Today is National Candy Day. This day is observed annually on November 4th.
Who doesn’t love candy? Everybody loves candy, especially chocolates, but today we are going to talk about candies. Candy is also called sweets or lollies made of confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient.
The category called sugar confectionery encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum, and sugar candy. Physically, candy is characterized by the use of a significant amount of sugar or sugar substitutes. Unlike a cake or loaf of bread that would be shared among many people, candies are usually made in smaller pieces.
Candy has its own origins mainly in Ancient India. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the people in India and their “reeds that produce honey without bees”.
Today there are thousands of different types of candies in the market from hard candy to Tootsie Rolls which was created in 1896 by Leo Hirschfield of New York. It was named after his daughter, whose nickname is “Tootsie.” According to studies average American eats 25 pounds of candy each year.
So, today, celebrate this day by eating your favorite candy, whether you like chocolate, hard candy, or taffy, treat yourself to something delicious. Share on social what your favorite candy you love to eat using #NationalCandyDay.
1842 Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd
On November 4, 1842, struggling lawyer Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Anne Todd, a Kentucky native, at her sister’s home in Springfield, Illinois.
Mary Todd, whose nickname was Molly, was the child of wealthy parents and received her education in prestigious all-girls schools where she excelled in cultural studies and the arts. Her father socialized with the politically influential and, as a result, she acquired a keen interest in politics. Molly met Lincoln in 1840 when she was 21 and he was 31. She fell in love with the tall, gangly and kind Lincoln and, despite her family’s objections to his poverty and lack of political prospects, accepted his proposal of marriage. However, in early 1841, he inexplicably broke off their engagement. The split lasted until the fall of 1842 when they resumed their relationship. Some reports suggest they were reunited a year earlier but kept their relationship a secret. Regardless, after reuniting they wasted no time with a long engagement and were married on November 4.
Mary Todd, even more so than her husband, was a staunch abolitionist. She supported his political career as he rose from the Illinois legislature to become one of the country’s most charismatic political orators to speak out against slavery. His views aroused the ire of southern slave-holding interests. Even early on in his career, Lincoln received death threats from pro-slavery southerners, and Mary Todd was labeled a traitor to her southern Kentucky roots. During the Civil War, she felt a deep sense of estrangement and tragedy; most of her male family members fought on the side of the Confederacy. To make matters worse, she was often criticized in newspapers and social circles for what was perceived as undue influence on her husband’s political appointments. One reporter went so far as to blame Mrs. Lincoln for causing the president’s health to deteriorate, giving him a gaunt frame and hollow cheeks. Those features were more likely caused by a debilitating wasting syndrome called Marfan’s disease and the burden of governing a nation at war with itself.
(excerpted from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/abraham-lincoln-marries-mary-todd)
