- 100th Day of 2015 265 Remaining
- Summer Begins in 72 Days
- Sunrise:6:40
- Sunset:7:41
- 13 Hours 1 Minute
- Moon Rise:12:45am
- Moon Set:11:08am
- Phase:65%
- Full Moon May 3 @ 8:44pm
- Full Flower Moon In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
- Tides
- High:2:56am/5:08pm
- Low:9:54am/10:00pm
- Rainfall:
- This Year to Date:17.97
- Last Year:12.30
- Avg YTD:22.06
- Annual Avg:23.80
- Holidays
- National Sibling Day
- ASPCA Day
- National Farm Animals Day
- National Cinnamon Crescent Day
- National Golfer’s Day
- International Safety Pin Day
- On This Day
- 1778 --- Commander John Paul Jones and his crew of 140 men aboard the USS Ranger set sail from the naval port at Brest, France, and head toward the Irish Sea to begin raids on British warships. This was the first mission of its kind during the Revolutionary War. Jones successfully executed raids on two forts in England s Whitehaven Harbor, despite a disgruntled crew more interested in “gain than honor.” Jones then continued to his home territory of Kirkcudbright Bay, Scotland, where he intended to abduct the earl of Selkirk and then exchange him for American sailors held captive by Britain. Although he did not find the earl at home, Jones crew was able to steal all his silver, including his wife s teapot, still containing her breakfast tea. From Scotland, Jones sailed across the Irish Sea to Carrickfergus, where the Ranger captured the HMS Drake after delivering fatal wounds to the British ship’s captain and lieutenant.
- 1814 --- Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Toulouse by the British and the Spanish. The defeat led to his abdication and exile to Elba.
- 1849 --- Walter Hunt patented the safety pin. He sold the rights for $100.
- 1865 --- One day after surrendering to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his army for the last time. “After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them…I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen…I bid you an affectionate farewell.” This closed the book on one of the most remarkable armies in history. The Army of Northern Virginia had fought against long odds for four years and won most of the battles in which it engaged the Union’s Army of the Potomac. Along the way, Lee was lionized by his troops as few military leaders ever have been. The final surrender was a bitter pill for Lee to swallow, but the grace of his final communiqué to his troops exhibited the virtues that made him the single most enduring symbol of the Confederacy.
- 1866 --- The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by philanthropist and diplomat Henry Bergh, 54.
- 1912 --- The Titanic set sail from Southampton, England.
- 1919 --- Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and indigenous people during the Mexican Revolution, is ambushed and shot to death in Morelos by government forces. Born a peasant in 1879, Zapata was forced into the Mexican army in 1908 following his attempt to recover village lands taken over by a rancher. After the revolution began in 1910, he raised an army of peasants in the southern state of Morelos under the slogan “Land and Liberty.” Demanding simple agrarian reforms, Zapata and his guerrilla farmers opposed the central Mexican government under Francisco Madero, later under Victoriano Huerta, and finally under Venustiano Carranza. Zapata and his followers never gained control of the central Mexican government, but they redistributed land and aided poor farmers within the territory under their control. Zapata’s influence has endured long after his death, and his agrarian reform movement, known as zapatismo, remains important to many Mexicans today. In 1994, a guerrilla group calling themselves the Zapata Army of National Liberation launched a peasant uprising in the southern state of Chiapas.
- 1925 --- "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published.
- 1927 --- "Ballet Macanique" was presented for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the first symphonic work that used an airplane propeller and other mechanical contraptions not normally associated with the ballet.
- 1933 --- President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an innovative federally funded organization that put thousands of Americans to work during the Great Depression on projects with environmental benefits.
- 1942 --- The day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, the 75,000 Filipino and American troops captured on the Bataan Peninsula begin a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. During this infamous trek, known as the “Bataan Death March,” the prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days, with only one meal of rice during the entire journey.
- 1947 --- Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey announced the team had acquired Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals, paving the way for Robinson to become the first black player in the major leagues.
- 1953 --- The House of Wax, starring Vincent Price, opens at New York’s Paramount Theater. Released by Warner Brothers, it was the first movie from a major motion-picture studio to be shot using the three-dimensional, or stereoscopic, film process and one of the first horror films to be shot in color.
- 1961 --- Gary Player of South Africa became the first foreign golfer to win the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
- 1963 --- The USS Thresher, an atomic submarine, sinks in the Atlantic Ocean, killing the entire crew. One hundred and twenty-nine sailors and civilians were lost when the sub unexpectedly plunged to the sea floor 300 miles off the coast of New England.
- 1967 --- The song "Somethin' Stupid" became the first father-daughter song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. The song was performed by Nancy and Frank Sinatra.
- 1968 --- U.S. President Johnson replaced General Westmoreland with General Creighton Abrams in Vietnam.
- 1971 --- The U.S. table tennis team begins a weeklong visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at the invitation of China’s communist government. The well-publicized trip was part of the PRC’s attempt to build closer diplomatic relations with the United States, and was the beginning of what some pundits in the United States referred to as “ping-pong diplomacy.”
- 1972 --- Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for the Best Music, Original Song award for the song "Shaft".
- 1972 --- As part of his first visit to the United States in 20 years, British film pioneer Charlie Chaplin accepts an honorary Academy Award for his “incalculable” contribution to the art of filmmaking. Chaplin, once America’s most successful movie star and director, had left the country under a storm of controversy in 1952.
- 1974 --- Yitzhak Rabin replaced resigning Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Meir resigned over differences within her Labor Party.
- 1981 --- Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won election to the British Parliament.
- 1982 --- Saturday Night Live had viewers vote whether to boil 'Larry the Lobster' or not. The audience voted to free him.
- 1992 --- In Los Angeles, financier Charles Keating Jr. was sentenced to nine years in prison for swindling investors when his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed. The convictions were later overturned.
- 1992 --- A bomb exploded in London's financial district. The bomb, set off by the Irish Republican Army, killed three people and injured 91.
- 1992 --- Outside Needles, CA, comedian Sam Kinison was killed when a pickup truck slammed into his car on a desert road between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
- 1999 --- Tom Jones, Elvis Costello, George Michael, Sinead O'Connor, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, and Paul McCartney all performed at the "Here There and Everywhere: A Concert for Linda", a charity tribute to Linda McCartney held at London's Royal Albert Hall.
- Birthdays
- Lew Wallace
- Vladimir Lenin
- Frances Perkins
- Harry Morgan
- Chuck Connors
- Max Von Sydow
- Joseph Pulitzer
- Omar Sharif
- Bunny Wailer
- Terry Roche
- Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds
- Shemika Copeland
Friday April 10, 2015
