- 96th Day of 2016 270 Remaining
- Summer Begins in 76 Days
- Sunrise: 6:46
- Sunset: 7:37
- 12 Hours 51 Minutes
- Moon Rise: 5:45am
- Moon Set: 5:51pm
- Phase: 5% 28 Days
- Next Full Moon April 21 @ 10:25pm
- Full Pink Moon, this name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- Tides
- High: 9:56am/10:34pm
- Low: 3:49am/4:06pm
- Holidays
- National Deep Dish Pizza Day
- Caramel Day
- National Dandelion Day
- Bell Bottoms Day
- Go For Broke Day
- Molasses Day
- National Raisin and Spice Bar Day
- Read A Road Map Day
- SAAM (Sexual Assault Awareness Month) Day of Action
- Arbor Day-South Korea
- Ching Ming Festival(Tomb Sweeping Day)-Taiwan
- On This Day
- 1614 --- Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian confederacy, marries English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Virginia. The marriage ensured peace between the Jamestown settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years.
- 1621 --- The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, MA, on a return trip to England.
- 1774 --- Benjamin Franklin writes an open letter to Great Britain’s prime minister, Frederick, Lord North, from the Smyrna Coffee House in London. It was published in The Public Advertiser, a British newspaper. Franklin’s tongue-in-cheek letter suggested that the British impose martial law upon the colonies and appoint a “King’s Viceroy of all North America.” Franklin satirically went on to suggest that such centralized power over “Yankee Doodles,” who had “degenerated to such a Degree” from their British ancestors, “that one born in Britain is equal to twenty Americans,” would allow the crown to collect its taxes, then sell their impoverished colonies and colonists to Spain. Smyrna Coffee House on St. James Street in London had been a meeting place of Whigs, or political liberals, since the 17th century. For Franklin to sign a letter drafted at Smyrna’s “A Friend of Military Government” was an obvious use of irony. The details of his purported plan for a military government, including the exclusive use of military courts in colonies known for their commitment to trial by jury, and “One Hundred to a Thousand Lashes in a frosty Morning” for offenders made Franklin s disdain for Lord North and his heavy-handed tactics clear.
- 1862 --- Union forces under General George McClellan arrive at Yorktown, Virginia, and establish siege lines instead of directly attacking the Confederate defenders. This was the opening of McClellan’s Peninsula campaign. He sailed his massive Army of the Potomac down Chesapeake Bay and landed on the James Peninsula southeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. He reasoned that this would bring him closer to Richmond, and the Confederates would have a difficult time gathering their scattered forces to the peninsula. The first resistance came at Yorktown, the site of George Washington’s decisive victory over Lord Cornwallis to end the American Revolution 91 years earlier.
- 1882 --- The Jergens Soap Company was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio to manufacture coconut oil soap for use in hard water.
- 1895 --- Playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde had been accused of homosexual practices.
- 1936 --- Two small towns in Mississippi and Georgia are devastated by tornadoes, killing 200 people in one of the deadliest spates of tornadoes in United States history. A total of 466 people were killed over four days of nearly continuous twisters. Another 3,500 people were injured. The storms and accompanying tornadoes hit Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee on April 5. At about 8:30 a.m., the first twister touched down in Coffeeville, Mississippi, before moving northeast and devastating Tupelo, Mississippi. The Gum Pond area of Tupelo was worst hit. Homes along the pond were completely swept away. A majority of the bodies of the 216 people killed in Tupelo were found in the pond. One notable survivor of this deadly tornado was one-year-old Elvis Presley, who was born in Tupelo. The Tupelo twister was estimated to be an F5, the most destructive class of tornado, with winds in excess of 261 miles per hour. Some reports noted that the wind was so strong that it embedded pine needles into the trunks of trees that managed to stay standing. In Gainesville, Georgia, the following morning, three separate tornadoes continued the destruction. In the single worst tornado incident in the United States in the 20th century, 70 workers at the Cooper Pants factory were killed when the building collapsed on them. Twenty more people were killed in a department store collapse.
- 1951 --- At the end of a highly publicized espionage case, death sentences are imposed against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, one week after the couple were found guilty of conspiring to transmit atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenberg case began with the arrest of Klaus Fuchs, a German-born and U.S.-employed scientist who confessed to passing classified information about the U.S. atomic program to the Soviets. Following his 1950 conviction, U.S. authorities began an extensive investigation of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the top secret U.S. atomic development headquarters where Fuchs worked during the war. Harry Gold, a Philadelphia chemist, was arrested as a Fuchs accomplice, followed by David Greenglass, who had been stationed near the Los Alamos atomic testing site during the war. In July 1950, Ethel Rosenberg, the sister of Greenglass, was arrested along with her husband, Julius, an electrical engineer who had worked for the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the war. Alleged to have communist leanings, the couple was accused of convincing Greenglass to provide Harry Gold with atomic secrets.
- 1968 --- Simon & Garfunkel's single "Mrs. Robinson" was released.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C1BCAgu2I8
- 1969 --- Approximately 100,000 antiwar demonstrators march in New York City to demand that the United States withdraw from Vietnam. The weekend of antiwar protests ended with demonstrations and parades in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities. The National Mobilization Committee, the Student Mobilization Committee, and the Socialist Workers Party were among the groups that helped organize the demonstrations. At the same time, Quakers held sit-ins at draft boards and committed other acts of civil disobedience in more than 30 cities.
- 1984 --- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores the 31,420th point of his career, breaking the NBA’s all-time scoring record, which had been held by Wilt Chamberlain. Over 18,000 fans gathered at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to watch the Utah Jazz play Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers on April 5. With less than nine minutes left in the game, Magic Johnson passed the ball to his 7’2″ teammate and Abdul-Jabbar scored his 22nd point of the night and 31,420th point of his career. The game stopped as Abdul-Jabbar’s teammates rushed to congratulate him and the fans gave him an extended standing ovation. Abdul-Jabbar, 37, was then taken out of the game, after making 10 of 14 baskets from the field and two out two from the foul line, plus five rebounds and three assists. The Lakers went on to win the game, 129-115.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNGa_VDKqSE
- 1985 --- An estimated 5,000 radio stations around the world simultaneously played the song "We Are the World".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI
- 1992 --- A march and rally in support of abortion rights for women draws several hundred thousand people to demonstrations in Washington, D.C. One of the largest protest marches on the nation’s capital, the pro-choice rally came as the U.S. Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania state law that limited access to abortions. Many abortion rights advocates feared that the high court, with its conservative majority, might endorse the Pennsylvania law or even overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal.
- 1994 --- Modern rock icon Kurt Cobain commits suicide. His body was discovered inside his home in Seattle, Washington, three days later by Gary Smith, an electrician, who was installing a security system in the suburban house. Despite indications that Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, killed himself, several skeptics questioned the circumstances of his death and pinned responsibility on his wife, Courtney Love. At least two books, including one penned by Love’s estranged father, and a nationally released documentary, Kurt & Courtney, openly expressed doubt that Cobain killed himself and all but accused Love of having her husband killed. Her volatile reputation and healthy list of enemies helped to circulate the rumors. However, police have concluded that Cobain’s death was the result of suicide.
- 2012 --- About 20 million Britons in southern and eastern England were banned from using garden hoses for gardening or cleaning, due to a 2 year drought. Anyone caught using a 'hosepipe' faces a fine of 1,000 pounds ($1,500).
- Birthdays
- Booker T Washington
- Elihu Yale
- Spencer Tracy
- Melvyn Douglas
- Bette Davis
- Gregory Peck
- Arthur Hailey
- Gale Storm
- Frank Gorshin
- Colin Powell
- David La Flamme
- Max Gail
- Jane Asher
- Agnetha Faltskog
- Peter Case
- Paula Cole
- Pharrell Williams
National Deep Dish Pizza Day-KALW Almanac-4/5/2016
