2014 Event Russian president Vladimir Putin bans cursing in creative works and media outlets, with fines on individuals and companies for using bad language; the stated purpose of the law is to protect Russian language and culture 2010 Event The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, says cultural genocide is happening as a result of the Chinese law requiring Mandarin as the language of instruction in Tibetan schools 2010 Event A new, though threatened, language known as Koro, is discovered by a team of linguists on an expedition to Arunachal Pradesh, in northeastern India 2010 Event Georgia changes its second language to English; Russian was originally its second language 2002 Death Arne Mellnas, composer, studied, taught orchestration at Royal College of Music in Stockholm, musical language filled with diverse moods 1997 Death Owen Barfield, philosopher of language, dies at 99 1997 Death Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator, influential theorist of critical pedagogy, educator, author, studied philosophy, phe, nomenology, psychology of language, embraced a non-orthodox form of liberation theology, wrote 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed', dies from heart failure 1996 Death W R Lee, language teacher, dies at 84 1993 Event Puerto Rico adds English as its 2nd official language 1987 Death Hal K Dawson, actor (Another Language, Wells Fargo), dies 1979 Death Arno Schmidt, German writer, author, translator, individualist, solipsist, admired for colloquial language style and theory of etyms he developed in magnum opus, titled Zettels Traum, dies at 65 1974 Death Mascha Kaleko, writer, German language poet, dies at 48 1969 Event Janis Joplin, accused of vulgar and indicent language in Tampa, Fla 1968 Birthday Rasmus Lerdorf, born in Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland, created PHP programming language, Open Source conference speaker, contributed to Apache HTTP Server 1964 Event Vatican abolished Latin as official language of Roman Catholic liturgy 1963 Death Jozef Goossenaerts, Flem philologist (Language Boundary), dies at 81 1963 Event Language laws in Belgium goes into effect causing a riot 1963 Event Belgian Senate accept Law on language regulations 1961 Event 75,000 Flemings demand equal rights and Flemish language in Belgium 1961 Birthday David Leavitt, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, writer, gay literature, professor at Princeton, author of, 'The Lost Language of Cranes', 'The Body of Jonah Boyd', 'The Indian Clerk' 1960 Death Gunnar Olof Bjorling, Fin-Swedish language poet (Kiri-ra!), dies at 73 1952 Event Bangladesh Martyrs Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement) 1944 Birthday Paul Lansky, born in New York, composer, electronic music, computer music language pioneer, studied with George Perle and Milton Babbitt, professor of music at Princeton University 1943 Birthday Barry Evans, actor, Dr. Upton-Dr. in the House, Mind Your Language 1934 Birthday Adolf Muschg, born in Zollikon, canton of Zurich, writer, German language and literature professor, wrote provocative works, including If Auschwitz is in Switzerland 1934 Birthday John D. Loudermilk, rock drummer/vocalist, Language of Love, Norman 1933 Birthday Arne Mellnas, born in Stockholm, Sweden, composer, studied, taught orchestration at Royal College of Music in Stockholm, musical language filled with diverse moods 1932 Birthday Jaan Raats, born in Tartu, Estonia, composer, composed Estonian language films, wrote 'Aeg elada aeg armastada' 1932 Event Belgian Chamber rules Dutch language for education of Flanders 1932 Event Rose Franken's "Another Language," premieres in New York City 1932 Birthday Janet Bately, Professor of English Language, King's College London 1931 Birthday Richard Rorty, born in New York City, philosopher, focused on philosophy of language, of mind, politics, literary theory 1931 Event Genootschap Onze Taal (Our Language) organizes (Netherlands) 1928 Birthday Desmond Morris, English zoologist, Human Ape, Body Language 1927 Birthday Cecil Bodker, born in Fredericia, Denmark, writer, won Mildred L. Batchelder Award for her book titled, The Leopard, considered the most outstanding book originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, then published in the United States 1926 Death Nicolaus Adriani, translator (Middle-Celebes Language), dies at 60 1926 Birthday Hans Andreus, Johan W van der Zant, Dutch poet, Animal Language 1925 Death Karl M Lybeck, Fin/Swedish language poet (Samlade Arbeten), dies at 71 1924 Birthday John Backus, inventor, FORTRAN computer language 1924 Event 1st foreign language course broadcast on U.S. radio (WJZ, New York City) 1922 Event Demonstration for a French Language University in Ghent 1922 Death Edward Gailliard, Flemish language/archaeologist, dies at 81 1921 Birthday Paulo Freire, born in Recife, Brazil, Brazilian educator, influential theorist of critical pedagogy, educator, author, studied philosophy, phenomenology, psychology of language, embraced a non-orthodox form of liberation theology, wrote 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' 1921 Event New rules of language assumed, equal rights Flemings/Walen Belgium 1914 Birthday Arno Schmidt, born in Hamburg, Germany, German writer, author, translator, individualist, solipsist, admired for colloquial language style and theory of etyms he developed in magnum opus, titled Zettels Traum 1913 Event Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools 1911 Birthday W R Lee, language teacher 1907 Birthday Mascha Kaleko, born in Chrzanow, Austria, now Poland, writer, German language poet, first book 'Lyrisches Stenogrammheft' was burned in Nazi book burnings, wrote advertising copy while living in New York 1906 Birthday John Humphreys Whitfield, scholar of Italian language and literature 1898 Birthday Owen Barfield, philosopher of language 1896 Birthday Roman Jakobson, linguist/Slavic scholar, Fundamentals of Language 1893 Birthday Carlo Emilio Gadda, born in Milan, Italy, writer, poet, innovator of pre-war Italian language with dialects, jargon, wordplay 1890 Birthday Adolf Bach, German language/sociologist, Deutsche Namenkunde 1887 Birthday Gunnar Olof Bjorling, Finnish/Swedish language poet, Vilande Dag 1882 Birthday Jozef Goossenaerts, Flemish philologist, Language boundary 1881 Event Revival of Hebrew language as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends agree to use Hebrew exclusively in their conversations 1872 Death Johan van Dale, schoolmaster (New Dutch Language Wordbook), dies at 44 1864 Birthday Karl M Lybeck, Finnish/Swedish language poet, Samlade Arbeten 1832 Death Rasmus Rask, Danish language scholar, dies at 44 1828 Birthday Johan H van Dale, schoolmaster, New Dutch Language Dictionary 1822 Event King Willem I obligates inhabitants of Brussels to use Dutch language 1788 Birthday Cornelis J van Assen, Dutch jurist, Language of the Constitution 1787 Birthday Rasmus Rask, Denmark, language scholar 1747 Death Luc de Clapiers, born in Aix-en-Provence, France, writer, essayist, moralist, considered a modern Stoic, believed mankind is noble, employed epigrammic language to express observations of human conduct and motives, dies in Paris 1715 Birthday Luc de Clapiers, born in Aix-en-Provence, France, writer, essayist, moralist, considered a modern Stoic, believed mankind is noble, employed epigrammic language to express observations of human conduct and motives 1639 Event Academie Franeaise begins Dictionary of French Language 1620 Event English language newspaper "Namloos" begins publishing in Amsterdam
