Ernest Miller Hemingway; 20th-century fiction writer

First edition cover

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia. The novel is regarded as one of Hemingway's best works, along with The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, and A Farewell to Arms.

The title of the book is taken from the metaphysical poet John Donne's series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness (written while Donne was convalescing from a nearly fatal illness) that were published in 1624 as Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, specifically Meditation XVII. Hemingway quotes part of the meditation (using Donne's original spelling) in the book's epigraph:No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian front to enlist with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms (1929).

In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation" expatriate community. He published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. After his 1927 divorce from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer; they divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War where he had been a journalist, and after which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940; they separated when he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II. He was present at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris.

Hemingway House in Key West, Florida, where he wrote To Have and Have Not

Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining lifetime. Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, (1930s) and Cuba (1940s and 1950s), and in 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.

-Wikipedia

Today in History October 21 focus on Portland cement

October 21 is the 294th day of the year. There are 71 days remaining until the end of the year

                          A pallet with Portland cement

Today's Highlight in History: 1824 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.

Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world, used as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and most non-specialty grout. It developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the mid 19th century and usually originates from limestone. It is a fine powder produced by heating materials in a kiln to form what is called clinker, grinding the clinker, and adding small amounts of other materials.

Joseph Aspdin (December? 1778 – 20 March 1855) was an English cement manufacturer who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824.

A 10 MW cement mill, producing cement at 270 tonnes per hour

Joseph Aspdin (or Aspden) was the eldest of the six children of Thomas Aspdin, a bricklayer living in the Hunslet district of Leeds, Yorkshire. He entered his father's trade, and by 1817 he had set up in business on his own in central Leeds. He must have experimented with cement manufacture during the next few years, because on 21 October 1824 he was granted the British Patent BP 5022 entitled An Improvement in the Mode of Producing an Artificial Stone, in which he coined the term "Portland cement" by analogy with the Portland stone, an oolitic limestone that is quarried on the channel coast of England, on the Isle of Portland in Dorset.

Aspdin called the product Portland cement because set mortar made from it resembled “the best Portland stone". Portland stone was the most prestigious building stone in use in England at the time. The patent clearly does not describe the product recognised as Portland cement today. The product was aimed at the market for stuccos and architectural pre-cast mouldings, for which a fast-setting, low-strength cement was required. It was fired at low temperature (below 1250 °C) and therefore contained no alite.

However, Aspdins' cement was nothing like modern Portland cement but was a first step in the development of modern Portland cement, called a proto-Portland cement. Aspdins son William Aspdin left his fathers company and in his own cement manufacturing apparently accidentally produced calcium silicates in the 1840s, a middle step in the development of Portland cement. In 1848, William Aspdin further improved his cement; in 1853, he moved to Germany where he was involved in cement making. William Aspdin made what could be called meso-Portland cement (a mix of Portland cement and hydraulic lime).

Isaac Charles Johnson further refined the production of meso-Portland cement (middle stage of development) and claimed to be the real father of Portland cement. John Grant of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1859 set out requirements for cement to be used in the London sewer project. This became a specification for Portland cement. The next development with the manufacture of Portland cement was the introduction of the rotary kiln patented by German Friedrich Hoffmann called a Hoffmann kiln for brick making in 1858 and then Frederick Ransome in 1885 (U.K.) and 1886 (U.S.) which allowed a stronger, more homogeneous mixture and a continuous manufacturing process.

The Hoffman "endless" kiln which gave "perfect control over combustion" was tested in 1860 and showed the process produced a better grade of cement. This cement was made at the Portland Cement fabrik Stern at Stettin, which was the first to utilize a Hoffman kiln. It is thought that the first modern Portland cement was made there. The Association of German Cement Manufacturers issued a standard on Portland cement in 1878.

Portland cement is caustic so it can cause chemical burns, the powder can cause irritation or with severe exposure lung cancer, and contains some toxic ingredients such as silica and chromium. Environmental concerns are the high energy consumption required to mine, manufacture, and transport the cement and the related air pollution including the release of greenhouse gasses (e.g., carbon dioxide), dioxin, NOx, SO2, and particulates.

.Wikipedia

World Events

1774 – First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.
1797 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.
1816 – The Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by the Rev Hutchings, the oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia.
1824 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.
1879 – Thomas Edison invents a workable electric light bulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. which was tested the next day and lasted 13.5 hours. This would be the invention of the first commercially practical incandescent light. Popular belief is that he invented the first light bulb, which he did not.
1895 – The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
1902 – In the United States, a five-month strike by United Mine Workers ends.
1910 – HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax Harbour to become the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.
1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting U.S. President against lynching in the deep South.
1921 – George Melford's silent film, The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premiers.
1931 – The Sakurakai, a secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.
1940 – The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.
1941 – World War II: In Kragujevac, Serbia, German Wehrmacht soldiers butcher about 7,000 citizens, including schoolchildren and professors.
1945 – Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
1956 – Mau Mau Uprising: Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the ultimate defeat of the rebellion, and essentially ending the British military campaign.
1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.
1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
1965 – Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers (279,617 miles) from the sun.
1966 – Aberfan disaster: A slag heap collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.
1967 – Vietnam War: More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, D.C.. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
1969 – A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power and establishes a socialist republic in Somalia.
1977 – The European Patent Institute is founded.
1978 – Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
1979 – Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.
1981 – Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year long system of power dominated by conservative forces.
1987 – Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.
1994 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
1994 – In Seoul, 32 people are killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapses.
2005 – Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz.
2012 – A shooting at a spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin, leaves four people dead, including the shooter.
2013 – Record smog closes schools, roadways, and the airport in Harbin, China.

Today in History. Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.

October 20 is the 293rd day of the year. There are 72 days remaining until the end of the year.

Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis

Today's Highlight in History: 1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.


Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; they remained married until his death in 1975.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis worked as a book editor the final two decades of her life . She is remembered for her contributions to the arts and preservation of historic architecture. She was a fashion icon; her famous ensemble of pink Chanel suit and matching pillbox hat has become symbolic of her husband's assassination and one of the lasting images of the 1960s

Aristotle Onassis

Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on October 20, 1968. They married on Onassis' privately owned island, Skorpios.According to Peter Evans, Onassis offered Mrs. Kennedy US$3 million to replace her Kennedy trust fund, which she would lose when she remarried. After Onassis' death, she would receive a settlement of US$26 million; US$150,000 each year for the rest of her life. The whole marital contract was discussed with Ted Kennedy and later reviewed by André Meyer, her financial consultant.
.Wikipedia

World Events

1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
1883 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
1904 – Chile and Bolivia sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, delimiting the border between the two countries.
1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1935 – The Long March, a mammoth retreat undertaken by the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party a year prior, ends.
1939 – Pope Pius XII publishes his first major encyclical entitled Summi Pontificatus.
1944 – Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
1944 – American general Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
1946 – Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam decides that the 20th October is Vietnam Women's Day.
1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
1947 – United States of America and Islamic Republic of Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
1952 – Governor Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency in Kenya and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya.
1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine.
1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
1970 – Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state.
1971 – The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.
1977 – Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes.
1981 – Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery in Rockland County, New York, carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.
1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
1991 – A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.
2011 – Libyan Civil War: National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte and kill him shortly thereafter.

Today in History October 17- Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

October 17 is the 290th day of the year. There are 75 days remaining until the end of the year

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C.

Today's Highlight in History; 1979 – Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C., commonly known as Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was a Roman Catholic Religious Sister and missionary of Albanian origin who lived for most of her life in India.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's and family counselling programmes; orphanages; and schools. Members of the institute must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor".

Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". A second miracle credited to her intercession is required before she can be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.

President Ronald Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the
 Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985

A controversial figure both during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was widely admired by many for her charitable works, but also widely criticised, particularly for her efforts opposing contraception and for substandard conditions in the hospices for which she was responsible.

Missionaries of Charity's Mother House
(Headquarters) in Kolkata

Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but the sisters of the congregation, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the congregation.




In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining. The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalised with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil.

On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997.

-Wikipedia

World Events

1806 – Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule.
1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
1917 – First British bombing of Germany in World War I.
1919 – RCA is incorporated as the Radio Corporation of America.
1931 – Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.
1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.
1941 – For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.
1941 – German troops execute the male population of the villages Kerdyllia in Serres, Greece.
1943 – Burma Railway (Burma–Thailand Railway) is completed.
1943 – The Holocaust: Sobibór extermination camp is closed.
1945 – Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens becomes Prime Minister of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece.
1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.
1961 – Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of former Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.
1965 – The 1964–65 New York World's Fair closes after a two-year run. More than 51 million people had attended the event.
1966 – A fire at a building in New York City kills 12 firefighters, the fire department's deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
1966 – Botswana and Lesotho join the United Nations.
1973 – OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.
1977 – German Autumn: Four days after it is hijacked, Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a team of German GSG 9 commandos later rescues all remaining hostages on board.
1979 – Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1979 – The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.
1980 – As part of the Holy See–United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican
1989 – 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).
1992 – Having gone to the wrong house for a Halloween party, Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori is shot and killed by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1994 – Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.
2000 – Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.
2001 – Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi became the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack.
2003 – The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 56 metres (184 ft) and become the world's tallest highrise.

Today in History October 16 focus on The Walt Disney Company,

October 16 is the 289th day of the year.There are 76 days remaining until the end of the year

The Walt Disney Studios, the headquarters of
The Walt Disney Company

Today's Highlight in History; 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media corporation headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the world's second largest broadcasting and cable company in terms of revenue, after Comcast.Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and theme parks. The company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio, then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing, and online media. In addition, Disney has created new corporate divisions in order to market more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands (including the pre-2010 Miramax Films library).

Roy O. Disney

Walt Disney

The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Studios, which is today one of the largest and best-known studios in American cinema.


Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, A+E Networks, and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world. It also has a successful music division. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6, 1991. An early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, Mickey Mouse, is a primary symbol of The Walt Disney Company.
Wikipedia

World Events

1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

1841 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

1846 – William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.

1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1869 – Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.

1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.

1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

1945 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City, Canada.

1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

1968 – Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1970 – In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.

1973 – Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1975 – Rahima Banu, a two-year old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.

1978 – Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

1978 – Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1984 – The Bill debuted on ITV, eventually becoming the longest-running police procedural in British television history.

1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1995 – The Million Man March occurs in Washington, D.C.

1995 – The Skye Bridge is opened.

1996 – Eighty-four people are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 football fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.

1998 – Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a warrant from Spain requesting his extradition on murder charges.

2002 – Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.

2006 – Hawaii earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocks Hawaii, causing property damage, injuries, landslides, power outages, and the closure of Honolulu International Airport.

2012 – The extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered.

2013 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.

Alicia Keys Holds Protest For Nigerian Chibok Schoolgirls

NEW YORK (AP) -- Alicia Keys held a protest in New York City on Tuesday to raise awareness about the 200-plus Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in April.

Tuesday marked six months since the girls were abducted. Keys kicked off a protest with 30 others at the consulate general of Nigeria, holding signs that read "We Are Here" and "Safe Schools Now!"

They chanted "Bring back our girls" and "When do we want them? Now! Now! Alive!" as New Yorkers walked up the street during lunch hour, while others stopped to capture photos and video.

Keys, who is pregnant, said in an interview that she felt touched to take action because she is a mother. Her son, Egypt, turned 4 on Tuesday.

"Today is my son's birthday and it is also making me stand in solidarity with all the mothers of the Chibok girls who have been abducted for six months and are still missing. And it is just outrageous that that's going on," the 33-year-old said as others chanted behind her.

Keys recently launched the movement "We Are Here," which fights for social justice. She also recorded and released a song with the same name.

She was joined by her husband, producer-rapper Swizz Beatz. She said people need a reminder that the schoolgirls are still missing.

"Some people have even told me they've heard things about `there's been progress,' but there hasn't been progress because the girls aren't back," Keys said. "So I think that we get mixed information. We don't know, so we just have to keep being made aware of what's happening."

HUFFPOST:

Sad News, Actor Clems Onyeka killed by stray bullet

Nollywood actor Clems Onyeka was Shot dead by a stray bullet in Asaba this afternoon October 14th. According to eye-witnesses, robbers who robbed a bank along Summit Express, were exchanging gun fire with police when Clems got hit by a stray bullet while filming in that area .Report has it that he died instantly He was just 37 years old. May his soul rest in peace.