Text size Background

Today is February 12 2015

About     Other days


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

National Plum Pudding Day: More

Other celebrations/observances today:
  • Lincoln's Birthday: More
    Born in 1809.
  • Darwin day: More
    To highlight Darwin's contributions to science on his birthday in 1809.
  • Lost Penny Day: More
    First Lincoln Penny minted in 1909.
  • Oglethorpe Day: More
    British General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the Colony of Georgia in 1733.
  • Paul Bunyan Day: More
    A Banger ME claim of his birthplace in 1834.
Events in the past on: February 12
  • In 1851, Edward Hargraves announces that he has found gold in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, starting the Australian gold rushes.
    From Wikipedia: 'The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851 after prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange, at a site he called Ophir. Hargraves had been to the Californian goldfields and had learned new gold prospecting techniques such as panning and cradling. Hargraves was offered rewards by the Colony of New South Wales and the Colony of Victoria. Before the end of the year, the gold rush had spread to many other parts of the state where gold had been found, 'not just to the west, but also to the south and north of Sydney'.

    'The Australian gold rushes changed the convict colonies into more progressive cities with the influx of free emigrants. These hopefuls, termed diggers, brought new skills and professions, contributing to a burgeoning economy. The mateship that evolved between these diggers and their collective resistance to authority led to the emergence of a unique national identity. Although not all diggers found riches on the goldfields, many decided to stay and integrate into these communities'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1879, At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
    From Wikipedia: 'Madison Square Garden (sometimes called MSG or The Garden) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan, New York. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden", the first two (1879 and 1890) of which were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden further uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. The Garden is used for professional basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports and entertainment'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1909, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
    From Wikipedia: 'The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination". Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people.

    The NAACP bestows the annual Image Awards for achievement in the arts and entertainment, and the annual Spingarn Medals for outstanding positive achievement of any kind, on deserving Black Americans. It has its headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1924, Calvin Coolidge makes the first ever U.S. presidential radio address.
    More
  • In 1924, Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, is performed for the first time.
    From Wikipedia: 'Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition by American composer George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects.'

    'Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the composition was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé several times, including the original 1924 scoring, "theater orchestra" setting published in 1926, and the symphony orchestra scoring published in 1942, though completed earlier. The piece received its premiere in the concert, An Experiment in Modern Music, which was held on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano.

    The editors of the Cambridge Music Handbooks opined that "The Rhapsody in Blue (1924) established Gershwin's reputation as a serious composer and has since become one of the most popular of all American concert works"'.
    More
    On YouTube: More
  • In 1924, The radio show, The Eveready Hour, became radio’s first sponsored network program.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It premiered December 4, 1923 (or, according to other sources, February 12, 1924) on WEAF Radio in New York. Radio's first sponsored network program. it was paid for by the National Carbon Company, which at the time owned Eveready Battery. The host for many years was the banjo-playing vocalist Wendell Hall, "The Red Headed Music Maker," who wrote the popular "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Victor Records). Hall was married on The Eveready Hour in 1924'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1914, Construction begins on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument. The architect was Henry Bacon; the designer of the primary statue – Abraham Lincoln, 1920 – was Daniel Chester French; the Lincoln statue was carved by the Piccirilli Brothers; and the painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin. Dedicated in 1922, it is one of several monuments built to honor an American president.'

    'The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a l arge seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address.'
    More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1940, The radio show, The Adventures of Superman, aired for the first time.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Adventures of Superman was a long-running radio serial that originally aired from 1940 to 1951 starring the DC Comics character Superman.'

    'The serial came to radio as a syndicated show on New York City's WOR on February 12, 1940. On Mutual, it was broadcast from August 31, 1942, to February 4, 1949, as a 15-minute serial, running three or, usually, five times a week. From February 7 to June 24, 1949 it ran as a thrice-weekly half-hour show. The series shifted to ABC Saturday evenings on October 29, 1949, and then returned to afternoons, twice-a-week on June 5, 1950, continuing on ABC until March 1, 1951. In all, 2088 original episodes of The Adventures of Superman were aired on American radio'.

    'Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Man of Steel first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938. The following year, the newspaper comic strip began and four audition radio programs were prepared to sell Superman as a radio series. When Superman was first heard on radio less than two years after the comic book appearance, the character took on an added dimension with Bud Collyer in the title role. During World War II and the post-war years, the juvenile adventure radio serial, sponsored by Kellogg's Pep, was a huge success, with many listeners following the quest for "truth and justice" in the daily radio broadcasts, the comic book stories and the newspaper comic strip. Airing in the late afternoon (variously at 5:15pm, 5:30pm and 5:45pm), the radio serial engaged its young after-school audience with its exciting and distinctive opening, which changed slightly as the series progressed'.
    More
    - On YouTube (radio): More
    - On YouTube (TV): More
  • In 1954, Lyons's LEO produces a payroll report. It is the first time in history a computer is used in business.
    From Wikipedia: 'J. Lyons & Co. was a market-dominant British restaurant-chain, food-manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884.'

    'The top management of Lyons, with its background in the use of mechanical adding machines, saw the necessity of new electrical computers for organising the distribution of cakes and other highly perishable goods. They, therefore, substantially financed the University of Cambridge's Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) which was the first electronic digital stored-program computer to go into regular service, and built their own programmable digital computers and became the first user of these in businesses, with the LEO I digital computer: the Lyons Electronic Office I, designed and built by Dr John Pinkerton under the able leadership of John Simmons. It handled the company's accounts and logistics. Lyons also included the weather forecast to ensure goods carried by their "fresh produce" delivery vans were not wasted in large quantities. Google chairman Eric Schmidt called this "the world's first office computer", built in 1951'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1955, the song single 'Sincerely' by the McGuire Sisters' goes to #1 and stays #1 for 10 weeks.
    From Wikipedia: '"Sincerely" is a popular song written by Harvey Fuqua and Alan Freed and published in 1954.

    It was originally recorded by The Moonglows, who scored a #1 single on the Billboard R&B chart and #20 on the Billboard Juke Box chart. Fuqua was a member of the Moonglows. They were managed by Freed.

    The best-selling version was a pop cover recorded by The McGuire Sisters, entering the charts in 1954 and reaching number one the next year. It became a gold record. In 1988 the country quartet Forester Sisters reached #8 on the Billboard Hot Country chart with their remake of the song'.
    More
    On YouTube: More
  • In 1955, Soviets decided on a space center, 'Baikonur Cosmodrome', to be built in Baikonur, Kazachstan.
    From Wikipedia:' 'Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russian: ????????´? «???????´?» Kosmodrom Baykonur; Kazakh: ???????? ????? ?????? Bayqońir garis aylagi) is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level.

    'Both Vostok 1, the first manned spacecraft in human history, and before it, Sputnik 1, the world's first orbital spaceflight of any sort, were launched from one of Baikonur's launch pads, which is now known as Gagarin's Start, named after Yuri Gagarin.'

    'The Soviet government issued the decree for Scientific Research Test Range No. 5 (NIIP-5; Russian: Nauchno-Issledovatel’skii Ispytatel’nyi Poligon N.5) on 12 February 1955. It was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally a test center for the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7 Semyorka. NIIP-5 was soon expandedto include launch facilities for space flights'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 2001, The 'NEAR Shoemaker' spacecraft touches down in the 'saddle' region of '433 Eros', becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
    From Wikipedia:' 'The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The mission succeeded in closing in with the asteroid and orbited it several times, finally terminating by touching down on the asteroid on 12 February 2001.'

    'The primary scientific objective of NEAR was to return data on the bulk properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution and magnetic field of Eros. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith properties, interactions with the solar wind, possible current activity as indicated by dust or gas, and the asteroid spin state'.
    More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  II.
Henry's Heads Up! - previous days social media post (updated daily)

Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'National Plum Pudding Day'.
[The Hankster says] When is a plum not a plum? When it is a raisin of course. In olden times dried fruit, especially raisins were called plums. Their was a tradition when making the pudding. Everyone would grab onto a big wooden spoon to stir. While doing so, each person made a wish.

