- 181st Day of 2014 / 185 Remaining
- Autumn Begins in 84 Days
- Sunrise:5:51
- Sunset:8:35
- 14 Hours 44 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:9:05am
- Moon Set:10:36pm
- Moon Phase:82%
- The Next Full Moon
- July 12 @ 4:26 am
- 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 named for the thunderstorms that are most common during this time. And in some areas it was called the Full Hay Moon.
- Tides
- High:12:34am/2:35pm
- Low:7:31am/7:48pm
- Rainfall (July 1 – June 30)
- This Year :12.66
- Last Year :16.51
- Average YTD :23.80
- Holidays
- National Handshake Day
- National Ice Cream Soda Day
- Armed Forces Day-Guatemala
- Independence Day-Democratic Republic of Congo
- Revolution Day-Sudan
- On This Day In …
- 1520 --- Faced with an Aztec revolt against their rule, forces under the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes fight their way out of Tenochtitlan at heavy cost. Known to the Spanish as La Noche Triste, or "the Night of Sadness," many soldiers drowned in Lake Texcoco when the vessel carrying them and Aztec treasures hoarded by Cortes sank. Montezuma II, the Aztec emperor who had become merely a subject of Cortes in the previous year, was also killed during the struggle; by the Aztecs or the Spanish, it is not known.
- 1841 --- The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.
- 1859 --- Jean-Francois Gravelet, a Frenchman known professionally as Emile Blondin, becomes the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The feat, which was performed 160 feet above the Niagara gorge just down river from the Falls, was witnessed by some 5,000 spectators. Wearing pink tights and a yellow tunic, Blondin crossed a cable about two inches in diameter and 1,100-feet long with only a balancing pole to protect him from plunging into the dangerous rapids below.
- 1896 --- A U.S. patent was issued for an electric stove.
- 1900 --- Four German boats burn at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, killing more than 300 people. The fire was so large that it could be seen by nearly every person in the New York City area. There was so much flaming debris in the Hudson that 27 boats in all caught fire during the evening. The pier fire also spread to the shore. The Hoboken Warehouse and Campbell's Store burned to the ground. Three other piers also burned. By the time all the fires had been put out, somewhere between 325 and 400 people had died and property owners had suffered $4.5 million in insurable damages
- 1908 --- Possibly the most powerful, natural explosion in recorded history occurred. The site was the Tunguska section of Central Siberia.The spectacular explosion devastated a forested area, some 70 miles in diameter, caused seismic shock, a firestorm followed by black rain and an illumination that, it is said, could be seen for hundreds of miles. Yet, no crater was formed, and only the tops of the trees were burned at the central point of the explosion. It is said that the impact threw down horses that had been standing in a field 400 miles away and moved the tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway, as if in an earthquake. It flash-burned people 40 miles away, melted their silverware and destroyed herds of reindeer.
- 1934 --- In Germany, Nazi leader Adolph Hitler orders a bloody purge of his own political party, assassinating hundreds of Nazis whom he believed had the potential to become political enemies in the future. The leadership of the Nazi Storm Troopers (SA), whose four million members had helped bring Hitler to power in the early 1930’s was especially targeted. Hitler feared that some of his followers had taken his early "National Socialism" propaganda too seriously and thus might compromise his plan to suppress workers' rights in exchange for German industry making the country war-ready.
- 1936 --- The novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell was published.
- 1939 --- Frank Sinatra made his first appearance with Harry James’ band.
- 1953 --- The first production Corvette is built at the General Motors facility in Flint, Michigan. Tony Kleiber, a worker on the assembly line, is given the privilege of driving the now-historic car off the line. It sold for $3,250.
- 1962 --- Sandy Koufax strikes out 13 batters and walks five to lead the Brooklyn Dodgers to victory over the New York Mets 5-0 with his first career no-hitter. Koufax went on to throw three more no-hitters, including a perfect game on September 9, 1965, in which he allowed no hits and no walks.
- 1971 --- Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, freed The New York Times and The Washington Post to resume immediate publication of articles based on the secret Pentagon Papers on the origins of the Vietnam War.
- 1971 --- The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.
- 1971 --- The three Soviet cosmonauts who served as the first crew of the world's first space station die when their spacecraft depressurizes during reentry. Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev were launched into space aboard Soyuz 11 on a mission to dock and enter Salyut 1, the Soviet space station that had been placed in orbit in April. On the return, one hundred miles above the earth, the capsule was suddenly exposed to the nearly pressure less environment of space. As the capsule rapidly depressurized, Patsayev tried to close the valve by hand but failed. Minutes later, the cosmonauts were dead. As a result of the tragedy, the Soviet Union did not send any future crews to Salyut 1, and it was more than two years before they attempted another manned mission.
- 1975 --- Cher married rock star Gregg Allman. Cher announced her divorce from Allman just 10 days after the couple tied the knot.
- 1989 --- Spike Lee’s third feature film, Do the Right Thing--a provocative, racially charged drama that takes place on one block in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, on the hottest day of the year--is released in U.S. theaters.
- 1991 --- Frank Zappa performed with Hungarian musicians as Hungary celebrated the withdrawal of Soviet troops after some 46 years of occupation. Zappa headlined the Taban Jazzfestival this day in Budapest.
- 1994 --- The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her from the organization for life for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
- 1994 --- The temperature at Death Valley, California reached 128 degrees (Fahrenheit). The only other time it has been that hot (since 1961 when weather data was first recorded) was on July 14, 1972.
- 1997 --- As the clock struck midnight, Red China reclaimed Hong Kong from Great Britainand the British Crown’s 156-year colonial rule came to an end. Many had predicted the worst, but Hong Kong seamlessly made the transition to a Special Administrative Region of China.
- 1998 -- Lucinda Williams album "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" was released.
- 2004 --- The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn's orbit. The craft had been on a nearly seven-year journey.
- 2013 --- 19 firefighters perish while battling a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona. All were members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, an elite group of wild land firefighters that was part of the Prescott (Arizona) Fire Department.
- Birthdays
- Lena Horne
- Mabel Cratty
- Michael Phelps
- Stanley Clarke
- David Alan Grier
- Monica Potter
- Fantasia
- Mike Tyson
- Harry Blackstone Jr.
- Florence Ballard
