Daily Holidays - February 18

[Sherman A1]

Drink Wine Day National Drink Wine Day is celebrated annually on February 18 across the United States.

The purpose of National Drink Wine Day is to spread the love and health benefits of wine. Wine has played an important role in history, religion and relationships. We embrace the positive benefits of wine such as new friends, reduced risk of heart disease and the enhancement of food and life. http://nationaldrinkwineday.org

Battery Day What products are available in all different shapes and sizes and packed full of power? They are used in phones, remote controls, toys, tools, computers and electronic gadgets. They’re even used in automobiles. Batteries! Just image where we’d be without these handy dandy sources of power! Today is National Battery Day, an annual “holiday” observed on February 18. This yearly event commemorates the birth of an Italian physicist and pioneer, Alessandro Volta, who was born on this day back in 1745.

The History of Batteries

Folks have been getting a real “charge” out of batteries for centuries. In fact, people have been using batteries since Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta invented them in 1800. After Luigi Galvani’s series of “animal electricity” experiments using frog legs, Volta went on to create the forerunner of the electric battery, the Voltaic Pile. Volta demonstrated his invention to Napoleon Bonaparte who later made him a count for his electrifying discovery.

Volta died on March 5, 1827, but the battery continued to evolve. French physicist Gaston Plante invented the first rechargeable battery in 1859 and Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium battery in 1899.

And speaking of batteries – today serves as the perfect reminder to check or change the batteries in those life-saving devices like smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. http://www.examiner.com/article/happy-national-battery-day-get-charged-up-on-feb-18th

Cow Milked While Flying In An Airplane Day Elm Farm Ollie (known as "Nellie Jay" and post-flight as "Sky Queen&quot was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on 18 February 1930, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. On the same trip, which covered 72 miles in a Ford Trimotor airplane from Bismarck, Missouri, to St. Louis, she also became the first cow milked in flight. This was done ostensibly to allow scientists to observe midair effects on animals, as well as for publicity purposes. A St. Louis newspaper trumpeted her mission as being "to blaze a trail for the transportation of livestock by air." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elm_Farm_Ollie


Pluto Day Pluto, once believed to be the ninth planet, is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh.

The existence of an unknown ninth planet was first proposed by Percival Lowell, who theorized that wobbles in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune were caused by the gravitational pull of an unknown planetary body. Lowell calculated the approximate location of the hypothesized ninth planet and searched for more than a decade without success. However, in 1929, using the calculations of Powell and W.H. Pickering as a guide, the search for Pluto was resumed at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. On February 18, 1930, Tombaugh discovered the tiny, distant planet by use of a new astronomic technique of photographic plates combined with a blink microscope. His finding was confirmed by several other astronomers, and on March 13, 1930--the anniversary of Lowell's birth and of William Hershel's discovery of Uranus--the discovery of Pluto was publicly announced. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pluto-discovered

http://www.famousbirthdays.com/february18.html

[In_The_Wind]

1. Drinking wine today seems totally reasonable.

After all, I have nothing else to do this whole darned day.

[Sherman A1]

2. Excellent!

I believe it is indeed a wise choice.

[TexasTowelie]

3. It's also Ash Wednesday.

Not a birthday, but a day that some may wish to commemorate.

[femmocrat]

5. Ash Wednesday:

Last edited Wed Feb 18, 2015, 11:02 AM - Edit history (1)

[bigwillq]

4. Happy Birthday, Jess Walton!

She's on the soap I watch, Young and Restless.

[betsuni]

6. Anniversary of the publishing of "Huckleberry Finn"

Best American novel, explains American culture because so much of it is stuck in the 19th century.

"It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or they just happened."

[KMOD]

7. Happy Birthday, Juice Newton

[youtube]

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[In_The_Wind]

8. Happy Birthday Juice!