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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 - Thursday 3/4/21

World Book Day 2018, by flickr user First Minister of Scotland

Today is World Book Day. It's also the birthday of children's book author Dav Pilkey...

Today Thursday, 4th of March of 2021...

March 4 is the 63rd day of the year

302 days remain until the end of the year.

16 days until spring begins

The sun  rises  at 6:35 am 

and sunset will be at 6:08 pm.

Today we will have 11 hours and 33 minutes of daylight.

The solar transit will be at 12:21 pm.

The first high tide was at 2:52 am 

The first low tide will be at 9:26 am 

and the next high tide will be at 4:14 pm.

and the next low tide at 9:02 pm.

The Moon is 67.0% visible; a Waning Gibbous

Last Quarter Moon in 2 days on Saturday the 5th of March of 2021 at 5:30 pm

Today is...

Benjamin Harrison Day

Courageous Follower Day

Holy Experiment Day

Hug a GI Day

International GM's Day

International Scrapbooking Industry Day

March Forth

Marching Music Day

National Dance the Waltz Day

National Grammar Day

National Hospitalist Day

National Pound Cake Day

National Snack Day

National Sons Day

Old Inauguration Day

Toy Soldier Day

World Book Day (UK & Ireland)

St Casimir's Day (Poland and Lithuania)

born on this day in 1745 – Casimir Pulaski, Polish-American general (d. 1779)

On this day in Women's History...

March 4, 1917 – Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) took her seat as the first female member of Congress

March 4, 1933 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet

    1998 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.

Women's History birthdays include...

Jean O’Leary, a lesbian and gay rights activist, was born today in 1948. She was the founder of Lesbian Feminist Liberation, one of the first lesbian activist groups in the women’s movement, was an early member and co-director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Elizabeth Wood, the first Executive Director of the Chicago Housing Authority, was born today in 1899. She worked to structure city management of three housing projects built by the Federal Public Works Administration, including the Jane Addams, Julia C. Lathrop and Trumbull Park Homes.
Frances Perkins

Lucy Hicks Anderson, a Black trans woman, was born today in 1886. When she entered school, she insisted on wearing dresses and calling herself Lucy. Since the term transgender hadn’t been invented yet, when Lucy’s mother took her to the doctor for an explanation of her strange behavior, the physician encouraged her to raise Lucy as a girl and not a boy.
In 1944 Lucy married a soldier in California, which led to troubles. When the government found out that Lucy had been born male, she was prosecuted for receiving checks as a wife of a US Army soldier. “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman,” Anderson told reporters in the midst of her trial. “I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.” Both Lucy and her husband were sent to prison. Once free, Lucy moved to Los Angeles where she lived until she died in 1954.

  1188 – Blanche of Castile, French queen consort (d. 1252)
    1502 – Elisabeth of Hesse, princess of Saxony (d. 1557)
    1729 – Anne d'Arpajon, French wife of Philippe de Noailles (d. 1794)
    1781 – Rebecca Gratz, American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869)
    1883 – Maude Fealy, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1971)
    1888 – Emma Richter, German paleontologist (d. 1956)
    1889 – Pearl White, American actress (d. 1938)
    1903 – Dorothy Mackaill, English-American actress and singer (d. 1990)
    1914 – Barbara Newhall Follett, American author (d. 1939)
    1918 – Margaret Osborne duPont, American tennis player (d. 2012)
    1921 – Joan Greenwood, English actress (d. 1987)
    1931 – Alice Rivlin, American economist and politician (d. 2019)
    1932 – Miriam Makeba, South African singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2008)
    1934 – Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (d. 2007)
    1934 – Sandra Reynolds, South African tennis player
    1938 – Paula Prentiss, American actress
    1946 – Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, American journalist and author
    1948 – Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, New Zealand-Australian author
    1948 – Jean O'Leary, American nun and activist (d. 2005)
    1950 – Ofelia Medina, Mexican actress and screenwriter
    1954 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Korean American author (d. 1982)
    1954 – Catherine O'Hara, Canadian-American actress and comedian
    1954 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian poet and author (d. 2017)
    1958 – Patricia Heaton, American actress
    1958 – Tina Smith, American politician, junior senator of Minnesota
    1966 – Fiona Ma, American accountant and politician
    1968 – Patsy Kensit, English model and actress
    1969 – Annie Yi, Taiwanese singer, actress, and writer
    1970 – Caroline Vis, Dutch tennis player
    1971 – Claire Baker, Scottish politician
    1971 – Emily Bazelon, American journalist
    1971 – Geraldine O'Rawe, Northern Irish actress
    1972 – Katherine Center, American journalist and author
    1972 – Ivy Queen, Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, rapper, actress and record producer
    1972 – Alison Wheeler, English singer-songwriter
    1973 – Penny Mordaunt, English lieutenant and politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
    1975 – Kristi Harrower, Australian basketball player
    1979 – Sarah Stock, Canadian wrestler and trainer
    1980 – Suzanna Choffel, American singer-songwriter
    1980 – Aja Volkman, American singer-songwriter
    1981 – Helen Wyman, English cyclist
    1982 – Cate Edwards, American lawyer and author
    1982 – Ludmila Ezhova, Russian gymnast
    1982 – Yasemin Mori, Turkish singer
    1984 – Raven Quinn, American singer-songwriter
    1985 – Whitney Port, American fashion designer and author
    1986 – Margo Harshman, American actress
    1988 – Laura Siegemund, German tennis player
    1990 – Andrea Bowen, American actress
    1993 – Bobbi Kristina Brown, American singer and actress (d. 2015)
    1995 – Chlöe Howl, British singer-songwriter

Also on this day in history...

    AD 51 – Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).

    1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.

    1791 – Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.

    1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.

    1797 – John Adams is inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his presidency on March 4.

    1837 – The city of Chicago is incorporated.

    1849 – President-elect of the United States Zachary Taylor and Vice President-elect Millard Fillmore did not take their respective oaths of office (they did so the following day), leading to the erroneous theory that outgoing President pro tempore of the United States Senate David Rice Atchison had assumed the role of acting president for one day.

    1882 – Britain's first electric trams run in east London.

    1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed.

    1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the 32nd President of the United States. He was the last president to be inaugurated on March 4.

    1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.

    1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.

    2009 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.

    1678 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1741)
    1877 – Garrett Morgan, African-American inventor (d. 1963)
    1888 – Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)
    1890 – Norman Bethune, Canadian soldier and physician (d. 1939)
    1891 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (d. 1961)
    1897 – Lefty O'Doul, American baseball player and manager (d. 1969)
    1906 – Avery Fisher, American violinist and engineer, founded Fisher Electronics (d. 1994)
    1914 – Ward Kimball, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
    1944 – Bobby Womack, American singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
    1947 – Jan Garbarek, Norwegian saxophonist and composer
    1948 – James Ellroy, American writer
    1950 – Rick Perry, American captain and politician, 47th Governor of Texas
    1965 – Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-born American novelist
    1966 – Dav Pilkey, American author and illustrator