Today is Tuesday, April 4, 2017 the 94th day of the year with 271 days remaining.
- Sunrise: 6:50am
- Sunset: 7:36pm
...giving us 12 hours and 46 minutes of daylight. 50% of the moon will be visible, setting at 2:53am.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 6:15am/8:33pm
- Low: 12:19am/1:10pm
Special international celebrations today…
- Basque National Day - Spain
- Children's Day - Taiwan
- Heroes Day - Lesotho
- Independence Day - Senegal
- Memorial Day of Chiang Kai-shek - Taiwan
- National Day Senegal
- Tomb Sweeping Day - Taiwan
- Women's Day - Taiwan
It’s also…
- International Carrot Day
- National Cordon Bleu Day
- Vitamin C Day
- Equal Pay Day
- International Day for Mine Awareness & Assistance in Mine Action
- National Sexual Assault Awareness Day of Action
- Victims of Violence Wholly Day
- World Rat Day
On this day in…
0896 - Formosus ended his reign as pope.
1541 - Ignatius of Loyola became the first superior-general of the Jesuits.
1581 - Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. A few months earlier he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world.
1687 - King James II ordered that his declaration of indulgence be read in church.
1812 - The territory of Orleans became the 18thU.S. state and will become known as Louisiana.
1818 - A plan was passsed by theU.S. Congress that the U.S. flag would have 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars and that a new star would be added for the each new state.
1841 - U.S. President William Henry Harrison, at the age of 68, became the first president to die in office. He had been sworn in only a month before he died of pneumonia.
1848 - Thomas Douglas became the first San Francisco public teacher.
1850 - The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
1862 - In theU.S., the Battle of Yorktown began as Union General George B. McClellan closed in on Richmond,VA.
1887 - Susanna M. Salter became mayor of Argonia,KS, making her the first woman mayor in theU.S.
1902 - British Financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will that would provide scholarships for Americans to Oxford University in England.
1905 - In Kangra, India, an earthquake killed 370,000 people.
1914 - The first known serialized moving picture opened in New York City,NY. It was "The Perils of Pauline".
1917 - The U.S. Senate voted 90-6 to enter World War I on the Allied side.
1918 - The Battle of Somme, an offensive by the British against the German Army ended.
1932 - After five years of research, professor C.G. King, of the University of Pittsburgh, isolated vitamin C.
1945 - Hungary was liberated from Nazi occupation.
1945 - During World War II,U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
1949 - Twelve nations signed a treaty to create The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
1953 - Fifteen doctors were released by Soviet leaders. The doctors had been arrested before Stalin had died and were accused of plotting against him.
1967 - TheU.S. lost its 500th plane over Vietnam.
1967 - Johnny Carson quit "The Tonight Show." He returned three weeks later after getting a raise of $30,000 a week.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the age of 39.
1969 - Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart.
1971 - Veterans stadium in Philadelphia,PA, was dedicated this day.
1973 - In New York, the original World Trade Center twin towers opened. At the time they were the tallest building in the world.
1974 - Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth's major league baseball home-run record with 714.
1975 - More than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when aU.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed just after takeoff from Saigon.
1979 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the president of Pakistan, was executed. He had been convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent.
1981 - Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a majorU.S.. city, which was San Antonio, TX.
1983 - At Cape Canaveral, the space shuttle Challenger took off on its first flight. It was the sixth flight overall for the shuttle program.
1984 - U.S. President Reagan proposed an international ban on chemical weapons.
1985 - In Sudan, a coup ousted President Nimeiry and replaced him with General Dahab.
1986 - Wayne Gretzky set anNHL record with his 213th point of the season.
1987 - TheU.S. charged the Soviet Union with wiretapping aU.S.. Embassy.
1988 -Arizona Governor Evan Mecham was voted out of office by theArizona Senate. Mecham was found guilty of diverting state funds to his auto business and of trying to impede an investigation into a death threat to a grand jury witness.
