October 17 Holidays

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1992 to mark October 17, the date in 1987 when Joseph Wresinski gathered 100,000 people at the Trocadéro in Paris to honor victims of extreme poverty — today, approximately 700 million people live on less than $2.15 per day. Sweetest Day is observed on the third Saturday of October — a Midwest tradition established in Cleveland in 1921 by a candy company employee who distributed boxes of sweets to orphans and the poor — a holiday that evolved into a candy-and-flower gifting tradition in the Great Lakes region. Black Poetry Day marks October 17, 1711, the birthday of Jupiter Hammon — the first published Black American poet — to celebrate the legacy of Black poetry and its contributions to American literature. Child Poverty Day was established to raise awareness for the approximately 333 million children worldwide living in extreme poverty.