Today is Wednesday, October 18, 2023, the 291st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar with 74 days remaining until the end of the year.
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 6:28pm
...giving us 11 hours and 7 minutes of daylight.
The waxing crescent moon will rise at 11:34am and set at 8:50pm and is 17.9% illuminated.
San Francisco Tides:
High: 3:10am/1:47pm
Low: 7:31am/8:42pm
The water temperature in Aquatic Park averaging 65 degrees.
Today's special celebrations...
BRA Day USA (breast reconstruction awareness)
Hagfish Day
Information and Misinformation Overload Day
International Pronouns Day
International Legging Day
International Necktie Day
Meatloaf Appreciation Day
Medical Assistants Recognition Day
National Chocolate Cupcake Day
Meatloaf Appreciation Day
National Exascale Day
Newspaper Comic Strip Appreciation Day
Thank Your Cleaner Day
World Menopause Day
On this day in...
1469 - Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The marriage united all the dominions of Spain.
1685 - King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration of the Protestant population.
1767 - The Mason-Dixon line was agreed upon. It was the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.
1842 - Samuel Finley Breese Morse laid his first telegraph cable.
1867 - The U.S. took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. The land was purchased of a total of $7 million dollars (2 cents per acre).
1892 - The first long-distance telephone line between Chicago, IL, and New York City, NY, was opened.
1898 - The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico only one year after the Caribbean nation won its independence from Spain.
1929 - The Judicial Committee of England’s Privy Council ruled that women were to be considered as persons in Canada.
1943 - The first broadcast of "Perry Mason" was presented on CBS Radio. The show went to TV in 1957.
1944 - Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviets during World War II.
1969 - The U.S. government banned artificial sweeteners due to evidence that they caused cancer.
1989 - The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a mission that included the deployment of the Galileo space probe.
Birthday celebrants on this day include or included...
Giovanni Canaletto 1697 - Landscape artist
Lotte Lenya (Karoline Blamauer) 1898 - Singer, actress
James Brooks 1906 - Artist
Bobby Troup 1918 - Actor ("Emergency")
Anita O'Day 1919 - Singer
Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919 - Prime Minister of Canada
Chuck Berry (Charles Edward Anderson Berry) 1926
George C. Scott 1927 - Actor ("Patton," "Taps")
Peter Boyle 1935 - Actor ("The X-Files," "Everybody Loves Raymond")
Ronnie Bright 1938 - Musician (The Coasters)
Mike Ditka 1939 - Football player and coach
Laura Nyro 1947 - Singer, songwriter
Wendy Wasserstein 1950 - Writer
Pam Dawber 1951 - Actress ("Mork & Mindy")
Martina Navratilova 1956 - Tennis player
Jean-Claude Van Damme 1960- Actor ("Double Impact," "Hard Target")
Erin Moran 1960 - Actress ("Happy Days," "Joanie Loves Chachi")
Wynton Marsalis 1961 - Musician
Vincent Spano 1962 - Actor
Tim Cross 1966 - Musician (Sponge)
Zach Effron 1987 - Actor, singer ("High School Musical" movies)
Tyler Posey 1991 - Actor
