Today Tuesday, 16th of May of 2017 is the 136th day of the year.
There are 229 days remaining until the end of the year.
539 days until Congressional Elections on Tuesday November 6, 2018 (that's 1 year 5 months and 21 days from today);
1267 days until the next Presidential Election on Tuesday November 3, 2020 (That'll be 3 years 5 months and 18 days from today).
The sun rose this morning at 5:58 am
and the sun will set tonight at 8:15 pm.
Today we will have 14 hours and 17 minutes of daylight.
The solar transit will be at 1:06 pm.
The first high tide was at 3:03 am
and the next high tide will be at 5:35 pm.
The first low tide will be at 9:55 am
and the next low tide at 10:26 pm.
The Moon is currently 74.2% illuminated; a Waning Gibbous moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 170.72° S
Moon Altitude: 32.81°
Moon Distance: 248809 mi
Next New Moon: May 25, 2017 at 12:44 pm
Next Full Moon: Jun 9, 2017 at 6:09 am
Next Moonset: Today at 10:39 am
Today is…
Biographer's Day
Love a Tree Day
National Coquilles St. Jacques Day
National Mimosa Day
National Piercing Day
National Sea Monkey Day
National Wear Purple for Peace Day
Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day
Today is also...
Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))
Mass Graves Day (Iraq)
National Day, declared by Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan)
Teachers' Day (Malaysia)
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share this day with….
1804 – Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American educator who founded the first U.S. kindergarten (d. 1894)
1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
1906 – Margret Rey, German author and illustrator (d. 1996)
1912 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (d. 2008)
1913 – Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (d. 1987)
1919 – Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (d. 1987)
1928 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
1929 – Betty Carter, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
1929 – John Conyers, American lawyer and politician
1929 – Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist, and feminist (d. 2012)
1931 – Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., American soldier and politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut
1944 – Billy Cobham, Panamanian-American drummer, composer, and bandleader
1944 – Danny Trejo, American actor
1946 – Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1951 – Jonathan Richman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – James Herndon, American psychologist and academic
1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer
1955 – Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast
1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
1959 – Mare Winningham, American actress and singer-songwriter
1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actress
1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author
1986 – Megan Fox, American actress
On this day in history…
1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
1866 – The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
1868 – United States President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.
1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.
1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).
1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.
1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.
1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.
1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
1961 – Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
1966 – The Communist Party of China issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1974 – Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.
1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.
2005 – Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.