- 62nd Day of 2015 303 Remaining
- Spring Begins in 17 Days
- Sunrise:6:37
- Sunset:6:05
- 11 Hours 28 Minutes
- Moon Rise:4:35pm
- Moon Set:5:21am
- Phase:97%
- Full Moon March 5 @ 10:06am
- 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:9:07am/10:24pm
- Low:3:18am/3:47pm
- Rainfall:
- This Year to Date:17.01
- Last Year:8.11
- Avg YTD:18.61
- Annual Avg:23.80
- Holidays
- I Want You To Be Happy Day
- National Cold Cuts Day
- National Mulled Wine Day
- Peace Corps Day
- Unique Names Day
- What If Cats And Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day
- National Anthem Day
- IHOP National Pancake Day
- Martyr’s Day-Malawi
- Mother’s Day-Georgia
- National Day-Bulgaria
- National Day-Morocco
- National Unity Day-Sudan
- Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival)-Japan
- On This Day
- 1634 --- Samuel Cole supposedly opened the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1776 --- Silas Deane, Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress, leaves for France on a secret mission. The Committee of Congress for Secret Correspondence, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, John Dickinson, John Hay and Robert Morris, instructed Deane to meet with French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, to stress America’s need for military stores and assure the French that the colonies were moving toward “total separation.
- 1797 --- The first patent for a washing machine was issued to Nathaniel Briggs.
- 1803 --- The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.
- 1820 --- After months of bitter debate, Congress passes the Missouri Compromise, a bill that temporarily resolves the first serious political clash between slavery and antislavery interests in U.S. history. In February 1819, Representative James Tallmadge of New York introduced a bill that would admit Missouri into the Union as a state where slavery was prohibited. At the time, there were 11 free states and 10 slave states. Southern congressmen feared that the entrance of Missouri as a free state would upset the balance of power between North and South, as the North far outdistanced the South in population, and thus, U.S. representatives. Opponents to the bill also questioned the congressional precedent of prohibiting the expansion of slavery into a territory where slave status was favored. Congress passed a bill granting Missouri statehood as a slave state under the condition that slavery was to be forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36th parallel, which runs approximately along the southern border of Missouri. In addition, Maine, formerly part of Massachusetts, was admitted as a free state, thus preserving the balance between Northern and Southern senators.
- 1845 --- Florida became the 27th state.
- 1845 --- Congress reins in President John Tyler’s zealous use of the presidential veto, overriding it with the necessary two-thirds vote. This marked Congress’ first use of the Constitutional provision allowing Congressional veto overrides and represented Congress’ parting gift to Tyler as he left office. About two weeks earlier, Tyler had vetoed a Congressional bill that would have denied him the power to appropriate federal funds to build revenue-cutter ships without Congress’ approval. With the override, Congress insisted that the executive branch get the legislature’s approval before commissioning any new military craft.
- 1863 --- During the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passes a conscription act that produces the first wartime draft of U.S. citizens in American history. The act called for registration of all males between the ages of 20 and 45, including aliens with the intention of becoming citizens, by April 1. Exemptions from the draft could be bought for $300 or by finding a substitute draftee. This clause led to bloody draft riots in New York City, where protesters were outraged that exemptions were effectively granted only to the wealthiest U.S. citizens.
- 1865 --- President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill creating the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, this federal agency oversaw the difficult transition of African Americans from slavery to freedom.
- 1875 --- Carmen had its world premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Today, it is one of the most popular operas in the standard repertoire, but Georges Bizet’s Carmen faced many obstacles in even reaching the stage, let alone becoming a success. With a libretto based on a story that many considered too salacious for public performance, Carmen was roundly denounced as immoral by critics even before its score had been completed. The title role was rejected by nearly every female performer considered for the part, and the head of the theater in which the opera was to be staged pressured Georges Bizet for rewrites out of fear of financial calamity should the production prove a flop. Bizet himself did not live long enough to see Carmen gain acceptance as an operatic masterwork. He died of a heart attack at the age of 36, just three short months after it opened.
- 1879 --- Congress establishes United States Geological Survey for the "classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain".
- 1885 --- The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company.
- 1887 --- Anne Sullivan arrived at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter, Helen.
- 1923 --- The first issue of ‘Time’ the weekly newsmagazine was published.
- 1931 --- Cab Calloway recorded 'Minnie the Moocher' which became the bandleader's theme song. It was the first jazz album to sell a million copies
- 1931 --- President Herbert Hoover signed into law a bill making The "Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as "Defense of Fort McHenry."
- 1939 --- The college fad of swallowing Live Goldfish supposedly began on the campus of Harvard University today.
- 1939 --- In Bombay, Ghandi began a fast to protest the state's autocratic rule.
- 1959 --- The San Francisco Giants had their new stadium officially named Candlestick Park.
- 1966 --- Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay formed Buffalo Springfield.
- 1969 --- Apollo 9 was launched on a mission to test the lunar module that was used in the moon landings.
- 1974 --- A DC-10 jet crashes into a forest outside of Paris, France, killing all 346 people on board, on this day in 1974. The poor design of the plane, as well as negligent maintenance, contributed to the disaster.
- 1991 --- In a case that sparked a national outcry, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.
- 1994 --- Kurt Cobain of Nirvana lapsed into a coma in Italy after taking a combination of Valium and champagne.
- 1999 --- Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones began their attempt to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon non-stop. They succeeded on March 20, 1999.
- 2009 --- The uber-luxurious Maybach Zeppelin sedan goes on sale, with a starting price of $523,870 for the Maybach 57 Zeppelin and $610,580 for the Maybach 62 Zeppelin. Daimler-Benz, owner of the Maybach brand, announced that only 100 Zeppelins would be built.
- Birthdays
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Jean Harlow
- Shalom Alekhem
- Diana Barrymore
- Willie Chambers
- Jennifer Warnes
- Robyn Hitchcock
- Tone-Loc
- Julia Bowen
- Jessica Biel
- Ira Glass
Tuesday March 3, 2015
