252nd day of 2014, 113 remaining
- Sunrise: 6:47am
- Sunset: 7:27pm
- Moonset: 7:29am
- Moonrise: 7:52pm, 99% visible
Tides at the Golden Gate:
- High: 12:37pm
- Low: 5:55am/6:19pm
Special reasons to celebrate today...
- Father Leval Day - Mauritius
- Independence Day - North Korea, Tajikistan
- Wonderful Weirdoes Day
- Wienerschnitzel Day
On this day in...
490 B.C. - The Battle of Marathon took place between the invading Persian army and the Athenian Army. The marathon race was derived from the events that occurred surrounding this battle.
1776 - The second Continental Congress officially made the term "United States", replacing the previous term "United Colonies."
1836 - Abraham Lincoln received his license to practice law.
1850 - California became the 31st state to join the union.
1898 - In Omaha, NE, Tommy Fleming of Eau Claire, WI won the first logrolling championship.
1893 - U.S. President Grover Cleveland's wife, Frances Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther. It was the first time a president's child was born in the White House.
1904 - Mounted police were used for the first time in the City of New York.
1911 - Italy declared war on the Ottoman Turks and annexed Libya, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica in North Africa.
1919 - The majority of Boston's police force went on strike. The force was made up of 1,500 men.
1919 - Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin's HD-4, a hydrofoil craft, set a world marine speed record.
1926 - The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was created by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA).
1942 - Japan dropped incendiaries over NE in an attempt to set fire to the forests in Oregon and Washington. The forest did not ignite.
1943 - During World War II Allied forces landed at Taranto and Salerno.
1948 - North Korea became the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.
1950 - Sal Maglie (New York Giants) pitched a fourth consecutive shutout. Only four other pitchers in the National League had ever accomplished this feat.
1957 - The first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction was signed into law by U.S. President Eisenhower.
1965 - French President Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from NATO to protest the domination of the U.S. in the organization.
1965 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched the eighth perfect game in major league baseball history.
1971 - Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings retired from the National Hockey League (NHL).
1979 - Tracy Austin, at 16, became the youngest player to win the U.S. Open women’s tennis title.
1981 - Nicaragua declared a state of economic emergency and banned strikes.
1983 - The Soviet Union announced that the Korean jetliner the was shot down on September 1, 1983 was not an accident or an error.
1984 - Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke Jim Brown’s combined yardage record when he reached 15,517 yards.
1986 - Frank Reed was taken hostage in Lebanon by pro-Iranian kidnappers. The director of a private school in Lebanon was released 44 months later.
1986 - Ted Turner presented the first of his colorized films on WTBS in Atlanta, GA.
1986 - Gennadiy Zakharov was indicted by a New York jury on espionage charges. Zakharov was a Soviet United Nations employee.
1987 - Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer aired for the last time on CBS.
1993 - Israeli and PLO leaders agreed to recognize each other.
1994 - The U.S. agreed to accept about 20,000 Cuban immigrants a year. This was in return for Cuba's promise to halt the flight of refugees.
1994 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on an 11-day mission.
1995 - Amtrak's Broadway Limited service made its final run between New York City, NY and Chicago, IL.
1997 - Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, formally renounced violence as it took its place in talks on Northern Ireland's future.
1998 - Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr delivered to the U.S. Congress 36 boxes of material concerning his investigation of U.S. President Clinton.
1998 - Four tourists who had paid $32,500 each were taken in submarine to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The ship is 2 miles below the Atlantic off Newfoundland.
1999 - The Sega Dreamcast game system went on sale. By 1:00pm all Toys R Us locations in the U.S. had sold out.
2008 - The iTunes Music Store reached 100 million applications downloaded.
2009 - The iTunes Music Store reached 1.8 billion applications downloaded.
Birthday celebrants today include (or included)...
Frank Chance 1877
Colonel Harland Sanders 1890
MacKenzie John 1922
Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder 1923
Jane Greer 1924
Cliff Robertson 1925
Elvin Jones 1927
Sylvia Miles 1932
Topol 1935
Otis Redding 1941
Inez Foxx 1942
Luther Simmons (The Main Ingredient) 1942
Dee Dee Sharp 1945
Billy Preston 1946
Doug Ingle (Iron Butterfly) 1946
Freddy Weller 1947
Joe Thiesman 1949
Tom Wopat 1951
Angela Cartwright 1952
Dave Stewart (David A. Stewart) 1952 - Musician (Eurythmics)
Hugh Grant 1960
Kristy McNichol 1962
Adam Sandler 1966
David Bennent 1966
Paul Durham (Black Lab) 1968
Scott DeFreitas 1969
Dray (Das EFX) 1970
Henry Thomas 1971
Michelle Williams 1980
