History
The first ribbon that was represented as a meaningful object in history was the yellow ribbon that was mentioned in a marching song, which was sung by the military in the United States. In the year 1917 George A. Norton copyrighted the song for the first time. The title of the song was "Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon". In the 1940s the song was rewritten by several musicians.
In the early 1970s the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree" was released, and based on this song, a wife of a hostage in Iran, Penney Laingen, was the first who used the ribbon as an awareness symbol. She tied yellow ribbons around trees, to illustrate desire for her husband coming home. Her friends and family members followed the trend due to loyalty. As all Americans were able to see this message, the "ribbon became a medium".
In May 1986 the AIDS Faith Alliance, later to be known as Christian Action on AIDS, held an open conference on AIDS at Notting Hill Gate in London, supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other United Kingdom Christian church leaders. Rainbow Ribbons were given to everybody attending. Following the conference, Rainbow Ribbons were widely circulated not only in the United Kingdom, but throughout the Christian world. The purpose of Christian Action on AIDS, an official Church of England charity whose founder/chairman was Barnaby Miln, was to get the worldwide Christian churches involved in the crisis that was AIDS. The churches rapidly got involved allowing Christian Action on AIDS to fold in 1991.
In the 1990s, AIDS activists were inspired by the ribbon medium, and decided to make ribbons for the people that fight against AIDS. The ribbon that represents AIDS became red as this is the color of passion. During the Tony Awards, a photo was taken of the actor Jeremy Irons, who had the bright red ribbon pinned on his chest. As the public followed the awards, the ribbon was an eye catcher and became popular overnight. The year 1992 was declared by The New York Times as "The year of the Ribbon".
Read more about this topic: Awareness Ribbon
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)