Gratitude Week -- Thursday

It's Thanksgiving Day in the US, and i'm grateful that, as a country, we still see the importance in being thankful for all we have.

So often, we forget. We need the reminder.

Even if the Grinches (retail establishments) have been trying to skim us past it and into a "gimme" season.

No matter what i get or don't get in the future, i'm thankful for my many blessings, especially the whole family being together for the first time in a few years.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today.

For those who aren't, follows the usual slew of other fun and funny things to celebrate from around the world.


Today is:

Brumalia -- Byzantine Empire celebration of Dyonisus and New Wine Festival; until the solstice

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day

Celtic Tree Month Ruish (Elder) begins

D.B. Cooper Day

Discovery Day -- Tasmania

Evolution Day -- On the Origin of Species published this day in 1859

Feast of the Martyrs of Vietnam -- Roman Catholic Church

Guru Tegh Bahadur Martyrdom - Sikh

Hopi and Zuni Shalako Festival -- Hopi and Zuni Native Americans (through Dec. 7; welcoming back the Kachinas and Kokos -- Spirits of Nature and ancestors)

Lachit Divas -- Assam, India

National Sardines Day -- wonder how this would go over next to the turkey today?

Persephone Day (a/k/a Kore -- Ancient Greek Calendar (celebration of her as goddess of the underworld; date approximate)

St. Joachim Ho's Day -- a Martyr of China

St. Mary of Cordoba's Day (Patron of martyrs)

Teacher's Day -- Turkey

Thanksgiving Day -- US, Interfaith

Third Bash of the Tree-Toppers -- Fairy Calendar (fairy creatures who don't believe in "one" or "two", so start counting at three)

Turkey-Free Thanksgiving -- sponsored by the Vegetarian Awareness Network

Use Even If Seal is Broken Day -- internet generated; observe at your own risk, always!


Birthdays Today:

Katherine Heigl, 1978
William F. Buckley, Jr., 1925
Charles "Lucky" Luciano, 1897
Dale Carnegie, 1888
Scott Joplin, 1868
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864
Bat Masterson, 1853
Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1849
Bram Stoker, 1847
Zachary Taylor, 1784
Charles Theodore Pachelbel, 1690


Today in History:

Theodosius I makes his formal entry into Constantinople, 380
Rabbi Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome completes his Talmudic dictionary, 1105
The Thames River freezes, 1434
First observation of transit of Venus occurred (only 2, record event), 1639
Abel Janzoon Tasman becomes the first European to see Van Damien's Land, later renamed Tasmania, 1642
First Lutheran pastor ordained in America, Justus Falckner at Philadelphia, 1703
Mt. Vesuvius erupts, 1759
Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species", 1859
Luik-Visé-Maastricht railway opens, 1861
Joseph F Glidden patents his improved barbed wire, 1874
The first US absentee voting law enacted by Vermont, 1896
Clyde Coleman of NYC patents automobile electric starter, 1903
Radio Belgium makes its first transmission, 1923
The first woman pilot on a transcontinental air flight, Miss Ruth Nichols (Mineola, NY to Calif), in a Lockheed-Vega, took 7 days, 1930
In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens, 1932
Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered by Jack Ruby, 1963
During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again, 1971
A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany due to the 1973 oil crisis; it lasts only four months, 1973
The communist party resigns in Czechoslovakia, 1989
By a margin of only 50.28% t 49.72%, Ireland votes to end the 70 year old ban on divorce, 1995