A to Z Challenge: Q is for Quiet!

 Quiet!  The rule with kittens, after i finally get them all fed and asleep is: You wake 'em, you take 'em!

snoozing with "Woofie"

brother and sister snuggles

it's exhausting being a kitten!

Today is

American Family Pet Expo -- Costa Mesa, CA, US (includes displays on any type of domesticated pet you can imagine; through Sunday)

Anniversary of the Election of Benedict XVI -- Holy See (Vatican City)

Bendideia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival for Bendis; date approximate)
    
DNA Day -- a day for teachers, students, and everyone to learn more about genetics and genomics
sponsored by genome.gov and the Smithsonian

Dogwood Festival -- Atlanta, GA, US (fine art, and beautiful trees; through Sunday)

Dutch-American Friendship Day -- anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the US, America's oldest continuously peaceful diplomatic relations

Feria Nacional de San Marcos -- Palenque, Mexico (through the May 12; feast of San Marcos, with rodeos, bull fights, folk dancing, parades, mariachi and muchos mas)

Gio to Hung Vuong Day -- Vietnam (National Day; celebrating the founding of the nation by Emperor Hung Vuong some three millenia ago)

Independence Declaration Day -- Venezuela

John Parker Day -- many US States (anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, where parker said “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon; but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”)

King Mswati III's birthday -- Swaziland

Lozenge Competition -- Fairy Calendar (no, i don't know what they do with the lozenges that makes it a competition)

Main Street BBQ & Bluesfest -- Washington, MO, US (professional BBQ competition, plus music and fun; through tomorrow)

National Amaretto Day

National Garlic Day

National Hanging Out Day -- Project Laundry List and other organizations promote bringing back the clothesline to save energy and the planet!

National Health Day -- Kiribati

Oklahoma City Bombing Commemoration Day

Okoshi Daiko Festival -- Furukawa, Japan (today, hundreds of men in loincloths fight to touch a wooden frame supporting a huge taiko drum as it is carried through the streets, and tomorrow is an elegant parade with lion dancers and traditional music)

Primrose Day -- UK (anniversary of the death of Disraeli)

Ram Navami -- regions of India and Nepal (Hindu celebration of the birth of Lord Rama) also
     Swaminarayan Jayanti -- birth of Lord Swaminarayan for followers of the Swaminarayan tradition

Spinach Festival -- Alma, AR, US (celebrating one of my favorite greens with music, food, crafts, carnival and more; through tomorrow)

St. AElfheah's Day (Patron of kidnap victims; Greenwich and Solihull, England)

St. Expeditus of Melintine's Day (Patron of merchants, navigators; for expeditious and prompt solutions; against procrastination)

St. Leo IX's Day



Anniversaries Today:

Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by Proxy Marriage, 1770
Cheyney University is founded as The Institute for Colored Youth, 1837
Grace Kelly marries Ranier III of Monaco, 1956


Birthdays Today:

Maria Sharapova, 1987
Hayden Christensen, 1981
Kate Hudson, 1979
Luis Miguel Basteri, 1970
Ashley Judd, 1968
Al Unser, Jr., 1962
Paloma Picasso, 1949
Tim Curry, 1946
Dudley Moore, 1935
Jayne Mansfield, 1933
Dick Sargent, 1930
Hugh O'Brian, 1925
Eliot Ness, 1903


Today in History:

Sir Francis Drake sails to Cadiz and sinks the Spanish Fleet, 1587
Because he has no male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, assuring Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would go to his daughter, Maria Theresa, 1713
Captain James Cook sights Australia, 1770
John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States, and his home in The Hague becomes the first American Embassy, 1782
Venezuela achieves home rule, 1810
The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and Luxembourg as a Grand Duchy, 1839
Charles Duryea claims to have taken the first automobile built in the US for a spin, 1892
The first Boston Marathon is won by John McDermott of NY in 2:55:10, 1897
Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute  jump, 1919
The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published, 1928
Burma (now Myanmar) joins the United Nations, 1948
The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders, 1961
Sierra Leone becomes a republic, 1971
India's first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched, 1975
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168, 1995
The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1945, 1999
His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Benedict XVI, 2005
Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years, 2011