- 52nd Day of 2012 / 214 Remaining
- 28 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:6:52
- Sunset:5:55
- 11 Hr 3 Min
- Moon Rise:6:25am
- Moon Set:6:06pm
- Moon’s Phase: New Moon
- The Next Full Moon
- March 8 @ 1:41 am
- Full Worm Moon
- Full Sap Moon
- Full Crust Moon
- Lenten Moon
As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
- Tides
- High:10:05am/11:11pm
- Low:4:09am/4:33pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:6.90
- Last Year:16.70
- Normal To Date:15.98
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Single Tasking Day
- President's Day
- Giving Day
- National Sticky Bun Day
- Remember the Funniest Thing Your Child Ever Did Day
- Pancake Day
- Bursting Day
- Mardi Gras
- Shrove Tuesday(all meaning the same thing: Lent begins tomorrow.)
- Martyrs Day(Ekushey Day)-Bangladesh
- Shaheed Dibash-Bangladesh
- International Mother Language Day
- On This Day In …
- 1804 --- The first self-propelled locomotive on rails was demonstrated in Wales.
- 1858 --- The first electric burglar alarm was installed in Boston, MA
- 1874 --- The Oakland Daily Tribune began publication.
- 1878 --- The first telephone directories issued in the U.S. were distributed to residents in New Haven, CT. It was a single page of only fifty names.
- 1885 --- The official dedication of the Washington Monument took place in Washington, D.C., although the monument did not open for another three years. In fact, the structure took a total of thirty-six years to finish. Construction took place in two major phases, 1848-1856, and 1876-1884. The Civil War and a lack of funds caused the big delay. The stone obelisk honoring the first President of the United States was designed by Robert Mills who died in this, the year of the dedication
- 1925 --- The New Yorker magazine made its debut.
- 1931 --- Alka Seltzer was introduced.
- 1932 --- William N. Goodwin of Newark, New Jersey patented the camera exposure meter. So, if your prints aren’t turning out like they should, blame him or, better yet, change your exposure setting. It’s written right there in the instruction manual that you read when you got the camera. You did read it, didn’t you?
- 1947 --- Edwin Land demonstrated a nifty new gadget to the Optical Society of America in New York City. It was the first camera to take, develop and print a picture on photo paper (in black and white back then) all in about a minute. He called his invention the Polaroid Land Camera. It became an ‘instant’ success.
- 1950 --- The first International Pancake Race was held in Liberal, Kansas. The annual event, scheduled each year on Shrove Tuesday, pits the women of Liberal against the women of Olney, Bucks, England. Wearing dresses and aprons, their heads covered in scarves, the women run a 415-yard, ‘S’ shaped course. Each woman also carries a pancake in a skillet and must toss the pancake three times. The fastest pancake carrier ran the race in 58.5 seconds in 1975. This record was set by Liberal’s Sheila Turner.
- 1965 --- In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement. In late 1963, Malcolm's suggestion that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was a matter of the "chickens coming home to roost" provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam. A few months later, Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims. He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American. Malcolm's new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. n February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.
- 1972 --- In an amazing turn of events, President Richard Nixon takes a dramatic first step toward normalizing relations with the communist People's Republic of China (PRC) by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks. Nixon's historic visit began the slow process of the re-establishing diplomatic relations between the United States and communist China.Still mired in the unpopular and frustrating Vietnam War in 1971, Nixon surprised the American people by announcing a planned trip to the PRC in 1972. The United States had never stopped formally recognizing the PRC after Mao Zedong's successful communist revolution of 1949. In fact, the two nations had been bitter enemies. PRC and U.S. troops fought in Korea during the early-1950s, and Chinese aid and advisors supported North Vietnam in its war against the United States. Nixon's trip to China was a move calculated to drive an even deeper wedge between the two most significant communist powers. The United States could use closer diplomatic relations with China as leverage in dealing with the Soviets, particularly on the issue of Vietnam. In addition, the United States might be able to make use of the Chinese as a counterweight to North Vietnam. Despite their claims of socialist solidarity, the PRC and North Vietnam were, at best, strongly suspicious allies. As historian Walter LaFeber said, "Instead of using Vietnam to contain China, Nixon concluded that he had better use China to contain Vietnam." For its part, the PRC was desirous of another ally in its increasingly tense relationship with the Soviet Union and certainly welcomed the possibility of increased U.S.-China trade.
- 1975 --- Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.
- 1988 --- TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed to his congregation in Baton Rouge, La., that he was guilty of an unspecified sin, and said he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. (Reports linked Swaggart to a prostitute.)
- 1993 --- An 80-year-old Tel Aviv man refused once again to grant his wife a divorce. Under Israeli law both spouses must agree to a divorce, and one who refuses can be imprisoned until he or she consents. Yahiya Avraham had been in prison for 31 years.
- 1994 --- Whirlpool began manufacturing a refrigerator that was significantly more efficient, and did not use freon. Freon has been implicated in the destruction of ozone in the atmosphere.
- 1995 --- Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, after becoming the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
- Birthdays
- Barbara Jordan
- Erma Bombeck
- Kelsey Grammer
- Tyne Daly
- David Geffen
- Mary Chapin Carpenter
- Andres Segovia
- Alan Rickman
- Jerry Harrison
- ‘Ranking’ Roger Charley(English Beat)
- Antonio Lopez Santa Anna
- Anais Nin
- Alice Palmer(Educator, helped organize American Association of University Women)
- W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden
- Sam Peckinpah
- Nina Simone(Eunice Waymon)
- Rue McClanahan
- Vince Welnick(Tubes, Grateful Dead)
- William "Billy" Baldwin