Little Napper (Awww Monday) and Sparks!

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

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!

Nobody naps like a kitten:

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The wonderful Annie of McGuffy's Reader has started the blog hop called Sparks as a way to put more positive energy into the world.  Join her in combating the often negative influence of social media by adding your own Spark!

I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. Together, we can light up the entire world! ~ McGuffy Ann Morris

My "Spark" for the day

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mexico

Birthday of Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Birth Anniversary of Shivaji -- Maharashtra, India

Chaoflux -- Discordianism

Chief Leschi Day -- US, especially Washington State (Native American chief wrongly executed for murder on this date in 1958; fully exhonerated 2004)

Cracker Jacks Prize Day -- the first prizes were added to the boxes of carmel popcorn this date in 1913

Family Day -- AB, NB, ON, SK, Canada

Flag Day -- Turkmenistan

Fly-By for Goblins and others -- Fairy Calendar

Great Lent begins-- a/k/a Clean Monday, Ash Monday, Pure Monday, Monday of Lent, Shrove Monday, Collop Monday, Rose Monday, Merry Monday or Hall Monday, and (in Cypress) Green Monday -- Orthodox Christian

Heritage Day -- NS, Canada (honouring Mona Louise Parsons)

Islander Holiday -- PEI, Canada

Louis Riel Day -- MB, Canada

National Chocolate Mint Day (because every day needs chocolate in some form)

Presidents' Day -- US and Territories

Scout - Guide Week -- Canada (Scouts Canada and Girl Guides of Canada plan and hold special activities; through the 25th)

Solar System Day -- birth anniversary of Copernicus

St. Conrad of Piacenza's Day -- (Patron against hernias)

Straw Wrapper Appreciation Day -- an internet spread holiday to remind you of how much fun it was as a kid to blow the wrappers off the straws

Temporary Insanity Day -- anniversary of the first time someone successfully pleaded temporary insanity in a court of law; Daniel Stickles, in 1859

Vassil Levski Day -- Bulgaria (Bulgaria's "Apostle of Freedome")

Anniversary Today:

Knights of Pythias founded, 1864

Birthdays Today:

Haylie Duff, 1985

Andrew Shue, 1967

Benicio Del Toro, 1967

Justine Bateman, 1966

Jonathan Lethem, 1964

Seal, 1963

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 1960

Ray Winstone, 1957

Jeff Daniels, 1955

Margaux Hemingway, 1955

Amy Tan, 1952

Stephen Nichols, 1951

Lou Christie, 1943

Smokey Robinson, 1940

Lee Marvin, 1924

Merle Oberon, 1911 (some sources say Feb. 18)

Willam III, 1817 (last king of the Netherlands -- there have only been queens since)

David Garrick, 1717

Nicolas Copernicus, 1473

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Woman of Independent Means"(TV Miniseries), 1995

"Crazy For You"(Musical), 1992

"Eastenders"(TV), 1985

"Rumours"(Album release), 1977

The Feminine Mystique(Publication date), 1963

"Picnic"(Inge Play), 1953

"Alexander's Feast"(HWV 75), 1736

Today in History:

Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus' defeats beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon, 197

Emperor Constantius II shuts down all pagan temples, 356

The second Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates veneration of icons in the churches, 842

Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary (then Trnava, Czech) are expelled, 1539

The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America, 1600

Britain and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, and New Amsterdam formally becomes New York, 1674

British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III, 1819

The first practical coal burning locomotive in the US makes a trial run, in Pennsylvania, 1831

Tin-type camera is patented by Hamilton Smith of Gambier, Ohio, 1856

Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted of the murder of his wife's lover, Phillip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), on the grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this defense is successfully used, 1859

Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in Russia, 1861

Thomas Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph), 1878

Kansas becomes the first US state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages, 1881

WK Kellog and Charles Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co., 1906

The first prize is inserted into a Cracker Jack box, 1913

Ed Wynn becomes the first talent to sign as a regular radio entertainer, 1922

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize for poetry, 1949

Bill Keane's "Family Circus" comic strip makes its debut, 1960

Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital, 1985

The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft, 1986

NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system, 2002
NASA loses communication with the International Space Station's for three hours as a result of updating the station's command and control software, 2013