Holidays Calendar for July 12, 2013

Naadam is a traditional three-day festival in Mongolia which is celebrated as a public holiday. It is held from July 11 to July 13. In 2010, it was included to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The Republic of Kiribati celebrates its Independence Day on July 12. It is the country’s national holiday that commemorates the independence of Kiribati from the United Kingdom in 1979.

Independence Day of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe is observed on July 12. On that day in 1975, the country gained independence from Portugal. Independence Day is a public holiday and a day off for most citizens.

The First Sermon of Lord Buddha is a public holiday in Bhutan. This holiday falls on the fourth day of the sixth month of the Lunar calendar. Thousands of Buddhists visit sacred places to pray to Buddha and be blessed by him.

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Cava is to Spain what Champagne is to France. Although this sparkling wine might be less renowned than its French counterpart, International Cava Day is celebrated not once, but twice a year: on April 23 and July 12.

Hijab and Chastity Day is an Iranian holiday celebrated on the 21th day of the month of Tir in the Solar Hijri calendar, which corresponds to July 12 in the Gregorian calendar. Its main goal is to emphasize the importance of hijab in the lives of Iranian women.

On July 12, Ulster Protestants celebrate Orangemen's Day, also referred to as Battle of the Boyne Day or simply the Twelfth. It has the status of a public holiday in Northern Ireland.

The Day of Struggle and Martyrdom of the Polish Villages (Dzień Walki i Męczeństwa Wsi Polskiej), also translated as the Day of Struggle and Martyrdom of the Polish Countryside, is observed in Poland on July 12 every year to commemorate the 1943 Michniów massacre.

Pecan pie is a staple of the Southern United States and one of America's favorite desserts. It surely deserves its own holiday. National Pecan Pie Day is celebrated on July 12.

There are many ways to reduce your environmental footprint without significantly changing your way of life. Have you thought, for example, about using paper bags instead of plastic ones? Paper Bag Day, observed annually on July 12, was created to encourage you to do just that.

The second Friday of July (formerly July 13) is National French Fries Day. French fries are a common fixture at fast food restaurants all over the world.

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National Different Colored Eyes Day is celebrated on July 12 to educate people about complete heterochromia, an eye condition that results in one iris being a different color from the other.

On the second Friday of July, treat yourself to some delicious kebab to celebrate Kebab Day, sometimes referred to as National Kebab Day even though there is no evidence that this unofficial food day is truly celebrated nationwide.

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The International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms is a United Nations international day observed annually on July 12. It was established to raise awareness of the devastating effects of sand and dust storms and encourage regional and global cooperation to manage and mitigate them.

Malala Day, sometimes referred to as International Malala Day, is an annual observance dedicated to the Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai who became the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate at the age of 17.

 

This Day in History

  • 2020 Died: Kelly Preston, American actress. Her film credits include Mischief, Twins, Jerry Maguire, For the Love of the Game, The Experts, Gotti, SpaceCamp, Sky High, and more.
  • 2013 A train crash in the commune of Brétigny-sur-Orge in the southern suburbs of Paris left seven people dead and 428 injured when a passenger train derailed and hit the station platform.
  • 2006 Hezbollah fighters fired rockets at Israeli border towns, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War.
  • 1995 Born: Mason Alexander Park, American actor. They are known for their television roles on Cowboy Bebop, The Sandman, and Quantum Leap.
  • 1990 Born: Rachel Brosnahan, American actress who rose to fame playing the title role of an aspiring stand-up comedian in the period comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
  • 1978 Born: Michelle Rodriguez, American actress. She rose to fame after a breakout role as a troubled boxer in the film Girlfight. She also starred in The Fast and Furious and its sequels.
  • 1975 Born: Cheyenne Jackson, American actor and singer. His credits include leading roles in Broadway musicals and other stage roles, as well as film and television roles.
  • 1974 Born: Sharon den Adel, Dutch singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the Dutch symphonic metal/rock band Within Temptation.
  • 1962 The Rolling Stones performed their first concert at the Marquee Club in London, United Kingdom.
  • 1961 The city of Pune, the seventh-most populated city in India, was flooded due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams. More than 100,000 families needed to be relocated, and about 2,000 people died.
  • 1952 Born: Liz Mitchell, Jamaican-British singer, best known as one of the original singers of the disco/reggae band Boney M. In 2024, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire.
  • 1950 Born: Eric Carr, American drummer and songwriter, best known as the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980. He remained a member of band till his death in 1991.
  • 1949 Died: Douglas Hyde, Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician, and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945.
  • 1943 The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought during the Second World War between the 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS-Panzer Corps of the German Waffen-SS.
  • 1934 Died: Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American inventor and businessman, best known for the invention of the outboard motor.
  • 1934 Born: Van Cliburn, American pianist. He achieved worldwide recognition at the age of 23 after winning the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.
  • 1931 Died: Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, 1930 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
  • 1928 Born: Elias James Corey, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate for the development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis.
  • 1920 Soviet Russia and Lithuania signed the Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty. Soviet Russia recognized the independence of Lithuania.
  • 1918 The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi sank after an explosion in her ammunition magazine. At least 621 officers and crewmen died.
  • 1913 Born: Willis Lamb, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.
  • 1910 Died: Charles Rolls, British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He died at age 32, becoming the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident.
  • 1904 Born: Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat. He is sometimes called the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language. He received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.
  • 1892 Died: Alexander Cartwright, American firefighter, sometimes referred to as the inventor of baseball. He is thought to be the first person to draw a diagram of the diamond-shaped baseball field and develop the rules of the game.
  • 1884 Born: Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He had little success while alive but after his death achieved great popularity.
  • 1854 Born: George Eastman, American businessman and innovator, best known as the founder of Eastman Kodak Company that popularized the use of roll film. His company helped bring photography to the mainstream.
  • 1849 Died: Dolley Madison, еру First Lady of the United States from 1809 to 1817 as the wife of President James Madison. Her social gifts largely boosted her husband's popularity as president.
  • 1806 16 German imperial states left the Holy Roman Empire and formed the Confederation of the Rhine. Liechtenstein was given full sovereignty after its accession to the Confederation.
  • 1804 Died: Alexander Hamilton, American general, economist, and politician, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, the founder of the nation's financial system and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.
  • 1776 Captain James Cook began his third voyage to discover the Northwest Passage. This was the last voyage of Captain Cook.
  • 1712 Died: Richard Cromwell, English academic and politician, one of the two non-royals to be the English head of state. He assumed the power as 2nd Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and held the office for 264 days.
  • 1682 Died: Jean Picard, French astronomer, known as the first person to measure the size of the Earth to a reasonable degree of accuracy.
  • 1580 One of the early printed East Slavic translations of the Bible, the Ostrog Bible, was published.
  • 1543 King Henry VII of England married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace. The marriage lasted till 1547, when Henry VIII died.
  • 1536 Died: Desiderius Erasmus, also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic theologian, educationalist, satirist, and philosopher. He was one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance.