Posted on July 4, 2019
In the past, I recognized the birthdays of Norway's King Harald V and Crown Prince Haakon; today is the birthday of Harald's wife and Haakon's mamma (which is Norwegian for mama):
Queen Sonja.
Born on this date in 1937, in Oslo, Norway, Sonja had the last name Haraldsen (and note that her birth name, funnily enough, means "son of Harald") before she married Harald.
Sonja was the daughter of a clothing merchant, and she received a diploma in dressmaking and tailoring at a vocational school. But she went on with her schooling, studying fashion design, accounting, and social science; she obtained a degree from the University of Oslo for French, English, and Art History!
Sonja met her prince at a party, and they dated for nine years. But they dated in secret, because she was a commoner, and back in the 1960s, it wasn't traditional for a crown prince to marry a commoner.
Prince Harald went to his father to break the news: he would either marry a commoner - Sonja - or he would remain unmarried his entire life. If he never got married, he could never have an heir to the throne - and there was nobody else in his family who was an heir, so that would mean that Harald would be the last ruler from the family. King Olav V of course decided to allow his son to marry his true love!
Sonja has used her position as queen to work on behalf of disabled children, international refugees, the Red Cross, and schools who demonstrate "efforts to promote inclusion and equality."
She also helps to promote music, photography, printmaking, and other arts. She herself is a photographer and printmaker.
A World's First
In 2005, Sonja became the first queen ever to visit Antarctica. She made the trip to open a research station.
Norway has a "dependency" in Antarctica. It's named Queen Maud Land. I found that interesting, because I know that there is a treaty that sets Antarctica aside as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation (in other words, scientists from all over the world can go there and do science), and bans military activity.
Even though Norway, Australia, France, New Zealand, Chile, the United Kingdom, and Argentina all claim pie-shaped wedges of Antarctica, the nations who have not declared slices of the continent as their own don't recognize the claims made by those seven nations.
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| The countries in orange have voting rights regarding the treaty AND claim parts of Antarctica. The countries in yellow have voting rights regarding the treaty but claim no portion of Antarctica - but reserve the right to make such a claim! The countries in blue have voting rights regarding the treaty but claim no portion of Antarctica. The countries in green have signed the treaty but have no voting rights regarding the treaty. The countries in red haven't signed the treaty. |
It's interesting that the United States and Russia, two of the largest and most powerful nations, have never made a claim in Antarctica.
Queen Maud's Land is a beautiful slice of Antarctica:
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