- 144th Day of 2013 / 221 Remaining
- 289 Days Until The First Day of Summer
- Sunrise - 5:53am
- Sunset - 8:21pm
- Moon Rise - 8:09pm
- Moon Set - 5:29am
- Moon’s Phase -97 %
- The Next Full Moon - tomorrow! The "Full Flower Moon", so called because in most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names
- include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
Special Declarations and Celebrations today include:
- Commemoration of the Battle of Pichincha - Ecuador (1833 defeat of the Royalist forces loyal to Spain brought about the liberation of Quito, eventually leading to independence.)
- Bermuda Day - Bermuda
- Commonwealth Day - Belize
- Day of Slavonic Script (Education Day) - Bulgaria
- Liberation Day - Eritrea (1993)
- Sts. Cyrilus and Methodius Day – Macedonia
- Brother’s Day
- Don’t Fry Day
- Heat Awareness Day
- International Tiara Day
- Morse Code Day
- National Wig Out Day
- National Escargot Day
- Charles Schulz Day
- Joe Burke Takes a Break Day
On this day in...
1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus published proof of a sun-centered solar system.
1607 - Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers found the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia.
1610 - Sir Thomas Gates institutes "laws divine moral and marshal," a harsh civil code for Jamestown.
1624 - After years of unprofitable operation Virginia’s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.
1689 - The English Parliament passed Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were specifically excluded from exemption.
1738 - The Methodist Church was established.
1764 - Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation" and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.
1798 - Believing that a French invasion of Ireland was imminent, Irish nationalists rose up against the British occupation.
1816 - Emamual Leutze was born in Germany. He was most famous for his paintings "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and "Columbus Before the Queen".
1822 - At the Battle of Pichincha, Bolivar secured independence of the Quito.
1830 - The first passenger railroad service in the U.S. began service.
1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse formally opened America's first telegraph line. The first message was sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD. The message was "What hath God wrought?"
1859 - Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria" was performed by Madame Caroline Miolan-Carvalho for the first time in public.
1863 - Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a U.S. Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.
1878 - The first American bicycle race was held in Boston.
1881 - About 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario.
1883 - After 14 years of construction the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to traffic.
1899 - The first public garage was opened by W.T. McCullough.
1913 - The U.S. Department of Labor entered into its first strike mediation. The dispute was between the Railroad Clerks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
1930 - Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly from England to Australia.
1931 - B&O Railroad began service with the first passenger train to have air conditioning throughout. The run was between New York City and Washington, DC.
1935 - The Cincinnati Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies in the first major league baseball game at night. The switch for the floodlights was thrown by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.
1941 - The HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic. Only three people survived.
1950 - ‘Sweetwater’ (Nat) Clifton’s contract was purchased by the New York Knicks. Sweetwater played for the Harlem Globetrotters and became the first black player in the NBA.
1954 - The first moving sidewalk in a railroad station was opened in Jersey City, NJ.
1958 - United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
1961 - The Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.
1962 - The officials of the National Football League ruled that halftime of regular season games would be cut to 15 minutes.
1967 - California Governor Ronald Reagan greeted Charles M. Schulz at the state capitol in observance of the legislature-proclaimed "Charles Schulz Day."
1974 - The last "Dean Martin Show" was seen on NBC. The show had been aired for 9 years.
1976 - Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington.
1980 - The International Court of Justice issued a final decision calling for the release of the hostages taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
1983 - The Brooklyn Bridge's 100th birthday was celebrated.
1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the right to deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminate.
1986 - Montreal won its 23rd National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup championship.
1990 - The Edmonton Oilers won their fifth NHL Stanley Cup.
1993 - Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo and six other people were killed at the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport in a shootout that involved drug gangs.
Birthday celebrants include...
Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit - 1686
Emanuel Leutze - 1816
Queen Victoria - 1819
Samuel I. Newhouse - 1895
Tommy Chong - 1938
Prince Buster - 1938
Lilli Palmer - 1914
Bob Dylan – 1941
Derek Quinn - 1942
Gary Burghoff – 1943
Patti LaBelle - 1944
Priscilla Presley - 1945
Steve Upton - 1946
Judy Kahan - 1948
Jim Broadbent - 1950
Alfred Molina - 1953
Rosanne Cash - 1955
Larry Blackmon - 1956
Kristin Scott Thomas – 1960
Joe Dumars - 1963
Gene Anthony Ray -1963
Vivian Trimble - 1963
John C. Reilly - 1965
Heavy D - 1967
Erin Close - 1967
Tommy Page - 1967
Rich Robinson - 1969
Brad Penny - 1978
Billy L. Sullivan - 1980
