Holidays Calendar for January 3, 2020
January 3 is the national holiday in Burkina Faso when everyone celebrates Anniversary of the 1966 coup d'état, or the Revolution Day. There was an alike holiday that had been celebrated since 1992 and till 2000, but it marked another revolution.
International Mind-Body Wellness Day is observed annually on January 3. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to learn more about the connection of your body and mind and truly commit to maintaining your physical and mental well-being.
Ministry of Religious Affairs Day (Hari Kementerian Agama Republik Indonesia) is an official observance in Indonesia held annually on January 3. It commemorates the founding of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesia in 1946. Although it is not a public holiday, it is marked with official events.
Fans of fantasy around the globe celebrate J. R. R. Tolkien Day on January 3 every year. It commemorates the birthday of the author of archetypal works of the high fantasy genre, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.
Women Rock! Day is observed in the United States on January 3. It celebrates the contribution and accomplishments of women in the rock music industry. The date of the holiday was chosen to commemorate the day when Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
January 3 is Memorial Day of the Fallen in the Estonian Liberation War. This is not a holiday but it commemorates the memory of 5,000 Estonian soldiers who died for their country.
January 3 is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day that is celebrated by millions of people across the USA. If you like chocolate covered cherry candies, then why don't you treat yourself with them on this day?
National Drinking Straw Day, also known as simply Drinking Straw Day, is an informal observance celebrated on January 3 in the United States and some other countries. It commemorates the invention of the modern drinking straw.
National Write to Congress Day is observed annually on January 3. It was created to encourage U.S. citizens to exercise their democratic rights by relaying their concerns to their representatives at the state and federal levels.
Festivals on January 3, 2020
- Blacks and Whites’ Carnival in Pasto, Colombia
- Carnival of Putignano in Putignano, Italy
- Crucian Christmas Carnival in Christiansted, American Virgin Islands
- Dubai Shopping Festival in Dubai, UAE
- TSB Festival of Lights in New Plymouth, New Zealand
- GUM Christmas Fair at Red Square in Moscow, Russia
- World Amigurumi Exhibition in New York, USA
- Winter Wonderland at VDNG in Kyiv, Ukraine
- Rome Christmas Market in Rome, Italy
- Riga Christmas Market in Riga, Latvia
- Prague Christmas Market in Prague, Czech Republic
- Vilnius Christmas Market in Vilnius, Lithuania
- Merano Christmas Market in Merano, Italy
- Brussels Christmas Market in Brussels, Belgium
- Bolzano Christmas Market in Bolzano, Italy
This Day in History
- 2014 Died: Saul Zaentz, American producer. He produced an animated version of The Lord of the Rings.
- 2004 Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea. It resulted in 148 deaths that made this accident the deadliest one in the aviation history of Egypt.
- 2003 Born: Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation.
- 2003 Born: Kyle Rittenhouse, American man who shot three men, two fatally, during the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. His prosecution attracted widespread media coverage.
- 1999 The Mars Polar Lander was launched. During the mission the lander failed to reestablish communication with the Earth and remains lost.
- 1996 Born: Florence Pugh, English actress. She is known for her roles in Lady Macbeth, Midsommar, Little Women, Oppenheimer, and Dune 2, as well as for portraying Yelena Belova in the MCU.
- 1996 The Motorola StarTAC went on sale. It was the first flip phone and one of the first cell phones that gained widespread consumer adoption.
- 1994 More then 7 million people from the former Apartheid Homelands received South African citizenship.
- 1983 Born: Katie McGrath, Irish actress. She is known for he roles as Morgana Pendragon in Merlin, Lucy Westenra in Dracula, Saskia in Secret Bridesmaids Business, and Lena Luthor in Supergirl.
- 1979 Died: Conrad Hilton, American businessman, the founder of the Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
- 1977 Apple Computer was incorporated. It became Apple Inc. in 2007, reflecting the shift of the company's focus towards consumer electronics.
- 1974 Died: Gino Cervi, Italian actor. He is best known for his role of Guiseppe Botazzi in the Don Camillo movies. He also played Commissioner Maigret in the Italian adaptation of Georges Simenon's detective stories.
- 1969 Born: Michael Schumacher, German race car driver. He is a seven-time Formula One World Champion and one of the greatest drivers of F1 of all the time.
- 1961 The worst civilian aviation accident in Finland. Aero Flight 311 crashed near Kvevlax, resulting in the deaths of all 25 passengers aboard.
- 1957 The first electric watch was introduced by the Hamilton Watch Company. This watch was worn by Elvis Presley who featured it the movie Blue Hawaii.
- 1956 Born: Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. People named Gibson the sexiest man alive in 1985, the first person to be named so.
- 1956 The top part of the Eiffel Tower was damaged by fire. It took a year to repair it.
- 1946 Born: John Baldwin, English bass player, songwriter, and producer. He is known as a member of Led Zeppelin.
- 1929 Born: Sergio Leone, Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter, credited as the pioneer of the spaghetti Western genre. His works include the Dollars Trilogy and the Once Upon a Time films.
- 1926 Born: George Martin, English record producer, composer, conductor, audio engineer, and musician. He was involved on each of the Beatles' original albums.
- 1923 Died: Jaroslav Hašek, Czech writer, satirist, humorist. He is best known for his work The Good Soldier Švejk, a collection of stories about a soldier in World War I.
- 1919 Born: Herbie Nichols, American jazz pianist. He wrote the jazz standard "Lady Sings the Blues". Today he is highly regarded by many critics and musicians.
- 1903 Died: Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant. He was the father of Adolf Hitler.
- 1892 Born: J. R. R. Tolkien, English poet and writer. Everyone knows his best works of the classic high fantasy The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
- 1888 Lick Observatory used the refracting telescope 91 cm (almost 3 feet) in diameter for the first time. It was the largest telescope at that time.
- 1887 Born: August Macke, German painter. He was the leader of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. Macke's paintings featured lots of avant-garde elements that interested him.
- 1875 Died: Pierre Larousse, French lexicographer, grammarian, and encyclopedist. He is known for his educational and reference works of 19th-century France.
- 1870 The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began. Today it is one of the oldest hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridges in the US.
- 1821 Born: Karel Dežman, Slovenian archaeologist, botanist, and politician. He is considered to be the father of modern archeology in Slovenia.
- 1819 Born: Charles Smyth, Italian astronomer. He is well-known for his multiple innovations in astronomy and his pyramidological and metrological studies of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- 1705 Died: Luca Giordano, Italian painter. His best known works are Venus and Mars, Resurrection, and The Rape of Lucretia.
- 1641 Died: Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer. He was the first person who demonstrated that the Moon moved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit. He and his friend William Crabtree observed and recorded the transit of Venus of 1639.
- 1543 Died: Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Portuguese explorer. He is noted for his exploration of the west coast of North America.
- 1437 Died: Catherine of Valois, Queen consort of England from 1420 till 1422.