Today is June 2 2016

• National Rotisserie Chicken Day: More
  Since 2015 by Boston Market Restaurants.
  - From Wikipedia (Rotisserie chicken): 'Rotisserie chicken is a chicken dish that is cooked on a rotisserie, using indirect heat in which the chicken is placed next to the heat source. Electric- or gas-powered heating elements may be used, which use adjustable infrared heat. These types of rotisseries have proven quite functional for cooking rotisserie-style chicken. Leftover rotisserie chicken may be used in a variety of dishes, such as soup, chicken salad and sandwiches'.
• National Rocky Road Day: More
  - From Wikipedia (Rocky road (ice cream)): 'Rocky road ice cream is a chocolate flavored ice cream. Though there are variations on the flavor, it is traditionally composed of chocolate ice cream, nuts, and marshmallows. According to one source, the flavor was created in March 1929 by William Dreyer in Oakland, California when he cut up walnuts and marshmallows with his wife's sewing scissors and added them to his chocolate ice cream in a manner that reflected how his partner Joseph Edy's chocolate candy creation incorporated walnuts and marshmallow pieces. Later, the walnuts would be replaced by pieces of toasted almond. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Dreyer and Edy gave the flavor its current name "to give folks something to smile about in the midst of the Great Depression." Alternatively, Fentons Creamery in Oakland claims that William Dreyer based his recipe on a Rocky Road-style ice cream flavor invented by his friend, Fentons' George Farren, who blended his own Rocky Road-style candy bar into ice cream; however, Dreyer substituted almonds for walnuts.
  
  The original Rocky Road ice cream used chocolate ice cream with no chocolate chip pieces. Today, Rocky Road can be obtained based on vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips, marshmallows and almonds.

• National Bubba Day: More
  We all know a Bubba, now don't we.
• National Leave The Office Early Day: More
  On June 2 each year or the nearest work day if on a weekend. Created by Employee Productivity Specialist, Laura Stack

• Health
  • National Haemochromotosis Awareness Day: More
    In Ireland, by the Irish Haemochromatosis Association.
    - From Wikipedia (Iron overload): 'Iron overload, also known as hemochromatosis or haemochromatosis, indicates accumulation of iron in the body from any cause. The most important causes are hereditary haemochromatosis (HHC), a genetic disorder, and transfusional iron overload, which can result from repeated blood transfusions.
    
    Organs commonly affected by haemochromatosis are the liver, heart, and endocrine glands.
    
    The causes can be distinguished between primary cases (hereditary or genetically determined) and less frequent secondary cases (acquired during life). People of Celtic (Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Breton etc.), English, and Scandinavian origin have a particularly high incidence of whom about 10% are carriers of the C282Y mutation on the HFE gene associated with HLA-A3 and 1% suffer from the condition.
    
    There are several methods available for diagnosing and monitoring iron loading including: Serum ferritin, Liver biopsy, HFE, MRI.
    
    Routine treatment in an otherwise-healthy person consists of regularly scheduled phlebotomies (bloodletting). When first diagnosed, the phlebotomies may be fairly frequent, perhaps as often as once a week, until iron levels can be brought to within normal range. Once iron and other markers are within the normal range, phlebotomies may be scheduled every other month or every three months depending upon the patient's rate of iron loading. Each session typically draws from 450 to 500 cc.
    
    For those unable to tolerate routine blood draws, there is a chelating agent available for use. The drug deferoxamine binds with iron in the bloodstream and enhances its elimination in urine and faeces. Typical treatment for chronic iron overload requires subcutaneous injection over a period of 8–12 hours daily. Two newer iron chelating drugs that are licensed for use in patients receiving regular blood transfusions to treat thalassaemia (and, thus, who develop iron overload as a result) are deferasirox and deferiprone'.
  • ASMR Medical Research Week: More
    June 2-10 in Australia, by The Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR).

• In 1835, P.T. Barnum launched his first traveling show. The main attraction was Joice Heth. Heth was reputed to be the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington.
  From Wikipedia: 'Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum (July 4, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and for some time a politician, he said of himself, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me", and his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers". Barnum is widely, but erroneously, credited with coining the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute".
  
