Historical Drops # 51: Your weekly dose of History here at Mega

How many junkies in cornmeal make a big Hollywood star? She may no longer be so well known among young Brazilians, but Carmen Miranda is, to this day, one of the greatest symbols of Brazilian culture internationally recognized and undoubtedly one of the most impacting actresses and singers in the country. For almost 80 years, One of the days of this week, she left her handprints on the Walk of Fame, being the only Brazilian artist to have done this to date.

But not only fruit on the head and a single wiggle make the week of March waters that close the summer. Today you will read about episodes such as the end of the Seal Law and learn more about Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Pluto's discovery, among other important facts of the past. Come closer!

March 18th

1766: Seal Act is repealed in the United States

In 1765, the English Parliament decreed that every document circulating in the colony should have a metropolis seal, a measure to raise money for the country's coffers and finance the Seven Year War. The measure caused revolt among Americans and, a year later, during the American Revolution, was finally repealed.

March 19th

1915: Pluto first sighted

NASA Photo

Pluto is probably the star with the biggest identity crisis. It is no longer considered a planet, and although it may be strange to anyone who grew up learning that the Solar System has nine planets, not eight, it was not so at the beginning of the last century.

On this day, in 1915, Pluto was photographed for the first time, but was not recognized as a planet. It was believed at the time that it was just a dwarf star.

March 20

1915: Theory of Relativity

It was a whole decade of work until Albert Einstein finally published the study that changed the course of humanity and contributed to a better understanding of physics: the theory of general relativity.

In 1905, the German determined that the laws of physics are the same for all static observers. Over the next decade, he studied to include acceleration in the early theory, so that the 1915 version shows that massive objects cause distortion in spacetime, something we know today as gravity.

March 21st

1800: Pope with papier-mache hat

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Barnaba Niccolo Maria Luigi Chiaramonti was appointed pope on March 14, 1800, not exactly tranquil times when Europe was experiencing one of its many wars. At the time, Catholic leaders had been barred from staying in Rome because of an armed conflict that engulfed the city; upon being appointed, the new pope, who adopted the name of Pius VII, could not enter the Italian capital to be enthroned.

Because of this, his coronation, on March 21, was held in Venice, using a provisional tiara, much more humble than the Pope's inaugural ceremony: the crown was made of papier-mache. In the end, Pius VII turned out to be quite decisive in the history of mankind, and spent much of his pontificate in conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte for his advances against Italy.

March 22

1895: First Exhibition of the Lumière Brothers

Photo: Public Domain

It was in the basement of the Grand Café in Paris in December 1895 that Auguste and Louis Lumière made the historic cinema screening that is officially considered the first of all. The two had started their career as cinematographers months before and on March 22 of that same year they made their first presentation of the technology they had developed. This, however, was not commercial.

The Lumière brothers filmed workers leaving a factory after a day's work and screened the videos at the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale (Paris Incentive Society for National Industry) in Paris.

March 23

1857: World's First Elevator Installed in New York

The idea of ​​using platforms to carry things and people up and down is not new to humanity - it is likely that was how the pyramids were built. But the building elevators as we know it today were the invention of a boy named Elisha Graves Otis, who in 1853 founded Otis Elevadores, a company that still exists today.

The first devices were sold the same year, to a little buddy of $ 300. The official installation took place on March 23, 1857, in the five-story building of a department store on Broome Street, where New York's Soho District is today.

March 24th

1941: Carmen Miranda wins the world

Photo: Billboard ad playback 1943 Music Yearbook

A Brazilian who had a great deal of cornmeal in her cornmeal, Carmen Miranda was the first and only Brazilian artist to make her mark on the world's most famous gallery, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the Hollywood Boulevard area of ​​Los Angeles. By then, she had conquered the world with her voice, bringing Brazilian colors, tropicalism, and samba to world TV.

Arriving in New York in May 1939, the artist performed on Broadway in the middle of the fall of the stock market, helping to ensure that the public was kept in theaters. Carmen gained radio space, had her story recorded in the movie "Tropical Serenade" and was a hit in Hollywood. She starred in 8 of the 14 films she participated in and in 1945 became the highest paid actress in the United States.

She died a decade after that, from a heart attack at her Beverly Hills home.