National Park Service Day
August 25
There were 35 national monuments and parks in the service when it was created in 1916. Today, the Park Service has 140 national monuments and parks. And that’s not all: There are 128 historical parks or sites, 25 battlefields or military sites, 19 preserves, 18 recreation areas, 10 seashores, four parkways, four lakeshores, and two reserves. The biggest park is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It was established in 1980, and it contains 13.2 million acres. It is the same size as Yosemite, Yellowstone and the country of Switzerland combined. More than 307 million people visited Park Service locations in 2015. Back in 1920, Park Service sites were visited by 1 million people. The Park Service has about 20,000 direct employees. They are helped each year by more than 246,000 volunteers who donate their time.
National Banana Split Day
August 25
The banana split was invented in 1904 at Strickler’s Drug Store in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was originally sold to customers for 10 cents, which at the time was twice the price of other sundaes. The Walgreen drug stores, operated by Charles Rudolph Walgreens in the Chicago area, is often credited with spreading the banana split’s popularity to a national level. The store had promoted the banana split as their signature dessert. The city of Latrobe, Pennsylvania celebrates the annual Great American Banana Split Festival and still has the original soda fountain where the first banana split was made. Bananas contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan (also found in turkey) that instantly relaxes the body and improves mood, they are also high in B vitamins which helps to calm the nervous system.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
Sean Connery – Actor & First James Bond – born in Edinburgh, Scotland
Regis Philbin – TV Personality & Host – Passed at age 88 – born in Manhattan, New York