  ' He started as a store-keeper, and he learned haggling and using deception to make a sale. He was involved with the first lottery mania in the United States. At the age of 19, he married Charity Hallett.
  
  The young husband had several businesses: a general store, a book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and a statewide lottery network. He became active in local politics and advocated against blue laws promulgated by Calvinists who sought to restrict gambling and travel. Barnum started a weekly paper in 1829, The Herald of Freedom, in Danbury, Connecticut. His editorials against church elders led to libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in imprisonment for two months, but he became a champion of the liberal movement upon his release. In 1834, when lotteries were banned in Connecticut, cutting off his main income, Barnum sold his store and moved to New York City. In 1835 he began as a showman with his purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman, Joice Heth, claimed by Barnum to have been George Washington's nurse, and to be over 160 years old.
  
  Joice Heth died in 1836, no more than 80 years old.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1924, The U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. While the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defined as citizens any person born in the U.S., the amendment had been interpreted to restrict the citizenship rights of most Native people. The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1928, Velveeta cheese was reinvented by Kraft. For packaging it used another invention (from 1921), tin foil wrapping.
  From Wikipedia: 'Velveeta is the brand name of a processed cheese product having a taste that is identified as a type of American cheese, but with a softer and smoother texture than cheese. As a result, when melted/heated, Velveeta maintains a fully integrated, and evenly clump-free liquid texture—the opposite of what results when cheese is melted or cooked at high heat. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separate company, and was sold to Kraft Foods in 1927. The product was advertised at the time as a nutritious health food. According to Kraft's website, in the 1930s, Velveeta became the first cheese product to gain the American Medical Association's seal of approval. It was reformulated in 1953 as a cheese spread. Velveeta is labeled in the United States as a "Pasteurized Recipe Cheese Product" (see processed cheese). The name "Velveeta" is intended to connote a velvety smooth edible product. Smoothness and melting ability are promoted as its properties that result by reincorporating the whey with the curd. The brand has also been successfully spun off into a varied, Velveeta-based product line
  
  Ingredients: Milk, whey, skim milk, milk protein concentrate, water, milkfat, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate, modified food starch; contains less than 2% of: salt, calcium phosphate, dried corn syrup, canola oil, malto dextrin, lactic acid, sorbic acid as a preservative, sodium alginate, sodium citrate, cheese culture, enzymes, apocarotenal (color), annatto (color).
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube (Tv commericial): More
• In 1966, Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
  From Wikipedia: 'Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, United States). This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969. The successful soft landing of Surveyor 1 on the Ocean o Storms was the first one by an American space probe onto any extraterrestrial body, and it occurred just four months after the first Moon landing by the Soviet Union's Luna 9 probe. This was also a success on NASA's first attempt at a soft landing on any astronomical object.
  
  Surveyor 1 was launched May 30, 1966, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and it landed on the Moon on June 2, 1966. Surveyor 1 transmitted 11,237 still photos of the lunar surface to the Earth by using a television camera and a sophisticated radio- telemetry system.
  
  The Surveyor program was managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Los Angeles County, but the entire Surveyor space probe was designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 2000, The RIAA certified Garth Brooks' "Double Live" at the 13 million SALES level. This matched the highest-certified live album record held by Bruce Springsteen AND the E Street Band's "Live 1975-1985"'.
  From Wikipedia: 'Double Live is the first and only live album by American country pop artist Garth Brooks. It was released on November 17, 1998 and is a two- disc compilation of live songs, recorded during Brooks' 1996–98 world tour. The album broke the first week sales record at the time, previously held by Pearl Jam's Vs., when it sold 1,085,000 copies. It became the best-selling live album in the U.S. since Eric Clapton's Unplugged in 1992, later becoming the best-selling live album in United States music history. It has been certified 21× Platinum by the RIAA (10.5 million shipped as it a double album), and is the seventh most shipped album in the U.S. According to Nielsen Soundscan, it has sold 6,017,000 copies.
  
