49th day of 2016, 317 remaining
Sunrise: 6:56am Sunset: 5:52pm
Moonset: 3:55am Moonrise: 2:22pm, 76% of the waxing moon will be visible, heading towards a full moon on February 22.
Tides at the Golden Gate:
Low: 1:39am/2:48pm
High: 7:53am/9:50pm
Special Celebrations today…
Independence Day - Gambia
Battery Day (Volta's birthday)
Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day
The Great American Spit Out
National Drink Wine Day
On this day in…
1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.
1685 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas.
1735 - The first opera performed in America. The work was "Flora" (or "Hob in the Well") and was presented in Charleston, SC.
1841 - The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It lasted until March 11th.
1861 - In Montgomery, AL, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.a
1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.
1913 - The famous French painting "Nude Descending a Staircase", by the French artist, Marcel Duchamp, was displayed at an "Armory Show" in New York City.
1930 - Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane.
1930 - The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.
1932 - Sonja Henie won her 6th world women’s figure skating title in Montreal, Canada.
1949 - "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" debuted on CBS radio.
1952 - Greece and Turkey became members of NATO.
1953 - "Bwana Devil" opened. It was the first three-dimensional feature.
1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the "I Love Lucy" TV show through 1955.
1964 - "Any Wednesday" opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. The play established Gene Hackman as an actor.
1970 - The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.
1972 - The California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.
1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise went on its maiden "flight" sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
1987 - The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.
1998 - In Russia, money shortages resulted in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons.
1998 - In Nevada, two white separatists were arrested and accused of plotting a bacterial attack on subways in New York City.
2000 - The U.S. Commerce Department reported a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999. It was the largest calender-year trade gap in U.S. history.
2001 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.
2001 - FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested and accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
2003 - In South Korea, at least 120 people were killed when a man lit a fire on a subway train.
2006 - American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter speedskating in Turin. He was the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)…
Mary Tudor 1516
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta 1745
Louis Comfort Tiffany 1848 bi - Glass maker and interior designer
Sholem Aleichem 1859
Andres Segovia 1894
Enzo Ferrari 1898
Billy deWolfe 1907
Pee Wee King 1914
Bill Cullen 1920
Jack Palance 1919
Helen Gurley Brown 1922
George Kennedy 1925
Jim McElreath 1928
Gahan Wilson 1930
Toni Morrison 1931
Milos Forman 1932
Yoko Ono 1933
Milos Forman 1932
Mary Ure 1933
Irma Thomas 1941
Herman Santiago 1941
Dennis DeYoung 1947
Sinead Cusack 1948
John Hughes 1950
Cybil Sheppard 1950
Randy (Veronica) Crawford 1952
Juice Newton a (Judy Cohen) 1952
Robbie Bachman 1953
Marty Howe 1954
John Travolta 1954
Vanna White 1957
Greta Scacchi 1960
Matt Dillon 1964
Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young) 1965
Molly Ringwald 1968
