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See below for a sample of dates to observe, reflect, celebrate or promote throughout the university community. The full calendar is available on the website,

January 16
Martin Luther King Day (US)
Born on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. grew to become one of the greatest Social Activists the world has ever known. At 35 he became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace prize. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while making a speech from the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. His birthday became a National Holiday by an act of the United Stated Congress in 1983. King was the chief spokesman of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968.

January 17
World Religion Day (BA)
The aim of World Religion Day is to foster the establishment of interfaith understanding and harmony by emphasizing the common denominators underlying all religions. The message of World Religion Day is that, humankind, which has stemmed from one origin, must now strive towards the reconciliation of that which has been split up. Human unity and true equality depend not on past origins but on future goals, on what we are becoming and whither we are going.

January 18 – 25
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (CH)
The traditional period in the northern hemisphere for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is January 18 to 25. Those dates were proposed in 1908 by Paul Wattson to cover the days between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul, and therefore have a symbolic significance.

January 19
Sultan (Sovereignty) (BA)
The seventeenth month of the Baha’i year.

January 25
Robbie Burns Day
Robbie Burns was a poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and he is celebrated worldwide. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement and after his death became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism.