Holidays and commemorative dates:
World No Smoking Day – in 1988, the World Health Organization announced May 31 as World No-Tobacco Day.
World Day of Combating Social Inequality – designed to draw attention to the problems of inequality, poverty, social stratification, and protection of human rights.
International Day of Blondes – according to scientists’ forecasts, by the year 2202 there will not be a single real blond or blonde on earth. The fact is that this gene is not dominant, so the child is most likely to have white hair if both parents are fair-haired.
Events on this day:
1859 — in London, the famous Big Ben clock was launched on the tower of Parliament (Westminster Palace).
He has two more birthdays – April 10, 1858, when the largest hour bell was installed (there are five in total) and July 11, 1859 – when this bell rang.
All over the world, the name Big Ben is firmly attached to this structure, although at first only the bell itself was called that. Big Ben (Big Ben) was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, curator of construction works. According to another version, it is named after Benjamin Count, a popular heavyweight boxer. The name turned out to be so successful and easy to remember that soon it was attached to the entire building.
The dials of the clock are made of Birmingham opal, each 7 m in diameter. At the base of the dials is the Latin inscription “God save our Queen Victoria I”. Along the perimeter of the tower is drawn the phrase in Latin: “Praise be to God.” The 2.7-meter-long hour hands are cast from cast iron, and the 4.2-meter minute hands are made of copper sheet.
“Through this clock, the Lord protects me, and his power will not allow anyone to stumble,” – these are the words Big Ben knocks out with its bells.
The tower of Big Ben is 96 meters high, and you can go up only by a small spiral staircase of 334 steps.
The dials are installed in such a way that the time shown by Big Ben can be seen from all four sides.
The clock has long been considered the largest in the world. It is now the third largest (after the Abraj al-Bait clock and the Minneapolis City Hall). The clock is made so reliably that even during the Second World War, when German bombings damaged two dials and the roof of the tower, it did not stop its movement. It is this monument of Great Britain that has become a symbol of accuracy and reliability of everything English. The accuracy of the clock is adjusted using a 1 penny coin (if necessary, the coin is placed on the pendulum and its movement slows down by 0.4 seconds per day).
Big Ben once housed a prison for parliamentarians who behaved violently during meetings. In its entire history, only one person sat there, it was Emmeline Pankhurst, a fighter for women’s rights. Now her monument stands next to the parliament.
1868 — the first bicycle races took place in Paris.
1870 — Professor Edward Joseph de Smedt of the American Asphalt company patented asphalt. It was first used in July of the same year.
1879 — the world’s first electric railway was opened in Berlin. The first electric train designed by Werner von Siemens was also shown to the public then.
1884 — the American doctor and propagandist of vegetarianism, John Kellogg, patented corn flakes.
1894 — launched the first electric tram in Lviv.
1926 — Fedir Anders, design engineer, designer of the first airship in Ukraine, died.
1946 — Oleg Antonov’s aircraft-building design bureau began work in Kyiv.
1953 — Volodymyr Tatlin, Ukrainian painter, graphic artist, sculptor, designer, theater artist, architect, passed away. One of the brightest representatives of the Ukrainian avant-garde, the founder of constructivism.
1989 — the International Association of Ukrainianists was formed at the founding conference in Naples.
1997 — the Treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine was signed.
