Today marks 129 years since the birth of a great Romanian poet, playwright and philosopher

Lucian Blaga, philosopher, poet, playwright, translator, journalist, university professor and diplomat, was born on May 9, 1895.

The son of priest Isidor Blaga and Ana (née Moga), he was raised in a family with intellectual traditions. He completed his elementary studies at the German gymnasium in Sebeş and his secondary studies at the Romanian high school in Braşov (1906-1914). In order not to be incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian army, he enrolled at the Theological Institute in Sibiu, from which he graduated in 1917. He attended courses at the Faculty of Philosophy in Vienna, obtaining the title of doctor in 1920.

Between 1920 and 1926, he was editor of the magazines Cultura from Cluj and Banatul from Lugoj. In 1926 he entered diplomacy, successively being attached to the press and adviser to the Romanian legations in Warsaw, Prague, Bern and Vienna, then minister plenipotentiary in Lisbon.

In 1956, it was proposed by Rosa del Conte and the critic Basil Munteanu, but it seems that the idea started with Mircea Eliade himself, to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. Among his works are: “Poems of light”, “Master Manole”, “Children’s Crusade”, “Avram Iancu”, “Trilogy of knowledge”, “Trilogy of culture”, “Trilogy of values” (d. 6 May 1961).

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Discover presents other historical meanings of May 9:

1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final voyage to the “New World”

1877 – The extraordinary session of the Assembly of Deputies proclaimed Romania’s state independence.

1918 – The poet and translator George Coşbuc, titular member of the Romanian Academy: “Zamfirei’s Wedding”, “Moertea lui Fulger”, “El Zorab” passed away. (born September 20, 1866)

[1945–TheactofunconditionalsurrenderofGermanyissignedattheSovietheadquartersinBerlin–theendoftheSecondWorldWar

1946 – The literary critic Pompiliu Constantinescu (b. 1901) passed away.

1960 – The United States became the first country to legalize the contraceptive pill.

1985 – The European Council chose May 9 as Europe Day, appreciating that the starting point of the construction of a united Europe was the declaration by which, on May 9, 1950, Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, proposed to Germany, but also to other European states, to lay “the concrete foundations of a European federation indispensable for maintaining peace”.

1990 – Mother Teresa, laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, visited Romania.

1994 – Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa.

2005 – The former king of Romania, Michael I, was decorated by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for his actions during the Second World War.