Every January 27th is observed as National Geographic Day. It’s a day that pays homage to National Geographic Magazine—a magazine that was founded on January 13th, 1888, and released its first issue on September 22nd of that same year.

For over 134 years, National Geographic has been the leader in exploration, education, science, and storytelling as they bring the world to their readers every single month.

Because of this magazine’s work, millions of people through the years have had their sense of wonder and excitement about the natural world awakened in them. We think that deserves a holiday, and we think most people would agree with us.

The History of National Geographic Day

At this time, we’re unsure who invented National Geographic Day. We’re also not really sure when it was created. What we do know is that it was created to honor the birthday of National Geographic Magazine, but we’re unsure why the 27th of January was chosen as the date to observe this holiday. National Geographic was founded on January 13th, 1888.

Some Facts That We’ve Learned From National Geographic Day

We thought of a lot of different ways that we could present some trivia to everyone reading this holiday article today, but we thought that the best way would be to take a few moments to list some of the interesting facts that we’ve learned from reading National Geographic Magazines. Now that we’ve stated that fact, let’s take a few moments to look at the following factoids.

• If a yellow canary consumes red pepper, its feathers will turn orange or red.
• The beard of Tutankhamun’s death mask fell off during the cleaning process in 2014.
• A fog bow, or white rainbow, is a rare event that appears during fog.
• When a fog bow occurs at night, it’s called a moonbow.
• It costs approximately $2 million a day to operate the Global Positioning System (GPS), but it’s free for everyone to use.
• Avocados are toxic to just about every species except for humans.
• Every 23,000 years, the Sahara turns from a desert into a forest and then back again.

Observing National Geographic Day

Grabbing a copy of National Geographic Magazine or even visiting their website can be a great way to observe this holiday. As can using the hashtag #NationalGeographicDay on your social media timeline. We love reading articles from National Geographic, and we sometimes even just take a few moments to enjoy some of the photos that are contained within them.