Institute of World Culture
Global Anniversaries, Observances
and Acknowledgements
_______________________________________

One of the aims of the Institute of World Culture is "to honour through appropriate observance the contributions of men and women of all ages to world culture."  This calendar offers just a taste of the rich diversity of those contributions.  We attempt to substantiate the dates but dates can vary depending on the calendar in use when the date was determined or if the date is based on the Julian or Gregorian calendar. Certain dates are the best estimate of scholars as the original dates are lost to history. The intention of this calendar is to show the great diversity and excellence in the contributions of men and women of world culture and in this case the dates are secondary. You can click on a particular month, listed in the column on the left, or scroll down to see listings for the entire year.  This calendar is a work in progress so please let us know if you have contributions or corrections by contacting donna@worldculture.org

"Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Undated

January Anniversaries January Observances and Acknowledgements

3rd  Cicero, Roman statesman, constitutionalist, orator b.106 B.C.E.
3rd  Clement Attlee, British Prime Minister from 1945-1951 b.1883
4th Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician (quote) b. 1643
4th Louis Braille, French inventor, teacher of the blind (quote) b.1809
5th George Washington Carver, African-American inventor, scientist,
       educator (quote) d.1943
6th Joan of Arc, French heroine, Catholic saint b.1412
6th  Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American artist, poet, writer b.1883
7th  Charles Peguy, French poet, essayist, philosopher b.1873
8th  Stephen Hawking, British theoretical physicist, cosmologist b. 1942
9th Marco Polo, Italian trader, explorer d.1324
11th  William James, American philosopher, psychologist b.1842
12th  Edmund Burke, Irish statesman, author (quote) b.1729
14th  Albert Schweitzer, German physician, Nobel laureate b.1875
15th  Moliére, French playwright, actor b.1622
15th  Martin Luther King, Jr., African-American civil rights leader b.1929
17th  Benjamin Franklin, American printer, statesman b.1706
17th  Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright, author, doctor b.1860
18th  Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat, French
         political philosopher (quotes) b.1689
18th  Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, French philosopher, mystic b.1743
19th  James Watt, Scottish inventor, engineer b.1736
19th  Edgar Allan Poe, American poet, writer, editor b.1809
20th  André-Marie Ampére, French physicist, mathematician b.1775
22nd  Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, author b.1561
22nd  George Gordon, Lord Byron, British poet b.1788
23rd  David Hilbert, German mathematician b.1862
25th  Robert Boyle, Irish-born chemist, inventor b.1627
25th  Robert Burns, Scottish poet b.1759
27th  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer b.1756
27th  Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), English author b.1832
29th  Thomas Paine, British pamphleteer, revolutionary, inventor b.1737
29th  Romain Rolland, French dramatist, Nobel laureate b.1866
30th  Franklin D. Roosevelt, American 32nd U.S. President b.1882
30th  Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader d.1948
31st  Franz Schubert, Austrian composer b.1797
31st Anna Pavlova, Russian prima ballerina b.1881 (Feb 12, New Style)

1st  New Year's Day observed in the U.S.
1st  Ancient Druid Mistletoe Festival
1st  Gantan-sai, Shinto New Year observed
1st  Ceres, smallest identified dwarf planet in the Solar System, discovered
       by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801
1st  Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 committed the U.S. to ending slavery
5th Twelfth Night, a Christian holiday concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas
6th  Epiphany (Dia de los Reyes Mago) honors the three wise men who attended the
       birth of Jesus and announced the birth to the world
6th  First Bulgarian Gypsy (Roma) Congress held in Sofia in 1906
7th Christmas celebrated in the Coptic community and Orthodox churches
7th Three of Jupiter's moons first observed by Galileo in 1610

10th  Thomas Paine's Common Sense published in 1776
10th Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C.E. starting a civil war that
        led to the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire
10th League of Nations founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1920 to preserve
        international peace
10th Reforms made in 1840 to the original Penny-Post established in London in 1680
10th Caesar crossed the Rubcon River in 49 BCE
15th Discovery of artificial radioactivity by Frédéric and Iréne Joliot-Curie mid-January 1934
15th (2024) Martin Luther King, Jr. Day observed in the U.S.
17th Edict of Tolerance of St. Germain, an edict of limited toleration which sought
        to end persecution of non-Catholics in France was drawn up in 1952

21st (2024) World Religion Day observation initiated in 1950 by the Bahá'is of the U.S.
21st First B.B.C. broadcast to the world in 1930
24th (2024) Tu B'Shevat, Jewish New Year of the Trees
25th (2024) Mahayana Buddhist New Year, first full moon day in January
26th  Niels Bohr announced the splitting of the Uranium atom in 1939
26th  Republic Day of India marks the adoption of the Indian Constitution in 1950
27th  British government formally abolished the death penalty in the U.K. in 1998
29th First boat specialized as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne in England in 1790

Day unknown:
• Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in 49 BCE




February Anniversaries February Observances and Acknowledgements
3rd Felix Mendelssohn, German musician, composer b.1809
3rd Horace Greeley, American editor, reformer, politician b.1811
4th  Rosa Parks, African-American civil rights activist b.1913
7th  Sir Thomas More, English lawyer, author, statesman b.1478
7th  Charles Dickens, English novelist, social campaigner b.1812
7th/8th  Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist, inventor b.1834
8th  Proclus, Greek Neoplatonist philosopher b.410/412
8th  John Ruskin, English art critic, author, artist b.1819
8th  Martin Buber, Austrian-Israeli philosopher, educator b.1878
8th  Peter Kropotkin, Russian prince, anarchist d.1921
10th  Boris Pasternak, Russian poet, writer, Nobel laureate b.1890
10th  Bertolt Brecht, German poet, playwright, theatre director b.1898
11th  Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, businessman b.1847
12th  Abraham Lincoln, American 16th President of the U.S. b.1809
12th  Charles Darwin, English naturalist (quote) b.1809
15th Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist, philosopher b.1564
15th Susan B. Anthony, American civil rights leader b.1820
16th Christopher Marlowe b.1564
17th Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher d.1600 (b.1548, date unknown)
18th Lord Krishna d. 3102 B.C.E.
18th Niccoló Paganini d.1782
18th Shri Ramakrishna, Indian mystic b.1836
19th Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer, scientist b.1473
21st Voltaire, French writer, philosopher b.1694
20th Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist, author d.1895
22nd George Washington, American 1st President of the U.S. b.1732
22nd Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher b.1788
22nd Frederic Chopin, Polish composer and pianist b.1810
22nd Heinrich Hertz, German physicist b.1857
23rd George Frederick Handel, German, later British composer b.1685
24th Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher b.1463
25th Auguste Renoir, French impressionist painter b.1841
26th Christopher Marlowe, English playwright, poet baptised Feb 26th,1564 
26th Victor Hugo, French author, artist, statesman, activist b.1802
27th  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American educator, poet b.1807
28th  Michel de Montaigne, French writer b.1533
28th  Vaslav Nijinski, Russian ballet dancer, choreographer b.1890

1st  President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
       abolishing slavery in1865

7th, 8th and 9th (2024) Isra and Miraj, Muhammad's night journey and ascension to heaven celebrated on one of these days in various countries of the world
10th (2024) Chinese Lunar New Year (Year of the Dragon)
10th (2024) Losar (Tibetan New Year) begins
14th (2024) Vasant Panchami, Hindu and Sikh start of spring
14th (2024) Ash Wedesday,Christian first day of Lent
14th
Feast of Saint Valentine, Western Christian feast day honororing two early saints named Valentinus
14th (2024) Saraswati Puja, also rendered Basant/Vasant Panchami. In honor of the Hindu goddess
18th John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress published in 1678
18th Discovery of the planet Pluto by Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930
19th (2024) Presidents' Day celebrated in the U.S.
19th Emancipation Manifesto legally granted full rights of citizenship to Russian serfs in 1861

20th John H. Glenn orbits the earth three times in 1962
24th (2024) Chinese Lantern Festival symbolized the letting go of the past year and the welcoming of the new year.
28th Celebrates the Kalevala, the Finish National Epic poem published in 1835





March Anniversaries March Observances and Acknowledgements

2nd Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian and Soviet politician, eight and last leader of the Soviet Union. Born: 3/2/1931, Died: 8/30/22.
3rd  Georg Cantor, German mathematician b.1845
3rd  Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish scientist, inventor b.1847 (quote)
4th  Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer, priest, violinist b.1678
6th  Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter, sculptor b.1475
6th  Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet b.1806
7th  Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter b.1872
7th  Maurice Ravel, French composer b.1875
8th  Oliver Wendell Holmes, American jurist, U.S. Supreme
       Court Justice b.1841
8th Hypatia, Hellenistic Neoplatonist, astronomer, mathematician d. 415
12th  George Berkeley, Irish philosopher, metaphysician b.1685
14th  Johann Strauss, Austrian composer b.1804
14th  Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist b.1879
15th  Julius Caesar, Roman political leader d.44 B.C.E.
16th  René Daumal, French writer, philosopher, poet b.1908 (quote)
18th  Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet, critic b.1842
18th  Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer b.1844
19th  David Livingstone, Scottish explorer, medical missionary b.1813
20th  Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), Roman poet b.43 B.C.E.
20th  Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright b.1828
21st Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer b.1685
23rd  Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace, French astronomer,
         mathematician b.1749
23rd Emmy Noether, German Jewish mathematician b.1882
24th John Wesley Powell, American explorer, geologist,U.S. soldier,
         professor and founder of National Geographic b.1834; d.September 23, 1902
24th  Dorothy Irene Height, American educator, civil and women's rights activist
b. 1912
24th  William Morris, English designer, artist, b.1834
25th  Béla Viktor János Bartók, Hungarian composer and pianist b.1881
25th Ishi, last member of the California Yana Indian tribe d. 1916
26th  Edward Bellamy, American author b.1850
26th  Joseph John Campbell, American mythologist, writer, lecturer b.1874
26th  Robert Frost, American poet b.1874
27th  Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, German physicist b.1845
28th  Teresa of Avila, Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun b.1515
30th  Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon), Spanish rabbi, physician,
         philosopher b.1135
30th  Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter, printmaker b.1746
30th  Vincent van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist artist b.1853
31st  Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, organist b.1685
31st  René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician b.1596
31st  Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer b.1732
31st  César Chávez, Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader,
         civil rights activist b.1927
Pocahantas, Native American Powhatan princess, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, married to Englishman John Rolfe d. 1617



6th (2023) Holi, Hindu Festival of Colors, begins, celebrates the beginning of spring
6th (2023) Purim begins, commerates salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia
8th  International Women’s Day sponsored by the U.N. honors the achievements of women
8th 18th (2024) Maha Shivaratri (Vigil Night of Shiva) celebrated in India
10th Tibetian uprising against Chinese occupation of Tibet began in 1959
13th Santa Lucia Day, festival of light and Christian holiday celebrated in Sweden and
        around the world honoring the legend of Saint Lucia
13th Discovery of the planet Uranus by William Herschel in 1781
13th (2023) Commonwealth Day, celebrating the Commonwealth of Nation
14th Pi Day, the mathematical constant Pi (π), the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter,       has been celebrated widely since 1988
20th International Day of Happiness, founded by the United Nations in 2012
20th (2023) Vernal (Spring) Equinox,9:24 pm PDT

2oth  (2023) Nowruz, Iranian and ancient Persian/Parsi festival marking the New Year,
         originally the most holy of all Zoroastrian festivals
21st  International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (United Nations)

28th Discovery of Pallas asteroid, one of the largest in the solar system in 1802


  April Anniversaries April Observances and Acknowledgements
 

1st  William Harvey, English physician b.1578
1st  Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer, pianist, conductor b.1873
1st  Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmental political activist, 2004 Nobel Peace
       Prize, founder of the Green Belt Movement, b.1940; d. Sept 25, 2011
2nd  Charlemagne, German King of the Franks and Emperor
        of the Holy Roman Empire b.742
2nd  Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author, poet b.1805
3rd  Washington Irving, American author, essayist, historian b.1783
4th  Dorothea Dix, American mental health activist b. 1802
4th  Mary Colter, American architect and designer b. 1869
4th  Martin Luther King, Jr., African-American clergyman, civil rights
       leader d.1968
5th  Joseph Lister, English surgeon b.1827
5th  Booker T. Washington, African-American educator, orator,
       author b.1856
6th  Raphael, Italian High Renaissance painter, architect b.1483 (or Mar 28)
7th  William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet b.1770
8th  Hugo von Mohl, German botanist b.1805
9th  Charles Baudelaire, French poet, critic, translator b.1821
9th  Paul Robeson, African-American singer, actor, activist, lawyer b 1898
10th  Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist, playwright, poet b.1583
10th  George William Russell, Irish nationalist, writer, editor b.1867
11th  Kasturbai Gandhi, Indian activist and teacher b.1869
13th  Thomas Jefferson, American political philosopher, Founding Father
         and 3rd President of the U.S. b.1743
14th  Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist,
         horologist b.1629
14th  Anne Sullivan, American teacher and companion of Helen Keller b.1866
14th  Arnold J. Toynbee, British historian, author b.1889
14th Shri Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage of Arunacchula d.1950
15th  Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist, scientist, inventor b.1452
15th  Guru Nanak, Indian founder of the Sikh religion b.1469
15th  Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician, physicist b.1707
16th  Anatole France, French poet, journalist, novelist, Nobel laureate
         b.1844
16th  Charlie Chaplin (Charles Spencer Chaplin), English actor, filmmaker b.1889
17th  Thornton Wilder, American playwright, novelist b.1897
18/19th David Ricardo, British economist, member of Parliament b.1772
21st  Peter Abelard, French philosopher, theologian, logician d.1142
21st  John Muir, Scottish-American naturalist, author,
         conservationist b.1838
21st  Max Weber, German political economist, sociologist b.1864
22nd  Immanuel Kant, German philosopher b.1724
22nd  Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary, politician b.1870
23rd  William Shakespeare, English poet, playwright d.1616
23rd  Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel laureate b.1858
23rd Edwin Markham, American poet b.1852
23rd  Serge Prokofiev, Russian composer b.1891
23rd  Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author, playwright d.1616
24th  Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman, inventor b.1743
25th  Oliver Cromwell, English soldier, statesman b.1599
25th  Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, electrical engineer, Nobel Prize in
         Physics in 1990 b.1874
26th  Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, philosopher b.121
26th  David Hume, Scottish philosopher, economist, historian b.1711
26th  John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist, naturalist,
         painter b.1785
27th  Edward Gibbon, English historian, member of Parliament b.1737
27th  Mary Wollstonecraft, British writer, philosopher, advocate of women's
         rights b.1759
27th  Samuel F. B. Morse, American painter, inventor b.1791
27th  Herbert Spencer, English philosopher, political theorist b.1820
28th  Kurt Gödel, Austrian-American logician, mathematician,
         philosopher b.1906
29th  C. P. Cavafy, Greek poet, journalist b.1863 & d.1933
30th  Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, scientist b.1777

2nd (2023) Palm Sunday, first day of Christian Holy Week5th British Museum founded in 1753 to promote universal understanding
4th (2023) Mahavir Jayanti celebrated in India to honor the birth of Lord Mahavir, founder
        of the Jain religion
6th Expedition lead by American explorer Robert Perry reached the
     geographical North Pole in 1909
6th (2023) Hanuman Jayanti celebrated in India to honor the birth of the Hindu god Hanuman
7th U.N. World Health Day celebrated
7th (2023) Good Friday marks the crucifixion of Christ
8th International Day of the Roma, established in honor of the first World Romani Congress in 1971
9th (2023) Easter, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus12th Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, first human in space and the first to orbit the earth, both in 1961
13th Isra and Miraj, Muhammed's night journey and ascension to heaven
20th  Radium isolated as an element by Marie Curie in 1902, for which
         she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911
22nd  Earth Day official date; celebrated worldwide on various days (50th anniversary in 2020)
24th  Library of Congress established in the U.S. in 1800
25th Discovery of DNA structure by Watson & Crick in 1953
29th Discovery of the electron by J.J. Thompson in 1897
30th (2023) Ram Navami commerates the birth of the Hindu deity Ram in India

