Life Day 23985: K-9 Veteran’s Day

March 13, 2013 at 12:38 am | Posted in Today's Reasons To Celebrate | Leave a comment

Good morning dog lovers. Today is Wednesday, March 13, 2013. The first holiday today is K-9 Veteran’s Day.  It isn’t actually a holiday, yet! Progress is being made however. New Jersey recently passed legislation proclaiming March 13 as K-9 Veterans Day, and both Jacksonville and the state of Florida have followed suit. Today marks the 71st anniversary of the day the  United States Army K-9 Corps was created. Today is the day to honor all of our Military Working Dogs, as well as those Working Dogs in civilian life, such as search and rescue dogs, cadaver dogs, assistance dogs, drug sniffing dogs, etc, etc, etc. If you would like to help make this a national holiday to pay tribute to these highly trained, devoted heroes, click on this link to find out how.
The next holiday is Good Samaritan Involvement Day. Good Samaritan Day is a day to emphasize the importance of rendering aid to those who need it. Don’t turn a blind eye, if you see someone who needs help, stop and do what you can. It is celebrated on this date because it is the anniversary of the killing of Catherine (Kitty) Genovese, Mar 13, 1964, in the Kew Gardens community, Queens, NY. Reportedly no fewer than 38 of her neighbors, not wanting “to get involved,” witnessed and watched for nearly 30 minutes as the fleeing girl was pursued and repeatedly stabbed by her 29-year-old attacker.
The rest of today’s holidays are just nonsense. I’ll list them below, complete with a link, so  if one piques your interest, the information will be available.
Donald Duck Day.
Ear Muff Day.
Open an Umbrella Indoors Day.
Jewel Day.
Registered Dietitian Day.

The food-related holiday today is Coconut Torte Day. Together a coconut torte does not have any discernible history. However, separately, coconuts and tortes have interesting facts.
Coconut Facts:
1) The first mention of the English name of coconut printed in English was in 1555. The word coconut comes from the Portuguese Spanish word coco and means monkey face. The Spanish and Portuguese saw the resemblance of a monkey’s face in the three round indented markings or “eyes” found at the base of the coconut.
2) Like many different things in history coconuts were used as currency.  They were used as currency on the Nicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean. Coconuts continued as a form of currency through the early part of the twentieth century.
3) Coconuts are fruits of the coconut palms which are native of Malaysia, Polynesia and southern Asia. Through the advancement of modern global civilization they are now prolific in South America,  India, the Pacific Islands, Hawaii, and Florida. The coconut’s name is a not actually accurate. It is not a nut, but rather a seed, and it is the largest known seed in the plant world.
Torte Facts:
1) The word torte is German and literally means cake.
2) One of the oldest known torte’s in the world is the Linzer Torte – which was named after the city of Linz, Austria.
3) Torte refers to both a multi-layered cake filled with butter-cream, jam, or cream and to a rich, moist, and dense single-layered cake.
Now, the next time you’re at a party and the subject of coconuts or tortes comes up, you’ll be prepared.

On this date in 1901 – Andrew Carnegie announced that he was retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his days giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million. In today’s dollars, that would make him almost as rich as Oprah Winfrey.

In 0607 – The 12th recorded passage of Halley’s Comet occurred.
In 1519 – Cortez landed in Mexico.
In 1639 – Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.
In 1781 – Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.
In 1852 – The New York “Lantern” newspaper published the first “Uncle Sam cartoon”. It was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew.
In 1861 – Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy.
In 1868 – The U.S. Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
In 1877 – Chester Greenwood patented the earmuff.
In 1878 – The first collegiate golf match was played between Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1911 – The U.S. Supreme Court approved corporate tax law.
In 1925 – A law in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution.
In 1930 – It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
In 1935 – Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming some biblical history.
In 1942 – Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps became the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.
In 1951 – The comic strip “Dennis the Menace” appeared for the first time in newspapers across the country.
In 1957 – Jimmy Hoffa was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges.
In 1969 – The Apollo 9 astronauts returned to Earth after the conclusion of a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.
In 1972 – “The Merv Griffin Show” debuted in syndication for Metromedia Television.
In 1974 – An embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries was lifted.
In 1980 – A jury in Winamac, IN, found Ford Motor Company innocent of reckless homicide in the deaths of three young women that had been riding in a Ford Pinto.
In 1991 – Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.
In 1997 – Sister Nirmala was chosen by India’s Missionaries of Charity to succeed Mother Teresa as leader of the Catholic order.
In 2002 – Fox aired “Celebrity Boxing.” Tonya Harding beat Paula Jones, Danny Banaduce beat Barry Williams and Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice.
And, in 2003 – A report in the journal “Nature” reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.

If you were born on this date, you share a birthday with the following list of notables:
Joseph Priestley 1733 – Theologian.
Charles Earl Grey 1764 – British statesman.
Lorenzo Delmonico 1813 – Restaurateur.
Percival Lowell 1855 – Astronomer.
Sammy Kaye 1910 – Band leader.
L. Ron Hubbard 1911 – Author.
Peter Breck 1929 – Actor.
Neil Sedaka 1939 – Singer, songwriter.
William H. Macy 1950 – Actor.
Deborah Raffin 1953 – Actress.
Dana Delany 1956 – Actress.
Christopher Collet 1968 – Actor.
Tracey Wells 1971 – Actress.
Annabeth Gish 1971 – Actress.
Danny Masterson 1976 – Actor.
And finally, Emile Hirsch 1985 – Actor.