Friends (Awww Monday) and Sparks!

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

Last week while Buff was here, he and Dumpling made friends.

Size and species doesn't have to matter in friendship.

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The wonderful Annie of McGuffy's Reader is hosting Sparks, an inspirational and  positive thought for the week link-up, every Monday.  

"The negative energy in the world has become thick and oppressive. Social media has become a part of this dark, negative storm. There is an obvious universal need for more positive energy. And, we can all be part of this affirmative change." ~ McGuffy Ann Morris

My "Spark" for the day

Today is:

Boss's Day -- either celebrate, or roll your eyes, both are acceptable responses (begun by Patricia Bays Haroski in 1958 in honor of her boss, who was also her father; this date was his birthday) 

Chrysanthemum Festival -- Japan ("The Festival of Happiness", various shrines; through Nov. 15)

Clean Your Bug Zapper Day -- internet generated, and we're getting a bit overboard here, aren't we?

Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day -- actually a good idea

Day of Pope John Paul II -- Poland

Dia del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural -- Argentina

Dictionary Day / Learn a Word Day -- Noah Webster's birth anniversary

Dress Like A Dork Day -- does someone have it out for us with these?

Elephantine Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (several such celebrations of elephants were held around this time of year in Egypt)

Ether Day (first demonstrated use, see History)

Feast of 'Ilm (Knowledge) -- Baha'i

International Adjust Your Chair Day -- because you need to check at least once a year to make sure your chair has you in an ergonomically correct position 

National Feral Cat Day -- US (sponsored by Alley Cat Allies) 

National Heroes Day -- Jamaica

National Liqueur Day

Niihama Drum Festival -- Niihama, Japan (three day festival with two ton drum floats)

Sennin Musha Gyoretsu -- Tochigi, Japan (procession of 1,000 warriors; through tomorrow)

St. Hedwig's Day (Patron of brides, duchesses, difficult marriages, widows; Bavaria; Berlin, Germany; Gorlitz, Germany; Silesia; against the death of children, jealousy)

Teachers' Day -- Chile

World Food Day -- UN

Anniversaries Today:

The first birth control clinic in the US is opened, 1916

Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah, 1875

Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women, 1869

Zion's Co-Operative Mercantile Institution, America's first department store, opens, 1868

The Collegiate School is established(forerunner of Yale University), 1701, Old Style Date

Birthdays Today:

John Mayer, 1977

Kellie Martin, 1975

Flea, 1962

Tim Robbins, 1958

Melissa Louise Belote, 1956

Barry Corbin, 1940

Bob Weir, 1947

Suzanne Somers, 1946

Gunter Grass, 1927

Angela Lansbury, 1925

William Orville Douglas, 1898

Eugene O'Neill, 1888

David Ben-Gurion, 1886

Oscar Wilde, 1854

Noah Webster, 1758

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Red Mill"(Musical), 1945

"The Man Who Came too Dinner"(Play), 1939

"Billy the Kid"(Ballet), 1938

Jane Eyre(Publication date), 1847

Today in History:

Jadwiga (yes, a she) is crowned King of Poland, 1384

Olivier van Noorts' ships reach the Philippines, 1600

George Washington takes Yorktown, 1781

Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined, 1793

Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers, 1843

Dentist William T. Morton demonstrates the effectiveness of ether, 1846

Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is published, 1847

John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 1859

The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered", 1869

John Harwood takes out a patent on a self-winding watch, 1923

The Disney Company is founded, 1923

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army, 1940

Fidel Castro is sentenced in Havana to 15 years in prison, 1953

The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1964

In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, 1970

Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1973

Pope John Paul II is elected after the October 1978 Papal conclave, 1978

Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1978

Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders, 1986

Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated, 2002

A 1,255lb. portion of the Chelyabinsk meteor is recovered by divers in Russia, 2013