The Thing About Today – May 25

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

May 25, 2020
Day 146 of 366

May 25th is the 146th day of the year. It is Memorial Day in the United States, a day for honoring and mourning the military personnel who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The day is typically observed on the last Monday in May.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Missing Children’s Day, National Tap Dance Day, National Brown-Bag It Day, and National Wine Day.

Historical items of note:

In 240 BC, the first perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet was recorded.
In 1787, after a delay of 11 days, the United States Constitutional Convention formally convened in Philadelphia after a quorum of seven states was secured.
In 1803, poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson was born.
In 1878, Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened at the Opera Comique in London.
In 1889, Russian-American aircraft designer, and founder of Sikorsky Aircraft, Igor Sikorsky was born.
In 1895, playwright, poet, novelist, and aesthete Oscar Wilde was convicted of “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons” and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
In 1925, John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in Tennessee. This led to the famous Scopes Trial.
In 1927, soldier and author Robert Ludlum was born. One of his best-known characters is Jason Bourne.
In 1931, director and producer Irwin Winkler was born.
In 1939, actor Ian McKellen was born.
Also in 1939, actress Dixie Carter was born.
In 1944, puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor Frank Oz was born.
In 1951. director, producer, and screenwriter Bob Gale was born.
In 1953, the United States conducted its first and only nuclear artillery test. The test was conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy announced, before a special joint session of Congress, his goal to initiate a project to put a “man on the Moon” before the end of the decade. The Apollo project would succeed at his vision eight years later.
In 1969, actress Anne Heche was born.
In 1972, actress and author Octavia Spencer was born.
In 1976, actor Cillian Murphy was born.
In 1977, Star Wars was released to theaters, changing the science fiction landscape forever. It would later be renamed as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope as the franchise grew and thrived.
In 1979, Alien was released.
In 1983, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi was released.
In 2008, NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed in the Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.
In 2011, Oprah Winfrey aired her last show, ending her twenty-five-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In 2012, the SpaceX Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with the International Space Station.
In 2017, Wonder Woman premiered, becoming the first superhero film directed by a woman.

May 25th is Geek Pride Day and Towel Day.

Towel Day is a tribute to author Douglas Adams, created by his fans. To celebrate, fans openly carry a towel with them, as described in Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to demonstrate their appreciation for the books and the author.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

The commemoration was first held on May 25, 2001, two weeks after Adams’ death on May 11th.

Geek Pride Day is designed to promote geek culture. Similar events have been celebrated since 1998, but the first official celebration was in 2008, and was heralded by numerous bloggers and the launch of the official website.

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 – May 24

May 24, 2020May 23, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 24, 2020
Day 145 of 366

May 24th is the 145th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Eritrea, commemorating their independence from Ethiopia in 1993.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Yucatan Shrimp Day, National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, Brother’s Day, National Scavenger Hunt Day, National Escargot Day, and National Wyoming Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1819, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom was born.
In 1830, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale was published.
In 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message “What hath God wrought” – a biblical quotation from Numbers 23:23 – from a committee room in the United States Capitol. The message was received by his assistant Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, and it inaugurated a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to traffic in New York City after 14 years of construction.
In 1925, illustrator and educator Carmine Infantino was born.
In 1930, Amy Johnson landed in Darwin, Northern Territory after an 11,000-mile flight that began on May 5th. This made her the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.
In 1940, Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
In 1941, singer-songwriter, guitarist, artist, writer, producer, and Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan was born.
In 1943, actor Gary Burghoff was born.
In 1944, singer-songwriter and actress Patti LaBelle was born.
In 1949, actor Jim Broadbent was born.
Also in 1949, cinematographer Roger Deakins was born.
In 1953, actor Alfred Molina was born.
In 1958, United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
In 1960, English actress Kristin Scott Thomas was born.
In 1962, American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
In 1965, actor John C. Reilly was born.
In 1972, director, producer, and screenwriter Greg Berlanti was born.
In 1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was released.
In 1999, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicted Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

May 24th is Bermuda Day.

The public holiday is celebrated in the islands of Bermuda and is typically observed on the last Friday in May. Before a permanent move in 2018, the date was May 24th or the nearest Monday if the 24th was on a weekend.

