<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'Gingerbread Decorating Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Cookie decorating):
'Cookie decorating dates back to at least the 14th century when in
Switzerland, springerle cookie molds were carved from wood and used to
impress Biblical designs into cookies.
The artistic element of cookie making also can be traced back to Medieval
Germany where Lebkuchen was crafted into fancy shapes and decorated with
sugar. The story of Hansel and Gretel published with Grimm's Fairy Tales
in 1812 inspired German gingerbread cookie Christmas cards. Also during the
17th century, Dutch and German settlers introduced cookie cutters,
decorative molds, and festive holiday cookie decorations to the United
States.
Today cookie decorating traditions continue in many places in the world and
include such activities as cookie decorating parties, competitions,
creating cookie bouquets and cookie gift baskets, and simply decorating
cookies with children as a fun family activity.
Glaze, royal icing and fondant are all popular choices for decorating
cookies.
One of the earliest recorded forms of cookie decorating is the springerle,
and the oldest known springerle mold is housed at the Swiss national museum
in Zurich, Switzerland. This round-shaped mold was carved from wood in the
14th century and pictures the Easter Lamb.
A springerle mold or press (carved rolling pins) is used to imprint a
picture or design on to a cookie. These cookies have been the traditional
Christmas cookies in Bavaria and Austria for centuries. To add to the
decorative effect, the designs may be colored with food coloring, or when
used for decorative purposes only, with tempera or acrylic paints.
Springerle cookies originally displayed biblical scenes and were used to
teach the illiterate about the Bible. Eventually, the cookies were
decorated with secular scenes depicting images of life events, such as
marriages and births. Springerle
Food historians also trace the artistic element of cookie making back to
Medieval Germany where Lebkuchen (gingerbread) was crafted into fancy
shapes and decorated with sugar. However, the Lebkuchen guilds only
permitted professional gingerbread bakers to make this, with the exceptions
of Christmas and Easter when anyone was free to make their own.
The first gingerbread man may have been a Renaissance Man! This cookie is
often credited by food historians to Queen Elizabeth I, who during her
reign (1558 to 1603) gifted VIP visitors to the court with gingerbread
cookies decorated in their likenesses.
These gingerbread portraits were decorated with cloves dipped in gold.
During the 17th century, guild employed master bakers and artisans created
intricate works of art with their gingerbread houses and cookies. It was
also during this period in Germany when cookies, in the form of Lebkuchen,
were introduced as Christmas decorations.
In 1812, Grimm's Fairy Tales was published, and the tale of Hansel and
Gretel inspired 19th century bakeries to add to their fanciful gingerbread
entourage, decorated gingerbread cookie Christmas cards and finely detailed
molded cookies. Tinsmiths rose to the call and crafted cookie cutters into
all imaginable forms for bakeries and homemakers who relished having unique
cookie cutters.
Many a Victorian Christmas tree was adorned with decorated cookies in the
shapes of animals and gingerbread men.
Also during the 17th century, Dutch and German settlers introduced cookie
cutters, decorative molds, and festive holiday decorations to the United
States. Gingerbread was likely the first U.S.-made Christmas cookie. Sugar
cookies, one of the most widely decorated of cookies today, evolved from
the English.
The German cookie cutters produced more stylized cookies, many with secular
Christmas subjects, and for less cost, than the local American tinsmiths.
When import laws opened the floodgates to low-cost, German-imported cooking
utensils, including cookie cutters, between 1871 and 1906, the American
tradition of decorating cookies for Christmas tree ornamentation took hold.
In response to this cookie cutter boom, U.S. published cookbooks began
featuring cookies in decorative shapes such as bells and Santa Clauses.
Today cookie decorating traditions continue in many places in the world and
include: decorating cookies for Christmas and other holidays, cookie
decorating parties, decorating cookies for cookie bouquets and gift
baskets, trimming the Christmas tree with decorated cookies, and decorating
cookies with the children, to name a few.
Cookie decorating events can even be found at history and art museums. And
they are frequently found at holiday events, community centers and
classrooms. Decorated cookies also win ribbons at county and state fairs'.
[The Hankster says] I love anything with ginger in it. The decoration is nice to look at, but I scrape that off before I eat. Gingerbread has a nice clean spice flavor. Too much sugar ruins it.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Dewey Decimal System Day'.
Birthday of Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) inventor of the Dewey Decimal system
of library classification. See more in the Historical Events section for
1851.
[The Hankster says] Ugh, more math of a sort.
* 'The Nobel Prize Day'.
The prizes have been awarded on December 10 since 1901. The prizes and
monetary support were established in Alfred Nobel's will. See more in the
Historical Events section for 1901.
* 'International Shareware Day'.
Recognition of freeware and shareware.
- From Wikipedia (Shareware):
'Shareware is a type of proprietary software which is initially provided
free of charge to users, who are allowed and encouraged to make and share
copies of the program. Shareware is often offered as a download from an
Internet website or as a compact disc included with a magazine.
There are many types of shareware, and while they may not require an
initial up-front payment, all are intended to generate revenue in one way
or another. Some limit use to personal non-commercial purposes only, with
purchase of a license required for use in a business enterprise. The
software itself may be limited in functionality or be time-limited, or it
may remind the user that payment would be appreciated.
Shareware is available on all major personal computer platforms. Titles
cover a wide range of categories including business, software development,
education, home, multimedia, design, drivers, games, and utilities. Because
of its minimal overhead and low cost, the shareware model is often the only
practical model for distributing non-free software for abandoned or
orphaned platforms such as the Atari ST and Amiga.
The term shareware is used in contrast to open-source software, in which
the source code is available for anyone to inspect and alter, and freeware,
which is software distributed at no cost to the user but without source
code being made available. Two types of shareware, donationware and
freemiums, are also types of freeware'.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Animal and Pet:
* 'International Animal Rights Day'. Created to coincide with the 1948,
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- From Wikipedia (Animal rights):
'Animal rights is the idea that some, or all, non-human animals are
entitled to the possession of their own lives and that their most basic
interests—such as the need to avoid suffering—should be afforded the same
consideration as similar interests of human beings. Advocates oppose the
assignment of moral value and fundamental protections on the basis of
species membership alone—an idea known since 1970 as speciesism, when the
term was coined by Richard D. Ryder—arguing that it is a prejudice as
irrational as any other. They maintain that animals should no longer be
viewed as property or used as food, clothing, research subjects,
entertainment, or beasts of burden.
Advocates approach the issue from a variety of perspectives. The
abolitionist view is that animals have moral rights, which the pursuit of
incremental reform may undermine by encouraging human beings to feel
comfortable with using them. Gary Francione's abolitionist position
promotes ethical veganism. He argues that animal rights groups that pursue
welfare concerns, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA), risk making the public feel comfortable about its use of animals.
He calls such groups the new welfarists. PETA argues that Francione's
criticism does little to help alleviate the suffering of individual animals
and also trivializes the efforts of workers in the field who handle cruelty
cases. It also creates divisiveness within the animal liberation movement
instead of focusing on shared goals. Tom Regan, as a deontologist, argues
that at least some animals are subjects-of-a-life, with beliefs, desires,
memories, and a sense of their own future, who must be treated as ends in
themselves, not as means to an end. Sentiocentrism is the theory that
sentient individuals are the subject of moral concern and therefore are
deserving of rights. Protectionists seek incremental reform in how animals
are treated, with a view to ending animal use entirely, or almost entirely.
This position is represented by the philosopher Peter Singer. As a
utilitarian, Singer's focus is not on moral rights, but on the argument
that animals have interests—particularly an interest in not suffering—and
that there is no moral or logical reason not to award those interests equal
consideration. Multiple cultural traditions around the world—such as
Animism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism—also espouse some forms of
animal rights.
In parallel to the debate about moral rights, animal law is now widely
taught in law schools in North America, and several prominent legal
scholars support the extension of basic legal rights and personhood to at
least some animals. The animals most often considered in arguments for
personhood are bonobos and chimpanzees. This is supported by some animal
rights academics because it would break through the species barrier, but
opposed by others because it predicates moral value on mental complexity,
rather than on sentience alone.
