August 17^th is

Vanilla Custard Day

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Black Cat Appreciation Day *

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National I Love My Feet Day *

National Thrift Shop Day

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Belgium – Kiewit-Hasselt:
Pukkelpop (first day)

Hungary – Budapest
Sziget Festival (last day)

India – Shahenshahi
(Parsi New Year)

Indonesia – Independence Day

Sri Lanka – Nikini Full Moon Poya Day

Taiwan – Chung Yuan:
Zhongyuan (Ghost Festival)

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On This Day in HISTORY

1560 – The Scottish ‘Reformation’ Parliament adopts a ‘confession of faith’ based on the theology of John Calvin, effectively making the Reformed faith led by John Knox the state religion. Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic, refuses to sign it

1585 – Colonists, sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke Island, land in the ‘New World’

MORE! Davy Crockett, Joseph Pulitzer and ‘kiss-proof’ lipstick, click

1784 – Composer Luigi Boccherini gets a 12000 real pay raise from his employer Infante Luis Antonio, younger brother of Spanish King Charles III

1786 – Davy Crockett, frontiersman, politician and hero of the Alamo, is born

1790 – The U.S. capital moved from Philadelphia to New York City

1815 – Napoleon arrived on St Helena to begin in his exile

1859 – John Wise left Lafayette Indiana in a hot air balloon, attempting to deliver a mail bag of 100 letters to New York City – He had to land after only 27 miles

1903 – Joseph Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia University, the beginning of the Pulitzer Prizes

1906 – Hazel Bishop born, organic chemist, creator of “kiss-proof” lipstick

1908 – Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, is shown in Paris

1935 –  Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior in German Third Reich, bans freemasonry 

1945 – Indonesian nationalists declared their independence from the Netherlands

1959 – Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, best-selling Jazz album of all time, debuts

1960 – Gabon becomes independent from France

1961 – Construction of the Berlin Wall was completed by East Germany

1982 – U.S. Senate approved an immigration bill granting permanent resident status to illegal aliens who came to the U.S. before 1977

1983 – Prince’s song “Delirious” was released

2002 – The Charles M. Schulz Museum opens in Santa Rosa, CA

2008 – U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps becomes first athlete to win 8 gold medals in a single Olympic Games

2011 – Wayne Morris starts ‘Black Cat Appreciation Day’ * to honor his sister and her special bond with her black cat. She died on August 17 at the age of 33, just two months after her beloved 20-year-old cat Sinbad passed away. Their father hadn’t wanted a “bad luck” black cat in house, but Sinbad eventually won him over. Because of superstition, black cats are the hardest to place in ‘forever homes’

2015 – Carolyn D. Jenkins starts ‘National I Love My Feet Day’ * in 2015 to raise awareness of how to prevent long-term foot problems

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Visuals

• Black kitten
• International flags
• Davy Crockett
• 1950 Hazel Bishop lipstick ad
• Charles M. Schulz Museum