We have two birthday boys tomorrow, who have their own holiday. First is 'Lincoln's Birthday'. Born in 1809. Second is 'Darwin day'. Also in 1809.

The president is also honored with 'Lost Penny Day' tomorrow. It denotes the day that the first Lincoln Penny was minted in 1909.

For you Georgians. tomorrow is 'Oglethorpe Day'. British General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the Colony of Georgia in 1733. It was the thirteenth.

If you live in Banger ME., it will ve 'Paul Bunyan Day'. A Banger ME claim of this fictional character's birthplace in 1834. There are many others such claims and thus many other holidays by state.

Charles M. Schulz once said 'Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.
[The Hankster says] Just when I was sure that Life is like a box of chocolates, I have to rethink my whole philosophy. Well, maybe not. I guess the suspense in obtaining that next chocolate is no worst than wondering if the ice cream will slide off the cone. Let us see how our ancestors dealt with this concept on February 12. Did they just work with one day at a time or did they think ahead and mark the cream filled candies with an 'x' and eat their ice cream from a bowl?

In 1879, At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.

In 1909, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge makes the first ever U.S. presidential radio address.

In 1924, Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time.

In 1914, Construction begins on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

In 1955, the song single 'Sincerely' by the McGuire Sisters ' goes to #1 and stays #1 for 10 weeks.

In 1955, Soviets decided on a space center, ''Baikonur Cosmodrome, to be built in Baikonur, Kazachstan.

In 2001, The 'NEAR Shoemaker' spacecraft touches down in the 'saddle' region of '433 Eros', becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

 III.
Top Song & Movie 50 years ago today

No. 1 song

  • You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - The Righteous Brothers: More
    'Downtown' has been displaced by 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'', which will hold the no. 1 spot until February 27 1965, when 'This Diamond Ring', takes over.

Top movie

  • My Fair Lady, (returns) More
    Having displaced '36 Hours', it will be there until the weekend box office of February 27, 1965 when, 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', takes over.
  IV.
Today in the Past (reference sites): February 12
   V.
This month February 2015 (updated once a month - last updated - February 1 2015)

Food Holiday:
Berry Fresh Month Canned Food Month Celebration of Chocolate Month Great American Pie Month National Cherry Month National Grapefruit Month National Fiber Focus Month National Fondue Month National Hot Breakfast Month National Snack Food Month Potato Lover’s Month Sweet Potato Month Other:
American Heart Month An Affair to Remember Month Black History Month Creative Romance Month National Children’s Dental Health Month National Heart Healthy Month National Weddings Month


February is:

February origin (from Wikipedia):
'The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius about 713 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs (c. 450 BC), when it became the second month. At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, and a 27-day intercalary month, Intercalaris, was inserted immediately after February to realign the year with the seasons. Under the reforms that instituted the Julian calendar, Intercalaris was abolished, leap years occurred regularly every fourth year, and in leap years February gained a 29th day. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed (January, February, March, ..., December) within a year-at-a-glance calendar. Even during the Middle Ages, when the numbered Anno Domini year began on March 25 or December 25, the second month was February whenever all twelve months were displayed in order. The Gregorian calendar reforms made slight changes to the system for determining which years were leap years and thus contained a 29-day February.'

February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 days. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 days in leap years.
February is the third month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the third month of summer (the seasonal equivalent of August in the Northern Hemisphere, in meteorological reckoning).

February at Wikipedia: More

  VI.
TV fifty years ago 1965 (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2015)

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

 VII.
Best selling books fifty years ago (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2015)

Best selling books of 1965 More

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

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

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

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


US Government Holidays

  • 2015 Postal Holidays More
  • 2015 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

  • List of holidays by country More
  • Holidays and Observances around the World More
Contact: If you wish to make comment, please do so by writing to this: Email address