Thursday December 5, 2013

• 339^th Day of 2013 / 26 Remaining
• 16 Days Until The First Day of Winter

• Sunrise:7:10
• Sunset:4:50
• 9 Hours 40 Minutes of Daylight

• Moon Rise:9:36am
• Moon Set:8:17pm
• Moon’s Phase: 5 %

• The Next Full Moon
• December 17 @ 1:29amam
• Full Cold Moon
• Full Long Nights Moon

During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

• Tides
• High:12:52am/11:42am
• Low:5:47am/6:37

• Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
• Normal To Date:5.20
• This Year:1.70
• Last Year:8.89
• Annual Seasonal Average:23.80

• Holidays
• Day of the Ninja
• Bathtub Party Day
• National Sacher Torte Day

• International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
• Discovery Day-Haiti
• Krampuslauf-Austria
• Sinterklaas-Nederlands

• On This Day In …
• 1792 --- George Washington was re-elected president and John Adams was re-elected vice president.

• 1848 --- President James K. Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.

• 1854 --- Aaron Allen patented a folding chair.  Setting up for banquets becomes a whole lot easier.

• 1868 --- The first American bicycle school opened in New York City. It announced courses for velocipede riding.
  

  

• 1908 --- Numerals were used for the first time on football uniforms worn by college football players. The University of Pittsburgh Panthers proudly displayed their new numbers in a game with Washington and Jefferson.

• 1932 --- German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the U.S.
  

  

• 1933 --- The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states' approval. Pennsylvania and

  

  Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day. The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence. Several states outlawed the manufacture or sale of alcohol within their own borders. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. On January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment achieved the necessary three-fourths majority of state ratification. Prohibition essentially began in June of that year, but the amendment did not officially take effect until January 29, 1920. In the meantime, Congress passed the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, including the creation of a special Prohibition unit of the Treasury Department. In its first six months, the unit destroyed thousands of illicit stills run by bootleggers. However, federal agents and police did little more than slow the flow of booze, and organized crime flourished in America. Large-scale bootleggers like Al Capone of Chicago built criminal empires out of illegal distribution efforts, and federal and state governments lost billions in tax revenue. In most urban areas, the individual consumption of alcohol was largely tolerated and drinkers gathered at "speakeasies," the Prohibition-era term for saloons. Prohibition, failing fully to enforce sobriety and costing billions,

  

  rapidly lost popular support in the early 1930s. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, ending national Prohibition. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, some states continued Prohibition by maintaining statewide temperance laws. Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition in 1966.

• 1934 --- The Soviet Union executed 66 people charged with plotting against Joseph Stalin's government.

• 1945 --- At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

• 1952 --- The Abbott and Costello Show started a 52-episode, syndicated run on TV. Comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

  

  became such big hits that those same 52 episodes were run over and over on local and network TV for years.

• 1955 --- The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to become the AFL-CIO. Not all

  

  national unions belong to the AFL-CIO. The Teamsters Union was kicked out in 1957 and the United Auto Workers pulled out in 1968.
   
• 1968 --- The Rolling Stones unveil "Beggar's Banquet" in an uncontroversial white cover designed to resemble a formal invitation.

• 1974 --- The BBC broadcast the last episode of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus.'
  

  

• 1977 --- Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen due to peaceful relations with Israel.

• 1985 --- A bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, sold at Christie’s London for 105,000 British

  

  Pounds ($158,000). The world's most expensive wine.

• 1996 --- The baseball players union executive board unanimously approved a new collective bargaining agreement, marking the end of the longest labor dispute in baseball history. The new agreement introduced a Luxury Tax, revenue sharing, interleague play, and several provisions designed to compel the future cooperation of owners and players.

• 2006 --- New York became the first U.S. city to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant food when the Board of Health voted to ban them.

• 2008 --- A judge in Las Vegas sentenced O.J. Simpson to 33 years in prison (with eligibility for parole after nine) for an armed robbery at a hotel room.

• Birthdays
• Martin Van Buren-8th President
• Walt Disney
• Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz
• Joan Didion
• Little Richard
• Calvin Trillin
• Jim Messina
• Margaret Cho
• Gen George Armstrong Custer
• Clyde Cessna
• Fritz Lang
• Kate Simon
• Otto Preminger
• J J Cale