  May Anniversaries May Observances and Acknowledgements
  2nd  Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker b.1921
4th  T. H. Huxley, English biologist b.1825
5th  Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (Nellie Bly), American journalist b. 1864
5th  Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, theologian b.1813
5th  Karl Marx, German philosopher, historian, revolutionary b.1818
6th  Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist b.1856
7th  Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali poet, philosopher, musician, writer,
       educator, Nobel Laureate b.1861
7th  Robert Browning, English poet, playwright b.1812
7th  Johannes Brahms, German musician, composer b.1833
8th  Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Russian mystic, co-founder of the
       Theosophical Society d.1891
9th  José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish humanist philosopher b.1883
 
12th  Florence Nightingale, Italian nurse, writer, statistician b.1820
14th  Robert Owen, Welsh social reformer, founder of socialism and the
        cooperative movement b.1771

21st  Albrecht Dürer, German printmaker, painter b.1471
21st  Mary Anning, English paleontologist, fossil collector, b.1799
22nd  Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Indian religious and educational reformer b.1772
23rd  Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist b.1707
23rd  Franz Anton Mesmer, German physician, astrologist b.1734
25th  Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher b.1803
27th  Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian political leader, first Prime Minister
         of India serving from 1947-1964  d.1964
27th  Rachel Carson, American environmentalist, scientist, author b.1907
30th  Joan of Arc, French heroine, Catholic saint d.1431
31st  Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, journalist b.1819
31st  Huston Smith, American poet, essayist, journalist b.1919
31st  Tintoretto, Italian paintert d.1594

1st  May Day celebrates the ancient Druid new year
1st  International Workers' Day (Labor Day) celebrated in many countrie
5th (2023) Buddha Purnima (Vesak) observed in India and worldwide to
       honor the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha

14th  (2023) Mother’s Day celebrated in the U.S.; celebrated in many other countries as well 
11th Diamond Sutra, world's oldest known printed book, printed in 868
15th International Day of Families observed annually worldwide
16th Mexican Independence Day commemorates the day Mexico declared
        its independence from Spain in 1810
16th Ramadan begins, commorates first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad
17th Brown vs Board of Education, landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme
       Court regarding segregation, first announced in 1954
20th David Livingstone crossed Africa coast to coast in1856
20th  Charles Lindbergh begins the first solo, non-stop, transalantic
         flight from New York to Paris in 1927
24th  First telegraph message sent by Samuel Morse in 1844
25th  Africa Day celebrates unity ans freedom from foreign domination

25th (2023) Shavout begins, ancient agricultural festival, coinsides with the day God gave the
      Torah to the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai
29th  Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks in 145
3
29th   (2023) Memorial Day in the U.S. honors men and women who
         died in military service

 

  June Anniversaries June Observances and Acknowledgements
  5th  John Maynard Keynes, British economist b.1883
5th  Adam Smith, Scottish economist, moral philosopher, author b.1723 (baptized)
6th  Thomas Mann, German novelist, social critic, Nobel laureate b.1875
6th  Alexander Pushkin, Russian author, poet b.1799
6th  Johann Müller von Königsberg (Regiomontanus), German mathematician,
        astronomer, astrologer b.1436
7th  Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist painter (quote) b.1848
8th  Thomas Paine, British pamphleteer, revolutionary, inventor,
       Founding Father of the U.S. d.1809
8th  Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, writer, educator b.1867
9th  Bertha von Suttner, Austrian novelist, pacifist, Nobel laureate b.1843

10th  Sir Edwin Arnold, English poet, journalist b.1832
11th  John Constable, English Romantic painter b.1776
14th  Harriet Beecher Stowe, American abolitionist, author b.1832
17th  William Crookes, English chemist, physicist b.1832
19th  Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, religious
        philosopher b.1623
23rd  Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian
         jurist b.1668
23rd  Alan M. Turing, British computer scientist, mathematician,
        logician, cryptanalyst b.1912
24th  John of the Cross, Spanish mystic, Carmelite friar,
        Catholic reformer b.1542
26th  Lord Kelvin, Irish-born mathematical physicist, engineer b.1824
26th  Pearl S. Buck, American scholar and novelist of China,
        Nobel laureate b.1892
27th  Helen Keller, American author, political activist, lecturer b.1880
28th  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher, writer b.1712


2nd Ascent of Mt. Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
      announced in 1953
5th World Environment Day established by the U.N. in 1972
11th Kamehameha Day, honors King Kahehameha I who first unified Hawai'i
15th Magna Carta signed in 1215, one of the world's most significant
        legal documents, leading to the rule of constitutional law in the English
        speaking world
16th  International Day of the African Child sponsored by UNICEF
16th  International Court of Justice (World Court) established by the
        U.N. in The Hague, Netherlands in 1945
16th  Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in
         space in 1963.
18th (2023) Father's Day celebrated in the U.S.A; also in many other countries 
19th Juneteenth,originally established in Galveston, Texas in 1866 as National Independence Day, to
commerate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. On June 17th, 2021 Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in the .U.S. It is also celebrated by the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped from U.S. slavery in 1852 and settled in Coahuilla, Mexico.
20th  Great Seal of the United States adopted in 1782
20th  World Refugee Day, set forth by the United Nations in 2000
21th  (2023) Summer Solstice, 3:57 PM PDT
24th  Inti Raymi, Incan Sun Festival celebrated in Peru
25th (2023) Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the largest annual pilgrimage in the
        world and the fifth pillar of Islam, begins

26th  United Nations (U.N.) formally founded in 1945
30th  Special Theory of Relativity propounded in 1905 by Albert Einstein

J July Anniversaries July Observances and Acknowledgements
 

1st  Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, German philosopher,
       mathematician b.1646
2nd  Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss poet, novelist, painter,
       Nobel laureate b.1877
3rd  Franz Kafka, Austro-Hungarian novelist b.1883
4th  Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist, short story writer b.1804
4th  Edmonia Lewis, first African American and Native American sculptor to earn
      international recognition for her art (b. July 4,1844 – d. September 17, 1907)
6th  John (Jan) Huss, Czech religious thinker, philosopher,
       reformer d.1415
6th  Frida Kahlo de Rivera, Mexican painter b.July 6,1907, d. July 13, 1954


6th  Tenzin Gyatso, Tibetan spiritual and political leader, XIVth Dalai
       Lama of Tibet b.1935
9th  Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque painter b.1577
10th  William the Silent, Prince of Orange, Dutch statesman,
         founder of the Dutch Republic d.1584
10th  Sir William Blackstone, English jurist, professor b.1723
11th  John Quincy Adams, American diplomat, 6th U.S. President b.1767
12th  Henry David Thoreau, American author, poet,
         transcendentalist b.1817
12th  Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani human rights advocate, youngest Nobel
         laureate b.1997
13th  Julius Caesar, Roman military and political leader
         and ruler b.102/100 B.C.E.
14th/24th  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born American author, Nobel
                laureate b.1904
15th  Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter, printmaker b.1606
15th  Thomas Bulfinch, American writer, mythologist b.1796
15th  Iris Murdoch, Irish and British novelist and philosophert b.1919 d. 2/8/1999
16th  Ida B. Wells, African American journalist,educator, civil rights leader b.1862
16th/17th  Jean Baptiste Corot, French painter, printmaker b.1796
18th  Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher, polymath b.1635
18th  Nelson Mandela, South African former President and activist b.1918
19th  Edgar Degas, French painter, sculptor, printmaker b.1834
20th  Francesco Petrarch, Italian scholar, poet, Father of Humanism b.1304
20th/22nd  Gregor Mendel, Austrian Augustinian priest, scientist b.1822
24th  Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan military general, political leader b.1783
25th  Thomas å Kempis, German Catholic monk, mystic, author d.1471
26th  George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, Nobel laureate b.1856
26th  Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist b.1875
26th  Aldous Huxley, English writer, essayist b.1894
28th  Jean de la Fontaine, French poet, fabulist b.1621

29th  Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, Secretary-General
         of the U.N. (quote) b.1905

3rd (2023) Guru Purnima observed, Hindu day to honor one's spiritual teachers
4th  Independence Day in the U.S., celebrates the adoption in 1776 of the
       Declaration of Independence
5th  Discovery of radio waves coming from the Milky Way galaxy
       announced in 1939
11th  Breakthough in the understanding of infinitesimal calculus by
        Leibniz in 1675
14th  Storming of the Bastille, marking the beginning of the French Revolution
         in 1789, is celebrated annually as Bastille Day
15th  Spanish Inquisition abolished in Spain by royal decree in 1834
15th  First photograph of solar flares by George Ellory Hale in 1892
16th  First atomic bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico, U.S. in 1945
16th/17th  First photograph of a star taken by William Bond in 1850
18th  Nelson Mandela International Day celebrated
18th (2023) Muharrum or Al-Hijra, the Islamic New Year Festival begins20th  Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the
        first human beings to step onto the moon's surface in 1969
20th  First successful landing of a space vehicle on Mars in 1972
26th Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990
30th Society of Freemasons opened an American lodge in Boston in 1733
• Breakthrough in the foundation of quantum mechanics theory by Werner
  Heisenberg in 1925
• First Olympic Games staged in 776 B.C.E.
•  First world atlas, attributed to Claudius Ptolemy, was printed in 1477

  August Anniversaries August Observances and Acknowledgements
 

1st  Herman Melville, American author, poet b.1819 (quote)
4th  Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic poet b.1792
4th  Knut Hamsun (Pedersen), Norwegian author, Nobel laureate b.1859

4th  Louis Armstrong, African-American jazz trumpeter, singer b.1901
5th or 6th  Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English Poet Laureate of the United
       Kingdom b.1809
6th  Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist,
       Nobel laureate b.1881
9th  Amedeo Avogadro, Italian physicist, mathematician,
       educator b.1776
12th  H.P. Blavatsky, Russian author, co-founder of the Theosophical
         Society b.1831
12th  Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian theoretical physicist, Nobel
         laureate b.1887
15th  Shri Aurobindo Ghose, Indian nationalist, poet, philosopher
         spiritual teacher b.1872
17th  Pierre de Fermat, French lawyer, mathematician b.1601
23rd  Georges Cuvier, French naturalist, zoologist b.1769
24th  Paracelsus, Swiss alchemist, physician d.1541
24th  William Wilberforce, British politician, philanthropist,
         abolitionist b.1759
24th  Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer, poet, essayist b. 1899
26th  Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, French chemist, biologist, father
         of modern chemistry b.1743
27th  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher b.1770
27th  Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician b.1858
28th  Johann Wolfgang von Goëthe, German writer, playwright b.1749
29th  John Locke, British philosopher b.1632
29th  Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian playwright, poet, essayist, Nobel
         laureate b.1862
30th  Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand chemist, Nobel laureate b.1871
30th  Mary Shelley, British novelist, writer b.1797

31st  Maria Montessori, Italian educator, physician, first woman in Italy
         to receive a medical degree b.1870
31st  John Bunyan, English Christian writer, preacher d.1688
31st  Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician, physicist b.1821

2nd  Ratification of the U.S. Declaration of Independence begins in 1776
2nd  First underground subway opens in London in 1870
3rd  Jesse Owen wins four gold metals in the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany
6th  Atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945
8th  Gandhi launched his "Quit India" movement in 1942 to gain independence
       from British rule
9th  UN International Day of the World's Indigenous People celebrated
12th  International Youth Day declared by the United Nations in 199
12th/18th Discovery of the two moons of Mars by Asaph Hall in 1877
15th  India's Independence Day celebrated commemorating independence
         from British rule and birth as a sovereign nation, both in 1947

26th (2023) Khordad Sa celebrates the birth of the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster)

26th  Women's Equality Day commemorates the day women in the U.S.
         gained the right to vote in 1920
27th  The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen adopted
         by France's National Assembly in 1789
28th  William Herschel first used his newly completed astronomical reflecting
         telescope in 1789
29th  Discovery of electromagnetic induction by Michael Faraday in 1831

  September Anniversaries September Observances and Acknowledgements
  6th  Jane Addams, American progressive reformer, one of the founders
       of the U.S. Settlement House movement, Nobel Laureate b.1860

7th Queen Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland b.1533

9th  Luigi Galvani, Italian physician, physicist b.1737

9th  Leo Tolstoy, Russian author, essayist b.1828
11th  Vinoba Bhave, Indian scholar, social reformer, writer b.1895
14th  Dante Alighieri, Italian poet d.1321
18th  Samuel Johnson, British author b.1709

21st  Kwame Nkrumah, African politician, leader of Ghana b.1909
22nd  Michael Faraday, British physicist, chemist b.1791
25th  Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer b.1906
26th  T.S. Eliot, British poet, playwright, Nobel laureate b.1888
29th  Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish novelist, playwright,
         philosopher b.1864

29th  Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel laureate b.19
01

30th  Jalal al-din Rumi, Persian mystic, poet b.1207

2nd  Adoption of the Gregorian calendar by England in 1752
3rd  French Civil Code renamed Code Napoléon in 1807
4th  (2023)  Labor Day celebrated in the U.S., established in 1882 to honor work
6th  Mayflower leaves England carrying English Separatists to America in 1620

7th  (2023) Krishna Janmashtami, birth of Lord Krishna, Hinduism's most venerated god

8th  International Literacy Day established by the U.N. in 1965 and celebrated annually
15th (2023) Rosh Hashanah begins; Jewish new year and beginning of High Holy Days
16th  Mexican Independence Day celebrates Mexico's independence from Spain
17th Constitution Day celebrates the final draft of the U.S. Constitution which was approved
        for
submission to the States by the Constitutional Congress in 1787
18th (2023) Ganesh or Vinayaka Chaturthi begins; in honor of the Hindu god, Lord Ganesha
21st  International Day of Peace established by the U.N. in 1981

22nd  Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862
         declaring the freedom of American slaves in the Confederate states
23rd (2023) Autumnal Equinox, 7:49 PM PDT
23rd Planet Neptune discovered by the German astronomer Galleo in 1846
25th Sandra Day O'Conner became the first women appointed to the
       U.S. Supreme Court, 1981
30th First astrophotograph of the Orion Nebula taken in 1880

  October Anniversaries October Observances and Acknowledgements
 

2nd  Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader b.1869
3rd  St. Francis of Assisi, Italian Christian saint, founder of the
        Franciscan Order d.1226
5th  Denis Diderot, French enlightenment philosopher, writer b.1713
6th  Richard Dedekind, German mathematician b.1831

6th  Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris), Swiss-French
       architect, designer, urban planner b.1887

7th  Neils Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate b.1885
9th  Camille Saint-Saens, French composer, conductor, musician b.1835
9th  John Lennon, British musician, singer-songwriter b.1940
10th  Henry Cavendish, British scientist b.1731

11th  Eleanor Roosevelt, social reformer, wife of 32nd U.S. President
         Franklin D. Roosevelt b.1884
14th  William Penn, British Quaker community leader, founder of
         the Province of Pennsylvania b.1644
15th  Virgil, Roman classical poet b.70 BCE
15th  Friedrich Nietzche, German philosopher b.1844
15th  Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist, mathematician b.1608
16th  Noah Webster, American lexicographer, author b.1758
17th  Frederic Chopin, Polish composer, pianist d.1849
18th  Henri Bergson, French philosopher, Nobel laureate b.1859
19th  Marsilio Ficino, Italian humanist philosopher, physician b.1433
20th  Sir Christopher Wren, English architect, urban planner b.1632
21st  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet b.1772
24th  Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist, tradesman b.1632
25th  Johann Strauss, Austrian musician, composer b.1825
26th  Alfred the Great, English king, reformer d.899
27th  Nicolo Paganini, Italian violinist, composer b.1782
27/28th  Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch theologian, humanist b.1466/1469
30th  Paul Valery, French poet, essayist, philosopher b.1871
29th/31st  John Keats, English Romantic poet b.1795


1st  Yosemite National Park formed in the US in 1890 and later designated
       a
World Heritage Site
4th  Sputnik 1, first Earth-orbiting satellite, entered into orbit around the Earth in 1957
4th  Saint Francis Day honors the Christian mystic and saint

9th (2023) Indigenous Peoples' Day, celebrated
        in place of Columbus Day in many cities and states in the U.S.A.

13th  Earliest known record of a solar eclipse made by the Chinese in 2128 B.C.E.

16th  World Food Day first celebrated in 1981 to increase awareness and
         take ation to alleviate worldwide hunger
21st  Table of Atomic Weights first presented by John Dalton in 1803
21st  Speed of light officially included in the International System of Units in 1983
22nd Electric light bulb successfully tested by Thomas Edison in 1879
24th  United Nations Day
24th (2023) Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement begins
31st Reformation Day observed, a religious holiday celebrated by some
        Protestant Christian traditions in rememberance of the the work of
        Martin Luther in the 16th c. to reform the Roman Catholic Church
31st All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) celebrated as an evening of revelry the
        night before All Saints' Day; an ancient Celtic observance

  November Anniversaries November Observances and Acknowledgements
 

2nd  George Boole, British mathematician, logician (quote) b.1815
3rd  Vilhjálmur Stefánsson, Icelandic explorer b.1879
4th  Will Rogers, Cherokee-American humorist, actor (quote) b.1879
7th  Marie Curie, Polish physicist, chemist, twice Nobel laureate b.1867
8th  John D. Scotus, Irish theologian, philosopher d.1308
8th  Edmond Halley, English astronomer, mathematician,
       discoverer of Halley's Comet b.1656
10th  Martin Luther, German monk, theologian, reformer b.1483
10th  Johann Schiller, German poet, dramatist, philosopher b.1759
11th  Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (quote) b.1821
11th  Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Muslim scholar, political activist,
         co-worker with Gandhi in the movement for Indian independence b.1888       
12th  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American social activist b.1815

12th  August Rodin, French sculptor b.1840
14th  Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist b.1797
14th  Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian statesman, first Prime Minister
         of India b.1889
15th  William Herschel, German-born British astronomer b.1738
17th  Catherine the Great, Russian, Empress of Russia d.1796
17th  Jacob Boehme, German Christian mystic, theologian d.1624
20th  Edwin Hubble, American scientist, astronomer; showed other galaxies
         existed, helped prove the universe is expanding b.1889; d. Sept. 28, 1953
24th  Benedict Spinoza, Dutch philosopher b.1632
26th  Sojourner Truth, African- American former slave, speaker on civil rights and
        abolition of slavery b.1797; d. November 26, 1883

28th  William Blake, English poet, painter, mystic b.1757
28th  Friedrich Engels, German social scientist, philosopher b.1820

30th  Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist, author b.1835
30th  Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish author, cleric b.1667

1st  All Saints’ Day, a religious holiday honoring Christian saints
1st  Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings first exhibited to the public in 1512
1st  Dia de los Muertos celebrated in Mexico, Spain, Brazil and other
       countries as a day for honoring the dead
2nd All Soul's Day, a religious holiday honoring the dead in many western churches
4th  Egyptian King Tutankhamen's tomb discovered in 1922
8th  X-rays discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895
8th  Louvre Museum opened to the public in Paris in 1793
9th  Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
10th  Analytic geometry introduced by René Descartes in 1637
12th (2022) Diwali (Deepavali), Hindu Festival of Lights
16th  International Day of Tolerance first declared by UNESCO in 1995
17th  14th Dalai Lama enthroned in 1950 at age 15 as Tibet's head of state
17th  Suez Canal opened in 1869 connecting the Mediterranean and the
         Indian Ocean
19th  Gettysburg Address delivered in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th
         U.S. President
20th  Universal Childrens' Day (UN) first adopted in 1954
23rd  (2023) Thanksgiving Day celebrated in the USA
24th  Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species published in 1859

27th  (2023) Guru Nanak Jayanti celebrates the birth of the founder of Sikhism in India
28th  Royal Society first met in London, England, in 1660

  December Anniversaries December Observances and Acknowledgements
 

1st  Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician b.1792
1st  Black Elk (Heháka Sápa), Holy Man of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) b. 1863
3rd  Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet, author and teacher, d.2000
4th  Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian, essayist b.1795
4th  Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet (quote) b.1875
5th Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter, art theorist, teacher b.1866
5th  Nelson Mandela, S. African anti-apartheid revolutionary, President of
       South Africa 1994-1999, Nobel laureate d.2013
5th  Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel laureate b.1901
7th  Giovanni Bernini, Italian sculptor, architect b.1598
8th  Horace, Roman poet b.65 BCE
9th  John Milton, English poet b.1608
10th  William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist, editor b.1805
10th  Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, English mathematician, writer b. 1815

