© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Almanac - Friday 4/3/20

It's "Find A Rainbow Day" - here's one I found on my block!

Today is Friday, April 3, 2020, the 94th day of the year. 78 days until summer, and only 214 days until presidential elections (if civilization survives).  

  • Sunrise: 6:51am         
  • Sunset: 7:35pm ...giving us 12 hours 42min of daylight.   64% of the waxing gibbous moon will be visible, rising at 2:35pm.  

Tides at the Golden Gate                    

  • High: 7:51am/2:43pm               
  • Low: 2:06am/2:43pm

Special celebrations & commemorations today…

  • Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day….well...on second thought, just DON’T GO TO WORK!
  • Fan Dance Day
  • Hospital Admitting Clerks Day
  • International Kids Yoga Day
  • National Walk To Work Day
  • Find A Rainbow Day
  • National Film Score Day
  • National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day
  • National Chocolate Mousse Day
  • Pony Express Day
  • Tweed Day
  • Weed Out Hate
  • World Party Day

On this day in…

 

1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. He had sighted the land the day before.

1776 - George Washington received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard College .

1829 - James Carrington patented the coffee mill.

1860 - The first Pony Express riders left St. Joseph, MO and Sacramento, CA. The trip across country took about 10 days. The Pony Express only lasted about a year and a half.

1865 - Union forces occupy Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

1866 - Rudolph Eickemeyer and G. Osterheld patented a blocking and shaping machine for hats.

1882 - The American outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back and killed by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward. There was later controversy over whether it was actually Jesse James that had been killed.

1910 - Alaska's Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America was climbed.

1933 - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt informed newspaper reporters that beer would be served at the White House. This followed the March 22 legislation that legalized "3.2" beer.

1936 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the kidnapping and death of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh.

1942 - The Japanese began their all-out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.

1946 - Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed in the Philippines.

1948 - U.S. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan to revive war-torn Europe. It was $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

1953 - "TV Guide" was published for the first time.

1967 - The U.S. State Department said that Hanoi might be brainwashing American prisoners.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "mountaintop" speech just 24 hours before he was assassinated.

1968 - North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks.

1972 - Charlie Chaplin returned to the U.S. after a twenty-year absence.

1979 - Jane Byrne became the first female mayor in Chicago.

1982 - John Chancellor stepped down as anchor of the "The NBC Nightly News." Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw became the co-anchors of the show.

1983 - It was reported that Vietnamese occupation forces had overrun a key insurgent base in western Cambodia.

1984 - Sikh terrorists killed a member of the Indian Parliament in his home.

1985 - The U.S. charged that Israel violated the Geneva Convention by deporting Shiite prisoners.

1986 - The U.S. national debt hit $2 trillion.

1996 - Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski was arrested. He pled guilty in January 1998 to five Unabomber attacks in exchange for a life sentence without chance for parole.

1998 - The Dow Jones industrial average climbed above 9,000 for the first time.

2000 - A U.S. federal judge ruled that Microsoft had violated U.S. antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. Microsoft said that they would appeal the ruling.

2010 - The first Apple iPad was released.

If today’s your birthday, you share it with…

  • John Harrison 1693 - Carpenter, clockmaker, inventor of the marine chronometer
  • Washington Irving 1783 - Author 
  • William M. "Boss" Tweed 1823 - Political boss, known for his Tweed "Ring" that stole millions of dollars from New York City
  • Sally Rand 1904 - Burlesque dancer, actress
  • Herb Caen 1916 - Journalist
  • Jan Sterling (Adriance) 1923 - Actress
  • Doris Day 1924 - Singer, actress
  • Marlon Brando 1924 - Actor 
  • Helmut Kohl 1930 - Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1982-1998
  • Jane Goodall 1934 - Anthropologist, author
  • Jan Berry 1941 - Songwriter, singer (Jan and Dean)
  • Marsha Mason 1942 - Actress
  • Wayne Newton 1942 - Singer
  • Tony Orlando 1944 - Singer
  • Richard Thompson 1949 - Musician (Fairport Convention)
  • Mel Schacher 1951 - Musician (Grand Funk Railroad)
  • Alec Baldwin 1958 - Actor
  • David Hyde Pierce 1959 - Actor 
  • Eddie Murphy 1961 - Comedian 

 

David Latulippe is host of On the Arts, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, as well as for Explorations in Music, and the Berkeley Symphony broadcasts. He has also hosted and produced the radio series From the Conservatory, Music from Mills, and Music at Menlo, and is principal guest host for Revolutions Per Minute.