June 23 - National Pink Day

Happy National Pink Day! Each year on June 23, today colors the world in vibrant shades of pink and explores everything it represents.  

First used as a color name in the late 17th century, pink is a pale red color which got its name from a flower of same name. 

According to surveys in both the United States and Europe with results indicating that the color pink combined with white or pale blue is most commonly associated with femininity, sensitivity, tenderness, childhood, and the romantic. 

Pink, when combined with violet or black, is associated with eroticism and seduction. 

Historically Pink 

Dating back to the 14th century, “to pink” (the verb) means “to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern.” 

It would have been curious to find pink used in fabric or decor during the Middle Ages. Occasionally it was seen in women’s fashion and religious art, however.  

In the 13th and 14th centuries, artists sometimes portrayed the Christ child dressed in pink, the color associated with the body of Christ. 

Artists also primarily used pink for the flesh color of faces and hands during the Renaissance. 

The Rococo Period (1720-1777) was the golden age for the color pink. Pastel colors became very fashionable in all the courts of Europe during this time.  

Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), the mistress of King Louis XV of France, was known for wearing the color pink, often combined with light blue. At one point, Ms. Pompadour had a particular tint of pink explicitly made for her. 

Pink ribbons or decorations were worn by young boys in 19th century England. The men in England wore red uniforms, and since boys were considered small men, boys wore pink. 

Pink became much bolder, brighter, and more assertive in the 20th century and in 1931, the color “Shocking Pink” was introduced. 

As one of the most common colors of flowers, pink serves to attract the insects and birds that are necessary for pollination. 

Pink in Language 

While pink comes in numerous shades, its meanings vary, too. 

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  • In the pink – This phrase refers to someone who is in top form, good health or good condition. 

• • To see pink elephants – When someone “sees pink elephants” they are hallucinating due to too much drink. 

• • Pink slip – When an employer gives a person a pink slip it means they’ve been fired or dismissed from a job. The term was first recorded in the United States in 1915.  

• • Pink-collar worker – Refers to persons working in jobs conventionally regarded as “women’s work.” 

• • Pink Money – The term describes the economic spending power of the LGBT community. Other uses include “the pink pound” or “pink dollar.” 

• • Tickled pink – When one is exceptionally pleased, they are “tickled pink.” 

HOW TO OBSERVE 

 
Think pink on June 23. Whether you wear it, eat it or make a donation, you’ll be celebrating the day. But don’t stop there.  

Try these other fun pink ideas: 

• • Plant or give some pink flowers. 

• • Use pink in a sentence. 

• • Temporarily (or permanently) dye your hair pink. 

• • Color or paint something in shades of pink. 

• • Paint your nails pink. 

Use #NationalPinkDay in social media. 

HISTORY 

National Day Calendar® is researching the origins of this colorful celebration. 

#NationalPinkDay 

#ThinkPink 

@WearPinkRibbon 

@nichecinema

June 23 - National Typewriter Day

 

Happy National Typewriter Day! Click! Click-click-click-click! Ding! On June 23, there’s a sound we all know, even if we don’t quite recall it. It’s the mechanical clatter of a typewriter in action.  

It is reminiscent in the soulless tapping of keys on modern keyboards and recalled in the sounds of the elite of the keyboard world, the mechanical keyboard. 

However, none of them quite reach the splendor and grandeur of a typewriter in action.  

National Typewriter Day celebrates this humble device and the amazing pieces of literature it’s brought to us over the decades. 

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." ~Ernest Hemingway 

 

 HOW TO OBSERVE 

• • • Organize a typewriting contest – whoever types the fastest and with the least number of errors wins. 

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    • Show your typewriter pride by wearing typewriter-shaped jewelry. 

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    • Avoid using your computer and email, type letters and send them in the post or mail. 

See if someone you know has a typewriter, or dig your old one out of your closet or attic. Spend some time learning to appreciate the sound of the typewriter and the style of writing it provides.  

 
Sooner or later, you’ll soon find that the steady clacking of the keys encourages creativity, inspires greatness, and lends a form of satisfaction not found when writing on a modern keyboard.  

 
Who knows? This holiday may lead to you writing the next great classic! 

DID YOU KNOW? 

 
…that most typewriters and computers today share the same keyboard layout? 

 
REVOLUTIONARY DEVICE 

 
Typewriters revolutionized the world of communications. Letters and correspondences looked more professional, followed a consistent format, and were more legible when typed out on a typewriter compared to handwritten communications that dominated the workplace in the past.  

 
In addition to creating an efficient and more organized workspace, the use of typewriters in businesses and governments worldwide meant that typing became a required skill for many jobs.  

 
A large percentage of these jobs were administrative in nature and were usually done by women, who were specifically hired for their typing skills - the typewriter played a very important role in opening up workspaces for women. 

HISTORY 

 
in 1575, typewriters were originally conceived by an Italian printmaker, though it never saw production (and to be fair it wasn’t QUITE a typewriter, but the vestiges were there).  

 
In 1714, we had patents in Britain from English inventor Henry Mill that seems to be a typewriter from the design and was explicitly described as being intended for that purpose.  

 
It appears that at some point the device was actually made, though it never went into production and no examples of it exist today. 

In 1802, Another example was designed by Italian inventor Agostino Fantoni to help his blind sister writer, while Italian engineer Pietro Conti di Vilavegna invented yet another.  

While many people had been working on different prototypes of typewriters before 1868, American inventor, newspaper publisher and Wisconsin politician Christopher Latham Sholes' typewriter was the first one to be commercially marketed. 

 
Sholes co-invented the QWERTY keyboard, and has been contended to be one of the inventors of the first typewriter in the United States. 

 
Known as the Sholes and Glidden typewriter or the Remington 1 typewriter, the device could only type uppercase letters. 

 
But it wasn’t until 1895 that a model went into actual production with the Ford Typewriter. From there the world has never looked back, and typewriters started finding their way into private homes and places of business alike. 

Some of the most important classics of the last one hundred years have been produced on a typewriter, including the earliest examples of Stephen King’s work,  

Ernest Hemingway, name a professional writer who wrote a piece of any significance, and odds are high that they were written on a typewriter.  

National Typewriter Day reminds any and all of us that while keyboards may be the key to modern literature, the world we live in was conceived on a typewriter. 

typosphere.blogspot.co.uk/p/typewriter-day.html 

#TypewriterDay 

@IBM 

@timeanddate 

@daysoftheyear 

@nichecinema