Daily entries of obscure holidays, folklore, and curiosities
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, and the date has been International Nurses Day ever since the International Council of Nurses designated it in 1974. But nursing is only the beginning of what she actually did, and the…
There is a European folk tradition that identifies May 11 as the beginning of the Ice Saints — the three-day window when winter makes one last attempt on the spring garden. The Ice Saints are Mammertus, Pancras, and Gervase (or,…
The Golden Spike, Churchill becoming PM, Mandela inauguration, and the folk tradition of dandelion wine.
Victory Day in Russia, the first commercial Polaroid camera, and National Lost Sock Memorial Day.
V-E Day, the founding of the Red Cross, World Iris Day, and the old belief about flowers picked on this date.
Beethoven Ninth premiere, the sinking of the Lusitania, folk thunder beliefs, and a dubious cocktail holiday.
The Hindenburg disaster, the Channel Tunnel, No Homework Day, and the old folk belief about planting beans today.
On this date in 1821, Napoleon died on a rock in the Atlantic. In 1862, Mexico won a battle that became a holiday in a country that isn’t Mexico. And somewhere, right now, someone is eating a burrito in celebration…
On this day in 1970, students were shot on a campus in Ohio. On this day in 1979, a British newspaper accidentally gave George Lucas a second franchise. These are not unrelated facts — they share a date, and dates…
On this day in 1469, a future author of the most misread book in the history of politics was born in Florence. In 1791, a country that would cease to exist within fourteen months passed the most progressive constitution in…