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| U.S. soldiers searching a village for potential Viet Cong/ |
Within South Vietnam the communist Viet Cong, supported by North Vietnam and China, attempted to seize power. South Vietnam were backed by the USA, who provided military aid from 1964.
Several large-scale invasion attempts by North Vietnam were defeated by indigenous and US forces, but the unpopularity of the war within the USA led to American withdraw from 1973.
World Theatre Day is celebrated annually on March 27 by International Theatre Institute (ITI) Centres and the international theatre community. It was initiated in 1961 by the ITI
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| The inside of the Apollo Theater as seen from the stage. David Shankbone |
The performance of mime as a dramatic art form originated in Ancient Greece; the name was taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus, although performances were not necessarily silent.
The world's largest theatrical wardrobe department is at Walt Disney World, Florida, which houses 1.2 million costumes.
Due to covid-19 outbreak, the ITI conducted the 2021 activities online.
The Independence Day of Bangladesh is a national holiday that takes place ever March 26. It commemorates the country's declaration of independence from Pakistan in the early hours of March 26, 1971 by the leader of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
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| Bangladesh Indepednce Day celebration By Sajeeb Ahmed Photography |
Substantially different in culture, language, and geography from Western Pakistan, East Pakistan resented their political and military dominance. A movement for political autonomy gained strength as a result of West Pakistan's indifference, when flooding killed 500,000 in East Pakistan in 1970.
The Bangladesh Liberation War began after the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of March 25, 1971. It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel and resulted in the flight of 10 million East Pakistani refugees to India.
The violent crackdown by the Pakistan Army led to Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declaring East Pakistan's independence as the state of Bangladesh the following day.
Tolkien Reading Day is an annual event, launched by The Tolkien Society in 2003, that takes place on March 25. It has the aim of encouraging the reading of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and the use of Tolkien's works in education and library groups.
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| JRR Tolkien |
The date of of March 25th was chosen as the date on which the Ring was destroyed, completing Frodo's quest and vanquishing Sauron
World Tuberculosis Day is commemorated annually on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.
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| A close up of a culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Wikipedia |
Eight years later Koch prematurely announced he had developed tuberculin, a cure for tuberculosis. Though it proved ineffective as a vaccine against the disease it did work as a way of finding out whether a patient had experienced tuberculosis.
The Bacillus Calmette–Guerin vaccine against tuberculous is based on a bovine strain of the bacterium. It was developed by Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin in the 1910s and first used on humans in 1921. Today, in countries where tuberculosis is common, one dose of BCG is recommended in healthy babies as close to the time of birth as possible.
The organism that usually causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, can travel through the air and spread from one person to the next. This happens when infected people cough, speak, sneeze, or spit.
In 2012, 8.6 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.3 million died from the disease, mostly in low and middle-income countries.
Pakistan Day, also Republic Day, is a national holiday in Pakistan commemorating the Lahore Resolution passed on March 23, 1940 and the adoption of the first constitution of Pakistan during the transition of the Dominion of Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on March 23, 1956.
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| Flag of Pakistan |
“Pak” means spiritually pure in Urdu and “Stan” means land. The name coined by Ali was accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
The Muslim League slowly rose to mass popularity in the 1930s thanks to fears of under-representation and neglect of Muslims in politics. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, greatly espoused the two-nation theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution of 1940, popularly known as the Pakistan Resolution.
As the United Kingdom agreed upon partitioning of the Indian empire of British Raj, the modern state of Pakistan was established on August 14, 1947.
Queen Elizabeth II ended her role as monarch of Pakistan on March 23, 1956, when it became the first country in the world to declare itself an Islamic Republic.
Today is World Water Day, an annual UN observance day (22 March) that highlights the importance of freshwater and how it is linked to climate change. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
In 1900, the average American used just five gallons (19 litres) of water a day. Only 15 percent of households had flushing toilets, and even fewer had bath tubs. People often had no conception of what it was like to be wet all over. People on farms have to dig wells by hand and carry water to the house. They required 50 gallons (189 litres) of it for one load of laundry.
Between 1900 and 2000, water consumption increased by 600% and, with natural sources of water becoming an increasingly valuable commodity the United Nations was anxious that rivers crossing national boundaries, would soon become a source of conflict.
Some studies suggest that by 2025 more than half the people around the world will not have enough fresh water.
The world's purest fresh water can be found on the southern tip of Chile, in a town called Puerto Williams. The water has been found to have only two chemical parts per million, hence making it the world's cleanest.
International Color Day is celebrated each year on March 21 by the International Color Association. Apparently they chose the date to mark the spring equinox, when light and dark are equal, though the equinox usually falls on March 19 or 20.
The color you see in a pitch-black room is "Dark Gray" not black and it is called "Eigengrau".
When asked to name a color, 60% of any sample will name the color “red.”
Today, March 20, 2024, is officially the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and one of only two days a year when the length of night and day are equal. From March 21st the days are longer than the nights and will be until September 22nd.
Saint Joseph's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Joseph, is a Christian celebration that honors Saint Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus Christ. It is observed on March 19th each year in many Christian traditions, including Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
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| St Joseph with the Infant Jesus By Guido Reni |
Each year, National Biodiesel Day on March 18th commemorates the birthday of Rudolf Diesel on March 18, 1858.
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| Diesel's original 1897 engine on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. Photo by Chris Thomas |
Rudolph Diesel had the idea to develop an engine which relied on a high compression of the fuel to ignite it. He took his inspiration from watching a lecture where there was a demonstration of a Malaysian fire starting technique called the 'fire piston' which creates flames through air compression.
Diesel first came up with a design for his engine in 1892 and, subsidized by the Krupp company, constructed a ‘rational heat motor’, demonstrating the first compression-ignition engine in 1897. Diesel was granted US Patent No. 608,845 on August 9, 1898, for his engine. He unveiled his engine at the World Fair in 1900.
Saint Patrick's Day takes place on March 17, the feast day of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is celebrated all over Ireland and elsewhere in the world where Irish people or their descendants live.
St Patrick's Day became a public holiday in Ireland in 1903 thanks to an Irish MP James O'Mara. He was also responsible for a law which required pubic houses to close on March 17th to prevent public drunkenness. That law was not repealed until the 1970s.
St Patrick's Day is a holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland, Labrador and Montserrat.
Over 8 million St. Patrick's Day greeting cards are exchanged in America making today the ninth-largest card selling occasion in the US.
National Panda Day draws attention to one of the world’s unique bears on March 16 every year.
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| By J. Patrick Fischer - Wikipedia Commons |
China retains ownership of all the giant pandas around the world, which are selectively loaned to other countries. The fee for a pair is usually $1 million a year, with funds going toward conservation efforts in China.
Since 2010 pandas born in captivity in China have been looked after by researchers in panda suits to prepare the animals for life in the wild.
World Speech Day takes place annually on March 15, celebrating "speeches and speech making through live speaking events across the world".
Winston Churchill, would spend weeks polishing up particular phrases for his speeches. He would write while on the telephone or propped up in bed, but perhaps Churchill’s favorite location for writing was the bath.
Dr Martin King's "I had a dream" speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
Pi is a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, which is commonly approximated as 3.14159.
Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14 or 3.14 and officially kicks off at 1:59 pm. When combined the date and time results in 3.14159, the approximate numerical value of pi.
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| A pi pie |
If you list the first 360 digits of PI, the last 3 digits will be "360". PI comes from a circle which has 360 degrees.
March 14 may be Pi Day but the ultimate Pi Day was March 14, 1592, or 3.14.1592 as the Americans write it, which has the first seven digits of pi.
Today is World Sleep day. World Sleep Day is held the Friday before Spring Vernal Equinox of each year. It is organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of World Sleep Society (founded by WASM and WSF) and aims to lessen the burden of sleep problems on society through better prevention and management of sleep disorders.
The word “sleep” derives from the Proto-European base *sleb, “to be weak,” and is related to “slack.”
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| Pixiebay |
Ancient peoples actually slept in two periods, sometimes termed “first sleep” and “second sleep,” each lasting four hours with a two hour reprieve in between. Additionally, most people would take a mid-afternoon rest ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours.
The phrase "sleep tight" originated in Shakespeare's time when mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence ......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.
A single seven-to-eight hour sleep pattern like our didn't happen until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of artificial light, like kerosene lamps and the eventual electric light bulb, the days became much longer and it became customary to continue working into the dark so as to maximize productivity and consequently consolidate rest into one long chunk.
National Earmuff Day is celebrated on March 13th recognizing the anniversary of the creation of the protection that keeps our ears warm.
Greenwood patented an improved earmuff with a steel band which held them in place on March 13, 1877. In the patent document No.188,292, the invention is described as "Improvement in Ear-Mufflers."
Having patented Greenwood’s Champion Ear Protectors, he established Greenwood’s Ear Protector Factory, which by 1883 was making 50,000 pairs a year.
Girl Scout Day is celebrated annually on March 12th.
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| Juliette Gordon Low (center), with two Girl Scouts. |
In 1911 Juliette Gordon Low met Robert Baden-Powell while she was living in the United Kingdom. Inspired by the Girl Guides movement, she established the Girl Scouts of America,. On March 12, 1912 she organized the first Girl Scouts troop meeting of 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia.
Brownies, the junior section of the Guides were established in 1914, they were first called Rosebuds. The name Brownie was adopted in 1918.
World Kidney Day is observed on March 11 annually. The day raises awareness of the increasing burden of kidney diseases worldwide and to strive for kidney health for everyone, everywhere.
Kidney disease is a non-communicable disease (NCD) and currently affects around 850 million people worldwide. One in ten adults has chronic kidney disease (CKD)
Each of our two kidneys is about 4.5 inches long and weighs about five ounces.
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| By Madhero88 - Own workReferenceshere, CC BY 3.0, $3 |
The average person's kidneys account for only about half of a percent of their total body weight.
The main functions of the kidneys are blood purification and waste elimination.
National Mario Day celebrates the entire Mario franchise on March 10th. It takes place on March 10th each year, the reason being that this date, written as "Mar10", looks like Mario's name.
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| Promotional artwork of Mario, as seen in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Wikipedia |
Mario Bros was a platform game created by Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the lead developers for the video game Donkey Kong for arcades.
In the game, Mario is portrayed as an Italian-American plumber who, along with his brother Luigi has to defeat enemies that have been coming from the sewers by jumping on them from below and then kicking them, when they are knocked down. It was first released on July 14, 1983.
The first title in the series, Super Mario Bros., released for the Nintendo Entertainment System on September 13, 1985, established gameplay concepts and elements prevalent in nearly every Super Mario game since.
On March 9th, National Barbie Day celebrates an iconic doll that premiered on that day in 1959. March 9th is also used as Barbie's official birthday.
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| The first Barbie doll. Original uploaded by Barbieologin at Wikimedia Commons |
Barbie was named by Ruth after her daughter. Her full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts, and she is from Willows, Wisconsin.
Mattel designer Jack Ryan (1926-1991) created the popular image of the Barbie doll. Apart from Barbie's general appearance, Ryan designed both the hinge that enabled her knees and waist to bend and her pull-string voice box.
The Barbie Doll made her debut in a zebra-striped swimsuit at the New York Toy Fair on March 9, 1959. It took toy stores across the US by storm and more than 351,000 dolls were sold that year at $3 (£2.00) each.
International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It is celebrated each year on March 8.
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| 1917 International Women's Day - Petrograd. |
In ancient Greece women didn't start counting their age until their wedding day, rather than the actual day they were born. They believed the wedding date was the real start of a woman's life.
Until the late 1400s the word 'girl' just meant a child of either sex. If you had to differentiate between them, male children were referred to as 'knave girls' and females were 'gay girls'.
National Cereal Day is celebrated across the USA each year on March 7th.
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| Advertisement for Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes from the July 21, 1910 issue of Life magazine. |
John Harvey Kellogg , the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium , developed a new cereal, an improvement on the Granose idea. This new product came about by accident, after some boiled corn was left alone, one of his cooks found it had broken into crispy flakes. He served corn flakes for the first time to his patients at his hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan on March 7, 1896.
The first cereals for the sweet tooted were introduced in 1958, General Mills’ Cocoa Puffs and Kelloggs' Cocoa Krispies.
National Oreo Cookie Day is recognized across the USA each year on March 6th.
The Oreo sandwich cookie was first developed and produced by the National Biscuit Company (today known as Nabisco) in 1912.
Oreo cookies were first made in a New York bakery. They sold for 30 cents per pound in what is now Chelsea Market.
The first Oreo was sold on March 6, 1912 to a grocer in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The name Oreo was first trademarked a week later. Although the origin of the name "Oreo" is unknown, there are many theories. According to one Oreo executive, the name mimics the two O-shaped cookies that make the sandwich. Others claim the "re" comes from the "cream.
World Book Day falls on the first Thursday in March - celebrating everything to do with literature and reading. The annual event, celebrated in over 100 countries around the world is led by the charity Unesco, It is largely targeted towards children and aimed at encouraging their love of reading.
It is not until about 425 BC that a book trade developed in Athens, with educated people acquiring papyrus scrolls to read in the privacy of their homes.
Plato, writing in the Phaedrus in about 365 BC, expressed strong disapproval of this new-fangled fashion for reading by oneself.
People in India are the world's biggest readers, spending an average 10.7 hours a week.
Ten books on a shelf can be arranged in 3,628,800 different ways.
National Anthem Day is every March 3rd, commemorating the day that congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" their national anthem.
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| The earliest surviving sheet music of "The Star-Spangled Banner", from 1814. |
In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British failed to capture Baltimore. During the battle, lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor. Key's poem about the event, "Defence of Fort McHenry", which he wrote between September 14-17, 1814, was later set to music and became the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The Secretary of War, Daniel E. Lamont issued an order in the 1890s that it "be played at every Army post every evening at retreat." and in 1899, the US Navy officially adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner" as its anthem.
In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the US national anthem. The order was confirmed by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. Before 1931, the US national anthem was "My Country 'Tis Of Thee."
The full version of "The Star Spangled Banner" consists of four verses, but it is very rare to hear any but the first performed.
Today is March 2nd. The month of March comes from the Latin “Martius,” named for Mars, the Roman god of war who was also regarded as a guardian of agriculture and an ancestor of the Roman people. His month was the beginning of the season for both farming and warfare.
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| Colossal statue of Mars (Pyrrhus) - User:Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (2011), Wikipedia Commons |
March was the first month of the year until the Gregorian calendar began to be used in 1752.
March was called Hlyda or Lide in Old English, which is a reference to the loud winds.
March is the only month with three consecutive consonants in its name in English
Saint David's Day is the feast day of Saint David and falls on March 1st each year. The date was declared a national day of celebration within Wales in the 18th century.
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| Stained glass chapel panel, of St David originally designed by William Burges |
Saint David was a Welsh bishop of Menevia during the 6th century. He was born near the present city of St Davids around 520 AD.
He founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) in a remote and inhospitable part of south west Wales on the western headland of Pembrokeshire. St David's Cathedral stands today at the same spot. St David established many other monasteries churches throughout the country.
The date of Saint David's death is believed to be March 1, 589. His last words to the community of monks were: "Be steadfast brothers be ye constant. The yoke which with single mind ye have taken, bear ye to the end; and whatsoever ye have seen with me and heard, keep and fulfill.
International Polar Bear Day is an annual event organized by Polar Bears International every February 27 to raise awareness about the conservation status of the polar bear.
The latest estimate of the worldwide polar bear population by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature is 22,000 to 31,000, and the current population trend is unknown. Around 70 per cent are found in Canada.
Polar bears fur is made up of a layer of dense underfur and an outer layer of guard hairs, which appear white but are in fact transparent. They reflect light, so they appear white.
Today is National Pistachio Day. The day is observed in the US on February 26 each year.
The pistachio is a small tree originating from Central Asia and the Middle East.
Today is National Chili Day. Chilli Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in February on the grounds that hot food is most needed in a cold month.
Chilies were brought to Spain from South America in 1493 by Diego Alvarez Chanca, a physician who sailed with Columbus.
Because Chilies are native only to the Americas. India and Thailand didn't have spicy food before Columbus.
Today is a national holiday in Estonia marking the anniversary of the Estonian Declaration of Independence in 1918.
The Flag of Estonia was associated with Estonian nationalism and was used as the national flag when the Estonian Declaration of Independence was issued on February 24, 1918. It was raised for the first time on December 12, 1918 atop the Pikk Hermann in Tallinn.
During World War II (1939–1945), Estonia was repeatedly contested and occupied by the Soviet Union and Germany, ultimately being incorporated into the former.
Estonia declared formal independence, reconstituting the pre-1940 state, on the night of August 20, 1991, during the attempted coup by the Soviets.
The National Day or Estonian Independence Day is celebrated each year on February 24th. It celebrates the independence of Estonia from the Russian Empire in 1918; the Soviet period is considered to have been an illegal annexation.
February 23rd is observed around the world as International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day.
The earliest reference to “dog biscuits” in the Oxford English Dictionary refers to “An advertisement of dog biscuits manufactured by Mr Smith of Maidenhead” in 1823.
The first to market dog biscuits worldwide was James Pratt, an electrical and lightning rod salesman of Ohio around 1860.
One employee at Pratt’s factory in London was Charles Cruft who later founded Cruft’s Dog Show.
The word's largest dog biscuit weighed 279.87 kg (617 lb) and was made by Hampshire Pet Products (USA) in Joplin, Missouri, USA, on July 8, 2011. The biscuit was 19 ft (5.79m) long, 3.8 ft, (1.16 m) wide, and 1.63 in (0.04 m) deep. It required a total of 10 bakers to bake it.
Play Tennis Day is celebrated on February 23 across the US every year. In 1873 Major Walter Wingfield created an outdoor game he called "Sphairistike" but it survives to this day as lawn tennis, from the French "tenez." He came up with the idea after playing with a new kind of ball made from of India rubber which had been designed to bounce on grass.
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| Drawing of a Lawn Tennis court as originally designed by Major Walter Wingfield in 1874 |
The retired British cavalryman introduced the game at a Christmas party in the gardens of 17th century Nantclwyd Hall, near Ruthin, Wales in 1873. His game was called sphairistike.
The name 'Sphairistike' was rather poor Greek, being a mangling of the Greek for ‘playing ball' .
Wingfield's game was played on an hour-glass shaped court with a net that was 4ft 8in high. A modern net is 3.5ft at the posts, 3ft in the middle.
Major Walter Wingfield was at heart a salesman and a promoter. The retired army officer drew up a set of rules and, in 1874, patented his 'sphairistrike' game, which mixed elements of racquets, badminton, and court tennis. Between July 1874 and June 1875, 1,050 of his tennis sets were sold.
Walter Wingfield holds a great credit in popularising this game enormously. The world’s oldest tennis tournament, Wimbledon Championships was first played at London in 1877.
(For more check out my entry for Tennis).
National Cook A Sweet Potato Day is celebrated on February 22nd each year.
Sweet potatoes are thought to have been first domesticated in Central America at least 5,000 years ago. The first Europeans to taste sweet potatoes were members of Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1492. After that, many explorers discovered a wide variety of local names for different cultivars for the sweet potato.
In Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the sweet potato is called batata. In Chile, Central America, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines, the sweet potato is known as camote, which comes from the Nahuatl word camot.
Unlike other potatoes, sweet potatoes like long, hot growing seasons. This might explain why they are recognized as the state vegetable of North Carolina, where 1.2 billion pounds a year are produced.
Today is International Mother Language Day.
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| 2017 International Mother Language Day celebration in Bangalore By Suyash Dwivedi |
The book of Genesis in the Bible tells us that the emergence of different languages happened in around 4,000 BC. It was God's punishment for man's presumption in building the mighty tower of Babel, in Babylonia which was a monument to their own greatness. He scattered the people all over the Earth and confused their language so they wouldn't understand each other.
A recent Languages Of The World publication lists 7,097 languages spoken on Earth. Around 40 per cent of them are in danger of disappearing.
The ten most spoken languages in the world are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French, in that order.
February 20 is National Cherry Pie Day.
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The cherries from an average cherry tree are enough to make 28 cherry pies.
There is a city in Washington named 'George'. Every year, George, Washington celebrates the 4th of July by baking the world's largest cherry pie.
Serving ice cream on cherry pie was once illegal in Kansas.
The birthday of Batman’s civilian alter ego, billionaire Bruce Wayne is February 19th.
US cartoonist Bob Kane (1915-98) co-created Batman after being asked by his boss to produce a rival to Superman. he said he came up with the Caped Crusader in a single weekend, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, after coming across one of the artist’s pictures of "a flying machine with huge bat wings" when he was about 12. Kane said: "It looked like a bat man to me."
On March 30, 1939, DC Comics published its second major superhero in Detective Comics #27; he was Batman, one of the most popular comic book superheroes of all time. He made his first appearance under the name "Bat-Man."
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| Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). The first appearance of Batman. Art by Bob Kane. Wikipedia Commons |
Batman’s civilian alter ego, billionaire Bruce Wayne, was named after two historical figures — Robert the Bruce and U.S. War of Independence General ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne. His birthday is February 19th, the date that Batman's creator Bob Kane first drew him.
Bruce Wayne's clock unlocks the secret door to the Batcave when the hands are set to the time that his parents were murdered, 10:47 P.M.
National Battery Day is observed each year in the US on February 18th. The day serves to appreciate the convenience batteries provide to our everyday lives.
The Baghdad Battery is a 2000-year-old clay jar with a stopper made of asphalt. Sticking through the asphalt is an iron rod surrounded by a copper cylinder. When filled with vinegar or other electrolytic solution, the jar produces about 1.1 volts.
The usage of the word "battery" to describe a group electrical devices dates to Benjamin Franklin,
In 1749 Franklin used the term "battery" to describe a set of linked capacitors he used for his experiments with electricity by analogy to a battery of cannon. (He borrowed the term from the military, where a "battery" refers to weapons functioning together.)
For the battery we must thank the frog. In the 1780s, the Italian physicist Luigi Galvani discovered that a dead frog's leg would twitch when he touched it with two pieces of metal. Galvani had created a crude circuit and the phenomenon was taken up by his friend, the aristocratic Professor Alessandro Volta, whose voltaic cells stacked in a Voltaic pile amazed Napoleon. The pile was also the first battery.
Today is Ash Wednesday
The name of Ash Wednesday comes from the practice of placing ashes from palm branches on the heads of Christian worshipers,
Observers have ashes placed on their foreheads in the shape of the cross as the words from Genesis 3:19 are spoken: "You are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Lent, the period of abstinence in preparation for Easter, was not observed by the very early church. Lent has been on the church calendar since the first or second century, but has not always occupied the same dates. According to Irenaeus (c. 130-c. 200), cited by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, the lenten fast originally lasted only two or three days.
From the fourth century a time of fasting in the time preceding Easter was maintained. The extent of fasting varied, for instance Pope Gregory the Great wrote to St Augustine of Canterbury "We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, such as milk, cheese, and eggs."
The duration of Lent remained variable until the 1091 Synod of Benevento, when the observance of Ash Wednesday as the first day of Lent, became universal.
It was probably adopted to parallel the 40-day fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, though it may also have reflected the 40 hours Jesus spent in the tomb.
Today is National Cabbage day celebrating the delightful garden staple.
Jacques Cartier first brought cabbage to the Americas in 1541–42, and it was probably planted by the early English colonists, despite the lack of written evidence of its existence there until the mid-17th century.
Cabbage heads generally range from 1 to 8 lbs and can be green, purple and white.
Cabbages are prepared in many different ways for eating. They can be pickled for dishes such as sauerkraut, steamed, stewed, sautéed, braised, or eaten raw.
Cabbage is a good source of beta-carotene, vitamin C and fiber.
Today is Shrove Tuesday
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| An English pancake race on Shrove Tuesday By Lestalorm |
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Christian calendar. It is also known as Mardi Gras and, in England, Pancake Tuesday, for the custom of eating up of rich things before the Lenten fast.
Throughout late medieval Europe pancakes had a place among Easter culinary items, especially on Shrove Tuesday. Pancakes were originally invented as a way of using up all the leftover fatty and rich before Lent began on Ash Wednesday.
William Shakespeare uses the simile “as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday” in All’s Well That Ends Well.
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| Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans photo by Infrogmation Wikipedia Commons |
Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.
Mardi Gras only became a holiday in 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII placed it on his Gregorian calendar on the day before Ash Wednesday.
The Carnival of Brazil is an annual Brazilian festival held between the Friday afternoon (51 days before Easter) and Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent. Carnival is the most famous Brazilian holiday. During this time, Brazil attracts 70% of its tourists.
National Almond Day, which recognizes the versatile and healthful almond is celebrated on February 16th each year.
The origins of the almond go back a long, long way. It’s mentioned in Genesis 43:11 where it is described as “among the best” and nine additional times in the Bible.
Wild almonds are poisonous. The kernel produces deadly cyanide upon mechanical handling, and eating even a few dozen in one sitting can be fatal.
It takes about a gallon (4.5 litres) of water to grow one almond,
California produces over 80 percent of the world's almonds.
Today is National Flag of Canada Day, commonly shortened to Flag Day. The day is observed annually on February 15 to commemorate the inauguration of the flag of Canada on that date in 1965.
The new red-and-white maple leaf design was officially inaugurated as the flag of Canada on February 15, 1965, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner. There are 11 points on the Canadian flag.
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| By Photograph taken by Jared Grove (Phobophile) |
The Canadian Flag that flies over the Peace Tower of the Canadian Parliament is changed daily. Used flags are given away and any Canadian resident may request one, but the current waiting period is 63 years.
Today is St. Valentine's Day.
Bishop Valentine had prayed for the restoration of a young girl's sight, and she was cured. Shortly before his death he wrote the girl a farewell message signed "From your Valentine."
St. Valentine's Day was set as February 14th by Pope Gelasius I in 494. He included Saint Valentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God."
Since 2012, February 13 has been celebrated by Unesco as World Radio Day. The date was chosen as United Nations Radio was launched on February 13, 1946.
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| A Fisher 500 AM/FM hi-fi receiver from 1959. |
World Radio Day 2020 is around the theme of "Radio and diversity." UNESCO and UN calls on radio stations to uphold diversity, both in their newsroom and on the airwaves.
Radio is the transmission and reception of radio waves. When radio signals are sent out to many receivers at the same time, it is called a broadcast.
In 1906 American inventor Lee de Forest invented the three-element "Audion" (triode) vacuum tube, the first practical amplification device. The tube represented the foundation of the field of electronics, making possible radio broadcasting. The first public radio broadcast took place on January 13, 1910 when De Forest transmitted the voices of Metropolitan Opera stars to several receivers in New York City.
The first transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, was announced on October 18, 1954. Two companies working together, Texas Instruments of Dallas, Texas and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (I.D.E.A.) of Indianapolis, Indiana, were behind its unveiling. The Regency TR-1 was put on sale in November 1954, and was the first practical transistor radio made in any significant numbers.
Red Hand Day, also known as the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers, is observed annually on February 12th. It serves as a crucial reminder of the plight of children forced to fight in armed conflicts around the world and calls for an end to this practice.
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| By Paul Schäfer - Flickr: Red Hand Day - Kinder sind keine Soldaten!, |
According to tradition, Emperor Jimmu founded Japan and established his capital in Yamato on February 11, 660BC. He is said to have been a direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and the storm god Susanoo. In modern Japan, Jimmu's accession is marked as National Foundation Day on February 11.
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| Emperor Jimmu |
75-80% of Japan's surface is covered in mountains, with over 200 volcanoes. It is home to 10% of the active volcanoes in the world.
The Japanese name for Japan is "Nihon" or "Nippon," which “Land of the Rising Sun.” It was once believed that Japan was the first country to see the sun rise in the East in the morning.
National Umbrella Day is held on February 10th each year around the world. While the origins of the utilitarian holiday remain a mystery, it’s been celebrated since at least 2004.
The umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. Named after the Latin umbra, meaning shade, the umbrella started life in Mesopotamia as a sunshade.
In ancient times, umbrellas were used to denote wealth and rank, with the King of Siam carrying one with multiple tiers each decorated with tassels.
A French merchant debuted Europe's first lightweight folding umbrella in 1710. Jean Marius, whose shop was located near the barrier of Saint-Honoré in Paris, received from King Louis XIV the exclusive right to produce folding umbrellas for five years on January 1, 1710. A model was purchased by the Princess Palatine in 1712, and she enthused about it to her aristocratic friends, making it an essential fashion item for Parisiennes.
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| Parisians in the rain with umbrellas, by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1803) |
The average life span of an umbrella is one-and-a-half years.
Today is National Pizza Day, which is celebrated on February 9th each and every year.
The word ‘pizza’ is over 1000 years old. They were first found in Latin text in Naples, Italy in 997AD. These pizzas were herb and spice covered circles of dough that were cooked in a hot oven. They were served up as a snack or appetizer.
The first pizza restaurant, Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba, opened in Naples in 1830. The oven in which the pizzas at Port 'Alba was cooked was lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius.
Each man, woman and child in America eats an average of 46 slices (23 pounds) of pizza a year
According to Domino's, some of the more popular international toppings are pickled ginger, minced mutton and tofu in India, squid and Mayou Jaga (mayonnaise, potato and bacon) in Japan, and green peas in Brazil.
Today is the anniversary of the first Boy Scout camp and the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.
After Baden-Powell wrote Scouting for Boys, he held a camp in the summer of 1907 to test ideas for his book. Twenty boys, drawn from Eton and Harrow public schools plus Poole and Bournemouth locals spent the week from August 1 to August 8 camping on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbor on the south coast of England.
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| Cover of first part of Scouting For Boys, January 1908 |
The boys were organised into patrols (Bulls, Wolves, Curlews and Ravens), wore khaki, used the motto Be Prepared", studied cooking, fire-lighting, wildlife, life-saving and patriotism, and were given tests on knots and tracking. Reveille was at 6am, there was a compulsory siesta and lights out at 9.30pm. The public schoolboys were charged £1, the others 3/6d (17 1/2p).d.
In 1909 Chicago newspaper and magazine publisher William D. Boyce was visiting London, when he found himself lost on a foggy street. He encountered a boy who came to his aid, guiding him to his destination. The boy refused Boyce's tip, explaining that he was a Boy Scout and was merely doing his daily good turn. Boyce's fascination was aroused and he met with staff at the Boy Scouts Headquarters. Upon his return to the US, Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910.
Today is Rose Day, a romantic celebration observed in some countries, primarily India, on February 7th. It marks the beginning of a week-long lead-up to Valentine's Day, known as Valentine's week. It's a day dedicated to expressing love, affection, and appreciation for loved ones through the symbolic gesture of gifting roses.
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Today is Waitangi Day, the national day of New Zealand, marks the anniversary of the initial signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is regarded as the founding document of the nation. The first Waitangi Day was made a national public holiday in 1974.The Treaty of Waitangi (Māori: Tiriti o Waitangi) is a treaty first signed on February 6, 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. It resulted in the declaration of British sovereignty over New Zealand by Lieutenant Governor William Hobson in May 1840.
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| The Waitangi sheet from the Treaty of Waitangi. |
The Treaty of Waitangi gave Britain control of New Zealand while recognizing the native inhabitants' land rights. However, the English and Maori texts differed, leading to many controversies over its stipulations.
In 1841, Treaty of Waitangi documents, housed in an iron box, narrowly escaped damage when the government offices at Official Bay in Auckland were destroyed by fire. They then were lost for decades, before being found in a damp basement heavily water damaged and chewed by rodents.
Today is World Nutella Day. An American blogger named Sara Rosso founded World Nutella Day on February 5, 2007.
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| By A. Kniesel - Wikipedia Commons |
The tasty chocolate and hazelnut spread Nutella was invented in 1946 by Italian pastry maker Pietro Ferrero. At the time, there was very little chocolate as cocoa was in short supply due to World War II rationing, so Ferrero mixed hazelnuts into the chocolate.
Ferrero sold an initial batch of 300 kilograms (660 lb) of "Pasta Gianduja" in 1946. It was originally a loaf designed to be sliced and placed on bread, but Ferrero started to sell a creamy version as "Supercrema" five years later.
Ferrero's son Michele Ferrero revamped Supercrema with the intention of marketing it throughout Europe. Its composition was modified and it was renamed "Nutella". The first jar of Nutella left the company's Alba factory on April 20, 1964.
Nutella uses 25% of the world's supply of hazelnuts.
February 4 is World Cancer Day, an international day marked to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment.
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| Wikipedia |
Today is February 3. The name of February came from the Latin "februa," a means of cleansing, which referred to the pre-spring purification rituals.
Before Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46BC, February was the only month with an even number of days. All the rest had 29 or 31. Odd numbers were seen as luckier.
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| February 1900 Japanese calendar showing that 1900 was not a leap year |
Nell Gwyn was said to have born at Hereford on February 2, 1650 at Gwynne Street. (London and Oxford also claim her as their own). Described by Samuel Pepys as "pretty, witty Nell", in 1665 Nell Gwyn soon achieved prominent recognition as a comic actress, appearing as Flydana in Dryden's Indian Emperor. While walking in St James’ Park, King Charles II spotted Nell and was immediately captivated. By now a single mother, her relationship with the English king provoked juicy gossip.
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| Nell Gwyn by Peter Lely c 1675 |
National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and Senate resolution outlawing slavery that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
By proclamation in 1862 Abraham Lincoln emancipated all the slaves within reach of his northern armies, thereby interpreting the American Civil War as a crusade against slavery. The picture below shows Abraham Lincoln presenting the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet.
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| Painted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter in 1864. |
President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865. The amendment was passed by the required three-quarters of the states, and became law on December 6, 1865.
From 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas with only about 10.7 million surviving the journey.
Mississippi became the last US State to ratify the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution (abolition of Slavery), passed in 1865 on March 16, 1995. It was later discovered the state authorities failed to complete the proper documentation to officially carry this through until 2013.
National Hot Chocolate Day is observed annually on January 31. The day fittingly takes place in winter, as the drink is often associated with cold weather.
The Maya people who lived in Central America from around 300-900 AD were fond of liquid chocolate drinks with a foamy, frothy top but the consumption of chocolate was mainly restricted to the society's elite. The drink was made by mixing the roasted, crushed cocoa beans and ground maize with a little water.
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| A Maya lord forbids an individual from touching a container of chocolate. |
The Spaniards in the New World changed the way chocolate was prepared. They were put off by the drink's black, gloomy appearance, and found its taste far too bitter and spicy. So, the Spanish added cane sugar as a sweetener, and flavorings such as vanilla, or more mild spices such as cinnamon and black pepper as opposed to chillies. A foam was created with the “molinillo”, a wooden whisk-like tool that was twirled between the palms of the hands to mix the chocolate.
Cortez took the drink to Spain where it served as a luxurious beverage to only the highest social classes: royalty, military, long-distance traders, and Catholic clergy.
London's first chocolate house, The Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll, in Gracechurch Street opened in 1657. The owner, an imaginative Frenchman, advertised it as a drink which “cures and preserves the body of many diseases.” Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class.
The addition of milk, much improving chocolate as a drink, was an innovation in the early eighteenth century. Credit goes to Sir Hans Sloane, an Irish botanist, who spent some time in Jamaica in the early 1700s, Sloane was offered a cocoa powder drink by the villagers and thought it tasted foul, so he mixed it with milk instead and brought it back to England where it was sold as medicine.
When you tap your spoon on the bottom of a cup of hot chocolate, the pitch of the sound will increase. The phenomenon is known as the “Hot Chocolate Effect”.
National Croissant Day is celebrated on January 30 of every year in the United States.
The Moslem Ottoman (Turkish) army was victoriously advancing from the East and had succeeded in conquering a vast expanse of territory in South East Europe. By 1686 they had reached the outskirts of Budapest. To reach the center of city, the Turks dug underground passages. Bakers, working during the night, heard the noise made by the Turks and gave the alarm. The assailants were repulsed and to highlight its defeat, the bakers’ produced, as a totally novel line, a roll of flaky pastry made of pounded almonds and sugar shaped in the form of a crescent, which is the emblem of Islam. It enabled the rejoicing Budapest citizens literally to devour with relish the very symbol of their enemy.
Though the Turks were forced to retreat, the edible croissant like crescent advanced further west, and by 1688 it had reached France.
In France, only Croissants made with 100% butter can be shaped straight – it’s the law.
Kansas Day is a holiday in the United States state of Kansas. It is celebrated annually on January 29 to commemorate the anniversary of the state's 1861 admission to the Union. It was first celebrated in 1877 by schoolchildren in the Paola public school. Today it is celebrated by teachers and students across the state
Samuel Seymour's 1819 illustration of a Kansa lodge and dance (see below) is the oldest drawing known to be done in Kansas.
The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law in 1854, establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, allowing settlers in those territories to determine if they would permit slavery within their boundaries. With the passage of the act, thousands of pro- and anti-slavery supporters flooded Kansas. Violent clashes soon occurred. In one raid Southerners destroyed the Kansas town of Lawrence, killing nearly 200 people. Kansas was called during this period, "Bleeding Kansas".
The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state.
Saint Thomas Aquinas' Feast Day is January 28. He is the Patron Saint of Students and Catholic Schools.
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| Detail from "Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas over Averroes" by Benozzo Gozzoli (1420–97) |
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| The reliquary of Thomas Aquinas By Didier Descouens |
January 27 was designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on November 1, 2005. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews and 11 million others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The date marks January 27, 1945, when the Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland was liberated by the Red Army.
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| Jews on selection ramp at Auschwitz, May 1944 By Bundesarchiv, Bild |
The Auschwitz concentration camp was first constructed in German-occupied Poland to hold Polish political prisoners. They began to arrive in May 1940. Despite overseeing the construction of the crematoria and gas chambers at Auschwitz, what specifically shocked SS-Obersturmführer Robert Mulka at the camp was his colleagues' dress sense.
Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to submit concrete proposals for "the final solution of the Jewish question" on July 31, 1941.
The first mass killings of Jews began at Bełżec extermination camp in occupied Poland on March 17, 1942, the first of the Aktion Reinhard camps to begin operation.
99% of Jewish children in Poland died in the Holocaust. Only 5,000 were left out of a pre-war population of 1 million.
Australia Day is observed annually on January 26, marking the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet at Port Jackson in New South Wales, and the raising of the British flag at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip.
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| Sydney Cove, Port Jackson from a drawing made by |
Captain James
On January 26, 1788 the British First Fleet, led by Governor Arthur Phillip in HM Armed Tender Supply, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbor) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the Australian continent.
Burns Night is celebrated on January 25th, with Burns suppers around the world honoring the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, the author of many Scots poems.
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| A traditional Burns Supper By Connor Beaton |
The first Burns supper in The Mother Club in Greenock was held on what was thought to be his birthday on January 29, 1802; in 1803 it was discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was January 25, 1759.
With Burns suppers being held worldwide, the day is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day, St. Andrew's Day.
Robert Burns is very popular in Russia. His works have been translated more into Russian than all the other languages put together.
Today is World Leprosy Day. Leprosy is a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis.
Leprosy doesn't cause body parts to be damaged or fall off. Instead, the disease damages one's ability to feel pain, causing common accidents to become more damaging.
In medieval Europe leprosy was a major problem and many leper colonies were built. The unfortunate lepers were provided small huts to live in and a high wall separated them from the community.
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| Two lepers denied entrance to town, 14th century |
World Leprosy Day takes place each year on the last Sunday in January. This date was chosen by French humanitarian Raoul Follereau as a tribute to the life of Mahatma Gandhi who had compassion for people afflicted with leprosy and who died in late January. The day aims to raise awareness globally of a disease many believe to be extinct, when in fact around 210,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
On January 24, Americans celebrate Beer Can Appreciation Day in remembrance of the historic day beer was first sold in cans.
In the US there is a Pie special interest group – the American Pie Council. Sponsored by the American Pie Council, National Pie Day is celebrated each year in the US on January 23.
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| Pixabay |
Around 2,500 BC, the Ancient Egyptians are known to have eaten pies made with ground oats or wheat wrapped around a filling of honey or figs.
Game or mutton pie was popular in late medieval England. These pies topped with rich aspic jelly and other sweet spices were cooked for hours in a slow oven. The eating of "hote pies" is mentioned in William Longland's late 14th century poem, Piers Plowman.
The Pilgrim fathers and early settlers brought their pie recipes with them to America, adapting to the ingredients and techniques available to them in the New World. Their first pies were based on berries and fruits pointed out to them by the Native North Americans.
Cream filled or topped pies are favorite props for slapstick humor. Throwing a pie in a person's face has been a staple of film comedy since Ben Turpin received one in Mr. Flip in 1909. Laurel and Hardy’s The Battle of the Century ends with a pie fight in which over 3,000 baked goods are flung.
The pivotal Supreme Court rulings in America, namely Roe v. Wade and the less prominent Doe v. Bolton, both delivered on January 22, 1973, marked a watershed moment by nullifying state laws that restricted abortion. This decision legalized abortions within the first six months of pregnancy, reshaping the country's political landscape and sparking a deep divide between pro-choice and pro-life factions. Grassroots movements on both sides gained momentum.
Today is Saint Agnes' feast day. According to tradition, Agnes was a beautiful young Roman girl of noble birth. After rejecting many suitors, she was denounced as a Christian and sent to a house of prostitution as her punishment. When a young man ventured to touch her, he lost his sight, but then regained it in answer to her prayers.
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| Saint Agnes by Domenichino |
Agnes was venerated as a saint at least as early as the time of St Ambrose, based on an existing homily. A church was built over her tomb about 350.
She is the patron saint of girls and chastity. The saint's association with purity and innocence made Agnes a very popular name until the end of the seventeenth century.
In art Agnes is often portrayed with a lamb, a symbol of innocence. On January 21, her traditional feast day, two lambs are blessed at her church in Rome. Their wool is then woven into palliums (bands of white wool), which the pope confers on archbishops as a token of their jurisdiction.
Source Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia.
Today is the anniversary of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the president of the United States. The inauguration is a ceremony to mark the commencement of a new four-year term of the president of the United States. Since 1937, it has taken place at noon EST on January 20, the first day of the new term.
Since the January 20, 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan, the ceremony has been held on a platform on the west front of the United States Capitol facing the National Mall with its iconic Washington Monument and distant Lincoln Memorial.
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| Barack Obama inauguration, January 20, 2009. By whitehouse.gov; |
The first presidential inauguration, that of George Washington, took place on April 30, 1789. All subsequent (regular) inaugurations from 1793 until 1933, were held on March 4, the day of the year on which the federal government began operations under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
Thomas Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. Jefferson walked to and from the ceremony, rather than riding in a carriage as George Washington and John Adams did.
The longest inaugural address was delivered by William Henry Harrison -- after delivering the 8,445-word address on a cold day in March 1841, he died a month later of pneumonia.
Today is National DJ Day in the US. The first disc jockey was sixteen-year-old student Ray Newby. In 1909, under the supervision of Charles “Doc” Herrold at Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose, California, he played the first records on a small transmitter. This predated the term "disc jockey," which wasn't used until decades later.
In 1935, American radio commentator Walter Winchell invented the term "disc jockey" (the combination of disc, referring to the disc records, and jockey, which is an operator of a machine) .
National Popcorn Day is celebrated on January 19 each year in the US in honor of the sweet or savory, caramelized, buttered or plain snack. The day has been celebrated since at least 1988.
Between 1955 and his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King was the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement. He used civil disobedience to combat institutionalized racism, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.
Ronald Reagan signed a bill on November 2, 1983 in the White House designating a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King's birthday, January 15th. The day was officially observed for the first time in all 50 states on January 17, 2000, when "Human Rights Day" was officially changed to "Martin Luther King Jr. Day" in Utah.
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| Ronald Reagan and Coretta Scott King at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day signing ceremony. |
Martin Luther King Day is celebrated in Japan to teach the importance of electoral politics and non-violent social change.
The Montgomery bus boycott was a landmark in the Black Civil Rights.movement, King's reform movement resulted in the segregation laws of the south being declared unconstitutional and equal voting rights being given to blacks.
National Winnie the Pooh Day falls on January 18th, which happens to be the birthday of A.A. Milne, the author who brought Pooh and his friends to life in his charming children's stories. It's a day dedicated to celebrating the adorable honey-loving bear and the world he inhabits.
Anthony or Anthony the Great or Anthony of the Desert was a Christian monk from Egypt, who is known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on January 17 among the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
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| Painting of Saint Anthony by Piero di Cosimo, c. 1480 |
National Religious Freedom Day commemorates the Virginia General Assembly's adoption of Thomas Jefferson's landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786. Religious Freedom Day has been officially proclaimed on January 16 in an annual statement by the President of the United States since 1993.
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| Thomas Jefferson's grave |
Thomas Jefferson was a freethinker, influenced by Rousseau and a champion of religious freedom. Convinced of the need to keep church and state separate, he believed unwaveringly in the freedom of people from government coercion in religious matters. Jefferson refused to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation and gave an injunction that there should be a wall of separation between church and state. "Millions of innocent men, women and children since the introduction of Christianity have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites," Jefferson wrote in his Notes on Virginia.
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was drafted in 1777 by Thomas Jefferson in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Virginia General Assembly adopted Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786. That statute became the basis for the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and led to freedom of religion for all Americans.
The Statute for Religious Freedom is one of only three accomplishments Jefferson instructed be put in his epitaph. The inscription on his tombstone, as he stipulated, reads "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia."
National Hat Day is an annual celebration observed in the US on January 15th of every year. Schools, libraries, and museums have observed National Hat Day since 1983.
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| Pexels |
The ancestor of all hats was probably the fillet. This was a band tied around the head to keep the hair in place. It was worn in ancient Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece.
Probably the first real hat was the broad-brimmed petasos of the ancient Greeks. It was worn only for traveling, as a protection against the weather. A chin strap held the petasos on or allowed it to hang down the back when not needed.
The Feast of the Ass was a Christian feast during medieval times (mainly celebrated) in France that celebrated the donkeys in the Bible, in particular the donkey bearing the Holy Family into Egypt after Jesus's birth. A girl and a child on a donkey would be led through town to the church, where the donkey would stand beside the altar during the sermon. It was observed on January 14.
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| Flight into Egypt |
The donkey of Mediterranean lands is thought to be a descendant of the wild ass of Western Asia.
Stephen Foster Memorial Day is a United States Federal Observance Day observed on January 13. It was made law in November of 1966 and was first celebrated in January 1967.
Stephen Foster's first great musical success was "Oh! Susanna" which was first performed in the Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1847. It became an anthem of the California Gold Rush.
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| Stephen Foster |
In the late 1840s Foster returned home to concentrate on being a songwriter. He signed a contract with the Christy Minstrels and it was during this period that Foster would write most of his best-known songs such as "Camptown Races" (1850), "Swanee River" ((1851) and "My Old Kentucky Home" (1853).
Foster was the first man to be paid a royalty on sheet music sales and the first American to make a career of writing songs.
Never very astute financially, in 1856 Stephen Foster sold all rights to future songs to his publishers for $1,900. Profits went largely to the publishers and performers. Four years later Foster moved to New York City, but separated from his wife, his fortunes decreased. Impoverished, he died in Bellevue Hospital, New York City on January 13, 1864 of alcoholism and a fall from his bed.
Stephen Foster Memorial Day commemorates the date that "the father of American music" died.
National Marzipan Day is celebrated every year in the United States on January 12th.
Made primarily of sugar or honey and almond meal (ground almonds), the confectionary has been used in all varieties of sweets and treats. Its dough-like consistency makes it an ideal material to make novelty shapes and figures.
Richard II of England once invited 2,000 of the country's rich barons to dine with him. 200 cooks prepared a menu, for which pudding was a three-foot high marzipan castle.
The first printed cookbook in 1475. In De Honesta Voluptate (On Right Pleasure and Good Health) recorded recipes for all kinds of food. Amongst the many recipes in De Honesta Voluptate were some for making marzipan and other candy. Confectionery regarded at the time to mainly be an pothecary's product, but they were also regarded as a luxury food, packaged in decorative boxes and offered as a gift to royals.
Galileo was fond of good food, for treats his nun daughter Sister Marie makes him marzipan shaped like little fish.
National Milk Day is celebrated on January 11th in the United States to honor the contributions of milk to society and highlight its importance as a dietary staple. The day is unofficial, and its origins are not tied to a specific event or organization, but it has grown in popularity to promote awareness of milk's nutritional benefits.
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| Rawpixel |
Milk is celebrated for being rich in calcium, protein, vitamin D, and other essential nutrients that contribute to bone health, muscle function, and overall wellness.
The introduction of milk in sterilized bottles in 1878 revolutionized milk distribution, making it safer and more accessible to the public. This innovation is a pivotal moment in food history, improving public health significantly. National Milk Day day also commemorates the first time milk was delivered in sterilized glass bottles in the U.S., a milestone in food safety and dairy distribution.
Every year on January 10th, we celebrate National Save the Eagles Day, a day dedicated to these magnificent birds that have become symbols of freedom, power, and resilience in many cultures.
The day reminds us of the crucial role eagles play in their ecosystems, keeping prey populations in check and maintaining ecological balance. It also highlights the threats they face, including habitat loss, pollution, illegal hunting, and even wind turbines. Lastly it educates the public about the amazing adaptations and behaviors of these apex predators, fostering appreciation and understanding.
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| Bald eagle by Andy Morffew, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org |
National Apricot Day is celebrated every year in the United States on January 9th. Apricots have been cultivated in Persia since antiquity, and dried ones were an important commodity on Persian trade routes.
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| Pixiebay |
Apricot trees spread by means of silk dealers from China to Italy and arrived in England in the late 12th century. However the Europeans were suspicious of the apricot fruit as they were thought to cause fever.
Franciscan friars brought apricots into American settlements in the 1800s, and they've thrived ever since.
World Typing Day is held on January 8 every year as one week after New Year is a good time to think through and write down plans for the year.
Orthodox Christmas Day is celebrated on January 7th by most Eastern Orthodox Churches. It marks the birth of Jesus Christ. The reason for the different date compared to Western Christmas (December 25th) lies in the use of the Julian calendar by many Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, which is used in most of the world.
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| Christmas-Serbian Ortodox Food.jpg Wikipedia |
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, also known as Theophany, is a Christian feast day commemorating the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. It is celebrated in the Catholic Church as well as the Anglican and Lutheran Churches on the Sunday following the Epiphany, which is observed on January 6th.
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| By Giotto - Giotto di Bondone, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org |
The Feast of Epiphany celebrates the revelation of the Christ child to the Gentiles, when the Magi or wise men visited Bethlehem to see Jesus, by following a star. It is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2. The holiday is celebrated by Christians twelve days after Christmas on January 6.
The Magi is a general term for astrologers, seers, and fortune tellers. In their sole appearance in the Gospel of Matthew, they are never named, and hail from "the east."
Matthew does not say there were only three wise men. We assume that they were a trio because of the three gifts that were given: gold, incense, and myrrh.
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| Adoration of the Magi by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 17th century |
The idea of Twelfth Night dates back to the Council of Tours in 567 where it was decided that the period from Christmas to Epiphany should be celebrated as Christmastide.
Epiphany is also known as Twelfth Day, and Twelfth Night precedes Twelfth Day and begins on the evening of January 5. The Monday after Epiphany is known as Plough Monday.
Simeon Stylites was a Syriac ascetic saint who achieved notability for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo (in modern Syria). His feast day is commemorated on January 5 in the Roman Catholic Church.
By the 420s, pillar dwelling had become quite a fad amongst holy men. Simeon made the decision to spend the last part of his life on top of a pillar in Syria. His decision to build himself a nine-foot high column was prompted by the constant interruptions from curious crowds congregating outside the cave where he was residing, who had heard reports of his already extreme self-denying lifestyle.
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| Wikipedia |
In his later years, Simon Stylites was the foremost famous personality in his part of the world. The Emperor Theodocus and Leo 1, the Bishop of Rome, would often consult him and request his prayers and Marcian, another Emperor visited him frequently although in disguise.
Today is World Braille Day, an international day that raises awareness of the importance of Braille for approximately 1.3 billion people living with some form of distance or near vision impairment.
Braille was invented by Louis Braille, a Frenchman who lost his sight at the age of three. At a school for blind boys, Louis came across books whose words consisted of raised letters of the alphabet; the drawback was, they took a long time to decipher. In 1821 an artillery captain, Charles Barbier, visited the school, visited the school, bringing a 12-dot code he'd devised to help Napoleon’s soldiers communicate at night without light. The captain was reluctant to accept suggestions from a boy, so Louis began to experiment at night. Using an awl, he reduced the number of dots from 12 to 6 which, arranged in different positions, represented the letters of the alphabet, thus enabling the blind to both read and write.
The date for the event was chosen by the United Nations General Assembly via a proclamation in November 2018, and marks the birthday of Louis Braille. The first World Braille Day was celebrated on January 4, 2019.
Around the world, 39 million people are blind, and another 253 million have some sort of vision impairment. For them, Braille provides a tactical representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols so blind and partially-sighted people are able to read the same books and periodicals printed as are available in standard text form.
J.R.R. Tolkien Day on January 3 is The Lord of the Rings author’s birthday. Each year at 9pm local time on that date fans honor the legacy of The Professor with a Tolkien birthday toast. (Tolkien’s Birthday – January 3rd 1892).
