The Thing About Today – October 4

October 4, 2020October 4, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 4, 2020
Day 278 of 366

October 4th is the 278th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Lesotho, formerly Basutoland, as they celebrate leaving the United Kingdom in 1966.

It is also the beginning of World Space Week, “an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition.”

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Cinnamon Bun Day, National Taco Day, National Golf Lover’s Day, National Vodka Day, World Smile Day, and National GOE Day (which is typically observed on the Sunday of the first full weekend in October).

What is GOE? It stands for “Growth. Overcome. Empower.” It encourages us to support safe spaces of healing and connection for those who have been victimized by abuse and trauma, and focuses on healing, recovery and providing resources that support overcoming these overwhelming obstacles in life.

Historical items of note:

In 1582, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.
In 1824, Mexico adopted a new constitution and became a federal republic.
In 1883, the first run of the Orient Express occurred.
In 1895, film actor, director, and producer Buster Keaton was born.
In 1924, American soldier and author Donald J. Sobol was born. He created the Encyclopedia Brown children’s book series.
In 1927, Gutzon Borglum began sculpting Mount Rushmore. He is also known for Stone Mountain in Georgia, the statue of Union General Phillip Sheridan in Washington, D.C., a bust of Abraham Lincoln which was exhibited in the White House by Theodore Roosevelt, and being deeply involved with the Ku Klux Klan. Mount Rushmore, of course, was carved into Six Grandfathers, a mountain taken from the Lakota Sioux by the United States government.
In 1941, Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis character debuted on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
Also in 1941, author Anne Rice was born.
In 1946, actress and activist Susan Sarandon was born.
In 1956, Austrian-German actor Christoph Waltz was born.
In 1957, Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
In 1967, actor and director Liev Schreiber was born.
In 1976, actress, producer, and author Alicia Silverstone was born.
In 1980, Thundarr the Barbarian premiered on television.
In 1985, the Free Software Foundation was founded.
In 1988, actress and singer Melissa Benoist was born.
In 2004, SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.

October 4th is World Animal Day, an international day of action for animal rights and welfare celebrated on the feast day of Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.

World Animal Day was originated by cynologist Heinrich Zimmermann. He organized the first World Animal Day on March 24, 1925, at the Sport Palace in Berlin, Germany. Over 5,000 people attended the first event, and it was only celebrated on that day because the venue was not available on October 4th. It finally made it to October 4th in 1929.

The mission of World Animal Day is “to raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe. Building the celebration of World Animal Day unites the animal welfare movement, mobilizing it into a global force to make the world a better place for all animals. It is celebrated in different ways in every country, irrespective of nationality, religion, faith or political ideology. Through increased awareness and education we can create a world where animals are always recognized as sentient beings and full regard is always paid to their welfare.”

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.

The Thing About Today – October 3

October 3, 2020October 4, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 3, 2020
Day 277 of 366

October 3rd is the 277th day of the year. It is National Day in Iraq as they celebrate their 1932 independence from the United Kingdom.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Techies Day and National Boyfriend Day.

Historical items of note:

In 2457 BC, Hwanung (환웅) purportedly descended from heaven. This event is observed today as Gaecheonjeol, or South Korea’s National Foundation Day.
In 42 BC, Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fought a decisive battle with Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi.
In 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, became the first nobleman to be executed by hanging and drawing and quartering.
In 1789, George Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day for that year.
In 1863, the last Thursday in November was declared as Thanksgiving Day by United States President Abraham Lincoln.
In 1941, singer-songwriter Chubby Checker was born.
In 1949, WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opened in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1952, the United Kingdom successfully tested a nuclear weapon and became the world’s third nuclear power.
In 1955, Captain Kangaroo premiered on television.
In 1961, Mr. Ed premiered on television.
In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra launched from Cape Canaveral in Sigma 7 for a six-orbit flight.
In 1964, actor Clive Owen was born.
In 1969, singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion designer Gwen Stefani was born.
In 1973, Canadian actress and producer Neve Campbell was born.
Also in 1973, actress Lena Headey was born.
In 1983, actress Tessa Thompson was born.
In 1984, actress Jessica Parker Kennedy was born.
In 1985, the Space Shuttle Atlantis made its maiden flight on mission STS-51-J.
In 1988, actress Alicia Vikander was born.
In 1994, Gary Larson announced his retirement from producing his Far Side comic.
In 1995, the O. J. Simpson murder case ended with a verdict of not guilty.

