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KALW Almanac - Wednesday May 18, 2016

 
May 18 is the 139th day of the year. 
 
There are 227 days remaining until the end of the year.
 
The sun will rise in San Francisco at 5:56 am 
 
and sunset will be at 8:17 pm.

Today we will have 14 hours and 21 minutes of sun. 

The solar transit will be at 1:06 pm.

The first low tide was at 4:27 am

and the next low tide will be at 4:05 pm.

The first high tide will be at 10:55 am

and the next high tide at 10:34 pm.

The moon is waxing gibbous, 87 per cent illuminated

It will become a full moon on Saturday May 21

Today is... 

 

National Cheese Souffle Day

National No Dirty Dishes Day

Today is also No Dirty Dishes Day

 

National Visit Your Relatives Day

National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day

It's also….

Baltic Fleet Day in Russia

Battle of Las Piedras Day in Uruguay

Day of Remembrance of Crimean Tatar genocide in Ukraine

Flag and Universities Day in Haiti

Independence Day in Somaliland, unrecognized by many countries

International Museum Day

Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day for Sri Lankan Tamils

Revival, Unity, and Poetry of Magtymguly Day in Turkmenistan

Teacher's Day in Syria

Victoria Day in Canada and Sri Lanka

World AIDS Vaccine Day

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday to you!  You share Birthday cake with...

1048Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet (d. 1131)

1872Bertrand Russell, British mathematician, historian, and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

1883Walter Gropius, German-American architect, designed the John F. Kennedy Federal Building (d. 1969)

1897Frank Capra, the American motion-picture director whose portrayal of the common man and American democracy endeared him to millions

1904Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, 58th New York Attorney General (d. 1986)

1911Big Joe Turner, American singer (d. 1985)

1920Pope John Paul II (d. 2005)

1922Bill Macy, American actor

Happy Birthday to MAD Magazine cartoonist Don Martin

 

1931Don Martin, American cartoonist (d. 2000)

1946Reggie Jackson, American baseball player, sportscaster, and actor

1950Mark Mothersbaugh, American singer-songwriter and painter (Devo)

Happy Birthday also to comic actor Tina Fey

 

1970Tina Fey, American actress, producer, and screenwriter

1975Jack Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

On this day in history…

332Constantine the Great announced free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople.

1804Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.

1860Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.

1896The Supreme Court endorsed the concept of "separate but equal" racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, a precedent that was overturned in Brown v. Board of 
Education in 1954.

1897A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel "Dracula, or, The Un-dead" was staged in London.

1910 The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1911Composer Gustav Mahler died in Vienna, Austria, at age 50.

1933The Tennessee Valley Authority was created.

1951The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan.

1969Apollo 10 was launched on a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for the first moon landing.

Mount Saint Helens erupted on this day in 1980

 

1980Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

1980Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.

1998The federal government filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

2003"Les Miserables," the third-longest running show in Broadway history, closed after more than 16 years and 6,680 performances.

2004Randy Johnson, 40, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Atlanta Braves 2-0.

2009Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war ended with the government announcing it had defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels and killed their leader.

2011Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund, saying he wanted to devote all his energy to battling the sexual assault charges he faced in New York. (The charges were later dropped.)