Holidays Calendar for January 2, 2018

On January 2 the people of Saint Kitts and Nevis celebrate Carnival Day. It is a public holiday also known as National Carnival Last Lap Parade.

Nyilog or Nyinlog is the winter solstice celebration in Bhutan which is considered a public holiday. It is celebrated on the seventh day of the eleventh month of the Bhutanese calendar.

On January 2 the people of Niue celebrate Takai Commission Holiday. Takai is the tradition of driving around the island of Niue in brightly decorated cats and other vehicles.

Berchtold's Day (Berchtoldstag) is an Alemannic holiday celebrated in some parts of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Alsace. It is celebrated on January 2 and is considered a public holiday in 14 of 26 cantons of Switzerland.

Ancestry Day (Ancestor's Day, Jour des Aieux) is a public holidays in Haiti that commemorates ancestors who sacrificed their lives during the independence struggle. It is celebrated annually on January, 2.

On January 1 and 2, Cubans celebrate not only New Year, but also the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, which resulted in the fall of Fulgencio Batista’s regime and Fidel Castro’s rise to power. January 1 is celebrated as Triumph of the Revolution or Liberation Day, and January 2 is referred to as Victory Day.

If socializing takes more energy from you than it gives back, World Introvert Day, celebrated annually on January 2, is probably your holiday. It was established in 2011 to raise awareness about misunderstanding and challenges introverts face on a daily basis.

Each year plenty of people make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight or become more fit. Some can accomplish the goal on their own, while others might need a little outside help, and that’s totally okay! National Personal Trainer Awareness Day, observed annually on January 2, celebrates the professionals who help us stay fit and keep our promises to ourselves.

The birthday of Mannathu Padmanabhan Pillai, commonly referred to as Mannam Jayanti, is a public holiday in the Indian state of Kerala. It honors an Indian social reformer and freedom fighter, who is best known for representing the Nair community (a group of Hindu casts that historically lived in what is now Kerala).

National Science Fiction Day is an informal holiday celebrated by many American science fiction fans. It falls on January 2, the birth anniversary of Isaac Asimov.

The USA is famous for its foods holidays, many of which are unofficial but are still quite widely celebrated. National Cream Puff Day is one of them, it falls on January 2. This holiday is dedicated to a French pastry also known as choux à la crème or profiterole.

If you still feel like celebrating on the day after New Year’s Day, treat yourself to a cheese platter and a glass of wine to go with it, some fondue, or a delicious cheese and ham sandwich because January 2 is Swiss Cheese Day.

Going out with your family or friends can be a nightmare if members of the group have vastly different tastes in food. Luckily, there is a possible solution to this problem: you can go to a buffet-style restaurant where everyone can choose something they like. Buffets are so popular in the US that they even have their own holiday, National Buffet Day, celebrated annually on January 2.

National Motivation and Inspiration Day, sometimes referred to as simply Motivation and Inspiration Day, is observed annually on January 2. It is the day when the winter holiday season is finally over, and you can really focus on achieving your goals and keeping your New Year’s resolutions.

National Pet Travel Safety Day is observed annually on January 2. It was created to educate the general audience about the risk of unrestrained pets in vehicles and encourage pet owners to be more responsible.

 

