In whose honour was June 17, 1944 chosen as the Independence Day of a certain European country?

foosyerdoos

In 1944, the Scandinavian country of Iceland declared full independence from the Danish crown. Icelanders selected June 17 to be the official holiday because it was the birthday of Jon Sigurdsson who is regarded as Iceland's champion to the nationalist cause. http://goscandinavia.about.com/od/annualeventstraditions/f/independdayice.htm Aug 09 08, 1:43 PM

lanfranco

Iceland's National Day takes place on June 17 because it was the birthday of Jon Sigurdsson, leader of the Icelandic independence movement and a scholar of the Icelandic sagas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_National_Day Aug 09 08, 1:44 PM

author

Jón Sigurðsson (June 17, 1811 – December 7, 1879) was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement. Born at Hrafnseyri, near Arnarfjörður in the Westfjords area of Iceland, he was the son of a pastor, Sigurður Jónsson. He moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1833 to study grammar and history at the university there and never moved back to Iceland. Subsequently Jón began to work at the Arnamagnæan Collection which was then the home of the manuscripts of the Icelandic sagas. He became an expert on the sagas and on Icelandic history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Sigurdsson Aug 09 08, 7:39 PM

author

Þjóðernishyggja is the Icelandic term for nationalism; nationmindedness is a rough translation of the term. Its use was instrumental in the Icelandic movement for independence from Denmark, led by independence hero Jón Sigurðsson. Þjóðernishyggja is now commonly used for patriotism in Icelandic interchangeable with another word: Föðurlandsást, i. e. Love of one's country. There is little difference between the two in Icelandic, and most Icelanders would probably count themselves as being some sort of patriots. Icelandic Nationalism or Þjóðernishyggja or Föðurlandsást is based upon the idea of resurrection of the Icelandic Free State. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_nationalism Aug 09 08, 7:41 PM

author

The Icelandic Commonwealth or the Icelandic Free State (Icelandic: Þjóðveldið) was the state existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king in 1262. It was initially established by a public consisting largely of recent immigrants from Norway who had fled the unification of that country under King Harald Fairhair. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Commonwealth Aug 09 08, 7:43 PM