IOTD

Calendar day; August 20, 2015

Thursday, the 20th of August, 2015 is the 232th day in 2015 and in the 34th calendar week.

General Events:

Ecological Debt Day
August 20, 2015 in the World

Ecological Debt Day (EDD), also known as Earth Overshoot Day, is the calculated illustrative calendar date on which humanity’s resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. Ecological Debt Day is calculated by dividing the world biocapacity (the amount of natural resources generated by Earth that year), by the world Ecological Footprint (humanity’s consumption of Earth’s natural resources for that year), and multiplying by 365, the number of days in one Gregorian common calendar year:

(World Biocapacity/World Ecological Footprint) x365 = Ecological Debt Day

When viewed through an economic perspective, EDD represents the day in which humanity enters deficit spending . In ecology term EDD illustrate the level by which human population overshoots its environment.

EDD is made by Global Footprint Network.

Earth Overshoot Day 2015 lands on August 13: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/

Where is Ecological Debt Day?
Worldwide

World Mosquito Day
August 20, 2015 in the World

World Mosquito Day takes place on August 20, 2015. World Mosquito Day is a commemoration of British doctor Sir Ronald Ross’s discovery in 1897 that female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans. Ross is responsible for the annual observance, having declared shortly after his discovery that the day should be known as World Mosquito Day in the future. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine holds Mosquito Day celebrations every year, including events such as parties and exhibitions, a tradition dating back to as early as the 1930s.

Although a few species are harmless or even useful to humanity, most mosquitos are a nuisance because they consume blood from living vertebrates, including humans. The females of many species of mosquitoes are blood-eating pests. In feeding on blood, some of them transmit extremely harmful human and livestock diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever and filariasis. Some authorities argue accordingly that mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals on Earth.

Various species of mosquitoes are estimated to transmit various types of disease to more than 700 million people annually in Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico, Russia, and much of Asia, with millions of resultant deaths. At least two million people annually die of these diseases, and the morbidity rates are many times higher still.

Methods used to prevent the spread of disease, or to protect individuals in areas where disease is endemic, include: Vector control aimed at mosquito control or eradication; Disease prevention, using prophylactic drugs and developing vaccines; Prevention of mosquito bites, with insecticides, nets, and repellents. Since most such diseases are carried by “elderly” female mosquitoes, some scientists have suggested focusing on these to avoid the evolution of resistance.

http://www.undispatch.com/world-mosquito-day/

Where is the event?
Worldwide

National Radio Day
August 20, 2015 in the USA

National Radio Day is celebrated on August 20. 2015. It is a special day dedicated to a great invention and communications medium. A radio is a device for receiving radio broadcasts. These are transmitted by means of terrestrial transmission via electromagnetic waves or high-frequency electrical signals via the broadband cable. The received information is converted into sound. Celebrate National Radio Day by tuning in your favorite radio station. Many stations offer a special program on this day including competitive events.

http://www.nationalradioday.com/

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA

Historical Events on 20th August:

2 – Venus and Jupiter in conjunction – possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem

1000 – The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary

1191 – Crusader King Richard I kills 3,000 muslim prisoners in Akko

1619 – 1st known African Americans (appox. 20) land at Jamestown Virginia aboard Dutch vessel then sold or traded into servitude for supplies

1641 – England & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification

1741 – Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition

1864 – 8th/last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Va (about 3,900 casualties)

1866 – President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over

1893 – Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in Switzerland

1896 – Dial telephone patented

1905 – Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary, forms the first chapter of T’ung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchus

1908 – America’s Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to be greeted with a tremendous welcome; 221 American sailors desert to remain in Australia

1910 – US supported opposition brings down Madriz in Nicaragua

1913 – 1st pilot to parachute from an aircraft (Adolphe Pégoud, France)

1929 – 1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward completed

1940 – British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”

1949 – Hungary (Magyar People’s Republic) accepts constitution

1960 – Senegal breaks from Mali federation, declaring independence

1961 – East Germany begins erecting 5′ high wall along the border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13

1968 – During the night 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops begin to invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring

1980 – UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jersualem is its capital

1991 – Estonia formally declares its independence from the USSR

1993 – After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month

1998 – The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government’s approval