- 178th Day of 2013 / 187 Remaining
- 87 Days Until The First Day of Autumn
- Sunrise:5:50
- Sunset:8:35
- 14Hours 45 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:11:42pm
- Moon Set:10:52am
- Moon’s Phase:75 %
- The Next Full Moon
- July 22 @ 11:16am
- 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:1:55am/3:31pm
- Low: 8:35am/9:18pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- Normal To Date:23.80
- This Year:16.51
- Last Year:15.77
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- National Orange Blossom Day
- National HIV Testing Day
- Please Take My Children to Work Day
- Independence Day-Djibouti
- On This Day In …
- 1693 --- "The Ladies' Mercury" was published by John Dunton in London. It was the first women's magazine and contained a "question and answer" column that became known as a "problem page."
- 1787 --- Edward Gibbon completed "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." It was published the following May.
- 1829 --- In Genoa, Italy, English scientist James Smithson dies after a long illness, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to "the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Smithson's curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Smithson had been a fellow of the venerable Royal Society of London from the age of 22, publishing numerous scientific papers on mineral composition, geology, and chemistry. In 1802, he overturned popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, and one type of zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in his honor. Six years after his death, his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, indeed died without children, and on July 1, 1836, the U.S. Congress authorized acceptance of Smithson's gift. President Andrew Jackson sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for transfer of the funds, and two years later Rush set sail for home with 11 boxes containing a total of 104,960 gold sovereigns, eight shillings, and seven pence, as well as Smithson's mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. After the gold was melted down, it amounted to a fortune worth well over $500,000. After considering a series of recommendations, including the creation of a national university, a public library, or an astronomical observatory, Congress agreed that the bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. On August 10, 1846, the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution was signed into law by President James K. Polk.
- 1844 --- Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Mormon religion, is murdered along with his brother Hyrum when an anti-Mormon mob breaks into a jail where they are being held in Carthage, Illinois.
- 1893 --- The melody of 'Happy Birthday to You' was first published ('Good Morning to All').
- 1893 --- The New York stock market crashed. By the end of the year 600 banks and 74 railroads had gone out of business.
- 1944 --- American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans three weeks after D-Day.
- 1962 --- Two albums of melancholy music by Jackie Gleason received gold record honors. Music, Martinis and Memories and Music for Lovers Only got the gold. Both were issued by Capitol Records in Hollywood.
- 1963 --- President John Kennedy an Irish-American and the first Catholic to become president of the United States, arrives in Ireland for a visit on this day in 1963. Kennedy was proud of his Irish roots and made a special visit to his ancestral home in Dunganstown, County Wexford, while in the country. There, he was greeted by a crowd waving both American and Irish flags and was serenaded by a boys choir that sang "The Boys of Wexford." According to the BBC report that day, Kennedy broke away from his bodyguards and joined the choir for the second chorus, prompting misty-eyed reactions from both observers and the press. Kennedy met with 15 members of his extended Irish family at the Kennedy homestead in Dunganstown. There he enjoyed a cup of tea and some cake and made a toast to "all those Kennedys who went and all those Kennedys who stayed." His great-grandfather Thomas Fitzgerald had left Ireland for the United States in the middle of the Great Famine of 1848 and settled in Boston, becoming a cooper. Generations of his descendants went on to make their mark on American politics.
- 1967 --- The world's first cash dispenser was installed at Barclays Bank in Enfield, England. The device was invented by John Sheppard-Barron. The machine operated on a voucher system and the maximum withdrawal was $28.
- 1969 --- New York City police, attempting to serve a search warrant, charged into the well-known gay hangout, the Stonewall Inn. Events quickly got out of hand. Police ejected customers, managers, bouncers. Everyone got booted outside onto the sidewalk. The crowd became increasingly unruly and someone threw a bottle at the police. The plain-clothes police team was trapped inside the bar for over two hours before the the NYPD Tactical Patrol Force arrived and drove the mob from in front of the Stonewall. Police arrested and jailed many of the chanting gays. For the next few nights, the Stonewall Inn became the focal point of gay protests. The gay community began to organize and form committees to bring about change. Many feel that the Gay Liberation Movement had its beginnings with the Stonewall Inn Riots.
- 1971 --- Promoter Bill Graham closed the Fillmore East in New York City. It was a spin-off of San Francisco’s legendary rock ’n’ roll palace, Fillmore West (closed several days later). The Allman Brothers and J. Geils Band were among those performing on the final night. The New York City landmark and its San Francisco sister hosted just about every major rock group of the 1960s.
- 1976 --- A factory storekeeper in the Nzara township of Sudan becomes ill on this day in 1976. Five days later, he dies, and the world's first recorded Ebola virus epidemic begins making its way through the area. By the time the epidemic is over, 284 cases are reported, with about half of the victims dying from the disease.
- 1980 --- The the National Anthem Act, making O Canada Canada's national anthem, was unanimously accepted by the House of Commons and the Senate. Royal assent was also given this day. O Canada, written by Calixa Lavallee and Adolphe-Basile Routhier, was officially proclaimed Canada's national anthem on July 1, 1980.
- 1984 --- The Federal Communications Commission moved to deregulate U.S. commercial TV by lifting most programming requirements and ending day-part restrictions on advertising.
- 1985 --- After 59 years, the iconic Route 66 enters the realm of history on this day in 1985, when the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials decertifies the road and votes to remove all its highway signs. Measuring some 2,200 miles in its heyday, Route 66 stretched from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, passing through eight states. According to a New York Times article about its decertification, most of Route 66 followed a path through the wilderness forged in 1857 by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edward Beale at the head of a caravan of camels. Over the years, wagon trains and cattlemen eventually made way for trucks and passenger automobiles.
- 2000 --- A San Francisco appeals court ruled that the Rolling Stones improperly borrowed "Love in Vain and "Stop Breakin' Down" from Robert Johnson. The Stones' former record label had wrongly assumed that the songs were public domain.
- 2011 --- Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted by a federal jury in Chicago of corruption. (He was later sentenced to 14 years in prison.)
- Birthdays
- Emma Goldman
- Alice McDermott
- Bob Keeshan “Captain Kangaroo”
- Helen Keller
- Vera Wang
- H Ross Perot
- Bruce Johnson
- Julia Duffy
- Tobey Maguire
- Willie Mosconi
- Doc Pomus