Today is Wednesday, the 20th of May of 2026,
May 20 is the 140th day of the year
225 days remain until the end of the year.
32 days until summer begins
Sunrise at 5:55:38 am
and sunset will be at 8:18:03 pm.
We will have 14 hours and 22 minutes of daylight today
The solar transit will be at 1:06:50 pm.
Water temperature in San Francisco Bay today is 61.9°F.
The first high tide was early this morning at 1:12 am at 6.44 feet
The first low tide will be this morning at 8:32 am at -1.47 feet
The next high tide will be this afternoon at 3:53 pm at 4.84 feet
and the final low tide at Ocean Beach will be tonight at 8:34 pm at 3.03 feet
The Moon is currently 19 going on 20% visible
It's a Waxing Crescent
We'll have the First Quarter Moon in 3 days on Saturday the 23rd of May of 2026 at 4:11 am
Today is....
Be a Millionaire Day
Eliza Doolittle Day
(just you wait Henry Higgins Just You Wait!)
Emergency Medical Services for Children Day
Also known as EMSC Day and EMS for Children Day
Flower Day
International Clinical Trials Day
International Red Sneakers Day
National Juice Slush Day
National Psychometrist Day
Also known as National Psychometrists Day
National Quiche Lorraine Day
National Rescue Dog Day
National Streaming Day
National SugarBee Apple Day
Pick Strawberries Day
Weights and Measures Day
World Auto-immune Arthritis Day
World Flour Day
World Product Day
Today is also....
Day of Remembrance in Cambodia
Emancipation Day in Florida
European Maritime Day
Independence Restoration Day, celebrates the independence of East Timor from Indonesia in 2002.
Josephine Baker Day in the NAACP
National Awakening Day, as well as....
Indonesian Doctor Day in Indonesia
National Day in Cameroon
World Bee Day
World Metrology Day
Doug the Pug Day in Nashville, Tennessee
as on this day in 2012 saw the birth of Doug the Pug, American celebrity dog
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share your special day with....
1799 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (died 1850)
1806 – John Stuart Mill, English economist, civil servant, and philosopher (died 1873)
1818 – William Fargo, American businessman and politician, co-founded Wells Fargo and American Express (died 1881)
1882 – Sigrid Undset, Danish-Norwegian novelist, essayist, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949)
1915 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician, 5th Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 1981)
1919 – George Gobel, American comedian (died 1991)
1944 – Joe Cocker, English singer-songwriter (died 2014)
1946 – Cher, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Minister of Japan
1958 – Ron Reagan, American journalist and radio host
1972 – Busta Rhymes, American rapper, producer, and actor
....and on this day in history.....
1609 – Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1875 – Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.
1883 – Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.
1891 – History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.
1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.
1927 – Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing 33+1⁄2 hours later.
1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
1980 – In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, with 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada.
1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier..
1996 – Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
2002 – The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).
2011 – Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post.
2019 – The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.
