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23 August: what is celebrated today
The calendar has days when history, memory and technology seem to agree in reminding us where we come from, what we have suffered and how far we have come. 23 August is one of those special days: from the fight against slavery to the birth of the hashtag, through tributes to victims of totalitarianisms and advances that transformed the way we communicate
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
On 23 August 1791, the enslaved people of Santo Domingo —now Haiti— began a rebellion that not only sparked the island’s independence, but marked the beginning of the end for the transatlantic slave trade.
More than 15 million men, women and children were torn from Africa and sold as commodities over more than four centuries. That is why the UN declared this date in 1998 a day to honour the victims and to remind us that Human Rights are not a gift, but an achievement.
The Slave Route, a project promoted by UNESCO, invites us every year to reflect on the causes, consequences and resistance that arose amid this tragedy.
Internaut Day
On 23 August 1991, the first web page in history was born. What was initially a tool created by Tim Berners-Lee to share scientific information would soon become the digital revolution that forever changed the way we learn, work and communicate.
Today, millions of internet users turn the Internet into a global square where everything —from an administrative procedure to a virtual museum— is one click away. But it also reminds us that this new world requires responsibility and ethics to prevent its shadows from growing as quickly as its advances.
International Hashtag Day
On 23 August 2007, a simple gesture on Twitter changed everything: Chris Messina wrote #barcamp and, without knowing it, invented the hashtag, that small label that organises conversations, makes messages go viral and has given visibility to social, political and cultural causes across the planet.
Since 2018, the date has celebrated the way in which a symbol as simple as # managed to transform digital language and the way we connect with the world.
European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism
Also called Black Ribbon Day, this commemoration recalls the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939, an agreement that triggered deportations, murders and oppression in Europe.
The Baltic Way protest in 1989 —a gigantic human chain linking Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania— was key to demanding remembrance and justice, and to ensuring that these dark pages of history are never repeated.