April 22nd is
Earth Day *
Chemists Celebrate Earth Day *
Girl Scout Leaders Day
Jelly Bean Day
‘In God We Trust’ Day *
NASA’s Earth Day Global Selfie *
_________________________________________
MORE! Henry Fielding, Louise Glück and Denis Hayes, click
_________________________________________
WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Spain – Madrid:
Rock’n’Roll Marathon
Switzerland – Samnaun:
Tirol International Spring Snow Fest
United States – Washington DC:
Folger Library Shakespeare Celebration
_________________________________________
On This Day in HISTORY
238 – The Imperial Crisis: the Roman Senate outlaws the “barracks emperor” Maximinus Thrax, who began as a lowborn common soldier and distrusted the nobility, who loathed him in return, for his bloodthirsty proscriptions in Rome; they nominate two Senators, Pupienus and Balbinus, as co-emperors, but the people of Rome refuse to accept them, and they appoint Gordian III, grandson of Emperor Gordian I as Caesar to form a triumvirate
1451 – Queen Isabella of Castile born, with husband Ferdinand II of Aragon, reunified Spain, and she sponsors the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus to ‘the Indies’
1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil
1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés starts a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico
1707 – Henry Fielding born, English novelist and playwright; Tom Jones
1724 – Immanuel Kant born, German Enlightenment philosopher
1766 – Germaine de Staël born, French author, essayist, social commentator and political agitator; a passionate supporter of ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ she quickly became disenchanted with Napoleon, and used her considerable wit to deride him –
He banished her from Paris, and she spent 10 years in exile Switzerland
1830 – Emily Davies born, English feminist, pioneer in securing university education for women; co-founder and early head of Girton College, Cambridge, the first college in England to educate women
1836 – Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, General Sam Houston’s Texian troops find Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna hiding in the marsh wearing a dragoon private’s uniform
1864 – ‘In God We Trust Day’ Day * – U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that mandates inscription ‘In God We Trust’ is on all coins minted as U.S. currency
1870 – Vladimir Ilich Lenin born, Russian leader of 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and first head of the Soviet state
1873 – Ellen Glasgow born, American author, portraying the changing South after the Civil War, recipient of the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for her novel In This Our Life
1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000; celebrated as Oklahoma Day *
1891 – Laura Gilpin, American photographer, known for southwestern landscapes and photos of Navajo and Pueblo people
1900 – Nellie Beer born, Lord Mayor of Manchester (1966-1967); first chair of the Manchester Children’s Committee (1948-1952)
1904 – Dorothy Alexander born, American ballet dancer, choreographer; founder of the Atlanta Ballet
1904 – J. Robert Oppenheimer born, American nuclear physicist, head of the WWOO Los Alamos atomic bomb development project
1909 – Rita Levi-Montalcini born, Italian neurologist and member of the Italian Senate, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Medicine and the National Medal of Science in 1987
1912 – Kathleen Ferrier born, English singer, contralto with an international reputation, repertoire including folksongs, ballads and classical works
1916 – Yehudi Menuhin born, American violin virtuoso
1922 – Charles Mingus born, American jazz performer and composer
1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan and the U.S. sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding
1943 – Louise Glück, American poet, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2003-2004, won 2014 National Book Award for Poetry
1947 – Cathy Hughes born, African American entrepreneur and media pioneer; founder and Chair of Radio One
1954 – The Senate Army-McCarthy hearings begin, televised live
1966 – British band the Troggs release their single “Wild Thing” in the U.S.
1970 – Senator Gaylord Nelson (D- WI), after seeing the ravages of the massive 1969 oil spill off the California Coast at Santa Barbara, persuades Pete McClosky (R-CA) to co-sponsor a “national teach-in on the environment,” and recruits Denis Hayes from Harvard as national coordinator, and the first Earth Day * is born
Denis Hayes at the first Earth Day, 1970
1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic
1993 – The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
2003 – American Chemical Society launches their first Chemists Celebrate Earth Day *
2010 – The Deepwater Horizon oil platform sinks into the Gulf of Mexico two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers
2014 – NASA’s Earth Day Global Selfie * – NASA asks on social media “Where are you on Earth right now?” and requests they download a special sign in the language of their choice, fill their location, and take a selfie to send to NASA to become part of a mosaic picture made to look like Earth from space
2016 – The Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened for signature; as of April 1, 2017, 195 countries have signed the treaty, and 143 of them have ratified it, including the United States; but the Trump administration reneges on the deal
_________________________________________
Years ago, my son was the executive director of the Earth Day celebration in the city where he lives for three years running. This experience was one of the biggest building blocks of his career. AND he met his partner there and she succeeded him as Earth Day Exec Director for several years after he retired from that position (because of his demanding schedule) so it contributed to hers as well. So I think it was a big success all the way around!