October 15

Global Handwash Day
Global Handwashing Day 2011 will revolve around schools and children. On Global Handwashing Day, playgrounds, classrooms, community centers, and the public spaces of towns and cities will be awash with activity to drive handwashing behavior change on a scale never seen before, bringing the critical issue to center stage.

Global Handwashing Day will be the centerpiece of a week of activities that will mobilize millions of people in more than 80 countries across all five continents to wash their hands with soap.

Of the approximately 120 million children born in the developing world each year, half will live in households without access to improved sanitation, at grave risk to their survival and development. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases, accounting for 1.5 million diarrhea-related under-five deaths each year. Children suffer disproportionately from diarrheal and respiratory diseases and deaths. But research shows that children – the segment of society so often the most energetic, enthusiastic, and open to new ideas – can also be powerful agents of behavioral change.

Why a Global Day for Handwashing with Soap?
Handwashing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of millions of children in developing countries every year. Together, they are responsible for the majority of all child deaths. Yet, despite its lifesaving potential, handwashing with soap is seldom practiced and difficult to promote.

The challenge is to transform handwashing with soap from an abstract good idea into an automatic behavior performed in homes, schools, and communities worldwide. Turning handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter. A vast change in handwashing behavior is critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015.

The driving theme for Global Handwashing Day is children and schools, and the main objectives of this global celebration are:

• Foster and support a global and local culture of handwashing with soap.

• Shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing in each country.

• Raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing with soap.

October 15 : International Day of Rural Women

The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on 15 October 2008. This new international day, established by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/136 of 18 December 2007, recognizes “the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.”

At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 it was suggested that 15 October be celebrated as “World Rural Women’s Day,” on the the eve of World Food Day, in order to highlight the role played by rural women in food production and food security. “World Rural Women’s Day” has been celebrated, primarily by civil society, across the world for over a decade.

Since its establishment more than 60 years ago, the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) has worked on the issue of rural women. In recent years, the primary attention to rural women has been on a biennial basis in the context of the General Assembly, under the agenda item in the Third Committee and through the consideration of women in development in the Second Committee. The Commission on the Status of Women also includes attention to rural women in relation to the priority themes under its consideration. To commemorate the first observance of the International Day of Rural Women, DAW launched a publication in its Women 2000 and Beyond Series entitled “Rural women in a changing world: Opportunities and challenges.” This publication focuses specifically on the situation of rural women in developing countries in the context of changes in the rural economy.

Rural women play a critical role in the rural economies of both developed and developing countries. In most parts of the developing world they participate in crop production and livestock care, provide food, water and fuel for their families, and engage in off-farm activities to diversify their families’ livelihoods. In addition, they carry out vital functions in caring for children, older persons and the sick.

Events

1211 – Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Lascaris.
1529 – The Siege of Vienna ends as the Austrians rout the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.
1764 – Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon marks the first human ascent, by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, (tethered balloon).
1793 – Queen Marie-Antoinette of France is tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.
1815 – Napoleon I of France begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
1863 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks during a test, killing its inventor, Horace L. Hunley.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri, and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.
1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.
1880 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.
1888 – The "From Hell" letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.
1894 – The Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.
1904 – The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
1910 – Airship America launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.
1917 – World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.
1928 – The airship, Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.
1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.
1934 – The Soviet Republic of China collapses when Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army successfully encircles Ruijin, forcing the fleeing Communists to begin the Long March.
1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
1940 – The President of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, is executed by the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco, making him the only European president to have been executed.
1944 – The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary.
1945 – World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducts the very last step of the first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.
1951 – The first episode of I Love Lucy, an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, airs on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).
1953 – British nuclear test Totem 1 detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.
1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.
1965 – Vietnam War: The Catholic Worker Movement stages an anti-war rally in Manhattan including a public burning of a draft card; the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.
1966 – Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
1969 – Vietnam War; The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam is held in Washington DC and across the US. Over 2 million demonstrate nationally; about 250,000 in the nation's capitol.
1970 – Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.
1970 – The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.
1971 – The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia.
1979 – Black Monday in Malta. The Building of the Times of Malta, the residence of the opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami and several Nationalist Party clubs are ransacked and destroyed by supporters of the Malta Labour Party.
1987 – The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England.
1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.
1990 – Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.
1997 – The first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (United Kingdom), exactly 50 years and 1 day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth's atmosphere.
1997 – The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.
2001 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
2003 – China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.
2003 – The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi runs into a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
2005 – A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.
2007 – Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post 9/11 anti-terrorism raids.
2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst day in the Dow's history based on a percentage drop.
2011 – Global protests break out in 951 cities in 82 countries.

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:
Saint Teresa of Ávila (Doctor of Church)
Saint Hedwig of Silesia
Saint Thecla of Kitzingen
October 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Sweetest Day can fall, while October 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Saturday in October. (Great Lakes Region)
Global Handwashing Day (International)
National Tree Planting Day (Sri Lanka)
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day (Canada and the United States)
Teachers' Day (Brazil)
The Equirria or October equus, sacrifice of a horse to Mars. (Roman Empire)
White Cane Safety Day (United States)

For details, contact Datacentre