- 265th Day of 2012 /101 Remaining
- 1 Day Until The First Day of Autumn
- Sunrise:6:57
- Sunset:7:08
- 12 Hours 11 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:1:18pm
- Moon Set:11:21pm
- Moon’s Phase: 38 %
- The Next Full Moon
- September 29 @ 8:18pm
- Full Corn Moon
- Full Harvest Moon
This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.
- Tides
- High:4:10am/3:19pm
- Low:9:07am/10:22pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:0.03
- Last Year:0.11
- Normal To Date:0.00
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- National Pecan Cookie Day
- World Gratitude Day
- UN International Day of Peace
- Independence Day-Armenia
- Independence Day-Belize
- Independence Day-Malta
- Alban Eiler - Equinox (Southern Hemisphere)-Celticism
- Alban Elued - Equinox (Northern Hemisphere)-Celticism
- Mabon - Autumnal Equinox (Northern Hemisphere)-Paganism
- Ostara - Spring Equinox (Southern Hemisphere)-Paganism
- On This Day In …
- 1784 --- "The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser" was published for the first time in Philadelphia. It was the first daily paper in America.
- 1792 --- In Revolutionary France, the Legislative Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. The measure came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power. Louis ascended to the French throne in 1774 and from the start was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he inherited from his predecessors. In 1789, food shortages and economic crises led to the outbreak of the French Revolution. King Louis and his queen, Mary-Antoinette, were imprisoned in August 1792, and in September the monarchy was abolished. Soon after, evidence of Louis' counterrevolutionary intrigues with foreign nations was discovered, and he was put on trial for treason. In January 1793, Louis was convicted and condemned to death by a narrow majority. On January 21, he walked steadfastly to the guillotine and was executed. Marie-Antoinette followed him to the guillotine nine months later.
- 1893 --- Frank Duryea took what is believed to be the first gasoline- powered automobile for a test drive. The "horseless carriage" was designed by Frank and Charles Duryea.
- 1897 --- 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon had written a letter to The New York Sun: “I am eight years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?” Editor Frank Church wrote the response that was printed for the first time on this day: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay ten times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
- 1937 --- "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien was published.
- 1938 --- A hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives.
- 1948 --- The Texaco Star Theater on NBC-TV chose this night to make one of its oft-appearing hosts the permanent host. Milton Berle stayed on as the regular host until 1967. He was so much a part of The Texaco Star Theater that it became known as The Milton Berle Show.
- 1949 --- At the opening of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Peking, Mao Zedong announces that the new Chinese government will be "under the leadership of the Communist Party of China." The September 1949 conference in Peking was both a celebration of the communist victory in the long civil war against Nationalist Chinese forces and the unveiling of the communist regime that would henceforth rule over China. Mao and his communist supporters had been fighting against what they claimed was a corrupt and decadent Nationalist government in China since the 1920s. Despite massive U.S. support for the Nationalist regime, Mao's forces were victorious in 1949 and drove the Nationalist government onto the island of Taiwan. In September, with cannons firing salutes and ceremonial flags waving, Mao announced the victory of communism in China and vowed to establish the constitutional and governmental framework to protect the "people's revolution." In outlining the various committees and agencies to be established under the new regime, Mao announced that "Our state system of the People's Democratic Dictatorship is a powerful weapon for safeguarding the fruits of victory of the people's revolution and for opposing plots of foreign and domestic enemies to stage a comeback. We must firmly grasp this weapon." He denounced those who opposed the communist government as "imperialistic and domestic reactionaries." In the future, China would seek the friendship of "the Soviet Union and the new democratic countries." Mao also claimed that communism would help end reputation as a lesser-developed country. "The era in which the Chinese were regarded as uncivilized is now over. We will emerge in the world as a highly civilized nation." On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally announced, with Mao Zedong as its leader. He would remain in charge of the nation until his death in 1976.
- 1957 --- Famed trial lawyer Perry Mason came to TV. The creation of attorney/novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason found fame first as a series of novels, then as a CBS radio series (1943-1955). TV’s Perry Mason, which continued for 9 seasons (TV’s longest-running lawyer series) on CBS, starred Raymond Burr in the lead role. Della Street was played by Barbara Hale.
- 1964 --- Malta gained independence from Britain.
- 1970 --- "NFL Monday Night Football" made its debut on ABC-TV. The game was between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets. The Browns won 31-21.
- 1981 --- For 191 years, the U.S. Supreme Court had existed without a woman sitting on the bench. That changed as Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 99-0 vote. She became the first female Justice of that august body.
- 1983 --- Interior Secretary James G. Watt described a special advisory panel as consisting of "a black ... a woman, two Jews and a cripple." Watt later apologized and resigned.
- 1989 --- The Senate Armed Forces Committee unanimously confirms President George H. Bush's nomination of Army General Colin Powell as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell was the first African American to achieve the United States' highest military post. Powell was born in 1937 in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrant parents. Joining the U.S. Army after college, he served two tours in Vietnam before holding several high-level military posts during the 1970s and 1980s. From 1987 to 1989, he was national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan and in 1989 reached the pinnacle of his profession when he was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President George Bush. As chairman, General Powell's greatest achievement was planning the swift U.S. victory over Iraq in 1991's Persian Gulf War. In 1993, he retired as chairman.
- 1993 --- Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin announced that he was ousting the Communist-dominated Congress. The action was effectively seizing all state power.
- 1998 --- President Bill Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony in the Monica Lewinsky scandal was publicly broadcast, showing him answering one question from prosecutors by saying, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
- Birthdays
- Leonard Cohen
- Chuck Jones
- Henry Gibson
- Ethan Coen
- Ricki Lake
- Rob Morrow
- H. G. Wells
- Bill Murray
- Larry Hagman
- Faith Hill
- Fannie Flagg
- Stephen King
- Sam McDowell
- Liam Gallagher