- 171st Day of 2014 / 194Remaining
- Sunrise:5:47
- Sunset:8:34
- 14 Hours 47 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:1:24am
- Moon Set:2:21pm
- Moon’s Phase: 39 %
- The Next Full Moon
- July 12 @ 4:26 am
- Full Buck Moon
- Full Thunder Moon
- Full Hay Moon
- July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also named for the thunderstorms that are most common during this time. And in some areas it was called the Full Hay Moon.
- Tides
- High:5:48am/6:26pm
- Low:12:07am/11:38am
- Holidays
- Admission Day-West Virginia
- National Vanilla Milkshake Day
- Ice Cream Soda Day
- World Refugee
- World Juggling Day
- Flag Day-Argentina
- Martyr’s Day-Eritrea
- On This Day In …
- 0451 --- Roman and Barbarian warriors brought Attila's army to a halt at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.
- 1782 --- The Great Seal of the United States was adopted by Congress. William Barton designed the seal which consists of an eagle, an olive branch and 13 arrows -- one for each of the original 13 colonies.
- 1789 --- In Versailles, France, the deputies of the Third Estate, which represent commoners and the lower clergy, meet on the Jeu de Paume, an indoor tennis court, in defiance of King Louis’ order to disperse. In these modest surroundings, they took a historic oath not to disband until a new French constitution had been adopted.
- 1791 --- King Louis XVI of France was captured while attempting to flee the country in the so-called Flight to Varennes.
- 1837 --- Princess Victoria became Queen Victoria of England on this day, following the death of her uncle, King William IV. The Princess was only 18 when she was called to rule Britannia.
- 1863 --- Virginia’s cessation from the Union gave reason for the birth of West Virginia. 40 western counties of Virginia did not secede, and instead, formed their own government officially entering the United States of America this day as the 35 th state. Charleston is the capital of the Mountain State which boasts of having the most rugged terrain of any state east of the Mississippi. Throughout the forested hills of West Virginia, you’ll also find many cardinals (the state bird) and multitudes of the state flower, the big rhododendron.
- 1893 --- A jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden innocent of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.
- 1923 --- France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying its war debts.
- 1941 --- After a long and bitter struggle on the part of Henry Ford against cooperation with organized labor unions, Ford Motor Company signs its first contract with the United Automobile Workers of America and Congress of Industrial Organizations (UAW-CIO). In 1935, President Roosevelt’s 's allies in Congress passed the landmark National Labor Relations Act--also known as the Wagner Act, after one of its authors, Senator Robert Wagner of New York --which established workers' rights to collective bargaining and attempted to regulate unfair practices by employers, employees and unions.
- 1943 --- Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit. Federal troops were sent in two days later to end the violence that left more than 30 dead.
- 1947 --- Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of his project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas.
- 1948 --- Toast of the Town premiered on CBS-TV. New York entertainment columnist and critic Ed Sullivan was the host. It started his TV career that would span 23 years on a weekly basis. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made their television debut on the show. Also on the guest list: Rodgers & Hammerstein and pianist Eugene List.
- 1950 --- Willie Mays graduated from high school and immediately signed with the New York Giants for a $6,000 bonus. The ‘Say Hey Kid’ would play most of his career for the Giants -- in both New York and San Francisco -- becoming a baseball legend. As his career came to a close, Mays was traded to the New York Mets. Mays, an all-star center fielder, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- 1966 --- The Beatles album, "Yesterday & Today" was released by Capitol Records.
- 1967 --- Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
- 1969 --- Jimi Hendrix earned the largest paycheck (to that time) for a single show when he earned $125,000 for a single set at the Newport Jazz Festival.
- 1973 --- American Bandstand celebrated its 20th anniversary with a 90-minute television special. Little Richard, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Cheech and Chong and Three Dog Night made appearances.
- 1975 --- Jaws, a film directed by Steven Spielberg that made countless viewers afraid to go into the water, opens in theaters. The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by 1977's Star Wars. Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category and took home three Oscars, for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound.
- 1977 --- With a flip of a switch in Prudhoe Bay, crude oil from the nation's largest oil field begins flowing south down the trans-Alaska pipeline to the ice-free port of Valdez, Alaska. The steel pipeline, 48 inches in diameter, winds through 800 miles of Alaskan wilderness, crossing three Arctic mountain ranges and hundreds of rivers and streams. Environmentalists fought to prevent its construction, saying it would destroy a pristine ecosystem, but they were ultimately overruled by Congress, who saw it as a way of lessening America's dependence on foreign oil.
- 1979 --- President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter climb to the White House roof to celebrate the installation of solar-energy panels there on this day in 1979. Carter presided over a nation still suffering from the fallout of the 1973-74 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo. Carter, a proponent of alternative and sustainable energy sources, had a solar-heating system installed on the White House roof. During his term Carter also had an energy-efficient wood-burning stove installed in the drafty White House residential quarters.
- 1979 --- ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President Anastasio Somoza's national guard.
- 1983 --- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers must treat male and female workers equally in providing health benefits for their spouses.
- 1987 --- Whitney Houston’s album "Whitney" debuted on Billboard magazine’s album chart at number one. Houston became the first female to have an LP debut at the top.
- 1993 --- The Chicago Bulls won their third consecutive title with a 99-98 victory over the Phoenix Suns in game 6 of the NBA finals. Michael Jordan was named MVP -- the first player to be named most valuable player of the National Basketball Association finals three years in a row.
- 1994 --- O.J. Simpson pleaded innocent in Los Angeles to the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
- 2002 --- The U.S. Supreme Court declared that executing mentally retarded murderers was unconstitutionally cruel.
- 2002 --- A gas explosion in a Chinese coal mine kills 111 workers. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this tragic incident is that it was not unique. Poor safety regulations in China have long made mining there an extremely hazardous occupation.
- 2008 --- NASA announced that its Phoenix Mars Lander had uncovered about eight small pieces of water ice.
- Birthdays
- Lillian Hellman
- Lionel Richie
- Brian Wilson
- Nicole Kidman
- Chet Atkins
- Martin Landau
- Olympia Dukakis
- Danny Aiello
- Stephen Frears
- Anne Murray
- Bob Vila
- John Goodman
- Errol Flynn
- Pancho Segura
- Andre Watts
