July 13^th is

World Cup Football Day

National French Fries Day

Embrace Your Geekiness Day

International Rubik’s Cube Day

Gruntled Workers Day *

* if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!

WORLD FESTIVALS & NATIONAL HOLIDAYS 

Australia – Alice Springs Camel Cup

Britain – Larmer Tree Festival (opening day)

Montenegro – Statehood Day

Mongolia – Naadam Holiday (day 3)

On This Day in HISTORY

1527 – John Dee, Welsh-English astronomer and mathematician, is born

1579 – Arthur Dee, physician and chemist – John’s son by his third wife – is born

1643 – Royalist troops defeat the Roundheads in the Battle of Roundway Down

1793 – Charlotte Corday assassinates Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub.

1812 – The first pawnbroking ordinance was passed in New York City.

1836 – U.S. Patent Office begins numbering patents – John Ruggles receives patent #1

1865 – Horace Greeley advises readers to “Go West young man”

1923 – The “Hollywoodland” sign is dedicated (“land” removed during 1949 renovation)

To find out more about World Cup Soccer Day & Stratford Shakespeare Festival, click

1930 – The first World Cup football (soccer) matches held in Montevideo, Uruguay

The inaugural FIFA World Cup – July 13 to July 30 1930. Uruguay was selected as the host nation, because they had won the 1928 Summer Olympics, and were also celebrating their constitution’s centenary.  Thirteen teams ( 7 South American, 4 European, and 2 North American) entered the tournament.

The first two World Cup matches took place on July 13: France defeated Mexico 4-1 and the U.S. beat Belgium 3–0. Lucien Laurent of France scored the first goal in World Cup history, while American goalkeeper Jimmy Douglas posted the first official “clean sheet” in the tournament.

In the final match, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2, in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in the specially-built Estadio Centenario, to become the first World’s Cup champions.

1944 – Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, is born

1953 – Opening Day of the first Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada

1954 – France, Great Britain and U.S. reach accord which splits Vietnam in two.

1977 – New York City Blackout puts 9 million people in the dark for 24 hours

1985 – Live Aid concerts in London, Philadelphia, Sydney, Moscow and other cities

2002 – In India, Dr. P.V. Rajiv uses sildenafil citrate (Viagra) to open up constricted
…………blood vessels in the lungs of three “blue” babies

2013 – George Zimmerman is found ‘not guilty’ of killing Trayvon Martin

Visuals

• French Fries
• International flags
• The Death of Marat, painted by Jacques-Louis David, 1793
• Uruguay vs. Argentina in the first World Cup final, July 30, 1930
• Alec Guinness in Richard III, inaugural Stratford Shakespeare Festival – Canada