© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Almanac - Friday 2/23/18

It’s Girl Scout Cookie Weekend...get yours today!

 

Today is Friday, February 23, 2017 the 54th day of the year with 311 days remaining.

Sunrise: 6:49am  

Sunset: 5:57pm

...giving us 11 hours and 8 minutes of daylight.  44% of the moon will be visible, rising at 11:42am.

Tides at the Golden Gate

  • High: 4:46am/6:52pm
  • Low: 11:40am/11:20pm

Special international celebrations today…

  • Army Day - Tajikistan
  • National Day - Brunei, Darussalam
  • Republic Day - Guyana
  • Defender of the Fatherland Day -Russia
  • International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day

It’s also…

  • Curling is Cool Day
  • Digital Learning Day
  • Diesel Engine Day
  • Girl Scout Cookie Weekend
  • Iwo Jima Day (see 1945 below)
  • National Tile Day
  • Single Tasking Day
  • Skip The Straw Day
  • Women in Blue Jeans Days
  • Tootsie Roll Day
  • National Banana Bread Day

On this day in…

1574 - France began the 5th holy war against the Huguenots.

1660 - Charles XI became the king of Sweden.

1792 - The Humane Society of Massachusetts was incorporated.

1813 - The firstU.S. raw cotton-to-cloth mill was founded in Waltham,MA.

1820 - The Cato Street conspiracy was uncovered.

1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries established the first pharmacy college.

1822 - Boston was incorporated as a city.

1836 - In San Antonio,TX, the siege of the Alamo began.

1839 - In Boston,MA, William F. Harnden organized the first express service between Boston and New York City. It was the first express service in theU.S.

1847 - Santa Anna was defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico byU.S. troops under Gen. Zachary.

1861 - U.S. President-electAbraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take his office after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.

1861 -Texas became the 7th state to secede from the Union.

1870 - The state ofMississippi was readmitted to the Union.

1874 - Walter Winfield patented a game called "sphairistike." More widely known as lawn tennis.

1875 - J. Palisa discovered asteroid #143 (aka Adria).

1883 -Alabama became the firstU.S. state to enact an antitrust law.

1886 - Charles M. Hall completed his invention of aluminum.

1887 - The French/Italian Riviera was hit by an earthquake that killed about 2,000.

1896 - The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.

1898 - In France, Emile Zola was imprisoned for his letter, "J'accuse," which accused the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus.

1900 - The Battle of Hart's Hill took place in South Africa between the Boers and the British army.

1904 - TheU.S. acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.

1905 - The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago,IL, by Attorney Paul Harris and three others.

1910 - In Philadelphia,PA, the first radio contest was held.

1915 -Nevada began enforcing convenient divorce law.

1916 - TheU.S. Congress authorizes the McKinley Memorial $1 gold coin.

1919 - The Fascist Party was formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini.

1927 - The Federal Radio Commission began assigning frequencies, hours of operation and power allocations for radio broadcasters. On July 1, 1934 the name was changed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

1932 - Robert Short became the first American to die in an arial battle with the Japanese.

1940 - Russian troops conquered Lasi Island.

1940 - Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" was released.

1945 - The 28th Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division of theU.S. Marines reached the top of Mount Surabachi. A photograph of these Marines raising the American flag was taken.

1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh,PA.

1955 - The French government was formed by Edgar Faure.

1957 - TheU.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NFL operations did fall within coverage of antitrust laws.

1958 - Juan Fangio, 5-time world diving champion, was kidnapped by Cuban rebels.

1963 - The 24th Amendment to theU.S. Constitution was ratified. It prohibited poll taxes in federal elections.

1966 - The Bitar government in Syria was ended with a military coup.

1967 - Jim Ryun set a record in the half-mile run when ran it in 1:48.3.

1968 - Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) became the first player to score 25,000 career points in theNBA.

1970 - Guyana became a republic.

1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $4 million more for the release of Patty Hearst. Hearst had been kidnapped on February 4th.

1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Iran's new parliament would have to decide the fate of the hostages taken on November 4, 1979, at theU.S. embassy in Tehran.

1991 - During the Persian Gulf War, ground forces crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or withdraw of Iraqi forces.

1993 - Gary Coleman won a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.

1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial closed about 4,000 for the first time at 4,003.33.

1997 - NBC-TV aired "Schindler's List." It was completely uncensored.

1997 - Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building. He killed one person and wounded six more before killing himself.

1998 - In centralFlorida, tornadoes killed 42 people and damaged and/or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.

1999 - In Ankara, Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan was charged with treason. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the Kurdish rebel leader.

1999 - White supremacist John William King was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering James Byrd Jr. Byrd was dragged behind a truck for two miles on a country road inTexas.

2000 - Robby Knievel made a successful motorcycle jump of 200 feet over an oncoming train.

2005 - The New York, NY, city medical examiner's office announced that it had exhausted all efforts to identify the remains of the people killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, due to the limits of DNA technology. About 1,600 people had been identified leaving more than 1,100 unidentified.

Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...

  • Samuel Pepys 1633
  • George Frederic Handel 1685
  • Mayer Amschel Rothschild 1734
  • Emma Willard 1787 - Educator, writer of textbooks
  • Istvan Ferenczi 1792
  • George Watts 1817
  • W.E.B. DuBois 1868
  • Agnes M. Royden 1876
  • Norman Lindsay 1879
  • Victor Fleming 1883
  • William Shirer 1904
  • Majel Barrett Roddenberry 1932 - Actress ("Star Trek")
  • Sylvia Chase 1938 - Newscaster ("ABC News", "20/20")
  • Peter Fonda 1940
  • Mike Maxfield 1944 - Musician (Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas)
  • Jim Youngblood 1950 - Football player
  • Brad Whitford 1952 - Musician (Aerosmith)
  • Howard Jones 1955 - Singer
  • Kristin Davis 1965 - Actress ("Sex and the City")
  • Pam Blundell 1967
  • Emily Blunt 1983 - Actress
  • Dakota Fanning 1994 - Actress

 

David Latulippe is host of On the Arts, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, as well as for Explorations in Music, and the Berkeley Symphony broadcasts. He has also hosted and produced the radio series From the Conservatory, Music from Mills, and Music at Menlo, and is principal guest host for Revolutions Per Minute.