- 130th Day of 2013 / 235 Remaining
- 42 Days Until The First Day of Summer
- Sunrise:6:03
- Sunset:8:09
- 13 Hours 6 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:6:32am
- Moon Set:9:03pm
- Moon’s Phase:1 %
- The Next Full Moon
- May 24 @ 9:27pm
- Full Flower Moon
- Full Corn Planting Moon
- Full Milk Moon
In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
- Tides
- High:12:51pm/11:34pm
- Low:5:58am/5:45pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:16.32
- Last Year:15.64
- Normal To Date:23.22
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Flower Moon
- National Receptionist Day
- National Shrimp Day
- World Lupus Day
- UN World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
- Constitution Day-Norway
- Constitution Day-Micronesia
- Dia de la Madre(Mother’s Day)-Mexico
- On This Day In …
- 1749 --- The 10th volume of Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones was printed on this day in 1749. The novel, serialized in 10 small volumes, told the humorous story of the attempts of the illegitimate but charming Tom Jones to win his neighbor's daughter, despite her father's objections to his uncertain parentage. The novel boasted a vast cast of characters chasing each other across England and provided a sweeping comic portrait of 18th century England.
- 1773 --- The English Parliament passed the Tea Act, which taxed all tea in the U.S. colonies.
- 1775 --- Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y.
- 1869 --- The presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history. No longer would western-bound travelers need to take the long and dangerous journey by wagon train, and the West would surely lose some of its wild charm with the new connection to the civilized East. Harsh winters, staggering summer heat, Indian raids and the lawless, rough-and-tumble conditions of newly settled western towns made conditions for the Union Pacific laborers--mainly Civil War veterans of Irish descent--miserable. The overwhelmingly immigrant Chinese work force of the Central Pacific also had its fair share of problems, including brutal 12-hour work days laying tracks over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On more than one occasion, whole crews would be lost to avalanches, or mishaps with explosives would leave several dead. For all the adversity they suffered, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific workers were able to finish the railroad--laying nearly 2,000 miles of track--by 1869, ahead of schedule and under budget. Journeys that had taken months by wagon train or weeks by boat now took only days. Their work had an immediate impact: The years following the construction of the railway were years of rapid growth and expansion for the United States, due in large part to the speed and ease of travel that the railroad provided.
- 1872 --- The first woman nominated to be President of the United States was Victoria Claflin Woodhull. She was chosen for the ballot by the National Woman Suffrage Association in New York City. Ms. Woodhull was not elected; nor has any woman ever been elected to the office of U.S. President.
- 1877 --- President Rutherford B. Hayes has the White House's first telephone installed in the mansion s telegraph room. President Hayes embraced the new technology, though he rarely received phone calls. In fact, the Treasury Department possessed the only other direct phone line to the White House at that time. The White House phone number was "1." Phone service throughout the country was in its infancy in 1877. It was not until a year later that the first telephone exchange was set up in Connecticut and it would be 50 more years until President Herbert Hoover had the first telephone line installed at the president's desk in the Oval Office.
- 1924 --- J. Edgar Hoover is named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI) on this day in 1924. By the end of the year he was officially promoted to director. This began his 48-year tenure in power, during which time he personally shaped American criminal justice in the 20th century. Hoover first became involved in law enforcement as a special assistant to the attorney general, overseeing the mass roundups and deportations of suspected communists during the Red Scare abuses of the late 1910s. After taking over the FBI in 1924, Hoover began secretly monitoring any activities that did not conform to his American ideal. Hoover approved of illegally infiltrating and spying on the American Civil Liberties Union. His spies could be found throughout the government, even in the Supreme Court. He also collected damaging information on the personal lives of civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr. While Hoover's success at legitimate crime fighting was modest, his hold over many powerful people and organizations earned him respect and kept him in power. He was extremely successful at attracting attention and favorable press to the FBI. It wasn't until after his death in 1972, right before the beginning of the Watergate scandal, that Hoover's corruption became known.
- 1990 --- The government of the People's Republic of China announces that it is releasing 211 people arrested during the massive protests held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989. Most observers viewed the prisoner release as an attempt by the communist government of China to dispel much of the terrible publicity it received for its brutal suppression of the 1989 protests.
- 1994 --- In South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is sworn in as the first black president of South Africa. In his inaugural address, Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life as a political prisoner of the South African government, declared that "the time for the healing of the wounds has come." Two weeks earlier, more than 22 million South Africans had turned out to cast ballots in the country's first-ever multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) party to lead the country.
1996 --- Eight climbers die on Mount Everest during a storm on this day in 1996.
It was the worst loss of life ever on the mountain on a single day. Author Jon Krakauer, who himself attempted to climb the peak that year, wrote a best-selling book about the incident, Into Thin Air, which was published in 1997. A total of 15 people perished during the spring 1996 climbing season at Everest. Between 1980 and 2002, 91 climbers died during the attempt. Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, in 1953. Though incredibly difficult and dangerous to climb, by the mid-1990s technology had advanced to the point that even intermediate-level climbers could make the attempt with the assistance of expert guides. In 1996, an unprecedented 17 expeditions--hundreds of climbers--attempted to scale the Himalayan peak.
- 2010 --- President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
- Birthdays
- Mia Hamm
- Sir Thomas Johnston Lipton
- David O. Selznick
- Fred Astaire
- Bono
- Gary Owens
- Donovan
- Dave Mason
- Sen Rick Santorum
- Young MC
- John Wilkes Booth
- Maybelle Carter
- Ella Grasso
- Nancy Walker
- Pat Summerall
- Sly Dunbar