October 24^th 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 63^rd 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 24^th 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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