There were a number of holidays celebrated recently that are relatively unknown. I mentioned several, but thought I would put them together here.
One such holiday is March 14, Pi Day. Pi Day is 3/14 which is the first three digits in the mathematical constant pi.
Another which I neglected to pay attention to was March 24, Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating women in computing. For me, the most significant women in computing would include:
- Grace Hopper – inventor of COBOL
- Adele Goldberg – one of the developers of Smalltalk, and a writer about Smalltalk
- Susan Kare – who gave us the Macintosh icons
- Aileen Frisch – a long-time writer about system administration
- Dru Lavigne – a long-time writer about FreeBSD and all-around FreeBSD advocate
Another important recent holiday was on March 15: National Freedom of Information Day, which is also included (by design) in Sunshine Week. Both are focused on the transparency of government and public access to governmental documents.
Yet another “holiday” went by very recently: No Tech Day, sponsored by the UK charity Practical Action. Practical Action helps bring technology to developing nations, such as those in Africa. The concept behind No Tech Day was to see how you fare without all the technology in your life, just as many in Africa do.
No word on whether No Tech Day was a singular event or if it will be annual.
Here’s a quick summary:
- March 14 – Pi Day
- March 15 – National Freedom of Information Day (part of Sunshine Week)
- March 24 – Ada Lovelace Day
- March 27 – No Tech Day
UNIX Administratosphere 
I was going to ask if there was any significance in FOI day being on the Ides of March. But, I thought I should check it out myself first. Turns outs FOI day is on the 16th (even though the conference was on the 15th this year), making the question moot.