Whose birthday am I celebrating?
April 2, 2013
Charlemagne, born this day in 742. He became King of the Franks, King of the Germans and the first Holy Roman Emperor.
Called the “Father of Europe” Charlemagne’s empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne encouraged the formation of a common European identity. Both the French and German monarchies considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagne’s empire.
The Carolingian Renaissance his reign spurred was short-lived, yet influential in that during that time:
Northern Europe embraced classical Mediterranean Roman art forms for the first time, setting the stage for the rise of Romanesque art and eventually Gothic art in the West. Illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, small-scale sculpture, mosaics, and frescos survive from the period.
Source: Wikipedia
Read his biography here on the BBC site.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 
Here it is. The last one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Habsburg
Thanks. How interesting are these holdovers from history.