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Wednesday February 5, 2014

  • 36 Day of 2013 / 329 Remaining
  • 43 Days Until The First Day of Spring

  • Sunrise:7:08
  • Sunset:5:38
  • 10 Hours 30 Minutes of Daylight

  • Moon Rise:10:36am
  • Moon Set:12:30am(Thursday)
  • Moon’s Phase: 40 %

  • The Next Full Moon
  • February 14 @ 3:54 pm
  • Full Snow Moon
  • Full Hunger Moon

Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.

  • Tides
  • High:2:47am/3:36pm
  • Low:9:28am/9:08pm

  • Rainfall
  • This Year:2.43
  • Last Year:13.50
  • Average Year to Date:14.45

  • Holidays
  • Weatherperson’s Day
  • National Chocolate Fondue Day
  • Pork Rind Appreciation Day

  • World Nutella Day
  • Constitution Day-Mexico
  • Chama Cha Mapinduzi-Tanzania
  • President’s Day-Republic of Congo
  • Unity Day-Burundi

  • On This Day In …
  • 1664 --- The first livestock branding law in the American colonies is passed in Connecticut. All cattle, sheep and swine over 6 months old must be ear-marked or branded. The fine for non-compliance was 34 cents per head.

  • 1783 --- The estimated 7.5 to 8.0-magnitude quake struck at about 1 p.m. in the Calabria province. Within a minute, over 100 villages were leveled throughout the region. In several cases, communities were literally wiped away with no survivors or standing structures remaining. The quake also produced an uncommon number of fractures in the Earth's surface. In one case, a mile-long ravine--nearly 100 feet wide--was instantly created. According to one report, more than 100 goats fell into another crack in the earth. A witness also claimed that "two mountains on the opposite sides of a valley walked from their original position until they met in the middle of the plain, and there joining together, they intercepted the course of a river." New lakes appeared across the region. Several hundred people from the town of Scilla survived the initial quake and fled to a nearby beach for shelter. Many then drowned when a second tremor at midnight prompted a tsunami.

  • 1846 --- "The Oregon Spectator", based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.

  • 1861 --- Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati, OH patented the moving picture peep show machine. One put in a coin and turned a crank on the side of the ornately decorated box and voila, a flickering movie appeared!
  • 1881 --- Phoenix, Arizona was incorporated.

  • 1916 --- Enrico Caruso recorded O Solo Mio for the Victor Talking Machine Company, which eventually became Victor Records, then RCA Victor.
  • 1917 --- After seven years of revolution and civil upheaval, Mexican President Venustiano Carranza proclaims the modern Mexican constitution, which promises the restoration of lands to native peoples, the separation of church and state, and dramatic economic and educational reforms. The progressive political document, approved by an elected constitutional convention, combined revolutionary demands for land reform with advanced social theory.

  • 1917 --- With more than a two-thirds majority, Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson's veto of the previous week and passes the Immigration Act. The law required a literacy test for immigrants and barred Asian laborers, except for those from countries with special treaties or agreements with the United States, such as the Philippines.

  • 1924 --- The BBC time signals, or "pips", from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour.

  • 1937 --- Modern Times, the first Charlie Chaplin talkie, was released. Although, Chaplin’s voice was heard in the film, he was
    difficult to understand because he was just singing a bunch of gibberish that no one understood. The star of the movie was Paulette Goddard, who played the part of a waif.

  • 1937 --- President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges,
    allegedly to make it more efficient. Critics immediately charged that Roosevelt was trying to "pack" the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal.

  • 1940 --- One of the great classic songs of the Big Band era was recorded. Glenn Miller and his band played Tuxedo Junction at the RCA Victor studios in Manhattan. The flip side of the record (released on the Bluebird label) was Danny Boy.

  • 1952 --- In New York City, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians "don't walk."
  • 1953 --- Walt Disney’s film, Peter Pan, opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City. Although the film is now recognized as a great
    work, not all of the critics in 1953 took to the Disney stylization of the J.M. Barrie play.

  • 1957 --- Bill Haley and the Comets disembarked from the Queen Elizabeth at Southampton and preparing to launch the first European tour ever by a major American rock-and-roll act. When Haley and his band reached London's Waterloo Station later that same day, mayhem ensued. Thousands of fans formed a crush at
    the station to greet the group in a raucous display the press dubbed "the Second Battle of Waterloo." For the generation of war babies just becoming teenagers in Great Britain, Haley's tour offered the first chance to see a real, live rock-and-roll show. Those shows made a particularly strong impression on certain members of that generation who would go on to change the course of music history.

  • 1961 --- The Shirelles were winding up their first week at #1 on the music charts with Will You Love Me Tomorrow. The song was at the top for two weeks. It was the group’s first #1 tune and the first #1 tune from the pen of Carole King.

  • 1969 --- For one of the few times in television history, a scheduled series (usually 13 or 26 weeks of shows) turned into a one-night
    wonder. ABC-TV premiered Turn On, hosted by Tim Conway, a show similar to NBC’s Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. TV critics called the show, “offbeat and distasteful.” It never aired again.

  • 1972 --- Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. Douglas was the founder of the New York Renaissance basketball team. Nicknamed the
    "Father of Black Professional Basketball", Douglas owned and coached the Rens from 1923 to 1949, guiding them to a 2,318-381 record (.859). He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972.

  • 1981 --- The largest Jell-O mold ever is made in Brisbane, Australia, using 9,246 gallons of Jell-O.

  • 1988 --- The Arizona House of Representatives impeached Gov. Evan Mecham, who was later convicted in the state Senate and removed from office.

  • 1988 --- Two federal grand juries in Florida announce indictments of Panama military strongman General Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. Noriega, the de facto dictator of Panama since 1983, was charged with smuggling marijuana into the United States, laundering millions of U.S. dollars, and assisting Colombia's Medellin drug cartel in trafficking cocaine to America.

  • 1994 --- White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is convicted in the murder of African-American civil rights leader Medgar Evers, over
    30 years after the crime occurred. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home on June 12, 1963, while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's three small children were inside.

  • 1997 --- Switzerland's "Big Three" banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families.

  • 2003 --- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented “evidence” to the U.N. concerning Iraq's material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.
  • Birthdays
  • Belle Starr
  • William S. Burroughs
  • Adlai Stevenson
  • Henry Aaron
  • Al Kooper
  • Christopher Guest
  • Barbara Hershey
  • Tim Meadows
  • Laura Linney
  • Felix Mendelssohn
  • John Carradine
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh
  • Robert Peel