- 120th Day of 2014 245 Remaining
- Summer Begins in 52 Days
- Sunrise 6:13
- Sunset 7:59
- 13Hours 46 Minutes
- Moon Rise 7:21am
- Moon Set 9:42pm
- Phase 3%
- Next Full Moon May14 @12:18pm
- High Tide 1:12pm
- Low Tide 6:23am/6:18pm
- Rainfall
- This Year 12.62
- Last Year 16.32
- Avg YTD 22.96
- Holidays
- Hairstylist Appreciation Day
- Louisiana Purchase Day
- National Go Birding Day
- National Honesty Day
- National Rebuilding Day
- Spank Out Day
- Admission Day-Louisiana
- National Oatmeal Cookie Day
- Raisin Day
- World Healing Day
- World Tai Chi and Qigong Day
- Children’s Day-Mexico
- Liberation Day-Vietnam
- Walpurgis (Witches) Night-Sweden
- Beltane-Wiccan (Northern Hemisphere)+
- On This Day In …
- 1776 --- In a letter to Reverend Samuel Cooper dated April 30, 1776, Samuel Adams writes of his hopes for another battle between British and American troops, stating his belief that, " One battle would do more towards a Declaration of Independence than a long chain of conclusive arguments in a provincial convention or the Continental Congress" At the time of the letter's composition, General George Washington had successfully driven the British from Boston with his victory at Dorchester Heights on March 17. The British were left with very meager footholds in North America: Quebec, the Floridas and Nova Scotia, Canada.
- 1789 --- In New York City, George Washington, the great military leader of the American Revolution is inaugurated as the first president of the United States.
- 1803 --- Representatives of the United States and Napoleonic France conclude negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, a massive land sale that doubles the size of the young American republic. What was known as Louisiana Territory comprised most of modern-day United States between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, with the exceptions of Texas, parts of New Mexico, and other pockets of land already controlled by the United States. A formal treaty for the Louisiana Purchase, antedated to April 30, was signed two days later.
- 1812 --- There aren’t many states that can boast an abundance of pelicans, but Louisiana, the 18th state to enter the United States of America, has plenty. That’s why it calls itself the Pelican State and the state bird is the eastern brown pelican. Named in honor of Louis XIV of France, Louisiana has several other nicknames: Sportsman’s Paradise, Sugar State, and Creole State. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge and the beautiful magnolia is its adopted flower while the state tree is the bald cypress. All together now, let’s sing You are My Sunshine, Louisiana’s state song. Give Me Louisiana is also considered a state song, and the state motto is: Union, justice and confidence.
- 1859 --- "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was first published in serial form in a literary magazine.
- 1900 --- Train engineer Casey Jones was killed when trying to save the Cannonball Express as it highballed its way through Vaughn, MS. The famous song about Jones is loosely relatable to the train accident which cost the railroad engineer his life.
- 1904 --- The Louisiana Purchase Exposition opened in St. Louis (St. Louis World's Fair). It was at the Fair that the ice cream cone was supposed to have been invented. The hot dog and iced tea were also popularized at the Fair.
- 1927 --- The Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women's federal prison, opens in Alderson, West Virginia. All women serving federal sentences of more than a year were to be brought here.
- 1939 --- President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to appear on TV. Roosevelt spoke at the opening ceremonies of the New York World’s Fair in Flushing, NY on WNBT in New York.
- 1945 --- Adolph Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his "1,000-year" Reich collapses above him. Warned by officers that the Russians were only a day or so from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned a home, the dictator instead chose suicide. It is believed that both he and his wife swallowed cyanide capsules (which had been tested for their efficacy on his "beloved" dog and her pups). For good measure, he shot himself with his service pistol. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer's orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956.
- 1945 --- “How would you like to be queen for a day!” That opening line, delivered by host, Jack Bailey, was first heard on Mutual radio on this day. The first Queen for a Day wasMrs. Evelyn Lane. Years later Bailey would take the show to TV for a long, popular run.
- 1947 --- Maps had to be changed as Boulder Dam was changed back to its original name,Hoover Dam. Some people, mostly those who live in the community of Boulder, Nevada, still refer to the dam as Boulder Dam. Many of them think that changing the dam’s name was a damn shame.
- 1948 --- The United States and 20 Latin American nations sign the charter establishing the Organization of American States (OAS). The new institution was designed to facilitate better political relations between the member states and, at least for the United States, to serve as a bulwark against communist penetration of the Western Hemisphere.
- 1948 --- The Land Rover, a British-made all-terrain vehicle that will earn a reputation for its use in exotic locales, debuts at an auto show in Amsterdam.
- 1952 --- Mr. Potato Head is introduced to the world. Mr. Potato Head is the also the first toy to be advertised on television.
- 1964 --- TV sets would be drastically different after a ruling by the FCC stating that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF (channels 2-13) and the new UHF(channels 14-83). As a result, TV dealers scrambled to unload their VHF-only models as fast as possible. Antenna manufacturers were kept busy, as the new UHF receivers required new antennas too.
- 1970 --- President Richard Nixon announced the United States was sending troops into Cambodia.
- 1975 --- North Vietnamese troops entered the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon. 11 Marines lifted off of the U.S. Embassy were the last soldiers to evacuate. When they attacked at dawn on April 30, they met little resistance. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace and the war came to an end. North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin accepted the surrender from Gen. Duong Van Minh, who had taken over after Tran Van Huong spent only one day in power. Tin explained to Minh, "You have nothing to fear. Between Vietnamese there are no victors and no vanquished. Only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy. The war for our country is over."
- 1993 --- Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a tennis match in Hamburg, Germany. The man called himself a fan of second- ranked Steffi Graf. He was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and received a suspended sentence.
- 1998 --- NATO was expanded to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The three nations were formally admitted the following April at NATO's 50th anniversary summit.
- Birthdays
- Cloris Leachman
- Burt Young
- Bobby Vee
- Jane Campion
- Isiah Thomas
- Eve Arden
- Robert Shaw
- Johnny Galecki
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- Kirsten Dunst
- Anne Dillard