279th day of 2015, 86 days remain
- Sunrise: 7:10am
- Sunset: 6:46pm
- Moonrise: 1:26am (40% visible)
- Moonset: 3:28pm
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 8:34am/7:40pm
- Low: 1:20am/1:50pm
Special celebrations today...
- Armed Forces Day - Egypt
- National German-American Day
- October Revolution War - Syria
- Physician Assistant Day
- Remembrance Day - Turkmenistan
- Ecological Debt Day
- Mad Hatter Day
- American Libraries Day
- National Noodle Day
On this day in...
1683 - The first Mennonites arrived in America aboard the Concord. The German and Dutch families settled in an area that is now a neighborhood in Philadelphia, PA.
1847 - "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte was first published in London.
1848 - The steamboat SS California left New York Harbor for San Francisco via Cape Horn. The steamboat service arrived on February 28, 1849. The trip took 4 months and 21 days.
1857 - The American Chess Congress held their first national chess tournament in New York City.
1863 - The first Turkish bath was opened in Brooklyn, NY, by Dr. Charles Shepard.
1866 - The Reno Brothers pulled the first train robbery in America near Seymour, IN. The got away with $10,000.
1880 - The National League kicked the Cincinnati Reds out for selling beer.
1884 - The Naval War College was established in Newport, RI.
1889 - In Paris, the Moulin Rouge opened its doors to the public for the first time.
1889 - The Kinetoscope was exhibited by Thomas Edison. He had patented the moving picture machine in 1887.
1890 - Polygamy was outlawed by the Mormon Church.
1928 - War-torn China was reunited under the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek.
1939 - Adolf Hitler denied any intention to wage war against Britain and France in an address to Reichstag.
1949 - U.S. president Harry Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. The act provided $1.3 billion in the form of military aid to NATO countries.
1954 - E.L. Lyon became the first male nurse for the U.S. Army.
1961 - U.S. president John F. Kennedy advised American families to build or buy bomb shelters to protect them in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.
1973 - Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in an attempt to win back territory that had been lost in the third Arab-Israel war. Support for Israel led to a devastating oil embargo against many nations including the U.S. and Great Britain on October 17, 1973. The war lasted 2 weeks.
1979 - Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the White House.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)...
- Jenny Lind 1820
- George Westinghouse 1846
- Reginald Fessenden 1866
- Le Corbusier 1887
- Jerome Cowan 1897
- Florence Seibert 1897
- Jack Sharkey 1902
- Helen Wills Moody 1905
- Janet Gaynor 1906
- Carole Lombard 1908
- Shana Alexander 1925
- Elisabeth Shue 1963
