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9 November: what is celebrated today
9 November is a day full of contrasts: science and creativity, memory and justice, language and wine, childhood and peace. On the calendar, this day seems like a map of what we are as a species: inventors looking for solutions, citizens who remember, dreamers who adopt and toast, poets who play with words. A date that, in its own way, celebrates the infinite human capacity to create, care, and connect.
International Inventors' Day
The story of this day has a woman's face. Every 9 November, the date of Hedy Lamarr's birth, the world celebrates International Inventors' Day, in honour of the Austrian actress and engineer who invented the spread-spectrum technique, a precursor to Wi-Fi. Behind the glamour of Hollywood, Lamarr dreamed of codes and frequencies; her invention —conceived in the midst of the Second World War— now underpins much of our modern communications.
The day was established by the German businessman Gerhard Muthenthaler as a tribute not only to Lamarr, but to all the restless spirits who turn curiosity into progress. It is also a reminder: many of the great minds that changed the world remained in the shadows, especially women. Celebrating this day is a way of asserting imagination as the engine of the future.
World Adoption Day
Adoption, that deeply human act which turns absence into a home, is also celebrated on 9 November. Promoted by the organisation Adopt Together, World Adoption Day seeks to raise awareness about the millions of children still waiting for a family.
Its symbol —a smiling face drawn on the palm of the hand— expresses the simple joy of knowing that one is loved. At its core, adopting means reinventing biology through love: choosing to be a family beyond blood ties. This day reminds us that every hug can be a second chance.
International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism
9 November is also a day of remembrance. In 1938, that night was one of fire and broken glass: Kristallnacht, the visible beginning of Nazi horror against the Jewish community. That is why this date is now the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism, a day of commitment to dignity and freedom.
Remembering is not a passive gesture: it is resisting repetition. Racist and extremist movements are re-emerging, and this day calls for a firm stance. Defending diversity, educating for respect, rejecting hatred: these are the real weapons against intolerance.
World Wine Tourism Day
Among so many serious subjects, there is also room for enjoyment. World Wine Tourism Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of November by the Red Europea de Ciudades del Vino (RECEVIN), toasts wine culture as a shared heritage and experience.
Visiting a winery, walking among vineyards, tasting time in a glass: wine tourism is a way of travelling with the senses. In regions such as La Rioja, Bordeaux or Mendoza, wine becomes narrative, landscape and liquid memory. This day celebrates the coexistence of land, art and hospitality.
World Tongue Twister Day
And because there also needs to be laughter, World Tongue Twister Day, which coincides with this weekend, invites us to play with language. “The sky is brick-covered; who will unbrick it?”: a sentence becomes a sonic acrobatic feat, a game of rhythm and clumsiness.
Beyond their humour, tongue twisters are a metaphor for language: imperfect, fun, profoundly human. Getting tangled in words is also a celebration of their magic, their ability to bring us together in laughter.
International Week of Science and Peace
Finally, from 9 to 15 November, the UN promotes International Week of Science and Peace, to remind us that knowledge must serve understanding and not destruction. Since 1986, this initiative has brought researchers, governments and citizens together around the same principle: science as an instrument of coexistence.
Peace, after all, also needs calculation, observation and method. And this day reminds us that every discovery, large or small, should have the harmony of the world as its goal.