Author: Lisa Mungovan

On January 7th 19 27, Abe Saperstein gathered a group of fantastic basketball players known as the Savoy Big Five, and formed the Harlem Globetrotters. Nearly 100 years later, people still enjoy watching the team’s skills, antics, and trick shots. Celebrate Harlem Globetrotters Day, by watching them and learning a few tricks of your own.

Today is Old Rock Day. Spend some time with your favorite rock, whether it’s an awesome fossil, a soothingly smooth stone, a colorful conglomerate, or just a hefty hunk of gravel! Get a pet rock, or decorate one and leave it for someone to find, or go climb a rock! Old Rock Day rocks!

Today is Tempura Day. Tempura is a Japanese dish of vegetables or seafood, that are dipped in batter and deep-fried. Tempura sounds tempting! It’s also Bobblehead Day. The toys with big heads bobbing on springs, have been around more than 100 years! Just be sure you don’t deep-fry your bobbleheads today!

17-year-old Lillian Bee Young, is a lifeguard in Australia. She was on the lookout for humans in trouble, but the first victim she saved, was a kangaroo. On her 4th day working at Bundjalung National Park, Lillian saw the kangaroo struggling in the ocean, so took her rescue board, and guided him to safety.

Did you know whales, once walked on land? Remingtonocetidae is a family of prehistoric land whales with feet, and long snouts like crocodiles. They were much smaller than most of today’s whales. The blue whale is still the largest mammal to ever live on Earth, weighing twice as much as the biggest dinosaur.

A 1-kilometer-long asteroid the will soon be passing near Earth. The asteroid, with the catchy name of (7482) 19 94 PC1, is considered a Potentially Hazardous Object, even though it’s actually 1.2 million miles away. It will be closest to us on January 18th, if you want to check it out with a telescope.

Today is Apple Tree Day, which started as a celebration of a nearly 200 year-old tree. When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing that food just grows on trees. It’s also Shortbread Day, so start baking! You only need flour, sugar, and butter, to bake this delicious Scottish dessert.

Today is Bean Day, and also Technology Day. To celebrate, make a big bowl of 15-bean soup. Then use computer technology to find “Vegetable Soup”, a great kids’ television show, on YouTube. Instead of watching it at 6:00 Saturday morning like kids in the 19 70’s, you can enjoy it with your bean soup lunch!

A new type of packaging, could help prevent food poisoning. It looks just like plastic, but it’s biodegradable, so it decomposes. The waterproof wrapping, is made from starch, and contains oils from the herb thyme, and citric acids. The natural anti-microbial compounds kill harmful bacteria, such as e coli, salmonella, and listeria.

The planets in our Solar System, rotate around the Sun. But some planets don’t orbit a star. Instead, these rogue planets roam freely through space. Astronomers using data from the European Southern Observatory telescopes, found at least 70 new planets the size of Jupiter, hanging out in our galaxy. There could be billions more!