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KALW Almanac: Tue. Jan. 31, 2017

Mmmm. Hot chocolate on a cold winter's day, New York City; taken by flickr user Stephanie Bond (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

 
Today Tuesday, 31st of January of 2017 is the 31st day of the year.  
 
There are 334 days remaining until the end of the year 
 
The sun will rise in San Francisco at 7:13 am 
 
and the sun will set at 5:34 pm.
 
Today we will have 10 hours and 21 minutes of daylight. 

Solar noon will be at 12:23 pm.

The first high tide was at 2:06 am 

and the next high tide at 1:31 pm. 

The first low tide will be at 7:24 am 

and the next low tide at 7:45 pm.

Today is Appreciate Your Social Security Check Day

Backwards Day

Brandy Alexander Day

Eat Brussels Sprouts Day

Hell is Freezing Over Day

Hug an Economist Day

Inspire Your Heart with Art Day

National Hot Chocolate Day

Scotch Tape Day

Today is also…

Amartithi (Meherabad, India, followers of Meher Baba)

Independence Day (Nauru), celebrates independence from Australia in 1968.

Street Children's Day (Austria)

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You!  You share this special day with...

1797 – Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1828)

1872 – Zane Grey, American author (d. 1939)

1881 -- Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina
 
1892 – Eddie Cantor, American singer-songwriter, actor, and dancer (d. 1964)
 
1902 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)

1915 – Bobby Hackett, American trumpet player and cornet player (d. 1976)

1915 – Alan Lomax, American historian, author, and scholar (d. 2002)

1915 – Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d. 1968)

1919 – Jackie Robinson, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1972)

1921 – Carol Channing, American actress, singer, and dancer

1923 – Norman Mailer, American journalist and author (d. 2007)

1925 – Benjamin Hooks, American minister, lawyer, and activist (d. 2010)

1927 – Norm Prescott, American animator, producer, and composer, co-founded Filmation Studios (d. 2005)

1935 – Kenzaburō Ōe, Japanese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

1937 – Philip Glass, American composer

1937 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)

1938 – James G. Watt, American lawyer and politician, 43rd United States Secretary of the Interior

1941 – Dick Gephardt, American lawyer and politician

1944 – Charlie Musselwhite, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player

1947 – Nolan Ryan, American baseball player

1949 – Ken Wilber, American sociologist, philosopher, and author

1956 – John Lydon, English singer-songwriter

1977 – Bobby Moynihan, American actor and comedian

1981 – Justin Timberlake, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

On this day in history...

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.

1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.

1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope now located at Northwestern University.

 
1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification.

1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

1915 – World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.

1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.

1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

1949 – These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago.

1950 – United States President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1958 – The first successful American satellite detects the Van Allen radiation belt.

1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.

1968 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong guerrillas attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.

1971 – The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begins in Detroit.