August 25th is

Banana Split Day *

Kiss and Make Up Day

Whisky Sour Day

World Daffodil Day *

Park Service Founders Day *

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MORE!  Galileo, Leonard Bernstein and Dolly Parton, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bangladesh and India– Ganesh Chaturthi
(Lord Ganesha festival)

Nepal – Gaura Parba (3-day festival for
Krishna, Shiva, Parvati and Ganesh)

North Korea – Day of Songun
(inspection of Seoul Ryu Kyong Guards)

United Kingdom – Northhamptonshire:
Shambala Festival (thru 8-27)

Uruguay – Día de la Independencia

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On This Day in HISTORY

1248 – The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht

1530 – Ivan IV born, aka Ivan the Terrible, Russian Tsar

1543 – Portuguese traders are the first Europeans to arrive in Japan, introducing firearms into the country

1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers

1758 – Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian Army at the Battle of Zordorf

1814 – British troops destroy the U.S. Library of Congress during the War of 1812

1819 – Allan Pinkerton born in Scotland, head of the Union Intelligence Service during the U.S. Civil War; founder of American Pinkerton Detective Agency

1828 – Jane Lathrop Stanford born, American educator and philanthropist, co-founder of Stanford University; she funded and operated the university after her husband’s death in order to keep it open

1835 – “The Great Moon Hoax” – The New York Sun runs a satirical series, “reprinted” from the long-defunct Edinburgh Journal of Science, claiming sightings through a telescope of life on the moon, including unicorns, two-legged beavers, bat-like humanoids, rushing rivers and lush vegetation. Most readers believe the stories are true, including some scientists from Yale University, who show up at the Sun wanting to see the “science journal”

1845 – Ludwig II born, German king of Bavaria (1864-1886), dubbed “mad king Ludwig” because of his extravagant spending on Neuschwanstein Castle and two lavish palaces; also a devoted patron of Richard Wagner

Ludwig II of Bavaria and Neuschwanstein Castle

1850 – Edgar Wilson Nye born, American humorist under pen name Bill Nye; wrote for the Laramie Boomerang and the New York World

1860 – Henrietta Vinton Davis, black American elocutionist, dramatic reader-actor, and International organizer for Marcus Garvey’s African Redemption Movement

1875 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours

1894 – Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers bubonic plague’s infectious agent, publishes his findings in The Lancet

1900 – Hans Adolf Krebs born in Germany, English biochemist; 1953 Nobel Prize

1902 – Stefan Wolpe born in Germany, composer; a Jew and a communist, he fled the Nazis in 1933; by 1938, he had landed in New York City

1904 – (Exact date unconfirmed) Banana Split Day * – David Strickler, apprentice pharmacist in Latrobe PA, invents the Banana Split

1910 – Dorothea Tanning born, American painter, sculptor, theatrical designer, author who started writing poetry on her 80s

Arizona Landscape, by Dorothea Tanning – 1943

1913 – Walt Kelly born, American creator of the comic strip “Pogo”

1914 – The German Army deliberately destroys the Catholic University of Leuven library.  Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable books and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost

The rebuilt University of Leuven library

1916 – Park Service Founders Day *- President Wilson signs into law the Organic Act of 1916, creating the National Park Service as part of the Department of the Interior

1918 – Leonard Bernstein born, internationally renowned American composer-conductor; music director of the NY Philharmonic; pioneer in using television to educate the public about orchestral music

1921 –The U.S. and Germany sign a peace treaty

1937 – Virginia Euwer Wolff born, American children’s author; award-winning series Make Lemonade

1944 – Paris is liberated from the Nazis after four years of occupation

1945 – Chinese Communist Party supporters kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch

1948 – House Un-American Activities Committee, first-ever televised congressional hearing: “Confrontation Day” between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss

Alger Hiss, left, and Whittaker Chambers testifying

1950 – President Harry Truman orders U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike

1968 – Arthur Ashe is the first African American to win the U.S. Singles championship

1975 – Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album released

1981 – NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn

1986 – Paul Simon’s Graceland is released

1997 – The tobacco industry agrees to an $11.3 billion settlement with Florida

1998 – Dolly Parton releases Hungry Again album

1990 – World Daffodil Day * – Cancer Society of New Zealand starts Daffodil Day fundraiser for cancer research, treatment and support services. Daffodil is symbol of hope. Other Cancer Societies start their own Daffodil Day programs, so it’s now a world day

2012 – NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft is first man-made object to enter interstellar space

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