On This Day December 14th

 

OTD

December 14th is the 348th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 17 days remain until the end of the year.

 

 Events

557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake, which cracks the dome of Hagia Sophia.

1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week after the death of her father, James V of Scotland.

1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.

1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

1900 – Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Physic Society in Berlin.

1903 – The Wright brothers first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1918 – Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

2020 – A total solar eclipse is visible from parts of the South Pacific, southern South America, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

 

Birthdays

1546 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist (d. 1601)

1775 – Philander Chase, American bishop and educator, founded Kenyon College (d. 1852)

1883 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, developed aikido (d. 1969)

1896 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1993)

1899 – DeFord Bailey, American Hall of Fame country and blues musician (d. 1982)

1911 – Spike Jones, American singer and bandleader (d. 1965)

1932 – Charlie Rich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)

1946 – Patty Duke, American actress (d. 2016)

1965 – Craig Biggio, American baseball player and coach

1988 – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress and singer

 

Holiday Spotlight

Christmas Bird Count week

  The Christmas Bird Count Week is celebrated from December 14 to January 5. This celebration is a citizen science survey where volunteer bird watchers in the Northern Hemisphere winter perform a census of the birds in the Western Hemisphere.

 The Christmas Bird Count week evolved out of an old hunting tradition in North America. Many North Americans were involved in hunts over Christmas, where they would actively hunt as many birds as possible. This hunting was competitive, which meant that many birds were hunted and killed in the Christmas hunts. Birds of all kinds got killed needlessly during this hunt as the hunters boosted their numbers.

 Frank Chapman, an ornithologist and founder of ‘Bird-Lore’ suggested a change in the tradition. He recommended that instead of hunting birds down and killing them, the Christmas tradition could involve counting them. The first group of observers was very few; about 27 people counted birds that winter. However, they identified about 18,500 individual birds across 90 different species.

 The first observers' success led to the number of birdwatchers increasing yearly. All the data collected through the Christmas Bird Count Week is used for the sciences, especially conservation biology.

 Participation is open to all volunteers, so people do not have to be specifically skilled to count birds during the Christmas Bird Count Week. Every person is assigned a count circle of about 15 miles in diameter, and everyone works in teams of 10 to count the birds in the circle.

 

 

Other Include

Alabama Day

Free Shipping Day - (With Participating Retailers) 

Martyred Intellectuals Day

Monkey Day

National Bouillabaisse Day

More Good Today Day

Roast Chestnuts Day

Roast Chestnuts Day

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