September 30 is

International Blasphemy Day *

International Translation Day *

National Mulled Cider Day

Purple for Platelets Day *

Save the Koala Day *

Vegan Baking Day

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MORE! The Magic Flute, TV’s Cheers and Israeli shekels, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Abkhazia – National Liberation Day

Australia – Victoria: Aussie Football
League Grand Final Holiday

Cambodia – Bonn Phchum Ben
(Ancestors’ Day)

India –
Karnataka, Orissa and Tripura:
Mahalaya (Mother Goddess Invocation)
Telangana: Bathukamma
(Goddess Flower Festival)

Marshall Islands – Manit Day
(Culture Day)

Sao Tome and Principe –
Agricultural Reform Day

Turks and Caicos Islands –
National Youth Day
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On This Day in HISTORY

1207 – Rumi, Persian mystic and poet, is born

1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflote) premiered at Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria

1846 – Dr. William Morton performed a painless tooth extraction using ether

1882 – First hydroelectric power plant begins operation Appleton WI

1907 – McKinley National Memorial for the president dedicated in Canton, OH

1935 – Porgy and Bess premiered in Boston MA, then went on to Broadway

1938 –League of Nations outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”

1946 – Nuremberg International Tribunal finds 22 top Nazis guilty of war crimes

1949 – After delivering 2.3 million tons of food to West Berlin despite the Soviet blockade, the Berlin Airlift ends

1951 – The Red Skelton Show first airs on NBC-TV

1953 – The International Federation of Translators claims September 30 as International Translation Day * to pay tribute to the work of translators

1954 – Julie Andrews makes her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend

1966 – Albert Speer, Nazi armaments minister, and Baldur Von Schirach, Hitler Youth founder, are released from Spandau prison after completing 20-year sentences

1971 – Soviet Union and U.S. sign pacts to prevent accidental nuclear war

1976 – California enacts Natural Death Act, first U.S. right-to-die legislation

1980 – Israel issues new currency, the shekel, to replace the pound

1982 – First episode of Cheers airs on NBC-TV

1986 – The Australian Koala Foundation is started in January, and designates September as Koala Month and the last day of the month as Save the Koala Day *

1989 – Thousands of East Germans emigrate under NATO-Soviet Union accord

1997 – France’s Roman Catholic Church apologizes for keeping silent during persecution and deportation of Jews under pro-Nazi Vichy regime

2005 – Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten prints controversial Muhammad drawings. 

2006 – After Jyllands-Posten published editorial cartoons depicting Islam’s prophet Muhammad, there were world-wide protests and even violence and riots in some Muslim countries. The Center for Inquiry establishes International Blasphemy Day * to counteract oppressive laws and social prohibitions against free expression, and to support the right to challenge prevailing religious beliefs without fear of violence, arrest, or persecution

2011 – The Platelet Disorder Support Association, a support group for people with ITP 
(immune thrombocytopenia),  announces the first Purple for Platelets Day  * – supporters wear purple today 

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Visuals

• Young Koala
• International flags
• Children wave at plane during Berlin Airlift
• Bumper sticker for ITP support

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