Great American Smokeout
The Great American Smokeout is an annual social engineering event on the third Thursday of November by the American Cancer Society.[1] The event encourages Americans, of whom 43.8 million smoke as of June 2013,[2] to stop tobacco smoking. The event challenges people to stop smoking cigarettes for 24 hours, hoping their decision not to smoke will last forever.
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History
The first Great American Smokeout was held in San Francisco's Union Square on November 16, 1977.[3] The event evolved from a series of smaller-scale initiatives. In 1970, in Randolph, Massachusetts, Arthur P. Mullaney suggested people give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money to a local high school. In 1974, a "Don't Smoke Day" (or "D-Day") was promoted by Lynn R. Smith of the Monticello Times in Monticello, Minnesota.[1] On November 18, 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society successfully prompted nearly one million smokers to quit for the day. That California event marked the first Smokeout.[1][4]
The name has resulted in some confusion due to colloquial usage of the term smokeout, which, (among other things), suggests an activity centered on a large amount of solo or group smoking.
