- 30th Day of 2012 / 336 Remaining
- 50 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:7:16
- Sunset:5:31
- 10 Hr 15 Min
- Moon Rise:10:51am
- Moon Set:12:12am
- Moon’s Phase: First Quarter
- The Next Full Moon
- February 7 @ 1:56pm
- Full Snow Moon
- Full Hunger Moon
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
- Tides
- High:3:17am/4:43pm
- Low:10:31am/9:41pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:6.06
- Last Year:12.35
- Normal To Date12.17:
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- National Croissant Day
- Inane Answering Machine Message Day
- National Flirt A Little Bit Day
- Congressional Brawl Day
- National Write to Congress Day
- National Yodel at Your Neighbors Day
- World Leprosy Day
- King’s Birthday-Jordan
- On This Day In …
- 1798 --- The first brawl in the U.S. House of Representatives was witnessed by legislators. Congressmen Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold duked it out right there on the House floor. The spat occurred when Lyon spit in Griswold’s face.
- 1835 --- In the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol, President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, survives the first attempt against the life of a U.S. president. During a funeral service honoring the late Representative Warren R. Davis of South Carolina, a man identified as Richard Lawrence discharged two separate pistols in the direction of President Jackson. Both weapons misfired, and Lawrence was promptly subdued and arrested. During the subsequent criminal investigation, the suspect was found to be insane and was sent to a mental prison. Three decades later, President Abraham Lincoln would become the first president to be assassinated.
- 1847 --- The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.
- 1868 --- Charles Darwin's 'Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication.' was published.
- 1917 --- The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded "The Darktown Strutters' Ball." Many consider it the first jazz recording.
- 1933 --- With the stirring notes of the William Tell Overture and a shout of "Hi-yo, Silver! Away!" The Lone Ranger debuts on Detroit's WXYZ radio station. The creation of station-owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker, the "masked rider of the plains" became one of the most popular and enduring western heroes of the 20th century. Joined by his trusty steed, Silver, and loyal Indian scout, Tonto, the Lone Ranger sallied forth to do battle with evil western outlaws and Indians, generally arriving on the scene just in time to save an innocent golden-haired child or sun-bonneted farm wife. Neither Trendle nor Striker had any connections to or experience with the cowboys, Indians, and pioneers of the real West, but that mattered little to them. The men simply wanted to create an American version of the masked swashbuckler made popular by the silent movie actor Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro, arming their hero with a revolver rather than a sword. Historical authenticity was far less important to the men than fidelity to the strict code of conduct they established for their character. The Lone Ranger never smoked, swore, or drank alcohol; he used grammatically correct speech free of slang; and, most important, he never shot to kill. More offensive to modern historical and ethnic sensibilities was the Indian scout Tonto, who spoke in a comical Indian patois totally unrelated to any authentic Indian dialect, uttering ludicrous phrases like "You betchum!"
- 1936 --- Major-league baseball’s Boston Braves changed their name to the Boston Bees, thinking possibly the team’s name was contributing to its losing record. They did win more games the next two years, but then started losing big again. So in 1940 the Bees became the Braves again.
- 1948 --- Mohandas Gandhi, the world's chief advocate of non-violence, is assassinated in New Delhi by a terrorist sponsored by a right-wing Hindu militia group. The murder came only 10 days after a failed attempt on Gandhi's life. Thirty-nine-year-old Nathuram Godse shot the great Indian leader as he made his way through a small crowd to lead a prayer session. Gandhi was instrumental in driving the British out of India. His non-violent protests and boycotts crippled England's ability to control the populace and brought unwanted attention to one of the world's last major bastions of colonialism. He was a leader in the Indian National Congress, and led the revolution for independence. His ideas and tactics were later borrowed by Martin Luther King, Jr., who used them successfully in the 1960s civil rights protests.The assassin Godse tried to kill himself after the attack, but was grabbed before he had the chance. Four accomplices were arrested over the next several days. Godse showed no remorse for his crime. Along with Narayan Apte, Godse was hanged to death on November 15, 1949, against the wishes of Gandhi's sons, who argued that the execution stood against everything Gandhi believed in.
- 1969 --- The Beatles perform for the last time in public, on the roof of Apple Studios.
- 1972 --- In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army paratroopers in an event that becomes known as "Bloody Sunday." The protesters, all Northern Catholics, were marching in protest of the British policy of internment of suspected Irish nationalists. British authorities had ordered the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters, killing 13 and wounding 17. The killings brought worldwide attention to the crisis in Northern Ireland and sparked protests all across Ireland. In Dublin, the capital of independent Ireland, outraged Irish citizens lit the British embassy aflame on February 2.
- 1996 --- Michael Jackson's unauthorized biographer, Randy Taraborrelli, claimed the pop star paid Lisa Marie Presley $15 million to marry him for a year. Jackson's attorney said there was no such deal.
- Birthdays
- Franklin D Roosevelt
- Vanessa Redgrave
- Ruth Brown
- Christian Bale
- Gene Hackman
- Dick Cheney
- Marty Balin
- Phil Collins
- Brett Butler
- Jody Watley
- Roy Eldridge
- Anton Checkhov
- Dick Martin
- Tammy Grimes
- Dorothy Malone
- Boris Spassky