Today Wednesday, the 18th of October of 2017 is the 291st day of the year....
There are 74 days remaining until the end of the year.
384 days until mid-term elections Tuesday November 6, 2018
(1 year and 19 days from today)
1112 days until presidential elections Tuesday November 3, 2020
(3 years and 16 days from today)
The sun will rise on the west coast at 7:22 am
and the sun will set at 6:26 pm.
Today we will have 11 hours and 4 minutes of daylight.
Solar noon will be at 12:54 pm.
The first low tide was at 4:47 am
and the next low tide will be at 5:24 pm.
The first high tide will be at 11:25 am
and the next high tide at 11:51 pm.
The Moon is only 1.8% illuminated
A Waning Crescent, still a Smiling Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 82.14° E
Moon Altitude: -11.78°
Moon Distance: 241738 mi
Next New Moon: Tomorrow, Thursday October 19, 2017 at 12:12 pm
Which is also the first day of Diwali!
Next Full Moon: Friday November 3, 2017 at 10:22 pm
Next Moonrise: Today at 6:08 am
Today is…
Hagfish Day
Medical Assistants Recognition Day
National Chocolate Cupcake Day
National No Beard Day
National Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day
Today is also…
Independence Day in Azerbaijan, celebrating the independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share this day with…
1898 – Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)
1904 – A. J. Liebling, American journalist and author (d. 1963)
1918 – Bobby Troup, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (d. 1999)
1919 – Anita O'Day, American singer (d. 2006)
1919 – Pierre Trudeau, Canadian lawyer, academic, and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
1920 – Melina Mercouri, Greek actress, singer, and politician, 9th Greek Minister of Culture (d. 1994)
1921 – Jesse Helms, American soldier, journalist, and politician (d. 2008)
1923 – Jessie Mae Hemphill, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2008)
1924 – Buddy MacMaster, Canadian singer-songwriter and fiddler (d. 2014)
1926 – Chuck Berry, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
1926 – Klaus Kinski, German-American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1991)
1927 – George C. Scott, American actor and director (d. 1999)
1929 – Violeta Chamorro, Nicaraguan publisher and politician, President of Nicaragua
1935 – Peter Boyle, American actor (d. 2006)
1939 – Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)
1947 – Laura Nyro, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1997)
1948 – Ntozake Shange, American author, poet, and playwright
1951 – Terry McMillan, American author and screenwriter
1984 – Esperanza Spalding, American singer-songwriter and bassist
1984 – Milo Yiannopoulos, British journalist and public speaker
1987 – Zac Efron, American actor and singer
On this day in history…
320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest).
1775 – African-American poet Phillis Wheatley is freed from slavery.
1851 – Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
1898 – The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.
1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
1945 – The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Duarte.
1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio.
1963 – Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat becomes the first cat launched into space.
1968 – The US Olympic Committee suspended two African-American athletes for giving the Black Power salute during the Star Spangled Banner played during a victory ceremony at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
1979 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license.