Today is September 8 2014

Date Nut Bread Day: More
Also on December 22

• International Literacy Day : More
  
• National Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses Day: More
  Fourth Annual
• National Hug Your Hound Day: More
• National Boss/Employee Exchange Day : More
  Monday following Labor Day
• Iguana Awareness Day: More
• Pardon Day: More
  Ford's pardon of Nixon
• World Physical Therapy Day: More

• In 1888, In Spain, the first travel of Isaac Peral's submarine, was the first practical submarine ever made. It used electric batteries and had one torpedo tube.
  From Wikipedia: 'Peral was the first electric battery-powered submarine, built by the Spanish engineer and sailor Isaac Peral for the Spanish Navy. The first fully capable military submarine, she was launched 8 September 1888. She had one torpedo tube (and two torpedoes) and an air regeneration system. Her hull shape, propeller, and cruciform external controls anticipated later designs. Her underwater speed was 3 kn (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph). With fully charged batteries, she was the fastest submarine yet built, with underwater performance levels (except for range) that matched those of First World War U-boats for a very short period, before her batteries began to drain. For example, the SM U-9, a pre-war German U-boat built in 1908, had an underwater speed of 8.1kn, and an underwater range of 150 km (81 nmi) at 5.8kn, before having to resurface to recharge her batteries. In June 1890, Peral's submarine launched a torpedo while submerged. It was also the first submarine to incorporate a fully reliable underwater navigation system. However, conservatives in the Spanish naval hierarchy terminated the project despite two years of successful tests. Her operational abilities have led some to call her the first U-boat'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1892, The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is first recited. From Wikipedia: '... originally composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942'.
  The original: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all'.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of allegiance to the Flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Colonel George Balch in 1887, later revised by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942. The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945. The last change in language came on Flag Day 1954 when the words "under God" were added'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1900, A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas, with winds of 145 mph and killing about 8,000 people.
  'It was the deadliest hurricane in US history, and the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history based on the dollar's 2005 value (to compare costs with those of Hurricane Katrina and others)'.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Great Galveston Hurricane was a Category 4 storm, with winds of up to 145 mph (233 km/h) per hour, which made landfall on September 8, 1900, in Galveston, Texas, in the United States, leaving about 8,000 dead. It was the deadliest hurricane in US history.
  
  The hurricane appears to have started as an atmospheric trough from West Africa, causing unsettled weather in the Caribbean, and emerging into the Florida Straits as a tropical storm on September 5. Owing to contradictory forecasts, the people of Galveston felt no alarm until the official hurricane warning of September 7. Next morning a storm surge of 15 ft (4.6 m) washed over the long, flat island-city which was only 8 ft (2.4 m) above sea level, knocking buildings off their foundations and destroying over 3,600 homes.
  
  The disaster ended the Golden Era of Galveston, as the hurricane alarmed potential investors, who turned to Houston instead. The whole island of Galveston was presently raised by 17 ft (5.2 m) and a 10 sq mi (26 km2) seawall erected'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
  - On YouTube: More
  - On YouTube: More
  - eBook on Project Gutenberg - The Complete Story of the Galveston Horror by John Coul: More
• In 1930, 3M first markets Scotch tape.
  From Wikipedia: 'Scotch Tape is a brand name used for pressure-sensitive tapes manufactured by 3M as part of the company's Scotch brand. Their magnetic recording tape products were also sold under the Scotch brand.
  
  The precursor to the current tapes was developed in the 1930s in St. Paul, Minnesota by Richard Drew to seal a then-new transparent material known as cellophane. The name was soon applied to the entire line of 3M tapes.
  
  Scotty McTape, a kilt-wearing cartoon boy, was the brand's mascot for two decades, first appearing in 1944. The familiar tartan design, a take on the well-known Wallace tartan, was introduced in 1945'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1930, 1st appearance of comic strip 'Blondie'.
  From Wikipedia: 'Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).
  
  Chic Young drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when creative control passed to his son Dean Young, who continues to write the strip. Young has collaborated with a number of artists on Blondie, including Jim Raymond, Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun, and John Marshall. Through these changes, Blondie has remained popular, appearing in more than 2,000 newspapers in 47 countries and has been translated into 35 languages. Since 2006, Blondie has also been available via email through King Features' DailyINK service'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube (radio show): More
• In 1944, The first ballistic missile (V-2 rocket) hits London.
  - at W2Today: More
  From Wikipedia: 'The V-2 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, "Retribution Weapon 2"), technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile with a liquid-propellant rocket engine was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon," designed to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to cross the boundary of space with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.
  
  Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets during the war, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners died producing the weapons.
  
  As Germany collapsed, teams from the Allied forces—the United States Of America, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—raced to capture key German manufacturing sites, guided missiles, rockets and jet powered aircraft. Wernher von Braun and over 100 key V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans. Through a lengthy sequence of events, a significant portion of the original V-2 team ended up working for the US Army at the Redstone Arsenal. The US also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war and proceeded to re-establish V-2 production and move it to the Soviet Union.
  
  In October 1958 the Redstone team, led by von Braun, was transferred to NASA's nearby Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC), to design launch vehicles in the Saturn family'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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  - On YouTube: More
• In 1956, Harry Belafonte's album 'Calypso', goes to #1 (Billboard d200) and stays #1 for 31 weeks.
  From Wikipedia: 'Calypso is the third studio album by recording artist Harry Belafonte, released by RCA Victor (LPM-1248) in 1956. The album became his second consecutive number-one album on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, where it stayed for 31 consecutive weeks.
  
