FEBRUARY 2nd: This Day In History:
1653 - New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated
1876 - The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
1887 - In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1913 - Grand Central Station was opened in New York City.
1940 - Frank Sinatra debuts with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.
1943 - World War II: The last German forces surrender to the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad.
1967 - The American Basketball Association is formed.
1971 - After a coup in Uganda, Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader.
1972 - The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest over Bloody Sunday.
1990 - Apartheid: In South Africa President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to set Nelson Mandela free.
2002 - The wedding of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands to the Argentinean born Máxima Zorreguieta takes place.
Very Important People Born on February 2nd : GRACE (I'll leave this blank), RON (1971), ME (1971--probably the last time I admit the year) and MANDY (1979).
Less important people born on February 2nd: James Joyce, Irish Writer (1882), Howard Johnson, hotelier (1897), Ayn Rand, Author (1905), Tom Smothers, entertainer (1937), Graham Nash, musician (1942), Farrah Fawcett, actress (1947), Christie Brinkley, model (1954), Eva Cassidy, singer (1963), Jennifer Westfeldt, actress (1970), Shakira, singer (1977).
And in honor of Charlie the Groundhog who used to live in my backyard in New Jersey...
From History.com:
First Groundhog Day
On this day in 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.
Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal--the hedgehog--as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State.
Groundhogs, also called woodchucks and whose scientific name is Marmota monax, typically weigh 12 to 15 pounds and live six to eight years. They eat vegetables and fruits, whistle when they're frightened or looking for a mate and can climb trees and swim. They go into hibernation in the late fall; during this time, their body temperatures drop significantly, their heartbeats slow from 80 to five beats per minute and they can lose 30 percent of their body fat. In February, male groundhogs emerge from their burrows to look for a mate (not to predict the weather) before going underground again. They come out of hibernation for good in March.
In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America's only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America's most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada.
Happy belated birthday! My mother and aunt celebrated their birthday on Saturday too, by the way (they're twins). Best wishes for a wonderful year. Laura
Posted by: laurafrofro | February 06, 2008 at 04:39 PM