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Almanac - Thursday January 4, 2024

Spaghetti
Bowie Sin
/
Flickr Creative Commons
Spaghetti

Today is Thursday, the 4th of January of 2024,

January 4 is the fourth day of the year

362 days remain until the end of the year

74 days until spring begins

The sun will rise in San Francisco at 7:25:34 am

and sunset will be at 5:04:46 pm.

We will have 9 hours and 39 minutes of daylight

The solar transit will be at 12:15:10 pm.

The first high tide was at 4:38 am at 5.37 feet

The first low tide will be at 11:43 am at 1.74 feet

The next high tide at 5:16 pm at 3.5 feet

and the next low tide at 10:28 pm at 2.23 feet

The Moon is currently 46 % visible

It’s the third quarter moon

The moon sets this afternoon at 12:06 pm

and the moon rises early tomorrow morning at 1:33 am

The next phase will be a New Moon next Thursday the 11th of January of 2024 at 3:57 am

Today is….

Dimpled Chad Day

Free Flower Basket Day

National Spaghetti Day

National Trivia Day

Pop Music Chart Day

Tom Thumb Day

World Braille Day

as today is the birthday in 1809 of Louis Braille, French educator, invented Braille (d. 1852)

World Hypnotism Day

The eleventh of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

On the Eleventh Day Of Christmas…

My True Love Gave To Me…

eleven pipers piping

ten lords a-leaping

nine ladies dancing

eight maids a-milking

seven swans a-swimming

six geese a-laying

five gold rings

four calling birds

Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Today is also…

Independence Day (Myanmar), celebrates the independence of Myanmar from the United Kingdom in 1948.

Colonial Martyrs Repression Day (Angola)

Day of the Martyrs (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Ogoni Day (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People)

Tokyo Dome Show: The annual Wrestle Kingdom event run by New Japan Pro-Wrestling

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You Get to share your special day with….

1643 (calendar New Style) – Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1726/27)

1785Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist (d. 1863)

1809Louis Braille, French educator, invented Braille (d. 1852)

1838General Tom Thumb, American circus performer (d. 1883)

1896Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)

1896 – André Masson, French painter and illustrator (d. 1987)

1900James Bond, American ornithologist and zoologist (d. 1989)

1916Lionel Newman, American pianist and composer (d. 1989)

1916 – Robert Parrish, American actor and director (d. 1995)

1920William Colby, American intelligence officer, 10th Director of Central Intelligence (d. 1996)

1927 – Barbara Rush, American actress

1935Floyd Patterson, American boxer (d. 2006)

1942 – John McLaughlin, English guitarist and songwriter

1943Doris Kearns Goodwin, American historian and author

1946Arthur Conley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)

1957Patty Loveless, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1960 – Michael Stipe, American singer-songwriter and producer

1963Dave Foley, Canadian comedian, actor, director, and producer

1966Deana Carter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

…and on this day in history….

1853 – After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller.

1896Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

1958Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, falls to Earth from orbit.

1959Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.

2004 – Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution.

2006Ehud Olmert becomes acting Prime Minister of Israel after the incumbent, Ariel Sharon, suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke.

2007 – The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.

2010 – The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai.

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.