IOTD

Calendar day; January 2, 2016

Saturday, the 2nd of January, 2016 is the 2th day in 2016 and in the 53rd calendar week.General Events:

Kakizome 2016
January 2, 2016 in Japan

Kakizome is celebrated on January 02, 2016. Kakizome (literally “first writing”) is a Japanese term for the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year, traditionally on January 2. Seated facing a favorable direction, people would write Chinese poetry containing auspicious words and phrases such as long life, spring, or perennial youth. These poems were then often burned. In modern times, people often write out auspicious kanji rather than poems. School pupils up to senior high school are assigned kakizome as their winter holiday homework. Each year on January 5, several thousand calligraphers gather at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo’s Chiyoda-ku for a kakizome event that is widely covered by media. The kakizome paper is usually burned on 14 January in the Sagicho festival. If the burning paper flies high, it is said that the person will be able to write a more fair hand.

Where is Kakizome?
Nationwide Japan

Berchtoldstag 2016
January 2, 2016 in Switzerland

Berchtoldstag takes place on January 02, 2016. Berchtoldstag is an Alemannic holiday, known in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is near New Year’s Day, during the Rauhnächte, in Switzerland nearly always on January 2, with the status of a public holiday in a number of cantons. Its observation is attested since the 14th century. The name may be related to the Perchta, a female of myth and folklore, guardian of the animals, and sometimes leader of the Wild Hunt, since Twelfth Night traditions even in the Spanish Pyrennes can feature visits from a transformed human/animal.

Where is Berchtoldstag?
Nationwide Switzerland

Can you name the series/movies? 😉

National Science Fiction Day
January 2, 2016 in the USANational Science Fiction Day takes place on January 02, 2016. National Science Fiction Day is unofficially celebrated by many science fiction fans in the United States on January 2, a date that was chosen to correspond with the official birthdate of famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. While not an official holiday of any sort (in the sense that it is not recognized or declared by any government), National Science Fiction Day is given some degree of credence by its recognition by organizations such as the Hallmark Channel and by the Scholastic Corporation.

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA
Earth at Perihelion
January 2, 2016 in the World

On January 2, 2016, our planet Earth reaches its closest point to the sun for this year at 22:49Universal Time (5:49 p.m. EST). This is Earth’s perihelion. The word perihelion is from Greek roots peri meaning near, and helios meaning sun.

Earth is closest to the sun every year in early January when it’s winter for the Northern Hemisphere. We’re farthest away from the sun in early July, during our Northern Hemisphere summer.

This year, on January 2, 2016, the Earth at its closest point swings to within 147,100,176 kilometers (91,403,812 miles) of the sun. That’s in contrast to six months from now, when the Earth reaches aphelion – its most distant point – on July 4, 2016: 152,103,776 km (94,512,904 miles).

Despite what many may think, Earth’s distance from the sun isn’t what causes the seasons. On Earth, because our orbit is so close to being circular, it’s mostly the tilt of our world’s axis that creates winter and summer. In winter, your part of Earth is tilted away from the sun. In summer, your part of Earth is tilted toward the sun. The day of maximum tilt toward or away from the sun is the December or June solstice.

Where is the event?
Worldwide
Historical Events on 2nd January:

366 – The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire

1757 – British troops occupy Calcutta India

1776 – Austria ends interrogation torture

1839 – 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)

1885 – General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum

1905 – Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine in San Jose, California

1920 – Responding to global fear of communism caused by the Russian Revolution, US Attorney General Palmer authorizes raids across the country on unionists and socialists

1923 – Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood Fla, 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)

1929 – US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls

1944 – 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)

1947 – Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali

1960 – John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years

1974 – Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres

1988 – Ashland Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Penn

1988 – Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement

1995 – Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (est 15 billion light years away)

1999 – A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C); 68 deaths are reported

2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later