True Dat!

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

Today is:

Different Colored Eyes Day -- people with heterochromia, celebrate!

Etch-a-Sketch Day -- the toy was first manufactured on this day in 1960, timed to hit toy shelves for Christmas that year

Independence Day -- Kiribati(1979; a/k/a National Day); Sao Tome & Principe(1975)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate, a festival for Kronos, part of which included masters and slaves switching places for a meal)

National Pecan Pie Day

Orangemen's Day (a/k/a Twelfth Day) -- Northern Ireland (Battle of the Boyne commemoration)

Rainmaker Day -- Salem, Oregon (while it is understood that in Salem, you are more likely to rust than sunburn, from 1892 until 2006, no measurable rain fell on this date in this normally wet city)

Simplicity Day -- sponsored by www.doonething.org on Thoreau's birthday, highlighting the concepts in the book Voluntary Simplicty by Duane Elgin, and advocating finding sustainable ways to live

Sinclair Lewis Days -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (a grand celebration in Lewis's hometown; through the 19th)

St. John Gualbert's Day (Patron of foresters and forest workers, park services and parks)

St. Veronica's Day (Patron of laundry workers and photographers)

Worshipful Company of Vintners (Winemakers) of the City of London Annual Procession

Wyandotte Street Art Fair -- Downtown Wyandotte, MI, US (over 250 seasoned and emerging artists display and sell their wares, with music and entertainment; through Saturday)

Anniversaries Today

Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, 1543 (the lucky wife who outlived him)

Birthdays Today

Erik Per Sullivan, 1991

Michelle Rodriguez, 1978

Brock Lesnar, 1977

Anna Friel, 1976

Kristi Yamaguchi, 1971

Lisa Nicole Carson, 1969

Rolonda Watts, 1959

Mel Harris, 1957

Paul Guilfoyle, 1955

Cheryl Ladd, 1951

Jamey Sheridan, 1951

Richard Simmons, 1948

Denise Nicholas, 1945

Christine McVie, 1943

Bill Cosby, 1937

Van Cliburn, 1934

Andrew Wyeth, 1917

Curly Joe DeRita, 1909

Milton Berle, 1908

Pablo Neruda, 1904

R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895

Oscar Hammerstein II, 1895

George Washington Carver, 1861

George Ohr, 1857

George Eastman, 1854

Henry David Thoreau, 1817

Josiah Wedgwood, 1730

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Northern Exposure"(TV), 1990

"Family Feud"(TV), 1976

"Evening At Pops"(TV), 1970

"The Adventures of Sam Spade"(Radio), 1946

"Baseball's Sad Lexicon (Tinker to Evers to Chance)"(Publication date), 1910

Today in History

England is unified by Athelstan of England, 927

Saladin's garrison surrenders to Conrad of Montferrat, ending the two-year siege of Acre, 1191

Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya, 1562

Ostrog Bible, the first printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published, 1580

The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario, 1812

The Commonwealth Franchise Act, granting women's suffrage in Australia, is given royal assent and takes effect, 1902

Pune, India floods due to failure of Khadakvasala and Panshet dams; half of the city is submerged and the death toll exceeded 2000, 1961

A fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States, 1973

Boris Yeltsin quits the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1990

Israel invades Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, 2006

A ticket holder in Britain wins the largest EuroMillions jackpot in history, 161,653,000GBP, 2011

The Rolling Stones, English rock band, celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its first performance at the Marquee Club in Oxford Street, London, 2012