- 206th Day of 2012 / 160 Remaining
- 60 Days Until Autumn Begins
- Sunrise:6:07
- Sunset:8:25
- 14 Hours 18 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:12:02pm
- Moon Set:11:25pm
- Moon’s Phase: 32 %
- The Next Full Moon
- August 1 @ 8:27pm
- Full Sturgeon Moon
- Full Red Moon
- Full Green Corn Moon
- Full Grain Moon
The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon
- Tides
- High:2:44am/3:38pm
- Low:8:50am/10:01pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:0.01
- Last Year:0.08
- Normal To Date:0.00
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- Anne Hutchinson Memorial Day
- Cousin's Day
- National Drive-Thru Day
- National Tell An Old Joke Day
- Parents' Day
- Pioneer Day
- National Tequila Day
- Children's Day-Vanuatu
- Fiesta de Santiago-Peru
- Jose Barbosa Day-Puerto Rico
- Simon Bolivar Day-Ecuador
- On This Day In …
- 1847 --- After 17 months and many miles of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Utah's Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Gazing over the parched earth of the remote location, Young declared, "This is the place," and the pioneers began preparations for the thousands of Mormon migrants who would follow. Seeking religious and political freedom, the Mormons began planning their great migration from the east after the murder of Joseph Smith, the Christian sect's founder and first leader.
- 1866 --- Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the U.S. Civil War.
- 1910 --- The first publication of the Paul Bunyan stories of oral folklore, by James MacGillivray in the Detroit News-Tribune. A mythical hero of giant proportions who had an appetite to match his size. His camp stove had a griddle that was greased by men with sides of bacon strapped to their feet.
- 1933 --- During his third Fireside Chat, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt showed why the homey, warm, comfortable discussion was, indeed, a fireside chat. The President stopped the discussion on the air (remember folks, this was radio) and asked for a glass of water, which he then sipped. Newsman Robert Trout is credited with coming up with the name, Fireside Chat, because of real moments like this.
- 1938 --- Clarinet virtuoso and big band leader Artie Shaw recorded his now-classic, Begin the Beguine, for Bluebird Records in New York City.
- 1959 --- During the grand opening ceremony of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev engage in a heated debate about capitalism and communism in the middle of a model kitchen set up for the fair. The so-called "kitchen debate" became one of the most famous episodes of the Cold War. In late 1958, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to set up national exhibitions in each other's nation as part of their new emphasis on cultural exchanges. The Soviet exhibition opened in New York City in June 1959; the U.S. exhibition opened in Sokolniki Park in Moscow in July. On July 24, before the Moscow exhibition was officially opened to the public, Vice President Nixon served as a host for a visit by Soviet leader Khrushchev. As Nixon led Khrushchev through the American exhibition, the Soviet leader's famous temper began to flare. When Nixon demonstrated some new American color television sets, Khrushchev launched into an attack on the so-called "Captive Nations Resolution" passed by the U.S. Congress just days before. The resolution condemned the Soviet control of the "captive" peoples of Eastern Europe and asked all Americans to pray for their deliverance. After denouncing the resolution, Khrushchev then sneered at the U.S. technology on display, proclaiming that the Soviet Union would have the same sort of gadgets and appliances within a few years. Nixon, never one to shy away from a debate, goaded Khrushchev by stating that the Russian leader should "not be afraid of ideas. After all, you don't know everything." The Soviet leader snapped at Nixon, "You don't know anything about communism--except fear of it." With a small army of reporters and photographers following them, Nixon and Khrushchev continued their argument in the kitchen of a model home built in the exhibition. With their voices rising and fingers pointing, the two men went at each other. Nixon suggested that Khrushchev's constant threats of using nuclear missiles could lead to war, and he chided the Soviet for constantly interrupting him while he was speaking. Taking these words as a threat, Khrushchev warned of "very bad consequences." Perhaps feeling that the exchange had gone too far, the Soviet leader then noted that he simply wanted "peace with all other nations, especially America." Nixon rather sheepishly stated that he had not "been a very good host." The "kitchen debate" was front-page news in the United States the next day. For a few moments, in the confines of a "modern" kitchen, the diplomatic gloves had come off and America and the Soviet Union had verbally jousted over which system was superior--communism or capitalism. As with so many Cold War battles, however, there was no clear winner--except perhaps for the U.S. media, which had a field day with the dramatic encounter.
- 1974 --- The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.
- 1979 --- Little Richard, billed as the Reverend Richard Penniman, spoke to a revival meeting in San Francisco about the dangers of rock & roll.
- 1983 --- Kansas City Royals slugger George Brett slammed a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Royals a 5-4 lead over New York. Or did he? Seconds after Brett crossed home plate, New York Yankees Manager Billy Martin came out of the dugout to protest that the pine tar on Brett’s bat was more than 18 inches up the bat handle. The umpires measured Brett’s bat, using home plate as a measuring rod, and came to the conclusion that Martin was correct -- and called Brett out -- erasing the Royals lead. Or did they? The president of the American League, Lee McPhail, later reversed the umpires’ decision on the pine tar and ruled that the game was suspended -- with the Royals leading, 5-4. The game was completed 3 1/2 weeks later, on August 18, 1983, in Yankee Stadium. The outcome of the game? It only took 12 minutes to play the remainder of the contest with the Royals tarring the Yankees 5-4.
- 1990 --- A wrongful death trial involving Judas Priest opened in Reno, NV. Parents had charged in a lawsuit that the band's "Stained Class" album contained subliminal messages that drove two teen-agers to attempt suicide. The judge cleared the group.
- 2002 --- A fleet of six bicycle ambulances, complete with flashing blue lights, sirens and heart-starting defibrillators, hit the streets of London. The two-wheeled ambulances were sent to emergency calls downtown at the same time as their four-wheel counterparts. Trials revealed the bicycles were likely to arrive first in 88 percent of cases. In a third of calls, the bicycle medic was also able to treat the patient at the scene and cancel the full ambulance response.
- Birthdays
- Amelia Earhart
- Bella Abzug
- Chief Dan George
- Alexandre Dumas
- Simon Bolivar
- Jennifer Lopez
- Ruth Buzzi
- Robert Hays
- Michael Richards
- Lynda Carter
- Gus Van Sant
- Barry Bonds
- Anna Paquin