Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
August 11 is Presidential Joke Day
Today is Presidential Joke Day. On August 11, 1984, while preparing to give a weekly radio address from his ranch in California, Ronald Reagan was asked to do a routine sound check. Although the president enjoyed telling jokes about Russia, on that morning his remark was meant only for the sound engineers getting ready for the National Public […]
August 10 is National S’mores Day
Today is National S’mores Day. It celebrates Girl Scout Loretta Scott Crew’s culinary invention, immortalized in the 1927 handbook Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts. “Some More” 8 sticks 16 graham crackers 8 bars plain chocolate (any of the good plain brands broken in two) 16 marshmallows Toast two marshmallows over the coals to […]
August 9 is National Veep Day
Today is National Veep Day. On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first (and only) U.S. president to resign from office. Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the office in accordance with Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his […]
August 8 is Happiness Happens Day
Today is Happiness Happens Day. Spiritual seeker and motivational speaker Pamela Gail Johnson founded the Secret Society of Happy People in 1998. The following year, she created Admit You’re Happy Day, the holiday which evolved into Happiness Happens Day. In 2000, she declared August Happiness Happens Month. Per Johnson, even though she is blessed with “happy […]
August 7 is Purple Heart Day
Today is Purple Heart Day. On August 7, 1782, at his headquarters in Newburgh, NY, General George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, ordered the creation of a Badge of Military Merit. The badge consisted of a purple, heart-shaped piece of cloth with the word MERIT embroidered in silver across the front. It was […]
August 6 is Corporate Baby Name Day
Today is Corporate Baby Name Day. On August 6, 2001, AmericanBaby.com, an online resource for pregnancy and parenting advice, announced the results of a survey it had recently conducted. The poll asked six hundred respondents if they would sell the right to name their baby for $500,000—to a corporation. We’ve learned about many odd baby […]
August 5 is Curiosity Day
Today is Curiosity Day. On August 5, 2012, NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity landed on the red planet after a procedure so complicated its engineers dubbed it Seven Minutes of Terror. On November 26, 2011, an unmanned spacecraft carrying the 1,982-pound SUV-sized rover launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After traveling 354 million […]
August 3 is National Watermelon Day
Today is National Watermelon Day. It closely follows July’s Watermelon Month, established in 2009 by a unanimous U.S. Congressional Joint Resolution. Today’s holiday is sponsored by the National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB), an organization whose strategic mission is to increase consumer demand in the U.S., Canada and Mexico while working to develop trade with England and […]
August 2 is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
Today is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. According to Geraldine Quinzio, author of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making, the ice cream sandwich was invented in 1899 by a pushcart peddler in New York City. It consisted of vanilla ice cream pressed between two thin graham crackers. In July of 1900, The New York […]
August 1 is World Middle Finger Day
Today is World Middle Finger Day, created in 2012 by Charles Greene to encourage everyone to exercise their right to peaceful protest with a universal gesture of defiance. He chose August 1st because it falls between July 4th and September 11, two dates that inspire nationalistic fervor. World Middle Finger Day acknowledges the value of dissent. […]