https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/A compendium of little-known, and possibly little-cared-about, days to celebrate each month, and other miscellaneous oddments.hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/371424On this day, in 1858, Minnesota was admitted into the Union. It's the home of the world's largest Paul Bunyan statue, and it was from Minnesotans that we got the stapler, water skis, and roller blades—not to mention Scotch tape, Bisquick, and Spam. I took this directly from The Writer's Almanac,...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/369819I do have time for the Dutch and their memories. The note below was on our intranet at work today. I can't stop thinking about it, so thought I'd share: Liberation Day (Dutch: Bevrijdingsdag) is celebrated each year on May 5 in the Netherlands to mark the end of the German occupation during the...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/367836This was accidently entered in the wrong blog yesterday. April 27 is Grant's birthday. I haven't posted in this blog for a long time because it completed a year's cycle and there didn't seem to be any new things to add, but this information really struck me, so I decided to share it. You'll find...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/320143Birthday of mystery writer, critic and lecturer Robert Barnard, born in 1936 in Essex, England. He spent many years in academia while establishing himself as a writer of crime fiction. His first crime novel, Death of an Old Goat (1974) was written while he was professor of English at the...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/319851At about 12:30 p.m. on this day in 1963 President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, TX. It was the only presidential assassination ever caught on film. Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested 90 minutes after the murder. Two days after his arrest...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/319548On this day in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln wrote one of the most famous letters in American history. It was a letter of condolence to Mrs. Lydia Bixby of Boston, who was reported by the War Department to have lost five sons in battle. He wrote to her: "I pray that our Heavenly Father may...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/319547Birthday of South African novelist Nadine Gordimer, born in Springs, South Africa (1923), author of 16 collections of short stories and 13 novels, most of which explore the issue of race in her homeland. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, and has served as a member of the...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/319545Saturday, Nov. 19 Birthday of American poet Sharon Olds, born in San Francisco (1942), author of The Dead and the Living (1984), The Father (1992) and Blood, Tin, Straw (1999). She said: "Poets are like steam valves, where the ordinary feelings of ordinary people can escape and be shown."...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/319544Saturday, Nov. 19 Birthday of American poet Sharon Olds, born in San Francisco (1942), author of The Dead and the Living (1984), The Father (1992) and Blood, Tin, Straw (1999). She said: "Poets are like steam valves, where the ordinary feelings of ordinary people can escape and be shown."...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Witchflower7693/318705Birthday of playwright and humorist Sir W.S. (William Schenk) Gilbert, of the team of Gilbert and Sullivan, born in London (1836). He met composer Arthur Sullivan in 1870. They started working together the following year and produced a series of hits including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates...