- 87th Day of 2013 / 278 Remaining
- 85 Days Until The First Day of Summer
- Sunrise:6:59
- Sunset:7:30
- 12 Hours 31 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:9:24pm
- Moon Set:7:35am
- Moon’s Phase:%
- The Next Full Moon
- April 25 @ 12:59pm
- Full Pink Moon
- Full Sprouting Grass Moon
- Full Egg Moon
- Full Fish Moon
This moon’s 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 Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- Tides
- High:12:36pm/12:28am(Friday)
- Low:6:11am/6:12pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:14.73
- Last Year:12.31
- Normal To Date:21.17
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- National Black Forest Day
- Something on a Stick Day
- Teachers' Day-Czech Republic
- Constitution Day-Serbia
- On This Day In …
- 1776 --- Juan Bautista de Anza, one of the great western pathfinders of the 18th century, arrives at the future site of San Francisco with 247 colonists. Though little known among Americans because of his Spanish origins, Anza's accomplishments as a western trailblazer merit comparison with those of Lewis and Clark, John Fremont, and Kit Carson. Born and raised in Mexico, Anza joined the army when he was 17 and became a captain seven years later. He excelled as a military leader, displaying tactical genius in numerous battles with the Apache Indians. In 1772, Anza made his first major exploratory mission, leading an arduous but successful expedition northwest to the Pacific Coast. Anza's expedition established the first successful overland connections between the Mexican State of Sonora and northern California. Impressed by this accomplishment, the Mexican viceroy commissioned Anza to return to California and establish a permanent settlement along the Pacific Coast at San Francisco Bay. Although seagoing Spanish explorers had sailed along the northern California coast during the 16th and 17th centuries, the amazing natural harbor of San Francisco Bay was only discovered in 1769. The Spanish immediately recognized the strategic importance of the bay, though it would be seven years before they finally dispatched Anza to establish a claim there.
- 1979 --- Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patented a device we commonly call the washing machine. Back then, however, there was a whole different way of speaking -- and of spelling -- to describe this wonderful invention. “This device is an improvement in washing cloaths.”
- 1834 --- President Andrew Jackson is censured by Congress for refusing to turn over documents. Jackson was the first president to suffer this formal disapproval from Congress. During his first term, Jackson decided to dismantle the Bank of the United States and find a friendlier source of funds for his western expansion plans. Jackson, who embodied the popular image of the Wild West frontiersman, claimed that the bank had too many foreign investors, favored the rich over the poor and resisted lending funds to develop commercial interests in America's Western territories. When the Senate passed legislation in 1831 to renew the bank's charter, Jackson promptly vetoed it. An 1831 meeting with his cabinet generated classified documents regarding Jackson's veto of the bank legislation. Soon after, Congress overruled Jackson's veto. One of the key issues in the election of 1832, between Jackson, a Democrat, and Whig (Republican) Henry Clay, was the bank's survival. Jackson easily won reelection, but Clay's Whigs took control of the Senate. Jackson renewed his attack on the bank early in his second term, appointing a new treasury secretary whom he ordered to dismantle the bank and distribute all federal funds to individual state banks until a new federal bank could be organized. The Senate, with Clay at its helm, fought Jackson's attempts to destroy the bank, passing a resolution demanding to see his cabinet's papers regarding the veto of 1831. When Jackson refused to release the documents, Clay retaliated by introducing a resolution to censure the president. Congress debated the proposed censure for 10 weeks. Jackson protested, saying that since the Constitution did not provide any guidance regarding censure of a president, the resolution to censure him was therefore unconstitutional. Congress ignored him, slapping him on March 28 with what amounted to an official public scolding for assuming authority and power not conferred by the Constitution.
- 1898 --- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. This meant that they could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
- 1921 --- U.S. President Warren Harding named William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.
- 1964 --- Radio Caroline debuted as the first pirate radio station to broadcast off the coast of England. The combination of rock music and lively disk jockey patter played to a huge audience in Great Britain; but well out of reach of British authorities. However, that didn’t stop them from trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to shut down the radio station ship. Radio Caroline had become competition to the staid and usually dull British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
- 1967 --- Raymond Burr starred in a TV movie titled "Ironside." The movie was later turned into a television series.
- 1967 --- Van Morrison recorded "Brown Eyed Girl."
- 1974 --- A streaker (i.e.: someone running around naked), ran onto the set of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The clever NBC censors decided to blackout the lower half of the TV screen on the videotape to prevent an ‘X’ rating. The streaker was arrested, but released, for “lack of evidence,” said Johnny.
- 1979 --- The most serious nuclear accident in United States history takes place at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1979, when one of the reactors overheats. Fortunately, a catastrophic meltdown was averted and there were no deaths or direct injuries from the accident. The Three Mile Island plant had begun operations just months earlier on December 28, 1978. Very shortly after operations began, problems arose. It was 3:58 a.m. on March 28 when a pump that directed steam to the plant's electric turbines stopped working, causing a water circulation pump to break down. Without the water, the temperature of the reactor rose dramatically and a relief valve opened to stop the pressure from building to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, the valve then would not close. The plant operators, with no experience in emergencies, made key errors. Another valve was opened to allow water from the nuclear system into a waste tank. But this water ruptured the tank and radioactive water flooded into the reactor. Even worse, an operator shut off the automatic core-cooling system. The result of all these events and mistakes was that radioactive steam poured out of the plant. Additionally, radioactive water had to be released into the Susquehanna River. However, area authorities were not notified of these events until nearly three hours later. Even when news of the accident was released, it was downplayed. But within days, radiation levels were elevated over a four-county area. Furthermore, the plant's operators were still trying to get the situation under control. Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh directed that pregnant women and small children be evacuated from the area. Finally, on March 31, plant workers were able to address the problems and ended the threat of a meltdown.
- 1984 --- Bob Irsay (1923-1997), owner of the once-mighty Baltimore Colts, moves the team to Indianapolis. Without any sort of public announcement, Irsay hired movers to pack up the team's offices in Owings Mills, Maryland, in the middle of the night, while the city of Baltimore slept.
- 1990 --- U.S. President George Bush (I) presented the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Jesse Owens for his humanitarian contributions. The medal was given to Owens’ widow, Ruth S. Owens.
- 1996 --- John Leonard submitted an order form along with 'Pepsi Points' and a check to Pepsi for a Harrier Jump Jet. The Harrier had been featured in a Pepsi commercial as one of the items that could be redeemed for 'points,' or a combination of cash and points. (the Harrier was listed for 7 million points). Pepsi subsequently refused to send Leonard the Harrier Jump Jet (actual cost: $23 million). Leonard then sued, and finally a judge ruled that the Harrier Jump Jet had obviously been mentioned in the promotion as a joke.
- 2001 --- President George W. Bush publicly rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate, a pact never ratified by the Senate.
- Birthdays
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
- Dianne Weist
- Reba McIntyre
- Salt (Cheryl James)
- Julia Styles
- Lady Gaga
- Vince Vaughn
- August Busch
- Charlie McCoy
- Ken Howard