Welcome to the Polish American Journal

May

• Maj

St. Joseph the Worker.

Labor Day (Poland)

2004. Accession of Poland to the European Union.

Poland’s Mayday (Pierwszy Maja), once heavily promoted and celebrated by the communist regime as Workers’ Day, it is now a far more low-key event, although it remains a free day.

1908. Birth of Krystyna Skarbek, who became a spy for the British Special Operations Executive during World War II. She was well-known for her operations in Nazi occupied Poland and France. Due to her resourcefulness and success, more women were recruited by espionage organizations. A friend of Ian Fleming, Skarbek is said to have been inspiration for Bond Girls Tatiana Romanova and Vesper Lynd.

1576. Coronation of Stephen Batory and Anna Jagiellon.

1921. Third Silesian Uprising begins. The Uprisings were a series of three armed uprisings of the Poles and Polish Silesians of Upper Silesia, from 1919 to 1921, against German rule; the resistance hoped to break away from Germany in order to join the Second Polish Republic, which had been established in the wake of World War I.

1952. Birth of Tony Award-winning actress Christine Baranski in Buffalo, N.Y. She is known for her outstanding performances in the TV series Cybill, Frasier, and The Big Bang Theory. She also has had roles in several movies including The Bird Cage and The Grinch that Stole Christmas.

1978. Polish mountain climbers reach the South Kanchen peak in the Himalayas.

Feast of Mary, Queen of Poland

Święto Trzeciego Maja. Polish Constitution Day. Banned by the communists, Poland’s Constitution re-emerged with a vengeance following the collapse of the regime in 1989. Commemorating the world’s second modern written constitution (the first being that of the United States), it is a day of military parades, family fests and outings. Poland’s Constitution of 1791 is the second oldest democratic constitution in the world. This declaration of democracy remains a focal point for the Polish people who are reminded that Poland was the fatherland of documented democracy in Eastern Europe, second only to the democracy established by the American constitution adapted in 1787.

1505. Signing of Act of Nihil Novi, effectively establishing a “nobles’ democracy” in what came to be known as the Polish “Commonwealth [or Republic] of the Nobility.” It was a major component of the evolution and eventual dominant position of the Polish parliament (Sejm). “Nihil novi,” in this political sense, is interpreted in the vernacular as “Nothing about us without us” (in Polish, “Nic o nas bez nas”). The Latin expression, “nihil novi” (“nothing new”), had previously appeared in the Vulgate Bible phrase, “nihil novi sub sole” (“there is nothing new under the sun”), in Ecclesiastes 1:9.[2]

1660. Signing of the Treaty of Oliva (Oliwa, Royal Prussia), ending the Second Northern War (1655-1660), between Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Habsburgs, and Brandenburg-Prussia.

1887. First edition of Wiara i Ojczyzna, which in 1897 became of the official newspaper of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and later renamed Narod Polski, the Polish Nation.

Blessed Władysław of Gielniow

1870. Birth of Zygmunt Stojowski, friend of Peter Tchaikovsky and student of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Stojowski was not only a brilliant concert pianist, he was known for being an outstanding professor, teaching countless students in New York until the end of his life. He became a champion of the newly independent Polish nation in 1918.

1993. Death of Marion Lush (Marion Luszcz), polka musician known as the “Golden Voice of Polkas,” in Hollywood, Florida, age 60.

1629. Death of Polish Renaissance poet Szymon Szymonowic.

1819. Birth of composer Stanislaw Moniuszko. (†1872).

1846. Birth of novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz († 1916), who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1905. He is the author of “Quo Vadis?” and three other novels known as “The Trilogy.”

1194. Death of Kazimierz II the Justified, grand duke of Poland (1177-94).

1648. Battle at Zolty Wody-Bohdan: Chmielricki’s Cossacks beat John II Casimir.

1983. Birth of actress Adrianne Palicki in Toledo, Ohio, to Nancy and Jeffrey Palicki.

1982. Birth in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland, of Edyta Sliwinska, known for being the only professional dancer on all 6 seasons of “Dancing with the Stars”

1794. Issuance of Proclamation of Połaniec (also known as the Połaniec Manifesto; Polish: Uniwersał Połaniecki), issued by Tadeusz Kościuszko near the town of Połaniec, was one of the most notable events of Poland’s Kościuszko Uprising, and the most famous legal act of the Uprising. It partially abolished serfdom in Poland, granting substantial civil liberties to all the peasants.

