February 3rd is

Carrot Cake Day

Bubble Gum Day *

Give Kids a Smile Day *

National Wear Red Day *

The Day the Music Died *

Four Chaplains Memorial *

National Women Physician Day *
___________________________________________________________

MORE! Felix Mendelssohn, Elizabeth Blackwell and Eric Holder, click

___________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Honduras – Our Lady of Suyapa
(Virgin of Suyapa statue paraded)

Japan – Setsubun
(Shinto/day before spring)

Mozambique – Heroes’ Day

Paraguay – San Blaise Day

Sao Tome and Principe – Batepá Martyr’s Day *

Vietnam – Communist Party Founding Day
___________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

1377 – ‘The Cesena Bloodbath’ – During the War of the Eight Saints, between a coalition of Italian city-states led by Florence and the Papal states, over 2000 civilians in the coalition city of  Cesena are massacred by the Papal Condottieri

1468 – Johannes Gutenberg dies, revolutionary inventor of moveable type printing, inspired by the screw presses used in winemaking

1488 –  Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the first known European to travel so far south

1690 – Massachusetts colony issues first paper money in the Americas to pay soldiers

1736 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger is born, Austrian composer

1783 – Spain recognizes U.S. independence from Britain

1787 – A militia army, funded by Massachusetts merchants, led by American Revolution Major General Benjamin Lincoln surprises the remaining insurgents of Shay’s Rebellion, a protest against high taxes, aggressive debt collection and political corruption, the last real engagement of the rebellion

1809 – The territory of Illinois is created

1809 – Felix Mendelssohn is born, German Romantic composer

1811 – Horace Greeley is born, American founder and editor of the New York Tribune

1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell born in Bristol England, becomes the first woman in the United States to graduate from medical school and earn a medical degree, abolitionist and women’s rights activist; founds the N.Y. Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, which also serves as a nursing training facility, sending a number of nurses to Dorothea Dix while she was Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War

1842 – Sydney Lanier born, American composer and poet

1869 – Edwin Booth opens his new theatre in New York City, with a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 

1874 – Gertrude Stein born, expat American literary stylist and art collector in Paris

1894 – Norman Rockwell is born, American painter and illustrator

1901 – The U.S. Army Nurse Corps becomes a permanent organization

1909 – Simone Weil born, French labor organizer and philosopher-mystic

1911 – Jehan Alain born, French composer and organist

1913 – 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified, giving Congress the power to levy taxes on income.  In 1913 less than 1% of the population paid income tax at the rate of 1%. Before this taxes were mostly on food and merchandise sales

1916 – Cafe Voltaire opens in Zurich, Switzerland, a meeting place for a group that started the Dada movement

1917 – The U.S. breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany, after it announces a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare

1918 – San Francisco’s Twin Peaks Tunnel, the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet, begins service

1927 – President Coolidge signs a bill to authorize the Federal Radio Commission

1930 – Gillian Ayres born, English abstract painter

1935 – Johnny “Guitar” Watson born, American blues and funk singer-songwriter

1941 – Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra record “Amapola”

1943 – Four Chaplains Memorial Day * When U.S. troop transport ship Dorchester was torpedoed by a German submarine in the icy waters between Newfoundland and Greenland, the four chaplains aboard, Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed, gave their own life jackets to save four soldiers, and went down with the ship, standing together offering prayers

1946 – The first issue of Holiday magazine is published

1947 – Percival Prattis is the first black news correspondent admitted to the House and Senate press gallery in Washington DC, working for Our World in New York City

1951 – The Rose Tattoo, by Tennessee Williams, opens on Broadway

1953 – Batepá Massacre *: Portuguese colonial authorities try to impress Forros, descendants of freed slaves, into forced labor; when they resist, hundreds are killed

1959 – The Day the Music Died *  Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) are killed in a plane crash near Mason City, Iowa

1960 – Frank Sinatra garners the nickname “ The Chairman of the Board” when he forms Reprise Records, and serves as its CEO

1969 – At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed leader of the P.L.O.

1971 – Apollo 14 astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell land on the lunar surface during the third successful manned mission to the moon

1972 – The Winter Olympics open in Sapporo, Japan

1988 – U.S. House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan’s request for more than $36 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras

1989 – South African State President P.W. Botha suffers a stroke, forcing him to resign leadership of the ruling National Party, then as president; succeeded by F.W. de Klerk

1994 – Space shuttle Discovery blasts off with a woman, USAF Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot’s seat for the first time

2003 – The first National Wear Red Day * started by the American Heart Association as part of its ongoing educational efforts about the risks of heart disease and stroke facing American women

2003 – Give Kids a Smile Day * is launched by the American Dental Association Foundation, which funds giving dental services to underserved children at no cost to their families

2006 – Bubble Gum Day * is launched by children’s book author Ruth Spiro; Bubble-Gum Artist; each year, a different worthy cause is chosen to receive the money raised by the Bubble Gum Day events and programs; for 2017, it goes to World Read Aloud Day literacy campaign

2009 – Eric Holder is sworn in as the first African American U.S. Attorney General

2010 – The Alberto Giacometti sculpture L’Homme qui marche sells for $103.7 million

2015 – The British House of Commons votes to approve scientists creating babies from the DNA of three people

2016 – National Women Physician Day * is launched on Elizabeth Blackwell’s birthday by the Physician Mother Group (PMG) a support group for women doctors to collaborate and support each other as the face the daunting challenge of balancing their medical and family commitments
___________________________________________________________

Visuals

• National Women Physician Day poster
• International flags
• Map of route and Bartolomeu Dias
• Elizabeth Blackwell with society quote
• Edwin Booth
• Gertrude Stein with America quote
• “The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell
• Simone Weil with Grace quote
• “Anthony and Cleopatra” by Gillian Ayres
• The Rose Tattoo 1951 Broadway production with Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach
• Lt. Col. Eileen Collins
• Eric Collins sworn in as Attorney General

___________________________________________________________