IOTD

Calendar day; April 2, 2015

Thursday, the 2nd of April, 2015 is the 92th day in 2015 and in the 14th calendar week.

General Events:

World Autism Awareness Day
April 2, 2015 in the World

The World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) 2015 is on April, 02. It was designated under by the United Nations General Assembly resolution “62/139. World Autism Awareness Day,” adopted on December 18, 2007, proposed by Representatives of the State Qatar, and supported by all member states.

The World Autism Awareness Day Resolution had four main components: (1) the establishment of April 2 as WAAD, (2) participation of UN organizations, member states, NGOs and all private & public organizations in WAAD, (3) raise awareness of Autism on all levels in society, (4) Security-General should deliver this message to member states and all other UN organs.

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Not many children with autism live independently after reaching adulthood, though some become successful. An autistic culture has developed, with some individuals seeking a cure and others believing autism should be accepted as a difference and not treated as a disorder.

http://www.un.org/en/events/autismday/

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Light It Up Blue
April 2, 2015 in the World

Light It Up Blue takes place on April 02, 2015. Light It Up Blue is dedicated to raising awareness of autism. Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, announced the launch of the inaugural Light It Up Blue campaign in 2010. This initiative is intended to raise international awareness of autism as a growing public health crisis in support of World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Month.

Where is the event?
Worldwide

International Children’s Book Day
April 2, 2015 in the World

International Children’s Book Day takes place on April 2, 2015. International Children’s Book Day is a yearly event sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People, an international non-profit organization. Founded in 1967, the day is observed on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, April 2. Activities include writing competitions, announcements of book awards and events with authors of children’s literature.

Children’s literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, and poems that are enjoyed by and targeted primarily towards children. Modern children’s literature is classified in two different ways – by genre or by the intended age of the reader. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century became known as the Golden Age of Children’s Literature with the publication of many books acknowledged today as classics.

http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=269

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Reconciliation Day
April 2, 2015 in South Africa

Reconciliation Day is an annual holiday that celebrates the bond between black and white South Africans. The day originally commemorated two different events. For members of South Africa’s Afrikaner community, it celebrated the Boer victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. By contrast, for black South Africans, the day was significant as the anniversary of the founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the anti-Apartheid African National Congress.

Both of the dates commemorate part of a history of violence between the black and white communities. After the end of Apartheid, however, the government made the day into a celebration of the end of that conflict. Reconciliation Day acknowledges that violence but forges the two separate holidays into a single holiday that unites the whole of the South African people.

Reconciliation Day was first celebrated by the South African people in 1995.

Where is Reconciliation Day?
Nationwide South Africa

Malvinas Day 2015
April 2, 2015 in Argentina

Malvinas Day is observed on April 2, 2015. Malvinas Day, officially Day of the Veterans and Fallen of the Malvinas War, is a public holiday in Argentina celebrated each year. The name refers to the “Malvinas” islands, more commonly known as the Falkland Islands in English.

Where is Malvinas Day?
Nationwide Argentina

Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
April 2, 2015 in the USA

National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day is observed on April 02, 2015. It celebrates the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich or PB&J is a sandwich, popular in North America, that includes a layer of peanut butter and either jam or jelly on bread, commonly between two slices, but sometimes eaten open-faced or with one slice folded over.

A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 2,500 of these sandwiches before graduating from high school. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich made from white bread, with two tablespoons each of peanut butter and grape jelly, provides 27% of a person’s Recommended Daily Intake of fat and 22% of their calories.

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA

Easter Triduum
April 2 – 5, 2015 in the World

Easter Triduum takes place from April 02 till April 05, 2015. Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum, Paschal Triduum, or The Three Days, is the period of three days that begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday and ends with evening prayer on EasterSunday. It is the three-day period therefore from the evening of Maundy Thursday to the evening of Resurrection Sunday. Easter Triduum recalls the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, as portrayed in the canonical Gospels.

The period that lasted from Thursday morning to before Easter Sunday began was once, in Anglo-Saxon times, referred to as “the still days”. In the Catholic Church, weddings, which were once prohibited throughout the entire season of Lent and during certain other periods as well, are prohibited during the Triduum. Lutherans still discourage weddings during the entirety of Holy Week and the Triduum.

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Historical Events on 2nd April:

1453 – Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which would fall on May 29

1513 – Florida discovered, claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon

1755 – Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India

1827 – Joseph Dixon begins manufacturing lead pencils

1877 – 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn

1884 – London prison for debtors closed

1908 – Mills Committee declares baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday

1916 – 57 armed New Zealand police invade the remote Ngai Tuhoe settlement of Maungapohatu in the Urewera Ranges to arrest the Maori prophet Rua Kenana

1921 – Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new “Theory of Relativity”

1935 – Sir Robert Watson-Watt patents RADAR

1968 – Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Spacey Odyssey” is released

1970 – Qatar gains independence from Britain

1973 – ITT admits to asking CIA to influence Chilean presidential election

1978 – TV show “Dallas” premieres on CBS (as a 5 week mini-series)

1982 – Several thousand Argentine troops seize the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands from Great Britain

2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues

2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed