- 64th Day of 2013 / 301 Remaining
- 15 Days Until The First Day of Spring
- Sunrise:6:35
- Sunset:6:08
- 11 Hours 33 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:1:48am
- Moon Set:11:57am
- Moon’s Phase: 39 %
- The Next Full Moon
- March 27 @ 2:30am
- Full Worm Moon
- Full Crust Moon
- Full Lenten Moon
- Full Crow Moon
- Full Sap 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:5:18am/7:37pm
- Low:12:21pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:14.35
- Last Year:7.35
- Normal To Date:18.86
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Crispus Attucks Day
- Boston Massacre Day
- National Cheese Doodle Day
- National Multiple Personality Day
- Carnival-Brazil
- Customs Chiefs Day-Vanuatu
- Missionary Day-French Polynesia
- National Tree Planting Day-Iran
- On This Day In …
- 1623 --- The first alcohol temperance law in the colonies was enacted in Virginia.
- 1624 --- In the American colony of Virginia, the upper class was exempted from whipping by legislation.
- 1735 --- Handel's Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op 4 No 2 was performed for the first time.
- 1750 --- The first Shakespearean play in America was presented at the Nassau Street Theatre in New York City. The play enjoyed by the audience was the famous King Richard III.
- 1770 --- A mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation. British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying—Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell—and three more were injured. The deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.
- 1864 --- For the first time, Oxford met Cambridge in track and field competition in England.
- 1867 --- An abortive Fenian uprising against English rule took place in Ireland.
- 1872 --- George Westinghouse of “You can be sure if it’s Westinghouse” fame patented the air brake on this day. They were, and remain, especially important to trains, big trucks, buses and amusement park rides.
- 1922 --- Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee broke all existing records for women’s trap shooting. She smashed 98 out of 100 clay targets thrown at 16 yards while at a match at the Pinehurst Gun Club in North Carolina. She hit the first fifty, missed the 51st, then the 67th. This was a record-breaker, true; but Annie Oakley was well-known throughout the United States and Europe for her expert shooting ability. In one day, ‘Little Sure Shot’ took a .22 rifle and hit 4,772 glass balls out of 5,000 tossed in the air. She could hit a playing card from 90 feet (the thin side facing her), puncturing it at least five times before it hit the ground. It was this display that named free tickets with holes punched in them, Annie Oakleys. In 1935, Phoebe Mozee was immortalized on film in Annie Get Your Gun, which was later made into a musical for the stage. In 1985, another film, Annie Oakley, was made for TV. It included silent-film footage of the record-breaking sharp-shooter, taken by Thomas Edison.
- 1933 --- U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks.
- 1946 --- In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union's policies in Europe and declares, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Churchill's speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech. President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech. Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood "at the pinnacle of world power." It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain—the great powers of the "English-speaking world"—in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to the "iron curtain" that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of "communist fifth columns" that were operating throughout western and southern Europe. Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was "nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness." Truman and many other U.S. officials warmly received the speech. Already they had decided that the Soviet Union was bent on expansion and only a tough stance would deter the Russians. Churchill's "iron curtain" phrase immediately entered the official vocabulary of the Cold War. U.S. officials were less enthusiastic about Churchill's call for a "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain. While they viewed the English as valuable allies in the Cold War, they were also well aware that Britain's power was on the wane and had no intention of being used as pawns to help support the crumbling British empire. In the Soviet Union, Russian leader Joseph Stalin denounced the speech as "war mongering," and referred to Churchill's comments about the "English-speaking world" as imperialist "racism." The British, Americans, and Russians-allies against Hitler less than a year before the speech—were drawing the battle lines of the Cold War.
- 1963 --- Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hankshaw Hawkins were killed in a plane crash at Camden, TN, near Nashville. The famous country music stars were returning from a benefit performance. Cline, the ‘Queen of Country Music’ was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973. Jessica Lange played Patsy in the 1985 biographical film, Sweet Dreams, named after one of Cline’s hugely popular songs. Willie Nelson wrote her biggest hit, Crazy, which become a number one country hit and a top 10 pop song in November, 1961.
- 1963 --- The Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the company's co-founder, Arthur "Spud" Melin. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone.
- 1977 --- The Dial-a-President radio program, featuring President Jimmy Carter and CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite, airs for the first time. The brainchild of Cronkite and CBS, the March 5 show was a test-run to see if the program could be successful. (Carter's official papers refer to the show as Ask President Carter.) After a 20-minute practice session, Carter and Cronkite went live on the air with Carter answering calls from all over the country from his desk in the Oval Office. Approximately 9 million calls flooded the CBS radio studio during the first two-hour broadcast. Questions covered a range of subjects from Carter's pardon for "draft-dodgers" to the Panama Canal Treaty to why Carter chose to let his daughter Amy attend a public school instead of a private school in Washington, D.C. The informal nature of the show suited the equally informal President Carter, who frequently opted to wear comfortable sweaters instead of business suits while working. He appeared to enjoy the call-in session, agreeing to return for another show. Afterwards, he commented that the callers' questions were "the kind that you would never get in a press conference. I think it's very good for me to understand directly from the American people what they are concerned about."
- 1982 --- John Belushi died in Los Angeles of a drug overdose at the age of 33.
- 2004 --- Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying about the reason for selling 3,298 shares of ImClone Systems stock, conspiracy, making false statement and obstruction of justice.
- Birthdays
- Sir Rex Harrison
- Eddy Grant
- Dean Stockwell
- Penn Jillette
- Hector Villa-Lobos
- Antoine Cadillac
- Lucy Larcom
- Samantha Eggar
- Marsha Warfield
- Teena Marie
- John Frusciante
- Momofuku Ando
- Eva Mendes
- William Blackstone
- Jack Cassidy