On This Day
1300 – The city of Bilbao is founded.
Bilbao (/bɪlˈbaʊ, -ˈbɑːoʊ/, also US: /-ˈbeɪoʊ/,[3][4][5] Spanish: [bilˈβao]; Basque: Bilbo [bilβo]) is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 345,141 as of 2015.[6] The Bilbao metropolitan area has roughly 1 million inhabitants,[7][8][9] making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in northern Spain; with a population of 875,552[10] the comarca of Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in Spain. Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region.
Bilbao is situated in the north-central part of Spain, some 16 kilometres (10 mi) south of the Bay of Biscay, where the economic social development is located, where the estuary of Bilbao is formed. Its main urban core is surrounded by two small mountain ranges with an average elevation of 400 metres (1,300 ft).[11] Its climate is shaped by the Bay of Biscay low-pressure systems and mild air, moderating summer temperatures by Iberian standards, with low sunshine and high rainfall. The annual temperature range is low for its latitude.
After its foundation in the early 14th century by Diego López V de Haro, head of the powerful Haro family, Bilbao was a commercial hub of the Basque Country that enjoyed significant importance in Green Spain. This was due to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Biscayan quarries. Throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Bilbao experienced heavy industrialisation, making it the centre of the second-most industrialised region of Spain, behind Barcelona.[12][13] At the same time an extraordinary population explosion prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. Nowadays, Bilbao is a vigorous service city that is experiencing an ongoing social, economic, and aesthetic revitalisation process, started by the iconic Bilbao Guggenheim Museum,[12][14][15][16] and continued by infrastructure investments, such as the airport terminal, the rapid transit system, the tram line, the Azkuna Zentroa, and the currently under development Abandoibarra and Zorrozaurre renewal projects.[17]
Bilbao is also home to football club Athletic Club de Bilbao, a significant symbol for Basque nationalism[18] due to its promotion of only Basque players and one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football history.
On 19 May 2010, the city of Bilbao was recognised with the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, awarded by the city state of Singapore, in collaboration with the Swedish Nobel Academy.[19] Considered the Nobel Prize for urbanism, it was handed out on 29 June 2010. On 7 January 2013, its mayor, Iñaki Azkuna, received the 2012 World Mayor Prize awarded every two years by the British foundation The City Mayors Foundation, in recognition of the urban transformation experienced by the Biscayan capital since the 1990s.[20][21] On 8 November 2017, Bilbao was chosen the Best European City 2018 at The Urbanism Awards 2018, awarded by the international organisation The Academy of Urbanism.[22]
Born On This Day
1878 – Margaret Abbott, Indian-American golfer (d. 1955)
Margaret Ives Abbott (June 15, 1878 – June 10, 1955)[2] was the first American woman to win an Olympic event. She won the women’s golf tournament, consisting of nine holes, with a score of 47, at the 1900 Paris Games.
Early life
Born in Calcutta, Abbot was the daughter of Charles and Mary Abbott.[3] Charles died when Margaret was very young and after his death, the family moved to Boston.[3]
When Abbott was a teenager, her mother took a job as the literary editor of The Chicago Herald and the family moved to Illinois.[3] In Illinois, Abbott began playing golf and soon began winning local championships.[3] After moving to Illinois, she joined the Chicago Golf Club and took up the game, winning local tournaments and was reported to have a two handicap.[3]
Paris Olympics
Mary and Margaret Abbott lived in Paris from 1899 to 1902.[4] While in Paris, Mary researched a travel guide and Margaret studied art with Rodin and Degas.[3]
At the 1900 Paris Olympics, 22 women competed out of a total 997 athletes.[5] It was the first time women were allowed to compete in the Olympic Games.[6] The 1900 Olympics stretched over six months and were something of a sideshow of the Paris Exhibition.[5] The events were referred to as the Championnats Internationaux, or International Championship, instead of the Olympic Games.[7] The women’s golf tournament was held on October 4, 1900 at a nine-hole course at Compiègne, north of Paris.[8] Golf Illustrated referred to the medal event as “The international golf competition recently held … in connection with the Paris Exhibition.”[9] The games were so poorly organized and publicized that many competitors, including Abbott, did not realize that the events they entered were part of the Olympics.
Historical research did not establish that the game was on the Olympic program until after Abbott’s death, so she herself never knew it.[3] Additionally, Abbott’s victory was not well known until University of Florida professor and member of the Olympic Board of Directors Paula Welch researched the golfer and began to put together pieces of Abbott’s life. She examined newspaper articles that mentioned Abbott’s successes in various golfing competitions in an attempt to gain more information. She also located Abbott’s children and informed them of their mother’s victory.[10]
Part of the reason she was not widely known was due to the fact that she had not originally been an official member of the U.S. Olympic team. This is due to the fact she had been residing in France to study art. Abbott competed because she played golf and happened to be in France.[3][5] In the 1890s, Abbott played as a member of the Chicago Golf Club, where she initially learned to play the sport.[5]
She won the Olympics with a 9-hole score of 47.[8] Abbott was awarded a porcelain bowl for first place in golf.[11] The 1900 Games were the only Olympics at which winners received valuable artifacts instead of medals.[12]
All the competitors played in long skirts and fashionable hats,[3] but according to Abbott, some “apparently misunderstood the nature of the game scheduled for the day and turned up to play in high heels and tight skirts.”[4]
Mary Abbott also entered the competition. She shot a 9-hole score of 65 and finished seventh.[6][13] This was the only time in Olympic history that a mother and daughter competed in the same sport in the same event at the same Olympics.[5]
Women’s golf would not be seen again at the Olympics until the 2016 Games in Rio.[3]
Later life and legacy
Margaret Abbott married the writer Finley Peter Dunne on December 10, 1902. They had four children together: Finley Peter Dunne Jr., Peggy Dunne, Leonard Dunne, and Phillip Dunne, who later became a noted screenwriter. Abbott continued to play golf as she helped raise her children.[3] Abbott died at age 76 on June 10, 1955 in Greenwich, Connecticut.[3]
In 1996, Abbot was the featured athlete of the 1900 Olympic Games in the official Olympic program of the Atlanta games.[13]
In 2018, The New York Times published a belated obituary for her.[3]
FYI
Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli KBE, Grande Ufficiale OMRI (Italian: [ˈfraŋko ddzeffiˈrɛlli]; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019),[1] best known as Franco Zeffirelli, was an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator (1994–2001) for the Italian centre-right Forza Italia party.
Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.[2][3][4][5]
He was also known for several of the movies he directed, especially the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His 1967 version of The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the best-known film adaptation of that play as well. His miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) won acclaim and is still shown on Christmas and Easter in many countries.
A Grande Ufficiale OMRI of the Italian Republic since 1977, Zeffirelli also received an honorary knighthood from the British government in 2004 when he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[6] He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome.
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Welcome to Episode 1 of the Chronic Warrior Women podcast! Let us explain to you what we’re doing and why. Buckle up, because living life above the condition involves real talk, awkward stories, and lots of personal nonsense.
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