© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Almanac ~ Monday, 4/24/17

It's Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day!  Today is Monday, April 24, 2017 the 144th day of the year with 251 days remaining.

  • Sunrise: 6:41am  
  • Sunset: 7:41pm

...giving us 13 hours and 32 minutes of daylight.  97% of the waning moon will be visible, rising at 7:24pm. 

Tides at the Golden Gate

  • High: 12:14pm
  • Low: 5:49am/5:52pm

Special international celebrations or commemorations today…

  • Armenian Genocide Memorial Day - Armenia
  • National Concord Day - Niger

It’s also…

  • Parental Alienation Day
  • Red Hat Society Day
  • National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day

On this day in…

1519 - Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America.

1547 - Charles V's troops defeated the Protestant League of Schmalkalden at the battle of Muhlburg.

1558 - Mary, Queen of Scotland, married the French dauphin, Francis.

1800 - The Library of Congress was established with a $5,000 allocation.

1805 - The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.

1833 - A patent was granted for first soda fountain.

1877 - Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

1877 - In the U.S., federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans. This was the end to the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

1884 - Otto von Bismarck cabled Cape Town that South Africa was now a German colony.

1889 - The Edison General Electric Company was organized.

1897 - William Price became the first to be named White House news reporter.

1898 - Spain declared war on the U.S., rejecting America's ultimatum for Spain to withdraw from Cuba.

1915 - During World War I, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians.

1916 - Irish nationalist launched the Easter Rebellion against British occupation forces. They were overtaken several days later.

1944 - The first B-29 arrived in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.

1953 - Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1961 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18 batters becoming the first major-league pitcher to do so on two different occasions.

1961 -US President John F. Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

1962 - MIT sent a TV signal by satellite for the first time.

1967 - Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov died when his craft crashed with a tangled parachute.

1967 - The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts.

1970 - The People's Republic of China launched its first satellite.

1973 - Albert Sabin reported that herpes viruses were factors in nine kinds of cancer.

1989 - Thousands of students began striking in Beijing.

1990 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

1997 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons.

2003 - A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.

2015 - The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high of 5092.09.

2015 - The S&P closed at a record high of 2117.69.

Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...

  • John Graunt 1620
  • Edmund Cartwright 1743
  • Robert Bailey Thomas 1766
  • George Bascom 1836
  • Henri Philippe Petain 1856
  • Robert Penn Warren 1905
  • Jack E. Leonard 1911
  • Aaron Bell 1922
  • J.D. Cannon 1922
  • Johnny Griffin 1928 - Saxophonist known as "Little Giant"
  • Freddy Scott 1933
  • Shirley Boone 1934
  • Shirley MacLaine 1934 - Actress
  • Jill Ireland 1936
  • Joe Henderson 1937
  • Sue Grafton 1940 - Author
  • Barbra Streisand 1942 - Singer
  • Richard Sterban 1943 - Singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
  • Bob Lunn 1945
  • Robert Knight 1945
  • Doug Clifford 1945 - Musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
  • Glenn Cornick 1947
  • Eric Bogosian 1953 - Actor
  • Vince Ferragamo 1954
  • Raymond Ian Burns 1954 - Known as Captain Sensible, musician (Damned)
  • Michael O'Keefe 1955
  • David J. 1957 - Musician (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets)
  • Boris Williams 1958 - Musician (Cure)
  • Glenn Morshower 1959 - Actor ("24")
  • Billy Gould 1963 - Musician (Faith No More)
  • Paul Ryder 1964 - Musician (Happy Mondays)
  • Djimon Hounsou 1964 - Actor
  • Cedric the Entertainer 1964 - Actor, comedian
  • Patty Schemel 1967 - Musician (Hole)
  • Omar Vizquel 1967 - Baseball player
  • Aaron Comess 1968 - Musician (Spin Doctors)
  • Chipper Jones 1972 - Baseball player
  • Brian Aubrey Marshall 1973 - Musician (Creed)
  • Eric Balfour 1977 - Actor
  • Carlos Beltran 1977 - Baseball player
  • Rebecca Mader 1977 - Actress ("All My Children", "Lost", "Justice")
  • Kelly Clarkson (Kelly Brianne Clarkson) 1983 - Singer
David Latulippe is host of On the Arts, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, as well as for Explorations in Music, and the Berkeley Symphony broadcasts. He has also hosted and produced the radio series From the Conservatory, Music from Mills, and Music at Menlo, and is principal guest host for Revolutions Per Minute.