Stupid American Holidays:
Groundhog's Day: Stolen from the Celtic
Gaelic IMBOLC, which is a celebration with Feasts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc
http://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/imbolclore.htm
In between Winter equinox and Spring solstice.
St. Valentine's Day: Named after a
made-up person. The Catholic Church coopted Roman Holiday Lupercalia
with this day. Lupercalia priests sacrificed dogs and goats (since
they're the “natural enemies” of wolves, who suckled Romulus and
Remus to life), and then they'd dip strip dog/goat skin, and would
run around naked, whipping the women in the town with the blood
soaked dog/goat skin strips, to make them more fertile. Mark Anthony
tried to crown Julius Caesar Emperor during a Lupercalia festival.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia
St. Patrick's Day: [Spring Holiday
Celebration] The Catholic Church coopted Protestant St. Patrick, who
genocided the native Druid Irish (who may have been Black), and
converted them to Christianity. He also killed 2 Princesses, after he
Baptized them. Irish-Americans got it started in America. It's a
Feast day, and there's the copious amounts of the drinking of
alcohol.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Day
Lent is the Weeping of 40 year old
Tammuz, 1 day per year Tammuz was alive.
Easter Sunday: [Spring Holiday
Celebration] The Catholic Church coopted the Springtime Jewish
Passover ritual, and it also has origins from the pagan Roman-Greco
Religion of Ishtar (Semiramis). Ishtar was born out of an egg the
first Sunday after the Spring Vernal Equinox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar
[Ostara/Eostre] Good Friday is the Celebration of Jesus dying (killed
by Jews, not the Roman authorities, or by Pontius Pilate). Egyptian
Ishtar priests would rape the virgins of the land, and then dip eggs
in the blood of the virgins 9 months later on Dec. 25. Bunny rabbit
goes around laying chicken eggs.
4th of July. Independence
from Great Britain is great, and it's common sense, but the
Declaration of Independence was actually passed on July 2, 1776.
Plus, with the govt shutdown over Obamacare, our govt doesn't even
care about our lives, let alone, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness”. Plus every nation on Earth has their own Independence
Day.
Columbus Day: Oct 13. Knights of
Columbus (Catholic) got this day to celebrate a pedophilic genocidal
maniac. 100 million native Americans were wiped out to make room for
the whites. Columbus's men loved 12 year old native Hatian Indian
girls (Arawaks and Taino) the best. After having sex with them,
they'd kill them, and throw them into a heap of dead bodies. Columbus
contributed to the genocide of the entire American continent of
native Americans, and was responsible for ½ million dead himself,
when he ruled over those islands he “discovered”.
Halloween. Oct. 31. The Catholic Church
coopted annual Fall Harvest festival of the Celtic Gaelic celebration
of Samhain with All Saint's Day/All Soul's Day. Mumming and guising
was a part of Samhain from at least the 16th century and was recorded
in parts of Ireland, Scotland, Mann and Wales. It involved people
going from house to house in costume (or in disguise), usually
reciting songs or verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have
been a way of imitating, or disguising oneself from, the aos sí.
Vanilla Ice was born on Halloween. Rob Schneider
too.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
Thanksgiving Day: GangsThieving. John
Mason led his English-speaking Protestants in the genocidal massacre
of 700 Pequot women, children, and old men during the Massacre of
Mystic River, while they were sleeping, who were left unguarded by
their warriors during the Pequot War of 1637. John Winthrop declared
a Day of Thanksgiving the day after. Squanto escaped from John
Smith's men's capture, and enslavement. Pequot and Wampanoags, and
Massachusetts were all dead when Squanto came back. Benjamin Church
murdered King Philip aka Metacomet, the Chief of the Wampanoag, and
put his head on a pike, and put it in the center of the town square
for 20 years.
December 25 Births: Roman Sun God
Saturn; Roman Sun God Sol Invictus [The Unconquerable Sun]; Thor, Son
of Odin; Amun-Ra; Horus; Krishna; Attis of Phrygia; Horus; Mithras,
Zeus; Roman Sun God Apollo, son of Zeus; Bacchus aka Dionysus; Greek
Sun God Helios; Jupiter; Nimrod; Greek God Perseus (beheaded Medusa);
Tammuz [killed by a wild boar, so we eat Ham]; Buddha aka Beddou
(Fot); Hercules aka Heracles; Prometheus, and; Hermes were born, and
therefore, their births were celebrated on December 25, way before
“Jesus Christ” was chosen to be born on that day. Saturnalia was
a giant orgy to end all orgies, including pedophilia, and
homosexuality, as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and Alexander the Great
all engaged in. It was a day of anarchy, and lawlessness and
debauchery. Later on, English had a Christ's Mass during December 25
celebrations, which is where roaming mobs of poor folks would go
around and take over the rich people's houses, and there was 1 person
who was elected King for 12 days, but then he was executed by the
night's end. Christmas was illegal to celebrate until 1840 in
America. Egyptian Ishtar priests would rape the virgins of their
religious cult, and then dip eggs in the blood of the virgins on Dec.
25, they had raped 9 months prior.
Xamolxis of Thrace, Wittoba of the
Bilingonese... born on Dec. 25?
Holidays is “Holy Days”. Sunday is
celebration of Sun god. Saturday is celebration of Saturn god.
Sundays are now Black Sabbath days. Thursday is Thor's Day.
Also, use CE (Common Era) for the
dating system instead of (AD), because it's not accurate (Jesus was
born several years before, if he existed at all), and it's religious.
Proposed New Holidays:
While the French Revolutionaries wanted to change the Gregorian Calendar system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar, with the French Revolution becoming Year Zero (O), and all other dates, before and afterwards, corresponding with this initial day. While the French Revolutionaries failed to change the Gregorian Calendar system in this regard, the French Revolution, however, is the date that separates the Premodern Era from the Modern Era.
The French Revolution's Calendar:
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-french.html.
The French Revolutionary Calendar (or Republican Calendar) was
officially adopted in France on October 24, 1793 and abolished on 1
January 1806 by Emperor Napoleon I. It was used again briefly during
under the Paris Commune in 1871. The French also established a new
clock, in which the day was divided in ten hours of a hundred minutes
of a hundred seconds - exactly 100,000 seconds per day. An
interesting fact, the Eiffel Tower was built in commemoration of the
French Revolution, and was built for the Paris World’s Fair in
1889.
The Gregorian Calendar, unfortunately,
is pretty much well entrenched, and that's a much bigger effort than
what I'm willing to commit. Instead, I propose New Holidays
throughout the year for which Revolutionary Secular Humanists can
celebrate.
Many of the above religious holidays correspond to the changing of the seasons. So the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21-22), Spring Equinox (March 21), Summer Solstice (June 21-22), and Fall Equinox (Sept. 22) are the most important dates in the calendar for secularist. They represent when to hunker down to survive the Winter, when it's going to get colder and when the days are shorter, and when to plant crops, when it's going to get warmer, and the days are longer (in North America).
Many of the above religious holidays correspond to the changing of the seasons. So the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21-22), Spring Equinox (March 21), Summer Solstice (June 21-22), and Fall Equinox (Sept. 22) are the most important dates in the calendar for secularist. They represent when to hunker down to survive the Winter, when it's going to get colder and when the days are shorter, and when to plant crops, when it's going to get warmer, and the days are longer (in North America).
Since US recognized national holidays,
all of those must be accepted, or rejected and replaced with another,
so the revolutionary secular humanist isn't just sitting on their
hands during these times. Federal holidays include: New Year's Day
(Jan. 1). MLK Day (3rd Monday of January). Inauguration
Day (Jan. 20, or 21st if on 20th is on a
Sunday). Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of Feb.). Cesar Chavez Day
(March 31). Memorial Day (Last Monday of May; for Civil War
veterans). Independence Day (July 4). Labor Day (1st
Monday of Sept). Columbus Day (2nd Monday of Oct.).
Veteran's Day (Nov. 11; for end of World War 1). Thanksgiving Day
(4th Thurs. of Nov.). Christmas Day (Dec. 25).
Washington's Birthday, Columbus Day,
Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day all need to be gotten rid or, or
celebrated with different Holidays. Washington was a bloody war
monger, who genocided the Iroquois, killed Shawnee and Miami once he
was President. If Washington hadn't owned slaves, or murdered
natives, we could have had a non-racist country. Instead, he did. So
fuck him. A famous slave, like Frederick Douglass, or a famous Native
American, like Blackfish, Cornstalk, Dragging Canoe, should be
celebrated instead. Or Daniel Shay should be celebrated, as a counter
to Washington, because Shay put his life on the line for the
Revolution, and then his land was being taken from him. The
“Revolution” also forgot Blacks, natives, women, and men who
didn't own land, and everybody under 21, from being citizens. So, it
was more of a counter Revolution, than a true Revolution. Only the
Bill of Rights was good enough. Even the Constitution had a 3/5
clause on it. It's the document we have today, so maybe a
Constitution Day should be had, or maybe, we should just draw up a
new Constitution. Fuck Columbus. Fuck the idea of Thanksgiving, where
we were “nice” to the natives. We should change Thanksgiving to
the national day of mourning, where we share stories about our
favorite native American tribes, and their customs. We educate
ourselves on those who walked on this land 12,000 years before any
white person stepped foot in America. Christmas is ridiculous, since
there was never a person named Jesus Christ who walked on this
planet.
I also propose using some of the dates
used on Neil Tyson's revised Carl Sagan's Calendar: The Cosmic
Calendar is a method to visualize the vast history of the universe in
which its 13.8 billion year lifetime is condensed down into a single
year. In this visualization, the Big Bang took place at the beginning
of January 1 at midnight, and the current moment is mapped onto the
end of December 31 at midnight. At this scale, there are 438 years
per second, 1.58 million years per hour, and 37.8 million years per
day. This concept was popularized by Carl Sagan in his book The
Dragons of Eden and on his television series Cosmos. In the 2014
sequel series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, host Neil deGrasse Tyson
presents the same concept of a Cosmic Calendar, but using the revised
age of the universe of 13.8 billion years as an improvement on
Sagan's 1980 figure of 15 billion years. Sagan goes on to extend the
comparison in terms of surface area, explaining that if the Cosmic
Calendar is scaled to the size of a football field, then "all of
human history would occupy an area the size of [his] hand".
I also peppered the Calendar with
random Science facts and with random Revolutionary figures and dates.
They aren't comprehensive, and should be edited. More significant
events should be put in, and less ones deleted. In due time.
The Revolutionary Secularist Humanist
Calendar
January 1. New Year's Day. (Federal
Holiday). Remembrance of Cuban and Haitian Revolutions, TCP/IP should
be celebrated, and talk about the origins of the entire Universe with
the Big Bang.
January 1. Cuban Revolution Day
(Revolution ends).
January 1. Haiti becomes a Nation, the
only successful slave revolt that became a country (1804).
January 1. Big Bang happens. Within
seconds, a whole galaxy is formed.
January 1, 1983. In 1978, TCP splits
into TCP/IP driven by Danny Cohen, David Reed, and John Shochto
support real-time traffic. This allows the creation of UDP. TCP/IP is
later standardized into ARPANET on January 1, 1983 and is still the
primary protocol used for the Internet.
January 1. Restoration Day of the
Independent Czech State in 1993 after the dissolution of the
Czechoslovakia.
January 8. Stephen Hawking is born
(1942).
January 15-21 (3rd Monday in January).
MLK Day. MLK was born January 15, 1929.
January 16, 1909. Three members of an
Ernest Shackleton expedition to Antarctica – Edgeworth David,
Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay – succeeded in finding the South
Magnetic Pole. The three geologists had arrived at a spot at latitude
72°42′ South the previous day. They calculated they were so close
to the South Magnetic Pole that – within 24 hours – its shift
should cause the pole to come to the spot on which they stood.
Jan. 19. Big Boobs Day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Parton
Jan. 20, or 21. Inauguration Day
(Federal Holiday).
January 21. International Anti-Tyrant
Day. King Louis 16th is beheaded (1793).
January, 23, 1960. Deep Dive Day. On
this date, the submersible vehicle Trieste made a record-setting dive
to the deepest surveyed part of the ocean. Trieste was a bathyscaphe
– “deep boat”– owned by the U.S. Navy. It was a free-diving,
self-propelled deep-sea submersible, and it dove – with two crew
members aboard – into the Marianas Trench east of the Philippines,
whose deepest portion is called the Challenger Deep. It took nine
hours to descend 6.83 miles (10,911 meters) to the deepest ocean.
Afterwards, nobody returned to Challenger Deep for 52 years, until
Titanic director James Cameron descended successfully on March 26,
2012. Cameron plans to turn his solo diving experience into a 3-D
feature film. Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard designed the Trieste
and built it in Italy. His son, Jacques Piccard (who was also a Swiss
scientist) and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh were on board for the
record-setting dive to Challenger Deep.
January 23, 1978. On this date, Sweden
announced it would ban aerosol sprays containing chlorofluorocarbons
as the propelling agent. It was the first country in the world to do
so. At the time, evidence had increasingly suggested that
chlorofluorocarbons were damaging Earth ozone layer. The U.S.
announced it would ban flurocarbon gases in aerosol products on
October 15, 1978.
January 29, 1886. The Modern Car with
Gasoline Power Internal Combustion Day. The first automobile designed
to be propelled by an internal combustion engine was patented on this
by German Karl Benz. Patent #DRP-37435: “automobile fueled by gas”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Benz Internal combustion engine. As
a means of transportation, “Dowe” gives the greatest credit to
“Daimler, Ford and Duryea.” Gottleib Daimler is a well-known
pioneer in motor vehicles. Henry Ford began production of the Model T
in 1908 and it was quite popular by 1913. Charles Duryea made one of
the earliest commercially successful petrol-driven vehicles, starting
in 1896. Nicolaus Otto who in 1876 invented an effective gas motor
engine. Nicolaus Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal
combustion engine called the “Otto Cycle Engine,” and when he
completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle. The
gasoline-powered automobile. Many inventors worked toward the goal of
a “self-propelled” vehicle in the 19th century. Wyman gave the
honor specifically to Gottleib Daimler for his 1889 engine, arguing:
“a century's insistent but unsuccessful endeavor to provide a
practical self-propelled car proves that the success of any type that
once answered requirements would be immediate. Such success did come
with the advent of the Daimler motor, and not before.”
January 30. Ghandi is assassinated
(1948).
January or February. The Iroquois are
one of the largest Native American tribes in history, and the oldest
democracy in history. As you may already know the Iroquois
Confederacy is made up of six Indian Nations: Mohawk, Oneida,
Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora. The Iroquois Midwinter
Ceremony is in either January or February depending on the moon
cycle. When the new moon appears the spiritual year begins and five
days after, the ceremony starts. The celebration lasts 9 days with a
lot of traditional events, as well as choosing new council members
for the next year. Each tribe celebrates a little differently. The
usual custom is to first begin with a "Stirring of the Ashes"
ceremony to symbolise thanks for all the blessings bestowed during
the previous year. There is also a public naming event where all the
children who were born that year are given their Indian names.
Feb. 2. Groundhog's Day, aka Celtic
Gaelic IMBOLC Day, aka Celtic Gaelic IMBOLC Day, aka Saint Brighid's
Day, aka The Halfway Point in between the Winter Solstice peak and
the Spring Equinox Day. Imbolc Day is a celebration with Feasts.
Alternative Celebration: James Joyce and Ayn Rand Day (an atheist).
So Springtime is 6 weeks away. James Joyce, the Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man, Ayn Rand, Fountainhead, and Shakira, her hips
don't lie, are all born on Feb 2.
February 3, 1468. The Printing Press
Revolution Day. Gutenberg dies at age 70 in Mainz, Electorate of
Mainz. The exact date of his invention of the printing press can't be
found, nor his birthday, so his death day is used for this day of
celebration. The Internet is the Gutenberg Printing Press Revolution
for the World. The German Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing
press around 1440. Key to its development was the hand mold, a new
molding technique that enabled the rapid creation of large quantities
of metal movable type. Printing presses exponentially increased the
speed with which book copies could be made, and thus they led to the
rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in
history. Twenty million volumes had been printed in Western Europe by
1500. Gutenberg Printing Press Revolution helped spark the Age of
Enlightenment. In 1518 followers of the German monk Martin Luther
used the printing press to copy and disseminate his seminal work “The
Ninety-Five Theses,” which jumpstarted the Protestant Reformation
and spurred conflicts like the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). Among
other things, the printing press permitted wider access to the Bible,
which in turn led to alternative interpretations, including that of
Martin Luther, whose "95 Theses" a document printed by the
hundred-thousand sparked the Protestant Reformation.
February 3.
Happy Founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam Day! The Communist
Party of Vietnam (CPV)[note 1] is the founding and ruling political
party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Although nominally it
exists alongside the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, it maintains a
unitary government and has centralized control over the state,
military, and media. The supremacy of the Communist Party is
guaranteed by Article 4 of the national constitution. The current
party's leader is Nguyễn Phú Trọng, holds the titles of General
Secretary of the Central Committee and Secretary of the Central
Military Commission. The party is known for the advocacy of what it
calls a 'socialist-oriented market economy'. The highest institution
of the CPV is the party's National Congress which elects the Central
Committee. In between party congresses, the Central Committee is the
supreme organ on party affairs. Immediately after a party congress,
the Central Committee elects the Politburo and Secretariat, and
appoints the First Secretary, the highest party office. In between
sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the supreme organ
on party affairs. However, it can only implement decisions based upon
the policies which have been approved in advance by either the
Central Committee or the party's National Congress. As of 2014, the
11th Politburo comprises 16 members.
Feb. 4. Facebook was founded on
February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, an atheist.
February 6. Free Leonard Peltier Day!
Peltier was arrested on this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier
February, 6, 1959. On this date, Jack
Kilby – who had just started working for Texas Instruments –
filed a patent application for the integrated circuit, also known as
a microchip. This kind of circuit sits on a small plate or chip of
silicon or some other semiconductor material. Kilby is considered the
co-inventor of the circuit along with Robert Noyce, who discovered it
independently.
February 9, 1913. One hundred and one
years ago today, a strange meteor sighting occurred over Canada, the
U.S. Northeast, Bermuda and some ships at sea, including one off
Brazil. What happened that night is sometimes called the Great Meteor
Procession of 1913, and it sparked decades of debate concerning what
actually happened.
February 12. Atheist Pride/Freedom from
Religion Day. Darwin and Lincoln Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Day highlight Darwin's
contribution to science and to promote science in general special
recipes for primordial soup and other inventive dishes, protests with
school boards and other governmental bodies, workshops and symposia,
distribution of information by people in ape costumes, lectures and
debates, essay and art competitions, concerts, poetry readings,
plays, artwork, comedy routines, re-enactments of the Scopes Trial
and of the debate between Thomas H. Huxley and Bishop Samuel
Wilberforce, library displays, museum exhibits, travel and
educational tours, recreations of the journey of the HMS Beagle,
church sermons, movie nights, outreach, and nature hikes. The Darwin
Day Celebration Web site offers free registration and display of all
Darwin Day events. The Perth Mint, Australia will launch[dated info]
a 2009 dated commemorative 1 ounce silver legal tender coin depicting
Darwin, young and old; HMS Beagle; and Darwin's signature. Some
celebrants also combine Darwin Day with a celebration of Abraham
Lincoln, who was also born on 12 February 1809. IHEU: International
Humanist and Ethical
Union.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Humanist_and_Ethical_Union
February 13, 1923: Chuck Yeager, the
first pilot to break the sound barrier, was born in Myra, West
Virginia. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in September 1941 and
fought in World War II before being assigned to fly high-performance
aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base in 1947.
Valentine's Day. Feb 14. Love Day. 2nd
“spring is almost here” celebration, with romantic love as it's
central theme.
Feb. 14-21 (3rd Monday of
Feb). Washington's Birthday (Federal Holiday). Aka “President's
Day”, to celebrate Abraham Lincoln, which is better than
Washington. We can celebrate Lincoln (though he's problematic too),
but slave-owning town destroyer genocidal maniac anti-Revolutionary
Washington is out. ALTERNATIVE CELEBRATION: Highlight Iroquois was
the first ever democracy in the world. The Shawnee and Miami were
also targeted in Washington's imperialization.
February 21. Malcolm X is assassinated
(1965).
February 21. Communist Manifesto is
published (1848).
February 27, 1899. In a small county in
Maine, Charles Herbert Best was born on this date in 1899. Along with
Frederick Banting, he discovered insulin, used to manage diabetes.
March 2, 1909. Happy McMullen Dry Kiln
Day, aka the Preservation of Sugar-producing Plants Day. On this day,
George W. McMullen of Chicago is granted a patent for his discovery
of a method for drying sugar cane and sugar beets cossettes for
transport http://www.google.com/patents/US913758. Sugar production
became more efficient and its supply increased by leaps and bounds.
The McMullen Dry Kiln is an oven which dries the beets. No air can
get inside the kiln, but there is a hole in the bottom for water to
escape. The sugar from the fresh beets and the dried beets were the
same. Sugar beet provides approximately 30% of world sugar
production. In the developed countries, the sugar industry relies on
machinery, with a low requirement for manpower. A large beet refinery
producing around 1,500 tonnes of sugar a day needs a permanent
workforce of about 150 for 24-hour production. The steam engine first powered a sugar
mill in Jamaica in 1768, and soon after, steam replaced direct firing
as the source of process heat. In 1813 the British chemist Edward
Charles Howard invented a method of refining sugar that involved
boiling the cane juice not in an open kettle, but in a closed vessel
heated by steam and held under partial vacuum. At reduced pressure,
water boils at a lower temperature, and this development both saved
fuel and reduced the amount of sugar lost through caramelization.
Further gains in fuel-efficiency came from the multiple-effect
evaporator, designed by the United States engineer Norbert Rillieux
(perhaps as early as the 1820s, although the first working model
dates from 1845). This system consisted of a series of vacuum pans,
each held at a lower pressure than the previous one. The vapors from
each pan served to heat the next, with minimal heat wasted. Modern
industries use multiple-effect evaporators for evaporating water. The
process of separating sugar from molasses also received mechanical
attention: David Weston first applied the centrifuge to this task in
Hawaii in 1852. In the United States and Japan, high-fructose corn
syrup has replaced sugar in some uses, particularly in soft drinks
and processed foods. Scientifically, sugar loosely refers to a number
of carbohydrates, such as monosaccharides, disaccharides,
oroligosaccharides. Monosaccharides are also called "simple
sugars," the most important being glucose. Almost all sugars
have the formula CnH2nOn (n is between 3 and 7). Glucose has the
molecular formula C6H12O6. The names of typical sugars end with ose,
as in "glucose", "dextrose", and "fructose".
Sometimes such words may also refer to any types of carbohydrates
soluble in water. The acyclic mono- and disaccharides contain either
aldehyde groups or ketone groups. These carbon-oxygen double bonds
(C=O) are the reactive centers. All saccharides with more than one
ring in their structure result from two or more monosaccharides
joined by glycosidic bonds with the resultant loss of a molecule of
water (H2O) per bond.
March 2, 1908. Happy Electrical
Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen Day! On this day, Fritz Haber is
awarded a patent for the Haber Process, which makes Ammonia.
http://www.google.com/patents/US990191 Electrical fixation of
atmospheric nitrogen. As natural fertilizer sources were depleted
during the 19th century, artificial fertilizers enabled the further
expansion of agriculture. Nitrogen Fixation, a process of combining
atmospheric nitrogen with other elements to form useful compounds.
There are only a few ways in which nitrogen, which is relatively
inert, can be combined with other elements. Nitrogen is essential to
living things and, because most organisms cannot use nitrogen that is
not combined with other elements, nitrogen fixation is important to
the continuation of life on earth. Fixed, or combined, nitrogen is
also necessary for the manufacture of many substances, including
explosives and commercial fertilizers. In nature, nitrogen is fixed
by some micro-organisms and by lightning. This natural fixation plays
an important role in the nitrogen cycle. In the 20th century, humans
learned to fix nitrogen in large quantities to supplement the amount
of nitrogen fixed naturally. Synthetic processes of nitrogen fixation
include the electric arc process, the cyanamide process, and the
Haber process.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nitrogen-fixation-info.htm Two main
groups of microorganisms carry out nitrogen fixation. The more common
of the two groups is made up of organisms living in soil and water—a
few species of bacteria (chiefly of the genera Azotobacter and
Clostridium) and some blue-green algae. The second group, consisting
of bacteria of the genus Rhizobium, lives in plants, primarily
legumes such as peas, clover, and alfalfa. The bacteria cause the
roots of legumes to form root nodules (swellings) in which the
organisms live. The plants supply the bacteria with food. In return,
the bacteria secrete ammonium compounds that are absorbed and used by
the legumes and by other plants that are grown in the same soil.
