(It’s a great day for a rum punch...on National Rum Punch Day!)
Today is Friday, September 20, 2019, the 263rd day of the year, with 102 days remaining. 4 days until autumn and a mere 410 days until the 2020 Presidential Election.
- Sunrise: 6:56am
- Sunset: 7:10pm ...giving us 12 hours and 16 minutes of daylight. 73% of the waning gibbous moon will be visible, rising at 11:10pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 4:55am/4:08pm
- Low: 9:41am/10:56pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- Liberation Day - East Timor
- International Grenache Day
- National Concussion Awareness Day
- National Doodle Day
- National Fried Rice Day
- National POW/MIA Recognition Day
- National Tradesmen Day
- National String Cheese Day
- National Rum Punch Day
- National Pepperoni Pizza Day
On this day in…
1519 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan left Spain to find a route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Magellan was killed during the trip, but one of his ships eventually made the journey.
1870 - The Papal States came under the control of Italian troops, leading to the unification of Italy.
1881 - Chester A. Arthur became the 21st president of theU.S. President James A. Garfield had died the day before.
1884 - The Equal Rights Party was formed in San Francisco,CA.
1921 - KDKA in Pittsburgh,PA, started a daily radio newscast. It was one of the first in theU.S.
1946 - The first Cannes Film Festival premiered. The original premier was delayed in 1939 due to World War II.
1962 - James Meredith, a black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Governor Ross R. Barnett. Meredith was later admitted.
1963 -U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition to the moon in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
1967 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was launched. It went out of service on November 27, 2008.
1977 - The first of the "boat people" arrived in San Francisco from Southeast Asia under a newU.S. resettlement program.
1982 -U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that theU.S., France, and Italy were going to send peacekeeping troops back to Beirut.
1989 - F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as president of South Africa.
1991 - U.N. weapons inspectors left for Iraq in a renewed search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
1992 - French voters approved the Maastricht Treaty.
1995 - TheU.S. House of Representatives voted to drop the national speed limit. This allowed the states to decide their own speed limits.
2013 - Apple released theiPhone 5s.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Upton Sinclair 1878
- Rachel Roberts 1927
- Johnny Dankworth 1927
- Anne Meara 1929 - Actress, comdian
- Peter Palmer 1931
- Sophia Loren 1934 - Actress
- John (Chuck) Panozzo (Styx) 1947
- Betsy Brantley 1955
- Gary Cole 1957 - Actor
- Alannah Currie (Thompson Twins) 1957
- Kristen Johnston 1965 - Actress ("3rd Rock From the Sun")
- Gunnar Nelson 1967 - Singer (Nelson)
- Matthew Nelson 1967 - Singer (Nelson)
- Ben Shepherd (Soundgarden) 1968
