Holidays Calendar for January 12, 2018

January 12 is Zanzibar Revolution Day, a very important holiday in Tanzania. This holiday commemorates the day the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964.

On January 12, the Berber population of Algeria celebrates Yennayer, the first day of the new year in the Berber calendar. In 2017, it was added on the list of the country’s public holidays to recognize Berbers as the largest ethnic minority in Algeria.

January 12 is Public Prosecutor Office Professionals Day. This professional holiday was established in 1995.

Pharmacists across the nation celebrate their professional holiday on January 12. National Pharmacist Day was created to educate the general public about what pharmacists do (and they do so much more then simply dispense medications!) and recognize their contribution to public health.

January 12 used to be observed as Memorial Day in Turkmenistan. This date is sorrowful and special for Turkmenistan because it honors those who fell on January 12, 1881, defending the Geok Tepe fortress.

Ukrainian Political Prisoners Day is observed annually on January 12. It was established in honor of all Ukrainians who were arrested due to their political beliefs. The observance was initiated by Viacheslav Chornovil, a prominent dissident in the Soviet Union and politician in independent Ukraine.

January 12 is National Marzipan Day, the day that celebrates one of the most delicious treats in the world.

If you like flavorful food, we know a holiday that you might want to celebrate. National Curried Chicken Day is observed annually on January 12 in honor of a chicken dish that originated in the Indian subcontinent and has made its way as far as the Caribbean.

Even if you’re more of a coffee person, have a cup of hot tea on January 12 to celebrate National Hot Tea Day. This amazing holiday was created to celebrate the world’s second most consumed beverage after water.

January 12 is National Youth Day in India. This observance is celebrated annually since 1985.

Kiss a Ginger Day is an informal holiday celebrated on January 12. It was created by Derek Forgie in opposition to “Kick a Ginger Day”. The main idea behind the observance is that it is much better to spread the love than to spread the hate.

 

This Day in History

  • 2023 Died: Lisa Marie Presley, American singer and songwriter. She was the only child of singer and actor Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley, as well as the sole heir to her father's estate.
  • 2022 Died: Ronnie Spector, American singer who co-founded and fronted the girl group the Ronettes. She is sometimes referred to as the original "bad girl of rock and roll".
  • 2010 The 2010 Haiti earthquake killed about 316,000 and destroyed the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince.
  • 2005 Deep Impact (a NASA space probe designed to study the interior composition of the comet Tempel 1) was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket.
  • 2004 RMS Queen Mary 2, the world's largest ocean liner, made its maiden voyage.
  • 2003 Died: Maurice Gibb, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He achieved international fame as the guitarist and keyboardist of the Bee Gees.
  • 2001 Died: William Redington Hewlett, American engineer and businessman, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP), a corporation that provides hardware, software and services to consumers in the government, health, and education sectors.
  • 2000 Died: Marc Davis, prominent American animator for Walt Disney Studios. Davis was responsible for the animation of many Disney characters, such as Snow White, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice, Tinker Bell, Maleficent, Cruella De Vil, and many others.
  • 1998 19 European nations agreed to forbid reproductive human cloning.
  • 1997 Died: Charles Brenton Huggins, Canadian-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate for discovering that hormones could control the spread of some cancers.
  • 1991 Died: Mary Francis Shura, American author, best known for her children's adventures and young adult romances. She wrote over 50 novels under different pen names.
  • 1987 Born: Naya Rivera, American actress, singer, and model best known for portraying Santana Lopez on the popular musical comedy-drama series Glee.
  • 1985 Born: Issa Rae, American actress, writer, and producer. She achieved wide recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the HBO television series Insecure.
  • 1976 Died: Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for creating Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, characters who investigate crimes.
  • 1974 Born: Melanie Jayne Chisholm, better known as Melanie C, English singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She was one of the five members of the Spice Girls, the best-selling female group of all the time.
  • 1967 Dr. James Bedford became the first person who was cryonically preserved with the intent of future resuscitation.
  • 1965 Born: Rob Zombie, American singer-songwriter, producer and screenwriter. He became famous as a member of the band White Zombie.
  • 1964 Born: Jeff Bezos, American businessman, the founder of Amazon. As of November 2023, Bezos was the third-wealthiest person in the world and was the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021.
  • 1959 Born: Per Gessle, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the lead singer of the Swedish pop group Gyllene, but he gained his international popularity with Roxette.
  • 1951 Born: Kirstie Alley, American actress whose breakthrough role was as Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom Cheers. She was also known for her roles in Look Who's Talking and David's Mother.
  • 1949 Born: Haruki Murakami, Japanese contemporary writer. His books were translated into 50 languages and sold millions of copies. His most notable books include A Wild Sheep Chase, Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, and 1Q84.
  • 1918 Finland's "Mosaic Confessors" law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens of the country.
  • 1915 The United States House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote. All the citizens of the United States regardless of their sex were given the right to vote only by the 19th Amendment (1920).
  • 1915 The Rocky Mountain National Park was formed by an act of the U.S. Congress.
  • 1908 A long-distance radio message was sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
  • 1899 Died: Hiram Walker, American businessman, the founder of Canadian Club, a brand of whiskey from Canada.
  • 1899 Born: Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate for his discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in control of vector diseases (yellow fever and malaria).
  • 1876 Born: Jack London, American author, journalist and social activist. He is known for his works The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and short story collection To Build a Fire.
  • 1833 Died: Marie-Antoine Carême, French chef. He was an early practitioner of the elaborate style of cooking that is known as grande cuisine. He is also known for creating the standard chef's hat and classifying all sauces into groups.
  • 1808 British government abandoned John Rennie's scheme to defend St Mary's Church, Reculver, from coastal erosion in favor of demolition.
  • 1665 Died: Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and lawyer. He is known for his discovery of an original method that lets find the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines.
  • 1628 Born: Charles Perrault, French author. He is best known for his fairy tales Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, The Sleeping Beauty, and Bluebeard.
  • 1580 Born: Jan Baptist van Helmont, Flemish chemist and physician. He is remembered for his ideas on spontaneous generation, his 5-year tree experiment, and the introduction of the word "gas" into the vocabulary of scientists.