History of Infinity Day: 8/8

Bill Petro
Aug 8, 2017 · 2 min read

Infinity Day is also known as Universal & International Infinity Day, and is a day held on the 8th day of the 8th month of each year in order to celebrate and promote Philosophy and Philosophizing for the ordinary person.

Why 8 is significant:

  • 8 planets in the Solar System — since Pluto got demoted.
  • 8 is the atomic number of Oxygen.
  • 8 is the maximum number of electrons that can occupy a valence shell in atomic physics.
  • 8 people were saved in the Flood at the time of Noah.
  • 8th day: Jesus was circumcised, as the brit mila is held for Jewish boys.
  • 8 is the number of legs a spider or octopus has.
  • 8 is 2 cubed.
  • 8 follows 7 but stops before 9 making it the only non-zero perfect power that is one less than another perfect power.
  • 8 is the basis of the octal system, each digit representing 3 bits. A byte is 8 bits.
  • 8 displayed horizontally is the symbol of infinity

History:

Infinity Day was first conceived and created by Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo, a philosopher, poet, journalist and science-fiction author, who as a sidewalk philosopher became known as The Original New York City Free Advice Man (see The New Yorker magazine’s August 17, 1987 issue) back in 1987. He has since become known as a celebrity there. Infinity Day was begun in 1987 and has been celebrated in the form of peaceful, non-violent and lawful demonstrations for philosophical inquiry, freedom of expression, freedom of speech and ethics in society, throughout the world. Thereafter the founder took it to various cities in the US and Europe. He now lives in London.

What significant 8s do you know?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

Bill Petro

Written by

Sales Enablement | Product Marketing | Product Management. Expertise: Cloud, Automation, Storage, Data Center, Enterprise Software. Blog: http://billpetro.com

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