Pigeons and Labor Day - September 1

Monday, September 1, 2025

Today is Emma M. Nutt Day, Ginger Cat Appreciation Day, Gyro Day, Pink Cadillac Day, and World Letter Writing Day.

 AMERICAN REVOLUTION HISTORY ON THIS DATE

1774 – Massachusetts Bay colonists rise up in the bloodless Powder Alarm in Somerville, Massachusetts, after the British seized gunpowder from a storehouse, and a false rumor that people had been killed started.

Hispanic Heritage Month Resource of the Day: Hispanic Exploration in America

Classical Music Month Resource of the Day: Why Don't Classical Musicians Improvise?

Today's Birthdays
Songs of the Day
Today's Theme:  Pigeons and Labor Day

ON THIS DATE

• 1878 - Emma Nutt begins to work at the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company and becomes the world's first female telephone operator.
• 1914 - Martha, the world's last known passenger pigeon, dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.
• 1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland, starting World War II.
• 1952 - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is published.
• 1972 - American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland, and becomes the world chess champion.
• 1979 -  Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn.
• 1982 - The U.S. Air Force Space Command is founded.
• 1983 - Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down in Soviet airspace by a Soviet jet fighter, killing 269  individuals, including US Congressman Lawrence McDonald of Georgia.
• 1985 - An American-French expedition locates the wreckage of the Titanic.
• 2009 - A law allowing gay marriage goes into effect in Vermont.

BIRTHDAYS

• 1875 - Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 1946 - Musician Barry Gibb
• 1957 - Musician Gloria Estefan

SONGS OF THE DAY 

• Gloria Estefan - Rhythm Is Gonna Get You - LISTEN
• Sesame Street - Hola Gloria! - LISTEN
• Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive - LISTEN
• Aerosmith - Write Me a Letter - LISTEN
• Fats Waller - I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter - LISTEN
• Julie Andrews - Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins - LISTEN

THEME: PIGEONS

• Grades PreK-1 - Sesame Street - Bert Dances To Doin' The Pigeon (1:57) - VIEW
• Grades PreK-1 - Sesame Street: Calling All Pigeons with Bert (3:25) - VIEW
• Grades PreK-1 - Sesame Street - Elmo Scares the Pigeons with Bert (2:35) - VIEW
• Grades PreK-1 - Sesame Street: Pigeons and Cookies and Trash (2:14) - VIEW
• Grades PreK-3 - NHPBS LearningMedia - Curious George - Pigeon Perch (2:05) - VIEW and DO
• Grades K-3 - Odd Squad - Agent Ohlm's Pigeon Song (2:13) - VIEW
• Grades 3-6 - NHPBS LearningMedia - Wild TV - Domesticated Pigeons (3:18) - VIEW and DO
• Grades 3-6 - NHPBS LearningMedia - Wild TV - City Pigeons (1:27) - VIEW and DO
• Grades 4-12 - NHPBS -  Wildlife Journal Junior - Columbiformes - Doves, Pigeons - READ
• Grades 4-12 - NHPBS -  Wildlife Journal Junior - Rock  Pigeon - READ
• Grades 4-12 - NHPBS -  Wildlife Journal Junior - Mourning Dove - READ
• Grade 6-8 - NHPBS LearningMedia -  Smithsonian Science How - Bird Extinctions: Time Travel through Lava Tubes (29:14) - VIEW
• Grade 6-12 - NHPBS Video - Be Smart - Pigeon Story: How the Rock Dove Became the Sky Rat (5:50) - VIEW
• Grades 6-12 - NHPBS LearningMedia - Nature - Extraordinary Birds: The Pigeon Express (2:34)  (Available in Spanish) - VIEW, READ, DO
• Grades 6-12 - NHPBS LearningMedia - Quest - Reawakening Extinct Species - Passenger Pigeon, Woolly Mammoth (26:46) - VIEW
• Grades 6-12 - NHPBS Video - Kentucky Afield - Passenger Pigeons (26:32) - VIEW 
• Grades 6-12 - NHPBS Video - Chicago Tonight - From Billions to None (8:55) - VIEW
• Grades 6-12 - Audubon Magazine - Why the Passenger Pigeon Went Extinct - READ
• Grades 6-12 - Smithsonian - The Passenger Pigeon - VIEW and READ

THEME: LABOR DAY

• Grades K-5 - NHPBS LearningMedia - All About the Holidays: Labor Day (1:23) - VIEW
• Grades 3-8 - NHPBS LearningMedia - American Icons - Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist (Available in Spanish) (3:51) - VIEW
• Grades 3-8 - NHPBS LearningMedia - American Icons - Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist Lesson Plan - DO
• Grades 3-12 - NHPBS LearningMedia - The Fight for Labor Rights Collection - VIEW, READ, DO
• Grades 5-12 - NHPBS Video - Do You Know the History of Labor Day? (3:10) - VIEW
• Grades 6-12 - NHPBS LearningMedia - Above the Noise - Why Do We Still Work 40 Hours a Week? (11:06) -  VIEW and DO
• Grades 7-12 - NHPBS LearningMedia - PBS NewsHour - Unions Today: Labor Day Lesson Plan -  DO
• Grades 7-12 - NHPBS LearningMedia - American Experience - Emma Goldman: A Bloody Labor Battle (1:28) - VIEW 

Pressroom Contact

Carla Gordon Russell
Director of Communications
crussell@nhpbs.org
(603) 868-4339