Lightning plays a minor part in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.
The extreme heat of a lightning flash causes nitrogen to combine with
oxygen of the air to form nitrogen oxides. The oxides combine with
moisture in the air. The fixed nitrogen is carried by rain to the
earth, where, in the form of nitrates, it is used by plants.
Synthetic Nitrogen Fixation. Haber Process, or Haber-Bosch Process.
In this process, heated nitrogen (from the air) and hydrogen are
mixed under very high pressure in a vessel where they combine
chemically. The vessel contains a catalyst (usually iron with oxides
of aluminum and potassium), which speeds up the chemical reaction.
The Haber process is the most widely used process for the commercial
production of ammonia. Fritz Haber, a German chemist, developed the
process in the first decade of the 20th century. Karl Bosch, another
German scientist, adapted the process for industrial use. The
Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is the
industrial implementation of the reaction of nitrogen gas and
hydrogen gas. It is the main industrial procedure to produce ammonia:
N2 + 3 H2 → 2 NH3 (ΔH = −92.4 kJ·mol−1). Nitrogen is a strong
limiting nutrient in plant growth. Carbon and oxygen are also
critical, but are easily obtained by plants from soil and air. Even
though air is 78% nitrogen, atmospheric nitrogen is nutritionally
unavailable because nitrogen molecules are held together by strong
triple bonds. Nitrogen must be 'fixed', i.e. converted into some
bioavailable form, through natural or human-made processes. Fritz
Haber (German: [ˈhaːbɐ]; 9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was
a German chemist of Jewish origin who received the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1918 for his development for synthesizing ammonia,
important for fertilizers and explosives. The food production for
half the world's current population depends on this method for
producing fertilizer. Haber, along with Max Born, proposed the
Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of
an ionic solid. Notoriously, Haber is also remembered to history as
the “father of chemical warfare” for his years of pioneering work
developing and weaponizing chlorine and other poisonous gases during
World War I, as well as his later founding chairmanship of the
Degesch Corporation, which (two decades after Haber's term) knowingly
produced the hydrogen cyanide-based Zyklon B gas used to kill
millions in the gas chambers of the Holocaust. Electric Arc
Process. In this process a powerful electric arc is set up in the
air, causing nitrogen and oxygen to combine and form nitrogen oxides.
The air containing the oxides is then sent through water, which
combines with the oxides to form nitric acid. The electric arc
process was the first synthetic process of nitrogen fixation,
developed by Lord Rayleigh in 1895. The Cyanamide Process. In
the cyanamide process, calcium carbide—produced from lime, coke,
and air—is ground into a powder and heated in an atmosphere of pure
nitrogen. The process produces calcium cyanamide, which can then be
used to produce ammonia. Well before the start of the industrial
revolution, farmers would fertilize the land in various ways, aware
of the benefits of an intake of essential nutrients for plant growth.
The 1840s works of Justus von Liebig identified nitrogen as one of
these important nutrients. The same chemical compound could already
be converted to nitric acid, the precursor of gunpowder and powerful
explosives like TNT and nitroglycerine. Scientists also already knew
that nitrogen formed the dominant portion of the atmosphere, but
inorganic chemistry had yet to establish a means to fix it. Then, in
1909, German chemist Fritz Haber successfully fixed atmospheric
nitrogen in a laboratory. This success had extremely attractive
military, industrial and agricultural applications. In 1913, barely
five years later, a research team from BASF, led by Carl Bosch,
developed the first industrial-scale application of the Haber
process, sometimes called the Haber-Bosch process. The industrial
production of nitrogen prolonged World War I by providing Germany
with the gunpowder and explosives necessary for the war effort even
though it no longer had access to
guano.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Haber_process
March 3. Girl's Festival (Japan). The
Hina Matsuri or Doll Festival or Girl's Festival is celebrated on
March 3. On this day, families with girls wish their daughters a
successful and happy life. Dolls are displayed in the house together
with peach blossoms. The doll festival has its origin in a Chinese
custom in which bad fortune is transferred to dolls and then removed
by abandoning the doll on a river. On Hina Matsuri, sweet sake is
drunken and chirashi sushi is eaten.
March 8. On the eve of World War I
campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first
International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. In
1913 following discussions, International Women's Day was transferred
to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for
International Women's Day ever since.
March 8.
International Woman's Day. International Women's Day (IWD), also
called International Working Women's Day, is celebrated on March 8
every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges
from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards
women to a celebration for women's economic, political, and social
achievements. Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday
blended in the culture of many countries, primarily in Europe,
including Russia. In some regions, the day lost its political flavor,
and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women
in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and
Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the political and human
rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and
political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide
are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner. This is a day which
some people celebrate by wearing purple ribbons.
March 13, 1781. The 7th planet –
Uranus – was discovered on this date, completely by accident.
British astronomer William Herschel was performing a survey of all
the stars that were of magnitude 8 – in other words, too faint to
see with the eye – or brighter. That’s when he noticed an object
that moved in front of the star background over time, clearly
demonstrating it was closer to us than the distant stars. He surmised
this object was orbiting the sun and that it was a new planet – the
first discovered since ancient times.
March 14. Karl Marx dies (1883).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
March 14th. Albert Einstein's birthday.
March 15. Milky Way Galaxy is formed
(Neil Tyson).
March 21. Earth Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
Spring Equinox.
March 21. Spring Equinox: Middle of the
Warming Up of the Earth. St. Patrick's Day is the 17th, 4 day prior.
Cultural Regeneration Day. Africa Day. Destruction of Race as
Identifier. Cultural regeneration for all folks. Black power
Revolution.
March 21. National Religion is Stupid
Day. The State of Tennessee enacts the Butler Act in 1925, which
outlaws teaching of Evolution, starting the Scopes Monkey Trial, with
John Scopes, a Kentuckian, being a central figure. Clarence Darrow,
an atheist, represented him. We'll celebrate the day by celebrating
the Earth, and by making fun of stupid religions, and sharing jokes
about these stupid religions.
March 21. Human Rights Day (South
Africa).
March 31. Cesar Chavez Day (Federal
Holiday). While I've heard some things about him being racist, not
having many other Latino peoples celebrated, we'll keep him, and
highlight perhaps better Latino peoples later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez
March 27, 1964. On this date, at 5:36
p.m. local time, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake struck in the Prince
William Sound region of Alaska, causing extensive initial damage and
a subsequent tsunami. In Anchorage, dozens of blocks of buildings
were leveled or damaged. Valdez, closest to the epicenter, was
destroyed. The quake is now known as the Good Friday Earthquake.
March 30. Happy Land Day! (Palestine).
Land Day (Arabic: يوم
الأرض, Yom al-Ard; Hebrew:יוֹם
הַאֲדָמָה, Yom HaAdama), March 30, is an annual day
of commemoration for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976.
In response to the Israeli government's announcement of a plan to
expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement
purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns
from Galilee to Negev. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli
army and police, six unarmed Arab citizens were killed, about one
hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested. Scholarship on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict recognizes Land Day as a pivotal
event in the struggle over land and in the relationship of Arab
citizens to the Israeli state and body politic. It is significant in
that it was the first time since 1948 that Arabs in Israel organized
a response to Israeli policies as a Palestinian national collective.
An important annual day of commemoration in the Palestinian national
political calendar ever since, it is marked not only by Arab citizens
of Israel, but also by Palestinians all over the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Day
April 3, 1973. Cell Phone Day. On 3
April 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive,
made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber
equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The
prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 1.1 kg and
measured 23 cm long, 13 cm deep and 4.45 cm wide. The prototype
offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to
re-charge. The first hand-held cell phone was demonstrated by John F.
Mitchell and Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset
weighing around 4.4 pounds (2 kg) April 1973. The first call he made
was to his rival, Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of research. Alexander
Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric
telephone in 1876
April 4. Martin Luther King is
assassinated (1968).
April 5, 1957. Happy High Fructose Corn
Syrup Day aka Enzymatic conversion of D-glucose to D-fructose.
Marshall, RO; Kooi, ER (April 1957). “Enzymatic conversion of
D-glucose to D-fructose”. Science 125 (3249): 648–9.
doi:10.1126/science.125.3249.648. PMID
13421660.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13421660 The process by
which high-fructose corn syrup is produced was first developed by
Richard O. Marshall and Earl P. Kooi in 1957. The industrial
production process was refined by Dr. Y. Takasaki at Agency of
Industrial Science and Technology of Ministry of International Trade
and Industry of Japan in 1965–1970. High-fructose corn syrup was
rapidly introduced to many processed foods and soft drinks in the
United States from around 1975 to 1985. A system of sugar tariffs and
sugar quotas imposed in 1977 in the United States significantly
increased the cost of imported sugar and U.S. producers sought
cheaper sources. High-fructose corn syrup, derived from corn, is more
economical because the domestic U.S. and Canadian prices of sugar are
twice the global price and the price of corn is kept low through
government subsidies paid to growers. High-fructose corn syrup became
an attractive substitute, and is preferred over cane sugar among the
vast majority of American food and beverage manufacturers. Soft drink
makers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi use sugar in other nations, but
switched to high-fructose corn syrup in the United States in 1984.
The average American consumed approximately 37.8 lb (17.1 kg) of
high-fructose corn syrup in 2008, versus 46.7 lb (21.2 kg) of
sucrose. In recent years it has been hypothesized that the increase
of high-fructose corn syrup usage in processed foods may be linked to
various health conditions, including metabolic syndrome,
hypertension, dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance,
and obesity.
April 10, 1863. The Electric Furnace
Day. Paul (Louis-Toussaint) Héroult (April 10, 1863 – May 9, 1914)
was a French scientist born on this day. He was the inventor of the
aluminium electrolysis and developed the first successful commercial
electric arc furnace. He is considered the creator of the method used
for preparing steels in the electric furnace. In 1907, he patented a
furnace in which the arc was produced between the heated scrap iron
and a graphite electrode. There are many of these furnaces throughout
the world, all of the Héroult type. The first direct-arc electric
furnace installed in the United States was a Héroult furnace. The
electric furnace (1889) It was “the only means for commercially
producing Carborundum (the hardest of all manufactured substances).”
The electric furnace also converted aluminum “from a merely
precious to very useful metal” (by reducing it’s price 98
percent), and was “radically transforming the steel industry.”
The Bessemer Process (stolen from a Kentuckian) is a technique for
creating steel using molten pig iron, in the 1850s. Steel then
exploded into one of the biggest industries on the planet and was
used in the creation of everything from bridges and railroads to
skyscrapers and engines. It proved particularly influential in North
America, where massive iron ore deposits helped the United States
become one of the world’s biggest economies. The Electric Furnace
eclipses the Bessemer Process shortly thereafter.
April 12, 1961. Yuri Alekseyevich
Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space, when his
Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin
When Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on 12 April 1961, the plan had
never been for him to land inside his Vostok spacecraft. His
spherical reentry capsule came through the Earth’s atmosphere on a
ballistic trajectory. Soviet engineers had not yet perfected a
braking system that would slow the craft sufficiently for a human to
survive impact. They decided to eject the cosmonaut from his craft.
Yuri Gagarin ejected at 20,000 feet and landed safely on Earth.
April 13, 1949. Christopher Hitchens
(1949-2011) is born. Known for his contrarian stance on a number of
issues, Hitchens excoriated such public figures as Mother Teresa,
Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Pope
Benedict XVI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens
April 20. “4:20pm” is known as the
time to smoke up, and so 4-20 is a day to smoke marijuana.
April 16-22. (3rd Thursday
in April). Ask an Atheist Day. Atheists are setting up a chair and
table with a sign that says “Ask an Atheist” to get the public to
talk to folks who don't believe in God.
https://secularstudents.org/askanatheistday
April 23, 1884. Steam Turbine Day.
Charles Parsons takes out a patent on the Steam Turbine on this day.
The steam turbine. The turbine deserved credit not only “in the
utilization of steam as a prime mover” but in its use in the
“generation of electricity.” The turbine invented by Charles
Parsons powered ships. Assembled in numbers, they provided an
efficient means of driving electrical generators and producing that
most useful commodity. A steam turbine is a device that extracts
thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical
work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was
invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884. Because the turbine
generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to
drive an electrical generator – about 90% of all electricity
generation in the United States (1996) is by use of steam turbines.
