April 25 - Red Hat Society Day

The Red Hat Society was officially founded in 1998, though it began in 1997 when artist Sue Ellen Cooper gave a friend a 55th birthday gift consisting of a red bowler purchased from an antique store, with a copy of Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning", beginning:

"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me."

The gift became popular among her friends, and eventually several of the women bought purple outfits and held a tea party on April 25, 1998.

 

The Red Hat Society is a global society of women that supports and encourages women in their pursuit of fun, friendship, freedom, fulfillment, and fitness.

Though it began with a small group of followers, as of 2011 the Red Hat Society consisted of over 40 000 chapters various countries throughout the world.

Today is also Hairstylists Appreciation Day, Malaria Awareness Day, Hug a Plumber Day, and World Penguin Day!

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

- Open conflict began over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War in 1846
- The Parliament Buildings in Montréal were burned down in 1849 in riots protesting Lord Elgin's signing of the Rebellion Losses Bill. The seat of government was removed from Montréal and the Parliament met alternatively in Toronto and Québec City.

 

- Paul Julius Reuter used 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices in 1850
- PEI obtained responsible government in 1851, with George Coles as premier.
- The first wave of miners from California arrived at Victoria in 1858, en route to the Fraser River Gold Rush. The Gold Rush caused a precipitous decline in the Native population and politically unified British Columbia.
- Ground was broken for Suez Canal in 1859

- The great Cree chief Crowfoot died at Blackfoot Crossing in 1890. He was a perceptive, farseeing and diplomatic leader who became disillusioned with the Canadian government.

- John Grierson, film producer and founder of the National Film Board, was born in Deanston, Scotland in 1898
- About 15 000 people lost their homes, 3 lost their lives as the worst fire in Canadian history destroyed two-thirds of Hull, Québec in 1900
- In 1903, the Québec legislature adopted legislation requiring Jews to pay their taxes to the Protestant schools panel, and granting them education rights equal to those of Protestants. In 1928, the Privy Council ruled that the 1903 Act was ultra vires (beyond legal authority).
Apr 25, 1923 - Ballerina Melissa Hayden was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1923

- Québec women were the last in Canada to earn the rights to vote and run for office in provincial elections in 1940
- Robert Noyce patented the integrated circuit in 1961
- In 1967 the House of Commons passed an Act combining the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force into a unified service known as the Canadian Armed Forces.
- Supreme Court rules pension plans can't require women to pay more in 1978
- More than 100 workers were exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan in 1981
- John Demjanjuk (Ivan the Terrible) was sentenced to death in Jerusalem in 1988
- The Hubble space telescope was placed into orbit by shuttle Discovery in 1990
- The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum was returned to Ethiopia in 2005 after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.

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