Today is Monday, the 21st of February, 2022
February 21 is the 52nd day of the year
313 days remain until the end of the year
26 days until spring begins
The sun rises at 6:51:31 am
and the sun sets this afternoon at 5:56:20 pm.
Today we will have 11 hours and 4 minutes of daylight.
Solar noon will be at 12:23:55 pm.
The first high tide was at 1:38 am at 5.68 feet
The first low tide will be at 7:58 am at 1.03 feet
The next high tide will be at 2:03 pm at 4.38 feet
and the Final low tide at Ocean Beach will be at 7:41 pm at 1.59 feet
The Moon will be 75.8% visible
It’s a Waning Gibbous
We’ll have the Last Quarter Moon in 2 days on Wednesday the 23rd of February of 2022 at 2:32 pm
Today is…
International Mother Language Day
On this day in Black History…
On February 21: Feb. 21, 1895 - North Carolina Legislature, dominated by black Republicans and white Populists, adjourned for the day to mark the death of Frederick Douglass
1961 — Otis Boykin patents the electrical resistor. Boykin invented the electrical resistor, U.S. patent No. 2,972,726, the electrical device used in all guided missiles and IBM computers. Boykin’s noteworthy inventions include a wire precision resistor and a control unit for the pacemaker. He graduated from Fisk College in 1941 and took a job with the Majestic Radio and TV Corp. When he died in 1982 of heart failure, he had 26 patents in his name.
1965 — Malcolm X (1925-65) is assassinated in Audubon Ballroom. Born Malcolm Little, the minister and human rights activist was shot in New York just before delivering a speech to his newly founded Organization of Afro-American Unity. After becoming El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X was known as a prolific orator and one of the most influential people in history. His life was chronicled in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to by Alex Haley, and in the movie Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee.
African Americans in Tampa, Florida rebelled after an African American man was killed by a white police officer while in custody.
Black History birthdays today include…
1936 — Happy birthday, Barbara Jordan. A lawyer and educator and one of the leaders of the civil rights movement, Jordan became the first African-American woman from the South elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is known for her opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against then-President Richard Nixon. She was also the first black woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. Jordan died in 1996 at age 59.
1933 — Happy birthday, Nina Simone. Born Eunice Waymon, Simone was a singer, songwriter and musician who became a civil rights activist. She owned a broad catalog of music, as her talents represent styles in jazz, classical, gospel, folk, and rhythm and blues. She was born in North Carolina and enrolled in Juilliard School of Music in New York. She recorded influential records such as “Mississippi Goddam,” “I Loves You, Porgy” and “I Put a Spell on You.” She died in 2003.
1940 — Happy birthday, John Lewis, a civil rights leader and political activist who was an early member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He has served as the U.S. representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District since 1987 and is the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. While chairman of the SNCC, he was one of the “Big Six” leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington. He was a key contributor to the civil rights movement and still moves the needle for equality today. Lewis has received a number of awards, including the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
Also on this day in history….
1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school.
1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher, founded Charles Scribner's Sons (d. 1871)
1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
1903 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (d. 1977)
1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress and singer (d. 1967)
1924 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean educator and politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)
1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)
1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)
1929 – Chespirito, Mexican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1933 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2003)
1935 – Richard A. Lupoff, American author (d. 2020)
1936 – Barbara Jordan, American lawyer and politician (d. 1996)
1938 – Bobby Charles, American singer-songwriter (d. 2020)
1940 – John Lewis, American activist and politician (d. 2020)
1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records
1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (d. 2016)
1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress and singer
1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer
1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor and businessman
1962 – Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist and journalist
1962 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2008)
1977 – Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer
1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1987 – Elliot Page, Canadian actor