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Almanac - Thursday 8/22/19

Pork and Crab Xiao Long Bao - Facing East, by flickr user Kirk K

Today is Thursday, the 22nd of August of 2019...

It is the 234th day of the year.

131 days remain until the end of the year.

32 days until autumn begins

194 days until the primaries

439 days until presidential elections

The sun rises at 6:32 am 

and sunset will be at 7:52 pm.

Today we will have 13 hours and 20 minutes of daylight.

The solar transit will be at 1:12 pm.

The first low tide will be at 10:09 am 

and the next high tide will be at 4:56 pm.

and the final low tide at 11:36 pm.

The Moon is 61.4% visible; a Waning Gibbous

Next New Moon: Friday August 30, 2019 at 3:37 am

Today is…

Be an Angel Day

Black Women's Equal Pay Day

National Bao Day

National Burger Day (UK)

National Eat a Peach Day

National Pecan Torte Day

National Tooth Fairy Day

Never Bean Better Day

Southern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day

Take Your Cat to the Vet Day

World Plant Milk Day

Today is also…

Flag Day in Russia

Madras Day in Chennai and Tamil NaduIndia

as it was on this day in the year 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You!  You share this day with…

Claude Debussy

George Herriman

Dorothy Parker

Henri Cartier-Bresson

David Dellinger

John Lee Hooker

Ray Bradbury

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Annie Proulx

Valerie Harper

Donna Jean Godchaux

Cindy Williams

Tori Amos

Kristen Wiig

…and on this day in history…

In 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

On August 22, 1851, the schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America's Cup.

1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention, establishing the rules of protection of the victims of armed conflicts.

1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded.

1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to make a public appearance in an automobile

In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corp. conducted its first experimental television broadcast, using a 30-line mechanical system.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.

1978 – The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Congress. The proposed amendment would have provided the District of Columbia with full voting representation in the Congress, the Electoral College, and regarding amending the U.S. Constitution. The proposed amendment failed to be ratified by enough states (ratified by 16, needed 38) and so did not become part of the Constitution.

In 1986, Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.

Also in 1986, The Rob Reiner coming-of-age film "Stand By Me" was put into wide release by Columbia Pictures.

1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.

In 2003, Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse. Texas Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 people arrested in the 1999 Tulia drug busts and convicted on the testimony of a lone undercover agent. (The agent, Tom Coleman, was later found guilty of aggravated perjury and sentenced to 10 years' probation.)

In 2004, as shocked spectators watched, armed thieves stole one of four versions of the Edvard Munch (moongk) masterpiece "The Scream" and a second Munch painting, "Madonna," from the Munch museum in Oslo, Norway. (The paintings, visibly damaged, were recovered in Aug. 2006; three men were convicted in connection with the theft and sentenced to prison.)

2007 – The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history.

Five years ago in 2014: Tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated sharply as Moscow sent more than 130 trucks rolling across the border in what it said was a mission to deliver humanitarian aid.

One year ago today in 2018:     President Donald Trump accused his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, of making up stories in order to get a deal from federal prosecutors. A Democratic Party official said an attempt to break into the party’s massive voter database had been thwarted.