August 22 - A Caddy for you

 It was on this day in 1902 that one of the breakaways from the Henry Ford Company created the Cadillac Automobile Company.

July 26 - a day for a universal language that no one knows

 Yup, in 1885 on this day, the book on Esperanto was published.  This would(n't)-be language was hopeful to be a language the whole world spoke.

Never took off tho'.

July 25 - Electric Judas

 It was on this day that Bob Dylan, famed folk singer, got booed on stage at the Newport Folk Festival when he put down his acoustic guitar for his electric.

JUDAS they shouted.

July 22 - Pie is good for the mousetrap

 Apparently, the poem about the Pied Piper of Hamelin was said that the piper led out the rats on this day in 1376.

So it's Ratcatcher's Day (the Brothers Grimm said it should have been June 26, 1284, who do you believe?)

To catch a rat you need good bait, and what better than pie?  Well, for a mathematician, the best pie is pi.

Today is pi approximation day.  July 22... 22 / 7 ... and if you divide 22 by 7, you can get an approximation of pi.

July 18 - Gonzo covers Mandela

 On this day in 1937, a man was born who would become known as the 'gonzo journalist' is born.

You may know Hunter S Thompson because of the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas movie... did you know that he was a real person?

Then in 2009, the UN decided to honour Nelson Mandela with his own day... today.

Which is also Nelson's birthday.

July 15 - subatomic language skills

 Today is World Youth Skills Day

Speaking of skills, learning a language is one of those, and when it comes to learning languages, they say that the Rosetta Stone was the first real link for several of them, and it was found on this day in 1799.

And a man with some skills, enough to earn him a Nobel Prize was Leon Lederman, who developed experiments to prove the existence of neutrinos.

He was born in 1922.

July 11 - Brucie's Bday

 It was on this day of 1274 that "Robert the Bruce" was born.

Robert who aided in the revolt of Scotland against the English and won the Battle of Bannockburn.  He was King in 1306 until his death in 1329.

June 27 - Celebrate Diversity

 Diversity almost always enriches and enhances any groupings.  In Canada we've always celebrated the fact that we aren't the "melting pot" that is our southern friends, rather the 'tossed salad'.

We celebrate people's backgrounds and we even have a day dedicated to it:  Canadian Multiculturalism Day, which is today!

June 22 - science and heresy sorta mix

 Draw me a map of our solar system... I don't care if you get the order of the planets right (I think it goes Venus, Mars then Earth... after that I'm lost).

But most importantly, you put the sun in the middle, right?

Well, the early Christians believed to think that was heresy.  Obviously, we're the most important thing, so we're in the centre.  But many scientists/astronomers tried to prove differently... like, look... math!

Galileo was one of these that believed in the heliocentric theory, and it was on this day in 1633 that with heavy threats by the Catholic church at the time he was forced to recant his beliefs in that theory... a scientist had to lie to save his own life.  Sad.

I'd love to say we've come a far way from that 4 centuries later, right?  Like, everybody listens to the scientists, openly... right?

June 20 - Called to try to escape a shark

 On this day in 1877, Alexander Graham Bell had the first commercial telephone service installed, in Hamilton of all places too.

Also on this day in 1951 there was a Convention on the Status of Refugees.  50 years later the UN would officially declare that June 20th is World Refugee Day.

All the more poignant this year as we see what's going on overseas.

It was also on this day that the 1974 book by Peter Benchley made its way onto the film and spawned a huge franchise ...

...and probably fueled some more fears of sharks.

June 6 - Overlord was the 6th Village Person

 June 6 ... 1944 was a big day for the allied troops as they launched en masse to the beaches of France to push back the Nazis.

Also known as D-Day.  It's unimaginable to think about what the soldiers at the time went through, the movies you've seen probably don't do it really any justice.

100 years before that a group was founded in London for the Young Mens Christians Association, a place for establishing healthy bodies, minds and spirits.

Apparently, back then that included skills like drapery and embroidery as well as calisthetics.

June 2 - oh the year was 1774

 Not 1778 like the Stan Rogers tune goes... but on this date in 1774 the British Parliament passed the expansion of the Quartering Act; whereby British soldiers in North America could take unoccupied homes or barns for their barracks.

Obviously, not a well liked piece as originally it was just 'you need to give us barracks' to a "well, if there are none we like we'll just take what we do".

But, back to ol' Stan.  I say old as he always sounded so old, with that deep baritone voice.  Yet, even as he tragically died in a plane he was only 33 on this day in 1983.

I have belted out a many of his ballads myself and just revel in his fingerpicking (Witch of the Westmoreland... love it).

June 1 - golden milk for a god

 So like a million years ago, someone decided that the milk our mothers gave us was probably just as good as the milk that other animals give their kids and we determined that cows have the best milk.

Which, I don't disagree with.  It's tasty.  And it's what we celebrate on World Milk Day.

Another required beverage, especially for one with Alba heritage is uisce bheatha... or aqua vita... water of life.

Or, you might know it as whiskey.  The first ever recounting of someone making it was of this monk, John Cor, that on this day in 1495 he's actually on the King's exchequer list.

"To Brother John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt."

We should be celebrating this man, not that he invented, but the first that we know of that was getting paid for it.  Similar to how there's songs for Charlie Mopps, why nothing for John Cor?

Well, those are elixirs worthy of a god.  And one god I appreciated seeing on the big screen was when Alanis Morissette played God in Dogma.  It was a quirky take on the whole catholic scene (the whole movie was).

Well, Alanis, with one hand in her pocket, is turning 48 years old today.

May 31 - get that smoking big ship off of my lawn

 So it was on this day in 1911 that the ill-fated RMS Titanic left its home port of Belfast for the first time, almost a full year before it's first voyage.

It was a big ship.

And a big actor is Clint Eastwood, it's his birthday today.  He's 92 today.

92!

Now, in his early days he was the 'gunslinger' and was a rough and tough cowboy who always had a smoke.

Today, smoking isn't as 'cool' and we even have "World No Tobacco Day" as a day to recognize the harm it can do.

It started in 1987 from the World Health Organization with 2022's theme as "Threat to Our Environment"

May 27 - think a vampire ever drains a fish?

 Growing up I clearly remember the Hilarious House of Frankenstein, and periodically there would be a reading of some poetry, usually in that Edgar Allen Poe style by a creepy guy that I always thought was a vampire.

That guy was Vincent Price, wasn't a vampire, but he had done a bunch of 'creepy' roles that were pretty near unto it.

It's his birthday today, and had he not died in 1993 he would have been 111 (his eleventy-eleventh).

And for those of you with a bit of British in you, somehow you've developed a genetic taste for Fish & Chips.

I think it's a national dish, so only fitting they have a National Fish & Chip Day.

Usually it's first Friday (a #FRYday) in June, but this year it's in May.

May 25 - now there's a hoopy frood

 ...who always knows where his towel is.

A towel, the guide says, is an important tool for any intergalactic hitchhiker.

Towel Day is celebrated 2 weeks after Douglas Adams' death on May 11, 2001.

Do you know where your towel is?

May 24 - The Queen takes a day off with her brother

 Ask anyone in Canada what May 24th is and immediately it's "May two-four... that's a day off bro".  Which is funny because a) we get that day off in honour of Queen Victoria, her birthday was today in 1819, so we get the closest Monday to that day off as a long weekend.

And today is also Brother's Day

May 20 - Bee Savage

 It was on this day in 2011 that the wrestling world mourned the loss of "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

I remember growing up with the Hulk / Savage feud.  Or the Savage vs. Steamboat all out.

It's also World Bee Day.

They say that today was the day in 1734 that the pioneer of beekeeping was born, so they honour him by honouring bees on this day.

Speaking of bees... like the Bee Gees... 

It was on this day in 2012 that the world lost 1/3rd of the Bee Gees, Robin Gibb.

On the left

May 19 - Don't lose your head rocking out in the park

 So, I remember my mom mentioning how we were somehow distantly related to Anne Boleyn (I think most people are somehow related to some level of royalty). 

Unfortunately for Anne, she was one of those "Henry the VIIIth wives" and met her end.  If you remember the rhyme:  "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived".  Anne was the second wife so met her end in a beheading on this day in 1536.

From the crown to crown land, today also marks the day that Canada create "Parks Canada" in 1911.

There are almost half a milling square kilometers of some of the most amazing wilderness out there (tho' I will admit, in my neck of the woods we have mostly Ontario Parks, so I frequent those more often).

Lastly, if you're out for a relaxing time in the woods, chances are you're not looking to rock out with some electronic / dance music. Save that music for the nightclubs.

A nightclub where you might run into a fairly well known, but mysterious Marshmello.

Known for his bucket helmet that looks like a marshmallow, he's got some real catchy beats.  

And I believe the first DJ to perform virtually a concert in Fortnite.

The dude under the bucket is turning 30 today!

May 18 - have to visit the museum of spacecraft, blurgh

 Someone like Tina Fey never really gets the accolades she deserves.  She's written a TON of stuff that are just super hilarious that most people probably don't even realize.

Well, recognize.

Also recognize she's 52 as of today!

Her career ... well maybe not skyrocketed, but definitely 'took off'.  Almost like the Apollo 10 which took off on this day in 1969.

The F mission was a test for the moon landing.  It went up and orbited for a few days before coming back home.

Something like the records of the mission belong to history, and we often visit history by visiting museums.

Today is the day that the International Council of Museums choose to celebrate International Museum Day.