History
The anthem was performed for the first time for the ceremony of opening of the first edition at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In the following years, every hosting nation commissioned to various musicians the composition of a specific Olympic hymn for their own edition of the games. This happened up to the edition at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, United States.
The anthem by Samaras and Palamas was declared the official Olympic Anthem by the International Olympic Committee in 1958 at the 55th Session of the IOC in Tokyo, Japan. Since 1960, it has been used at the opening ceremonies of each Olympic Games.
Read more about this topic: Olympic Hymn
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“So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)