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The Walled City of Jaipur, known for its iconic architectural legacy and vibrant culture, made its entry into the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

The announcement was made after the 43rd Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, underway at Baku (Azerbaijan) from June 30 to July 10, examined the nomination of the Walled City of Jaipur for inclusion in the World Heritage list.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed happiness that the city has been recognised as a World Heritage Site.

The historic walled city of Jaipur in Rajasthan, was founded in 1727 AD under the patronage of Sawai Jai Singh II. It serves as the capital city of the culturally-rich state of Rajasthan.

In addition, Jaipur City is an exceptional example of a late medieval trade town in South Asia and defined new concepts for a thriving trade and commercial hub. In addition, the city is associated with living traditions in the form of crafts that have national and international recognition, it said.

 

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Hyderabad, also got recognition under the gastronomy category, with its rich culinary tradition that boasts signature dishes such as biryani, haleem, lukhmi and dum-ki-roat.

 The gorgeous city known for its royal food and delectable style of cooking, Hyderabad is one of the two cities in India that received a UNESCO title. This news was shared by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister, K.T. Rama Rao in his tweet celebrating the title.

This title will bring tourism and turn the focus of the city's rich culinary heritage. The food industry in the city employees 12% of the population, directly or indirectly. According to the study that pushed Hyderabad on top of the list, this city consumes about 700 tonnes of chicken every day and 2,000 tonnes during festivals.

 

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Mumbai received the UNESCO’s ‘Creative City’ tag under the film category on the occasion of World Cities Day (October 31).

Mumbai was among 66 cities across the world to be tagged as ‘Creative Cities’ on Thursday, along with Hyderabad, which got recognition under the gastronomy category.

UNESCO awards the ‘Creative City’ status under seven categories, including films, and picks cities that commit to placing culture at the centre of their development strategies. Mumbai and Hyderabad are now part of a network of 246 designated ‘Creative Cities’, joining Chennai,Varanasi and Jaipur from India.

 

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Exhibitions were organized throughout the Netherlands, home of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), to mark the celebrated painter’s 350th death anniversary. Rembrandt is widely regarded as the master artist of what is known as the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th Century. His exceptional ability to paint light and shadow; and his passion for realism made his works distinct. Among his famous paintings are ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’, Portrait of Jan Six’ and ‘The Night Watch’.

The Rembrandt Research Project has extensively researched the authenticity of paintings attributed to Rembrandt. Among those paintings that have survived to be investigated, however, many have suffered the ravages of time. Some have darkened over time, others have been changed in format, and still others have been cleaned and restored too drastically. One thing is certain, however: the number of faked Rembrandts is negligible, because so many school works could easily—often mala fide—be upgraded to “genuine” Rembrandts or were for long unrecognized as school works because of their closeness to a (corrupted) image of Rembrandt’s personal style.

Many of the same attribution problems that apply to Rembrandt’s paintings continue to challenge scholars studying his drawings. Adding to this challenge is the fact that many of his drawings have been lost.

 

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On 15 April, 2019, fire broke out beneath the roof of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, destroying its spire most of its roof, and upper walls. Extensive damage to the interior was prevented by its stone vaulted ceiling. Many works of art and religious relics were moved to safety, but others were damaged or destroyed. The cathedral’s altar, two pipe organs, and its three 13th-century rose windows, suffered little to no damage. On December 25, 2019, the Notre Dame Cathedral did not host Christmas services for the first time since the French Revolution.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told reporters the cause of the fire was likely due to negligence, which could mean the flick of a cigarette at the wrong place, or a simple electrical misalignment. He added that the team hasn’t completely ruled out criminal activity, though the preliminary investigation into the April blaze found no sign the fire was started deliberately.

 Richard Marlet, former head of the scientific police in France, told Euronews the team would still need to find which tiny electrical wire sparked the massive fire.

"It might be wires connected to the tools used by the companies in charge of renovation works," he said, or "it might also be the electrical circuit connected to the bells."

 

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After 30 years on the Chrysanthemum Throne, Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicated on April 30, 2019, being the first Japanese emperor to do so since 1817.

The 85-year-old had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and a heart bypass operation in 2012.

In a rare speech in 2016, he said that he feared his age would make it hard for him to carry out his duties and strongly hinted that he wanted to stand down.

Opinion polls showed that the vast majority of Japan sympathised with him, and a year later parliament enacted a law that made his abdication possible.

