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Second Monday in March March 12, 2012 Here’s a geography quiz: 1. What is the official language of Belize? 2. Whose portrait adorns the Canadian loonie? 3. What comprises 53 countries, covers over a fifth of the world’s land area, and accounts for 2 …Read more 
March 1 Marshall Islands flag “In the 12-year period from 1946-1958, when the Marshall Islands was a United Nations Trust Territory administered by the United States, the United States conducted 67 atomic and hydrogen atmospheric bomb tests in islands, with a total yield of 108 megatons, which is 98 times greater than the total yield of all the U.S. tests in Nevada. Put another way, the total yield of the tests in the Marshall Islands was equivalent …Read more 
February 6 New Zealand’s national holiday celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on this day (February 6) in 1840. The word ‘celebrate’ is disputed though. The treaty was the original agreement between representatives of the British Crown and the Maori chieftains, and its signing is considered the birth of New Zealand. However, to many Maori—the indigenous descendants who make up about a sixth of New Zealand’s population—the Treaty represents the country’s ‘original sin’. The problem …Read more 
January 31
Over 40 years ago the small island of Nauru was granted its independence from Australia. According to People and the Earth: Basic Issues in the Sustainability of Resources and the Environment, Nauru is the only nation in the world whose economy is based on bird droppings. “Nauru survives by the mining of the natural fertilizers that were produced over many millennia by the interaction of bird droppings (guana) with marine sediments exposed at the …Read more January 26 On January 26, 1808 Major George Johnston led his men to the residence of Governor William Bligh and forcibly relieved him of his post. This remains the only successful coup by force in Australia’s history. (You may remember Charles Laughton’s portrayal of the lovable, kooky Captain Bligh in 1935′s Best Picture “Mutiny on the Bounty” which portrayed the crew’s slapstick romp through the South Pacific.) But that’s not why they celebrate. In fact the first recorded …Read more 
January 8 The Mississippi Delta was shining Like a National guitar, I am following the river Down the highway Through the cradle of the civil war, I’m going to Graceland, Graceland In Memphis Tennessee… …I’ve reason to believe We both will be received In Graceland Paul Simon, Graceland Today is the birthday of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley. Though not an official holiday in any nation, it is …Read more 
December 26 St. Stephen “In London and other places, St. Stephen’s Day, or the 26th of December, is familiarly known as Boxing-day, from its being the occasion on which those annual guerdons known as Christmas-boxes are solicited and collected… The Book of Days As a child I thought it odd that the British, so seemingly refined (compared to us their American cousins), would dedicate the day after Christmas to such a brutal and …Read more 
October 26 Today the small island nation of Nauru celebrates Angam Day. Angam means “jubilation” or “homecoming”. The jubilation doesn’t refer to any election, battle, revolution, legislation, or victory. It celebrates a birthday. It’s the birthday of a woman named Eidaruwo, who was born on October 26, 1932. But Angam Day doesn’t celebrate anything she did. In fact, it was first celebrated on the very day she was born. For nearly all of its 3000 year history, Nauru’s …Read more |
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