The sun shines brightly today...on Nicolas Copernicus's birthday!
50th day of 2016, 316 remaining
Sunrise: 6:55am Sunset: 5:53pm
Moonset: 4:44am Moonrise: 3:19pm, 84% of the waxing moon will be visible, heading towards a full moon on February 22.
Tides at the Golden Gate:
Low: 2:38am/3:34pm
High: 8:48am/10?34pm
Celebrations today…
National Democracy Day - Nepal
National Flag Day – Turkmenistan
Family Day - Saskatchewan, Canada
Best Friends Day
Chocolate Mint Day
National Lashes Day
Women in Blue Jeans Days
Iwo Jima Day
On this day in…
1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.
1846 - The formal transfer of government between Texas and the United States took place. Texas had officially become a state on December 29, 1845.
1856 - The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.
1864 - The Knights of Pythias was founded in Washington, DC. A dozen members formed what became Lodge No. 1.
1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).
1881 - Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
1922 - Ed Wynn became the first big-name, vaudeville talent to sign on as a radio talent.
1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.
1942 - The New York Yankees announced that they would admit 5,000 uniformed servicemen free to each of their home ball games during the coming season.
1942 - Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.
1945 - During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.
1949 - Bollingen Foundation and Yale University awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry ($5,000) to Ezra Pound.
1953 - The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.
1959 - Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement with Britain, Turkey and Greece.
1963 - The Soviet Union informed U.S. President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of its troops in Cuba.
1981 - The U.S. State Department call El Savador a "textbook case" of a Communist plot.reagan ows
1981 - Ford Motor Company announced its loss of $1.5 billion.
1985 - Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.
1985 - William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.
1985 - Cherry Coke was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company.
1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification.
1986 - The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.
1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking public service announcement aired for the first time on television. Yul Brynner filmed the ad shortly before dying of lung cancer. Brynner made it clear in the ad that he would have died from cigarette smoking before ad aired.
1997 - Deng Xiaoping of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries.
1999 - Dennis Franz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2001 - The museum at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center was dedicated.
2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.
2004 - Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's collapse. Skilling was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.
2005 - The USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned at Groton, CT. It was the last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines.
2008 - Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency. His brother Raul was later named as his successor.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)…
Nicolas Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernick) 1473
David Garrick 1717
Sven Hedin (Sven Anders Hedin) 1865
Sir Cedrick Hardwicke 1893
Louis Calhern (Carl Henry Vogt) 1895
Nydia Westman 1902
John Bubbles (John William Sublett) 1902
Susan Fleming 1909
Merle Oberon (Thompson) 1911
Stan Kenton 1912
Dick Siebert (Richard Walther Siebert) 1912
Eddie Arcaro 1916
Carson McCullers 1917
Lee Marvin 1924
John Frankenheimer 1930
Smokey Robinson 1940
Bobby Rogers 1940
Paul Krause 1942
Bruce Fairbairn 1947
Tony Iommi 1948
Amy Tan 1952
Jeff Daniels 1955
Ray Winstone 1957
Prince Andrew 1960
Hana Mandlikova 1962
Seal 1963
Justine Bateman 1966
Benicio Del Toro 1967
