Jun 19, 2023
It’s Juneteenth, the End of US Slavery!
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It’s Juneteenth, the End of US Slavery!
🐼 Every day should be Endangered Species Day. Please help protect our planet’s endangered species and their habitats. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
It's January 5th. 🦉 On this day in 2002, Born Free USA and the Avian Welfare Coalition teamed up to launch America's first annual National Bird Day in celebration of the annual Christmas Bird Count, which runs every December 14th through January 5th. The Christmas Bird Count provides conservationists with important data on the health and numbers of birds across the US. Since 1970, the number of birds across North America has dropped by 29% – a loss of nearly three billion birds. Not very good news.
National Bird Day has thus naturally broadened its mission to include raising awareness of the plight of our remaining living dinosaurs and the need to bring about change in order to improve their environments' and ecosystems' health and sustainability.
Half a million birdwatchers and bird enthusiasts are expected to participate in today's celebration. Festivities will focus on activities that inspire people to appreciate birds more, like education, bird adoption, bird photo contests, etc.
One specific National Bird Day campaign aims to improve the welfare of "pet" birds like parrots, parakeets, and cockatoos by discouraging their purchase as pets, and encouraging support for wild bird habitat conservation programs and captive bird rescue organizations and sanctuaries.
Birds have always held a special place in our hearts, haven't they? Edgar Allan Poe's Raven, Bambi's Friend Owl, Sesame Street's Big Bird, Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” the Beatles' Blackbird, Looney Tunes' Roadrunner and Tweety Bird, Harry Potter's Hedwig, the Lion King's Zazu, Aladdin's Iago, Long John Silver's Captain Flint, Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker, Peanuts' Woodstock. I could go on and on and on, but I'll let you do that. Enjoy the day! ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
It's January 4th, 🦯 World Braille Day. On this auspicious day in 1809, a child named Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France. Young Louis was blinded at the age of three by an accident in his father's harness-making shop. Despite his disability, though, he excelled in his education.
While Louis was a student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, he began developing the reading system for the blind that would eventually make him famous. Braille's creation involved a code he invented himself and used cells that contained up to six dots, making it possible for a fingertip to feel an entire cell with just one touch and move quickly to the next cell.
Braille spent the rest of his life teaching at the institute and perfecting his system, but unfortunately didn't live long enough to see it put into use. Braille suffered from a respiratory illness (probably tuberculosis) most of his adult life and finally succumbed to the disease in 1852 at the age of 43.
Two years later, thanks to the unrelenting insistence of his students, the Royal Institute for Blind Youth officially adopted Braille's system. Its use quickly spread throughout the French-speaking world, but was slow to catch on elsewhere. After his introduction to the system at the first European Conference of Teachers of the Blind in 1873, Britain's Dr. Thomas Rhodes Armitage championed Braille's invention, and its use quickly spread over most of the rest of the planet. The United States was slowest to see the light. They didn't adopt the system until 1916.
In November 2018, the United Nations proclaimed that from now on, World Braille Day would be celebrated as an international celebration day every January 4th to show appreciation for Louis Braille and to promote "awareness of the importance of his creation as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and visually impaired people." ☮️ R.I.P., Louis… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
It's January 3nd. 🌜 On this day in 2019, at 02:26 UTC, China's Cheng'e 4 (嫦娥四号, Moon Goddess 4) spacecraft achieved the world’s first soft landing on the far side of the Moon. The Yutu 2 (玉兔二号, Jade Rabbit 2) rover was deployed about 12 hours later. Cheng'e 4 is the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program's fourth of six planned missions to the moon. The first two missions achieved Lunar orbit. The third and fifth missions collected Lunar samples on the near side and returned them to Earth. The sixth will attempt to do the same in 2025.
Gheng’e 4’s ongoing mission is to determine the age and composition of this unexplored region of the Moon. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) targeted the landing for the Von Kármán crater within the South Pole-Aitken basin, a low-lying area 2,500 kilometers across and 13 kilometers deep which covers nearly a quarter of the Moon's surface. Scientists believe this basin – the largest hole in the solar system – is the result of a massive impact. CNSA hopes that Cheng'e 4 can find and study some exposed deep lunar crust and mantle rocks. This would provide an unprecedented view into the Moon's internal structure and origins.
In May 2019, CNSA reported that Cheng'e 4 had found what appear to be mantle rocks. CNSA continues to report Cheng'e 4's findings to the world concerning Lunar surface temperatures, Lunar rock and soil chemical compositions, Solar corona radiation characteristics, and cosmic ray observations.
"The re-tuned data should provide us valuable information to disclose the secrets of our Moon, from the never-touched side! My fingers are crossed!" – Le Qiao, Lunar Geologist, Shandong University, Weihai, China. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
It's January 2nd, 🤖 Science Fiction Day. On or about this day in 1920, prolific science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia. He emigrated with his family to America when he was three years old, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. As an adult, Asimov became a biochemist, but he gradually abandoned that career in favor of his passion – science-fiction writing. He wrote or edited about 500 volumes before he passed away in 1992, the most famous being his "Foundation," "Galactic Empire," and "Robot" series. He also coined the word "robotics" and introduced the world to the "Three Laws of Robotics."
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
In honor of Asimov's substantial contributions to the science-fiction genre, the Hallmark Channel and Scholastic Corporation organized the first annual US National Science Fiction Day on this day in 2012. The event has grown in popularity throughout the US over the years and has now begun to take hold throughout the world.
So, kick back today and let your imagination run wild with a good sci-fi novel, short story, comic book, TV show, or movie. You won't be disappointed if you choose from a master like Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Mary Shelley, George Orwell, Michael Crichton, Frederik Pohl, Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, or of course Isaac Asimov. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
It's January 1st, ⛓️ Haitian Independence Day. France had ruled the colony of Saint-Domingue as part of its worldwide empire since 1659. However, in 1791, a group of enslaved Africans, inspired by the American and French Revolutions, began an epic struggle for freedom that culminated in victory and a declaration of independence on this day in 1804. The declaration proclaimed that the new republic would forever after be known by the same name it was known as before the Europeans had arrived – "Haiti," which means "High Land" in the Native American Taino language.
The Haitian Revolution is Haiti's defining moment. It was the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Romans in 72 BCE. Haiti's victory came as a total surprise and shock to the rest of the world and inspired countless other slave revolts throughout the Western Hemisphere. It also paved the way for the termination of the transatlantic slave trade. This victory was also the final nail in the coffin of Napoleon Bonaparte’s ambitions for a New World French Empire. He’d sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States the previous year in part to pay for the defeat of the revolt in Saint-Domingue. That was not to be. Haiti became the first independent state in Latin America and the first in the New World to be led by a person of color.
The victory over France put an end to Haiti's military fight for freedom, but not its political fight. The US and most European nations, including France, didn't immediately recognize Haiti's independence. France didn't officially do so until 1825. The US didn't do so until 1862. That doesn’t matter, though. All that matters is Haiti. The Haitians recognized their own independence on this day in 1804 and have continued to do so every day since. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet