- 250th Day of 2012 /116 Remaining
- 16 Days Until The First Day of Autumn
- Sunrise:6:44
- Sunset:7:31
- 12 Hours 47 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:10:52pm
- Moon Set:12:42pm
- Moon’s Phase: 66 %
- The Next Full Moon
- September 29 @ 8:18pm
- Full Corn Moon
- Full Harvest Moon
This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out
of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few
nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.
- Tides
- High:3:46am/3:01pm
- Low:8:58am/10:09pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:0.03
- Last Year:0.11
- Normal To Date:0.00
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Another Look Unlimited Day
- National Coffee Ice Cream Day
- Unification Day-Bulgaria
- Defense of Pakistan Day-Pakistan
- Independence Day-Swaziland
- National Union Day-Chile
- Labor Day-Palau
- On This Day In …
- 1620 --- The Pilgrims left on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England to settle in the New World.
- 1781 --- British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, a former Patriot officer already infamous and much maligned for betraying the United States the previous year, adds to his notoriety by ordering his British command to burn New London, Connecticut. The Continental Army had been using New London to store a large stash of military supplies, but only stationed Captain Adam Sharpley and a contingent of 24 Continental soldiers there to protect it. General Arnold's British soldiers, with help from the area's Loyalists, quickly overwhelmed Captain Sharpley and the Continentals, who had no other option but to retreat and leave New London and the military supplies unguarded. After looting the town, Arnold ordered his British soldiers to set fire to every building, causing the equivalent of more than $500,000 in damages. Benedict Arnold was already despised throughout the colonies for his attempt to sell the Patriot fort at West Point, New York, to the British in 1780 for a bribe of £20,000. The burning of New London sealed his reputation as a public enemy and his name became a synonym in common American parlance for "traitor." The bravery and military prowess Arnold had previously demonstrated on behalf of the Patriots at Ticonderoga and Quebec in 1775 have been completely overshadowed by his later actions against the country he had once so valiantly served.
- 1819 --- Thomas Blanchard of Springfield, MA patented a machine called the lathe. Blanchard said it was invented for the manufacturing of gun stocks. His lathe did the work of 13 operators.
- 1837 --- The Oberlin Collegiate Institute of Ohio went co-educational.
- 1876 --- The Southern Pacific rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco was completed.
- 1901 --- President William McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was greeting the crowd in the Temple of Music when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, stepped forward and shot the president twice at point-blank range. McKinley lived for another week before finally succumbing to a gangrene infection on September 14. At the time of the shooting, President McKinley was very popular and America was in the midst of a period of peace and prosperity. Czolgosz, a laborer from Cleveland who fell under the sway of charismatic leaders of anarchy such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, became particularly obsessed with Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist who shot and killed King Humbert I of Italy on July 29, 1900. Czolgosz decided to kill McKinley to further the anarchist cause. While Presidents Lincoln and Garfield had been completely unprotected at the time of their assassinations, the newly formed Secret Service was now available to protect President McKinley. But when Czolgosz stepped up to shake McKinley's hand with a handkerchief covering the .32 revolver in his hand, the agents thought nothing of it. After the shots were fired, the agents grabbed Czolgosz and began pummeling him, but McKinley warned, "Be easy with him, boys," as he was helped to an ambulance. The president then told his secretary to be careful in telling the First Lady what happened. Working in a building with no electricity, surgeons operated on the president, who seemed to be recovering at first. Legend has it that his recovery diet was raw eggs and whiskey. Before lapsing into a coma and dying, McKinley's last words were: "It is God's way. His will, not ours, be done." McKinley's assassination led to reprisals against his critics across the country. Those who had spoken poorly of the president were tarred and feathered. Emma Goldman was even arrested for allegedly inspiring the murder. But Czolgosz took full and sole responsibility for the assassination and was sent to the electric chair less than two months later. On October 29, his last words were: "I am not sorry for my crime."
- 1909 --- Robert Peary, American explorer, sent word that he had reached the North Pole. He had reached his goal five months earlier.
- 1916 --- The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tenn., by Clarence Saunders.
- 1943 --- The youngest player to appear in an American League game was pitcher Carl Scheib of the Philadelphia Athletics. On this day, Scheib was 16 years, eight months and five days old.
- 1969 -- Singer, songwriter David Bowie debuted on U.K. charts with Space Oddity. You remember, “Ground Control to Major Tom, Ground Control to Major Tom ... Check igition and may God’s love be with you, Three, Two, One, Liftoff...” Space Oddity peaked at #5 in the U.K. The song’s release was timed for the U.S. moon landing, but didn’t make the U.S. charts until its rerelease in 1973 (it reached #15).
- 1975 --- Czechoslovakian tennis player Martina Navratilova, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum.
- 1976 --- A Soviet Air Force pilot lands his MIG fighter jet in Japan and asks for asylum in the United States. The incident was a serious embarrassment for the Soviets, and also provided a bit of a surprise for U.S. officials. When the Soviets first put the MIG-25 (known as the Foxbat) into production in the 1960s, U.S. officials became nearly hysterical. The new plane, they claimed, was the fastest, most advanced, and most destructive interceptor jet ever built. Its debut, they argued, meant that the United States was falling dangerously behind in the race to control the skies. On September 6, 1976, those officials got a close-up look at the aircraft. Soviet Air Force Lt. Viktor Belenko took his MIG-25 out of Soviet airspace and landed it at a Japanese airfield at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. Japanese police took the pilot into custody, where he immediately asked for asylum in the United States. Experts from the U.S. quickly arrived on the scene to get a firsthand look at the aircraft. After being questioned extensively by both Japanese and U.S. officials, Belenko was flown to the United States and granted political asylum.
- 1976 --- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were reunited by Frank Sinatra -- after 20 years of going their separate ways. The former comedy team warmly met each other again during a surprise visit by Martin to Lewis’s annual Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy.
- 1986 --- Bananarama hit the top spot on the pop music charts with Venus. The tune had also been a number one hit for the Dutch group, The Shocking Blue (2/07/70).
- 1989 --- The Pittsburgh Steelers were banned from practicing on their own field, Three Rivers Stadium, because The Rolling Stones were rehearsing for their upcoming concert.
- 1991 --- The original name of Russia’s second largest city was restored. The city of St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, hence the name, St. Petersburg. But it wasn’t always that simple. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Russian leaders felt that Petersburg was too German-sounding. So they changed the name of the city to Petrograd -- to make it more Russian-sounding. Then, in 1924, the country’s Soviet Communist leaders wanted to honor the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir I. Lenin. The city of Petrograd became Leningrad and was known as Leningrad until this day in 1991 when the new Russian legislators -- no longer Soviet Communists -- wanted the city to reflect their change of government.
- 2001 --- Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the fifth player in baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season. (He finished the year with a record 73 homers.)
- Birthdays
- Jane Addams
- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie turns
- Rosie Perez
- JoAnne Worley
- Swoosie Kurtz
- Jane Curtin
- Jeff Foxworthy
- Joseph P. Kennedy
- Gen Marie-Joseph Lafayette(Marquis de Lafayette)
- Dolores O'Riordan