Today is Tuesday, the 21st of February of 2023,
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 rose this morning at 6:51:49 am
and sunset will be at 5:56:04 pm.
We will have 11 hours, 3 minutes of daylight today
The solar transit will be at 12:23:56 pm.
Water temperature in San Francisco Bay today is 51.6°F.
The first low tide was at 5:09 am at 1.42 feet
The next high tide at 11:08 am at 6.33 feet
and the final low tide at Ocean Beach this evening will be at 5:40 pm at -0.70 feet
The Moon is currently 2.9% visible
It’s a Waxing Crescent moon
We’ll have a Quarter Moon in 6 days on a Monday the 27th of February of 2023 at 12:06 am
IF today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share this special day with….
1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
1903 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (d. 1977)
1907 – W. H. Auden, British-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973
1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress and singer (d. 1967)
1917 – Tadd Dameron, American pianist and composer (d. 1965)
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)
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)
1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
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
1977 – Rhiannon Giddens, American musician
1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer
1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
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.
Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965, while he was preparing to address a crowd of more than 400 guests for his new group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, in Harlem, New York, at the Audubon Ballroom.
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.
Today is also…
International Mother Language Day
Armed Forces Day (South Africa)
Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)
Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)[46]
The first day of the Birth Anniversary of Fifth Druk Gyalpo, celebrated until February 23. (Bhutan)
The first day of the Musikahan Festival, celebrated until February 27. (Tagum City, Philippines)
…and on this day in history…
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.
1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
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.
1965 – Malcolm X is gunned down while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.
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.
1994 – Aldrich Ames is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling national secrets to the Soviet Union in Arlington County, Virginia.
1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