Critics of animal rights argue that animals are unable to enter into a
social contract, and thus cannot be possessors of rights, a view summed up
by the philosopher Roger Scruton, who writes that only humans have duties,
and therefore only humans have rights. A parallel argument, known as the
utilitarian position, is that animals may be used as resources so long as
there is no unnecessary suffering they may have some moral standing, but
they are inferior in status to human beings, and insofar as they have
interests, those interests may be overridden, though what counts as
necessary suffering or a legitimate sacrifice of interests varies
considerably. Certain forms of animal rights activism, such as the
destruction of fur farms and animal laboratories by the Animal Liberation
Front, have also attracted criticism, including from within the animal
rights movement itself, as well as prompted reaction from the U.S. Congress
with the enactment of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (amended in 2006
by the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act)'.
o Other:
* 'Human Rights Day'. A UN observance since 1950 which celebrates the 1948,
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. See more in the Historical Events
for 1948.
- From Wikipedia (Human Rights Day):
'Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December
every year
The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly's
adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human
rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.
The formal establishment of Human Rights Day occurred at the 317th Plenary
Meeting of the General Assembly on 4 December 1950, when the General
Assembly declared resolution 423(V), inviting all member states and any
other interested organizations to celebrate the day as they saw fit.
The day is normally marked both by high-level political conferences and
meetings and by cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights
issues. In addition it is traditionally on 10 December that the five-yearly
United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and Nobel Peace Prize are
awarded. Many governmental and non-governmental organizations active in the
human rights field also schedule special events to commemorate the day, as
do many civil and social-cause organizations'.
<> Historical events on December 10
* 'In 1817, Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state of the U.S. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Mississippi is a state located in the southern region of
the United States, with part of its southern border formed by the Gulf of
Mexico. Its western border is formed by the Mississippi River.
Located in the center of the state, Jackson is the state capital and
largest city, with a population of around 175,000 people. The state overall
has a population of around 3 million people. Mississippi is the 32nd most
extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States.
The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area,
between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. Before the American Civil War,
most development in the state was along riverfronts, where cotton
plantations were cleared and worked by Slaves. After the war, the
bottomlands to the interior were cleared mostly by freedmen. By the end of
the 19th century, African Americans made up two-thirds of the property
owners in the Delta, but timber and railroad companies acquired much of the
land after the financial crisis and credit issues.
Clearing altered the ecology of the Delta, increasing the severity of
flooding along the Mississippi. Much land is now held by agribusinesses. A
largely rural state with agricultural areas dominated by industrial farms,
Mississippi is ranked low or last among the states in such measures as
health, educational attainment, and median household income. The state's
catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish
consumed in the United States.
Since the 1930s and the Great Migration, Mississippi has been majority
white, albeit with the highest percentage of black residents of any U.S.
state. From the early 19th century to the 1930s, its residents were mostly
black, a population that before the American Civil War was composed largely
of African slaves. In the first half of the 20th century, a total of nearly
400,000 rural blacks left the state for work and opportunities in northern
and midwestern cities, with another wave of migration around World War II
to West Coast cities. In 2010, 37% of Mississippians were African
Americans, the highest percentage of African Americans in any U.S. state.
Since gaining enforcement of their franchise in the late 1960s, most
African Americans support Democratic candidates in local, state and
national elections. Conservative whites have shifted to the Republican
Party. African Americans are a majority in many counties of the
Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, an area of historic settlement during the
plantation era. Since 2011 Mississippi has been ranked as the most
religious state in the country'.
* 'In 1851, Birthday of Melvil Dewey, American librarian. He created the
Dewey Decimal System.
- From Wikipedia: 'The Decimal Classification introduced the concepts of
relative location and relative index which allow new books to be added to a
library in their appropriate location based on subject. Libraries
previously had given books permanent shelf locations that were related to
the order of acquisition rather than topic. The classification's notation
makes use of three-digit Arabic numerals for main classes, with fractional
decimals allowing expansion for further detail. A library assigns a
classification number that unambiguously locates a particular volume in a
position relative to other books in the library, on the basis of its
subject. The number makes it possible to find any book and to return it to
its proper place on the library shelv'. .
* 'In 1868, The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of
Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms
and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps. .
