April 6^th is

Army Day *

Caramel Popcorn Day

Twinkie Day *

New Beers Eve *

National Tartan Day *

National Teflon Day *

National Student Athlete Day *

International Day of Sport for Development and Peace * 
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MORE! Julius Caesar, Rose Schneiderman and Charlie Chaplin, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Burundi – President Ntaryamira Day
(assassination anniversary)

Cocos Islands –
Act of Self Determination Day

Sudan – Uprising Day

Thailand – King Rama I Memorial and
Chakri Day (founding of Chakri dynasty)

United States – California:
Drowsy Driver Awareness Day

Vietnam – Tet Eve
(Vietnamese new year’s eve)
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On This Day in HISTORY

46 BC – When his refusal of a senatorial order to disband his army results in civil war, Julius Caesar defeats the Republican forces against him, including Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus (in today’s Tunisia) on this day

1199 – Richard I of England, the “Lionheart,” dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder while campaigning to reclaim Normandy

1320 – The Declaration of Arbroath, is signed by at least 8 earls and 31 barons (11 more may have signed but the only extant copy shows only 39); it is a letter in Latin to Pope John XXII, intended to confirm Scotland’s status as a sovereign nation, and defending Scotland’s right to use military force when unjustly attacked. Scotland’s leader Robert the Bruce has been excommunicated by the Pope for the murder of John Comyn before the altar in Greyfrairs Abbey, and the Pope also recognizes Edward I of England’s claim of overlordship of Scotland

1483 – Raphael born, Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance

1652 – Jan van Riebeeck establishes a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa

1660 – Johann Kunau born, German composer and music theorist

1773 – James Mill born, Scottish philosopher, historian and economist

1814 – At Fountainebleau, the French government grants Napoleon Bonaparte sovereignty over the island of Elba, a government pension, and lets him keep the title of emperor in exchange for his abdication and exile

1823 – Joseph Medill born in Canada, American editor-publisher of Chicago Tribune

1830 – Relations between Texans and Mexico reach new low when Mexico bans further emigration to Texas by U.S. settlers

1859 – Massachusetts authorizes the first Inspector of Milk position in the U.S.

1860 – Rene Lalique born, French jeweler, leader in the Art Nouveau movement

1867 – Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead born in Canada, American feminist, author and obstetrician, one of the founders of the Middlesex County Hospital in Connecticut, president of the American Medical Women’s Association, author of A History of Women in Medicine: From the Earliest of Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

1869 – John Wesley Hyatt patents celluloid, the first synthetic plastic

1870 –  Clarence E. McClung born, American zoologist; study of heredity leads to his 1901 hypothesis that an extra chromosome determines sex

1875 – Alexander Graham Bell patents the multiple telegraph, which can send two signals at the same time

1878 – Abastenia St. Leger Eberle born, American sculptor, decorative work for fountains and work combining realism with the flow of movement, best known for her controversial piece The White Slave which represents child prostitution

1882 – Rose Schneiderman, born in what is now Poland, American labor union leader and organizer, feminist and suffragist, active in the Women’s Trade Union League, participant in the Uprising of 20,000

1890 – Anthony Fokker born, Dutch airman and pioneer in aircraft manufacturer

1892 – Donald Douglas born, American aircraft designer; founder Douglas Aircraft

1896 – The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens, Greece

1903 – French Army Nationalists are revealed to have forged documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dryfus

1909 – American Robert Peary claims he and Matthew Henson are the first men to reach the North Pole

1916 – Charlie Chaplin at age 26 becomes the highest-paid film star in the world when he signs a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year

1917 – Leonora Carrington born in Britain, Mexican Surrealist painter and author

1917 – U.S. Congress approves declaring war on Germany, enters WWI on Allied side

1925 – Eddie Cantor records “If You Knew Susie”

1927 – William P. MacCracken, Jr. is issued license number ‘1’ the first aviator’s license from the U.S. Department of Commerce

1927 – Gerry Mulligan born, American baritone saxophonist, arranger and composer

1930 – Twinkie Day *- Hostess Twinkies go on sale for the first time

1931 – Little Orphan Annie debuts on the radio

1933 – New Beers Eve * the night before the sale of beer becomes legal again in the U.S. as the Cullen-Harrison Act goes into effect, redefining what an “intoxicating beverage” is to exclude beer from Prohibition – full repeal of Prohibition didn’t happen until the December 5, 1933 ratification of the 21 Amendment, repealing the 18^th Amendment

1938 – National Teflon Day * honors the accidental invention of Teflon by Dr. Roy Plunkett while searching for a substance to coat his scientific hand tools

1941 – German forces invade Greece and Yugoslavia

1942 – President Franklin Roosevelt proclaims April 6 as the first Army Day * calling for civilian support of America’s armed forces: “. . . Our Army is a mighty arm of the tree of liberty. It is a living part of the American tradition, a tradition that goes back to Israel Putnam, who left his plow in a New England furrow to take up a gun and fight at Bunker Hill. In this tradition American men of many ages have always left the pacific round of their usual occupations to fight in causes that were worth their lives -from Lexington to the Argonne . . .”

1953 – Iranian Premier Mossadegh demands that the shah’s power be reduced

1954 – C.A. Swanson & Sons introduce the first TV dinner: roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas, selling for 98 cents and came in an aluminum tray, so you could just open the box and heat the dinner in the oven (microwave-safe meals are introduced in 1986)

1959 – Hal Holbrook opens off-Broadway in his one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight”

1965 – U.S. President L.B. Johnson authorizes using ground troops in combat operations in Vietnam

1981 – A Yugoslav Communist Party official confirms reports of ethnic riots in Kosovo

1982 – National Tartan Day * After an ad hoc event in New York City, Canadians of Scottish descent popularize celebrating Scottish heritage on the anniversary of the date the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320

1983 – U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt bans the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock ‘n’ roll bands attract the “wrong element”

1983 – The U.S. Veteran’s Administration announces it will give free medical care for conditions traceable to radiation exposure to more than 220,000 veterans who participated in nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962

1985 – William J. Schroeder is the first artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the hospital

1988 – Mathew Henson is awarded honors in Arlington National Cemetery, for being with Robert Peary on the expedition in search of the North Pole

1998 – Citicorp and Travelers Group announced that they will merge, creating Citigroup, the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world

1998 – Federal researchers in the U.S. announce that daily tamoxifen pills could cut breast cancer risk among high-risk women

1998 – Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of attacking neighboring India

2008 – The first official National Student Athlete Day * created by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS)

2016 – First International Day of Sport for Development and Peace * part of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which came into force January 1, 2016

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Visuals

• Caramel Popcorn
• Teflon pan
• National Tartan Day
• Blue peace sign bicycle
• International flags
• Portrait of King Richard I/his Coat of Arms inverted to symbolize his death, from Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris (13th century)
• Concluding words of the Declaration of Arbroath
• Raphael – Two Cherubs (detail of the Sistine Madonna)
• Rene Lalique – Pansies brooch, glass vase, winged female brooch
• The White Slave statue, by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle
• Rose Schneiderman, women voting quote
• Leonora Carrington, surrealistic work, title not listed
• International Day of Sport for Development and Peace – logo

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