Source: History Channel
.jpg)
Source: Wikipedia
In circa 1988, during the reign of King Fahd, the mosque was completely torn down and rebuilt. In the course of the reconstruction, the old prayer niche facing Jerusalem was removed, and the one facing Mecca was left. Hence, these stamps commemorate its reconstruction.
The mosque was originally built by Sawad ibn Ghanam ibn Ka'ab during the year 2 AH (623 CE) and was one of the few mosques in the world to have contained two mihrabs (niches indicating the qibla) in different directions -- from Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem to the Ka’bah in Makkah. Masjid al-Qiblatain remains historically important to Muslims as it is the location where the first congregational prayers were performed following the change; on that day, the Prophet Muhammed (saw) arrived in the afternoon and led his congregation in prayer facing the.Ka’bah in Makkah.
Besides the restoration work made in 1988, the mosque has received a number of structural changes in its 1400 year history. During the reign of Ottoman caliph Sultan Suleiman the Great it was rebuilt. In 1931 (1350 AH) King Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered the restoration and expansion of the mosque as well as the construction of a minaret and a wall around it. Lastly, in 2019 plans were afoot to enlarge the mosque to accommodate more people.
Grant starred in some of the best romantic comedies ever made, like "The Philadelphia Story", "His Girl Friday", and "The Awful Truth" as well as remarkable thrillers such as Hitchcock’s "Notorious" and "North by Northwest"; his star-making performances in such pictures cemented his status as a definitive leading man and all-around box-office commodity in Hollywood. Grant’s exceptional on-screen career spanned nearly 35 years, with the acting great retiring from the cinema in 1966 after starring in over 70 films. He passed away in 1986 at age 82.
POSTA SRPSKE (Republika Srpske Bosnia-Herzegovina) in 2014 issued a series of first day cover stamps marking the centenary of WWI. Shown are the first day covers, each with historic information of the reverse side of the envelope as it pertains to the stamps, and a souvenir sheet of the stamps.
Source: United Nations
Oskar Werner (born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer; 13 November 1922 – 23 October 1984) was an Austrian stage and cinema actor whose prominent roles include two 1965 films, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and "Ship of Fools". Other notable films include "Decision Before Dawn" (1951), "Jules and Jim" (1962), "Fahrenheit 451" (1966), "The Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968) and "Voyage of the Damned" (1976). He was also in the Columbo TV episode "Playback" in 1975.
He died at age 62 from a heart attack and is buried in Triesen, Liechtenstein.
The scholar-poet Dr. Douglas Hyde, who later became the first President of Ireland, inaugurated the State-controlled service on 1st January, 1926. The first studio was in Dublin and the station was named Dublin 2 RN. Shortly afterwards Cork acquired a studio, identified as 6CK. Early Irish broadcasters proved remarkably imaginative in the use of the medium. They helped to develop broadcast drama as a genuine art form and they were among the first to use radio for the live coverage of sport.
In 1932 a high-power transmitter (strength 60 kw, soon increased to 100 kw.) was opened near Athlone in the centre of Ireland. The service became known at home and abroad as Radio Eireann Radio of Ireland-and its possibilities could now be fully exploited. The post-war years saw the formation of important professional groups within the broadcasting service, such as the Radio Eireann Players, the Radio Eireann Singers and the Radio Eireann Symphony Orchestra.
A television service was opened in 1961 and the State handed over control of broadcasting to a cor poration, now called Radio Telefis Eireann, established by act of parliament. RTE radio continued to develop. A VHF (FM) network was built, stereo broadcasts became common and a subsidiary service in the Irish language (Radio na Gaeltachta) was set up with headquarters in the West of Ireland. A powerful new transmitter (strength 500 kw) was brought into use in 1975. Irish broadcasts could be heard in Britain and many parts of Europe on 530 metres (566 kilo Hertz).
%20of%20Dr.%20Edith%20Stein%20and%20Ruppert%20Mayer.jpg)
In the Roman Catholic Church, beatification is a declaration by the Pope that the deceased is in a state of bliss, constituting the first step towards canonisation and permitting public veneration. While their beatification is admiral for Catholics, I discovered the personal histories of Dr. Edith Stein and Ruppert Mayer commendable, especially during the Nazi Germany period.
Dr. Edith Stein (or, Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce OCD; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She was canonised as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church in 1987; she is also one of six patron saints of Europe.
She and 243 fellow Catholics of Jewish origin were arrested by the Gestapo in the Netherlands on 2 August 1942. They were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they were murdered in a gas chamber on 9 August 1942.
Rupert Mayer, S.J. (23 January 1876 – 1 November 1945) was a German Jesuit priest and a leading figure of the Catholic resistance to Nazism in Munich.
From 1914, Mayer volunteered as a chaplain in the First World War. He was initially assigned to a camp hospital; but was later made a Field Captain and sent to the fronts in France, Poland and Romania as chaplain to a division of soldiers. His bravery was legendary and he was held in great esteem by the soldiers.[6] When there was fighting at the front, Fr. Mayer would be found himself crawling along the ground from one soldier to the next talking to them, and administering the Sacraments to them. In December 1915, Fr. Mayer was the first chaplain to win the Iron Cross for bravery in recognition of his work with the soldiers at the front. In December 1916, he lost his left leg after it was injured in a grenade attack. He returned to Munich to convalesce and was referred to as the "Limping Priest".
In January 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, he began to close church-affiliated schools and started a campaign to discredit the religious orders in Germany. Mayer spoke out against this persecution from the pulpit of St. Michael's in downtown Munich and because he was a powerful influence in the city, the Nazis could not tolerate such a force to oppose them.
On 16 May 1937, the Gestapo ordered Mayer to stop speaking in public which he obeyed, but he continued to preach in church.Mayer spoke out against anti-Catholic baiting campaigns and fought against Nazi church policy. Since he believed that a Catholic could not be a National Socialist, conflict inevitably arose between him and the Nazis. He preached that Man must obey God more than men. His protests against the Nazis landed him several times in Landsberg prison. Mayer resolutely spoke out against the Nazi régime's evil in his lectures and sermons.
On 5 June 1937, he was arrested and found himself in "protective custody" in Stadelheim Prison for six weeks. When he became the target of defamatory attacks on the part of the Nazis, his Jesuit superiors allowed him to return to the pulpit to defend himself against slanders that the Nazis made during his silence. He was re-arrested and served a sentence of five months.
Mayer was arrested again 3 November 1939 and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp under the Kanzelparagraphen, a series of 19th-century laws that forbade the clergy to make political statements. He was released from there on the condition of a broad ban on preaching. The sixty-three-year old priest developed heart problems, From late 1944, he was interned in Ettal Monastery, mainly because the Nazis were afraid that he would die in the concentration camp, and thus become a martyr. He remained there until liberated by the US forces in May 1945.
Source: Wikipedia