The steam turbine is a form of heat engine that derives much of its
improvement in thermodynamic efficiency from the use of multiple
stages in the expansion of the steam, which results in a closer
approach to the ideal reversible expansion process.
April 27.
Freedom Day (South Africa). Freedom Day is a South African public
holiday celebrated on 27 April. It celebrates freedom and
commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in
1994. They were the first national elections in South Africa in which
the franchise did not depend upon race.
April 29, 1891. Happy Electrical
Welding Process Day! The electric welding process of Elihu Thomson is
officially patented. http://www.google.com/patents/US451345
In the era of mass production, the electric welding process enabled
faster production and construction of better, more intricate machines
for that manufacturing process. Thomson solved both problems by
connecting the two materials to be welded in a parallel circuit and
using a transformer to run an electric current between them. A low
emf (electro motive force) of about 2 volts and a high current rate
of approximately 2000 amps combined to produce the almost molten
state needed for such industrial welding. In 1888, a second Thomson
founded company, Thomson Electric Welding, began exploiting Thomson's
welding process and is the subject of this collection. In 1892 the
Thomson-Houston Company merged with Edison-Electric to form the
General Electric Company. Elihu Thomson, (born March 29, 1853,
Manchester—died March 13, 1937, Swampscott, Mass., U.S.), U.S.
electrical engineer and inventor whose discoveries in the field of
alternating-current phenomena led to the development of successful
alternating-current motors. He was also a founder of the U.S.
electrical industry. Thomson was a prolific inventor, being awarded
over 700 patents. For example, he invented the induction wattmeter
mechanism used in electric meters. In 1876 while setting up an
experiment, he fused some copper wires together. Quickly thinking and
making a note "better luck next time" he questioned whether
metals could be welded at will. The fusing of the copper wires was an
initial discovery of welding. 1885, Elihu set forth to develop
electric resistance welding. "All that was required was a
transformer with a primary to be connected to the lighting circuit
and a secondary of a few turns of massive copper cable. The ends of
this cable were fitted with strong clamps which grasped the pieces of
metal to be welded and forced them tightly together. The heavy
current flowing through the joint created such a high heat that the
metal was melted and run together, That was - and still is - the
whole principle"
April 30. Liberation Day/Reunification
Day. Fall of Saigon and reunification of Vietnam in 1975
April 30. Happy Hitler's Suicide
Anniversary! 1945.
May 1, 1888. Happy Nikola Tesla
Induction Motor Day! Nikola Tesla, a Serbian inventor, gains the
patent for the first motor for transforming AC electrical power into
mechanical energy on this
day.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patents
The Nikola Tesla induction motor. “This epoch-making invention is
mainly responsible for the present large and increasing use of
electricity in the industries.” Before people had electricity in
their homes, the alternating current–producing motor constructed by
Tesla supplied 90 percent of the electricity used by manufacturing.
Tesla applied for U.S. Patents in October and November 1887 and was
granted some of these patents in May 1888. In April 1888, the Royal
Academy of Science of Turin published Ferraris's research on his AC
polyphase motor detailing the foundations of motor operation. In May
1888 Tesla presented the technical paper “A New System for
Alternating Current Motors and Transformers” to the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) describing three
four-stator-pole motor types: one with a four-pole rotor forming a
non-self-starting reluctance motor, another with a wound rotor
forming a self-starting induction motor, and the third a true
synchronous motor with separately excited DC supply to rotor winding.
George Westinghouse, who was developing an alternating current power
system at that time, licensed Tesla’s patents in 1888 and purchased
a US patent option on Ferraris' induction motor concept. This
innovative electric motor, patented in May 1888, was a simple
self-starting design that did not need a commutator, thus avoiding
sparking and the high maintenance of constantly servicing and
replacing mechanical brushes.
May 1. In the former Soviet Union, 1
May was International Workers' Day and was celebrated with huge
parades in cities like Moscow. Though the celebrations are low-key
nowadays, several groups march on that day to protest grievances the
workers have.
May 3. (First Thursday in May).
National Day of Reason (to protest national Day of Prayer's
Unconstitutionality).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Reason
May 4. Greenery Day (みどりの日Midori
no Hi?) (Japan). The present observation of Greenery Day as a
national holiday in Japan stems from the celebration of the Emperor
Shōwa's birthday on April 29 every year during the Shōwa era. In
1989, following the ascension of the current Emperor Akihito to the
Chrysanthemum Throne, the name of the holiday was changed from
"Birthday of the Emperor" to "Greenery Day".
Officially, as its name suggests, it is a day to commune with nature
and to be thankful for blessings. The day was renamed to “Greenery
Day” to acknowledge the controversial wartime emperor's love for
plants without directly mentioning his name. However, in practice it
is seen as just another day that expands the Japanese Golden Week
vacation.
May 5. May 5-6. The Feast of Saint
George (also spelled al-Khader) is a Palestinian holiday
commemorating Saint George (known as al-Khader, Mar Jeries and Jirjis
in Palestinian culture). The feast occurs annually on 5 May, and
although it is originally a local Christian holiday, both Palestinian
Christians and Muslims participate. The feast is held in the
Palestinian town of al-Khader, just south of Bethlehem.
May 5. Children's Day, aka Boy's
Festival (Japan). The Boy's Festival (Tango no Sekku) is celebrated
on this day. Families pray for the health and future success of their
sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both
symbolizing strength, power and success in life. The Girl's Festival
is celebrated on March 3.
May 5. Karl Marx is born (1818).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
May 6. Milky Way is born.
http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/astro/act2/H2_Cosmic_Calendar.pdf
May 8, 1886. Coca-Cola is invented. The
Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton introduces his new soft drink,
Coca-Cola, to local pharmacies. Jacob's Pharmacy begins selling the
drink for 5¢ a glass.
May 8. Liberation Day (Czech).
Thursday, 8 May: Liberation Day (Den osvobození)
Date marking Czech liberation from Germany at the end of the Second World War. Germany signed the terms of surrender on May 8, 1945, and the German army in Prague surrendered on the morning of May 9.
Date marking Czech liberation from Germany at the end of the Second World War. Germany signed the terms of surrender on May 8, 1945, and the German army in Prague surrendered on the morning of May 9.
May 8. Happy Victory Day! France wins
World War 2.
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/france/wwii-victory-day
May 9. May 9, Russia celebrates the
victory over Nazi Germany, while remembering those who died in order
to achieve it. On 9 May 1945 (by Moscow time) the German military
surrendered to the Soviet Union and the Allies of World War II in
Berlin (Karlshorst). A military parade is held in Moscow to celebrate
the day. Victory Day (День Победы Den Pobedy) is by far one
of the biggest Russian holidays. It commemorates those who died in
WWII and pays tribute to survivors and veterans. Flowers and wreaths
are laid on wartime graves and special parties and concerts are
organized for veterans. In the evening there is a firework display. A
huge military parade, hosted by the President of the Russian
Federation, is annually organized in Moscow on Red Square. Similar
parades are organized in all major Russian cities
May 10, 1869. Transcontinental Railroad
Day. On this day, the first transcontinental railroad is completed,
as the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines join some 1,700 miles
of track connecting to the eastern networks. Representatives of both
railroads take turns driving the final golden spike into the ground
during a ceremony at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory.
May 12. George Denis Patrick Carlin is
born (1937-2008).
May 14. 1868. Tungsten Steel Day, aka
Mushet Steel Day, aka High-Speed Steel Alloy Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushet_steel
Mushet steel is the precursor to High-speed steel alloys. By adding
tungsten to steel, “tools so made were able to cut at such a speed
that they became almost red hot without losing either their temper or
their cutting edge” The increase in the efficiency of cutting
machines was “nothing short of revolutionary.” On May 14, 1868,
Robert Mushet invented a self-hardening/air hardening steel known as
Mushet Steel or R Mushets Special Steel. This was the first known
special steel which when forged and cooled acquired a degree of
hardness. It was extensively used for engineering tools and at the
time was patented and its chemical composition kept a secret. We now
know that an 8% tungsten content was key to the steels
characteristics. In 1870 Samuel Osborn & Company of Sheffield, UK
purchased the rights to manufacture the steel for mass production.
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-history-of-steel-working
High speed steel grades also have a high resistance to softening at
elevated temperatures up to 500°C, this makes them perfect for use
at high speeds, hence the name. Chemical composition for high speed
steel grades combine some or all alloying elements of carbon,
chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, tungsten and cobalt. Grades with a
carbon, vanadium and tungsten combination can offer supreme wear
resistance. Cobalt grades offer improved hot hardness and tempering
resistance, but lowers toughness. By adding tungsten to steel, “tools
so made were able to cut at such a speed that they became almost red
hot without losing either their temper or their cutting edge” The
increase in the efficiency of cutting machines was “nothing short
of revolutionary.” At the turn of the nineteenth century American,
Frederic Taylor and Brit, Maunsel White, working in America at the
Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania, did numerous tests and
experiments on Mushet Steel to understand more about its
characteristics. During these experiments they discovered that adding
a 3.8% chromium to the 8% tungsten steel enabled it be quenched and
tempered at a high temperature (close to the melting point of steel).
In service the it could work at much faster speeds than Mushet Steel.
The name given to this was High Speed Steel. High-speed steel (HSS or
HS) is a subset of tool steels, commonly used in tool bits and
cutting tools. It is often used in power-saw blades and drill bits.
The first alloy that was formally classified as high-speed steel is
known by the AISI designation T1, which was introduced in 1910. It
was patented by Crucible Steel Co. at the beginning of the 20th
century.
May 15. Catastrophe Day! Aka Nakba Day
(Arabic: يوم النكبةYawm an-Nakba,
meaning "Day of the Catastrophe") is generally commemorated
on 15 May, the day after the Gregorian calendar date for Israeli
Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut). For the Palestinians it is an
annual day of commemoration of the displacement that preceded and
followed the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. Naksa Day
(5 June 1967) (Arabic: يوم
النكسة Yawm an-Naksa, meaning "day of the
setback") is the annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian
people of the displacement that accompanied Israel's victory in the
1967 Six-Day War. As a result of the war, Israel took control of the
Palestinian-populated West Bank and Gaza Strip, which were previously
annexed by Jordan and controlled by Egypt, respectively. The first
displacement, known as the Nakba, took place during and after the
1948 Palestine war. It is marked annually on Nakba Day on May 15.
May 17. Celebration of the Constitution
of 1814 (Norway). The Constitution of Norway was signed at Eidsvoll
on May 17 in the year 1814. The constitution declared Norway to be an
independent kingdom in an attempt to avoid being ceded to Sweden
after Denmark–Norway's devastating defeat in the Napoleonic Wars.
May 18, 1872. Bertrand Russell Day.
Russell, an atheist who said “Think Great Thoughts, for you will
never go higher than what you think” is born (1872). Bertrand
Arthur William Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a
British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social
critic and political activist. At various points in his life he
considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he
also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound
sense. He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent
aristocratic families in Britain
May 19. Malcolm X is born (1925).
May 20. Everybody Draw Mohammed
Day.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Draw_Mohammed_Day
May 24. The beginning of the Scientific
Revolution Era (1543-1687). The publication in 1543 of Nicolaus
Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium begins the
Scientific Revolution Era.
May 24-31 (Last Monday of May).
Memorial Day (Federal Holiday). This day is to remember Civil War
veterans.
May 25, 1961. On this date, President
John F. Kennedy gave a stirring speech before a joint session of
Congress, in which he declared his intention to focus U.S. efforts on
landing humans on the moon within a decade. His words ignited the
work of a decade, in achieving the dream of a moon landing.
May 29. Relativity is proved with Solar
Eclipse
(1919).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_29,_1919
May 30. Mikhail Bakunin is born (1814).
May 31, 1819. Walt Whitman was born.
May 31, 1961. The first person who
thought up “the Internet”, Leonard Kleinrock's, publishes his
first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication
Nets" on May 31, 1961.
