Holidays
- Day of Veteran of Internal Affairs Bodies and Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia
- World Hemophilia Day
- Bat Appreciation Day
- International Coffee Day
- Soviet Fire Department Day
- World Malbec Grape Day
- Haiku Poetry Day
- Cheese Ball Day
- Harmonica Call Day
Significant dates
1492 Columbus was promised royal support for his expedition “in India.”
1824 The Russian-American Convention on the Determination of the Boundaries of Russian Possessions in North America was signed.
1875 Birthday of the billiard game “snooker”.
1912 Russia was shocked by the event called the Lena massacre.
1941 Engineer Sikorsky demonstrated the first amphibious helicopter.
1944 The battle for Right Bank Ukraine – the Dnieper-Carpathian operation – ended.
1968 The television program “In the Animal World” (6+) was aired for the first time.
Persons of the day
On April 17, 1745, Russian painter and landscape artist Semyon Shchedrin was born.
On April 17, 1855, Russian literary critic, literary historian, editor, and bibliographer Semyon Vengerov was born.
On April 17, 1894, Soviet theater and film actor, People's Artist of the USSR Boris Shchukin was born.
On April 17, 1894, Soviet statesman and political figure, head of the USSR (1953-1964) Nikita Khrushchev was born.
On April 17, 1941, Soviet and Russian theater and film actress Alexandra Dorokhin was born.
Folk calendar
Joseph the Songsinger, Alder Shows
Joseph the hymn writer, whose memory the Orthodox Church honors on this day, was born in the 9th century in Sicily, and later went to the Solunsky monastery, where he became a strict ascetic.
Joseph was nicknamed the singer by the people because on his day the cricket began to sing and the crane gave its voice. People left their houses to worship the beautiful birds, which were considered fighters against evil and protectors from evil spirits.
In addition, they said that only with their arrival the year finally turns to summer: “The first swallow is not spring yet, the real spring is brought by a crane on its wings.” There was a custom associated with birds: to prevent your back from hurting from field work, you had to, after seeing cranes for the first time in the spring, lie down on the grass and turn over from side to side seven times.
People also came out to see Joseph to see the alder blossom. Log houses for wells were often made from it, so they carried out “alder inspections” – they looked for a suitable tree.
They also paid attention to signs: if there are a lot of “catkins” on an alder tree, oats will be born; if the alder opens its leaves before the birch, the summer will be wet. In the spring, alder bark was also harvested, which, thanks to tannins, can stop bleeding and treat inflammation.
Name day on this day
Adrian, Veniamin, George, Ivan, Joseph, Maria, Nikita, Nikolai, Fedor.
Source: Calend.ru
