Missouri Day is an observance in the U.S. state of Missouri, currently held on the third Wednesday in October. In 2012, this holiday will fall on October 17. Created by State Resolution 9.040 in 1915, Missouri Day is set aside to "foster love for our state’s history and to teach rising generations of boys and girls the glories of Missouri."
The inspiration for the day came from native Missourian and schoolteacher Anna Lee Brosius Korn. Having composed the former state song, "Missouri", she felt the state needed an entire day to recognize significant Missourians. Korn later, after moving to Oklahoma, founded Oklahoma Day as well as the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
Though an established day, little observance is carried out in the state. State Senator Jason Glennon Crowell has acknowledged that the day does not garner as much attention as days such as Independence Day, and some in the state have become critical of its ambiguous October observance. For over a decade, activist F. Spencer Hunley has lobbied for a concrete date, May 8, President Harry S. Truman's birthday. During that time, the change has been proposed three times before the state legislature, failing to leave committee.
Read more about Missouri Day: External Sites
Famous quotes containing the words missouri and/or day:
“The traveller on the prarie is naturally a hunter, on the head waters of the Missouri and Columbia a trapper, and at the Falls of St. Mary a fisherman.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“So hideous was the noise, ah! benedicite!
Certes, he Jacke Straw and his meinie
Ne made never shoutes half so shrill
When that they woulden any Fleming kill,
As thilke day was made upon the fox.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)