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KALW Almanac: Mon. Dec. 26, 2016

Candy Canes by flickr user Pen Waggener (CC BY 2.0)

Today Monday, 26th of December of 2016 is the 361st day of the year. 
 
There are five days remaining until the end of the year. 
 
The sun will rise in San Francisco at 7:24 am 
 
and sunset will be at 4:58 pm. 
 
Today we will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daylight. 

The solar transit will be at 12:11 pm.

The first low tide was at 2:59 am 

and the next low tide at 4:02 pm. 

The first high tide will be at 9:11 am 

and the next high tide at 11:07 pm.

The moon is about 7% illuminated.

The current lunar phase is a Waning Crescent.

Moonrise Today: 4:55 am↑ 111° Southeast

Moonset Today: 3:28 pm↑ 248° West

We'll have a New Moon in 2 days on Wednesday the 28th of December of 2016 at 10:53 pm

We'll have the First Quarter Moon in 10 days on Tuesday the 5th of January of 2017 at 11:47 am

We'll have a Full Moon in 17 days on Thursday 12th of January of 2017 at 3:34 am

The Last Quarter Moon in January occurs in 23 days on a Thursday, the 19th of January of 2017 at 2:14 pm

Today is Boxing Day

National Candy Cane Day

National Thank You Note Day

National Whiner's Day

It's also…

Boxing Day among the Commonwealth of Nations, and its related observances:

Day of Good Will in South Africa and Namibia

Family Day in Vanuatu

Thanksgiving in Solomon Islands

Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia

Mauro Hamza Day in Houston, Texas

Mummer's Day in Padstow, Cornwall, in England

St. Stephen's Day (public holiday in Alsace, Austria, Catalonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland), 

Father's Day in Bulgaria

The first day of Kwanzaa, celebrated until January 1 in the United States

The first day of Junkanoo street parade, the second day is on the New Year's Day in The Bahamas

The second day of the Twelve Days of Christmas which happens to be a public holiday in the Netherlands and Poland

Wren Day in Ireland and the Isle of Man

Zartosht No-Diso for followers of Zoroastrianism

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You!  You get to share birthday cake with...

1891 – Henry Miller, American author and painter (d. 1980)

1893 – Mao Zedong, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Communist Party of China (d. 1976)

1921 – Steve Allen, American actor, singer, talk show host, and screenwriter (d. 2000)

1933 – Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer and voice actor

1939 – Phil Spector, American singer-songwriter and producer

1942 – Gray Davis, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of California

1944 – William Ayers, American academic and activist

1955 – Evan Bayh, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of Indiana

1956 – David Sedaris, American comedian, author, and radio host

1960 – Jim Toomey, American cartoonist

1966 – Jay Farrar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

On this day in history...

1799 – Four thousand people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".

1860 – The first ever inter-club English association football match takes place between Hallam and Sheffield football clubs in Sheffield.

1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.

1865 – James H. Nason of Franklin, Mass., received a patent for a coffee percolator.

1871 – Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.

1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.

1908 – Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight boxing champion when he knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

1917 – The U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.

1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1944 – Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" premiered at the Civic Theatre in Chicago.

1947 – Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths.

1963 – The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.

1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union.

2004 – On Dec. 26, 2004, the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years erupted underwater off the Indonesian island of Sumatra and sent walls of water barreling thousands of miles, killing more than 200,000 people in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.  The 9.1–9.3  Indian Ocean earthquake is also measured at maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). 

2009 – China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.