- 18th Day of 2013 / 347 Remaining
- 61 Days Until The First Day of Spring
- Sunrise:7:22
- Sunset:5:19
- 9 Hours 57 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:11:13am
- Moon Set:12:06am
- Moon’s Phase: First Quarter
- The Next Full Moon
- January 26 @ 8:40pm
- Full Wolf Moon
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
- Tides
- High: 4:47am/5:42pm
- Low: 11:33am/10:50pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:13.36
- Last Year:3.34
- Normal To Date:11.73
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Winnie the Pooh Day
- Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day
- Thesaurus Day
- Maintenance Day
- National Peking Duck Day
- Lima Foundation Day-Peru
- Revolution Day-Tunisia
- On This Day In …
- 1778 --- Captain James Cook, of the British Navy, thought he was the first to find a group of islands in the Pacific. He named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of England’s Earl of Sandwich, the first lord of the British Admiralty. Little did he know that the islands already had a name. The people who lived on them called the islands Hawaii (known to us now as the 50th of the United States). Actually, these islands had been discovered long before this day by the Polynesians. Other explorers before Cook probably stopped at the Hawaiian Islands as early as the 1500s. However, it was Cook who spread the word of the existence of this group of tropical isles to the rest of the world. Captain Cook got along really well with the Hawaiians at first. It seems that his two major trips to the islands occurred during makahiki (a festival) when one of their gods, Lono would, symbolically, return from his travels to preside over the festivities. Some thought Cook was this god. Unfortunately, on his next trip to his Sandwich Islands, Cook lost the godlike image. He had returned to the islands other than when Lono was to arrive and his humanity was revealed. Cook and his men got into a battle with the Hawaiians and Cook was killed in the melee.
- 1788 --- The first English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.
- 1803 --- Determined to begin the American exploration of the vast mysterious regions of the Far West, President Thomas Jefferson sends a special confidential message to Congress asking for money to fund the journey of Lewis and Clark. Jefferson had been trying to mount a western expedition of exploration since the 1790s, and his determination to do so had only grown since he became president in 1801. In summer 1802, Jefferson began actively preparing for the mission, recruiting his young personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to be its leader. Throughout 1802, Jefferson and Lewis discussed the proposed mission, telling no one—not even Congress, which would have to approve the funds—of what they were contemplating. Jefferson directed Lewis to draw up an estimate of expenses. Basing his calculations on a party of one officer and 10 enlisted men—the number was deliberately kept small to avoid inspiring both congressional criticisms and Indian fears of invasion—Lewis carefully added up the costs for provisions, weapons, gunpowder, scientific instruments, and a large boat. The final tally came to $2,500. The largest item was $696, earmarked for gifts to Indians. Following the advice of his secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, Jefferson decided not to include the request in his general proposed annual budget, since it involved exploration outside of the nation's own territory. Instead, on January 18, 1803, he sent a special secret message to Congress asking for the money, taking pains to stress that the proposed exploration would be an aid to American commerce. Jefferson noted that the Indians along the proposed route of exploration up the Missouri River "furnish a great supply of furs & pelts to the trade of another nation carried on in a high latitude." If a route into this territory existed, "possibly with a single portage, from the Western ocean," Jefferson suggested Americans might have a superior means of exploiting the fur trade. Though carefully couched in diplomatic language, Jefferson's message to Congress was clear: a U.S. expedition might be able to steal the fur trade from the British and find the long hoped-for Northwest passage to the Pacific.
- 1896 --- The x-ray machine was exhibited for the first time.
- 1911 --- The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor.
- 1912 --- After a two-month ordeal, the expedition of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole only to find that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them by just over a month. Disappointed, the exhausted explorers prepared for a long and difficult journey back to their base camp. Scott, a British naval officer, began his first Antarctic expedition in 1901 aboard the Discovery. During three years of exploration, he discovered the Edward VII Peninsula, surveyed the coast of Victoria Land--which were both areas of Antarctica on the Ross Sea--and led limited expeditions into the continent itself. In 1911, Scott and Amundsen began an undeclared race to the South Pole. Sailing his ship into Antarctica's Bay of Whales, Amundsen set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than Scott. In October, both explorers set off; Amundsen using sleigh dogs and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen's expedition won the race to the pole. Encountering good weather on their return trip, they safely reached their base camp in late January. Scott's expedition was less fortunate. The motor sleds soon broke down, the ponies had to be shot, and the dog teams were sent back as Scott and four companions continued on foot. On January 18, they reached the pole only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by over a month. Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad, two members perished, and Scott and the other two survivors were trapped in their tent by a storm only 11 miles from their base camp. Scott wrote a final entry in his diary in late March. The frozen bodies of he and his two compatriots were recovered eight months later.
- 1939 --- Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded Jeepers Creepers on Decca Records. Satchmo lent his vocal talents to this classic jump tune.
- 1943 --- Pre-sliced bread was banned in the U.S. for the duration of World War II, to conserve metal from spare parts that might be needed. Only whole loaves were sold during the ban until the end of World War II.
- 1944 --- The first jazz concert was held at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
- 1948 --- Ted Mack came to television as The Original Amateur Hour debuted on the DuMont network. The program continued on different networks for a 22-year run on the tube. We remember it being sponsored by Geritol. The original, Original Amateur Hour, on radio, was hosted by Major Bowes. In the TV version, Mack presented many up-and-coming stars who later claimed great fame in show biz. Teresa Brewer and Pat Boone are just a couple.
- 1957 --- The first, non-stop, around-the-world, jet flight came to an end at Riverside, CA. The plane was refueled in mid-flight by huge aerial tankers.
- 1973 --- Pink Floyd began recording Dark Side of the Moon, which would become the longest-charting record in Billboard magazine’s history. It remained on the album chart for more than 14 years - until mid-1988 - selling over five-million copies.
- 1975 --- The Jeffersons was seen for the first time on CBS-TV. The show was a spin-off; based on the black family that moved next door to the bigoted Archie Bunker in All in the Family. The show lasted for several seasons and is still seen in syndicated reruns. Sherman Hemsley plays the part of George Jefferson, Isabelle Sanford is in the role of Weezie.
- 1990 --- At the end of a joint sting operation by FBI agents and District of Columbia police, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession and the use of crack, a crystalline form of cocaine. At the Vista International Hotel in downtown Washington, Barry was caught smoking the substance on camera with Rahsheeda Moore, a woman who had agreed to set up Barry in exchange for a reduced sentence in an earlier drug conviction. "The bitch set me up! The bitch set me up!" he yelled as he was taken away.In September 1991, he was sentenced to six months in prison for possession of crack cocaine. After serving his sentence, Barry, claiming to have overcome his "personal adversities," reentered D.C. politics.
- 1993 --- The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.
- 1995 --- A network of caves were discovered near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France. The caves contained paintings and engravings that were 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
- Birthdays
- A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne
- Peter Roget
- Daniel Webster
- David Ruffin
- Oliver Hardy
- Cary Grant (Archibald Leach)
- Bobby Goldsboro
- Kevin Costner
- Thomas Watson
- Sit Thomas Sopwith
- Danny Kaye
- Curt Flood