Dance for joy: Monday is Zipper Day

Drawing from the application for the patent for
the "separable fastener," awarded April 29, 1913.

And Monday, April 29 is not your average, ordinary comes-once-a-year Zipper Day either. No siree Bob. This is the zipper's centennial, the 100th anniversary of the day on which the U.S. Patent Office awarded Gideon Sundback a patent for a "separable fastener" (Sundback would receive another patent, in 1917, for an upgraded "separable fastener"). According to Wikipedia, the name "zipper" was bestowed on the device 90 years ago, by the B.F. Goodrich Company, which wanted a snappier name for the device it installed on its new galoshes. The name stuck. As zippers sometimes do.

Monday is also International Dance Day. April 29 was selected for this observance because it is the anniversary of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre (born April 29, 1727), the inventor of the modern ballet. (Now we know who to blame.)

Duke Ellington was born April 29, 1899. Monday is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Randolph Hearst (born April 29, 1863) and the 79th birthday of Hall of Fame shortstop Luis (Little Looie) Aparicio.

Japanese Emperor Hirohito was born on April 29, 1901, and Usual Suspect Holiday Insights says that Greenery Day is celebrated in Japan in his honor.