Today is September 7 2014

Salami Day : More

• Grandparents Day : More
  First Sunday after Labor Day
• National Neither Snow Nor Rain Day: More
  The opening of the New York Post Office, on this day, in 1914.
• National Grandma Moses Day: More
  Birthday (1860) of folk artist, Anna Mary Robertson Moses (Grandma Moses).b
• National Acorn Squash Day: More
• National Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness Day: More
  US Senate Resolution
• Pet Rock Day: More
• National Threatened Species Day: More
  Commemorate the death of the last remaining Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936, and to reflect on how best to aid threatened species.

• In 1590, The first ever microscope is invented in Middelburg, Netherlands. It was created by a lens-maker named Hans Lippershey and his son. It wasn't until the 1670s that it started to be used for research.
  From Wikipedia: 'A microscope (from the Ancient Greek:, mikrós, "small" and, skopeîn, "to look" or "see") is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.
  
  There are many types of microscopes. The most common (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope), the ultramicroscope, and the various types of scanning probe microscope.
  
  The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. Evidence points to the first compound microscope appearing in the Netherlands by the 1620s, with a likely inventor being Cornelis Drebbel. Counter claims include it being invented by Hans Lippershey (who obtained the first telescope patent) and what may be a dubious claim by Zacharias Janssen's son that his father invented the microscope and telescope. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625 (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little eye").
  
  The first detailed account of the interior construction of living tissue based on the use of a microscope did not appear until 1644, in Giambattista Odierna's L'occhio della mosca, or The Fly's Eye.
  
  It was not until the 1660s and 1670s that the microscope was used extensively for research in Italy, the Netherlands and England. Marcelo Malpighi in Italy began the analysis of biological structures beginning with the lungs. Robert Hooke's Micrographia had a huge impact, largely because of its impressive illustrations. The greatest contribution came from Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who achieved up to 300 times magnification. He sandwiched a v. small glass ball lens between the holes in two metal plates riveted together and with an adjustable by screws needle attached to mount the specimen. Then, Van Leeuwenhoek discovered red blood cells and spermatozoa and helped popularise microscopy as a technique. On 9 October 1676, he reported the discovery of micro-organisms.
  
  The performance of light microscopy depends as much on how the sample is illuminated as on how it is observed. Early instruments were limited until this principle was fully appreciated and developed, and until electric lamps were available as light sources. The first piece of fiction to involve the microcosm was probably Fitz-James O'Brien's "The Diamond Lens," which tells the story of a scientist who invents a powerful microscope and discovers a beautiful woman living in a microscopic world inside a drop of water. In 1893 August Köhler developed a key principle of sample illumination, Köhler illumination, which is central to achieving the theoretical limits of light microscopy. This method of sample illumination produces even lighting and overcomes the limited contrast and resolution imposed by early techniques of sample illumination. Further developments in sample illumination came from the discovery of phase contrast by Frits Zernike in 1953, and differential interference contrast illumination by Georges Nomarski in 1955; both of which allow imaging of unstained, transparent samples'.
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• In 1776, The World's first attack submarine was deployed during the American Revolutionary War. It was the 'Turtle' designed by David Bushnell. It was designed to attach mines under uder wooden sailing ships (in this case British ships in New York Harbor.). There are no British accounts of this attack.
  From Wikipedia: 'Turtle (also called American Turtle) was the world's first submersible with a documented record of use in combat. She was built in Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1775 by American David Bushnell as a means of attaching explosive charges to ships in a harbor. Bushnell designed her for use against British Royal Navy vessels occupying North American harbors during the American Revolutionary War. Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull recommended the invention to George Washington; although the commander-in-chief had doubts, he provided funds and support for the development and testing of the machine.
  
  Several attempts were made using Turtle to affix explosives to the undersides of British warships in New York Harbor in 1776. All failed, and her transport ship was sunk later that year by the British with the submarine aboard. Bushnell claimed eventually to have recovered the machine, but its final fate is unknown. Modern replicas of Turtle have been constructed; the Connecticut River Museum, the U.S. Navy's Submarine Force Library and Museum, the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and the Oceanographic Museum (Monaco) have them on display'.
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• In 1813,- The nickname 'Uncle Sam' was first used as a symbolic reference to the United States. The reference appeared in an editorial in the New York's Troy Post.
  From Wikipedia: 'Uncle Sam (initials U.S.) is a common national personification of the American government or the United States in general that, according to legend, came into use during the War of 1812 and was supposedly named for Samuel Wilson but whose actual origin may be obscure. Uncle Sam represents a manifestation of patriotic emotion.
  
