~~     First_Aid_Kit

Child Health Day is one of those misdirection holidays, sort of like sending thoughts and prayers.  We don't have good numbers regarding child health, we don't give a shit about child health, we don't do shit about it and we don't intend to do shit about it, BUT, here's a nice happy holiday named Child Health Day.  Somewhere there's even a picture of a woman in a military uniform playing with some kid to further brighten your day.

Infant mortality in the US is 5.69 per 1,000 live births, ranking us 33rd out of the 36 OECD countries.

As to those who live:

Roughly 43.3 million US kids lack health Insurance and access to health care

Roughly 11.6 million US kids live in poverty

Roughly 10.7 millions live in households which are "food insecure"

Roughly 2.5 million are "homeless"

Sort of like "Peace Day", we celebrate that which we do not do or even try to do; a sleazy attempt to fool ourselves.  I hope it isn't working, that we are becoming more and more aware of reality and maybe starting to think about trying to find a way to maybe figure out a way to get something done about these problems, but the process in this country is broken.  There is no way to make massive profits from solving any of those problems, let alone doing in such a way that all the profits and benefits flow to a very few obscenely rich corporations and individuals.  That being the case, we can be certain that, as a country, we will do zip shit. I mean, really absolute nada

On 11 baktun, 18 katun, 3 tun, 9 uinal, 17 k'in, (11.18.3.9.17 mlc), some dude using the alias "Gregory" introduced a new European calendar, now known as the Gregorian calendar.  It seems that the duration of one orbit of the sun around the earth had either changed or else was misrepresented by the calculations used in creating the Julian calendar.  This caused the computed date upon which the Christians celebrated their version of the pagan Eostre holiday to drift significantly with respect to the authentic original date, causing untold consternation requiring remedy.  Da kine mo bettah now, I guess.

On 10/04/ 1853, The Ottoman Empire declared war on The Russian Empire, officially starting the Crimean War.  I tend to think of this as The Haberdasher's War because it featured generals Raglan and Cardigan as well as the Battle of Balaclava.  In reality it is best known for The Charge of The Light Brigade, a militarily stupid exercise memorialized in poem and summed up by French General Pierre Bosquet with his famous declaration c'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas la guerre

On this day in history:

1582 – The Gregorian Calendar was introduced by Pope "Gregory" XIII

1597 – Governor Gonzalo Méndez de Canço began suppressing a native uprising against his rule in what is now the US state of Georgia.

1824 – Mexico adopted a new constitution and became a federal republic.

1830 – The Belgian Revolutionary provisional government seceded from the Netherlands.

1853 – The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.

1883 – First run of the Orient Express. (why is it called a run, insofar as they roll?)

1927 – Gutzon Borglum began carving Mount Rushmore.violating the Treaty of Fort Laramie

1957 – Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1958 – The current constitution of France was adopted.

1983 – Richard Noble set a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour
 

1985 – The Free Software Foundation was founded, pissing off a lot of people
.

1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.

1993 – The Battle of Mogadishu occurred, one of the earlier US attacks in the ongoing undeclared war on Somalia. 

1993 – Tanks bombarded the Russian parliament during a demonstrators against President Yeltsin

2004 – SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.

2006 – WikiLeaks was launched, triggering the global war on Julian Assange.

Born this day in:

“If a cat spoke, it would say things like 'Hey, I don’t see the problem here.”

~~     Roy Blount Jr.

1515 – Lucas Cranach the Younger, painter
1524 – Francisco Vallés, physician
1657 – Francesco Solimena, painter and illustrator
1720 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, sculptor and illustrator
1723 – Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, entomologist and author
1759 – Louis François Antoine Arbogast, mathematician and academic
1768 – Francisco José de Caldas, naturalist, executed by royalists in the war of independence
1787 – François Guizot, historian and politician
1814 – Jean-François Millet, painter and educator
1861 – Frederic Remington, painter, sculptor, and illustrator
1876 – Florence Eliza Allen, mathematician and suffrage activist
1879 – Robert Edwards, artist, musician, and writer
1888 – Lucy Tayiah Eads, tribal chief (Kaw)
1890 – Alan L. Hart, physician and author
1896 – Dorothy Lawrence, reporter,
1903 – John Vincent Atanasoff, physicist and academic, invented the Atanasoff–Berry computer 
1906 – Mary Celine Fasenmyer, mathematician
1911 – Mary Two-Axe Earley, indigenous women's rights activist
1914 – Brendan Gill, journalist and essayist
1916 – Vitaly Ginzburg, physicist and academic
1917 – Violeta Parra, singer, songwriter, and guitarist (d. 1967)
1918 – Kenichi Fukui, chemist and academic,
1921 – Stella Pevsner, children's author
1929 – Leroy Van Dyke, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1937 – Jackie Collins, author and actress
1937 – Lloyd Green, steel guitar player
1938 – Kurt Wüthrich, chemist and biophysicist
1940 – Steve Swallow, bass player and composer
1941 – Roy Blount, Jr., humorist and journalist
1941 – Anne Rice, author
1942 – Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer and songwriter
1943 – H. Rap Brown, activist
1945 – Clifton Davis, singer, songwriter, actor, and minister
1946 – Susan Sarandon, actress and activist
1947 – Julien Clerc, singer, songwriter, and pianist
1947 – Jim Fielder, bass player
1948 – Duke Robillard, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1952 – Jody Stephens, rock drummer
1953 – Gil Moore, singer, songwriter, drummer, and producer
1957 – Yngve Moe, bass player and songwriter
1958 – Barbara Kooyman, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1959 – Chris Lowe, singer and keyboard player
1961 – Kazuki Takahashi, author and illustrator, created Yu-Gi-Oh!
1961 – Jon Secada, singer and songwriter
1965 – Skip Heller, singer, songwriter, guitarist,, and producer
1971 – Darren Middleton, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1977 – Richard Reed Parry, guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Died this day in:

“Tomorrow never happens. It’s all the same fucking day, man.”

~~     Janis Joplin

1660 – Francesco Albani, painter
1669 – Rembrandt, painter and illustrator
1680 – Pierre-Paul Riquet, engineer, designed the Canal du Midi 
1747 – Amaro Pargo, corsair
1859 – Karl Baedeker, publisher, founded Baedeker 
1890 – Catherine Booth, co-founded The Salvation Army
1904 – Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty 
1904 – Carl Josef Bayer, chemist and academic
1935 – Jean Béraud, painter and academic
1947 – Max Planck, physicist and academic,
1951 – Henrietta Lacks, medical patient
1970 – Janis Joplin, singer and songwriter
1974 – Anne Sexton, poet and author
1982 – Glenn Gould, pianist and conductor
1994 – Danny Gatton, guitarist
1999 – Erik Brødreskift, drummer
1999 – Art Farmer, trumpet player and composer
2000 – Michael Smith, biochemist and geneticist
2001 – John Collins, guitarist
2013 – Võ Nguyên Giáp, general and politician,
 
2014 – Jean-Claude Duvalier, dictator, liked by Nixon and Reagan, and possibly nobody else
2015 – Dave Pike, vibraphone player and songwriter

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Child Health Day
World Animal Day
National Taco Day
National Vodka Day
World Architecture Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies

Violeta Parra

Leroy Van Dyke

+

Lloyd Green

Steve Swallow

Bernice Reagon

Jim Fielder

Duke Robillard

Janis Joplin

Danny Gatton

Art Farmer

John Collins

Dave Pike

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