September 30, 2020
Day 274 of 366

 

September 30th is the 274th day of the year. It is Orange Shirt Day in Canada, an event designed to educate people and promote awareness in Canada about the Indian residential school system and the impact it has had on Indigenous communities for over a century as children were taken from their homes, separate from their parents and culture, and eventually merged and lost within the nation. The impact is recognized as cultural genocide and is one that continues today.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Love People Day, National Chewing Gum Day, National Mud Pack Day, National Hot Mulled Cider Day, and National Women’s Health & Fitness Day (typically observed on the last Wednesday in September).

 

Historical items of note:

• In 1791, the first performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute took place two months before his death.
• In 1861, businessman William Wrigley, Jr. was born. He founded the Wrigley Company.
• In 1882, Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant, later known as Appleton Edison Light Company, began operation.
• In 1909, the Cunard Line’s RMS Mauretania completed a record-breaking westbound crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The record would not be broken for 20 years.
• In 1921, Scottish-English actress Deborah Kerr was born.
• In 1928, Romanian-American author, academic, activist, Nobel Prize laureate, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was born.
• In 1935, the Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, was dedicated.
• In 1943, the United States Merchant Marine Academy was dedicated by President Roosevelt. I served with a guy who graduated from that academy. He’s one of the best people I know.
• In 1950, English actress and dancer Victoria Tennant was born.
• In 1954, The United States Navy submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was commissioned as the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel.
• In 1955, American actor and cultural icon James Dean was killed in a car crash. He was 24 years old.
• In 1957, actress, producer, and screenwriter Fran Drescher was born.
• In 1960, The Flintstones premiered on television. It was the first animated sitcom created by Hanna-Barbera.
• In 1961, actor, director, and producer Eric Stoltz was born.
• In 1964, Italian actress and fashion model Monica Bellucci was born.
• In 1967, the BBC Light Programme, Third Programme, and Home Service were replaced with BBC Radio 2, 3, and 4, respectively. BBC Radio 1 was also launched.
• In 1975, French-American actress and singer Marion Cotillard was born.
• In 1977, because of NASA budget cuts and dwindling power reserves, the Apollo program’s ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon were shut down.
• In 1982, actress Lacey Chabert was born.
• In 1984, Murder, She Wrote premiered on television.
• In 1992, actor and singer Ezra Miller was born.
• In 1999, the Tokaimura nuclear accident caused the deaths of two technicians in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident.

 

September 30th is International Translation Day, an international observance celebrated every year on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is considered the patron saint of translators.

The celebrations have been promoted by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) since it was established in 1953. In 1991, FIT launched the idea of an officially recognized International Translation Day to show solidarity of the worldwide translation community. It was an effort to promote the translation profession in different countries, and not necessarily only in Christian ones. It is a profession that is becoming increasingly essential in the era of progressing globalization.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.