To learn about pi, we need to go back a few thousand years and learn about this elusive number. The value of pi was first calculated by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.

However, it was first baptized with the Greek letter as its name when William Oughtred called it as such in his works dating back to 1647, later embraced by the scientific community when Leonhard Euler used the symbol in 1737.

But how did Pi Day end up in a country-wide phenomenon? For that, we need to travel to the Exploratorium in 1988 San Francisco, where it was thought up by physicist Larry Shaw.

Shaw linked March 14 with the first digits of pi (3.14) in order to organize a special day to bond the Exploratorium staff together, where he offered fruit pies and tea to everyone starting at 1:59 pm, the following three digits of the value. A few years later, after Larry’s daughter, Sara, remarked that the special date was also the birthday of Albert Einstein, they started celebrating the life of the world-famous scientist.

Pi Day became an annual Exploratorium tradition that still goes on today, and it didn’t take long for the idea to grow exponentially, hitting a peak on March 12, 2009, when the U.S Congress declared it a national holiday.

Now, celebrated by math geeks all around the circumference of the world, Pi Day became a pop culture phenomenon, with several places partaking in the activities, antics, observations and all the pie eating they can.

Source: nationaltoday.com

Here’s some of the deals available on National Pi Day.

7-Eleven
7-Eleven stores are serving up large pizzas for the magical price of $3.14 on National Pi Day. You can grab yours in-store through the loyalty program, in the 7-Eleven app, or via the 7NOW delivery app.

Blaze Pizza
Blaze Pizza is offering 11-inch pizzas for… you guessed it…$3.14. To be eligible you need to download their app, set up an awards account, and set your favorite Blaze Pizza location. Once you’ve done all that you can claim your pizza at any point between now and April 12.

Potbelly Sandwich Shop
The good folks over at Potbelly Sandwich Shop have taken a slightly different approach to Pi Day. They are giving 314 Perks members a free chicken pot pie soup. Check the app to see if you’re one of the lucky winners.

Aperol Spritz
This is one of the more unusual Pi Day offers we came across. Aperol Spritz wants to be the drink that you wash your pie down with and are offering $3.14 off an Aperol Spritz kit. Those of legal age can redeem the offer by visiting Reserve Bar’s website and entering the code APEROLSPRITZ. They are also supporting the non-profit Another Round, Another Rally, with a donation of $31,415.

Your Pie
Here’s another $3.14 offer. This time Your Pie is offering a $3.14 discount on a 10-inch pizza. Your Pie Rewards Members will receive the offer from Sunday through to Tuesday.

Pilot Flying J
Pilot Flying J travel centers are getting in on the action. You can grab an extra-large, handmade whole pizza pie for $9.99. The deal can be accessed via their app up until March 14 and is redeemable at more than 350 participating venues.

Boston Market
Grab yourself a Pot Pie for $3.14 at Boston Market on National Pi Day. That‘s a discount of more than 50% so it’s a good one for your bank account as well as your belly.

Goldbelly
If you’re looking for something a little sweeter, then check out Goldbelly. They are “nerding out” for Pi Day and are offering up to 30% off on some of their most popular pies. Check out all the deals on their website.

Source: nationaltoday.com

0607 – The 12th recorded passage of Halley’s Comet occurred.

1519 – Cortez landed in Mexico.

1639 – Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.

1660 – A statute was passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia.

1777 – The U.S. Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.

1781 – Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

1852 – The New York “Lantern” newspaper published the first “Uncle Sam cartoon”. It was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew.

1865 – Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy.

1868 – The U.S. Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.

1877 – Chester Greenwood patented the earmuff.

1878 – The first collegiate golf match was played between Oxford and Cambridge.

1884 – Standard time was adopted throughout the U.S.

1900 – In South Africa, British Gen. Roberts took Bloemfontein.

1901 – Andrew Carnegie announced that he was retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his days giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million.

1902 – In Poland, schools were shut down across the country when students refused to sing the Russian hymn “God Protect the Czar.”

1902 – Andrew Carnegie approved 40 applications from libraries for donations.

1908 – The people of Jerusalem saw an automobile for the first time. The owner was Charles Glidden of Boston.

1911 – The U.S. Supreme Court approved corporate tax law.

1915 – The Germans repelled a British expeditionary force attack in France.

1918 – Women were scheduled to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York due to a shortage of men due to wartime.

1925 – A law in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution.

1930 – It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.

1933 – U.S. banks began to re-open after a “holiday” that had been declared by President Roosevelt.

1935 – Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming some biblical history.

1940 – The war between Russia and Finland ended with the signing of a treaty in Moscow.

1941 – Adolf Hitler issued an edict calling for an invasion of the U.S.S.R.

1942 – Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps became the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.

1943 – Japanese forces ended their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville.

1946 – Reports from Iran indicated that Soviet tanks units were stationed 20 miles from Tehran.

1946 – Premier Tito seized wartime collaborator General Draja Mikhailovich in a cave in Yugoslavia.

1951 – Israel demanded $1.5 billion in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.

1951 – The comic strip “Dennis the Menace” appeared for the first time in newspapers across the country.

1957 – Jimmy Hoffa was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges.

1963 – China invited Soviet President Khrushchev to visit Peking.

1969 – The Apollo 9 astronauts returned to Earth after the conclusion of a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.

1970 – Cambodia ordered Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to leave.

1970 – Digital Equipment Corp. introduced the PDP-11 minicomputer.

1972 – “The Merv Griffin Show” debuted in syndication for Metromedia Television.

1974 – The U.S. Senate voted 54-33 to restore the death penalty.

1974 – An embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries was lifted.

1980 – A jury in Winamac, IN, found Ford Motor Company innocent of reckless homicide in the deaths of three young women that had been riding in a Ford Pinto.

1988 – The board of trustees off Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, chose I. King Jordan to be its first deaf president. The college is a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired.

1990 – The U.S. lifted economic sanctions against Nicaragua.

1991 – Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.

1995 – The first United Nations World Summit on Social Development concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1997 – Sister Nirmala was chosen by India’s Missionaries of Charity to succeed Mother Teresa as leader of the Catholic order.

2002 – Fox aired “Celebrity Boxing.” Tonya Harding beat Paula Jones, Danny Banaduce beat Barry Williams and Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice.

2003 – Japan sent a destroyer to the Sea of Japan amid reports that North Korea was planning to test an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

2003 – A report in the journal “Nature” reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.

2006 – In New York, the official start of construction of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum began.

2012 – After 244 years of publication, Encyclopædia Britannica announced it would discontinue its print edition.

Jane A. Delano, in full Jane Arminda Delano, (born March 12, 1862, Montour Falls, New York, U.S.—died April 15, 1919, Savenay, France), American nurse and educator who made possible the enlistment of more than 20,000 U.S. nurses for overseas duty during World War I.

Delano taught school for two years and graduated from the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York City in 1886. She became superintendent of nurses (1887–88) in Jacksonville, Florida, where she insisted on the use of mosquito netting to prevent the spread of yellow fever at a time when the mosquito was not known to be a carrier of the disease. In Bisbee, Arizona, she established a hospital for the care of miners suffering from scarlet fever.

In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman’s address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the …read more