  The first use of Uncle Sam in formal literature, as distinct from newspapers, was in the 1816 allegorical book "The Adventures of Uncle Sam in Search After His Lost Honor" by Frederick Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq. An Uncle Sam is mentioned as early as 1775, in the original "Yankee Doodle" lyrics of the American Revolutionary War. It is not clear whether this reference is to Uncle Sam as a metaphor for the United States, or to an actual person named Sam. The lyrics as a whole celebrate the military efforts of the young nation, besieging the British at Boston. The 13th stanza is:
  
  
  Old Uncle Sam come there to change
  Some pancakes and some onions,
  For 'lasses cakes, to carry home
  To give his wife and young ones.
  
  The earliest known personification of what would become the United States was "Columbia" who first appeared in 1738 and sometimes was associated with Liberty. Columbia
  
  With the American Revolutionary War came "Brother Jonathan" as another personification and finally after the War of 1812 Uncle Sam appeared.
  
  However, according to an article in the 1893 The Lutheran Witness Uncle Sam was simply another name for Brother Jonathan:
  
  "When we meet him in politics we call him Uncle Sam; when we meet him in society we call him Brother Jonathan. Here of late Uncle Sam alias Brother Jonathan has been doing a powerful lot of complaining, hardly doing anything else." (sic)
  
  The term Uncle Sam is reputedly derived from Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied rations for the soldiers during the War of 1812. There was a requirement at the time for contractors to stamp their name and where the rations came from onto the food they were sending. Wilson's packages were labeled "E.A – US." When someone asked what that stood for, a coworker joked and said "Elbert Anderson (the contractor) and Uncle Sam," referring to Sam Wilson, though it actually stood for United States. Doubts have been raised as to this being the source of the term as the claim as to Samuel Wilson did not appear in print until 1842. Additionally, the earliest reference found to date of the term in 1810 predates Wilson's contract with the government. As early as 1835 Brother Jonathan made a reference to Uncle Sam implying that they symbolized different things: Brother Jonathan was the country itself while Uncle Sam was the government and its power.
  
  By the 1850s the names Brother Jonathan and Uncle Sam were being used nearly interchangeably to the point that images of what had been called "Brother Jonathan" were now being called Uncle Sam. Similarly, appearance of both personifications varied wildly. For example, one depiction of Uncle Sam in 1860 depicted him looking like Benjamin Franklin, (an appearance echoed in Harper's Weekly's June 3, 1865 "Checkmate" political cartoon) while the depiction of Brother Jonathan on page 32 of the January 11, 1862 edition Harper's Weekly looks more like the modern version of Uncle Sam (except for the lack of a goatee).
  
  However, even with the effective abandonment of Brother Jonathan (i.e. Johnny Reb) near the end of the Civil War, Uncle Sam didn't get a standard appearance until the well-known "recruitment" image of Uncle Sam was created by James Montgomery Flagg (inspired by a British recruitment poster showing Lord Kitchener in a similar pose). It was this image more than any other that set the appearance of Uncle Sam as the elderly man with white hair and a goatee wearing a white top hat with white stars on a blue band, a blue tail coat and red and white striped trousers.
  
  The image of Uncle Sam was shown publicly for the first time, according to some, in a picture by Flagg on the cover of the magazine Leslie's Weekly, on July 6, 1916, with the caption "What Are You Doing for Pr=eparedness?" More than four million copies of this image were printed between 1917 and 1918.
  
  While Columbia had appeared with either Brother Jonathan or Uncle Sam, her use as personification for the U.S. had declined in favor of Liberty, and once she became the mascot of Columbia Pictures in the 1920s, she was effectively abandoned.
  
  In 1989, "Uncle Sam Day" became official. A Congressional joint resolution designated September 13, 1989, the birthday of Samuel Wilson, as "Uncle Sam Day"'.
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• In 1888, Edith Eleanor McLean is the first baby to be placed in an incubator at State Emigrant Hospital on Ward’s Island, New York. She weighed 2 pounds 7 ounces.
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• In 1896, A.H. Whiting won the first automobile race held on a racetrack (a horse racing track). The race was held in Cranston, RI. He won in his electric auto at 26 mph.
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• In 1909, Eugène Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris. he became the first person to die while piloting a powered airplane and the second person to be killed in a powered airplane crash.
  From Wikipedia: 'Eugène Lefebvre (4 October 1878 – 7 September 1909) was a French aviation pioneer. He was the first person to die while piloting a powered airplane and the second person to be killed in a powered airplane crash.
  
  The chief pilot for the French Wright Company, Lefebvre was a participant in the first international air race, the Grande Semaine d'Aviation at Reims in 1909, piloting a Wright Flyer. He, Louis Blériot and Hubert Latham were selected as France's representatives during the contest for the Gordon Bennett Trophy on 22 August, after poor weather made the morning's planned qualifying run impossible. When the weather lifted around 6 o'clock that evening, Lefebvre was one of the pilots who took to the sky in an exhibition, giving one of the earliest displays of stunt flying. The New York Times described his maneuvers thus: "Lefebvre...came driving at the crowded tribunes, turned in the nick of time, went sailing off, swooped down again till he made the flags on the pillars and the plumes on the ladies' hats flutter, and so played about at will for our applause." He was subsequently fined $4 by the judges for displaying excessive "recklessness and daring." During the running of the race, he placed fourth, behind Glenn Curtiss, Blériot and Latham.
  
  Only nine days after the end of the Reims event, Lefebvre was killed in a crash at Juvisy, when the plane he was testing dropped to the ground from a height of twenty feet. In so doing, he became the first person to die while piloting a powered airplane, and the second person to be killed in an airplane crash'.
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• In 1915, Johnny Gruelle patents his Raggedy Ann doll (US Patent D47789).
  From Wikipedia: 'Raggedy Ann is a character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and has a triangle nose. Johnny Gruelle received US Patent D47789 for his Raggedy Ann doll on September 7, 1915. The character was created in 1915 as a doll, and was introduced to the public in the 1918 book Raggedy Ann Stories. When a doll was marketed with the book, the concept had great success. A sequel, Raggedy Andy Stories (1920), introduced the character of her brother, Raggedy Andy.
  
  Hall notes that according to oft-repeated myth, Gruelle's daughter Marcella brought from her grandmother's attic a faceless doll on which the artist drew a face, and that Gruelle suggested that Marcella's grandmother sew a shoe button for a missing eye. He then combined the names of two James Whitcomb Riley poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie" and suggested calling the doll Raggedy Ann. Hall says the date of this supposed occurrence is given as early as 1900 and as late as 1914, with the locale variously given as suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, downtown Cleveland, Ohio, or rural Connecticut. In reality, as Gruelle's wife Myrtle told Hall, it was Gruelle who retrieved a long-forgotten, homemade rag doll from the attic of his parents' Indianapolis home sometime around the turn of the 20th century. As Myrtle Gruelle recalled, "There was something he wanted from the attic. While he was rummaging around for it, he found an old rag doll his mother had made for his sister. He said then that the doll would make a good story."
  
  The couple's daughter, Marcella, had not yet been born when Gruelle found the doll, Myrtle Gruelle continued. Johnny Gruelle "kept in his mind until we had Marcella. He remembered it when he saw her play dolls. ... He wrote the stories around some of the things she did. He used to get ideas from watching her."
  
  Additionally, Gruelle did not create Raggedy Ann as a tribute to his daughter following her death at 13 from an infected vaccination; Hall notes his patent application for the doll was already in progress, and the artist received final approval by the U.S. Patent office the same month as Marcella's death. Nonetheless, that myth led the anti-vaccination movement to adopt Raggedy Ann as a symbol, though Marcella died from an infected vaccination, not from the side effects of the vaccination itself.
  
  Raggedy Ann dolls were originally handmade. Over 75,000 dolls were made for Volland, a Gruelle book publisher, by the Non-Breakable Toy Co. of Muskegon, Michigan. between 1918 and 1926. Later, PF Volland made the dolls. In 1935 Volland ceased operation and Ann and Andy were made under Gruelle's permission by Exposition Dolls, and without permission (during legal limbo) by MollyE's Dolls, resulting in Gruelle v (Mollye) Goldman'.
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• In 1921, The first Miss America Pageant (Inter City Beauty pageant at that time) was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The winner was Margaret Gorman.
  From Wikipedia: 'Margaret Gorman, Miss District of Columbia, was declared "The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America" in 1921 at the age of 16 and was recognized as the first "Miss America" when she returned to compete the next year. The contest that year was won by Mary Katherine Campbell (Miss Ohio) and again in 1923. She returned to compete a third time in 1924 but placed as first runner-up that year, and pageant rules were then amended to prevent anyone from winning more than once. Beginning in 1940, Bob Russell served as the first official host of the pageant. In 1941, Mifauny Shunatona, Miss Oklahoma, became the first Native American contestant'.
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• In 1927, Philo Taylor Farnsworth achieves the first 'fully electronic' television. This replaced the 'spinning-disk' method.
  From Wikipedia: On December 25, 1926, Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrated a TV system with a 40-line resolution that employed a CRT display at Hamamatsu Industrial High School in Japan. This was the first working example of a fully electronic television receiver. Takayanagi did not apply for a patent.
  
