Today is August 5 2014

National Oyster Day: More

• National Walk on the Moon Day: More
  First Tuesday of August
• Underwear Day: More
• National Work Like A Dog Day: More

• In 1620, The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America with the ship Speedwell. The Speedwell had problems with leaks and the Mayflower continued alone on Sept. 6 where it departed Plymouth England on Sept 16, 1620. They were destined for the Virginia Colonies, but navigation errors and storms altered that destination.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Mayflower embarked about 65 passengers in London at its homeport in the Rotherhithe district on the Thames about the middle of July in 1620. She then proceeded down the Thames into the English Channel and then on to the south coast to anchor at Southampton Water. There the Mayflower waited for seven days for a rendezvous on July 22 with the Speedwell, coming with Leiden church members from Delfshaven in Holland.
  
  About August 5, the two ships set sail. The unseaworthy Speedwell sprang a leak shortly after and the ships put into Dartmouth for repairs. After the repairs, a new start was made. They were more than 200 miles beyond Land's End at the southwestern tip of England when Speedwell sprang another leak. Since it was now early September, they had no choice but to abandon the Speedwell and make a determination on her passengers. This was a dire event, as the ship had wasted vital funds and was considered very important to the future success of their settlement in America. Soon after the Mayflower continued on her voyage to America, Speedwell was sold, refitted, and, according to Bradford, "made many voyages…to the great profit of her owners." Bradford later assumed that the Speedwell master Mr. Reynolds's "cunning and deceit" (in causing what may have been 'man-made' leaks in the ship) had been motivated by a fear of starving to death in America.
  
  In addition to the 102 passengers, the officers and crew consisted of about 25–30 persons, bringing the total persons on board the Mayflower to approximately 130.
  
  In early September, western gales begin to make the North Atlantic a dangerous place for sailing. The Mayflower's provisions, already quite low when departing Southampton, became much less by delays of more than of a month, and the passengers, having been aboard ship for all this time, were quite worn out by then and in no condition for a very taxing lengthy Atlantic journey cooped up in cramped spaces in a small ship. But on September 6, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth with what Bradford called "a prosperous wind"'.
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• In 1861, During the American Civil War, In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. It was a 3% flat tax on income over $800 (a little over $2,000 today, with a product purchase power of about $31.00 in today's money. It was rescinded in 1872.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Revenue Act of 1861, formally cited as Act of August 5, 1861, Chap. XLV, 12 Stat. 292, included the first U.S. Federal income tax statute. The Act, motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, imposed an income tax to be "levied, collected, and paid, upon the annual income of every person residing in the United States, whether such income is derived from any kind of property, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever " The tax imposed was a flat tax, with a rate of 3% on incomes above $800. The Revenue Act of 1861 was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln. This Act introduced Federal income tax as a flat rate tax.
  
  The income tax provision (Sections 49, 50 and 51 ) was repealed by the Revenue Act of 1862. (See Sec.89 , which replaced the flat rate with a progressive scale of 3% on annual incomes beyond $600 ($12,742 in 2009 dollars) and 5% on incomes above $10,000 ($212,369 in 2009 dollars) or those living outside the U.S., and perhaps more significantly it was explicitly temporary, specifying termination of income tax in "the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six.'
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• In 1884, The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
  From Wikipedia: 'On June 17, 1885, the French steamer Isère, laden with the Statue of Liberty, reached the New York port safely. New Yorkers displayed their new-found enthusiasm for the statue, as the French vessel arrived with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board. Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the Isère. After five months of daily calls to donate to the statue fund, on August 11, 1885, the World announced that $102,000 had been raised from 120,000 donors, and that 80 percent of the total had been received in sums of less than one dollar.
  