Today is the second day of January. The Romans named January after Janus, the God of gateways. Janus had two heads so he could look in both directions, back at the old year and forward towards the new year, at the same time.
January is the coldest month in the Northern Hemisphere, and the warmest in the Southern Hemisphere.
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| Snow in the Northern Hemisphere in the month of January |
January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, as the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period.
Although March was originally the first month of the Roman calendar, January became the new first month because that was when the Romans chose the new consuls.
The Anglo-Saxons called January "Wulfmonath" as it was the month hungry wolves came scavenging at people's doors.
Happy New Year! It is believed that celebrating the New Year dates back to the ancient Babylonians, who celebrated for eleven days with festivals and other fanfare 4,000 years ago.
The Babylonians also made New Year's Resolutions. They were spoken as oaths to the king—keeping them allowed the kingdom to stay in the gods' favor.
March 25th was the official New Year's Day in the UK and US until they switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
Due to their time zones, Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific, is the first country to ring in the New Year. Honolulu, Hawaii in the U.S. is among the last.
New Year's Eve, the last day of the year, is on December 31. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated at evening parties, where many people dance, eat, drink, and watch or light fireworks. Some Christians attend a watchnight service.
The first Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) New Year's Eve celebration was held in New York City on December 31, 1904. About 200,000 people celebrated New Year’s Eve with a fireworks display at the 24-story Times Tower.
"Auld Lang Syne" is a song, whose title means literally "old long since" or more idiomatically, "days of long ago". The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, restored the song based on fragments of an old ballad dating from over 150 years before. The American bandleader Guy Lombardo popularized the association of the song with the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve in the early 1930s.
Over two million people gather annually on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on the night of December 31, making of it the world's largest New Year's Eve party.
Today is the first anniversary of the use of the word "radio" as a standalone word. The first person to theorize the existence of radio waves was the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. His studies of light led him to the electromagnetic theory and in 1865 he proved that radio waves are possible.
The German scientist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz discovered the use of radio waves in transmitting information in the mid 1880s. However, with an uncharacteristic lack of foresight, while demonstrating electromagnetic waves in 1888, Hertz told his students, "I don't see any useful purpose for this mysterious, invisible electromagnetic energy."
Fortunately, others saw the potential in the technology and by 1890, French physicist Édouard Branley had found a way to convert incoming signals to direct current, an important development in radio reception.
In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi combined the equipment of Hertz and Branley to transmit a radio signal across the Atlantic. Marconi’s pioneering development of long-distance wireless telegraphy has led to him being widely regarded as the inventor of the radio.
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| British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment 1897. |
The term "radio" is derived from the Latin word "radius", meaning "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray". Although Hertz discovered the use of radio waves in transmitting information in 1886, the regular use of "radio" as a standalone word dates back to only December 30, 1904, when instructions issued by the British Post Office for transmitting telegrams specified that "The word 'Radio'... is sent in the Service Instructions." Before that, such transmissions were always referred to as “wireless telegraphy”.
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. His feast day is December 29th.
After being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry II, Thomas Becket fell out with the king as the interests of the Roman Catholic medieval church conflicted with those of the crown. Four knights believing their King wanted the Archbishop killed, assassinated him on December 29, 1170 at Canterbury Cathedral.
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| Illumination from an English Book of Hours |
Becket's death caused a scandal in all of western Christendom. When the clothes were removed from his dead body, it was discovered that unbeknown to anyone, he was wearing a hairshirt riddled with lice and maggots, the skin on his chest ripped to shred. Becket was immediately a saint and martyr.
Soon after, the faithful throughout Europe began venerating Becket as a martyr, and little more than two years after his death—he was canonized by Pope Alexander III in St Peter's Church in Segni.
In the years following his death many miraculous cures were said to have occurred at Becket's shrine. Indeed 700 miracles were recorded in the decade after his assassination at the crypt.
After hearing news that the anointed King of the Jews had recently been born, King Herod, announced his intention of slaying all children aged two years or younger in the vicinity of Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph, along with the baby Jesus, fled to Egypt to escape the massacre. Holy Innocents Day on December 28th commemorates The Massacre of the Innocents, the biblical recount of Herod the Great's infanticide.
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| The Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem, by Matteo di Giovanni |
After Herod's death, Mary and Joseph returned to Palestine. From about the age of 6, Jesus would have received some education from a teacher paid for by the Nazareth synagogue, using used what we now know as the Old Testament as his textbook.
Holy Innocents Day is a day for pranks, equivalent to April Fool's Day in many countries including Spain, Hispanic America, and the Philippines. After somebody plays a prank on somebody else, the joker usually cries out, in some regions of Ibero-America: Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar ("You innocent little dove that let yourself be fooled").
Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on December 26 in the Latin Church and December 27 in Eastern Christianity.
Saint Stephen was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. His martyrdom in around 34AD was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus, who at the time was the most zealous, rigorous and careful of all Pharisees, one of the strictest Jewish sects. He later become the Christian apostle Paul.
Wenceslaus I became the duke of Bohemia in 921. Renowned for his Christian faith, he spent much of his time in acts of piety and prayer. So great was his devotion that he helped sow the corn and gather the grapes from which the bread and wine used at Mass was made.
Boxing Day is a British tradition, going back many centuries but only made an official holiday in 1871. Also known as St. Stephen's Day, it was customarily a time for giving to the poor.
In Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK, Boxing Day is the heaviest shopping day of the year. The picture below (Wikipedia Commons) shows the Eaton Center, Toronto, Canada on December 26th.
The Boxing Day name comes partly from the boxes kept in British churches to collect money for the needy. On the day after Christmas Day it became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.
Today is Christmas! For the first few centuries the church paid little attention to the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Nevertheless as Christians increasingly commemorated the events of Jesus' life the issue of the date of his birth became more prominent. However as Scripture at no point mentioned the date of Christ’s birth, early Christian teachers suggested various possible dates.
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| "Adoration of the Shepherds" by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622 Wikipedia Commons |
In 350 Pope Julius I designated December 25th as the day to celebrate Christ’s birth. He did so mainly as a political move to counteract the effect of Saturnalia, the popular feast held in honor of the Roman god Saturn, which occurred at the time of the winter solstice, climaxing on December 25th, a Roman holiday. December 25th also was a celebration of the birthday of the Persian sun god Mithra. It was hoped that by picking this date Christianity would be more appealing to pagans.
Hanukkah in 2024 starts at sundown on Wednesday, December 25, 2024, and lasts until sundown on Thursday, January 2, 2025. Hanukkah (sometimes transliterated Chanukkah) is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days and nights. It starts on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev
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| Hanukkah table. By MathKnight |
Since the Jewish calendar is lunar based, every year the first day of Hanukkah falls on a different day – usually sometime between late November and late December. In 2023 Hanukkah falls between Sunset, December 7 and nightfall, December 15.
In Hebrew, the word "hanukkah" means "dedication." The name reminds us that this holiday commemorates the re-dedication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 BC.
The hanukkiyah is a nine-branched candelabra used during Hanukkah. There are at least 44 candles in each box of Hanukkah candles, enough for one person to light the hanukkiyah, according to tradition, every night. Some boxes include extra candles as they tend to break easily.
There is a custom of eating foods fried or baked in oil (preferably olive oil) to commemorate the miracle of a small flask of oil keeping the Second Temple's Menorah alight for eight days.
Today is Christmas Eve. Christmas celebrations in the denominations of Western Christianity have long begun on the night of the 24th, due in part to the Christian liturgical day starting at sunset. The practice of celebrating the evening before Christmas Day is an echo from ancient Jewish reckoning. Among earlier Jews, a day began at six in the evening and ran until six the following evening, based on the story of Creation in the Book of Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day".
The familiar image of Santa Claus with flying reindeer and entry down chimneys, began in America with poetry. On December 23, 1822, Dr Clement Clarke Moore, a university professor, wrote a poem for his children. He called it "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The work was never meant for publication, for he feared he would be ridiculed for writing children's verse. A friend, however, sent a copy to a newspaper and very soon the poem became famous across the United States.
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| Nast's Santa Claus on the cover of the January 3, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly |
By the 1880's Santa Claus had evolved into the robed, fur clad form we now recognize.
In 1890, the first department store Santa appeared—James Edgar, a store owner, brought joy to his patrons by dressing up as the character.
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| Man dressed as Santa Claus fundraisingt in Chicago in 1902, |
Until the 1930s, depictions of Santa Claus had him wearing a green cloak. Santa Claus as we know him today, with white beard, red tunic, hat and trousers trimmed with white fur, was created by an American commercial artist, Haddon Sundblom for a 1931 Coca-Cola advertisement.
The Coca Cola American adverts portrayed Santa in a red suit because that was the color they used for their ads.
Today is the Winter Solstice. Solstice means "sun standing still" in Latin because the solstice is the time when the sun appears to stand still in the sky before daylight begins to increase. Daylight picks up speed in the spring, when we add about three minutes of daylight each day. The solstice is when the Sun is at its at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky during a year. The solstice itself is one moment, but many use the word to mean the day when the solstice happens.
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| By Tim Ereneta from Berkeley, CA - solstice gathering, |
The Roman Winter Solstice was celebrated by Brumalia, a festival which emerged in the 2nd Century AD to honor the rebirth of the sun god
While the Winter of Solstice is the day with the least light, the coldest week of the year is actually in late January. That's because for the next month or so the earth continues to lose more heat than the sun puts back in.
Should you see your shadows on the Winter Solstice it will be the longest shadow of the year. That's because the sun is as low in the sky as it's going to get.
Classical Arabic originated in the sixth century, but earlier versions of the language existed. These include the Safaitic dialect, an old Arabic dialect used by the pre-Islamic nomadic inhabitants of the Syro-Arabian desert, which dates back to the first century.
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| Al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script) |
December 18th was designated by the United Nations in 2010 as Arabic Language Day, as that was the day in 1973 when the General Assembly approved Arabic as an official U.N. Language.
Around 250 million people use Arabic for their first language. It is the fifth most spoken language in the world behind Mandarin, Spanish, English and Hindi respectively.
Standard Arabic, the Arabic taught in a majority of schools, is based off the language Prophet Muhammad spoke. It is a language that nobody naturally speaks, and is preserved through formal education and news broadcasts.
Egyptian Arabic is the first language of 92 million Egyptians. It is the most widely-understood dialect and is understood by almost all of the 300 million Arabic speakers in the world, thanks to the Egyptian cinema and media industry.
Orville and Wilbur Wright designed and built the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air airplane in Dayton, Ohio. The brothers took to the air for the first time making two flights each from level ground into a freezing headwind gusting to 27 miles per hour (43 km/h) at Kitty Hawk Heights, North Carolina on December 17, 1903.
The Wright brothers didn't like to fly together in fear of both of them dying in an accident. They wanted at least one of them to survive to carry on research. They drew lots to see who would make the first powered flight and Orville won.
Orville Wright's first flight in his Wright Flyer One at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was on December 17, 1903. It flew for 12 seconds at a height of 500 feet and covered 37,120 feet. The flight was witnessed by four men and a boy.
Orville Wright did not actually sit in the Wright Flyer during its first flight. Instead, he lay flat on the lower wing in the middle of the airplane.
After four flights by the Wright Brothers a gust of wind overturned and wrecked their wooden flier. However they stuffed all the pieces into barrels and shipped them back home to their bicycle shop. The original machine is now in The Science Museum, London.
On September 24, 1959 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared December 17 to be Wright Brothers Day. Each year, a presidential proclamation invites the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
Bahrain is an archipelago of 33 islands, the largest being Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In Arabic, bahrayn is the dual form of bahr ("sea"), so al-Bahrayn means "the Two Seas". However, which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute. It is unclear when the term began to refer exclusively to the Awal islands, but it was probably after the 15th century.
In 1820, Bahrain signed a general maritime treaty with the British Empire. Following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom in the late 1880s.
After World War II, anti-British feeling spread through the Arab world and led to riots in Bahrain. In 1971, Bahrain declared independence. The United Kingdom recognized Bahrain's independence on December 16, 1971. This is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.
The oil boom of the 1970s benefited Bahrain greatly; the country benefited further from the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s, when Bahrain replaced Beirut as the Middle East's financial hub after Lebanon's large banking sector was driven out of the country by the war.
Following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the American Constitution, Representative James Madison crafted a series of corrective proposals, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment on September 25, 1789, and submitted them to the states for ratification. Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791, and became Amendments One through Ten of the Constitution. These first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified on December 15, 1791. Below is the first page of an original copy of the twelve proposed articles of amendment, as passed by Congress.
Martyred Intellectuals Day is observed on December 14 in Bangladesh to commemorate those intellectuals who were killed by Pakistani forces and their collaborators during the 1971 Liberation War.
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| Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Rayer Bazaar, Dhaka |
The Bangladesh Liberation War began after the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of March 25-26 1971. It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel and resulted in the flight of 10 million East Pakistani refugees to India.
The violent crackdown by the Pakistan Army led to Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declaring East Pakistan's independence as the state of Bangladesh the following day.
Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals were executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies on December 14, 1971. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)
The West Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered after India intervened on the secessionists' side.
East Pakistan renamed itself Bangladesh on January 11, 1972. The republic of Bangladesh was proclaimed and rapidly gained international recognition.
In memory of those were killed, a memorial known as the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial (Badhya Bhumi Smriti Soudha) was built at Rayer Bazaar, in Dhaka.
Saint Lucy's Day is a Christian feast day observed on December 13. The observance commemorates Lucia of Syracuse, an early-4th-century virgin martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution.
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| Saint Lucy, by Francesco del Cossa (c. 1430 – c. 1477) |
Lucia brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs, wearing a candle lit wreath on her head to light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible. She had vowed her virginity to God and when a disappointed suitor accused her of being a Christian, Lucia was executed.
Her feast day, known as Saint Lucy's Day, is celebrated in the West on December 13. She is a patron saint of the blind, martyrs, epidemics, throat infections, salesmen and writers.
Her feast day, which coincided with the shortest day of the year prior to calendar reforms, is widely celebrated as a festival of light. Falling within the Advent season, Saint Lucy's Day is viewed as a precursor of Christmastide, pointing to the arrival of the Light of Christ in the calendar on Christmas Day.
The Caribbean island of St Lucia was named after her. St Lucia is the only country in the world named after a woman.
The poinsettia, traditionally an American Christmas flower, was originally grown in Mexico. Poinsettia Day was officially declared by an Act of Congress on December 12.
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| A red Poinsettia. By André Karwath Wikipedia Commons |
The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where a peasant girl, commonly called Pepita or Maria, was anxious to bring a gift in celebration of Jesus' birthday to the Christmas Eve service. She had nothing of value, though, so she went empty-handed. On her way to the church she met an angel, who told her to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Miraculously, crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias.
Franciscan friars in Mexico started to include the plants in their Christmas celebrations from the 17th century and the Poinsettias became popular decorations for Mexican churches and homes during the Christmas festival.
The poinsettia is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, who served as the USA's first ambassador to Mexico, from 1825 to 1829. During that time he came to admire a shrub with brightly-colored red leaves encircling small, greenish-yellow blossoms, which the Mexicans had adopted as their Christmas flower. He liked it so much that he sent specimens back to the USA, where they soon flourished.
Poinsett grew the beautiful plants in his Greenville, South Carolina plantation and gave them out as gifts to friends. Poinsettia Day was officially declared by an Act of Congress in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, who died on December 12, 1851.
International Mountain Day was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage sustainable development in mountains. It is held each year on December 11.
Around one fifth of the Earth’s land is covered by mountain. They are home to 15% of the world´s population.
Mountains are home to 15% of the world´s population and host about half of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
More than half of humanity relies on mountain freshwater for everyday life.
The K2, the world's second tallest mountain, has no local name. It is so remote and inaccessible that very few local people knew of its existence, and thus why it retains its original surveying moniker given to it by British surveyors.
Source UN.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (October 21, 1833 –December 10, 1896) was a Swedish chemist and millionaire, who invented dynamite and established almost 100 arms factories.
The Nobel Prizes came about when a brother of Nobel died and a French newspaper mistakenly printed Alfred's obituary under the headline: "The merchant of death is dead." Desperate to leave a positive legacy, he decided to bequeath his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes.
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| A golden medallion with an embossed image of Alfred Nobel facing left in profile Wikipedia |
Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death on November 27, 1895.
Nobel's will instituted the prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine. In 1968, Sweden's central bank added a prize for Economics in memory of Nobel.
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901.
Christmas Card Day honors its inventor Sir Henry Cole each year on December 9. The day serves as a reminder to get your cards, envelopes and stamps together so you can mail them out to family members and friends.
Christmas cards began with a lazy English aristocrat and publisher Sir Henry Cole who in 1843 sent cards with a short message instead of the common practice in the early nineteenth century to write seasonal messages on calling cards or in personal letters to relatives and friends. They were insulted because it seemed they didn’t warrant the usual full and affectionate Christmas letter.
Cole's cards were designed by an artist, John Calcott Horsley. His first Christmas card design had two panels showing people caring for the poor and a center panel of a family having a large Christmas dinner. About 1,000 of these cards were printed, and those not used by Sir Henry were sold by the printer for one shilling (see below).
The first Christmas card made in America was basically an advert for a department store. Issued between 1850 and 1852, the card’s seasonal illustrations were buttoned by a mention of Pease’s, a “general variety” store in Albany, New York.
Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, whose music such as his famous 1899 tone poem Finlandia helped establish Finland's national identity, was born on December 8, 1865, in Hameenlinna, Finland, which is 100 km north of the country's capital, Helsinki.
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| Sibelius in 1913 |
The strong nationalist sentiment conveyed in Sibelius' music was deemed an expression of patriotism in Finland. Finlandia was composed when his country was under Russian domination and premiered in Helsinki on July 2, 1900 with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. The work was banned by the Russian rulers of Finland because it aroused much patriotic fervor among the Finns. In Berlin it was played as 'Vaterland'; in Paris as 'Patrie'.
