February 23 is the 54th day of the year.
There are 311 days remaining until the end of the year
Sunrise will be at 6:50 this morning
Sunset at 5:57 pm
We’ll have 11 hours and 7 minutes of daylight today
Low tide at 8:53 this morning
High Tide at 3:25 this afternoon and
Low Tide again at 8:49 tonight
The moon will be 27% Illuminated
*Curling is Cool Day: 23
*Diesel Engine Day: 23
National Dog Biscuit Day: 23
On this day in history:
1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
- 1896 – The Tootsie Roll is invented.
- 1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the [French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
- 1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
- 1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
- 1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution.
- 1927 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
- 1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coastline
- near Santa Barbara.
- 1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
- 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
- 1983 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
If today is your birthday, you share birthday cake with:
- 1685 – George Frideric Handel, German-English composer (d. 1759)
- 1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (d. 1963)
- 1883 – Karl Jaspers, German philosopher (d. 1969)
- 1904 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (d. 1993)
- 1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor
- 1944 – Johnny Winter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2014)
- 1945 – Allan Boesak, South African cleric and politician
- 1955 – Tom Bodett, American voice actor, radio host, and author
- 1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress