Celebrate Every Day

Welcome to June 24th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate furry interns and sweet “nut-things.” For those of us who work at home, every day is National Take Your Dog To Work Day. And these pups are truly lucky to be around their favorite person all day - you! There’s the added benefit of playtime, treats, and tummy rubs which can break up work nicely. But if you work in an office...

Welcome to June 23rd, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate being in the pink and Motown pizza. Some people have streets named after them. Others have landmarks. But not many people can say they have a color named in their honor. Madame du Pompadour, a mistress of Louis XV loved pink so much that a designer created a shade just for her. The color Rose Pompadour became very fashiona...

Welcome to June 22nd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate carbs fit for a king and great moments in greasy spoon history. Not much is known about the origin of eclairs, but we do know they became famous in nineteenth century France. Chef Careme is thought to be their creator, as he baked them at the Court of King Louis the 18th. The word eclair means flash of lightning, which may...

Welcome to June 21st, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate shredding the half pipe and the need to overshare. The Z-boys were a group of Los Angeles teenagers who rode the waves near the Santa Monica pier. On days when the ocean was too calm for surfing, they would go skateboarding. In the early 1970s, there was a major drought in Southern California and when pools began to dry up...

Welcome to June 20th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate great birds in history. Benjamin Franklin once said that the turkey was “a Bird of Courage… '' that would not hesitate to attack any British soldiers who dared to step foot onto their farm. This argument did not win the day when choosing our Nation’s mascot and unfortunately for the bird is loved today for very different r...

Welcome to June 19th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate timeless timepieces and the guys we look up to. For hundreds of years after their invention in the 1500s, watches were carried in pockets or worn on chains around one’s neck. Wristwatches didn’t become popular with men until the early 1900s, and then only out of necessity. During World War I, soldiers wore timepieces on th...

Welcome to June 18th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate side splitting self care and relaxing hobbies. Today is about the ultimate in self care - “the splurge!” Splurging is that “certain something” that makes you feel spoiled in your own special way. It might be extra whipped cream on your latte, a great bottle of wine or a gadget that would make your life easier. But if you’r...

Welcome to June 17th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a dessert that keeps on rolling and a mascot who keeps us laughing. The German word “strudel” literally means “swirl,” which makes sense if you think of its whirlpool shape. This flaky, fruit-filled pastry was created in 1696 and became very popular during the Habsburg Dynasty. Today apple strudel is still one of Austria’s...

Welcome to June 16th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate profitable pastimes and candies. There was a time that if you wanted to listen to music in public, there needed to be a live band. But Jimmy Savile changed all that in 1943, when he threw the world’s first DJ dance party in Otley, England. He played jazz records at the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds and was the first DJ...

Welcome to June 15th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate deadly creatures and amazing views. The Great White Shark is one of the most deadly predators on Earth. But it looks positively tame when compared to its great great great granddaddy—the Megalodon. This prehistoric fish hunted throughout the world’s oceans until about 3.5 million years ago when it went extinct. Based on fo...

Welcome to June 14th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate inspirational bears and distinctly American tastes. In 1950, a large and destructive wildfire tore through the mountains of south-central New Mexico. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found a tiny bear cub hanging on to the top of a charred tree. Rangers took him in and nursed him back to health and gave him...

Welcome to June 13th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a persistent inventor and persistent weeds. Elias Howe patented the sewing machine in 1838, but didn’t make any money selling it. In fact, he was living in poverty until he realized that other manufacturers had been ripping him off and selling lots of sewing machines in the process. So he sued them. All of them. And he won...

Welcome to June 12th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate floriography and tasty health food. Floriography, the process of communicating via flowers and their arrangements, was developed during the Victorian era. For example, a bouquet containing verbena is asking for your prayers. A bouquet with yellow tulips is saying that the sender loves your smile. And birdsfoot trefoil mean...

Welcome to June 11th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate Summer’s best veggie and a confusing cake. Americans love fresh corn and, on average, eat about six pounds per person each year. During summer cookouts, it’s arguably the most popular food other than burgers and hotdogs. But some people take their love of corn to the extreme. The National Sweet Corn Eating Championship is...

Welcome to June 10th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate movie classics and disappearing ink. It’s estimated that since the beginning of film, there have been about 500,000 feature-length movies made. And although it fluctuates from year to year, the genre that has earned the most money worldwide is Action. The all-time highest-grossing film is Avatar, with over $2.8 billion in...

Welcome to June 9th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the bird that still quacks us up and Summer’s best sweet tart duo. Donald Duck was first introduced to the world in 1931 in a book called The Adventures of Mickey Mouse. In the story, he and several other animals join Mickey and Minnie for a hoedown at a local barn. The story isn’t that significant, but something in the boo...

Welcome to June 8th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate polka paradise and pals who are the perfect fit. Not many people have made a career out of playing an accordion. But then again, most people aren’t Weird Al Yankovic. Since he burst onto the music scene in the early 1980s, Yankovic has been poking fun at other musicians. And while they made names for themselves with electri...

Welcome to June 7th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate feathered heroes and a frozen favorite. In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, you can visit a museum that pays tribute to some of the lesser-known heroes of the American armed forces—the winged kind. Specifically pigeons. During World War II, over 55,000 of these winged messengers carried notes high above battlefields, delivering inf...

Welcome to June 6th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a toy that distracts us from life’s ups and downs and a blast from the past. Yo-yos were all the rage in the United States during the mid 1900s, but the toy has been around since ancient times. Pottery from Ancient Greece depicts children playing with yo-yos and images of the toy have been found in Egyptian art. In 18th Cen...

Welcome to June 5th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate potent potables and primal plant protein. If you’ve ever seen someone in a movie pick up a jug with three Xs on the label, you know that it’s moonshine. Everyone assumes that the X is just a mark invented by Hollywood, but it’s not. In fact, the marks are used as a way to track moonshine’s production. An X is added to the j...

Welcome to June 4th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the teens of the animal world and the world’s rarest cheese. Black bears are pretty cool animals, but they act like moody teenagers. These bears are introverts, choosing to spend a great deal of their lives alone. But each summer, they get social, meet up with other bears just long enough to find a mate, then retreat back t...

Welcome to June 3rd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate life “on repeat” and our favorite comfort food. Everyone has found themselves in a conversation with someone who talks too much. According to Greek mythology, it even happened to the goddess Hera. A nymph named Echo started talking to Hera and just. wouldn’t. stop. The goddess became so annoyed that she put a curse on Echo—...

Welcome to June 2nd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate taking a break and smoothing the rocky road. In the film Office Space, the main character Peter beautifully sums up office life: “Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to bosses drone on about mission statements!” Amen, brother. And...

Welcome to June 1st, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate going the distance and bridging the miles with words. Centuries before the Pony Express delivered messages across the American West, the chaskis connected cities across the Incan Empire. The difference is that the chaskis did it on foot. Using a series of relays, these messengers sprinted through what is now Peru and Chile...

Welcome to May 31, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a miraculous smarm and smile power. The California Gull is an official state bird—but not of California. It seems strange, but this bird that can sometimes be seen as a nuisance to beachgoers is a hero in Utah. Back in 1848, swarms of crickets descended on the crops of new settlers in Utah. Entire farms were at risk of being...