Tomorrow's food holiday is
'National Pecan Day'.
From Wikipedia: 'The pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is a species of hickory native to Mexico and the southcentral and southeastern regions of the United States.'
'"Pecan" is from an Algonquian word variously referring to pecans, walnuts and hickory nuts, or more broadly to any nut requiring a stone to crack. There are many variant pronunciations, some regional and others not.'
'In 100 g, pecans provide 691 Calories and over 100% of the Daily Value (DV) for total fat. Pecans are a rich source of dietary fiber (38% DV), manganese (214% DV), magnesium (34% DV), phosphorus (40% DV), zinc (48% DV) and thiamin (57% DV). Pecans are also a good source (10-19% DV) of protein, iron, and B vitamins. Their fat content consists mainly of monounsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic acid (57% of total fat), and the polyunsaturated fatty acid linoleic acid (30% of total fat).'
'Before European settlement, pecans were widely consumed and traded by Native Americans. As a food source, pecans are a natural choice for preagricultural society. They can provide two to five times more energy per unit weight than wild game, and require no preparation. As a wild forage, the fruit of the previous growing season is commonly still edible when found on the ground.'
'Pecans first became known to Europeans in the 16th century. The first Europeans to come into contact with pecans were Spanish explorers in what is now Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. ''
''The Pecan tree Carya illinoinensis) is the State Tree of Texas.
[The Hankster says] I would like to have a penny for every pecan I have shelled in my life. Then I would be rich enough to buy all the desserts that use them.
Other celebrations/observances tomorrow:
- 'National Ex Spouse Day'. Since 1987 by Reverend Ronald Coleman.
- 'National Reach as High as You Can Day'.
[The Hankster says] Why bother reaching, otherwise. Evaluate yourself and adjust accordingly and don't let the enormity of the task stop you.
- 'International Moment of Laughter Day'.
Created by Izzy Gesell to remind us of the positive effects of a good laugh.
From Wikipedia: 'The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body, is called gelotology.'
A link between laughter and healthy function of blood vessels was first reported in 2005 by researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center with the fact that laughter causes the dilatation of the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, and increases blood flow. Drs. Michael Miller (University of Maryland) and William Fry (Stanford), theorize that beta-endorphin like compounds released by the hypothalamus activate receptors on the endothelial surface to release nitric oxide, thereby
resulting in dilation of vessels. Other cardioprotective properties of nitric oxide include reduction of inflammation and decreased platelet aggregation.
Laughter has proven beneficial effects on various other aspects of biochemistry. It has been shown to lead to reductions in stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine. When laughing the brain also releases endorphins that can relieve some physical pain. Laughter also boosts the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T-cells, leading to a stronger immune system. A 2000 study found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh and be able to
recognizehumor in a variety of situations, compared to people of the same age without heart disease'.
[The Hankster says] I love the fact that the study of laughter is 'Gelotology (Greek for laughter). Sounds like Jell-tology. Jello always seems to be shaking with laughter.
- 'National Support Teen Literature Day'. On the Thursday of National Library Week (April 10-16. By the Young Adult Library Services Association.
Awareness / Observance Days on: April 14
o Animal and Pets
- National Dolphin Day'. American Veterinary Medical Association Pet Health Awareness event.
From Wikipedia: 'Dolphins are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic marine mammals. They are an informal grouping within the order Cetacea, excluding whales and porpoises, so to zoologists the grouping is paraphyletic. The dolphins comprise the extant families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the new world river dolphins), and Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins). There are 40 extant species of dolphins. Dolphins, alongside
other cetaceans, belong to the clade Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulate and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, having diverged about 40 million years ago'
'Dolphins are sometimes hunted in places like Japan, in an activity known as dolphin drive hunting. Besides drive hunting, they also face threats from bycatch, habitat loss, and marine pollution. Dolphins have been depicted in various cultures worldwide. Dolphins occasionally feature in literature and film, as in the Warner Bros film Free Willy. Dolphins are sometimes kept in captivity and trained to perform tricks, but breeding success has been poor and the animals often die within a few months of
capture. The most common dolphins kept are the killer whales and bottlenose dolphins'.
o Other
- 'Pan American Day'. It commemorates the First International Conference of American States. During Pan American Week.
- 'New Year in South and Southeast Asia'. Includes: Thailand, Laos, Maldives, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia.
From Wikipedia: 'The Songkran festival, as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. The word "Songkran" comes from the Sanskrit word Songkran literally "astrological passage", meaning transformation or change. It coincides with the rising of Aries on the astrological chart, the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The festive occasion is in keeping with the Buddhist/Hindu solar calendar'.
Historical events in the past on: April 14
- In 1828, Webster's dictionary first published.
From Wikipedia: 'The name Webster's Dictionary may refer to any of the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early nineteenth century and numerous unrelated dictionaries that adopted Webster's name just to share his prestige. The term, "Webster's" has become a generic trademark in the U.S. for comprehensive dictionaries of the English language, however, the only succeeding dictionaries that can trace their lineage to the one established by Noah Webster are those now published by
Merriam-Webster
'In 1828, at the age of 70, Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in two quarto volumes containing 70,000 entries, as against the 58,000 of any previous dictionary. There were 2,500 copies printed, at $20 for the two volumes. At first the set sold poorly. When he lowered the price to $15, its sales improved, and by 1836 that edition was exhausted. Not all copies were bound at the same time; the book also appeared in publisher's boards; other original bindings of a later
date are not unknown'.
- In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. He is shot and dies the next day.
From Wikipedia: 'Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and an event often considered its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.'
'John Wilkes Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland; though he never joined the Confederate army, he had contacts with the Confederate secret service. In 1864, Booth formulated a plan (very similar to one of Thomas N. Conrad previously authorized by the Confederacy) to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for the release of Confederate prisoners. After attending an April 11, 1865, speech in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for blacks, an incensed Booth changed his plans and became
determined to assassinate the president. Learning that the President and Grant would be attending Ford's Theatre, Booth formulated a plan with co-conspirators to assassinate Lincoln and Grant at the theater, as well as Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward at their homes. Without his main bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln left to attend the play Our American Cousin on April 14. At the last minute, Grant decided to go to New Jersey to visit his children instead of attending the play.'
Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker, left Ford's Theater during intermission to drink at the saloon next door. The now unguarded President sat in his state box in the balcony. Seizing the opportunity, Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, aimed at the back of Lincoln's head and fired at point-blank range, mortally wounding the President. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped.'
After being on the run for 12 days, Booth was tracked down and found on a farm in Virginia, some 70 miles (110 km) south of Washington. After refusing to surrender to Union troops, Booth was killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett on April 26.''
Doctor Charles Leale, an Army surgeon, found the President unresponsive, barely breathing and with no detectable pulse. Having determined that the President had been shot in the head, and not stabbed in the shoulder as originally thought, he made an attempt to clear the blood clot, after which the President began to breathe more naturally. The dying President was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15. Secretary of War
Stanton saluted and said, "Now he belongs to the ages".
- In 1894, The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing
From Wikipedia: 'The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video, by creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source
with ahigh-speed shutter. A process using roll film first described in a patent application submitted in France and the U.S. by French inventor Louis Le Prince, the concept was copied by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1889, and subsequently developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892'.
'The premiere of the completed Kinetoscope was held not at the Chicago World's Fair, as originally scheduled, but at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on May 9, 1893. The first film publicly shown on the system was Blacksmith Scene (aka Blacksmiths); directed by Dickson and shot by Heise, it was produced at the new Edison moviemaking studio, known as the Black Maria. Despite extensive promotion, a major display of the Kinetoscope, involving as many as twenty-five machines, never took place
at theChicago exposition.'
'On April 14, 1894, a public Kinetoscope parlor was opened by the Holland Bros. in New York City at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street—the first commercial motion picture house. The venue had ten machines, set up in parallel rows of five, each showing a different movie. For 25 cents a viewer could see all the films in either row; half a dollar gave access to the entire bill. The machines were purchased from the new Kinetoscope Company, which had contracted with Edison for their production;
the firm, headed by Norman C. Raff and Frank R. Gammon, included among its investors Andrew M. Holland, one of the entrepreneurial siblings, and Edison's former business chief, Alfred O. Tate. The ten films that comprise the first commercial movie program, all shot at the Black Maria, were descriptively titled: Barber Shop Bertoldi (mouth support) (Ena Bertoldi, a British vaudeville contortionist), Bertoldi (table contortion), Blacksmiths, Roosters (some manner of cock fight), Highland Dance, Horse
Shoeing, Sandow(Eugen Sandow, a German strongman managed by Florenz Ziegfeld), Trapeze, and Wrestling. As historian Charles Musser describes, a "profound transformation of American life and performance culture" had begun'.
- In 1912, The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).
From Wikipedia: 'RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City, US. The sinking resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 passengers and crew, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. The RMS Titanic, the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service, was the second of three Olympic
class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, and was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, with Thomas Andrews as her naval naval architect. Andrews was among those who died in the sinking. On her maiden voyage, she carried 2,224 passengers and crew'.
- In 1927, The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.
From Wikipedia: 'The Volvo Group (Swedish: Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, usually shortened to AB Volvo) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of trucks, buses and construction equipment, Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems and financial services. Although the two firms are still often conflated, Volvo Cars, also based in Gothenburg, has been a totally separate company
since it was sold off in 1999. The companies still share the Volvo logo and co-operate in running the Volvo Museum.'
