- 335th Day of 2012 / 31 Remaining
- 21 Days Until The First Day of Winter
- Sunrise:7:06
- Sunset:4:51
- 9 Hours 46 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:6:50pm
- Moon Set:8:43am
- Moon’s Phase: 99 %
- The Next Full Moon
- December 28 @ 2:22 am
- Full Cold Moon
- Full Long Nights Moon
During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.
- Tides
- High: 12:31am/10:47am
- Low: 5:10am/5:54pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:4.46
- Last Year:3.20
- Normal To Date:4.54
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- National Mousse Day
- Computer Security Day
- Stay Home Because You're Well Day
- Independence Day-Barbados
- Bonafacio Day-Philippines
- Harvest Holiday-Turkmenistan
- On This Day In …
- 1782 --- The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
- 1804 --- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial accused of political bias. He was later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.
- 1838 --- The Great Pastry War. A brief conflict began today between Mexico and France caused by a French pastry cook who claimed that some Mexican Army soldiers had damaged his restaurant. The Mexican government refused to pay for damages. Several other countries had pressed the Mexican government for similar claims in the past due to civil unrest in Mexico. France decided to do something about it, and sent a fleet to Veracruz and fired on the fortress outside the harbor. They occupied the city on April 16, 1838, and through the mediation of Great Britain were promised payment of 600,000 pesos for the damages. They withdrew on March 9, 1839.
- 1858 --- John Landis Mason patented the Mason Jar.
- 1886 --- Once a hall for operettas, pantomime, political meetings, and vaudeville, the Folies Bergère in Paris introduces an elaborate revue featuring women in sensational costumes. The highly popular "Place aux Jeunes" established the Folies as the premier nightspot in Paris. In the 1890s, the Folies followed the Parisian taste for striptease and quickly gained a reputation for its spectacular nude shows. The theater spared no expense, staging revues that featured as many as 40 sets, 1,000 costumes, and an off-stage crew of some 200 people. The Folies Bergère dates back to 1869, when it opened as one of the first major music halls in Paris. It produced light opera and pantomimes with unknown singers and proved a resounding failure. Greater success came in the 1870s, when the Folies Bergère staged vaudeville. Among other performers, the early vaudeville shows featured acrobats, a snake charmer, a boxing kangaroo, trained elephants, the world's tallest man, and a Greek prince who was covered in tattoos allegedly as punishment for trying to seduce the Shah of Persia's daughter. The public was allowed to drink and socialize in the theater's indoor garden and promenade area, and the Folies Bergère became synonymous with the carnal temptations of the French capital. Famous paintings by Édouard Manet and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec were set in the Folies. In 1886, the Folies Bergère went under new management, which, on November 30, staged the first revue-style music hall show. The "Place aux Jeunes," featuring scantily clad chorus girls, was a tremendous success. The Folies women gradually wore less and less as the 20th century approached, and the show's costumes and sets became more and more outrageous. Among the performers who got their start at the Folies Bergère were Yvette Guilbert, Maurice Chevalier, and Mistinguett. The African American dancer and singer Josephine Baker made her Folies debut in 1926, lowered from the ceiling in a flower-covered sphere that opened onstage to reveal her wearing a G-string ornamented with bananas. The Folies Bergère remained a success throughout the 20th century and still can be seen in Paris today, although the theater now features many mainstream concerts and performances. Among other traditions that date back more than a century, the show's title always contains 13 letters and includes the word "Folie."
- 1940 --- Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married. Lucy filed for divorce the day after their final TV show was filmed in 1960.
- 1965 --- 32-year-old lawyer Ralph Nader publishes the book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile. The book became a best-seller right away. It also prompted the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, seat-belt laws in 49 states (all but New Hampshire) and a number of other road-safety initiatives. Today, Nader is perhaps best known for his role in national politics—and in particular for the controversial role he played in the 2000 presidential election—but Unsafe at Any Speed was the book that made him famous and lent credibility to his work as a consumer advocate.
- 1966 --- The former British colony of Barbados became independent.
- 1982 --- Michael Jackson's "Thriller," the best-selling album of all time, was released by Epic Records.
- 1993 --- During a White House ceremony attended by James S. Brady, President Bill Clinton signs the Brady handgun-control bill into law. The law requires a prospective handgun buyer to wait five business days while the authorities check on his or her background, during which time the sale is approved or prohibited based on an established set of criteria.
- 1994 --- Tupac Shakur was shot five times during a robbery outside a New York City recording studio. He survived the shooting, but was killed two years later in Las Vegas.
- 1994 --- Talk about bad luck. Nearly 1,000 passengers and crew fled the cruise ship Achille Lauro after it caught fire off the coast of Somalia en route from Genoa to the Sychelles. The ship sank two days later. This was the same Achille Lauro that had been hijacked in October 1985.
- 1995 --- President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.
- 2010 --- Pentagon leaders called for scrapping the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" ban after releasing a survey about the prospect of openly gay troops.
- Birthdays
- Winston Churchill
- Mark Twain
- Abbie Hoffman
- Bill Walsh
- Ben Stiller
- Kaley Cuoco
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr
- Robert Guillaume
- G. Gordon Liddy
- Ridley Scott
- Terrence Malick
- David Mamet
- Billy Idol
- Andrea Doria
- Jonathan Swift
- Oliver Winchester
- Brownie McGhee
- Allan Sherman
- Dick Clark
- Virginia Mayo
- Shuggie Otis