In 1990, the German Democratic Republic was abolished and became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The day is celebrated as German Unity Day. The reunification marked the first time since 1945 that there existed a single German state.

An alternative choice would have been November 9, 1989, the day that the Berlin Wall came down – the date coincided with the anniversary of the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918, and the defeat of Hitler’s first coup in 1923 – however, it was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pogroms against Jews in 1938 (also known as Kristallnacht), so the day was considered inappropriate as a national holiday.

Therefore, October 3, 1990, the day of the formal reunification, was chosen instead and replaced the “Day of German Unity” on June 17th, the national holiday of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1954.

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.

The Thing About Today – October 2

October 2, 2020September 30, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 2, 2020
Day 276 of 366

October 2nd is the 276th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Guinea as they celebrate their 1958 separation from France.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Produce Misting Day, National Custodial Worker’s Recognition Day, National Name Your Car Day, National Fried Scallops Day, National Manufacturing Day, and National Body Language Day. The last two are typically observed on the first Friday in October.

Historical items of note:

In 1528, William Tyndale published The Obedience of a Christian Man, which advocated the divine right of kings.
In 1535, Jacques Cartier discovered the present site of Montreal.
In 1800, American slave and uprising leader Nat Turner was born.
In 1869, Indian freedom fighter, activist, and philosopher Mahatma Gandhi was born.
In 1870, a plebiscite held in Rome supported the annexation of the city of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy.
In 1890, comedian and actor Groucho Marx was born.
In 1895, comedian Bud Abbott was born.
In 1919, United States President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke, leaving him incapacitated for several weeks.
In 1945, singer-songwriter and guitarist Don McLean was born.
In 1948, actor and singer Avery Brooks was born.
Also in 1948, Indian model and actress Persis Khambatta was born.
Also in 1948, singer-songwriter and sculptor Chris LeDoux was born.
In 1949, photographer Annie Leibovitz was born.
In 1955, Alfred Hitchcock Presents premiered on television.
In 1957, The Bridge on the River Kwai was released to theaters.
In 1959, Rod Serling’s anthology series The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS. The first episode was “Where Is Everybody?”
In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.

October 2nd is Batik Day (Hari Batik Nasional), which is an Indonesian cultural day for celebrating batik, the traditional cloth of Indonesia.

October 2nd is the anniversary of UNESCO’s 2009 recognition of batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. On that day, the map of Indonesian batik diversity by Hokky Situngkir was opened for public for the first time by the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology in Jakarta.

Batik is a traditional Indonesian cloth that has roots in the country’s historical artwork. In celebration of their culture, Indonesians dress head-to-toe in batik for the holiday. Now, Batik Day is celebrated across a number of platforms all over the world, particularly in Indonesian organizations ranging from universities, church groups, and communities all around the world. These Indonesian organizations usually celebrate Batik Day as well in order to create awareness of Indonesia’s traditional fabric to other cultures.

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.

The Thing About Today – October 1

October 1, 2020September 29, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 1, 2020
Day 275 of 366

October 1st is the 275th day of the year. It is Independence Day in multiple locations, including Cyprus (separated from the United Kingdom in 1960), Nigeria (from the United Kingdom in 1960), Palau (from the UN Trust Territory status in 1994), and Tuvalu (from the United Kingdom in 1978).

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Black Dog Day, National Hair Day, Fire Pup Day, and National Homemade Cookies Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1507, Italian architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. He designed the Church of the Gesù in Rome.
In 1861, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management was published, going on to sell 60,000 copies in its first year and remaining in print until the present day.
In 1890, Yosemite National Park was established by the United States Congress.
In 1891, Stanford University opened its doors in California.
In 1893, Hong Kong martial artist Ip Man was born. He was a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun and had several students who later became martial arts masters in their own right, the most famous among them being Bruce Lee.
In 1920, actor Walter Matthau was born.
In 1921, actor James Whitmore was born.
In 1924, Naval lieutenant, politician, humanitarian, and Nobel Prize laureate Jimmy Carter was born. He was the 39th President of the United States.
In 1930, Irish actor Richard Harris was born.
In 1931, the George Washington Bridge was opened, linking New Jersey and New York.
In 1935, actress and singer Julie Andrews was born.
In 1958, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was replaced by NASA.
In 1961, the United States Defense Intelligence Agency was formed, becoming the country’s first centralized military intelligence organization.
In 1968, Guyana nationalized the British Guiana Broadcasting Service, which would eventually become part of the National Communications Network, Guyana.
Also in 1968, cult zombie film Night of the Living Dead, directed by George A. Romero, was released.
In 1971, Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida.
Also in 1971, the first practical CT scanner was used to diagnose a patient.
In 1982, Epcot opened at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Also in 1982, Sony and Phillips launched the compact disc in Japan. On the same day, Sony released the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind.
In 1989, Denmark introduced the world’s first legal same-sex registered partnerships.
Also in 1989, actress Brie Larson was born. I thought she was brilliant was Captain Marvel.

