On February 5, 1822, Ali Pasha Tepelena was killed in the monastery of Saint Pandelemon, on the island of Lake Janina (Ioannina). He was born in Tepelena, from a family of military feudal lords and quickly distinguished himself for his abilities and the energy with which he pursued his ambitious plans to become the sole ruler of the country using violence, cunningness, as much as family connections with other local feudal lords. Ali Pasha Tepelena’s policy aimed at the autonomy and unification of the Albanian provinces under the rule of the Pashalik of Janina, and his open war against the Sultan, helped to prepare the ground for a new and higher stage of the anti-Ottoman liberation movement for the National Renaissance.

On February 5, 1887, Omer Nishani, a patriot and statesman, was born in Gjirokastër. He completed his medical studies in Istanbul. His life activity was to the benefit of the Albanian national issue, with a nationalist, democratic tendency and in an effort for a civilized and cultured Albania. He was an active part of the democratic-bourgeois revolution (1924), under the leadership of Fan Noli, after whose overthrow, he left Tirana and settled in Vienna, where he was associated with the international revolutionary movement. After the liberation, Omer Nishani was elected Minister of Foreign Affairs and on January 12, 1946, he was elected President of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, a position he held until 1953, the year he was forced to resign. Nine months later, on May 25, 1954, Omer Nishani was found dead in his villa.

On February 5, 1931, Mihal Grameno passed away. An activist of the Albanian Renaissance patriotic democratic movement, writer, Hero of the People. Grameno was born in Korça in 1871. He fought in the ranks of the Çerçiz Topulli armed group and participated in the Alphabet Congress of Manastir on 1908. Grameno also became known as a publicist, playrighter, and novelist.

On February 5, 1936, the dancer, master of the Albanian folk dance, Besim Zekthi was born in Tirana. In 1952, with the foundation of the Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances in 1957, Besim Zekthi became a part of the Ensemble from its creation, giving life to Albanian dance. The incomparable soloist of the Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances, Besim Zekthi, excelled in the well-known dances “Dance of the Albanians”, “Albania celebrates today”, one of the main protagonists who awarded Albania with the Gold Medallion Necklace at the Dijon Festival in France on 1970.

On February 5, 1941, Ferdinand Deda, composer, orchestra conductor, was born in Peqin. After finishing the artistic high school in Tirana in 1960, he studied conducting at the Prague Conservatory of Music. After a year, he was forced to stop his studies and continue them in 1962 at the Tirana Conservatory. Since he was a student, he led the RTSH (Albanian Rdio Television) orchestra and after his studies he was appointed to this orchestra. From 1964, he has performed over 300 concerts at home and abroad. He is also author of many movies’ sound tracks played by symphony orchestra of RTSH. Prominent as a composer, he composed symphonic dances, sketches for piano, trio for violin, cello and piano, concerto for clarinet and orchestra, movie sound tracks, children’s songs, etc.. Ferdinand Deda was the founder of the spring concerts at RTSH. Prize-winning, in 1997 he was the winner of the “Gold Disc”, also awarded with the title “Merited Artist” and “Great Master”. Ferdinand Deda passed away at the age of 62.

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