July 17, 2022 - World Emoji Day | National Ice Cream Day

Welcome to July 17th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate emotional icons and a dessert that makes us cheer. Like it or not, our teenagers are influencers. That’s why a Japanese programmer created emoticons in 1990 to appeal to teens. When Apple released the first iPhone in 2007, they added the emoji keyboard to grab the attention of the Japanese market. But the picture words took off around the globe. Who knew that a simple text could become so misinterpreted out of context? Emojis to the rescue. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and today there are over 1800 of them listed on emojipedia.org. That’s nearly 2 million ways to bridge the generation gap. On World Emoji Day celebrate the cute little characters who have taken on a life of their own! For as long as folks have been enjoying ice cream, we bet they’ve been letting out a scream. In Ancient Persia the dessert was made with snow. Hopefully no one started an avalanche by screaming from a mountain peak. The first use of ice and salt to freeze ice cream was discovered in China in 697 AD. From there the Italians made sorbet in 1642. Here in the United States, one of the first ice cream recipes can be traced to Thomas Jefferson. A copy of his handwritten instructions for old fashioned vanilla are preserved in the Library of Congress. And some shops around the country still serve his recipe to this day. In 1984 Ronald Regan declared July to be National Ice Cream Month, and on National Ice Cream Day, we celebrate the treat that always inspires a cheer. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices