December 10th, 2022
Nobel Prize Day
Nobel Prize Day is celebrated annually on December 10.
On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his third and last will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. When it was opened and read after his death, the will caused a lot of controversy both in Sweden and internationally, as Nobel had left much of his wealth for the establishment of a prize. His family opposed the establishment of the Nobel Prize, and the prize awarders he named refused to do what he had requested in his will. It was five years before the first Nobel Prize could be awarded in 1901.
Where does the money for the Nobel Prizes come from?
At the age of 17, Swedish Alfred Nobel spoke five languages fluently. Nobel became an inventor and businessman, and at the time of his death on 10 December 1896, he had 355 patents worldwide â?? one of them was the patent on dynamite. Furthermore, he had started 87 companies all over the world. According to his will, Alfred Nobelâ??s enormous fortune was to be used to establish prizes to award those who had done their best to benefit mankind in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after Nobelâ??s death. In 1969, another prize was added â??The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobelâ?.
The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies
The Nobel Laureates are announced at the beginning of October each year. A couple of months later, on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobelâ??s death, they receive their prizes from the Swedish King â?? a Nobel diploma, a medal, and 10 million Swedish crowns per prize. All Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway. (When Alfred Nobel was alive, Norway and Sweden were united under one monarch, until 1905 when Norway became an independent kingdom with its own king.)
Human Rights Day
Annually on December 10, Human Rights Day is celebrated across the world.
This date honors the December 10, 1948 United Nations, General Assemblyâ??s adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.
It was on December 4, 1950 that the formal establishment of Human Rights Day occurred at the 2017th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly when resolution 423(V) was declared, inviting all member states and any other interested organizations to celebrate the day as they saw fit. Each year a new theme is adopted by the United Nations.
Traditionally, the five-yearly United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and Nobel Peace Prize are awarded on Human Rights Day, There are high-level political conferences and meetings that are held as well as cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights issues along with many governmental and nongovernmental organizations active in the human rights field that also schedule special events to commemorate the day.
National Lager Day
The National Lager Day is always observed in the United States of America on the 10th day of December each year.
No official record had been found as to the origin and purpose of this day. As humanity, in general, does not really require special days to have a taste of alcoholic beverages, this day may just have been started and carried on naturally. What makes this day special though is its celebration of the wonderful craftsmanship in preparing lagers which is fermented from the bottom and lightly vaulted.
Festival For The Souls Of Dead Whales
If you look at one of those calendars that mention all of the festivals and celebrations within a particular month, today is the Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales. I was so intrigued about what that day was about that I went off searching for information on the Internet and found an online article from the National Geographic. The author of the article, Hillary Mayell tried to research the importance of this festival to the Inuits of Alaska. Although she could not find where this festival is still celebrated, she talked to some Inuits and found that there are several celebrations throughout the year that give thanks for the whales gift to the Inuit people. According to this article, sixty to seventy percent of the northern Inuit diet is whale. Today there is limited whaling available in order to preserve the species.
I have always been intrigued by the historical whaling industry. I think my first love came from the whale song performed by the Limeliters:
Dewey Decimal System Day
Dewey Decimal System Day is observed annually on December 10.
December 10, 1851 is the birthday of Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification.
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), or Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876. It has been revised and expanded through 23 major editions, the latest issued in 2011, and has grown from a four-page pamphlet in 1876 with fewer than 1,000 classes to a four volume set. It is also available in an abridged version suitable for smaller libraries. It is currently maintained by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a library research center. OCLC licenses access to an online version, WebDewey, for catalogers, and has an experimental linked data version on the Web with open access.
The Decimal Classification introduced the concepts of relative location and relative index which allow new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. Libraries previously had given books permanent shelf locations that were related to the order of acquisition rather than topic. The classificationâ??s notation makes use of three-digit Arabic numerals for main classes, with fractional decimals allowing expansion for further detail. A library assigns a classification number that unambiguously locates a particular volume in a position relative to other books in the library based on its subject matter. This makes it possible to find any particular book using the number, and to return it to its proper place on the library shelves. The classification system is used in 200,000 libraries in at least 135 countries.
The major competing classification system to the Dewey Decimal system is the Library of Congress Classification system created by the U.S. Library of Congress.
