Monday August 25, 2014

• 237^th Day of the Year / 128 Remaining
• Autumn Begins in 28 Days

• Sunrise:6:34
• Sunset:7:48
• 13 Hours 14 Minutes

• Moon Rise:6:43am
• Moon Set:7:44pm
• New Moon
• Full Moon September 8 @ 6:38pm
• Full Corn Moon
• Full Harvest Moon

This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.

• Tides
• High Tide:12:03pm/11:28pm
• Low Tide:5:29am/5:36pm

• Holidays
• Kiss And Make Up Day
• National Banana Split Day
• National Second Hand Wardrobe Day
• Whiskey Sour Day

• Independence Day-Uruguay
• Constitution Day-Paraguay
• Liberation Day-Hong Kong
• Dia Do Soldado-Brazil

• On This Day
• 0325 --- The Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical debate held by the early Christian church, concludes with the establishment of the

  

   doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I in May, the council also deemed the Arian belief of Christ as inferior to God as heretical, thus resolving an early church crisis.

• 1718 --- New Orleans was founded by French colonists. The city was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of France at the time.

  

• 1810 --- Peter Durand was granted the first patent for preserving food in tin cans, English patent No. 3372. (A similar method developed earlier by Nicolas Appert in France used only glass containers). Durand worked only with tin cans, although his patent mentions glass, pottery, tin or other metals.

• 1825 --- Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.

• 1835 ---  The first in a series of six articles announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper. Known collectively as "The Great Moon Hoax," the articles were supposedly reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The byline was Dr. Andrew Grant, described as a colleague of Sir John Herschel, a famous astronomer of the day. Herschel had in fact traveled to Capetown, South Africa, in January 

  

  1834 to set up an observatory with a powerful new telescope. As Grant described it, Herschel had found evidence of life forms on the moon, including such fantastic animals as unicorns, two-legged beavers and furry, winged humanoids resembling bats. The articles also offered vivid description of the moon's geography, complete with massive craters, enormous amethyst crystals, rushing rivers and lush vegetation. The New York Sun, founded in 1833, was one of the new "penny press" papers that appealed to a wider audience with a cheaper price and a more narrative style of journalism. From the day the first moon hoax article was released, sales of the paper shot up considerably. It was exciting stuff, and readers lapped it up. The only problem was that none of it was true.

• 1875 --- Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old merchant navy captain, becomes the first known person to successfully swim the English Channel. Captain Webb accomplished the grueling 21-mile crossing, which really entailed 39 miles of swimming because of tidal currents, in 21 hours and 45 minutes. During the overnight crossing from Dover, England, to Calais, France, Captain Webb 

  

  drank brandy, coffee, and beef tea to keep his strength and heat up. He was hailed as a national hero upon his return to England, and a triumphal arch was erected in his honor in his hometown in Shropshire. The Daily Telegraphproclaimed, "At this moment the Captain is probably the best-known and most popular man in the world."

• 1902 --- "Al-Hoda" began publication in New York City making it the first Arabic daily newspaper in the U.S. 

• 1916 --- The National Park Service was established within the Department of the Interior.

  

• 1920 --- Ethelda Bleibtrey won the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition in Antwerp, Belgium. She was the first woman to win an Olympic competition for the U.S. 

  

• 1939 --- The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opens in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by 

  

  L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the film starred Judy Garland as the young Kansas farm girl Dorothy, who, after being knocked unconscious in a tornado, dreams about following a yellow brick road, alongside her dog Toto, to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz. Along the way, Dorothy encounters a cast of characters, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion 

  

  and the Wicked Witch of the West. Though the scenes in Kansas were shot in traditional black and white, Oz appears in vivid Technicolor, a relatively new film process at the time. Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category, The Wizard of Oz lost to the Civil War-era epic Gone With the Wind. The Wizard of Oz won a Best Song Oscar for “Over the Rainbow,” which became one of Garland’s signature hits. Garland won a special award at that year’s Oscar ceremony, for Best Juvenile Performer.

• 1944 --- French General Jacques Leclerc enters the free French capital triumphantly. Pockets of German intransigence remained, but Paris was free from German control. Two days earlier, a French armored division had begun advancing on the capital. Members of the Resistance, now called the French Forces of the Interior, 

  

  proceeded to free all French civilian prisoners in Paris. The Germans were still counterattacking, setting fire to the Grand Palais, which had been taken over by the Resistance, and killing small groups of Resistance fighters as they encountered them in the city. On August 24, another French armored division entered Paris from the south, receiving an effusion of gratitude from French civilians who 

  

  poured into the streets to greet their heroes—but still, the Germans continued to fire on French fighters from behind barricades, often catching civilians in the crossfire. But on August 25, after Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was assured by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French Resistant forces, that Allied troops could now virtually sweep into Paris unopposed, Ike ordered Gen. Jacques Philippe Leclerc (a pseudonym he assumed to protect his family while under German occupation; his given name was Philippe-Marie, Vicomte De Hauteclocque) to enter the capital with his 2nd Armored Division. The remnants of German snipers were rendered impotent, and many German soldiers were led off as captives.

  

• 1950 --- In anticipation of a crippling strike by railroad workers, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order putting America's railroads under the control of the U.S. Army, as of August 27, at 4:00 pm.

• 1959 --- Golden Grain Macaroni Corp. registered ‘Rice-A-Roni’ trademark (first used 1957).

  

• 1964 --- The Beatles received a gold record for their hit single A Hard Day’s Night. It was the third gold record for the Fab Four. They would collect 18 more through 1970.

  

• 1968 --- Outfielder Rocky Colavito of the New York Yankees did the unusual. He pitched 2-1/2 inningsto help out in a pitching jam. He earned the win by beating Detroit 6-5. "What’s so unusual about that?" you ask. Remember, we said Rocky was an outfielder.

  

• 1970 --- British singer and pianist Elton John made his U.S. concert debut at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. Some of his opening night numbers: Your Song, Country Comfort, Take Me to the Pilot,Honky Tonk Women and Bad Side of The Moon.

  

• 1975 --- The album "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen was released.

  

    
• 1978 --- The Turin shroud believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ went on display for the first time in 45 years. 

  

• 1985 --- New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden becomes the youngest 20-game winner in Major League Baseball history. Gooden was 20 years, nine months and nine days old when he led his Mets 

  

  over the San Diego Padres 9-3--a month younger than "Bullet" Bob Feller was when he racked up his 20th win in 1939. Although Gooden was one of the best young pitchers in baseball history, his star burned out quickly as a result of substance abuse.

• 1991 --- The Russian Communist party issued a declaration of full independence for Belarus, the Soviet state that had declared its independence on July 27, 1991. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine formed the Commonwealth of Independent States to coordinate economic activities, defence and foreign relations.

• 1994 --- Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunited in a London studio to record their MTV "Unplugged" show. The show was called "Unledded." 

  

• Birthdays
• Althea Gibson
• Sean Connery
• Clara Bow
• Ruby Keeler
• Walt Kelly
• Wayne Shorter
• Anne Archer
• Billy Ray Cyrus
• Leonard Bernstein
• Rachel Ray
• Monty Hall
• Regis Philbin
• Rollie Fingers
• Elvis Costello
• Tim Burton
• Ally Walker
• Claudia Schiffer
• Gov. George Wallace
• Bill Nye
• Tsar Ivan IV “Ivan the Terrible”