***********************************
Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.
Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays. Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.
Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you. What better way to start the week than with a smile!
A pile of kittens for your Monday the 13th Smile:
***********************************
Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.
 |
| everydaypower |
***********************************
Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border. She and Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey take turns providing a theme each week. Mother Owl/Charlotte and Merry Mae almost always participate, too. This weeks theme is Leap Year.
Why is February
So short?
In doling out days,
Caesar was no sport.
Julius wanted
To be number One
He named July for himself
And then when he was done
He wanted his month
A long one to be
So a day from February
He stole, you see.
Then along came his nephew
Augustus by name,
And you guessed it,
The month August he did claim.
He couldn’t let uncle
Julius have more days,
So poor February,
At 28 it stays
Except when the calendar
Needs to keep on track
With the sun, we give
February one back.
***********************************
Today is:
Clean Off Your Desk Day -- me and what army? (Note: some sites put this as always on Jan. 9, some the second Monday of January; either way, my question remains)
Democracy Day -- Cape Verde
Eugenio Maria de Hostos' Day -- Puerto Rico (birth anniv. obs.)
Feast of St. Kentigern (a/k/a St. Mungo) (Patron of Glasgow whose given name meant "head chief" but whose nickname meant "dear one.")
Ides of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar
Liberation Day -- Togo
Maghi -- Sikh
Make Your Dreams Come True Day -- no info on the origin of this; maybe someone who broke their New Year's resolutions by this day used the fact that it's New Year's by the Julian calendar to start over, or perhaps also related to Horatio Alger
Midvintersblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (midwinter festival)
National Peach Melba Day
Old New Year's Day -- Belarus; Georgia; Montenegro; Republic of Macedonia; Republic of Srpska (Yes, that's how it's spelled; no, i don't know how to pronounce it); Serbia; Russia; Ukraine; Wales (Julian Calendar)
Plough Monday -- UK (farm work is resumed the Monday following the 12 Days of Christmas, and ploughs are brought to the church to be blessed)
Pongal begins -- India (thanksgiving festival at the end of the harvest season, honoring Indra, god of clouds and rain)
first day, Bhogi
Radio Day -- anniversary of the first public radio broadcast in 1910
Recuperation Fortnight begins -- Fairy Calendar (i think i need one of those!)
Runic Half-month of Peorth (womb) begins
Rubber Ducky Day
Seijin-no-hi -- Japan (Adult's Day, or Coming of Age Day; celebrating all who have reached age 20, full legal adult age, in the past year)
Sidereal Winter Solstice Eve -- celebrations through South and Southeast Asia, including
Bhogi -- Tamil (first day of Pongal)
Lohri -- Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
Uruka -- Assam
Silvesterklausen -- Switzerland ("Old" New Year's celebration, based on the Julian Calendar)
St. Hilarius' Day (according to English tradition, the coldest day of the year; Patron of learning challenged children; Argusto, Italy; Vervio, Italy; against snakes and snake bites)
St. Knut's Day (a/k/a Little Christmas or Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen among the Scandinavians, it celebrates Canute IV of Denmark and is the day to "plunder" the tree put up on Christmas Eve, eating the candies and cookies that were decorating it, and puting all the other decorations away before the tree is removed.)
Strive and Succeed Day -- Horatio Alger's birth anniversary
Theogamia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (anniversary celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera; date approximate, but during Gamelion, the month of marriages)
Tiugunde Day -- Old England (midwinter offering, a celebration picked up from the Norse Midvintersblot)
Tyvendedagen -- Norway (Twentieth day after Christmas, official end of Yuletide or "Juletid")
Birthdays Today:
Liam Hemsworth, 1990
Joannie Rochette, 1986
Orlando Bloom, 1977
Nicole Eggert, 1972
Keith Coogan, 1970
Patrick Dempsey, 1966
Penelope Ann Miller, 1964
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 1961
Kevin Anderson, 1960
Jay McInerney, 1955
Richard Moll, 1943
Frank Gallo, 1933
Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931
Frances Sternhagen, 1930
Gwen Verdon, 1925
Army Archerd, 1922
Robert Stack, 1919
Alfred Carl Fuller, 1885
Sophia Tucker, 1884
Horatio Alger, 1832
Salmon P. Chase, 1808
DEbuting/Premiering Today:
"The Sopranos"(TV), 1999
"Mickey Mouse"(Comic strip), 1930
Today in History:
Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria, 1099
Sicut Didum, the papal bull prohibiting the enslavement of Canary Island natives who had converted to Christianity, is promulgated, 1435
The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison, 1605
The Bank Of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, 1607
Jonathan Swift is ordained and Anglican priest in Ireland, 1695
James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, 1733
John Walter publishes the first issue of the London Times, 1785
The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins, 1830
Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole European survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, 1842
Anthony Foss patents the accordion, 1854
A chenille manufacturing machine is patented by William Canter of NYC, 1863
A circus fire in Poland kills 430, 1883
The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting, 1893
U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution, 1893
The first radio set is advertised, a Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American; claimed to receive signals up to one mile, 1906
The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, 1910
An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800, 1915
The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people, 1939
Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car, 1942
Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1964
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American US Cabinet member, 1966
Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison, 1968
A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa, 1985
L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American US governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia, 1990
Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, 1991
An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800, 2001
The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy, 2012
An early-morning ballistic missile alert is sent across Hawaii in error and revoked after 38 minutes, 2018