World Smile Day

Every year on the first Friday in October we celebrate World Smile Day. It was created by Harvey Ball, creator of the Smiley Face during 1963.

After his death, the “Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation” was created to honor his name and memory. The slogan of the Smile Foundation is “improving this world, one smile at a time.” The Foundation continues as the official sponsor of World Smile Day each year. It is easy to participate on this unofficial holiday. Just do acts of kindness to spread good will and cheer.

Smile, it improves your beauty 1,000%.


Also on this day is German-American Day. It first gained a spot on US calendars over 130 years ago. An annual holiday on October 6th, it marks the day in 1683 when 13 German families arrived in Philadelphia to set up home. Of course, there was no Germany until 1871, instead separate German-speaking states mostly ruled themselves as parts of the Catholic Holy Roman Empire.

Happy German-American Day

It became Public Law 100-104 when President Reagan signed it on August 18, 1987. The US celebrates German-American Day on Oct. 6. It commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German families from Krefeld, near the Rhine landed in Philadelphia. These families subsequently founded Germantown, Pennsylvania, the first German settlement in the original thirteen American colonies. About 1 in 4 Americans claim part or full German heritage.

Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) is observed on October 3, when the official German holiday commemorates Germany's reunification in 1990, when East and West Germany once again became one country known as the Federal Republic of Germany die Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

German Pioneers Day is celebrated in Ontario, Canada on the day after Canadian Thanksgiving, second Monday in October. A law passed by the Ontario provincial Legislative Assembly in 2000 proclaimed the annual celebration of the German contributions to Canada on the day after Canadian Thanksgiving.