October 24th is
Tony Bennett Day *
Food Day *
Through-the-Lens Day *
International United Nations Day *
World Development Information Day *
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MORE! Belva Lockwood, Alice Perry and Denise Levertov, click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Egypt – Suez Day
Iceland –
The Women’s Strike Anniversary *
New Zealand – Labour Day
Zambia – Independence Day
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On This Day in HISTORY
1260 – Chartres Cathedral dedication is attended by French King Louis IX, whose coat of arms was painted over the apsidal boss (a decorative protrusion of stone or wood at the central junction of the ribs of a vault)
1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for its missing colonists
1632 – Scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek is born in Delft, Holland, creator of first microscope lenses powerful enough to observe single-celled animals – ‘Through-the-Lens Day’ * celebrates how this has added to human knowledge
1648 – The Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties signed by various combinations of the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, Holland, and assorted Holy Roman Empire princes and sovereigns of free imperial cities, effectively ends the European wars of religion –The Eighty Years’ War for Dutch independence from Spain, and the Thirty Years’ War amongst everybody else
1788 – Sarah Josepha Hale born, American author and poet; “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
1795 – The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is divided up between Austria, Prussia and Russia
1830 – Marianne North born, English botanist, botanical artist, and world traveler
Marianne North painting a Tamil boy in Ceylon
1830 – Belva Lockwood born, attorney, first woman admitted to practice law before Supreme Court (1879), runs for U.S. President in 1884 and 1888
1836 – Alonzo D. Phillips patents the phosphorous friction safety match
1851 – English astronomer William Lassell is first to observe the moons Umbriel and Ariel of Uranus
1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed, ending the need for the 18-month-old Pony Express – the first message is sent by Justice Stephen Field in California to President Lincoln in Washington DC
1868 –Alexandra David-Néel born, Belgian-French explorer, Buddhist, anarchist and author of over 30 books about Eastern religion and her travels, including Magic and Mystery in Tibet; first Western woman to enter the forbidden city of Llasa, disguised as a beggar; her writings influenced ‘beat’ writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and Alan Watts, who popularized Eastern philosophy and poetry in the West
1885 – Alice Perry born, first Irishwoman to graduate with a degree in engineering, with first class honours, in 1906; she had to return home when her father died, and served temporarily in his position as county surveyor for Galway City Council for several months, but was passed over when she applied for the permanent position; she remains the only woman to have been a County Surveyor in Ireland, so she moved to London and worked as a ‘Lady Factory Inspector’ (1908-1921); retired, became a Christian Scientist, moved to America, and wrote seven books of poetry
1896 – Marjorie Joyner born, helped develop and manage more than 200 Madam C. J. Walker beauty schools by 1919, added professional status to the occupation, worked with Eleanor Roosevelt and other leaders in civil rights struggles
1901 – Desiring to secure her later years financially and avoid the poorhouse, on her 63rd birthday, Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel, using a custom-built barrel padded with a mattress – the barrel was tested the previous day, going over the falls with a cat inside, who survived, bloodied and spitting mad
1904 – Moss Hart born, American playwright and theatre director; You Can’t Take It With You, The Man Who Came To Dinner; directed the first Broadway production of My Fair Lady
1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air for 9 minutes and 45 seconds in his Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, NC
1915 – Letitia Woods Brown born, pioneer in researching and teaching African-American history, completed Ph.D. at Harvard in 1966, primary consultant for the Schlesinger Library’s Black Women Oral History Project, co-authored Washington from Banneker to Douglass 1791-1870
1915 – Bob Kane born, American cartoonist who created Batman
1917 – Bolshevik Red Guards begin takeover of buildings in Petrograd, Russia, at the start of the October Revolution
1923 – Denise Levertov born, British-American poet, her anti-Vietnam war poems include themes of destruction by greed, racism, and sexism in the 1970s; her later poetry reflects her conversion to Catholicism
1926 – Harry Houdini’s last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit
1929 – Black Tuesday stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange
1931 – The George Washington Bridge, spanning the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, opens to public traffic
1939 – Nylon stockings are sold for the first time, in Wilmington DE; and Benny Goodman’s orchestra records “Let’s Dance”
1940 – In the U.S., the 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
1945 –United Nations Day * celebrates representatives for 50 governments meeting, at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco CA, to ratify the U.N. Charter, bringing the organization officially into existence
1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space
1947 – Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, ratting out Disney employees he believes to be communists
1948 – In a speech before the Senate War Investigating Committee, Bernard Baruch coins the phrase “Cold War”
1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters in New York is laid
1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower pledges U.S. support for South Vietnam
1957 – U.S. Air Force starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program
1960 – Cuba completes nationalizing all American-owned property – it began nationalizing all foreign-owned property on August 6, 1960
1962 – During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. military forces go on the highest alert in the postwar era, preparing for a possible full-scale war with the Soviet Union – the U.S. blockade of Cuba officially begins
1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the U.K., and becomes the Republic of Zambia
1972 – World Development Information Day * is declared by the UN General Assembly
1973 – The Yom Kippur War, launched against Israel by Egypt and Syria with backing from most of the Middle Eastern Arab nations, ends on this date with an Israeli victory
1975 – The Women’s Strike *: 90% of Icelandic women take part in a national women’s strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality
1980 – The Polish government legalizes the Solidarity trade union
1995 – Tony Bennett Day * is declared on October 24th in New York City
1998 – Launch of Deep Space One comet/asteroid mission
2001 – U.S. House of Representatives approves legislation giving police the power to secretly search homes, tap all of any person’s telephone conversation and track people’s use of the Internet
2003 – Concorde takes its last commercial flight, landing in London, ending the era of supersonic travel
2007 – Chang’e 1, first unmanned lunar-orbiting satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center (Chang’e is the Chinese Moon Goddess)
2008 – Bloody Friday when many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices
2011 – Food Day * is launched by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in partnership with a coalition of food movement leaders and organizations, on October 24 annually, to inspire Americans to improve their diets and our food policies
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What (if anything) do the different colors mean on the map at the top?
The full graphic is below the entry for 1945, showing the flags of the member countries of the UN (as of 2016) – I don’t know if the colors on the map have any meaning – but the pretty colors do look well with the surrounding flags!
I recall reading something years ago about map colors. IIRC, any map can be drawn with four colors, and not have any two areas with the same color touching.
Sounds like one of those MENSA quizzes.