September 22^nd is

American Business Women’s Day *

Hobbit Day *

Ice Cream Cone Day *

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World Car-Free Day *

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MORE! Ice Cream Cones, Tevye & Golde and Hobbit Birthdays, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bulgaria – Days of Liberation

Japan – Autumnal Equinox Celebration

Mali – Independence Day

Morocco – Bouzemou: Fête des Fiancés
Souk Aamor Agdoud N’Oulmghenni
(Berber Betrothal Festival/Marriage Mart)

Norway – Princess Martha Louise’ Birthday

Spain – Barcelona: Festes de la Mercé
(festival of the patron saint of the city)

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On This Day in HISTORY

480 BC – Battle of Salamis, despite being outnumbered nearly 3 to 1, the Greek fleet of Themistocles defeats Xerxes I and his Persian fleet by tricking them into the narrow straits, where their greater numbers could not maneuver effectively

1598 – English playwright Ben Johnson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel, is tried for the killing, but pleads “benefit of clergy” – a legal fiction that gave judges discretion in sentencing first-time offenders if they were clergy or could read the bible aloud (Johnson’s father was a clergyman, but he was raised by his stepfather, a bricklayer.)  He avoids the death penalty, but is imprisoned, forfeits all his possessions and is branded on the thumb (to prevent him from using the benefit of clergy defense again)

1776 – Nathan Hale is hanged by the British as a spy for the Americans

1789 – U.S. Congress authorizes the office of Postmaster General, but the position had already been held by Benjamin Franklin, appointed by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, followed by Richard Bache in 1776 and Ebebezer Hazard in 1782. The first Postmaster General appointed by Congress is Samuel Osgood, four days after Congress officially approves the department

1791 – Michael Faraday born, English scientist, discoverer of electromagnetic induction

1823 – Joseph Smith claims he was directed by a vision of the Angel Moroni to find a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an unknown ancient American civilization, which he then “translates” into English and publishes as the Book of Mormon

1862 – Abraham Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which states that all slaves held within rebel states would be free as of January 1, 1863

1888 – National Geographic magazine’s first issue is published

1905 – Italo Marchiony finally receives his patent for an ice-cream-cone-making machine *, for which he had filed in December, 1903, five months before the St. Louis World’s Fair opened, which popularized the idea of eating ice cream from a cone

1908 – Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire

1949 – The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb

1951 – Tony Bennett’s “Because of You” is the #1 single

1955 – British commercial television begins, with only six minutes of ads allowed per hour and no Sunday morning TV permitted

1961 – JFK signs the congressional act that establishes the Peace Corps

1964 – Fiddler on the Roof opens on Broadway, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuts on NBC-TV

1973 – The first Hobbit Day,* celebrating the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, promoted in the U.S. by the American Tolkien Society as part of Tolkien Week

1983 – U.S. Congress passes joint resolution acknowledging Business Women’s Day * to honor the founding of the Business Women’s Association on September 22, 1949

1985 – The first Farm-Aid concert, in Champaign IL ,raises $10 for U.S. farm families

1988 – Canadian government apologizes for internment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II, and promise compensation

1992 – U.N. General Assembly expels Yugoslavia for its role in Bosnia-Herzegovina war

2000 – The first World Car Free Day *

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Visuals

• World Car Free Day poster
• International flags
• Battle of Salamis
• Bag End birthday cake

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