- 53rd Day of 2012 / 313 Remaining
- 27 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:6:51
- Sunset:5:56
- 11 Hr 5 Min
- Moon Rise:6:54am
- Moon Set:7:06pm
- Moon’s Phase: 1 %
- The Next Full Moon
- March 8 @ 1:41 am
- Full Worm Moon
- Full Sap Moon
- Full Crust Moon
- Lenten Moon
As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
- Tides
- High:10:48am/11:39pm
- Low:4:51am/5:07pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:6.86
- Last Year:16.70
- Normal To Date:16.12
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Single-Tasking Day
- Spay Day
- National Margarita Day
- Washington’s Birthday
- Call Somebody "Boo Boo" Day
- National Be Humble Day
- World Thinking Day
- Independence Day-St. Lucia
- People Power Day-Philippines
- Unity Day-Syria
- Ash Wednesday-Catholicism
- On This Day In …
- 1630 --- Popcorn was introduced to English colonists when Quadequine, brother of Massasoit, brought a bag of the stuff over to the settlers first Thanksgiving Dinner. The featured movie was, um, there was no featured movie, as they hadn’t been invented. So, all gathered for a big feast, sat around and watched the sun set. It was kinda like a movie... (Some sources say 1631).
- 1784 --- "Empress of China", a U.S. merchant ship, left New York City for the Far East.
- 1819 --- Spain ceded Florida to the United States
- 1855 --- The U.S. Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 for continuance of the work on the Washington Monument. The next morning the resolution was tabled and it would be 21 years before the Congress would vote on funds again. Work was continued by the Know-Nothing Party in charge of the project.
- 1859 --- U.S. President Buchanan approved the Act of February 22, 1859, which incorporated the Washington National Monument Society "for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government."
- 1879 --- We won’t try to nickel and dime you with this nugget, but it is a fact that Frank W. Woolworth opened his first 5 and 10-cent store. Woolworth’s opened in Utica, New York. Sales at the first store were disappointing ... until Mr. Woolworth moved his operation to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and later, to the entire U.S.A. Remember the lunch counter at F. W. Woolworth’s? You could get a burger and a real vanilla soda or a lime rickey there for about a buck.
- 1885 --- The Washington Monument was officially dedicated in Washington, DC. It opened to the public in 1889.
- 1892 --- "Lady Windermere's Fan", by Oscar Wilde, was first performed.
- 1924 --- Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.
- 1935 --- It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.
- 1956 --- Elvis Presley entered the music charts for the first time. Heartbreak Hotel began its climb to the number one spot on the pop listing, reaching the top on April 11, 1956. It stayed at the top for eight weeks.
- 1968 --- The American war effort in Vietnam was hit hard by the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, which ended on this day in 1968. Claims by President Lyndon Johnson that the offensive was a complete failure were misleading. Though the North Vietnamese death toll was 20 times that of its enemies, strongholds previously thought impenetrable had been shaken. The prospect of increasing American forces added substantial strength to the anti-war movement and led to Johnson's announcement that he would not seek re-election.
- 1969 --- Barbara Jo Rubin became the first woman to win a U.S. thoroughbred horse race. She was riding Cohesian at Charlestown Race Course in West Virginia.
- 1972 --- Five women and an army priest have been killed in an IRA bomb attack on the 16th Parachute Brigade headquarters at Aldershot, Hampshire. The Official IRA says the attack is in revenge for the events in Londonderry on 30 January when 13 civilians were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment.
- 1974 --- There have been near-riots in Los Angeles as the food distribution demanded as a ransom for kidnapped newspaper heiress, Patty Hearst, turned into farce. The $2 million (£870,000) food handout has been called the most bizarre ransom ever paid, and was in response to demands from Miss Hearst's kidnappers, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).
- 1976 --- 31-year-old Florence Ballard, rearing three children on welfare in Detroit public housing, died of a heart attack. She had ten #1 records with the Supremes.
- 1980 --- In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. The Soviet squad, previously regarded as the finest in the world, fell to the youthful American team 4-3 before a frenzied crowd of 10,000 spectators. Two days later, the Americans defeated Finland 4-2 to clinch the hockey gold.
- 1992 --- Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Albertville Olympics. Although she fell while performing a triple loop, she committed far fewer errors than her rivals, thus getting the gold medal. Midori Ito of Japan won the silver, Nancy Kerrigan of the United States the bronze. “Yamaguchi crafted her title on a feathery vision of artistic precision and elegance, with near total disdain for the latest trends in acrobatic jumping,” wrote Michael Janofsky in the New York Times.
- Birthdays
- George Washington
- Drew Barrymore
- Julius "Dr. J" Erving
- Vijay Singh
- Michael Chang
- Edward M. ‘Ted’ Kennedy
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Don Pardo
- Jonathan Demme
- David Axelrod
- James Russell Lowell
- Sean O'Faolain
- Frederic-Francois Chopin
- Robert Baden-Powell
- Sheldon Leonard
- Jeri Ryan