  Double Live was re-released on September 5, 2014, as Double Live: 25th Anniversary Edition, exclusive to GhostTunes'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More

<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):

* 'National Rotisserie Chicken Day'. Since 2015 by Boston Market Restaurants.

- From Wikipedia (Rotisserie chicken): 'Rotisserie chicken is a chicken dish that is cooked on a rotisserie, using indirect heat in which the chicken is placed next to the heat source. Electric- or gas-powered heating elements may be used, which use adjustable infrared heat. These types of rotisseries have proven quite functional for cooking rotisserie-style chicken. Leftover rotisserie chicken may be used in a variety of dishes, such as soup, chicken salad and sandwiches'.
[The Hankster says] Great stuff, but I stopped making them at home.It was too messy. I always got a face full of grease each time I tried to take a bite.. Hang on a minute .... I've just been informed that you take it off first. So, as the great philosopher, Roseanne Roseannadanna, always said, never mind.


* 'National Rocky Road Day'.

- From Wikipedia (Rocky road (ice cream)): 'Rocky road ice cream is a chocolate flavored ice cream. Though there are variations on the flavor, it is traditionally composed of chocolate ice cream, nuts, and marshmallows. According to one source, the flavor was created in March 1929 by William Dreyer in Oakland, California when he cut up walnuts and marshmallows with his wife's sewing scissors and added them to his chocolate ice cream in a manner that reflected how his partner Joseph Edy's chocolate candy creation incorporated walnuts and marshmallow pieces. Later, the walnuts would be replaced by pieces of toasted almond. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Dreyer and Edy gave the flavor its current name "to give folks something to smile about in the midst of the Great Depression." Alternatively, Fentons Creamery in Oakland claims that William Dreyer based his recipe on a Rocky Road-style ice cream flavor invented by his friend, Fentons' George Farren, who blended his own Rocky Road-style candy bar into ice cream however, Dreyer substituted almonds for walnuts.

The original Rocky Road ice cream used chocolate ice cream with no chocolate chip pieces. Today, Rocky Road can be obtained based on vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips, marshmallows and almonds.
[The Hankster says] The road ahead, can never be Rockey, when you are contemplating a big super sized bowl of Rocky Road Ice Cream.


<> Other holidays / celebrations

* 'National Bubba Day'.
[The Hankster says] We all know a Bubba, now don't we.

* 'National Leave The Office Early Day'. On June 2 each year unless June 2nd or the nearest work day. Created by Employee Productivity Specialist, Laura Stack
[The Hankster says] Not fair, I'm retired.


<> Awareness / Observances:

o Health

* 'National Haemochromotosis Awareness Day'. In Ireland, by the Irish Haemochromatosis Association.

- From Wikipedia (Iron overload): 'Iron overload, also known as hemochromatosis or haemochromatosis, indicates accumulation of iron in the body from any cause. The most important causes are hereditary haemochromatosis (HHC), a genetic disorder, and transfusional iron overload, which can result from repeated blood transfusions.

Organs commonly affected by haemochromatosis are the liver, heart, and endocrine glands.

The causes can be distinguished between primary cases (hereditary or genetically determined) and less frequent secondary cases (acquired during life). People of Celtic (Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Breton etc.), English, and Scandinavian origin have a particularly high incidence of whom about 10% are carriers of the C282Y mutation on the HFE gene associated with HLA-A3 and 1% suffer from the condition.

There are several methods available for diagnosing and monitoring iron loading including: Serum ferritin, Liver biopsy, HFE, MRI.

Routine treatment in an otherwise-healthy person consists of regularly scheduled phlebotomies (bloodletting). When first diagnosed, the phlebotomies may be fairly frequent, perhaps as often as once a week, until iron levels can be brought to within normal range. Once iron and other markers are within the normal range, phlebotomies may be scheduled every other month or every three months depending upon the patient's rate of iron loading. Each session typically draws from 450 to 500 cc.

For those unable to tolerate routine blood draws, there is a chelating agent available for use. The drug deferoxamine binds with iron in the bloodstream and enhances its elimination in urine and faeces. Typical treatment for chronic iron overload requires subcutaneous injection over a period of 8–12 hours daily. Two newer iron chelating drugs that are licensed for use in patients receiving regular blood transfusions to treat thalassaemia (and, thus, who develop iron overload as a result) are deferasirox and deferiprone'.

