Pictured above is the HMS Bounty monument at Point Venus, Tahiti. Tahiti was an approved stop for the bounty, but it was the best illustration I could come up with for Bounty Day which is celebrated on this day in the Pitcairn Islands, the HMS Bounty's very much unauthorized final stop. The mutineers and the tahitians who accompanied them settled and populated the uninhabited island and their descendents also helped populate Norfolk Island as well. I know it is a foreign holiday, but hell, it is a fascinating tale (read the history) and much more interesting than measuring your feet.

Its National Pie Day. December first is also National Pie Day, but January 23 is the first National Pie Day of the year and, added Bonus, it is also National Rhubarb Pie Day. That's Rhubarb Pie not Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, Banana-Rhubarb Pie, Peach-Rhubarb Pie or any other hybrid, thank you.

Heh, National Handwriting Day too, yeah, right. Who else still uses a fountain pen? Hands? How many can do at least 15 wpm with their thumbs on a cellphone's virtual keypad? Uh huh. Q.E.D.

Its National Measure Your Feet Day, but don't waste your time. For many ages now they have have always been 12 inches. Feet are, in fact, so defined. Inches, of course, are 3 Barleycorns laid end to end, somewhere around 2.54 centimeters and a waste of good Barleycorns, which are better used in malted form, unless you are a member of Traffic.

On this day in history:

1368 -- The Ming dynasty began with the coronation of Zhu Yuanzhang

1546 – François Rabelais published his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.

1556 -- The Shaanxi earthquake may have may have killed as many as 830,000.

1795 -- French cavalry forces captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns by attacking across a frozen bay.

1846 -- Slavery was abolished in Tunisia

1849 -- Elizabeth Blackwell received her MD and became the first female doctor in the US

1870 -- In the Marias Massacre (in Montana), U.S. cavalry killed 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children

1879 -- The Battle of Rorke's Drift ended

1912 -- The International Opium Convention was signed

1950 -- The Knesset illegally declared that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel

1960 -- The bathyscaphe Trieste set a new depth record of 10,911 metres

1964 -- The 24th Amendment outlawed poll taxes

1968 – The spy ship USS Pueblo was captured by the Korean People's Navy.

1973 -- Nixon announced peace in Vietnam.

1986 -- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first members

1997 -- Madeleine Albright became the US' first female Secretary of State.

1998 -- Netscape announced Mozilla

2003 -- The last signal was received from Pioneer 10 (but Pioneer Chicken keeps going)

2018 – Trump arbitrarily placed tariffs on Chinese solar panels and washing machines kicking off a trade war.

Some people who were born on this day:

Mathematics knows no races or geographical boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.

~~ David Hilbert

1622 – Abraham Diepraam, painter
1752 -- Muzio Clementi, pianist, composer, and conductor
1783 -- Stendhal, author who saw life in terms of red and black
1813 – Camilla Collett, novelist and activist
1832 -- Edouard Manet, painter
1840 -- Ernst Abbe, physicist and engineer
1862 -- David Hilbert, mathematician and academic
1872 -- Paul Langevin, physicist and academic antifascist, commie and Marie Curie's lover
1897 -- Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky, architect, communist, & kitchen designer
1898 -- Randolph Scott, Ahhhhh ...
1907 -- Hideki Yukawa, physicist, Japan's first Nobel laureate
1910 -- Django Reinhardt, guitarist and composer
1918 -- Gertrude B. Elion, biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize winner
1918 -- Florence Rush, social worker and theorist, attacked some wrongheaded Freudian victim blaming.
1925 -- Marty Paich, pianist, composer, producer, and conductor
1933 -- Chita Rivera, actress, singer, and dancer
1943 -- Gary Burton, vibraphone player and composer
1948 – Anita Pointer, singer and songwriter
1950 -- Bill Cunningham, bass player and keyboard player
1950 -- John Greaves, bass player and songwriter
1950 -- Luis Alberto Spinetta, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and poet
1953 – Robin Zander, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1964 -- Jonatha Brooke, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1968 -- Taro Hakase, violinist and composer

Some people who died on this day:

The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic, but to end the injustice.

~~ Paul Robeson

1622 – William Baffin, explorer and navigator
1803 -- Arthur Guinness, brewer, founded Guinness. Truly a stout fellow.
1837 – John Field, pianist and composer
1883 -- Gustave Dore, engraver and illustrator
1931 -- Anna Pavlova, ballerina
1944 – Edvard Munch, painter and illustrator
1973 -- Kid Ory, trombonist, composer, and bandleader
1976 -- Paul Robeson, actor, singer, and activist
1978 -- Terry Kath, guitarist and songwriter
1989 -- Salvador Dali, painter and sculptor
1990 -- Allen Collins, guitarist and songwriter, southren man
1993 -- Thomas A. Dorsey, singer, songwriter and pianist
1993 -- Keith Laumer, author, flyboy, and diplomat
1997 -- Richard Berry, singer & songwriter
1999 -- Lincoln Thompson, singer & songwriter
2007 -- E. Howard Hunt, professional low-life SOB, spook
2010 – Earl Wild, pianist and composer
2017 – Bobby Freeman, singer, songwriter and record producer
2018 – Hugh Masekela, trumpeter, composer, and singer
2019 – Oliver Mtukudzi, Afro Jazz musician

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

Fixed Date Holidays:
Bounty Day (Pitcairn Islands)
First National Pie Day of the Year (There's another on December 1)
National Rhubarb Pie Day
National Handwriting Day (soon to be replaced by thumb typing day)
National Measure Your Feet Day

Today's Tunes

Muzio Clementi

Django Reinhardt

Marty Paich

Gary Burton

Anita Pointer

Bill Cunningham

John Greaves

Luis Alberto Spinetta

Robin Zander

Jonatha Brooke

Taro Hakase

Kid Ory

Paul Robeson

Terry Kath

.
Allen Collins

Thomas A. Dorsey

Richard Berry

Lincoln Thompson

Bobby Freeman

Hugh Masekela

Oliver Mtukudzi

Bonus:

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

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

open thread, Bounty Day, Pie Day, Rhubarb Pie Day, Rabelais, Mozilla, David Hilbert, Paul Robeson, Django Reinhardt, Anita Pointer, Kid Ory, Thomas Dorsey, Bobby Freeman, Hugh Masakela