September 10 Holidays

World Suicide Prevention Day was established by the International Association for Suicide Prevention and endorsed by the WHO to raise awareness that suicide is a global public health crisis — approximately 700,000 people die by suicide each year, with many more attempts. National TV Dinner Day celebrates the frozen meal in a segmented tray — invented by Swanson & Sons in 1954 after a miscalculation left 260 tons of unsold Thanksgiving turkey sitting in refrigerated rail cars — a marketing improvisation that launched the frozen food industry. Gibraltar National Day marks September 10, 1967, when Gibraltar held its first sovereignty referendum, in which 99.6 percent of voters chose to remain a British Overseas Territory rather than revert to Spain — a result Spain has disputed ever since. Swap Ideas Day was created to encourage people to share creative ideas freely, collaborate with strangers, and experience the compound effect of intellectual generosity. Prevention, a turkey surplus, 99.6 percent, and a traded idea.