Reiwa, a new Imperial era, was announced on April 1, to mark the reign of the new Emperor Naruhito, who ascended the throne on May 1, 2019.

The 59-year-old Oxford University graduate is married to Crown Princess Masako. Their only child, Princess Aiko, was born in 2001.

Japan's current law prohibits women from inheriting the throne, so Princess Aiko's uncle Prince Fumihito is now first in line, followed by her cousin, 12-year-old Prince Hisahito.

 

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The world celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (October 2, 1869), especially his remarkable legacy of non-violence (Ahimsa) and Truth (Satyagraha). Armed not with weapons, but only with his philosophy of peace, he inspired and united people across the country to work towards India’s Independence from British rule. His life and principles have inspired many Mandela to Barack Obama.

Government of India is commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, for a period of two years i.e from 2nd October 2018 to 2nd October 2020 at national and international level to propagate his message.

The occasion of 150th birth anniversary celebrations has given us an opportunity to remind the humanity of the efficacy of the message of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi’s lessons are relevant in every policy of the country such as Swacch Bharat, rights of women and children, and of civil liberties of small and disadvantaged groups, health and well-being of the Indian farmer and the Indian village.

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji has stressed that all programmes associated with these celebrations should be designed around the theme of “Karyanjali” –or “Gandhi in action”. He has also said that event should serve to increase awareness about Gandhiji nationally as well as globally; the occasion should be celebrated in a manner that ensures Mahatma Gandhi continues to be an inspiration for future generations.

 

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The Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai were inscribed as World Heritage Sites. Spread over 66.34 hectares, with a buffer zone of 378.78 hectares, the Ensemble comprises two architectural styles – the 19th Century Victorian structures and 20th Century art deco structures along the sea – linked by an open space, the historic Oval Maidan.

Both the Victorian Gothic and the Art Deco ensembles exhibit an important exchange of European and Indian human values over a span of time. The Victorian assemblage of grand public buildings created an Indo-Gothic style by blending Gothic revival elements with Indian elements, with adaptations in response to the local climate by introducing balconies and verandas. Mumbai’s Art Deco buildings of iconic cinema halls and apartment buildings blended Indian design with Art Deco imagery and created a unique style that became known as Indo-Deco. Its influence spread through the Indian sub-continent.

he Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles reflect the developments in architecture and urban planning over two centuries. The two ensembles represent architectural styles, phases in the advancements of construction materials and techniques, urban planning philosophies and historical phases which are distinctive and facing each other across the Oval Maidan. Both ensembles are the creation of the two major urban expansions of Bombay, which led to the development of the city to become the internationally important mercantile city of the twentieth century and up to the present.

 

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The discovery in Blombos Cave, South Africa, of a stone carrying an abstract drawing in ochre pigment about 73,000 years old – the earliest known human drawing – was announced in a paper published in Nature.

Archaeologists discovered the 1.5-inch-long (3.8 centimeters) rock flake in Blombos Cave, an archaeological site on the coast of South Africa, about 185 miles (300 kilometers) east of Cape Town. The cave is famous for its Middle Stone Age artifacts — including shell beads and engraved stone tools — that were left by humans who lived there between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago.

The flake was covered with ash and dirt, but a quick wash revealed the red crosshatch lines, Henshilwood noted. The ancient drawing includes six parallel lines that are crossed by three slightly curved lines, the researchers said.

In other words, the piece of abstract art "is a hashtag," said Henshilwood, who added that the drawing predates other known early human drawings by at least 30,000 years.

 

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A statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, called Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue, measuring approximately 182 metres (597 ft) in height, was inaugurated on October 31, 2018. As the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, Patel organized relief efforts for refugees fleeing to Punjab and Delhi from Pakistan and worked to restore peace. He led the task of forging a united India, successfully integrating into the newly independent nation those British colonial provinces that had been “allocated” to India. Besides those provinces that had been under direct British rule, he persuaded around 565 self-governing princely states that had been released from British suzerainty by the Indian Independence Act of 1947 to accede to India.

The 29.9-billion-rupee (430 million USD) 'Statue of Unity' overlooking the isolated Sardar Sarovar Dam is a pet project of Modi. He has predicted it will attract "hordes" of tourists, as the Statue of Liberty does in New York.

