Author: Lisa Mungovan

The Westminster Kennel Club had its first dog show in New York City in 1877. The Westminster Dog Show just awarded the 144th title of Best In Show to a black poodle named Siba. She beat out more than 2600 dogs for the prestigious award. She knows she looks good, in her fancy poodle hairdo!

Today is Plum Pudding Day. Also called Christmas pudding, a tradition is for the whole family to hold onto a wooden spoon and make a wish while stirring the batter together. In the 17th century, raisins and other fruits were called plums, so don’t be surprised if your recipe doesn’t call for plums!

Find a penny, pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck. It’s always lucky to find money! Today is Lost Penny Day.  Last year, a bronze penny from 19 43 sold for $200,000!  Keep all the pennies you find in a little bank, and next year on Lost Penny Day, buy yourself a treat!

A man in South Carolina almost threw away $100,000. He’d purchased a lottery ticket, and tossed it in the trash after checking the winning numbers in the newspaper the next day. While he was sipping his coffee, he realized he’d looked at the wrong day. Luckily, his winning ticket was still in the garbage can!

Engineers at the University of Cincinnati have designed a tiny portable lab device, that plugs into your phone. It can analyze a drop of blood or saliva, to diagnose diseases like malaria or the flu, or measure hormones to recognize anxiety or depression. The results are sent to your doctor, for nearly instant results.

There’s a new species of dinosaur, with a kind of awesome name. The bones were discovered in Alberta Canada 10 years ago, and researchers are finally ready to introduce it. The older cousin of Tryrannosaurus rex, is called Thanatotheristes degrootorum, which means reaper of death. It lived 79,000,000 years ago, in the late Cretaceous period.

It’s Extraterrestrial Culture Day. Read a book or watch a movie, about aliens from another planet! Today is also Inventor’s Day. If you were a visitor from outer space, you might not know what everyday objects were for. Invent new names and uses for things. Maybe you’ll create a brand new invention!

Did you dump your drink and make a big mess? Don’t worry. It’s Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day. Just calmly clean up the mess, and carry on with your day. It’s Get Out Your Guitar Day, so entertain someone with a tune. Maybe you’ll meet someone new, for Make A Friend Day!

A fox took a tour of the British Parliament building in London last Thursday. People spotted the beautiful fox on 4 different floors, before it was finally captured and released outside. Kerry McCarthy, a Member of Parliament, was disappointed. She didn’t get to see the fox, but it did leave poo outside her door!

David Stokes was fishing with friends off the Florida coast, when he made the catch of a lifetime. He pulled in 2 parachutes, with the capsule door attached, from the SpaceX Crew Dragon! SpaceX had performed an unmanned test of the in-flight abort system, before exploding the rocket on purpose 3 weeks ago.