What’s Happening Today?

World Coconut Day. It celebrates coconuts, promotes their use and importance, and commemorates the formation of the International Coconut Community, formerly known as the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community. Coconuts grow on the coconut palm tree and are a fruit from the drupe family. They grow in more than 80 countries and are an essential crop in the tropics. It takes a year for a coconut to ripen, and a tree may produce about 100 of them each season. Coconuts have antifungal and antiviral properties and are high in lauric acid, electrolytes, and antioxidants. 

Calendar Adjustment Day. it commemorates the day that the United Kingdom adopted the Gregorian calendar. In 1851, Great Britain passed the British Calendar Act, which stipulated the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It also began the new year on January 1 instead of March 25. In 1852, eleven days needed to be dropped in Britain in order for the calendar to sync properly with the other countries in Europe using the calendar. In Britain and the American Colonies, September 2 was followed by September 14. Thus, September 2 is today referred to as Calendar Adjustment Day.

What Happened Today?

1.    In 1666, the Great Fire of London broke out and burned for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including Old St Paul's Cathedral.  It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The fire started in a bakery shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September, and spread rapidly.

2.    In 1792, during what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughtered three Roman Catholic bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.

3.    In 1998, the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide.

Birthdays

1.    1940 – Leticia Kikonyogo, Ugandan judge.

2.    1986 – Moses Kipsiro, Ugandan long-distance runner and former Commonwealth Games champion in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m

Sources: Wikipedia, checkiday & bornglorious.com

Image: Broadcast Cover