Today is December 4 2014

National Cookie Day : More

• National Dice Day: More
  
• Wear Brown Shoes Day: More
• Santa's List Day : More

• In 1619, America's first Thanksgiving Day, at Berkeley plantation, Virginia. One year before the traditional American date.
  From Wikipedia: 'Setting aside time to give thanks for one's blessings, along with holding feasts to celebrate a harvest, are both practices that long predate the European settlement of North America. The first documented thanksgiving services in territory currently belonging to the United States were conducted by Spaniards and the French in the 16th century.
  
  Thanksgiving services were routine in what became the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607, with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, Virginia holding a thanksgiving in 1610. In 1619, 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia. The group's London Company charter specifically required "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned... in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." Three years later, after the Indian massacre of 1622, the Berkeley Hundred site and other outlying locations were abandoned and colonists moved their celebration to Jamestown and other more secure spots'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1791, Britain's Observer, the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, is first published.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its sister papers The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly, whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993, it claims to take a social liberal or social democratic line on most issues. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
  
  The first issue, published on 4 December 1791 by W.S. Bourne, was the world's first Sunday newspaper. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine, Francis Burdett and Joseph Priestley'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
• In 1872, The ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged. What happened to the ship, remains a mystery.
  From Wikipedia: 'Mary Celeste (often misreported as Marie Celeste) was an American merchant brigantine, discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, on December 5, 1872. The Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail, and with her lifeboat missing. The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7, and on discovery was still amply provisioned. Her cargo of denatured alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again.
  
  Mary Celeste was built in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia and launched under British registration as Amazon, in 1861. She transferred to American ownership and registration in 1868, when she acquired her new name, and thereafter sailed uneventfully until her 1872 voyage. At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar, following her recovery, the court's officers considered various possibilities of foul play, including mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew or others, and conspiracy to carry out insurance or salvage fraud. No convincing evidence was found to support these theories, but unresolved suspicions led to a relatively low salvage award.
  
  The inconclusive nature of the hearings helped to foster continued speculation as to the nature of the mystery, and the story has repeatedly been complicated by false detail and fantasy. Hypotheses that have been advanced include the effects on the crew of alcohol fumes rising from the cargo, submarine earthquakes (seaquakes), waterspouts, attacks by giant squid, and paranormal intervention.
  
  After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners. In 1885, her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti, as part of an attempted insurance fraud. The story of her 1872 abandonment has been recounted and dramatized many times, in documentaries, novels, plays and films, and the name of the ship has become a byword for unexplained desertion'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1945, U.S. Senate approves U.S. participation in UN.
  From Wikipedia: 'The United Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four (the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and China) at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. "The heads of the delegations of the sponsoring countries took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings: Anthony Eden, of Britain, Edward Stettinius, of the United States, T. V. Soong, of China, and Vyacheslav Molotov, of the Soviet Union. At the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov." The UN officially came into existence 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.
  
  The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council took place in London beginning 6 January 1946. The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the United Nations, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1954,– The first Burger King is opened in Miami.
  From Wikipedia: Burger King (often abbreviated as BK) is an American global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, headquartered in the unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. The company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties in 1954, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton and James McLamore purchased the company and renamed it as Burger King. Over the next half century, the company would change hands four times, with its third set of owners, a partnership of TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, taking it public in 2002.
  
  'The predecessor to Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King. After visiting the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners (Keith J. Kramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns), who had purchased the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta-machines", opened their first restaurants. Their production model was based on one of the machines they had acquired, an oven called the "Insta-Broiler". This strategy proved to be so successful that they later required all of their franchises to use the device. After the company faltered in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees, James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. They initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain, first renaming the company Burger King. They ran the company as an independent entity for eight years (eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States), before selling it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967'.
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• In 1959, Sam, the space monkey returns to Earth safely. His mate, Miss Sam did the same a month later.
  From Wikipedia: 'The first ever primate astronaut was Albert, a rhesus monkey, who on June 11, 1948, rode to over 63 km (39 mi) on a V2 rocket. Albert died of suffocation during the flight.
  
  Albert was followed by Albert II who survived the V2 flight but died on impact on June 14, 1949, after a parachute failure. Albert II became the first monkey in space as his flight reached 134 km (83 mi) - past the Kármán line of 100 km taken to designate the beginning of space. Albert III died at 35,000 feet (10.7 km) in an explosion of his V2 on September 16, 1949. Albert IV on the last monkey V2 flight died on impact on December 8 that year after another parachute failure. His flight reached 130.6 km. Alberts I, II, and IV were rhesus monkeys while Albert III was a cynomolgus monkey.
  
  Monkeys later flew on Aerobee rockets. On April 18, 1951, a monkey, possibly called Albert V, died due to parachute failure. Yorick, also called Albert VI, along with 11 mouse crewmates, reached 236,000 ft (72 km) and survived the landing, on September 20, 1951, the first monkey to do so (the dogs Dezik and Tsygan had survived a trip to space in July of that year), although he died 2 hours later. Two of the mice also died after recovery; all of the deaths were thought to be related to stress from overheating in the sealed capsule in the New Mexico sun while awaiting the recovery team. Albert VI's flight surpassed the 50 mile boundary the U.S. used for spaceflight but was below the international definition of space. Patricia and Mike, two cynomolgus monkeys, flew on May 21, 1952, and survived, but their flight was only to 26 kilometers.
  
  On December 13, 1958, Gordo, also called Old Reliable, a squirrel monkey, survived being launched aboard Jupiter AM-13 by the US Army. He was killed due to mechanical failure of the parachute recovery system in the rocket nose cone. Able on display at the National Air and Space museum
  
  On May 28, 1959, aboard the JUPITER AM-18, Able, a rhesus monkey, and Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey flew a successful mission. Able was born at the Ralph Mitchell Zoo in Independence, Kansas. They travelled in excess of 16,000 km/h, and withstood 38 g (373 m/s2). Able died June 1, 1959, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode, from a reaction to the anesthesia. Baker became the first monkey to survive the stresses of spaceflight and the related medical procedures. Baker died November 29, 1984, at the age of 27 and is buried on the grounds of the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Able was preserved, and is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Their names were taken from the US military phonetic alphabet.
  
  On December 4, 1959, Sam, a rhesus monkey, flew on the Little Joe 2 in the Mercury program to 53 miles high. Miss Sam, also a rhesus monkey, followed in 1960, on Little Joe 1B although her flight was only to 8 mi (13 km) in a test of emergency procedures. Ham and Enos also flew in the Mercury program but they were chimpanzees. The names 'Sam' and 'Ham' were acronyms. Sam was named in homage to the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The name 'Ham' was taken from Holloman Aerospace Medicine at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.
  
  Goliath, a squirrel monkey, died in the explosion of his Atlas rocket on November 10, 1961. A rhesus monkey called Scatback flew a sub-orbital flight on December 20, 1961, but was lost at sea after landing.
  
  Bonny, a pig-tailed macaque, flew on Biosatellite 3, a mission which lasted from June 29 to July 8, 1969. This was the first multi-day monkey flight, but came after longer human spaceflights were common. He died within a day of landing.
  
  Spacelab 3 on the Space Shuttle flight STS-51-B featured two squirrel monkeys named No. 3165 and No. 384-80. The flight was from April 29 to May 6, 1985'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1988, Roy Orbison gave his final concert in Akron, OH. He died two days later, from a heart attack at age 52.
  From Wikipedia: 'Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988), nicknamed the Big O, was an American singer-songwriter and musician, known for his distinctive, impassioned voice, complex compositions and dark emotional ballads. The combination led many critics to describe his music as operatic, giving him the sobriquet "the Caruso of Rock". Between 1960 and 1964, 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top 40, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Crying" (1961), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964).
  
  Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly and country and western band in high school. He was signed by Sun Records in 1956, but his greatest success came with Monument Records in the early 1960s. His career stagnated in the 1970s, but was revived by several cover versions of his songs and the use of "In Dreams" in David Lynch's film Blue Velvet (1986). In 1988, he was a member of the Traveling Wilburys supergroup, along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. He recorded his last solo album, Mystery Girl, the same year but died of a heart attack shortly thereafter.
  
