June 21st Calendar: Happy Birthday to Edward Snowden!

Born on June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, United States, computer scientist Edward Snowden turns 42 today.

Edward Snowden is known worldwide as America's greatest whistleblower, following the disclosure of top-secret NSA (National Security Agency) information to the media outlets The Guardian and The Washington Post. This information includes the collection of connection and phone call data in the United States, as well as the implementation of American and British surveillance programs. According to him, the purpose of these revelations "is to tell the public what is being done in their name and what is being done against them." In 2014, these disclosures earned both media outlets the Pulitzer Prize, an American journalism award awarded by Columbia University in New York.

Following these revelations, the US government indicted him on June 22, 2013, for espionage, theft, and illegal use of government property. Edward Snowden then went into exile in Hong Kong, China, and then in Russia, where he was granted a three-year residency permit in 2014. More recently, on September 26, 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting him Russian citizenship .

In 1966, on the front page of “Sud Ouest”

To find and purchase all the covers of “Sud Ouest” since 1944: click here.

Saint Rudolph , son of a Count of Cahors, was Bishop of Bourges (Cher) for 25 years. Before dying in 866, he founded several monasteries. The Rodolphes are kind and thoughtful. Their color: blue. Their number: 3.

Saying of the day: “If June is quantity, September is quality.”

It happened on June 21st

1857 Charles Baudelaire's "Fleurs du Mal" is published for the first time. 1902 The Pau-Monein tramway line is opened via Jurançon . 1943 Jean Moulin is arrested by the Gestapo in Caluire (Rhône-Alpes).

1982 100 baccalaureate exams are thrown in the trash. Candidates from Bordeaux, Libourne, and Arcachon have to retake the exam . 1994 François Mitterrand inaugurates the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution Zoologique at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. 2004 American pilot Mike Melvill makes the first private suborbital flight aboard the SpaceShipOne spacecraft. 2013 UNESCO lists the Italian volcano Etna, which rises to 3,300 meters, as a World Heritage Site. 2024 From June 21, 2024 to January 4, 2026, the Basque Museum in Bayonne celebrates its 100th anniversary. A new area is open to the public. It hosts a chronological exhibition featuring more than 200 objects from the 20th century to the present day.

Michel Platini, former French footballer (1955). Chris Pratt, American actor (1979). Prince William, first child of Prince Charles and Lady Diana (1982). Lana Del Rey (known as Elizabeth Woolridge Grant ), American singer-songwriter (1985).