<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'Fried Shrimp Balls'. . Minced shrimp shaped into a ball covered in
batter and deep fried. In other countries it may be made with only the
shrimp's / prawn's upper body, which looks like a ball.
[The Hankster says] The answer is no. They aren't suitable for Christmas tree decoration. Kitty won't leave them alone.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Games Day'.
Created by the British game production and retail company, Games Workshop
in 1975. It promotes games of any kind and organized game conventions.
- From Wikipedia (Games Day):
'Games Day is a yearly run gaming convention sponsored by Games Workshop.
It was started in 1975, after another games convention scheduled for August
that year cancelled. Games Workshop decided to fill the resulting gap by
running a gaming day of their own. As a result, after some delays, the
first Games Day was held at Seymour Hall, London on 20 December 1975. The
convention was important because there were few outlets for gamers to meet
each other and play, and Games Workshop used this in their efforts to build
the gaming scene in the U.K.
Following this successful start, and encouraged by mainstream media
coverage, the second Games Day was held at a different venue, Chelsea Town
Hall, London, on 12 February 1977. The event was somewhat delayed, owing to
the logistics of running a rapidly expanding business. It followed rapidly
by a separate D and D Day at Fulham Town Hall on 12 March, this being their
core funding stream at that time.
Today the Games Day convention is held regularly in the United Kingdom at
the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. It draws enthusiasts of Games
Workshop's three main games (Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer, Lord of the
Rings). Not just a commercial venture, gamers go to play their games and
attend presentations by special guests from the Games Workshop's head
office in Nottingham.
Alongside the gaming is a dealer's area which commonly includes products
from Citadel Miniatures, particularly, armies for all the game systems
scheduled for release. Another attraction is the Golden Demon, a painting
competition of miniatures. There is also a competition of varying degrees
of seriousness, the Scrap Demon competition, in which competitors create a
models from plastic sprues'.
[The Hankster says] Not much of a video gamer. Prefer brain games to shoot-um-ups.
* 'Go Caroling Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Christmas carol):
'A Christmas carol (also called a noël, from the French word meaning
Christmas) is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of
Christmas, and which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during
the surrounding holiday season. Christmas carols may be regarded as a
subset of the broader category of Christmas music.
Christmas music written in the United States ranges from popular songs,
such as Jingle Bells, to Christmas carols, such as Away in a Manger, O
Little Town of Bethlehem, and numerous others of varying genres. Church and
college choirs celebrate with special programs and online recordings.
The first known Christmas hymns may be traced to 4th century Rome. Latin
hymns such as Veni redemptor gentium, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of
Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the
Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. Corde natus ex Parentis (Of the
Father's heart begotten) by the Spanish poet Prudentius (d. 413) is still
sung in some churches today. The early history is detailed in several
books, including Noel: The History and Traditional Behind Christmas Carols
(2010 Halifax Press ISBN 978-0-9829700-1-0)
In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Christmas Sequence or Prose was
introduced in Northern European monasteries, developing under Bernard of
Clairvaux into a sequence of rhymed stanzas. In the 12th century the
Parisian monk Adam of St. Victor began to derive music from popular songs,
introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol.
In the 13th century, in France, Germany, and particularly, Italy, under the
influence of Francis of Assisi a strong tradition of popular Christmas
songs in regional native languages developed. Christmas carols in English
first appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay, a Shropshire chaplain, who
lists twenty five caroles of Cristemas, probably sung by groups of
'wassailers', who went from house to house. The songs we know specifically
as carols were originally communal songs sung during celebrations like
harvest tide as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols begun to
be sung in church, and to be specifically associated with Christmas.
Many carols which have gained popularity today were printed in Piae
Cantiones, a collection of late medieval Latin songs which was first
published in 1582. Early, Latin forms of carols such as Christ was born on
Christmas Day, Good Christian Men, Rejoice and Good King Wenceslas can be
found in this book. Adeste Fideles (O Come all ye faithful) appears in its
current form in the mid-18th century, although the words may have
originated in the 13th century. The origin of the tune is disputed.
