By StephanieLee Elliott
Mardi Gras is French for “fat Tuesday”—the final feasting before the fasting of Lent, which begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday is also called Shrove Tuesday, a name that comes from the practice of shriving—purifying oneself through confession—prior to Lent. Many of the names applied to this day relate to food and eating. In many Latin countries, Mardi Gras is the culmination of the carnival season of revelry and feasting. (Carnival from the Latin carnem levare, means to take meat away.) Among the Pennsylvania Dutch, this Tuesday is Fastnacht (fast night), and everyone enjoys the traditional fastnachtkuchen, a rectangular doughnut with a slit in the middle. For the English, Shrove Tuesday is also called Pancake Day, as they use up the cooking fats that are forbidden during Lent. Learn more about Mardi Gras and find great recipes including Shrove Tuesday Pancakes!
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Bess Truman (U.S. First Lady) –
- Chuck Yeager (American test pilot ) –
- George Segal (actor) –
- Peter Tork (musician, member of The Monkees) –
- Peter Gabriel (musician) –
- Robbie Williams (singer) –
- Kristy Powell (Olympic gymnast) –
Died
- Lily Pons (soprano) –
- Pauline Trigere (fashion designer) –
- Waylon Jennings (singer) –
- Ralph Waite (actor; best known as John Walton on The Waltons) –
Events
- Astronomer Tycho Brahe outlined his solar system structure–
- Jesse James robbed his first bank–
- Strauss’s Blue Danube premiered in Vienna–
- First well-documented occurrence of U.S. quintuplets born, Watertown, Wisconsin–
- Novocain (procaine) patented–
- The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) established–
- The first Barbie dolls went on sale–
- First women Royal Canadian Air Force pilots (Captains Nora Bottomley, Dee Brasseur, and Leah Mosher) graduated–
- Winter Olympics began, Calgary, Alberta–
- Second tune-up for the Hubble Space Telescope began–
- The last original Peanuts comic strip ran in newspapers–
- Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II–
Weather
- Ice floes formed in the Gulf of Mexico–
- -2 degrees F, Tallahassee, Florida–
- A snowstorm that began late in the day eventually dropped 15 inches of snow on Boise, Idaho–
- -72 degrees F at Shepherd Bay, Nunavut–
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