November 12th: National & International Days, Celebrations and Observances

Mark your calendar for November 12th - there's real good to be done. Spread the word about pneumonia prevention as winter rolls in. Know someone feeling sick? That's the day to simmer up some chicken soup, right when National Chicken Soup Day hits.

• Something at work needs fixing? Don't hold back - smart solutions often come from speaking up.
• Round up some friends at your local bar for shelter animals. Simple plan: drinks, laughs, fundraising. The pets win, everyone wins.
• Those winter months creep up fast, so knock on your elderly neighbors' doors now. December gets rough for them.
• That French dip recipe you've perfected? Someone else would love to learn it.

Winter's coming. Homeless shelters never turn down warm blankets this time of year. Oh, and those nurse practitioners who keep showing up day after day? A handwritten thank-you note tells them someone notices.

The morning fog still hung over Florence, Oregon when state workers arrived at the beach in November 1970. Their task: removing a rotting 45-foot sperm whale. The blast from 1,000 pounds of explosives sent chunks of blubber through the misty air. Pieces rained down a quarter-mile away, flattening a parked Oldsmobile. Local reporter Paul Linnman captured the chaos on film, and beach cleanup protocols changed forever.

At CERN's Geneva campus, November 12, 1990 started like any other workday. But in his modest office, Tim Berners-Lee printed out a proposal that would reshape communication. His black NeXT cube computer soon hosted the first webpage - plain text on a gray background, nothing flashy. No one guessed this simple start would transform global connections.

A small robot named Philae made its mark on November 12, 2014. After a ten-year chase through space, it landed on Comet 67P's icy surface. The washing machine-sized craft skipped twice like a stone on water before stopping. Its instruments worked frantically for 60 hours on the comet's dark side, beaming back readings until its power faded in the shadows.

A handful of remarkable people share November 12th in their histories.

• Susan B. Anthony first crossed paths with Elizabeth Cady Stanton one winter day in the 1850s. Their partnership ended up lasting half a century. When Stanton put her ideas on paper in the "Declaration of Sentiments," no one expected much to change. But change came. Walk into any U.S. courthouse or business office now, and you'll see what these women started.
• In India, a young Salim Ali watched birds at a time when few took such interests seriously. His field notes grew into thick stacks over the years. When he published "The Book of Indian Birds," it changed how people studied wildlife. His work got results - India passed strong conservation laws. Small sanctuaries popped up first, then bigger ones. Now birds fill protected spaces across his homeland.
• Storm research lost one of its best in 2013. Tim Samaras died doing what he believed in - tracking the El Reno tornado up close. His TWISTEX project gave us new ways to study dangerous storms. Local weather teams still rely on his ideas when they warn people about tornadoes.
• After finishing at Yale, Naomi Wolf spotted something others had missed. Her book "The Beauty Myth" tackled hard questions about society's demands on women. As a Rhodes Scholar, she brought both smarts and style to this tough topic. Many still argue about her ideas on democracy and women's roles.
• Chen Guangcheng learned law by listening - he had no choice, being blind since childhood. By 2012, Chinese officials had put him under house arrest. He got out anyway. From his new home in America, he speaks up about rights and wrongs, just like always.