© 2023 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Sunrise ... sunset ... tides ... annual rainfall ... on this day in history ... international holiday celebrations ... full moon lore ... and more. Tune in for the Daily Almanac Monday through Friday at 5:49am and 8:49am.Do you have comments or questions, corrections, or suggestions for the Almanac? Would you like the Almanac to acknowledge a special birthday or anniversary? Contact me by email: kevin@kalw.org.

Almanac - Tuesday 12/25

christmascat.jpg
Christmas preparations... by flickr user Riccardo Cuppini

Today is Tuesday, the 25th of December of 2018.  It is the 359th day of the year.

There are six days remaining until the end of the year.  85 days until spring begins

679 days until Presidential Elections Tuesday November 3, 2020

(1 year 10 months and 9 days from today)

The sun rises at 7:24 am 

and the sun will set at 4:58 pm.

We will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daylight.

Solar noon will be at 12:11 pm.

The first high tide was at 2:01 am

and the next high tide at 12:45 pm.

The first low tide will be at 6:41 am 

and the next low tide at 7:30 pm.

The Moon is 89.1% visible; a Waning Gibbous

Moon Direction:239.02° WSW↑

Moon Altitude:58.60°

Moon Distance:224969 mi

Next New Moon: Saturday January 5, 2019 at 5:28 pm

Next Full Moon: Sunday January 20, 2019 at 9:16 pm

Next Moonset: Today at 10:03 am

Today is…

Christmas Day

National Pumpkin Pie Day

No "L" Day

Today is also…

Children's Day (CameroonCentral African RepublicChadEquatorial GuineaDemocratic Republic of the CongoGabonRepublic of Congo)

Tulsi Pujan Diwas in India

Constitution Day in Taiwan

Good Governance Day in India

Malkh-Festival  for the Nakh peoples of Chechnya and Ingushetia

Quaid-e-Azam's Day in Pakistan

Takanakuy in Chumbivilcas ProvincePeru

IF today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You!  You share this day with…

1583 – Orlando Gibbons, English organist and composer (d. 1625)

1642 (OS) – Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician (d. 1726/1727)

1821 – Clara Barton, American nurse and humanitarian, founded the American Red Cross (d. 1912)

1870 – Helena Rubinstein, Polish-American businesswoman and philanthropist (d. 1965)

1876 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Governor-General of Pakistan (d. 1948)

1886 – Kid Ory, American trombonist and bandleader (d. 1973)

1887 – Conrad Hilton, American entrepreneur (d. 1979)

1899 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)

1907 – Cab Calloway, American singer-songwriter and bandleader (d. 1994)

1908 – Quentin Crisp, English author and illustrator (d. 1999

1918 – Anwar Sadat, Egyptian lieutenant and politician, 3rd President of EgyptNobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)

1924 – Rod Serling, American screenwriter and producer, created The Twilight Zone (d. 1975)

1924 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian poet and politician, 10th Prime Minister of India (d. 2018)

1925 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-American anthropologist and author (d. 1998)

1946 – Jimmy Buffett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor

1946 – Larry Csonka, American football player and sportscaster

1948 – Barbara Mandrell, American singer-songwriter and actress

1949 – Sissy Spacek, American actress

1950 – Karl Rove, American political strategist and activist

1954 – Annie Lennox, Scottish singer-songwriter and pianist

1958 – Rickey Henderson, American baseball player and coach

1961 – Íngrid Betancourt, Colombian political scientist and politician

1971 – Justin Trudeau, Canadian educator and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada

…and on this day in history…

336 – First documentary sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.

1758 – Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.

1776 – George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.

1914 – A series of unofficial truces occur across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas.

1950 – The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.

1977 – Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Deposed President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, are condemned to death and executed after a summary trial.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.