September 30 is
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
Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein had a thought on blasphemy:
[from “Time Enough for Love” (1973)]
Odd that trying to impose your religious beliefs on someone else seems more socially acceptable
It’s a toss-up on who’s worse Muslims, Mormons or Southern Baptists. I didn’t include Jehovah Witnesses because while annoying they’re not generally violent about it.
I don’t think it matters which brand of fundamental extreme “-ism ” it is — or even whether it’s religious or political — they’re all based on hatred and intolerance, and exploiting the fears and misfortunes of desperate, ignorant people.