September 2nd is

Calendar Adjustment Day *

Grits for Breakfast Day

Bring Your Manners to Work Day *

V-J Day II *

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MORE! Teddy Roosevelt, Christa McAuliffe and Barak Obama, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Belgium – Antwerpen:
Laundry Day Festival

Finland – Helsinki:
Helsingin Sarjakuvafestivaalit

Germany – Goldenstedt:
Strandfieber Das Electro

Scotland – Braemar:
Braemar Gathering

Spain – Ceuta: Día de Ceuta
(local public holiday in Ceuta)

Tibetan Community – Democracy Day *

Transdniestria – Independence Day *

United States – Washington DC:
Library of Congress National Book Festival

Vietnam – National Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

31 BC – Octavian’s forces defeat Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s allied galleys at Actium, sinking or capturing over 2/3 of their fleet – considered by some beginning of the end of the Roman Republic

The Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A Castro – 1672

44 BC – Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son with Julius Caesar her co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion

44 BC – Cicero launches the first of 14 Philippicae (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony

1192 – The Treaty of Jaffa is signed between Richard I of England and Saladin, leading to the end of the Third Crusade

1661 – George Bohm born, German Baroque composer and organist

1666 – The Great Fire of London burns for three days, destroying over 10,000 buildings, and killing 6 people

Great Fire of London, 1666  by unknown artist

1752 – Calendar Adjustment Day * commemorates the British Calendar Act of 1751: the Gregorian calendar becomes the official calendar of Britain and its American colonies in 1752, replacing the Julian calendar. However, there’s an eleven day difference between the two calendars, so on the evening of 2nd September 1752, Britain and the colonies went to sleep on 2^nd September and woke the next morning on 14th September.  Some citizens felt cheated and rioted, demanding their eleven days back!

1789 – The U.S. Treasury Department is established

1807 – The British Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon

1811 – The Royal Fredericks University founded (now University of Oslo) in Norway

1814 – Ernst Curtius born, German archaeologist; directed excavation of Olympia

1820 – Lucretia Hale born, American journalist and author; notable novels, Six of One by Half a Dozen of the Other and The Wolf at the Door

1821 –  Anne Whitney born, American sculptor and poet; statue of Samuel Adams in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., and statues at the Smithsonian Institute, Harvard University and Boston Public Library; her model for a statue of Charles Sumner wins a competition but she is disqualified when it is discovered she is a woman

1833 – Oberlin College is founded in Ohio

1840 – Giovanni Verga born, Italian novelist, short story writer and playwright

1849 – Emma Curtis Hopkins born, American spiritual leader, author, theologian and feminist; part of the New Thought movement

1859 – Solar superstorm affects electrical telegraph service

1894 – Annie Winifred Ellerman born, used pseudonym Bryher, British author, poet and editor, who provided financial support to a number of authors

1897 – McCall’s magazine publishes its first issue

1901 – Vice President Teddy Roosevelt quotes “Speak softly and carry a big stick” in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair

1912 – Arthur Rose Eldred becomes the first BSA Eagle Scout

1917 – Cleveland Amory born, American critic, historian and journalist

1924 – Rudolf Friml’s operetta Rose Marie premieres on Broadway

1939 – Nazi Germany “annexes” the Free City of  Danzig

1945 – VJ Day II * – the formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed aboard the USS Missouri by Foreign Minister Shigemitsu

1946 – The Interim Government of India is formed, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, to begin the transition to full independence from British rule

1948 – Christa McAuliffe born, American teacher who dies in the Challenger space shuttle explosion Jan 28, 1986; selected to be the first teacher in space through the NASA  Teacher in Space Project

1958 – The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) is signed into law to fund four years of science and technology study at all levels of U.S. educational institutions

1960 – Tibet’s first parliamentary election, observed by the Tibetan community as Democracy Day *

1963 – The Angels’ song “My Boyfriend’s Back” hits #1 on the singles charts

1970 – NASA cancels two Apollo moon missions, primarily because of the Apollo 1 fire, but also hardware delays and budgetary problems

1987 – Donald Trump spends almost $100,000 on a full-page ad in the NY Times to lambast the U.S. government’s foreign policy, for defending regions like the Persian Gulf and countries such as Japan “that can afford to defend themselves”

1990 – Transniestria * proclaims itself a Soviet republic, Mikhail Gorbachev says nyet

1991 – Garth Brooks releases his album Ropin’ the Wind

1995 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame officially opens in Cleveland OH

2013 – Diana Nyad, at age 64, makes the first confirmed swim from Cuba to Key West, Florida, without a shark cage or swim fins

2013 – Protocol School of Washington establishes Bring Your Manners to Work Day * to remind everyone that treating your co-workers with respect and consideration makes for a happier and more productive workplace

2015 – President Barak Obama becomes the first U.S. President to visit the Arctic Circle, in Kotzebue, Alaska

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