Today is...

Because it's Valentine's Day or Halloween or the anniversary of some historic event -- or because you just want a change from your coursebook -- "Today is..." can sometimes make for a topical lesson, and out there is cyberspace there are some great resources:

1.-- Calendar events
Below, some examples. For other events, you could try searching on either DevelopingTeachers or OneStopEnglish.

• For Valentine's Day, you have lesson ideas and lesson plans, on DevelopingTeachers.com
• For Halloween, there is lots of stuff on the British Council kids site
• For Christmas, there's a webquest (and lots more) on OneStopEnglish
• For New Year, Snopes.com has a section on superstitions

DevelopingTeachers also has a list of days, and resources for them.

2.-- Bizarre calendar events
On bizarrenews.com you can get a list of (bizarre) "today is..."

• February 23 is International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day
• October 9 is Mouldy Cheese Day
• November 19 is "Have A Bad Day Day"
• November 28 is "Make Your Own Head Day

3.-- Holiday (etc) orgins

• Wikipedia has excellent focus on days of the year
• HolidayOrigins.com explains the origins of US holidays
  
• EarthCalendar.net is a "daybook of holidays and celebrations around the world".
  

4.-- Historic events

• The BBC has BBC an "On this day" page...
• The Guardian has a wonderful section of "Historic events as The Guardian saw them", going right back to 1834.