  'On September 7, 1927, Philo Farnsworth's image dissector camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line, at his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco. By September 3, 1928, Farnsworth had developed the system sufficiently to hold a demonstration for the press. This is widely regarded as the first electronic television demonstration. In 1929, the system was further improved by elimination of a motor generator, so that his television system now had no mechanical parts. That year, Farnsworth transmitted the first live human images with his system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife Elma ("Pem") with her eyes closed (possibly due to the bright lighting required)'.
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• In 1936, The last thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial named Benjamin, dies alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
  From Wikipedia: The thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped lower back) or the Tasmanian wolf. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it is believed to have become extinct in the 20th century. It was the last extant member of its family, Thylacinidae; specimens of other members of the family have been found in the fossil record dating back to the late Oligocene.
  
  'The last captive thylacine, later referred to as "Benjamin", was trapped in the Florentine Valley by Elias Churchill in 1933, and sent to the Hobart Zoo where it lived for three years. Frank Darby, who claimed to have been a keeper at Hobart Zoo, suggested "Benjamin" as having been the animal's pet name in a newspaper article of May 1968. However, no documentation exists to suggest that it ever had a pet name, and Alison Reid (de facto curator at the zoo) and Michael Sharland (publicist for the zoo) denied that Frank Darby had ever worked at the zoo or that the name "Benjamin" was ever used for the animal. Darby also appears to be the source for the claim that the last thylacine was a male; photographic evidence suggested it was female. Paddle was unable to uncover any records of any Frank Darby having been employed by Beaumaris/Hobart Zoo during the time that Reid or her father was in charge and noted several inconsistencies in the story Darby told during his interview in 1968.
  
  The thylacine died on 7 September 1936. It is believed to have died as the result of neglect—locked out of its sheltered sleeping quarters, it was exposed to a rare occurrence of extreme Tasmanian weather: extreme heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. The thylacine features in the last known motion picture footage of a living specimen: 62 seconds of black-and-white footage showing the thylacine in its enclosure in a clip taken in 1933, by naturalist David Fleay. In the film footage, the thylacine is seen seated, walking around the perimeter of its enclosure, yawning (exposing its impressive gape), sniffing the air, scratching itself (in the same manner as would a dog), and lying down'.
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• In 1940, The German Luftwaffe begins the Blitz, bombing London and other British cities for over 50 consecutive nights.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Blitz, from the German word 'Blitzkrieg' meaning 'lightning war', was the name borrowed by the British press and applied to the heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. This concentrated, direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centres began with heavy raids on London on 7 September 1940, during what became known as the Battle of Britain. Adolf Hitler's and Hermann Goering's plans to destroy the Royal Air Force to allow an invasion of Britain were failing, and in response to an RAF raid on Berlin, which itself was prompted by an accidental German bombing of London, they changed their tactics to the sustained bombing of civilian targets.
  
  Between 7 September 1940 and 21 May 1941, 16 British cities suffered aerial raids with at least 100 long tons of high explosives. Over a period of 267 days, London was attacked 71 times, Birmingham, Liverpool and Plymouth eight times, Bristol six, Glasgow five, Southampton four, Portsmouth and Hull three and a minimum of one large raid on eight other cities. This was a result of a rapid escalation starting on 24 August 1940, when night bombers aiming for RAF airfields drifted off course and accidentally destroyed several London homes, killing civilians, combined with the UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill's retaliatory bombing of Berlin on the following night.
  
  From 7 September 1940, one year into the war, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, almost half of them in London. Ports and industrial centres outside London were also attacked. The main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool was bombed, causing nearly 4,000 deaths within the Merseyside area during the war. The North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, was subjected to 86 raids in the Hull Blitz during the war, with a conservative estimate of 1,200 civilians killed and 95 percent of its housing stock destroyed or damaged. Other ports including Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea were also bombed, as were the industrial cities of Birmingham, Belfast, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Sheffield. Birmingham and Coventry were chosen because of the Spitfire and tank factories in Birmingham and the many munitions factories in Coventry. The city centre of Coventry was almost destroyed, as was Coventry Cathedral.
  
  The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy. The eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The Blitz was only authorised when the Luftwaffe had failed to meet preconditions for a 1940 launch of Operation Sea Lion, the provisionally planned German invasion of Britain. By May 1941, the threat of an invasion of Britain had ended, and Hitler's attention turned to Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. In comparison to the later Allied bombing campaign against Germany, the Blitz resulted in relatively few casualties; the British bombing of Hamburg in July 1943 inflicted some 42,000 civilian deaths, about the same as the entire Blitz.
  
  Several reasons have been suggested for the failure of the German air offensive. The Luftwaffe High Command (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, OKL) did not develop a strategy for destroying British war industry; instead of maintaining pressure on any of them, it frequently switched from one type of industry to another. Neither was the Luftwaffe equipped to carry out strategic bombing; the lack of a heavy bomber and poor intelligence on British industry denied it the ability to prevail'.
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• In 1942, The first flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Consolidated B-32 Dominator (Consolidated Model 34) was an American heavy strategic bomber built for United States Army Air Forces during World War II, which had the distinction of being the last Allied aircraft to be engaged in combat during World War II. It was developed by Consolidated Aircraft in parallel with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress as a fallback design should the B-29 prove unsuccessful. The B-32 only reached units in the Pacific during mid-1945, and subsequently only saw limited combat operations against Japanese targets before the end of the war. Most of the extant orders of the B-32 were canceled shortly thereafter and only 118 B-32 airframes of all types were built'.
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• In 1943. A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston (northwest corner of Louisiana and Preston Streets), kills 55 people. It remains the cause of the worst loss of life in a fire in the city's history.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Gulf Hotel fire claimed 55 lives in the early-morning hours of September 7, 1943 in downtown Houston, Texas. This fire remains the cause of the worst loss of life in a fire in the city's history.
  
  The hotel was located on the northwest corner of Louisiana and Preston Streets and occupied the upper two floors of a three-story brick building, with a variety of businesses occupying the first floor. It was an inexpensive hotel near the city's bus depot, and reportedly had 87 beds, most divided from one another by thin wooden partitions, and 50 cots available for half the price of a bed. That night the guest log showed 133 names registered.
  
  Shortly after midnight, the desk clerk was alerted to a smoldering mattress in a room on the second floor. The clerk and a few guests thought they had extinguished the burning mattress and moved it to a closet in the second floor hall. Moments later, the mattress erupted in flames. The fire spread quickly through the second floor and headed toward the third. There were two exits from the hotel, both on the Preston side, one an interior staircase, the other an exterior fire escape.
  
  The fire department's central station was located only a few blocks away at Preston and Caroline Streets. The alarm was received at 12:50 a.m. Deputy Chief Grover Cleveland Adams was the first to arrive at the burning hotel where he summoned a general alarm as he witnessed flames shooting from windows and the roof.
  
  Ted Felds of Harris County's Emergency Corps arrived at about the same time and noticed many men on the fire escape, including a few on crutches, who were slowing the progress of others behind them still trying to escape.
  
  Two men died at the scene after jumping from the hotel's windows. There were 15 other fatalities in area hospitals. Firefighters recovered 38 bodies from the burned out building. In all, 55 people died in the fire and more than 30 were injured. A mass funeral was held for 23 victims of the fire who were never identified and they were buried at the South Park Cemetery in Houston'.
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• In 1963, The Pro Football Hall of Fame dedicated in Canton Ohio.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football with a Mission to "Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values and Celebrate Excellence. The Hall's five core values that are learned from the game are commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence. The vision of the Pro Football Hall of Fame is "It's not just the past, it's the future; It's not just about Canton, it's the world; It's not just a great museum for football but a message of excellence." The hall opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter enshrinees. As of 2016, there are a total of 303 members of the Hall of Fame'.
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• In 1979, Cable sports network ESPN debuts on cable television for the very first time.
  From Wikipedia: ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is a U.S.-based global cable and satellite television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network) and the Hearst Corporation (which owns a 20% minority share).
  
  'ESPN launched on September 7, 1979, beginning with the first telecast of what would become the channel's flagship program, SportsCenter. Taped in front of a small live audience inside the Bristol studios, it was broadcast to 1.4 million cable subscribers throughout the United States.
  
