- 139th Day of 2012 / 227 Remaining
- 33 Days Until Summer Begins
- Sunrise:5:57
- Sunset:8:16
- 14 Hours 19 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:4:28am
- Moon Set:6:32pm
- Moon’s Phase: 4 %
- The Next Full Moon
- June 4 @ 4:11am
- Full Strawberry Moon
- Full Rose Moon
- Full Milk Moon
This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June, so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!
- Tides
- High:10:58am/9:54pm
- Low:4:23am/3:53pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:15.67
- Last Year:26.58
- Normal To Date:23.34
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- National Cheese Soufflé Day
- Turn Beauty Inside Out Day
- Visit Your Relatives Day
- Rooster Day
- National Pizza Party Day
- National Bike or Walk to Work Day
- International Museum Day
- Manger pour Gran'n Aloumandia-Haiti
- Flag & University Day-Haiti
- Revival & Unity Day-Turkmenistan
- On This Day In …
- 1631 --- Massachusetts passed a state law decreeing that only church members could become citizens.
- 1642 --- The Canadian city of Montreal was founded.
- 1652 --- In Rhode Island, a law was passed that made slavery illegal in North America. It was the first law of its kind.
- 1860 --- The Republican Party convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for president.
- 1896 --- In a major victory for supporters of racial segregation, the U.S. Supreme Court rules seven to one that a Louisiana law providing for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" on its railroad cars is constitutional. The high court held that as long as equal accommodations were provided, segregation was not discrimination and thus did not deprive African Americans of equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, which indicated that the federal government would officially tolerate the "separate but equal" doctrine, was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. However, "colored" facilities were never equal to their white counterparts in actuality, and African Americans suffered through decades of debilitating discrimination in the South and elsewhere because of the ruling. In 1954, Plessy v. Ferguson was struck down by the Supreme Court in their unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
- 1897 --- A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel, "Dracula, or, The Un-dead," was performed in London.
- 1931 --- Race jockey Eddie Arcaro rode his first race -- at Bainbridge, OH. He finished sixth. Later, Arcaro would become a racing legend, finishing first in over 4,100 races, including four Kentucky Derby wins. Arcaro won the Derby in 1941, 1945, 1948 and again in 1952. He rode Hill Gail, Hoop, Jr., Whirl-A-Way and Citation. Arcaro won the Triple Crown with Whirl-A-Way and Citation.
- 1936 --- Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell became the British Broadcasting Corporation's first women announcers.
- 1959 --- Johnny Hortons "The Battle of New Orleans" hit #1 on Billboards country chart and stayed there for 10 weeks. It would top the pop chart for six weeks.
- 1968 --- Tiny Tim’s warbly Tiptoe through the Tulips was released. An eventual top twenty hit, Tiptoe was a remake of a number one hit for Nick Lucas in 1929. Grab your ukulele and sing along. “Ohhhhh, Tiptoe through the Tuuuuulips....”
- 1974 --- India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
- 1974 --- The Streak started a 3-week run at number one on the Billboard pop music chart. The novelty tune, by Ray Stevens, was about people running nekkid where they shouldn’t be nekkid, like, in public. It was the second number one hit for the comedian who made numerous appearances on Andy Williams’ TV show in the late 1960s, as well as his own show in the summer of 1970. His first number one hit, just prior to The Streak, was Everything is Beautiful. Both songs won gold records, as did his comedic Gitarzan, a top ten hit in 1969.
- 1980 --- Mount St. Helens in Washington erupts, causing a massive avalanche and killing 57 people on this day in 1980. Ash from the volcanic eruption fell as far away as Minnesota. Seismic activity at Mount St. Helens, which is 96 miles south of Seattle, began on March 16. A 4.2-magnitude tremor was recorded four days later and then, on March 23-24, there were 174 different recorded tremors. The first eruption occurred on March 27, when a 250-foot wide vent opened up on top of the mountain. Ash was blasted 10,000 feet in the air, some of which came down nearly 300 miles away in Spokane. The ash caused static electricity and lightning bolts. Authorities issued a hazard watch for a 50-mile radius around the mountain. The National Guard set up road blocks to prevent access to the area, but these were easily avoided by using the region's unguarded logging roads. Many residents of the area evacuated, but a substantial number refused. Harry Truman, 84—no relation to the former president—was one resident who refused to move and, after receiving a great deal of positive media coverage for his decision, became a national icon as well as, later, the subject of a local memorial. Throughout April, scientists watched a bulge on the north side of Mount St. Helens grow larger and larger. Finally, on May 18 at 8:32 a.m., a sudden 5.1-magnitude earthquake and eruption rocked the mountain. The north side of the peak rippled and blasted out ash at 650 miles per hour. A cloud of ash, rocks, gas and glacial ice roared down the side of the mountain at 100 mph. Fourteen miles of the Toutle River were buried up to 150 feet deep in the debris. Magma, at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, flowed for miles. The 24-megaton blast demolished a 230-square-mile area around the mountain. Geologist Dave Johnson was the closest to the eruption when it blew. He was on his radio that morning and was only able to say, Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it! before his truck was pushed over a ridge and he was killed. Millions of trees were scorched and burned by the hot air alone. When the glacier atop the mountain melted, a massive mudslide wiped out homes and dammed up rivers throughout the area. The plume of ash belched out for nine hours; easterly winds carried it across the state and as far away as Minneapolis, Minnesota. The falling ash clogged carburetors and thousands of motorists were stranded. Fifty-seven people died overall from suffocation, burns and other assorted injuries. Twenty-seven bodies, including that of the stubborn Harry Truman, were never found. Mount St. Helens went from 9,600 feet high to only 8,300 feet high in a matter of seconds.
- 1992 --- The National Archivist quietly certified the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting Congress from voting itself instant pay raises. The measure was written by James Madison in 1789, but the ratification process took over two centuries
- 2003 --- "Les Miserables," the third-longest running show in Broadway history, closed after more than 16 years and 6,680 performances.
- 2004 --- 40-year-old Arizona Diamondbacks lefthander Randy Johnson becomes the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, leading his team to a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves. A "perfect game" is when a pitcher faces a minimum 27 batters, recording 27 outs. Through the 2006 season, only 17 perfect games had been thrown, including 15 in the modern era (post-1900).
- Birthdays
- Reggie Jackson
- Chow Yun-Fat
- Tina Fey
- George Strait
- Dwayne Hickman
- Frank Capra
- Brooks Robinson
- Robert Morse
- Rick Wakeman
- Yannick Noah
- Omar Khayyam
- Peter Carl Faberge
- Bertrand Russell
- Ezio Pinza
- Dame Margot Fonteyn
- Meredith Wilson
- Big Joe Turner
- Perry Como
- Pope John Paul II
- Albert Hammond
- Martika