Aww Monday

The latest foster kitten is doing well so far, for one born so out of season.  In other good news, the mother and father cats have both been fixed, at the special spay/neuter day held once a month, so there won't be any more to follow!

He's eating well, every couple of hours.

For some reason, the children want to name him (we are pretty sure it's a him) Lorax.  This despite the fact, as Bigger Girl keeps pointing out, he doesn't look like a fuzzy Cheeto with a mustache.





Today is:

Auckland Province Anniversary -- Auckland, New Zealand

Australia Day -- obs.

Big Snow Day -- remembering the 15 inch snowflakes that fell on in Fort Keough, Montana, in 1887

Bubble Wrap® Appreciation Day

Chocolate Cake Day

Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism -- Germany (anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz)

Day the Netjers of Heaven Receive Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Elementary School Teacher Day

Family Literacy Day -- Canada

Festival au Desert -- various locations in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger (the final installment of most remote music festival in the world, with lots of African music and traditions, and ending in the Great Night For Peace; through Feb. 6)

International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

Iroquois Mid-Winter Ceremony -- Iroquois Native Americans (for the continuation of all life-sustaining things; a multi-day ceremony and feast that begins around this time of year)

Listen to Classical Music During Lunch Day -- in honor of Mozart

Luanda City Day -- Luanda City, Angola

Mozart Day

National Cowboy Poetry Gathering -- Elko, NV, US (the nation's greatest celebration of the American West, with working cowboys, this year including butteri from Italy, attend workshops, jam sessions, performances, and enjoy art and exhibits; through Saturday)

National Heroes' Day -- Cayman Islands

Punch the Clock Day -- internet generated, and no reason for it given; this has to be one of the more baffling ones

St. Angela Merici's Day (Founder of the Sisters of the Order of St. Ursula; Patron of the disabled and ill; against bodily ills and the death of parents)

St. Devota's Day (Patron of Corsica; Monaco)

Thomas Crapper Day -- death date, in 1910, of the perfector of the flush toilet mechanism


Anniversaries Today:

Founding of the National Geographic Society, 1888
The first sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is founded at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, 1870
The University of Georgia is chartered, the first state university in the US, 1785


Birthdays Today:

Julie Foudy, 1971
Jennifer LB Leese, 1970
Patton Oswalt, 1969
Alan Cumming, 1965
Bridget Fonda,1964
Cris Collinsworth, 1959
Mimi Rogers, 1956
Mikhail Baryshnikov, 1948
Nick Mason, 1944
Mairead Corrigan, 1944
James Cromwell, 1942
Troy Donahue, 1936
Donna Reed, 1921
David Seville, 1919
Skitch Henderson, 1918
Hyman George Rickover, 1900
Jerome Kern, 1885
Samuel Gompers, 1850
Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), 1832
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Laverne and Shirley"(TV), 1976
"Tarzan of the Apes"(Film), 1918


Today in History:

Trajan becomes Roman Emperor, 98
The Rashidun Caliphate ends with the death of Ali, 661
Song Dynasty General Yue Fei is wrongfully executed, 1142
Dante Alighieri becomes a Florentine political exile, 1302
The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31, 1606
The first American lime kiln begins operation in Providence, Rhode Island, 1662
Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Instanbul, 1695
Czar Peter the Great sets the first Russian state budget, 1710
Abdication of Stanislas, the last king of Poland, 1736
The US Congress approves the opening of Indian Territory for settlement, which led to the forced relocation of Native Americans on the "Trail of Tears," 1825
Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are incorporated, 1870
Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the electric incandescent lamp, 1880
The National Geographic Society is organized, in Washington, D.C., 1888
"Tarzan of the Apes," the first Tarzan movie, premiers, 1918
Apollo 1 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, 1967
More than sixty nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space, 1967
Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian caper, 1980
The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, breaks through, 1983
American-born sumo wrestler Akebono Taro becomes the first foreigner to be promoted to the sport's highest rank of yokozuna, 1993
Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 1996
Western Union discontinues its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services, 2006