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Friday December 28, 2012

KALW
Published December 28, 2012 at 5:07 AM PST

  • 363rd Day of 2012 / 3 Remaining
  • 82 Days Until The First Day of Spring

  • Sunrise:7:24
  • Sunset:4:59
  • 9 Hours 35 Minutes of Daylight

  • Moon Rise:5:40pm
  • Moon Set:7:24am

  • Full Moon
  • 2:22 am
  • Full Cold Moon
  • Full Long Nights Moon

During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

  • Tides
  • High: 12:35am/10:57am
  • Low: 5:13am/5:55pm

  • Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
  • This Year:12.79
  • Last Year:3.32
  • Normal To Date:8.65
  • Annual Seasonal Average:23.80

  • Holidays
  • Pledge of Allegiance Day
  • Admission Day-Iowa
  • Eat Vegetarian Day
  • National Chocolate Day
  • Brobdingnagian Proboscis Day

  • Holy Innocents Day-Mexico

  • On This Day In …
  • 1732 --- The Pennsylvania Gazette, owned by Benjamin Franklin, ran an ad for the first issue of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”. The ad promised “...Many pleasant and witty verses, jests and sayings ... new fashions, games for kisses ... men and melons ... breakfast in bed … .” “Poor Richard’s Almanack” was published from 1733 to 1757 by Richard Saunders, who was really Ben Franklin. An almanac is a calendar, but Franklin found room on his calendars to include short, witty sayings about daily situations. This unique idea was a popular success and Franklin became very rich.

  • 1793 --- Thomas Paine is arrested in France for treason. Though the charges against him were never detailed, he had been tried in absentia on December 26 and convicted. Before moving to France, Paine was an instrumental figure in the American Revolution as the author of Common Sense, writings used by George Washington to inspire the American troops. Paine moved to Paris to become involved with the French Revolution, but the chaotic political climate turned against him, and he was arrested and jailed for crimes against the country. When he first arrived in Paris, Paine was heartily welcomed and granted honorary citizenship by leaders of the revolution who enjoyed his antiroyalty book The Rights of Man. However, before long, he ran afoul of his new hosts. Paine was strictly opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and he vocally opposed the French revolutionaries who were sending hundreds to the guillotine. He also began writing a provocative new book, The Age of Reason, which promoted the controversial notion that God did not influence the actions of people and that science and rationality would prevail over religion and superstition. Although Paine realized that sentiment was turning against him in the autumn of 1793, he remained in France because he believed he was helping the people. After he was arrested, Paine was taken to Luxembourg Prison. The jail was formerly a palace and unlike any other detainment center in the world. He was treated to a large room with two windows and was locked inside only at night. His meals were catered from outside, and servants were permitted, though Paine did not take advantage of that particular luxury. While in prison, he continued to work on The Age of Reason. Paine's imprisonment in France caused a general uproar in America and future President James Monroe used all of his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. Ironically, it wasn't long before Paine came to be despised in the United States, as well. After The Age of Reason was published, he was called an anti-Christ, and his reputation was ruined. Thomas Paine died a poor man in 1809 in New York.

  • 1832 --- John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.

  • 1846 --- Exactly one year and one day after the 28th state entered the Union, the United States of America grew one state larger by adding Iowa. The 29th state’s name is derived from an American Indian word meaning ‘the beautiful land’. It is widely thought that Iowa’s nickname, the Hawkeye State, is in honor of Black Hawk, the famous Indian chief who led the Sauk and Fox tribes against the Iowa area settlers in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Iowa City was the first capital of Iowa. 11 years later, Des Moines, the state’s largest city, became the permanent capital. The Iowa state bird is the eastern goldfinch, the state flower, the wild rose, and the state motto: “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

  • 1869 --- William Finley Semple patented the first chewing gum, although he never commercially manufactured any gum.

  • 1897 --- Edmond Rostand's romantic, dramatic play 'Cyarano de Bergerac' premiers in Paris. A unique combination of love, swordplay, comedy, pathos and proboscis.

  • 1905 --- The forerunner of the NCAA, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, was founded in New York City.

  • 1937 --- The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.

  • 1944 --- The musical "On the Town" opened in New York City and ran for 462 performances. It features the song, "New York, New York."

  • 1945 --- Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

  • 1958 --- The Baltimore Colts won the NFL championship, defeating the New York Giants 23-17 in overtime at Yankee Stadium, in what has been dubbed the greatest football game ever played.

  • 1973 --- Alexander Solzhenitsyn published first volume of his Gulag Archipelago in Paris. It was an expose of the Soviet prison and labor camps. The publication led to his expulsion from the Soviet Union in February of 1974.

  • 1973 --- The Chamber of Commerce of Akron, OH terminated its association with the All-American Soap Box Derby, stating that the race had become “a victim of cheating and fraud.” Overanxious youngsters and their dads were found to be hiding things like heavy lead in secret places in the home-built cars; and they could also do funny things with the wheels to make them spin faster; and some cars were designed like Indy cars instead of soap box cars. “Clever... but unfair,” the folks in Akron said.

  • 1981 --- Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.

  • 1983 --- Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys drowned while swimming near his boat in the harbor at Marina del Ray, CA.

  • 2005 --- Former top Enron Corp. accountant Richard Causey pleaded guilty to securities fraud and agreed to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.