Giovan Maria Salati | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1796 Malesco, Italy |
| Died | 1879 (aged 82–83) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Soldier |
| Known for | Claimed first person to "swim" across the English Channel (disputed) |
Giovan Maria Salati (1796-1879) was a Napoleonic soldier.
Giovan Maria Salati | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 1796 Malesco, Italy |
| Died | 1879 (aged 82–83) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Soldier |
| Known for | Claimed first person to "swim" across the English Channel (disputed) |
Giovan Maria Salati (1796-1879) was a Napoleonic soldier.
Giovan Maria Salati was born to Domenico and Anna Maria Salati of Malesco, Piedmont, Italy in 1796. [1]
Giovan initially worked in Malesco as a chimney sweep, but enlisted with the Grand Army of Napoleon in 1812 as a rifleman. He was taken prisoner by the British after the Battle of Waterloo, and held on a prison barge moored at Dover, England. [1] [2]
Giovan subsequently claimed that on the night of 16 August 1817 he made his escape by jumping off of the barge so he could attempt to cross the English Channel, using a bundle of straw as a buoyancy aid. The escape attempt was successful as, the following day, he managed to land at Boulogne. He survived to marry, have children, and lived in France until his death in 1879. [1] [2] [3]
A permanent exhibition dedicated to Giovan Maria Salati now exists in the town of Malesco, near Domodossola, Italy. [4]
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world.
Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion, was Nazi Germany's code name for their planned invasion of the United Kingdom. It was to take place during the Battle of Britain, nine months after the start of the Second World War. Following the Battle of France and that country's capitulation, Adolf Hitler, the German Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, hoped the British government would accept his offer to end the state of war between the two. He considered invasion to be a last resort, to be used only if all other options had failed.
Arezzo is a city and comune in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 kilometres southeast of Florence at an elevation of 296 metres (971 ft) above sea level. As of 2022, the population was about 97,000.
Life Is Beautiful is a 1997 Italian comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who employs his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The film was partially inspired by the book In the End, I Beat Hitler by Rubino Romeo Salmonì and by Benigni's father, who spent two years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II.
Captain Matthew Webb was an English seaman, swimmer and stuntman. He is the first recorded person to swim the English Channel for sport without the use of artificial aids. In 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours. This made him a celebrity, and he performed many stunts in public. He died trying to swim the Niagara Gorge below Niagara Falls, a feat declared impossible.
Gertrude Caroline Ederle was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her "Queen of the Waves".
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. According to The New York Times, he was perhaps the most reclusive, enigmatic and obsessive among the handful of the world's legendary pianists.
Jorge Antonio Chávez Dartnell, also known as Géo Chávez, was a Peruvian aviator. At a young age, he achieved fame for his aeronautical feats. He died in 1910 after a heavy wind broke the wings of his fragile airplane Bleriot XI, falling from a twenty-meter height upon landing, after achieving the first air crossing of the Pennine Alps.
Brojen Das was a Bangladeshi swimmer, who was the first Asian to swim across the English Channel, and the first person to cross it six times.
Saint Donatus of Arezzo is the patron saint of Arezzo, and considered a bishop of the city.
Valle Vigezzo is a valley in the Lepontine Alps in northwestern Italy on the border with Canton Ticino of Switzerland. It forms the eastern branch of the Ossola valley. It is also called the Valle dei Pittori due to the large number of painters over the centuries such as Giuseppe Mattia Borgnis, Lorenzo Peretti, Bernardino Peretti, Enrico Cavalli, Carlo Fornara, Giovanni Battista Ciolina, Gian Maria Rastellini, Maurizio Borgnis, Lorenzo Peretti Junior. It is remembered for its "spazzacamini" or chimney-sweepers who brought their trade around Europe. It is connected with the Eau de Cologne, invented over 300 years ago by Giovanni Maria Farina using, among other ingredients flowers and oils from plants from Vigezzo. Another man from Vigezzo, Giovan Maria Salati is credited to be the first recorded person swimming across the English Channel over 200 years ago, after having been taken prisoner by the British after Waterloo.
HMS Assistance was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched during the American War of Independence and spent most of her career serving in American waters, particularly off Halifax and Newfoundland. Assistance was the flagship of several of the commanders of the station. She was in service at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars, and was wrecked off Dunkirk in 1801.
Henry Francis Sullivan was an American marathon swimmer who is best known for becoming the third person and the first American to swim across the English Channel, beginning his swim on the afternoon of August 5, 1923, from Dover, England, and finishing 26 hours and 50 minutes later on the evening of August 6 at Calais, France.
Enrique Tirabocchi was an Argentinian marathon swimmer who in August 1926 became the fourth person to successfully swim across the English Channel. He was the first person to swim from France to England and finished the swim in 16 hours and 33 minutes, beating the record set by Matthew Webb when he was the first to make the crossing more than 50 years earlier.
Egisto Bracci was an Italian architect, active mainly in Florence, who became resident professor of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence in 1879.
Taranath Narayan Shenoy, is a deaf and visually impaired Indian swimmer and an honoree of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. He is a winner of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, having successfully completed the English Channel, Catalina Channel and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1990.
Marija Krucifiksa Kozulić was a Croatian Italian Catholic nun who was part of the community of Sisters of the Sacred Heart. She was the founder of the Catholic order of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the only order indigenous to the Archdiocese of Rijeka in Croatia, and the first prioress of the order. Her beatification began in 2008 and her confirmation process started in 2013.
Ingemar Macarine is a Filipino long-distance swimmer, marathoner and environmental lawyer, currently serving as election officer of Tubigon town in Bohol, a province of the Philippines. Macarine pioneered the open water marathon swimming in the Philippines by crossing several channels in the country.
Alfredo Di Dio was an Italian officer and Resistance leader during World War II.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
  | This biographical article related to the Italian military is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
