Pink Flamingo Day
May 29
Pink Flamingo Day was declared in 2007 by Dean Mazzaralla, the mayor of Leominster, MA to honor the creator of the plastic lawn flamingo, Don Featherstone, a native of the city. His first pink flamingo’s name was Diego, and has become an icon of pop culture. Shops in the US sell around 250,000 of these pink lawn ornaments each year!
National Paperclip Day
May 29
The design of the paperclip familiar today has never been patented. It is not known for sure who invented it or where it was invented. What is known was that paper clips with the same design were in production in Britain in the 1870s where it was made by the Gem Manufacturing Company Ltd, which suggests, but doesn’t prove, that they may have been invented there. The Gem paperclip, as it became known, was introduced to America in 1892. It went on to become the most common paperclip in use all over the world. During the Second World War, wearing a paperclip could have gotten you into serious trouble. The people living in countries under Nazi German occupation were forbidden from wearing badges or pins depicting national symbols. The paperclip, a seemingly meaningless piece, became used as a symbol of unity due to the fact that it is used for binding things together. Wearing paperclips became banned once the Germans caught on to the reasons for them being worn.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
John F. Kennedy – 35th U.S. President – born in Brookline, Massachusetts
Bob Hope – Comedian & Actor – born in London, England
