History & Celebrations Today – August 8

Celebrations Today – August 8

Holidays and observances

Celebrations Today – USA: August 8

National Happiness Happens Day
National Frozen Custard Day
National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day
National Dollar Day
International Cat Day
National Zucchini Day
National Odie Day
National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day
National The Date to Create

Today in US History: August 8

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

As she answered the door, she held in her hand a copy of Marjorie Kinnan Rawling’s “The Yearling.” “That’s a great book,” she remarked, as she laid the volume on the library table in the front hall — “So true to the ‘cracker’ life and customs. And I remember the storm she tells about.””Ruby Beach,”
interview with Mrs. Eleanor Scull, Jacksonville, Florida,
Rose Shepherd, interviewer, April 11, 1939.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940

Marjorie Rawlings
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings,
Carl Van Vechten, photographer,
January 18, 1953.
Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964

Journalist, short-story writer, and novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was born on August 8, 1896, in Washington, D.C. Rawlings is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling (1938), the story of young Jody Baxter’s coming of age in the big scrub country which is now the Ocala National Forest in Florida.

Rawlings began her career as a journalist, working for the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Rochester Journal.  In 1926 she began writing a daily poetry column, “Songs of a Housewife,” for the Rochester Times-Union.  The column was soon syndicated by United Features and ran in approximately fifty newspapers.

Rawlings settled at Cross Creek, near Gainesville, Florida, in 1928, in order to write fiction. Cross Creek, published in 1942, tells of her enchantment with this part of rural Florida. Her association with Cross Creek continued until her death in 1953 at the age of fifty-seven.

Today in History – August 8-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia