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Thursday October 25, 2012

  • 299th Day of 2012 / 67 Remaining
  • 57 Days Until The First Day of Winter

  • Sunrise:7:28
  • Sunset:6:19
  • 10 Hours 51 Minutes of Daylight

  • Moon Rise: 4:04pm
  • Moon Set: 3:35am
  • Moon’s Phase: 85 %

  • The Next Full Moon
  • October 29 @ 12:50 pm
  • Full Hunter’s Moon
  • Full Harvest Moon

This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.

  • Tides
  • High: 8:00am/7:52pm
  • Low: 1:10am/2:06pm

  • Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
  • This Year:1.19
  • Last Year:1.49
  • Normal To Date:1.05
  • Annual Seasonal Average:23.80

  • Holidays
  • Sourest Day
  • National Greasy Foods Day

  • Retrocession Day -Taiwan
  • Constitution  Day-Lithuania
  • Gospel Day-Cook Islands
  • Thanksgiving Day-Grenada
  • World Pasta Day

  • On This Day In …
  • 2137BC --- Chinese Royal astronomers, Ho and Hsi, were executed after not predicting a solar eclipse caused panic in the streets of China.

  • 1774 --- The First Continental Congress sends a respectful petition to King George III to inform his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind British rule. Despite the anger that the American public felt towards the United Kingdom after the British Parliament established the Coercive Acts—called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists—Congress was still willing to assert its loyalty to the king. In return for this loyalty, Congress asked the king to address and resolve the specific grievances of the colonies. The petition, written by Continental Congressman John Dickinson, laid out what Congress felt was undo oppression of the colonies by the British Parliament. Their grievances mainly had to do with the Coercive Acts, a series of four acts that were established to punish colonists and to restore order in Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party. The first of the Coercive Acts was the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston to all colonists until damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid. The second, the Massachusetts Government Act, gave the British government total control of town meetings, taking all decisions out of the hands of the colonists. The third, the Administration of Justice Act, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America and the fourth, the Quartering Act, required colonists to house and quarter British troops on demand, including in private homes as a last resort. The king did not respond to the petition to Congress’ satisfaction and eight months later on July 6, 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution entitled "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms." Written by John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, the resolution laid out the reasons for taking up arms and starting a violent revolution against British rule of the colonies.

  • 1854 --- In an event alternately described as one of the most heroic or disastrous episodes in British military history, Lord James Cardigan leads a charge of the Light Brigade cavalry against well-defended Russian artillery during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaclava when Cardigan received his order to attack the Russians. His cavalry gallantly charged down the valley and were decimated by the heavy Russian guns, suffering 40 percent casualties. It was later revealed that the order was the result of confusion and was not given intentionally. Lord Cardigan, who survived the battle, was hailed as a national hero in Britain.

  • 1917 --- The Bolsheviks (Communists) under Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power in Russia. The revolt took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Old Style Julian Calender (O.S.), which corresponds with 7 November 1917 New Style (N.S.) Gregorian Calendar. It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution in Petrograd overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the local soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. As the revolution was not universally recognized outside of Petrograd there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–1923) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces. Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917 (O.S.). The following day, the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia), was captured. Initially, the event was referred as the October coup (Октябрьский переворот) or the Uprising of 25th, as seen in contemporary documents (for example, in the first editions of Lenin's complete works). In Russian, however, "переворот" has a similar meaning to "revolution" and also means "upheaval" or "overturn", so "coup" is not necessarily the right translation. With time, the term October Revolution (Октябрьская революция) came into use. It is also known as the "November Revolution" having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution (Russian: Великая Октябрьская Социалистическая Революция, Velikaya Oktyabr'skaya sotsialisticheskaya revolyutsiya) was the official name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927.

  • 1929 --- During the Teapot Dome scandal, Albert B. Fall, who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G. Harding's cabinet, is found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office. Fall was the first individual to be convicted of a crime committed while a presidential cabinet member. As a member of President Harding's corruption-ridden cabinet in the early 1920s, Hall accepted a $100,000 interest-free "loan" from Edward Doheny of the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company, who wanted Fall to grant his firm a valuable oil lease in the Elk Hills naval oil reserve in California. The site, along with the Teapot Dome naval oil reserve in Wyoming, had been previously transferred to the Department of the Interior on the urging of Fall, who evidently realized the personal gains he could achieve by leasing the land to private corporations. In October 1923, the Senate Public Lands Committee launched an investigation that revealed not only the $100,000 bribe that Fall received from Doheny but also that Harry Sinclair, president of Mammoth Oil, had given him some $300,000 in government bonds and cash in exchange for use of the Teapot Dome oil reserve in Wyoming. In 1927, the oil fields were restored to the U.S. government by a Supreme Court decision. Two years later, Fall was convicted of bribery and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of $100,000. Doheny escaped conviction, but Sinclair was imprisoned for contempt of Congress and jury tampering.

  • 1962 --- U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson presented photographic evidence to the United Nations Security Council. The photos were of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

  • 1955 --- The microwave oven was introduced in Mansfield, Ohio at the corporate headquarters of the Tappan Company. The manufacturer put a $1,200 price tag on the new stove that could cook eggs in 22 seconds, bacon in 90 seconds.

  • 1962 --- Author John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception.”

  • 1970 --- It all started on this, a fall football day. George Blanda, who had played pro football for the Chicago Bears for ten years, retired and then returned to the game as starting quarterback for the Houston Oilers. He led the Oilers to two AFC championships, earning the title of AFC Player of the Year in 1961. By 1966 he was no longer the starter for the team, but was the team’s kicker, leading the league with 116 points. Blanda was then traded to the Oakland Raiders, primarily as a kicker. That’s when George Blanda became a legend in his own time. As we said, it happened on this day in 1970. That’s when Blanda, 43 years old, replaced Daryle Lamonica, the Raiders injured quarterback. Blanda tossed three touchdown passes (19, 43 and 44 yards), taking the Raiders to an easy victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers (31-14). And that was only the beginning. The following week, George Blanda kicked a field goal 48 yards to tie the Raiders with Kansas City -- with only three seconds left to play. The next week, Blanda replaced Lamonica in the last quarter. Oakland was down by one touchdown. With one minute and fourteen seconds remaining, Blanda threw a 14-yard touchdown, tied the game, then kicked a 52-yard field goal in the last three seconds. Another week, another game and another Blanda heroic ending -- with only four minutes left to play. Denver was in the lead over Oakland by two points. Blanda drove for 80 yards, then threw a touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff. Oakland won. His heroics continued the following week. With four seconds remaining, the game tied at 17, Blanda kicked a 16-yard field goal and San Diego went home the loser. Oakland won the division championship and Blanda became AFC Player of the Year and AP male athlete of the year.

  • 1971 --- In a dramatic reversal of its long-standing commitment to the Nationalist Chinese government of Taiwan, and a policy of non-recognition of the communist People's Republic of China (PRC), America's U.N. representatives vote to seat the PRC as a permanent member. Over American objections, Taiwan was expelled.The reasons for the apparently drastic change in U.S. policy were not hard to discern. The United States had come to value closer relations with the PRC more than its historical commitment to Taiwan. U.S. interest in having the PRC's help in resolving the sticky Vietnam situation; the goal of using U.S. influence with the PRC as diplomatic leverage against the Soviets; and the desire for lucrative economic relations with the PRC, were all factors in the U.S. decision. Relations with the PRC thereupon soared, highlighted by President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. Not surprisingly, diplomatic relations with Taiwan noticeably cooled, though the United States still publicly avowed that it would defend Taiwan if it were attacked.

  • 1983 --- U.S. troops and soldiers from six Caribbean nations invaded Grenada to restore order and provide protection to U.S. citizens after a recent coup within Grenada's Communist (pro-Cuban) government.

  • 1991 --- Bill Graham, concert promoter, was killed in a helicopter crash.

  • Birthdays
  • Minnie Pearl
  • Georges Bizet
  • Billy Barty
  • Marion Ross
  • Helen Reddy
  • Pablo Picasso
  • Katy Perry
  • Nancy Cartwright