<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National French Fried Shrimp Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Shrimp and prawn as food):
'Shrimp and prawn are important types of seafood that are consumed
worldwide. Although shrimp and prawns belong to different suborders of
Decapoda, they are very similar in appearance and the terms are often used
interchangeably in commercial farming and wild fisheries. A distinction is
drawn in recent aquaculture literature, which increasingly uses the term
prawn only for the freshwater forms of palaemonids and shrimp for the
marine penaeids.
In the United Kingdom, the word prawn is more common on menus than shrimp
the opposite is the case in North America. The term prawn is also loosely
used to describe any large shrimp, especially those that come 15 (or fewer)
to the pound (such as king prawns, yet sometimes known as jumbo shrimp).
Australia and some other Commonwealth nations follow this British usage to
an even greater extent, using the word prawn almost exclusively. When
Australian comedian Paul Hogan used the phrase, I'll slip an extra shrimp
on the barbie for you in an American television advertisement, it was
intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to
understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian
would typically say. In Britain very small crustaceans with a brownish
shell are called shrimp, and are used to make potted shrimps. They are also
used in dishes where they are not the primary ingredient.
Shrimp and other shellfish are among the most common food allergens. The
Jewish laws of Kashrut forbid the eating of shrimp. According to the King
James version of the Old Testament, it is acceptable to eat finfish, but
shrimp are an abomination and should not be eaten. In Islam, the Shafi'i,
Maliki, Hanbali and Ja'fari schools allow the eating of shrimp, while the
Hanafi school does not allow it.
As with other seafood, shrimp is high in calcium, iodine and protein but
low in food energy. A shrimp-based meal is also a significant source of
cholesterol, from 122 mg to 251 mg per 100 g of shrimp, depending on the
method of preparation. Shrimp consumption, however, is considered healthy
for the circulatory system because the lack of significant levels of
saturated fat in shrimp means that the high cholesterol content in shrimp
actually improves the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol and lowers
triglycerides.
Shrimp are high in levels of omega-3s (generally beneficial) and low in
levels of mercury (generally toxic), with an FDA study in 2010 showing a
level of 0.001 parts per million, analysing only methylmercury'.
[The Hankster says] My favorite way to eat them. Second, sauteed with garlic butter.
* 'National Kiwifruit Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Kiwifruit):
'Kiwifruit (often shortened to kiwi) or Chinese gooseberry is the name
given to the edible berries of several species of woody vines in the genus
Actinidia. The most common cultivar group of kiwifruit ('Hayward') is oval,
about the size of a large hen's egg (5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) in length and
4.5–5.5 cm (1.8–2.2 in) in diameter). It has a fibrous, dull greenish-brown
skin and bright green or golden flesh with rows of tiny, black, edible
seeds. The fruit has a soft texture and a sweet but unique flavor. It is a
commercial crop in several countries, such as Italy, New Zealand, Chile,
Greece, and France.
Early varieties were described in a 1904 nurseryman's catalogue as having
..edible fruits the size of walnuts, and the flavour of ripe
gooseberries... and Europeans called it the Chinese gooseberry.
In 1962, New Zealand growers began calling it kiwifruit when exporting the
name becoming commercially adopted in 1974. The word kiwifruit and
shortened kiwi has been used since around 1966 when the fruit was first
imported from New Zealand to the United States.
Kiwifruit has since become a common name for all commercially grown fruit
from the genus Actinidia.
In New Zealand, the shortened word kiwi is seldom used to refer to the
fruit, as it usually refers to the kiwi bird or the Kiwi people.
Kiwifruit is native to north-central and eastern China. Cultivation of the
fuzzy kiwifruit spread from China in the early 20th century to New Zealand,
where the first commercial plantings occurred. Although kiwifruit is a
national fruit of China, until recently, China was not a major producing
country of kiwifruit, as it was traditionally collected from the wild. The
fruit became popular with American servicemen stationed in New Zealand
during World War II and later exported to California using the names
Chinese gooseberry and melonette In 1962, New Zealand growers began calling
it kiwifruit to give it more market appeal, and a California-based importer
subsequently used that name when introducing the fruit to the American
market.
A medium size kiwifruit (76 grams) provides 46 calories, 0.3 g fat, 1 g
protein, 11 g carbohydrates, and 2.6 g dietary fiber found partly in the
edible skin. Kiwifruit is a rich source of vitamin C (112% of the Daily
Value per 100 grams) and vitamin K, and a good source of dietary fiber and
vitamin E.
Kiwifruit seed oil contains on average 62% alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3
fatty acid. Kiwifruit pulp contains carotenoids, such as provitamin A
beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin'.
[The Hankster says] Strange choice for the winter. Besides the fact that it is summer in N.Z., we have the idea of the Poinsettia (a subtropical flower ) as a Christmas plant to deal with. Give it up and enjoy.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Winter solstice'.
- From Wikipedia (Winter solstice):
'Winter solstice (or hibernal solstice) is an astronomical phenomenon
marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern
Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere
this is the June solstice.
The axial tilt of Earth and gyroscopic effects of its daily rotation mean
that the two opposite points in the sky to which the Earth's axis of
rotation points (axial precession) change very slowly (making a complete
circle approximately every 26,000 years). As the Earth follows its orbit
around the Sun, the polar hemisphere that faced away from the Sun,
experiencing winter, will, in half a year, face towards the Sun and
experience summer. This is because the two hemispheres face opposite
directions along Earth's axis, and so as one polar hemisphere experiences
winter, the other experiences summer. The winter solstice is considered by
some to mark the end of autumn and the start of winter.
More evident from high latitudes, a hemisphere's winter solstice occurs on
the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun's daily
maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest. The winter solstice itself
lasts only a moment in time, so other terms are used for the day on which
it occurs, such as midwinter, or the shortest day It is often considered
the extreme of winter (Dongzhi in the Chinese calendar). In meteorology,
winter in the Northern Hemisphere spans the entire period of December
through February. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in
the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days.
The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates differ from winter solstice,
however, and these depend on latitude, due to the variation in the solar
day throughout the year caused by the Earth's elliptical orbit.
Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied across cultures, but many
have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals,
gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time'.
[The Hankster says] I'm ready for it.
* 'National Flashlight Day'.
[The Hankster says] On the longest night of the year.
* 'National Haiku Poetry Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Haiku):
'Haiku (plural haiku) is a very short form of Japanese poetry. It is
typically characterised by three qualities:
The essence of haiku is cutting (kiru). This is often represented by the
juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji (cutting word) between
them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of
separation and colours the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are
related.
Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae though often
loosely translated as syllables), in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on
respectively.
A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive but
defined list of such words.
Modern Japanese haiku are increasingly unlikely to follow the tradition of
17 on or to take nature as their subject, but the use of juxtaposition
continues to be honored in both traditional and modern haiku. There is a
common, although relatively recent, perception that the images juxtaposed
must be directly observed everyday objects or occurrences.
In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line
while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the three
phrases of Japanese haiku.
Previously called hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese
writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century'.
[The Hankster says] Not even going to try a verse. Your welcome.
* 'Yule'.
- From Wikipedia (Yule):
'Yule or Yuletide (Yule time) is a festival observed by the historical
Germanic peoples, later undergoing Christianised reformulation resulting in
the now better-known Christmastide. Scholars have connected the celebration
to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Modraniht.
Terms with an etymological equivalent to Yule are used in the Nordic
countries for Christmas with its religious rites, but also for the holidays
of this season. Today Yule is also used to a lesser extent in
English-speaking as a synonym for Christmas. Present day Christmas customs
such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem
from pagan Yule. Today the event is celebrated in Heathenry and some other
forms of Modern Paganism.
* 'Forefathers Day'.
Celebrated mostly in New England from 1769. Actual celebration day may be
the 22nd. Commemorates the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620. See more in the history section.
* 'Celebrate Short Fiction Day'.
On the longest night of the year, a book is a good thing.
- From Wikipedia (Short story):
'A short story is a piece of prose fiction that can be read in one sitting.
Emerging from earlier oral storytelling traditions in the 17th century, the
short story has grown to encompass a body of work so diverse as to defy
easy characterization. At its most prototypical the short story features a
small cast of named characters, and focuses on a self-contained incident
with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. In doing so, short
stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components to a far
greater degree than is typical of an anecdote, yet to a far lesser degree
than a novel. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel,
authors of both generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques.
Short stories have no set length. In terms of word count there is no
official demarcation between an anecdote, a short story, and a novel.
Rather, the form's parameters are given by the rhetorical and practical
context in which a given story is produced and considered, so that what
constitutes a short story may differ between genres, countries, eras, and
commentators. Like the novel, the short story's predominant shape reflects
the demands of the available markets for publication, and the evolution of
the form seems closely tied to the evolution of the publishing industry and
the submission guidelines of its constituent houses.
The short story has been considered both an apprenticeship form preceding
more lengthy works, and a crafted form in its own right, collected together
in books of similar length, price, and distribution as novels. Short story
writers may define their works as part of the artistic and personal
expression of the form. They may also attempt to resist categorization by
genre and fixed formation'.
