General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
FEBRUARY 18TH:
On this day in 1952, Greece and Turkey officially became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the international alliance consisting of member states from North America and Europe. Greece and Turkey signed the Protocol to NATO in London a few months earlier (in October of 1951) but they did not become official members until February. NATO has added new members seven times since its founding in 1949, and since 2017 NATO has had 29 members. The twelve countries that took part in the founding of NATO were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
FEBRUARY 19TH:
On this day in 1962, Georgios Papanikolaou, the Greek doctor and inventor of the revolutionary Pap Test, passed away at the age of 78. Born in Kymi, a small town on the island of Evia, Papanikolaou was the son of a doctor. He moved to Athens, where he studied medicine, and in 1913, he was persuaded to move to the United States, where he spent the rest of his life working on scientific research in the medical school of Cornell University (47 years!). Papanikolaou introduced his screening method for the discovery of cancerous cells as early as 1927 but his findings were met with skepticism by the scientific community. It was not until 1941, when, with gynecologist Herbert Traught, he published a paper on the diagnostic value of vaginal smears, that he gained wide recognition by the medical community. His work led to other early detection medical breakthroughs. Since then, the Pap smear has been the standard method for early detection of cervical cancer that has saved millions of women’s lives. Papanikolaou’s figure was featured on Greece’s largest denomination drachma banknote of 10,000 and is rightly regarded as one of the most brilliant scientific minds of the 20th century.
Also on this day in 1880, Constantino Brumidi, the Greek-Italian historical artist, passed away at the age of 74. Brumidi trained in drawing, painting, and sculpture at Rome’s prestigious Accademia di San Luca. By 1840, his artistic skills were put to good use when Brumidi and several other artists were commissioned to restore the historic Renaissance frescoes in the Vatican Palace. Brumidi also earned important commissions to decorate several palaces and churches in Rome. Following a pardon by Pope Pius IX for his role in Italy’s republican uprisings, Brumidi immigrated to the United States in 1852. Five years later he became a naturalized citizen. Of particular importance, especially this year, in 1855, Brumidi was hired to decorate the extension of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. with murals and frescoes. His Capitol frescoes were likely the first true frescoes to be painted in this country. For the next 25 years, Brumidi continued to embellish the walls of the Capitol. Proud of his achievements in America, Brumidi is reported to have remarked, “my one ambition and my daily prayer is that I may live long enough to make beautiful the Capitol of the one country on Earth in which there is liberty.”
FEBRUARY 23RD:
On this day in 1980, an oil tanker exploded off of the coast of Pylos in mainland Greece and caused a 37-million-gallon spillage – one of the biggest maritime accidents that ever occurred in Greece. The ship, named the Irenes Serenade, was loaded with cargo of over 100,000 tons of Iraqi crude oil and was en route from Syria to Trieste when it stopped to refuel in Navarino Bay. The vessel suffered explosions while it was at the bunkering location and thus, the cargo was set alight. An oil slick two miles long by half a mile-wide spread from the vessel and both the tanker and the surrounding area burned for 14 hours until the following morning, when the tanker sank off Pylos Harbor. Defying the danger, a local fisherman, Velissarios Karavias, who saw the explosion from the harbor, approached the tanker with his boat to save the lives of the seamen. All but two of the crew members were rescued.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst.
ATHENS - The tragedy of the Tempi train collision is a much greater issue than an opportunity for parties to table a motion of censure against the government, but the opposition parties used it anyway "to turn society's pain into a tool to strike at the government and me personally," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday night in parliament.
ATHENS - PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis, speaking at the Hellenic Parliament on Thursday, emphasized that there is "an established belief among the Greek people" that the government "operates as a well-oiled machine of corruption, cover-up, and propaganda.
ATHENS — Greece’s center-right government survived a motion of no-confidence late Thursday that was brought by opposition parties over its handling of the country’s deadliest rail disaster a year ago.
ASTORIA – Greek Minister of the Interior Niki Kerameus offered an informative presentation on postal voting in the upcoming European Union elections for Greek citizens in a well-attended event held at the St.