Calendar – March 13

On March 13, 1881, diplomat Rauf Fico was born in Yemen. After completing his higher studies in Istanbul, he was appointed vice-prefect of Konica. Together with Bajo Topulli, they were delegates of Gjirokastra in the Congress of Manastir for the Alphabet of Albanian. On November 28, 1912, Ismail Qemali appointed him as advisor to the Ministry of the Interior. In the Government of Prince Wied (1914), he was appointed Chief of the Cabinet of Turhan Pasha. He is called the diplomat of the Albanian “Gordian Knots”, during the years 1925-1939. He died in Tirana on January 23, 1944, at the age of 63.
On March 13, 1900, the patriot Gjon Destanisha was born in Shala of Dukagjin. As a commander in the Gendarmerie in the North and South of Albania, the invasion of the country on April 7, 1939, found him in Tirana on duty. During the communist regime he was forced together with Prof. Martin Camaj to escape from Albania. In Yugoslavia, in the famous prison of Pristina, he was given capital punishment: He was shot in the walls of Pristina Prison, in 1951.
On March 13, 1965 in Florida, Fan Noli, artist, scholar, prominent representative of literature and the democratic movement, in Albania, after the Renaissance, passed away. At the age of 24, Noli left for the USA. Although he had no strong religious convictions, in 1908 he was ordained a priest. In 1912, he completed his higher studies in arts at Harvard University. In the USA, “Vatra” Albanian Association elected him chairman. He led the Democratic Revolution of June 1924 in Albania and on December 24, 1924, Noli fled to never return to Albania. It eventually settled in the US. There he exercised the function of bishop of the Albanian Orthodox Church. Fan Noli passed away at the age of 83, in the USA.
March 13, 1997, Albania was involved in the anarchy brought about by the bankruptcy of the pyramid schemes investments.
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