Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
November 27 is Pins and Needles Day
Today is Pins and Needles Day but it has nothing to do with anxiety, diabetic neuropathy or the creepy sensation you get after sleeping all night on your arm. On November 27, 1937, musical revue Pins and Needles opened on Broadway in New York City. Comprised of skits lampooning fascist dictators and their sympathizers, bigoted Daughters of the American Revolution, […]
November 26 is National Cake Day
Today is National Cake Day. One of the most delicious things ever invented, cake has earned every one of the fifteen holidays dedicated to different variations. Whet your appetite with the story of how it all got started. A Brief History of Cake Cake dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was often flavored with […]
Tie One On Day
Tie One On Day takes place every year on the day before Thanksgiving. But it has nothing to do with Drinksgiving or Blackout Wednesday and doesn’t promote alcohol use or abuse. It began on Thanksgiving eve in 2003, when EllynAnne Geisel wrapped a pie in an apron, slipped a handwritten note of sympathy into its pocket and […]
November 19 is World Toilet Day
World Toilet Day World Toilet Day was established on November 19, 2001, by the World Toilet Organization to raise awareness of the global need for proper sanitation facilities. Since then, it has grown in scope and recognition. In 2013, the United Nations passed a resolution recognizing World Toilet Day as an official UN international day. Each year, World […]
November 18 is Pushbutton Phone Day
On November 18, 1963, the first pushbutton telephone went on sale to the public. It may seem quaint now in the age of mobile phones when many of us don’t even have landlines anymore. But this was cutting-edge technology in its day and remains an integral part of the history of telecommunications. Industrial designer Henry […]
November 12 is Guinness World Records Day
Today is Guinness World Records Day, when hundreds of thousands of people around the globe will try to make it into the famous book. Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said, “Guinness World Records Day unites people across the planet from all walks of life, all of whom have one common goal – to become the greatest in […]
November 11 is Air Day
Take a deep breath. Air keeps us alive. With the notable exception of anaerobic bacteria, living things need oxygen to survive. Not pure oxygen, mind you. That would be too much of a good thing. Air (usually) has just the right mix of gases and, for that, we owe it a debt of gratitude. If […]
November 10 is International Accounting Day
What’s so exciting about International Accounting Day? On November 10, 1494, Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli published “Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita” (Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion). It included a detailed description of double-entry bookkeeping, called the Method of Venice. Although this technique had been practiced for centuries, Pacioli’s treatise was the […]
November 7 is National Notary Public Day
Today is Notary Public Day, created in 1975 to “recognize notaries for their public service and their contributions to national and international commerce.” Today’s date was selected because the first American notary public, Thomas Fugill, was appointed on November 7, 1639, by the Colony of New Haven. Today, nearly 4.8 million notaries public in the United States […]
Zero-Tasking Day
Multitasking, we can all agree, is not much fun. Meet zero-tasking, a term coined by Nancy Christie, an author and motivational speaker. (I guess today we can call her a “de-motivational” speaker.) Zero-Tasking Day occurs on the day when Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time ends. Christie encourages us to resist the urge to fill that hour […]