- 98th Day of 2013 / 267 Remaining
- 74 Days Until The First Day of Summer
- Sunrise:6:42
- Sunset:7:39
- 12 Hours 57 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:6:36am
- Moon Set:6:21pm
- Moon’s Phase:3 %
- The Next Full Moon
- April 25 @ 12:59pm
- Full Pink Moon
- Full Sprouting Grass Moon
- Full Egg Moon
- Full Fish Moon
This moon’s name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- Tides
- High:10:28am/10:42pm
- Low:4:18am/4:19pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:16.24
- Last Year:12.94
- Normal To Date:21.94
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- ASPCA Day
- National Empanada Day
- Hana Matsuri/Flower Festival-Japan
- On This Day In …
- 1525 --- Albert von Brandenburg, the leader of the Teutonic Order, assumes the title "Duke of Prussia" and passed the first laws of the Protestant church, making Prussia a Protestant state.
- 1834 --- Cornelius Lawrence became the first mayor to be elected by popular vote in a city election. The voters of New York City decided to make him mayor of their fair city.
- 1879 --- The Echo Farms Dairy of New York began selling milk in glass bottles, the first in the U.S.
- 1913 --- The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was ratified.
- 1935 --- President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes almost $5 million to implement work-relief programs. Hoping to lift the country out of the crippling Great Depression, Congress allowed the president to use the funds at his discretion. The act was unprecedented and remains the largest system of public-assistance relief programs in the nation's history. One of the most notable federal agencies FDR created with the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act was the Works Progress Administration, one of several New Deal programs FDR hoped would relieve the chronic and widespread unemployment citizens faced during the Depression. While FDR believed in the elementary principles of justice and fairness, he also expressed disdain for doling out welfare to able workers. The WPA, the Public Works Administration (PWA) and other federal-assistance programs created by the act put Americans to work in return for temporary financial assistance. To prevent the act from harming private enterprise, Roosevelt included a provision that prohibited federal programs from competing with independent businesses by placing wage and price controls on federally funded products and services.
- 1950 --- Senator Joseph McCarthy labels Professor Owen Lattimore "extremely dangerous so far as the American people are concerned" in a carefully worded public speech, but stops short of calling him a Soviet spy. The speech was yet another example of McCarthy's ability to whip up damaging Red Scare hysteria with no real evidence. In February 1950, the little-known Senator McCarthy gave a speech in which he charged that there were over 200 "known communists" in the Department of State. When pressed for particulars, McCarthy made an appearance before a special joint session of Congress. During the course of presenting his "evidence," McCarthy declared that Professor Owen Lattimore was a "top Soviet spy." Lattimore, an expert on Chinese history, had served as a special consultant about Chinese affairs during and after World War II and had been a consistent critic of the Nationalist Chinese regime of Chiang Kai-Shek. Word soon leaked out about McCarthy's charge. Though Lattimore decried the senator's statements as lies, there was nothing he could legally do, since McCarthy's testimony was protected by congressional immunity.
- 1952 --- President Harry S. Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike.
- 1969 --- The Montreal Expos and the New York Mets played in Shea Stadium in New York in the first international baseball game in the major leagues.
- 1974 --- Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run and breaks the long-standing record held by Babe Ruth. Aaron’s record-breaking 715th homer came in the fourth inning of the Braves’ home opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with over 53,000 fans in attendance at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Aaron hit a pitch off lefthander Al Downing and the ball went sailing over the fence in left center field. After Aaron rounded the bases and reached home plate, he was lifted up and congratulated by his teammates. He then shook his father’s hand and hugged his mother. Sadly, in the months leading up to the new record, Aaron, who is African-American, received racist hate mail and death threats. Aaron began his professional baseball career in 1952 in the Negro League and joined the Milwaukee Braves of the major leagues in 1954, eight years after Jackie Robinson had integrated baseball. Aaron was the last Negro League player to compete in the majors. He quickly established himself as an important player for the Braves and won the National League batting title in 1956. The following season, he took home the league’s MVP award and helped the Braves beat Mickey Mantle and the heavily favored New York Yankees in the World Series. In 1959, Aaron won his second league batting title. Season after season, Aaron turned in strong batting performances: “Hammerin’ Hank” hit .300 or higher for 14 seasons and slugged at least 40 homers in eight separate seasons. In May 1970, he became the first player in baseball to record 500 homers and 3,000 hits. Aaron played for the Milwaukee Braves from 1954 to 1965 and then moved with the team to Atlanta in 1966. On February 29, 1972, the Braves signed Aaron to a three-year, $200,000 per year contract that made him baseball’s best-paid player. In November 1974, the Braves traded Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers, where he spent the final two seasons of his career. Aaron retired from baseball in 1976 with 755 career home runs, a record that stood until August 7, 2007, when it was broken by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants. Aaron still holds the records for most career runs batted in (2,297), most career total bases (6,856) and most career extra base hits (1,477). After retiring as a player, Aaron became one of baseball’s first black executives, with the Atlanta Braves. In 1982, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- 1975 --- Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians became first black manager of a major league baseball team.
- 1987 --- Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigned over remarks he had made. While on ABC's "Nightline" Campanis said that blacks "may not have some of the necessities" to hold managerial jobs in major-league baseball.
- 1992 --- Tennis player Arthur Ashe announced that he had AIDS.
- 1994 --- Guitarist Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was found dead in his home outside Seattle, Washington, with fresh injection marks in both arms and a fatal wound to the head from the 20-gauge shotgun found between his knees. Cobain's suicide brought an end to a life marked by far more suffering than is generally associated with rock superstardom. But rock superstardom never did sit well with Kurt Cobain, a committed social outsider who was reluctantly dubbed the spokesman of his generation.
- 2002 --- Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama for her play "Topdog/Underdog."
- Birthdays
- Guatama Buddha
- Elisha Graves Otis
- Jim “Catfish” Hunter
- Sonja Henie
- Betty Ford
- Robin Wright
- Schecky Greene
- Seymour Hirsch
- Kofi Annan
- Mary Pickford
- Carmen McRae
- Jacques Brel
- John Havlicek
- Patricia Arquette
- Barbara Kingsolver