- 297th Day of 2013 / 68 Remaining
- 58 Days Until The First Day of Winter
- Sunrise:7:28
- Sunset:6:19
- 10 Hours 51 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:10:51pm
- Moon Set:12:30pm
- Moon’s Phase: 70 %
- The Next Full Moon
- November 17 @ 7:16am
- Full Beaver Moon
- Full Frosty Moon
This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.
- Tides
- High:4:06am/2:26pm
- Low:9:04am/9:37pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- Normal To Date:0.99
- This Year:0.44
- Last Year:1.18
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- National Bologna Day
- United Nations Day
- World Development Information Day
- Independence Day-Zambia
- Labor Day-New Zealand
- Suez Day-Egypt
- On This Day In …
- 1632 --- Scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland. He created the first microscope lenses that were powerful enough to observe single-celled animals.
- 1836 --- Alonzo D. Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts received a patent for the phosphorous friction safety match.
- 1861 --- The first transcontinental telegraph was completed and went into operation. Within days the Pony Express ceased operations.
- 1901 --- 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. After her husband died in the Civil War, the New York born
Taylor moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City, Michigan, around 1898. In July 1901, while reading an article about the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of the growing popularity of two enormous waterfalls located on the border of upstate New York and Canada. Strapped for cash and seeking fame, Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt: She would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor was not the first person to attempt the plunge over the famous falls. In October 1829, Sam Patch, known as the Yankee Leaper, survived jumping down the 175-foot Horseshoe Falls of the Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border. More than 70 years later, Taylor chose to take the ride on her birthday, October 24. (She claimed she was in her 40s, but genealogical records later showed she was 63.) With the help of two assistants, Taylor strapped herself into a leather harness inside an old wooden pickle barrel five feet high and three feet in diameter. With cushions lining the barrel to break her fall, Taylor was towed by a small boat into the middle of the fast-flowing Niagara River and cut loose. Knocked violently from side to side by the rapids and then
propelled over the edge of Horseshoe Falls, Taylor reached the shore alive, if a bit battered, around 20 minutes after her journey began. After a brief flurry of photo-ops and speaking engagements, Taylor's fame cooled, and she was unable to make the fortune for which she had hoped. She did, however, inspire a number of copy-cat daredevils. Between 1901 and 1995, 15 people went over the falls; 10 of them survived.
- 1929 --- This day became known as Black Thursday after Wall Street investors panicked and ordered their stock brokers to sell, sell, sell! Nearly 13 million shares traded hands and stock prices
plummeted. Many stocks recovered late in the afternoon, but the stage had been set for the October 29th stock market crash -- and the beginning of the Great Depression.
- 1931 --- The George Washington Bridge was opened, linking New York City with New Jersey. The bridge became a famous New York landmark and has been featured in many movies and TV shows. The toll to cross the bridge was to be temporary -- just to cover costs. But it costs and costs and costs when you have to keep repairing and painting a bridge that big -- so, the bridge toll continues. And the bridge is still being painted.
- 1939 --- Employees at DuPont's factory in Wilmington, Delaware purchased the first nylon stockings for sale in the U.S. They were available nationally in May, 1940.
- 1940 --- In the U.S., the 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
- 1945 --- The United Nations charter took effect at the San Francisco
Conference. 51 countries came together determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war; to reaffirm faith in human rights; to promote social progress and better standards of life; to practice tolerance and live together in peace and unite their strength to maintain international peace and security.
- 1959 --- Wilt Chamberlain launched a pro basketball record streak. Not only did he play in 799 consecutive games; he didn’t foul out in one of them.
- 1962 --- During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. military forces went on the highest alert in the postwar era in preparation for a possible
full-scale war with the Soviet Union. The U.S. blockade of Cuba officially began on this day.
- 1962 --- James Brown began his professional career at a time when rock and roll was opening new opportunities for black artists to connect with white audiences. But the path he took to fame did not pass through Top 40 radio or through The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand. James Brown would make his appearance in all of those places eventually, but only after a decade spent
performing almost exclusively before black audiences and earning his reputation as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. On this day in 1962, he took a major step toward his eventual crossover and conquest of the mainstream with an electrifying performance on black America's most famous stage—a performance recorded and later released as Live at the Apollo (1963), the first breakthrough album of James Brown's career.
- 1970 --- Salvador Allende, an avowed Marxist, becomes president of Chile after being confirmed by the Chilean congress. For the next
three years, the United States would exert tremendous pressure to try to destabilize and unseat the Allende government.
- 1982 --- EPCOT (experimental prototype community of tomorrow) Center was dedicated by Disney Chairman, E. Cardon Walker at Walt Disney World, Florida: “May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire, and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.”
- 1988 --- The John Fogerty vs. Fantasy Records case began. Fantasy claimed that Fogerty had plagiarized his own song "Run Through The Jungle" when he wrote "The Old Man Down The Road."
- 1989 --- Reverend Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000 for his conviction on 24 counts of fraud. In 1991, his sentence was reduced to eighteen years and he was released on parole after a total five years in prison.
- 1992 --- The Toronto Blue Jays became the first team outside the United States to win a World Series as they defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in Game 6
- 1996 --- Motown Records founder Berry Gordy received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Gordy helped launch the careers Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson and many others.
- 2001 --- NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars.
- 2003 --- The supersonic Concorde jet makes its last commercial passenger flight, traveling at twice the speed of sound from New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London's Heathrow Airport on this day in 2003. The British Airways jet carried 100 passengers, including actress Joan Collins, model Christie Brinkley, and an Ohio couple who reportedly paid $60,000 on eBay for two tickets (a roundtrip trans-Atlantic fare typically cost about $9,000). A large crowd of spectators greeted the plane's arrival in London, which coincided with two other final Concorde flights from Edinburgh and the Bay of Biscay.
- Birthdays
- Sonny Terry
- J P Richardson “the Big Bopper”
- B D Wong
- Kevin Kline
- Y A Tittle
- Bill Wyman
- F Murray Abraham
- Kweisi Mfume
- Sarah J Hale
- Belva Lockwood
- Bob Kane
- Santo Farina