Saturday, the 19th of July, 2014 is the 200th day in 2014 and in the 29th calendar week.

General Events:

Liberation Day/FSLN Revolution Day
July 19, 2014 in the Nicaragua

This nationwide celebration marks the day in 1979 that the Somoza dictatorship was defeated by the National Liberation Army in the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Where is Liberation Day/FSLN Revolution Day ?
Nationwide Nicaragua

National Woodie Wagon Day
July 19, 2014 in the USA

Celebrating those great wood-sided early station wagons that were the “great American symbol of freedom and the casual lifestyle” during the 1940’s and 50’s.

From Route 66 to the surfer lifestyle, the woodie wagon was there. This national day will be celebrated in individual cities and towns across the US and will pay homage to this great American symbol of freedom and the casual lifestyle.

Where is National Woodie Wagon Day?
Nationwide USA

National Flitch Day
July 19, 2014 in the USA

Although you may not be familiar with “Flitch Day,” you have probably heard the phrase “bring home the bacon.” That phrase originated with Flitch Day, which is celebrated each year on July 19.

A flitch is measurement of bacon, equaling half a pig. (Flitch = side)

In the United States: A side of unsliced bacon was once known as a flitch- it is now known as a slab. An individual slice of bacon is a slice or strip.

As far back as 1104 in Dunmow Priory, England, monks offered a side of bacon (flitch) to any married couple proving a year and a day after their wedding that they had lived in harmony and fidelity for the past year and had not wished they were single again.

The actual words of the ancient rite performed before a ‘judge’ in a mock court and a ‘jury’ of maidens and bachelors, require that in “twelvemonth and a day” both spouses have “not wish’t themselves unmarried again”.

The full pledge went:

You shall swear by custom of confession,
If ever you made nuptial trangresssion,
Be you either married man or wife,
If you have brawls or contentious strife
Or otherwise, at bed or at board,
Offended each other in deed or word:
Or, since the parish-clerk said Amen,
You wish’t yourselves unmarried agen,
Or in a twelvemonth and a day,
Repented not in thought any way,
But continued true in thought and desire
As when you join’d hands in the quire.
If to these conditions, without all feare,
Of your own accord you will freely swear,
A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
And bear it hence with love and good leave;
For this is our custom at Dunmow well knowne,
Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon’s your own.

Although some web sites state that July 19th is Flitch Day, the Flitch Ceremony in held every four years in Great Dunmow, Essex, England in mid-July.

This holiday is referred to as a “National” day. However, we did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day. Even though we didn’t, this is still a holiday that is publicized to celebrate. So have fun with it and celebrate it!

Where is National Flitch Day?
Nationwide USA

Historical Events:

711 – Muslim forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by their king Roderic.

1524 – Peasants’ War begins in Germany’s Black Forest

1553 – 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey deposed as England’s Queen after 9 days

1595 – Astronomer Johannes Kepler has an epiphany and develops his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe

1692 – 5 more people are hanged for witchcraft (20 in all) in Salem Mass

1843 – Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.

1848 – 1st US women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls NY, organised by Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott

1869 – Louis Riel speaks at a meeting of Metis residents about rights, setting in motion the events now referred to as the Red River Rebellion

1870 – France declares war on Prussia; Franco-Prussian war begins

1912 – A meteorite of estimated 190kg mass explodes over Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona, causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.

1928 – King Fuad of Egypt siezes power and disbands parliament

1971 – Sudan military coup under maj Hashem al-Atta, Numeiry flees

1979 – 2 supertankers collide off Tobago-260,000 TONS of oil spill

1979 – Nicaragua Liberation Day; Sandinistas take over from Somoza

1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.

2001 – Michael Brunet discovers the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, thought to be the oldest known species in the human family tree, in the Djurab Desert, Chad. It lived 6-7 million years ago, about the same time as the last common ancestor to apes and humans.