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Today is April 7 2014

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   I.
Today's Holidays and Historical Events (updated daily)
Today's Food Holiday

National Coffee Cake Day: More

Other celebrations/observances today:
  • National No Housework Day: More
  • World Health Day: More
  • Beaver Day: More
Events in the past on: April 7
  • In 1827, John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.
    From Wikipedia: 'He developed a keen interest in trying to find a means of obtaining fire easily. Several chemical mixtures were already known which would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to a slow-burning substance like wood. While Walker was preparing a lighting mixture on one occasion, a match which had been dipped in it took fire by an accidental friction upon the hearth. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery, and started making friction matches. They consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum, the sulphur serving to communicate the flame to the wood.

    The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling. With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. He named the matches "Congreves" in honour of the inventor and rocket pioneer, Sir William Congreve. He did not divulge the exact composition of his matches.

    Two and a half years after Walker's invention was made public, Isaac Holden arrived, independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur. The exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829. Previously to this date, Walker's sales-book contains an account of no fewer than 250 sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April 1827. Already comfortably well off, he refused to patent his invention, despite being encouraged to by Michael Faraday and others, making it freely available for anyone to make. He received neither fame nor wealth for his invention, although he was able to retire some years later. The credit for his invention was attributed only after his death.

    'Following the ideas laid-out by the French chemist, Charles Sauria, who in 1830 invented the first phosphorus-based match by replacing the antimony sulfide in Walker’s matches with white phosphorus, matches were first patented in the United States in 1836, in Massachusetts, being smaller in size and safer to use. White phosphorus was later banned for public usage because of its toxicity. Today's modern matches were created by the Swedish chemist, Gustaf Erik Pasch'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1947, Du Mont Labs announces the 'Kinescop'.
    From Wikipedia: 'Kinescope /'k?n?sko?p/, shortened to kine /'k?ni?/, also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor.

    Typically, the term can refer to the process itself, the equipment used for the procedure (a 16 mm or 35 mm movie camera mounted in front of a video monitor, and synchronized to the monitor's scanning rate), or a film made using the process. Kinescopes were the only practical way to preserve live television broadcasts prior to the introduction of videotape in 1956. A small number of theatrically released feature films have also been produced as kinescopes.'

    'In September 1947, Eastman Kodak introduced the Eastman Television Recording Camera, in cooperation with DuMont Laboratories, Inc. and NBC, for recording images from a television screen under the trademark "Kinephoto". Prior to the introduction of videotape in 1956, kinescopes were the only way to record television broadcasts, or to distribute network television programs that were broadcast live from New York or other originating cities, to stations not connected to the network, or to stations that wished to show a program at a different time than the network broadcast. Although the quality was less than desirable, television programs of all types from prestigious dramas to regular news shows were handled in this manner'.
    - At FamousDaily: More
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1948, World Health Organization was founded.
    From Wikipedia: 'The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations'.
    - At FamousDaily: More
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1969, The beginning of the Internet with ARPANET.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Internet is the global system of interconnected mainframe, personal, and wireless computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, Usenet newsgroups, telephony, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing.

    'The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was an early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite TCP/IP. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. ARPANET was initially funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense.'

    'By mid-1968, Taylor had prepared a complete plan for a computer network, and, after ARPA's approval, a Request for Quotation (RFQ) was issued for 140 potential bidders. Most computer science companies regarded the ARPA–Taylor proposal as outlandish, and only twelve submitted bids to build a network; of the twelve, ARPA regarded only four as top-rank contractors. At year's end, ARPA considered only two contractors, and awarded the contract to build the network to BBN Technologies on 7 April 1969. The initial, seven-person BBN team were much aided by the technical specificity of their response to the ARPA RFQ, and thus quickly produced the first working system'.
    - At FamousDaily: More
    - At Wikipedia (Internet): More
    - At Wikipedia (ARPANET): More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1970, At the 42nd Academy Awards:
    From Wikipedia: More
    Best Picture is, Midnight Cowboy
    -- At Wikipedia: More
    -- At Internet Movie Database IMDb: More
    -- On YouTube: More
    Best Actor is John Wayne for 'True Grit'
    -- At Wikipedia: More
    -- At Internet Movie Database IMDb: More
    -- On YouTube: More
    Best Actress is Maggie Smith for 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'
    -- At Wikipedia: More
    -- At Internet Movie Database IMDb: More
    -- On YouTube: More
    Best Supporting Actor is Gig Young for 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'
    Best Supporting Actress is Goldie Hawn for 'Cactus Flower'
    Best Song is Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head' from 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'
    -- At Wikipedia: More
    -- On YouTube: More
  • In 2001, Mars Odyssey is launched.
    From Wikipedia: '2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet's geology and radiation environment. It is hoped that the data Odyssey obtains will help answer the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory, and the Phoenix lander to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001 on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and reached Mars orbit on October 24, 2001, at 02:30 UTC (October 23, 19:30 PDT, 22:30 EDT). It is currently in a polar orbit around Mars with an altitude of about 3,800 km or 2,400 miles.'

    By December 15, 2010 it broke the record for longest serving spacecraft at Mars, with 3,340 days of operation, claiming the title from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. It currently holds the record for the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, ahead of the European Space Agency's Mars Express, at 14 years, 5 months and 13 days'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  II.
Henry's Heads Up! - previous days social media post (updated daily)

Nothing. Looks like I was lazy on this day.

 III.
Top Song & Movie 50 years ago today

No. 1 song

  • Twist and Shout - The Beatles: More
    She Loves You, has been displaced by another Beatles song. 'Twist and Shout', which will hold the no. 1 spot until April 11th, when another Beatles song, 'Can't Buy Me Love', takes over.

Top movie

  • The Pink Panther More
    Having displaced 'Kissin' Cousins', it will be there until the weekend box office of April 12, 1964 when, 'The Carpetbaggers', takes over.
  IV.
Today in the Past (reference sites): April 7
   V.
This month April 2014 (updated once a month - last updated - )

National Florida Tomato Month National Food Month National Soft Pretzel Month National Soy Foods Month Cruelty to Animals Month National Grilled Cheese Month


April is:

April origin (from Wikipedia):
'The Romans gave this month the Latin name Aprilis but the derivation of this name is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb aperire, 'to open', in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to 'open', which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of (anoixis) (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, her Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that April was the second month of the earliest Roman calendar, before Ianuarius and Februarius were added by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. It became the fourth month of the calendar year (the year when twelve months are displayed in order) during the time of the decemvirs about 450 BC, when it also was given 29 days. The 30th day was added during the reform of the calendar undertaken by Julius Caesar in the mid-40s BC, which produced the Julian calendar.'

April 'is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.'

April at Wikipedia: More

  VI.
TV fifty years ago 1964 (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2014)

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

 VII.
Best selling books fifty years ago (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2014)

Best selling books of 1964 More

VIII.
Fun (Last link added October 1 2014, but content on each site may change daily)
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
  • NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
  • Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
  • NASA TV: (video feed) More
    NASA TV schedule: More
  • Public Domain eBook Links

    Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

  • Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
    Home page: More
    RSS: More
  • Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
    Home page: More
    RSS: More
  • Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
    Home page: More
    RSS: More
  • Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
    Home page: More
    RSS: More
  • Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
    Home page: More
    RSS: More
  IX.
Other Holiday Sites (Last link added October 1 2014. Link content changes yearly)

Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.


US Government Holidays

  • 2014 Postal Holidays More
  • 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

  • List of holidays by country More
  • Holidays and Observances around the World More
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