Friday September 7, 2012

• 251^st Day of 2012 /115 Remaining
• 15 Days Until The First Day of Autumn
•  
• Sunrise:6:45
• Sunset:7:29
• 12 Hours 44 Minutes of Daylight

• Moon Rise:11:36pm
• Moon Set:1:35pm
• Moon’s Phase: 57 %

• 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:5:03am/3:50pm
• Low:9:55am/11:14pm

• 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
• Grandma Moses Day
• Neither Rain Nor Snow Day
• Salami Day
• National Napoleon Day
• National Acorn Squash Day
• New England Apple Day
• National Fight Procrastination Day

• Independence Day-Brazil
• Lusaka Agreement Day-Mozambique
• National Tree Planting Day-Namibia
• First Parkash-Sikhism

• On This Day In …
• 1813 --- United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson (1766-1854) stamped the barrels with "U.S." for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as "Uncle Sam's." The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government. In the late 1860s and 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) began popularizing the image of Uncle Sam. Nast continued to evolve the image, eventually giving Sam the white beard and stars-and-stripes suit that are associated with the character today. The German-born Nast was also credited with creating the modern image of Santa Claus as well as coming up with the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party and the elephant as a symbol for the Republicans. Nast also famously lampooned the corruption of New York City's Tammany Hall in his editorial cartoons and was, in part, responsible for the downfall of Tammany leader William Tweed. Perhaps the most famous image of Uncle Sam was created by artist James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960). In Flagg's version, Uncle Sam wears a tall top hat and blue jacket and is pointing straight ahead at the viewer. During World War I, this portrait of Sam with the words "I Want You For The U.S. Army" was used as a recruiting poster. The image, which became immensely popular, was first used on the cover of Leslie's Weekly in July 1916 with the title "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?" The poster was widely distributed and has subsequently been re-used numerous times with different captions. In September 1961, the U.S. Congress recognized Samuel Wilson as "the progenitor of America's national symbol of Uncle Sam." Wilson died at age 88 in 1854, and was buried next to his wife Betsey Mann in the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York, the town that calls itself "The Home of Uncle Sam."

• 1876 --- Attempting a bold daytime robbery of the Northfield Minnesota bank, the James-Younger gang suddenly finds itself surrounded by angry townspeople and is nearly wiped out on this day in 1876. The bandits began with a diversion: five of the men galloped through the center of town, hollering and shooting their pistols in the air. As the townspeople ran for cover, three other men wearing wide-brimmed hats and long dusters took advantage of the distraction to walk unnoticed into the First National Bank. Brandishing pistols, one of the men ordered the bank cashier to open the bank safe. Though the cashier recognized the famous face of the dangerous outlaw, Jesse James, he stalled, claiming that the safe had a time lock and could not be opened. As Jesse James considered his next move, a brave--or foolish--bank teller made a break for the back door. One of the robbers fired twice, hitting the teller in the shoulder, but the man managed to stumble to safety and sound the alarm. The citizens of Northfield ran to surround the bank and mercilessly shot down the robbers as they tried to escape. A 19-year-old medical student killed one gang member, Clell Miller, while the owner of the Northfield hardware store mortally wounded Bill Chadwell, peppering his body with bullets from a rapid-firing Remington repeater rifle. Jesse's brother, Frank, was hit in the leg, while their criminal partners--Jim, Cole, and Bob Younger--were also badly wounded. Jesse was the last one out of the bank. After pausing briefly to shoot the uncooperative cashier in the head, Jesse leapt onto his horse and joined the rest of the survivors as they desperately fled town. For the next two weeks a posse pursued them relentlessly, eventually killing or capturing four more of the gang members.

• 1880 --- George Ligowsky was granted a patent for his device that threw clay pigeons for trapshooters.

• 1892 --- The first world heavyweight title fight to use the Marquis of Queensberry Rules (including boxing gloves and three-minute rounds) was held in New Orleans, LA. James Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan in round 21.

