- 166th Day of 2012 / 200 Remaining
- 6 Days Until Summer Begins
- Sunrise:5:47
- Sunset:8:34
- 14 Hours 47 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:2:29am
- Moon Set:4:25pm
- Moon’s Phase: 20 %
- The Next Full Moon
- June 3 @ 11:51am
- Full Buck Moon
- Full Thunder Moon
- Full Hay Moon
July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
- Tides
- High:9:02am/8:04pm
- Low:2:38am/1:48pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:15.80
- Last Year:28.51
- Normal To Date:23.76
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- Family History Day
- Flag Day
- National Strawberry Shortcake Day
- National Nursing Assistants Day
- World Sea Turtle Day
- World Blood Donor Day
- Rice Planting Festival-Japan
- Commemoration Day of victims of the Communist Terror-Latvia
- Day of Mourning and Hope-Lithuania
- Freedom Day-Malawi
- Liberation Day-Falkland Islands
- On This Day In …
- 1775 --- The Continental Army was founded by the Second Continental Congress for purposes of common defense. This event is considered to be the birth of the United States Army. On June 15, George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief.
- 1777 --- “Resolved that the flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation,” said John Adams at a meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, PA. And so, the first Flag Day was celebrated in the United States of America. Proclamation 1335, May 30, 1916, made it possible for every President to issue a proclamation that June 14 would be celebrated as Flag Day. Pennsylvania is the only state to celebrate June 14 as a legal holiday, proclamation or not, although the proclamation has been issued annually since 1949. At 7 p.m. E.D.T., across the United States, the President leads the country in a pause to pledge allegiance, a time to honor America. The national ceremony is held at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, and was conceived as a way for all citizens to share a patriotic moment.
- 1789 --- English Captain William Bligh and 18 others, cast adrift from the HMS Bounty seven weeks before, reach Timor in the East Indies after traveling nearly 4,000 miles in a small, open boat. On April 28, Fletcher Christian, the master's mate on the Bounty, led a successful mutiny against Captain Bligh and his supporters. The captain and 18 of his crew were set adrift in a small boat with 25 gallons of water, 150 pounds of bread, 30 pounds of pork, six quarts of rum, and six bottles of wine. By setting the captain and his officers adrift in an overcrowded 23-foot-long boat in the middle of the Pacific, Christian and his conspirators had apparently handed them a death sentence. By remarkable seamanship, however, Bligh and his men reached Timor in the East Indies on June 14, 1789, after a voyage of about 3,600 miles. Bligh returned to England and soon sailed again to Tahiti, from where he successfully transported breadfruit trees to the West Indies. Meanwhile, Christian and his men attempted to establish themselves on the island of Tubuai. Unsuccessful in their colonizing effort, the Bounty sailed north to Tahiti, and 16 crewmen decided to stay there, despite the risk of capture by British authorities. Christian and eight others, together with six Tahitian men, a dozen Tahitian women, and a child, decided to search the South Pacific for a safe haven. In January 1790, the Bounty settled on Pitcairn Island, an isolated and uninhabited volcanic island more than 1,000 miles east of Tahiti. The mutineers who remained on Tahiti were captured and taken back to England, where three were hanged.
- 1834 --- Isaac Fischer, Jr. of Springfield, Vermont decided that it was time to patent sandpaper. Mr. Fischer’s sandpaper changed the coarse of history didn’t it?
- 1846 --- Anticipating the outbreak of war with Mexico, American settlers in California rebel against the Mexican government and proclaim the short-lived California Republic. The political situation in California was tense in 1846. Though nominally controlled by Mexico, California was home to only a relatively small number of Mexican settlers. Former citizens of the United States made up the largest segment of the California population, and their numbers were quickly growing. Mexican leaders worried that many American settlers were not truly interested in becoming Mexican subjects and would soon push for annexation of California to the United States. For their part, the Americans distrusted their Mexican leaders. When rumors of an impending war between the U.S. and Mexico reached California, many Americans feared the Mexicans might make a preemptive attack to forestall rebellion. In the spring of 1846, the American army officer and explorer John C. Fremont arrived at Sutter's Fort (near modern-day Sacramento) with a small corps of soldiers. Whether or not Fremont had been specifically ordered to encourage an American rebellion is unclear. Ostensibly, Fremont and his men were in the area strictly for the purposes of making a scientific survey. The brash young officer, however, began to persuade a motley mix of American settlers and adventurers to form militias and prepare for a rebellion against Mexico. Emboldened by Fremont's encouragement, on this day in 1846 a party of 33 Americans under the leadership of Ezekiel Merritt and William Ide invaded the largely defenseless Mexican outpost of Sonoma just north of San Francisco. Fremont and his soldiers did not participate, though he had given his tacit approval of the attack.
- 1922 --- Warren G. Harding became the first U.S president to be heard on radio. The event was the dedication of the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.
- 1943 --- The Supreme Court ruled schoolchildren could not be compelled to salute the U.S. flag if doing so conflicted with their religious beliefs.
- 1949 --- The state of Vietnam was formed.
- 1951 --- Univac 1 was unveiled in Washington, DC. Billed as the world’s first commercial computer, Univac was designed for the U.S. Census Bureau. The massive computer was 8 feet high, 7-1/2 feet wide and 14-1/2 feet long. It had lots and lots of tubes that dimmed lights all over Washington when it cranked out information. Compared to today’s computers, Univac was painfully slow ... a lot like the government in which it served, in fact.
- 1954 --- U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower signed an order adding the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
- 1965 --- Bob Dylan recorded "Like A Rolling Stone."
- 1965 --- Paul McCartney recorded "Yesterday."
- 1970 --- The Grateful Dead released their "Workingman's Dead" LP.
- 1972 --- The EPA banned DDT in the USA. DDT residue is still found in some foods grown in the U.S. in 2002.
- 1976 --- The Gong Show debuted on NBC. Host Chuck Barris introduced amateur acts, the worst of which were "gonged" by a panel of judges.
- 1982 --- Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands. The large Argentine garrison in Port Stanley (capital and only town in the Falkland Islands) was overrun by British troops, effectively ending the Falklands War. Argentina had invaded the British dependent territory(ies) in April 1982. During the brief war, Argentina suffered 655 killed, while Britain lost 236.
- 1989 --- Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested in Beverly Hills for slapping a motorcycle patrolman.
- 1997 --- A 1939 comic book that featured the debut of Batman was auctioned in New York for $68,500.
- 2009 --- Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson broke Red Auerbach's record by winning his 10th NBA title.
- Birthdays
- Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax
- Che Guevara
- Burl Ives
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Pat Summitt
- Don Newcombe
- Boy George Alan O'Dowd
- Marla Gibbs
- Steffi Graf
- Eric Heiden
- “The Fish” Barry Melton
- Rep. Steny Hoyer
- Janet Lennon
- Dorothy McGuire
- Donald Trump
- Yasmine Bleeth
- John McCormack
- Pierre Salinger
- Margaret Bourke-White
- Ben Davidson