Basketball Club Žalgiris is a professional basketball team that is based in Kaunas, Lithuania, and competes domestically in the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga. Founded in 1944, it is one of the oldest teams in the EuroLeague. Žalgiris is one of 11 European clubs to hold long-term licenses with the EuroLeague, which provides a guaranteed place in the regular-season phase of this league. Since the 2011–12 season, Žalgiris plays its home games in Žalgiris Arena, which was built just before EuroBasket 2011. The club's name commemorates the victorious Battle of Žalgiris. Both Žalgiris and Grunwald translate to "green wood".
The Novgorod Republic was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east, including the city of Novgorod and the Lake Ladoga regions of modern Russia. The Republic prospered as the easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League and its Slavic, Baltic and Finnic people were much influenced by the culture of the Viking-Varangians and Byzantine people.
October 4 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - October 6
The Principality of Polotsk, also known as the Duchy of Polotsk or Polotskian Rus', was a medieval principality of the Early East Slavs. The origin and date of state establishment is uncertain. Rus' Chronicles mention Polotsk being conquered by Vladimir the Great, and thereafter it became associated with the Rurik dynasty and Kievan Rus'.
St. Charitina of Amisus was a virgin martyr from Asia Minor, distinguished by strict chastity and piety. Charitina spent her life in fasting, prayer and study. By her example she converted many to Christianity during the reign of Emperor Diocletian and was seized in the city of Amisus in Pontus. After torture and death, her body was thrown into the sea in the year 304.
Unė Babickaitė-Graičiūnienė was a Lithuanian actress and theater director. During World War I, she attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. After the war, she staged several plays in Lithuania, but they were not well received by the critics. She then moved to the United States and appeared in several silent films. In 1924, she married Vytautas Andrius Graičiūnas. With his financial support, she organized theater plays in Paris and London. Babickaitė returned to Lithuania in 1936. After World War II, she was sentenced to five years in a Gulag.
4Fun is a Lithuanian music band. They play a wide range of music styles, including rock, pop rock, and country. The band was created in 2001 and participated in several national and international festivals, including Visaginas Country and the Eurovision Song Contest.
LEO LT AB or Lithuanian Electricity Organization was a national energy holding company in Lithuania. The company owned shares of Lithuania's three major electric power production and distribution companies. It was established in early 2008 to raise funds for the construction of the planned Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant after close down of Ignalina Plant, and Lithuania–Sweden and Lithuania–Poland power connections. The decision to liquidate the company, mired in controversies and attacked by critics, was reached by the shareholder of LEO LT on 4 September 2009.
Dalia Grybauskaitė is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth President of Lithuania from 2009 until 2019. She is the first woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Lithuania to be reelected for a second consecutive term.
Vilija Pilibaitytė, better known by her stage name Mia, is a Lithuanian singer, songwriter, and television host.
Ainars Bagatskis is a Latvian former professional basketball player and coach, who currently works as the head coach of Kyiv-Basket of the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague and the senior Ukraine national team.
The case of Drąsius Kedys is a high-profile criminal case in Lithuania centering on allegations of sexual molestation of a then four-year-old Lithuanian girl and a double homicide. In November 2008, Drąsius Kedys accused Laimutė Stankūnaitė of allowing Jonas Furmanavičius and Andrius Ūsas to sexually molest their underage daughter. Frustrated by lack of progress in the investigation, Kedys took the case public. He published a video with his daughter's testimony, sent out DVDs to politicians, and appeared in the media. Still no case was brought before trial. In October 2009, Jonas Furmanavičius, a district judge and accused pedophile, and Violeta Naruševičienė, aunt of his daughter and accused procurer, were found dead and Kedys became the main murder suspect. While Kedys went into hiding, some of the Lithuanian public sided with him, portraying Kedys as a desperate father trying to protect his daughter against pedophiles. In April 2010 his body was found near Kaunas Reservoir. His death was ruled an accident – choking on vomit after heavy drinking. The main suspect in the pedophilia case, Andrius Ūsas, was found drowned in a lake after a motorcycle accident in June 2010. In a posthumous trial Ūsas was found innocent. A separate court ruling restored the girl's custody to Stankūnaitė. Some Lithuanians disagreed with the ruling and began a vigil at the house of Kedys' relatives in Garliava, where the girl lived at the time. Officials were able to take custody of the girl with the help of riot police in May 2012. The Way of Courage, a political party founded by Kedys' sister and supporters, participated in the 2012 Lithuanian parliamentary election and received almost 8% of the votes.
Asmik Grigorian is a Lithuanian operatic soprano.
Emilija VileišienėnéeJasmantaitė (1861–1935) was a Lithuanian activist. Born to a noble family, she attended the Smolny Institute and lived with her older brother in Saint Petersburg and Caucasus. When her brother became severely ill, they moved to Vilnius where Vileišienė met her husband Antanas Vileišis and became active in Lithuanian cultural life. She was an active member of various Lithuanian organizations, including the Lithuanian Mutual Relief Society of Vilnius, Society of Saint Zita for servants, cultural Rūta Society. During World War I, she was a board member of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers and was particularly active in organizing relief for war refugees. After the war, she remained in Vilnius and continued active public life despite several arrests by the Polish government. In 1928–1930, she toured numerous Lithuanian American communities collecting donations for the orphans and the poor.
Ieva Zasimauskaitė is a Lithuanian singer who represented Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with her song "When We're Old". She had previously participated in the Lithuanian national selection for the Eurovision in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017, and participated again in 2022.
Aušra Seibutytė-Maldeikienė is a Lithuanian political economist, politician, lecturer, teacher, publicist and book author.
Viktorija Faith is a Lithuanian singer and actress who contested to represent Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with her song "Walk Through The Water".
Barbara Armonas was a Lithuanian political prisoner in the Soviet Union. She rejoined her American-born husband and daughter in the United States in 1960, and she published a memoir, Leave Your Tears in Moscow in 1961.
