Falling on the third Tuesday of September every year, National IT Professionals Day is an observance day that honors the Information Technology professionals who make all of our lives possible. Without these professionals, all of the computer and Internet technology we depend on daily wouldn’t be possible, so let’s raise a toast to the men and women who keep modern society running.

The History of National IT Professionals Day

Even though the Internet was invented during the 1960s and the World Wide Web was invented on August 6, 1991, National IT Professionals Day is a holiday that was only established in 2015. It was first celebrated by IT professionals at an IT software and management company known as SolarWinds in March of 2015.

This holiday was established because the company realized that their IT staff was underappreciated by the staff that didn’t work in the IT department. They then decided to institute this holiday within the company, and from there it began to spread all over the country. Now, employees of this company are not the only ones who can enjoy this holiday, but anyone can.

Interesting Technology Facts You Might Not Know

To honor all of the IT professionals we know, we thought we’d include a little section on some of the most interesting technology facts that you might not know. Although you might not know them, you know who would? Yes, your IT professional.

• Google rents goats from a company named California Grazing to eat grass at their Mountain View Headquarters.
• The word robot comes from the Czech word “robota,” which translates to forced labor.
• A Petabyte is equal to 1024 Terabytes. That’s large enough to hold over 13 years of HD-TV video.
• One of the first hard drives introduced in 1956 could hold 5 MBs of data. It also weighed over 2,200 pounds.
• Credit card chips have been around since the 1980s.
• Studies have shown that people reading on digital screens read 10% slower than people reading on paper.
• The GPS system costs over $2 million dollars a year to operate so we can all have free GPS globally.
• The first computer mouse was made out of wood.

Observing National IT Professionals Day

The most important part of this holiday is taking the time to thank the IT professionals who make modern life easier for all of us. This can mean doing something as simple as thanking them as you pass them in the hall, or as complex as bringing them donuts or even throwing them their own party. People can also use the hashtag #NationalITProfessionalsDay on their social media accounts to thank all of the IT professionals they don’t know personally for their hard work.