July 14th is
Grand Marnier Day
Mac and Cheese Day
Pandemonium Day
Shark Awareness Day
National Tape Measure Day *
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MORE! Gustav Klimt, Gertrude Bell and Ingmar Bergman, click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
France – Bastille Day/Feté de la Fédération
Iraq – Republic Day
Kiribati – Culture Day
Madagascar – Fandoana Bathing Festival
Mayotte – French Day of the Republic
New Caledonia/Réunion/Guadeloupe Saint Barthélemy/
Saint Pierre et Miquelon/Wallis & Fotuna – Feté Nationale
United Kingdom – Emmeline Pankhurst Day
United States – Sherwood OR:
Robin Hood Festival (opening day)
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On This Day in HISTORY
756 – Tang Dynasty, China: rebellion leader General An Lushan leads his army toward the capital city of Chang’an; Emperor Xuanzong flees, which costs him his throne
1430 – The Burgundians remand Joan d’Arc to Bishop Cauchon, of Beauvais
1769 – Gaspar de Portolá and his men establish a base in Northern California
1789 – French Revolution – Parisians storm the Bastille to release prisoners
Storming of the Bastille 1789 by Houel
1790 – Celebration in Paris of national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération
1795 – The French Nation Convention votes “La Marseillaise” France’s national anthem
1798 – U.S. Congress passes the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the federal government
1853 – The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations , the first major ‘World’s Fair’ in the U.S., opens in New York City
1862 – Gustav Klimt born, Austrian symbolist painter, leading figure in the Vienna Secessionist movement
Three Ages of Woman – Mother and Child – detail, by Gustav Klimt
1868 – National Tape Measure Day * – Alvin J. Fellows patents “improvements for tape measures” including a way to make them retractable
1868 – Gertrude Bell born, British author, archaeologist, public administrator and spy, influential in the establishment of Jordan and Iraq
1874 – The Great Chicago Fire destroys 47 acres of the city
1912 – Woody Guthrie born, American Folk and Protest Singer-Songwriter
1918 – Ingmar Bergman born, highly influential Swedish filmmaker; The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957)
1921 – Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted in Dedham, Mass., of killing a shoe company paymaster and his guard
1927 – First commercial airplane flight to Hawaii
1938 – The Manifesto of Race is published, preparing the way for the enactment in October of the Racial Laws in Fascist Italy; the manifesto declares: Italians are descendants of the Aryan race; all non-Aryan races are inferior; Jews should be banned from many professions; and sexual relations/marriages between Italians and Jews or Africans be prohibited
1942 – Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly sing their last duet together, recording “Brazil” with the Jimmy Dorsey band
1946 – Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care is first published, quickly becoming a bestseller, and one of the most widely-discussed books ever published
1956 – Fats Domino hits top of the charts with “I’m in Love Again”
1957 – Tawya Ateya takes her seat in Egypt’s National Assembly, first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
1960 – Jane Goodall begins her study of chimpanzees at Gombe Stream Reserve
1965 – NASA space probe Mariner 4 flies by Mars, photographing the planet
1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada
1989 – Cyndi Lauper’s “My First Night Without You” is the first closed-captioned video (closed-caption version not on YouTube!)
1993 – Aeroflot begins non-stop flights between New York and Moscow
2015 – NASA spacecraft New Horizons performs first flyby of Pluto
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I was interested in “Pandemonium Day” so I checked it out on-line. After reading this phrase:
“… engage your inner child who didn’t know what ‘appropriate’ meant, and run through the fields with your heart wild and free. Indulge in the very essence of Pandemonium!” I remembered a story from my kid’s childhood. He was about five or six and we had spoken about some concepts, among them, “inappropriate” and “taboo.” (I didn’t call some words “bad” but called them “taboo.”)
We were at the beach and he grabbed a stick and drew something in the sand. I couldn’t tell what he was drawing so I asked. He continued concentrating on his work and answered, “Oh it’s something inappropriate.” Within a few minutes he put the finishing touches on a highly detailed buxom mermaid.
“When the tide comes in, you won’t be able to see it any more,” he advised.
LOL – Wicked smart kid!