- 36th Day of 2015 329 Remaining
- Spring Begins in 43 Days
- Sunrise:7:09
- Sunset:5:38
- 10 Hours 29 Minutes
- Moon Rise:7:35pm
- Moon Set:7:52am
- Phase: 97%
- Full Moon February 3 @ 3:10pm
- 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:12:02am/11:09am
- Low:5:26am/5:47pm
- Rainfall:
- This Year to Date:15.14
- Last Year:2.43
- Avg YTD:14.45
- Annual Avg:23.80
- Holidays
- National Chocolate Fondue Day
- National Weatherman’s Day
- Western Monarch Day
- World Nutella
- Constitution Day-Mexico
- President’s Day-Republic of Congo
- Unity Day-Burundi
- On This Day
- 1783 --- The estimated 7.5 to 8.0-magnitude quake struck at about 1 p.m. in the Calabria province in Italy. Within a minute, over 100 villages were leveled throughout the region. In several cases, communities were literally wiped away with no survivors or standing structures remaining. The quake also produced an uncommon number of fractures in the Earth's surface. In one case, a mile-long ravine--nearly 100 feet wide--was instantly created. According to one report, more than 100 goats fell into another crack in the earth. A witness also claimed that "two mountains on the opposite sides of a valley walked from their original position until they met in the middle of the plain, and there joining together, they intercepted the course of a river." New lakes appeared across the region.
- 1846 --- "The Oregon Spectator", based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.
- 1881 --- Phoenix, Ariz., was incorporated.
- 1883 --- The Southern Pacific Railroad completes its transcontinental "Sunset Route" from New Orleans to California, consolidating its dominance over rail traffic to the Pacific.
- 1887 --- Verdi's opera "Otello" premiered at La Scala.
- 1917 --- After seven years of revolution and civil upheaval, Mexican President Venustiano Carranza proclaims the modern Mexican constitution, which promises the restoration of lands to native peoples, the separation of church and state, and dramatic economic and educational reforms. The progressive political document, approved by an elected constitutional convention, combined revolutionary demands for land reform with advanced social theory.
- 1917 --- The U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act) with an overwhelming majority. The action overrode President Woodrow Wilson's December 14, 1916 veto.
- 1924 --- The BBC time signals, or "pips", from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour.
- 1937 --- President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient. Critics immediately charged that Roosevelt was trying to "pack" the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal.
- 1940 --- Glenn Miller and his band recorded "Tuxedo Junction."
- 1952 --- In New York City, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians "don't walk."
- 1953 --- The Walt Disney’s film "Peter Pan" opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.
- 1957 --- Back home in the United States, Bill Haley and the Comets were already passé. Their role in launching the rock-and-roll revolution was unquestioned, but it had been almost two years since "Rock Around the Clock" exploded on the scene, and in the meantime, a certain young man from Memphis had come along and changed the rules of the game. Elvis Presley, with his good looks and world-altering charisma, had made it nearly impossible for a slightly paunchy 30-year-old like Bill Haley to compete in the youth market in the United States. But Bill Haley and the Comets weren't in the United States on this day in 1957—they were in England, disembarking from the Queen Elizabeth at Southampton and preparing to launch the first European tour ever by a major American rock-and-roll act.
- 1958 --- Gamel Abdel Nasser was nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic, a short-lived union of Syria and Egypt.
- 1972 --- Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.
- 1989 --- In an important move signaling the close of the nearly decade-long Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, the last Russian troops withdraw from the capital city of Kabul. Less than two weeks later, all Soviet troops departed Afghanistan entirely, ending what many observers referred to as Russia's "Vietnam."
- 1994 --- White separatist Byron de la Beckwith is convicted of the assassination of civil rights leader Medger Evers 31 years earlier, ending the lengthiest murder case in American history. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's small children were inside waiting for their father. Beckwith, widely recognized as the killer, was prosecuted for murder in 1964. However, two all-white (and all-male) juries deadlocked and refused to convict Beckwith. A second trial held in the same year resulted in a hung jury. The matter was dropped when it appeared that a conviction would be impossible. Myrlie Evers, who later became the national chairwoman of the NAACP, refused to give up, however, pressing authorities to re-open the case. In 1989, documents came to light showing that jurors had been illegally screened. Prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter worked with Myrlie Evers to force another prosecution of Beckwith. After four years of legal maneuvering, they were finally successful and justice was achieved when Beckwith was convicted and given a life sentence by a racially diverse jury in 1994.
- 1997 --- Switzerland's "Big Three" banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families.
- 1998 --- Elton John and Stevie Wonder played at the White House.
- 2002 --- A federal grand jury indicted John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," alleging that he was trained by Osama bin Laden's network and that he conspired with the Taliban to kill Americans.
- 2003 --- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq's material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.
- Birthdays
- Adlai Stevenson
- Belle Starr
- Felix Mendelssohn
- Andre-Gustave Citroen
- William S Burroughs
- Andreas Papandreou
- Red Buttons
- Hank Aaron
- Christopher Guest
- Bobby Brown
Thursday February 5, 2015
