Holidays Calendar for October 9, 2016

South Korea, North Korea and China use Hangul, that is the alphabet for writing their words. The alphabet was created in 1446 and now this anniversary is known as Hangul Day, that is celebrated in South Korea on October 9.

Independence Day is one of the major national holidays in Uganda. It's annually celebrated on October 9 on the anniversary of gaining of independence from Great Britain in 1962.

The former colonies often celebrate Abolition Day as one of the public holidays. For instance, the French overseas collectivity of Saint Barthélemy celebrates this day on October 9.

Guayaquil Independence Day is one of the public holidays in Ecuador. This holiday is observed annually on October 9, celebrating the day when the city of Guayaquil gained independence from Spain in 1820.

White Sunday is a holiday celebrated in Samoa, Tokelau, and American Samoa on the second Sunday in October. The Monday after White Sunday is an official public holiday in Tokelau and Samoa.

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Beer and pizza are a match made in heaven, yes or no? If you wholeheartedly agree with this statement, don’t forget to celebrate International Beer and Pizza Day, also referred to as simply Beer and Pizza Day, on October 9.

PANS/PANDAS Awareness Day, also known as World PANS/PANDAS Awareness Day, is observed annually on October 9. It was created to raise awareness of the pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) and pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS).

Naval Forces Day is one of the most recent professional days in Turkmenistan. This day was established in 2011 and the first observance took place on October 9, 2012.

October 9 (17 Mehr in the Solar Hijri calendar) is marked as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Day in Iran. It honors a branch of Iran’s Armed Forces tasked with protecting the country’s Islamic Republic system.

Agricultural Workers' Day is an official professional holiday in Russia. It is celebrated on the second Sunday in October. The holiday was established by President Boris Yeltsin in 1999.

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Indian diplomats celebrate their professional holiday, Indian Foreign Service Day, on October 9. It commemorates the founding anniversary of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), a central civil service responsible for India’s representation abroad.

Artist's Day is a Ukrainian professional holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in October. It was officially established in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma, who supported the initiative of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.

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National Dignity Day (Día de la Dignidad Nacional) was a public holiday in Peru commemorating the nationalization of the petroleum industry. Today, it is celebrated only in the province of Talara as Oil Worker Day (Día del Trabajador Petrolero).

Ukrainian realtors celebrate their professional holiday, Realtor’s Day, on October 9. Although the holiday hasn’t been recognized officially yet, it is very popular in the professional community.

Cultural Workers' Day is an official professional holiday in the Republic of Belarus celebrated on the second Sunday in October. It was established in 1998 by President Alexander Lukashenko and has been observed annually ever since.

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National Nanotechnology Day is an annual event held in the United States on October 9. It was launched by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a U.S. federal government program for the science, engineering, and technology research and development for nanoscale projects.

The Chung Yeung Festival (Double Ninth Festival) is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. It is observed as a public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau and widely celebrated in mainland China and Taiwan.

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On the second Sunday of October, when the harvest season is nearing its end, Armenians celebrate the annual harvest festival. Festivities are held in almost every city, town and village, and the best farmers from all over the country come to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to participate in a gastronomic exhibition.

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Leif Erikson Day, which is observed annually in the United States on October 9, is to honor the Norse explorer who was the leader of the first Europeans known to have set foot on the North American continent.

People of Romania observe National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust annually on October 9. This memorial day was created to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust in Romania during World War II.

Valencia Day (Día de la Comunidad Valenciana) is the official holiday of the Valencian Community of Spain. It is celebrated on October 9 to commemorate the 1238 reconquest of Valencia from the Moors by King James I of Aragon.

The Battle of the Caucasus Day is one of the days of military honor observed in the Russian Armed Forces to celebrate the most outstanding victories. It celebrates the Red Army’s victory in one of the most important battles on the Eastern Front of World War II.

Some people think moldy cheese is gross, but others enjoy its distinct taste and flavor immensely National Moldy Cheese Day celebrated on October 9 is the perfect excuse for the latter to indulge themselves with gourmet cheese such as Gorgonzola or Roquefort.

World Post Day is annually observed on October 9. This observance was created by the Universal Postal Union Congress in Tokyo, Japan in 1969.

National Fire Prevention Day is observed in the United States and Canada on October 9. The week (from Sunday to Saturday) in which it falls is declared National Fire Prevention Week.

Grandparents, as well as mothers and fathers, deserve their own holiday, when all grandchildren could say “thank you” to their grandmothers and grandfathers. German kids have such an opportunity on the second Sunday in October, since it's Grandmothers' Day.

