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.
November 8th:
On this day in 1866, the Arkadi Holocaust took place at the Arkadi Monastery in Crete during the Cretan Revolution against the Turks. During the Turkish occupation of Crete, the Cretans initiated many revolutionary movements which failed in the traditional sense, but triumphed in strengthening the Cretan morale and hatred against the Turks. During the Cretan resistance of Ottoman rule, more than 900 Greeks (mostly women and children) sought refuge in the monastery which is located near the city of Rethymnon.
After three days of battle and under the orders from the abbot of the monastery, the Cretans blew up barrels of gunpowder, choosing to sacrifice themselves rather than surrender. The monastery became a national sanctuary in honor of the Cretan resistance and November 8 is a day of commemorative parties in Arkadi and Rethymnon.
The explosion of the Arkadi Monastery did not end the Cretan insurrection, but it attracted the attention of the rest of the world. Newspapers from all over the globe printed the story of the battle of Arkadi. Support for Cretans against the Turks was supreme in the public mind and some individuals even paid for a ship, renamed the Arkadi, to send supplies to the island. Articles written by Garibaldi and Victor Hugo honored the dead of Arkadi and many foreigners came to help the people of Crete recover.
Also on this day in 1977, Greek Archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovered the tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, Philip II of Macedon, in Vergina – a small Greek village. Under the supervision of English classicist Nic Hammond, Andronikos led a six-week dig around a large mound. The dig uncovered a site of unopened royal tombs hidden by another structure. The main room of Phillip II’s tomb included a marble sarcophagus with a larnax made of 24 carat gold weighing 11 kilograms. On the remains of Phillip II was a golden wreath of 313 oak leaves and 68 acorns weighing 717 grams.
November 11th:
On this day in 1990, Alexis Minotis (ne Alexandros Minotakis), the Greek actor, died at the age of 90. Minotis was born in Chania, Crete, the third of 10 children of a fabric merchant. He rebelled against tradition and vowed to become an actor when he saw his first play at the age of 12. After finishing his military service in 1925, he joined a theatre company in Athens and began working with Katina Paxinou – who eventually became his wife.
World War II threatened to separate the couple – with Paxinou fleeing to Britain and the United States, while Minotis was captured by the Germans – twice. He finally escaped to Cairo and joined his wife in Los Angeles, where he played bit parts while she had major character roles. In 1946, he appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious as well as in The Chase. Some of his other films include: Siren of Atlantis, Boy on a Dolphin, and Land of the Pharaohs. A few years later, Minotis and Paxinou were able to return to Athens to recreate the national theatre, form an experimental company, and travel the world.
?November 14th:
On this day in 2018, Archeologists announced the discovery of the ancient Greek city of Tenea near Corinth, supposedly founded by captives from the Trojan War in the 12th or 13th century BC. The lead archaeologist on the Tenea project, Elena Korka, had been excavating in the area since 2013. The archaeologists on her team discovered jewelry, dozens of coins and remnants of a housing settlement.
Also on this day in 1954, Yiannis Chryssomallis, known professionally as Yanni, the Greek New-Age musician (a characteristically non-arousing genre of popular music, often entirely instrumental and used for relaxation or meditation) was born in Kalamata, Greece. Yannis displayed musical talent at a young age – playing the piano when he was six.
His parents encouraged him to learn at his own pace and own way – without formal music training. The self-taught musician continues to use the ‘musical shorthand’ that he developed as a child, rather than employ traditional musical notation. Yannis has received international recognition by producing concerts at historic monuments and by producing videos that were broadcast on public television. His breakthrough concert, Live at the Acropolis, yielded the second best-selling music concert video of all time.
Additional historic sites for Yanni’s concerts have included India’s Taj Mahal, China’s Forbidden City, the United Arab Emirates’ Burj Khalifa, Russia’s Kremlin, Lebanon’s ancient city of Byblos, as well as the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S.
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture presents a captivating evening with acclaimed singer-songwriter Alkinoos Ioannidis, who will perform at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on Saturday, April 27, 7:30 PM, in a solo concert.
ATHENS - The "OLYMPOS - Global Spiritual Center" Association presents on Saturday, April 6, at 6:00 pm, at the "Antonis Tritsis" Amphitheatre of the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens, 50, Acadimias Street, the truly ingenious funding proposal for the construction of Heptapolis in the wider area of Delphi, entitled "World Green Taxation Fund".
ATHENS - Disregarding the recommendation of a prosecutor who said there wasn’t enough evidence, an Athens Mixed Jury Court found a 55-year-old man guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl but found her mother innocent of pornography.