  While most male rock and roll performers in the 1950s and 1960s projected a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a quiet, almost desperate, vulnerability. His voice ranged from baritone to tenor, and music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. During performances, he was known for standing still and solitary, and for wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses, which lent an air of mystery to his persona.
  
  His honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the same year, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 13 on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time'. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists'.
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• In 1998, The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Unity connecting module was the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station. It is cylindrical in shape, with six berthing locations (forward, aft, port, starboard, zenith, and nadir) facilitating connections to other modules. Unity measures 4.57 metres (15.0 ft) in diameter, is 5.47 metres (17.9 ft) long, and was built for NASA by Boeing in a manufacturing facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Sometimes referred to as Node 1, Unity was the first of the three connecting modules; the other two are Harmony and Tranquility.
  
  Unity was carried into orbit as the primary cargo of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-88, the first Space Shuttle mission dedicated to assembly of the station. On December 6, 1998, the STS-88 crew mated the aft berthing port of Unity with the forward hatch of the already orbiting Zarya module. (Zarya was a mixed Russian-US funded and Russian-built component launched earlier aboard a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.) This was the first connection made between two station modules'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'National Cookie Day'.
[The Hankster says] No, this is not about the little, so called, 'tracking cookies' that get placed in your Internet browser, but the real thing. As I think about it, though, it might be possible to track me by the crumbs I leave behind when I eat the real ones.

Tomorrow is 'National Dice Day'.
[The Hankster says] I would have had many a dull summer as a kid, if dice had not been invented. No, not that. It would be very hard to play Monopoly or Yahtzee, without them.

Tomorrow is also 'Wear Brown Shoes Day'.
[The Hankster says] I guess this is a statement against fashion. So, ware those brown shoes with black pants. You can always say you put the shoes on in the dark.

Tomorrow is 'Santa's List Day'.
[The Hankster says] Time to start making those lists and resigning yourself to doing that which will get you on Santa's nice list, instead of the naughty list. Hey, it's only for a few weeks. Then you can relax and be your old self again.

Benjamin Franklin once said 'Lost time is never found again.'
[The Hankster says] Ben was a industrious man. I guess to him, lost time would indeed be lost forever. Not so, with this post. we relish in the treasure hunt. Let us see what might be buried in the past of December 4th.

In 1619, Settlers at Berkeley Town and Hundred in Virginia propose and celebrate a yearly feast of Thanksgiving, when they disembarked from their ship the Margaret. This is the first, although not the most famous one in 1620, Thanksgiving Day, celebrated by Europeans coming to what would be America. You may remember that the Pilgrims were supposed to land in Virginia also.

In 1791 - Britain's Observer, the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, is first published.

In 1872 - The ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged. What happened to the ship, remains a mystery.

In 1945 - U.S. Senate approves U.S. participation in the United Nations.

In 1959, Sam, the space monkey returns to Earth safely. His mate, Miss Sam did the same a month later.

In 1991, The Clipper Goodwill, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 727 , lands at Miami International Airport, ending 64 years of Pan Am operations.

In 1998, The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

No. 1 song

• Leader of the Pack - The Shangri-Las: More
  'Baby Love' has been displaced by 'Leader of the Pack', which will hold the no. 1 spot until December 5 1964, when 'She's Not There', takes over.

Top movie

• Roustabout More
  Having displaced 'Kitten with a Whip', it will be there until the weekend box office of December 13 1964 when, 'Father Goose', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: December 4 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: December 4 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 4th December More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 4th December More
• On-This-day.com history 4th December More
• On-This-day.com music history 4th December More
• Wikipedia.com: History December 4 More

Food:
Buckwheat Month
Tomato and Winter Squash Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
National Egg Nog Month
National Fruit Cake Month
Root Vegetables Month
Other:
World Aids Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
National Tie Month Universal Human Rights Month
National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month
Colorectal Cancer Education and Awareness Month National Tie Month

December is:

December origin (from Wikipedia): ' December gets its name from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name. '

' December is the first month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, December is the seasonal equivalent to June in the Northern hemisphere, which is the first month of summer. D ecember is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. '

December 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