Word of the Day
Oran (oh-RON)
Common clue: Algerian seaport
Oran (population 700,000) is a city in northwest Algeria, situated on the Mediterranean Sea coast.
[Source:
The
World Fact Book]
Oran is the capital of a province (wilaya) of the same name.
History
Oran was founded in the 10th century by Moorish Andalusian traders, but was captured by the Spanish in 1509. From 1708 to 1732 and from 1791 to 1831, the city was part of the Ottoman Empire, until it fell to the French in 1831.
During the French colonial rule over Algeria, Oran was the capital of a département of the same name (number 92).
During World War II, Oran was held by Vichy France until it was captured by the Allies in late 1942, during Operation Torch.
In July 1940 the British Royal Navy shelled French warships in the port after they refused to respond to a British ultimatum designed to ensure they would not fall into German hands. The action sealed the hatred of Vichy France for Britain but convinced the world, especially the United States, of the British will to fight on alone against Nazi Germany and its allies.
Today, Oran is a major port and a commercial centre, and has a university. The old quarter of Oran has a casbah and an 18th-century mosque.
(Courtesy:
Larbi
Boubchir)
The folk music Rai had its beginnings in Oran.
Albert Camus' 1947 novel The Plague takes place in a fictional Oran.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Oran".
One day in the 1950s, Jacques Soustelle, governor-general of Algeria between 1955 and 1956, returned from Algiers, where he had taken an informal poll.
He told the president that all of his friends were bitterly opposed to de Gaulle's Algerian policies. De Gaulle's reply? "Changes vos amis" (Change your friends).
[Source: Anecdotage.com]
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