National Fun Day is a bewildering idea.  Is there a fee?  Some little kids used to "have fun" now and then, time and circumstances permitting, at least the lucky ones did, but "fun" all too soon became a commodity.  This country has long been awash in advertising for "fun".  Places, events, activities, pastimes, toys or equipment, and all with a price tag and sometimes a nagging bit of worry that you weren't getting your money's worth, that ir really wasn't so much fun at that.  And, of course, it's also time restricted, with opportunities for fun doled out sparingly, a bit here and there, now and then.  Excess fun is frivolous, you should be working, making money or improving yourself or your looks or health. It hit me that perhaps I had missed the memo, and we were all now both allowed and mandated to go "have fun" on this specific day and this day only, but I found no evidence of that.

At last it hit me that I had overlooked the obvious - Chow Fun.  Sure, the government and oligarchs (ok, so it's redundant, so shoot me) want us to hate the Chinese in order to maintain and perfect a unipolar US global hegemony and economic supremacy, but that's no reason to eschew their chow food.  And a personal favorite of mine and many others is chow fun.  In particular, for me at any rate, that would be broccoli-beef chow fun or just beef chow fun.  It's fun and fun and delicious, nutritious and good for what ails you.  And, for most of us, you still have to buy it, so it even meets the paradigmatic "Fun = something you spend money on" test.  Sorry, but this is making me hungry, so I'll just stop and run out for some fun.

It's also 404 Day but I decided not to go there because I couldn't decide which politician or CEO's photo to use for the title graphic.  Speaking of which, the exact same reasoning applies to National Tell a Lie Day

AND, lastly, it's Sweet Potato Day; presumably, that ol' sweet pertata, the Ocarina:

[Peru 1999 by Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen, (CC BY-NC-ND}  2.0)
   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode

On this day in history:

1609 – Moriscos were expelled from the Kingdom of Valencia.

1796 – Georges Cuvier delivered the first paleontological lecture.

1814 – Napoleon abdicated for the first time 

1818 – The United States Congress adopted the flag of the United States

1887 – Argonia, Kansas elected Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the US 

1905 – An earthquake hit the Kangra Valley in India killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.

1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) was founded under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany.

1944 – The first bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces killed 3000 civilians.

1945 – Red Army troops liberated Hungary from German occupation

1949 – Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO

1958 – The CND peace symbol was displayed in public for the first time in London.

1960 – France agreed to grant independence to the Mali Federation

1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

1969 – Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart.

1975 – Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1979 – Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan was executed.

1981 – The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force attacked H-3 Airbase and destroyed about 50 Iraqi aircraft.

1983 – Space Shuttle Challenger made its maiden voyage into space.

1984 – President Ronald Reagan called for an international ban on chemical weapons, heh

1996 – Comet Hyakutake was imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.

2002 – The MPLA government of Angola and UNITA rebels signed a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.

2009 – France announced the return to full participation in NATO of its military forces 

2020 – China held a national day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease outbreak.

Some people who were born on this day:

Man is not made better by being degraded

~ Dorothea Dix

1572 – William Strachey, author
1640 – Gaspar Sanz, guitarist, composer, and priest
1646 – Antoine Galland, orientalist and archaeologist
1648 – Grinling Gibbons, sculptor
1688 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, astronomer and cartographer
1802 – Dorothea Dix, nurse and activist
1818 – Thomas Mayne Reid, author and poet
1821 – Linus Yale, Jr., engineer and businessman
1826 – Zénobe Gramme, engineer, invented the Gramme machine 
1835 – John Hughlings Jackson, physician and neurologist
1842 – Édouard Lucas, mathematician and theorist
1868 – Philippa Fawcett, mathematician and educator
1869 – Mary Colter, architect, designed the Desert View Watchtower 
1906 – John Cameron Swayze, journalist
1913 – Muddy Waters, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1914 – David W. Goodall, ecologist and botanist
1915 – Louis Archambault, sculptor
1921 – Orunamamu, author and educator
1928 – Maya Angelou, memoirist and poet
1928 – Monty Norman, singer, songwriter, and producer
1939 – Hugh Masekela, trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer
1940 – Sharon Sheeley, singer and songwriter
1942 – Kitty Kelley, journalist and biographer
1944 – Mary Kenny, journalist, author, and playwright
1944 – Bob McDill, country music songwriter
1946 – Dave Hill, guitarist
1948 – Berry Oakley, bass player
1948 – Pick Withers, drummer
1949 – Junior Braithwaite, singer
1949 – Shing-Tung Yau, mathematician and academic
1952 – Gary Moore, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1953 – Chen Yi, violinist and composer
1957 – Graeme Kelling, guitarist
1957 – Nobuyoshi Kuwano, singer and trumpet player
1958 – Peter Baltes, bass player
1958 – Cazuza, singer and songwriter
1962 – Craig Adams, bass player and songwriter
1965 – Vinny Burns, guitarist and producer
1966 – Mike Starr, bass player
1970 – Josh Todd, singer, songwriter, and actor
1972 – Jill Scott, singer, songwriter, and actress
1973 – Kelly Price, singer, and songwriter
1975 – Miranda Lee Richards, singer and songwriter
1979 – Andy McKee, guitarist
1980 – Johnny Borrell, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1986 – Eunhyuk, singer, songwriter, and dancer

Some people who died on this day:

Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.

~~ Oliver Goldsmith

1609 – Carolus Clusius, botanist, mycologist, and academic
1617 – John Napier, mathematician, physicist, and astronomer
1774 – Oliver Goldsmith, novelist, playwright and poet
1807 – Jérôme Lalande, astronomer and academic
1870 – Heinrich Gustav Magnus, chemist and physicist
1875 – Karl Mauch, geographer and explorer
1883 – Peter Cooper, businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union 
1890 – Edmond Hébert, geologist and academic
1912 – Isaac K. Funk, minister, lexicographer, and publisher, co-founded Funk & Wagnalls 
1919 – William Crookes, chemist and physicist
1923 – John Venn, mathematician and philosopher, created the Venn diagram
1929 – Karl Benz, engineer and businessman 
1932 – Wilhelm Ostwald, chemist and academic
1961 – Simion Stoilow, mathematician and academic
1967 – Al Lewis, songwriter
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr., minister and activist
1976 – Harry Nyquist, engineer and theorist
1980 – Red Sovine, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1984 – Oleg Antonov, engineer and businessman, founded Antonov 
1985 – Kate Roberts, author and activist
1987 – Sachchidananda Vatsyayan, journalist, poet, and author
1992 – Arthur Russell, singer, songwriter, and cellist
1993 – Alfred Mosher Butts, game designer, invented Scrabble 
2001 – Liisi Oterma, astronomer
2001 – Ed Roth, illustrator and engineer
2007 – Karen Spärck Jones, computer scientist and academic
2011 – Scott Columbus, drummer
2013 – Roger Ebert, journalist, critic, and screenwriter
2014 – Wayne Henderson, trombonist and producer

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

404 Day  
International Carrot Day
National Fun Day
Sweet Potato Day
Vitamin C Day
National Tell A Lie Day
Peace Day (Angola)
One of the possible days for Qingming Festival.

MUSIC goes here; With apologies

Gaspar Sanz

Muddy Waters

Hugh Masakela

Dave Hill

Berry Oakley

Pitch Withers

Junior Braithwaite

Gary Moore

Cazuza

Arthur Russell

Al Lewis

Wayne Henderson

Please Note: Please do not post any Covid-19 related commentary in the comments. Thank you. There is a separate OT, aka The Dose, where all such material is welcome. Thanks again.

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?