- From Wikipedia: 'On 9 December 1868, the first, non-electric, gas-lit
traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London to
control the traffic in Bridge Street, Great George Street and Parliament
Street. They were proposed by the railway engineer J. P. Knight of
Nottingham, who had adapted this idea from his design of railway signalling
systems, and constructed by the railway signal engineers of Saxby and
Farmer. The main reason for the traffic light was that there was an
overflow of horse-drawn traffic over Westminster Bridge which forced
thousands of pedestrians to walk next to the Houses of Parliament. The
design combined three semaphore arms with red and green gas lamps for
night-time use, on a pillar, operated by a police constable. The gas
lantern was manually turned by a traffic police officer, with a lever at
its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic. The signal was 22
feet high. The light was called the semaphore and had arms that would
extend horizontally that commanded drivers to "Stop" and then the
arms would lower to a 45 degrees angle to tell drivers to proceed with
"Caution". At night a red light would command "Stop" and a
green light would mean use "Caution".
Although it was said to be successful at controlling traffic, its
operational life was brief. It exploded on 2 January 1869, as a result of a
leak in one of the gas lines underneath the sidewalk, injuring or killing
the policeman who was operating it.
In the first two decades of the 20th century semaphore traffic signals,
like the one in London, were in use all over the United States with each
state having its own design of the device. One good example was from
Toledo, Ohio in 1908. The words “Stop” and “Go” were in white on a green
background and the lights had red and green lenses illuminated by kerosene
lamps for night travelers and the arms where eight feet above ground.:22
Controlled by a traffic officer who would blow a whistle before changing
the commands on this signal to help alert travelers of the change, the
design was also used in Philadelphia and Detroit.:23 The example in Ohio
was the first time America tried to use a more visible form of traffic
control that evolved the use of semaphore. The device that was used in Ohio
was designed based on the use of railroad signals.
In 1912, a traffic control device was placed on top a tower in Paris at the
Rue Montmartre and Grande Boulevard. This tower signal was manned by a
police woman and she operated a revolving four-sided metal box on top of a
glass showcase where the word “Stop” was painted in red and the word “Go”
painted in white.:33
An electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, a policeman
in Salt Lake City, Utah, who also used red-green lights. On 5 August 1914,
the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on
the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.:27–28
It had two colors, red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of
James Hoge, to provide a warning for color changes. The design by James
Hoge allowed police and fire stations to control the signals in case of
emergency. The first four-way, three-colour or traffic light was created by
police officer William Potts in Detroit, Michigan in 1920. Ashville, Ohio
claims to be the home of the oldest working traffic light in the United
States, used at an intersection of public roads from 1932 to 1982 when it
was moved to a local museum. Many pictures of historical traffic lights
appear at a Traffic Signal Trivia page.
The tower was the first innovation that used the three-coloured traffic
signal and appeared first in the City of Detroit, where the first
three-colored traffic light was built at the intersection of Michigan and
Woodward Avenues in 1920. The man behind this three-color traffic light was
police officer William Potts of Detroit. He was concerned about how police
officers at four different lights signals could not change their lights all
at the same time. The answer was a third light that was coloured amber,
which was the same color used on the railroad.:93 Potts also placed a timer
with the light to help coordinate a four-way set of lights in the city. The
traffic tower soon used twelve floodlights to control traffic and the
reason for a tower in the first place was that at the time the intersection
was one of the busiest in world, with over 20,000 vehicles daily.:35
Los Angeles installed its first automated traffic signals in October 1920
at five locations on Broadway. These early signals, manufactured by the
Acme Traffic Signal Co., paired “Stop” and “Go” semaphore arms with small
red and green lights. Bells played the role of today's amber or yellow
lights, ringing when the flags changed—a process that took five seconds. By
1923 the city had installed 31 Acme traffic control devices. The Acme
semaphore traffic lights were often used in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies cartoons for comedic effect due to their loud bell.
The first interconnected traffic signal system was installed in Salt Lake
City in 1917, with six connected intersections controlled simultaneously
from a manual switch.:32 Automatic control of interconnected traffic lights
was introduced March 1922 in Houston, Texas.
In 1922 traffic towers were beginning to be controlled by automatic timers.
The first company to add timers in traffic lights was Crouse Hinds. They
built railroad signals and were the first company to place timers in
traffic lights in Houston, which was their home city.:385 The main
advantage for the use of the timer was that it saved cities money by
replacing traffic officers. The city of New York was able to reassign all
but 500 of its 6,000 officers working on the traffic squad this saved the
city $12,500,000.:385
After witnessing an accident between an automobile and a horse-drawn
carriage, African American inventor, Garrett Morgan, filed a U.S. patent
for a traffic signal. Patent No. 1,475,024 was granted on November 20, 1923
for Morgan's three-position traffic signal. Although the site HISTORY.com
credits this signal as the ancestor of today's yellow warning light,
earlier devices including the aforementioned Potts signal in Detroit
included the yellow (amber) light.
The first traffic lights in Britain were deployed in Piccadilly Circus in
1926. Wolverhampton was the first British town to introduce automated
traffic lights in 1927 in Princes Square at the junction of Lichfield
Street and Princess Street.
Melbourne was the first city in Australia to install traffic lights in 1928
on the intersection of Collins and Swanston Street.
The twelve-light system did not become available until 1928 and another
feature of the light system was that hoods were placed over the light and
each lens was sand-blasted to increase daytime visibility.:383
The use of both the tower and the semaphores were done by 1930. The tower
was great with starting innovation but they were too big and obstructed
traffic and the semaphores were too small and drivers could not see them at
night.:382
The first traffic light in South India was installed at Egmore Junction,
Chennai in 1953. The city of Bangalore installed its first traffic light at
Corporation Circle in 1963.
The control of traffic lights made a big turn with the rise of computers in
America in the 1950s. Thanks to computers, the changing of lights made
Crosby's flow even quicker thanks to computerized detection. A pressure
plate was placed at intersections so once a car was on the plate computers
would know that a car was waiting at the red light.:135 Some of this
detection included knowing the number of waiting cars against the red light
and the length of time waited by the first vehicle at the red.:141 One of
the best historical examples of computerized control of lights was in
Denver in 1952. One computer took control of 120 lights with six
pressure-sensitive detectors measuring inbound and outbound traffic. The
system was in place at the central business district, where the most
traffic was between the downtown area and the north and northeastern parts
of the city. The control room that housed the computer in charge of the
system was in the basement of the City and County Building.:141 As
computers started to evolve, traffic light control also improved and became
easier. In 1967, the city of Toronto was the first to use more advanced
computers that were better at vehicle detection.:141 Thanks to the new and
better computers traffic flow moved even quicker than with the use of the
tower. The computers maintained control over 159 signals in the cities
through telephone lines. People praised the computers for their detection
abilities. Thanks to detection computers could change the length of the
green light based on the volume of waiting cars.:143 The rise of computers
is the model of traffic control which is now used in the 21st century.
Countdown timers on traffic lights were introduced in the 1990s. Timers are
useful for pedestrians, to plan whether there is enough time to cross the
intersection before the end of the walk phase, and for drivers, to know the
amount of time before the light turns green. In the United States, timers
for vehicle traffic are prohibited, but pedestrian timers are now required
on new or upgraded signals on wider roadways'.
* 'In 1896, The first ever college basketball game is played. Wesleyan
defeats Yale by score of 4, 3. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The first known college to field a basketball team
against an outside opponent was Vanderbilt University, which played against
the local YMCA in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 7, 1893. The second
recorded instance of an organized college basketball game was Geneva
College's game against the New Brighton YMCA on April 8, 1893, in Beaver
Falls, Pennsylvania, which Geneva won 3–0.
The first recorded game between two college teams occurred on February 9,
1895, when Hamline University faced Minnesota A and M (which later became a
part of the University of Minnesota). Minnesota A and M won the game, which
was played under rules allowing nine players per side, 9–3. The first
intercollegiate match using the modern rule of five players per side is
often credited as a game between the University of Chicago and the
University of Iowa, in Iowa City, Iowa, on January 18, 1896. The Chicago
team won the game 15-12, under the coaching of Amos Alonzo Stagg, who had
learned the game from James Naismith at the Springfield YMCA. However, some
sources state the first true five-on-five intercollegiate match was a game
in 1897 between Yale and Penn, because although the Iowa team that played
Chicago in 1896 was composed of University of Iowa students, it reportedly
did not officially represent the university, rather it was organized
through a YMCA. By 1900, the game of basketball had spread to colleges
across the country'.