[The Hankster says] I wonder why it is not a novel on the longest night?
* 'Look on the Bright Side Day'.
[The Hankster says] A day to look on the bright side, before Winter is upon us.
* 'Crossword Puzzle Day'.
The first published was created by a journalist, Arthur Wynne, from
Liverpool, England on December 21, 1913. See more in the history section
for 1913.
[The Hankster says] I've tried them before. I always make a mess of them. I have words running up and down and sideways with many gaps. Ugh.
* 'International Dalek Remembrance Day'.
Celebrates their frist appearance on Dr. Who on December 21 1963. From
Wikipedia 'The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants
principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme
Doctor Who. The Daleks were conceived by science-fiction writer Terry
Nation and first appeared in the 1963 Doctor Who serial The Daleks, in the
shells designed by Raymond Cusick'.
[The Hankster says] Yes, I admit I am a Dr. Who fan from way back,, and I am not afraid of any space invader who cannot climb stairs.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Other:
* 'National Homeless Persons Memorial/Remembrance'. Same day as the longest
night of the year.
- From Wikipedia (National Coalition for the Homeless):
'The National Coalition for the Homeless is a national network of people
who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness,
activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers,
and others committed to a single mission. That mission is to end
homelessness.
The roots of NCH began in 1981 when the founder, Robert Hayes, filed a
lawsuit on behalf of a man experiencing homelessness in New York City. The
lawsuit was settled out of court, and people experiencing homelessness won
the right to shelter in New York City. The Coalition for the Homeless in
New York City formed as one of the early community-based coalitions. With
the development of other local and statewide homeless coalitions, the
National Coalition for the Homeless was formed in 1982 and incorporated in
1984, and was recognized as a tax-exempt, not for profit organization under
the 501(c) (3) internal revenue code in 1988.
Since the establishment of NCH, many other cities in the United States have
created organizations which are members of the network, such as Chicago,
San Francisco, Seattle and Houston. There are also statewide coalitions,
like those in Massachusetts and Colorado, and organizations focusing on the
region. The local factions of Coalition for the Homeless often rely on
volunteers to help with the programs assisting those who are homeless and
at risk of being homeless.
NCH is committed to creating the systemic and attitudinal changes necessary
to prevent and end homelessness. Simultaneously, NCH works to meet the
immediate needs of people who are currently experiencing homelessness or
who are at risk of doing so. One of the guiding principles of NCH is to
include people experiencing homelessness in all aspects of its work. NCH
works to empower communities and those experiencing homelessness to
advocate for positive change, while acting as a national voice for these
local advocates. NCH's focus is on advocacy work in four policy areas:
affordable housing, comprehensive health care, livable incomes, and the
preservation of civil rights. To achieve these goals, NCH utilizes six
major strategies: policy advocacy, litigation, public education, community
organization, research, and technical assistance.
NCH projects include: National Homeless Persons Memorial Day (since 1990 on
December 21 each year, the longest night of the year) in an effort to honor
all the men, women and children who have died while homeless, Hate Crimes
and Violence on Main Street USA reports, Criminalization of Homelessness
reports, Co-sponsors National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the
week before Thanksgiving. There are also local projects which seek to make
the issue of homelessness more visible to the public, such as the One Night
Count, conducted by the Coalition of the Homeless in the Seattle area'.
<> Historical events on December 21
* 'In 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now
known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. .
- From Wikipedia: 'On December 21, 1620, the first landing party arrived at
the site of what later became the settlement of Plymouth. Plans to
immediately begin building houses, however, were delayed by inclement
weather until December 23. As the building progressed, twenty men always
remained ashore for security purposes, while the rest of the work crews
returned each night to the Mayflower. Women, children, and the infirm
remained on board the Mayflower many had not left the ship for six months.
The first structure was a common house of wattle and daub, and took two
weeks to complete in the harsh New England winter. In the following weeks,
the rest of the settlement slowly took shape. The living and working
structures were built on the relatively flat top of Cole's Hill, and a
wooden platform was constructed atop nearby Fort Hill to support the cannon
that would defend the settlement.
During the winter, the Mayflower colonists suffered greatly from lack of
shelter, diseases such as scurvy, and general conditions onboard ship. Many
of the able-bodied men were too infirm to work 45 out of 102 immigrants
died and were buried on Cole's Hill. Thus, only seven residences (of a
planned nineteen) and four common houses were constructed during the first
winter. By the end of January, enough of the settlement had been built to
begin unloading provisions from the Mayflower. In mid-February, after
several tense encounters with local Native Americans, the male residents of
the settlement organized themselves into military orders Myles Standish was
designated as the commanding officer. By the end of the month, five cannons
had been defensively positioned on Fort Hill. John Carver was elected
governor to replace Governor Martin.
On March 16, 1621, the first formal contact occurred with the Indians (or
Native Americans). A Native American named Samoset, originally from
Pemaquid Point in modern Maine, walked boldly into the midst of the
settlement and proclaimed, Welcome, Englishmen! He had learned some English
from interacting with English fishermen and trappers (most probably from
Bristol) operating in the region. It was during this meeting that the
Pilgrims learned how the previous residents of the Native American village
of Patuxet had died of an epidemic thought to be smallpox. They also
discovered that the supreme leader of the region was a Wampanoag Native
American sachem (chief) by the name of Massasoit and they learned of the
existence of Squanto (also known by his full Massachusett name of
Tisquantum), a Native American originally from Patuxet. Squanto had spent
time in Europe and spoke English quite well. Samoset spent the night in
Plymouth and agreed to arrange a meeting with some of Massasoit's men.
Massasoit and Squanto were apprehensive about the Pilgrims. In Massasoit's
first contact with the English, several men of his tribe had been killed in
an unprovoked attack by English sailors. He also knew of the Pilgrims'
theft of the corn stores in their landings at Provincetown. Squanto had
been abducted in 1614 by English explorer Thomas Hunt and had spent five
years in Europe, first as a slave for a group of Spanish monks, then in
England. He had returned to New England in 1619, acting as a guide to
explorer Capt. Robert Gorges. Massasoit and his men had massacred the crew
of the ship and had taken in Squanto.
Samoset returned to Plymouth on March 22 with a delegation from Massasoit
that included Squanto Massasoit joined them shortly thereafter. After an
exchange of gifts, Massasoit and Governor Carver established a formal
treaty of peace. This treaty ensured that each people would not bring harm
to the other, that Massasoit would send his allies to make peaceful
negotiations with Plymouth, and that they would come to each other's aid in
a time of war.
On April 5, 1621, after being anchored for almost four months in Plymouth
Harbor, the Mayflower set sail for England. Nearly half of the original 102
passengers had died during the first winter. As William Bradford wrote, of
these one hundred persons who came over in this first ship together, the
greatest half died in the general mortality, and most of them in two or
three months' time By November 1621, only 53 pilgrims were alive to
celebrate the harvest feast which modern Americans know as The First
Thanksgiving Of the 18 adult women, 13 died the first winter while another
died in May. Only four adult women were left alive for the Thanksgiving.
Several of the graves on Cole's Hill were uncovered in 1855 their bodies
were disinterred and moved to a site near Plymouth Rock'.
* 'In 1898, Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Radium was discovered by Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her
husband Pierre Curie on 21 December 1898, in a uraninite sample. While
studying the mineral earlier, the Curies removed uranium from it and found
that the remaining material was still radioactive. They separated out an
element similar to bismuth from pitchblende in July 1898, that turned out
to be polonium. They then separated out a radioactive mixture consisting
mostly of two components: compounds of barium, which gave a brilliant green
flame color, and unknown radioactive compounds which gave carmine spectral
lines that had never been documented before. The Curies found the
radioactive compounds to be very similar to the barium compounds, except
that they were more insoluble. This made it possible for the Curies to
separate out the radioactive compounds and discover a new element in them.
The Curies announced their discovery to the French Academy of Sciences on
26 December 1898. The naming of radium dates to about 1899, from the French
word radium, formed in Modern Latin from radius (ray): this was in
recognition of radium's power of emitting energy in the form of rays.
In 1910, radium was isolated as a pure metal by Marie Curie and André-Louis
Debierne through the electrolysis of a pure radium chloride (RaCl2)
solution using a mercury cathode, producing a radium–mercury amalgam. This
amalgam was then heated in an atmosphere of hydrogen gas to remove the
mercury, leaving pure radium metal. The same year, E. Eoler isolated radium
by thermal decomposition of its azide, Ra(N3)2. Radium metal was first
industrially produced in the beginning of the 20th century by Biraco, a
subsidiary company of Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) in its Olen
plant in Belgium.
The common historical unit for radioactivity, the curie, is based on the
radioactivity of 226Ra'.
* 'In 1913, The first crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) was printed in the
New York World. .