This Day in History

  • 2022 A series of mass protests and civil unrest that began in Kazakhstan after a sudden sharp increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices following the lifting of a government-enforced price cap.
  • 2013 Died: Ned Wertimer, American actor. He is known for his role as Ralph Hart in the sitcom The Jeffersons, one of the longest-running American sitcoms ever.
  • 2006 A coal mine explosion in Sago (Upshur County, West Virginia, USA) trapped 13 miners for nearly two days, 12 of them were found dead.
  • 2005 Died: Maclyn McCarty, American geneticist. He studied infectious disease organisms, but is best known for his monumental discovery that genes were made of DNA.
  • 2004 300-kilogram robotic space probe Stardust encountered the comet Wild 2 and successfully collected dust grain samples that were later returned to Earth.
  • 1999 A strong winter snowstorm struck the Midwestern U.S. and parts of eastern Canada. It produced 22 inches of snow in Chicago. The storm was nicknamed the Blizzard of 1999.
  • 1987 Born: Shelley Hennig, American actress and model best known for her roles as Malia Tate on Teen Wolf and Ava Winters in the Netflix action comedy Obliterated.
  • 1983 Born: Kate Bosworth, American actress who is probably best known for her role as Lois Lane in Superman Returns. Her other film credits include Blue Crush, Straw Dogs, and more.
  • 1981 The "Yorkshire Ripper", British serial killer Peter William Sutcliffe, was arrested in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He had murdered 13 women and attempted to kill 7 others.
  • 1978 Born: Karina Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American dancer. She is est known as a professional dancer on the U.S. TV series Dancing with the Stars.
  • 1977 Died: Erroll Garner, American pianist and composer. His ballad "Misty" has become a jazz standard.
  • 1976 The Gale of January 1976, also known as "Capella Storm" in Germany and the Ruisbroek flood in Belgium, began. It resulted in at least 82 deaths and $1.3 billion damage.
  • 1975 Born: Dax Shepard, American actor, comedian, writer, and director. He is best known for his work in Hit and Run, Let's Go to Prison, Without a Paddle.
  • 1975 Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways in the government of India, was fatally wounded in a bomb explosion at Samastipur. He died the next day in the railway hospital at Danapur.
  • 1971 Born: Renée Elise Goldsberry, American actress and singer best known for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton.
  • 1971 Born: Taye Diggs, American actor known for his roles in the Broadway musicals Rent and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and the TV series Private Practice, Murder in the First, and All American.
  • 1967 Born: Tia Carrere, American actress, model, voice artist, and singer. Her biggest roles were in Lilo & Stitch, Duck Dodgers, and Relic Hunter.
  • 1952 The Soviet Union launched Luna 1, also known as Mechta ("Dream"), the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit, and the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
  • 1950 Died: Theophrastos Sakellaridis, Greek conductor and composer. He was the basic creator of Greek operetta.
  • 1947 Born: Jack Hanna, American zoologist. He is regarded as one of the most notable zoologists in the United States.
  • 1942 The Duquesne Spy Ring, a German espionage network headed by Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne, was sentenced to serve a total of over 300 years in prison by the Federal District Court, Brooklyn, New York.
  • 1935 Born: David McKee, English writer and book illustrator, chiefly of children's books and animations.
  • 1924 Died: Sabine Baring-Gould, English scholar and author. He is remembered as a writer of hymns.
  • 1920 Died: Paul Adam, French novelist. He is best known for his series of historical novels that dealt with the time of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath.
  • 1920 Born: Isaac Asimov, American writer and biochemistry professor. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.
  • 1904 Died: James Longstreet, American general. He was one the of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War.
  • 1892 Died: George Biddell Airy, English mathematician and astronomer known for his work on planetary orbits. He established Greenwich as the location of the prime meridian.
  • 1891 Born: Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect, designer, and urban planner. He is known for the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and the Church of San Giovanni Battista.
  • 1890 Born: Henrik Visnapuu, Estonian poet and playwright. He was one of the most important Estonian poets in the 1920s and 1930s.
  • 1876 Born: Thérèse of Lisieux, French nun and saint, known as "The Little Flower of Jesus".
  • 1868 Died: John Doyle, British painter, who is best known for his political cartoons.
  • 1855 Died: Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist and a pioneer in the field of aerology. He is known as the co-discoverer of the stratosphere.
  • 1833 The United Kingdom re-asserted its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf, although Argentina maintained its claim to the islands.
  • 1777 The Battle of the Assunpink Creek, also known as the Second Battle of Trenton, took place. It was a battle between British and American troops during the American Revolutionary War which resulted in an American victory.