241st day of 2014, 124 remaining
- Sunrise 6:38am
- Sunset 7:44pm
- Moonrise 10:27am, 9% visible
- Moonset 9:49pm
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 2:16am/2:45pm
- Low 8:02am/8:44pm
Special celebrations today include...
- Slovak National Uprising Day – Slovakia
- National College Colors Day
- Individual Rights Day
- International Day Against Nuclear Tests
- More Herbs, Less Salt Day
- National Sarcoidosis Awareness Day
- National Whiskey Sour Day
On this day in...
- 1828 - A patent was issued to Robert Turner for the self-regulating wagon brake.
- 1833 - The "Factory Act" was passed in England to settle child labor laws.
- 1842 - The Treaty of Nanking was signed by the British and the Chinese. The treaty ended the first Opium War and gave the island of Hong Kong to Britain.
- 1885 - The first prizefight under the Marquis of Queensberry Rules was held in Cincinnati, OH. John L. Sullivan defeated Dominick McCaffery in six rounds.
- 1886 - In New York City, Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang's chef invented chop suey.
- 1892 - Pop (Billy) Shriver (Chicago Cubs) caught a ball that was dropped from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.
- 1944 - During the continuing celebration of the liberation of France from the Nazis, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris.
- 1945 - U.S. General Douglas MacArthur left for Japan to officially accept the surrender of the Japanese.
- 1949 - At the University of Illinois, a nuclear device was used for the first time to treat cancer patients.
- 1957 - Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S. when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
- 1962 - The lower level of the George Washington Bridge opened.
- 1965 - Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles ("Pete") Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after eight days in space.
- 1971 - Hank Aaron became the first baseball player in the National League to hit 100 or more runs in each of 11 seasons.
- 1977 - Lou Brock brought his total of stolen bases to 893. The record he beat was held by Ty Cobb for 49 years.
- 1983 - Two U.S. marines were killed in Lebanon by the militia group Amal when they fired mortar shells at the Beirut airport.
- 1983 - The anchor of the USS Monitor, from the U.S. Civil War, was retrieved by divers.
- 1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a television interview, declared that America could not defeat Iraq.
- 1991 - The Communist Party in the Soviet Union had its bank accounts frozen and activities were suspended because of the Party's role in the failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev.
- 1991 - The republics of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to stay in the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - The U.N. Security Council agreed to send troops to Somalia to guard the shipments of food.
- 1994 - Mario Lemieux announced that he would be taking a medical leave of absence due to fatigue, an aftereffect of his 1993 radiation treatments. He would sit out the National Hockey Leagues (NHL) 1994-95 season.
- 1998 - Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike after their union rejected a last-minute company offer.
- 2004 - India test-launched a nuclear-capable missile able to carry a one-ton warhead. The weapon had a range of 1,560 miles.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)...
- John Locke 1632
- Oliver Wendell Holmes 1809
- Preston Sturges 1898
- Barry Sullivan 1912
- Ingrid Bergman 1915
- George Montgomery 1916
- Isabel Sanford 1917
- Charles White 1920
- Charlie "Bird" Parker 1920
- Wendell Scott 1921
- Sir Richard Attenborough 1923
- Dinah Washington 1924
- Dick O'Neill 1928
- Elliott Gould 1938
- William Friedkin 1939
- Ellen Geer 1941
- Robin Leach 1941
- Sterling Morrison (The Velvet Underground) 1942
- Deborah Van Valkenburgh 1952