He wants to get high, apparently.

420 is a code for the police in the United States, like a possession of weed code or something. Like 187 is the code for a homicide. Code Blue is the code for someone flatlining in the hospital, etc.

It's not a police code and there are a handful of theories about the phrase's origins, but to sum it all up, it has significance in "cannabis culture."

I thought it started because that was the date Bob Marley died or something.

Er, no. Bob Marley died on May 11, 1981.

Right.

May 11 => 5/11 => 5+11 = 16
1981 => 1+9+8+1 = 19

The square root of 16 is 4. 11 consists of all 1s, and 19 + 1 is 20. Thus:

May 11, 1981 => 420

It makes total sense if you're high.

You're making that up. Right? I mean, not the math. That looks right (though math likes to mock me so I'm never sure). But that's not the real reason for 420 being the big pot call-sign is it? Cause... that's just dumb. At least the idea that it is the police code for possession that the pot culture was turning around and using was semi interesting.

That's always a pretty good assumption. Unless I sound really serious. :-)

Ah, Someone told me it was Bob Marley's deathdate and I didn't bother to look it up.

It comes from 4:20 PM, which is when a bunch of students from some high school or other routinely met up to smoke. Somehow this became a catchphrase that caught on. How this happened is something that probably makes more sense if you're stoned. Now '420' is used as a generally iconic number.

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29

Not that I generally accept Wikipedia information at face value, but there's what I'm referring to.

4/20 is (unofficially) National Pot Smoking Day, that's why the number is significant (though I don't know where it came from).

Yeah, I knew about the day and I knew about the time. Both my sisters were major pot heads in High School I tried it all of three times and discovered that I'm really allergic or something. Did nasty things to my lungs and triggered massive migraine headaches so while everyone else was enjoying their high, I was miserable. Course, my lungs get testy if I'm around a lot of secondhand cigarette smoke or even a really smokey bbq, so it might not be the pot itself, but the smoke that I'm allergic to. I haven't tried it since though, cause of the severe lack of fun I experienced. Anyway, I'd thought, along with them, that it was the cop thing that made it significant though.

More quotes, less discussion on potsmoking?

Silly Rabbit. Potsmoking is what leads to most good quotes.

4/20= Hitler's Birthday

I can't think of any possible circumstance anywhere ever where knowing Hitler's birthday would be useful.

Srsly.

What if you had a working time machine? I can think of a reason knowing it would be helpful in that case... But like a real life reason? Yeah, me either.

But yeah, sorry I keep chatting on the Quotes thread. Someone post a funny quote!

I'm sure plenty of historians, biographers, film-makers, and Nationalsozialisten found it useful at some point or another.

I have decided to look through Wikipedia and pick out all the reasons why 4/20 is a good pot day, with dates from at least 1970s.

Events

* 1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam.
* 1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
* 1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
* 1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
* 1871 - Civil Rights Act of 1871
* 1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.
* 1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
* 1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
* 1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US troops against Cuba.
* 1962 - First production of Bentlage brand cigars, Habana, Cuba.
* 1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.


Births

* 570 - Prophet Muhammed, founder of Islam (d. 632) (date disputed)
* 1646 - Charles Plumier, French botanist (d. 1704)
* 1808 - Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (d. 1873)
* 1884 - Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1966)
* 1889 - Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany (d. 1945)
* 1920 - John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
* 1936 - Pat Roberts, American politician
* 1937 - George Takei, American actor
* 1948 - Craig Frost, American musician (Grand Funk & Bob Seger)
* 1948 - Adolf Lu Hitler Marak, Indian politician
* 1965 - Ralph Cirella, stylist and friend of Howard Stern
* 1967 - Raymond van Barneveld, Dutch darts player
* 1968 - J.D. Roth, American game show host and television personality
* 1971 - Carla Geurts, Dutch swimmer
* 1972 - Stephen Marley, Jamaican musician

Deaths

* 1765 - Abigail Williams, American accuser in the Salem witch trials (b. 1674)
* 1912 - Bram Stoker, Irish author (b. 1847)
* 1947 - King Christian X of Denmark (b. 1870)


Those are all great reasons to make 4/20 your pot smoking holiday.

*disclaimer: I find smoking pot to be stupid and harmful to your general well being.


edit: I had to see who was smoking pot in 1948 when they named their kid Hitler, so here is what I found