Since 2011, December 8, Sibelius' birthday, has been a flag day in Finland known as "The Day Of Finnish Music".
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is observed annually in the United States on December 7, to remember and honor the United States citizens who were killed in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
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| Arizona during the attack |
At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time on December 7, 1941, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese aircraft followed, descending on the US Pacific Fleet as it lay in port in Pearl Harbor.
The Pearl Harbor attack was carried out by 353 Japanese warplanes. After just two hours of bombing, 2,403 Americans were dead, 21 ships were either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 US aircraft destroyed.
The United States promptly declared war on Japan whose allies, Italy and Germany, in turn declared war on the United States.
On Pearl Harbor Day, the American flag should be flown at half-staff until sunset to honor those who died as a result of the attack on U.S. military forces in Hawaii.
Saint Nicholas Day is observed on December 6 in Western Christian countries, and on December 19 in Eastern Christian countries. It is the feast day of Bishop Nicholas of Myra with particular regard to his reputation as a bringer of gifts.
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| A 13th-century depiction of St. Nicholas from Saint Catherine's Monastery |
Many stories, some miraculous, are told about Nicholas. On one occasion he brought back to life three children, who had been killed by a malicious butcher during a famine. They had been placed in a barrel to be cured and sold as ham.
Saint Nicholas is also said to have helped three poor girls who couldn't afford a dowry to get married by throwing purses of money through their window. The idea of Santa Claus coming down chimneys to deliver presents has its origin in that story.
Saint Nicholas died on December 6, 343 AD. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting silver coins in the shoes of his followers, and during the Middle Ages, this practice was celebrated in many European countries on his feast day.
Saint Nicholas' feast day of December 6th was celebrated in Holland with the giving of gifts to children who behaved well. Dutch immigrants brought St. Nicholas, known to them as "Sinterklaas", and traditions of his feast day to their colonies in America. He became popularized there as Santa Claus and his gift-giving day moved from December 6 to Christmas Day.
World Soil Day (WSD) is held annually on December 5 as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources.
An international day to celebrate Soil was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2002. The Food and Agriculture Organization Conference unanimously endorsed World Soil Day in June 2013 and requested its official adoption at the 68th UN General Assembly. In December 2013, the UN General Assembly responded by designating December 5, 2014 as the first official World Soil Day.
The date of December 5 was chosen for World Soil Day because it corresponds with the official birthday of the late H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, who was one of the main proponents of this initiative.
Soil is one of two main components of Earth — the other being oceans — where life is active. Human life depends on healthy soil.
Soil is not a renewable resource. Human life depends on healthy soil, just like it depends on clean air and clean water, but losses of soil cannot be regained within a lifetime.
December 4th is National Cookie Day, whose origins lie with a Sesame Street Monster. The Cookie Monster sums up their deliciousness with the phrase, "Num, num, num, num, num!" In 1976, Sesame Street included National Cookie Day on its calendar for the first time on November 26th. Then in 1987, Matt Nader of the Blue Chip Cookie Company a smallish company out of San Francisco, cooked up Cookie Day to promote their sweet treat. They chose December 4th as the day to celebrate their snack.
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| By Dezidor - Self-photographed |
The word “cookie” appeared in print for the first time in North America in 1703. The word came from Dutch settlers who introduced their recipes for various types of “koekje”, which means “little cake.”
Nabisco's "Oreo's" are the world's best-selling brand of cookie at a rate of 6 billion sold each year. The first Oreo was sold in 1912.
The average American will eat about 35,000 cookies in their lifetime.
International Day of Persons with Disabilities is an international observance promoted by the United Nations each year on December 3 since 1992. It aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
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| A 28-year-old Iraqi woman who lost both of her legs during the Iraq War in 2005 |
About 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4% experience significant difficulties in functioning.
Of the one billion population of persons with disabilities, 80% live in developing countries.
An estimated 46% of older people aged 60 years and over are people with disabilities.
An estimated 48.9 million people, or 19.4% of the non-institutionalized civilians, have a disability in the United States. An estimated 24.1 million people have a severe disability.
Today is the second day of December. The name of the month comes from the Latin decem for "ten". It was the tenth month of the year before January and February were added to the Roman calendar.
At the North Pole, the Sun does not rise in December; at the South Pole, it does not set.
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| Sunset over the North Pole |
More people suffer fatal falls in December in the UK than any other month.
People born in December have the best statistical chance of living past 100 years old.
Today is the first day of Advent. The Season of Advent, which begins on a Sunday about four weeks before Christmas Day, is celebrated by many western Christians. It is a time for people to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas and the second coming of Christ. Advent also marks the start of the new liturgical year.
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| Advent candles By Johann Jaritz |
The earliest authentic record of Advent was the Macon council held in 581, which stated that the season starts on the feast of St. Martin - November 11; this period is still observed in the Orthodox church.
About 600, Pope Gregory I decreed that the Advent season should start on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, but the longer period was observed in England for some years.
The shorter period is now observed in the Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, and the first Sunday of Advent is regarded as the commencement of the Christian ecclesiastical year.
Special Advent Calendars are made for children, with pictures or treats for each day of Advent. The first advent calendars were chalk lines made by German protestant families for every day in December until Christmas Eve.
In 1981 The New England Journal of Medicine reported a new rare and fatal disease that had killed 95 people, mostly homosexual men. The disease later would be called AIDS.
The Associated Press ran its first story about AIDS on July 3, 1981. "Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer," Lawrence K. Altman’s article began. "Eight of the victims died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made."
On October 8, 1981, public health nurse Bobbi Campbell became the 16th person in San Francisco to be diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, when that was a proxy for an AIDS diagnosis. He was the first to publicly identify as a person living with what was to become known as HIV/AIDS.
The AIDS virus was officially recognized on December 1, 1981. World AIDS Day, designated on December 1 every year since 1988 is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease.
The red ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS.
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| By Gary van der Merwe - graphics by Niki K Aids Awareness Red RibbonLapel pins |
As of 2019, AIDS has killed between 24.8 and 42.2 million people worldwide, and an estimated 38.0 million people are living with HIV,
Thanks to recent improved access to antiretroviral treatment in many regions of the world, the death rate from AIDS epidemic has decreased since its peak in 2005 (690,000 in 2019, compared to 1.9 million in 2005).
Today is St Andrew's Day. Saint Andrew was a fisherman and younger brother of Saint Peter. When they were called to serve Jesus, the Savior of the world said he would make them "fishers of men".
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| Artus Wolffort - St Andrew |
Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving and the most profitable shopping day of the year in the US, got its name from the old accounting practice of using red ink for debt and black ink for profit.
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| DC USA Black Friday By Gridprop at English Wikipedia |
The original "Black Friday" was Friday, September 24, 1869 when two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to corner the market on gold, buying as much of it as they could and driving up the price. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.
Police officers in Philadelphia were first to link Black Friday to the post-Thanksgiving period in the 1950s. Large crowds of tourists and shoppers came to the city the day after Thanksgiving for the Army-Navy football game, creating chaos, traffic jams and shoplifting opportunities. Not only would Philly cops not be able to take the day off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic.
Use of the phrase spread slowly, first appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year" in Philadelphia. By the late 1980s, the term was commonly known across the nation and retailers soon linked it to their post-Thanksgiving sales.
Sources History, Daily Telegraph
Happy Thanksgiving Day! In America the first ever Thanksgiving Day was celebrated by the Mayflower colonists in 1621. It was an acknowledgement of God's provisions during the year.
When these pioneering Mayflower colonists first settled in Massachusetts the previous December, they'd faced starvation. However friendly Native Americans had shown them how to grow corn and squash and to catch the local birds, fish and shellfish. One Indian in particular, Squanto has been especially helpful as he just happened to speak fluent English. He'd picked up the pilgrim fathers' language after being carried off by visiting sailors and working as a house servant in the city of London before returning to rescue the ill-equipped, confused Pilgrims. These colonists went on to invite the Indians to a thanksgiving feast to celebrate their first successful harvest.
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| The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1899) |
When George Washington was elected the first President of America, he announced the first national Thanksgiving Day, held on November 26, 1789. "Both Houses of Congress", he proclaimed, "have requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God especially by affording him an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
Thanksgiving was held sporadically in America until 1863 when Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", suggested making Thanksgiving a more widely acknowledged holiday than it was in an effort to keep the nation from dividing over the issue of slavery. She persuaded Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving as an annual holiday on the last Thursday in November.
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| Traditional Thanksgiving meal. Wikipedia |
Thanksgiving is colloquially known as "Turkey Day." In fact, 45 million turkeys were consumed on Thanksgiving Day alone in 2015.
The dark meat of a Thanksgiving turkey offers a greater density of nutrients, like B vitamins and iron, than white meat.
Flag Day, or Independence Day, is celebrated every November 28, as a holiday in Albania, Kosovo, and the Albanian diaspora.
The Albanian flag is red with a silhouetted black double-headed eagle in the center(see below). The red stands for bravery, strength and valor, while the double-headed eagle represents the sovereign state of Albania located in the Balkans. The flag was adopted as the symbol of the new nation when the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on November 28, 1912.
The Ottoman Turks conquered Albania around 1400 and remained in power for the next five hundred years.
Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg meaning "Lord Alexander," was a member of the noble Kastrioti family who was appointed as sanjakbey (governor) of the Sanjak of Dibra in 1440. In 1443, during the Battle of Niš, he deserted the Ottomans.
Skanderbeg led his men to the mountainous stronghold of Krujë, where he arrived on November 28, 1443 and by the use of a forged letter from Sultan Murad to the Governor of Krujë he became lord of the city that very day. He raised a red standard with a black double-headed eagle on Krujë.
In 1444 Skanderbeg organized a group of nobles to form the League of Lezhë, an alliance of Albanian principalities that is regarded as the first unified Albanian state. For 25 years he held the Ottoman Empire at bay in Albania and weakened and harassed them in neighboring territories.
Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in Vlora on November 28, 1912, after the First Balkan War. Albanians celebrate their independence on November 28th.
On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. In his will, he stipulated that the bulk of his vast fortune be used to establish a series of prizes to be awarded annually to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The Nobel Prizes are now considered to be the most prestigious awards in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
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| Front side (obverse) of one of the Nobel Prize medals in Physiology or Medicine awarded in 1950. By Photograph: JonathunderMedal: Erik Lindberg (1873-1966) |
National Cake Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on November 26th each year in the United States. It is a day dedicated to celebrating the deliciousness of cake, one of the most beloved desserts around the world.
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Isaac Watts, the "Godfather of English Hymnody," died on November 25, 1748.
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| Isaac Watts |
In 1692 the 18-year-old Isaac Watts complained to his father that the hymns sung at church were tuneless. His father suggested he provide something better. The result was "Behold the Glories of the Lamb," which is considered the birth of the English hymn.
Watts was the first to write hymn words based on personal feelings and testimony. When he used the word "I" in the opening line of his most famous hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," he was actually revolutionizing the way people express their faith in music.
Watts suffered from bad health most of his life and for many years he could do little more than write. He is credited with some 750 hymns, as well as many books. His joyful hymns expressed wonder, praise and adoration covering the whole range of Christian experience. They prepared the way for the great revival under the Wesleys and Whitfield.
Watts died on November 25, 1748 aged 74; he was buried in Bunhill Fields. Hanging in Westminster Abbey is a tablet picturing Watts writing at a table while angels whisper songs in his ear.
The Church of England and Lutheran Church remember Watts annually in the Calendar of Saints on November 25, and the Episcopal Church on the following day.
Evolution Day is a celebration to commemorate the anniversary of the initial publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on November 24, 1859.
Charles Darwin was one of the first to formulate an argument for the scientific theory of evolution by means of natural selection, which he wrote about in his book On the Origin of Species. It was first published on November 24, 1859, priced at fifteen shillings with a first printing of 1250 copies. Though some intellectuals latched onto Darwin's work with great enthusiasm, it generally caused controversy and outrage among Victorian society and he was vehemently attacked and ridiculed by the church.
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| Origin of Species title page |
The first edition On The Origin Of Species did not contain the word ‘evolution’, though its last word is ‘evolved’. The sixth edition of On The Origin Of Species, published in 1872, mentions ‘evolution’ eight times, with another six uses of ‘evolve’ or ‘evolved’.
In the western world Darwinian evolution, despite being merely a theory, is treated as factual by most. Those who believe in a literal creationist interpretation of the Bible are considered to be intellectually lacking.
According to a 2019 Gallup poll, 68% f those who attend church at least once a week believe that God created humans in their present form. Meanwhile, 59% of those who do not identify with any religion believe in evolution without any intervention from God.
Islamic views on evolution are diverse, ranging from theistic evolution to Old Earth creationism In Egypt, evolution is currently taught in schools, but Saudi Arabia and Sudan have both banned the teaching of evolution in schools.
National Cashew Day is celebrated annually November 23 in the United States of America. This unofficial holiday was first observed in 2015.
Cashews are not nuts (according to botanical definition, they are a mixture of seeds and legumes). They are a close relative of mangos, pistachios, poison ivy and poison oak.
Originally native to northeastern Brazil, the cashew tree is now widely grown in tropical regions. Vietnam is the world's leading exporter, followed by India and Ivory Coast.
Raw cashews are 5% water, 30% carbohydrates, 44% fat, and 18% protein.
Saint Cecilia is the patroness of musicians. Her feast day is November 22nd, which is the occasion of concerts and musical festivals. The first record of a music festival in her honor was held at Évreux in Normandy in 1570.
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| Saint Cecilia playing the pipe organ |
A 2nd century Christian Roman maiden of patrician birth, Saint Cecilia was compelled to marry a young pagan, Valerian, despite a vow of celibacy. It is written that while the profane music was played at Saint Cecilia's wedding, she was "singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse" hence her association with music-making.
Saint Cecilia succeeded in persuading Valerian to respect her vow, and converted him to her Christian faith. They were both put to death for their beliefs.
Saint Cecilia is one of several virgin martyrs commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass in the Latin Church.
On November 21 and 22, 1996, the United Nations held the first World Television Forum, where leading media figures met under the auspices of the United Nations to discuss the growing significance of television in today's changing world and to consider how they might enhance their mutual cooperation. In December 1996 the United Nations proclaimed November 21 as World Television Day in recognition of the increasing impact television has on decision-making by bringing world attention to conflicts and threats to peace and security and its potential role in sharpening the focus on other major issues, including economic and social issues. It commemorates the date on which the first World Television Forum was held in 1996.
The word "television" comes from the words "tele" (Greek for far away) and vision (sight). It first entered the English language in 1907 at the start of attempts to transmit moving images.
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| The SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention |
Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honor of children, whose date of observance varies by country. World Children's Day is celebrated on November 20 to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare. November 20th is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
India celebrates Children's Day on November 14th, exactly 9 months after Valentines Day.
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| Children performing for Independence Day, Alwar district, Rajasthan, India |
Children's Day is a Japanese national holiday which takes place annually on May 5 and is the final celebration in Golden Week. Until 1948, Children's Day in Japan was known as Boys' Day while Girls' Day was celebrated on March 3. It was renamed when the government decreed the holiday should celebrate the happiness of all children and express gratitude toward mothers.
Since 1950, Children's Day has been celebrated on June 1 in most Communist and post-Communist countries. In Poland it coincides with the beginning of meteorological summer and it is usually treated as a special day, free from lessons, as it takes place near the end of the school year. In Romania children often receive presents from parents and other family members.
World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance day on November 19. The day celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 4.2 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve water and sanitation for all by 2030. The UN General Assembly declared World Toilet Day an official UN day in 2013, after Singapore had tabled the resolution.
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| World Toilet Day 2015 in Pakistan By Kutoid - World Toilet Organization, Singapore, |
Not only did 43% of Pompeii's buildings have indoor toilets, some also had plumbing for toilets on the second floor.
Sir John Harington, author, courtier and godson to Queen Elizabeth I, invented the world's first flushing lavatory, called the Ajax, in 1589. Harrington had been banished from the court for telling risqué stories in front of the ladies. In the mansion he built at Kelston, in Somerset he installed the world's first toilet, which he called "a privy in perfection".
Yorkshire plumber Thomas Crapper perfected his flushing toilet valve in 1863. By drawing water uphill through a sealed cistern, it was both more effective and hygienic than previous lavatory systems.
Most toilets flush in E flat.
Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse! November 18th is the day we celebrate the lovable mouse and the magical moments he's brought to us over the years.
Mickey Mouse was originally called Mortimer. Luckily, Walt's wife, Lillian Disney, stepped in and convinced him that Mickey would be a more marketable name.
Mickey Mouse actually started off as a rabbit. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but after a disagreement over rights with Universal Studios, the film distributor, Disney refused a pay cut and created Mickey Mouse.
Mickey became an instant hit on November 18, 1928 with the release of Steamboat Willie, the first ever cartoon with synchronized sound. Directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, it featured the third appearances of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. November 18th is considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey's birthday.
In 1978, on his 50th anniversary, Mickey Mouse became the first cartoon character to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his role in animated films.
International Students' Day is an international observance of the student community, held annually on November 17. It remembers the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after student demonstrations against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Germans closed all Czech universities and colleges, sent over 1200 students to Nazi concentration camps, and had nine students and professors executed on November 17.
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| Graduating students Pixiebay |
Bologna University in the Kingdom of Italy, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, was the first Western European institution generally considered a university. Founded in 1088, it was the first place of study to use the term universitas for a place of learning involving students and masters.
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. Two years after it was founded, Oberlin became in 1835 the first college in the United States to admit African-Americans. It was the first to admit women in 1837.
