Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
July 24 is Amelia Earhart Day
Today is Amelia Earhart Day, celebrating the aviation pioneer’s birth on July 24, 1897. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, for which she received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross. A member of the National Woman’s Party and an early proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, Earhart’s self-confidence and spirit of […]
July 23 is Gorgeous Grandma Day
Today is Gorgeous Grandma Day, created by author Alice Solomon. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1984, at age 50, she felt she and her generation had been written off and branded “senior citizens” by society. Solomon believed this occurred the moment she hit the half-century mark. “In an instant and only one day older, I was […]
National Day of the Cowboy
Today is the National Day of the Cowboy, always observed on the fourth Saturday of July. On March 18, 2016, Idaho became the 11th state to pass a law recognizing the holiday. The National Day of the Cowboy Organization created this day in 2005 to acknowledge the contributions of the cowboy (and cowgirl) to the history of […]
July 21 is Invite an Alien to Live with You Day
Today is Invite an Alien to Live with You Day. Relax! We aren’t talking about the aliens that a certain reality star turned politician has said are coming to murder us and steal our jobs—although, once we’re dead, they’d technically just be taking advantage of sudden employment opportunities. This type of illegal alien comes from the […]
National Lollipop Day
Today is National Lollipop Day! Early incarnations of the lollipop date back thousands of years. Archeologists have found evidence that ancient Egyptians used honey to preserve fruit, then inserted sticks to make it easier to eat. New Haven, CT, confectioner George Smith claimed he got the idea for the lollipop from the stirrers he used when mixing […]
July 19 is National Daiquiri Day
Today is National Daiquiri Day. Although conflicting legends abound, the most likely origin story credits an American engineer named Jennings Cox for the drink’s invention. In 1898, Cox supervised an iron mining operation in a town off the coast of Cuba called Daiquiri. Every night he and his crew gathered at a local bar after work. One […]
Wrong Way Corrigan Day
Today is Wrong Way Corrigan Day. On July 17, 1938, Douglas Corrigan (January 22, 1907 – December 9, 1995), a pilot and aircraft mechanic who had recently flown from California to New York, took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, ostensibly to make the transcontinental trip back to Long Beach. Things didn’t go according to […]
July 16 is National Personal Chef Day
Today is National Personal Chef Day, created by the United States Personal Chef Association (USPCA) to recognize the hard work and dedication of personal chefs across the country. A private chef works exclusively for one client, sometimes living in the home. A personal chef can be hired by as many clients as his or her schedule […]
July 15 is Saint Swithin’s Day
Today is Saint Swithin’s Day, a Roman Catholic feast day dedicated to the ninth-century Saxon Bishop of Winchester. (Spellings of his surname have varied. Swithin is correct in modern English, while Swithun was the spelling of choice in Old English. In the original Saxon language, according to Butler’s The Lives of the Saints, it was spelled Swithum.) […]
July 9 is Rock ‘n’ Roll Day
Today is Rock ‘n’ Roll Day. It marks an end as well as a beginning. On July 9, 1956, Dick Clark took over as the host of a show called Bandstand. Less than three weeks before, it had slipped through another man’s hands. Bandstand premiered in 1950 on WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, PA, and consisted of […]