* 'ASMR Medical Research Week'. June 2-10 in Australia, by The Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR).



<> Historical events


* 'In 1835, P.T. Barnum launched his first traveling show. The main attraction was Joice Heth. Heth was reputed to be the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington.

- From Wikipedia: 'Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum (July 4, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and for some time a politician, he said of himself, I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me, and his personal aim was to put money in his own coffers Barnum is widely, but erroneously, credited with coining the phrase There's a sucker born every minute

' He started as a store-keeper, and he learned haggling and using deception to make a sale. He was involved with the first lottery mania in the United States. At the age of 19, he married Charity Hallett.

The young husband had several businesses: a general store, a book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and a statewide lottery network. He became active in local politics and advocated against blue laws promulgated by Calvinists who sought to restrict gambling and travel. Barnum started a weekly paper in 1829, The Herald of Freedom, in Danbury, Connecticut. His editorials against church elders led to libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in imprisonment for two months, but he became a champion of the liberal movement upon his release. In 1834, when lotteries were banned in Connecticut, cutting off his main income, Barnum sold his store and moved to New York City. In 1835 he began as a showman with his purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman, Joice Heth, claimed by Barnum to have been George Washington's nurse, and to be over 160 years old.

Joice Heth died in 1836, no more than 80 years old. .


* 'In 1924, The U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

- From Wikipedia: 'The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called Indians in this Act. While the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defined as citizens any person born in the U.S., the amendment had been interpreted to restrict the citizenship rights of most Native people. The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I. .


* 'In 1928, Velveeta cheese was reinvented by Kraft. For packaging it used another invention (from 1921), tin foil wrapping.

- From Wikipedia: 'Velveeta is the brand name of a processed cheese product having a taste that is identified as a type of American cheese, but with a softer and smoother texture than cheese. As a result, when melted/heated, Velveeta maintains a fully integrated, and evenly clump-free liquid texture—the opposite of what results when cheese is melted or cooked at high heat. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separate company, and was sold to Kraft Foods in 1927. The product was advertised at the time as a nutritious health food. According to Kraft's website, in the 1930s, Velveeta became the first cheese product to gain the American Medical Association's seal of approval. It was reformulated in 1953 as a cheese spread. Velveeta is labeled in the United States as a Pasteurized Recipe Cheese Product (see processed cheese). The name Velveeta is intended to connote a velvety smooth edible product. Smoothness and melting ability are promoted as its properties that result by reincorporating the whey with the curd. The brand has also been successfully spun off into a varied, Velveeta-based product line

Ingredients: Milk, whey, skim milk, milk protein concentrate, water, milkfat, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate, modified food starch contains less than 2% of: salt, calcium phosphate, dried corn syrup, canola oil, malto dextrin, lactic acid, sorbic acid as a preservative, sodium alginate, sodium citrate, cheese culture, enzymes, apocarotenal (color), annatto (color). .


* 'In 1966, Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.

- From Wikipedia: 'Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, United States). This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969. The successful soft landing of Surveyor 1 on the Ocean o Storms was the first one by an American space probe onto any extraterrestrial body, and it occurred just four months after the first Moon landing by the Soviet Union's Luna 9 probe. This was also a success on NASA's first attempt at a soft landing on any astronomical object.

Surveyor 1 was launched May 30, 1966, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and it landed on the Moon on June 2, 1966. Surveyor 1 transmitted 11,237 still photos of the lunar surface to the Earth by using a television camera and a sophisticated radio- telemetry system.

The Surveyor program was managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Los Angeles County, but the entire Surveyor space probe was designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. .


* 'In 2000, The RIAA certified Garth Brooks' Double Live at the 13 million sales level. This matched the highest-certified live album record held by Bruce Springsteen AND the E Street Band's Live 1975-1985'.

