March 2nd  is

Banana Cream Pie Day

Dr. Seuss Day *

Old Stuff Day

World Book Day I *

NEA’s Read Across America Day *
___________________________________________________________

MORE! Sam Houston, Tamara Toumanova and  Jon Bon Jovi, click

___________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bahá’i  – The Fast of 19 Days (sunrise-to-sunset fast during the month of ‘Ala’) leads up to the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere – The Badi’ calendar has 19 months of 19 days each (361 days total), and the New Year begins at the Vernal Equinox

Islamic – Martyrdom of Fatima/Hazrat Fatemeh Martyrdom: 632 CE –The Prophet Muhammad’s daughter is mortally wounded when her house is stormed by men who have come for her husband, pinning her between the door and the wall so she suffers a miscarriage, as they drag her husband to a forced swearing of allegiance. She is revered as the ideal of Muslim womanhood: devoted daughter, loving wife and mother

Anguilla – James R. Webster’s Birthday
(revolutionary leader, ‘Father of the Nation’)

Ethiopia – Adwa Victory Day *

Iran – Hazrat Fatemeh Martyrdom

Myanmar – Peasants’ Day

United States –
Texas: Independence Day
___________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

537 – The Ostrogoth army under King Vitiges begins their first siege of the city of Rome;   Belisarius, the Byzantine general leading the forces of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I, conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off

1629 – English King Charles I dissolves Parliament against opposition, imprisoning nine members of parliament

1769 – DeWitt Clinton born, American politician and naturalist, U.S. Senator and Governor for New York; member of the Erie Canal Commission and driving force during the building of the canal

1791 – Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris

1793 – Sam Houston born, American soldier and politician, first in Tennessee, then 1^st & 3^rd President of Republic of Texas, U.S Senator and 7^th Governor of state of Texas

1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes

1799 – Congress passed the first U.S. weights and measures law, which does not set standards, but requires the surveyor of each port to test and correct the instruments and weights used to calculate duties on imports.

1807 –  The U.S. Congress passes “An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States  and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight” “from any foreign kingdom, place, or country any negro, mulatto, or person of colour, with intent to hold, sell, or dispose of such negro, mulatto, or person of colour, as a slave, or to be held to service or labour.” Continued trade was still allowed of slaves who were descendants of those currently in the U.S., and smugglers still brought in at least 10,000 more slaves from Africa in spite of the ban

1824 – Bedřich Smetana born, Bohemian composer; ‘Father of Czech music’

1831 – Metta Victoria Fuller Victor  born, American author; “dime novel” pioneer

1836 – Texas declares independence from Mexico and an ad interim government forms

1859 –Solomon Rabinovich born, pen name Sholem Aleichem, leading Yiddish author and playwright; the musical Fiddler on the Roof is based on some of his stories

1860 – Susanna M. Salter born, first American woman elected to political office, mayor of Argonia KS

1861 – The U.S. Congress creates the Territory of Nevada

1866 – Excelsior Needle Company begins making sewing machine needles

1873 –  Inez Haynes Irwin born, American author and feminist, Author’s Guild president

1877 – Rutherford B. Hayes is declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress, even though his opponent, Samuel J. Tilden, won the popular vote

1877 – Harry E. Soref born, American inventor; patents the laminated steel padlock; founds the Master Lock Company in 1921; in 1928, they gain fame shipping 147,600 padlocks to federal prohibition agents in NY to lock up the speakeasies they raid

1882 – An assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria

1896 – Adwa Victory Day * – battle fought between the Ethiopian Empire and the  Kingdom of Italy near the town of Adwa, Ethiopia, a decisive win for Ethiopia which secures the nation’s sovereignty

1897 – U.S. President Cleveland vetoes legislation that would require a literacy test for immigrants entering the country

1899 – Mount Rainier National Park in Washington is established by the U.S. Congress

1899 – U.S. President McKinley signs a measure creating the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy; George Dewey becomes the first U.S. Admiral

1900 – Kurt Weill is born, German composer, worked with Bertolt Brecht on plays with music, including The Threepenny Opera

1901 – The first telegraph company in Hawaii opens

1901 – U.S. Congress passes the Platt amendment, limiting Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops

1903 – The Martha Washington Hotel opens for business in New York City with 416 rooms; the first hotel exclusively for women

1904 –  Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) born, American writer and cartoonist, beloved children’s book author; Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat – celebrated as Dr. Seuss Day *

1908 – In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduces three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.

