Atlantica - 01.06.2011, Blaðsíða 6

4 A t L A n t i c A
How much do you know about
Iceland’s history?
We are asking about a person
who has the title President before his name.
However, he was never, ever, President
of the Republic of Iceland. His statue is
at Austurvöllur, Reykjavík’s main square,
opposite Althingi, the Parliament. It also
stands in front of the Parliament building in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
He was born two hundred years ago, 17
June 1811, at Hrafnseyri in Arnarfjördur
fjord, in the West Fjords. The University of
Iceland was founded on the hundredth
anniversary of his birth, and the Republic
was founded thirty-three years later, 17 June
1944. And that is our Independence Day.
He was the leader of Iceland’s
independence movement, lived in
Copenhagen his entire adult life,
from 1833 until his death in 1879.
His name? President Jón Sigurdsson. a
The President
By Páll Stefánsson
on the fly
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