1867. Birth of writer and Nobel laureate Władysław Reymont († December 5, 1925). He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1924 for his four-volume novel, “The Peasants,” completed between 1904 and 1910. Never before had an author presented the daily life and folkways of the Polish countryside.

2004. Death of Waldemar Milewicz, a Polish journalist and war correspondent who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Iraq. It is believed that his car was followed by a group of Iraqi insurgents in another car. Milewicz’s car was clearly marked with a “press” sticker. Despite that, when the attackers caught up with it, they opened machine gun fire.

VE DAY (U.S.)

ST. STANISLAUS

Poland’s patron, Stanislaus, an early Bishop of Krakow, was slain by King Boleslaw Smialy while celebrating Mass in 1079. His body lies in the cathedral of Wawel Hill in Krakow, Poland. Hundreds of Polish churches across the world are named after him.

1989. Adam Michnik’s Gazeta Wyborcza began publication on 8 May 1989, under the rhyming masthead motto, “Nie ma wolności bez Solidarności” (“There’s no freedom without Solidarity”). Today, it is the second-largest newspaper in Poland.

1667. Death of Marie Louise de Gonzague-Nevers, French Queen of Poland (1645-48).

1931. Death of Albert Michelson, physicist. (b. 1852) Michelson was born in Strzelno, Poland, and emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1855. He was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, held several professorships at universities across the U.S. and received a Nobel Prize in physics in 1907. His passion was the accurate measurement of the speed of light. Using his interferometer, he paved the way for the development of the theory of relativity, formulated by Albert Einstein.

1034. Death of Mieszko II Lambert.

1573. Henry of Anjou (Henry Walezy, Henry of Valois), became the first elected king of Poland.

1670. Birth of August II the Strong One, King of Poland and elector of Saxony (d.1733).

1364. Founding of Jagiellonian University.

1935. Death of Polish Head of State Józef Pilsudski, 67, general, leader in the 1916. Polish independence, prime minister (1926-28, 1930), in Warsaw. Many Polish and Polish American organizations, schools and clubs are named in his honor. Pilsudski is buried in Wawel Cathedral in Krakow.

1970. Death of World War II Polish Gen. Władysław Anders. In addition to leading Poland’s cavalry units during Poland’s invasion in 1939, Anders is known for creating Anders Army. He was also the leader of several successful battles which freed Monte Cassino, Italy, from Nazi occupation.

1902. Death of Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, first woman doctor in New England.

1889. Founding of the Polish Singers Alliance of America.

1981. Pope John Paul II shot by a would-be assassin at public audience in St. Peter’s Square. Also wounded is a Polish America pilgrim from Buffalo, New York, Ann Odre.

1984. Death of Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, mathematician who participated in the Manhattan Project and proposed the Teller–Ulam design of thermonuclear weapons. He also invented nuclear pulse propulsion and developed a number of mathematical tools in number theory, set theory, ergodic theory, and algebraic topology.

1955. Signing of the Warsaw Pact. Formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, the Pact was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet-controlled satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO.

1792. Signing of Targowica Confederation, a union of Polish and Lithuanian magnates who met April 27 1792, in Saint Petersburg, with the backing of the Russian Empress Catherine II. The confederation opposed the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, and resulted in two Russian armies invading the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth without a formal declaration of war. The term targowiczanin, describing the members and supporters of this confederation, became a synonym to traitors and targowica to treason acts in the Polish language, and is still used up to the modern day.

1942. Founding of the Polish Institute of Sciences in America, in New York.

1940. Authorization of AB Action. The AB-Aktion (German: Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion, English: Extraordinary Operation of Pacification), was a second stage of the Nazi German campaign of violence during World War II aimed to eliminate the intellectuals and the upper classes of Polish society across the territories slated for eventual annexation. Most of the killings were arranged in a form of mass disappearances from multiple cities and towns upon the German arrival. In the spring and summer of 1940, more than 30,000 Poles were arrested by the Nazi authorities in German-occupied central Poland. About 7,000 of them including community leaders, professors, teachers and priests (labeled as suspected of criminal activities) were subsequently massacred secretly at various locations including at the Palmiry forest complex near Palmiry. The others were sent to German concentration camps.