  ESPN's next big break came when the channel acquired the rights to broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. It first aired the NCAA tournament in March 1980, creating the modern day television event known as "March Madness". The channel's tournament coverage also launched the broadcasting career of Dick Vitale, who at the time he joined ESPN, had just been fired as head coach of the Detroit Pistons'.
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• In 1997, The first test flight of the F-22 Raptor takes place. It is a single-seat, twin-engine, all weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation, single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). The result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter program, the aircraft was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but also has ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, built most of the F-22's airframe and weapons systems and did its final assembly, while Boeing provided the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.
  
  The aircraft was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 before it formally entered service in December 2005 as the F-22A. After a protracted development and despite operational issues, the USAF considers the F-22 critical to its tactical air power, and says that the aircraft is unmatched by any known or projected fighter. The Raptor's combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and situational awareness gives the aircraft unprecedented air combat capabilities.
  
  e high cost of the aircraft, a lack of clear air-to-air missions due to delays in Russian and Chinese fighter programs, a ban on exports, and development of the more versatile F-35 led to the end of F-22 production. A final procurement tally of 187 operational production aircraft was established in 2009 and the last F-22 was delivered to the USAF in 2012'.
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Tomorrow will be 'Salami Day'. I believe an uncut salami will last about as long as a Fruit Cake.

If you are, instead looking for a veggie, it will be 'National Acorn Squash Day'.

Tomorrow is National Neither Snow Nor Rain Day'. Celebrates the opening of the New York Post Office 1914. It is over the entrance of this building that the famous motto, which is not really the official motto of the Post Office, was first inscribed. It read, 'Neither snow nor rain not heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds'.

It being the first Sunday after Labor Day, tomorrow, we celebrate 'Grandparents Day'. Grandparents, it's time for the kids and their kiddies to bring you gifts and pay you special attention.

We celebrate one special Grandmother tomorrow. It will be 'National Grandma Moses Day'. Anna Mary Robertson Moses was born on September 7 1860. She was a famous folk art painter.

Tomorrow is 'National Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness Day'. By US Senate Resolution.

Remember Pet Rocks? Tomorrow is 'Pet Rock Day'. They made the inventor a millionaire.

Also, tomorrow will be 'National Threatened Species Day'. It commemorates the death of the last remaining Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936, and to reflect on how best to aid threatened species.

Way, way back on September 7th:

In 1590, The first microscope invented. It was many years before it was put to practical use.

In 1776, The World's first attack submarine was deployed. The idea was to attach a timed delayed mine to the wooden British ships in NY Harbor, during he Revolutionary War. It had limited effect. The bomb could not be attached underwater after meeting some interior metal. It did float and explode later. This cause the British to remove their ships from the harbor, so it had some success.

In 1813, The United States nicknamed Uncle Sam was coined. The name originated from the 'US' stamp that was put on barrels of beef destined for the US army in the American War of 1812, from Samuel Wilson's meat packing company. The soldiers started calling the barrels , 'Uncle Sam's'. The name caught on and was used for recruitment and other promotion purposes later.

In 1896, An electric car wins the first auto race in the United States.

In 1915, Johnny Gruelle patents his Raggedy Ann doll.

In 1921, The first Miss America Pageant was held. The winner was Margaret Gorman

In 1927, The first fully electronic television was demonstrated.

No. 1 song

• The House of the Rising Sun - The Animals: More
  'Where Did Our Love Go' has been displaced by 'The House of the Rising Sun', which will hold the no. 1 spot until September 26 2014, when 'Oh, Pretty Woman', takes over.

Top movie

• Mary Poppins More
  Having displaced 'A Hard Day's Night', it will be there until the weekend box office of October 4 1964 when, 'Cheyenne Autumn', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: September 7 Birthdays More
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• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 7th September More
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• On-This-day.com music history 7th September More
• Wikipedia.com: History September 7 More

Baby Safety Month, Better Breakfast Month, Classical Music Month, Fall Hat Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, International Square Dancing Monthk Little League Month, National Biscuit Month, National Blueberry Popsicle Month, National Chicken Month, National Cholesterol Education Month, National Courtesy Month, National Honey Month, National Mushroom Month, National Organic Harvest Month, National Papaya Month, National Piano Month, National Potato Month, National Rice Month, Self Improvement Month

September is:

September origin (from Wikipedia): Originally September (Latin septem, "seven") was the seventh of ten months on the oldest known Roman calendar.
September in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of March in the Southern Hemisphere.
After the calendar reform that added January and February to the beginning of the year, September became the ninth month, but retained its name. It had 29 days until the Julian reform, which added a day.

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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
  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

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