Do you have enough ice on hand for today? You better check so you can make some if you need to in order to celebrate:
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Alcoholics Anonymous (Founders) Day – On this day in 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by Bill W. and Dr. Bob (I couldn't give you their full names even if I had them due to the whole “Anonymous” portion of the program.). These two men devised and demonstrated the primary purpose of the program which is to stay sober and help other alcoholics become, and stay, sober as well. It is not the only program out there, and doesn’t work for everyone, but it has been successful enough that it is the most commonly known and easily found alcoholic support group around today.
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Ball Point Pen Day – Well, it is pretty obvious that this is the day to celebrate the invention of ball point pens. However, I was unable to discover for sure why this particular day was important for the pen. I know that hundreds of people tried to invent a workable ball point pen and the original idea came from John Loud in 1888, but his design was flawed and went nowhere. Hundreds of others submitted, and received, patents for their equally flawed designs. Then in 1935, Ladislas Biro (sometimes known as Lazlo) and his brother Georg Biro (a chemist) created a better pen with a much better ink. It took some tweeking and a few years to get it right, especially since they lived in Hungary and had to contend with the whole World War II distraction, so they moved to Argentina for a little peace to work on it. The idea eventually filtered into the United States and Eberhard Faber Co. which bought the rights and over the next few years the design was refined even more and eventually became the pens we enjoy today. In Europe, these pens are still known as Biros in honor of their original inventors.
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