On This Day February 7th

 OTD

February 7th is the Thirty-eighth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 327 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.

1497 – In Florence, Italy, supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books in a "Bonfire of the vanities".

1783 – American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lifted the Great Gibraltar Siege.

1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.

1894 – The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States.

1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco fell ill due to the bubonic plague, the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.

1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

2014 – Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.

 

Birthdays

1478 – Thomas More, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1535)

1693 – Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)

1741 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss-English painter and academic (d. 1825)

1804 – John Deere, an American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company (d. 1886)

1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (d. 1870)

1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)

1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)

1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer, and actor (d. 1983)

1929 – Jim Langley, English international footballer and manager (d. 2007)

1962 – Garth Brooks is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

1965 – Chris Rock is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.

 

Holiday Spotlight

International Love a Mensch Day

. Although it sounds like a term for men, a mensch is more of a way of living than a macho term.

‘Mensch,’ derived from the Old High German word ‘tennis’ (related to the Old English words ‘human being’ and ‘man’), denotes a person of integrity and honor.’

According to Leo Rosten, a mensch is someone kind and considerate, “Somebody to admire and emulate, someone with a high moral character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsibility, and decorum, are all essential characteristics of a real mensch, and nothing less.” The term is used as a high compliment, suggesting the rarity and significance of the attributes possessed by that individual.

A “better human person” was defined as having “compassion” in its philosophical sense during Germany’s Age of Enlightenment, and the term Humanität was used to convey this in Humanism to describe what it meant to be a “better human being” during the Age of Enlightenment. Historically, the concept can be traced back to Cicero’s Humanitas, translated as Menschlichkeit in German and derived from where the Yiddish word mensch comes from.

To be a Mensch in German means to be a regular person rather than an outstanding one, but to be mensch, in the Yiddish culture, is inextricably linked to being a good person in every way. The concept of ‘Mensch’ and the word ‘Mensch’ have considerably impacted contemporary popular culture.

 

Other Include

Ballet Day

E Day

Global School Play Day

Harry Potter Book Night

International Clash Day

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

National Fettuccine Alfredo Day

National Girls & Women in Sports Day

National Periodic Table Day

National Signing Day

Rose Day

Send a Card to a Friend Day

Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day

World Read Aloud Day