World Coconut Day-KALW Almanac-9/2/15

KALW

Published September 2, 2015 at 5:58 AM PDT

245^th Day of 2015 120 Remaining
Autumn Begins in 21 Days
Sunrise:6:41
Sunset:7:37
12 Hours 54 Minutes
Moon Rise:10:27pm
Moon Set:11:13am
Phase:78%
Full Moon September 27 @ 7:52pm
Full Harvest Moon / Full Corn 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 staples are now ready for gathering.
Tides
High:2:04am/2:19pm
Low:7:56am/8:45pm
Holidays
V-J Day
Pierce Your Ears Day
National Blueberry Popsicle Day
World Coconut Day
National Day-Vietnam
On This Day
31BC --- The Roman leader Octavian defeated the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian, as Augustus Caesar, became the first Roman emperor.
1666 --- In the early morning hours, the Great Fire of London breaks out in the house of King Charles II’s baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. It soon spread to Thames Street, where warehouses filled with combustibles and a strong easterly wind transformed the blaze into an inferno. When the Great Fire finally was extinguished on September 6, more than four-fifths of London was destroyed. Miraculously, only 16 people were known to have died.
1789 --- The United States Treasury Department is founded. The institution’s roots can be traced to 1775, when America’s leaders were looking for ways to fund the Revolutionary War. Their solution–issuing cash that doubled as redeemable “bills of credit”–raised enough capital to fuel the revolution.
1923 -- Aftershocks and out-of-control fires continue to rock Tokyo, Japan, and the surrounding area following a massive earthquake. In total, 143,000 people died in the disaster, which is known both as the Great Kwanto Earthquake and the Great Tokyo Fire, as the fire caused by the earthquake was more deadly and destructive than the earthquake itself.
1935 --- The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 hit the Florida Keys. Over 400 were killed and the Railroad to Key West was destroyed. It was the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the U.S., with winds estimated at 200 mph.
1945 --- The USS Missouri hosts the formal surrender of the Japanese government to the Allies. Victory over Japan was celebrated back in the States. As Japanese troops finally surrendered to Americans on the Caroline, Mariana, and Palau islands, representatives of their emperor and prime minister were preparing to formalize their capitulation. In Tokyo Bay, aboard the Navy battleship USS Missouri, the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, and the chief of staff of the Japanese army, Yoshijiro Umezu, signed the “instrument of surrender.” Representing the Allied victors was Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army forces in the Pacific, and Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, now promoted to the newest and highest Navy rank, fleet admiral.
1946 --- Hailed by many critics as Eugene O’Neill’s finest work, The Iceman Cometh opens at the Martin Beck Theater. The play, about desperate tavern bums clinging to illusion as a remedy for despair, was the last O’Neill play to be produced on Broadway before the author’s death in 1953.
1959 --- At a news conference broadcast to viewers in 21 cities on closed-circuit television, Henry Ford II introduces his company’s newest car–the 90-horsepower, 30 miles-per-gallon Falcon. The Falcon, dubbed “the small car with the big car feel,” was an overnight success.
1963 --- The integration of Tuskegee High School was prevented by state troopers assigned by Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Wallace had the building surrounded by state troopers.
1969 --- America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic financial transactions.
1987 --- The trial of Mathias Rust, the 19-year-old pilot who flew his Cessna plane into Red Square in May 1987, begins in Moscow. Rust had become an international celebrity following his daring intrusion into Soviet airspace and landing in the center of Moscow, but the Soviet government condemned his actions.
2005 --- President George W. Bush told Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" during a tour of Hurricane Katrina damage in Alabama.
2013 --- 64-year-old Diana Nyad becomes the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the use of a shark cage for protection. Nyad completed the 110-mile swim from Havana to Key West, through the jellyfish-and shark-infested waters of the Straits of Florida, in approximately 53 hours.
Birthdays
Martha Mitchell
A G Spalding
Christa McAuliffe
Peter Ueberroth
Nate Archibald
Jimmy Connors
Keanu Reeves
Salma Hayek
Horace Silver