Carols gained in popularity after the Reformation in the countries where
Protestant churches gained prominence (as well-known Reformers like Martin
Luther authored carols and encouraged their use in worship). This was a
consequence of the fact that the Lutheran reformation warmly welcomed
music. 19th century carol books such as Christmas Carols, New and Old
(1871) helped to make carols popular
The publication of Christmas music books in the 19th century helped to
widen the popular appeal of carols. The first appearance in print of God
Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, The First Noel, I Saw Three Ships and Hark! The
Herald Angels Sing was in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833) by
William Sandys. Composers like Arthur Sullivan helped to repopularise the
carol, and it is this period that gave rise to such favourites as Good King
Wenceslas and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, a New England carol written
by Edmund H. Sears and Richard S. Willis. The publication in 1871 of
Christmas Carols, New and Old by Henry Ramsden Bramley and Sir John Stainer
was a significant contribution to a revival of carols in Victorian Britain.
In 1916, Charles Lewis Hutchins published Carols Old and Carols New, a
scholarly collection which suffered from a short print run and is
consequently rarely available today. The Oxford Book of Carols, first
published in 1928 by Oxford University Press (OUP), was a notably
successful collection edited by the British composers Martin Shaw and Ralph
Vaughan Williams, along with clergyman and author Percy Dearmer, it became
a widely used source of carols in among choirs and church congregations in
Britain and remains in print today.
The singing of carols was further popularised in the 20th century when OUP
published one of the most popular carol books in the English-speaking
world, Carols for Choirs. First published in 1961 and edited by David
Willcocks and Reginald Jacques, this bestselling series has since expanded
to a five-volume set. Along with editor John Rutter, the compilers included
many arrangements of carols derived from sources such as Piae Cantiones, as
well as pieces by modern composers such as William Walton, Benjamin
Britten, Richard Rodney Bennett, William Mathias and John Rutter.
Today carols are regularly sung at Christian religious services. Some
compositions have words that are clearly not of a religious theme, but are
often still referred to as carols For example, the 16th century song A
Bone, God Wot! appears to be a wassailing song (which is sung during
drinking or while requesting ale), but is described in the British
Library's Cottonian Collection as a Christmas carol. As recently as 1865,
Christmas-related lyrics were adopted for the traditional English folk song
Greensleeves, becoming the internationally popular Christmas carol “What
Child is This?”. Little research has been conducted on carol singing, but
one of the few sociological studies of caroling in the early 21st century
in Finland determined that the sources of songs are often misunderstood,
and that it is simplistic to suggest caroling is mostly related to
Christian beliefs, for it also reinforces preservation of diverse national
customs and local family traditions.
A modern form of the practice of caroling can be seen in Dial-A-Carol, an
annual tradition held by students at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, wherein potential audiences call the singers to request a
performance over phone call. Carols for dancing
It is not clear whether the word carol derives from the French carole or
the Latin carula meaning a circular dance. In any case the dancing seems to
have been abandoned quite early. The typical 3/4 (waltz) time would tend to
support the latter meaning. Music
Traditionally, carols have often been based on medieval chord patterns, and
it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound.
Some carols like Personent hodie, Good King Wenceslas, and The Holly and
the Ivy can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages, and are among the
oldest musical compositions still regularly sung.
Compositions continue to be written that become popular carols. For
example, many of the carols written by Alfred Burt are sung regularly in
both sacred and secular settings, and are among the better known modern
Christmas carols'.
[The Hankster says] If you got the chords, use them. I don't. My annual Christmas present to the world, is not to carol.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Other:
* 'International Human Solidarity Day'. Un observance. 'From the website:
The new SDGs agenda is centred on people and planet, underpinned by human
rights and supported by a global partnership determined to lift people out
of poverty, hunger and disease. It will be thus be built on a foundation of
global cooperation and solidarity'.