May 31-June1. The Tulsa race riot was a
large-scale, racially motivated conflict on May 31 and June 1, 1921,
in which a group of whites attacked the black community of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. There were even bombs dropped from airplanes into the Black
resident district. It resulted in the Greenwood District, also known
as 'the Black Wall Street' and the wealthiest black community in the
United States, being burned to the ground. During the 16 hours of the
assault, more than 800 black people were admitted to local white
hospitals with injuries (the black hospital was burned down), and
police arrested and detained more than 6,000 black Greenwood
residents at three local facilities, in part for their protection. An
estimated 10,000 blacks were left homeless, and 35 city blocks
composed of 1,256 residences were destroyed by fire. The official
count of the dead by the Oklahoma Department of Vital Statistics was
39, but other estimates of black fatalities varied from 55 to about
300. The events of the riot were long omitted from local and state
histories. “The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in
history books, classrooms or even in private. Blacks and whites alike
grew into middle age unaware of what had taken place.” With the
number of survivors declining, in 1996, the state legislature
commissioned a report to establish the historical record of the
events, and acknowledge the victims and damages to the black
community. Released in 2001, the report included the commission's
recommendations for some compensatory actions, most of which were not
implemented by the state and city governments. The state has passed
legislation to establish some scholarships for descendants of
survivors, economic development of Greenwood, and a memorial park to
the victims in Tulsa. The latter was dedicated in 2010.
June 1. Kentucky Day. Founding of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky. 1792.
June 1. International Children's Day (Russia).
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/i/internationalchildrensday.asp
Children's Day is recognized on various days in many places around
the world, to honor children globally. It was first proclaimed by the
World Conference for the Well-being of Children in 1925 and then
established universally in 1954 to protect an "appropriate"
day. International Day for Protection of Children, observed in many
countries as Children's Day on June 1 since 1950, was established by
the Women's International Democratic Federation on its congress in
Moscow (22 November 1949). Major global variants include a Universal
Children's Day on November 20, by United Nations recommendation.
June 5, 1977: Boasting memory that is
equivalent to a tiny modern image file, the Apple II was released to
great fanfare on this day in 1977. Costing $1,298 in dollars of the
day (equivalent to about $5,000 today), the personal computer –
with just 4 KB of random-access memory – was a pricey but still
affordable option for consumers who wanted it in their homes. Budding
programmers could learn the tricks of the trade courtesy of a simple
programming module on the system. Later sales of the computer were
boosted with the addition of a floppy disc drive. This allowed
consumers to transport information to and from the computer to
similar models. Personal computers became popular in schools and
businesses in the 1980s, and had almost fully penetrated the consumer
market in North America and Europe by the late 1990s.
June 12, 1806: John A. Roebling, who
designed the Brooklyn Bridge, was born on this date in 1806. The
Brooklyn Bridge was the first steel-wire suspension bridge and also
the longest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1883.
Its main span is is 1,596 feet (486 meters). Completed in 1883, it’s
one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States today. The
bridge connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn across the
East River. More than 120,000 vehicles still cross its span each day,
according to a New York City official website. The American Civil War
brought a temporary halt to Roebling's work. However, in 1863
building resumed on a bridge over the Ohio River at Cincinnati which
he had started in 1856 and halted due to financing; the bridge was
finished in 1867. The Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, later named the
John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, was the world's longest
suspension bridge at the time it was finished.
June 14. Che Guevara is born (1948).
June 16, 1963. Under the call name
“Chaika” (Seagull), Valentina Tereshkova launched solo aboard
Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963 to become the first woman in space. Part of
her mission was to compare how the female body reacted in space to
data collected in two years of male-only missions. She spent nearly
71 hours in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times.
June 16. Youth Day. Youth Day on 16
June is a public holiday in South Africa and commemorates a protest
which resulted in a wave of protests across the country known as the
Soweto uprising of 1976. It came in response to multiple issues with
the Bantu Education Act and the government edict in 1974 that
Afrikaans be used as medium of instruction for certain subjects in
black schools. The iconic picture of Hector Pieterson, a black
schoolchild shot by the police, brought home to many people within
and outside of South Africa the brutality of the Apartheid
government. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Day
June 17.
Happy Iceland Day, the world's 2nd oldest democracy!
Icelandic National Day (Icelandic: Þjóðhátíðardagurinn,
the day of the nation's celebration) is an annual holiday in Iceland
which commemorates the foundation of The Republic of Iceland on 17
June 1944 and its independence from Danish rule.[1] The date was
chosen to coincide with the birthday of Jón Sigurðsson, a major
figure of Icelandic culture and the leader of the 20th
centuryIcelandic independence movement
June 19, 1900. On this date, the subway
in Paris, France began operations on Line 1 after two years of
construction that involved tearing up several streets of the famed
city. It was the first subway system in France and was said to
symbolize a country in the forefront technologically, worldwide.
June 20, 21. Summer Solstice. Pinnacle
of Hot. Will get colder after this day. Summerfest: June 21.
June 21. World Humanist Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Humanist_DayDinner, Picnic, Music.
IHEU: International Humanist and Ethical
Union.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Humanist_and_Ethical_Union
June 21. Happy Midsummer's Day!
(Sweden) Midsummer, also known as St John's Day, is the period of
time centered upon the summer solstice, and more specifically the
Northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or
take place on a day between June 21 and June 25 and the preceding
evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures. The
Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early
Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and the observance of St John's
Day begins the evening before, known as St John's Eve. These are
commemorated by many Christian denominations. In Sweden the Midsummer
is such an important festivity that there have been serious
discussions to make the Midsummer's Eve into the National Day of
Sweden, instead of June 6. It may also be referred to as St. Hans
Day.
June 21. On traditional date of Aymara
New Year and the winter solstice. Declared official holiday in 2010.
June
21. Willkakuti (Aymara for Return of the Sun), Machaq Mara (Aymara
for New Year), Mara T'aqa, Jach'a Laymi or Pacha Kuti[2] (in
Spanishnamed Año Nuevo Andino Amazónico (Andean-Amazonic New Year))
is an Aymara celebration in Bolivia, Chile and in the Southern Peru
which commemorates the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. It
was declared a national holiday in Bolivia in 2010 by the government
of Evo Morales, despite opposition from the Christian right in
Bolivia. In 2013, when the year 5521 of the Aymara calendar was
marked, Willkakuti was celebrated in more than 200 places, among
themInkallaqta, Inka Raqay, Samaypata and Uyuni. Its major
celebration hub is Tiwanaku.
June 23, 1912. Alan Turing Day. Alan
Mathison Turing (23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was a British
mathematician, logician,cryptanalyst, philosopher, pioneering
computer scientist, mathematical biologist, and marathon and ultra
distance runner. He was highly influential in the development of
computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of
"algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing
machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose
computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical
computer science and artificial intelligence.
June 28. National LGBT Pride Day (in
solidarity).
June 28. Happy Serbia Day, aka Principe
Day! Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a
Bosnian-Serb nationalist on June 28, 1914.
June 28-July 2. Happy Jean Jacques
Rousseau Days! Rousseau was born June 28, and dies July 2. 6 days of
nothing but Rousseau's writings. And Mikhail Bakunin too, since he
died July 1.
June 30, 1905. Theory of Special
Relativity is published. “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”,
Einstein detailed his Special Theory of Relativity. Swiss patent
clerk Albert Einstein launches a new era in physics.
July 1. Mikhail Bakunin dies (1876).
July 2, 1964. The Civil Rights Act is
passed. Segregation is
over.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964
July 2, 1698. The Steam Engine Day.
Savery patented an early steam engine on this day. Invention of the
Steam Engine. Cars, airplanes, factories, trains, spacecraft—none
of these transportation methods would have been possible if not for
the early breakthrough of the steam engine. The first practical use
of external combustion dates back to 1698, when Thomas Savery
developed a steam-powered water pump. Steam engines were then
perfected in the late 1700s by James Watt, and went on to fuel one of
the most momentous technological leaps in human history during the
Industrial Revolution. Throughout the 1800s external combustion
allowed for exponential improvement in transportation, agriculture
and manufacturing, and also powered the rise of world superpowers
like Great Britain and the United States. Most important of all, the
steam engine’s basic principle of energy-into-motion set the stage
for later innovations like internal combustion engines and jet
turbines, which prompted the rise of cars and aircraft during the
20th century.
July 3, 1978. George Carlin's “Dirty
Words” routine was aired on public radio, and the FCC was given
power by the Supreme Court to prohibit such broadcasts during hours
when children were likely to be among the audience, and gave the FCC
broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency in different
contexts, for the purpose of 1) shielding children from potentially
offensive material, and 2) ensuring that unwanted speech does not
enter one's home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission_v._Pacifica_Foundation
July 4. Independence Day. Independence
from Great Britain is good, but know it's celebrated 2 days after the
Declaration of Independence, and that Revolution, and Independence
are two different things.
July 4, 2012. Higgs Boson was invented.
We should take back our 4th of July fireworks. July 5, 1996—Ian
Wilmut and Keith Campbell cloned the first animal from adult cells.
Dolly the sheep, born on July 5, 1996, was created using the
so-called Roslin Technique (see “How was Dolly clone?”). The
cloning of Dolly is one of the most important milestones in the
history of animal cloning, as it proves that cloning of adult animals
is possible.
July 4. Independence Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_independence_days
July 5. The ending of the Scientific
Revolution Era (1543-1687). “grand synthesis” of Newton's 1687
Principia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_revolution
July 5. Happy St. Cyril and St.
Methodius Day! (Czech). Date
commemorating the religious teachers St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who
translated Christian literature into the Slavic language in the ninth
century.
July 6. Happy Jan Hus Day! The
religious reformer Jan Hus was burned at the stake in 1415. Jan Hus
was against the Catholic Church's indulgences, and he believed
regular citizens could interpret the Bible for themselves. The
celebration: combine to create a long weekend of relaxation,
preferably spent at a summer cottage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hus
July 14. The Storming of the Bastille
Day! 1789. (French). On July 14, 1789, troops stormed the Bastille.
This was a pivotal event at the beginning of the French Revolution.
Fête de la Fédération was held on July 14, 1790. This was a way to
celebrate the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in France.
July 17, 1975. On this date, Soviets
and Americans accomplished the first joint space docking between two
nations in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. It marked the cooling of a
long era of tense relations between the two world superpowers.
Russian Soyuz and American Apollo flights launched within
seven-and-a-half hours of each other on July 15, and docked on July
17. Three hours later, the world watched on television as the two
mission commanders, Tom Stafford and Alexey Leonov, exchanged the
first international handshake in space through the open hatch of the
Soyuz.
July 20, 1969. On this date, Apollo 11
astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed their moon module on
a broad dark lunar lava flow, called the Sea of Tranquility. Six
hours later, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on
the moon.
July 27, 1733. Today is the birthday of
Jeremiah Dixon, who, with Charles Mason, determined what was later
called the Mason-Dixon line. In 1763, Dixon and Mason signed an
agreement to help resolve a border dispute between British colonies
in Colonial America. They arrived in Philadelphia in November 1763
and began their survey, which was not complete until late 1766. That
survey line – known today as the Mason-Dixon line – forever
separated four U.S. states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and
West Virginia (then part of Virginia). The Mason–Dixon line also
came to symbolize a cultural boundary between the northeastern U.S.
and southern states, whose popular nickname Dixie might have been
inspired by Jeremiah Dixon’s last name. Dixon was an English
surveyor and astronomer, born in the village of Cockfield, England.
His father was a wealthy Quaker coal mine owner. His mother, Mary
Hunter, came from Newcastle and is said to have been the “cleverest
woman” that ever married into her husband’s family.
July 31, 1790. On this date, the United
States of America – a 14-year-old country at the time – issued
its first patent. It went to Samuel Hopkins, an inventor who resided
Pittsford, Vermont, and later of Pittsford, New York. Hopkins
discovered of a new method of producing potash and pearlash, which
could be considered early industrial chemicals, used to make soap and
other products.
August 2. Agrarian Reform Day. Bolivia.
Day of the Indian (Día del Indio), promulgated by President Germán
Busch in 1937. Anniversary ofAgrarian Reform law of 1953. Briefly
known as Día del Indio y la Interculturalidad and Día de los
Pueblos Originarios in the 21st century
August 4, 1789. French Revolution
abolished feudalism.
August 6, 1945. American airmen dropped
an atomic bomb – codename Little Boy – on the Japanese city of
Hiroshima on this date. Three days later, on August 9, they followed
it by dropping another atomic bomb, called Fat Man, over Nagasaki. It
was the final large-scale wartime act of World War II. The two
bombings are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.
