Celebrate Every Day

Welcome to March 16th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate irresistible vegetables and bears. In the early 1900s, millions of Italians immigrated to the United States. And with them came the demand for foods from their homeland. One of the most popular items was the artichoke, which wasn’t easy to grow in America and had to be imported. Ciro Terranova, a New York City gangster, s...

Welcome to March 15th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate peculiar attractions and a day off for your noggin. Some things really are in the last place you’d expect to find them. Like the Garden of Eden. It’s smack dab in the middle of Kansas. Okay, it’s not the actual Garden. But… should you find yourself in Lucas, Kansas, you’ll find one of the largest—and strangest—art install...

Welcome to March 14th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate endless possibilities in snacks and numbers. The origins of the potato chip are hotly contested. Some say it was George Crum, a chef that tried to appease a customer who kept sending back his “thick and soggy” potatoes. This 1853 tale claims that the customer was none other than Cornelius Vanderbilt. The story was later d...

Welcome to March 13th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate stolen beauty and a simple way to keep out the cold. The one-of-a-kind blue gem known as the Hope Diamond was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in the 1600s. Well, not so much “discovered” as “stolen from a Hindu temple.” And the price of this theft was a curse. Tavernier sold the stone to French king Louis XIV and wa...

Welcome to March 12th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate rare flowers and adventurous girls. The Titan Arum is one of the rarest flowers on earth. It’s also the largest, with blossoms growing up to several feet tall. And seeing the flower is both a blessing and a curse. Blooms only appear every 7 to 9 years, so if you catch this amazing sight consider yourself lucky. But get re...

Welcome to March 11th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the circle of life and the seeds of wisdom planted by one man. The Ancient Egyptians developed a system of mummification because they believed very strongly in the afterlife. According to their traditions, the spirit left the body after death. But it would come back shortly thereafter. So bodies had to be well preserved i...

Welcome to March 10th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate cool lunches and heroic plumbers. In grade school, lunchboxes were such a status symbol. Who cared about the PB&J and apple inside? Star Wars and superhero branding didn’t make the food actually taste better, but it certainly felt that way. And if you’re lucky enough to own a certain collectible lunchbox, almost everythin...

Welcome to March 9th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a woman who has done it all and a forecast for cloudy with a chance for meatballs. In 1959, the world was introduced to one of the biggest fashion icons ever. Her name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, though you probably know her as Barbie. Since making her debut, she’s become one of the most popular toys ever—Mattel claims t...

Welcome to March 8th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a magical state and women who make history. In downtown Portland, you’ll find the smallest park in the world—a patch of land only 2 feet across. The land was once intended for a street light, but the light was never installed. The empty site caught the eye of journalist Dick Fagan, who wrote a column and dubbed the place M...

Welcome to March 7th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate breakfast favorites piled high or in a bowl. If you enjoy flapjacks for breakfast, be sure to check your surroundings before ordering some. Here in the United States, a flapjack is another name for a pancake. The word is simply a regional name. But if you are in England, make sure to choose your words carefully. Over there...

Welcome to March 6th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate teeth specialists and flash frozen inspiration. There was a time that if you needed a haircut and had a toothache, you would go to the same place. A barbershop. Barbers weren’t proper dentists—they didn’t provide any preventive services or teeth cleaning. But they did perform tooth extractions if someone was in pain. They...

Welcome to March 5th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate finger painting with our food and tipsy medicine. Anyone who’s ever munched on Cheese Doodles has experienced the struggle of cleaning orange powder from their hands. It gets everywhere. In 1992, artist Sandy Skoglund took that experience to another level. Her surreal art installation The Cocktail Party re-creates a tradit...

Welcome to March 4th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the kids who ride our coattails and the geeks who make our hearts beat faster. John Adams played an integral role in the birth of America. And all the while, his son John Quincy observed him and took mental notes. As a child, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill. By the age of 14, he was already involved in politics, servi...

Welcome to March 3rd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate upscale cold cuts and the song we all know by heart. Bologna isn’t exactly fancy, but this lunchtime staple has very distinguished origins. The lunch meat known as Mortadella was created in Bologna, Italy and became a food coveted by nobility and peasants alike. Its popularity grew so much that people began making counterf...

Welcome to March 2nd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate valuable relics and Seussing it up. In 2010, Mary Shanesy got a call from the contractors working on her house, telling her they’d found something strange. She braced herself for the worst, but instead got a pleasant, albeit an unusual surprise. Behind one of the walls, contractors had uncovered a stash of alcohol from 191...

Welcome to March 1st, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a city build by sinners and saints and good old monkey butter. “Pig’s Eye” Parrant arrived in Minnesota in the 1830s, selling whiskey to settlers and soldiers at Fort Snelling. This man with a “dubious reputation" set up shop nearby at Fountain Cave, using the spring water for distilling alcohol. After Pig Eye built a salo...

Welcome to February 28, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate towers of flowers and tales about teeth. The small Dutch town of Zundert is home to the largest floral parade in the world. It began in 1936 to celebrate the birthday of the Queen and has grown into a huge annual festival. Like the Parade of Roses in Pasadena, California, it showcases the beauty of its local blooms. But...

Welcome to February 27, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate crazy origin stories and loveable predators. The world knows about the Mexican liqueur Kahlua mainly because of a Canadian bartender. In 1977, Peter Fich created a shot called the B-52. This mixture of Kahlua, Bailey’s, and triple sec became so popular that the demand for the coffee-flavored liqueur skyrocketed. But why...

Welcome to February 26, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate time honored tales and a practical nut. “Once upon a time…” This is probably one of the best-known openings to stories ever. We’ve all heard it since we were small children each time we read a fairy tale. And what comes after that is always something to inspire the imagination. Giants, wicked stepmothers, talking animals...

Welcome to February 25, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate skipping the straw and avoiding the heat in the kitchen. One of the biggest man-made structures on the planet wasn’t created on purpose. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is an object known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It covers an area twice the size of Texas and is comprised mostly of plastic bottles and ba...

Welcome to February 24, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate daredevil chips and mixing up the chili. One of the best parts of eating at a Mexican restaurant is gorging on chips and salsa before the meal arrives. But sometimes, one tortilla chip is more than enough. For the past few years, a company called Paqui has been daring customers to eat one of their chips. Just one. The ca...

Welcome to February 23, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate strange things under foot and our favorite waste not want not bread. In the 1980s in Philadelphia, pedestrians who looked down at the sidewalk found some very strange art. At random points around town, someone had put tiles on the ground reading TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOVIE 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER. Identical tiles...

Welcome to February 22nd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate Gold Fever and celebration in a glass. California as we know it might not exist if it weren’t for James Wilson Marshall. In 1848, he was building a sawmill near Sacramento for his employer, John Sutter. Here he spotted something shiny in the river. It turned out to be gold. Although the men tried to keep the find to th...

Welcome to February 21st, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate going grain free and the humble beginnings of a National monument. Grains have been a staple of diets since the dawn of civilization. So if you’re one of the millions of Americans who have a grain allergy or intolerance, you may find meal time a bit challenging. But it doesn’t have to be. These days, there are plenty o...

Welcome to February 20th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate laws about dessert and a legacy of leadership. If you have dinner in Kansas and opt for dessert, watch out for what you choose. It’s perfectly acceptable to eat cherry pie, but if you decide that you want it à la mode, you’re going to find yourself in some trouble. For some reason, there’s a law in Kansas that makes it...