- 153rd Day of 2013 / 12 Remaining
- 12 Days Until The First Day of Autumn
- Sunrise:6:48
- Sunset:7:24
- 12 Hours 36 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:12:12pm
- Moon Set:10:39pm
- Moon’s Phase: 29 %
- The Next Full Moon
- September 19 @ 4:12am
- Full Corn Moon
- Full Barley Moon
This full Moon corresponds with the time of harvesting corn. It is also called the Barley Moon, because it is the time to harvest and thresh the ripened barley. The Harvest Moon is the full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox, which can occur in September or October and is bright enough to allow finishing all the harvest chores.
- Tides
- High:3:00am/2:42pm
- Low:8:18am/9:28pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- Normal To Date:0.02
- This Year:0.05
- Last Year:0.02
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Swap Ideas Day
- National TV Dinner Day
- Gibraltar National Day-Gibraltar
- Teacher’s Day-China
- On This Day In …
- 1776 --- General George Washington asks for a volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission: to gather intelligence behind enemy lines before the coming Battle of Harlem Heights. Captain Nathan Hale of the 19th Regiment of the Continental Army stepped forward and subsequently become one of the first known American spies of the Revolutionary War. Disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster, the Yale University-educated Hale slipped behind British lines on Long Island and then successfully gathered information about British troop movements for the next several weeks. While Hale was behind enemy lines, the British invaded the island of Manhattan; they took control of the city on September 15, 1776. When the city was set on fire on September 20, 1776, British soldiers were put on high alert for sympathizers to the Patriot cause. The following evening, on September 21, 1776, Hale was captured while sailing Long Island Sound, trying to cross back into American-controlled territory. Hale was interrogated by British General William Howe and, when it was discovered that he was carrying incriminating documents, General Howe ordered his execution for spying, which was set for the following morning. After being led to the gallows, legend holds that Hale was asked if he had any last words and that he replied with these now-famous words, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." Patriot spy Nathan Hale was hanged by the British on the morning of September 22, 1776. He was just 21 years old. Although rumors later surfaced that Hale’s capture was the result of a betrayal by his first cousin and British Loyalist Samuel Hale.
- 1813 --- The first defeat of British naval squadron occurred in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The leader of the U.S. fleet sent the famous message "We have met the enemy, and they are ours" to U.S. General William Henry Harrison.
- 1846 --- Elias Howe received a patent for his sewing machine.
- 1897 --- A 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. Smith later pled guilty and was fined 25 shillings.
- 1913 --- The official route of the Lincoln Highway was announced. It
was the first coast to coast highway, running from New York to San Francisco.
- 1919 --- New York City welcomed home Gen. John J. Pershing and
25,000 soldiers who had served in the United States 1st Division during World War I.
- 1924 --- A judge in Chicago sentenced Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb to life in prison for the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks - a "thrill killing" that had shocked the nation.
- 1935 --- “I’m Popeye the sailor man...” toot! toot! Popeye was heard for the first time on NBC radio. The show was based on the Elzie Crisler Segar comic strip, which featured Popeye, Olive Oyl, Brutas, Wimpy and Sweepea.
- 1955 --- Actor James Arness brought Marshall Matt Dillon to life on this night as Gunsmoke debuted on CBS-TV and went on to become the longest-running (20 years) series on television. The
pioneer in adult westerns also starred Milburn Stone as Doc Adams, Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell, and Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode. Other well-known performers joined the cast throughout the years -- Ken Curtis as Festus Hagan and Burt Reynolds as Quint Asper, the town blacksmith, were two favorites.
- 1955 --- Bert Parks began a 25-year career as host of the Miss America Pageant on NBC. The show became a TV tradition as Parks sang to the newly-crowned beauty queen, “There She is ... Miss America”. The song was composed by Bernie Wayne and was
sung for the first time on this day. Sharon Kay Ritchie was the first Miss America to be honored with the song. When she married singer Don Cherry (Band of Gold), There She Is was part of the wedding ceremony.
- 1963 --- Twenty black students entered public schools in Alabama at the end of a standoff between federal authorities and Alabama governor George C. Wallace.
- 1969 --- The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos in both ends of a doubleheader and, for the first time ever, moved into first place
in the National League East Division. A month later the ‘Amazin’ Mets’ were in their first World Series.
- 1977 --- At Baumetes Prison in Marseille, France, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, becomes the last person executed by guillotine. The guillotine first gained fame during the French Revolution when physician and revolutionary Joseph-Ignace Guillotin won passage of a law requiring all death sentences to be carried out by "means of a machine." Decapitating machines had been used earlier in Ireland and England, and Guillotin and his supporters viewed these devices as more humane than other execution techniques, such as hanging or firing squad.
- 1979 --- U.S. President Carter granted clemency to four Puerto Rican nationalists who had been imprisoned for an attack on the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954 and an attempted assassination of U.S. President Truman in 1950.
- 1981 --- Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's monumental anti-war mural Guernica is received by Spain after four decades of refugee existence. One of Picasso's most important works, the painting was
inspired by the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica by the Nazi air force during the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, Picasso gave the painting to New York's Museum of Modern Art on an extended loan and decreed that it not be returned to Spain until democratic liberties were restored in the country. Its eventual return to Spain in 1981--eight years after Picasso's death--was celebrated as a moral endorsement of Spain's young democracy.
- 1988 --- Steffi Graf of West Germany achieved tennis' Grand Slam -
winning all four major tournaments in a calendar year - by taking the U.S. Open women's title.
- 1991 --- Nirvana's landmark single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was released The song Nirvana's label and management hoped would be a hit off the band's forthcoming album, Nevermind, was "Come as You Are," which was set for release later in the fall. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was released quietly and without significant promotion in the hopes that it would begin building awareness of the new album among listeners to college and alternative radio. Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's guitarist, lead singer and primary songwriter, had to be talked into even including "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Nevermind by his bandmates bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl. He was self-conscious about a song he'd written as a conscious rip-off of the Pixies' hard-and-loud, then soft-and-quiet style. But most of the millions who would soon become Nirvana fans had probably never heard of The Pixies or the other punk, hardcore and alternative bands that had inspired and influenced Kurt Cobain. He was the product of an underground scene far outside the pop-music mainstream, but his gift for channeling the noise and anger of that scene into brilliantly accessible songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ended up redefining the mainstream itself.
- 2001 --- The first case of mad-cow disease in Asian animals was reported in a dairy cow in Japan.
- 2002 --- Switzerland became the 190th member of the United Nations.
- Birthdays
- Yma Sumac
- Roger Maris
- Colon Firth
- Arnold Palmer
- Joe Perry
- Jose’ Feliciano
- Amy Irving
- Kate Burton
- John Sununu
- Big Daddy Kane
- Guy Ritchie
- Franz Werfel
- Karl Lagerfeld
- Charles Kuralt
- Margaret Trudeau
- Siobahn Fahey
- Isaac Kauffman Funk
- Judy Geeson