Bermuda Day is traditionally the first day of the year that residents will go into the sea or go onto the water after winter. It is also traditionally the first day on which Bermuda shorts are worn as business attire. To celebrate the holiday, there is a parade in Hamilton, Bermuda, and a road race from the west end of the island into Hamilton. Celebratory events are popular with spectators, and residents are known to stake out particular sections of the pavements to enable them to watch the runners and the floats.

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 – May 23

May 23, 2020May 22, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 23, 2020
Day 144 of 366

May 23rd is the 144th day of the year. It is Constitution Day in Germany. Their constitution is called The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and was approved on May 8, 1949 in Bonn. With the signature of the occupying western Allies of World War II on May 12th, it came into effect on May 23, 1949.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Lucky Penny Day and National Taffy Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne. She was later handed over to the English and put on trial by pro-English bishop Pierre Cauchon, who declared her guilty and sentenced her to be burned at the stake at the end of May in 1431.
In 1701, Captain William Kidd was hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore.
In 1883, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Douglas Fairbanks was born.
In 1908, physicist, engineer, and Nobel Prize laureate John Bardeen was born.
In 1911, the New York Public Library was dedicated.
In 1928, actress and singer Rosemary Clooney was born.
In 1933, actress Joan Collins was born.
In 1934, the infamous American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
In 1958, actor, game show host, and entrepreneur Drew Carey was born.
In 1965, actress Melissa McBride was born.
In 1974, singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet Jewel was born.
In 1984, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released.
In 1995, the first version of the Java programming language was released.

May 23rd is World Turtle Day.

The event has been sponsored yearly since 2000 by the American Tortoise Rescue. Its purpose is to bring attention to, increase knowledge of, and develop respect for turtles and tortoises. It also encourages human action to help them survive and thrive.

World Turtle Day is celebrated around the world in a variety of ways, from dressing up as turtles or wearing green summer dresses, to saving turtles caught on highways and conducting research activities.

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 – May 22

May 22, 2020May 21, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 22, 2020
Day 143 of 366

May 22nd is the 143rd day of the year. It is World Goth Day, a day where “the goth scene gets to celebrate its own being, and an opportunity to make its presence known to the rest of the world.” World Goth Day celebrates the subcultural aspects of the Goth subculture. Aspects of the culture like fashion, music, and art are celebrated by fashion shows, art exhibitions, and music performances.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Craft Distillery Day, World Paloma Day, National Solitaire Day, National Buy a Musical Instrument Day, National Vanilla Pudding Day, National Don’t Fry Day, National Road Trip Day, and National Cooler Day. The last three are typically observed on the Friday before Memorial Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1455, the War of the Roses began. At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeated and captured King Henry VI of England.
In 1813, controversial German composer Richard Wagner was born.
In 1840, the penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.
In 1848, slavery was abolished in Martinique.
In 1849, future United States President Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only United States President to ever hold a patent.
In 1900, the Associated Press was formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative.
In 1906, the Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.
In 1907, English actor, director, and producer Sir Laurence Olivier was born.
In 1939, actor Paul Winfield was born.
In 1968, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) sank 400 miles southwest of the Azores with 99 men aboard. She is one of only two nuclear submarines that the United States Navy has lost – the other being the USS Thresher (SSN-593) – and the reason for the loss is unknown.
In 1974, actor Sean Gunn was born.
In 1978, actress Ginnifer Goodwin was born.
In 1979, actress Maggie Q was born.

In 1819, SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia, United States. After this voyage, it became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The Savannah was a hybrid sailing ship and sidewheel steamer built in 1818. Her transatlantic transit was made mainly under sail power, but in spite of this historic voyage, the large amount of space taken up by her large engine and fuel supply cut into cargo space and kept the ship from being a commercial success as a steamship. This was compounded by public anxiety over steam power.

Savannah was wrecked off Long Island, New York in 1821.

To commemorate the monumental transatlantic transit, National Maritime Day was created to recognize the maritime industry.

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 – May 21

May 21, 2020May 20, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

May 21, 2020
Day 142 of 366

May 21st is the 142nd day of the year. It is the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, a United Nations-sanctioned international holiday for the promotion of diversity issues.

