12 April: David Cassidy

Born this date in 1950 was David Cassidy, teen heartthrob, singer, Partridge Family's Keith Partridge. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. Cassidy was born in New York City. He was the only son of actress Evelyn Ward and actor Jack Cassidy.

2. He first got the acting bug when his mother took him to see his father perform on Broadway, when he was three years old. He attended church with his family as a boy and sang in the church choir. In fact, he was the lead soloist for 3 years.

3. At 11, he had an operation on his left optical nerve which was wrapped around a blood vessel. This left him with a lazy eye when he was tired.

4. David’s first appearance on Broadway was in a musical called The Fig Leaves Are Falling. It was a flop.

5. He became famous for his role as Keith in The Partridge Family. The actress who played his mother in the show, Shirley Jones, was his stepmother in real life. Cassidy didn’t know she’d got the part until after he was cast. Luckily, the two of them got on well.

6. In 1974, a fan died of injuries sustained in a crush at one of his concerts in the UK. 650 more fans were injured. This affected Cassidy deeply and resulted in him leaving The Partridge Family and quitting touring.

7. He was allergic to Garlic.

8. He was married three times: to Kay Lenz from 1977 to 1983; Meryl-Ann Tanz from 1984 to 1988; and Sue Shifrin from 1991 to 2016 She was the only wife he had a child with, a son, Beau. All three marriages ended in divorce. He also had affairs, one of which, with Sherry Williams, resulted in a daughter, Katie, who followed in his footsteps and became an actor and singer. She covered one of his songs, I Think I Love You, and plays Laurel Lance/Black Canary on the TV series, Arrow.

9. In an attempt to break from his squeaky clean Keith Partridge persona, he posed nude for Annie Leibovitz for a photo in Rolling Stone magazine in 1972.

10. He played Guitar, Drums, Piano and Clarinet, which he started learning at the age of eight.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

11 April: Smurfs

Born this day in 1935: Pierre Kartner, “Father Abraham”, Dutch singer and voice of the Smurfs. 10 facts about Smurfs.

1. The Smurfs were created in 1958 by a Belgian cartoonist called Pierre Culliford who used the pen name Peyo.

2. He came up with the original French name "schtroumpf" when he had a memory lapse at dinner one day and forgot the word for “Salt”. He happened to be dining with another cartoonist called André Franquin, and asked him to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin jokingly replied, "Here's the Schtroumpf—when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back." They spent the rest of that weekend speaking that way, thus inventing the Smurf language.

3. Their first appearance was in a comic called Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit) about a boy and his dwarf friend. On one of their adventures, they meet some Smurfs. The latter were so popular they got a comic strip of their own.

4. There are 105 Smurfs. They mostly look exactly the same: male, Blue skin, dressed in White trousers with holes for their tails, and white caps. They are small, described as being "three Apples high". That said, some of them can be distinguished by props relating to their names. For example, "Handy Smurf" wears overalls and sports a pencil above his ear. They are all said to be 100 years old, apart from Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa.

5. There are three female Smurfs: Sassette Smurfling, Nanny Smurf and Smurfette, who was created by the villain Gargamel in order to create conflict and jealousy in the Smurf village. In the original comic, Smurfette left the Smurf village to restore peace, but in the American TV series, she stayed.

6. There’s an urban legend that the Smurfs represent the KKK because they wear pointed white caps, and their leader, Papa Smurf, wears a Red one. This isn’t true. The caps they wear are Phrygian or Liberty caps, which first appeared in Roman times and were worn by freed slaves.

7. They live in houses shaped like Mushrooms deep in the forest, which most outsiders cannot find unless they have a Smurf guide. In the original comics they eat sarsaparilla leaves, only in the TV show they also eat the berries ("smurfberries"). If they want to travel long distances, they ride on Storks.

8. The Smurf language basically consists of many words being replaced by the word “Smurf”. "To smurf" typically means "to make", "to be", "to like", or "to do". It can be incredibly confusing to non speakers. Peewit thinks he’s got a handle on it and explains that "I'm smurfing to the smurf" means "I'm going to the wood". A Smurf points out that what he actually said was "I'm warbling to the dawn", and he should have said "I'm smurfing to the smurf". Which is completely different. The word “smurf” can be added to other words, for example, "smurftastic".

9. Talking of languages, the Smurfs are known by many other names in other translations. “Smurf” is itself a translation of the original French word, “schtroumpf”. In Italy, they are Puffi; in Spanish Los Pitufos; and in Hebrew “Dardasim" which was an old word for slipper which is now so associated with Smurfs that the original use has been virtually lost.

10. The Smurf village featured in a UNICEF advertisement in which it was destroyed in a war. It was part of a fund-raising campaign by UNICEF's Belgian arm to raise money for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in former Belgian colonies. With permission from Peyo’s family, the ad was shown after 9pm so as not to upset the usual target audience.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

10 April: Omar Sharif

This date in 1932 was the birthdate of Omar Sharif (Michael Shalhoub), Egyptian actor whose films include Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago and Funny Girl.

1. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His father, Joseph Shalhoub, was a lumber merchant, and his mother, Claire, was a professional gambler, ranked with King Faroukh as one of the most daring players.

2. His parents gave him the name Michel Demitri Shalhoub and he was brought up as a Catholic.

3. He attended Cairo University and got a degree in mathematics and physics, then worked at the family lumber business for a time.

4. His first film was an Egyptian one, called The Blazing Sun in 1954. His co-star was a well known Egyptian actress of the time called Faten Hamama.

5. Who became his wife in 1955. He converted to Islam in order to marry her and that is when he took the name Omar Sharif. They had one son, Tarek, and divorced in 1974. Sharif claimed she was the love of his life and although he had affairs, he never remarried.

6. He was also famous as a bridge player and was known to postpone film shootings in order to take part in tournaments. In the 1970s and 1980s, he co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune, and was also the author of several books about the game. A bridge computer game, "Omar Sharif Bridge", has been marketed since 1992. Another of his hobbies was breeding and racing Horses.

7. Lawrence of Arabia was the first film he made in English. He played Sherif Ali, but wasn’t the first choice for the role. Dilip Kumar turned it down, Horst Buchholz was unavailable and Maurice Ronet could not use the contact lenses to mask his eye colour. It was considered a risky move by David Lean at the time as Sharif was virtually unknown outside Egypt.

8. He had a bit of an anger management problem. In 2003 he got a one-month suspended prison sentence for hitting a police officer in a Paris casino, and in 2005 was ordered to take an anger management course for punching a parking attendant who refused to accept his European currency.

9. He was fluent in Arabic, English, French, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

10. He had triple bypass surgery in 1992, and immediately quit his 100 a day smoking habit. He died of a heart attack in 2015.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

9 April: Astronauts Day

Today is Astronauts Day because the first 7 US astronauts were selected on this date in 1959. 10 things you might not know about astronauts.

1. The word astronaut comes from Greek words meaning “star” and “sailor”.

2. In Russia, people who travel to space are typically known as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" meaning "space". Chinese space travellers use the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin word for "space").

3. Since it started, NASA has selected 370 astronaut candidates: 299 men, 61 women; 212 military, 138 civilians; 191 pilots, 159 non-pilots. As of November 2024, there were 47 active astronauts and 12 management astronauts.

4. In 2020, eighteen astronauts (fourteen men and four women) had died during space flights. 13 were American, four were Russian (Soviet Union), and one was Israeli. 11 men had died training for spaceflight: eight Americans and three Russians. Six were in crashes of training jet aircraft, one drowned during water recovery training, and four due to fires in pure oxygen environments.

5. There are also a number of health risks associated with spending time in space. These include decompression sickness, barotrauma, immunodeficiencies, loss of bone and muscle, loss of eyesight, sleep disturbances and radiation injury.

6. In NASA’s early days, astronaut selection was limited to military pilots, often test pilots. There was also a height restriction – height had to be below 5 feet 11 inches. By 1964 the emphasis had changed to academic qualifications in the natural sciences, medicine, or engineering fields.

7. Training to be an astronaut takes 20 months. They are required to accumulate a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft and must learn how to pilot a Space Shuttle. They train for weightlessness and space walks in water and in an aircraft. They all undergo some medical training. Astronauts aspiring to work on the International Space Station must also learn Russian so they can understand the manuals on the Russian side, and communicate with Russian ground control in an emergency.

8. Between 1986 and 2007, Cosmonaut survival kits included shotguns. No, not for shooting aliens! It was in case, on re-entry to Earth, they landed in some remote wilderness and might have to fend off a hungry bear.

9. Astronauts can grow up to 3% taller while spending time in microgravity. When they return to earth, their height returns to normal after a few months.

10. If you define an astronaut as anyone who has been in space, including space tourists, the astronaut is Oliver Daemen, who was 18 years and 11 months old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin. The oldest is William Shatner, who did the same at the age of 90.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

8 April: Dana Name Day

In Latvia, today is the name day for people called Dana. Dana is a unisex given name. In Arabic, it means 'the most perfectly sized, valuable and beautiful pearl' In Persian, it means 'wise'. It is also occasionally used as a feminine version of Daniel or a short version of other names. 10 famous Danas:

1. Dana Scallon (pictured): known mononymously as Dana, Irish singer and politician. Won Eurovision in 1970 with All Kinds of Everything.

2. Dana Andrews: American film actor who became a major star in film noir and Westerns.

3. Dana: South Korean pop singer.

4. Dana White Jr.: American businessman, the CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a global mixed martial arts organisation.

5. Dana Scully: one of the main characters on the television show The X Files.

6. Dana Carvey: American comedian who has appeared as a cast member of Saturday Night Live and in the Wayne's World movie series.

7. Dana Plato: American actress who played Kimberly Drummond on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.

8. Dana Franklin: Protagonist the novel Kindred by Octavia E Butler. A 26-year-old African-American woman writer, married to a white writer named Kevin. She repeatedly travels in time to a slave plantation in antebellum Maryland.

9. Dana Delany: American actress who starred as Katherine Mayfair in Desperate Housewives and also provided the voice of Lois Lane in Superman: The Animated Series. She has the longest tenure of playing Lois Lane, having portrayed the character for 17 years.

10. Dana Owens: also known as Queen Latifah, American rapper, singer and actress.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

7 April: 97

 Today is the 97^th day of the year. 10 fun facts about 97.

1. 97 is the only prime number in the 90s and the highest prime number less than 100.

2. Jack Reacher likes the number 97 for just this reason and it forms the last two digits of his ATM card PIN in the novel Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child.

3. The 10-97 police code means "arrived on the scene".

4. 97 Klotho is a main-belt Asteroid discovered by Ernst Tempel in 1868. It is named after Klotho or Clotho, one of the three Moirai, or Fates, in Greek mythology.

5. It’s the atomic number of Berkelium, a synthetic chemical element which has the symbol Bk and is a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California.

6. The A97 is a major road in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It runs south from Banff on the north coast to its junction with the A93 road at Dinnet.

7. British logician, mathematician, and philosopher Bertrand Russell lived to be 97.

8. "Process 97" was the fictional secret formula in the film The House On 92nd Street.

9. The seventh word of the seventh line of Shakespeare's Sonnet XCVII (97) is “prime”.

10. 97 is the decimal unicode number representing the Latin lowercase "a".

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

6 April: Hula Hoops

On this date in 1987 Roxann Rose set the record for continuous revolution of a hula hoop (90 hours). 10 facts about hula hoops:

1. Roxann Rose’s record has since been broken and at time of writing the record holder is Jenny Doan who hula hooped for 100 hours.

2. There are also records for hula hooping on one leg (Leanna Fernandez (UK) - 2 hours, 30 minutes, 19 seconds in 2021); hula hooping in plank position (Reger Maffei (USA) - 7 minutes, 41.28 seconds in 2024); spinning the most hoops at once (Marawa Ibrahim (Australia) 200); The most people hula-hooping simultaneously (4,183 by the Department of Health and the Ministry of Public Health in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2013. The hula hoops remained in continuous motion for two minutes); and running a half marathon while hula hooping (two hours and 29 minutes by Tamara "Tats" Ward (UK) in 2025.

3. Items resembling modern hula hoops have been used since at least 500 BC.

4. The Native American Hoop Dance is a form of storytelling dance using hoops as props.

5. The modern hula hoop was inspired by Australian children playing with Bamboo hoops as the owners of an American toy company, Wham-O, happened to be driving past. They went home and made similar toys for their own children, who loved them. Even adults at cocktail parties were keen to have a go, especially when they’d imbibed a few cocktails! This told Wham-O that they had a hit on their hands and began selling them in 1958. It became a craze. More than 20 million people bought them in that year.

6. The name hula comes from the Hawaiian dance which uses similar hip movements.

7. Not all countries embraced the craze as America did. Indonesia banned them because they “might stimulate passion”; Japan forbade them on public streets; China called hula hoops “a nauseating craze” and in the Soviet Union, the hoop branded a “symbol of the emptiness of American culture.”

8. Hula hooping is nowadays a popular fitness activity with hula hooping included in the Nintendo Wii exercise package. That said, British Medical Journal has reported that the hula hoop was responsible for an increase in back, neck, and abdominal injuries.

9. At the height of the craze there were hit songs about hula hoops: one by Georgia Gibbs and another by Maureen Evans.

10. Hula Hooping Girl, a 2020 street art painting by Banksy in Nottingham portrays a young girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tyre.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/