Happy Solstice! Today is Friday, June 21, 2019, the 172nd day of the year. 193 days remain until the end of the year, the first day of summer!
- Sunrise: 5:48am
- Sunset: 8:35pm ...giving us 14 hours and 47 minutes of daylight. 88% of the waning moon visible, rising at 12:00pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 2:06am/4:35pm
- Low: 9:00am/9:25pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- Day of Election of First President - Turkmenistan
- National Day - Greenland
- Organic Act Day - US Virgin Islands
- White Nights Festival begins (to mid July) - Russia
- National Aboriginal Day - Canada
- National Music Day - France
- National Peaches & Cream Day - US
- Summer Solstice
- Atheists Solidarity Day
- Global Orgasm Day
- Go Skateboarding Day
- International Day of Yoga
- National Daylight Appreciation Day
- National Day of The Gong
- National Sea Shell Day
- National Selfie Day
- Take Back The Lunch Break Day
- Take Your Dog To Work Day
- Tall Girl Appreciation Day
- Ugliest Dog Day
- World Giraffe Day
- World Handshake Day
- World Humanist Day
- World Hydrography Day
On this day in…
1788 - The U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
1834 - Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical mechanical reaper for farming. His invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size.
1893 - The Ferris Wheel was introduced at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL.
1938 - In Washington,U.S. President Roosevelt signed the $3.75 billion Emergency Relief Appropriation Act.
1939 - Lou Gehrig quit baseball due to illness.
1940 - Richard M. Nixon and Thelma Catherine ‘Pat’ Ryan were married.
1941 - German troops entered Russia on a front from the Arctic to Black Sea.
1942 - Ben Hogan recorded the lowest score (to that time) in a major golf tournament. Hogan shot a 271 for 72 holes in Chicago, IL.
1945 - Pan Am announced an 88-hour round-the-world flight at a cost of $700.
1954 - The American Cancer Society reported significantly higher death rates among cigarette smokers than among non-smokers.
1954 - Australian John Landy ran the mile in 3:58. He was the second person to achieve the feat.
1958 - In Arkansas, a federal judge let Little Rock delay school integration.
1960 - In Zurich, German, Armin Hary ran 100-meters in a record 10.0 seconds.
1963 - France announced that they were withdrawing from the North Atlantic NATO fleet.
1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.
1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided that pregnant teachers could no longer be forced to take long leaves of absence.
1985 - Scientists announced that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.
1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.
2001 - Former Haitian Army colonel Carl Dorelien taken into custody in Port St. Lucie. Dorelien had been in exile since 1994 when he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 1994 massacre.
2003 - The fifth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," was published by J.K. Rowling.Amazon.com shipped out more than one million copies on this day making the day the largest distribution day of a single item in e-commerce history. The book set sales records around the world with an estimated 5 million copies were sold on the first day.
2004 - SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Mike Melvill, reached 328,491 feet above Earth in a 90 minute flight. The height is about 400 feet above the distance scientists consider to be the boundary of space.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Martha Washington 1731
- Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859
- Al Hirshfield 1903
- Jean-Paul Sartre 1905
- Jane Russell 1921
- Judy Holliday 1922
- Maureen Stapleton 1925
- Carl Stokes 1927
- O.C. Smith 1932
- Bernie Kopell 1933
- Mariette Hartley 1940
- Ray Davies (Kinks) 1944
- Michael Gross 1947
- Meredith Baxter Birney 1947
- Joey Kramer 1950 - Musician (Aerosmith)
- Nils Lofgren (E Street Band) 1951
- Michael Dolan 1965
- Juliette Lewis 1973
- Mike Einziger 1976 - Musician
- Prince William (England) 1982
