- 21st Day of 2015 / 344 Remaining
- Spring Begins in 58 Days
- Sunrise:7:20
- Sunset:5:21
- 10 Hours 1 Minute
- Moon Rise:7:57am
- Moon Set: 7:13pm
- Moon Phase:2%
- Full Moon February 3 @ 3:10pm
- Snow Moon
- 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 Tide:10:46am
- Low Tide:4:46am/5:30pm
- Rainfall
- This Year to Date:15.14
- Last Year:2.12
- Avg YTD:12.15
- Annual Avg:23.80
- Holidays
- National Granola Bar Day
- National New England Clam Chowder Day
- Squirrel Appreciation Day
- National Hugging Day
- Hot & Spicy Food Day
- On This Day
- 1793 --- One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.
- 1908 --- Smoking by women became illegal. The Sullivan Ordinance was enacted in New York City, but, from pictures we’ve seen, some women continued to smoke even though it was against the law.
- 1932 --- Annunzio Paolo Mantovani gave a memorable concert at Queen’s Hall in England to ‘glowing notices’. This was the beginning of the musician’s successful recording career that provided beautiful music to radio stations for nearly five decades. Better known as just Mantovani, his music still entertains us with hits like,Red Sails in the Sunset, Serenade in the Night, Song from Moulin Rouge and Charmaine.
- 1942 --- Nostalgia buffs will want to grab the greatest hits CD of Count Basie (on Verve) and crank up One O’Clock Jump. Just one of the many signature tunes by Bill Basie; the tune was originally recorded on Okeh Records this day.
- 1950 --- In the conclusion to one of the most spectacular trials in U.S. history, former State Department official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury. He was convicted of having perjured himself in regards to testimony about his alleged involvement in a Soviet spy ring before and during World War II. Hiss served nearly four years in jail, but steadfastly protested his innocence during and after his incarceration.
- 1951 --- A new women’s golf record was established by Mildred (Babe Didrikson) Zaharias as she won the Tampa Women’s Open. Her medal-play score was a record 288 for 72 holes. Medals and records were commonplace to Babe. She won two gold and one silver medal in the 1932 Olympics for the javelin throw, the 80-meter hurdles and the high jump, respectively. She was equally adept at basketball, baseball, billiards and golf; a member of the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, LPGA Hall of Fame (Babe was a founding member of the LPGA), National Track and Field Hall of Fame, Olympic Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame.
- 1954 --- The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn.
- 1957 --- Patsy Cline, one of the most important figures in country music history, first gains national attention with her winning appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Widely admired for her incredible voice, Cline also stood out for her trailblazing independence as a female star in an era very much dominated by men.
- 1970 --- ABC-TV presented The Johnny Cash Show in prime time. Previously, the show had been a summer replacement. The regular season series was a big boost for country music. Johnny wore black in the all-color show, however.
- 1976 --- From London's Heathrow Airport and Orly Airport outside Paris, the first Concordes with commercial passengers simultaneously take flight on January 21, 1976. The London flight was headed to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and the Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Senegal in West Africa. At their cruising speeds, the innovative Concordes flew well over the sound barrier at 1,350 miles an hour, cutting air travel time by more than half.
- 1977 --- President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War. In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and early 70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. Still others hid inside the United States. In addition to those who avoided the draft, a relatively small number--about 1,000--of deserters from the U.S. armed forces also headed to Canada. While the Canadian government technically reserved the right to prosecute deserters, in practice they left them alone, even instructing border guards not to ask too many questions.
- 1985 --- Don DeLillo wins the American Book Award for his breakthrough novel, White Noise. Although DeLillo had been publishing novels since 1971, his books had received little attention. White Noise, a semi-satire about a professor of Hitler Studies exposed to an "airborne toxic event," established DeLillo as a leading post-modern novelist, concerned with the dread, paranoia, and malaise lying beneath American popular culture. He published Libra, a fictional portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald, in 1988 and Mao II, about a reclusive writer dragged into international politics and terrorism, in 1991.
- 1990 --- Tennis bad boy John McEnroe was disqualified and expelled for throwing a temper tantrum while leading in his Australian Open match against Mike Pernfors. McEnroe holds the distinction of being the first player to be expelled from the Australian Open.
- 1996 --- Cleanup of a 1.8 million gallon oil spill began after a barge ran aground near Block Island National Wildlife Refuge two days earlier.
- 1997 --- Speaker Newt Gingrich was reprimanded and fined as the House voted for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
- 2009 --- After more than seven decades as the world's largest automaker, General Motors (GM) officially loses the title, when it announces worldwide sales of 8.36 million cars and trucks in 2008, compared with Toyota's 8.97 million vehicle sales that same year. However, the news wasn't all rosy for the Japanese auto giant, which later in 2009 posted its first-ever loss as a public company.
- Birthdays
- Telly Savalas
- Emil Bloch
- Christian Dior
- Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
- Ethan Allen
- John Fremont