- 105th Day of 2014 260 Days Remaining
- 67 Days Until Summer Begins
- Sunrise 6:33
- Sunset 7:45
- 13 Hours 12 Minutes
- Moon Rise 8:31pm
- Moon Set 6:47am
- Full Pink 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 Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- This year 12.30
- Last year 16.32
- Normal 22.33
- Holidays
- Tax Day
- Income Tax Pay Day
- National Take a Wild Guess Day
- Rubber Eraser Day
- National That Sucks Day
- National Glazed Ham Day
- Global Youth Service Day
- Army Day-Bosnia-Herzegovina
- New Year-Cambodia
- Pi Mai (Laos New Year)-Laos
- Songkran Days (Thai New Year)-Thailand
- Recollection Of The Deceased-Georgia
- Youth Day-Palau
- On This Day In History
- 1794 --- "Courrier Francais" became the first French daily newspaper to be published in the U.S.
- 1817 --- The first American school for the deaf was opened in Hartford, CT.
- 1850 --- The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
- 1861 --- President Abraham Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
- 1865 --- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America, died at 7:22 a.m. Lincoln had been shot in the back of the head the previous evening while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, escaped, only to be hunted down and shot to death. Lincoln was carried to a boarding house across the street from the theatre. He never regained consciousness.
- 1871 --- "Wild Bill" Hickok became the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
- 1878 --- Ivory Soap was developed by Harley Proctor. Air was whipped into the soap during production, which made it float. First sold in 1879, it was a huge success.
- 1912 --- The RMS Titanic, billed as unsinkable, sinks into the icy waters of the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage, killing 1,517 people. The United Kingdom's White Star Line built the Titanic to be the most luxurious cruise ship in the world. Itwas nearly 900 feet long and more than 100 feet high. The Titanic could reach speeds of 30 knots and was thought to be the world's fastest ship. With its individualized watertight compartments, it was seen as virtually unsinkable. On its first voyage, from Southampton, England, to New York with stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, the Titanic was carrying 2,206 people, including a crew of 898. A relatively mild winter had produced a bumper crop of icebergs in the North Atlantic, but the crew, believing their ship was unsinkable, paid scant attention to warnings. On the night of Sunday, April 14, other ships in the area reported icebergs by radio, but their messages were not delivered to the bridge or
the captain of the Titanic. The iceberg that struck the ship was spotted at 11:40 p.m. Although a dead-on collision was avoided, the Titanic's starboard side violently scraped the iceberg, ripping open six compartments. The ship's design could withstand only four compartments flooding. Minutes later, the crew radioed for help, sending out an SOS signal, the first time the new type of help signal was used. Ten minutes after midnight, the order for passengers to head for the lifeboats was given. Unfortunately, there were only lifeboats for about half of the people on board. Additionally, there had been no instruction or drills regarding such a procedure and general panic broke out on deck.The survivors--those who successfully made it onto the lifeboats--were largely women who were traveling first class. In fact, the third-class passengers were not even allowed
onto the deck until the first-class female passengers had abandoned the ship. White Star President Bruce Ismay jumped onto the last lifeboat though there were women and children still waiting to board. At 2:20 a.m., the Titanic finally sank. Breaking in half, it plunged downward to the sea floor. Captain Edward Smith went down with the ship. The Carpathia arrived about an hour later and rescued the 705 people who made it onto the lifeboats. One report, from a survivor, indicated that as the great ship was going down to a watery grave, the orchestra played Nearer My God to Thee.
- 1923 --- Insulin became available for general use on this day. It was first discovered in 1922. Today, insulin is used daily in the treatment of diabetes.
- 1934 --- In the comic strip "Blondie," Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead welcomed a baby boy, Alexander. The child would be nicknamed, Baby Dumpling.
- 1947 --- Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.
- 1955 --- Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s -- in Des Plaines, IL. Kroc began his career by selling milk shake machines. Among his first customers were the McDonald brothers from Southern California. After selling them several machines and watching the efficiency of their drive-in restaurant, Kroc bought the rights to market the brothers’ good fortune and hired them to work for him.
- 1959 --- Four months after leading a successful revolution in Cuba, Fidel Castro visits the United States. The visit was marked by tensions between Castro and the American government. The trip got off to an inauspicious start when it became clear that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had no intention of meeting with Castro. Castro gave a talk to the Council on Foreign Affairs, a New York-based group of private citizens and former government officials interested in U.S. international relations. Angered by some of the questions from the audience, Castro abruptly left the meeting. Finally, before departing for Cuba, Castro met with Vice PresidentRichard Nixon. Privately, Nixon hoped that his talk would push Castro "in the right direction," and away from any radical policies, but he came away from his discussion full of doubt about the possibility of reorienting Castro's thinking.
- 1964 --- The 17.6 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened to traffic, "One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World."
- 1966 --- Buffalo Springfield performed for the first time as the opening act for The Byrds in San Bernadino, CA.
- 1966 --- In England, Jimi Hendrix, The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humberdink appeared at The Odeon.
- 1968 --- Aretha Franklin recorded "Think."
- 1971 --- George C. Scott refused the Oscar for his Best Actor performance in Patton at the 43rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony at LA’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He had previously told reporters that he did not want the honor, saying “It is degrading to have actors in competition with each other.” Scott called the Oscar ceremony, “a two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons.”
- 1985 --- ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler helped Thomas the ‘Hit Man’ Hearns go nighty-night a littler earlier than expected, with a third round knockout to retain the world middleweight boxing title. Some have called the fight, “the greatest three rounds in boxing history.”
- 1989 --- Students in Beijing launched a series of pro democracy protests upon the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang. The protests led to the Tienanmen Square massacre.
- 1989 --- In Sheffield, England, 96 people were killed and hundreds were injured at a soccer game at Hillsborough Stadium when a crowd surged into an overcrowded standing area. Ninety-four died on the day of the incident and two more later died from their injuries.
- 1996 --- Jerry Garcia's remaining ashes were scattered near the Golden Gate Bridge. A small portion of his ashes had been scattered in the Ganges River in India on April 4th.
- 2000 --- Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles became the 24th major league player to reach 3,000 hits.
- 2000 --- 600 anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) protesters were arrested in Washington, DC, for demonstrating without a permit.
- Birthdays
- Emma Watson
- A Phillip Randolph
- Emma Thompson
- Seth Rogen
- Bessie Smith
- Roy Clark
- Elizabeth Montgomery
- Dave Edmunds
- Linda Bloodworth-Thompson
- Heloise(Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans)
- Samantha Fox
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Hans Conreid
- Claudia Cardinale
- Amy Wright
- Evelyn Ashford
