Enjoy a peanut butter cookie (or falafel) today!
Today is Wednesday, June 12, 2019, the 163rd day of the year. 202 days remain until the end of the year, and 10 days until summer (Mother Nature didn’t wait this week in the Bay Area apparently!).
- Sunrise: 5:47am
- Sunset: 8:32pm
...giving us 14 hours and 44 minutes of daylight. 67% of the waxing moon visible, rising at 3:51pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 8:36am/8:56pm
- Low: 2:29am/2:02pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- Chaco Peace - Paraguay (see 1935 below)
- Independence Day - Philippines (see 1898 below)
- Dia dos Namorados (Valentine's Day) - Brazil
- Russia Day - Russia (see 1990 below)
- National Peanut Butter Cookie Day
- National Jerky Day
- International Falafel Day
On this day in…
1099 - Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
1442 - Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples.
1665 - England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.
1812 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia began.
1838 - The Iowa Territory was organized.
1839 - Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball, according to the legend.
1849 - Lewis Haslett patented a gas mask. (PatentUS6529 A)
1897 - Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.
1898 - Philippine nationalists declared their independence from Spain.
1900 - The Reichstag approved a second law that would allow the expansion of the German navy.
1901 - Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.
1912 - Lillian Russel retired from the stage and was married for the fourth time.
1918 - The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I's Western Front in France.
1921 -U.S. President Warren Harding urged every young man to attend military training camp.
1923 - Harry Houdini, while suspended upside down 40 feet above the ground, escaped from a strait jacket.
1926 - Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.
1935 - U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words.
1935 - The Chaco War was ended with a truce. Bolivia and Paraguay had been fighting since 1932.
1937 - The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.
1939 - The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
1941 - In London, the Inter-Allied Declaration was signed. It was the first step towards the establishment of the United Nations.
1944 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announced that he would support Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan.
1948 - Ben Hogan won his first U.S. Open golf classic.
1963 - "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.
1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS.
1967 - State laws which prohibited interracial marriages were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1971 - Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden.
1975 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of corrupt election practices in 1971.
1979 - Bryan Allen flew the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.
1981 - Major league baseball players began a 49 day strike. The issue was free-agent compensation.
1981 - "Raiders of the Lost Ark" opened in the U.S.
1982 - 75,000 people rallied against nuclear weapons in New York City's Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt were in attendance.
1985 - Wayne "The Great One" Gretsky was named winner of the NHL's Hart Trophy. The award is given to the league Most Valuable Player.
1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan contras.
1986 - South Africa declared a national state of emergency. Virtually unlimited power was given to security forces and restrictions were put on news coverage of the unrest.
1987 -U.S. President Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1990 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty.
1991 - Russians went to the election polls and elected Boris N. Yeltsin as the president of their republic.
1991 - The Chicago Bulls won their first NBA championship. The Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one.
1992 - In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Russian Boris Yeltsin stated that in the early 1950's the Soviet Union had shot down nine U.S. planes and held 12 American survivors.
1996 - In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
1997 - Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series.
1997 - The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant.
1998 - Compaq Computer paid $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corp. in largest high-tech acquisition.
1999 - NATO peacekeeping forces entered the province of Kosovo in Yugoslavia.
2003 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident.
2009 - In the U.S., The switch from analog TV transmission to digital was completed.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- David Rockefeller 1915 - Banker
- Irwin Allen 1916 - Television and film producer, nicknamed "The Master of Disaster"
- Samuel Z. Arkoff 1918 - Movie producer
- Uta Hagen 1919 - Actress
- George H.W. Bush 1924 - 41st President of the United States, father of President George W. Bush
- Vic Damone 1928 - Singer
- Anne Frank 1929
- Jim Nabors 1930 - Actor, singer
- Rona Jaffe 1932 - Novelist
- Robert Bower 1936 - Attorney
- Chick Corea 1941 - Musician
- Marv Albert 1941 - Sportscaster
- Reg Presley 1941 - Musician (The Troggs)
- Brad Delp 1951 - Musician (Boston)
- Bun E. Carlos 1951 - Musician (Cheap Trick)
- Junior Brown 1952 - Musician, singer
- Rocky Burnette (Jonathan Burnette) 1953 - Musician
- Timothy Busfield 1957 - Actor ("The West Wing," "thirtysomething")
- John Linnell 1959 - Musician (They Might Be Giants)
- Grandmaster Dee 1962 - Musician (Whodini)
- Paula Marshall 1964 - Actress ("Gary Unmarried")
- Frances O'Connor 1967 - Actress
- Bobby Sheehan 1968 - Musician (Blues Traveler)
- Wil Horneff 1979 - Actor