November 7, 2014 saw hundreds of thousands of students participate in demonstrations around the world on the occasion of International Students' Day. On that day students mobilized in over 40 countries to demand free education. In addition, commemorations were held for the anniversaries of Nazi repression of student activists in Prague of 1939, the Athens Polytechnic Uprising of 1973 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Every November in South Korea, there's a day where everyone makes silence to help students concentrate for their most important exam of their lives. Planes are grounded, constructions are paused, banks close and even military training ceases. This day is called Suneung.
Founded in 1938, the National Button Society recognizes button collecting as an organized hobby. The society established National Button Day, which is celebrated on November 16th each year to honor the function of buttons and the hobby of button collection.
Buttons have been known to exist as far back as the Bronze age when they were worn as ornamentation. They were used to decorate belts and other metal objects.
The wearing of gold, silver, and ivory buttons in fourteenth century Europe was an indication of wealth and rank. Expensive buttons were also made of copper and its alloys. The metalsmith frequently embellished such buttons with insets of ivory, tortoiseshell, and jewels.
There was a button mania in the late Middle Ages, resulting, in some outfits adorned with thousands of buttons, all of them with accompanying buttonholes. Dressing and undressing became a laborious process, but created a niche for the employment of professional dressers.
Men's and women's buttons are placed on opposite sides because, historically, men have always dressed themselves and are mostly right handed. Women who wore ornate clothing had maids to help them dress and it was easier for the maids to fasten with the buttons on the left
America Recycles Day (ARD) is celebrated on November 15 each year across the United States to promote economic, environmental and social benefits of recycling.
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| By Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia, |
Recorded advocates of recycling date back to Plato who in the 4th century BC wrote about the importance of his fellow ancients making the most of their waste products
The Japanese were the first recyclers to use waste paper to make new paper. It was first recorded in 1031 that Japanese shops were selling repulped paper.
Started by the recycling sector organization National Recycling Coalition in 1997, America Recycles Day has been a program of national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful since 2009.
The energy saved by recycling one glass bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.
Today is World Diabetes Day, the world’s largest diabetes awareness campaign reaching a global audience of over 1 billion people in more than 160 countries.
Canadian physiologist Frederick Banting was inspired to research the treatment of diabetes while preparing a class lecture on the pancreas, when he read a paper about the relationship between the pancreas and diabetes. He knew it was an accepted fact that diabetes was caused by a disorder of the pancreas that kept the body from making use of sugar, so Banting decided that if he tied off the pancreatic duct he could isolate the hormone causing the disorder.
In the spring of 1921, Banting traveled to Toronto to explain his idea to J.J.R. Macleod, who was Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto, and asked Macleod if he could use his lab space to test it out. Macleod agreed and lent him Charles Best, a research student at the university.
After several months of experiments on laboratory dogs, Banting and Best prepared a solution containing the hormone insulin which they injected into the veins of a diabetic dog, and within a few hours the dog was walking again. Soon they were able to purify these extracts sufficiently to inject and treat diabetic patients.
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| Frederick Banting joined by Charles Best in office, 1924 |
537 million adults (20-79 years) were living with diabetes in 2021 (1 in 10 of the world\s population). The number of people living with diabetes is expected rise to 784 million by 2045.
Today the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the feast day of John Chrysostom.
John Chrysostom’s preaching talents came about through sheer hard work, He spent four years in the desert, and two as a hermit in Bible study, during which he practiced austerities.
The “golden mouthed” former Archbishop died on September 14, 407. In the Eastern Orthodox Church there are several feast days dedicated to him. one of them, November 13, is the date news of John Chrysostom's death reached Constantinople
Even outside the Christian world, Chrysostom influence has been great. After World War II, Charles Malik, a Lebanese Christian philosopher and board member of Harvard university, proposed that the social teachings of John Chrysostom be adopted as policy for the founding charter of the United Nations.
Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs due to bacterial or viral infection. It is characterized by a build-up of fluid in the small air sacs known as alveoli, where oxygen exchange takes place.
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| Häggström, Mikael (2014). |
World Pneumonia Day falls on November 12. The day provides an annual forum for the world to stand together and demand action in the fight against pneumonia. Its aims is to raise awareness about pneumonia, promote interventions to protect against, prevent and treat the disease and generate action to combat the illness.
More than 100 organizations representing the interests of children joined forces as the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia to hold the first World Pneumonia Day on November 12, 2009.
Pneumonia is one of the most solvable problems in global health and yet each year, pneumonia affects about 450 million people globally (7% of the population).
The combined effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and conflict is fueling a pneumonia crisis across the life course – placing millions more at risk of infection and death. In 2021, the estimated burden of deaths from respiratory infections, including COVID-19, is a massive 6 million. This makes pneumonia the number 1 killer of children under 5, claiming more lives in this age group than AIDS.
The armistice between the German Empire and the Allies for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, was signed at 5 am in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne of France on November 11, 1918. It came into force "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."
On November 11, 1918 on the last day of World War I , General Pershing sent American troops to fight the Germans to "teach them a lesson" even though he knew an armistice was signed. Over 3,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured.
The last soldier to be killed during World War 1 was at 10.59am on November 11, 1918 when American Henry Gunther charged a German road black. Knowing of the closeness of the ceasefire, the Germans tried to wave him away, but he went on firing, so the Germans shot him.
Armistice Day is commemorated every year on November 11 to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne,
The date is a national holiday in France, and was declared a national holiday in many Allied nations. However, many Western countries and associated nations have since changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day, with member states of the Commonwealth of Nations adopting Remembrance Day.In the United States the memorial day was called Armistice Day and is now Veterans Day.
Australian journalist Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I in a letter to a London newspaper in May 1919, As a result in the United Kingdom and other countries within the Commonwealth, a two-minute silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day at 11.11 a.m. to remember those who lost their lives.
The United States Marine Corps was founded as the Continental Marines by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress on November 10, 1775 during the American Revolutionary War.
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| 2008 Birthday celebration at Camp Lejeune |
The Continental Congress' resolution stated that "two Battalions of Marines be raised" for service as landing forces for the recently formed Continental Navy. The resolution was drafted by future U.S. president John Adams.
Tun Tavern, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is regarded as the birthplace of the Corps as the location of the first Marines to enlist under Commandant Samuel Nicholas,
Serving on land and at sea the original U.S. Marines distinguished themselves in a number of important operations during the Revolutionary War.
The United States Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated every year on November 10 with a traditional ball and cake-cutting ceremony. During the ceremony, the first piece goes to the oldest Marine present and the second piece to the youngest. The formal cake cutting ceremony was first celebrated in 1952.
From 1949 to 1990, Germany was made up of two countries called the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) under a Christian Democrat coalition and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) under a communist regime.
During this time, Berlin was divided into a west and an east part. On 13 August 1961, East Germany started building the Berlin Wall between the two parts of Berlin.
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| East German border guard at Berlin Wall, 1988, By Neptuul |
On November 9, 1989, Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in eastern Europe including Russia.
World Freedom Day is an annual observance in the United States commemorating the Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe. It was first declared in 2001 by President George W. Bush and is celebrated on November 9.
World Urbanism Day, also known as "World Town Planning Day" is an opportunity to unite planners and celebrate town planning around the globe. The day was founded in 1949 by Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires, a graduate at the Institut d'urbanisme in Paris, to advance public and professional interest in planning. It is celebrated in more than 30 countries on four continents on November 8th.
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| Flag of urbanism |
In ancient China, towns were often arranged in patterns so that if seen from above, the whole community would resemble an animal or a symbolic design. Some were arranged to resemble dragons, snakes, stars and sunbursts.
Hippodamus of Miletus (498 – 408 BC), was an ancient Greek architect who is considered to be "the father of European urban planning". Hippodamus developed a new way of laying out the towns and cities of Greece. Using a rectangular grid, he brought together a number of large units, each of which was dedicated to some function of the town's life.
Nine days after the Great Fire of London in 1666, Christopher Wren prepared a plan for rebuilding the city which he presented King Charles II with. with. In it he removed the crowded alleyways which were a fire and health hazard. All new streets would have one of three widths - 90,60 or 30 feet.
The Inuit are a people of the Arctic who live in Greenland and Canada.
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| By Ansgar Walk - photo taken by Ansgar Walk |
The Inughuit of northwest Greenland are the world's northernmost people. When contact was made in 1818 they had been isolated for several hundred years and were completely unaware of the existence of other humans.
Although they live in a climate inhospitable to crop development, the Inuit do not suffer from vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) due to their diet of frozen and raw fish and mammal organs. By not cooking the food, the vitamin C is not broken down and can be absorbed by the human body.
International Inuit Day is a holiday that was created to celebrate Inuit and amplify their voices. It falls on November 7.
Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes was discovered just after midnight on November 5, 1605. He was found hiding in a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder, a length of slow match and a lantern. Fawkes and his fellow plotters had planned to blow up the king during the opening of Parliament the following day. Fawkes was arrested and taken to the Tower of London where he was agonizingly tortured on the rack until he named his co-conspirators.
Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes night, is a British celebration whose origins go back to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot on November 5, 1605. Since then the British have celebrated this escape from the Houses of Parliament being blown up. On November 5th every year, they light up bonfires, place effigies of Guy Fawkes on the fire and combine this with a firework display.
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| The fireworks display at South Street, during Lewes Bonfire 2013 |
Guy Fawkes is the only Englishman to have a day named after him (if you exclude St George).
Other traditions celebrate Bonfire Night on different days. Some of the most popular instances include Northern Ireland's Eleventh Night, a precursor to The Twelfth. Also a similar bonfire tradition survives in parts of Scandinavia and is known as Walpurgis Night.
November 4 is celebrated as Flag Day in Panama.
Today is the 3rd day of November. The name 'November' comes from the Latin for nine (novem), as it was the ninth month of the Roman calendar.
In Old English November was 'Windmonath' (wind month) or 'Blotmonath' (blood or sacrifice month) referring to the time of slaughter of farm animals.
The Dutch called it 'slachtmaand' (slaughter month); in Welsh it is 'Tachwedd', also meaning 'slaughter'.
The first Sunday of Advent is slightly more likely to fall in November than in December.
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| Advent wreath. By Micha L. Rieser - Wikipedia Commons |
In any given year, November starts on the same day of the week as March and ends on the same day of the week as August.
All Souls Day is a holy day set aside for honoring those baptized Christians who are believed to be in purgatory. The day is primarily celebrated in the Catholic Church, but it is also celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Anglican denomination.
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| All Souls' Day by William-Adolphe Bouguereau |
The Western celebration of All Souls' Day is on November 2 and follows All Saints' Day, which commemorates the departed who have attained the beatific vision.
According to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, Purgatory is a halfway house between heaven and earth where ones souls are cleansed so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. Protestants discount this teaching.
The Roman Catholic tradition of Purgatory has a history that dates back to the belief, found in Pre-Christian Judaism that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification. St Augustine of Hippo developed many Catholic doctrines including belief in purgatory, St. Ambrose of Milan spoke of a kind of "baptism of fire" which is located at the entrance to Heaven, and through which all must pass, at the end of the world and Pope St. Gregory the Great stated his belief in Purgatory adding however that the Purgatorial fire could only purify away minor transgressions, not "iron, bronze, or lead," or other "hardened" (duriora) sins.
The concept of purgatory was made official church doctrine at the 1274 Council of Lyons. The council wrote that Christians who had not shown sufficient repentance for their sin needed to be cleansed by purgatorial punishments. Furthermore, the council taught that these punishments could be relieved for oneself (or for those who had died) through “the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, alms, and other duties of piety.”
Today is All Saints' Day, a Christian solemnity celebrated in honor of all the saints of the church, whether they are known or unknown.
Below is All Saints' Day at a cemetery in Gniezno, Poland, the picture shows flowers and candles placed to honor deceased relatives.
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| By Diego Delso, Wikipedia |
In 609 Pope Boniface IV converted the Roman Pantheon into a Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all martyrs. By the 7th century the commemoration of martyrs for the faith had become widespread and as time went on these celebrations came to include not only the martyrs but all saints.
In 837 Pope Gregory IV established the first celebration of All Saints' Day on November 1st to honor the saints, choosing the first day of November to counter a Celtic festival of the dead, known as Samhain celebrated the night before. However the festival did not die out and in medieval Britain it became known as All Hallows (All Saints) Eve, and later its Scottish equivalent Halloween became more widely used.
Today is National Bison Day Bison or buffalo are large, even-toed mammals. "Bison" is a Greek word meaning ox-like animal, while "buffalo" originated with the French fur trappers who called these massive beasts bœufs, meaning ox or bullock—so both names, "bison" and "buffalo", have a similar meaning.
The buffalo formed the mainstay of the economy of the Native Americans, providing them with meat for food, hides and fur for clothing and shelter, and sinew and horn for tools
In the 1800s, the westward-moving pioneers and railroad workers wantonly killed the huge animals by the thousands for food. Only the choicest pieces of the slaughtered buffalo, the hump and tongues, were cut out of the carcasses.
The near-extinction bison hunting in the 1800s was not only to gain food. The pioneers also wanted to restrict the American Indians' dominant food supply; herds were shot from trains and left to rot where they died.
By 1870s, the buffalo had been decimated east of the Mississippi River thus removing a major source of meat. The extension of railroads across the Great Plains had led to the destruction of the huge herds that foraged on the vast grasslands there.
The Buffalo Protection Act of 1894 was one of the earliest official recognitions of an endangered species problem in the United States. By the late 1880s fewer than a thousand bison were left on the continent, two thirds of them in Canada. The law to protect the few remaining in Yellowstone National Park was the first federal legislation that focused on conserving a once-vast wildlife resource.
The United States Senate has passed resolutions each year since 2013 making the first Saturday of November National Bison Day. The purpose of National Bison Day is to encourage celebration of the American Bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo. The species is acknowledged as the first American conservation success story, having been brought back from the brink of extinction by a concerted effort of ranchers, conservationists and politicians to save the species in the early 20th century. Bison can also play an important role in improving the types of grasses found in landscapes to the benefit of grasslands and hold significant economic value for private producers and rural communities.
President Barack Obama signed into law on May 9, 2016 the National Bison Legacy Act, which designated the bison as the official mammal of the United States.
Today is All Hallows' Eve. Hallow, in Old English, means "holy" or "sacred." Therefore, "All Hallows' Eve," or "Halloween" simply means "the evening of holy persons" and refers to the evening before All Saints Day celebrated on November 1.
The tradition of dressing up on Halloween originates from the Celts, who were known to wear costumes and masks to these festivals in an attempt to appease evil spirits, thought to bring problems to the living on Halloween.
To try and frighten off any superstitions, the Europeans began making lanterns from carved vegetables (predominantly turnips), lit by a candle inside. The "head" of turnips were used, with the belief that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge.
The carving of pumpkins is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols today. However, it wasn't until the 1860s that the pumpkin became associated with Halloween - a tradition originating from North America, where pumpkins were readily available and much larger, making them easier to carve.
Halloween was brought to the USA by the Irish but the associations the Americans have with it such as black cats and witchcraft come from Africa.
Stroke is a condition where the blood supply to the brain is disrupted, resulting in oxygen starvation, brain damage and loss of function.
Hippocrates was first to describe the phenomenon of sudden paralysis that is often associated with a stroke. Apoplexy (an old-fashioned term for a stroke or stroke-like symptoms), from the Greek word meaning "struck down with violence", first appeared in Hippocratic writings to describe this phenomenon.
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| An image of Hippocrates on the floor of the Asclepieion of Kos |
Globally 1 in 4 adults over the age of 25 will have a stroke in their lifetime. 13.7 million people worldwide will have their first stroke this year and five and a half million will die as a result.
Stroke is leading cause of death and disability globally with 116 million years of healthy life lost each year to the disease.
Throughout the world, stroke is the second leading cause of death. It’s also the leading cause of disability.
World Stroke Day is observed on October 29 to underscore the serious nature and high rates of stroke, raise awareness of the prevention and treatment of the condition, and ensure better care and support for survivors
The first public performance of Reynaud's Théâtre Optique took place at the Grevin Museum in Paris on October 28, 1892. The show included three cartoons, the first of which was a 15-minute animation, Pauvre Pierrot, made from 500 hand-painted images, which was the first ever presentation of projected moving images to an audience.
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| A performance of Pauvre Pierrot as imagined by Louis Poyet |
National Peach Day is celebrated on August 27th every year. It is a day to celebrate the delicious and nutritious peach fruit, which is in season during the summer months.
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| White peaches |
Pit bull is a word used to describe several breeds of dog. They include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, American Bully and Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and dogs with a mix of these breeds. These dogs were bred by crossing bulldog and terrier breeds.
In 2007, National Pit Bull Awareness Day was created in the US to help undo the reputational damage done to pit bulls in the media. Each year, on October 26, American pit bulls are celebrated as loving, caring pets rather than the menacing, dangerous animals that they are mistakenly portrayed as.
Notable pit bulls include Pete the Pup, a character in the Little Rascals movies, Billie Holiday's companion "Mister", Helen Keller's dog "Sir Thomas", and President Theodore Roosevelt's Pit Bull terrier "Pete".
In August 2016, a stray pit bull in Georgia protected a woman from a knife attack. After his wounds healed, he was adopted and named Hero.
World Pasta Day was brought into existence as part of the World Pasta Congress on October 25, 1995. Each year on October 25, this organization uses World Pasta Day to promote the eating of pasta, along with its cultural and culinary importance.
There are over 600 different kinds of pasta available throughout the world. They are mostly available in two forms: fresh (like ravioli and canelloni) or dried (like spaghetti and penne).
The name pasta came from the Latin word for dough.
The first documented recipe for pasta is in the Italian book De arte Coquinaria per vermicelli e macaroni siciliani, (The Art of Cooking Sicilian Macaroni and Vermicelli) written by Martino Corno, chef to the powerful Patriarch of Aquileia in 1005.
Pasta that is sealed in the box can stay fresh for up to 10 years - Open pasta is only good for a few days.
