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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | APRIL 2015 9 Did You Know? By Bobbie Eckel April 9 is Winston Churchill Day. In 1963 on this day Winston Churchill was made an honorary United States citizen. He received the honor posthumously, but he is only one of six people to reach this status. Churchill received the honor because of his accomplishments as Britain's Prime Minister during World War II. The Senate drafted a law and voted for the honor to be bestowed upon him. April has a lot of interesting, unusual holidays. The month starts with April Fools' Day, a day to play fun pranks on friends and family. But did you also know that… April 11 is Barbershop Quartet Day. The day celebrates the founding of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing on April 11, 1938. Four Seasons has been lucky enough to have events featuring barbershop harmony in past years. April 13 is Scrabble Day. Many of us enjoy the game. It was created by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938. This might be a good time to drag out the board game and play a few rounds. On a less happy note, April 15 is not just traditional tax day, it is also Titanic Remembrance Day. This day is dedicated to a cruise ship which was once called "unsinkable" and "the safest ship afloat," according to the builder. Unfortunately, on the ship's maiden voyage from England to New York City in 1912, the ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. Within two hours, the ship sank; 1,522 passengers and crew perished. The sister ship to Titanic, the Olympic, was launched in 1910. The Olympic served as a cruise ship until she became a troop carrier in WWI. The Olympic served until 1935 when she was finally retired. At least one of the builder's and designer's visions came true. April 26 is Richter Scale Day. The day celebrates the birth of the American seismologist Charles F. Richter who invented the Richter Scale in 1935. The scale measures the magnitude of seismic waves produced by an earthquake. Using numbers 0 to 9, each increasing number represents an earthquake 10 times more powerful. A magnitude of 4.5 can damage buildings; a magnitude of 7 can cause catastrophic damage. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, a 9.5, occurred on May 22, 1960, off the coast of Chile. More recently, an earthquake of 9.0 on Dec. 26, 2004, off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, created the deadliest Tsunami in history. More than 225,000 were killed; millions were left homeless. April ends on a high moral note. April 30 is National Honesty Day… probably to make up for starting with pranks and foolishment. The day was created by M. Hirsh Goldberg, the former press secretary to a governor of Maryland in the early 1990s. Do you remember the story about the boy who cried "wolf" constantly to get the attention of others? When the wolf finally did appear, no one believed him. This is the day to practice being open and honest in all of your dealings. Honesty is a great virtue should be our motto!