December 28th is

Card Playing Day

Chocolate Candy Day

Pledge of Allegiance Day *

Endangered Species Act Day *

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MORE! Ben Franklin, Maggie Smith and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Australia – South Australia:
Proclamation Day (statehood)

Falkland Islands – Stanley Horse Races

Mexico – Holy Innocents’ Day

Swaziland – Incwala Day
(purification day before the new year)

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On This Day in HISTORY

1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated under Edward the Confessor

1522 – Margaret of Parma born, illegitimate but acknowledged daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  Appointed by her half-brother Philip II of Spain as Governor of the Netherlands (1559-1567), she resigned when it became clear that her authority would be less than that granted to the Duke of Alba, sent to put down by force northern Dutch opposition to Philip’s religious oppression in spite of her warnings that military intervention would be disastrous

1732 – Benjamin Franklin publishes the first Poor Richard’s Almanac

1798 – Thomas James Henderson born, Scottish astronomer-mathematician; first Astronomer Royal for Scotland; first to measure the distance to Alpha Centauri, and first to determine the parallax of a fixed star

1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes the first U.S. Vice President to resign, leaving after disagreements with President Jackson over states rights and nullification, to replace South Carolina’s U.S. Senator Robert Hayne, who ran for and was elected governor of South Carolina

1836 – South Australia is proclaimed as an Australian state, with Adelaide as its capital

1836 – Spain signs Santa Maria-Calatrava Treaty, recognizing Mexico’s independence

1842 – Calixa Lavallée born, French-Canadian composer who served as a Union Army band member during the U.S. Civil War, who composed the music for O Canada, the national anthem of Canada

1846 – Iowa becomes the 29^th U.S. state

1856 – Woodrow Wilson is born, 28^th President of the United States

1867 – U.S. annexes Midway Atoll, its first territory outside Continental limits

1871 – Frederick Pethick-Lawrence born, British Labor politician, socialist-conscientious objector-women’s rights activist; as Secretary of State for India and Burma, he was involved in negotiations for India’s independence

1873 – William Draper Harkins born, American chemist who first proposed the principle of nuclear fusion, which led to the development of the H-bomb

1882 – Arthur Eddington born, English astrophysics pioneer and popularizer of science, whose articles on Einstein’s theory of general relativity were the first written in English; the natural limit to the luminosity of stars is named the Eddington Limit in his honor

1885 – The political party, Indian National Congress, is founded in Bombay, India

1888 –   F. W. Murnau born, German Expressionist director- producer-screenwriter, Nosferatu, Faust and Sunrise are widely regarded as early cinema masterpieces

1895 – The Lumière brothers, filmmaking pioneers who patented the cinematograph,  show their series of under-a-minute films to a paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines – the debut of the cinema

1897 – Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac premieres in Paris

1898 – Carl-Gustaf Rossby born, Swedish-American meteorologist, study of fluid mechanics in weather, identified the Jet Stream and the long waves in the westerlies named the Rossby Waves in his honor

1902 – Mortimer J. Adler born, American philosopher and author; founder, Institute for Philosophical Research; co-founder, Great Books Foundation; The Idea of Freedom

1905 – Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines born, American pianist and bandleader

1912 – The first municipally owned streetcars begin service in San Francisco CA

1914 – ‘Pops’ Staples born, American Gospel-R&B singer-songwriter, The Staples Singers, father of  Pervis, Mavis, Yvonne and Cleotha, all members of the original group

1918 – Constance Markievicz, Irish revolutionary nationalist, socialist and feminist, while detained in Holloway prison for making a seditious speech, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons. As a member of Sinn Féin, she declined to take her seat after being released as part of their abstentionist strategy

1928 – ‘Moe’ Koffman born, Canadian Jazz musician-composer-arranger, solist and member of Boss Brass

1932 – Manuel Puig born, Argentine author, Kiss of the Spider Woman

1934 – Maggie Smith born, English actress, Academy award winner for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Best Supporting for California Suite; Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films

1937 – The Irish Free State becomes the Republic of Ireland under a new constitution as the sovereign state of Eire

1945 – U.S. Congress officially recognizes the “Pledge of Allegiance” *

1946 – Edgar Winter born, American Rock/Blues musician-singer, The Edgar Winter Group

1948 – “Ziggy’ Modeliste born, American Funk Rock drummer-songwriter

1950 – The Peak District becomes Britain’s first designated National Park

1953 – Martha Wash born, singer- musician’s rights activist who campaigned for  legislation which makes vocal credits mandatory; The Weather Girls, “It’s Raining Men”

1954 – Denzel Washington born, American actor-director-producer, Academy Awards for Glory and Training Day

1969 – Linus Torvalds born, Finnish-American computer programmer, the Linux kernel

1973 – The Endangered Species Act * is passed in the United States.

1973 – Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes Gulag Archipelago, an exposé of the Soviet prison system

1978 – John Legend born (John Stephens),  American musician-songwriter-actor, multiple Grammy award winner, Golden Globe and Academy Award winner

1981 – Elizabeth Jordan Carr, first American test-tube baby, is born in Norfolk VA

1989 – Alexander Dubcek, who was expelled from the Communist Party in 1970, is elected speaker of the Czech parliament

1995 – German prosecutors investigating pornography pressure CompuServe to set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups for its Internet customers

2005 – Former top  Enron Corporation accountant Richard Causey pleads guilty to securities fraud and agrees to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling

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Visuals

• Playing cards
• Chocolate candy
• U.S. Pledge of Allegiance
• Endangered Species Act Day *
• Westminster Abbey, West Front – by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, 18th century
• Margaret of Parma painted by Antonio Moro, circa 1562
• John C. Calhoun, quote on slavery
• Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence in front of Fourways, their home in Surrey – photo by W.S. Walter
• Quote from Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac

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