Make it a Month

It is the start of the second half of the year. In addition to the usual holidays and events for today, this month is considered:


Bereaved Parents Awareness Month
Bioterrorism/Disaster Education and Awareness Month
Cell Phone Courtesy Month
Eggplant and Lettuce Month
Family Reunion Month
Family Golf Month
Freedom From Fear of Speaking Month
Hay Month
Herbal/Prescription Interaction Awareness Month
Hemchromatosis Screening Month
International Blondie and Deborah Harry Month
International Group B Strep Awareness Month
International Women with Alopecia Month
International Zine Month
Mango and Melon Month
National Black Bean Month
National Black Family Month
National Blueberries Month
National Child-Centered Divorce Month
National "Doghouse Repairs" Month
National Grilling Month
National Horseradish Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month
National Make a Difference to Children Month
National Recreation and Parks Month
National Share a Sunset With Your Lover Month
National Tennis Month
National Wheelchair Beautification Month
Nectarine and Garlic Month
Sandwhich Generation Mnth
Smart Irrigation Month
Social Wellness Month
Tahiti Awareness Month
Tour de France Month
Women's Motorcycle Month

So there is something this month for everyone, it seems. Enjoy the start of the second half of the year,


Today is

Canada Day -- Canada

Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day -- A great way to start off Ice Cream Month; try a new one and you just might find a new favorite.

Day to Celebrate All the World's Creatures -- among many Native American Tribes, commemorates the day in 1975 that endangered species became internationally protected.

Distressed Elves Day -- Fairy Calendar

Doctors' Day -- India

Emancipation Day -- Netherlands Antilles

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day -- Hong Kong

Independence Day -- Burundi(1962); Rwanda(1962)

Intact Day -- celebrating genital integrity, as far as possible from the Feast of the Circumcision on Jan. 1

International Day of Cooperatives -- U.N.

International Joke Day -- can't find out why today, but then again, why not?

International Tartan Day -- Australia; New Zealand

Iroquois Green Bean Ceremony -- thanksgiving for the bean harvest, through the 4th

July Morning -- Bulgaria (dates back to the '70s, young and old people hitchhike to the Black Sea in late June to greet the dawn of July 1 with Uriah Heep's hit song July Morning; began as a subtle anti-communist protest, now in memory of the fall of communism and to celebrate the start of summer vacation)

Keti Koti -- Suriname (Emancipation Day)

Madiera Day -- Madiera

Memorial Day -- Newfoundland and Labrador

Moving Day -- Quebec

National Boating Day

National Financial Freedom Day -- can't find how this one started, but it's as good a day as any to take a good look at your finances, and start learning how to better manage them.

National Gingersnap Day

National Tom Sawyer Days -- Hannibal, MO, US (through the 4th, complete with a fence painting contest!)

Old-Time Fiddlers' Jamboree and Crafts Festival -- Smithville, TN, US (through the 2nd, with 32 categories of old-time bluegrass music!)

Republic Day -- Ghana; Somalia

Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo -- Halifax, NS, Canada (through the 8th)

Sacred Heart of Jesus -- Roman Catholic Christian

Savolinna Opera Festival -- Savolinna, Finland (through the 27th)

Second Half of the Year Day

Sir Seretse Khama Day -- Botswana

St. Cosmas and Damien's Day

St. Serf of Culross' Day (patron of Orkneys)

Tokyo Summer Festival -- music fest through the city, for the whole month

U.S. Postage Stamp Day

Yukon Gold Panning Championships -- Dawson City, YT, Canada

Zip Code Day -- US (when you mail that letter, zip it up! no zip, slow trip; wrong zip, long trip)


Birthdays Today

Liv Tyler, 1977
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, 1976
Pamela Anderson, 1967
Princess Diana, 1961
Carl Lewis, 1961
Michelle Wright, 1961
Alan Ruck, 1956
Dan Aykroyd, 1952
Deborah Harry, 1945
Karen Black, 1942
Genevieve Bujold, 1942
Twyla Tharp, 1941
Jamie Farr, 1934
Jean Marsh, 1934
Leslie Caron, 1931
Farley Granger, 1925
Olivia DeHavilland, 1916
Estee Lauder, 1906
Charles Laughton, 1899
Ignaz Semmelweis, 1818


Today in History

Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor, 69
La Noche Triste: a joint Mexican Indian force led by the Aztec ruler Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadores led by Hernán Cortés, 1520
Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u., 1770
American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 1782
A system of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales, 1837
U.S. Postage stamps went on sale for the first time, 1847
In the first instance of photojournalism, a French photographer's daguerrotypes of Paris riots were turned into woodcuts so as to be published in the weekly newspaper L'Illustration Journal Universel on this date in 1848
Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands, 1863
The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada, 1867
The Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first US zoo, opens; admission twenty-five cents for adults and ten cents for children, 1874
The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States, 1881
SOS is adopted as the international distress signal, 1908
Grant Park Music Festival begins its tradition of free summer symphonic music concert series in Chicago's Grant Park, which continues as the United States' only annual free outdoor classical music concert series, 1935
NBC makes the first scheduled television broadcast, 1941
Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved; since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city), 1943
The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin Royal Family, 1949
Zip Codes are introduced for the U.S.mail, 1963
The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto, 1966
The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission, 1967
Sony introduces the Walkman, 1979
O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada, 1980
German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany, 1990
The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule, 1997
Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC, 2004