10th  Emily Dickinson, American poet b.1830
14th  Nostradamus, French seer, apothecary, healer b.1503
15th  Antoine Henri Becquerel, French, physicist, Nobel laureate b.1852
16th/17th  Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer, pianist b.1770
16th  Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist b.1901
15th/16th  Jan Vermeer, Dutch Baroque painter d.1675
17th  Sir Humphrey Davy, British chemist, inventor b.1778
18th  J. J. Thomson, British physicist, Nobel laureate b.1856
18th  Francis Thompson, English poet b.1859
19th  Albert A. Michelson, American physicist, Nobel laureate b.1852

20th/22nd  Sacagawea, Native American (Shoshone) guide,
                interpreter for Lewin and Clark b. 1787, d. Dec 20/22, 1812 or 1854
22nd Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian self-taught mathematical genius b.1887
22nd Guru Gobindh Singh, Indian 10th Guru of Sikhism b.1666 (Julian), (celebrated most often on Jan 5)
24th  James Prescott Joule, English physicist b.1818
24th  Matthew Arnold, English poet, cultural critic, essayist b.1822
25th  Anwar al-Sadat, Egyptian statesman, President of Egypt b.1918
26th  Thomas Gray, English poet, classical scholar b.1716
26th  Charles Babbage, English mathematician, philosopher,
         inventor b.1791
27th  Johannes Kepler, German mathematician, astronomer b.1571
27th  Louis Pasteur, French chemist, microbiologist b.1822
30th  Sri Ramana Maharshi, Indian teacher, sage b.1879
31st  John Wycliffe, English theologian, translator, reformist d.1384
31st  "Odetta" Holmes, African-American singer, activist b.1930
31st   John Flamsteed, English astronomer d.1719

1st First Nobel Prize given to an American was for Peace and went to
      Theodore Roosevelt in 1906
2nd First controlled nuclear chain reaction begun by Enrico Fermi at the
      University of Chicago in 1942
3rd Planet Uranus discovered by John Flamsteed in 1714
6th  Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery
       ratified by U.S. Congress in 1865
7th (2023) Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins
10th  Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the U.N.
        Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
14th  Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached South Pole 1911
15th  Bill of Rights becomes part of the United States Constitution in 1791
         providing protection for the basic rights of the individual to free
         expression and justice

17th First airplane flight by Wilbur and Orville Wright 1903
18th House of Lords in England confirmed abolition of capital punishment for
       murder 1969
19th First Gypsy Congress, Sofia, Bulgaria 1905
21st English Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620
22nd  (2023) Winter Solstice, 3:27 AM PST
24th First extended radio audio broadcast of the human voice was
        transmitted through the air in 1906
25th Christmas Day traditionally celebrated as the day of the birth of Christ
26th Kwanzaa, beginning of a week-long honoring of African culture and tradition

  Undated Anniversaries Undated Observances and Acknowledgements
 

Menes, Egyptian first pharaoh of First Dynasty 3100 - 2850 B.C.E.
Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Persian prophet, religious poet, founder
                  of Zoroasterianism around 1200-1500 B.C.E.

Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher born around 605 B.CE..; died around 531 B.C.E.
Confucius, Chinese thinker, social philosopher b. 551 B.C.E; d. 479 B.C.E
Thales, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher died 546 B.C.E.
Pythagoras, Ionian Greek mathematician, mystic, scientis, born around 570 B.C.E.
Euripides, Greek playwright b. around 480 B.C.E.
Socrates, Greek philosopher b.470/469 B.C.E., d. 399 B.C.E.
Plato, Greek philosopher, mathematician b.428/427 B.C.E. .

Ashoka, Indian emperor b.304 B.C.E.
Emperor Julian, Roman Emperor b.331 B.C.E.
Philo Judaeus, Greek Jewish philosopher born around 20 B.C.E.

Tsong-Kha-Pa, Tibetan Buddhist Master, teacher b.135
Plotinus, Greek philosopher, founder of Neoplatonism born around 204/205
Porphyry, Phoenician Neoplatonist philosopher born around 233/234

Apollonius of Tyana, Greek philosopher born around the year 15
Ammonius Saccas, Greek Neoplatonic philosopher, born around 175 or 204
Mohammed, Islamic religious leader, founder, born around 570

Averroës, Andalusian Islamic religious philosopher, physician b.1126
Albertus Magnus, German philosopher, theologian b.1193
Marco Polo, Italian world traveler, explorer, trader d.1324

Goswami Tulsidas, Indian philosopher, author b.16th or 17th century













First ancient Olympic Games held in ancient Greece in 776 B.C.E.
First printed almanac published by Gutenberg in 1457
Gutenberg Bible printed in Germany in the 1450's
First observation of micro-organisims made by Antony van Leeuwenhoek
       in Delft, Holland in 1676
Cherokee Indians forcibly moved from their homelands to
       reservations in 1838 in what was to become known as the Trail of Tears
Cosmic rays dscovered by Victor Hess in 1912
Discovery of insulin announced by Banting and Best in 1921
Abu Simbel Temples in Egypt restored in the 1960s
Discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896