History-1900+

by Janina Birutė Litvinas The Lithuanian Song Festival tradition in America is almost as old as Lithuanian immigration itself. From its early beginnings in 1914, this tradition has continued almost uninterrupted to this day. MY ALMOST SACRED RELIC, A TRAVEL BOOK from my Father’s library, Lithuania, Guiding Facts for Tourists, …

BY ERNEST POOLE Antanas Kaztauskis, From Lithuania to the Chicago Stockyards – An Autobiography, 1904 Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Upton Sinclair’s classic novel The Jungle. The book describes the life of a Lithuanian immigrant in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood and his …

BY ALGIS GINTAUTAS Today the devotion to the Divine Mercy is widespread among Catholics across the globe, thanks to a humble, frail nun who became God’s chosen messenger to spread His word through a diary she wrote and an image she instructed to be painted in Vilnius. DURING HIS LONG …

BY ALGIRDAS BUDRECKIS DURING THE AMERICAN Revolution, the Continental Congress built and commissioned a number of men-of-war. Several colonies also maintained their own fleets to engage the British warships and convoys. However, it was not the fledgling American Navy which bore the brunt of seafighting. The burden rested on the …

  The Vilnius University, which celebrates its 425th anniversary this year, is the oldest establishment of higher education in Lithuania. Established in 1579, for a long time it became the easternmost European university spreading the light of learning not only to ethnic Lithuania, the multinational Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but …

BY JOHN J. CHERNOSKI (ČERNIAUSKAS) “Little Lithuania, Usa” Schuylkill County, PA THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES THERE ARE NUMEROUS places where a particular ethnic group has long been identified with an area, and names such as “Little Italy,” “Germantown,” “Chinatown,” etc. have become a part of the local fabric. I decided …

BY INA BERTULYTĖ BRAY SEPTEMBER 9, 1990. CNN SHOWS A JET FIGHTER slicing the TV screen, vanishing, then — a ball of fire.The announcer calmly reports that a Soviet Sukhoi SU-27 airplane crashed at an air show in Italy, killing the pilot and a bystander, injuring eight. Another disaster with …

By Gloria O’Brien-Kivytaitė. KUNIGAS ATEINA KALĖDOT’ Recollections about an on old Lithuanian parish and the Christmas-time custom that Lithuanian immigrants had brought with them from the Old Country. DURING the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s Brooklyn’s Apreiškimo Parapija (Annunciation Parish) was wellknown as a Lithuanian stronghold. As a “national parish,” without …

by Tom Gregg (Grigonis) Three Lithuanian American brothers each played football well enough to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. That’s a unique accomplishment, and maybe the heart of our story. But even taking a wider view, the saga of the eight member Wistert family is extraordinary. …

By Edward Baranauskas Remembering Darius-Girėnas Memorial 1933-2003 SEVENTY YEARS AGO, ON July 15, 1933, two Lithuanian American flyers, Stephen (Steponas) Darius and Stanley (Stasys) Girėnas, took off from Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn, New York at 6:24 A.M. EDT, on their attempted nonstop trans-Atlantic flight to Kaunas, at that time the provisional …