1850. Birth of Johannes von Mikulica-Radecki, Polish surgical pioneer.

1211. Death of Mieszko IV Tanglefoot.

1943. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

1657. Martyrdom of St. Andrzej Bobola.

1902. Birth of Polish operatic tenor Jan Kiepura. He made his debut in 1931 with the Chicago Opera Company. His performance won him title roles in every major opera.

1942. Death of Bronislaw Malinowski, 56, anthropologist, ethnographer, in New Haven, Conn.

1025. Death of King Boleslaw Chrobry (Boleslaus the Brave).

1792. Russian troops invade Poland.

1920. Birth of Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, named Pope John Paul II, October 16, 1978.

2003. Pope John Paul II canonizes Bishop Joseph Sebastian Pelczar, founder of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

1944. Second Polish Corps win the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy.

1674. Election of King John III Sobieski.

1648. Death of King Ladislas IV, 55. His Jesuit brother, 39, took rule as John Casimir II.

1881. Birth of Polish General Władysław Sikorski. (†1943) He led the Polish government-in-exile during World War II.

1704. Formation of Sandomierz Confederation, an anti-Swedish confederation, formed in defense of the King of Poland, August II the Strong. It was formed in reaction to the Warsaw Confederation, and its marshal was Stanisław Ernest Denhoff. The confederation lasted until 1717, when it was disbanded by the Silent Sejm.

1674. Coronation of Jan Sobieski, who defeated the Turkish Armies during the battle of Vienna in 1683, which in turn saved Europe and Western civilization. He has been honored for centuries as the “Defender of Christendom.”

1841. Death of Polish poet and writer Julian Niemcewicz, who spent the years from 1794-1807 visiting the young American nation.

2010. In Poland Nicolaus Copernicus, nee Mikołaj Kopernik (1473-1543), the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.

1993. Death of pianist Mieczysław Horszowski, internationally acclaimed pianist and music teacher whose performances were widely recorded. Horszowski was also a teacher at the Curtis Institute and continued to teach and perform until shortly before his death in Philadelphia in at the age of 100.

1898. Founding of the fraternal benefit society, the Polish Women’s Alliance.

1939. Hitler proclaims he wants to move into Poland.

1930. Birth of artist Richard J. Anuszkiewicz.

1543. Death of Nicholas Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik), Polish astronomer. His book, “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs,” (“De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium”), proof of a sun-centered universe, was printed just before he died. Although he did say that the earth rotated once a day and did revolve around the sun once a year, he kept two features of the old Aristotelian system: one involved uniform circular motion, and the other was quintessential matter, for which such motion was said to be natural. In 1916 the Catholic clergy placed the book on its “Index of Prohibited Books.” In 2008 his remains, buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, were positively identified using DNA evidence.

1964. Most Rev. Stanislaus Brzana appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buffalo and Titular Bishop of Cufruta by Pope Paul VI, the first Polish American to hold that title in the Diocese..

992. Death of Mieszko I, first Duke of Poland.

1997. 46th International Eucharistic Congress held in Wroclaw, Poland.

1861. Death of Capt. Constantine Blandowski, first foreign-born officer to die in the Civil War.

Mother’s Day (Poland). In Poland, Dzień Matki is always celebrated in Poland on this fixed date rather than on the second Sunday of May.

1903. Birth of Al (Szymanowski) Simmons, Hall of Fame baseball player for the Philadelphia Athletics.

1953. Defection to the West of Polish pilot Lt. Francis Jarecki, thus allowing the first close look at the new Russian MiG fighter.

1993. Death of Andrzej Wasowski, 69, painist, in Washington, D.C.

1883. Death of poet Cyprian Norwid.

1944. Polish American Congress founded in Buffalo, New York.

1981. Death of Polish Primate and staunch anti-communist Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski.

1792. Great Sejm, which ratified Poland’s Constitution of May 3, 1791 ends.

1913. Birth of Tony Zale (Zaleski), middleweight champion from 1940-48.

Memorial Day (U.S.)

1972. Visit of President Richard Nixon to Poland, the first visit by a U.S. president.