July 21 is World Hug Your Kids Day, International Junk Food Day, and Comic-Con International (Comic Book Day). The chronology of this day covers both the dramatic events of the ancient world and the symbolic acts of modern history that took place in different years.
World Hug Your Children Day
This day has no long-standing tradition or official international status. Its appearance is a consequence of the public need to draw attention to the emotional connection between parents and children, especially in conditions of increasing isolation, stress and digital alienation. The holiday is not connected with state initiatives, international organizations or specific historical events.
Physical contact with a child is not just a manifestation of love, but a physiological need for its development. During a hug, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, the cortisol level decreases, sleep improves, and the feeling of security increases. In children under 3 years of age, the lack of physical contact can even affect the formation of the brain. Regular hugs stimulate the production of oxytocin, which strengthens trust and emotional attachment.
Interesting facts
In orphanages in Romania in the 1980s, where children suffered from a catastrophic lack of hugs, the children suffered from the syndrome of “emotional hunger” – they developed worse physically, had problems with speech and the nervous system, even if they received proper nutrition.
American researchers proved that 8 hugs a day is the minimum required for a child’s mental balance, and 12 for growth and development.
In Japan, the practice of “skinship” – tactile contact between parents and children, which does not stop even in adolescence – is popular. This is considered a norm and a way of building trust.
In medical practice, there is a term “kangaroo therapy”, when premature babies are held on the naked body of their parents. This contact often turns out to be more effective than devices, because it stabilizes breathing and heartbeat.
In parenting experiments, children who received daily hugs reacted better to stress and had higher self-esteem already at the age of 5-7.
International Junk Food Day
Every year on July 21, many people allow themselves to break their usual diet and choose what is usually considered “forbidden”: fast food, sweets, fatty, fried or excessively salty foods. The idea of this day is not to glorify the harmful, but to remove the excessive pressure of rules and dogmas – to remind about balance, flexibility and psychological comfort in the approach to food.
Such “controlled disruption” of the regime, according to some nutritionists, can even be useful – as a way to reduce food anxiety and fatigue from constant self-control. However, only if this is the exception and not the rule. The paradox is that the very permission to transgress sometimes strengthens discipline.
Despite its name, the day of junk food is increasingly transformed into a day of honest attitude to one’s eating habits. In many countries, it is already being used as an excuse to talk about emotional overeating, sugar addiction, the influence of marketing on our preferences and the need to debunk myths about “perfect” nutrition.
Interesting facts
The American National Junk Food Day, which became the basis of an international tradition, originated as a journalistic joke in the 1980s, but later began to appear on official media calendars.
In 2019, a George Washington University study found that kids see an average of 10 to 12 fast food ads every day, even when they’re not watching TV — through mobile games, billboards, YouTube videos.
The French campaign against the excessive consumption of ultra-processed products involves a special labeling on packages – Nutri-Score, which clearly shows the degree of benefit or harm of the product.
In Mexico, the sale of sweets and sodas to children was banned in some states by law as recently as 2020 due to the childhood obesity epidemic.
According to the WHO, more than 500,000 people die each year from causes related to excessive consumption of trans fats. And while Junk Food Day isn’t a “holiday of harm,” it does bring the issue to life.
Comic-Con International
This day is dedicated to pop culture, which is centered around comics, science fiction, fantasy, movies, series, video games, anime and cosplay. First held in 1970 in San Diego by a small group of enthusiasts, it has grown from a few hundred participants to more than 130,000 annual visitors, becoming a major attraction for the entertainment industry.
Comic-Con lasts four days in July, traditionally at the San Diego Convention Center. Over the years of its existence, it has become not just an exhibition of comics, but a global platform for the presentation of new films, series, games and even books. Here, studios show trailers and concepts for premieres, and authors and actors communicate with fans.
The event plays an important role in how modern mass culture is formed: many projects that have become cult started their journey precisely at Comic-Con. This event forms new trends every year, determines which heroes and plots will enter the cultural mainstream, and often serves as a testing ground for the public’s reaction to certain products.
Interesting facts
The first Comic-Con in 1970 gathered only 300 people, and it took place in the basement of the U.S. Hotel. Grant. Among the guests was science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who spoke for free.
One of the most famous “leaks” in Hollywood happened at Comic-Con 2007, when without an official announcement the first footage from the movie “Iron Man” was shown, which effectively launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In the 1980s, the organizers had no money even for security, so the guards were the fans themselves — they were given free access for volunteer badges.
