2012

JULY

Jul 2 Monday 2012 — UFO Day. On July 8, 1947, the Army air field at Roswell, N.M., issued a press release stating the wreckage of a flying saucer had been recovered. The Army later retracted the statement and said the remains of a weather balloon were found. Since the late 1970s the "Roswell Incident" has become the subject of intense speculation, rumor, and questioning. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The United States military maintains that what was actually recovered was debris from an experimental high-altitude surveillance balloon belonging to a classified program named "Mogul." Many UFO proponents maintain that a crashed alien craft and bodies were recovered, and that the military engaged in a cover-up. The incident has turned into a widely known pop culture phenomenon, making Roswell synonymous with UFOs. It ranks as one of the most publicized and controversial UFO incidents ever. Rancher Mac Brazel discovered the wreckage on July 2. -- Wikipedia

Jul 3 Tuesday — Full Buck Moon. Normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the full Thunder Moon and the full Hay Moon.

Jul 4 Wednesday — Independence Day.

Jul 7 Saturday — National Strawberry Sundae Day.

Jul 8-14 Sunday-Saturday — Nude Recreation Week.

Jul 10 Tuesday — Teddy Bear Picnic Day.

Jul 11 Wednesday — World Population Day. An annual event, observed on July 11, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people. -- Wikipedia

Jul 14 Saturday — Bastille Day,  French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year . In France, it is called Fête Nationale ("National Celebration") in official parlance, or more commonly le quatorze juillet ("14 July"). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation. -- Wikipedia. Also 100th anniversary of birth of Woody Guthrie (d. 1969).

Jul 15 Sunday — Cow Appreciation Day.

Jul 17 Tuesday — Yellow Pigs Day, held annually on July 17, is a humorous celebration created and observed by mathematicians at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics. The day is marked by exchanging gifts relating to yellow pigs or mathematics, singing yellow pig songs, and playing Ultimate. Yellow Pigs Day was started by Michael Spivak and David C. Kelly. Spivak's published books include easter egg references to yellow pigs, and Kelly maintains an extensive collection of yellow pigs. In 2006, Hampshire College held a Yellow Pig Math Days conference, as part of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics program. This has something to do with the number "17". -- Wikipedia

Jul 19 Thursday – 100th anniversary of a meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg exploding over Holbrook, Arizona, causing a shower of more than 16,000 stones fell from the sky, varying in weight from 6.6 kilograms to less than 0.1 grams. The explosion followed the appearance of a smoke trail in the sky.  --Wikipedia.

Jul 22 Sunday — Ratcatcher's Day. Celebrated June 26 or July 22 commemorating the myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The confusion of dates is because the Brothers Grimm cite 26 June 1284 as the date the Pied Piper led the children out of the town of Hamelin in Germany, while the poem by Robert Browning gives it as 22 July 1376. It is a holiday remembering rat-catchers. -- Wikipedia

Jul 23 Monday — Emperor Haile Selassi birthday anniversary.

Jul 27 Friday — Opening ceremony of 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Jul 28 Saturday — Gregory Capliner to be released from prison.

Jul 31 Tuesday — Mutts' Day.

AUGUST

Aug 2 Thursday — Full Sturgeon Moon. Also called the Green Corn Moon and the Grain Moon.

Aug 4 Saturday — Fifty-first anniversary of birth of Barack Hussein Obama II.

Aug 7 Tuesday — National Lighthouse Day.

Aug 8 Wednesday — Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day. Self-explanatory. This is more widely practiced than some other special days. Just Google it.

Aug 10 Friday — Krishna Janmashtami (Hindu religious observance).

Aug 12 Sunday — Summer Olympics end.

Aug 12-18 Sunday-Saturday — National Smile Week.

Aug 13 Monday — Left Handers Day.

Aug 18 Saturday — Bad Poetry Day. Can you make a rhyme in no time? Then you're a poet but don't know it!

Aug 22 Wednesday and Feb 28 Tuesday — National Tooth Fairy Day.

Aug 24 Friday — Vesuvius Day. Anniversary of the day in 79 A.D. that Mount Vesuvius exploded.

Aug 29 Wednesday — Annniversary of beheading of John the Baptist.

Aug 30 Thursday — National Marshmallow Toasting Day.

Aug 31 Friday — Full Moon; Blue Moon.

SEPTEMBER

Sep 1 Saturday — Orthodox ecclesiastical year begins.

Sep 3 Monday — Labor Day.

Sep 12 Wednesday — Chocolate Milkshake Day.

Sep 13 Thursday — Fortune Cookie Day.

Sep 17 Monday — National Apple Dumpling Day.

Sep 17-18 Monday-Tuesday — Rosh HaShanah (Jewish religious observance).

Sep 19 Wednesday — Ganesh Chaturthi (Hindu religious observance). Also, Intertnational Talk Like a Pirate Day, a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon. They proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. The holiday springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Sep 20-29 Thursday-Saturday — Paryushana Parva (Jain religious observance).

Sep 22 Saturday — Autumnal Equinox. Also Elephant Appreciation Day.

Sep 26 Wednesday — Johnny Appleseed Day. See March 11. Also Yom Kippur (Jewish religious observance).

Sep 30 Sunday — Full Harvest Moon. This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. Also the Corn Moon.