Eli Whitney was the inventor of the cotton gin and a pioneer in the mass production of cotton. Whitney was born in Westboro, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765 and died on January 8, 1825. He graduated from Yale College in 1792. By April 1793, Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber. Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry in the United States.
In 1798, Eli Whitney invented a way to manufacture muskets by machine so that the parts were interchangeable. Ironically, it was as a manufacturer of muskets that Whitney finally became rich.
Paul Marie Eugène Vieille (2 September 1854 – 14 January 1934), a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, was a French chemist and the inventor of modern nitrocellulose-based smokeless gunpowder in 1884. The new smokeless powder was three times as powerful as black powder for the same weight and left virtually no residues of combustion. Paul Vieille soon became director of the "Laboratoire Central des Poudres et Salpetres" in Paris where his research had taken place. His invention was applied not only to small arms but also to the full range of artillery ammunition. His invention was widely followed within a short time by all the major military powers. Vieille received the Prix Leconte (₣50,000) in 1889 in recognition of his discovery.
In the Christian tradition, Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter — the day on which the Last Supper occurred. Also known as Sheer Thursday in the United Kingdom, it is traditionally a day of cleaning and giving out Maundy money there. Holy Thursday is part of Holy Week.
Ascension Thursday is 40 days after Easter, when Christ ascended into Heaven.
In the United States, Thanksgiving Day is an annual festival celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.
In Judaism the Torah is read in public on Thursday mornings, and special penitential prayers are said on Thursday, unless there is a special occasion for happiness which cancels them.
In Australia, most cinema movies premieres are held on Thursdays. Also, most Australians are paid on a Thursday, either weekly or fortnightly. Shopping malls see this as an opportunity to open longer than usual, generally until 9 pm, as most pay checks are cleared by Thursday morning.
In Norway, Thursday has also traditionally been the day when most shops and malls are open later than on the other weekdays, although the majority of shopping malls now are open until 8 pm or 9 pm every weekday.
In the USSR of the 1970s and 1980s Thursday was the "Fish Day" (Russian: Рыбный день, Rybny den), when the nation's foodservice establishments were supposed to serve fish (rather than meat) dishes.
For college and university students, Thursday is sometimes referred to as the new Friday. There are often fewer or sometimes no classes on Fridays and more opportunities to hold parties on Thursday night and sleep in on Friday. As a consequence, some call Thursday "thirstday" or "thirsty Thursday".
Thursday is aligned by the planet Jupiter and the astrological signs of Pisces and Sagittarius.
In the nursery rhyme, "Monday's Child", "Thursday's Child has far to go".
In some high schools in the United States during the 1950s and the 1960s, rumors said that if someone wore green on Thursdays, it meant that he or she was gay.
Gabriel Syme, the main character, was given the title of Thursday in G. K. Chesterton's novel
The Man Who Was Thursday (1908).
The titular day in Sweet Thursday (1954) (the sequel to John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row (1945)), the author explains, is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday.
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the character Arthur Dent says: "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays". A few minutes later the planet Earth is destroyed.
In another Douglas Adams book, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988), one of the characters says to the character Thor, after whom the day was named: "I'm not used to spending the evening with someone who's got a whole day named after them".
In the cross media work Thursday's Fictions by Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman, Thursday is the title character, a woman who tries to cheat the cycle of reincarnation to get a form of eternal life. Thursday's Fictions has been a stage production, a book, a film and an 3D online immersive world in Second Life.
According to Nostradamus' prediction (Century 1, Quatrain 50), a powerful (but otherwise unidentified) leader who will threaten "the East" will be born of three water signs and takes Thursday as his feast day.
Xi Jinping and his other Asian leaders need not worry about 45. He's a Gemini - air sign, and I'm pretty sure he takes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as his feast days.
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