* 'In 1898, The Spanish-American War formally ended by the Treaty of Paris
US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. Cuba became independant of
Spain. Hostilities ended on August 12, 1898. The treaty was ratified by the
United States Senate on February 6, 1899.
- From Wikipedia: 'The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra
hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana) was a conflict fought
between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the
aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor
leading to American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American
acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the
Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.
Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish rule
which the U.S. later backed upon entering the Spanish–American War. There
had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late
1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by
journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used
yellow journalism to call for war. However, the Hearst and Pulitzer papers
were circulated among the working class in New York City and did not reach
a national audience. Historians of the 1930s blamed them for stirring up a
war frenzy, but more recent scholars have not accepted that theory. The
business community across the United States had just recovered from a deep
depression, and feared that a war would reverse the gains. They lobbied
vigorously against going to war.
The US Navy battleship Maine was mysteriously sunk in Havana harbor
political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed the administration of
Republican President William McKinley into a war that he had wished to
avoid. Spain promised time and time again that it would reform, but never
delivered. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it
surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid declared war, and Washington then
followed suit.
The main issue was Cuban independence the ten-week war was fought in both
the Caribbean and the Pacific. US naval power proved decisive, allowing
expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison
already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by
yellow fever. Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and US forces
obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good
performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for
positions such as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace with two obsolete
Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay and a third, more
modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to
the US which allowed it temporary control of Cuba and ceded ownership of
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the
Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($569,840,000 today) to Spain
by the US to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to
Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic
revaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98. The United
States gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous
new debate over the wisdom of expansionism.
The war began exactly fifty-two years after the beginning of the
Mexican–American War. It was one of only five US wars (against a total of
eleven sovereign states) to have been formally declared by Congress'.
* 'In 1901, The first Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Jean Henri Dunant,
Frederic Passy.
- From Wikipedia: 'The prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for
the peace prize which is awarded in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel Prize is widely
regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of
literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics'. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards
bestowed in a number of categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in
recognition of academic, cultural, and/or scientific advances.
The will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel established the prizes in
1895. The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology
or Medicine were first awarded in 1901. Medals made before 1980 were struck
in 23 carat gold, and later from 18 carat green gold plated with a 24 carat
gold coating. Between 1901 and 2015, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in
Economic Sciences were awarded 573 times to 900 people and organisations.
With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of
23 organisations, and 870 individuals—of whom 48 were women.
The prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden (with the
exception of the peace prize, which is held in Oslo, Norway). Each
recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of
money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation. (As of 2012, each
prize was worth SEK8 million or about US$1.2 million, €0.93 million, or
£0.6 million.) The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious
award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry,
peace, and economics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics,
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic
Sciences the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine the Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize in
Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded not by a Swedish
organisation but by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The prize is not awarded posthumously however, if a person is awarded a
prize and dies before receiving it, the prize may still be presented.
Though the average number of laureates per prize increased substantially
during the 20th century, a prize may not be shared among more than three
people.
Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel
Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes.
Subsequently, they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the
prize-awarding institutions.
The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited Wilhelm Röntgen's
discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy
of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize. In the last decades of the 19th
century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the
Chemistry Prize, the Academy was chiefly faced with merely deciding the
order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize. The Academy
received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van't Hoff. Van't Hoff
was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics.
The Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel
Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists, and
literary critics protested against this decision, having expected Leo
Tolstoy to be awarded. Some, including Burton Feldman, have criticised this
prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's
explanation is that most of the Academy members preferred Victorian
literature and thus selected a Victorian poet. The first Physiology or
Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist Emil von
Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an antitoxin to treat
diphtheria, which until then was causing thousands of deaths each year.
The first Nobel Peace Prize went to the Swiss Jean Henri Dunant for his
role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the
Geneva Convention, and jointly given to French pacifist Frédéric Passy,
founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for
Order and Civilization'.
* 'In 1911, Calbraith Rogers completes the first crossing of U.S. by
airplane.