- From Wikipedia: 'Double Live is the first and only live album by American country pop artist Garth Brooks. It was released on November 17, 1998 and is a two- disc compilation of live songs, recorded during Brooks' 1996–98 world tour. The album broke the first week sales record at the time, previously held by Pearl Jam's Vs., when it sold 1,085,000 copies. It became the best-selling live album in the U.S. since Eric Clapton's Unplugged in 1992, later becoming the best-selling live album in United States music history. It has been certified 21× Platinum by the RIAA (10.5 million shipped as it a double album), and is the seventh most shipped album in the U.S. According to Nielsen Soundscan, it has sold 6,017,000 copies.

Double Live was re-released on September 5, 2014, as Double Live: 25th Anniversary Edition, exclusive to GhostTunes'. .

No. 1 song

• When a Man Loves a Woman - Percy Sledge
  - On YouTube: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
  'Monday, Monday' has been displaced by 'When a Man Loves a Woman', which will hold the no. 1 spot until June 4 1966, when 'A Groovy Kind of Love - The Mindbenders', takes over.From Wikipedia: '"When a Man Loves a Woman" is a song written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright and first recorded by Percy Sledge in 1966 at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. It made number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts. Singer and actress Bette Midler covered the song and had a Top 40 hit with her version in 1980. In 1991',

Top movie

• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
  - At Wikipedia:  More
  - On IMDb: More
  - On YouTube (trailer): More
  Having displaced 'Doctor Zhivago', it will be there until the weekend box office of June 26 1966 when, 'Around the World Under the Sea', takes over. The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming is a 1966 DeLuxe Color American comedy film directed by Norman Jewison in Panavision. It is based on the Nathaniel Benchley novel The Off-Islanders, and was adapted for the screen by William Rose.
  
  The film depicts the chaos following the grounding of the Soviet submarine Cnpyn ("sproot") and meaning "octopus") off a small New England island during the Cold War. The film stars Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin in his first major film role, Brian Keith, Theodore Bikel, Jonathan Winters, and Paul Ford'.

• FamousBirthdays.com: June 2 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: June 2 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 2nd June More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 2nd June More
• On-This-day.com history 2nd June More
• On-This-day.com music history 2nd June More
• Wikipedia.com: History June 2 More

Monthly holiday / awareness days in June

Food
Country Cooking Month
Dairy Alternatives Month
Georgia Blueberry Month
Dairy Month
National Candy Month
National Ice Tea Month
National Soul Food Month
National Steakhouse Month

Health
Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month
Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Awareness Month (APS)
Beautiful in Your Skin Month
Cancer From The Sun Month
Cataract Awareness Month
Child Vision Awareness Month
Children's Awareness Month
Fireworks Safety Month
International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
International Men's Month
Mens Health Education and Awareness Month
Migraine Awareness Month
National Aphasia Awareness Month
National Congenital Cytomegalovirus Awareness Month
National Migraine and Headache Awareness Month
National Safety Month
National Scoliosis Awareness Month
National Smile Month
Pharmacists Declare War on Alcoholism Month
Potty Training Awareness Month
Professional Wellness Month
PTSD Awareness Month
Student Safety Month
Vision Research Month
World Infertility Month

Animal / Pets
Adopt-A-Cat Month
Adopt A Shelter Cat Month
National Pet Preparedness Month
National Zoo and Aquarium Month

Other
African-American Music Appreciation Month
Audio Book Appreciation Month
Black Music Month
Caribbean-American Heritage Month
Effective Communications Month
Fashion in Colonial Virginia Month
Gay and Lesbian Pride Month
Great Outdoors Month
International Surf Music Month
National Bathroom Reading Month
National Camping Month
National Caribbean-American Heritage Month
National Oceans Month
National Rivers Month
National Rose Month Skyscraper Month
Sports America Kids Month
Women's Golf Month

June is:

June origin (from Wikipedia): Perhaps to honor goddess Juno, or from the Latin word iuniores (younger ones).
"is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and one of the four months with a length of 30 days. June is the month with the longest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. June in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to December in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. In the Northern hemisphere, the beginning of the meteorological summer is 1 June. In the Southern hemisphere, the beginning of the meteorological winter is 1 June."

June 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 1966 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

• 2016 Postal Holidays More
• 2016 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More