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Friday April 20, 1012

Opening Day Fenway Park - 1912
Opening Day Fenway Park - 1912
  • 111th Day of 2012 / 255 Remaining
  • 61 Days Until Summer Begins
  • Sunrise:6:27
  • Sunset:7:51
  • 12 Hr 24 Min
  • Moon Rise:5:54am
  • Moon Set:7:41pm
  • Moon’s Phase: 0 %
  • The Next Full Moon
  • May 5 @ 8:36pm
  • Full Flower Moon
  • Full Corn Planting Moon
  • Full Milk 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:11:44am/11:04pm
  • Low:5:16am/5:02pm
  • Rainfall
  • This Year:
  • Last Year:
  • Normal To Date:
  • Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
  • Holidays
  • National Equal Pay Day
  • Anniversary of Something That Happened So Long Ago Everyone Has Forgotten What It Was Day
  • National Take a Break to Reset Your Mind Day
  • National Goal Buddies Day
  • National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day
  • 4/20 Day
  • National DNA Day
  • Global Youth Service Day
  • Taurus Begins
  • On This Day In …
  • 1792 --- France declared war on Austria, marking the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
  • 1832 --- The U.S. Congress and President Andrew Jackson made Hot Springs, Arkansas the first Federal Reservation in order to protect the hot springs flowing from the southwestern slope of Hot Springs Mountain. Although Hot Springs Federal Reservation's name wasn't changed to Hot Springs National Park until 1921, Hot Springs is the oldest park in the National Park System. Yellowstone National Park was the first to bear the title of ‘National Park’. It became a national park in 1872.
  • 1841 --- Edgar Allen Poe's story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, first appears in Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine. The tale is generally considered to be the first detective story. The story describes the extraordinary "analytical power" used by Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris. Like the later Sherlock Holmes stories, the tale is narrated by the detective's roommate. Following the publication of Poe's story, detective stories began to grow into novels and English novelist Wilkie Collins published a detective novel, The Moonstone, in 1868. In Collins' story, the methodical Sergeant Cuff searches for the criminal who stole a sacred Indian moonstone. The novel includes several features of the typical modern mystery, including red herrings, false alibis, and climactic scenes. The greatest fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, first appeared in 1887, in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel A Study in Scarlet. The cozy English mystery novel became popularized with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series in the 1920s, when other detectives like Lord Peter Wimsey and Ellery Queen were also becoming popular. In the 1930s, sometimes called the golden age of detective stories, the noir detective novel became the mainstay of writers like Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane. Tough female detectives such as Kinsey Millhone and V.I. Warshawski became popular in the 1980s.
  • 1906 --- Firefighters finally halt the spread of flames in San Francisco after an earthquake two days earlier caused a substantial part of the city to burn. Nearly 700 people lost their lives from the earthquake and fires and 200,000 were left homeless. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.3 rocked the city. It was felt as far away as Los Angeles and Oregon. San Francisco, with a population of about 400,000 by 1906, had already experienced significant quakes in the second half of the 19th century. Accordingly, some authorities had sought to put stricter building codes in place to protect the city's rapidly growing population. However, these codes were not enforced uniformly, so damage from earthquakes varied widely from neighborhood to neighborhood and, even, building to building. Despite the fact that many buildings were leveled by the earthquake, far more damage and death was caused by the resulting fires. The wooden buildings around Market Street and Chinatown were immediately set ablaze. Broken gas lines extended the reach of the fires. At least 50 separate fires were reported the first morning; there was not nearly enough firefighting personnel or equipment available to handle the disaster. Water mains that would ordinarily have assisted the firefighting efforts had been damaged by the earthquake, further reducing the possibility of quickly containing the fires. By the afternoon of April 18, it was apparent that desperate measures were required. The mayor authorized firefighters to blow up houses and buildings with dynamite, if necessary, to create fire breaks. Furthermore, 1,000 men were deputized to summarily execute looters or anyone impeding the firefighting effort. By April 19, the fire had spread over an area three miles long. The U.S. Navy sent ships to assist the city. President Roosevelt asked the Red Cross to step in to help survivors. Changing winds and a massive volunteer effort finally halted the fire on the night of April 20. Almost five square miles of downtown San Francisco had been destroyed by the fire; only a few buildings within this area were left standing.
  • 1912 --- On a game-winning two-out single by Tris Speaker in the 11th inning, the Boston Red Sox edge the New York Yankees 7-6. It was the Sox first game in their elegant new stadium, Fenway Park.
  • 1916 --- Chicago's Wrigley Field held its first Cubs game with the first National League game at the ballpark. The Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in 11 innings.
  • 1942 --- Boston Braves manager Casey Stengel got so mad at rookie pitcher Warren Spahn because he was unable to hit Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese in four pitches, he sent Spahn back to the minors to learn better control. Spahn returned to the majors four years later to become the winningest lefthander of all time.
  • 1949 --- Willie Shoemaker won his first race as a jockey aboard Shafter V at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Ca.
  • 1959 --- Desilu Playhouse on CBS-TV presented a two-part show titled, The Untouchables starting this night. Robert Stack starred in the program and became a major television star when The Untouchables become a weekly network series in the fall of 1959.
  • 1961 --- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave approval for FM stereo broadcasting. It would be another five or six years before FM stations went ‘underground’ or ‘progressive’ to attract listeners who were tired of the lack of audio quality on AM stations. FM stations to that time had broadcast in glorious monaural sound.
  • 1971 --- The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in public schools.
  • 1999 --- Two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. At about 11:20 a.m., Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, dressed in long trench coats, began shooting students outside the school before moving inside to continue their rampage. By the time SWAT team officers finally entered the school at about 3:00 p.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 fellow students and a teacher, and had wounded another 23 people. Then, around noon, they turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide.
  • 2008 --- Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history, capturing the Indy Japan 300 in her 50th career start.
  • 2010 --- The Deep Water Horizon oil rig run by British Petroleum exploded in the Gulf of Mexico some 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and injuring 17 others. The resulting oil spill was the largest offshore spill in U,S. history.
  • Birthdays
  • Ryan O'Neal
  • Carmen Electra
  • Jessica Lange
  • Don Mattingly
  • George Takei
  • Justice John Paul Stevens
  • Crispin Glover
  • Harold Lloyd
  • Lionel Hampton
  • Tito (Ernest) Puente
  • Denis Leary
  • Adolph Hitler