The Thing About Today – July 4

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

July 4, 2020
Day 186 of 366

July 4th is the 186th day of the year. It is the first evening of Dree Festival, celebrated until July 7th by the Apatani people in Arunachal Pradesh, India.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Barbecued Spareribs Day, National Caesar Salad Day, and Hop-a-Park Day (which is typically observed on the first Saturday in July).

Historical items of note:

In 1054, a supernova called SN 1054 was seen by the Chinese Song dynasty, Arabian, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remained bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants formed the Crab Nebula.
In 1744, the Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois ceded lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
In 1802, at West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opened.
In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was announced to the people of the United States.
In 1817, in Rome, New York, construction began on the Erie Canal.
In 1826, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, respectively the second and third presidents of the United States, died on the same day. Coincidentally, it was the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence. Adams’ last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
In 1827, slavery was abolished in the State of New York.
In 1831, Samuel Francis Smith wrote “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” for the Boston, Massachusetts July 4th festivities.
In 1837, Grand Junction Railway, the world’s first long-distance railway, opened between Birmingham and Liverpool.
In 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. His account of his two years there, titled Walden, would become a touchstone of the environmental movement.
In 1855, the first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, was published in Brooklyn.
In 1862, Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell a story. It would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
In 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia withdrew after losing the Battle of Gettysburg. This signaled an end to the Confederate invasion of United States territory.
In 1872, thirtieth President of the United States Calvin Coolidge was born.
In 1881, the Tuskegee Institute opened in Alabama.
In 1892, the first double-decked streetcar service was inaugurated in San Diego, California.
In 1903, the Philippine-American War was officially concluded.
In 1910, African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocked out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States. Johnson’s victory over Jeffries had dashed white dreams of finding a “great white hope” to defeat him.
In 1924, actress Eva Marie Saint was born.
In 1927, playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon was born.
In 1939, Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), informed a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself “The luckiest man on the face of the earth”. He then announced his retirement from major league baseball.
In 1943, the Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world’s largest tank battle, began in the village of Prokhorovka.
In 1946, after 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attained full independence from the United States.
In 1950, Radio Free Europe first broadcast.
In 1951, William Shockley announced the invention of the junction transistor.
In 1960, due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuted in Philadelphia.
In 1966, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law. The act went into effect the next year.
In 1976, the United States celebrated its Bicentennial.
In 1997, NASA’s Pathfinder space probe landed on the surface of Mars.
In 2005, the Deep Impact collider hit the comet Tempel 1.
In 2006, Space Shuttle Discovery launched mission STS-121 to the International Space Station. It was the only shuttle launch in the program’s history to occur on the United States’ Independence Day.
In 2012, the discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider was announced at CERN.

In 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

The Lee Resolution for independence was passed on July 2 with no opposing votes. The Committee of Five – John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston – had drafted the Declaration to be ready when Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress edited to produce the final version.

The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America.

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents (Thomas Jefferson and John Adams) and a father and great-grandfather of two other presidents (Benjamin Harrison V) were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (at age 26) was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (at age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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 – July 3

July 3, 2020July 2, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

July 3, 2020
Day 185 of 366

July 3rd is the 185th day of the year. It is Emancipation Day in the United States Virgin Islands. It commemorates the Danish Governor Peter von Scholten’s 1848 proclamation that “all unfree in the Danish West Indies are from today emancipated,” following a slave rebellion led by John Gottlieb (General Buddhoe) in Frederiksted, Saint Croix.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Fried Clam Day, National Eat Your Beans Day, and National Chocolate Wafer Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1608, Québec City was founded by Samuel de Champlain.
In 1738, painter John Singleton Copley was born.
In 1844, the last pair of great auks were killed.
In 1852, the United States Congress established the country’s second mint in San Francisco.
In 1884, Dow Jones & Company published its first stock average.
In 1927, actor Tim O’Connor was born. You know him as that guy in ’70s and ’80s television.
In 1928, John Logie Baird demonstrated the first color television transmission in London.
In 1938, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lit the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
In 1941, lawyer and activist Gloria Allred was born.
In 1943, actor Kurtwood Smith was born.
In 1947, journalist and author Dave Barry was born. I was introduced to his work through Harry Anderson and Dave’s World in the mid-1990s.
In 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico was approved by the United States Congress.
In 1962, actor and producer Tom Cruise was born.
In 1964, actress, voice actress, comedian, and writer Yeardley Smith was born.
In 1965, actress Connie Nielsen was born.
In 1969, the biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurred when the Soviet N-1 rocket exploded and subsequently destroyed its launchpad.
In 1976, actress Andrea Barber was born.
In 1980, actress Olivia Munn was born.
In 1985, Back to the Future premiered. Great Scott!
In 1996, British Prime Minister John Major announced the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland.

