- 177th Day of 2012 / 189 Remaining
- 89 Days Until Autumn Begins
- Sunrise:5:49
- Sunset:8:36
- 14 Hours 47 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:11:58am
- Moon Set:12:143am(Tue)
- Moon’s Phase: 35 %
- The Next Full Moon
- July 3 @ 11:51am
- Full Buck Moon
- Full Thunder Moon
- Full Hay Moon
July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
- Tides
- High:2:50am/4:24pm
- Low:9:22am/10:30pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:15.80
- Last Year:28.51
- Normal To Date:23.80
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- Great American Backyard Campout
- Ratification Day-Virginia
- National Catfish Day
- National Strawberry Parfait Day
- National Fried Okra Day
- Sense of Humor in Bed Appreciation Day
- Please Take My Children to Work Day
- Independence Day-Mozambique
- National Day-Bhutan
- National Day-Slovenia
- Statehood Day-Croatia
- On This Day In …
- 1788 --- The Virginia colony including Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, entered the United States of America as the tenth state. The state, also known as Old Dominion, was named after the "Virgin Queen", Elizabeth I of England. The Commonwealth of Virginia and its capital, Richmond, have played major roles in American history. Like West Virginia, it names the cardinal as the state bird. The official state flower of Virginia is the flowering dogwood.
- 1867 --- Barbed wire was patented by Lucien B Smith of Kent, Ohio.
- 1868 --- Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union.
- 1868 --- The U.S. Congress enacted legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the Federal government.
- 1876 --- Determined to resist the efforts of the U.S. Army to force them onto reservations, Indians under the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and much of his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Sioux Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse had been successfully resisting American efforts to confine their people to reservations for more than a decade. Although both chiefs wanted nothing more than to be left alone to pursue their traditional ways, the growing tide of white settlers invading their lands inevitably led to violent confrontations. Increasingly, the Sioux and Cheyenne who did try to cooperate with the U.S. government discovered they were rewarded only with broken promises and marginal reservation lands. In 1875, after the U.S. Army blatantly ignored treaty provisions and invaded the sacred Black Hills, many formerly cooperative Sioux and Cheyenne abandoned their reservations to join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana. They would not return without a fight. Late in 1875, the U.S. Army ordered all the "hostile" Indians in Montana to return to their reservations or risk being attacked. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse ignored the order and sent messengers out to urge other Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe Indians to unite with them to meet the white threat. By the late spring of 1876, more than 10,000 Indians had gathered in a massive camp along a river in southern Montana called the Little Big Horn. "We must stand together or they will kill us separately," Sitting Bull told them. "These soldiers have come shooting; they want war. All right, we'll give it to them." Meanwhile, three columns of U.S. soldiers were converging on the Little Big Horn. On June 17, the first column under the command of General George Crook was badly bloodied by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Crazy Horse. Stunned by the size and ferocity of the Indian attack, Crook was forced to withdraw. Knowing nothing of Crook's defeat, the two remaining columns commanded by General Alfred Terry and General John Gibbon continued toward the Little Big Horn. On June 22, Terry ordered the 7th Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer to scout ahead for Indians. On the morning of this day in 1876, Custer's scouts told him that a gigantic Indian village lay nearby in the valley of the Little Big Horn River. Custer dismissed the scouts' claim that the village was extraordinarily large-certainly many thousands of Indians-as exaggerated. Indeed, his main fear was that the Indians would scatter before he could attack. Rather than wait for reinforcements, Custer decided to move forward immediately and stage an unusual mid-day attack. As the 7th Cavalry entered the valley, Custer divided the regiment of about 600 men into four battalions, keeping a force of 215 under his own command. In the vast Indian encampment (historians estimate there were as many as 11,000 Indians), word quickly spread of the approaching soldiers. Too old actually to engage in battle, Sitting Bull rallied his warriors while seeing to the protection of the women and children. The younger Crazy Horse prepared for battle and sped off with a large force of warriors to meet the invaders. As Custer's divided regiment advanced, the soldiers suddenly found they were under attack by a rapidly growing number of Indians. Gradually, it dawned on Custer that his scouts had not exaggerated the size of the Indian force after all. He immediately dispatched urgent orders in an attempt to regroup his regiment. The other battalions, however, were facing equally massive attacks and were unable to come to his aid. Soon, Custer and his 215 men found themselves cut off and under attack by as many as 3,000 armed braves. Within an hour, they were wiped out to the last man. The remaining battalions of the 7th Cavalry were also badly beaten, but they managed to fight a holding action until the Indians withdrew the following day. The Battle of the Little Big Horn was the Indians' greatest victory and the army's worst defeat in the long and bloody Plains Indian War.
- 1938 --- The new Federal minimum wage law guaranteed workers 40¢ per hour.
- 1949 --- Billboard magazine renamed its "Hillbilly Music Chart" as "Country & Western."
- 1951 --- The first commercial color TV program was seen. It was a four-hour-long show presented on CBS and carried in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. Arthur Godfrey, Faye Emerson, Sam Levenson and Ed Sullivan starred in the TV milestone. An interesting side note to this event is that the public didn’t own any color TVs at the time and CBS, itself, owned only about three dozen sets.
- 1962 --- The Supreme Court ruled that the use of an unofficial, nondenominational prayer in New York public schools was unconstitutional.
- 1968 --- Bobby Bonds of the San Francisco Giants started on the road to superstardom. Bonds connected for a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He became the first baseball player in the majors to debut in such an exciting way.
- 1969 --- Guitarist Mick Taylor first appeared with The Rolling Stones at the Coliseum in Rome, replacing Brian Jones. Jones was found dead a week later.
- 1990 --- The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. "The right to die" decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case.
- 1993 --- Kim Campbell was sworn in as Canada's 19th prime minister and the first woman to hold the post.
- Birthdays
- Sup Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
- George Orwell
- George Michael
- Jimmy Walker
- Carly Simon
- Phyllis George
- Dikembe Mutombo
- Ricky Gervais
- Willis Reed
- June Lockhart