Sunrise: 7:11am ~ Sunset: 5:36pm
25% of the waning moon is visible, setting this afternoon at 2:05pm
Tides at the Golden Gate:
High: 7:49am/9:58pm Low: 1:37am/2:47pm
Special Commemorations today include...
Commencement of the Armed Struggle - Angola
Independence / National Day - Sri Lanka
It's also...
Facebook's Birthday
Medjoola Date Day
Quacker Day
USO Day
World Cancer Day
On this day in...
1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.
1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.
1824 - J.W. Goodrich introduced rubber galoshes to the public.
1847 - In Maryland, the first U.S. Telegraph Company was established.
1861 - Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, AL, to form the Confederate States of America.
1895 - The Van Buren Street Bridge opened in Chicago, IL.
1901 - "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" opened in New York City.
1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began after Japan laid siege to Port Arthur.
1913 - Louis Perlman received a patent for his demountable tire-carrying rims.
1932 - The first Winter Olympics were held in the United States at Lake Placid, NY.
1936 - Radium E. became the first radioactive substance to be produced synthetically.
1941 - The United Service Organizations (USO) was created.
1945 - During World War II, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a conference at Yalta to outline plans for Germany's defeat.
1948 - Ceylon gained independence within the British Commonwealth. The country later became known as Sri Lanka.
1952 - Jackie Robinson was named Director of Communication for NBC. He was the first black executive of a major radio-TV network.
1953 - "The Stooge" premiered at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.
1957 - Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc., of New York, began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine weighed 19 pounds.
1964 - The Administrator of General Services announced that the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been ratified. The amendment banned the poll tax.
1968 - The world's largest hovercraft was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.
1973 - The Reshef was unveiled as Israel's missile boat.
1974 - Patricia (Patty) Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, CA, by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
1976 - An earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras killed more than 22,000 people.
1985 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan's defense budget called for a tripling of the expenditure on the "Star Wars" research program.
1993 - Russian scientists unfurled a giant mirror in orbit and flashed a beam of sunlight across Europe during the night. Observers saw it only as a momentary flash.
1997 - A civil jury in California found O.J. Simpson liable in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Goldman's parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
1997 - Two Israeli troop-carrying helicopters collided on their way to Lebanon, all 73 soldiers and airmen aboard were killed.
1997 - President Milosevic of Serbia apparently surrendered to the will of his people, ordering his government to recognize opposition victories in local elections held in November 1996.
1998 - In northeast Afghanistan, at least 5,000 people were killed in an earthquake that measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale.
1999 - Warplanes from Israel attacked south Lebanon just after rockets were fired toward Israel. No casualies were claimed on either side.
1999 - Gary Coleman was sentenced to a $400 fine, a suspended 90-day jail sentence, and ordered to attend 52 anger-management classes. The sentence stemmed from Coleman assaulting an autograph seeker on July 30, 1998.
1999 - AmadouDiallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers. The officers had been conducting a nighttime search for a rape suspect.
2003 - Yugoslavia was formally dissolved by lawmakers. The country was replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.
2004 - The social networking website Facebook.com was launched.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)...
Mark Hopkins 1802
Fernand Léger 1881
Jacques Prévert 1900
Charles Lindbergh 1902
Byron Nelson 1912
Rosa Parks 1913
Dick Seaman 1913
William Talman 1915
Ida Lupino 1918
Betty Friedan 1921
Conrad Bain 1923
Gary Conway 1936
George A. Romero 1940
John Steel (The Animals) 1941
Cheryl Miller 1943
David Brenner 1945
Dan Quayle 1947
Alice Cooper 1948
Michael Beck 1949
Pamela Franklin 1950
Clint Black 1962