In 1944, Minsk, the capital of Belarus, was liberated from the Wehrmacht during the Minsk Offensive in World War II.

The offensive was part of the second phase of the Belorussian Strategic Offensive of the Red Army in the summer of 1944, commonly known as Operation Bagration. The Red Army encircled the German Fourth Army in Minsk, and Hitler ordered his troops to hold fast and declared the city to be a fortified place. The Soviet army attacked from the north-east, the east, and the south, killing 40,000 of the 100,000 Axis soldiers in Minsk. The result was a complete victory for the Red Army, the liberation of Minsk, and the rapid destruction of much of the German Army Group Centre.

As a result, the day is celebrated as Independence Day in Belarus, also known as Republic Day or Liberation Day.

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 – July 2

July 2, 2020July 1, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

July 2, 2020
Day 184 of 366

July 2nd is the 184th day of the year. Today begins the second half of the year.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Anisette Day. Basically, if you like alcohol and the flavors of black licorice or black jelly beans, this is your day.

Historical items of note:

In 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine.
In 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain, although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not published until July 4th.
In 1839, twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutinied and took over the slave ship Amistad.
In 1853, the Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia. This provided the spark that set off the Crimean War.
In 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded United States President James Garfield. The president would die of complications from his wounds on September 19th.
In 1908, lawyer and jurist Thurgood Marshall was born. He was the 32nd Solicitor General of the United States and the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.
In 1927, actor and singer Brock Peters was born.
In 1934, the Night of the Long Knives ended with the death of Ernst Röhm.
In 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
In 1948, actor Saul Rubinek was born.
In 1962, the first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opened for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
In 1964, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
In 1983, singer-songwriter and guitarist Michelle Branch was born.
In 1985, actress and singer Ashley Tisdale was born.
In 1986, actress and singer Lindsay Lohan was born.
In 1990, actress and producer Margot Robbie was born.
In 2013, the International Astronomical Union named Pluto’s fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.

In 2013, the International Astronomical Union named Pluto’s fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx. This happened after Pluto was redesignated as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Kerberos was discovered on June 28, 2011, by researchers of the Pluto Companion Search Team using the Hubble Space Telescope. It has a double-lobed shape and is approximately 12 miles across its longest dimension and 5.6 miles across its shortest dimension. It was named after Cerberus, the mythical dog that guards Pluto’s underworld, but since an asteroid was already named 1865 Cerberus, the moon was named Kerberos, using the Greek form of the name.

Styx was discovered at about the same time as Kerberos. It is thought to have formed from the debris lofted by a collision and has measurements ranging from 5 to 10 miles across. Following the convention for naming Plutonian moons with association with the mythological god Pluto, it was named after the goddess of the river of the same name in the underworld.

