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Almanac - Monday December 26, 2022

Festivities
Joe Hunt
/
Flickr Creative Commons
Festivities

Today is Monday, the 26th of December of 2022,

December 26 is the 360th day of the year

five days remain until the end of the year

and 83 days until spring begins

The sun will rise in San Francisco at 7:23:49 am

and the sun will set this afternoon at 4:57:58 pm.

Today we will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daylight

(that’s one more minute of daylight)

Solar noon will be at 12:10:53 pm

Water temperature in San Francisco Bay today is 50.5°F

The first high tide was at 1:39 am at 5.14 feet

The first low tide will be at 6:24 am at 2.98 feet

The next high tide will be at 12:12 pm at 6.49 feet

and the final low tide at Ocean Beach tonight will be at 7:19 pm at -1.22 feet

The Moon is currently 14.5% visible

It’s a Waxing Crescent moon

We’ll have the First Quarter Moon in 3 days on Thursday the 29th of December of 2022 at 5:21 pm

Today is…

Boxing Day

National Candy Cane Day

National Thank You Note Day

National Whiner's Day

Today is also…

Day of Good Will in South Africa and Namibia

Family Day in Vanuatu

Thanksgiving in the Solomon Islands

Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia

Mauro Hamza Day in Houston, Texas

Mummer's Day in Padstow, Cornwall

St. Stephen's Day, a public holiday in Alsace, Austria, Catalonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland

Father's Day in Bulgaria

The first day of Kwanzaa. The black candle is lit in the Kinara which represents the first principle – Umoja (oo-MOH-jah): Unity.

The first day of Junkanoo street parade, the second day is on the New Year's Day in The Bahamas

The second day of the Twelve Days of Christmas

Second day of Christmas, a Public holiday in the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia

Veer Baal Divas, is observed to pay tribute to martyr sons of Guru Gobind Singh ji.

Wren Day in Ireland and the Isle of Man

On this day in history…

1871Thespis, the first Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration, debuts.

1898Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.

1919Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1963The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.

1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

1978 – The inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally begins.

1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".

1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.

2004 – Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny.

2012 – China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.

…and if today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share your special day with…

1618 – Elisabeth of the Palatinate, German philosopher and abbess (corresponded with René Descartes), born in Heidelberg (d. 1680)

1780 – Mary Fairfax Somerville, Scottish mathematician (d. 1872)

1863Charles Pathé, French record producer, co-founded Pathé Records (d. 1957)

1891Henry Miller, American author and painter (d. 1980)

1893Mao Zedong, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (d. 1976)

1907Albert Gore, Sr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1998)

1914Richard Widmark, American actor (d. 2008)

1917 – Rose Mary Woods, American secretary to Richard Nixon (claimed to have erased part of Watergate tapes by accident), born in Sebring, Ohio (d. 2005)

1936 – Kitty Dukakis, wife of Michael (Gov-Mass)

1939 – Phil Spector, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2021)

1942 – Gray Davis, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of California

1949José Ramos-Horta, East Timorese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of East Timor, Nobel Prize laureate

1949 – George Winston, American pop-instrumental pianist and composer (Autumn; December; Winter Into Spring), born in Hart, Michigan

1954 – Susan Butcher, American dog musher and 4 x winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 2006)

1956David Sedaris, American comedian, author, and radio host

1964 – Elizabeth Kostova, American author (The Historian), born in New London, Connecticut

1966Jay Farrar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1971 – Jared Leto, American actor (My So Called Life, Requiem for a Dream), born in Bossier City, Louisiana

1991 – Gabriella Smith, American contemporary classical composer (Forgotten Lullabyes; Bioluminescence Chaconne), born in Berkeley, California

Kevin Vance created a program of folk music for KALW, A Patchwork Quilt, in October 1991. He grew up in Berkeley during the 1960s and '70s and spent his years learning in public schools, community colleges, bookstores, libraries, and non-commercial radio stations, as well as from the people around him. When he's not on the radio, then he's selling books, taking care of his family, listening to music, entering stuff into a computer, or taking a class.