- 240th Day of 2012 /126 Remaining
- 26 Days Until The First Day of Autumn
- Sunrise:6:36
- Sunset:7:46
- 13 Hours 10 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:5:06pm
- Moon Set:2:29am
- Moon’s Phase: 83 %
- The Next Full Moon
- August 31st @ 6:57am
- Blue Moon
But it’s Blue in name only. That’s because a Blue Moon is sometimes defined as the second full moon in a calendar month. The first full moon was August 1. The second full moon is August 31, 2012. There are two more definitions for Blue Moon. It can be the third of four full moons in a single season. Or, someday, you might see an actual blue-colored moon
- Tides
- High:9:10am/8:04pm
- Low:2:11am/2:06pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:0.03
- Last Year:0.11
- Normal To Date:0.00
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- National Pots de Creme Day
- Petroleum Day-Texas
- National Banana Lovers Day
- Independence Day-Moldova
- National Heroes Day holiday-Philippines
- Bank Holiday-United Kingdom
- On This Day In …
- 1776 --- British forces under General William Howe and his brother, Admiral Richard viscount Howe, defeat Patriot forces under General George Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights in New York on this day in 1776. On August 22, Howe's large army landed on Long Island, hoping to capture New York City and gain control of the Hudson River, a victory that would divide the rebellious colonies in half. On August 27, the Redcoats marched against the Patriot position at Brooklyn Heights, overcoming the Americans at Gowanus Pass and then outflanking the entire Continental Army. The Americans suffered 1,000 casualties to the British loss of only 400 men during the fighting. After the victory, Howe chose not to follow the advice of his subordinates and did not storm the Patriot redoubts at Brooklyn Heights, where he could have taken the Patriots' military leadership prisoner and ended the rebellion. General Washington ordered a retreat to Manhattan by boat. The British could easily have prevented this retreat and captured most of the Patriot officer corps, including Washington. Howe, however, still hoped to convince the Americans to rejoin the British empire in the wake of the humiliating defeat, instead of forcing the former colonies into submission after executing Washington and his officers as traitors. On September 11, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and other congressional representatives reopened negotiations with the Howes on Staten Island. The negotiations fell through when the British refused to accept American independence. The British captured New York City on September 15; it would remain in British hands until the end of the war.
- 1858 --- The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by "The New York Sun" newspaper. The story was about the peace demands of England and France being met by China.
- 1883 --- The volcanic island of Krakatoa near Indonesia erupts, killing thousands in one of the worst geologic disasters of modern times. The beginning of the amazing events at Krakatoa in 1883 date to May 20 when there were initial rumblings and venting from the volcano, which had been dormant for about 200 years. Over the next three months, there were regular small blasts from Krakatoa out of three vents. On August 11, ash started spewing from the small mountain. Eruptions got progressively stronger until August 26, when the catastrophe began. At noon, the volcano sent an ash cloud 20 miles into the air and tremors triggered several tsunamis. This turned out to be just a small indication, however, of what would follow the next day. For four-and-a-half hours beginning at 5:30 a.m. on August 27, there were four major and incredibly powerful eruptions. The last of these made the loudest sound ever recorded on the planet. It could be heard as far away as central Australia and the island of Rodrigues, 3,000 miles from Krakatoa. The air waves created by the eruption were detected at points all over the earth. The eruption had devastating effects on the islands near Krakatoa. It set off tremendous tsunamis that overwhelmed hundreds of villages on the coasts of Java and Sumatra. Water pushed inland several miles in certain places, with coral blocks weighing 600 tons ending up on shore. At least 35,000 people died, though exact numbers were impossible to determine. The tsunamis traveled nearly around the world--unusually high waves were noticed thousands of miles away the next day. The volcano threw so much rock, ash and pumice into the atmosphere that, in the immediate area, the sun was virtually blocked out for a couple of days. Within a couple of weeks, the sun appeared in strange colors to people all over the world because of all the fine dust in the stratosphere. Over the ensuing three months, the debris high in the sky produced vivid red sunsets. In one case, fire engines in Poughkeepsie, New York, were dispatched when people watching a sunset were sure that they were seeing a fire in the distance. Further, there is speculation that Edvard Munch's 1893 painting "The Scream" depicting a psychedelic sunset may have actually been a faithful rendering of what Munch saw in Norway in the years following the eruption of Krakatoa. The amount of dust in the atmosphere also filtered enough sun and heat that global temperatures fell significantly for a couple of years. Krakatoa was left only a tiny fraction of its former self. However, in the intervening years, a small island, Anak Krakatoa ("Son of Krakatoa") has arisen from the sea. It is growing at an average of five inches every week. This island is receiving a great deal of scientific attention, as it represents a chance to see how island ecosystems are established from scratch.
