December 2nd is

Bartender Appreciation Day *

National Fritters Day

National Mutt Day II *

Special Education Day *

Faux Fur Friday – First Friday in December

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery *

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MORE! Napoleon Bonaparte, Fidel Castro and Benazir Bhutto, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Cuba – Armed Forces Day

Ghana – Farmer’s Day

India – Assam Day

Laos – People’s Republic Day

Marshall Islands – Gospel Day

Myanmar – Higher Education Day

Saba – Flag Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1409 – The University of Leipzig opens

1697 – St Paul’s Cathedral is consecrated in London

1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in the American colonies

1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones

1777 (traditional) – Philadelphia housewife and nurse Lydia Darragh saves the lives of General George Washington and his Continental Army when she overhears the British planning a surprise attack on Washington’s army for the following day

1793 – Fleeing his debtors, 21-year-old Samuel Taylor Coleridge enlists in the Light Dragoons, an English cavalry unit

1804 –Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

1816 – The first U.S. savings bank, Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opens

1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In the State of the Union, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas

1845 – Manifest destiny: In the State of the Union, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West

1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States

1899 – John Barbirolli is born, English cellist and conductor

1901 – Gillette patents the KC Gillette Razor, first razor to feature a permanent handle and disposable double-edge razor blades

1908 – Puyi becomes Emperor of China at the age of two

1923 – Maria Callas is born, American-Greek soprano and actress

1927 – After 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile

1930 – In the State of the Union, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy

1939 – New York City’s LaGuardia Airport opens

1942 – During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

1943 – The musical Carmen Jones opens on Broadway

1946 – David Macaulay born , English-American author and illustrator

1947 – Riots break out in Jerusalem over the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine

1949 – The U.N. General Assembly adopts December 2^nd as International Day for the Abolition of Slavery * – the full name of the resolution  is ‘the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) of 2 December 1949)’  There are currently an estimated 21 million forced labor victims worldwide

1954 – The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute”

1956 – The Granma reaches Cuba’s Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the ‘26th of July Movement’ go ashore to start the Cuban Revolution

1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism

1962 – After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the Vietnam War’s progress

1967 – David Bowie’s first solo-single “Rubber Band”released in the U.K.

1969 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle WA, to New York City NY

1970 – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins operations

1971 – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates

1972 – The Temptations “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” reaches #1 on Billboard Hot 100

1975 – The first U.S. federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is signed into law – Special Education Day * is started in 2005 to
commemorate the 30^th anniversary of  I.D.E.A.

1976 – Fidel Castro replaces Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado as President of Cuba

1980 – 4 American missionaries are raped and murdered by a Salvadoran death squad

1981 – Britney Spears is born, American singer-songwriter-dancer

1982 – Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart

1988 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, the first woman head of state of an Islam-dominated nation

1988 – First Bartender Appreciation Day * sponsored by Sailor Jerry Rum

1990 – Chancellor Kohl’s coalition wins first free all-German elections since 1932

1993 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour to repair the Hubble Space Telescope

1997 – The movie Good Will Hunting premieres in Los Angeles

1999 – The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive following the Good Friday Agreement

2001 – Energy-trading company Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy – its collapse costs investors billions, and 5,600 jobs plus over $2 billion in pension plans are lost

2002 – Toyota delivers its first two “market-ready” hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to researchers at the University of California

2005 – Good Dogs are worth celebrating more than once a year, so this day is launched as National Mutt Day II * – National Mutt Day I is July 31. If you have room in your heart and home, rescue a mutt from an Animal Shelter – love and gratitude wrapped in fur!

2010 – NASA announces the discovery of an arsenic-based life form, a microorganism in California’s Mono Lake

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Visuals

• International Day for the Abolition of Slavery poster
• International flags
• St Paul’s from Bankside, a watercolour by Frederick E. J. Goff (before 1931)
• Example of a British Light Dragoon Uniform circa 1794
• Charles Dickens giving a public reading of his work
• Chinese Emperor Puyi, age two
• New York’s LaGuardia Airport, 1939
• Illustration from David Macaulay’s book Cathedral
• Benazir Bhutto, first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan
• Good Will Hunting  movie trailer
• National Mutt Day II poster

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