- 96th Day of 2015 269 Remaining
- Summer Begins in 76 Days
- Sunrise:6:46
- Sunset:7:37
- 12 Hours 51 Minutes
- Moon Rise:9:57pm
- Moon Set:8:07am
- Phase:95%
- Full Moon May 3 @ 8:44pm
- Full Flower Moon 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.
- Tides
- High:12:21am/1:16pm
- Low:6:48am/6:43pm
- Rainfall:
- This Year to Date:17.30
- Last Year:12.30
- Avg YTD:21.82
- Annual Avg:23.80
- Holidays
- California Poppy Day
- Caramel Popcorn Day
- National Tartan Day
- Drowsy Drivers Awareness Day
- National Student Athlete Day
- Paraprofessional Appreciation Day
- Plan Your Epitaph Day
- Tater Day
- Army Day
- International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
- Chakri Day-Thailand
- Uprising Day-Sudan
- On This Day
- 1814 --- Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor.
- 1830 --- In Fayette Township, New York, Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, organizes the Church of Christ during a meeting with a small group of believers.
- 1841 --- John Tyler is sworn in as president. Tyler was elected as William Harrison’s vice president earlier in 1841 and was suddenly thrust into the role of president when Harrison died one month into office.
- 1895 --- Writer Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde had been engaged in an affair with the marquess’s son since 1891, but when the outraged marquess denounced him as a homosexual, Wilde sued the man for libel. However, he lost his case when evidence strongly supported the marquess’s observations. Homosexuality was classified as a crime in England at the time, and Wilde was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to two years of hard labor.
- 1896 --- The Olympic Games, a long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. At the opening of the Athens Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition.
- 1909 --- Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole. The claim, disputed by skeptics, was upheld in 1989 by the Navigation Foundation.
- 1916 --- Charlie Chaplin became the highest-paid film star in the world when he signed a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year. He was 26 years old.
- 1917 --- Two days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally enters World War I.
- 1930 --- 'Twinkies' go on sale for the first time. They originally had a banana creme filling and were sold two for a nickel.
- 1950 --- A train drops off a bridge in Tangua, Brazil, killing 110 people on this day in 1950. Twenty-two cars made up the Leopoldina Railways train that departed Rio de Janeiro for Victoria, Espirito Santo. The passenger cars were filled with people vacationing over the Easter holidays. The train left after midnight and had gone almost 60 miles when it approached the bridge over the Indios River at about 1:30 a.m. The river, swollen from days of torrential rains in the area, had undermined the bridge s foundation, but there was no warning system to stop the train from attempting to cross the bridge. As it was about halfway across, the locomotive and five cars–two carrying only baggage–plunged into the river. The remaining 17 cars somehow managed to stay on the tracks despite the connected cars being dragged into the river.
- 1954 --- C.A. Swanson & Sons introduced the first TV dinner (The actual date that Swanson introduced TV dinners is in dispute. Either Sept 10, 1953 or April 6, 1954): Roast Turkey with Stuffing and Gravy, Sweet Potatoes and Peas. It sold for 98 cents and came in an aluminum tray, so you could just open the box and heat the dinner in the oven. (No microwave ovens back then). Supposedly executive Gerald Thomas came up with the idea when the company had tons of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving (Didn't we all?). The idea for the aluminum trays came from the trays used for airline food.. They were an immediate success, and Turkey dinners are still the most popular Swanson frozen dinner. Swanson stopped calling them TV dinners in 1962.
- 1963 --- The Kingsmen recorded their version of the song "Louie Louie."
- 1965 --- U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the use of ground troops in combat operations in Vietnam. National Security Action Memorandum 328 came out of National Security Council meetings that were held on April 1 and April 2. The memorandum authorized U.S. personnel to take the offensive in South Vietnam to secure “enclaves” and to support South Vietnamese operations. The so-called “enclave strategy” called for the U.S. forces to control the densely-populated coastal areas while the South Vietnamese forces moved inland to fight the communists. This memorandum represented a major mission change for the American soldiers and Marines who had recently arrived in Vietnam. American forces had been limited to strictly defensive operations around the U.S. air bases, but the memorandum authorized them to go on the offensive to secure large areas of terrain, an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war.
- 1974 --- "Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones" opened at New York City's Ziegfeld Theatre. It was the first concert film to feature a soundtrack in quadraphonic sound.
- 1983 --- U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall. He said rock 'n' roll bands attract the "wrong element."
- 2004 --- The University of Connecticut became the first school to win the NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball titles in the same season as the women's team beat Tennessee 70-61 for their third consecutive championship.
- 2013 --- Ikea home furnishings stores in Europe have withdrawn 17,000 portions of Moose Lasagna after traces of pork were found in a batch tested in Belgium.
- Birthdays
- Marilu Henner
- Raphael
- Lowell Thomas
- Gerry Mulligan
- Walter Houston
- John Ratzenberger
- Andre’ Previn
- Merle Haggard
- Billy Dee Williams
- Janet Lynn
Monday April 6, 2015
