Garlic Lovers’ Day
October 6
Cultivation of garlic started about 4000 years ago in Central Asia. The first ancient civilization that truly incorporated garlic into their diet was Egypt. In 3rd millennium BC garlic was used not only by nobility, but also in medicine, religious rituals and was given to the slaves as a powerful source of strength. There are more than 450 varieties of garlic. Garlic is one of the healthiest foods on earth with many health properties like anti blood coagulation, antioxidant, antiviral, antimicrobial, lowers cholesterol, anticancer properties and really helps fight the common cold. Another benefit of garlic is it helps regulate the body’s blood pressure. Crushing of garlic cloves induces release of enzymes which trigger creation of sulfur compounds that are responsible for the pungent and long-lasting odor of garlic. At around 46 billion pounds a year, China leads the world in terms of garlic production equating to 75% of world’s garlic is produced in China.
American Library Day
October 6
One of the oldest public libraries in the country opened in 1790 in Franklin, Massachusetts, where residents circulated books donated by Benjamin Franklin. The Founding Father once started his own lending library in 1731 in Philadelphia called the Library Company, but it required a subscription fee of 40 shillings. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was a one-man library-funding machine. The wealthy industrialist donated $55 million—or $1.6 billion in today’s dollars—between 1886 and 1919 to open an astonishing 2509 libraries worldwide, including 1,679 in the United States. Carnegie funded several New York City libraries, and those buildings were often constructed with apartments on the top floor. The idea was that the library’s custodians would have living quarters so that they could keep shoveling coal into furnaces at all hours of the day and night. The world’s biggest library in terms of catalog depth is the Library of Congress, which has 168 million items. That record is a rebound from a calamity in 1814, when the then-14-year-old collection of 3000 volumes was destroyed after British troops burned the Capitol building.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
Tony Dungy – Football Coach and Commentator – born in Jackson, Michigan
Carole Lombard – Actress – born in Fort Wayne, Indiana
