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nPostednon November 30, 2016
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nAnothernday, another nation, another hero!
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nTodaynpeople in the Philippines celebrate the birthday of one of theirngreatest heroes, Andres Bonifacio.
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nBornnon this date in 1863, Bonifacio had to drop out of school at age 14nto support his siblings when his parents died. He created a thrivingnfamily business making canes, paper fans, and posters. He continuednhis education by working at a German trading firm, where he learnednEnglish, and by reading a lot of history, biography, and fictionnbooks. He studied Philippine penal and civil codes (hey, don’t we allndo that in our free time?), and he even founded a theater companynwith his friends!
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nAtnthe time, the Philippines were a Spanish colony. But many Filipinosnwanted to be independent. Bonifacio was one of the founding membersnof the political organization LanLiga Filipina,nwhich was Jose Rizal‘sn“baby,”nbut when Rizal was seized and deported, Bonifacio and others began tonthink that armed insurrection was necessary rather than thenoft-attempted peaceful reforms.
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nBonifacionis considered the Father of the Philippine Revolution because he wasnone of the men who started a secret revolutionary society called thenKatipunan, and he became the military leader and the president of thenrevolutionary government. He wrote articles that, when published,nhelped convince tens of thousands of Filipinos to join thenrevolution. n
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nAsnusual, humans are complex, and history is messy. There was this wholencomplex, messy thing among the Filipino revolutionaries, and variousnhistorians give different accounts of how it went down that a mannnamed Emilio Aguinaldo became the first president of the Philippines,nand why he arrested, tried, convicted, and executed Bonifacio.nSuffice to say that some Filipinos view Bonifacio as a hero and evennas the rightful first President of the Philippines, but others viewnhim as a traitor or criminal. n
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nAnlighter look at the “Phils”
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nHerenare some interesting facts about the Philippines:
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nFour of the eleven largest malls in the world are in the Philippines!
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nFour of the eleven largest malls in the world are in the Philippines!
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nAn volcano with a lake in the caldera, with a volcanic cone forming ann island in the lake, and a smaller lake inside that cone, and an evenn smaller cone inside that lake…all of that can be seen at Taaln Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the nation!
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nThe Philippines includes more than 7,000 islands, and Filipinos speak more than 125 languages!
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nYo-yo, cooties and boondocks are all words English borrowed from Filipino languages.
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nTheren are rice terraces in the Philippines that remain as they have beenn for centuries and centuries – and that were built about 2,000n years ago!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nAlsonon this date:
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nPoliticiannShirley Chisholm’s birthday
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nSaintnAndrew’s Day in Scotland
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nAuthornMark Twain’s birthday
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nAuthornMark Twain’s birthday
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nYemen’snIndependence Day
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nYemen’snIndependence Day
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nBenin’snNational Day
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nAnniversarynof the discovery of a statue of Ramses II
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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