  Even with the success of the fund drive, the pedestal was not completed until April 1886. Immediately thereafter, reassembly of the statue began. Eiffel's iron framework was anchored to steel I-beams within the concrete pedestal and assembled. Once this was done, the sections of skin were carefully attached. Due to the width of the pedestal, it was not possible to erect scaffolding, and workers dangled from ropes while installing the skin sections. Nevertheless, no one died during the construction. Bartholdi had planned to put floodlights on the torch's balcony to illuminate it; a week before the dedication, the Army Corps of Engineers vetoed the proposal, fearing that ships' pilots passing the statue would be blinded. Instead, Bartholdi cut portholes in the torch—which was covered with gold leaf—and placed the lights inside them. A power plant was installed on the island to light the torch and for other electrical needs. After the skin was completed, renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of New York's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, supervised a cleanup of Bedloe's Island in anticipation of the dedication'.
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• In 1914, The First electric traffic light was installed at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio.
  From Wikipedia: 'On 9 December 1868, the first, non-electric, gas-lit traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London to control the traffic in Bridge Street, Great George Street and Parliament Street. They were promoted by the railway engineer J. P. Knight and constructed by the railway signal engineers of Saxby and Farmer. The design combined three semaphore arms with red and green gas lamps for night-time use, on a pillar, operated by a police constable. The gas lantern was manually turned by a traffic police officer, with a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic.
  
  Although it was said to be successful at controlling traffic, its operational life was brief. It exploded on 2 January 1869, as a result of a leak in one of the gas lines underneath the sidewalk, injuring or killing the policeman who was operating it. With doubts about its safety, the concept was abandoned until electric signals became available.
  
  An electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, a policeman in Salt Lake City, Utah, who also used red-green lights. On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. It had two colors, red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James Hoge, to provide a warning for color changes. The design by James Hoge allowed police and fire stations to control the signals in case of emergency. The first four-way, three-color traffic light was created by police officer William Potts in Detroit, Michigan in 1920. Ashville, Ohio claims to be the home of the oldest working traffic light in the United States, used at an intersection of public roads from 1932 to 1982 when it was moved to a local museum.
  
  Los Angeles installed its first automated traffic signals in October 1920 at five locations on Broadway. These early signals, manufactured by the Acme Traffic Signal Co., paired “Stop” and “Go” semaphore arms with small red and green lights. Bells played the role of today's amber or yellow lights, ringing when the flags changed—a process that took five seconds. By 1923 the city had installed 31 Acme traffic control devices. The Acme semaphore traffic lights were often used in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for comedic effect due to their loud bell.
  
  The first interconnected traffic signal system was installed in Salt Lake City in 1917, with six connected intersections controlled simultaneously from a manual switch. Automatic control of interconnected traffic lights was introduced March 1922 in Houston, Texas.
  
  After witnessing an accident between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, African American inventor, Garrett Morgan, became one of the first to file a U.S. patent for a traffic signal. Patent No. 1,475,024 was granted on November 20, 1923 for Morgan's three-position traffic signal - the ancestor of today's yellow warning light position commonly seen around the world today.
  
  The first traffic lights in Britain were deployed in Piccadilly Circus in 1926. Outside of London, Wolverhampton was the first British town to introduce automated traffic lights in 1927 in Princes Square at the junction of Lichfield Street and Princess Street.
  
  Melbourne was the first city in Australia to install traffic lights in 1928 on the intersection of Collins and Swanston Street.
  
  Toronto, Ontario was the first city to computerize its entire traffic signal system, which it accomplished in 1963.
  
  Countdown timers on traffic lights were introduced in the 1990s. Timers are useful for pedestrians, to plan whether there is enough time to cross the intersection before the end of the walk phase, and for drivers, to know the amount of time before the light turns green. In the United States, timers for vehicle traffic are prohibited, but pedestrian timers are now required on new or upgraded signals on wider roadways'.
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• In 1914, During World War I, the guns of Point Nepean fort at Port Phillip Heads in Victoria (Australia) fire across the bows of the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer SS Pfalz which is attempting to leave the Port of Melbourne in ignorance of the declaration of war and she is detained. This is said to be the first Allied (British Empire) shot of the War.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Pfalz was a 6,557 ton cargo steamer operated by German shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd. The ship became the target of the first shot fired by Australian forces in World War I, soon after departing the Port of Melbourne in Australia.
  