'The Volvo Group has its origin in 1927, when the first Volvo car rolled off the production line at the factory in Gothenburg. Only 280 cars were built that year. The first truck, the "Series 1", debuted in January 1928, as an immediate success and attracted attention outside the country. In 1930, Volvo sold 639 cars, and the export of trucks to Europe started soon after; the cars did not become well-known outside Sweden until after World War II'.
- In 1955, Fats Domino's 'Ain't That A Shame' was released.
From Wikipedia: '."Ain't That a Shame." is a song written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew. Released by Imperial Records in 1955, the song was a hit for Domino, eventually selling a million copies. It reached #1 on the ."Black Singles." chart and #10 on the ."Pop Singles." chart. The song is ranked #438 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time'.
- In 1956, The first demonstration of videotape is conducted in Chicago, Illinois.
From Wikipedia: 'Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing motion images and usually sound, as opposed to film or random-access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram.'
'The first practical professional broadcast quality videotape machines capable of replacing kinescopes were the two-inch quadruplex videotape machines introduced by Ampex on April 14, 1956 at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Chicago. Quad employed a transverse (scanning the tape across its width) four-head system on a two-inch (5.08 cm) tape, and linear heads for the sound track'.
- In 1969, At the 41st Academy Awards,
Best Picture is 'Oliver!'
-- Best Actor is Cliff Robertson for 'Charly'.
-- Best Actress is Katharine Hepburn for 'The Lion In Winter' and Barbra Streisand for 'Funny Girl'.
-- Best Supporting Actor is Jack Albertson for 'The Subject Was Roses'.
-- Best Supporting Actress is Ruth Gordon for 'Rosemary's Baby'.
-- Best Original Song is 'The Windmills of Your Mind' from 'The Thomas Crown Affair'.
- In 1980, At the 52nd Academy Awards,
-- Best Picture is 'Kramer vs. Kramer'.
-- Best Actor is Dustin Hoffman for 'Kramer vs. Kramer'.
-- Best Actress is Sally Field for 'Norma Rae'.
-- Best Supporting Actor is Melvyn Douglas for 'Being There'.
-- Best Supporting Actress is Meryl Streep for 'Kramer vs. Kramer'.
-- Best Original Song is 'It Goes Like It Goes' from 'Norma Rae'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in April
Food
Fresh Florida Tomatoes Month
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month
National Licorice Month
National Pecan Month
Soy Foods Month
Health
Alcohol Awareness Month
Autism Awareness Month
Cancer Control Month
Child Abuse Prevention Month
Cesarean Awareness Month
Defeat Diabetes Month
Emotional Overeating Awareness Month
Irritable Bowel Syndrome Month
National Autism Awareness Month
National Cancer Control Month
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
National Multiple Birth Awareness Month
National Parkinson's Awareness Month
National Sarcoidosis Awareness Month Note: Sarcoidosis Day is August 29
Nationally Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) Month
Stress Awareness Month
Testicular Cancer Awareness Month
Women's Eye Health and Safety Month
Women Helping Women Heal Month
Animal / Pet
Adopt A Greyhound Month
ASPCA Month
Frog Month
National Heartworm Awareness Month
National Pet Month
Pet First Aid Awareness Month
Prevent Lyme in Dogs Month
Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month
Other
Arab American Heritage Month
Amateur Radio Month
Car Care Month
Celebrate Diversity Month
Community Spirit Days (1-30)
Couple Appreciation Month
Fair Housing Month
Financial Literacy Month
Global Astronomy Month
Informed Women Month
International Customer Loyalty Month
International Guitar Month
Jazz Appreciation Month
Keep America Beautiful
Math Awareness Month
National African American Women's Fitness Month
National Garden Month
National Humor Month
National Kite Month
National Landscape Architecture Month
National Poetry Month
National Safe Digging Month
National Youth Sports Safety Month
World Habitat Awareness Month
April is:
April origin (from Wikipedia):
'The Romans gave this month the Latin name Aprilis but the derivation of
this name is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb aperire,
'to open', in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin
to 'open', which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of
(anoixis) (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named
in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, her
Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that
April was the second month of the earliest Roman calendar, before
Ianuarius and Februarius were added by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC.
It became the fourth month of the calendar year (the year when twelve
months are displayed in order) during the time of the decemvirs about
450 BC, when it also was given 29 days. The 30th day was added during
the reform of the calendar undertaken by Julius Caesar in the mid-40s BC,
which produced the Julian calendar.'
April
'is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the
Northern Hemisphere and autumn in parts of the Southern Hemisphere,
where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the
Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.'
April 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.
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Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More