June 17
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DAY OF:
Dia do Funcionário Público Aposentado
(Retired public servant)
Dia Mundial de Combate à Desertificação e à Seca
(World Day to Combat Desertification)
“No such thing as a free lunch. Invest in healthy soils”.
The 2015 theme calls for more attention of the proper and efficient use of arable land. Already in 1977, meetings about desertification were held at the UN. Only on 17 June 1994, the Convention to Combat Desertification was accepted by the UN General Assembly. Late December 1996, the convention came into effect, after ratification of the convention by fifty countries.
Already more than five thousand years ago, people had become aware of the importance of arable land, according to this saying:
“Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel, and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it” *.
Dia do Serviço de Veterinária Militar
(Military Veterinarian Service). On 17 June 1874, lieutenant-colonel João Moniz Barreto de Aragão was born. Moniz studied Medicine and joined the army. He also was specialized in Biology and Epidemiology. As an army’s physician, he started to combat glanders: a contagious equine disease that also may be deadly for humans. In 1908, Moniz founded the Military Veterinary Service. He died in 1922. In 1940, Moniz was declared patron of the Military Veterinary Service.
Dia da Imprensa do Estado de São Paulo
(Press of the State of São Paulo)
BRAZILIAN HISTORY:
1929
First performance of samba musician Noel Rosa (1910-1937) in Rio de Janeiro.
1831
Installation of Regência Trina Definitiva.
This regency, consisting of three representatives of the three political parties, ruled Brazil after the abdication of emperor Pedro I in 1831. His then five-year-old son and successor Pedro II was too young to rule. In 1840 Pedro II was crowned emperor of Brazil.
1962
World Cup 1962: Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3 to 1 and became two-time world champion.
1697
Death of Portuguese Jesuit priest Antônio Vieira
However, some sources mention 18 July 1697 as his date of death.
1889
Fight between Delmiro Gouveia and vice-president Rosa e Silva in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
1912
Birth of Dom Artur Horsthuis, first bishop of the Diocese of Jales (SP)
1922
Arrival of the water plane of Portuguese aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in Rio de Janeiro.
They had realized the first crossing of the Southern Atlantic Ocean by an airplane. They had departed from Lisbon on 30 March.
1969
Imprisonment of student leader Gildásio Westin Cosenza
1998
Marcos César Pontes selected, by Agência Espacial Brasileira, to become Brazil’s first astronaut.
2006
Death of comedian Cláudio Besserman Vianna, better known as ‘Bussunda’.
By Adriano Antoine Robbesom © 2007, 2015
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