- 55th Day of 2012 / 311 Remaining
- 25 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:6:49
- Sunset:5:58
- 11 Hr 11 Min
- Moon Rise:7:51am
- Moon Set:9:03pm
- Moon’s Phase: 8 %
- The Next Full Moon
- March 8 @ 1:41 am
- Full Worm Moon
- Full Sap Moon
- Full Crust Moon
- Lenten Moon
As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
- Tides
- High:12:06am/12:12pm
- Low:6:11am/6:12pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:6.90
- Last Year:16.84
- Normal To Date:16.40
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Gregorian Calendar Day
- Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
- National Chili Day
- National Personal Chef Day
- National Tortilla Chip Day
- Basking Day
- Flag Day (Mexico)
- Independence Day (Estonia)
- Baire Proclamation Day-Cuba
- On This Day In …
- 1803 --- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled itself to be the final interpreter of all constitutional issues.
- 1821 --- Mexico declared its independence from Spain.
- 1839 --- Mr. William S. Otis received a patent for the steam shovel.
- 1848 --- The Communist Manifesto was published.
- 1857 --- The first shipment of perforated postage stamps was received by the U.S. Government. Only imperforated ones had been used previously. When stamp sheets were issued years later for the first time, someone thought it a good idea to return to the non-perforated style so that folks had to cut the stamps off the page. That idea didn’t last long. Customer complaints brought the perforated stamps to the sheets of stamps as well.
- 1868 --- The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Andrew Johnson, a senator from Tennessee, was the only U.S. senator from a seceding state who remained loyal to the Union. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, and in 1864 he was elected vice president of the United States. Sworn in as president after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, President Johnson enacted a lenient Reconstruction policy for the defeated South, including almost total amnesty to ex-Confederates, a program of rapid restoration of U.S.-state status for the seceded states, and the approval of new, local Southern governments, which were able to legislate "Black Codes" that preserved the system of slavery in all but its name. The Republican-dominated Congress greatly opposed Johnson's Reconstruction program and in March 1867 passed the Tenure of Office Act over the president's veto. The bill prohibited the president from removing officials confirmed by the Senate without senatorial approval and was designed to shield members of Johnson's Cabinet like Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had been a leading Republican radical in the Lincoln administration. In the fall of 1867, President Johnson attempted to test the constitutionality of the act by replacing Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant. However, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on the case, and Grant turned the office back to Stanton after the Senate passed a measure in protest of the dismissal. On February 21, 1868, Johnson decided to rid himself of Stanton once and for all and appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, an individual far less favorable to the Congress than Grant, as secretary of war. Stanton refused to yield, barricading himself in his office, and the House of Representatives, which had already discussed impeachment after Johnson's first dismissal of Stanton, initiated formal impeachment proceedings against the president. On February 24, Johnson was impeached, and on March 13 his impeachment trial began in the Senate under the direction of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. The trial ended on May 26 with Johnson's opponents narrowly failing to achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to convict him.
- 1894 --- Describing a local nightspot, The Daily Ardmorite in Oklahoma used the term "honk-a-tonk," believed to be the first use of an early form of the term "honky-tonk."
- 1900 --- New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York's first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900.
- 1903 --- The United States signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
- 1938 --- DuPont begins production of nylon toothbrush bristles. A patent had been granted in 1937. The nylon bristles replaced hog bristles.
- 1940 --- Frances Langford recorded one of the classic songs of all time -- and one that would become a Walt Disney trademark. When You Wish Upon a Star was recorded on Decca Records during a session in Los Angeles. Many artists have recorded the song, including pop diva Linda Ronstadt (with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra in the early 1980s). One can hear the song not only on record, but as the theme in the opening credits of any Disney movie, video and TV program and those “I’m going to Disneyland/World!” commercials, too.
- 1946 --- Juan Domingo Peron, the controversial former vice president of Argentina, is elected president. In 1943, as an army officer, he joined a military coup against Argentina's ineffectual civilian government. Appointed secretary of labor, his influence grew and in 1944 he also became vice president and minister of war. In October 1945, Peron was ousted from his positions by a coup of constitutionally minded civilians and officers and imprisoned, but appeals from workers and his charismatic mistress, Eva Duarte, soon forced his release. The night of his release, October 17, he addressed a crowd of some 300,000 people from the balcony of the presidential palace, and promised to lead the people to victory in the coming presidential election. Four days later, Peron, a widower, married Eva Duarte, or "Evita," as she became affectionately known.
- 1954 --- The first anti-polio inoculation of school children began in Pittsburgh. The serum developer, Dr. Jonas Salk, inoculated the first group.
- 1969 --- Johnny Cash recorded his second live prison performance. It followed a concert the previous year at Folsom Prison. The LP Johnny Cash at San Quentin, with the hit single A Boy Named Sue, was recorded live as part of a British TV.
- 1980 --- The U.S. Hockey Team won its “Do you believe in miracles?” gold medal. Final score: U.S. 4, Finland 2. The drama had begun with the U.S. team’s upset win over the powerful Soviet team on February 22. When the U.S. polished off Finland for the gold medal, folks all over the U.S. decided to start believing, indeed!
- 1988 --- The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award to Rev. Jerry Falwell that had been won against "Hustler" magazine. The ruling expanded legal protections for parody and satire.
- 1989 --- Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was so irritated by Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, that he sentenced the author to death and slapped a one to three-million-dollar bounty (depending upon who got him) on his head.
- 1998 --- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth knighted Sir Elton John at Buckingham Palace.
- 2008 --- Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel.
- Birthdays
- George Harrison
- Mark Lane
- Edward James Olmos
- Michelle Shocked
- Honus Wagner
- Wilhelm Grimm
- Marjorie Main
- Rupert Holmes
- Jeff Garcia
- Paula Zahn
- Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
- Steven Jobs
- Abe Vigoda
- Sen. Joseph Lieberman
- Sen. Zell Miller
- George Thorogood
- Fred Dean
- Winslow Homer
- James Farentino