• 1914 --- The New York Post Office Building opened its doors to the public. Since post offices open up quite often, you might wonder what’s unusual about this one. Well, this brand new building on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets in New York City bore the inscription, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The inscription, supplied by William M. Kendall of the architectural firm that designed the post office, is a free translation from Herodotus, the Greek historian.

• 1921 --- The first Miss America Pageant was held at Atlantic City, New Jersey. This first contest was a promotion to keep tourists in the resort town after the Labor Day holiday (the unofficial end of summer). Miss Washington, D.C. won the contest and received a golden statue of a mermaid as her prize! She was 16-year-old Margaret Gorman. Miss Gorman was 5’1" with blonde hair, blue eyes, weighing 108 pounds and her vital statistics were 30-25-32! Diminutive compared to the more recent and rather statuesque Miss Americas.

• 1930 --- Dagwood and Blondie made their first appearance, in the comic strips. The Blondie cartoon was created by Chic Young and over time, the characters were heard on the radio, seen in 28 movies, and on two TV series. The strip featured newspaper hero Dagwood Bumstead as the playboy son of a railroad tycoon. He dated Blondie Boopadoop, a flapper, or gold digger. They married in February, 1933 and had a nice family. Alexander (Baby Dumpling), their first child, was born in 1934. Cookie arrived later. The strip is still running. Since Chic Young’s death in March, 1973, Blondie has been written by Chic’s son, Dean. It was drawn, for a time, by Jim Raymond, then by Stan Drake and later by Denis Lebrun. The strip is now done by Dean Young and John Marshall. Dagwood continues to be the bungling husband who gets into petty arguments with his neighbor, Herb Woodley; the office worker abused by his boss, Mr. Dithers; and the sleep-in, miss the carpool, lazy friend, husband, employee. In the 1990s, Blondie Bumstead, whose children are no longer babies, became a working woman, joining up with Herb’s wife, Tootsie. They have a catering service.  In their honor, make a Dagwood sandwich today.

• 1940 --- 300 German bombers raid London, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. This bombing "blitzkrieg" (lightning war) would continue until May 1941. After the successful occupation of France, it was only a matter of time before the Germans turned their sights across the Channel to England. Hitler wanted a submissive, neutralized Britain so that he could concentrate on his plans for the East, namely the land invasion of the Soviet Union, without interference. Since June, English vessels in the Channel had been attacked and aerial battles had been fought over Britain, as Germany attempted to wear down the Royal Air Force in anticipation of a land invasion. But with Germany failing to cripple Britain's air power, especially in the Battle of Britain, Hitler changed strategies. A land invasion was now ruled out as unrealistic; instead Hitler chose sheer terror as his weapon of choice.

• 1957 --- Sam Cooke's first single "You Send Me" was released.

• 1966 --- The final episode of the original The Dick Van Dyke Show was seen on CBS-TV. Van Dyke played Rob Petrie, the head comedy writer for The Alan Brady Show. Rob worked with two other comedy writers, Sally (Rose Marie) and Buddy (Morey Amsterdam), both of whom were good friends of Rob and his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore). The Dick Van Dyke Show can still be seen in syndication.

• 1972 --- Curtis Mayfield earned a gold record for his Superfly album, from the movie of the same name. The LP contained the hits, Freddie’s Dead and Superfly. Both songs were also million sellers.

• 1978 --- Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, died in London after overdosing on Hemenephirin at the age of 31.

• 1996 --- Rappers Tupac Shakur and Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, were shot after leaving the Tyson/Seldon prizefight (see above). A white Cadillac with four people inside pulled alongside Shakur and Knight at a Las Vegas intersection and someone opened fire. Tupac was hit 4 times (he died 6 days later), while Suge escaped with minor injuries. One theory about who orchestrated the shootings is that it was a result of rivalry between the U.S. East-Coast and West-Coast rappers.

• Birthdays
• Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses
• Queen Elizabeth I
• Buddy Holly
• Dame Edith Sitwell
• Sonny Rollins
• Chrissie Hynde
• Little Milton
• Richard Roundtree
• Julie Kavner
• Michael Feinstein