<> Historical events on December 20
* 'In 1606, The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets
sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English
settlement in the Americas. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was
the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. William Kelso
writes that Jamestown is where the British Empire began ... this was the
first colony in the British Empire. Jamestown was established by the
Virginia Company of London as James Fort on May 4, 1607 (O.S., May 14, 1607
N.S.), and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. It
followed several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of
Roanoke. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from
1616 until 1699.
The settlement was located within the country of Tsenacommacah, which was
ruled by the Powhatan Confederacy, and specifically in that of the
Paspahegh tribe. The natives initially welcomed and provided crucial
provisions and support for the colonists, who were not agriculturally
inclined. Relations with the newcomers soured fairly early on, leading to
the total annihilation of the Paspahegh in warfare within 3 years.
Mortality at Jamestown itself was very high due to disease and starvation,
with over 80% of the colonists perishing in 1609–1610 in what became known
as the Starving Time
The Virginia Company brought eight Polish and German colonists in 1608, in
the Second Supply, some of whom built a small glass factory—although the
Germans and a few others soon defected to the Powhatans with weapons and
supplies from the settlement. The Second Supply also brought the first two
European women to the settlement. In 1619, the first documented Africans
came to Jamestown—about 50 men, women, and children—aboard a Portuguese
slave ship that had been captured in the West Indies and brought to the
Jamestown region. They most likely worked in the tobacco fields as
indentured servants initially. The modern conception of slavery in the
future United States was formalized in 1640 (the John Punch hearing) and
was fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660.
The London Company's second settlement in Bermuda claims to be the site of
the oldest town in the English New World, as St. George's, Bermuda was
officially established (as New London) in 1612, whereas James Fort in
Virginia was not converted into James Towne until 1619, and further did not
survive into the present day. In 1676, the town was deliberately burned
during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was quickly rebuilt. In 1699, the
capital was relocated from Jamestown to what is today Williamsburg, after
which Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement, existing today only as an
archaeological site.
Today, Jamestown is one of three locations comprising the Historic Triangle
of Colonial Virginia, along with Williamsburg and Yorktown, with two
primary heritage sites. Historic Jamestowne, the archaeological site on
Jamestown Island, is a cooperative effort by Jamestown National Historic
Site (part of Colonial National Historical Park) and Preservation Virginia.
Jamestown Settlement, a living history interpretive site, is operated by
the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, a state agency of the Commonwealth of
Virginia'.
* 'In 1803, The French flag was lowered in New Orleans, to mark the formal
transfer of the Louisiana Purchase from France to the U.S. for about
$15,000,000 U.S. (money and debt cancellation) which is about $237,000,000
U.S. in 2014 dollars.
- From Wikipedia: 'The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on 30 April by
Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé Marbois in Paris. Jefferson
announced the treaty to the American people on July 4. After the signing of
the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this famous
statement, We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole
lives...From this day the United States take their place among the powers
of the first rank.
The United States Senate ratified the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to
seven on October 20. The Senators who voted against the treaty were: Simeon
Olcott and William Plumer of New Hampshire, William Wells and Samuel White
of Delaware, James Hillhouse and Uriah Tracy of Connecticut, and Timothy
Pickering of Massachusetts.
On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to
take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military
government. In legislation enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary
provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French
and Spanish rule and authorized the President to use military forces to
maintain order. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore
and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark
Expedition.
France turned over New Orleans, the historic colonial capital, on December
20, 1803, at the Cabildo, with a flag-raising ceremony in the Plaza de
Armas, now Jackson Square. Just three weeks earlier, on November 30, 1803,
Spanish officials had formally conveyed the colonial lands and their
administration to France.
On March 9 and 10, 1804, another ceremony, commemorated as Three Flags Day,
was conducted in St. Louis to transfer ownership of Upper Louisiana from
Spain to the French First Republic, and then from France to the United
States. From March 10 to September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised
as a military district, under Commandant Amos Stoddard.
Effective October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the
Territory of Orleans (most of which would become the state of Louisiana)
and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under control of the
governor and judicial system of the Indiana Territory. The following year,
the District of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Louisiana, aka
Louisiana Territory (1805–1812).