In 1536, the Lincolnshire Rising began.

The Lincolnshire Rising was a brief rising by Roman Catholics against the establishment of the Church of England by Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries set in motion by Thomas Cromwell. Both planned to assert the nation’s religious autonomy and the king’s supremacy over religious matters. The dissolution of the monasteries resulted in much property being transferred to the Crown.

Led by a monk and a shoemaker called Nicholas Melton, some 22,000 people are estimated to have joined the rising. It quickly gained support in Horncastle, Market Rasen, Caistor, and other nearby towns, and Dr. John Raynes, the chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln, who dragged from his sick-bed and beaten to death by the mob as the commissioners’ registers were seized and burned.

The protest effectively ended on October 4th when the King sent word for the occupiers to disperse or face the forces of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. By October 14th, few occupiers remained in Lincoln. Following the rising, the vicar of Louth and Captain Cobbler, two of the main leaders, were captured and hanged at Tyburn. Most of the other local ringleaders were executed during the next twelve days.

In memory of the event, Lincolnshire Day is observed every October 1st.

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.

Timestamp #SJA15: The Mad Woman in the Attic

September 30, 2020September 29, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

Sarah Jane Adventures: The Mad Woman in the Attic
(2 episodes, s03e02, 2009)

When wishes go haywire.

In 2059, the Bannerman Road house is in disrepair. The attic is abandoned, Mr. Smith is broken down, and an old woman lives alone in the attic. A boy named Adam finds the woman, and we discover that she is Rani Chandra. She is unkempt like the house, spending her time lingering over photographs and memories.

She begins to tell him her story…

In 2009, Rani brings a story about strange lights to Sarah Jane, but she and Mr. Smith have already decided that it was merely lightning. She’s annoyed because the group is talking about Maria Jackson, who she considers to be “the girl before her” and is now hiding aliens in America.

Hurt by the dismissive attitude, she leaves and finds an e-mail from an old friend. She meets up with Sam Lloyd and they end up at a deserted pleasure park. Sam knows about the Bannerman Road Gang and wants Rani to investigate the mystery of a demon at the park.

Of course, Sam deserts her, so she looks around on her own and soon finds Harry the caretaker. She works her way into his office. After they talk for a bit, she brings up the haunting, but Harry dismisses her with fear. A voice says, “Playtime is beginning,” and Rani witnesses people who had previously disappeared on the rides. Their eyes are red and they’re grinning maniacally. The voices says, “Playtime is over,” and the rides stop. Rani takes her investigation to the haunted house even as Harry protests.

Sarah Jane, Luke, and Clyde find the e-mail from Sam. Even though Sarah Jane is upset that Rani has told someone about their secrets, she decides to investigate. When they arrive, Sam is cold toward the trio but tells them where to find Rani. Luke stays with Sam while Sarah Jane and Clyde head for the park.

As Rani makes her way to the heart of the haunted house, she finds a red-skinned alien named Eve. Harry locks Rani in the room and the two talk, though Eve does so telepathically. Eve is able to manipulate time, seeing pasts and futures, and is presumably the last of her kind. She came to Earth in a spaceship as her people destroyed each other in a massive war. Harry found her and kept her safe.

Eve says that the people in the carnival are her friends, but she cannot go outside because of her appearance. She assures Rani that she needs the Bannerman Road Gang and asks if Rani wants to see her future, but that future is of a mad, lonely woman. Rani wants nothing to do with that future, so she offers to help Eve escape.

Eve also shows Luke and Sarah Jane their timelines. Luke’s past contains memories of this very show while his future includes a graduation. Sarah Jane’s involves memories of her parents, The Five Doctors, The Hand of Fear, The Time Warrior, and The Stolen Earth.

Her future somehow involves the TARDIS and the Tenth Doctor.

Sarah Jane and Clyde go in search of Eve. Simultaneously, Rani and Eve decide to go outside. The two teams eventually come together, but Rani’s feelings of rejection come to the surface. Back at the orphanage, Sam has departed with only a note to spare. It says that it wasn’t Eve who wanted Rani.

Once outside, Eve starts up the rides again, forcing them to spin wildly. When Rani gets upset, Eve possesses her as well. The mirror that showed Sarah Jane her future laments that Eve is outside, revealing that it is the artificial intelligence from the spaceship and needs Eve to return its control. Eve cannot control her power and is dying.

Sarah Jane returns to Eve, telling her that she must let everyone go, but Eve doesn’t know how to free them. After Sam arrives, he joins Sarah Jane and Clyde as they escort Eve back to the ship. The ship absorbs Eve’s excess energy, which frees her captives and saves her life. Rani runs for the beach with Harry in tow and rejoins her family.

Eve invites Sam and Harry to travel with her but needs the energy of a black hole to fuel the ship. Sarah Jane connects with K9 and they coordinate efforts to transfer the Switzerland singularity‘s energy to the ship. With that, K9’s mission is finished and he returns to the attic.

Unfortunately, as the ship departs, it grants Rani one wish. It chooses the wish she made earlier, that her friends would leave her alone, and erases the Bannerman Road Gang from existence. Rani protests but the ship takes off regardless.

Back in 2059, Adam reveals his true identity. He is the son of Sam and Eve, and he has come to reverse the wish because the ship was damaged and misinterpreted the wish. Given the opportunity, Rani wishes her family back into existence, deleting the timeline. Sam and Eve head into space and the Bannerman Road Gang heads home.

The adventure ends as Sarah Jane takes a photo of Rani, Luke, Clyde, and K9. K9 even says “Cheese!”

In a coda, we see the new future of 2059. Rani lives in the house at Bannerman Road, but it is well-kept and happy with three grandchildren and her son. Rani works with Luke and Maria, and the photo has a place of honor on the shelf nearby.

This one starts out as a tear-jerker in an era when Elisabeth Sladen is no longer with us. The part of Rani’s story about how magnificent Sarah Jane was, how much she meant to Rani and the Bannerman Road Gang, pulls at the heartstrings because Sarah Jane and Elisabeth Sladen were really one and the same.

What follows from there, however, is a paint-by-the-numbers alternate timeline tale with a misunderstood alien menace… who honestly isn’t that menacing. The story has a sweet aspect to it since the alien is innocent, acting out purely in loneliness and fear, but the mystery and menace are both pretty thin.

Couple that with Rani’s sense of rejection, which feels unfounded given her history in this show, and that leaves the story pretty average overall.

One note extends deep into the classic era: Sarah Jane mentions the Zodin, which were first brought up by the Second Doctor in The Five Doctors and blurted out in delirium by the Sixth Doctor in Attack of the Cybermen. It’s a running gag of sorts in the Doctor Who universe.

Rating: 3/5 – “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

UP NEXT – Sarah Jane Adventures: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – September 30

September 30, 2020September 28, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

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.

The Thing About Today – September 29

September 29, 2020September 28, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

September 29, 2020
Day 273 of 366

September 29th is the 273rd day of the year. It is Inventors’ Day in Argentina.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Coffee Day and VFW Day. The coordination is superb.

Historical items of note:

In 1829, the Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, was founded. Their iconic police boxes were introduced by Met surveyor and architect Gilbert MacKenzie Trench that same year.
In 1901, Italian-American physicist and academic Enrico Fermi was born. He was the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the “architect of the nuclear age” and the “architect of the atomic bomb”. He was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical physics and experimental physics, and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics.
In 1904, actress Greer Garson was born.
In 1907, the cornerstone was laid at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Washington, D.C. It would be better known as the Washington National Cathedral. Construction was completed on this same day in 1990.
In 1913, actor Trevor Howard was born.
In 1935, singer-songwriter and pianist Jerry Lee Lewis was born.
In 1939, actor Larry Linville was born. He was Major Frank Burns on M*A*S*H.
In 1942, actress and singer Madeline Khan was born.
Also in 1942, actor Ian McShane was born.
In 1944, composer and producer Mike Post was born. If you watched television in the 1980s and 1990s, you know his work.
In 1948, Hamlet premiered at the Park Avenue Cinema. It starred and was directed by Sir Laurence Olivier.
In 1954, the convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) was signed.
Also in 1954, actress Cindy Morgan was born.
Also in 1954, A Star is Born starring Judy Garland and James Mason premiered.
In 1957, the Kyshtym disaster occurred, becoming the third-worst nuclear accident ever recorded. The explosion spread hot particles over more than 20,000 square miles in the Soviet Union.
In 1969, actress and model Erika Eleniak was born. Most know her from Baywatch, but I know her as the girl that Elliott kissed in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
In 1975, WGPR of Detroit, Michigan became the first black-owned-and-operated television station in the United States.
Also in 1975, Sharon Dahlonega Bush became American television’s first African American weathercaster.
In 1980, actor and singer Zachary Levi was born.
In 1985, MacGyver premiered on television.
In 1988, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-26, the first mission since the Challenger disaster.
In 2004, the asteroid 4179 Toutatis passed within four lunar distances of Earth.
In 2007, Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, was demolished in a controlled explosion. It was opened in 1956 and was closed in 2003 after 47 years of operation.

September 29th is World Heart Day, an observance started by the World Heart Federation in 2000 to inform people around the globe that heart disease and stroke are the world’s leading causes of death.

The World Heart Federation (WHF) is a nongovernmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1978 the International Society of Cardiology merged with the International Cardiology Federation (which had been founded in 1970) to form the International Society and Federation of Cardiology. This body changed its name in 1998 to the World Heart Federation. The Federation hosts the World Congress of Cardiology.

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.

The Thing About Today – September 28

September 28, 2020September 28, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

September 28, 2020
Day 272 of 366

September 28th is the 272nd day of the year. It is Freedom from Hunger Day, an event started in 2006 to increase awareness about global hunger and promote Freedom from Hunger’s empowerment of women around the world.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Drink Beer Day, National Good Neighbor Day, National Strawberry Cream Pie Day, National North Carolina Day, and National Family Day (typically observed on the fourth Monday in September).

Historical items of note:

In 1836, English plumber Thomas Crapper was born. While he didn’t invent the modern toilet, he did hold nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating ballcock. He also improved the S-bend plumbing trap in 1880 by inventing the U-bend.

Of note, it has often been claimed in popular culture that crap, a slang term for human feces, originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. One common version is that American servicemen stationed in England during World War I saw his name on cisterns and used it as army slang.

The word crap is actually of Middle English origin and predates any application to bodily waste. Most likely, it comes from the combination of two older words: the Dutch krappen (to pluck off, cut off, or separate) and the Old French crappe (siftings, waste or rejected matter, from the medieval Latin crappa).

In English, it was used to refer to chaff and also to weeds or other rubbish. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded application to bodily waste was in 1846, 10 years after Crapper was born, referencing a crapping ken. That was a term for a privy, where ken meant a house.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…

In 1868, English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall was born. She was best known for her biography of Voltaire and wrote under the pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre.
In 1889, the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defined the length of a meter.
In 1912, Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army became the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
In 1925, computer scientist Seymour Cray was born. The “Father of Supercomputing”, he founded the CRAY Computer Company.
In 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
In 1934, French actress Brigitte Bardot was born.
In 1951, CBS made the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product was discontinued less than a month later.
In 1968, English-Australian actress and producer Naomi Watts was born.
In 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered on television.
In 1991, the Strategic Air Command stood down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under START I, as well as its strategic bomber force.
In 2008, Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.
In 2018, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the international project Tree of Peace was established. One of the trees was planted personally by Zuzana Čaputová, President of the Slovak Republic.

September 28th is the International Day for Universal Access to Information. Initially known as Access to Information Day, it was designated by the UNESCO General Conference. It was inaugurated in November 2015 and was first held in 2016.

The day had been recognized as International Right to Know Day since 2002, and it was developed by international civil society advocates beginning in 2012. The UNESCO resolution that created the day was heavily driven by African civil society groups seeking greater information transparency.

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.

The Thing About Today – September 27

September 27, 2020September 25, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

September 27, 2020
Day 271 of 366

September 27th is the 271st day of the year. It is National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the United States.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Chocolate Milk Day, National Crush a Can Day, National Corned Beef Hash Day, National Scarf Day, and National Gold Star Mother’s Day (typically observed on the last Sunday in September).

Historical items of note:

In 1822, Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered the Rosetta Stone.
In 1825, the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, was ceremonially opened.
In 1908, production of the Model T automobile began at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1920, actor William Conrad was born.
In 1928, the Republic of China was recognized by the United States.
In 1932, actor Roger C. Carmel was born.
In 1934, actor and advertising spokesman Wilford Brimley was born.
In 1947, Scottish actor, director, and screenwriter Denis Lawson was born. He portrayed pilot Wedge Antilles in the Star Wars films.
In 1954, The Tonight Show premiered with host Steve Allen.
In 1956, United States Air Force Captain Milburn G. Apt became the first person to exceed Mach 3. Shortly thereafter, the Bell X-2 went out of control and Captain Apt was killed.
In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
In 1970, actress Tamara Taylor was born.
In 1982, actress Anna Camp was born.
In 1998, the Google internet search engine was launched (based on a retroactive claim).
In 2007, NASA launched the Dawn probe to the asteroid belt.
In 2008, CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk.

Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization has celebrated World Tourism Day.

The purpose of this day is to raise awareness surrounding the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political, and economic values worldwide.

The date was chosen since the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted on that day in 1970. Their adoption was considered a milestone in global tourism.

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.

The Thing About Today – September 26

September 26, 2020September 24, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

September 26, 2020
Day 270 of 366

September 26th is the 270th day of the year. It is Dominion Day in New Zealand. It commemorates the granting of Dominion status – a constitutional term of art used to signify a semi-independent Commonwealth realm – but the holiday goes generally unobserved in the country.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Compliance Officer Day, National Dumpling Day, National Johnny Appleseed Day, National Shamu the Whale Day, National Pancake Day, and National Situational Awareness Day.

A batch of events are commemorated on the last Saturday of September: National Public Lands Day, Save Your Photos Day, National Family Health and Fitness Day USA, and National Ghost Hunting Day. Two others are observed on the fourth Saturday of September: National Seat Check Saturday and National Hunting and Fishing Day. Finally, National Singles Day is typically observed on the Saturday of Singles Week.

It’s a busy day.

Historical items of note:

In 1580, Sir Francis Drake finished his circumnavigation of the Earth.
In 1774, gardener and environmentalist John Chapman was born. He was better known as Johnny Appleseed.
In 1789, George Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson as the first United States Secretary of State.
In 1849, Russian physiologist and physician Ivan Pavlov was born. A Nobel Prize laureate, he is primarily known for his working classical conditioning, particularly with ringing bells and salivating dogs.
In 1888, English poet, playwright, critic, and Nobel Prize laureate T. S. Eliot was born.
In 1898, pianist and composer George Gershwin was born.
In 1905, Albert Einstein published the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity.
In 1932, actor Richard Herd was born.
In 1933, as gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrendered to the FBI, he shouted out, “Don’t shoot, G-Men!” That later became a nickname for FBI agents.
In 1942, actor Kent McCord was born.
In 1944, English television host Anne Robinson was born. She has a talent for finding the weakest link.
In 1948, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress Olivia Newton-John was born.
In 1949, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Hollywood sign was held in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The old Hollywoodland sign was torn down and replaced with the current sign which has become a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
In 1956, actress Linda Hamilton was born.
In 1962, The Beverly Hillbillies premiered.
In 1964, Gilligan’s Island premiered.
In 1968, Hawaii Five-O premiered.
In 1969, Abbey Road, the last recorded album by The Beatles, was released.
In 1973, Concorde made its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.
In 1982, Knight Rider premiered.
In 2008, Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy became the first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.
In 2010, Downton Abbey premiered.

In 1983, the nuclear early-warning system of the Soviet Union reported the launch of 5 intercontinental ballistic missiles from bases in the United States.

Soviet Air Force officer Stanislav Petrov identified a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike. His decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack against the United States and its NATO allies, which would have resulted in an immediate and irrevocable escalation to full-scale nuclear war.

The false alarms were caused by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds and the satellites’ Molniya orbits. The error was later corrected by cross-referencing a geostationary satellite. The system had indeed malfunctioned.

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.

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