On This Day October 16th

 OTD

October 16th is the 289th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 76 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1311 – The Council of Vienne convenes for the first time.

1736 – Mathematician William Whiston's predicted comet fails to strike the Earth.

1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles.

1793 – French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

1817 – Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.

1846 – William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation.

1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1923 – Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).

1995 – The Skye Bridge in Scotland is opened.

 

Birthdays

1729 – Pierre van Maldere, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1768)

1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)

1815 – Francis Lubbock, American colonel and politician, 9th Governor of Texas (d. 1905)

1831 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (d. 1910)

1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet (d. 1900)

1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)

1903 – Big Joe Williams, American Delta blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982)

1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress, singer, and producer (d. 2022)

1941 – Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, English computer programmer and politician

1947 – Bob Weir, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1962 – Manute Bol, Sudanese-American basketball player and activist (d. 2010)

1971 – Chad Gray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1992 – Bryce Harper, American baseball player

 

Holiday Spotlight

Global Cat Day

Global Cat Day confirms that we have loved our cats since the beginning of time — or close to it.  The Ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to harness the glory of the feline. Nearly 4,000 years ago, they domesticated our four-legged friends by keeping them near food stores. (This helped control vermin and other pests.) Cats quickly earned a reputation as great hunters, and later, Egyptians worshipped them as gods. Nothing much has changed since the old days.

 An advocacy group known as Alley Cat Allies and millions of supporters will observe Global Cat Day with a commitment to save cats from being killed.

 “The Global Cat Day Pledge includes the fundamental principle that all cats have the right to live their lives, and it guides everything we do to protect cats,” says Allies founder and president Becky Robinson. “We stand for humane, non-lethal programs for cats, and those who join us can take action to stop cats from being killed.”

 Robinson’s asking everyone who values the lives of cats to sign the Alley Cat Allies’ Global Cat Day Pledge online.

 The organization, which promotes the humane treatment of all cats, reports that millions of cats and kittens are in life-threatening danger. That’s because felines are killed more than any other animal in shelters nationwide.

 Global Cat Day demands that community leaders abolish policies that result in the killing of cats, equip communities with lifesaving, humane procedures like Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and change any policies that threaten cats’ health and safety.

 TNR is the mainstream approach in which cats are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and returned to the outdoor homes where they live and thrive. As sound public policy, TNR reduces shelter intake, “euthanasia,” and calls to animal services, which saves taxpayer dollars.

 

Others Include

Department Store Day

Dictionary Day

International Adjust Your Chair Day

Multicultural Diversity Day

National Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day

National Cut Up Your Credit Card Day

National Dictionary Day

National Liqueur Day

National Heroes' Day of Jamaica

Steve Jobs Day

World Anesthesia Day

World Food Day

World Spine Day

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