International Hyena Day

 

April 27th is International Hyena Day which advocates for changing the public's perspective on hyenas, and seeing their importance on Earth.

Hyenas don't have the greatest reputation due to centuries of bad publicity through literature and folklore. Spread through Africa and Asia, hyenas are intelligent mammals living in clans of 10 to 120 animals. They are skilled hunters, and not only scavengers which still makes them essential to prevent the spread of disease. They have highly acidic stomachs to break down their food, even though it isn't the freshest quality.

Their "demonic laugh" is often misunderstood, as it occurs when a lower-ranking animal is stressed. Hyenas are vulnerable to extinction because of habitat loss and persecution by farmers and poachers.

National Babe Ruth Day (U.S.)

 

On April 27, baseball fans worldwide honour one of baseball's all-time greatest players on National Babe Ruth Day.  

George Herman “Babe” Ruth, Jr., born on February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland, was nicknamed “the Bambino” and “the Sultan of Swat.” Spending 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), he played for three teams from 1914 to 1935.

Babe Ruth’s baseball career started as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He became a full-time right-fielder when the New York Yankees bought his contract in 1919.  Being one of the league’s most prolific hitters, he helped the Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series titles.

Ruth set career records during his career for home runs, slugging percentage, runs batted in, and on-base plus slugging. In 1927, he was the very first player to hit 60 home runs in one season.

Following a short stint with the Boston Braves, Ruth retired in 1935.In 1936, the National Baseball Hall of Fame elected Ruth as one of the first five players to be inducted into the Hall.

In 1946, after experiencing severe eye pain and difficulty swallowing, Babe Ruth was diagnosed with cancer. A year later on April 27, Ruth attended the newly proclaimed Babe Ruth Day and spoke briefly to a crowd of almost 60,000 people at Yankee Stadium.

At the age of 53, on August 16, 1948, at 8:01 pm, Babe Ruth died in his sleep.

 

Togo Independence Day

Togo Independence Day, celebrated on April 27th each year, commemorates the country’s independence from French-administered UN trusteeship on April 27, 1960. This significant day marks the culmination of Togo’s struggle for self-governance and sovereignty, following years of colonial rule. The name Togo comes from the language spoken by the local tribes and which means “land where lagoons lie” today, Sylvanus Olympio became the first president during the first presidential elections in 1961.

 

Morse Code Day

Morse Code Day on April 27 honours the inventor of the Morse code, Samuel Morse, who was born on this day in 1791. Apart from this, Morse Code Day also celebrates this pioneering method of communication and the invention that was first used to transmit encoded messages — the electric telegraph. Morse code is a precise, concise form of communication that played a role in wars and influenced Western life in general when Morse invented it.

History of Morse Code Day

Before we enjoyed instant communication via cell phones and email, the world communicated with tranquility. Messages were sent via post and were hand-delivered to the recipients, often weeks or even months later. Then, people began to wonder if there was a faster means of communication. One such group of people, three Americans – the artist and inventor Samuel Morse, scientist and businessman Alfred Vail, and scientist Joseph Henry began devising a way to communicate using the electric telegraph in 1836. Morse initially came up with the idea — electric currents would pass through the telegraph as the person typed, leaving indentations on a paper tape. They couldn’t type complete words or messages, and so, substituted a code to represent the message. There were dots, dashes, and even spaces that represented different numerals from zero to nine.

Initially, this code only transmitted numerals. By 1940, Vail realized this method was limited and further expanded the code to include letters and special characteristics too. This code was initially dubbed the ‘Morse landline code,’ ‘American Morse code,’ or ‘Railroad Morse.’

Soon, the use of this system spread across the sea to Europe. People using the code reported one major challenge. The symbols that the Morse code represented were all in English, making the original Morse code inadequate for non-English countries that had letters with various diacritic marks like ë, ç, and more. A group of European nations took it upon themselves to create their variation of the Morse code which was released in 1851. Called the International Morse Code or the Continental Morse Code, this new version of the code gained widespread appeal and was used across shipping, aviation, and other industries globally.