August 6, 1991. The World Wide Web (the
Internet) is created. Tim Berners-Lee introduces WWW to the public on
August 6,1991. The World Wide Web (WWW) is what most people today
consider the “Internet” or a series of sites and pages that are
connected with links. The Internet as a whole had hundreds of people
who helped developed the standards and technologies that make it what
it is today, but without the WWW the Internet would not be as popular
and useful as it is today. However, in 1991 the Internet changed
again. That year, a computer programmer in Switzerland named Tim
Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web: an Internet that was not
simply a way to send files from one place to another but was itself a
“web” of information that anyone on the Internet could retrieve.
Berners-Lee created the Internet that we know today.
August 9. National Woman's Day (South
Africa). National Women's Day is an annual public holiday in South
Africa on 9 August. This commemorates the national march of women on
this day in 1956 to petition against the pass laws that required
South Africans defined as "black" by The Population
Registration Act to carry a '"pass," an internal passport
that severely restricted their movement. Each "pass"
designated specific urban/metropolitan areas in which the bearer was
authorized to live, work and travel. Within such areas, black South
Africans were required to carry and produce their "pass" at
all times, and were arrested if without one. As such, it served to
maintain population segregation, control urbanisation, and manage
migrant labour during the apartheid era.
August 19, 1945. Happy August
Revolution Day! The August Revolution (Vietnamese: Cách
mạng tháng Tám), also known as the August General Uprising
(Vietnamese: Tổng Khởi nghĩa tháng Tám),
was an revolution launched by the Việt Minh (English: League for
the Independence of Vietnam) against French colonial rule in
Vietnam，on August 19,1945.
Within two weeks, forces under the Việt Minh had seized control of
most rural village and cities throughout the North and
Center,including Hanoi, where President Hồ Chí Minhannounced the
formation of the Provisional Democratic Republic.
August 19. The Battle of Blue Licks
Day. One of the Last Major Battles of American Revolutionary War
(1782, after Yorktown). Simon Girty, Shawnee, and native Americans
versus Daniel Boone, and other imperialists.
August 20, 1977. NASA launched the
phenomenal Voyager 2 space probe to the outer solar system on this
date in 1977. They launched it some weeks before its twin craft,
Voyager 1, which moved faster and eventually passed it to become the
most distant human-made object from Earth, perhaps the first to leave
the solar system. Voyager 2 has been operating for 35 years, 11
months, and 31 days as of August 20, 2013. Although its transmissions
are faint, coming as they do from very far away, the craft still
transmits data and receives messages via NASA’s Deep Space Network.
Scientists believe it will be able to continue communications until
around the year 2025.
August 24. Howard Zinn is born (1922).
August 30. Fred Hampton is born (1948).
August 31. The Mother Star is formed.
Everything we know is made up of star
stuff.http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/wonder/book/export/html/14.html
September 1, 1979. On this date, NASA’s
Pioneer 11 came within 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers) of Saturn,
making it the first spacecraft ever to sweep closely past that place.
The spacecraft found a new ring for Saturn – now called the “F”
ring – and also a new moon, Epimetheus. There were two Pioneer
spacecraft. They were used to investigate Saturn’s rings and
determine if a trajectory through the rings was safe for the upcoming
Voyager visits. They paved the way for the even-more-sophisticated
Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977.
Sept 1-7 (first Monday of Sept). Labor
Day.
Sept. 1. The Sun is formed.
Sept. 2. Earth and Planets are formed.
September 2. Vietnamese Independence
Day! On September 2,1945, Ho declared Vietnamese Independence from
Japan and France in 1945.
Sept. 3. Formation of the Moon is
formed.http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/wonder/book/export/html/14.html
Sept. 11. Mourning for 9/11 Victims.
Also, Anti-Empire Day. Talk about solution to Palestinian Conflict.
Remember Salvador Allende, who was assassinated on 9-11-1973. Talk
about Bolivia's Revolution.
Sept. 11. Oceans are formed.
Sept. 16. Oldest rocks known on Earth
are formed.
Sept 12 or 13. Programmer's Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmers'_DayOn the 256th day of the
year (AKA the hexidecimal 100 day), the code monkeys that make the
modern world possible finally get a quasi-official holiday (except in
Russia, where it's an actual holiday). The one day of the year where
hacking is always white hat, and not knowing what “reindeer
flotilla” means is uncool. Oct 2, 1865. Ghandi's Birthday. Oct 7 to
13 is International Metric Week.
Sept. 21 or 22. First life appears on
Earth
(prokaryotes).http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/wonder/book/export/html/14.html
September 21. International Day of
Peace.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace Fall
Equinox.
Fall Equinox: Sept 22. Middle of
getting Colder. Time to hunker down, for Winter is coming in 3
months. Green Corn Harvest festival of Muskogee Creek and Seminoles.
Stomp (Shawnee) and Feather (Rite of Passage; War Virility Dance of
Creeks) Dancing, Big Fires, and Feasting
happens.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Corn_Ceremony.
Sept 22. Autumn/Fall Equinox. Green
Corn Harvest Festival.
Sept 24. Heritage Day. Heritage Day
(Afrikaans: Erfenisdag) is a South African
public holiday celebrated on 24 September. On this day, South
Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their
culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the
wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people.
September 27, 1905. On this date, while
he was employed at a patent office, Albert Einstein published a paper
titled “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy-Content?”
It was the last of four papers he submitted that year to the journal
Annalen der Physik. The first explained the photoelectric effect, the
second offered experimental proof of the existence of atoms, and the
third introduced the theory of special relativity. In the fourth
paper, Einstein explained the relationship between energy and mass.
That is, E=mc2 , On Sept. 27, 1905, Albert Einstein‘s paper “Does
the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” was
published. It was the last of four papers he submitted that year to
the journal Annalen der Physik. The first explained the photoelectric
effect, the second offered experimental proof of the existence of
atoms, and the third introduced the theory of special relativity. The
last and final paper of the series introduced m = E/c2, which was
later streamlined to its now instantly recognizable form. That year,
1905, remains one of the most significant in the history of physics.
Before Einstein, entities such as time and space and mass and energy
were separate. But by bringing these then seemingly unrelated
elements together, first in the concept of space-time and immediately
thereafter in the equation E = mc2, Einstein completed his theory of
special relativity. Special relativity is perhaps one of the least
intuitive theories ever conceived in the history of science, yet it
is central to physics. In E = mc2, Einstein concluded that mass (m)
and kinetic energy (E) are equal, since the speed of light(c2) is
constant. In other words, mass can be changed into energy, and energy
can be changed into mass. The former process is demonstrated by the
production of nuclear energy—particles are smashed and their energy
is captured. The latter process, the conversion of energy into mass,
is demonstrated by the process of particle acceleration, in which
low-mass particles zipping through a device collide to form larger
particles. The inclusion of the speed of light in Einstein’s
equation was based on the principles of classical mechanics and
electromagnetic radiation, the latter of which is pure energy.
Electromagnetic radiation is constant—it always travels at the
speed of light, or 186,000 miles/sec (300,000 km/sec).
September 28, 1928. Antibiotics Day.
Fleming recounted that the date of his discovery of penicillin was on
the morning of Friday, September 28, 1928. In 1928, the Scottish
scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-filled Petri dish in
his laboratory with its lid accidentally ajar. The sample had become
contaminated with a mold, and everywhere the mold was, the bacteria
was dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus
Penicillium, and over the next two decades, chemists purified it and
developed the drug Penicillin, which fights a huge number of
bacterial infections in humans without harming the humans themselves.
Penicillin was being mass produced and advertised by 1944. This
poster attached to a curbside mailbox advised World War II servicemen
to take the drug to rid themselves of venereal disease. A giant step
forward in the field of medicine, antibiotics saved millions of lives
by killing and preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. Scientists
like Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister were the first to recognize and
attempt to combat bacteria, but it was Alexander Fleming who made the
first leap in antibiotics when he accidentally discovered the
bacteria-inhibiting mold known as penicillin in 1928. Antibiotics
proved to be a major improvement on antiseptics—which killed human
cells along with bacteria—and their use spread rapidly throughout
the 20th century. Nowhere was their effect more apparent than on the
battlefield: While nearly 20 percent of soldiers who contracted
bacterial pneumonia died in World War I, with antibiotics that number
dropped to only 1 percent during World War II. Antibiotics like
penicillin, vancomycin, cephalosporin and streptomycin have gone on
to fight nearly every known form of infection, including influenza,
malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis and most sexually transmitted
diseases.
September 28. Happy Saint Wenceslas
Day! In 935, St. Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, now patron of the Czech
State, was murdered by his brother. St. Wenceslas Day (Czech
Statehood Day) Commemorating St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the
Czech people and the Czech Republic, who was killed in September of
929 or 935 (there are some discrepancies regarding the year of his
death). Czech statehood is also celebrated on this date.
October 2. Ghandi is born (1869).
October 2, 2009. Ricky Gervais's “The
Invention of Lying” debuts in America.
October 4, 1957. On this date, the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first manmade satellite to orbit
the Earth. According to many space historians, the Space Age began on
this date.
October 5. Women's March on Versailles
in French Revolution.
October 5. World Teachers' Day, held
annually on October 5th since 1994, commemorates teachers’
organizations worldwide. Its aim is to mobilize support for teachers
and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to
be met by teachers. According to UNESCO, World Teachers' Day
represents a significant token of the awareness, understanding and
appreciation displayed for the vital contribution that teachers make
to education and development. Education International (EI) (the
global union federation that represents education professionals
worldwide) strongly believes that World Teachers' Day should be
internationally recognized and celebrated around the world. EI also
believes that the principles of the 1966 and 1997 Recommendations
should be considered for implementation in all nations. Over 100
countries observe World Teachers' Day. The efforts of Education
International and its 401 member organizations have contributed to
this widely spread recognition. Every year, EI launches a public
awareness campaign to highlight the contributions of the teaching
profession.
October 5. Tecumseh Day (Tecumseh's
Death).
October 5. Woman's March on Versailles
(French Revolution, 1789).
October 6, 1995, astronomers announced
the discovery of the first planet in orbit around a distant sunlike
star. This planet is designated as 51 Pegasi b, and it’s what’s
known today as a hot Jupiter.
October 9. Che Guevara dies (1967).
October 12, 1999. On this date, the
world’s human population was estimated to hit 6 billion, according
to the United Nations. It took hundreds of thousands of years for
Earth’s human population to reach 1 billion in 1804. The 3 billion
milestone came in 1960. Not quite 40 years later, global population
had doubled to 6 billion.
Oct. 12. Photosynthesis Day.
Oct. 8-14. (2nd Monday of Oct.).
Columbus Day (Federal Holiday). Columbus is such a wretched creature,
something dramatic needs to be planned every year this monstronsity
of a psychopath is celebrated. Italians are okay folks, but fuck
Columbus. To celebrate him, we should invade the houses of folks
whose here, take their land, rape their women, and enslave the rest,
just like he did. But true justice can't ever happen, but maybe,
hanging out with some Native Americans would be good. Freeing Leonard
Peltier would be a goodass idea. Etc. Columbus Day is Native American
Day. The second Monday of October annually marks Columbus Day in many
parts the United States but not all states or region follow this
observance. Instead, they celebrate other events on the day. For
example, South Dakota's official holiday on this date is Native
Americans' Day (also known as Native American Day), while people in
Berkeley, California, celebrate Indigenous People's Day.
Oct. 8-14 (Second Monday in October).
Happy Health and Sports Day! (Japan). It commemorates the opening of
the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, and exists to promote sports
and an active lifestyle. As Health and Sports Day is a day to promote
sports and physical and mental health, many schools and businesses
choose this day to hold their annual Field Day (運動会
Undō-kai?), or sports day. This typically consists of
a range of physical events ranging from more traditional
track-and-field events such as the 100 meters or 4 x 100 meters relay
to more uncommon events such as the tug of war and the Mock
Cavalry Battle (騎馬戦Kiba-sen?).
