Monday, the 7th of July, 2014 is the 188th day in 2014 and in the 28th calendar week.

General Events:

Chocolate Day 2014
July 7, 2014 in the World

Chocolate Day is observed on July 07, 2014. Enjoy this day by eating a proper amount of chocolate without remorse and guilt! Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Chocolate chip cookies have become very common, and very popular, in most parts of Europe and North America. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate.

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, the dried and partially fermented seeds of the cacao tree, a small evergreen tree native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. Roughly two-thirds of the entire world’s cocoa is produced in West Africa, with 43% sourced from Côte d’Ivoire, where child labor is a common practice to obtain the product. According to the World Cocoa Foundation, some 50 million people around the world depend on cocoa as a source of livelihood.

Several types of chocolate can be distinguished. Pure, unsweetened chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk.

The health effects of chocolate refer to the possible beneficial or detrimental physiological effects of eating chocolate mainly for pleasure. For example, cocoa and dark chocolate may support cardiovascular health. Other effects under preliminary research include reduced risks of cancer, coughing and heart disease.

If you’re a chocoholic, then you have two more chocolate days to celebrate! World Chocolate Day is on September 4 and National Chocolate Day is on October 28.

Today, take the time to enjoy one of the most popular desserts in the world. Whether you prefer to munch on a chocolate bar, sip on a steaming cup of hot chocolate, or smother an ice cream sundae in hot chocolate fudge, be sure to get your chocolate fix! Happy Chocolate Day!

Where is Chocolate Day?
Worldwide

Global Forgiveness Day
July 7, 2014 in the World

Global Forgiveness Day is observed on July 07, 2014. It is a day to forgive, and a day to be forgiven! It was created in 1994 by the Christian Embassy of Christ’s Ambassadors. Studies show that people who forgive are happier and healthier than those who hold resentments. Forgiveness is the renunciation or cessation of resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offence, disagreement, or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution.

Forgiveness may be considered simply in terms of the person who forgives including forgiving themselves, in terms of the person forgiven or in terms of the relationship between the forgiver and the person forgiven. In most contexts, forgiveness is granted without any expectation of restorative justice, and without any response on the part of the offender. In practical terms, it may be necessary for the offender to offer some form of acknowledgment, an apology, or even just ask for forgiveness, in order for the wronged person to believe himself able to forgive.

In three separate studies, including one with Catholics and Protestants from Northern Ireland whose family members were murdered in the political violence, he found that people who are taught how to forgive become less angry, feel less hurt, are more optimistic, become more forgiving in a variety of situations, and become more compassionate and self-confident. His studies show a reduction in experience of stress, physical manifestations of stress, and an increase in vitality.

Where is Global Forgiveness Day?
Worldwide

Saba Saba Day 2014
July 7, 2014 in Tanzania

Saba Saba Day is observed on July 07, 2014. Saba Saba Day on July 7 celebrates the 1954 founding of the Tanzanian political party, TANU, the Tanganyika African National Union. Saba Saba means “seven seven” in Swahili, the national language of Tanzania. Saba Saba also may refer to the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair. The fair is held every year at this date in Saba Saba grounds near Kurasini in Dar es Salaam.

Where is Saba Saba Day?
Nationwide Tanzania

Tanabata 2014
July 7, 2014 in Japan

Tanabata takes place on July 07, 2014. Tanabata (meaning “Evening of the seventh”) is a Japanese star festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar.

The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August. The original Tanabata date was based on the Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is about a month behind the Gregorian calendar.

In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku, small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day. This resembles the custom of floating paper ships and candles on rivers during Obon.

Where is Tanabata?
Nationwide Japan

National Strawberry Sundae Day
July 7, 2014 in the USA

National Strawberry Sundae Day is celebrated on July 07, 2014. The strawberry sundae is a sweet ice cream dessert. It typically consists of one or more scoops of ice cream topped with strawberry sauce or syrup, and in some cases a topping with strawberries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of the term sundae is obscure; however, it is generally accepted that the spelling “sundae” derives from the word Sunday.

Among the many stories about the invention of the sundae, a frequent theme is that the dish arose in reaction to blue laws prohibiting the sale on Sundays of either ice cream or ice cream soda. The laws are said to have led druggists to produce a Sunday substitute for these popular treats. According to this theory, the spelling was changed to sundae to avoid offending religious sensibilities.

Where is National Strawberry Sundae Day?
Nationwide USA

Historical Events:

1456 – A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.

1520 – Battle of Otumba Mexico: Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalans defeat a numerically superior Aztec force

1534 – European colonization of the Americas: first known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.

1550 – Traditional date Chocolate thought to have been introduced to Europe

1647 – People’s uprising against high prices & Spanish rule in Naples

1753 – British Museum founded by an Act of Parliament (opens in 1759)

1798 – Quasi-War: the U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the ‘war.’

1801 – Toussaint L’Ouverture declares Haitian independence

1802 – 1st comic book “The Wasp,” is published

1892 – Katipunan: the Revolutionary Philippine Brotherhood is established leading to the fall of the Spanish Empire in Asia.

1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri. It is described as the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”.

1937 – Japanese & Chinese troops clash, (Marco Polo Bridge), beginning of Second Sino-Japanese War

1947 – Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.

1953 – Che Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.

1969 – Canada’s House of Commons approves equality of French-English lang

1977 – 12,000 police occupy university in Mexico City

1988 – Five prominent anti-apartheid activists are released in Cape Town, South Africa after being detained for up to two years under the Internal Security Act