October 24^th is

CSPI Food Day *

Through-the-Lens Day *

International United Nations Day *

World Development Information Day *

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MORE! Chartres Cathedral, Women’s Strike and Black Tuesday, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Judaism – Shimini Atzeret, followed by Simchat Torah at sundown

Egypt – Suez Day

Iceland – Women’s Strike Anniversary *

New Zealand – Labour Day

Zambia – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1260 – Chartres Cathedral dedication is attended by French King Louis IX, whose coat of arms was painted over the apsidal boss (a decorative protrusion of stone or wood at the central junction of the ribs of a vault)

1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for its missing colonists

1632 – Scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek is born in Delft, Holland, creator of first microscope lenses powerful enough to observe single-celled animals – ‘Through-the-Lens Day’ * celebrates how his lens has added to human knowledge

1648 – The Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties signed by various combinations of  the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, Holland, and assorted Holy Roman Empire princes and sovereigns of free imperial cities, effectively ends the European wars of religion –The Eighty Years’ War for Dutch independence from Spain, and the Thirty Years’ War among everybody else

1795 – The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is divided up between Austria, Prussia and Russia

1836 – Alonzo D. Phillips patents the phosphorous friction safety match

1851 – English astronomer William Lassell is first to observe the moons Umbriel and Ariel of Uranus

1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed, ending the need for the 18-month-old Pony Express – the first message is sent by Justice Stephen Field in California to President Lincoln in Washington DC

1901 – Desiring to secure her later years financially, and avoid the poorhouse, on her 63^rd birthday, Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to survive a trip over  Niagara Falls in a barrel – the barrel was tested the previous day, going over the falls with a cat inside, who survived, bloodied and spitting mad

1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air for 9 minutes and 45 seconds in his Wright  Glider at Kill Devil Hills, NC

1917 – Bolshevik Red Guards begin takeover of buildings in Petrograd, Russia, at the start of the October Revolution

1926 – Harry Houdini’s last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit

1929 – Black Tuesday stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange

1931 – The George Washington Bridge, spanning the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, opens to public traffic

1939 – Nylon stockings are sold for the first time in Wilmington DE, and Benny Goodman’s orchestra records “Let’s Dance”

1940 – In the U.S., the 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

1945 – Representatives of 50 governments at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, CA, ratify the U.N. Charter, and the organization officially comes into existence – celebrated as United Nations Day *

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space

1947 – Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, ratting out Disney employees he believes to be communists

1948 – In a speech before the Senate War Investigating Committee, Bernard Baruch coins the phrase “Cold War” and the first United Nations Day * is held

1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters in New York is laid

1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower pledges U.S. support for South Vietnam

1957 – U.S. Air Force starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program

1960 – Cuba completes nationalizing all American-owned property – it had begun nationalizing all foreign-owned property on August 6, 1960

1962 – During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. military forces go on the highest alert in the postwar era, preparing for a possible full-scale war with the Soviet Union – U.S. blockade of Cuba officially begins

1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the U.K., and becomes the Republic of Zambia

1972 – The U.N. adds World Development Information Day * to United Nations Day to increase worldwide awareness each year of development problems and the necessity of strengthening international co-operation to solve them

1973 – The Yom Kippur War, launched against Israel by Egypt and Syria with backing from most of the Middle Eastern Arab nations, ends on this date with a Israeli victory

1975 – The Women’s Strike *: 90% of Icelandic women take part in a national women’s strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality

1980 – The Polish government legalizes the Solidarity trade union

1998 – Launch of Deep Space One comet/asteroid mission

2001 – U.S. House of Representatives approves legislation giving police the power to secretly search homes, tap all of any person’s telephone conversation and track people’s use of the Internet

2003 – Concorde takes its last commercial flight, landing at London Heathrow

2007 – Chang’e 1, the first unmanned lunar-orbiting satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center

2008 – Bloody Friday when many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices

2011 – Food Day * is launched by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in partnership with a coalition of food movement leaders and organizations, on October 24 annually, to inspire Americans to improve their diets and our food policies
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Visuals

• World Development Information Day Tree
• International flags
• Chartres Cathedral
• Anthony van Leeuwenhoek looking though lens
• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth before it was broken up
• Harry Houdini poster and photograph
• United Nations Day header
• 1975 Women’s Strike in Iceland
• Concorde’s last landing

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