12 | February | 2015 | M'chelsMusings

Thursday, the 12th of February, 2015 is the 43th day in 2015 and in the 7th calendar week.

General Events:

Red Hand Day 2015
February 12, 2015 in the World

Red Hand Day is observed on February 12, 2015. The day is an annual commemoration day on which pleas are made to political leaders and events are staged around the world to draw attention to the fates of child soldiers, children who are forced to serve as soldiers in wars and armed conflicts. The aim is to call for action against this practice, and support for children who are affected by it.

The day was initiated in 2002 when the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict entered into force. The protocol was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in May 2000 and currently has signatures from over 100 different states. The worldwide number of child soldiers is estimated to be 250,000, a third of whom are girls, in at least 17 countries.

The military use of children takes three distinct forms: children can take direct part in hostilities, or they can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, look outs, and sexual slaves; or they can be used for political advantage either as human shields or in propaganda. A reason that children are recruited as soldiers is that up to a certain age, they don’t have a full grasp of the finality of death and the severity of the act of killing a human being.

http://www.redhandday.org/index.php?id=4&L=0

Where is Red Hand Day?
Worldwide

Darwin Day 2015
February 12, 2015 in the World

Darwin Day is observed on February 12, 2015 and intends to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin’s contribution to science and to promote science in general. Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.

In the late 1990s, two Darwin enthusiasts, Chesworth and Stephens, co-founded an unofficial effort to promote Darwin Day. In 2001, Chesworth moved to New Mexico and incorporated the “Darwin Day Program”. In 2004, the New Mexico Corporation was dissolved and all its assets assigned to the “Darwin Day Celebration”, a non-profit organization incorporated in California in 2004 by Dr. Robert Stephens and others and the Mission Statement was expanded.

Some celebrants like to celebrate the many noted individuals that influenced or were influenced by Darwin’s work, such as Thomas H. Huxley, Charles Lyell, Alfred Russel Wallace, Carl Sagan, and Ernst Mayr.

http://darwinday.org/

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Youth Day in Venezuela
February 12, 2015 in Venezuela

Youth Day in Venezuela takes place on February 12, 2015. The holiday was created to commemorate all the teenagers above 12 years old who fought and died in the Battle of La Victoria, during the Venezuelan War of Independence, on February 12, 1814. Youth Day is a holiday dedicated to the youths of a country.

Where is Youth Day in Venezuela?
Nationwide Venezuela

Lincoln’s Birthday
February 12, 2015 in the USA

Lincoln’s Birthday is celebrated on February 12, 2015. Lincoln’s Birthday honors 16th President of the United States. Lincoln’s Birthday is a legal holiday in some U.S. states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Indiana. It is observed on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln successfully led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s.

Where is Lincoln’s Birthday?
Nationwide USA

National Plum Pudding Day
February 12, 2015 in the USA

Plum pudding is a mouthwatering treat that, surprisingly enough, contains no plums! In the 17th century when it was first created, plums referred to raisins or other dried fruits. Plum pudding (aka Christmas pudding) is a steamed or boiled pudding usually served during the holiday season.

Plum pudding is composed of nutmeg, raisins, nuts, apples, cinnamon, dates, and many other ingredients. In England, it is tradition to have every person in a household simultaneously hold onto the wooden spoon together to help stir the batter. As they stir they also have to make a wish!

Did you know that during the Puritan reign in England, plum pudding was outlawed because it was considered “sinfully rich?” To celebrate this sinful dessert on National Plum Pudding Day, dig out Grandma’s old recipe for plum pudding and make some to share with friends and family!

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA

Historical Events on 12th February:

1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal on his second voyage to India

1541 – Santiago, Chile founded (or Feb 24)

1700 – The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe between Denmark–Norway, Saxony and Russia and the Swedish Empire.

1772 – Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India

1793 – 1st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves

1818 – Chile gains independence from Spain

1825 – Creek Indian treaty signed. Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west by Sept 1, 1826

1876 – Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop

1901 – Dutch Penitentiary children’s law proclaimed

1912 – Last Ch’ing (Manchu) emperor of China, Hsuan T’ung, abdicates

1934 – The Austrian Civil War begins.

1938 – German troops entered Austria

1947 – Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia

1950 – Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb

1950 – Sen Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees

1955 – President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam

1964 – Fighting breaks out between Turks and Greeks over dispute islands in Cyprus and 16 are killed; the UN responds the following month by sending a peacekeeping force

1987 – Survivors of a black man murdered by KKK members awarded $7 M damages

1998 – Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740

1999 – Scientists warn about harmful impacts on health of genetically modified (GM) food

2002 – US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States’ nuclear waste repository