Thant followed unidentified flying object reports with some interest; in 1967, he arranged for American atmospheric physicist Dr. James E. McDonald to speak before the UN's Outer Space Affairs Group regarding UFOs.
On January 23, 1971 U Thant categorically announced that he would "under no circumstances" be available for a third term as Secretary-General. For many weeks, the UN Security Council was deadlocked over the search for a successor before finally settling on Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General on December 21, 1971 — Waldheim's 53rd birthday — and just ten days before U Thant's second term was to have ended.
In his farewell address to the United Nations General Assembly Secretary-General U Thant stated that he felt a 'great sense of relief bordering on liberation' on relinquishing the 'burdens of office'. In an editorial published around December 27, 1971 praising U Thant, "The New York Times" stated that "the wise counsel of this dedicated man of peace will still be needed after his retirement". The editorial was entitled "The Liberation of U Thant".
U Thant died of lung cancer in New York on November 25, 1974. By this time Burma was ruled by a military junta which refused him any honors. The then Burmese President Ne Win was envious of U Thant's international stature and the respect that was accorded him by the Burmese populace. Ne Win also resented U Thant's close links with the democratic government of U Nu which Ne Win had overthrown in a coup d'état on March 2, 1962. Ne Win ordered that U Thant be buried without any official involvement or ceremony.
From the United Nations headquarters in New York, U Thant's body was flown back to Rangoon but no guard of honour or high ranking officials were on hand at the airport when the coffin arrived.
On the day of U Thant's funeral on December 5, 1974, tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Rangoon to pay their last respects to their distinguished countryman whose coffin was displayed at Rangoon's Kyaikasan race course for a few hours before the scheduled burial.
The coffin of U Thant was then snatched by a group of students just before it was scheduled to leave for burial in an ordinary Rangoon cemetery. The student demonstrators buried U Thant on the former grounds of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), which Ne Win had dynamited and destroyed on July 8, 1962.
During the period of December 5 through December 11, 1974, the student demonstrators also built a temporary mausoleum for U Thant on the grounds of the RUSU and gave anti-government speeches. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1974, government troops stormed the campus, killed some of the students guarding the makeshift mausoleum, removed U Thant's coffin, and reburied it at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda, where it has continued to lie.
Upon hearing of the storming of the Rangoon University campus and the forcible removal of U Thant's coffin, many people rioted in the streets of Rangoon. Martial law was declared in Rangoon and the surrounding metropolitan areas. What has come to be known as the U Thant crisis — the student-led protests over the shabby treatment by the Ne Win government of U Thant — was crushed by the Burmese government.
In 1978, U Thant's memoirs "View from the UN" was published, by the American publishing house Doubleday.
Shota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli was a Georgian poet of the 12th century, and the greatest classic of Georgian secular literature. He is the author of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" ("Vepkhistqaosani" in Georgian), the Georgian national epic poem. Little is known about life of the poet. He was a courtier of queen Tamara.
"The Knight in the Panther's Skin" (the actual name is Vepkhistkaosani, which means The wearer of Tiger's Skin) has been translated into many languages. It was first printed in 1712, in Tbilisi (capital of Georgia). It consists of 1576 four line stanzas with monorhyme. That means all lines rhyme to each other. The lines are made up of sixteen syllables.
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander is a real-time strategy computer game. It was made by Chris Taylor and his game company, Gas Powered Games. Many people think of the game as a spiritual successor to a game Taylor made in 1997, called "Total Annihilation". The game was first talked about in the August 2005 issue of "PC Gamer" magazine. It was released on February 16, 2007 in Europe and February 20, 2007 in North America. "Supreme Commander" has an expansion pack called ".
Forcalquier
Forcalquier is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the southeastern part of France.
Sirenia (band)
Sirenia is a gothic metal band from Stavanger, Norway, founded in early 2001. Sirenia play a mix of gothic metal, symphonic metal, extreme metal and death metal sounds. The vocals are two male, one hard voice, from death metal, and a clean male singer. The female voice is used in moments with melody or chorus. The band uses melodic instrumentals, synthesizers, and distorted guitars with female vocals, and a choir, and violins, for the male voices. Lyrics spoke about human existence, emotion, and mental states.
The band has changed tree female voices, first Fabienne Gondamin for the recording of "At Sixes and Sevens", then Henriette Bordvik with whom the band recorded two albums ("An Elixir For Existence" and plus one EP "Sirenian Shores", and thenMonika Pedersen for recording "Nine Destinies and a Downfall" in 2007.
The lyrics, are written by Morten Veland.
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
Javier Felipe Ricardo Pérez de Cuéllar y de la Guerra (January 19, 1920March 4, 2020) was a Peruvian diplomat who served as the 5th Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1982 to 1991. From 2000 to 2001, he served as the 135th prime minister of Peru.
In 1995, he ran unsuccessfully against Alberto Fujimori for President of Peru. He was the president of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister), as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs, between November 2000 and July 2001, during the unstable period following Fujimori's resignation over corruption charges. In 2004, he stepped down from his position as Peru's ambassador to France.
From the death of Kurt Waldheim in 2007 until his own death in 2020, Pérez de Cuéllar was the oldest-living former secretary-general of the UN.
He studied in Colegio San Agustín of Lima, and then at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Pérez de Cuéllar joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1940 and the diplomatic service in 1944, serving subsequently as Secretary at Peru's embassies in France, where he met and married his first wife (the former Yvette Roberts); the United Kingdom; Bolivia; and Brazil. Later, he was ambassador to Switzerland, the Soviet Union (at the same time in Poland), and Venezuela. From his first marriage, Perez de Cuellar had a son (Francisco, born in Paris) and a daughter (Agueda Cristina, born in London).
He was a junior member of the Peruvian delegation to the General Assembly at its first session, held in London in 1946, and a member of the delegations to the 25th through 30th sessions of the Assembly. In 1971, he was made permanent representative of Peru to the United Nations, and led his country's delegation to all sessions of the Assembly from then until 1975.
In 1973 and 1974, he represented his country in the Security Council, serving as its president at the time of the events in Cyprus in July 1974. On 18 September 1975, he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, a post he held until December 1977, when he rejoined the Peruvian Foreign Service. During his time in Cyprus, Perez de Cuellar married his second wife, the former Marcela Temple Seminario.