Monday the 13th Smile (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Why So Short? (Poetry Monday)

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at 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!

A pile of kittens for your Monday the 13th Smile:

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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.

everydaypower

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  She and Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey take turns providing a theme each week.   Mother Owl/Charlotte and Merry Mae almost always participate, too.  This weeks theme is Leap Year.           

Why is February

So short?

In doling out days,

Caesar was no sport.

Julius wanted

To be number One

He named July for himself

And then when he was done

He wanted his month

A long one to be

So a day from February

He stole, you see.

Then along came his nephew

Augustus by name,

And you guessed it,

The month August he did claim.

He couldn’t let uncle

Julius have more days,

So poor February,

At 28 it stays

Except when the calendar

Needs to keep on track

With the sun, we give

February one back.

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Today is:

Clean Off Your Desk Day -- me and what army? (Note:  some sites put this as always on Jan. 9, some the second Monday of January; either way, my question remains)

Democracy Day -- Cape Verde

Eugenio Maria de Hostos' Day -- Puerto Rico (birth anniv. obs.)

Feast of St. Kentigern (a/k/a St. Mungo) (Patron of Glasgow whose given name meant "head chief" but whose nickname meant "dear one.")

Ides of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Liberation Day -- Togo

Maghi -- Sikh

Make Your Dreams Come True Day -- no info on the origin of this; maybe someone who broke their New Year's resolutions by this day used the fact that it's New Year's by the Julian calendar to start over, or perhaps also related to Horatio Alger

Midvintersblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (midwinter festival)

National Peach Melba Day

Old New Year's Day -- Belarus; Georgia; Montenegro; Republic of Macedonia; Republic of Srpska (Yes, that's how it's spelled; no, i don't know how to pronounce it); Serbia; Russia; Ukraine; Wales (Julian Calendar)

Plough Monday -- UK (farm work is resumed the Monday following the 12 Days of Christmas, and ploughs are brought to the church to be blessed)

Pongal begins -- India (thanksgiving festival at the end of the harvest season, honoring Indra, god of clouds and rain)

    first day, Bhogi

Radio Day -- anniversary of the first public radio broadcast in 1910

Recuperation Fortnight begins -- Fairy Calendar (i think i need one of those!)

Runic Half-month of Peorth (womb) begins

Rubber Ducky Day

Seijin-no-hi -- Japan (Adult's Day, or Coming of Age Day; celebrating all who have reached age 20, full legal adult age, in the past year)

Sidereal Winter Solstice Eve -- celebrations through South and Southeast Asia, including

    Bhogi -- Tamil (first day of Pongal)

    Lohri -- Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh

    Uruka -- Assam

Silvesterklausen -- Switzerland ("Old" New Year's celebration, based on the Julian Calendar)

St. Hilarius' Day (according to English tradition, the coldest day of the year; Patron of learning challenged children; Argusto, Italy; Vervio, Italy; against snakes and snake bites)

St. Knut's Day (a/k/a Little Christmas or Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen among the Scandinavians, it celebrates Canute IV of Denmark and is the day to "plunder" the tree put up on Christmas Eve, eating the candies and cookies that were decorating it, and puting all the other decorations away before the tree is removed.)

Strive and Succeed Day -- Horatio Alger's birth anniversary

Theogamia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (anniversary celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera; date approximate, but during Gamelion, the month of marriages)

Tiugunde Day -- Old England (midwinter offering, a celebration picked up from the Norse Midvintersblot)

Tyvendedagen -- Norway (Twentieth day after Christmas, official end of Yuletide or "Juletid")

Birthdays Today:

Liam Hemsworth, 1990

Joannie Rochette, 1986

Orlando Bloom, 1977

Nicole Eggert, 1972

Keith Coogan, 1970

Patrick Dempsey, 1966

Penelope Ann Miller, 1964

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 1961

Kevin Anderson, 1960

Jay McInerney, 1955

Richard Moll, 1943

Frank Gallo, 1933

Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931

Frances Sternhagen, 1930

Gwen Verdon, 1925

Army Archerd, 1922

Robert Stack, 1919

Alfred Carl Fuller, 1885

Sophia Tucker, 1884

Horatio Alger, 1832

Salmon P. Chase, 1808

DEbuting/Premiering Today:

"The Sopranos"(TV), 1999

"Mickey Mouse"(Comic strip), 1930

Today in History:

Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria, 1099

Sicut Didum, the papal bull prohibiting the enslavement of Canary Island natives who had converted to Christianity, is promulgated, 1435

The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison, 1605

The Bank Of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, 1607

Jonathan Swift is ordained and Anglican priest in Ireland, 1695

James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, 1733

John Walter publishes the first issue of the London Times, 1785

The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins, 1830

Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole European survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, 1842

Anthony Foss patents the accordion, 1854

A chenille manufacturing machine is patented by William Canter of NYC, 1863

A circus fire in Poland kills 430, 1883

The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting, 1893

U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution, 1893

The first radio set is advertised, a Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American; claimed to receive signals up to one mile, 1906

The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, 1910

An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800, 1915

The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people, 1939

Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car, 1942

Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1964

Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American  US Cabinet member, 1966

Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison, 1968

A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa, 1985

L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American US governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia, 1990

Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, 1991

An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800, 2001

The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy, 2012

An early-morning ballistic missile alert is sent across Hawaii in error and revoked after 38 minutes, 2018