April 1st is

April Fools/All Fools Day

Atheist Day *

Reading is Funny Day

Sourdough Bread Day

Library Snap Shot Day *

US Air Force Academy Day *

International Tatting Day

National Poetry Month 21^st Anniversary *
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MORE!  Jonathan Swift, Alberta Hunter and Langston Hughes, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Cyprus – Greek Cypriot Day/EOKA
(nationalist guerrillas against British rule)

India – Odisha: Utkal Divas *
(Orissa Day)

Iran – Islamic Republic Day
(anniversary of 1979 Islamic referendum victory)

San Marino – Captains’ Regent Investiture
(heads of state)
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On This Day in HISTORY

527 – Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne

1504 – An English statute extends government control over guilds by requiring royal officials be involved in approval of their ordinances; guilds are major charitable organizations of the day in urban areas, supporting widows and orphans; lobbying successfully for protective tariffs; and adjudicating complaints about the quality of a guild member’s work

1578 – William Harvey born, English physician who first records a complete, detailed description of blood circulation

1663 – The town of Gemert in Holland fines unwed motherhood 50 guilders, about two months’ wages for an unskilled worker of the period; apparently, there’s no fine for the male impregnator

1693 – Puritan minister Cotton Mather’s four-day-old son dies, and witchcraft is blamed; his writings and sermons strongly influence the infamous Salem witch trials

1724 – Jonathan Swift publishes the first ‘Drapier’s letters’ a series of pamphlets written by him under the pseudonym ‘M.B., Drapier’ to protest Britain’s imposition of a privately minted copper coinage on Ireland

1735 – Handel’s Organ Concerto in F major, Op. 4 No. 4 premieres in London

1748 – Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre, an engineer in the Spanish army, discovers the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, while prospecting the estate of Charles, Duke of Parma, heir to the throne of Spain

1776 – Sophie Germain born, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher

1778 – New Orleans merchant and financier of the American Revolution Oliver Pollock popularizes the use of the “$” symbol. It is possibly based on a coin, dubbed a ‘Spanish dollar,’ with a coat of arms adopted by King Charles V to represent Spain’s American possessions, which has a pillar wrapped in a banner which looks like an ‘S’

1789 – U.S. House of Representatives holds its first full meeting in New York City

1792 – Dutch-born French feminist Etta Palm proposes a comprehensive divorce bill that allows for wife-initiated divorce; this bill related to her concerns about wife beating, as the lesser physical strength of women requires laws that protect them against their stronger fathers and husbands

1815 – Otto von Bismarck born, German statesman; first chancellor of German Empire

1826 – Samuel Morey patents an early two cylinder, internal combustion engine, with a carburetor, using turpentine vapor for fuel

1853 – Cincinnati becomes the first U.S. city to pay fire fighters a regular salary

1865 – Irene Morales born, Chilean seamstress, soldier, and nurse during the War of the Pacific against Bolivia

1866 – Sophonisba Breckenridge born, American lawyer, educator, social scientist and social reformer, first woman admitted to the Kentucky bar, first woman graduate of University of Chicago law school, first woman admitted to the Order of the Coif

1868 – Edmond Rostand born, French dramatist; Cyrano de Bergerac

1873 – Sergei Rachmaninov born, Russian late-Romantic composer, who left Russia with his family after his estate was seized by the Leninist regime in 1917; lived in the U.S. from November 1918 until his death

1877 – Aurelia Henry Reinhardt born, American educator and activist, first woman moderator of American Unitarian Association, president of Mills College, president of American Association of University Women

1884 – Florence Blanchfield born, American nurse, first woman to become a fully ranked officer of the U.S. Army

1895 – Alberta Hunter born, American blues singer-songwriter and nurse, performs in both U.S. and Europe

1902 – Maria Polydouri born, Greek poet

1918 – Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) is established

1926 – Anne McCaffrey born in America,  Irish science fiction and fantasy author, first woman Hugo Award winner, first to win a Nebula Award, Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, inductee to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame

1933 – A boycott of Jewish-owned business escalates their persecution by the Nazis

1936 – In India, Orissa is formed as a separate linguistic state; on November 9, 2010, it is renamed Odisha by the Parliament of India, but Utkal Divas * the ‘Orissa Day’ is still celebrated; the area has been invaded and held by many conquerors, but still keeps its language and traditions

1940 – Wangari Muta Maathai born, Kenyan political and environmental activist, founder of the Green Belt Movement, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004

1953 – Big Bang theory is proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow

1954 – After passage of the National Security Act in 1947, which provides for a separate Air Force within the U.S. military, after inter-service wrangling, it is agreed that an air force academy must be established; the legislation is signed into law on April 1 by President Eisenhower; the first class is sworn in and takes over a WWII barracks at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver on July 11, 1955, while waiting for construction of the Academy to be completed

1960 – The first weather satellite, TIROS-1, is launched from Cape Canaveral

1970 – The movie Woodstock premieres in Hollywood

1970 – President Nixon signs a measure banning cigarette ads on radio and TV

1976 – Apple computer is founded

1987 – After over 45,000 reported AIDS-related deaths in the U.S. since 1981, President Reagan, in a speech to doctors in Philadelphia, declares AIDS “public health enemy #1”

1995 – The Academy of American Poets convenes a group of poets, publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary organizations, and teachers to discuss creating a National Poetry Month *, and the first one begins on April 1, 1996; since then, the Clintons host a White House poetry gala (1998); over 10,00o people cast their votes for a poet for a U.S. postage stamp (2001), won by Langston Hughes, whose stamp is issued in January 2002; the Empire State Building is illuminated in blues lights for the 10^th anniversary (2005); the Poem-a-Day website is started (2006); and the Dear Poet project invites students to read and write poems, some of which are published at Poets.org – Poetry Month also celebrated in Canada

2001 – The Netherlands is the first country to make same-sex marriage legal

2003 – Atheist Day * begins as an April Fools fake story about an Atheist suing the government because there is no day for Atheists, and the judge declaring that April Fool’s Day is the Atheist’s holiday. The hoax is taken by many to be real, and the story spreads. Atheists claim it’s a day that it doesn’t actually exist, just like all the gods celebrated on religious holidays – Atheists, along with constitutionalists, do celebrate the first Thursday in May, the National Day of Reason

2008 – The Pentagon makes public a legal memo dated March 14, 2003, that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects

2010 – Library Snap Shot Day * becomes an initiative of the American Library Association, as a photographic “Day in the Life” of America’s libraries to document their many services for use in advocacy for maintaining and expanding public libraries

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Visuals

• Tatting tools and lace
• International flags
• William Harvey, unknown quote
• Jonathan Swift, riches quote
• Sophie Germain, idea quote
• Spanish ‘dollar’ with pillar on right wrapped with S-shaped banner
• Sophonisba Breckenridge
• Edmond Rostand, kiss quote
• Maria Polydouri, poem quote
• Anne McCaffrey, compassion quote
• Wangari Muta Maathai, environment quote
• Langston Hughes postage stamp
• Library Snap Shot Day

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