Day 185 - independence

Today is the 3rd day of the 27th week, the 4th day of the 7th month, the 185th day of 2023, and:

• Alice in Wonderland Day -  in1862 Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) creates Alice in Wonderland for Alice Liddell on a family boat trip on the river Isis (Thames) in Oxford.  It was published on this day three years laster
• Boom Box Parade Day
• Independence Day - the US from the state of Great Britain in 1776 and the Philippines from the US in 1946
• Independence From Meat Day
• Indivisible Day - in recognition of the necessity for the separation of the church and the state
• Jackfruit Day
• Lou Gehrig Day - in 1930, Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
• National Barbecue Day
• National Barbecued Spareribs Day
• National Caesar Salad Day
• National Country Music Day
• Sidewalk Egg Frying Day
• the first evening of the Dree Festival 
• and Voyager 1 is 22h 07m 26s of light travel time from Earth

Quote of the day:
"question:  do other countries have the 4th of July?

  answer:  of course they do!  but it isn't a holiday"

~ very old joke remembered from childhood days

On this day in...

1054 - A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1785 - James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson

1817 - Chief Engineer James Geddes begins construction on the Erie Canal, (Rome, New York), one of the first great engineering works in North America

1819 - William Herschel makes last telescopic observation of 1819 comet

1828 - Construction begins on B&O (Baltimore-Ohio), the first US passenger railroad

1840 - The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end

1845 - Henry David Thoreau moves into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau's account of his two years there, Walden, will become a touchstone of the environmental movement.

1855 - In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, "Leaves of Grass" is published 

1865 - First edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll is published

1883 = Buffalo Bill Cody presents his first Wild West Show in North Platte, Nebraska

1884 - the Statue of Liberty is presented to the US in Paris

1888 - the first organized rodeo competition is held in Prescott, Arizona

1892 - Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4

1903 = the Pacific Cable (San Francisco, Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opens, President Theodore Roosevelt sends a message

1927 - the first flight of the Lockheed Vega, a pilot plus four-passenger monoplane; its 225 HP engine allowed cruising speed of 120 MPH

1951 – William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.

1961 - Walt Disney is one of the two main speakers on the Independence Day in The Rebuild Hills at Skørping in Denmark

1964 - Beachboys' "I Get Around" reaches #1

1966 - Beatles attacked in the Philippines after (unintentionally) insulting Imelda Marcos

1968 - Radio astronomy satellite Explorer 38 launched

1969 - "Give Peace a Chance" by Plastic Ono Band is released in UK

1969 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1971 - France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll

1982 - 4th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Columbia 4 (STS-4) lands at Edwards AFB

1982 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1987 - Discovery moves to Launch Pad 39B for STS-26 mission

1990 - France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll

1996 - Hot Mail, a free internet E-mail service begins

1997 - US space probe Pathfinder lands on Ares Vallis Mars

1998 – Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.

2005 - The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1

2006 - Space Shuttle program: STS-121 Mission - Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 18:37:55 UTC to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program's history to occur on the United States' Independence Day

2012 - 12th century manuscript Codex Calixtinus from Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, Spain, rediscovered, after been stolen, in the garage of an employee of the cathedral

2015 - Matt "Megatoad" Stonie, in an upset, defeats 8x hot dog eating champion Joey "Jaws" Chestnut at Nathan's Famous, Coney Island with 62 hot dogs

2016 - NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully enters Jupiter's orbit

2017 - North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan

2018 - Chinese technology company Baidu announces it has begun mass production of self-driving buses, the 14-seat Apolong

2019 - Biggest seaweed bloom in the world, the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt stretches from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico after algae explosion due to deforestation and fertiliser

2019 - Record temperatures in Alaska as Anchorage reaches 90F (32C)

2019 - US publication Mad Magazine announces it will stop publishing new material after 67 years

2021 - Researchers reveal there are 14 living descendants of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci 

July 4th, like Veterans Day [November 11th] and Juneteenth [June 19th], is one of those US federal holidays not moved to either the closest Monday or Friday, but is left to occur on the weekday.  Those who work retail and other service jobs find themselves quite busy as many folks do have off and flock to amuse themselves.  Bars, restaurants, stores/malls, and movie theaters do a bustling business, but the fact that tomorrow is a regular work day does put a damper on partying for some.  Others have taken off the entire week, or at least took off yesterday, to make it a long weekend, and are out in full force, enjoying the summer. 

My cleaning lady of many years had originally told me that she would come tomorrow, but then texted last night and said since she didn't have any plans, she would prefer just to come today, and of course, I said that was fine with me.  My celebrations?  I will read [or rather listen to the reading of] the Declaration of Independence.   

These days, with the surge of of 'patriotism' turning into ultra-right, white Christian nationalism, with 'freedom' being defined as the right to reject anyone that doesn't agree with those extreme 'patriots', it is time to take back our flag, return patriotism to its original definition, and pledge our "lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to creating the future we wish to see.

Independence me means not just those rights outlined in the Declaration, or the Constitution, or the Bill of rights.  It means the right to a level playing field, the right to good health care, the right to affordable housing, the right to a sustainable wage, the right to be who you are, the right to worship as you wish.  It means government will work for everyone, for all Americans, not just the rich and powerful who can buy influence and spread propaganda.   

The only way to push back the tide of recent retrogression is to make sure you become involved and knowledgeable of the agendas promoted in the school boards, on the local level, on the state level, and yes, on the national scene.  Yes, your vote counts - if it didn't, they wouldn't be working so hard to limit it via gerrymandering, voter regulations, cutting polling places, restricting citizenship, and culling voter rolls.

Later I will watch 1776 [even tho the play was far better than the movie, which is mediocre despite the excellent musical score] and grill a burger.  As dusk falls, I will watch the skies light up here and there from my balcony, then retire for the night, hopefully braced by the inspiring words and songs of the day.