Most communities and schools across Japan celebrate Sports Day with a
sports festival which is similar to a mini Olympics. These festivals
include many of the traditional track and field events, such as 4 x
100m relay, 100m sprinting, and long jump, as well as many other
events. Some of the events include: ball toss, tug-o-war, rugby-ball
dribbling races, sack races, and so on. Another common event is often
simply called the “exciting relay”, which is an obstacle course
relay including any number of different challenges: Three-legged
races, making a stretcher with a blanket and bamboo poles and then
carrying an “injured” teammate, laundry hanging, crawling on
hands and knees under a net, and doing cartwheels across a mat. Often
everyone will spread out across the grounds for group stretching
(this stretching routine was developed by the government and is done
daily by many Japanese people; the stretching routine music is
broadcast daily on the radio and TV). Then it is time to start the
events. Every event has prizes for the winners, usually something
useful for around the house such as boxes of tissues, laundry
detergent, dish soap, hand soap, saran wrap, wax paper, cooking oil
and so on. Around 12:00 noon, the events will take a pause for lunch
and sometimes traditional dancing. Lunch is usually a Bentō
(lunchbox), typically including rice, fish, stewed vegetables, sushi,
onigiri (rice balls) and other small Japanese treats. As with the
Olympics, the final event of the day is the 4 x 100m relay or 100m
sprint. Following this, the point totals are tallied and the ending
ceremony involves congratulatory speeches by local officials and the
handing out of prizes to the top teams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Sports_Day
October 15, 1966. Black Panther Party
was created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
October 15, 1951. The Pill Day. The
first steroid oral contraceptive (“the Pill”) is invented on
October 15, 1951 by Carl Djerassi in Mexico
City.http://news.stanford.edu/pr/01/thismanspill295.html Djerassi
participated in the invention in 1951, together with Mexican Luis E.
Miramontes and Mexican-Hungarian George Rosenkranz, of the progestin
norethindrone—which, unlike progesterone, remained effective when
taken orally and was far stronger than the naturally occurring
hormone. His preparation was first administered as an oral
contraceptive to animals by Gregory Pincus and Min Chueh Chang and to
women by John Rock.
October 29. The Oxygenation of the
Universe Day. The Oxygen
Catastrophe.http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/wonder/book/export/html/14.html
(Cosmic Calendar Day). Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which
appeared about 200 million years before the GOE, began producing
oxygen by photosynthesis. These microbes conduct photosynthesis:
using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates
and, yes, oxygen. In fact, all the plants on Earth incorporate
symbiotic cyanobacteria (known as chloroplasts) to do their
photosynthesis for them down to this day.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/origin-of-oxygen-in-atmosphere/
Before the GOE, any free oxygen they produced was chemically captured
by dissolved iron or organic matter. The GOE was the point when these
oxygen sinks became saturated and could not capture all of the oxygen
that was produced by cyanobacterial photosynthesis. After the GOE,
the excess free oxygen started to accumulate in the atmosphere. Free
oxygen is toxic to obligate anaerobic organisms, and the rising
concentrations may have wiped out most of the Earth's anaerobic
inhabitants at the time. Cyanobacteria were therefore responsible for
one of the most significant extinction events in Earth's history.
Additionally, the free oxygen reacted with atmospheric methane, a
greenhouse gas, greatly reducing its concentration and triggering the
Huronian glaciation, possibly the longest snowball Earth episode in
the Earth's history. Eventually, aerobic organisms began to evolve,
consuming oxygen and bringing about an equilibrium in its
availability. Free oxygen has been an important constituent of the
atmosphere ever since.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event. Astrobiologists
at Arizona State University and their colleagues analyzes of 2.6- to
2.5-billion-year-old black shales from South Africa suggest that the
production of oxygen in the surface ocean was vigorous at this time.
Combined with studies conducted in Australia, they conclude that the
productive regions along ocean margins during the late Archaean eon
were sites of substantial O2 accumulation, at least 100 million
years before it began to accumulate in the atmosphere. Their paper
can be found in the current issue of Nature Geosciences.
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/2010/8/23/oxygenation-in-ancient-ocean-margins-precedes-atmospheric-rise/
"It's not that easy why it should balance at 21 percent rather
than 10 or 40 percent," notes geoscientist James Kasting of
Pennsylvania State University. "We don't understand the modern
oxygen control system that well."
October 29, 1969. Send a Message Over
the Internets Day. On Friday October 29, 1969 at 10:30 p.m., the
first Internet message was sent from computer science Professor
Leonard KleinRock's laboratory at UCLA, after the second piece of
network equipment was installed at SRI. This connection not only
enabled the first transmission to be made, but is also considered the
first Internet backbone. The first message to be distributed was
"LO", which was an attempt at "LOGIN" by Charley
S. Kline to log into the SRI computer from UCLA. However, the message
was unable to be completed because the SRI system crashed. Shortly
after the crash, the issue was resolved, and he was able to log into
the computer.
Oct. 31. Halloween, aka Samhain, the
Celtic New Year, aka The Midpoint Between the Fall Equinox and Winter
Solstice Day. Samhain is the "Celtic New Year". Samhain is
a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the
beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. It is
celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November. Events
in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It was the time when
cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when
livestock were slaughtered for the winter. This custom is still
observed by many who farm and raise livestock because it is when meat
will keep since the freeze has come and also since summer grass is
gone and free foraging is no longer possible. As at Beltane, special
bonfires were lit. These were deemed to have protective and cleansing
powers and there were rituals involving them. The spirits of fairies
(the Aos Sí) could more easily come into our world. The souls of the
dead were also thought to revisit their homes. Feasts were had, at
which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set
at the table for them. In the 9th century, the Roman Catholic Church
shifted the date of All Saints' Day to 1 November, while 2 November
later became All Souls' Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints'/All
Souls' merged to create the modern Halloween. Historians have used
the name 'Samhain' to refer to Gaelic 'Halloween' customs up until
the 19th century. In Scotland, young men went house-to-house with
masked, veiled, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do
mischief if they were not welcomed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain.
Vanilla Ice was born on Halloween. Rob Schneider too.
Oct. 31. Reformation Day is a religious
holiday celebrated on October 31, alongside All Hallows' Eve, in
remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some
Reformed church communities. It is a civic holiday in the German
states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt
and Thuringia as well as in Slovenia (since the Reformation
contributed profoundly to that nation's cultural development,
although Slovenes are mainly Roman Catholics). It has also been a
national holiday in Chile since 2009. In the United States churches
often transfer the holiday, so that it falls on the Sunday (called
Reformation Sunday) on or before October 31, with All Saints' Day
moved to the Sunday on or after November 1.
October. The Makahiki new year festival
is celebrated in Hawaii in October. It celebrates new beginnings and
honors the Hawaiian god Lono, who represents fertility, music and
rain. There are three phases of Makahiki, with the first consisting
of purification and spiritual cleansing. During the second phase, the
Native Hawaiians celebrate with hula dancing and athletic
competitions. The final phase honors Lono and tests the tribe's
current chief to ensure he is still worthy as a leader.
November 1 and 2nd. Day of the Dead.
Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and
southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even
though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's &
All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with
their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. They
believe that the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October
31, and the spirits of all deceased children (angelitos) are allowed
to reunite with their families for 24 hours. On November 2, the
spirits of the adults come down to enjoy the festivities that are
prepared for them. In most Indian villages, beautiful altars
(ofrendas) are made in each home. They are decorated with candles,
buckets of flowers (wild marigolds called cempasuchil & bright
red cock's combs) mounds of fruit, peanuts, plates of turkey mole,
stacks of tortillas and big Day-of-the-Dead breads called pan de
muerto. The altar needs to have lots of food, bottles of soda, hot
cocoa and water for the weary spirits. Toys and candies are left for
the angelitos, and on Nov. 2, cigarettes and shots of mezcal are
offered to the adult spirits. Little folk art skeletons and sugar
skulls, purchased at open-air markets, provide the final touches. Day
of the Dead is a very expensive holiday for these self-sufficient,
rural based, indigenous families. Many spend over two month's income
to honor their dead relatives. They believe that happy spirits will
provide protection, good luck and wisdom to their families. Ofrenda
building keeps the family close. On the afternoon of Nov. 2, the
festivities are taken to the cemetery. People clean tombs, play
cards, listen to the village band and reminisce about their loved
ones. Tradition keeps the village close. Day of the Dead is becoming
very popular in the U.S.~ perhaps because we don't have a way to
celebrate and honor our dead, or maybe it's because of our
fascination with it's
mysticism.http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html
Nov. 1-7. Election Day. First Tuesday
of November. Should be Federal Holiday in a Democracy.
Nov. 3. Culture Day. Culture Day
(文化の日Bunka
no Hi?) is a national holiday held annually in Japan on November 3
for the purpose of promoting culture, the arts, and academic
endeavor. Festivities typically include art exhibitions, parades, and
award ceremonies for distinguished artists and scholars.
Nov. 7-8. Bolshevik Revolution, aka
October Revolution Day. Lenin takes power.
Nov. 9. Complex cells form
(eukaryotes).
Nov. 11. Veteran's Day (Federal
Holiday). Must talk about World War 1 on this Day. It was bullshit,
and all nations involved should be ashamed of themselves.
November 11. Happy Armistice Day! More
than 15 million people died as a result of the World War I
hostilities. Marshal Ferdinand Foch (Allies) and Matthias Erzberger
(Germany) met in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest, near the
town of Compiègne in the Picardy region of France, in November 1918.
The representatives signed an armistice treaty in the early hours of
November 11, 1918, to end the World War I hostilities on the Western
Front. World War I officially ended at 11 minutes past the 11th hour
on November 11, 1918, because of the treaty. A law was approved on
October 24, 1922, to make November 11 a public holiday in France.
November 15. Palestinian Independence
Day!
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/palestinian-national-authority/public-holidays
November 15. Tupac Katari dies. “I
die, but will return as millions.” an early leader of the
independence activists in Bolivia and a leader or the indigenous
people in their fight against the colonialism of the Spanish Empire
in the early 1780s. His wife was Bartolina Sisa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BApac_Katari
November 16, 1974. This is the
anniversary of the most powerful broadcast ever deliberately beamed
into space with the intention of contacting alien life. The broadcast
formed part of the ceremonies held to mark a major upgrade to the
Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico.
November 17. Happy Student Rebellion
Day! (Czech). Commemorating the student demonstration against Nazi
occupation in 1939, and the demonstration in 1989 that started the
Velvet Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution
November 18. Battle of Vertieres Day.
Haitians defeat French forces for good (bloodshed of Haitian
Revolution ends, 1803).
November 18, 1883. Time Zones are
invented. Railroad companies standardize time and carve America into
the four time zones used to this day. Until now, local "sun"
time was used as people traveled from place to place, but railroads
need a uniform clock to create departure and arrival schedules.
November 19. International Men's Day (IMD) is an annual international
event celebrated on 19 November. Inaugurated in 1999 in Trinidad and
Tobago, the day and its events find support from a variety of
individuals and groups in Australia, the Caribbean, North America,
Asia, Europe and Africa.[1][2] Speaking on behalf of UNESCO, Director
of Women and Culture of Peace Ingeborg Breines said of IMD, "This
is an excellent idea and would give some gender balance." She
added that UNESCO was looking forward to cooperating with the
organizers. The objectives of celebrating an International Men's Day
include focusing on men's and boys' health, improving gender
relations, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive male
role models.[2][3][4][5] It is an occasion to highlight
discrimination against men and boys and to celebrate their
achievements and contributions, in particular for their contributions
to community, family, marriage, and child care.[3][6][7] The broader
and ultimate aim of the event is to promote basic humanitarian
values. International Men's Day is celebrated in over 60
countries,[10] including Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burundi, Canada, the Cayman
Islands, China, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, France, Ghana, Grenada,
Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Malta, Norway,
Pakistan, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Seychelles,
Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, the
United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe, on 19 November, and
global support for the celebration is broad.
November 20, 1889. Happy birthday,
Edwin Hubble! The Hubble Space Telescope is named for this
astronomer. How did this honor come to be? Hubble’s work was
pivotal in changing our entire cosmology: our idea of the universe as
a whole.
Nov. 20. Children's Day is recognized on various days in many places
around the world, to honor children globally. It was first proclaimed
by the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in 1925 and
then established universally in 1954 to protect an "appropriate"
day.[1]
International Day for Protection of
Children, observed in many countries as Children's Day on June 1
since 1950, was established by the Women's International Democratic
Federation on its congress in Moscow (22 November 1949). Major global
variants include aUniversal Children's Day on November 20, by United
Nations recommendation
Nov. 20.