May 21st is also National American Red Cross Founder’s Day.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Waitstaff Day, National Strawberries and Cream Day, and National Memo Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1703, Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel. He was the author of Robinson Crusoe.
In 1780, English prison reformer, philanthropist, and Quaker Elizabeth Fry was born.
In 1843, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate Louis Renault was born.
In 1844, French painter Henri Rousseau was born.
In 1851, slavery in Colombia was abolished.
In 1860, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate Willem Einthoven was born.
In 1864, Russia declared an end to the Russo-Circassian War. Many Circassians were forced into exile, eventually leading to the designation of the Circassian Day of Mourning.
In 1881, the American Red Cross was established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
In 1904, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris.
In 1917, the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 burned for 10 hours. It caused $5.5 million in damages and destroyed around 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches. About 10,000 people were displaced, but only one fatality was recorded. The fatality was due to heart attack.
Also in 1917, actor and director Raymond Burr was born.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris after completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1939, the Canadian National War Memorial was unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
In 1945, actor, writer, and producer Richard Hatch was born.
In 1946, physicist Louis Slotin was fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In 1952, actor and wrestler Mr. T was born.
In 1980, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back was released.
In 1981, Transamerica Corporation agreed to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven’s Gate.
In 1999, All My Children star Susan Lucci finally won a Daytime Emmy after being nominated 19 times. She set the record for the longest period of unsuccessful nominations in television history.
In 2017, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

May 21st is the Circassian Day of Mourning.

The Circassians call the North Caucasus home, stretching from along the high peaks of the Caucasian mountain range at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, bounded by Russia from the north and the Middle East from the south.

In its narrowest sense, the term “Circassian” includes the twelve historic Adyghe princedoms of Circassia, three of which are democratic and nine which are aristocratic – Abdzakh, Besleney, Bzhedug, Hatuqwai, Kabardian, Mamkhegh, Natukhai, Shapsug, Temirgoy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai and Zhaney – each represented by a star on the Circassian flag.

Most Circassians are Sunni Muslims, and speak the Circassian languages, which are a Northwest Caucasian dialect continuum with three main dialects and numerous sub-dialects. Many Circassians also speak Turkish, Russian, English, Arabic, and Hebrew due to their history.

From 1763 to 1864, the Circassians fought against the Russians in the Russian-Circassian War. They succumbed to a scorched earth campaign led by General Yevdokimov. On June 2, 1864 (May 21, on the Julian calendar), Russian Tsar Aleksandr II declared that the war over after the occupation of Circassian land, and he approved a decision to deport and exile the entire Circassian people for both their refusal to convert to Christianity from Islam and their continuous raids on Russian villages.

More than 1.5 million Circassians were expelled, which comprised nearly ninety percent of the total population, and most of them perished from disease, hunger, and exhaustion. They traveled around the world in search of a new home on foot and by ox cart, some roaming for over twenty-five years.

In 1914, Nicholas II celebrated the 50th anniversary of the event as one of the empire’s greatest victories. Joseph Stalin had continued their oppression with a classic divide-and-rule policy, subdividing the remaining Circassians into several smaller groups, including the Adyghe, the Cherkess, the Kabardin, the Shapsugs, and several others.

Today, between two and four million Circassians live outside their homeland in over 40 countries worldwide. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin acknowledged while signing a peace treaty with Chechnya that the war had lasted 400 years and was a tragedy.

In 1990, the Circassians designated the 21st of May as day of mourning on which they commemorate the tragedy of the Circassian nation.

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 – May 20

May 20, 2020May 19, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 20, 2020
Day 141 of 366

May 20th is the 141st day of the year. It is European Maritime Day, an event that seeks to raise European citizens’ awareness of the seas and their importance. It was established jointly by the European Council, European Parliament, and European Commission in 2008 as part of the EU maritime policy.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Be a Millionaire Day, National Pick Strawberries Day, National Rescue Dog Day, National Quiche Lorraine Day, Emergency Medical Services for Children Day (typically observed on the Wednesday of Emergency Medical Service Week), and National Juice Slush Day (typically the third Wednesday in May).

