- 160th Day of 2014 / 205 Remaining
- Summer Begins in 12 Days
- Sunrise:5:47
- Sunset:8:30
- 14 Hours 43 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:5:00pm
- Moon Set:3:14am
- Moon’s Phase: 86 %
- The Next Full Moon
- June 12 @ 4:26 am
- Full Rose Moon
- Full Strawberry Moon
- Strawberry Moon was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!
- Tides
- High:9:20am/8:38pm
- Low:2:56am/2:18pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:12.65
- Last Year:16.36
- Average Year to Date:23.71
- Holidays
- National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day
- Heroes Day-Uganda
- Murcia Autonomy Day-Spain
- Dia de La Rioja-Spain
- On This Day In …
- 1534 --- French navigator Jacques Cartier becomes the first European explorer to discover the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec, Canada.
- 1790 --- John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the first American book to be copyrighted.
- 1860 --- The book, "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" by Mrs. Ann Stevens, was offered for sale for a dime. It was the first published "dime novel."
- 1899 --- James J. Jeffries punched Bob ‘Ruby Robert’ Fitzsimmons into the next county via an 11th-round knockout at Coney Island, NY. Jeffries became heavyweight boxing champ as a result.
- 1924 --- 'Jelly-Roll Blues' was recorded by blues great Jelly Roll Morton.
- 1934 --- Walt Disney’s famous ducky made his first appearance (as a bit player) on film, in The Wise Little Hen. Donald Duck went on to quack his way into mischief and stardom in 127 cartoons and features before his final appearance in 1961. The irascible duck is known the world over and is the best-recognized Disney creation after Mickey Mouse.
- 1940 --- Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.
- 1943 --- The U.S. Congress authorized legislation giving the green light to a withholding tax on payrolls -- the pay-it-as-you-make-it income tax.
- 1946 --- Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be ejected from a doubleheader (both games).
- 1953 --- John H. Kraft received a patent for the manufacture of soft surface cured cheese.
- 1954 --- In a dramatic confrontation, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether communism has infiltrated the U.S. armed forces. Welch's verbal assault marked the end of McCarthy's power during the anticommunist hysteria of the Red Scare in America. Joseph N. Welch, a soft-spoken lawyer with an incisive wit and intelligence, represented the Army. During the course of weeks of hearings, Welch blunted every one of McCarthy's charges. The senator, in turn, became increasingly enraged, bellowing "point of order, point of order," screaming at witnesses, and declaring that one highly decorated general was a "disgrace" to his uniform. On June 9, 1954, McCarthy again became agitated at Welch's steady destruction of each of his arguments and witnesses. In response, McCarthy charged that Frederick G. Fisher, a young associate in Welch's law firm, had been a long-time member of an organization that was a "legal arm of the Communist Party." Welch was stunned. As he struggled to maintain his composure, he looked at McCarthy and declared, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." It was then McCarthy's turn to be stunned into silence, as Welch asked, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" The audience of citizens and newspaper and television reporters burst into wild applause. Just a week later, the hearings into the Army came to a close. McCarthy, exposed as a reckless bully, was officially condemned by the U.S. Senate for contempt against his colleagues in December 1954. During the next two-and-a-half years McCarthy spiraled into alcoholism. Still in office, he died in 1957.
- 1958 --- Jerry Lee Lewis took out a full-page ad in Billboard Magazine to explain about his second divorce and third marriage to his 14 year old cousin Myra.
- 1962 --- A decade after making his first hit song, Because of You, singer Tony Bennett debuted in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
- 1964 --- In reply to a formal question submitted by President Lyndon B. Johnson--"Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos and South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?"--the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) submits a memo that effectively challenges the "domino theory" backbone of the Johnson administration policies. This theory contended that if South Vietnam fell to the communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would also fall "like dominoes," and the theory had been used to justify much of the Vietnam War effort. The CIA concluded that Cambodia was probably the only nation in the area that would immediately fall. "Furthermore," the report said, "a continuation of the spread of communism in the area would not be inexorable, and any spread which did occur would take time--time in which the total situation might change in any number of ways unfavorable to the communist cause."
- 1972 -- A flash flood in Rapid City, South Dakota, kills more than 200 people on this day in 1972. This flood demonstrated the danger of building homes and businesses in a floodplain region.
- 1973 --- With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America's coveted Triple Crown--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in 2 minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance.
- 1980 --- Comedian Richard Pryor was rushed to the hospital after suffering third-degree burns over most of his upper body. Pryor was nearly killed in an explosion while he was freebasing cocaine. Pryor was seen, ablaze, running down the street from his house before he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. He was hospitalized for more than two months following the debacle.
- 1986 --- The Rogers Commission released its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.
- 1993 --- The now-infamous madam-to-the-stars Heidi Fleiss is arrested as part of a sting operation run by the Los Angeles Police and Beverly Hills Police Departments and the U.S. Justice Department. In the 1980s, Fleiss’ then-boyfriend introduced her to the leading Beverly Hills madam Elizabeth (Alex) Adams, who, according to Fleiss, taught her the tricks of the trade. Before long, Fleiss started a competing business, and when Adams was arrested in 1988, Fleiss took her spot as the leading provider of expensive prostitutes in Hollywood. As her business grew, she enjoyed the perks of celebrity, even as her rising profile attracted the attention of local authorities. On June 9, 1993, after she sent four of her employees (along with a quantity of cocaine) to fulfill an arrangement made with three “clients” (actually undercover agents), the 27-year-old Fleiss was arrested and charged with pandering, pimping and narcotics possession.
- 1993 --- The U.S. Postal Service debuted its Legends of American Music, Rock and Roll-Rhythm and Blues stamp collection. The set featured Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Clyde McPhatter, Otis Redding, Ritchie Valens, Dinah Washington and Elvis Presley.
- Birthdays
- Les Paul
- Cole Porter
- Johnny Depp
- Michael J Fox
- Jackie Mason
- Marvin Kalb
- Patricia Cornwell
- Natalie Portman
- Peter the Great
- Jackie Wilson
- Diane Van Der Vlis
- Gloria Reuben
