The first Friday in June is National Doughnut Day, and while these national-whatever-days are about as silly as any other cynical marketing ploy, National Doughnut Day actually has an interesting history — it was launched in 1938 by the Salvation Army to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during the First World War.

In any case, we do love a good reason to eat more doughnuts. That's especially true in L.A., a simply fantastic place to be a doughnut lover. So on this very special Friday, we thought we'd direct you to some doughnut events, free doughnuts, and all our fabulous doughnut coverage from the past.

Free doughnuts: Krispy Kreme is giving away free doughnuts today. No purchase is necessary. Look here for participating Krispy Kreme locations (including the Burbank, Los Angeles and Santa Monica locations). Dunkin' Donuts is also giving away free donuts today with a drink purchase; unfortunately they have yet to open up shop for their planned SoCal stores. Ah well, next year.

L.A.'s Best Doughnuts: Luckily for you, we've already done a ton of doughnut research. Here's a list of the 10 Best Doughnuts in Los Angeles. Here's a list of 5 Classic L.A. Donut Shops You Can't Miss. And look here for the 4 L.A. doughnut shops that made onto Saveur's list of the country's best.

Doughnut Event: In celebration of doughnut day, BLD will be giving a sneak peek at ICDC (Ice Cream, Donuts, and Coffee), Neal Fraser's forthcoming dessert shop, with a range of doughnuts made by pastry chef Mariah Swann. Flavors include cereal milk glazed, beer caramel with pretzel crunch, and apple cheddar fritter. At 6:30 p.m., there will be a tasting/beer pairing option.Details here.

Doughnut Sweepstakes: Entenmann's is holding a sweepstakes in honor of the day — fill out the form in the hopes of winning free Entenmann's doughnuts for a year (and probably the certainty of Entenmann's marketing material in your inbox for life).

Happy face-stuffing!

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