Today is Friday June 21, 2024, the 172nd day of the year with 193 days remain until the end of the year. It's the second day of summer.
- Sunrise: 5:48am
- Sunset: 8:35pm
...giving us 14 hours and 47 minutes of daylight.
The waxing gibbous moon will rise this evening at 8:58pm and set at 5:02am.
At the Golden Gate...
- High Tides: 1:25pm/11:25pm
- Low Tides: 5:53am/5:17pm
...water temperature at Aquatic Park will reach a high of 58 degrees today.
Today's celebrations & commemorations...
- International Day of Yoga
- International T-Shirt Day
- World Giraffe Day
- World Handshake Day
- World Humanist Day
- World Lambrusco Day
- World Peace and Prayer Day
- World Music Day
- National Daylight Appreciation Day
- National Day of The Gong
- National Selfie Day
- Take Your Dog To Work Day
- Go Skateboarding Day
- National Peaches and Cream Day
- National Smoothie Day
On this day in...
1404 - Owain Glyndwr established a Welsh Parliament at Machynlleth and was crowned Prince of Wales.
1788 - The U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
1834 - Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical mechanical reaper for farming. His invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size.
1859 - Andrew Lanergan received the first rocket patent.
1893 - The Ferris Wheel was introduced at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL.
1913 - Georgia Broadwick became the first woman to jump from an airplane.
1938 - In Washington, U.S. President Roosevelt signed the $3.75 billion Emergency Relief Appropriation Act.
1939 - Lou Gehrig quit baseball due to illness.
1945 - Pan Am announced an 88-hour round-the-world flight at a cost of $700.
1954 - The American Cancer Society reported significantly higher death rates among cigarette smokers than among non-smokers.
1954 - Australian John Landy ran the mile in 3:58. He was the second person to achieve the feat.
1958 - In Arkansas, a federal judge let Little Rock delay school integration.
1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.
1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided that pregnant teachers could no longer be forced to take long leaves of absence.
1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.
2003 - The fifth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," was published by J.K. Rowling. Amazon.com shipped out more than one million copies on this day making the day the largest distribution day of a single item in e-commerce history. The book set sales records around the world with an estimated 5 million copies were sold on the first day.
2004 - SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Mike Melvill, reached 328,491 feet above Earth in a 90 minute flight. The height is about 400 feet above the distance scientists consider to be the boundary of space.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)...
- Martha Washington 1731
- Al Hirshfield 1903
- Jean-Paul Sartre 1905
- Jane Russell 1921
- Judy Holliday 1922
- Maureen Stapleton 1925
- Mariette Hartley 1940
- Ray Davies (Kinks) 1944
- Michael Gross 1947
- Meredith Baxter Birney 1947
- Leon Everette 1948
- Joey Kramer 1950 - Musician (Aerosmith)
- Nils Lofgren (E Street Band) 1951
- Michael Dolan 1965
- Juliette Lewis 1973 - Actor
- Chris Pratt 1979 - Actor
- Prince William (England) 1982
- Edward Snowden 1983
