October 18 Holidays

National Chocolate Cupcake Day celebrates the miniature chocolate cake — a format created when Hannah Cooley baked “a light cake to bake in small cups” in 1796 — whose commercial form as Hostess CupCakes (1919) made it one of the most recognized packaged snack foods in American history. National Mashed Potato Day celebrates the dish whose preparation — boiled potato passed through a ricer or beaten with cream and butter — was codified by 19th-century French chef Antonin Carême and remains the most universally requested side dish in American home cooking. National No Beard Day was created to celebrate clean-shaven faces and to encourage bearded men to consider — just for one day — what the lower half of their face looks like without coverage. National Necktie Day celebrates the necktie — introduced to France by Croatian mercenaries wearing scarves in the 17th century, which French fashion adopted as the cravat and eventually the modern necktie.