- 75th Day of 2012 / 291 Remaining
- 5 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:7:20
- Sunset:7:18
- 11 Hr 58 Min
- Moon Rise:2:47am
- Moon Set:12:48pm
- Moon’s Phase: 42 %
- The Next Full Moon
- April 6 @ 2:20pm
- Full Pink Moon
- Full Fish Moon
- Full Sprouting Grass Moon
- Full Full Fish Moon
This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Full Fish Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- Tides
- High:4:59am/7:26pm
- Low:12:14pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:9.21
- Last Year:18.70
- Normal To Date:18.84
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Ides of March
- Brutus Day
- True Confessions Day
- Admission Day-Maine
- National Pears Helene Day
- Camp Fire Day
- Absolutely Incredible Kid Day
- International Boss's Day Off
- Constitution Day-Belarus
- National Day-Hungary
- On This Day In …
- 44BC --- In the ancient Roman calendar, each of the 12 months had an ‘ides’ of the month. In March, May, July and October, the ides fell on the 15th day. In all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. The word ‘ides’ was derived from the Latin “to divide.” The ides were originally meant to mark the full moon, but since the solar calendar months and lunar months were of different lengths, the ides eventually lost their original intent and purpose. We only remember March as the month that has Ides because it was on this day that Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated. Julius Caesar, the"dictator for life"of the Roman Empire, was murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey's Theatre. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar's own protege, Marcus Brutus. Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war on March 18 and had appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Empire in his absence. The Republican senators, already chafing at having to abide by Caesar's decrees, were particularly angry about the prospect of taking orders from Caesar's underlings. Cassius Longinus started the plot against the dictator, quickly getting his brother-in-law Marcus Brutus to join. Caesar should have been well aware that many of the senators hated him, but he dismissed his security force not long before his assassination. Reportedly, Caesar was handed a warning note as he entered the senate meeting that day but did not read it. After he entered the hall, Caesar was surrounded by senators holding daggers. Servilius Casca struck the first blow, hitting Caesar in the neck and drawing blood. The other senators all joined in, stabbing him repeatedly about the head. Marcus Brutus wounded Caesar in the groin and Caesar is said to have remarked in Greek, "You, too, my child?" In the aftermath of the assassination, Antony attempted to carry out Caesar's legacy. However, Caesar's will left Octavian in charge as his adopted son. Cassius and Brutus tried to rally a Republican army and Brutus even issued coins celebrating the assassination, known as the Ides of March. Octavian vowed revenge against the assassins, two years later Cassius and Brutus committed suicide after learning that Octavian's forces had defeated theirs at the Battle of Philippa in Greece. Antony took his armies east, where he hooked up with Caesar's old paramour, Cleopatra. Octavian and Antony fought for many years until Octavian prevailed. In 30 B.C., Antony committed suicide. Octavian, later known as Augustus, ruled the Roman Empire for many more years.
- 1820 --- Maine joined the 22 states of the United States of America. Travel way up to the far northeastern tip of the U.S., where many pine trees grow, and you’ll be in Maine, the Pine Tree State. Coincidentally, the white pine cone with its tassel is the state flower; and since the chickadee makes its nest in the pine tree, we figure that’s why it is the state bird. The landlocked salmon is the state fish, the tourmaline is the state mineral and the state song is ... we’re not kidding ... “State of Maine Song”. ‘I direct’ is the state motto which is ‘dirigo’ in Latin. How about all of us who know the origin of the name, Maine, getting together for a Maine lobster dinner! We learned that its first use was to distinguish the mainland from islands offshore. Maine was also thought to be named in honor of Henrietta Maria, Charles I of England’s queen. She owned a province in France titled, Mayne. And, last but not least, Augusta is the capital of Maine (not Georgia).
- 1869 --- The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team in America, had quite a day in Yellow Springs, OH, where they trounced Antioch 41-7. They weren’t even the Big Red Machine back then! In fact, the team was so embarrassed about their name, they changed it to Cincinnati Red Legs and even after that, (but long before Pete Rose) they became the Cincinnati Reds.
- 1910 --- Camp Fire USA was founded
- 1917 --- Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated himself and his son. His brother Grand Duke succeeded as czar.
- 1945 --- Billboard magazine began a new feature. It was the record chart of top albums. The first album to reach #1 was Nat King Cole Trio.
- 1954 --- CBS television inaugurated its Morning Show. The host? None other than the man who would become “The most trusted man in America,” Walter Cronkite. Uncle Walter was called “host, ring-master and coordinator” in the network’s attempt to compete against the already three-year-old Today show on NBC. Cronkite was a ‘nice’ host, but clearly out of his news element and the show was a ratings disappointment. Jack Paar took over as host some time later. The show still didn’t work. The program immediately following did work, however. That show was Captain Kangaroo.
- 1956 --- The Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady opened at the Mark Hellinger Theater on Broadway. It starred Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle.
- 1965 --- President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. Using the phrase "we shall overcome," borrowed from African-American leaders struggling for equal rights, Johnson declared that "every American citizen must have an equal right to vote." Johnson reminded the nation that the Fifteenth Amendment, which was passed after the Civil War, gave all citizens the right to vote regardless of race or color. But states had defied the Constitution and erected barriers. Discrimination had taken the form of literacy, knowledge or character tests administered solely to African-Americans to keep them from registering to vote. "Their cause must be our cause too,"Johnson said. "Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome." The speech was delivered eight days after racial violence erupted in Selma, Alabama. Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King and over 500 supporters were attacked while planning a march to Montgomery to register African-Americans to vote. The police violence that erupted resulted in the death of a King supporter, a white Unitarian Minister from Boston named James J. Reeb. Television news coverage of the event galvanized voting rights supporters in Congress. A second attempt to march to Montgomery was also blocked by police. It took Federal intervention with the "federalizing" of the Alabama national guard and the addition of over 2,000 other guards to allow the march to begin. The march to Montgomery finally began March 21 with over 3,000 participants under the glare of worldwide news publicity. The violence, however, continued. Just after the march was successfully completed on March 25, four Klansman shot and killed Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo as she drove marchers back to Selma. On August 6, 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to blacks. While state and local enforcement of the act was initially weak, mainly in the South, the Voting Rights Act gave African-American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among blacks increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969. In 1970, President Richard Nixon extended the provisions of the Voting Rights Act and lowered the eligible voting age for all voters to 18.
- 1968 --- Life magazine proclaimed Jimi Hendrix as the most "spectacular" guitarist in the world.
- 1972 --- "The Godfather," Francis Ford Coppola's epic gangster movie based on the Mario Puzo novel and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premiered in New York.
- 1997 --- Scientists determined the White Cliffs of Dover, one of the national symbols of Britain, get their dazzling whiteness from prehistoric shrimp droppings.
- 1999 --- Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Dusty Springfield were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- 2004 --- A federal judge denied Axl Rose's request for a restraining order to block the release of a Guns N' Roses greatest hits collection. Rose sued because he said he had not approved the album. Universal Music Group said that they had every right to release the album since Rose had not delivered the contracted album "Chinese Democracy." The album has been in the making for more than seven years.
- 2006 --- After a dump truck backed into Curtis Gokey's car, he sued the city of Lodi, California, for $3,600. The city denied the claim since Gokey, a city employee, was himself driving the dump truck, bumping his own car. So Gokey's wife sued the city. But a judge ruled she could not sue her own husband as a city employee.
- Birthdays
- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Andrew Jackson (7th President)
- Phil Lesh
- Samuel "Lightnin" Hopkins
- Eva Longoria
- Terrence Trent D'Arby
- Sly Stone Stewart
- Dee Snyder
- Fabio
- Kevin Youkilis
- Judd Hirsch
- Alan L. Bean
- Mike Love
- Ry Cooder
- will.i.am
- Harry James
- Harold Ickes
- Macdonald Carey
- Norm Van Brocklin
- Jimmy Lee Swaggert
- Bobby Bonds