February 1 is the 32nd day of the year.
There are 334 days remaining until the end of 2016.
The sun will rise at 7:13 am
and sunset will be at 5:34 pm.
Today we will have 10 hours and 21 minutes of sun.
The first high tide was at 5:18 am
and the next high tide at 6:52 pm.
The first low tide will be at 12:16 pm
and the following low tide at 11:34 pm.
The lunar phase is a Last Quarter Moon.
Today is...
National Freedom Day
National Serpent Day
National Baked Alaska Day
Air Force Day (Nicaragua)
Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery (Mauritius)
Federal Territory Day (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, Malaysia)
Heroes' Day (Rwanda)
Imbolc (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, and some Neopagan groups in the Northern
hemisphere)
Memorial Day of the Republic (Hungary)
National Freedom Day (United States)
The first day of Quebec Winter Carnival, celebrated until February 17 (Quebec City)
The start of Black History Month (United States and Canada)
The start of LGBT History Month (United Kingdom)
The start of National Bird-Feeding Month (United States)
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday to you! You get to celebrate with...
1859 – Victor Herbert, Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor (d. 1924)
1878 -- Hattie O. Caraway, First female U.S. senator
1894 – John Ford, American director and producer (d. 1973)
1894 – James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer (d. 1955)
1901 – Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
1902 – Langston Hughes, American poet, novelist, playwright (d. 1967)
1904 – S.J. Perelman, American humorist and screenwriter (d. 1979)
1918 – Muriel Spark, Scottish novelist, poet, and critc (d. 2006)
1928 – Tom Lantos, Hungarian-American politician (d. 2008)
1931 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (d. 2007)
1937 – Don Everly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1937 – Garrett Morris, American comedian and actor
1939 – Fritjof Capra, Austrian physicist, author, and academic
1939 – Joe Sample, American musician and composer (d. 2014)
1942 – Terry Jones, Welsh actor, director, and screenwriter
1947 – Jessica Savitch, American journalist (d. 1983)
1948 – Rick James, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2004)
1951 – Sonny Landreth, American guitarist and songwriter
1957 – Gilbert Hernandez, American cartoonist, creator of Love And Rockets
1967 – Meg Cabot, American author and screenwriter
1968 – Lisa Marie Presley, American singer-songwriter
on this day in history…
1862"The Battle Hymn of the Republic," a poem by Julia Ward Howe, was published in the Atlantic Monthly.
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution.
1876 – A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Pennsylvanian Irish anti-
owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", to disband.
1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the
Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
1896Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin, Italy.
1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar.
1920The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established.
1942 – Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the
United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas
controlled by the Axis powers.
1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch
counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want
to Hold Your Hand."
1979Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.
1982"Late Night with David Letterman" premiered on NBC.
1994 – Punk rock band Green Day releases their album Dookie, which would
eventually sell over 20 million copies worldwide.
2004 – Janet Jackson's breast is accidentally exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to Federal Communications Commission censorship guidelines.