- 94th Day of 2012 / 272 Remaining
- 78 Days Until Summer Begins
- Sunrise:6:51
- Sunset:7:36
- 12 Hr 45 Min
- Moon Rise:4:27pm
- Moon Set:4:39am
- Moon’s Phase: 87 %
- The Next Full Moon
- April 6 @ 2:20pm
- Full Pink Moon
- Full Fish Moon
- Full Sprouting Grass Moon
- Full Full Fish 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 Full Fish Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- Tides
- High:8:41am/9:39pm
- Low:2:50am/3:05pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:12.91
- Last Year:24.61
- Normal To Date:20.57
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Tweed Day
- National Chocolate Mousse Day
- Overcome a Handicap Day
- National Find a Rainbow Day
- Mothering Sunday-U.K.
- On This Day In …
- 1513 --- Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. He had sighted the land the day before.
- 1776 --- Because it lacked sufficient funds to build a strong navy, the Continental Congress gives privateers permission to attack any and all British ships on this day in 1776. In a bill signed by John Hancock, its president, and dated April 3, 1776, the Continental Congress issued, INSTRUCTIONS to the COMMANDERS of Private Ships or vessels of War, which shall have Commissions of Letters of Marque and Reprisal, authorizing them to make Captures of British Vessels and Cargoes. Letters of Marque and Reprisal were the official documents by which 18th-century governments commissioned private commercial ships, known as privateers, to act on their behalf, attacking ships carrying the flags of enemy nations. Any goods captured by the privateer were divided between the ship's owner and the government that had issued the letter. Congress informed American privateers on this day that, YOU may, by Force of Arms, attack, subdue, and take all Ships and other Vessels belonging to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, on the high seas, or between high-water and low-water Marks, except Ships and Vessels bringing Persons who intend to settle and reside in the United Colonies, or bringing Arms, Ammunition or Warlike Stores to the said Colonies, for the Use of such Inhabitants thereof as are Friends to the American Cause, which you shall suffer to pass unmolested, the Commanders thereof permitting a peaceable Search, and giving satisfactory Information of the Contents of the Ladings, and Destinations of the Voyages. The distinction between pirates and privateers was non-existent to those who faced them on the high seas. They behaved in an identical manner, boarding and capturing ships using force if necessary. However, privateers holding Letters of Marque were not subject to prosecution by their home nation and, if captured, were treated as prisoners of war instead of criminals by foreign nations.
- 1850 --- The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
- 1860 --- Pony Express mail service began in St. Joseph, Missouri. The first Pony Express rider was heading for California. The next day, another rider left Sacramento, California heading east for Missouri. Each rider had a 75 to 100 mile run before a switch was made with another rider. The switch was made at one of 190 way stations along the route; each way station being about ten to fifteen miles apart. The Pony Express riders delivered the mail within ten days (similar to our current snail mail) for postage paid of $5 per ounce. This style of mail service became antiquated within a short two years, being put out to pasture by the advent of the overland telegraph.
- 1887 --- Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community - Argonia, Kan.
- 1946 --- Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed in the Philippines.
- 1949 --- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis debuted on radio in an NBC program that ran until 1952.
- 1955 --- The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges. The U.S. Customs Department had seized some 520 copies of the book several weeks earlier as the book entered the U.S. from England, where it had been printed. Poet Allen Ginsberg had first read the title poem, Howl, at a poetry reading in the fall of 1956 to enormous acclaim from his fellow Beat poets. The poem's racy language, frank subject matter, and lack of form offended some conservative readers, but to young people in the 1960s, it sounded a call to revolt against convention. Along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the poem served as the reference manual and rallying cry for a new generation. Ginsberg himself coined the term "flower power." After the seizing of Howl, American publisher and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti announced he would publish it in the U.S. After its publication, he was arrested and tried for promoting obscene material. The ACLU successfully defended both Ferlinghetti and the book at Ferlinghetti's trial, calling on nine literary experts to render an opinion on the book's merits. Ferlinghetti was found not guilty.
- 1965 --- Bob Dylan appeared on the pop music charts for the first time. Subterranean Homesick Blues entered the Top 40 at number 39. The song stayed on the charts for eight weeks. Dylan would chart a total of 12 singles on the pop charts between 1965 and 1979. He appeared in the films Don’t Look Back, Eat the Document and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. He made the film Renaldo and Clara in 1978. Dylan co-starred in the film Hearts of Fire in 1987. He became a member of the Traveling Wilburys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Dylan won the Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.
- 1969 --- The TV show "Star Trek" was canceled. The best of its three TV seasons was 1966 when the show reached as high as #62 in the ratings.
- 1974 --- Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's career home run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.
- 1996 --- At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period. Indicted on more than a dozen federal charges, he appeared briefly in court in 1996 to plead not guilty to all charges. During the next year and a half, Kaczynski wrangled with his defense attorneys, who wanted to issue an insanity plea against his wishes. Kaczynski wanted to defend what he saw as legitimate political motives in carrying out the attacks, but at the start of the Unabomber trial in January 1998 the judge rejected his requests to acquire a new defense team and represent himself. On January 22, Kaczynski pleaded guilty on all counts and was spared the death penalty. He showed no remorse for his crimes and in May was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.
- Birthdays
- Herb Caen
- Washington Irving
- Jane Goodall
- Wayne Newton
- Tris Speaker
- Clive Davis
- Hugh Masekela
- Barry Pepper
- Anthony Perkins
- Washington Irving
- Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
- George Jessel
- Sally Rand
- Doris Day
- Marlon Brando
- Helmut Kohl
- Marsha Mason
- Tony Orlando
- Richard Manuel
- David Hyde Pierce
- Eddie Murphy
- Miyoshi Umeki
- Alec Baldwin
- William March Tweed