Since 2001, we’ve celebrated World Refugee Day on June 20. It was established to recognize the fiftieth anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Using the library’s newspaper resources, see if you can find the first nations to sign the treaty in 1951.
HINT: You can use the New York Times with your library card to search old (and current) newspapers. On the site, go to Research, Popular Topics, Newspapers, and then New York Times Historical. Search for the terms: United Nations Refugees sign, set the date range to summer 1951, and see what you can find.
We also celebrate Juneteenth on June 19, the anniversary of General Order No. 3, which proclaimed freedom for enslaved African Americans in Texas in 1865. The holiday started a year later in Texas and moved throughout the South in the early twentieth century before becoming celebrated nationwide. See if you can find the first usage of the word in print.
HINT: You can use the Oxford English Dictionary with your library card for word definitions and etymologies. On the site, go to Research, Popular Topics, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias, and then Oxford English Dictionary.
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