141st day of 2016, 225 days remain
Sunrise: 5:55am
Sunset: 8:18pm
Moonset: 5:30am, rising at 7:20pm with 96% visible, waxing toward Saturday’s Full “Blue Moon”
Tides at the Golden Gate:
- High: 12:26pm/11:31pm
- Low: 5:36am/5:17pm
Special Celebrations around the world today…
- Independence Day - East Timor
- National Day - Cameroon
- Party Day or Popular Movement Day - Zaire (Democratic Congo)
- Simbi Blanc - Haiti
- St. Ferdinand Day - Spain
It’s also…
- Food Revolution Day
- National Pizza Party Day
- National Quiche Lorraine Day
- National Pick Strawberries Day
- Eliza Doolittle Day
- Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
- Endangered Species Day
- International Virtual Assistants Day
- NASCAR Day
- National Bike to Work Day
- National Defense Transportation Day
- Weights & Measures Day
On this day in…
0325 - The Ecumenical council was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea, Asia Minor.
1303 - A peace treaty was signed between England and France over the town of Gascony.
1347 - Cola di Rienzo took the title of tribune in Rome.
1506 - In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.
1520 - Hernando Cortez defeated Spanish troops that had been sent to punish him in Mexico.
1690 - England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.
1674 - John Sobieski became Poland’s first King.
1774 - Britain's Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior
1775 - North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence. This is the date that is on the George state flag even though the date of this event has been questioned.
1784 - The Peace of Versailles ended a war between France, England, and Holland.
1830 - The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde.
1861 - North Carolina became the eleventh state to secede from the Union.
1861 - During the American Civil War, the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, AL, to Richmond, VA.
1873 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.
1875 - The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.
1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour.
1902 - The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ended.
1902 - Cuba gained its independence from Spain.
1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.
1926 - The U.S. Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. The act gave the Department of Commerce the right to license pilots and planes.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.
1930 - The first airplane was catapulted from a dirigible.
1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.
1939 - The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The event was a bicycle race.
1939 - The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the "Yankee Clipper" from Port Washington, New York.
1941 - Germany invaded Crete by air.
1942 - Japan completed the conquest of Burma.
1961 - A white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL. The event prompted the federal government to send U.S. marshals.
1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.
1970 - 100,000 people marched in New York supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.
1978 - Mavis Hutchinson, at age 53, became the first woman to run across America. It took Hutchinson 69 days to run the 3,000 miles.
1980 - The submarine Nautilus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
1982 - TV’s "Barney Miller" was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.
1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1300 mark for the first time. The Dow closed at 1304.88.
1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.
1993 - The final episode of "Cheers" was aired on NBC-TV.
1996 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.
2010 - Scientists announced that they had created a functional synthetic genome.
2010 - Five paintings worth 100 million Euro were stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)…
- William Thornton 1759
- Dolley Payne Madison 1768
- Honore de Balzac 1799
- John Stuart Mill 1806
- William George Fargo 1818
- Henri Julien Felix Rousseau 1844
- Wladyslaw Sikorski 1888
- Jimmy Stewart 1908
- William R. Hewlett 1913
- Patrick Ellis (Leftwich) 1916
- George Goble 1919
- Vic Ames (Urick) 1920
- Edith Fellows 1923
- Bob Sweikert 1926
- Bud (Henry) Grant 1927
- David Hedison (Ara David Heditsian) 1928
- James McEachin 1930
- Kenton Boyer 1931
- Constance Towers 1933
- Anthony Zerbe 1936
- Dave Hill 1937
- Stan Mikita 1940
- Joe Cocker 1944
- Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre) 1946
- Bobby (Ray) Murcer 1946
- Dave Thomas 1949
- Cullen Bryant 1951
- Warren Cann 1952
- Dean Butler 1956
- Ronald Prescott Reagan 1958
- Jane Wiedlin 1958
- Bronson Pinchot 1959
- Tony Goldwyn 1960
- Susan Cowsill 1960
- Nick Heyward 1961
- Brian Nash 1963
- Mindy Cohn 1966
- Tom Gorman 1966
- Busta Rhymes 1972