  The ship departed Victoria Dock in Melbourne on 5 August 1914, with Williamstown-based pilot Captain Montgomery Robinson aboard. As the ship passed Portsea it was momentarily stopped by the SS Alvina but allowed to proceed.
  
  Just before the ship approached Port Phillip heads, the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery stationed at Fort Nepean was informed of the declaration of war with Germany, and had received an order to "stop her or sink her". Signals were hoisted, commanding the ship to halt. As the warning had no effect, a shot was fired across the bow of the ship from one of the fort's 6 inch Mk VII guns. This was the first British Empire shot of the war.
  
  The pilot convinced the ship's master that a second round would likely be directed at the ship itself, and the ship was turned around. The ship was taken back to Portsea where the crew was placed under arrest'.
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• In 1924, The comic strip 'Little Orphan Annie' by Harold Gray debuts.
  From Wikipedia: 'Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray (1894–1968) and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News. It ranked number one in popularity in a Fortune poll in 1937.
  
  The plot follows the wide-ranging adventures of Annie, her dog Sandy and her benefactor Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks. Secondary characters include Punjab, the Asp and Mr. Am. The strip attracted adult readers with political commentary that targeted (among other things) organized labor, the New Deal and communism.
  
  Following Gray's death in 1968, several artists drew the strip and, for a time, "classic" strips were reruns. Little Orphan Annie inspired a radio show in 1930, film adaptations by RKO in 1932 and Paramount in 1938 and a Broadway musical Annie in 1977 (which was adapted into a film of the same name three times, one in 1982, one in 1999 and another in 2014). The strip's popularity declined over the years; it was running in only 20 newspapers when it was cancelled on June 13, 2010. The characters now appear occasionally as supporting ones in Dick Tracy'.
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• In 1926, The first full length sound movie 'Don Juan', is released at Warner Theater, NY. This film uses the Vitaphone sound system. It had ssynchronized music and sound effects, but no dialog. The 'Jazz Singer' in 1927 was another WB Vitaphone film, but was the first to have synchronized dialog (the first talkie). film was one half silent and one half sound.'
  From Wikipedia: 'Don Juan is a 1926 American romantic adventure/drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. The film is inspired by Lord Byron's 1821 epic poem of the same name. The screenplay was written by Bess Meredyth with intertitles by Maude Fulton and Walter Anthony.
  
  Don Juan stars John Barrymore as the hand-kissing womanizer. The film has the most kisses in film history, with Barrymore kissing (all together) Mary Astor and Estelle Taylor 127 times.
  
  In the prologue, Don José, warned of his wife's infidelity, seals his wife's lover alive in his hiding place and drives her from the castle; abandoned to his lust, he is stabbed by his last mistress, and with his dying words he implores his son, Don Juan, to take all from women but yield nothing. Ten years later, young Don Juan, a graduate of the University of Pisa, is famous as a lover and pursued by many women, including the powerful Lucrezia Borgia, who invites him to her ball. His contempt for her incites her hatred of Adriana, the daughter of the Duke Della Varnese, with whom he is enraptured; and Lucrezia plots to marry her to Count Giano Donati, one of the Borgia henchmen, and poison the duke. Don Juan intervenes and thwarts the scheme, winning the love of Adriana, but the Borgia declare war on the duke's kinsmen, offering them safety if Adriana marries Donati; Don Juan is summoned to the wedding, but he prefers death to marriage with Lucrezia. He escapes and kills Donati in a duel. The lovers are led to the death-tower, but while Adriana pretends suicide, he escapes; and following a series of battles, he defeats his pursuers and is united with Adriana'.
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• In 1953, 'From Here to Eternity' based on a book by James Jones, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra is released (Best Picture 1954).
  From Wikipedia: 'From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. The picture deals with the tribulations of three U.S. Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed portray the women in their lives and the supporting cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Philip Ober, Jack Warden, Mickey Shaughnessy, Claude Akins, and George Reeves.
  
