April 17 Fun Facts, Trivia and History |
April 17 History Highlights |
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Bat Appreciation Day |
| There are many fun ways to celebrate National Bat Appreciation Day, whether you head outdoors or hang out at home. It is the bat’s sonar that helps farmers by eating pesky insects and plants harmful to crops. But what’s coolest about bats? They only make up 1% of all mammals yet comprise 20% of all mammals in existence today! The Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) lives across much of North America, with populations spreading northward from Mexico into Canada and as far eastward as Florida. Their range also includes eastern Asia including Cuba and the Philippines. |
April 17 is… |
| Bat Appreciation Day Cheese Ball Day Ellis Island Family History Day Haiku Poetry Day Herbalist Day |
April 17 Birthday Quotes |
“A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” “I was never a natural. I got there in the end because I did believe that if you work hard enough, then you can achieve a lot.” “I’m so quick, I could spit in the wind, duck, and let it hit the old lady behind me.” “Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.” “The first thing that you should do when you win an Oscar is thank God. The second thing you should do is forget it. The third thing you should do is call your agent and tell him you need a job.” “I’m the reason Hulk Hogan lost his hair.” |
April 17 Birthdays |
| 1837 – J.P. Morgan, American banker and financier, founded J.P. Morgan & Co. (died in 1913) 1897 – Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (died in 1975) 1918 – William Holden, American actor (died in 1981) 1923 – Harry Reasoner, American TV Journalist (died in 1991) 1925 – Rod Steiger, American character actor (died in 2002) 1934 – Don Kirshner, American songwriter and producer (died in 2011) 1948 – Jan Hammer, Czech pianist, composer, and producer 1951 – Olivia Hussey, Argentinian-English actress 1954 – Roddy Piper, Canadian professional wrestler and actor (died in 2015) 1957 – Afrika Bambaataa, American disc jockey 1972 – Jennifer Garner, American actress 1974 – Victoria Beckham, English singer and fashion designer |
April 17 History |
| 1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer told The Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. April 17, 1775 (fiction) The Continental Congress declared that New Jersey was the ‘Official Joke State’, Futurama, Cartoon 1815 (Volcano) Tambora volcano in Indonesia killed almost 100,000 people. 1861 – The state of Virginia’s secession convention voted to secede from the United States, later becoming the eighth state to join the Confederate States of America. 1861 – The first oil well fire occurred at the Little and Merrick well at Oil Creek, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania, killing 19 people. 1897 – A UFO supposedly crashed into a farm owned by J.S. Proctor in Aurora, Texas. 1906 – A disastrous earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.8 hit San Francisco. 1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center in New York processed 11,747 people, more than on any other day. April 17, 19** Birthday (fictional) Daffy Duck, Cartoon Daffy Duck’s first appearance was in Porky’s Duck Hunt. 1960 – Singer Eddie Cochran died, and Gene Vincent was injured in a UK car accident. 1961 – The unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion began. 1964 – Geraldine ‘Jerrie’ Mock landed in Columbus, Ohio, becoming the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world. 1964 – The Ford Mustang was introduced to the North American market. 1966 – Policemen Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff reported chasing a UFO at 5:00 AM in Portage County, Ohio. 1969 – Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy. 1971 – #1 Hit April 17, 1971 – May 28, 1971: Three Dog Night – Joy to the World 1973 (Tornado) Balurchar, Bangladesh 1979 – The worst attended MLB game occurred in Oakland on 4/17/1979 – Only 250 people showed up. 1987 – Project X was released in theaters. 2011 – Game of Thrones premiered on HBO 2014 – NASA’s Kepler confirmed the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star. 2015 – Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Unfriended debuted in theaters. April 17, 2021 – April 23, 2021: Leave the Door Open – Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) |
Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts |
| Girls named after fruit are easy. #moviecliches The world’s longest-running laboratory experiment “demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar once used for waterproofing boats.” In 1930 pitch was left in a glass funnel to drip out and has only dropped 9 times: about once every 10 years, most recently on April 17, 2014. “Life’s a marathon, not a sprint.” – Dr. Phillip C. McGraw DJ/MC Dick Clark’s middle name was Wagstaff. “All I want is to have my peace of mind.” #songlyrics If your shirt isn’t tucked into your pants, then your pants are tucked into your shirt. If the United States grew to have 53 states. We would literally be one nation, indivisible. #math The first animated full-color movie produced was 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The light sent out by that bright flashlight I held towards the sky as a kid is probably 45 light-years away by now. Plagiarism is passing off another’s work as your own. Forgery is passing off your own work as another’s. It is illegal to bring beer into Pennsylvania without holding a distributor’s license. “This is my brain and I live in it, it’s made of love and bad song lyrics.” #songlyrics Useless Pronunciation: A as in aye |
More Pop Culture History Resources |