- 1912 --- Edgar Rice Burroughs published his first magazine story about an abandoned English boy raised by African apes. Tarzan, "King of the Jungle," became one of the 20th centuries’ best-known fictional characters.
- 1921 --- J.E. Clair, who owned the Acme Packing Company, bought a pro football franchise for Green Bay, WI. Cheeseheads could have been their name, but he decided to pay tribute to those who packed the meat at his processing plant. Hence the name: the Green Bay Packers.
- 1938 --- At a poetry reading by Archibald MacLeish, another poet, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers in order to disrupt the recital. That jealous poet, incidentally, was Robert Frost.
- 1965 --- Bob Dylan's second electric album, "Highway 61 Revisited," was released.
- 1971 --- Alice Waters' Chaz Panisse restaurant opened in Berkeley, California.
- 1982 --- Oakland’s Rickey Henderson stole his 119th base to break Lou Brock’s major-league theft record of 118. Rickey stole three more that day, but Milwaukee still won 5-4.
- 1984 --- President Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
- 2001 --- Sophie Frith won the Southern Daily Echo baby beauty contest in London. Ironically, her identical twin sister Olivia didn't even make the second round. The twins were dressed alike and their photos were indistinguishable, yet Sophie received hundreds more votes than Olivia.
- 2007 --- Michael Vick, a star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, formally pleads guilty before a Richmond, Virginia, judge to a federal felony charge related to running a dogfighting ring. That December, the 27-year-old Vick, once the highest-paid player in the NFL, was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison.In April 2007, law-enforcement officials raided a 15-acre property owned by Vick in rural Surry County, Virginia, and discovered dozens of pit bulls, some of them neglected, along with evidence of illegal dogfighting activities. That July, Vick and three other men, Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor, were charged with engaging in competitive dogfighting, obtaining and training pit bulls for fighting, and carrying out the enterprise across state lines. All four men pled not guilty to the charges. However, Vick’s three co-defendants later changed their pleas to guilty and agreed to testify that the quarterback had participated in the execution of a number of dogs and had bankrolled the gambling and operating funds for the venture, known as Bad Newz Kennels, which had reportedly been in existence for about five years. Animal-rights organizations as well as the general public expressed outrage against Vick and the barbaric details of the case—dogs that underperformed in fights were put to death by such means as drowning, electrocution and hanging. On August 27, Vick, the Falcons’ starting quarterback since 2002, pled guilty to one count of "conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture." Vick, who in 2004 signed a record 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons, was suspended indefinitely without pay by the NFL and lost his lucrative endorsement deals. In December 2007, a judge sentenced Vick to 23 months in federal prison. Because the judge believed the football player had refused to accept responsibility for his actions (Vick failed a drug test after his August 2007 guilty plea and also flunked a lie-detector test about his role in the executions of underperforming dogs), the sentence was stiffer than the 12 months to 18 months suggested by federal guidelines. In July 2008, while in prison, Vick filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That November, he pled guilty in Virginia to state dogfighting charges and received a three-year suspended sentence.
- Birthdays
- Lyndon Baines Johnson -- 36th President
- Mother Teresa(Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu)
- Pee-wee Herman(Paul Reubens)
- Daryl Dragon
- George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Ira Levin
- Barbara Bach