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 – July 1

July 1, 2020June 30, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

July 1, 2020
Day 183 of 366

July 1st is the 183rd day of the year. It is Independence Day in Burundi, Rwanda, and Somalia. The first two left Belgian control in 1962, and Somalia’s independence came from the unification of the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somalia) and the State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) in 1960.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Postal Worker Day, National U.S. Postage Stamp Day, National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day, and National Gingersnap Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1766, young French nobleman François-Jean de la Barre was tortured and beheaded. Before his body was burnt on a pyre, a copy of Voltaire’s Dictionnaire philosophique was nailed to his torso. His crime was not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
In 1858, a joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution was conducted before the Linnean Society of London.
In 1870, the United States Department of Justice formally came into existence.
In 1878, Canada joined the Universal Postal Union.
In 1881, the world’s first international telephone call was made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
In 1890, Canada and Bermuda were linked by telegraph cable.
In 1908, SOS was adopted as the international distress signal.
In 1916, actress Olivia de Havilland was born.
In 1932, Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.
In 1934, actor Jamie Farr was born.
In 1935, actor David Prowse was born.
In 1942, actress Geneviève Bujold was born.
In 1945, singer-songwriter and actress Debbie Harry was born.
In 1952, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter Dan Aykroyd was born.
In 1956, actor Alan Ruck was born.
In 1961, Diana, Princess of Wales was born.
In 1962, actor and producer Andre Braugher was born.
In 1963, ZIP codes were introduced for the United States mail service.
In 1966, the first color television transmission in Canada took place from Toronto.
In 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was signed in Washington, D.C., London, and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
In 1972, the first Pride march in England took place.
In 1977, actress Liv Tyler was born.
In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman.
In 1980, “O Canada” officially became the national anthem of Canada.
In 1984, the PG-13 rating was introduced by the Motion Picture Association of America.
In 1990, East Germany accepted the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
In 1991, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
Also in 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day opened.
In 1997, China resumed sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
In 1999, the Scottish Parliament was officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers were officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh. In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary were transferred to the National Assembly.
In 2007, smoking in England was banned in all public indoor spaces.

July 1st is Canada Day.

A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of the Constitution Act, 1867 (then called the British North America Act, 1867), which united the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada.

It was originally called Dominion Day – Le Jour de la Confédération in French – but was renamed in 1982, the same year in which the Canadian Constitution was patriated by the Canada Act 1982.

Most communities in Canada celebrate with parades, festivals, fireworks, concerts, and citizenship ceremonies. Given the federal nature of the anniversary, celebrating Canada Day can be a cause of friction in the province of Quebec, where the holiday is overshadowed by Quebec’s National Holiday on June 24th. Canada Day also coincides with Quebec’s Moving Day, when many fixed-lease apartment rental terms expire.

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 – June 30

June 30, 2020June 29, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

June 30, 2020
Day 182 of 366

June 30th is the 182nd day of the year. It is Teachers’ Day in the Dominican Republic.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as Social Media Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1688, the Immortal Seven issued the Invitation to William, which would culminate in the Glorious Revolution.
In 1864, United States President Abraham Lincoln granted Yosemite Valley to California for “public use, resort, and recreation”.
In 1905, Albert Einstein sent the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduced special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.
In 1917, actress Susan Hayward was born.
In 1922, United States Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and Dominican Ambassador Francisco J. Peynado signed the Hughes–Peynado agreement, which ended the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic.
In 1925, Charles Jenkins was granted the United States patent for Transmitting Pictures over Wireless. Basically, it’s the early television.
In 1934, the Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, took place.
In 1937, the world’s first emergency telephone number, 999, was introduced in London.
In 1942, naval officer and oceanographer Robert Ballard was born.
In 1956, actor, singer, and comedian David Alan Grier was born.
In 1959, actor Vincent D’Onofrio was born.
In 1966, the National Organization for Women, the United States’ largest feminist organization, was founded.
In 1971, the crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft was killed when their air supply escaped through a faulty valve.
In 1972, the first leap second was added to the UTC time system.
In 1982, actress Lizzy Caplan was born.
In 1997, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.

In 1908, the Tunguska Event occurred.

It was the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, resulting in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia. The event occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai) in Russia. The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles of forest, and eyewitness reports suggest that at least three people may have died in the event.

The explosion is generally attributed to the airburst of a meteoroid of about 328 feet in size. There was no impact crater since the object is thought to have disintegrated at an altitude of 3 to 6 miles above the surface.

In commemoration of the event, June 30th is observed as International Asteroid Day, a day that aims to raise awareness about asteroids and what can be done to protect the Earth, its families, communities, and future generations from a catastrophic event.