  The first track "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)" largely contributed to the success of the album and it is still the song for which Harry Belafonte is best known, reaching number five on Billboard's Pop chart.
  
  It is a traditional Jamaican folk song, not a calypso, sung from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over, and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home (this is the meaning of the lyric "Come, Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana / Daylight come and me wan' go home.")
  
  The third track, "Jamaica Farewell", is a calypso folk song about the beauties of the West Indian islands and a love left behind. This was the first album on which it was published. It reached number 14 on Billboard's Pop chart, becoming the second hit from the album'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1960, Nationwide release (US) of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.
  From Wikipedia: 'Psycho is a 1960 American psychological horror thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and written by Joseph Stefano, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam, and was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath.
  
  When originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films, and is widely considered to be the earliest example of the slasher film genre.
  
  After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a television film spin-off, and a TV series. In 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube (trailer): More
• In 1962, Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
  From Wikipedia: The Pines Express was a named passenger train that ran daily between Manchester and Bournemouth in England between 1910 and 1967.
  
  It ran for the first time under the name Pines Express on 26 September 1927; and is believed to have been named after the pine trees growing in the Chines in the Bournemouth area. When the service first ran, unnamed, on 1 October 1910, it was run jointly by the Midland Railway and LNWR; and was introduced in response to a LSWR/GWR service between Birkenhead and Bournemouth.
  
  InterCity (British Rail) revived the Pines Express name for several years as part of the CrossCountry network.
  
  'The last Pines Express to run over the S and DJR was on 8 September 1962, hauled by 9F 92220 Evening Star. The train was then diverted over ex-GWR metals via Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke and Southampton.
  
  In 1964 a Pines Express was the last passenger service worked over the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway before the line closed to all traffic between 1965 and 1967.
  
  From 4 October 1965 it was extended to Poole, but the last train was run on 4 March 1967'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1966, The original 'Star Trek' premieres on NBC.
  From Wikipedia: 'Star Trek is an American science-fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and its crew. It later acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series (Star Trek: TOS or simply TOS) to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began.
  
  The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly during the 2260s. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), first officer and science officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and chief medical officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Shatner's voice-over introduction during each episode's opening credits stated the starship's purpose:
  
  Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
  
  The series was produced from September 1966–December 1967 by Norway Productions and Desilu Productions, and by Paramount Television from January 1968–June 1969. Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1966 to June 3, 1969 and was actually seen first on September 6, 1966 on Canada's CTV network. Star Trek's Nielsen ratings while on NBC were low, and the network cancelled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. Several years later, the series became a bona fide hit in broadcast syndication, remaining so throughout the 1970s, achieving cult classic status and a developing influence on popular culture. Star Trek eventually spawned a franchise, consisting of five additional television series, thirteen feature films, numerous books, games, toys, and is now widely considered one of the most popular and influential television series of all time.
  
  The series contains significant elements of Space Western, as described by Gene Roddenberry and the general audience'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube(The first show - The Man Trap - beginning sceen): More
• In 1986, Oprah Winfrey Show goes national.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Oprah Winfrey Show, often referred to simply as Oprah, is an American syndicated tabloid talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986 to May 25, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Oprah Winfrey, it remains the highest-rated talk show in American television history.
  
  Oprah is one of the longest-running daytime television tabloid talk shows in history. The show received 47 Daytime Emmy Awards before Winfrey chose to stop submitting it for consideration in 2000.
  
  In 2002, TV Guide ranked it at #49 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, they ranked it as the 19th greatest TV show of all time'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More

Brew some coffee and get ready for 'Date Nut Bread Day'. (Also on December 22). A scoop of ice cream or whipped cream on top, is allowed.

Think about tomorrow's 'International Literacy Day'. Worldwide 1 in 6 adults is illiterate.

'National Boss/Employee Exchange Day'. On the Monday following Labor Day is your opportunity to trade places with your boss so both can better understand what the other does. I would check with your boss before you grab his/her key to the executive washroom.

Show your dog some love tomorrow. It will be 'National Hug Your Hound Day'.

If your dog already knows he/she is loved, why not celebrate 'Iguana Awareness Day'. Now unless it sneeks up on you, how can you not be aware of an Iguana looking at you.

Tomorrow is 'Pardon Day'. Ford's pardon of Nixon.

We have two chances to say thanks to those in the medical profession that keep us going. Tomorrow is 'World Physical Therapy Day'. and 'National Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses Day'.

Step back to September 8th in the past:

In 1892,- Pledge of Allegiance was first recited'.

In 1900, A Galveston Hurricane (not named at that time) comes ashore at Galveston Texas. The island and Texas coast is devastated, with winds of approx. 145 mph.. Six to eight thousand people died. A seawall, constructed later, was not considered necessary at the time, even though the island was only nine feet above the surf. . There was some warnings, but they were mostly ignored and exit to the mainland was limited. There is a free, excellent eBook about the event on the Project Gutenberg web site.

In 1930, 3M first marketed Scotch tape. It's name supposedly came from an incident when inventor Richard Drew 'was testing how much adhesive to add. Apparently, a frustrated body shop painted shouted, “Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!'.

In 1930, The comic strip 'Blondie' first appeared. I have an affection for this comic, since it is Blonde's husband, Dagwood, for whom the art of colossal sandwiches was coined.

In 1966, The original Star Trek premiered.

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 8 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: September 8 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 8th September More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 8th September More
• On-This-day.com history 8th September More
• On-This-day.com music history 8th September More
• Wikipedia.com: History September 8 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.

September 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
  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