Getting Through The Most Boring Day

Happy HumpDay!

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Date & Time

Well… unfortunately we will all probably be stuck inside this weekend. On the bright side, we won’t be missing much since this Saturday is the most boring day in history! Well… at least the anniversary of the most boring day anyway. A computer scientist from the University of Cambridge created a search engine called “True Knowledge” that scanned over 300 million facts to identify the least newsworthy day in the past 100 years. On April 11th, 1954, almost nothing important happened in the world. There were no major incidents, no significant deaths, and no captivating news stories. Compared to the other 36,499 days in the past 100 years, April 11th, 1954 was the least remarkable. Even the weather was unremarkable across the world. April 11th, 1954 was dubbed “the most boring day in the 20th century” and now each year, April 11th is celebrated as “Boring Day” across the globe. Clearly the computer model didn’t appreciate the significant events of April 11th, 1954. There was an election in Belgium, a Turkish professor was born, and a semi-popular soccer player passed away. Riveting stuff. At least this year, we will have Netflix to watch to get us through Boring Day. How Do Search Engines Work? 100 Things to Do When You’re Bored

Sports

If not for COVID-19, tomorrow would have been the first day of the 84th Masters Golf Tournament. 90 professional golfers and thousands of fans would have descended on the small town of Augusta, Georgia to visit the pinnacle of golf courses, Augusta National Golf Club. Only the best golfers get to play in the Masters and just being invited is an accomplishment in itself. Although, there is one man who has played the Masters multiple times but he isn’t a pro. His name is Jeff Knox. In professional golf tournaments, all the players play on Thursday and Friday then, just half of the players “make the cut” and earn the right to play on the weekend. All players on the weekend have a partner to play with, but sometimes there is an odd number of players that make the cut. Whenever there is an odd number of players, the officials at the Masters Tournament call on Jeff Knox to fill in. Jeff Knox is a 56-year-old former Georgia amateur golfer that is a member at Augusta National and holds the course record for members. Any time that there is an odd number of players going into the weekend, Jeff tags in to partner with the odd person out. Players love him because he is friendly, and plays extremely fast in order to let his partner focus on his round. Over the course of his career filling in for the Masters, Jeff Knox has regularly beat the pros including world #1 ranked golfer Rory McIllroy. On top of being a great golfer and having the best job in the world, Jeff Knox founded a charitable foundation to support his local community. What a life he has! Best Shots in Masters History Masters Theme Song

Medicine

In honor of all the nurses working so hard and putting themselves at risk to help curb the spread of the Coronavirus, HumpDay would like to pay homage with the story of the mother of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, who demonstrated the impact that nursing can have on medical treatment during times of crisis. Florence Nightingale was born into a wealthy British family during the early Victorian Era. In her youth, she visited a family friend’s farm where the farmer was about to put his dog down. The farmer believed that the dog had a broken leg that would never heal and so it needed to be put down. To save the dog’s life, Florence’s father preformed minor surgery on the dog’s leg. Every day after the surgery, Florence visited the farm to change the dogs bandages and clean its wounds. Soon enough, the dog made a full recovery and lived a full happy life. Florence’s experience treating the dog’s wounds and healing it back to health inspired her to pursue a career in nursing. Being a wealthy woman in Victorian England, Florence was not expected to have a career, instead, she was expected to marry a wealthy man, have children, and become a housewife. Florence was passionate about wanting to help sick people and refused to accept her parents wishes for her to become a housewife. Instead of getting married to someone rich like her family wanted to, Florence began interning as a nurse at a hospital in London and recruited a team of women to work as nurses along side her. Her team of nurses greatly improved the conditions for patients in the busy hospital. In 1853, England went to war with Russia in what was known as the Crimean War. The British Secretary of War noticed that thousands of soldiers were dying in army hospitals and didn’t know what to do. Looking to save soldiers lives, the Secretary of War contacted Florence for help. Florence and a team of 38 other women traveled to the front lines of the war to work as nurses in the army field hospital. Upon arrival in the army hospital, Florence quickly discovered that everything that the army doctors were doing was unsafe and unsanitary. Soldiers bandages weren’t changed for days, none of the patients had been bathed, and the wounded were lying in dirty straw beds filled with rats and lice. Florence and her team of nurses immediately made an impact by regularly tending to soldiers’ wounds, ensuring that all patients were clean, and keeping the hospital in a sterile condition. Just two days into her time on the war front, a major battle broke out near the hospital and thousands of wounded soldiers flooded into Florence’s hospital. Florence and her 38 nurses were able to take in and treat all of the wounded soldiers. When the hospital became overwhelmed, the nurses advocated for their patients’ treatment and ensured that the soldiers received the care that they needed. At night, Florence would walk through the hospital with a lamp to check in on each of her patients. Because of this, the soldiers that she cared for began calling her “The Lady with The Lamp”. Word quickly spread that the “Lady with The Lamp” was the only person in the hospital who cared for the health and safety of the patients. Florence became a symbol of hope for those who were sick and looking for someone to care for them. After the war, Florence was deeply troubled by how many soldiers had been lost during the war. She spent years studying her journals and hospital records to try and identify what caused so many patients to succumb to their wounds. Through her statistical analysis, she realized that more soldiers died from disease than from the bullets. Using this insight and others, Florence wrote a book on the best practices for safely treating patients and formalized the founding principles of modern nursing. She then went on to found the first ever nursing school and provide women with an opportunity to advance in society through careers in medicine. From humble beginnings caring for a dog, to saving soldiers’ lives, to founding a whole industry that helps people every day, Florence Nightingale discovered her passion for treating those in need and changed the world. Today, nurses all over the world continue in Florence’s footsteps by putting patients’ health and safety before their own. No other medical professional spends more time getting to know patients and ensuring that they are comfortable and safe. Especially now, if you know a nurse share your gratitude for the incredible work that they do to keep patients healthy.

This Week in History

On this week in 1917, The United States Senate officially declared war on Germany and entered the U.S. into World War I. WWI started in 1914 with the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. When the war broke out, President Woodrow Wilson announced that the U.S. would remain neutral in the conflict going on in Europe. In 1916, German submarines destroyed a passenger boat known as the Lusitania. The U.S. demanded that the Germans cease attacking civilian ships and the Germans complied but in 1917, the Germans announced that they would resume attacking all ships in enemy waters. This announcement triggered outrage in the states and led to the U.S. finally joining the war.

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