Thursday August 7, 2014
219th day of the year
146 days left
Sunrise Today: 6:18 AM↑ 68° East
Meridian 1:15 PM
Sunset Today: 8:12 PM↑ 291° Northwest
Daylight Hours: 13 hours, 53 minutes (-1m 57s)
Moonrise Today: 5:32 PM↑ 114° Southeast
Moonset Today: 2:55 AM↑ 246° West
Moon is 84.8 % Waxing Gibbous
High tide at 10:29 at 4.5 feet
Low tide at 2:57pm at 2.6
High tide again at 9:18pm at 6.6
Today is Sea Serpent Day
Battle of Boyacá Day (Colombia)
1819 – Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
Emancipation Day (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
Republic Day (Côte d'Ivoire)
1960 – Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent from France.
Youth Day (Kiribati)
1998: US embassies in Africa bombed
At least 200 people are killed and many more injured when US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed within minutes of each other.
1987: Chilly swim thaws Cold War relations
An American woman becomes the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union.
1985 – Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
1981 – The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal due to toxic waste that had been negligently disposed of.
1972: Asians given 90 days to leave Uganda
The Ugandan leader, Idi Amin, sets a deadline for the expulsion of most of the country's Asians.
1965 – The infamous first Reyes party between Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and motorcycle gang the Hells Angels takes place at Kesey's estate in La Honda, California introducing psychedelics to the gang world and forever linking the hippie movement to the Hell's Angels.
1964 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
1958: Arthur Miller cleared of contempt
Washington's Court of Appeals quashes playwright Arthur Miller's conviction for contempt of Congress after a two-year legal battle.
1947 – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
1942 – World War II: the Battle of Guadalcanal begins – United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
1912The Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.
1942U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.
1964Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson broad powers to deal with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.
1971Apollo 15 returned to Earth after a manned mission to the moon.
1974French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.
1990President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq.
2000Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore chose Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, making him the first Jewish candidate on a major party ticket.
2002Major league baseball players and owners agreed on the sport's first tests for steroids.
2007Barry Bonds became baseball's career home run leader when he hit No. 756 during a home game in San Francisco, passing Hank Aaron's mark.
2008Georgia shelled the capital of breakaway republic South Ossetia. (Russia responded by occupying much of Georgia in a five-day war.)
2009Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused President Barack Obama of proposing a "death panel" that would decide who receives treatment in his health care plan.
Actress Charlize Theron turns 39 years old today.
Today is Joe Burke's birthday
also Happy Birthday to Open Air producer Niels Swinkels
1942Garrison Keillor, Writer, humorist ("A Prairie Home Companion"), turns 72
Ralph Bunche 8/7/1904 - 12/9/1971 American civil rights activist and diplomat awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950
1876 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (d. 1917)
1890 – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, American activist (d. 1964)
1904 – Ralph Bunche, American political scientist, academic, and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
1926 – Stan Freberg, American voice actor and singer
1935 – Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1977)
1942 – Garrison Keillor, American author and radio host
1942 – Caetano Veloso, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 – Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese politician
1956 – Sharon Isbin, American guitarist
1962 – Alison Brown, American banjo player, songwriter, and producer (Northern Lights)
1963 – Marcus Roberts, American pianist