- From Wikipedia: 'Rodgers left from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on September
17, 1911, at 4:30 pm. He reached Chicago on October 9, 1911. It was decided
to avoid the Rocky Mountains, he would take a southerly route, flying south
through the midwest until reaching Texas. He turned west after reaching San
Antonio. On November 5, 1911, he landed at Tournament Park in Pasadena,
California, at 4:04 pm in front of 20,000 people. He had missed the prize
deadline by 19 days. On December 10, 1911, he landed in Long Beach,
California, and taxied his plane into the Pacific Ocean. He had carried the
first transcontinental U.S. Mail pouch. The trip required 70 stops, and he
paid the Wright brothers' technician, Charlie Taylor, $70 a week to be his
mechanic. Taylor followed the flight by train and performed maintenance for
the next day's flight. The next transcontinental flight was made by Robert
G. Fowler'. .
* 'In 1927, The phrase 'Grand Ole Opry' is used for the first time. br />
- From Wikipedia: 'The phrase 'Grand Ole Opry' was first uttered on the air
on December 10, 1927. At the time, Barn Dance followed the NBC Red
Network's Music Appreciation Hour, a program of classical music and
selections from Grand Opera presented by classical conductor Walter
Damrosch. On that particular night, Damrosch had remarked that 'there is no
place in the classics for realism.' In response, Opry presenter George Hay
said:' 'Friends, the program which just came to a close was devoted to the
classics. Doctor Damrosch told us that there is no place in the classics
for realism. However, from here on out for the next three hours, we will
present nothing but realism. It will be down to earth for the 'earthy'.
'For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from
Grand Opera. From now on, we will present the 'Grand Ole Opry'. .
* 'In 1948, The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
- From Wikipedia: 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a
declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December
1948 at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. The Declaration arose directly from
the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global
expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. The
full text is published by the United Nations on its website'.
* 'In 1955, The TV show 'Mighty Mouse Playhouse' premieres.
- From Wikipedia: 'Mighty Mouse Playhouse is an American television
anthology series featuring animated short films starring Mighty Mouse. The
series aired on CBS from 1955 to 1966. The series was credited with
popularizing the Mighty Mouse character in popular culture far beyond what
the original film shorts had done'. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Mighty Mouse Playhouse is an American television
anthology series featuring animated short films starring Mighty Mouse. The
series aired on CBS from 1955 to 1966. The series was credited with
popularizing the Mighty Mouse character in popular culture far beyond what
the original film shorts had done.
Mighty Mouse was not extraordinarily popular in theatrical cartoons, but
was still Terrytoons' most popular character. What made him a cultural icon
was television. Most of the short film studios, both live-action and
animated, were in decline by the 1950s, pressured both by the loss of film
audiences to television as well as the increased popularity (and financial
benefits) of low-budget, stylized, limited animation. Most of the studios
cashed out of the short-film production business and began licensing or
selling their back catalogs to television. Paul Terry went as far as to
sell the entire Terrytoon company to CBS in 1955. The network began running
Mighty Mouse Playhouse in December 1955. It remained on the air for nearly
twelve years (and featured The Mighty Heroes during the final season).
Mighty Mouse cartoons became a staple of children's television programming
for a period of over thirty years, from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Terrytoons, under CBS ownership, produced only three further Mighty Mouse
theatrical cartoons in the 1959–1961 time frame (this was in marked
contrast to other animated cartoon lines such as Looney Tunes, Tom and
Jerry and Woody Woodpecker, all of which continued to produce new film
shorts for nearly a decade after licensing their library to television).
The company evidently believed that the existing library of shorts was
enough to keep youngsters tuning into CBS every Saturday morning the
library consisted of 80 shorts, enough for 26 half-hour episodes.
Some early vinyls credit the original 1955 Mighty Mouse Playhouse theme
song to The Terrytooners, Mitch Miller and Orchestra, but recent publishing
has generally credited The Sandpipers'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in December
Food
Buckwheat Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
Health
Aids Awareness Month
National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month
National Impaired Driving Prevention Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
Animal and Pet
Operation Santa Paws
Other
National Tie Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
Universal Human Rights Month
Youngsters on The Air 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 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More