Kitten (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and The Truth About Water (Poetry Monday)

***********************************

     

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!

***********************************

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.com

***********************************

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

As Bigger Girl says

Water itself is not wet

It just makes things wet

***********************************

Today is:

Constitution Day -- Mexico (obs.)

Day of Remembrance for Oleg the Prophet -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

Four Chaplains Day -- US (by act of Congress, honoring the four chaplains of the Dorchester who gave their life jackets to others and went down with the ship on Feb. 3, 1943)

Fukuju no mai (Jimai) -- Sensouji Temple, Japan (dance of the seven gods of fortune)

Halfway Point of Winter/Summer -- which it is depends, of course, on your hemisphere; enjoy that cold weather will warm soon, or that cooler temps will relieve your hot spells

Heroes' Day -- Mozambique

Hurling the Silver Ball -- St. Ives, Cornwall, England (keeping up the over 1,000 year old tradition of an early form of rugby, the person who returns the silver ball to the Mayor on the steps of St. Ives Guildhall at midday gets a silver coin; pennies are thrown to the children in the afternoon)

Just Say No to Powerpoint® Week begins -- please, use something else, like communicating with your audience! begun by Nancy Stern

Love a Mensch Week begins -- because mensches are decent and responsible men and women, and we should appreciate how they enhance our lives; info from Robin Gorman Newman

Magnolia and Fish Jubilee -- Fairy Calendar

Martyr's Day -- Sao Tome and Principe

National Carrot Cake Day

Nelson Provincial Anniversary Day -- Nelson, New Zealand

Nuestra Señora de Suyapa -- Honduras (Festival of the Virgin of Suyapa, Patroness of Honduras)

Setsubun-sai (Bean-Throwing Festival) -- Japan/Shinto (many fests throughout Japan) 

St. Anskar's Day (patron of Denmark, Scandinavia, Sweden; Bremen, Germany; Hamburg, Germany)

St. Blaise's Day/Blessing of Throats Day (Patron of animals, builders, carvers, healthy throats, stonecutters, veterinarians, wool-combers, wool weavers; Dalmatia; Anguillara Sabazia, Italy; Bovolone, Italy; Camastra, Sicily, Italy; Cassano allo Ionio, Italy; Castellania, Italy; Doues, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Militello, Sicily, Italy; Montecatini Val di Cecina, Italy; Palombara Sabina, Italy; Pietrasanta, Italy; Revello, Italy; Sacrofano, Italy; against coughs, goiters, throat diseases, whooping cough, wild beasts)

Takisanji Oni Matsuri -- Takisan-ji Temple, Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

The Day the Music Died -- anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Rickie Valens, and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson)

Veterans' Day -- Thailand

Anniversaries Today:

Jean-Claude van Damme weds Darcy Lapier, 1994

Wake Forest University is established, 1834

Birthdays Today:

Isla Fisher, 1976

Maura Tierney, 1965

Keith Gordon, 1961

Thomas Calabro, 1959

Nathan Lane, 1956

Morgan Fairchild, 1950
Dave Davies, 1947

Blythe Danner, 1943

Fran Tarkenton, 1940

Shelley Berman, 1926

Joey Bishop, 1918

Simone Weil, 1909

James Michener, 1907

Norman Rockwell, 1894

Gertrude Stein, 1874

Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821

Horace Greeley, 1811

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Victor Borge Show"(TV), 1951

"The Three Caballeros"(Cartoon Film; US debut), 1945 

"Face the Music"(Musical), 1932

"Le carnaval romain"(Berlioz, Op. 9), 1844

"Semiramide"(Opera, Rossini), 1823

Today in History

Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south, 1488

The first paper money in America is issued by the colony of Massachusetts, 1690

Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants, 1743

The Dutch States-General forbid the export of windmills, 1752

Spain recognizes US independence, 1783

The world's first commercial cheese factory is established in Switzerland, 1815

The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol, 1830

The Wisconsin Supreme Court declares the US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional,1855

Emperor Meiji becomes the 122nd emperor of Japan, 1867

The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing Black suffrage, is passed, 1870

Albert Spalding, with only $800, starts a sporting goods company, which eventually manufactured the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football (American style football), 1876

Circus owner P.T. Barnum buys Jumbo the elephant, 1882

The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, the income tax, is ratified, 1913

Canada's original Parliament building, in Ottowa, burns down, 1916

Percival Prattis becomes the first African-American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries, 1947

A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died, 1959

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation, 1960

The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon, 1966

In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress, 1969

New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption, 1971

John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth, 1984

Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 1995

The New York Giants defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, 17-14, in what is known to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history, 2008

Eric Holder becomes 82nd and 1st African American US Attoney General, 2009

Moscow has its heaviest snowfall in a day on record, killing one and bringing down 2,000 trees, 2018

Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the first ever papal visit to the Arabian peninsula, 2019