  The film won eight Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, including for Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra) and Supporting Actress (Donna Reed). The film's title comes originally from a quote from Rudyard Kipling's 1892 poem "Gentlemen-Rankers", about soldiers of the British Empire who had "lost way" and were "damned from here to eternity."
  
  From Here to Eternity was selected in 2002 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.
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• In 1957, American Bandstand debuts on ABC T. Dick Clark was the second host.
  From Wikipedia: 'American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in person to lip-sync one of their latest singles. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110.
  
  The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.
  
  American Bandstand premiered locally in late March 1950 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV), as a replacement for a weekday movie that had shown predominantly British films. Hosted by Bob Horn as a television adjunct to his radio show of the same name on WFIL radio, Bandstand mainly featured short musical films produced by Snader Telescriptions and Official Films, with occasional studio guests. This incarnation was an early predecessor of sorts of the music video shows that became popular in the 1980s, featuring films that are themselves the ancestors of music videos.
  
  Horn, however, was disenchanted with the program, so he wanted to have the show changed to a dance program, with teenagers dancing along on camera as the records played, based on an idea that came from a radio show on WPEN, The 950 Club, hosted by Joe Grady and Ed Hurst. This more-familiar version of Bandstand debuted on October 7, 1952 in "Studio 'B'," which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building in West Philadelphia (4548 Market Street), and was hosted by Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host until 1955. Stewart was the owner of a TV/Radio business in Philadelphia and even though he was an older gentleman, his advertising account was a large one for WFIL-TV at the time and was put on the program to appease the account. As WFIL grew financially and the account became less important, Stewart wasn't needed and was eventually dropped from the program. Tony Mammarella was the original producer with Ed Yates as director. The short Snader and Official music films continued in the short term, mainly to fill gaps as they changed dancers during the show—a necessity, as the studio could not fit more than 200 teenagers.
  
  On July 9, 1956, Horn was fired after a drunk-driving arrest, as WFIL and dual owner Walter Annenberg's The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time were doing a series on drunken driving. He was also reportedly involved in a prostitution ring and brought up on morals charges. Horn was temporarily replaced by producer Tony Mammarella before the job went to Dick Clark permanently.
  
  In late spring of 1956, the ABC television network asked their O and O's and affiliates for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30 p.m. (ET) time slot (WFIL had been pre-empting the ABC programming with Bandstand). Clark decided to pitch the show to ABC president Thomas W. Moore, and after some badgering the show was picked up nationally, becoming American Bandstand on August 5, 1957. One show from this first season (December 18, 1957, indicated as the "Second National Telecast") is now in the archives of Chicago's Museum Of Broadcast Communications.
  
  "Studio 'B'" measured 80'x42'x24', but appeared smaller due to the number of props, television cameras, and risers that were used for the show. It was briefly shot in color in 1958 when WFIL-TV began experimenting with the then-new technology. Due to a combination of factors that included the size of the studio, the need to have as much space available for the teenagers to dance, and the size of the color camera compared to the black-and-white models, it was only possible to have one RCA TK-41 where three RCA TK-10s had been used before. WFIL went back to the TK-10s two weeks later when ABC refused to carry the color signal and management realized that the show lost something without the extra cameras'.
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• In 1963, The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed. by the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the US. When it expired, testing resumed.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) is the abbreviated name of the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, which prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted underground. It was developed both to slow the arms race (nuclear testing was, at the time, seen as necessary for continued advancements in nuclear weapons) and to stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere. It is also abbreviated as the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) and Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT), though the latter may also refer to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Upon its signing in 1996, the CTBT became the successor to the PTBT.
  
  The PTBT was signed by the governments of the Soviet Union (represented by Andrei Gromyko), the United Kingdom (represented by Alec Douglas-Home), and the United States (represented by Dean Rusk) in Moscow on August 5, 1963, before being opened for signature by other countries. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate on 24 September 1963 by a vote of 80 to 19 and went into effect on 10 October 1963'.
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• In 1969, The Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
  From Wikipedia: 'The Mariner program was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA in conjunction with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury from 1962 to 1973. The program included a number of firsts, including the first planetary flyby, the first planetary orbiter, and the first gravity assist maneuver.
  