New Orleans was the administrative capital of the Orleans Territory, and
St. Louis was the capital of the Louisiana Territory'.
* 'In 1921, A judge decides that baseball's World Series should be a best
of 7 series. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The World Series is the annual championship series of
Major League Baseball (MLB) in North America, contested since 1903 between
the American League (AL) champion team and the National League (NL)
champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined
through a best-of-seven playoff, and the winning team is awarded the
Commissioner's Trophy. As the series is played in October (and occasionally
November), during the autumn season in North America, it is often referred
to as the Fall Classic.
Prior to 1969, the team with the best regular season win-loss record in
each league automatically advanced to the World Series since then each
league has conducted a championship series (ALCS and NLCS) preceding the
World Series to determine which teams will advance. As of 2016, the World
Series has been contested 112 times, with the AL winning 64 and the NL
winning 48'.
* 'In 1941, During World War II, the first battle of the American Volunteer
Group, better known as the 'Flying Tigers' in Kunming, China, is activated.
- From Wikipedia: 'The 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese
Air Force in 1941–1942, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots
from the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps
(USMC), recruited under presidential authority and commanded by Claire Lee
Chennault. The shark-faced nose art of the Flying Tigers remains among the
most recognizable image of any individual combat aircraft or combat unit of
World War II.
The group consisted of three fighter squadrons of around 30 aircraft each.
It trained in Burma before the American entry into World War II with the
mission of defending China against Japanese forces. The group of volunteers
were officially members of the Chinese Air Force. The members of the group
had contracts with salaries ranging from $250 a month for a mechanic to
$750 for a squadron commander, roughly three times what they had been
making in the U.S. forces. While it accepted some civilian volunteers for
its headquarters and ground crew, the AVG recruited most of its staff from
the U.S. military.
The group first saw combat on 20 December 1941, 12 days after Pearl Harbor
(local time). It demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news
in the U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the hands
of the Japanese forces, and achieved such notable success during the lowest
period of the war for both the U.S. and the Allied Forces as to give hope
to America that it might eventually defeat the Japanese. AVG pilots earned
official credit, and received combat bonuses, for destroying 296 enemy
aircraft, while losing only 14 pilots in combat. The combat records of the
AVG still exist and researchers have found them credible. On 4 July 1942
the AVG was disbanded. It was replaced by the 23rd Fighter Group of the
United States Army Air Forces, which was later absorbed into the U.S.
Fourteenth Air Force with General Chennault as commander. The 23rd FG went
on to achieve similar combat success, while retaining the nose art on the
left-over P-40s'.
* 'In 1946, The popular Christmas film, It's a Wonderful Life, is first
released in New York City.
- From Wikipedia: 'It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas
fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short
story 'The Greatest Gift', which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and
published privately in 1945. The film is now among the most popular in
American cinema and because of numerous television showings in the 1980s
has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season'. .
* 'In 1950, The movie 'Harvey', starring James Stewart, premieres in NY.
- From Wikipedia: 'Harvey is a 1950 comedy-drama film based on Mary Chase's
play of the same name, directed by Henry Koster, and starring James Stewart
and Josephine Hull. The story is about a man whose best friend is a pooka
named Harvey — in the form of a six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch tall
invisible rabbit.'. .
* 'In 1957, Elvis Presley receives his army draft notice, and is granted a
short deferment to complete his for film 'King Creole'. .
- From Wikipedia: 'American singer Elvis Presley served in the United
States Army between March 1958 and March 1960. At the time of his draft he
was one of the most well-known names in the world of entertainment.
Before entering the U.S. Army, Presley had caused national outrage with his
sexually charged performances and rock and roll music. Many parents,
religious leaders, and teachers groups saw his draft, removing him from
public view, as a positive thing. Despite being offered the chance to
enlist in Special Services to entertain the troops and live in priority
housing, Presley decided to serve as a regular soldier. This earned him the
respect of many of his fellow soldiers and people back home who had
previously viewed him in a negative light.
During his service, Presley's life was affected in many ways, beginning
with the death of his mother. Not long before he was to be stationed in
Germany, Gladys Presley died of a heart attack brought on by Acute
Hepatitis and Cirrhosis. At age 24, when he was stationed in West Germany,
he met his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu and became dependent on
stimulants and barbiturates. This unhealthy addiction eventually led to his
divorce, and ultimately his death at age 42 in 1977.
After his release from military service, Presley found a new fan base among
an older age group, thanks in part to his army career and releases of
ballads over rock and roll songs.
In January 1956, Presley turned twenty-one years old. Like most American
men of that age, he was now eligible to be drafted. Colonel Tom Parker,
Presley's manager, was well aware of his client's draft status and how it
could affect his career. In the summer of 1956, Parker wrote to the
Pentagon requesting that Presley be considered for Special Services.
Special Services would allow Presley to do only six weeks basic training
and then resume life as normal with the exception of performing several
times a year for the armed forces. However, Parker had no intentions of
allowing his client to ever sign up for Special Services. Special Services
would require Presley to perform for free, with each performance being
recorded and filmed for sale to television stations throughout the world.
Only the armed forces would profit from these recordings, and Parker was in
no way willing to allow anyone, even Uncle Sam, to enjoy Presley's talents
for free. Over the course of the next twelve months Parker led Presley to
believe that it was still possible to avoid the draft completely. Unknown
to Presley, Parker had no intentions of avoiding the draft. In his eyes,
after a year of some negative publicity about Presley, this was the perfect
opportunity to change the view that older America had of him.
Parker explained to Presley that this was a great situation, one that
neither of them could refuse. When Presley was told that he would have to
serve as a regular soldier he was furious how could his manager, the man
who had claimed to be able to do anything, not be able to find a way out of
the draft? Parker promised Presley that if he worked hard, kept his nose
clean, and served as a regular GI for two years, he would return a bigger
star than when he left.
On January 4, 1957, Presley attended Kennedy Veterans Hospital in Memphis
for a pre-induction Army medical. On January 8, Presley's twenty-second
birthday, he was declared 1-A by the Memphis Draft Board physically fit and
likely to be drafted some time in the next eight months. It was on December
16 that it was officially announced that Presley would be receiving his
draft notice. While fans around the country were upset about the news,
parents and teachers groups were ecstatic. Presley had been, in their
opinion, a menace to society.
The Navy offered to create a special Elvis Presley Company made up of men
from Memphis and Presley's closest friends. They also offered him the
chance to perform in Las Vegas, and have his own private quarters. The Army
offered Presley the chance to tour the world and visit Army bases to boost
morale among soldiers and encourage other young men to enlist. Presley
politely told both parties that he would consider their offers. The
Pentagon, too, had been in touch to offer Presley the opportunity to join
Special Services, entertaining the troops without having to actually train
as a regular soldier among many soldiers and veterans it is known as the
celebrity wimp-out After discussing each possibility with his manager,
Colonel Tom Parker, Presley decided to join up as a regular soldier. In
Parker's words, Taking any of these deals will make millions of Americans
angry King Creole extension
Presley was originally scheduled to be inducted on January 20, 1958.
However, due to commitments at Paramount and the filming schedule of his
latest film, King Creole, Presley had to personally write to the Memphis
Draft Board to request a deferment. He explained to them that Paramount had
already spent up to $350,000 on pre-production of the film, and that many
jobs were dependent on him being able to complete filming, which was due to
begin on January 13. They granted him an extension until the middle of
March. When news of the extension broke, angry letters were sent to the
Memphis Draft Board complaining about the special treatment that Presley
was receiving. According to Milton Bowers, head of the draft board and
angered by the public outcry, Presley would have automatically gotten the
extension if he hadn't been Elvis Presley the superstar
Worried that rock and roll music was a passing fad, Presley wanted to make
King Creole the best role he had ever acted. He knew that two years out of
the limelight would mean hard work when he returned, and so he gave his all
in that film to show the world that he had the potential to return as a
serious, dramatic actor. Author Alanna Nash described it as the performance
that would forever define his potential'.
