Thursday February 20, 2014

• 51^st Day of 2014 / 314 Remaining
• 28 Days Until The First Day of Spring

• Sunrise:6:51
• Sunset:5:54
• 11 Hours 3 Minutes of Daylight

• Moon Rise:11:47pm
• Moon Set:9:47am
• Moon’s Phase: 70 %

• The Next Full Moon
• February 14 @ 3:54 pm
• Full Snow Moon
• Full Hunger Moon

Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.

• Tides
• High:1:54am/2:33pm
• Low:8:22am/8:02pm

• Rainfall
• This Year:5.89
• Last Year:14.32
• Average Year to Date:16.85

• Holidays
• Hoodie-Hoo Day
• National Cherry Pie Day

• World Day for Social Justice
• Hereford Potato Day-United Kingdom

• On This Day In …
• 1792 --- President George Washington signs legislation renewing the United States Post Office as a cabinet department led by the postmaster general, guaranteeing inexpensive delivery of all newspapers, stipulating the right to privacy and granting Congress

  

  the ability to expand postal service to new areas of the nation. Letters delivered up to 30 miles cost six cents to mail. For letters up to 150 miles, postage was 12-1/2 cents.

• 1809 --- The Supreme Court ruled that the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state.

• 1829 --- The Yuengling Brewery in Pennsylvania opened. It is the oldest brewery still operating in the U.S.
  

  

• 1839 --- Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

• 1872 --- Silas Noble and J.Cooley of Massachusetts were issued a patent on a toothpick manufacturing machine.

• 1872 --- The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.
  

  

• 1873 --- The University of California got its first Medical School.

• 1950 --- Welsh poet Dylan Thomas arrives in New York for his first reading tour of the United States.

• 1952 --- One of the game’s most popular figures, Emmett L. Ashford, became the first African American umpire in organized

  

  baseball. Ashford was authorized to be a substitute in the Southwestern International League.

• 1952 --- A true American classic, The African Queen, opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City. The film starred Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, under the direction of John Huston. Critics

  

  accused Huston of larking when he adapted the famous book to film. And he laughed all the way to the bank.

• 1962 --- John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

• 1963 --- Baseball great Willie (‘Say Hey’) Mays signed with the San Francisco Giants as baseball’s highest-paid player. He earned $100,000 a year.
  

  

• 1965 --- The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.
  

  

• 1985 --- In a highly controversial vote, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives.

• 1986 --- Attempts to dig a channel tunnel between Britain and France date back to 1883, and Napoleon drew blueprints for a tunnel

  

  in 1802. Yet not until February 20, 1986, were France and Britain able to announce that a tunnel would soon become a reality. Trains, cars and buses would be

  

  able to speed through the tunnel in less than half an hour. Construction began in December 1987 and the "chunnel" was finally completed in 1994.

• 1993 --- Two ten-year-old boys were charged by police in Liverpool, England, in the abduction and death of a toddler. The two boys were later convicted.
  

  

• 1998 --- 15-year-old Tara Lipinski wins the gold medal in women's figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and becomes the youngest gold medalist in her sport.
  

  

• 2001 --- Foot-and-mouth disease ravages livestock in Britain in the worst epidemic since 1967. By March it has spread to mainland Europe. Millions of animals are destroyed.

• 2003 --- A fire at a rock concert in a West Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub kills 100 people and seriously injures almost 200 more. A local news crew was on hand at the Station nightclub to report on the issue of nightclub safety. (Four days earlier, 21 people had been killed during a stampede at a club in Chicago.) Helping out with the report was Jeffrey Derderian, who co-owned the Station with his brother Michael. That night, they were expecting a full house to see the heavy-metal band Great White. Just after 11 p.m., near the beginning of the show, Daniel Biechele, Great White's tour manager, set off some pyrotechnics behind the performers, which set fire to the soundproofing foam on the ceiling. For a short time, no one

  

  realized the severity of the situation. As the fire spread rapidly, though, panic ensued. Most of the 400 people at the concert attempted to leave the club through the front entrance. As black smoke filled the club's interior, the desperate rush of people to the front entrance caused a pile-up, trapping people where they stood. Though firefighters, who responded within minutes, worked hard to

  

  pull people to safety through the front door, 96 people died in the smoke and flames. Most of the bodies were found near the front entrance. Among the dead was Great White's guitarist, Ty Longley. Another 35 people were left in critical condition, including four who would later die from their injuries. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Daniel Biechele was indicted for setting off the pyrotechnics without a permit. He pled guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter and received a sentence of four years in prison with 11 more years

  

  suspended. Michael Derderian pled guilty for his role in maintaining the Station and received a 15-year sentence (four years to serve, and 11 years suspended). His brother Jeffrey got a 10-year suspended sentence.

• 2009 --- Hershey's, the largest U.S. candy maker, closed its candy factory in Reading, Pennsylvania today. The factory produced among other, the Zagnut, York Peppermint Pattie, and 5th Avenue candy bars. Production was moved to their new factory in Monterey, Mexico.

• Birthdays
• Kurt Cobain
• Ansel Adams
• Patty Hearst
• Justin Verlander
• Gloria Vanderbilt
• Sidney Poitier
• Buffy Sainte-Marie
• Sandy Duncan
• Charles Barkley
• Rihanna
• Aleksey Kosygin
• Robert Altman
• Amanda Blake
• Nancy Wilson
• Sen Mitch McConnell
• Carl E Stotz