September 21st is

U.N. International Day of Peace

World Gratitude Day

Autumnal Equinox
(Northern Hemisphere)

Vernal Equinox
(Southern Hemisphere)

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MORE!  J.R.R. Tolkein, Jimi Hendrix and Masoumeh Ebtekar, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Armenia – Referendum/Independence Day

Belize – Independence Day

Bosnia-Herzegovina – Mala gosopjina
(Orthodox – nativity of the Virgin Mary)

Canada Montreal QC:
Montreal Pop Festival

Ghana – Founder’s Day
(Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday)

India – Kerata:
Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi Day
(death ceremony of Sree Narayana Guru)

Malta – Jum Indipendenza

Papua New Guinea – St. Michael’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1792 – The French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy

1843 – John Williams Wilson claims the Strait of Magellan for the newly independent government of Chile

1866 – H.G. Wells, pioneering science fiction writer, is born

1874 – Gustav Holst, composer known for The Planets, is born

1897 – “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” editorial is printed in the New York Sun

1931 – Great Britain goes off the gold standard

1937 – J.R.R. Tolkien publishes The Hobbit

1942 – Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress makes its first flight

1957 – Perry Mason premieres on CBS-TV

1968 – Jimi Hendrix releases “All Along the Watchtower”

1973 – U.S. Senate confirms Henry Kissenger as the first naturalized citizen to hold the office of Secretary of State

1960 – Masoumeh Ebtekar born, Iranian politician and professor of immunology, first woman Vice President of Otan (1997-2005), Head of Environmental Protection Organization since 2013

1964 – The world’s first Mach 3 bomber, North American XB-70 Valkyrie, makes its maiden flight

1977 – Fifteen countries, including the U.S. and the Soviet Union, sign a nuclear non-proliferation pact

1981 – Belize becomes independent from the United Kingdom

1983 – Interior Secretary James G. Watt described a special advisory panel as “a black … a woman, two Jews and a cripple.” He later apologized and resigned

1984 – David Bowie releases “Tonight”

1985 – North and South Korea open their borders for a family reunion program

1991 – Armenia is granted independence from the Soviet Union

1996 – Virginia Military Institute, the last state-supported males-only school, under a Supreme Court order, says it will admit women, but will require them to meet the same fitness requirements as males cadets – and get crewcuts, because it would be “demeaning to women to cut them slack” 

1996 – U.S. Congress passes the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriage, but allowing states to use their own definition, but not requiring them to recognize same-sex marriages granted under laws of other states

2001 – NASA’s Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 kilometers of Comet Borrelly

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Visuals

• International Day of Peace poster
• International flags
• The time machine, in the 1960 film based on The Time Machine  by H.G. Wells
• 1937 book jacket of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
• North American XB-70 Valkyrie
• NASA’s Deep Space 1

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