  Of the ten vehicles in the Mariner series, seven were successful. The planned Mariner Jupiter-Saturn vehicles evolved into Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 of the Voyager program, while the Viking 1 and Viking 2 Mars orbiters were enlarged versions of the Mariner 9 spacecraft. Other Mariner-based spacecraft, launched since Voyager, included the Magellan probe to Venus, and the Galileo probe to Jupiter. A second-generation Mariner spacecraft, called the Mariner Mark II series, eventually evolved into the Cassini–Huygens probe, now in orbit around Saturn.
  
  The total cost of the Mariner program was approximately $554 million.
  
  Mariners 6 and 7 were identical teammates in a two-spacecraft mission to Mars. Mariner 6 was launched on February 24, 1969, followed by Mariner 7 on March 21, 1969. They flew over the equator and southern hemisphere of the planet Mars'.
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• In 2002, The USS Monitor's Turret is recovered by divers.
  From Wikipedia: 'The USS Monitor was an iron-hulled steamship. Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy. Monitor is most famous for her central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862, where, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, she fought the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia (built on the hull of the former steam frigate USS Merrimack) to a standstill. The unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the Monitor type of warship.
  
  After the Confederates were forced to destroy Virginia as they withdrew in early May, Monitor sailed up the James River to support the Union Army during the Peninsula Campaign. The ship participated in the Battle of Drewry's Bluff later that month and remained in the area giving support to General McClellan's forces on land until she was ordered to join the blockaders off North Carolina in December. On her way there she foundered while under tow, during a storm off Cape Hatteras on the last day of the year. Monitor's wreck was discovered in 1973 and has been partially salvaged. Her guns, gun turret, engine and other relics are on display at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia'.
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Something for you seafood lovers, tomorrow. It will be 'National Oyster Day'. I'll take mine deep fried.

If you can't find anything to do tomorrow, why not take a walk. No, not on the wild side, but on the moon. Tomorrow is 'National Walk on the Moon Day'. Please don't take the time to practice that M.J. style. Tomorrow we celebrate Neil Armstrong's birthday

Let's keep all the proprieties of proper dress (visible or not) when you are out and about tomorrow. It will be 'Underwear Day'. When you go out, remember what your mother always said about accidents and having clean undergarments.

For you workaholics out there, tomorrow is your day. It's 'National Work Like A Dog Day'.

A look back on August 5th, reveals:

In 1858, the First transatlantic telegraph cable was laid. Others must come, since this on only lasts about one month. We mentioned last month that the first successful cable was laid in 1866.

In 1861, the US levies the first income tax (Revenue Act of 1861) to support the civil ware costs. The tax rate was 3% of all incomes over $800.

In 1884, the Cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty is laid.

In 1914, the first electric traffic light was installed. It was on the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1957, American Bandstand debuts on ABC TV. Dick Clark was not the original DJ.

In 1985, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was created.

No. 1 song

• A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles: More
  'Rag Doll' has been displaced by 'A Hard Day's Night', which will hold the no. 1 spot until August 15 2014, when 'Everybody Loves Somebody', takes over.

Top movie

• Marnie More
  Having displaced 'The Moon-Spinners', it will be there until the weekend box office of August 9 1964 when, 'The Night of the Iguana', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: August 5 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: August 5 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 5th August More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 5th August More
• On-This-day.com history 5th August More
• On-This-day.com music history 5th August More
• Wikipedia.com: History August 5 More

National Catfish Month, National Goat Cheese Month, National Peach Month, National Brownies at Brunch Month

August is:

August origin (from Wikipedia): Originally named Sextili (Latin), because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar: under Romulus in 753 BC, when March was the first month of the year.
"About 700 BC it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius, who also gave it 29 days. Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC giving it its modern length of 31 days. In 8 BC it was renamed in honor of Augustus According to a Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, he chose this month because it was the time of several of his great triumphs, including the conquest of Egypt. "

August at Wikipedia: More

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

Best selling books of 1964 More

• 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
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• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
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• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
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• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
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• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
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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