This week in history

For the week of Jul. 6, 2008

July 09
Martyrdom of the Bab: Baha’i. This holiday commemorates the arrest, torture, imprisonment, and eventual execution of the Bab in Tabriz, Persia, in 1850. The Bab’s body is buried at the Baha’i temple in Haifa, Israel.

July 10
Arthur Ashe (1943-1993): African American. Athlete, writer, and activist. The first Black tennis player to win the men’s titles at the U.S. Open (1968) and Wimbledon (1975), Arthur Ashe became known for his power and skill as a player and for his dignity and eloquence as a leader, particularly in efforts to combat racial discrimination. He helped integrate professional sports in South Africa and founded and worked to maintain tennis programs for inner-city youth in the United States. After heart problems led to his retirement from professional play in 1980, he researched and wrote "The Hard Road to Glory, published in 1988. After announcing in the spring of 1992 that he had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, Ashe spent the last year of his life campaigning for greater public awareness of the disease and raising funds for research and treatment programs.

July 10
Nicolas Guillen (1902-1989: Cuban. Poet. A Cuban of mixed European and African ancestry, Guillen became a major exponent in the late 1920s and 1930s of poetry that is often called Afro-Cuban. He is also known for his poetry of social protest and his other writings advocating political and social reform.

July 10
Independence Day: Bahamas. This commemorates the Bahamas’ gaining independence within the Commonwealth of Great Britain in 1973. This holiday is observed from July 3 through July 10.

July 11
Flemish Community Holiday: Belgium. Celebrated in Flemish communities in Belgium, this day commemorates the battle in 1302 in which the Flemish declared their independence from France.

July 12
Constantine Brumidi (1805-1880): Italian American. Painter. A successful painter in Italy, Brumidi came to the United States in 1852 as a political refugee. In 1855 he began a quarter century of work at the U.S. Capitol building, decorating it with frescoes on patriotic themes. His most famous work is “The Apotheosis of Washington” in the Capitol Dome.