Asteroid Day was co-founded by Stephen Hawking, filmmaker Grigorij Richters, B612 Foundation President, Danica Remy, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Brian May, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist. The declaration was co-signed by over 200 astronauts, scientists, technologists and artists, including Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Peter Gabriel, Jim Lovell, Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, Alexei Leonov, Bill Anders, Kip Thorne, Lord Martin Rees, Chris Hadfield, Rusty Schweickart, and Brian Cox.

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 – June 29

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

June 29, 2020
Day 181 of 366

June 29th is the 181st day of the year. It is Engineer’s Day in Ecuador and Veterans’ Day in the Netherlands.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Camera Day, National Waffle Iron Day, and National Almond Buttercrunch Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1613, the Globe Theatre in London burned to the ground. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued on September 6, 1642. A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet from the site of the original.
In 1786, Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders left Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.
In 1888, George Edward Gouraud recorded Handel’s Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.
In 1889, Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships voted to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time.
In 1919, actor and rodeo performer Slim Pickens was born.
In 1920, animator and producer Ray Harryhausen was born.
In 1927, the Bird of Paradise, a United States Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.
In 1940, in the Batman comic series, mobsters murdered a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons. The lone survivor, an orphan named Dick Grayson, would later become Batman’s sidekick Robin.
In 1956, the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed by United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
In 1961, actress, singer, and dancer Sharon Lawrence was born.
In 1964, the first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage”, premiered.
In 1968, actress and educator Judith Hoag was born.
In 1974, Vice President Isabel Perón assumed powers and duties as Acting President of Argentina, while her husband President Juan Perón was terminally ill.
Also in 1974, Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
In 1995, Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Russian space station Mir during Mission STS-71, marking the first time the docking was completed.
In 2001, A.I. Artificial Intelligence was released.
In 2006, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated American and international law.
In 2007, Apple Inc. released its first mobile phone, the iPhone.

In 1975, Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.

The Apple I was Apple’s first product, and to finance its creation, Steve Jobs sold his only motorized means of transportation, a VW Microbus, for a few hundred dollars, and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500.

It was initially released on April 11, 1976, for an introductory price of $666.66. It was discontinued on September 30, 1977, after the June 10, 1977 introduction of its successor, the Apple II. The Apple I’s built-in computer terminal circuitry was distinctive, and all that was needed was a keyboard and a television set. Competing machines such as the Altair 8800 generally were programmed with front-mounted toggle switches and used indicator lights for output, and had to be extended with separate hardware to allow connection to a computer terminal or a teletypewriter machine.

The computer housed a 1 MHz processor with 4 kilobytes of onboard memory. The memory could be expanded to 8 kilobytes, or up to 48 kilobytes with expansion cards. The computer is now a collectors’ item, with sixty-three in confirmed existence and only six verified to be in working order. The machines have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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 – June 28

June 28, 2020June 26, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 28, 2020
Day 180 of 366

June 28th is the 180th day of the year. Today marks the fifty-first anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising or the Stonewall rebellion, were a series of spontaneous and violent demonstrations by members of the LGBT community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. The LGBT community faced a severely oppressive legal system in that era, and police raids on gay bars were routine and often very aggressive. The raid at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City was no exception. Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later.

Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gay men and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested. Within six months, two gay activist organizations were formed in New York, concentrating on confrontational tactics, and three newspapers were established to promote rights for gay men and lesbians. A year after the uprising, to mark the anniversary on June 28, 1970, the first gay pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the U.S. and the world. The Stonewall National Monument was established at the site in 2016.

The riots are widely considered to be one of the most important events leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. While we have a long, long way to go in this country toward acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community, Stonewall marked the start of the Gay Rights Movement.

Never forget that the first Pride march was a demonstration against injustice and police brutality.

June 28th is also Tau Day in certain circles. If you recall, Pi Day is March 14th (3/14, since π is approximately 3.14), so Tau Day is June 28th (6/28, since τ=2π).

