Bartenders bi-weekly blog – JiuJiu Icebreaker 20 Dec 2018

December 21st – Winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere today is the beginning of summer.
December 23, 1888 – Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear during a fit of depression.
December 25th – Christmas Day, commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Although the exact date of his birth is not known, it has been celebrated on December 25th by the Western (Roman Catholic) Church since 336 A.D.
December 25, 1066 – William the Conqueror was crowned King of England after he had invaded England from France, defeated and killed King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, then marched on London.
December 26-January 1 – Kwanzaa, an African American family observance established in 1966 celebrating traditional African harvest festivals, focusing on family unity, with a community harvest feast on the seventh day. Kwanzaa means “first fruit” in Swahili
December 26, 2004 – An estimated 230,000 persons were killed and 1.5 million left homeless when a magnitude 9.3 earthquake created a tsunami that devastated 12 countries across SE Asia (& Somalia).
December 30, 1922 – The USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was established through the confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian Federation
December 31st – New Year’s Eve, the final evening of the Gregorian calendar year, traditionally a night for merry-making to welcome in the new year.
New Year’s Day – The most celebrated holiday around the world.
January 1, 1502 – Portuguese explorers landed at Guanabara Bay on the coast of South America and named it Rio de Janeiro (River of January). Rio de Janeiro is currently Brazil’s second largest city
January 1, 1863 – The Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in the states rebelling against the Union.
January 1, 1999 – Eleven European nations began using a new single European currency, the Euro, for electronic financial and business transactions. Participating countries included; Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow