April 17 is “Kyoryu no Hi” (Dinosaur day), which I didn't know until recently.
On this day in 1923, I learned, American explorer and naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960) set out on an expedition to the Gobi Desert.
Blame it on my ignorance, but the name didn't ring a bell then.
"We specialize in dinosaurs, but even we weren't aware of this anniversary day until a few years ago," said Yoshikazu Noda, 61, a researcher at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum.
A pioneer fossil hunter, Andrews was apparently one of the role models of the eponymous protagonist of the "Indiana Jones" series of films.