Famous. And Other Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

FAMOUS SPORTS EVENTS. The Soviet Union beat the U.S. by 1 point, 51-50, in the 1972 Olympic men's basketball final in Munich, Germany. A controversial event in Olympic history. Team USA was then represented by college standouts. It was the first ever loss by the U.S. in the event. The final three seconds were played three times. Ivan Edeshko made the pass to Alexander Belov who made the basket. In 1992, NBA stars started to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. 🇺🇸🏀🇷🇺

GLOBAL HOLIDAYS. Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries. 🎁✝️🎊

FAMOUS PLACES. Baguio City is an urbanized city in the Philippines. Second home of my family. During American colonial years, Baguio was selected as summer capital, owing to its cool climate, located 4,810 feet above sea level. In 1901, the U.S. government expropriated lands in Baguio owned by the Ibalois, who were forced to sell their lands. When I was in grade school, we were fined 5-centavos for every Ilocano or Tagalog word we uttered; had to be in English. 🌄🇵🇭🌲

INTERESTING EVENTS. Zombie Bike Ride, a celebration of the bicycle in late October in Key West, Florida. Rock and roll, zombie bikes and costumes of all types and a one-mile leisurely ride along the Atlantic Ocean. The first event was created in 2009 by the local bike shop owners Marky Pierson, Evan Haskell, and Chris Needham. Participants wear everything from dead-like face and body-paint and gory zombie costumes to lively "walking dead" garb. 🧟‍♀️🧟🧟‍♂️

FAMOUS PUBLICATIONS. Life, published from 1883. I was addicted to it as a boy. During Life’s golden age in my youth, it was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography. As one of America’s most popular magazines, Life regularly reached one-quarter of the population. The magazine has been consigned as a mere online supplement in 2008. Life is currently owned by Dotdash Meredith, which owns Time Inc., among others. 📰🗞📰

FUN STUFF. People can’t get enough of Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas is You.” It still dominates the holiday charts. If anything about Ms Carey’s holiday hit song annoys you, best to avoid shopping malls now. Or the radio. Maybe music altogether, for that matter. The Christmas anthem has reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the past four years in a row, and one expert predicts it will soon exceed $100 million in earnings. So calm down, okay. 🎁👩‍🎤🎊

FUN EVENTS. Dog Shows: The National Dog Show, AKC National Championship, and the Westminster Dog Show. All-breed benched conformation shows. A bench show is a show which requires dogs to be on display in an assigned location during the entirety of the show except when being shown in the ring, groomed for showing. The purpose is for spectators and breeders to have an opportunity to see all the entered dogs. Benched or unbenched, it’s all good. I love dogs! 🐕🐩🐕‍🦺

CULTURAL FESTIVALS. Hmong Spiritual New Year, mostly celebrated in November and December, recalls ancestral spirits while teaching traditions to new generations. Shamans send off their spirit guides to regenerate their energy for another season of healing. The Hmong people are an ethnic group believed to have come from the Yangtze river basin area in southern China. There are about 18 Hmong clans that are known in Laos and Thailand. 🏵🎎🏵

INTERESTING LAWS. Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. Corporations have the same rights as a natural person to hold property, enter into contracts, and to sue or be sued. The animal rights movement seeks animal personhood, as well. Ecuador and Bolivia are the only countries that mandate rights for nature. 🐘👩‍🦱🪴

MYSTERIES of LIFE. Black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light and other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The oldest black hole discovered dates back 470 million years after the Big Bang. Findings and theories suggest that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe. Given the universe is 13.7 billion years old, that puts the age of the first known black hole at 13.2 billion years. 🪐😞💫

Photo credits: Marca. Slate.