- 297th Day of 2012 / 69 Remaining
- 59 Days Until The First Day of Winter
- Sunrise:7:26
- Sunset:6:20
- 10 Hours 54 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise: 3:02pm
- Moon Set:1:30am
- Moon’s Phase: %
- The Next Full Moon
- October 29 @ 12:50 pm
- Full Hunter’s Moon
- Full Harvest Moon
This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.
- Tides
- High: 8:02am/7:28pm
- Low: 12:46am/1:40pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:0.48
- Last Year:1.49
- Normal To Date:0.94
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Mother-in-Law Day
- National Mole Day
- Swallows Leave San Juan Capistrano
- TV Talk Show Host Day
- National Boston Cream Pie Day
- Peace Treaty Day-Cambodia
- Chulalongkorn Day-Thailand
- Day of Proclamation of the Republic-Hungary
- On This Day In
- 42BC --- Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, commits suicide after his defeat at the second battle of Philippi. Two years before, Brutus had joined Gaius Cassius Longinus in the plot against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, believing he was striking a blow for the restoration of the Roman Republic. However, the result of Caesar's assassination was to plunge the Roman world into a new round of civil wars, with the Republican forces of Brutus and Cassius vying for supremacy against Octavian and Mark Antony. After being defeated by Antony at a battle in Philippi, Greece, in October 42 B.C., Cassius killed himself. On October 23, Brutus' army was crushed by Octavian and Antony at a second encounter at Philippi, and Brutus took his own life. Antony and Octavian soon turned against each other, and in 27 B.C. the Roman Republic was lost forever with the ascendance of Octavian as Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome.
- 1956 --- Jonathan Winters became a TV star. Winters was seen coast to coast in the first videotape recording to be broadcast. The tape originated from WRCA-TV in New York City. The broadcast was developed for NBC network stations.\
- 1956 --- Thousands of Hungarians erupt in protest against the Soviet presence in their nation and are met with armed resistance. Organized demonstrations by Hungarian citizens had been ongoing since June 1956, when signs of political reform in Poland raised the possibility for such changes taking place in their own nation. On October 23, however, the protests erupted into violence as students, workers, and even some soldiers demanded more democracy and freedom from what they viewed as an oppressive Soviet presence in Hungary. Hungarian leader Erno Gero, an avowed Stalinist, only succeeded in inflaming the crowds with praise for the Soviet Union's policies. Furious fighting broke out in Budapest between the protesters and Hungarian security forces and Soviet soldiers. In the next few days, hundreds of protesters in Budapest and other Hungarian cities were killed in these battles. Gero appealed for additional Soviet assistance and this was forthcoming in the form of an armored division that rolled into Budapest. Street fighting escalated in response to the Russian show of force. In an attempt to quell the disturbances, Communist Party officials in Hungary appointed Imre Nagy (who had earlier fallen out of favor with Party members) as the new premier. Nagy asked the Soviets to withdraw their troops from the capital so that he could restore order. Russian forces complied and withdrew from Budapest by November 1, but tensions remained high.
- 1958 --- Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He was forced to refuse the honor due to negative Soviet reaction. Pasternak won the award for writing "Dr. Zhivago".
- 1983 --- A suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon killed 220 U.S. Marines, 18 sailors and 3 Army soldiers; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.
- 1989 --- 23 people die in a series of explosions sparked by an ethylene leak at a factory in Pasadena, Texas. The blasts, which took place at a Phillips Petroleum Company plant, were caused by inadequate safety procedures. A polyethylene reactor at the Phillips 66 Chemical Complex in Pasadena created chemical compounds necessary for the production of plastics. The plant produced millions of pounds of plastics daily for use in toys and containers. In an effort to cut costs, Phillips subcontracted much of the necessary maintenance work in the plant. Fish Engineering and Construction, the primary subcontractor, did not enjoy a stellar reputation even prior to the October 23 disaster. In August, a Fish employee opened gas piping for maintenance without isolating the line. This caused flammable solvents and gas to be sent into a work area where they ignited, killing one worker and injuring four others. ish was undertaking maintenance work on the plant's polyethylene reactor on October 23 when, once again, problems arose. A valve was not secured properly, and at approximately 1 p.m., 85,000 pounds of highly flammable ethylene-isobutane gas were released into the plant. There were no detectors or warning systems in place to give notice of the impending disaster. Within two minutes, the large gas cloud ignited with the power of two-and-a-half tons of dynamite. he explosion could be heard for miles in every direction and the resulting fireball was visible at least 15 miles away. Twenty-three workers at Phillips were killed and another 130 were seriously injured as the first explosion set off a chain reaction of blasts. A subsequent investigation found that although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had cited Phillips for several serious safety violations in previous years, it had not done a comprehensive inspection of the plant since 1975. Other testimony revealed that inadequate safety procedures used during the maintenance process had left the plant vulnerable to disaster. However, no criminal charges were filed against Phillips or its managers.
- 1998 --- Doctor Barnett Slepian is shot to death inside his home in Amherst, New York, by an anti-abortion radical, marking the fifth straight year that a doctor who was willing to perform abortions in upstate New York and Canada had been the victim of a sniper attack. Slepian and his family had just returned from religious services at their synagogue when a bullet shattered the kitchen window and struck him in the back. Each of the five attacks, the first four of which did not result in fatal wounds, occurred in late October or early November. It is believed that the dates were intentionally picked to center around Canada's Remembrance Day (November 11). Investigators in both Canada and the United States believe that James Charles Kopp, known among abortion opponents as "Atomic Dog," was responsible for Slepian's murder. Although he had been seen in the vicinity of Slepian's home in the weeks before the killing, Kopp, a member of the terrorist group Army of God, was nowhere to be found after the incident. In the aftermath of Slepian's murder, at least four abortion doctors in upstate New York quit practicing, and countless other clinic staff members left their jobs. Because groups such as the American Coalition of Life Activists have openly promoted violence against abortion providers, there is some reason to believe that the atmosphere of fear has limited women's ability to choose abortion in certain areas of the nation. Following Slepian's murder, a serious crackdown on anti-abortion terror helped to cut down the number of violent incidents. In 1999, for the first time in six years, there were no sniper attacks against any doctors during the course of the year. As the 20th century came to an end, Kopp remained at large, despite a $500,000 reward for information leading to his capture from the Justice Department and his place on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. In March 2001, the authorities caught up with Kopp in Europe, and he was extradited from France on the condition he would not receive the death penalty. On May 9, 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
- 1998 --- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed a land-for-peace agreement at the White House, following nine days of talks at Wye River, Md.
- Birthdays
- Johnny Carson
- Pele
- Ang Lee
- Weird Al Yankovic
- Dwight Yoakim
- Doug Flutie
- Felix Bloch
- Gertrude Ederly
- Ned Rorem
- “Chi Chi” Rodriguez
- Michael Crighton
- John William Heisman