boundaries, the Singelgracht. This was a long-term programme that involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of a homogeneous urban ensemble including gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest and most homogeneous of its time. It was a model of large-scale town planning, and served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century.

 

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