1990 - In theU.S., securities law violator Ivan Boesky was released from federal custody.
1991 -Pennsylvanian Senator John Heinz and six others were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz's plane over a schoolyard in Merion,PA.
1992 - Sali Berisha became the first non-Marxist president of Albania since World War II.
1994 - Netscape Communications (Mosaic Communications) was founded.
1995 -U.S.. Senator Alfonse D'Amato ridiculed judge Lance Ito using a mock Japanese accent on a nationally syndicated radio program. D'Amato apologized two days later for the act.
1999 - The Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres played the firstmajor league season opener to be held in Mexico. The Rockies beat the Padres 8-2.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Dorothea Dix 1802
- Linus Yale 1821 - Inventor (Yale Infallible Bank Lock and cylinder lock)
- Isoroku Yamamoto 1884
- Arthur Murray (Moses Teichman) 1895 - Dancer
- John Cameron Swayze 1906 - Newsman
- Frances Langford (Frances Newbern) 1914 - Radio singer, actress
- Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) 1913 - Blues singer, guitarist
- Elizabeth W. Wilson 1921 - Actress
- Elmer Bernstein 1922 - Composer of film scores
- William Manchester 1922
- Gil (Gilbert Raymond) Hodges 1924 - Baseball player
- Maya Angelou 1928 - Author, poet
- Clive Davis 1932 - Record company executive
- Anthony Perkins 1932 - Actor (Movies: "Psycho" series)
- Norro Wilson 1938 - Singer, composer, producer
- Michael Parks 1938
- Angelo Giamatti 1938
- JoAnne Carner 1939 - Golfer
- Hugh Masekela 1939 - Musician, band leader
- Ernie Terrell 1939 - Boxer
- Major Lance 1941
- Jim (James Louis) Fregosi 1942 - Baseball player
- Kris Jensen 1942 - Singer
- Kitty Kelley 1942 - Author
- Mike (Michael Peter) Epstein 1943 - baseball player
- Craig T. Nelson 1944 - Actor
- Walter Charles 1945 - Actor
- Caroline McWilliams 1945 - Actress
- Ray (Raymond Earl) Fosse 1947 - Baseball catcher
- Ed White 1947 - Football player
- Berry Oakley 1948 - Musician, bass player (Allman Brothers)
- Christine Lahti 1950 - Actress
- Steve Gatlin 1951 - Singer (The Gatlin Brothers)
- Dave Hill 1952 - Musician, guitar player (Slade)
- Jerry Shirley 1952 - Musician (Humble Pie)
- David E. Kelley 1956 - Writer, producer ("Ally McBeal", "The Practice")
- Graeme Kelling 1957 - Musician (Deacon Blue)
- Phil Morris 1959 - Actor
- Lorraine Toussaint 1960 - Actress ("Crossing Jordan," "Any Day Now")
- Craig Adams 1962 - Musician (The Cult)
- David Gavurin 1963 - Musician (Sundays)
- Robert Downey, Jr. 1965 - Actor (Movie: "U.S. Marshals")
- Frank Black 1965 - Musician (Pixies)
- Nancy McKeon 1966 - Actress (TV: "The Facts of Life")
- Mike Starr (Michael Christopher Starr) 1966 - Musician (Alice in Chains)
- Barry Pepper 1970 - Actor
- Clay Davidson 1971 - Country Singer
- Jill Scott 1972 - Singer
- Magnus Sveningsson 1972 - Musician (The Cardigans)
- Kelly Price 1973 - Singer
- David Blaine 1973 - Magician
- Andre Dalyrimple 1974 - Singer (Soul for Real)
- Scott Rolen 1975 - Baseball player
- Natasha Lyonne 1979 - Actress
- Heath Ledger 1979 - Actor
- Jamie Lynn Spears 1991 - Actress ("Zoey 101"), sister of singer Britney Spears
- Austin Mahone 1996 - Singer
