May 6 - International No Diet Day

International No Diet Diet was created by Mary Evans Young - director of the British group "Diet Breakers" - in 1992. After personally experiencing anorexia, she worked to help people appreciate themselves for what they are, and to appreciate the body they have.

The first International No Diet Day was celebrated in the UK in 1992. International No Diet Day is an annual celebration of body acceptance, including "fat acceptance" and body shape diversity. This day is dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle, with a focus on health at any size, while raising awareness of the potential dangers of dieting and its unlikelihood of success.

The Institution of Medicine states, "Those who complete weight loss programs lose approximately 10 percent of their body weight, only to regain two-thirds within a year, and almost all of it within five years."

Since 1998, the International Size Acceptance Association and the National Organisation for Women have sponsored similar days: International Size Acceptance Day on April 24th, and and Love Your Body Day in the fall.

Today is also Melanoma Monday, National No Homework Day, Joseph Brackett Day, and National RN Recognition Day.

Here are some interesting things that happened on this day in history:

- Louis XIV of France moved his court to Versailles in 1682.

- Charles Douglas arrived at Québec with a British relief force in 1776, causing the Americans to abandon the siege of Québec.
- Haiti, under Toussaint L'Ouverture, revolted against France in 1794.
- John Deere made the 1st steel plow in 1833.

- Wyatt Eaton, portrait, genre and landscape painter, illustrator, founding member of the American Art Association and the Society of Canadian Artists, was born in Philipsburg, Québec in 1849.
- Dr. John Gorrie patented a "refrigeration machine" in 1851.
- Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish were stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin in 1882.
- The Yukon Field Force, consisting of 203 volunteers, left Vancouver for Dawson in 1898 to maintain order during the Klondike Gold Rush.
- Sherlock Holmes began his "Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" in 1902.
- The British House of Lords rejected women suffrage in 1914.
- John Steinbeck received the Pulitzer prize in 1940 for Grapes of Wrath.
- The last broadcast of "I Love Lucy" on CBS-TV happened in 1957.
- Also in 1957, the Pulitzer prize was awarded to John F. Kennedy for Profiles in Courage.
- The Canada Council announced R. Murray Schafer as the first recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize in Music and Communication in 1987.

- During a trip to Syria in 2001, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to enter a mosque.
- The season finale of the sitcom Friends aired in 2004.

Check out what happened last week in science:

Stay tuned for our next, "On This Day in History"!