Established in 1982 and set for 29 April, the birthday of dancer and choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre, it shares its place on the calendar with, among others, Immunology Day and Noise Awareness Day—international commemorative days joined by other national ones: in the U.S., for instance, National Zipper Day, which commemorates the granting of the US patent for the invention of the zipper, or National Peace Rose Day, dedicated to the Gloria Dei rose cultivated by Frenchman Francis Meilland and christened "Peace" in the U.S. on 29 April 1945, while Soviet troops were winning the Battle of Berlin.
Behind the immovable date we discover dynamic individuals with eventful biographies: Noverre, a model European of the Enlightenment, a Frenchman who was friends with Voltaire and Frederick II and ...