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This Day in History

  • 2023 Died: Keith Griffen, American comics artist and writer known for his work for DC Comics on their Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League titles.
  • 2016 Died: Andrzei Wajda, Polish film and theatre director who received an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards during his 65-year-long career.
  • 2010 Died: Maurice Allais, French economist, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources in 1988.
  • 1996 Born: Bella Hadid, American model. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual list in 2023.
  • 1987 Died: William P. Murphy, American physician, best remembered for combined work devising and treating macrocytic anemia. In 1934 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
  • 1986 The musical The Phantom of the Opera received the first performance at Her Majesty's Theater in London. The musical had a great success, the performances on Broadway and by non-professional groups followed.
  • 1983 South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan survived the attempt of assassination by bombing attack during his official visit to Rangoon, Burma. He survived the blast but 17 of his entourage, including cabinet ministers, were killed and 17 others injured.
  • 1981 France became the last Western Country to practice the death penalty to abolish it. The abolition of the capital punishment was backed by the newly elected president François Mitterrand.
  • 1979 Born: Brendon Routh, American actor. He is known for portraying Superman in Superman Returns and Ray Palmer / The Atom in the Arrowverse, where he also reprised his role as Superman.
  • 1974 Died: Oskar Schindler, German businessman, member of the Nazi Party. He is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories, located in occupied Poland. He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark and the subsequent film Schindler's List.
  • 1969 Born: Steve McQueen, British film director, film producer, screenwriter, and video artist. His best known directorial works include Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave, and Widows.
  • 1967 Died: Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist, working in the field of molecular kinetics. In 1956 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the mechanism of chemical reactions.
  • 1967 Died: Joseph Pilates, German-American fitness trainer, known as the inventor and promoter of the Pilates method of physical fitness.
  • 1967 Died: Che Guevara, Argentine revolutionary, author, guerrilla leader, a major figure of the Cuban Revolution. His visage became a symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.
  • 1966 Born: David Cameron, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010.
  • 1963 Over 2,000 people were killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam caused a giant wave of water to overtop it. The accident was caused due to designers, who ignored the geological instability of the region. Nowadays the dam is disused.
  • 1961 Born: Julian Bailey, English racer, best known as a former Formula One driver racing fro the Tyrrell and Lotus teams. He was one of the several drivers to race as The Stig on the show Top Gear.
  • 1958 Died: Pope Pius XII (born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli). His papacy began on March 2, 1939 and ended on October 9, 1958, coinciding with World War II. He used diplomacy to aid the victims of the war, lobbied for peace and spoke out against race based murders.
  • 1954 Born: Scott Bakula, American actor, best known for role in the television series Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise. His work in TV series brought him four Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe.
  • 1950 Born: Jody Williams, American political activist, known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines and defense of human rights. In 1997 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work toward the baning and clearing of mines.
  • 1944 Born: John Entwistle, English musician, songwriter, producer, best known as the bass guitarist of the English rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players.
  • 1943 Died: Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist. In 1902 he was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics for the discovery of what is now known as the Zeeman effect, the effect of splitting a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field.
  • 1941 Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango was declared to be President of Panama after the coup. His administration lasted till June 15, 1945, when he was succeeded by Enrique Adolfo Jiménez.
  • 1940 Born: John Lennon, English singer, songwriter, co-founder of the Beatles. Work with the band brought him a worldwide fame, but later he started his solo career. He is known for such hits as Imagine, Woman Is the Nigger of the World, Mind Games, Nobody Loves You etc.
  • 1940 St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London was hit by a bomb during a night-time air raid by the German Luftwaffe. The bombing destroyed the original reredos and high altar.
  • 1933 Born: Peter Mansfield, English physicist. Together with his colleague Paul Lauterbur he worked on Magnetic Resonance Imaging and showed, how the radio signals from MRI can be mathematically analyzed and interpreted into a useful image. This work brought them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003.
  • 1892 Born: Ivo Andrić, Serbian writer, whose writings mainly dealt with life of Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire. In 1961 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
  • 1888 The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. officially opened to the general public.
  • 1852 Born: Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, remembered for his work on sugar and purine synthesis. This work brought him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1902.
  • 1834 The first public railway, the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, opened in Ireland, linking Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbor in County Dublin.
  • 1740 Dutch colonists and various slave groups began massacring ethnic Chinese in Batavia (present-day Jakarta), Indonesia. They eventually killed 10,000 people and these events lead to a two-year-long war throughout Java.
  • 1709 Died: Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, English courtesan and the most notorious mistress of King Charles II of England. They had five children, all of whom were acknowledged and ennobled. Her influence on Charles II was so great, that she was referred to as the Uncrowned Queen.
  • 1604 Johannes Kepler began observing the luminous display of supernova, later called Kepler's Supernova or Supernova 1604, in the constellation Ophiuchus. This is the most recent supernova observed by the naked eye in the Milky Way galaxy, occurring about 20,000 light-years from Earth.
  • 1562 Died: Gabriele Falloppio, Italian anatomist and physician, one of the most important figures of his time. His work dealt mainly with the anatomy of the head and reproductive organs in both sexes.
  • 1201 Born: Robert de Sorbon, French theologian. In 1253 he founded the Sorbonne college in Paris.