- 174 Day of 2012 / 192 Remaining
- 92 Days Until Autumn Begins
- Sunrise:5:48
- Sunset:8:36
- 14 Hours 48 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:8:50am
- Moon Set:10:40pm
- Moon’s Phase: 10 %
- The Next Full Moon
- July 3 @ 11:51am
- 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 often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
- Tides
- High:12:24am/2:32am
- Low:7:23am/7:30pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:15.80
- Last Year:28.51
- Normal To Date:23.80
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- Stupid Guy Thing Day
- National Chocolate Eclair Day
- National Onion Ring Day
- Take Your Dog to Work Day
- Antifascist Struggle Day-Croatia
- Schoolteacher's Day-El Salvador
- On This Day In …
- 1633 --- Galileo was forced by the Inquisition in Rome to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
- 1807 --- The crew of the British man-of-war Leopard fired upon and boarded the U.S. frigate Chesapeake. James Barron, the commander of the Chesapeake was convicted following a court-martial. The reason for the court-martial: Barron was not prepared for action. This incident, along with a few others, led to the War of 1812. A little side fact: Stephen Decatur, a judge in the court-martial, was killed in a duel some eight years after the war. The winner of the duel was James Barron.
- 1847 --- Hanson Crockett Gregory, of Rockport, Maine, created the doughnut. His mother's fry-cakes were not cooked in the center, so he cut the centers out so they would no longer have undercooked centers.
- 1882 --- The Air-Conditioned Rocking Chair was patented. It had a propeller fan mounted overhead that was turned by the chair's motion. The faster you rocked, the faster the fan turned.
- 1937 --- Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber, knocked out James J. Braddock in a boxing match in Chicago, Illinois. The bout lasted eight rounds and Louis was announced as the world heavyweight boxing champion. Exactly one year later, in 1938, Joe Louis knocked out Germany’s Max Schmeling in the first round, in a bout at Yankee Stadium. Joe Louis retained the world heavyweight boxing crown until he announced his retirement on March 1, 1949. That’s a total of 11 years, 8 months and 7 days ... and 30 matches to retain the title.
- 1940 --- France was forced to sign an armistice eight days after German forces overran Paris during World War II.
- 1944 --- President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the G.I. Bill, an unprecedented act of legislation designed to compensate returning members of the armed services--known as G.I.s--for their efforts in World War II. As the last of its sweeping New Deal reforms, Roosevelt's administration created the G.I. Bill--officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944--hoping to avoid a relapse into the Great Depression after the war ended. FDR particularly wanted to prevent a repeat of the Bonus March of 1932, when 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families flocked in protest to Washington. The American Legion, a veteran's organization, successfully fought for many of the provisions included in the bill, which gave returning servicemen access to unemployment compensation, low-interest home and business loans, and--most importantly--funding for education.
- 1950 --- The Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s famously ended the careers of numerous film-industry professionals and forced others to avoid blacklisting by repudiating their political beliefs and "naming names" of suspected Communist sympathizers to the House Committee on Un-Activities (HUAC). But Hollywood actors, directors and screenwriters were not the only victims of the Cold War anti-Communist purges in the entertainment industry. Prominent figures in the music industry were also targeted, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger and Artie Shaw, all of whom were named publicly as suspected Communist sympathizers on this day in 1950, in the infamous publication Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. Joining famous names like Orson Welles, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller and Dorothy Parker on the Red Channels list were the aforementioned Bernstein, Copland, Horne, Seeger and Shaw and numerous other musical figures, including the legendary harmonica player Larry Adler, the folksinger Burl Ives, former Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax and The New York Times music critic Olin Downes. The evidence of Communist leanings offered in Red Channels included Lena Horne’s appearance on the letterhead of a South African famine relief program, Aaron Copland’s appearance on a panel at a 1949 Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace and Leonard Bernstein’s affiliation with the Committee to Re-Elect Benjamin J. Davis, a black, socialist New York City councilman. In the end, Red Channels caused some of those named to be blacklisted—Pete Seeger, most famously—to fight publicly to prove their "loyalty" to the United States and still others to repudiate their political pasts and provide the HUAC with names of other suspected prominent leftists.
- 1959 --- The Battle of New Orleans, by Johnny Horton, started week number four at the top of the nation’s music Tunedex. The song was number one for a total of six weeks. It was Horton’s only number one record and million-seller. He had big hits, however, with movie music: Sink the Bismarck and North to Alaska (from the film by the same title, starring John Wayne) -- both in 1960. Horton, from Tyler, TX, married Billie Jean Jones, Hank Williams’ widow. Tragically, Johnny Horton was killed in a car crash on November 5, 1960.
- 1961 --- In Hamburg, Germany, the Beatles recorded "When the Saints Go Marching In," "Why," "Ain’t She Sweet," "Nobody’s Child," "My Bonnie," and "Cry For A Shadow."
- 1964 --- The U.S. Supreme Court voted that Henry Miller’s book, "Tropic of Cancer", could not be banned.
- 1968 --- Herb Alpert used his voice and his trumpet to run to the top of the pop music charts. This Guy’s in Love with You became the most popular song in the U.S. this day. It would rule the top of the pop music world for four weeks. It was the only vocal by Alpert to make the charts, though his solo instrumentals with The Tijuana Brass scored lots of hits. Alpert performed on 19 charted hits through 1987.
- 1970 --- U.S. President Richard Nixon signed 26th amendment, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
- 1986 --- Argentine midfielder Diego Maradona scores two goals to lead Argentina past England and into the semifinals of the World Cup. The game was watched the world over, as Argentina and England had not yet normalized relations after a war over the Malvina Islands, also known as the Falklands. On April 2, 1982, General Leopold Galtieri led the Argentine military 300 miles off the Argentine coast to the British-occupied Falkland Islands, which Argentines believed rightfully belonged to them. British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher responded by sending 110 ships and 28,000 soldiers to the island. The ensuing two-month war left 907 people dead, most of them Argentines. Argentina surrendered on June 14. Argentina fielded a more talented team in the 1986 World Cup than the English, and they were determined to defeat their rivals. The first goal Maradona scored has come to be known as the "Hand of God" goal, or "Mano de Dios." The ball appeared to be hit into the goal off of Maradona’s head, but was in fact punched in with his left hand, a violation that the referees failed to call. When asked about the goal after the game, Maradona said the goal was scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God." Five minutes later, Maradona scored what was voted in 2002 to be the greatest goal in World Cup history, when he dribbled past five English defenders before scoring to give Argentina a 2-0 lead. Argentina went on to defeat West Germany 3-2 to win its second ever World Cup championship.
- 1992 --- The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that hate-crime laws that ban cross-burning and similar expressions of racial bias violate free-speech rights.
- 2002 --- A Spanish aristocrat became the first person to cross the Atlantic by jet ski. Alvaro De Marichalar landed on Miami beach four months after setting off from Rome, spending 12 hours a day on the water and sleeping on a support boat. He told the Miami Herald the hardest part was the cold weather and 18-foot waves.
- Birthdays
- Meryl Streep
- Kris Kristofferson
- Todd Rundgren
- Lindsay Wagner
- Brit Hume
- Carson Daly
- Erich Maria Remarque
- Sen Dianne Feinstein
- Cyndi Lauper
- Carl Hubbell
- Freddie Prinze
- Billy Wilder
- Graham Greene
- Stephen Page
- Dan Brown