The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) took place between April 25, 1945 and June 26, 1945 in San Francisco. On the last day of the conference delegates from 50 nations signed a charter creating the The United Nations Organisation — later known as the United Nations.
The United Nations Organisation did not instantly come into being with the signing of the Charter, since in many countries the Charter had to be subjected to parliamentary approval. It was finally ratified and established on October 24, 1945.
In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 24, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as which "shall be devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations and to gaining their support for" its work.
President Harry S Truman laid the cornerstone at the United Nations headquarters and called it a workshop of peace on October 24, 1949. Construction was completed three years later.
Today the United Nations consists of 193 member states and two observer states. The mission of the United Nation is to maintain international peace and security.
World Polio Day was established by Rotary International on October 24 to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against polio. On this day, around the world, global organisations such as the Rotary International and other similar clubs and organisations host several events and fund-raisers, with an objective to raise awareness about polio.
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| Polio vaccination in Egypt |
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, has existed for thousands of years, with depictions of the disease in ancient art. Outbreaks reached pandemic proportions in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century. The 1952 U.S. polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of its victims being children.
Worldwide, polio has become much less common in the past few decades. In 1988, there were about 350,000 new cases of polio across 125 countries. Most of those cases were children under the age of 5, and the virus paralyzed many of them for life. But within six years, polio was wiped out in both North and South America. By 2019 there were fewer than 40 polio cases a year. And they were just in three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.
Mole is the SI unit of measurement used to measure the number of things, usually atoms or molecules. One mole of something is equal to 6.02214078×1023 of same things (Avogadro's number). The Avogadro constant is named after the Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856), who, in 1811, first proposed that the volume of a gas (at a given pressure and temperature) is proportional to the number of atoms or molecules regardless of the nature of the gas.
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| Amedeo Avogadro |
October 22 was designated International Stuttering Awareness Day in 1998. The day is intended to raise public awareness of stuttering, which affects one percent of the world's population.
The day is known as International Stammering Awareness Day in the UK and Ireland.
Stuttering and stammering are not quite the same: a stutter is an involuntary repetition of one letter, while a stammer is any speech-slowing defect.
The ancient Greek Demosthenes stuttered and was inarticulate as a youth, yet, through dedicated practice, using methods such as placing pebbles in his mouth, became a great orator of Ancient Greece.
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| Greek orator Demosthenes practicing oratory at the beach with pebbles in his mouth |
Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, suffered from a stammer – a condition shared by most of his siblings. He was bullied mercilessly at Rugby School because of his speech disorder. Dodgson carried his stammer into adulthood. He referred to it as his "hesitation" and it continued to plague him throughout his entire life.
National Reptile Awareness Day is celebrated in the US each year on October 21. The day promotes education, conservation, and appreciation for reptiles.
The name "reptile" comes from Latin and means "one who creeps". All living reptile species are cold blooded, have scaly skin, and can lay eggs on land.
Reptiles come in four varieties: turtles and tortoises; crocodilia (including alligators); lizards and snakes; New Zealand tuatara.
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| Wikipedia |
Nearly all reptiles are incapable of running and breathing at the same time. This is one of the reasons why they are ambush predators. Komodo dragons can only dash 30 feet (10m) before having to rest for breathing.
The president of the World Association of Chefs Societies Billy Gallagher created International Chefs Day in 2004, which is celebrated each year on October 20th. The day focuses on educating kids around the world about eating healthy and for chefs to pass on their knowledge and skills to the next generation.
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| Chefs in training at chef school in Oxford, England By © Jorge Royan |
The word "chef" is derived (and shortened) from the term chef de cuisine, the director or head of a kitchen.
England's King George II took such an interest in his food that he ordered every dish served to him to be labelled with the name of the chef who had made it.
Before ascending to the English throne as King George IV, the prince employed the most celebrated chef around, Marie-Antoine Carême. The sumptuous food cooked for him gave Prince George almost permanent indigestion and his gargantuan excesses exceeded any other royals.
The self-taught French chef Raymond Blanc came to Britain in his early 20s after being fired as a waiter at the Michelin-starred Le Palais de la Bière in Besançon. Blanc had upset the head chef by questioning his cooking and was hit by him with a frying pan.
Mary Edith Keyburn passed away on October 19, 2010, at the age of 95 with a gin and tonic at her side. Her favorite tipple had been smuggled into her hospital room in a water bottle and served in a teacup.
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| Gin and tonic. By NotFromUtrecht |
In 2010 of Mary Edith Keyburn's favorite drink, her family and friends founded International Gin and Tonic Day in her honor. Each year on October 19th gin-lovers can enjoy their favorite drinks in the time-honored tradition.
Gin and tonic was used to prevent and treat malaria in the 1800s. Tonic containing the anti-malarial drug quinine was very bitter, so gin was added to make it tasty.
It’s the quinine in gin and tonics that makes them glow in ultra-violet light.
The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million, or about 2 cents an acre on March 30, 1867.
The United States Senate ratified the treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska on April 9, 1867. It was passed by a single vote. The United States formally took possession on October 18, 1867, which is celebrated annually on October 18 in the state as Alaska Day.
Alaska's purchase was accomplished solely through the determined efforts of US Secretary of State William H. Seward. For many years afterward the land was mockingly referred to as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox" because of its supposed uselessness.
It was not until after the discovery of gold that Alaska was given a governor and a local administration.
The first spreadsheet program Visicalc (for "visible calculator") was released for the Apple II on October 17, 1979. It was developed by Dan Bricklin of Software Arts, and was then produced for distribution by Personal Software.
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| An example VisiCalc spreadsheet on an Apple II |
Sales were initially brisk, with about 300,000 copies sold. It eventually sold over 700,000 copies in six years, and as many as 1 million copies over its history.
VisiCalc is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later.
Spreadsheet Day commemorates on October 17 every year the date that VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for personal computers, was released.
October 16th is World Food Day. It marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations on October 16, 1945.
Over 150 countries hold events each year marking World Food Day. One example is the World Food Day Sunday Dinners that Oxfam America sponsors in collaboration with several other non-profits
The day is celebrated widely by many other organizations concerned with food security, including the World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Over 2 billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food.
Nearly 690 million people are hungry, up 10 million since 2019.
Only nine plant species account for 66% of total crop production, despite the fact that there are at least 30 000 edible plants.
Approximately 14% of food produced for human consumption is lost each year between the stages where it is grown or raised up to when it reaches the wholesale market. More food is wasted at the retail food and consumer stages.
Global Handwashing Day is celebrated every year on October 15th. It's a global advocacy day dedicated to promoting the importance of handwashing with soap as a simple yet effective way to prevent the spread of diseases.
Global Handwashing Day was initiated by the Global Handwashing Partnership (GHP) in August 2008 at the annual World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden with the first Global Handwashing Day took place on October 15, 2008. The date was appointed by the UN General Assembly.
Photo below shows Global Handwashing Day 2008 celebrations with celebrities at City Central School in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.
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| By SuSanA Secretariat - https://www.flickr.com |
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are more effective at battling some bacteria, like those causing staph infections. However, other bacteria are becoming more tolerant of such sanitizers, and regular hand washing with simple soap and water is the best solution for them. “It's the physical action of lifting and moving them off your skin, and letting them run down the drain.” said Lance Price, a professor at the George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health to NPR.
Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, 1991. Over 92% of Ukrainian voters approved their country's independence as declared by the Ukrainian parliament.
In 1954, Crimea became part of Ukraine. 60 years later Russia was suspended from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Eastern Ukraine. Ukraine is currently in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula.
A decree by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2014 decreed Defender of Ukraine Day to be a new holiday due to the Russian military intervention and decommunization in Ukraine. October 14 was chosen due to the Ukrainian historical tradition since the 12th century of honoring the Ukrainian army on that day. October 14 is also the Day of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Picture below shows President Poroshenko taking part in the events on the Day of the Defender of Ukraine
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| By Адміністрація Президента України, |
The United States Navy observes its birthday every year on October 13th
The Continental Congress established the Continental Navy (predecessor of the United States Navy) on October 13, 1775. With only two ships and a crew of eighty men, the main goal of the Continental Navy was to intercept shipments of British material and generally disrupt British maritime commercial operations during the Revolutionary War.
By the end of 1775, Congress had authorized the construction of 13 new frigates. Within a decade the war had ended and Congress had disbanded the Continental Navy and sold the remaining ships.
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| Continental ship Columbus with captured British brig Lord Lifford, 1776 |
To protect American merchant ships from Barbary pirates, Congress passed the Naval Act on March 27, 1794. It authorized the building of six frigates, which eventually became the U.S. Navy.
Two months after he set sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain to try to find a new route to the Orient, Christopher Columbus made his first first landfall in the Americas. The Pinta, Niña, and Santa María landed on an island of The Bahamas on October 12, 1492. Columbus named the newly discovered island, "San Salvador" meaning, "Saint of Salvation", to express his thankfulness at landing safely. Today it is known as Watling Island.
The landing is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States on the second Monday in October. Actual observance varies in different parts of the United States, ranging from large-scale parades and events to complete non-observance.
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| Columbus Day in Salem, Massachusetts in 1892 |
In some Latin American countries such as Mexico, October 12 is known as Día de la Raza or (Day of the Race). Other countries such as Spain refer the holiday as Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional de España where it is also the religious festivity of la Virgen del Pilar.
In South Dakota and Wisconsin, Native American Day is a holiday celebrated across the United States in lieu of Columbus Day on October 12. Native American Day is aimed at changing the way people view Native Americans as well as honoring the cultural contributions of their communities to the respective state’s history, as well as to the overall country.
Today is Friday 13th! The superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th stem from Jesus' crucifixion, which occurred on a Friday. According to the National Geographic, the fear of the number of 13 was fueled by Judas, the 13th apostle at the Last Supper, who betrayed Jesus.
Medieval Christians thought Friday unlucky as the day of the crucifixion, and 13 has been thought unlucky since pre-Christian times, but the two were not linked until the 19th century.
The first reference to an unlucky Friday the 13th came in an 1869 biography of the composer Gioachino Rossini who died on Friday, November 13, 1868.
On Friday January 13, 2017 Finn Air's flight 666 left for HEL (Helsinki) at 13:00 on a 13-year-old aircraft. They arrived safely.
On November 4, 1958 Angelo Roncalli was elected pope. He chose his father's name, John, and became Pope John XXIII thus making his views known on the disputed legitimacy of the 15th century Pope John XXIII. He was crowned wearing the 1877 Palatine Tiara.
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| Pope John XXIII |
He was aged seventy-six when elected and was considered a caretaker pope but instead he ushered in a new era in the Roman Catholic Church. Within three months of his election as pope, John XXIII proclaimed to the world his plan for a Vatican Council Two. The idea was inspired, he declared, by the Holy Spirit to "aggriornamento" (which means "bring up to date").
At the Second Vatican Council, which began meeting on October 11, 1962, great movements were set in train. Celebration in Latin was replaced by the use of the local language, relations with other denominations were relaxed, the role of the laity was enhanced, and the pope was made more 'one among equals'. Also evangelization and the reading of the Bible by the laity was encouraged.
Pope Francis approved Pope John XXIII for canonization without the traditional second miracle required. Instead, Francis based this decision on John XXIII's merits for the Second Vatican Council.
The date assigned for the liturgical celebration of John XXIII is not June 3rd, the anniversary of his death as would be usual, but October 11th, the anniversary of his opening of the Second Vatican Council.
World Sight Day is an annual event, that is always held on the second Thursday of October. The day aims to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. It was originally initiated by the SightFirstCampaign of Lions Club International Foundation in 2000 and this year, World Sight Day is to be held on Thursday October 13, 2022.
The first guide dog training schools were established in Germany during World War I to enhance the mobility of returning veterans who were blinded in combat.
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| A blind man assisted by a guide dog in Brasília, Brazil. By Antonio Cruz |
Blind people smile like everyone else, even though they've never seen anyone else smile. It's just a natural human expression.
If you go blind in one eye, you only lose about one fifth of your vision, but all your sense of depth.
World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10 every year. It is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. The day was celebrated for the first time on October 10, 1992 at the initiative of World Federation for Mental Health Deputy Secretary General Richard Hunter.
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| Rally for World Mental Health Day 2014 in Salem, Tamil By Chinchu.c |
Mental disorders were described, and treatments developed, in Persia, Arabia and in the medieval Islamic world. The first psychiatric hospitals were was built by the Muslims including ones in Baghdad in 700AD, Cairo in 800 AD and in Damascus in 1270 AD. The physicians of the Islamic world invented and used a variety of treatments, including occupational therapy, music therapy, as well as medication.
The parents of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho were so concerned about his stated dream of being a writer that they put him in a mental institution three times. He wrote a book about it, Veronika Decides To Die, 35 years later.
13.6 million Americans live with a serious mental illness.
October 9th was first declared World Post Day at the 1969 UPU Congress in Tokyo.
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The Royal Mail was created by King Henry VIII of England in 1516. From then until 1840, postage in the UK was generally paid by the recipient rather than the sender.
Benjamin Franklin laid out the framework that would set up the American postal system. Franklin invested nearly 40 years to establish a reliable system of private communications in the colonies. He was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and then joint postmaster general of the colonies, a position he held until 1774 when he was fired for opening and publishing Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson's correspondence.
The United States Postal Service is the single largest employer of veterans (22% of the postal workforce) and nearly a third of the veterans are disabled.
Today is the fifth day of World Space Week, an annual holiday observed from October 4 to 10 in over 95 nations throughout the world. It marks the launch on October 4, 1957 of the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit by the Soviet Union and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty on October 10, 1967.
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| Sputnik 1: The first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. |
World Space Week is officially defined as "an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition."
In 2020, the theme for World Space Week will be "Satellites Improve Life."
The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, originally known as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory and later as the Feast of the Holy Rosary, is celebrated on October 7th in the General Roman Calendar. This feast day was established to commemorate the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. During this battle, a fleet of Christian forces, led by the Holy League, defeated the Ottoman Empire's navy in the waters off the coast of Greece.
Pope Pius V attributed the Christian victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary through the rosary, and he subsequently instituted this feast day in her honor. The rosary is a form of prayer in the Catholic tradition that involves the repetition of prayers and meditation on specific events in the lives of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
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| Our Lady of the Rosary by Anthony van Dyck, between 1623 and 1624 |
Nederlanders and Germans fleeing religious persecution began settling in the colony of Pennsylvania at the invitation of William Penn, in 1683. German Quaker, and Mennonite immigrant families founded Germantown on October 6, 1683, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.
The settlement was inhabited by fifty-four German families who had accompanied Johan Printz to the Swedish settlement on the Delaware several years earlier and had resettled themselves.
Germantown was the birthplace of the American antislavery movement. The first anti-slavery petition in the New World was drafted in the home of Thönes Kunders of Germantown in April 1688. Kunders hosted the early Germantown Quaker meetings and the Christian group were already prominent in their condemnation of this inhuman trade, with the society's founder, George Fox, speaking strongly against it.
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| Thones Kunders's house at 5109 Germantown Avenue |
The founding of Germantown on October 6, 1683 was later to provide the date for German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6.
World Teachers' Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is an international day held annually on October 5 that acknowledges, evaluates, empowers, and appreciates teachers worldwide. First established in 1994, according to UNESCO, Teachers' Day celebrations are all about reminding society that "the right to education means the right to a qualified teacher.
‘Marking' was invented at Cambridge University in 1792 by a chemistry tutor called William Farish.
Before he became the frontman of The Police, Sting taught English, music, and football at St. Catherine's Convent School for two years in Cramlington, England. He wrote the hit single "Don't Stand So Close to Me" about a teacher who is attracted to one of his students.
Saint Francis of Assisi's feast day is observed on October 4th. Francis died on the evening of October 3, 1226 at the Church of St Mary of the Angels in Portinuncula Assisi. He was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX 20 months later.
Many stories have been told of Francis' ability to charm wild animals. It was said that he would talk to the animals and they would talk back. In fact most of these stories originate from a book, The Little Flowers Of Saint Francis, which was written a century after his death.
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| Legend of St. Francis, Sermon to the Birds, upper Basilica of San Francesco d'Assis |
It was often reported that wild animals—rabbits, birds, even a wolf—became tame before Francis of Assisi. He especially cared for animals that were associated with Christ. If he saw a lamb being led off to slaughter, he would try to rescue it by pleading or trading for it.
In acknowledgement of his love for the countryside and wild creatures, Francis of Assisi was designated patron saint of ecology in 1980.
World Animal Day is celebrated annually on October 4, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals.
World Smile Day was inaugurated in 1999 by Harvey Ball. It is held annually on the first Friday in October.
The catchphrase of World Smile Day is “Do an act of kindness. Help one person smile.”
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| Ball posing with a selection of Smiley merchandising Wikipedia |
An average woman smiles 62 times a day, the average man smiles only 8 times a day.
From 1949 to 1990, Germany was made up of two countries called the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) under a Christian Democrat coalition and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) under a communist regime.
During this time, Berlin was divided into a west and an east part. In 1961, East Germany started building the Berlin Wall between the two parts of Berlin.
On November 9, 1989, Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in eastern Europe including Russia.
On October 3, 1990, The German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its territory became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. East German citizens became part of the European Community, which later became the European Union.
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| The flag of unity at midnight of 3 October 1990 in front of the Reichstag |
October 3rd is now celebrated every year as German Unity Day.
Today is the second day of October.
The name "October" comes from the Latin oct for "eight". It was the eighth month of the year before January and February were added by the Romans to the beginning of the year.
The Anglo-Saxons called October Winterfylleth meaning the 'fullness' (not dirtiness) of winter. It signified the beginning of winter.
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| October, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry |
The Welsh for October is Hydref (originally Hyddfref), a word signifying the distinctive sound uttered by cattle. In Catholic Europe in 1582, October had only 21 days. When countries changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, the days from 5-14 October were omitted.
Six US presidents have been born in October, more than in any other month.