The project to commemorate Sardar Patel was announced by Modi in 2013 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The BJP had collected iron, soil and water from across the country to build the statue.

 

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On August 26, 1768, 250 years ago, Captain James Cook British explorer, surveyor, navigator and cartographer, embarked on his first Pacific voyage, aboard the HMB Endeavour, with instructions to chart the transit of Venus across the sun at the equator. Cook went on to chart New Zealand, before continuing onward to first sight the east coast of Australia at Point Hicks on 20 April 1770. As the Endeavour sailed north, he charted the coast making first landfall at Bay on April 29, 1770.

Cook’s voyage had three aims; to establish an observatory at Tahiti in order to record the transit of Venus (when the planet passed between the earth and the sun), on 3 June 1769. The second aim was to record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks. The final secret goal was to continue the search for the Great South Land. 

 

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A bit of France on Arab sands? Yes, topped by an enormous signature dome of overlapping geometric lattices that weight more than 7,500 tonnes, the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, opened to the public on November 11, 2017. The new museum showcases hundreds of works of art from around the world, ancient as well as contemporary. It is approximately 24,000 square metres (260,000 sq ft) in size, with 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft) of galleries, making it the largest art museum in the Arabian peninsula.

55 heterogeneous buildings are sheltered under one gargantuan dome at the Louvre. Described as ‘Arabic-Galactic’ by the New York Times, the dome is a reinterpretation of the traditional Arab dome. 180metres in span, the dome purportedly weighs as much as the Eiffel Tower, despite its seeming ‘floating’ appearance. Nouvel’s architecture seems to converse with nature. 

Under the dome, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect’s “museum city” is formed like a cluster of man-made islands. Spread out across the sea, its marble-clad walls sparkle as sunlight is reflected off the water. Not wanting to merely mimic traditional Arabic architecture, Nouvel reinterpreted the traditional settlements of the region through his “modern proposal”. Meandering streets, covered piazzas and inlets for water, echo the mysterious feeling of an Arabic village, where the atmosphere brims with the possibility of chance encounters at every turn.

 

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The bongs of the iconic Great Bell, popularly called Big Ben, inside the clock tower above the House of Parliament in London, fell silent on August 21, 2017, and will resume four years later in 2021. The reason? The Elizabeth Tower, home to the bells that make up the great clock has been undergoing a programme of restoration work.

Big Ben is the name of the bell inside the tower (St. Stephen's Tower, renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012), and not the building or the clock (simply known as the Great Clock) itself.

The chimes were last silent in 2007 during maintenance, and before that from 1983-1985 during a period of refurbishment.

Londoners needn't worry though; Big Ben will continue to chime for "important national events" such as New Year's Eve and Remembrance Sunday.

 

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On 6 February, 2017, the Sapphire Jubilee of Elizabeth II, marking sixty-five years of her reign, took place. The longest-reigning monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II is the first British monarch to have a Sapphire Jubilees, there were no widespread public celebrations of the Sapphire Jubilee. Large-scale celebrations took place in June 2016, to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday.

A traditional gun salute and a performance by the Band of the Royal Artillery is planned to underline the record-breaking anniversary. However, celebrations should remain limited this year. The Queen is said to want to quietly devote the day to her father's memory.

Larger celebrations could, however, be planned for the Queen's next big anniversary, her Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

 

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In 2017 the world marked the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an event that tradition tells us began on October 31, 1517 when the priest Martin Luther posted his ninety-five these on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. His radical views sparked the Protestant Reformation, a watershed event in Western history that has bequeathed to the world a variety of concepts that are relevant even today.

The 95 Theses, which would later become the foundation of the Protestant Reformation, were written in a remarkably humble and academic tone, questioning rather than accusing. The overall thrust of the document was nonetheless quite provocative. The first two of the theses contained Luther’s central idea, that God intended believers to seek repentance and that faith alone, and not deeds, would lead to salvation. The other 93 theses, a number of them directly criticizing the practice of indulgences, supported these first two.

Luther is remembered as a controversial figure, not only because his writings led to significant religious reform and division, but also because in later life he took on radical positions on other questions, including his pronouncements against Jews, which some have said may have portended German anti-Semitism; others dismiss them as just one man’s vitriol that did not gain a following. Some of Luther’s most significant contributions to theological history, however, such as his insistence that as the sole source of religious authority the Bible be translated and made available to everyone, were truly revolutionary in his day.

 

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