- 31st Day of 2012 / 335 Remaining
- 49 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:7:15
- Sunset:5:32
- 10 Hr 17 Min
- Moon Rise:11:26am
- Moon Set:1:08am
- Moon’s Phase: 55 %
- The Next Full Moon
- February 7 @ 1:56pm
- Full Snow Moon
- Full Hunger 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:4:03am/6:28pm
- Low:11:39am/10:46pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:6.06
- Last Year:12.67
- Normal To Date:2.81
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
- Inspire Your Heart with the Arts Day
- National Brandy Alexander Day
- Scotch Tape Day
- Independence Day-Nauru
- Up Helly Aa-Shetland Islands http://www.uphellyaa.org/
- On This Day In …
- 1505 --- King Philip of Austria defeated the Marquis de Dorset in history's first international tennis match. It wasn't much of a contest, since the Marquis still played with the palm of his hand and King Philip used a new fangled "battoir."
- 1606 --- At Westminster in London, Guy Fawkes, a chief conspirator in the plot to blow up the British Parliament building, jumps to his death moments before his execution for treason.On the eve of a general parliamentary session scheduled for November 5, 1605, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar of the Parliament building. Fawkes was detained and the premises thoroughly searched. Nearly two tons of gunpowder were found hidden within the cellar. In his interrogation, Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy organized by Robert Catesby to annihilate England's entire Protestant government, including King James I. The king was to have attended Parliament on November 5. Over the next few months, English authorities killed or captured all of the conspirators in the "Gunpowder Plot" but also arrested, tortured, or killed dozens of innocent English Catholics. After a brief trial, Guy Fawkes was sentenced, along with the other surviving chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. On January 30, 1606, the gruesome public executions began in London, and on January 31 Fawkes was called to meet his fate. While climbing to the hanging platform, however, he jumped from the ladder and broke his neck, dying instantly. In remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated across Great Britain every year on the fifth of November. As dusk falls in the evening, villagers and city dwellers across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.
- 1865 --- The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. It was ratified by the necessary number of states on December 6, 1865. The amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
- 1874 --- Jesse James robbed a train near Gadshill, Missouri, than gave the engineer a press release about the robbery and ordered him to pass it along to the local newspaper.
- 1893 --- The trademark "Coca-Cola" was first registered in the United States Patent Office.
- 1927 --- Twenty years before the famous record by Art Mooney was recorded, Jean Goldkette and his dancing orchestra recorded, I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover. Though the name of the bandleader may not be so famous, two of his sidemen on this Victor recording session certainly were: Big band fans know Bix Beiderbecke and Joe Venuti.
- 1930 --- Scotch tape was developed by Richard Drew of the 3M Company.
- 1936 --- The Green Hornet was introduced by its famous theme song, The Flight of the Bumble Bee. The radio show was first heard on WXYZ radio in Detroit, MI on this day. The show stayed on the air for 16 years. The Green Hornet originated from the same radio station where The Lone Ranger was performed. You may remember that the title character in The Green Hornet was really named Britt Reid. He was, in fact, supposed to be the great nephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. Both popular series were created by George Trendle and Fran Striker.
- 1940 --- The very first monthly retirement check was issued by the U.S. Government -- to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. Ida May’s check, numbered 00-000-001, was in the amount of $22.54. Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939 and lived to be 100 years old (she died in 1975).
- 1945 --- Private Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
- 1947 --- The coldest official temperature in Canadian history was recorded at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, when the mercury fell to 62 degrees below zero (F).
- 1948 --- The 'New Yorker' published J.D. Salinger's 'A Perfect Day for Banana Fish.'
- 1949 --- The first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was telecast from NBC in Chicago. The show’s creator, Irna Phillips, would later produce "As the World Turns" and "The Guiding Light."
- 1969 --- Bobby Darin walked off the set of the "Jackie Gleason Show" when he was not allowed to sing "Long Line Rider."
- Birthdays
- Jackie Robinson
- Carol Channing
- Franz Schubert
- Harry Wayne Casey/KC – (of The Sunshine Band)
- Lloyd Cole
- Justin Timberlake
- Minnie Driver
- Ernie Banks
- Nolan Ryan
- Richard Gephardt
- Johnny Rotten (Lydon)
- Zane Grey
- Anna Pavlova
- Eddie Cantor
- Thomas Merton
- Tallulah Bankhead
- Norman Mailer
- Suzanne Pleshette
- Philip Glass
- Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard-Netherlands
- Charlie Musselwhite
- Phil Manzanera
- Phil Collins
- Jersey Joe Walcott
- Garry Moore
- Mario Lanza