Today is Friday, the 9th of August of 2024,
August 9 is the 222nd day of the year
144 days remain until the end of the year.
44 days until autumn begins
88 days (87 days 18 hours) until Election Day, Tuesday November 5
The sun rose this morning at 6:20:56 am
and sunset will be at 8:08:25 pm.
We will have 13 hours and 47 minutes of daylight
The solar transit will be at 1:14:40 pm.
Water temperature in San Francisco Bay today is 68.2°F
the first high tide will be at 1:56 am at 4.76 feet
The first low tide will be at 8:15 am at 1.2 feet
The next high tide at 2:55 pm at 5.37 feet
and the final low tide at 9:11 pm at 1.97 feet
The Moon is 21.8%
It’s a Waxing Crescent Moon
We’ll have the First Quarter Moon in 3 days Monday the12th of August of 2024 at 8:19 am
The Perseid Meteor Shower continues until August 24.
The Northern Hemisphere’s summertime meteor shower peaks around the night of Sunday August 11th
I understand the best place to see the meteor shower is in the Northeastern sky at high elevations and away from the light of big cities.
KALW News’ correspondent Zain Iqbal has a great report I recommend…
https://www.kalw.org/bay-area-news/2024-08-06/how-to-watch-the-perseid-meteor-shower-in-the-bay-area
Today is…
International Day of the World's Indigenous People
Today is also….
Battle of Gangut Day in Russia
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
Meyboom in Brussels and Leuven, Belgium
National Day, celebrates the independence of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.
National Women's Day in South Africa
I don’t ordinarily report deaths and sad events on the almanac
However, I want to acknowledge 4 sad things happened today in one or two words
Nagasaki
Michael Brown
Sharon Tate
Jerry Garcia
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share your special day with….
1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
1653 – John Oldham, English poet and translator (d. 1683)
1757 – Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American humanitarian; wife of Alexander Hamilton (d. 1854)
1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist and philosopher (d. 1980)
1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish author and illustrator (d. 2001)
1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet and novelist (d. 1985)
1938 – Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 2nd President of Ukraine
1939 – Butch Warren, American bassist (d. 2013)
1947 – Barbara Mason, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter
1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress and producer
1959 – Kurtis Blow, American rapper, producer, and actor
1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (d. 2012)
1970 – Chris Cuomo, American lawyer and journalist
1974 – Derek Fisher, American basketball player and coach
1990 – Sarah McBride, American LGBT activist
….and on this day in history….
1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete
1854 – American Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau publishes his memoir Walden.
1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
1936 – Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games.
1942 – Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th symphony is premiered in a besieged Leningrad.
1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
1945 – The Red Army invades Japanese-occupied Manchuria.
1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
1969 – Tate–LaBianca murders: Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. Vice President Gerald Ford becomes president.
1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
2012 – Shannon Eastin becomes the first woman to officiate an NFL game.
2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, is shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city.
