March 3rd  is

Mulled Wine Day

National Anthem Day *

World Hearing Day *

World Wildlife Day *

Dress in Blue Day *

National Day of Action *

What If Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day
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MORE! Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Annie Sullivan and Gandhi, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bulgaria – Liberation Day

East Timor – Veterans Day

Georgia – Mother’s Day

Ireland – Irish Whiskey Day

Japan – Hina Matsuri
(Doll Festival)

Malawi – Martyrs’ Day

Mexico – Catemaco: Noche de Brujas
(Night of the Shamans)
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On This Day in HISTORY

724 – Japanese Empress Genshō abdicates the throne in favor of her nephew Shōmu

1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates Wales into England, and is the constitutional basis for the government of the Principality of North Wales

1585 – Teatro Olimpico is inaugurated in Vicenza in northern Italy with a production of Oedipus the King by Sophocles; it is the last design of Andrea Palladio before his death, and one of only three Renaissance theatres still standing; Teatro Olimpico is still used several times a year, now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Vicenza

1652 – Thomas Otway born, English dramatist and poet

1678 – Madeleine Jarret, called Madeleine de Verchères, is born, Canadian leader who as a 14-year-old girl led a fight against Iroquois warriors attacking Fort Verchères

1756 – William Godwin born, philosopher and political writer

1791 – U.S. Congress passes a resolution creating the U.S. Mint

1793 – William Macready born, English actor, manager and diarist

1803 – The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge begins; U.S. District Court Judge John Pickering, of the district of New Hampshire, is accused of making unlawful rulings and intoxication on the bench

1812 – The U.S. Congress passes the first foreign aid bill, authorizing $50,000 for the relief of victims of an earthquake in Venezuela

1817 – The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans is opened

1842 – Sidney Lanier born, American Poet

1844 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov born, Russian composer, one of  The Five aka The Might Handful: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, who all lived in St Petersburg between 1856 and 1870

1845 – (1) Florida becomes the 27th U.S. state – (2) U.S. Congress passes legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto for the first time; lame-duck President John Tyler vetoes an appropriation bill which has a provision prohibiting the President from authorizing building of Revenue Marine Service (Coast Guard) ships without Congressionally approved appropriations; the next Congressional veto override would not happen until over a decade later, during Franklin’s Pierce’s administration – (3)
An Act of Congress establishes uniform postal rates throughout the U.S., effective on July 1, 1845

1847 – Alexander Graham Bell born in Scotland, American inventor of the telephone

1849 – (1) The U.S. Department of the Interior is established – (2) U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act which allows minting of gold coins – (3) U.S. Congress creates the territory of Minnesota

1851 – The U.S. Congress authorizes the 3-cent piece, the smallest U.S. silver coin

1857 – Britain and France declare war on China – the Second Opium War

1863 – Free city delivery of mail is authorized by the U.S. Postal Service

1873 – U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail; it is later used against Margaret Sanger, among others, to try to prevent distribution of information about contraceptives

1875 – U.S. Congress authorizes the 20-cent piece, which is only used for 3 years

1877 – Garrett Morgan born, African-American inventor, improved the sewing machine and traffic lights

1878 – Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of San Stenafano, granting independence to Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and autonomy to Bulgaria; Austria-Hungary forces changes to the treaty terms in the Treaty of Berlin on July 13, 1878

1885 – The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) is incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company

1885 – The U.S. Post Office begins offering special delivery for first-class mail

1887 – Annie Sullivan arrives at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter, Helen

1893 – Beatrice Wood born, American illustrator and potter

1894 – The Atlantis begins publication, the first Greek newspaper in America

1900 – 100,000 striking miners in the Ruhr area of Germany return to work, having been given assurances of wage increases and a shorter working day; but the employers’ pledges are not kept, beginning 20 years of strife between miners and owners

1902 – Enrico Caruso records 10 arias for the Gramophone Company, the first well-known performer to make a record

1903 – Immigration Act of 1903, a major overhaul of  U.S. immigration policy, expands excludable classes of immigrants to include anarchists, prostitutes, epileptics, those who had “been insane within five years,” and any who had two or more “attacks of insanity”; deportation within two years of arrival of  “any alien who becomes a public charge by reason of lunacy, idiocy, or epilepsy, “unless he or she could clearly demonstrate that the condition had begun after arrival; also imposes $2 head tax per immigrant

1904 – Wilhelm II of Germany makes the first recording of a political document with Thomas Edison’s cylinder

1905 – Russian Tsar Nicolas II agrees to the creation of an elected assembly

1908 – After a dozen violent incidents sparked by a severe economic crisis and high unemployment, the U.S. government declares open war on U.S. anarchists; President Theodore Roosevelt states ‘compared with the suppression of anarchy, every other question sinks into insignificance’

1910 – J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announces his withdrawal from business to administer his father’s fortune for an “uplift in humanity”; he appeals to Congress for the incorporation of the Rockefeller Foundation ‘to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world’; the foundation initially focuses on public health and medical education; by the 1920s, it was the largest philanthropic enterprise in the world – It should be noted that none of its millions of dollars are used to help the workers or their families exploited and even killed during the building of the Rockefeller fortune

1910 – In New York, Robert Forest founds the National Housing Association to fight deteriorating urban living conditions

1913 – Margaret Bonds born, American pianist and composer

1913 – The suffrage parade, led by Inez Millholland on a white horse, in Washington, D.C. draws thousands of people; it is orchestrated by a committee co-chaired by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns

1915 – Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith’s epic whitewashed version of the civil war and its aftermath, debuts in New York City; the original title of the silent film was The Clansman, the name of the book by Thomas Dixon Jr. on which it is based; some of the black characters are portrayed by white actors in blackface; at three hours long, it is the first 12-reel film in America

1917 – Sameera Moussa born, Egyptian nuclear scientist, her work makes medical use of nuclear technology affordable; organizer of Atomic Energy for Peace Conference

1918 – The Treaty of Brest Litovsky is signed by Germany, Austria and Russia; it ends Russia’s participation in WWI

1923 – The first issue of Time magazine is published; founded by Briton Hadden and Henry R. Luce

1926 – James Merrill born, American poet

1931 – National Anthem Day *: The “Star Spangled Banner,” with lyrics originally written as a poem called “Defense of Fort McHenry” by Francis Scott Key, is adopted as the U.S. national anthem

1939 – In Bombay, Gandhi begins a fast to protest autocratic rule in India

1940 – Glen Gray and his orchestra record “No Name Jive”

1941 – Moscow denounces Axis rule in Bulgaria

1945 – During World War II, Finland declares war on the Axis powers

1952 – U.S. Supreme Court upholds New York’s Feinberg Law that bans Communist teachers in the U.S.

1956 – Morocco gains its independence

1969 – Apollo 9 is launched by NASA to test a lunar module

1972 – NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft is launched

1973 – Japan announces its first defense plan since World War II

1977 – The Clash’s first single “White Riot” is released

1980 – The USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine launched in 1954, is decommissioned

1985 – The TV show Moonlighting premieres

1987 – U.S. House of Representatives rejects a package of $30 million in non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan Contras

1991 – In California, Rodney King is severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers, captured on amateur video

1994 – The Mexican government reaches a peace agreement with the Chiapas rebels

1995 – As a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ends, several gunmen are killed in Mogadishu by U.S. Marines overseeing the pull-out of the peacekeepers

2002 – George Michael’s single “Freeek!” is released in Britain

2002 – Voters in Switzerland approve joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality

2004 – The first National Day of Action * by the National Peace Corps Association is started over concerns about budget slashing in Congress; NPCA is an advocacy group for maintaining/expanding John F. Kennedy’s vision of global American volunteerism

2006 – Dress in Blue Day * starts as a local school program, the brainchild of Anita Mitchell, Colon Cancer Alliance volunteer, but has grown into a national program, part of Colon Cancer Awareness Month

2007 – World Hearing Day * is designated by WHO (World Health Organization) at the  first International Conference on Prevention and Rehabilitation of Hearing Impairment, which takes place in Beijing China, to promote hearing care and research worldwide

2014 – The UN General Assembly launches the first World Wildlife Day * – 2017’s theme is ‘Listen to the Young Voices’ to encourage and support young people working on conservation issues

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Visuals

• Mulled Wine
• ‘Days’ collage
• International flags
• Teatro Olimpico – photo by Colorfoto Dalla Pozza
• Thomas Otway, ambition quote
• William Godwin, argument quote
• William Macready as Hotspur in Shakespeare’s Henry IV
• Sidney Lanier, music quote
• Alexander Graham Bell, doors opening quote
• Beatrice Wood in her studio (1 degree of separation – my cousin was one of her many students)
• Inez Millholland on her white horse
• Sameera Moussa
• James Merrill, parents quote

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