On the Facebook part of The Gad About Town’s social media takeover of contribution to our world’s cultural life, I write up the day’s history and some literary and cultural points of significance that took place on this date in history.

For instance, today is the 85th birthday of the Twinkie.

It started as me sharing Garrison Keillor’s famous five-minute daily radio show, “The Writer’s Almanac,” on my Facebook page. On “The Writer’s Almanac,” the famous radio host and writer shares some literary and cultural history from today in history and reads a poem. When I started writing once again a few years ago, I started adding my two cents to my sharing Mr. Keillor’s work on my FB page.

About a year ago, that show changed its online schedule from posting a week’s worth of shows all at once every week to releasing one a day at irregular hours, so I started to write my own daily “almanac.” It is interesting to see where “The Writer’s Almanac” and my almanac coincide and where they part company, when they post their daily trivia history.

A year and a half ago, this site debuted on WordPress as well as on Facebook. On Facebook, I continued my version of a writer’s almanac, just so there would be more content there than merely links to the columns on the website here. I use several online sources, chiefly “On This Day in History” and Wikipedia to double-source the facts and birthdates. (“On This Day in History” is chock full of tiny errors and editorializations, so single-sourcing that is to perpetuate errors.)

There are several bloggers on WordPress and elsewhere who write “This Day in History”-type columns, but there is one with whom there is no competition, and his work is why I do not post several items each day about history and literature and culture—because he does it far better than I do. Each day, through the day, George B. on EuZicAsa posts items of interest. Each day. Throughout the day. I admire his website and I think you should, too. Whenever I see his face pop up as a “Like” on something I have written and published, I feel like I got a good grade from a favorite professor. Thank you, George B., for being a happy part of my daily WordPress life.

Here is my almanac for April 6, as seen on The Gad About Town’s Facebook page and written by me, with sources that include the above-mentioned “On This Day in History,” Wikipedia entries, and corporate press releases:

Today, April 6, is the 85th birthday of the Hostess Twinkie, invented on April 6, 1930, by James Alexander Dewar.
 
Unrelated to that, today is plastic’s birthday, at least in American patent history. A form of celluloid—plastic—was patented on this date in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt. The substance’s grand purpose was as a smooth outer layer for billiard balls, and the Albany Billiard Ball Co., of Albany, NY, was thus formed. It remained in business for over a century, into the 1980s, but plastic lives on in many other forms.
 
Unrelated to that, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) was discovered/invented by Roy Plunkett on this date in 1938. It is better known by its brand name, Teflon.
 
Unrelated to that, the Post-It Note was introduced by 3M to American consumers 35 years ago today.
 
The Church of Christ was formally organized on this date in 1830 in Palmyra, NY. Its founder was Joseph Smith and the church underwent several name changes in the subsequent eight years: Church of the Latter Day Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God, the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838, the name the Mormon tradition retains for its church.
 
The United States entered World War I on this date 98 years ago.
 
Ninety years ago today, the first in-flight movie was shown to passengers traveling from London to Paris. It was “The Lost World,” an action picture from two years earlier; thus the tradition of an out-of-date in-flight film was born on this date as well.
 
Lowell Thomas was born on this date in 1892. John Betjeman was born on this date in 1906. Gerry Mulligan would be 88 today.
 
James Watson is 87 today. André Previn is 86. Both Billy Dee Williams and Merle Haggard are 78 today. Gheorghe Zamfir, pan-flute master, is 74. Phil Austin of The Firesign Theatre is 74. Barry Levinson is 73. Marilu Henner is 63. Dianne Brill is 57. Paul Rudd is 46. Zach Braff is 40.—The Gad About Town on Facebook

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The Gad About Town is on Facebook! Subscribe today. Daily facts (well, trivia) about literature and history plus links to other writers.

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The WordPress Daily Prompt for April 6 asks, “If you could switch blogs with any blogger for a week, with whom would you switch and why?”