1911 – Maurice Maeterlinck’s The Bluebird opens in Paris

1917 – The Russian Revolution begins; Czar Nicholas II abdicates

1917 – Puerto Ricans are granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act

1919 – Tamara Toumanova born of Russian parents exiled in Paris, prima ballerina, Paris Opera, Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, and Ballet Theatre NY (now New York City Ballet)

1925 – State and federal highway officials develop a nationwide route-numbering system and adopt the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker

1929 – The U.S. Congress creates the U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals

1931 – Tom Wolfe born, American non-fiction writer, novelist and newspaper reporter

1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev born, Soviet President (1990-1991), Central Committee General Secretary (1985-1991), Chair of the Supreme Soviet (1989-1990)

1933 – The motion picture King Kong has its world premiere in New York

1934 – Doug Watkins born, American jazz double bassist

1939 – The Massachusetts legislature votes to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, which had already been in effect for 147 years

1942 – Lou Reed born, American singer-songwriter, The Velvet Underground

1946 – Ho Chi Minh is elected President of Vietnam

1949 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II lands in Fort Worth TX, completing the first non-stop around-the-world flight

1950 – Karen Carpenter born, American singer, The Carpenters

1959 – The first of two recording sessions by Miles Davis for the album Kind of Blue

1962 – Jon Bon Jovi born, American singer-songwriter and philanthropist, frontman of rock band Bon Jovi

1964 – The Beatles release “Twist and Shout” in the U.S., and begin their first film, A Hard Day’s Night

1964 – The Beatles release “Twist and Shout”

1965 – The movie of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” premieres

1969 – In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde makes its first test flight

1974 – U.S. Postage stamps jumps from 8 to 10 cents for first-class mail

1983 – The U.S.S.R. performs an underground nuclear test

1985 – U.S. government approves a screening test for AIDS that detects antibodies to the virus that prevents possibly contaminated blood from tainting the U.S. blood supply.

1986 – Corazon Aquino is sworn into office as president of the Philippines; her first public declaration restores the civil rights of the citizens of her country

1987 – The U.S. government reports that the median price for a new home had gone over $100,000 for the first time

1989 – Representatives from the 12 European Community nations agree to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century

1995 – Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is assassinated by a gunman in Moscow

1995 – Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain’s Barings Bank

1997 –UNESCO’s first World Book Day * is celebrated on April 23, but it is a moveable holiday, so this year it’s being celebrated on March 2, in conjunction with Dr. Seuss Day, to applaud younger children reading – one of the best things about World Book Day is that kids are encouraged to come to school dressed as their favorite character from a book. In some countries, it will be celebrated in 2017 on its original date, April 23, the birthday of William Shakespeare (so I’m calling that World Book Day II – the more times we get to celebrate books the better, as far as I’m concerned)

1998 – The first NEA’s Read Across America Day * – a National Education Association initiative held annually on the nearest weekday to the birthday of Dr. Seuss, to encourage and celebrate reading

1998 – The U.N. Security Council endorses U.N. chief Kofi Annan’s deal to open Iraq’s presidential palaces to arms inspectors

1998 – Images from the American spacecraft Galileo show the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat

2004 – NASA announces that the Mars Rover Opportunity has discovered evidence that water existed on Mars in the past

2011 – The Supreme Court rules 8-1 that members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church have a First Amendment right to picket the funeral of a Marine
___________________________________________________________

Visuals

• Banana Cream Pie
• Dr Seuss quote about reading
• International flags
• British King Charles I
• Sam Houston, eve of battle quote
• Metta Fuller Victor, with cover of The Dead Letter
• Sholem Aleichem, life quote
•  Inez Haynes Irwin, plague of ideas quote
• Life lessons from Dr. Seuss
• Tom Wolfe, some people quote
• Lucky Lady-II refuels from a Boeing KB 29M tanker – Azores February 26, 1949
• UNESCO’s World Book Day banner
• Picture taken in Endurance Crater by Mars Rover Opportunity

___________________________________________________________