Sake Day ("Nihonshu no Hi" in Japan) is an annual event held on October 1 as a tribute to sake. Sake Day used to be regarded as only a national event in Japan, but is now a worldwide occasion. October 1 is traditionally the starting date of sake production in Japan.
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| Sake served in a clear glass |
Sake is the national beverage in Japan. It is often served there with special ceremony – gently warmed in a small earthenware or porcelain bottle called a tokkuri, and sipped from a small porcelain cup called a sakazuki.
Most sake is made from rice, water, kōji, and yeast. Small amounts of pure alcohol can be added at the end of production.
Jerome of Stridon, commonly known as Saint Jerome, was a Latin priest, theologian, and historian. His feast day is September 30.
In 405, Jerome completed the most important of his works; a version of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew text, Prior to Jerome's Vulgate, all Latin translations of the Old Testament had been based on the Septuagint not the Hebrew.
His Vulgate Bible became the standard Bible of the western world throughout the Middle Ages and the basis for many translations.
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| Saint Jerome by Matthias Stom, 1635 |
Jerome died near Bethlehem on September 30, 420. He is recognized as the patron saint of translators, librarians and encyclopedists.
In art, Jerome is often represented as one of the four Latin doctors of the Church along with Augustine, Ambrose, and Pope Gregory I.
"World Heart Day" was founded by the World Heart Federation in 2000 to inform people around the globe that heart disease and strokes are the world’s leading causes of death, It is celebrated on September 29 every year.
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| By Blausen Medical Communications, Inc |
Worldwide, 17.3 million people die every year from heart disease or stroke, which account for 31 per cent of all deaths.
Shoveling snow is a known trigger for heart attacks. Some hospitals even prepare for more cardiac related visits after a large snowfall.
Wenceslaus' feast day is celebrated on September 28.
Wenceslaus I (the "Good King Wenceslas" of the Christmas carol) became the duke of Bohemia in 921. Renowned for his piety, he founded many churches in Prague, including a rotunda consecrated to St. Vitus at Prague Castle, which exists as present-day St. Vitus Cathedral.
Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia was murdered on September 28, 935, when he was killed by nobles on his way to Mass at the church door. The people were outraged and regarded the martyred duke as a saint.
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| Murder of Duke Wenceslaus, Liber viaticus (14th century) |
Wenceslaus was posthumously declared to be a king by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, and later came to be seen as the patron saint of the Czech Republic.
The September 28 Wenceslaus feast day has been a public holiday in the Czech Republic since 2000, celebrated as Czech Statehood Day.
Tourism gives rural communities the ability to protect and promote their natural surroundings, as well as their culture and heritage. The United Nations World Tourism Organization has celebrated World Tourism Day as international observances on September 27th since 1980. This date was chosen as on that day in 1970, the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted.
The modern tourist industry began on July 5, 1841, when Thomas Cook organized a trip from Market Harborough to Loughborough in the English Midlands for a temperance meeting.
The word "tourist" for individuals travelling for recreation has been in the English language since at least 1772. "Tourism" came into use in 1811 and "package holiday" in 1959.
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| Englishman in the Campagna by Carl Spitzweg (c. 1845) |
Today is Johnny Appleseed Day, a day that commemorates the birth of John Chapman – a pioneer nurseryman that was responsible for introducing apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on September 26, 1774. His birthplace has a granite marker, and the street is called Johnny Appleseed Lane.
John became a frontier missionary and pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to the Great Lakes area. After collecting apple seeds from cider presses in western Pennsylvania he embarked on a long trek westward, walking barefoot, planting a series of apple nurseries from Pennsylvania to central Ohio and beyond.
He preached the gospel as he traveled, and during his travels he converted many Native Americans, whom he admired.
Today is National Lobster Day. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine drafted a joint resolution in 2014 designating September 25th of every year as National Lobster Day in the USA. The day is designed to recognize not only the lobster industry but also the men and women who work so hard in that industry to bring lobsters to America’s tables.
In colonial America, lobster wasn't exactly a delicacy. In fact eating lobster was considered a mark of poverty and that people would bury the shells to hide the fact that they were eating it.
Lobster was so cheap and plentiful it was often served to prisoners. They also used lobster as yard fertilizer and fishing bait.
In the early 1900s, Lobster was considered the “cockroach of the ocean” and was synonymous with the poor – often eaten regularly by the homeless, slaves and prisoners. It wasn’t until after World War II that lobster became considered a delicacy and a food associated with the aristocratic classes.
September 24th is Republic Day in Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 until Spanish governor Don José María Chacón surrendered the island to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1797.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Tobago changed hands among Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers.
Trinidad and Tobago were ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens as separate states and unified in 1889.
Trinidad and Tobago received independence from the United Kingdom on August 31, 1962.
Republic Day in Trinidad and Tobago, a public holiday celebrating their becoming a republic in 1976 and ceasing to be a Commonwealth realm. Actually they did that on August 1, 1976. September 24 was when their first parliament met.
Today is Saudi National Day. The day is celebrated in Saudi Arabia every September 23 to commemorate the renaming of the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by royal decree of King Abdul Aziz Al Saud in 1932.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire continued to control or have a suzerainty over most of the Arab peninsula. King Ibn Saud united the Arab peninsular into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud.
On September 23, 1932, the regions of Hejaz and Nejd merged to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with Ibn Saud as the first monarch and Riyadh as the capital city.
The September equinox is the moment when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward. The September equinox usually occurs on September 22 or 23rd. Astronomers use the equinox to mark the transition from summer season to fall in the Northern Hemisphere, and the transition from the winter season to spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
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| Sunset at the equinox from the site of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily |
September 22 is the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbit characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins from his popular set of books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo was born in the year of 2890 and Frodo in the year of 2968 in the Third Age (1290 and 1368 respectively in Shire-Reckoning.) In recognition of these famous characters, this date has come to be known as "Hobbit Day."
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| Wikipedia |
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was published on September 21, 1937. The word 'hobbit' existed in English long before Tolkien, meaning a seed-basket or a local measure equal to two-and-a-half bushels
Peace Day, also known as the International Day of Peace, is observed annually on September 21. It was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly to promote peace and non-violence around the world. In 2001, the UN strengthened its commitment to peace by designating the day as a period of global non-violence and ceasefire.
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| Peace Day logo By http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/, Wikipedia. |
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| Independence day decorations in Republic Square, Yerevan By Armineaghayan |
Today (September 20th) is National Punch Day. Punch is a general term for a beverage containing various mixed drinks, often including fruit, fruit juice, and/or alcohol.
The state funeral service for Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realmstook place at Westminster Abbey at 11:00 on September 19, 2022, followed by a committal service later that day at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Queen was interred in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at St George's.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day is celebrated on September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. An observer of this holiday should greet friends not with "Hello, everyone!" but with "Ahoy, maties!" or "Ahoy, me hearties!" The day was born in 1995, when John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon were playing racquetball. One of them reacted to an injury with an outburst of "Aaarrr!", and the idea was born.
However, John Barrymore was the first Long John to use "arrr!" to mean "yes" back in 1934.
National Cheeseburger Day honors America’s favorite burger with a slice of cheese. It is celebrated each year on September 18th.
The first recorded sighting of the word 'cheeseburger' was on a 1928 menu for the Los Angeles restaurant O'Dell's. It listed a cheeseburger smothered with chili all for the price of 25 cents.
The trademark for the name "cheeseburger" was awarded to Louis Ballast of the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In, in Denver, Colorado in 1935.
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| A Burger King "Quad Stacker" cheeseburger, containing four patties and bacon |
On September 17, 1787, the Founding Fathers signed the American Constitution in Philadelphia. Constitution Day is an American federal observance that commemorates the adoption of the Constitution of the United States and those who have become United States citizens. It is normally observed on September 17.
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| Signing of the Constitution (1940 by Howard Chandler Christy) |
Today is Mayflower Day, which commemorates the day when the Pilgrim Fathers left Plymouth, England, and set sail on The Mayflower to the New World.
Today is Battle of Britain Day, the name given to the large-scale aerial battle that took place on September 15, 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
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| German Heinkel He 111 bombers over the English Channel 1940 |
Pope Gregory XIII introduced the modern calendar in 1582. In attempting to eliminate the difference between the date of the birth of Christ as it was then estimated and the errors that have been made and repeated ever since, the Pontiff removed all the days between the 4th and 15th of October of the current year. Roman Catholic countries including Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain quickly adopted the new system, but many people were upset as they felt the papacy has taken away 11 days of their lives.
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Two centuries later, the Gregorian calendar was adopted by Great Britain and the English colonies on September 14, 1752, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2nd).
The Gregorian calendar isn't perfect—its dates become one day off from Earth's seasons every 3,216 years.
Children's author Roald Dahl's birthday on September 13 is celebrated as "Roald Dahl Day" in Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America in celebration of the author who wrote nearly 50 beloved books.
Roald Dahl was born in Wales on September 13, 1916. His sense of humor came early aged eight he and four friends got into trouble for putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop in a prank the boys named the Great Mouse Plot of 1924 .
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| Dahl in April 1954 |
National Video Game Day is a holiday that is celebrated on September 12th.
American physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann were awarded a patent on December 14, 1948 for their "Cathode-ray tube amusement device," an oscilloscope featuring a set of knobs and switches. It was the first interactive electronic game.
Pong was commercially released by Atari, in November 1972. The first commercially successful video game, Pong was based on table tennis. Nolan Bushnell said it was a game ‘so simple that any drunk in any bar could play’.
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| Pong Pixiebay |
When the gaming industry was in its infancy during the mid 1970s, consoles were hard-wired to play one or two crude games such as Pong. Atari changed that in 1977 with the 2600, the first console to take an unlimited number of games cartridges, heralding the age of the PlayStation, Wii and the Xbox.
Patriot Day occurs each year on September 11 in the United States in memory of the people killed in the September 11 attacks of the year 2001.
Below, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney lead a moment of silence on the South Lawn with White House staff and families of victims of 9/11 on September 11, 2004.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush proclaimed September 14, 2001, as a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001.
September 11 is now remembered as Patriot Day in the US in memory of those killed. The US flag is flown at half-staff at the White House and on all US government buildings and establishments throughout the world.
A moment of silence is observed to correspond with the attacks, beginning at 8:46 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time), the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
National TV Dinner Day is observed annually on September 10th.
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| A Swanson "Hungry-Man Country Fried Chicken" TV dinner. By Famartin |
C.A. Swanson & Sons of Omaha, Nebraska introduced the first TV dinner in 1954 to America. Executive Gerald Thomas came up with the idea when the company had half a million pounds of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving stored in ten refrigerated railroad cars. On a visit to a Pittsburgh distributor he noticed a box of metal trays that an airline was testing as a way to serve heated meals on international flights. He saw a future for the unwanted turkeys.
The Swanson TV dinner was roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas. It sold for 98 cents and came in an aluminium tray, so the diner could just open the box and heat the dinner in the oven. The cooking time was usually 25 minutes.
National Teddy Bear Day honors on September 9th the history of one of childhood’s favorite toys.
The teddy bear was named after Theodore Roosevelt. The American president's childhood nickname was "Teedie," but his adult nickname was "Teddy" (which he despised and considered improper, preferring "T.R.").
Theodore Roosevelt started the fashion for Teddy bears when during a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902, he refused to shoot a defenseless black bear that had been tied to a willow tree. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up on the story, drawing a cartoon showing President Roosevelt with a bear, which ran in the Washington Post two days later.
An alert Brooklyn shop owner Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and created a tiny plush toy bear cub with his wife Rose's help. He sent it to Roosevelt asking the president for permission to use the name "Teddy." Roosevelt replied: "I don't think my name is likely to be worth much in the bear business, but you are welcome to use it."
After receiving permission to use Roosevelt's name, Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear" The sale of the bears was so brisk that Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which began making dolls in 1907 to complement its line of teddy bears.
Today is National Ampersand Day. National Ampersand Day is celebrated on September 8th each year to honor '&,' a Latin character and a logogram that depicts the conjunction 'AND.'
The symbol ampersand (&) was regarded as the 27th letter of the English alphabet, as taught to children in the US and elsewhere. It was seen as a ligature of the letters 'e' and 't' to form the Latin word 'et' meaning 'and'. So the alphabet would go X,Y,Z and And. An example may be seen in M. B. Moore's 1863 book The Dixie Primer, for the Little Folks. To distinguish it from the rest, children started to say 'and per say and' which later evolved into 'ampersand'.
On September 7, 1822, Prince Pedro declared the independence of Brazil from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga creek in São Paulo. After waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, he was acclaimed the following month as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The Monument to Independence in São Paulo's Independence Park is located at the place where then-Prince Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil.
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| Prince Pedro declares the Independence of Brazi by Pedro Américo. |
Today is World Beard Day.
Today is the anniversary of The Victoria becoming the first known ship to circumnavigate the world.
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| A detail from a map of 1590 showing Victoria |
Today is the feast day of Mother Teresa.
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| Mother Teresa 1995 By Kingkong photo www.celebrity-photos.com |
Agnes Bojaxhiu (later to be known as Mother Teresa) was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje (now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia), Ottoman Empire.
At the age of 12 Agnes Bojaxhiu already knew she wanted to be a missionary and her desire increased when local Jesuits, sent on missions of mercy to India, wrote enthusiastic letters back home about happenings in Bengal.
In 1928 the teenage Albanian arrived in India, where she joined the Loretto Convent in Darjiling. On September 10, 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling, she experienced what she later described as "the call within the call", directing her to leave the convent and devote herself to the sick and impoverished.
She began missionary work with the poor in 1948 and two years later on October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity. Over the next decades Mother Teresa's organization established schools and opened centers to treat the blind, aged, lepers, disabled and dying throughout the world.
On March 13, 1997 Mother Teresa resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity, and she died of a heart attack on September 5, 1997.
Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa at a ceremony on September 4, 2016 in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Tens of thousands of people witnessed the ceremony, including 15 government delegations and 1,500 homeless people from across Italy. The anniversary of her death (5 September) is her feast day.
Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the electrical age.
The consecration took place on this day in 590 of Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great).
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| By Meister des Registrum Gregorii. - Trier, Stadtbibliothek |
The Great Fire of London broke out on this day in 1666.
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| Ludgate in flames, with St Paul's Cathedral in the distance |
Today is the United States federal holiday Labor Day.
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| Illustration of the first American Labor parade held in New York City on September 5, 1882 |
Today is the first day of the month of September.
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| September, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry |
Today is the anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Today is the anniversary of Hubert Booth patenting the first vacuum cleaner.
Today is the anniversary of Gottlirb Daimler patenting the first internal combustion motorcycle.
Today is the anniversary of Caleb B. Bradburn naming his beverage Pepsi Cola.
Today is the anniversary of the first play performed in the British North American colonies.
Captain James Cook set sail from England for the South Pacific on board HMS Endeavour on this day in 1768.
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| Cook's landing at Botany Bay in 1770 |
Today is the anniversary of Galileo demonstrating his first telescope.
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| Galileo showing the Doge of Venice how to use the telescope (fresco by Giuseppe Bertini) |
Today is the anniversary of the invention of potato chips (crisps in British and Irish English).
August 23 is celebrated as the Day of the National Flag in Ukraine.
King Charles I raised his standard in Nottingham on August 22, 1642, marking the beginning of the English Civil War.
On this day in 1921, AA Milne bought his son a teddy bear, which gave rise to his Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
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| Christopher Robin and Winnie-The-Pooh |
Today is Bernard of Clairvaux's feast day.
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| Bernard of Clairvaux, by Georg Andreas Wasshuber (1650–1732) |
National Aviation Day is celebrated each year on August 19 in the United States. The holiday was established in 1939 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who issued a presidential proclamation which designated the anniversary of Orville Wright's birthday to be a national observation that celebrates the development of aviation.
Orville Wright along with his brother, Wilbur Wright flew the first successful, albeit brief, "flying machine" in 1903.
Orville Wright's first flight in his Wright Flyer One at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was on December 17, 1903. It flew for 12 seconds at a height of 500 feet and covered 37,120 feet. The flight was witnessed by four men and a boy.
In May 1896, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley had successfully flown an unmanned steam-powered fixed-wing model aircraft. For years, Orville argued with officials of the Smithsonian Institute over whether the Wrights or Langley had built the first plane. In 1942 the Smithsonian officials made a public apology to Orville.
Orville Wright was still alive when the sound barrier was broken in 1947 by Chuck Yeager in his Bell X-1 airplane.
Neil Armstrong took the wood from the propeller of the Wright Brothers' first plane to the moon.
Today is the anniversary of the founding of the German multinational corporation Adidas.
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| An Adidas Store in Vaughan Mills |
Today is the anniversary of the first steamboat service being inaugurated.
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| Illustration from an 1870 book |
August 16 is celebrated by many people around the world as Roller Coaster Day.
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| Looping the loop, Atlantic City, circa 1901 |
Today is a national holiday in India. August 15 is Independence Day commemorating the nation's independence from the United Kingdom.
In the early 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest against British control. In 1915 the lawyer Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to his country of origin, India, a hero, and begun the struggle for Indian independence by non-violent co-operation.
The national anthem of India, "Jana Gana Mana," was first sung on December 27, 1911 during the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.
On August 15, 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire.
Today is the anniversary of Pakistan gaining independence from the British Empire.
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| Pakistan flag |
Today is the 13th day of the month of August.
August is named after Augustus, first Emperor of Rome who chose it as it was the month of his greatest triumphs. He died in August AD 14.
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| The statue known as the Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century. By Till Niermann - Wikipedia Commons |
Until 8 BC, the Romans called August 'Sextilis' as it was the sixth month of their year.
The Anglo-Saxons called August by the name Weod-monath (weed month) as it is the month when weeds grow most rapidly.
Today is the anniversary of Isaac Singer receiving a patent for his sewing machine.
Today is the birthday of hip-hop music.
