Today is Friday, August 12, 2022, the 224th day of the year; 141 days remain.
- Sunrise: 6:21am
- Sunset: 8:07pm
...giving us 13 hours and 46 minutes of daylight.
The just now waning gibbous moon is 99.2% illuminated, after yesterday’s full moon.
- Moonrise: 9:05pm
- Moonset: 6:53am
San Francisco Bay Tides
- High: 1:23pm
- Low: 6:20am/6:14pm
...Water Temp in Aquatic Park – around 57 degrees
Today’s special holidays and celebrations:
- IBM PC Day
- International Youth Day
- Home Sewing Machine Day
- Shop Online For Groceries Day
- Vinyl Record Day
- World Elephant Day
- Julienne Fries Day
- Middle Child Day
On this day in…
1676 - "King Phillip's War" came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.
1851 - Isaac Singer was issued a patent on the double-headed sewing machine.
1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.
1867 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.
1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.
1918 - Regular airmail service began between Washington, DC, and New York City.
1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Over the Rainbow." The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th.
1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.
1960 - The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite.
1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test.
1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC.
1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.
1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.
1994 - Major league baseball players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries. The strike lasted for 232 days. As a result, the World Series was wiped out for the first time in 90 years.
1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims.
2004 - The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages that had been sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year.
In addition to, perhaps…you, today’s birthday celebrants include or included…
- Christy Mathewson 1880
- Cecil B. DeMille 1881
- Jane Wyatt 1912
- Porter Wagoner 1927
- Buck Owens 1929
- George Hamilton 1939
- Jennifer Warren 1941
- Dana Ivey 1941 - Actress
- Kid Creole 1950 - Singer
- Pat Metheny 1954 - Guitarist
- Bruce Greenwood 1956 - Actor
- Peter Krause 1965 - Actor
- Pete Sampras 1971 - Tennis player
- Rebecca Gayheart 1972 - Actress
- Casey Affleck 1975 - Actor
- Dominique Swain 1980 - Actress
- Maggie Lawson 1980 - Actress