Monday March 10, 2014

• 69^th Day of 2014 / 296 Remaining
• 10 Days Until The First Day of Spring

• Sunrise:7:26
• Sunset:7:12
• 11 Hours 46 Minutes of Daylight

• Moon Rise:2:05pm
• Moon Set: 3:40am
• Moon’s Phase: 71 %

• The Next Full Moon
• March 16 @ 10:10am
• Full Crow Moon
• Full Crust Moon
• Full Sap Moon
• Full 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:6:48am/9:04pm
• Low:1:11am/2:07pm

• Rainfall
• This Year:8.65
• Last Year:14.59
• Average Year to Date:19.45

• Holidays
• Harriet Tubman Day
• Mario Day
• Name Tag Day
• Paper Money Day
• Telephone Day
• National Blueberry Popover Day

• World Kidney Day

• On This Day In …
• 0049 B.C. --- Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy.

• 1776 --- "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine was published.
  

  

• 1848 --- The Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war with Mexico.

• 1849 --- Abraham Lincoln of Springfield, IL applied for a patent for a device to lift vessels over shoals by means of inflated cylinders. Lincoln received the patent in May, 1849.

• 1876 --- The first discernible speech is transmitted over a telephone system when inventor Alexander Graham Bell summons his

  

  assistant in another room by saying, "Mr. Watson, come here; I want you." Bell had received a comprehensive telephone patent just three days before.

• 1922 --- Variety magazine greeted readers with the front-page headline that read, “Radio Sweeping Country - 1,000,000 Sets in Use.”

• 1940 --- W2XBS-TV in New York City aired the first televised opera as it presented scenes from "I Pagliacci".
  

  

• 1941 --- The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that their players would wear batting helmets during the 1941 baseball season. General Manager Larry MacPhail (he started the Dodger dynasty in the thirties) predicted that all baseball players would soon be wearing the new devices.

• 1945 --- 300 American bombers continue to drop almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, Japan, in a mission that had begun the

  

  previous day. The attack destroyed large portions of the Japanese capital and killed 100,000 civilians.

• 1949 --- Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, DC. Gillars was convicted of treason and served 12 years in prison.
  

  

• 1959 --- Tibetans band together in revolt, surrounding the summer palace of the Dalai Lama in defiance of Chinese occupation forces. China's occupation of Tibet began nearly a decade before, in October 1950, when troops from its People's Liberation Army (PLA) invaded the country, barely one year after the Communists gained full control of mainland China. The Tibetan government gave into

  

  Chinese pressure the following year, signing a treaty that ensured the power of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the country's spiritual leader, over Tibet's domestic affairs. Resistance to the Chinese occupation built steadily over the next several years, including a revolt in several areas of eastern Tibet in 1956. By December 1958, rebellion was simmering in Lhasa, the capital, and the PLA command threatened to bomb the city if order was not maintained.

• 1965 --- At the Plymouth Theatre in New York City, Walter Matthau and Art Carney opened in The Odd Couple, one of Neil Simon’s greatest theatrical triumphs. It would also become a hit on

  

  television, with Tony Randall playing the tidy Felix Ungar and Jack Klugman as slovenly sportswriter, Oscar Madison.

• 1969 --- James Earl Ray pled guilty in Memphis, TN, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated the guilty plea and maintained his innocence until his death in April of 1998.

• 1970 --- The U.S. Army accuses Capt. Ernest Medina and four other soldiers of committing crimes at My Lai in March 1968. The charges ranged from premeditated murder to rape and the "maiming" of a

  

  suspect under interrogation. Medina was the company commander of Lt. William Calley and other soldiers charged with murder and numerous crimes at My Lai 4 in Song My village.

• 1979 --- James Brown played at the Grand Ole Opry.

• 1980 --- Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lent his support to the militants holding American hostages in Tehran.

• 1985 --- Konstantin U. Chernenko, Soviet leader for just 13 months, died at age 73. His death was announced on March 11th. Politburo member Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed him.
  

  

• 1993 --- Dr. David Gunn is shot and killed during an anti-abortion protest at the Pensacola Women's Medical Services clinic. Dr. Gunn performed abortions at several clinics in Florida and Alabama and was getting out of his car in the clinic's parking lot when Michael Griffin shouted, "Don't kill any more babies!" and shot the doctor three times in the back. Griffin immediately surrendered to a nearby police officer.

• 1998 --- The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that food stamps were issued to almost 26,000 dead people in the past 2 years. The study only covered 4 states, California, Florida, Texas and New York.

• 2000 --- Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders and two other people were arrested in New York City after slashing leather goods at Gap

  

  store as part of a protest organized by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

• 2006 --- The Cuban national baseball team plays Puerto Rico in the first round of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. While the Puerto Rican team was made up of major league All-Stars, the Cuban team was largely unknown to the world. Puerto Rico beat Cuba 12-2 that day, but the Cuban team would soon have its revenge. Five days after being trounced by the Puerto Ricans, Cuba bounced back with immaculate play. They beat Puerto Rico 4-3 to move into the semifinals against a powerful and heavily favored Dominican team that featured major league MVPs Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero

  

  and Miguel Tejada and superstars David Ortiz and Adrian Beltre. The Cubans prevailed 3-1. In the final, however, Cuba lost to Japan--led by star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Seattle Mariner outfielder Ichiro Suzuki--which played the same style of game as the Cubans, relying on good hustle, situational hitting, strong pitching and team defense.

• Birthdays
• Edie Brickell
• Claire Booth Luce
• Carrie Underwood
• Chuck Norris
• Dean Torrance
• Shannon Tweed
• Jasmine Guy
• Timbaland
• Bix Beiderbeck
• Osama Bin Laden
• James Earl Ray
• Barry Fitzgerald