08/08 - Happiness Happens Day

by enhydra lutris

Community

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Monday, Aug. 08, 2022 Monday, Aug. 08, 2022 at 6:06:08am PDT

no image description available — Emiliano Zapata

So, it's Happiness Happens Day and that up there is a picture of Emiliano Zapata. So what's that all about, you might ask. So, if happiness happens, it must be random or pseudo-random, fortuitous and all like that, something straight out of Taoism. It must happen at least once to anybody and everybody, even good old Emiliano, and it is his birthday, which certainly has as much right to be celebrated as some abstract theoretical assertion about happiness, n'est ce pas?

It's also International Cat Day and Global Sleep Under the Stars Night. Naturally, I cannot help but wonder whether there is a cat constellation, and if not why not. The answer, sadly is No, but there is a cat star, Felis. The ~~Wookie~~ Wiki tells us that:

Felis (Latin for cat) was a constellation created by French astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1799. He chose the name partly because, as a cat lover, he felt sorry that there was not yet a cat among the constellations (although there are two lions and a lynx). It was between the constellations of Antlia and Hydra. This constellation was first depicted in the Uranographia sive Astrorum Descriptio (1801) of Johann Elert Bode. It is now obsolete. Its brightest star, HD 85951, was named Felis by the International Astronomical Union on 1 June 2018 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names.

Felis, or his cousin Felix, is all about happiness, making this a very felicitous conjunction of holidays, which is, again, ever so very happy, right felicity?

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On this day in history:

1576 –- The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory was laid.
1588 –- The Battle of Gravelines ended, as did the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England.
1709 -- Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrated the lifting power of hot air
. 1876 -- Thomas Edison got a patent on his mimeograph.
1908 -- The Wright Brothers' first public flight, Wilbur in the plane.
1919 –- The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 was signed. confirming the Durand line as the mutual border. 1942 -- The Quit India Movement against British rule started in India
1946 -- First flight of the Convair B-36, a mass produced nuke delivery vehicle.
1967 -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed
1974 –- Tricky Dick Nixon resigned
1990 -- Iraq occupied Kuwait leading to the first Gulf War.
2004 –- A tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumped approximately 800 pounds of human waste onto a boat full of passengers.

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Some people who were born on this day:

“If there is no justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government.”

~~ Emiliano Zapata

1814 -- Esther Hobart Morris, lawyer and judge, first female justice of the peace in US
1857 –- Cécile Chaminade, pianist and composer
1879 -- Emiliano Zapata, revolutionary, general, and politician
1884 -- Sara Teasdale, poet and educator
1896 -- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author and academic
1901 -- Ernest Lawrence, physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate, founded Lawrence Berkeley & Lawrence Livermore Labs. 1902 -- Paul Dirac, physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1907 -- Benny Carter, saxophonist, trumpet player, and composer
1920 –- Jimmy Witherspoon, jump blues singer
1921 –- Webb Pierce, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1928 –- Don Burrows, saxophonist, clarinet player, and flute player
1931 –- Roger Penrose, physicist, mathematician, and philosopher
1932 -- Mel Tillis, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1933 -- Joe Tex, singer & songwriter
1938 –- Connie Stevens, actress and businesswoman
1939 -- Phil Balsley, singer & songwriter
1941 -- George Tiller, physician
1942 –- John Gustafson, singer, songwriter, and bass player
1944 –- Michael Johnson, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1944 -- John Renbourn, guitarist and songwriter
1950 -- Willie Hall, drummer and producer
1952 -- Anton Fig, drummer
1956 -- Chris Foreman, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1956 -- David Grant, singer
1957 -- Dennis Drew, keyboard player
1961 -- The Edge, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1961 –- Rikki Rockett, American glam rock drummer
1973 -- Scott Stapp, singer, songwriter and producer

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Some people who died on this day:

Juan Tripp was a friend. Good name for an airline man, huh? Juan Tripp after another?

~~ Fay Wray

1879 -- Immanuel Hermann Fichte, philosopher and academic
1940 -- Johnny Dodds, clarinet player and saxophonist
1965 -- Shirley Jackson, author
1975 -- Cannonball Adderley, saxophonist
1988 –- Félix Leclerc, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
2004 -- Fay Wray, actress
2017 –- Glen Campbell, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Feast of the Four Crowned Martyrs (of which there were 9)
Happiness Happens Day
International Cat Day
Global Sleep Under the Stars Day

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Today's Tunes

Benny Carter