Today is Thursday, the 17th of August of 2023,
August 17 is the 229th day of the year
136 days remain until the end of the year.
37 days until autumn begins
The sun rose this morning at 6:27:10 am
and the sun will set this evening at 7:59:21 pm.
Today we will have 13 hours and 32 minutes of daylight
Solar transit will be at 1:13:15 pm.
Water temperature in San Francisco Bay today is 66.7°F
The first low tide was at 6:15 am at -0.02 feet
The first high tide will be at 1:00 pm at 5.05 feet
The next low tide at 6:15 pm at 2.44 feet
and the final high tide at Ocean Beach will be 11:57 pm tonight at 5.75 feet
The Moon is currently 1.3%
It’s a Waxing Crescent moon
We’ll have the First Quarter Moon in 7 days next Thursday the 24th of August of 2023 at 2:57 am
Today is…
National Black Cat Appreciation Day
Today is also…
Independence Day, celebrates the independence proclamation of Indonesia from Japan in 1945.
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Gabon from France in 1960.
Prekmurje Union Day in Slovenia
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share your special day with…
1786 – Davy Crockett, American soldier and politician (d. 1836)
1887 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican journalist and activist, founded Black Star Line (d. 1940)
1888 – Monty Woolley, American actor, raconteur, and pundit (d. 1963)
1893 – Mae West, American stage and film actress (d. 1980)
1919 – Georgia Gibbs, American singer (d. 2006)
1920 – Maureen O'Hara, Irish-American actress and singer (d. 2015)
1926 – Jiang Zemin, Chinese engineer and politician, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and 5th President of China (d. 2022)
1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American captain and pilot (d. 1977)
1930 – Ted Hughes, English poet and playwright (d. 1998)
1932 – V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-English novelist and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
1932 – Jean-Jacques Sempé, French cartoonist (d. 2022)
1939 – Luther Allison, American blues guitarist and singer (d. 1997)
1943 – Robert De Niro, American actor, entrepreneur, director, and producer
1943 – Dave "Snaker" Ray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)
1944 – Larry Ellison, American businessman, co-founded the Oracle Corporation
1949 – Sue Draheim, American fiddler and composer (d. 2013)
1958 – Belinda Carlisle, American singer-songwriter
1959 – Eric Schlosser, American journalist and author
1960 – Sean Penn, American actor, director, and political activist
1965 – Steve Gorman, American drummer
1989 – Lil B, Berkeley-born rapper
…and on this day in history…
1876 – Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the last opera in his Ring cycle, premieres at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
1915 – A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h)
1945 – The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.
1953 – First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern California.
1977 – The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
1978 – Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
1985 – The 1985–86 Hormel strike begins in Austin, Minnesota
1998 – Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; later that same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.
2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.
