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KIU Trivia: October 23 in the Present and the Past

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What’s Happening Today?

Mole Day. Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists, chemistry students and chemistry enthusiasts on October 23, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m., making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro number, which is approximately 6.02×1023, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in one mole (mol) of substance, one of the seven base SI units.

Liberation Day (Libya). This holiday commemorates the end of the First Libyan Civil War on this day in 2011 when rebels fighting against then-president Muammar Gadaffi declared victory over government forces. Libya is currently into the 5th year of the Second Libyan Civil War, and while both sides have no nostalgia for Gaddafi's rule, today is unlikely to feel that festive as no tangible dividends have been reaped from Gadaffi’s overthrow.

What Happened Today?

1. In 1945, the Governor of Uganda, Sir John Hall, announced that the Secretary of State for the Colonies had approved a scheme for the nomination of three African Members to the Legislative council, representing Buganda, Eastern and Western Provinces.

2. In 1964, French existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre turned down the Nobel Prize for Literature. He published a letter in the newspaper Le Figaro to explain why he did not want to accept the Nobel Prize he had been awarded the day before on October 22. In his letter, he said he did not want to take sides in the East and West struggle of the Cold War, by accepting an award that was given out by Western institutions.

3. In 1998, Swatch announced Internet Time. The Swiss watch company invented a new unit of time called the .beat, which corresponds to 1 minute and 26.4 seconds. Under the Internet Time system, a day is divided into 1000 .beats.

Birthdays

1. 1940 – Edison Arantes Dos Nascimento, famously known as Pele and considered by many to be the greatest football player of all time.

2. 1957 - Martin Luther King III, American human rights advocate and oldest son and oldest living child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, 

Sources: Wikipedia, checkiday & officeholidays.com

Picture credit: Medium