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Logistics Day, National Paul Bunyan Day, National Insurance Awareness Day, and National Alaska Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1776, the Battle of Sullivan’s Island ended with an American victory, leading to the commemoration of Carolina Day.
In 1838, the Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom took place.
In 1841, the Paris Opera Ballet premiered Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier.
In 1846, Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone.
In 1894, Labor Day became an official United States holiday. It is celebrated on the first Monday of September, so chosen since the date lies midway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
In 1922, voice actor Erik Bauersfeld was born. In Return of the Jedi, he said one of the most famous lines in Star Wars history: “It’s a trap!”
In 1926, Mercedes-Benz was formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
Also in 1926, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Mel Brooks was born.
n 1932, actor Pat Morita was born.
In 1948, actress Kathy Bates was born.
In 1951, actress and author Lalla Ward was born. She portrayed the second Romana on Doctor Who.
In 1954, actress Alice Krige was born.
In 1964, Malcolm X formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
In 1966, actress Mary Stuart Masterson was born.

June 28th is Poznań Remembrance Day in Poland, a commemoration of the Poznań protests of 1956. These were the first of several massive protests against the communist government of the Polish People’s Republic. Demonstrations by workers demanding better working conditions at Poznań’s Cegielski Factories were met with violent repression. Approximately 100,000 people gathered in the city center and were met by about 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the Polish People’s Army and the Internal Security Corps under the command of the Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky. They suppressed the demonstrations by firing on the protesting civilians, resulting in over a hundred deaths including a 13-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski.

June 28th is also Vidovdan – Видовдан, also known as St. Vitus Day – a Serbian national and religious holiday used by the Serbian Orthodox Church to venerate St. Vitus, the patron saint of the Kindom of Serbia. It serves as a memorial day to Saint Prince Lazar and the Serbian holy martyrs who fell during the Battle of Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire on June 15, 1389 on the Julian calendar, and is an important part of Serb ethnic and Serbian national identity.

The day is part of the Kosovo Myth, a traditional belief that the Battle of Kosovo symbolizes a martyrdom of the Serbian nation in defense of their honor and Christendom against the Turks. The essence of the myth is that during the battle, Serbs, headed by Prince Lazar, lost because they consciously sacrificed the earthly kingdom of the Serbian Empire in order to gain the Kingdom of Heaven.

Vidovdan is so important to the national identity that several landmark events have taken place on the date or are credited by the Serbian people to the Kosovo Myth.

In 1389, the Ottoman army fought the Serbian army in the Battle of Kosovo on the Kosovo field. Both Sultan Murad and Prince Lazar were slain in battle.
In 1876, the Serbian government declared war against the Ottoman Empire, sparking the Serbian-Ottoman War that spanned 1876 to 1878.
In 1914, Austro-Hungarian crown prince Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, an event that triggered the First World War. It was a coincidence that the archduke visited Sarajevo on that day, but the assassination falling on Vidovdan added nationalist symbolism to the event.
In 1916, Radomir Vešović and other notable Montenegrin officers planned an uprising in Montenegro against the Austro-Hungarian occupying forces.
In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I.
In 1921, Serbian King Alexander I proclaimed the new Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution (Vidovdanski ustav).
In 1948, the Cominform – the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, which was the official central organization of the International Communist Movement from 1947 to 1956 – published in a “Resolution on the State of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia” their condemnation of the Yugoslavian communist leaders. This date was chosen carefully by Soviet leaders and delegates Zhdanov, Malenkov, and Suslov, and is seen as the turning point that marks the final split between Stalin’s Soviet Union and Tito’s Yugoslavia.
In 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo, Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević delivered the Gazimestan speech on the site of the historic battle.
In 1990, an amendment was brought to the Constitution of Croatia that changed the status of Serbs from constituent people (konstitutivni narod) of the Croatian nation to national minority.
In 2001, Slobodan Milošević was deported to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to stand trial for war crimes in connection to the wars in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo.
In 2006, Montenegro was announced as the 192nd member state of the United Nations.
In 2008, the inaugural meeting of the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija took place.
In 2018, the formal reopening of the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade took place after 15 years of renovation.

The veneration of St. Vitus is so popular that his name (Sveti Vid) may have also replaced the old cult of the god of light Svetovid, a Slavic deity of war, fertility, and abundance primarily venerated on the island of Rügen into the 12th century.

