On This Day February 17th

 OTD

February 17th is the Forty-eighth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 317 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1600 – On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, at Campo de Fiori in Rome, the philosopher Giordano Bruno has a wooden vise put on his tongue to prevent him from continuing to speak.

1621 – Myles Standish is appointed as the first military commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.

1753 – In Sweden, February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

1801 – United States presidential election: A tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.

1838 – Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal, are killed by Zulus.

1854 – The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.

1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief of the Wounded, later known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

1913 – The Armory Show opened in New York City, displaying works of artists who were to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.

1949 – Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel.

1959 – Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.

1980 – First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.

1996 – In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.

 

Birthdays

1490 – Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (d. 1527)

1723 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (d. 1762)

1781 – René Laennec, the French physician, invented the stethoscope (d. 1826)

1832 – Richard Henry Park, American sculptor (d. 1902)

1874 – Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (d. 1956)

1893 – Wally Pipp, American baseball player and journalist (d. 1965)

1959 – Rowdy Gaines, American swimmer and sportscaster

1972 – Taylor Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2022)

1976 – Kelly Carlson, American actress and model.

 

Holiday Spotlight

World Pangolin Day

World Pangolin Day is observed annually to raise awareness and recommit international organizations to the fight against the global harvesting of pangolins—the only genuinely scaly mammals in the world.

The day is an opportunity for pangolin enthusiasts and the broader human community to join hands in raising awareness about the plight of these unique mammals — pangolin numbers are rapidly declining in Asia and Africa.

Pangolins are a highly prized commodity, often illegally trapped, trafficked, and killed for its scale by organized crime networks on a large scale to serve the need of the traditional medicine market in Asia, where pangolin scales are unfortunately believed to be a cure-all of sorts and pangolin flesh is considered a delicacy.

In Vietnam and Central and southern parts of West Africa, pangolins are often offered at restaurants catering to wealthy clients who consider their meat rare and a statement of status.

When frightened, a pangolin curls into a tight ball to protect its tender underside, making it a prime target for illegal poachers.

From 2016 to 2019, an estimated 206.4 tons of pangolin scales, or an equivalent of about 360,000 pangolins, were intercepted and confiscated from 52 seizures, according to a report by the Wildlife Justice Commission — an international foundation set up in the Netherlands with the mission to disrupt and help dismantle organized transnational criminal wildlife trading networks.

 

Others Include.

Analog to Digital TV Day

Champion Crab Races Day

My Way Day

National Cabbage Day

National Cafe Au Lait Day

National Indian Pudding Day

National PTA Founders Day

National Public Science Day

Random Acts of Kindness Day

Who Shall I Be Day

World Human Spirit Day

World Pangolin Day 

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