Historical items of note:

In 1570, cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. It was the first modern atlas.
In 1609, Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published in London (perhaps illicitly) by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a United States patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
In 1883, Krakatoa began to erupt. More than 36,000 people were killed when the volcano exploded three months later.
In 1891, Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope was first publicly displayed.
In 1908, actor James Stewart was born.
In 1911, author and DC Comics alum Gardner Fox was born.
In 1932, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to begin the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot. She landed in Ireland the next day.
In 1936, actor Anthony Zerbe was born.
In 1946, singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Cher was born.
In 1959, actor Bronson Pinchot was born.
In 1960, actor John Billingsley was born.
In 1964, cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.
In 1968, actor and producer Timothy Olyphant was born.
In 1983, the first publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS were made in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.
In 1996, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

In 1875, the Metre Convention was signed by 17 nations, leading to the establishment of the International System of Units (SI).

The SI (abbreviated from French: Système international (d’unités)) is the modern form of the metric system. It is a coherent system of measurement starting with seven base units:

the second (the unit of time with the symbol s)
the metre/meter (length, m)
the kilogram (mass, kg)
the ampere (electric current, A)
the kelvin (thermodynamic temperature, K)
the mole (amount of substance, mol)
the candela (luminous intensity, cd)

The system allows for an unlimited number of additional units, called derived units, which can always be represented as products of powers of the base units. There are twenty-two derived units that have special names and symbols, including hertz, joule, watt, ohm, volt, and so on. Both the base and derived units can use prefixes (such as kilo, mega, and centi) to measure nearly any quantity.

Prior to 2019, the base units were defined by simple readily observable terms. For instance, a kilogram was defined as, “The mass of one litre of water at the temperature of melting ice. A litre is one thousandth of a cubic metre.” Unfortunately, these measurements were also imprecise and subjective.

Since 2019, the magnitudes of all SI units have been defined by declaring exact numerical values for seven defining constants when expressed in terms of their SI units.

The speed of light in vacuum, $c$
The hyperfine transition frequency of caesium, $Δ ν$ _Cs
The Planck constant, $h$
The elementary charge, $e$
The Boltzmann constant, $k$
The Avogadro constant, $N$ _A
The luminous efficacy, $K$ _cd

These defining constants range from fundamental constants of nature (the speed of light in a vacuum) to the purely technical ( $K$ _cd). One consequence of the 2019 redefinition is that the distinction between the base units and derived units is in principle not needed since any unit can be constructed directly from the seven defining constants.

All of the technical jargon aside, this all makes the International System of Units incredibly precise and exacting.

In celebration of the anniversary of the International System of Units, World Metrology Day is celebrated annually on May 20th.

In 1734, the pioneer of beekeeping Anton Janša was born. In honor of his birth and to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem, World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20th.

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 – May 19

May 19, 2020May 18, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 19, 2020
Day 140 of 366

May 19th is the 140th day of the year. It is National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the United States.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National May Ray Day and National Devil’s Food Cake Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1848, Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This ended the Mexican-American War and ceded California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million.
In 1911, Parks Canada, the world’s first national park service, was established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.
In 1934, journalist and author Jim Lehrer was born.
In 1939, astronaut Dick Scobee was born.
In 1941, director, producer, and screenwriter Nora Ephron was born.
In 1944, actor Peter Mayhew was born.
In 1946, wrestler and actor André the Giant was born.
In 1948, singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Grace Jones was born.
In 1962, a birthday salute to United States President John F. Kennedy took place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight was Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of “Happy Birthday”.
In 1963, the New York Post Sunday Magazine published Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
In 1966, actress Polly Walker was born.
In 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace premiered.

In 1925, American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X was born.

A popular figure during the civil rights movement, he is best known for his staunch and controversial black racial advocacy and for his time spent as the vocal spokesperson of the Nation of Islam. He joined the Nation of Islam while in prison for crimes he committed in his teenage years. He adopted the name Malcolm X and quickly became one of the organization’s most influential leaders after being paroled in 1952. He served as the public face of the organization for a dozen years, advocating for black supremacy, black empowerment, and the separation of black and white Americans. He publicly criticized the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on nonviolence and racial integration.

He also found himself under federal surveillance due to the Nation of Islam’s supposed connections to communism.

In the 1960s, Malcolm X grew disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leadership. He subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing the Hajj to Mecca, adopting the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He traveled across Africa and publicly renounced the Nation of Islam, afterward founding the Islamic Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Pan-African Organization of Afro-American Unity.

As his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, he started receiving death threats before being assassinated on February 21, 1965. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences.

Despite being a controversial figure, Malcolm X is a widely celebrated figure within African-American and Muslim American communities for his pursuit of racial justice. He was posthumously honored with Malcolm X Day, which is celebrated on either his birthday or the third Friday in May. The event commemorates him in various countries worldwide.

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 – May 18

May 18, 2020May 17, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 18, 2020
Day 139 of 366

May 18th is the 139th day of the year. It is World AIDS Vaccine Day, also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, during which advocates promote the continued urgent need for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Visit Your Relatives Day, National No Dirty Dishes Day, and National Cheese Soufflé Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1291, the Fall of Acre marked the end of Crusader presence in the Holy Land.
In 1652, Rhode Island passed the first law in English-speaking North America. It was to make slavery illegal.
In 1872, British mathematician, historian, philosopher, and Nobel Prize laureate Bertrand Russell was born.
In 1897, director Frank Capra was born.
In 1917, the Selective Service Act of 1917 was passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
In 1927, Grauman’s Chinese Theater opened in Hollywood, California.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In 1946, actor Andreas Katsulas was born.
In 1953, Jackie Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier.
In 1955, Hong Kong actor and screenwriter Chow Yun-fat was born.
In 1965, Gene Roddenberry suggested 16 names for the captain on Star Trek. Among them was the name Kirk.
In 1969, Apollo 10 was launched on a “dress rehearsal” of the first Moon landing with astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, and Eugene A. Cernan aboard.
In 1970, actress, producer, and screenwriter Tina Fey was born.
In 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in the State of Washington, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
In 2005, a second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.

May 18th is International Museum Day, an event coordinated by the International Council of Museums that highlights specific themes to reflect the basis of the international museum community’s preoccupations.

The day provides the opportunity for museum professionals to meet the public and address challenges in the community. It serves as a platform to raise public awareness on the role museums play in the development of society today, on an international level.

Each year, all museums in the world are invited to participate in the event to promote the role of museums around the world, thus creating unique, enjoyable, and free activities around an annual theme.

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 – May 17

May 17, 2020May 16, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 17, 2020
Day 138 of 366

May 17th is the 138th day of the year. It is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, which aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBT rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBT rights work worldwide. It’s also the National Day Against Homophobia in Canada.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Pack Rat Day, National Cherry Cobbler Day, National Graduation Tassel Day, National Walnut Day, National Idaho Day, and Take Your Parents To The Playground Day (which is typically observed on the third Sunday in May).

Historical items of note:

In 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.
In 1875, Aristides won the first Kentucky Derby.
In 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum was first published in the United States. The first copy was given to the author’s sister.
In 1936, actor and director Dennis Hopper was born.
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the landmark decision U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools were ruled unconstitutional.
In 1955, actor and director Bill Paxton was born.
In 1961, Irish singer-songwriter and producer Enya was born.
In 1962, Scottish-American comedian, actor, and talk show host Craig Ferguson was born.
In 1969, actress Paige Turco was born.
In 1973, televised hearings began in the United States Senate for the Watergate scandal.
In 1977, Nolan Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese’s in San Jose, California.
In 1983, The United States Department of Energy declassified documents showing the world’s largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There was ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds of mercury contamination, and the discovery was in response to the Appalachian Observer’s Freedom of Information Act request.
In 1990, the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminated homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
In 2004, the first legal same-sex marriages in the United States were performed in the state of Massachusetts.

In 1865, the International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union, both known as the ITU) was established in Paris.

The oldest global international organization, the ITU is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. The ITU coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.

The organization is also active in the areas of broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks.

World Telecommunication Day, later replaced by World Information Society Day, is observed on May 17th to commemorate the establishment of the ITU. The day also serves to raise global awareness of social changes brought about by the internet and new technologies, as well as helping to reduce the digital divide.

The term digital divide, which was coined and publicized by Larry Irving when he was head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, describes a gap in terms of access to and usage of information and communication technology. Traditionally, it was the question of having or not having access, but the penetration of mobile phones in the global market has changed that a measure of relative inequality with respect to bandwidth.

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 – May 16

May 16, 2020May 15, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

May 16, 2020
Day 137 of 366

May 16th is the 137th day of the year. It is Honor Our LGBT Elders Day, which recognizes the people in the LGBT community who have blazed the trail for access and social acceptance. The rights and acceptance that LGBTQ individuals have today did not happen in a vacuum or by accident, and the observance is an opportunity for community centers, faith organizations, educational institutions, and aging service providers to recognize the lives of older adults in the community and honor their contributions to history.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Barbecue Day, National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day, National Love a Tree Day, National Mimosa Day, National Piercing Day, National Sea Monkey Day, National Biographer’s Day, National Coquilles Saint Jacques Day National Armed Forces Day, and National Learn to Swim Day. The last two are typically observed on the third Saturday in May.

Historical items of note:

In 1771, the Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The “Regulators”, occurred in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
In 1804, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was born. She was an American educator who founded the first kindergarten in the United States.
In 1831, David Edward Hughes was born. He was a Welsh-American physicist and co-inventor of the microphone.
In 1842, the first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.
In 1866, the United States Congress established the nickel.
In 1868, the United States Senate failed to convict impeached President Andrew Johnson by one vote.
In 1888, Nikola Tesla delivered a lecture describing the equipment which would allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.
In 1891, the International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany. It featured the world’s first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current, which is the most common form of electrical power today.
In 1905, actor Henry Fonda was born.
In 1918, the Sedition Act of 1918 was passed by the United States Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It would be repealed less than two years later.
In 1919, pianist and 1960s Batvillain Liberace was born.
In 1929, the first Academy Awards ceremony took place in Hollywood, California.
In 1937, ballet dancer and actress Yvonne Craig was born.
In 1947, actor Bill Smitrovich was born.
In 1953, actor and producer Pierce Brosnan was born.
In 1955, actress Debra Winger was born.
In 1960, Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser. It was a ruby laser located at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
In 1969, Soviet space probe Venera 5 landed on Venus.
Also in 1969, actor David Boreanaz was born.
In 2002, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones premiered.
In 2005, Kuwait permitted women’s suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.
In 2011, Mission STS-134 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It was ISS assembly flight ULF6, and was the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. While not the first world leader to address Congress, she was the first British monarch to do so.

And now… trivia time!

According to the Office of the Historian at the United States House of Representatives, French general and Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette was the first foreign dignitary to address the House of Representatives, which happened on December 10, 1824.

Non-heads of state have also addressed Joint Meetings of Congress. The first was Polish Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa in 1989. Nelson Mandela, then Deputy President of the African National Congress addressed a Joint Session in 1990. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization addressed a Joint Meeting in 2019, and including Secretary General Stoltenberg, 116 leaders or dignitaries have addressed Joint Meetings of Congress.

Queen Elizabeth’s address made history in another way: She was the first religious leader to address a Joint Meeting of Congress. Remember, the British Monarch is also the head of the Anglican Church. King George VI, the current monarch’s father, attended a reception in the Capitol Rotunda on June 9, 1939, but he did not address the body.

There have been 120 Joint Meeting addresses delivered by foreign leaders and dignitaries, starting with King David Kalākaua of Hawaii in 1874. To that end, eleven monarchs or members of royalty have addressed Joint Meetings.

Twelve women have addressed Joint Meetings of Congress:

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was the first on April 3, 1952.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino
Prime Minister of Pakistan Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto
Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia
Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia
Park Geun Hye, President of the Republic of Korea (8 May 2013).

Addresses to Congress can also be a family affair. Two different families have had multiple generations of descendants do so. From the Netherlands, both Queen Juliana and her daughter Queen Beatrix have addressed Joint Meetings. Queen Wilhelmina, who was Juliana’s mother and Beatrix’s grandmother, would have made three but she only addressed the Senate with the House as an invited guest in 1942. The other family was King Hussein I and King Hussein II.

France, Great Britain, and Israel have the distinction of sending the most leaders or dignitaries to deliver Joint Meeting addresses before Congress, with eight per country. After those three, the countries with the most include Mexico (7), Italy (6), Ireland (6), the Republic of Korea (6), Germany (including West Germany and unified Germany) (5), India (5), Canada (3), Argentina (3), Australia (3), and the Philippines (3).

Finally, Winston Churchill and Binyamin Netanyahu have made more addresses to Congress than any other individuals. Churchill did so three times, as did Netanyahu. Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Yitzak Rabin of Israel have both addressed Joint Meetings of Congress on two occasions.

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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