Despite gloomy weather, November offers plenty of history & national celebrations
Welcome to November which surely won’t be any worse than October, will it?
Of course I have been saying that once a month, all year, but I will keep on until it is true or we start a new year. Here is some stuff to consider about November during the extra hour you got today, if you remembered to set the clocks back.
Despite the rain, cold and gloom, November has some things to boast about. There is always Thanksgiving and Nov. 11 marks the day that World War I (the war to end all wars it was believed) ended back in 1919.
Sunday, Nov. 1, is All Saints Day when we celebrate all saints, the known and the unknown though it strikes me that it would be hard to celebrate someone you didn’t know. It’s also the earliest day on which National Bison Day can fall. Traditionally that occasion is the first Saturday of November which will be next Saturday or Nov. 7 this year.
Sunday also is World Vegan Day but the annual celebration in St. Louis has been canceled because of (what else?) COVID-19.
To be fair and balanced, both National Sausage Day and National Sausage Pizza Day were Oct. 11 and I somehow missed them.
Nearly every day in the month has multiple celebrations like this Thursday when it is National Cinnamon Day, National Deep Fried Clams Day and National Vinegar Day.
I’m not sure if it is a coincidence that National Meth Awareness Day and National Mississippi Day are both Nov. 30. And I don’t know the protocol for National Chicken Lady Day which is this Wednesday.
All these days are courtesy of the National Day Calendar, a publicity stunt gone amok.
November dates hold much history, according to Wikipedia, some of which I have heard.
Back in 1572 the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo opened for viewing. William Shakespeare’s “Othello,” opened in 1604 and in 1611 he brought out “The Tempest.”
In 1765 the British Parliament passed the not-so-successful Stamp Act which eventually would help cost them an entire country after the Americans rebelled.
Some stuff I didn’t know. In 1848, the Boston Female Medical School opened, the first in the country for women.
In 1911 Italy carried out the first planned aerial bombing mission, with pilots dropping small hand-held bombs on Libya as part of the Italo-Turkish War.
In 1951 the military exposed 6,500 American soldiers to nuclear radiation during Operation Buster-Jangle which detonated a series of seven atomic bombs. They were trying to work out tatics for actually using the bombs in combat which thankfully never happened.
More about November
November holds the birthdays of former St. Louis Blues great Al Arbour, Yuke Shimizu, creator of Hello Kitty and singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett, among others.
If you can just make it through to the end of the month, you can get a break. Take comfort Nov. 30 is both Stay Home Well from Work Day and National Personal Space Day. You’ll probably need them.