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 – June 27

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

June 27, 2020
Day 179 of 366

June 27th is the 179th day of the year. It is National PTSD Day in the United States, which is dedicated to raising awareness regarding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The day was officially designated in 2010, but the United States Senate expanded the observance to the entire month of June in 2014, creating PTSD Awareness Month.

It is also National HIV Testing Day in the United States. If you’re at risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, please get tested.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Onion Day, National Ice Cream Cake Day, National Sunglasses Day, National Orange Blossom Day, and Summersgiving (which is typically observed on the Saturday after the Summer Solstice).

Historical items of note:

In 1760, Cherokee warriors defeated British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present-day Otto, North Carolina. This was during the Anglo-Cherokee War.
In 1880, author, academic, and activist Helen Keller was born.
In 1895, the inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue was conducted from Washington, D.C., to New York City. It was the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
In 1898, the first solo circumnavigation of the globe was completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
In 1941, Romanian authorities launched one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iași, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.
In 1950, the United States decided to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
In 1954, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the Soviet Union’s first nuclear power station, opened in Obninsk, near Moscow.
In 1966, director, producer, and screenwriter J.J. Abrams was born. (Brilliant idea man, but he loves the “mystery box” to a fault and really has trouble sticking the landing.)
Also in 1966, the American Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows premiered.
In 1975, actor Tobey Maguire was born.
In 1982, Space Shuttle Columbia was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-4, the final research and development flight mission.
In 1989, actor Matthew Lewis was born. Was Neville Longbottom really the Chosen One?
In 1999, actor Chandler Riggs was born. We all know him best as Carl (or Corrrrrrral) from The Walking Dead.

June 27th is Seven Sleepers’ Day – Siebenschläfertag in German – the feast day commemorating the legend of the Seven Sleepers as well as one of the best-known bits of traditional weather lore (expressed as a proverb) remaining in German-speaking Europe.

Basically, the atmospheric conditions on that day are supposed to determine or predict the average summer weather of the next seven weeks.

In Christian and Islamic tradition, the Seven Sleepers – اصحاب الکهف‎, literally People of the Cave – is the story of a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus around 250 CE to escape religious persecution and emerged some 300 years later.

The earliest version of this story comes from the Syrian bishop Jacob of Serugh around 500 AD, which was derived from an earlier (now lost) Greek source. It was later popularized by Gregory of Tours and in Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards. The best-known Western version of the story appears in Jacobus da Varagine’s Golden Legend, circa 1260.

The cult became common during the Crusades of the High and Late Middle Ages, and June 27th was declared a commemoration day in most of the Catholic dioceses. The story appears in the Qur’an (Surah al-Kahf 18:9-26), including more details such as the mention of a dog who accompanied the youths into the cave and appears to keep watch. The Quran version mentions that these people slept for approximately 300 years.

Oh, and contrary to popular belief, the name of the day does not refer to the edible dormouse, a rodent known as Siebenschläfer in German for its seven-months hibernation.

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 – June 26

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

June 26, 2020
Day 178 of 366

June 26th is the 178th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Madagascar and Somalia, both of whom declared their independence in 1960 (from France and Britain, respectively).

It is also World Refrigeration Day, which is designed to awareness about the importance of refrigeration technologies in everyday life and to raise the profile of the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump sector. The day was chosen to celebrate the birth date of Lord Kelvin on June 26, 1824

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Coconut Day, National Beautician’s Day, National Chocolate Pudding Day, and Take Your Dog to Work Day (which is typically observed on the friday after Father’s Day).

