Pablo Picasso is born

October 25, 1881

ON this day, Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century is born in Malaga, Spain.

He was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright of his time. He is also known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.

By the time he died in April of 1973, in France, he had created a staggering 22,000 works of art in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, ceramics, mosaics, stage design and graphic arts.

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October 28, 1886

ON this day, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the US, the Statue of Liberty, is dedicated in New York Harbour by President Grover Cleveland.

The 151-foot statue of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch was proposed by the French historian Edouard de Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Its framework of gigantic steel supports was designed by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the latter famous for his design of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The statue was completed in France and in June 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty arrived in the New World, enclosed in more than 200 packing cases. Its copper sheets were reassembled, and the last rivet of the monument was fitted on this day.

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October 30, 1974

THIRTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Muhammad Ali becomes the heavyweight champion of the world for the second time when he knocks out 25-year-old champ George Foreman in the eighth round of the ‘Rumble in the Jungle,’ a match in Kinshasa, Zaire, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Seven years earlier, Ali had lost his title when the government accused him of draft-dodging and the boxing commission took away his license. His victory in Zaire made him only the second dethroned champ in history to regain his belt.