- From Wikipedia: The title for the world's first crossword puzzle is
disputed. Some such puzzles were included in The Stockton Bee (1793–1795),
an ephemeral publication. The phrase cross word puzzle was first written in
1862 by Our Young Folks in the United States. Crossword-like puzzles, for
example Double Diamond Puzzles, appeared in the magazine St. Nicholas,
published since 1873. Another crossword puzzle appeared on September 14,
1890, in the Italian magazine Il Secolo Illustrato della Domenica. It was
designed by Giuseppe Airoldi and titled Per passare il tempo (To pass the
time). Airoldi's puzzle was a four-by-four grid with no shaded squares it
included horizontal and vertical clues.
Crosswords in England during the 19th century were of an elementary kind,
apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the
letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's
puzzle books and various periodicals.
'A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or a
rectangular grid of white and black shaded squares. The goal is to fill the
white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues
which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the
answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from
top to bottom. The shaded squares are used to separate the words or
phrases.
On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool, England,
published a word-cross puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of
the features of the genre as we know it. This puzzle is frequently cited as
the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. Later, the name of
the puzzle was changed to crossword
Although Eugene T. Maleska is usually credited with the first crossword
phrase (as opposed to a single word) in the New York Times, an 1862 puzzle
in the Lady's Book had phrases that are considered modern such as the
expression I did it'.
* 'In 1914, The first feature-length silent film comedy, 'Tillie's
Punctured Romance' was released. (Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles
Chaplin. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent
comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel
Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture was the first
feature-length motion picture produced by the Keystone Film Company, and is
the only one featuring Chaplin.
The film is based on Dressler's stage play Tillie's Nightmare by A. Baldwin
Sloane and Edgar Smith. Tillie's Punctured Romance is notable for being the
last Chaplin film which he neither wrote nor directed, as well as the first
feature-length comedy in all of cinema. In it, Chaplin plays an entirely
different role from his Tramp character, which was relatively new at the
time'.
* 'In 1937, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' is released. It is the first
feature length animated film. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American
animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and
originally released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the German fairy tale
by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length cel animated feature
film and the earliest Disney animated feature film. The story was adapted
by storyboard artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris,
Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. David
Hand was the supervising director, while William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson,
Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen directed the film's
individual sequences.
Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937,
followed by a nationwide release on February 4, 1938. It was a critical and
commercial success, and with international earnings of $8 million during
its initial release briefly assumed the record of highest- grossing sound
film at the time. The popularity of the film has led to it being
re-released theatrically many times, until its home video release in the
1990s. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top ten performers at the
North American box office.
At the 11th Academy Awards, Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar, and
the film was nominated for Best Musical Score the year before. In 1989, the
United States Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically,
or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the
National Film Registry and is ranked in the American Film Institute's list
of the 100 greatest American films, who also named the film as the greatest
American animated film of all time in 2008. Disney's take on the fairytale
has had a huge cultural impact, resulting in popular theme park
attractions, a video game, and a Broadway musical'.
* 'In 1968, Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its
crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by
humans. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Apollo 8, the second human spaceflight mission in the
United States Apollo space program, was launched on December 21, 1968, and
became the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Earth's
Moon, orbit it and return safely to Earth. The three-astronaut crew —
Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module
Pilot William Anders — became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth
orbit, the first to see Earth as a whole planet, the first to directly see
the far side of the Moon, and then the first to witness Earthrise. The 1968
mission, the third flight of the Saturn V rocket and that rocket's first
manned launch, was also the first human spaceflight launch from the Kennedy
Space Center, Florida, located adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station.
The mission was originally planned as Apollo 9, to be performed in early
1969 as the second test of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the
Lunar Module and the Command/Service Module in an elliptical medium Earth
orbit. But when the Lunar Module proved unready to make its first test in a
lower Earth orbit in December 1968, it was decided in August to fly Apollo
8 in December as a more ambitious lunar orbital flight without the Lunar
Module. This meant Borman's crew was scheduled to fly two to three months
sooner than originally planned, leaving them a shorter time for training
and preparation, thus placing more demands than usual on their time and
discipline.
Apollo 8 took three days to travel to the Moon. It orbited ten times over
the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve
television broadcast where they read the first 10 verses from the Book of
Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever.
Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S.
President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the
end of the 1960s. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27,
1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the Northern Pacific Ocean.
The crew was named Time magazine's Men of the Year for 1968 upon their
return'.
* 'In 1974, Harry Chapin earns a #1 hit with, Cat's In The Cradle. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Cat's in the Cradle is a 1974 folk rock song by Harry
Chapin from the album Verities and Balderdash. The single topped the
Billboard Hot 100 in December 1974. As Chapin's only No. 1 hit song, it
became the best known of his work and a staple for folk rock music.
Chapin's recording of the song was nominated for the 1975 Grammy Award for
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of
Fame in 2011'.
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