For the first time, the term “cosplay” in wide use appeared in the English-speaking environment precisely in the context of Comic-Con: Japanese journalists who visited the event in the 1990s spread the concept in their homeland.
There are more than 200 such events in the US each year, but only Comic-Con in San Diego has the official status of “Comic-Con International”, and its brand is so protected that other events are not allowed to use the phrase “comic con” without permission.
Historical events on this day
356 to n. is. — On the night of July 21, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was destroyed by fire. It was set on fire by Herostratus – in order to leave his name in history. The authorities forbade him to be mentioned, but ironically it was this ban that made him famous. Historians still debate how extensive the destruction was, but the act of arson itself became a symbol of the deliberate destruction of culture for the sake of glory.
365 — A powerful earthquake in the Eastern Mediterranean partially destroyed the Alexandria Lighthouse on the island of Pharos. It was one of the most famous lighthouses of antiquity, about 100 meters high. Although it survived the first shock, the final destruction came in 1375 when the next earthquake finished the job. To this day, only separate fragments of the structure, submerged under water near the coast, have survived.
1542 — Pope Paul III founded the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a new body to combat Protestantism and strengthen control over the Catholic faith. This was the next stage in the evolution of the Inquisition, which adapted to new forms of heresy. This body still operates today — already under a different name and with a different function, but with the same idea of controlling doctrinal purity.
1773 — On that day, Pope Clement XIV officially liquidated the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) by signing a bull Lord and Redeemer. The order’s ban was the result of long-term pressure from secular monarchs, who considered the Jesuits too influential in politics and education. This act became an important milestone in the relations between the Church and the state in Europe. The order was renewed only in 1814.
1774 — The Kyuchuk-Kainardzhii peace between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire changed the balance of power in the Black Sea region. Under him, the Crimean Khanate formally gained independence, but actually became dependent on Russia. The treaty also contained provisions that laid the foundations for further Russian interference in the affairs of Ottoman Christian subjects, which changed the course of the history of the region for a long time.
1822 — The First Mexican Empire was proclaimed. The empire arose against the background of the collapse of the Spanish colonial system, and it was headed by Agustín de Iturbide, who later became emperor. Despite its short existence (until 1823), this stage was an important step in the formation of Mexican statehood.
1831 — The coronation of Leopold I, the first king of Belgium after independence, took place in Brussels. His election ended the search for a legitimate ruler for the new state and cemented Belgium’s status as a neutral constitutional monarchy. Leopold was the son-in-law of the British king and German by origin, which reflected the balance of interests of the European powers.
1940 — Communist parliaments, formed after the occupation of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia by the Red Army, proclaimed the creation of Soviet republics and appealed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a request to join the USSR. The formality of this process masked the annexation, which took place under pressure and without international recognition. This was one of the stages of Stalin’s policy of “accession” of territories to the Soviet Union.
1944 — Joseph Stalin signed a decree on the deportation of Meskhetian Turks from the territory of Georgia. They were accused of “disloyalty” and deported to Central Asia. The repressive action took place without trial and investigation, affected more than 90,000 people and became another episode of mass ethnic cleansing in the USSR.
1954 — An agreement was signed in Geneva that ended the First Indochina War. The document established the division of Vietnam into North and South along the 17th parallel. It did not become peace, but only a break, which later turned into the Vietnam War with the participation of the United States. The Geneva Agreements showed the limits of the capabilities of the colonial system in Asia.
1969 — Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the surface of the moon. It was the climax of the space race between the USA and the USSR. Armstrong’s phrase “One small step for a man…” has become part of cultural memory, and the mission itself is a symbol of the technical breakthrough of the 20th century.
2013 — There was a change of monarch in Belgium: King Albert II abdicated, and his son, Philip I, became the new head of state. It was a peaceful transfer of power that reflected the pan-European trend of gradual transformation of monarchies into symbolic institutions. In modern Belgium, the king performs representative rather than political functions.
The burning of the temple of Artemis
On July 21, 356 BC, a then-unknown resident of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus – Herostratus – set fire to the temple of Artemis, which had stood for over a hundred years. It was one of the grandest cult buildings of the ancient world, built in honor of the goddess of hunting and fertility. After his arrest, Herostratus explained his act not by political or religious motives, but solely by the desire for glory – he wanted his name to remain in history forever.
In response, the inhabitants of Ephesus decided to apply the most radical punishment: oblivion. The name Paliya was officially forbidden to be mentioned – no inscription, no mention in the annals. But as is often the case, the ban generated even more interest. And every time someone asked: “And what was the name of the one who burned down the temple?”, the ban lost its meaning. Herostratus achieved what he longed for: eternal, albeit shameful, glory. And it was thanks to the effort to hide his name that it became a symbol of deliberate destruction for the sake of self-aggrandizement.
Later, a new temple of Artemis of Ephesus was built on the site of the destroyed shrine – even more magnificent, even grander. It was recognized as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and it did not survive to our time: the Byzantine Christians finally destroyed the remains already in the IV century AD.
An interesting coincidence, which historians have repeatedly mentioned: the temple of Artemis burned down on the same night when, according to legend, Alexander the Great was born. Plutarch wrote with irony that the goddess Artemis could not save her sanctuary because she was busy giving birth to the future ruler of Asia. This myth became one of the first symbolic plots in European historiography, where at one moment the destruction of the old and the birth of the new were intertwined.
Herostratus was not unique in his role as a destroyer. A few centuries later, Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder lived in Rome, a politician who became a symbol of ideological obsession. Any of his speeches in the senate, regardless of the topic, he ended with the phrase: “Carthage must be destroyed”. And in the end, it was completely destroyed. The image of Herostratus and Cato are two different sides of the same reality: destruction dictated either by empty vanity or by an obsessive political idea.
Ernest Hemingway’s birthday
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, an American writer whose name and portrait were known to almost every Soviet reader. His works had an exceptional fate in the USSR: the first translations appeared already in the 1930s, and his laconic, hard style, which was later dubbed “man’s prose”, became a reference point for a whole galaxy of Soviet authors. He wrote little, but each text hit the nerve of the era.
Hemingway was not only a writer, his biography was not inferior to an adventure novel. As a child, he was an excellent shooter and boxer, and later even entered the ring against the US champion. During the First World War, he served as a Red Cross ambulance driver and was seriously wounded – his body was hit by more than 270 mortar fragments. Awarded a medal for courage. During World War II, as a war correspondent, he was on the front lines, documenting the invasion of the Allies in Normandy and the battles in France.
His life went beyond the standard biography of a writer. He was at the peak of fame when he decided to try himself in the circus as a trainer, participated in bullfighting, married four times, and each of his women left a mark in novels and stories. Travel, danger, risk — all this was not a decoration for him, but a source of inspiration. He survived more than ten accidents and catastrophes, was wounded several times while hunting, was at the epicenter of a forest fire, and more than once nearly died at sea during a storm.
57 cats lived in his house – he was a fan of these animals, and said: “Once you get one cat, it’s impossible to stop”. He treated them with the same love as for dangers and women.
A Nobel laureate in 1954, Hemingway died voluntarily at the age of 62, like his father, by shooting himself in the head with a double-barreled hunting rifle. Later, the company that produced this rifle renamed the model “Hemingway”. It was a harsh, tragic epilogue to a life he lived with full commitment and no fear.
Detention of General Oleksiy Pukach
On July 21, 2009, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office detained Oleksiy Petrovych Pukach, a police lieutenant general, former head of the main criminal investigation department of the Department of Search and Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (known as the “seven”), who was suspected of murdering journalist Heorhiy Gongadze.
He was found in the Zhytomyr region, in the modest but well-equipped village of Molochki, where he lived with his roommate in a house purchased on the outskirts of the village. It was possible to establish Pukach’s location thanks to a phone call he made to one of his relatives. This relative was under operational surveillance by the SBU.
The detention was accompanied by curious details. A day before the special operation, cars with Kyiv license plates started arriving in the village, practically blocking the entrances. A large number of “fishermen” suddenly appeared on the local river. Villagers started calling the police, complaining that for the second day in a row, suspicious people were driving the “nine” in the village, hiding in the bushes and pretending to be fishermen. The police asked not to intervene. Pukach himself showed neither confusion nor surprise during the detention. He hid from the investigation for nine years.
On January 29, 2013, Oleksiy Pukach was found guilty of abuse of power or official authority with the use of violence and intentional murder under aggravated circumstances, committed by a group of persons based on a prior conspiracy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with confiscation of property. In addition, the court deprived him of the rank of lieutenant general and ordered him to pay 500,000 hryvnias to Myroslava Gongadze and 100,000 hryvnias to journalist Oleksiy Podolskyi, who was recognized as a victim.
When asked by the judge whether he agreed with the verdict, Pukach answered: “I will agree when Kuchma and Lytvyn sit in this cage with me.”