Historical items of note:

In 1824, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was born. At the University of Glasgow, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. The absolute temperature scale is named in his honor.
In 1870, the Christian holiday of Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States. The holiday was not always widely accepted in the colonies, but gradually gained acceptance through the short stories of Washington Irving. In December 1999, the Western Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, in the case Ganulin vs. United States, denied the charge that Christmas Day’s federal status violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, ruling that “the Christmas holiday has become largely secularized”, and that “by giving federal employees a paid vacation day on Christmas, the government is doing no more than recognizing the cultural significance of the holiday”.
In 1886, Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.
In 1934, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act, which established credit unions.
In 1936, the initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 marked the debut of the practical helicopter.
In 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.
In 1948, Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery was published in The New Yorker magazine.
In 1970, director, producer, and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson was born.
Also in 1970, actor Chris O’Donnell was born.
In 1974, the Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
In 1993, singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress Ariana Grande was born.
In 2000, the Human Genome Project announced the completion of a “rough draft” sequence.
In 2003, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws were unconstitutional.
In 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision (United States v. Windsor) that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
In 2015, The United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5–4 decision (Obergefell v. Hodges) that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.

—Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy

June 26th is International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, a United Nations International Day against drug abuse and the illegal drug trade. The date is to commemorate Lin Zexu’s dismantling of the opium trade in Humen, Guangdong just before the First Opium War in China.

June 26th is also the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, a day to speak out against the crime of torture and to honor and support victims and survivors throughout the world.

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 – June 25

June 25, 2020June 24, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 25, 2020
Day 177 of 366

June 25th is the 177th day of the year. It is Teacher’s Day in Guatemala, Arbor Day in the Philippines, and Independence Day in Mozambique.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Strawberry Parfait Day, National Catfish Day, National Leon Day, National Bomb Pop Day, and National Handshake Day. The last two are typically observed on the last Thursday in June.

Historical items of note:

In 1848, a photograph of the June Days uprising, a revolt staged by underpaid French workers, became the first known instance of photojournalism.
In 1876, the Battle of the Little Bighorn occurred. Known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand, it was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876 and resulted in the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer when the American forces were defeated.
In 1900, Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovered the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
In 1903, British novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell was born.
In 1910, the United States Congress passed the Mann Act, which prohibited interstate transport of women or girls for “immoral purposes”. Its primary stated intent was to address prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking, particularly where trafficking was for the purposes of prostitution. It was one of several acts of protective legislation aimed at moral reform during the Progressive Era. In practice, its ambiguous language about “immorality” resulted in it being used to criminalize even consensual sexual behavior between adults. It was amended by Congress in 1978 and again in 1986 to limit its application to transport for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sexual acts.
Also in 1910, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird premiered in Paris. The performance brought him to prominence as a composer.
In 1913, American Civil War veterans arrived at the Great Reunion of 1913, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. All honorably discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited. 53,407 veterans attended, including approximately 8,750 Confederate soldiers. President Woodrow Wilson summarized the peaceful spirit of the reunion: “We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor.”
In 1923, Captain Lowell H. Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first-ever aerial refueling in a DH.4B biplane.
In 1925, actress June Lockhart was born.
In 1945, singer-songwriter Carly Simon was born.
In 1947, The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) was published.
In 1950, the Korean War began with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.
In 1976, Missouri Governor Kit Bond issued an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, formally apologizing on behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Missouri Executive Order 44 was issued on October 27, 1838, by Governor Lilburn Boggs in the aftermath of the Battle of Crooked River. The battle took place between Mormons and a unit of the Missouri State Militia in northern Ray County, Missouri, during the 1838 Mormon War, the first of the three Mormon Wars. Governor Boggs, claiming that the Mormons had committed open and avowed defiance of the law and had made war upon the people of Missouri, directed that “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description”.
In 1978, the rainbow flag representing gay pride was flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.
In 1982, Blade Runner was released.
In 1996, Independence Day premiered.
In 1997, an unmanned Progress spacecraft collided with the Russian space station Mir.

June 25th is World Vitiligo Day.

Vitiligo occurs in one to two percent of the population worldwide. It is a loss of color in the skin creating a variety of patterns on the skin from loss of pigment. Vitiligo is often called a disease instead of a disorder and that can have a significant negative social and/or psychological impact on patients, in part because of numerous misconceptions still present in large parts of the world.

The idea of a World Vitiligo Day was first nursed by Steve Haragadon, the founder of the Vitiligo Friends network, and then developed and finalized by Ogo Maduewesi, a Nigerian vitiligo patient who is the founder and Executive Director of the Vitiligo Support and Awareness Foundation (VITSAF).

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.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: