- 354th Day of 2011 / 11 Remaining
- 2 Days Until Winter Begins
- Sunrise:7:21
- Sunset:4:54
- 9 Hr 33 Min
- Moon Rise:2:51am
- Moon Set:1:32pm
- Moon’s Phase: 20 %
- The Next Full Moon
- January 8 @ 11:32pm
- Full Wolf Moon
- Full Old Moon
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
- Tides
- High:6:14am/8:01pm
- Low:1:20pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:3.35
- Last Year:8.54
- YTD Avg:6.89
- Annual Avg: 22.28
- Holidays
- Louisiana Purchase Day
- National Sangria Day
- National Fried Shrimp Day
- Try To Remember Where You Hid The Christmas Gifts Day
- National Go Caroling Day
- Las Posadas-Mexico
- Day Of Mourning-Panama
- Hannukah-Judaism (Begins At Sundown)
- International Human Solidarity Day
- On This Day In History
- 1606 --- The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery set sail from London. Their destination: America. Captain Christopher Newport commanded the three tiny ships (and, we do mean tiny -- check out Jamestown village in Virginia to see for yourself. The ships are on display and you can climb aboard) for the royally chartered Virginia Company. Their landing at Jamestown, VA was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.
- 1699 --- Peter the Great ordered that the Russian New Year be changed from September 1 to January 1.
- 1803 --- The United States finally took possession of the Louisiana Territories from France. The treaty that France drew up, giving the Territories to the United States for $15 million, was actually dated April 30, 1803 and signed on May 2. It didn’t reach Washington until July 14. After much objection from Federalists and a bit of stretching of Constitutional Law, Congress ratified the treaty on October 25 with possession final on December 20. The Louisiana Purchase effectively doubled the size of the existing U.S. With 827,987 square miles in the deal, that price translates to roughly $18 per square mile -- under 3 cents per acre. The area was later made into 15 states and if that subdivision had not occurred, Louisiana would be the largest state in the Union (Alaska and Texas would easily fit inside the boundaries). The following is the list of states that were created (or *partially created) from the Louisiana Purchase: Arkansas, *Colorado, Iowa, *Kansas, Louisiana, *Minnesota, Missouri, *Montana, Nebraska, *New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, *Texas and *Wyoming. 3 cents ... now that’s really a good deal! Just imagine what one little acre of that territory would bring today!
- 1879 --- Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.
- 1880 --- New York's Broadway became known as the "Great White Way" when it was lighted by electricity.
- 1946 --- The film "It's a Wonderful Life" premiered in New York City. It starred Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary Bailey, Henry Travers as Clarence Oddbody (trying to earn his wings) and Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter.
- 1975 --- Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to leave Your Lover jumped on U.S. singles charts. It hit number one (for three weeks) Feb 7, 1976. For you trivia fans out there, this is Paul Simon’s only #1 single (so far). “Just slip out the back, Jack; Make a new plan, Stan; You don't need to be coy, Roy; Just get yourself free...”
- 1985 --- Robert Penn Warren was designated Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry of the U.S. Library of Congress for 1986-1987. The library has used consultants since 1937, when Joseph Auslander was appointed the first Consultant in Poetry, but Robert Penn Warren was the first to be called Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.
- 1989 --- Michael Moore's satirical documentary "Roger & Me" opens in theaters across the United States. (It had made a brief tour of film festivals earlier that year, before it had a distributor.) The film chronicled Moore's unsuccessful attempts to meet Roger B. Smith, the chairman and chief executive of General Motors, who had presided over the closing of 11 factories in Flint, Michigan, during the 1970s and 80s. As a result, nearly 40,000 people lost their jobs, and Moore wanted to interview Smith about the city's subsequent decline; Smith, perhaps understandably, chose to avoid that conversation, and his dodges and evasions provided plenty of grist for the filmmaker's mill. "Roger & Me" earned a great deal of critical praise, and put its director into the public eye. His subsequent movies--the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine" (2002), "Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004) and "Sicko" (2007) became some of the top-grossing documentary features in history.
- 2002 --- Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks.
- 2003 --- Judge Tom DuBois in Columbia City, Indiana, continued his Christmas amnesty tradition of letting minor traffic offenders off without a fine -- if they stand up in court and sing a Christmas carol. Some singers need a little help, so he sometimes forms duets, trios and quartets. Most offenders sing either "Jingle Bells," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," or "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
- Birthdays
- Uri Geller
- Alan Parsons
- Billy Bragg
- Chris Robinson
- Harvey Firestone
- Irene Dunne
- Samuel Mudd
- Branch Rickey
- Matty Alou
- Bob Hayes
- Peter Kriss