May 11 - World Bellydance Day

Started in 2007, World Bellydance Day occurs on the 2nd Saturday of May every year, to unite the initiative of dancers around the world to celebrate the wonderful art of belly dance. It was inspired by the idea of holding an event that would serve as a reminder that belly dance is indeed an art form, a cultural event, a sport, and a social and family entertainment.

Many consider belly dance to be a provocative form as dance, akin to exotic dance. The organizers of World Bellydance Day want to break through the stereotypes, advertising their events as family friendly.

Check out events in your local area: http://worldbellydanceday.com/worldbellydanceday/blog/tag/canada/

Today is also Birthmother's Day, Eat What You Want Day, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day, Mother Ocean Day, National Babysitters Day, and National Train Day!

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

- Fifty-four members of the Knights Templar were burned at the stake in France for being heretics in 1310.
- Charles Doherty, founder of the Canadian Bar Association, was born in Montreal in 1855.
- A derailment outside Lompoc, California killed 32 Shriners when their chartered train jumped off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot in 1907.
- Montana's Glacier National Park formed in 1910.
- Author Sheila Burnford, whose first novel, The Incredible Journey, was an immediate international best-seller, was born in Scotland in 1918.
- Tje Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences formed in 1927.
- Siam renamed itself Thailand in 1949.
- Elvis Presley entered the UK charts with "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1959.
- The first contraceptive pill is made legally available in 1960.
- The Monty Python comedy troupe formed in 1969.
- Pianist Angela Hewitt won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition over 166 contestants in 1985, launching a stellar international career.

- In 1999, Chevron Canada of Calgary announced that explorers had found one of the largest natural gas deposits in Canada, near the town of Fort Liard, NWT.
- Alberta's Health Care Protection Act (Bill 11) passed in 2000. Seen by the government as an act to preserve the health care system, Bill 11 was intended to expand the role of private surgery facilities.
- The Nisga'a Final Agreement, recognizing Nisga'a lands and self-government, went into effect in 2000.
- Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveiled the Man With Two Hats monument in Ottawa in 2002, and Apeldoorn on May 2, 2000, symbolically linking both the Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout the Second World War.
- Anson Carter scored in overtime against Sweden as Canada won the world hockey championship in Helsinki, Finland  in 2003.
- Chinese scientists broke a world record by transferring photons over 97 kilometers using quantum teleportation in 2012.

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