Teacher's Day (Vietnam). In many countries, Teacher's Days (or
Teachers Day) are intended to be special days for the appreciation of
teachers, and may include celebrations to honour them for their
special contributions in a particular field area, or the community in
general. The date on which Teachers' day is celebrated varies from
country to country. Teachers' days are distinct from World Teachers'
Day which is officially celebrated across the world on October 5.[1]
The idea of celebrating Teachers' Day took ground in many countries
during the 20th century; in most cases, they celebrate a local
educator or an important milestone in education (for example,
Argentina commemorates Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's death on
September 11 since 1915,[2] while India celebrates Dr. Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan's birthday on September 5 since 1962[3]). This is the
primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates,
unlike many other International Days.
November 23, 1963. JFK assassinated.
November 25, 1915. Einstein published
the gravitational field equations of general relativity, the
so-called Einstein equations. Then in 1915, Einstein completed the
General Theory of Relativity - the product of eight years of work on
the problem of gravity. In general relativity Einstein shows that
matter and energy actually mold the shape of space and the flow of
time. What we feel as the 'force' of gravity is simply the sensation
of following the shortest path we can through curved,
four-dimensional space-time. It is a radical vision: space is no
longer the box the universe comes in; instead, space and time, matter
and energy are, as Einstein proves, locked together in the most
intimate embrace.
November 27, 1940. Bruce “Be Like
Water” Lee, an atheist, is born.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#Death
Nov. 21-28. (4th Thurs of Nov.).
Thanksgiving Day (Federal Holiday). “Gangs-Thieving Day”. We have
another federal holiday that celebrates genocide, this time, of the
Pequot in 1637; a massacre on Mystic River that slayed 700 women,
children, and old men, and it totally changed the geo-political
situation of America. Natives realized that the British
English-speaking Protestants would murder the fuck outta people, and
were the most barbaric people on this land. All things on this day
should be Pequot, and Pequot related. This should be like a 9-11 Day,
where we're sad about people dying.
Day After Thanksgiving Day. Native
American Heritage Day is a civil holiday observed on the day after
Thanksgiving in the United States.
November 29. Happy Solidarity with
Palestine Day! The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People is annually observed on
November 29. The day is also known as Solidarity Day.
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/solidarity-day-palestinian-people
the status and plight of Palestinian refugees, as well as general
information on Palestinian culture and society.
Dec. 4. Fred Hampton is assassinated
(1969).
Dec. 5. First Multicellular life is
formed.
Dec. 7. Noam Chomsky (atheist) is born
(1928).
December 10. Human Rights Day. UN
Declaration of Human Rights is adopted this day in 1948. IHEU:
International Humanist and Ethical
Union.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Humanist_and_Ethical_Union
December 10. Human Rights Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Day Human Rights Day is
celebrated annually across the world on 10 December. The date was
chosen to honour the United Nations— General Assembly's adoption
and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights(UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights
and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.
The formal establishment of Human Rights Day occurred at the 317th
Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on 4 December 1950, when the
General Assembly declared resolution 423(V), inviting all member
states and any other interested organizations to celebrate the day as
they saw fit.
Dec. 14. Simple animals form on Earth.
Also, arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids) are formed.
December 15, 1791. Bill of Rights are
adopted into the US Constitution. On December 15, 1791, Articles
Three–Twelve, having been ratified by the required number of
states, became Amendments One–Ten of the Constitution.
December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party
was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December
16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as American Indians,
destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company,
in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. They boarded the ships
and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The
British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into
the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of
American history, and other political protests such as the Tea Party
movement after 2010 explicitly refer to it.
December 16. Day of Reconciliation Day. The Day of Reconciliation
(Afrikaans: Versoeningsdag) is a public
holiday in South Africa held annually on 16 December. The date was
chosen because it was significant to both Afrikaner and African
cultures. The holiday came into effect in 1994 after the end of
apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and
national unity.[1] The day is also the de facto start of the South
African summer holiday period being the first of four public holidays
to fall in a sixteen-day period at the height of summer.[2] (The
other days are Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day). For
Afrikaners, 16 December was commemorated as the Day of the Vow,[1]
also known as Day of the Covenant or Dingaan's Day. The Day of the
Vow was a religious holiday commemorating the Voortrekker victory
over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838, and is still
celebrated by some Boers. On the other side of the political
spectrum, 16 December is also the anniversary of the 1961 founding of
Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed wing of the
African National Congress
Dec. 17. Fish and proto-amphibians
formed.
December 17, 1903. On this date, two
Ohio brothers – Wilbur and Orville Wright – made the first
bonafide, manned, controlled, heavier-than-air flight. It was the
first airplane, and it took off at 10:35 a.m. with Orville Wright on
board as pilot. He flew their vehicle, called the Flyer, for 12
seconds over 120 feet (about 37 meters) of sandy ground just outside
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Dec. 20. Land plants formed on Earth.
Dec. 21. Insects and Seeds are formed
on Earth.
Winter Solstice: Dec. 21. Coldest day
of the year. The Earth will warm up, and Spring is on it's way, in 3
months.
Dec. 21-22. Winter Solstice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice All of the Northern
Hemisphere will experience the darkest day of the year. In the U.S.,
we'll have just nine hours, 32 minutes of daylight. For many this
time of year, that means leaving home and returning from work in
darkness.
Dec. 22. Amphibians are formed.
December 22. The Hopi and the Zuni both
celebrate a new year's celebration on 22 December. This ceremony is
called Soyal, and it is a time of renewal and purification. A ritual
is conducted to welcome the sun back after winter.
Dec. 23. Festivus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus Meatloaf, airing of grievances,
and feats of strength. Rainbow Kwanzaa.
Dec. 23. Reptiles are formed.
December 23, 1947. Transister Day.
http://www.wired.com/2009/12/1223shockley-bardeen-brattain-transistor/
The Invention of Transisters happened on this day. A criminally
underappreciated innovation, the transistor is an essential component
in nearly every modern electronic gadget. First developed in 1947 by
Bell Laboratories, these tiny semiconductor devices allow for precise
control of the amount and flow of current through circuit boards.
Originally used in radios, transistors have since become an elemental
piece of the circuitry in countless electronic devices including
televisions, cell phones and computers. The amount of transistors in
integrated circuits doubles nearly every two years—a phenomenon
known as Moore’s Law—so their remarkable impact on technology
will only continue to grow. With the help of engineer John Pierce,
who wrote science fiction in his spare time, Bell Labs settled on the
name “transistor”—combining the ideas of "trans-resistance"
with the names of other devices like thermistors.
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/
December 23. Human Light Day. We
elaborate and express the positive, secular, human values of reason,
compassion, humanity and hope. Human Light illuminates a positive,
secular vision of a happy, just and peaceful future for our world, a
future which people can build by working together, drawing on the
best of our human capacities. "a Humanist's vision of a good
future." They celebrate a positive approach to the coming new
year. IHEU: International Humanist and Ethical
Union.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Humanist_and_Ethical_Union
Dec. 25. Happy Isaac Newton Day! Aka
Grav-Mass aka Crispmas aka Merry Fuck All Religion Day! Christmas Day
(Federal Holiday). There wasn't a War on Christmas until Bill
O'Rielly said it one too many times. Fuck him. I declare a War on
Christmas. At least the Federally recognized version of it, since
it's Unconstitutional, and there's no Day of Celebration for
Athiests. Jesus Christ never existed, and the shit Christians have
done in the name of their religion, Crusades, KKK, Hitler, Mussolini,
Russian Czars, Pequot War, Native American genocide, Columbus's
slavery of natives, etc. were all done in the name of a Christian
God. True “Christians”, who believe in goodness and justice,
should be embarrassed if they do not denounce these savage barbaric
psychopaths. And now they're being shitty as hell whenever somebody
says “Happy Holidays”... getting pissed over a friendly greeting
is now how Christians act? Ah now, come on. That's not Christianly.
But that's the point. It's not Biblical Christianity, but their own
version of God and His word, masquerading around as Christianity.
Religious folks are brainwashed with a massive mental illness. Jesus
said to be nice to everybody, plus he talked about peace, love, and
freedom... just like a Hippie. Plus, “Happy Holidays” is just
“Happy Holy Days”, which still leaves out atheists. Also, there's
supposed to be a separation of Church and State, and until the
Atheists get a Federal Holiday, nobody else can have one. The
Atheists have a monopoly on the truth, and where's our Holy Land? We
need a Holy Land too. INSTEAD of Xmas, let's have Sir Isaac Newton
Day. Grav-Mass. Crispmas. Or Merry Fuck All Religion Day. Sir Isaac
Newton, inventor of both calculus and physics, was actually born on
Christmas Day. Scientific knowledge and understanding, or discussing
what kind of experiment could answer an unresolved question about the
world. We will celebrate the Tree of Knowledge, which represents the
sum total of all human understanding. We use the traditional pine
tree, which is already a very fractal looking tree to represent the
Tree of Knowledge. The tree is decorated with lights and ornaments
symbolizing The Sacred Network or the Internet.”
Dec. 26. Boxing Day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day,
when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a
"Christmas box", from their bosses or employers. Today,
Boxing Day is the bank holiday that generally takes place on 26
December. It is observed in the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong,
Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and
Tobago and other Commonwealth nations, as well as Norway, France and
Sweden. In South Africa, Boxing Day was renamed Day of Goodwill in
1994. In Ireland, Italy, Finland, and Alsace and Moselle in France,
the day is known as St. Stephen's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Stiofáin)
or the Day of the Wren (Irish: Lá an Dreoilín).
In many European countries, including notably Germany, Poland, the
Netherlands and those in Scandinavia, 26 December is celebrated as
the Second Christmas Day
Dec. 26 – Jan. 1. Kwanzaa. Dec 26 to
Jan. 1. end of year celebration.
Dec. 26. Dinosaurs are
formed.http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/astro/act2/H2_Cosmic_Calendar.pdf
Dec. 27. Mammals and Birds are formed
on Earth.
Dec. 28. Flowers are formed on Earth.
Dec. 30. 6:24am. Cretaceous-Paleogene
extinction event, non-avian dinosaurs die out.
Dec. 30. Primates are formed.
Dec. 31. 6:05am. Apes are formed.
Dec. 31. 14:24. 2:24pm or 9:30pm. Hominids are formed on Earth.http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/wonder/book/export/html/14.html
Dec. 31. 11:59:37pm. Farming is
developed.
Dec. 31. 11:59:45. The Wheel is
developed.
Dec. 31. 1 second before midnight.
Invention of the Telescope is formed.
Dec. 31. Midnight. Right now.
8th Day of the 4th Lunar Month.
Buddha's Birthday,(Nepali:बुद्ध जयन्ती
) the birthday of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama, is a holiday
traditionally celebrated inMahayana Buddhism. According to the
Theravada Tripitaka scriptures[which?] (from Pali, meaning "three
baskets"), Gautama was born in Lumbini in modern-day Nepal,
around the year 563 BCE, and raised in Kapilavastu. According to this
legend, briefly after the birth of young prince Gautama, an
astrologer named Asita visited the young prince's father—King
Śuddhodana—and prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a
great king or renounce the material world to become a holy man,
depending on whether he saw what life was like outside the palace
walls. Śuddhodana was determined to see his son become a king, so he
prevented him from leaving the palace grounds. But at age 29, despite
his father's efforts, Gautama ventured beyond the palace several
times. In a series of encounters—known in Buddhist literature as
the four sights—he learned of the suffering of ordinary people,
encountering an old man, a sick man, a corpse and, finally, an
ascetic holy man, apparently content and at peace with the world.
These experiences prompted Gautama to abandon royal life and take up
a spiritual quest.
I hate these floating holidays because
it means there's a central authority for the declaration of these
dates. Let the date be one day, and just leave it at that.
Thursday after Easter. Thursday of the Dead (Arabic: خميس
الأموات, Khamis al-Amwat), also known as
Thursday of the Secrets (Arabic: خميس
الأسرار, Khamis al-Asrar) or Thursday of the
Eggs[1] is a feast day shared by Christians and Muslims in the
Levant.[2] It falls sometime between theEaster Sundays of the
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions. It is a day on
which the souls of the dead are honoured. A popular day among women
in the region,[1] it underscores the shared culture between Arab
Christians and Muslims.
Easter Monday (Monday after Easter).
Family Day (South Africa). Family Day is the name of a public holiday
in South Africa, in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British
Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, in the American states of
Arizonaand Nevada, in Vanuatu, in Vietnam and (as "Family &
Community Day") in the Australian Capital Territory.
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