* 'In 1951, The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant
to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) is a
decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located
in the desert about 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Arco, Idaho. At 1:50 pm
on December 20, 1951, it became the world's first electricity-generating
nuclear power plant when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate
four 200-watt light bulbs. It subsequently generated sufficient electricity
to power its building, and continued to be used for experimental purposes
until it was decommissioned in 1964'.
* 'In 1969, Peter, Paul and Mary's, 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' reaches #1. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Leaving on a Jet Plane is a song written by John Denver
in 1966 and most famously recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. The original
title of the song was Babe, I Hate to Go but Denver's then producer Milt
Okun convinced him to change the title.
It turned out to be Peter, Paul and Mary's biggest (and final) hit,
becoming their only #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.
The song also spent three weeks atop the easy listening chart and was used
in commercials for United Airlines in the late 1970s. The song also topped
the charts in Canada, and reached #2 in both the UK Singles Chart and Irish
Singles Chart in February 1970.
In 1969, John Denver recorded a version of the song for his debut solo
album, Rhymes and Reasons, and re-recorded it in 1973 for John Denver's
Greatest Hits. His version was featured in the end credits of The Guard'.
* 'In 1971, The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is
founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.
- From Wikipedia: 'Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without
Borders, is an international humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization
(NGO) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, best known for its projects in
war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases'. .
* 'In 1977, The first 'Space Walk' is made by G Grechko from a Salyut 6
spacecraft. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko born May 25, 1931) is a
retired Soviet cosmonaut who flew on several space flights including Soyuz
17, Soyuz 26, and Soyuz T-14.
Grechko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Mechanics with a
doctorate in mathematics. He was a member of Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. He went on to work at Sergei Korolev's design bureau and from there
was selected for cosmonaut training for the Soviet moon programme. When
that program was cancelled, he went on to work on the Salyut space
stations.
Grechko made the first spacewalk in an Orlan space suit on December 20,
1977 during the Salyut 6 EO-1 mission.
He was twice awarded the medal of Hero of the Soviet Union'.
* 'In 1985, The position of American Poet Laureate is established with
Robert Warren as it's first so honored. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of
Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as
the nation's official poet. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks
to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the
reading and writing of poetry. The position was modeled on the Poet
Laureate of the United Kingdom. Formerly known as the Consultant in Poetry
to the Library of Congress, the present title was devised and authorized by
an Act of Congress in 1985. The Poet Laureate's office is administered by
the Center for the Book'.
* 'In 1996, NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to the
computer operating system, Mac OS X. .
- From Wikipedia: 'NeXT (later NeXT Computer and NeXT Software) was an
American computer and software company founded in 1985 by Steve Jobs, based
in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of
computer workstations intended for the higher education and business
markets. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs,
after he was ousted at Apple, along with several co-workers. NeXT
introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTstation in
1990. The NeXT computers experienced relatively limited sales, with
estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. Nevertheless, their
innovative object-oriented NeXTSTEP operating system and development
environment were highly influential.
NeXT later released much of the NeXTSTEP system as a programming
environment standard called OpenStep. NeXT withdrew from the hardware
business in 1993 to concentrate on marketing OPENSTEP for Mach, its own
OpenStep implementation, for several OEMs. NeXT also developed WebObjects,
one of the first enterprise Web application frameworks. WebObjects never
became very popular because of its initial high price of $50,000, but it
remains a prominent early example of a Web server based on dynamic page
generation rather than on static content.
Apple purchased NeXT in 1997 for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of
Apple stock. As part of the agreement, Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO of NeXT
Software, returned to Apple, the company he had co-founded in 1976. The
founder promised to merge software from NeXT with Apple's hardware
platforms, eventually resulting in macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS. Parts of
these operating systems incorporated the OPENSTEP foundation'.
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